Good evening everyone. Mr. Caribella, can you please call roll? Sure. Good evening everybody. Mrs. Palomao here. Mrs. Carrerero
here. Mrs. Gandhi here. Mr. Hyatt here. Mr. Lansonsky here. Mrs. Mendes here. Dr. Msquitz. Mrs. Seawart here. And Mr. Cohen here. Thank you, Mr. Caravello. Good evening everyone. I'd like to just draw
everyone's attention to a few items in our agenda. First, the sunshine law. Today's meeting is pursuant to open public meetings act. Thank you Mr. Caravello for publishing the agenda and the notice. Uh this is a public meeting. So we will be videotaping that port uh for the entire meeting. So uh as far as
anyone's expectation of privacy, please note that the meeting is being uh videotaped. We will have a an opportunity for public comments twice this time. Actually each meeting twice. So um we will call you up um based upon the list and hopefully if you um we have
exhausted the list. If there's anyone else who wants to speak, we'll give you an opportunity. And because this is a school and we have a no vaping or smoking policy, of course, please um obey that policy either on on or around the school grounds with no vaping. So can we all rise and please say 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 everybody. Okay, we're going
to begin our um our agenda tonight. Um let's starting out with announcements. Mr. Caribella, I have no announcements. Under under communications, I have something. Thank you, Mr. Baloon. I do have one announcement
um with respect to kindergarten registration um especially as it relates to both Asher Holmes and Robertsville Elementary School. Um we are currently at capacity for those two schools. So um
moving forward any registrants in those uh areas who are slotted to go kindergarten registrants slotted to go to Asher or Robertsville um at this point in time will be redirected to the Abbott Center. Of course we have exceptions right and we we always want
to accommodate for um extenduating circumstances exceptions like siblings in those buildings. So, we did put out a communication um and a big thank you to Marorrow Township for
partnering with us in communicating that message out. Not only u did we get uh that word out to those families we normally can't connect with, right? Because sometimes they're they're new families and and their oldest child is
is a rising kindergartener. So, um, you know, other grade levels were able to get to pretty readily, but the township did, um, a big favor for us, and we do appreciate that. Um, we also have the highest number of kindergarten enrollments for this time of the year in
in history. So, um, we have 238 registrants so far, which is great. Um, and we'll just increase from that. We're looking at about another 100 students or so, maybe give or take. Um and and that's really all we're looking for for
uh registration. Um so um if you we are going to start communicating new kindergarten registrants if you are in the Asher and Robertsville areas um without considering extenduating circumstances. You will be enrolled at
the Abbott Center and that will be communicated to you at registration. And that's all I have. Thank you. Uh Mr. Rowan, a quick question. You said you said that we had 235 districtwide. Is that is that 238 district-wide or is that just at Asher
and Robertsville? Districtwide. District wide. And at Asher and Robertsville are I heard you say we're at capacity? Is that capacity capacity consistent with previous years or is that a high capacity as well? So the capacity at Robertsville and
Asher um we we left a little bit of wiggle room for maybe a late registrant who has a sibling and we can still accommodate right but for the most part at this point if we don't have any extenduating circumstances those those new
registrants will go to the Abbott Center. Um, so right now we're looking at class sizes in the in the low 20s, which is which is usual for our kindergarten rooms. Um, but we will, like I said, if we do have any late
registrants who come in, generally speaking now, with siblings in one of those schools, we we do like to keep those those stu uh children together if we can. Great. Thank you. Question. Are you prepared for Abbott
filling up since we have such an unpredictable amount of new registrants? What's the hypothetical if Abbott fills up? We are. So, so we are prepared. Um, we we've done I know uh Mr. Caravello runs birth rates each year, so we have a
projected number of enrollment. Um, so across the district, um, kindergarten is always a wild card, so I I can't say with a 100% certainty. Um, but if we had to, we could open up another section. It just means another body, right? Another teacher that we would have to hire. So,
um, I think we're going to be okay. But, um, if if we if we have an an increase in enrollment, we're we're ready for it. It's just um, you know, we didn't quite quite plan for it, but we are ready. Schools are weight listing. That's why I think we're seeing it like in the area
specifically, we're seeing a big influx in younger families with the construction. So, I just wanted to know in the in the case they're not going to go in trailers, right? We're not putting 5-year-olds in trailers. No, we will not. Okay.
Any other questions for Mr. Bologn? Thank you, Mr. Balone. Okay, we're going to move on to uh your presentation on student achievement. Sure. Miss Gross, do you want to come up next to me here because we have a screen so we can use our
microphones? Yes, you can. So, we have a short presentation for you regarding student achievement in the district. I think um it's worth saying um for starters um this data is a lot of the data that
we're going to talk about relates to um the recently released school performance reports by the New Jersey Department of Education. And you should understand that the data you're looking at is essentially a year old because so this
is data from last spring's state assessment. And that right there should tell you something because when we when we look at data and when we're looking at student
performance, the best indicator for remediation with students in this case is timely feedback. So I say that um again most of this information here is state level
data. Um while state level data and I've said this before, state level data is one data point in our school district and and a source of you know for for the let's say the the larger community. That's what the um what is published out in the community and how our schools are
doing academically. Um it's not the only data point that we should be looking at. So, from an educator standpoint, which I know everyone is not, um, but from an educator standpoint, our job is to really communicate the importance of all of the data points that we have, state
testing being one of them. Uh, but we have so many other data points here in in the school district. Um, and in my opinion, I'll talk about it in a little bit, and Mrs. gross will as well. Um the data points we have locally are are much more actionable and we can
address student uh achievement either on on the upper end or even the lower end uh much better than than the state data that that we get. Zach, are you advancing our slides for us?
Oh, we do. Where's the clicker? Oh. Okay. So, I did mention um New Jersey school performance report. That's that's the the name of it. Um you'll see it online that way. You can easily search for it. Um again, the 2324 school year. So, the spring of 24
is when our students took um that test. Um we are going to discuss performance versus growth. Those are two distinctions that sometimes when we're looking at these reports, especially just online, if you're googling it, you
may actually be looking at a growth report and you think it's the performance report and vice versa. So, we're going going to talk about the difference between the two and we'll actually show you what they look like. Um we're going to talk about how we compare to our surrounding school
districts, namely the the Freehold Regional um school districts, the the preK through eights that feed into the Freehold Regional, how we use data to target um and action uh instruction locally.
um the performance report highlights and we were acknowledged by the New Jersey Department of Education and I'll say by our internal data points and assessment um protocols that we have here in the district and we'll we'll talk about that
uh in a few slides from now. So what you're looking at here, uh, very important. Remember on this previous slide, um, on that first first arrow there, it said performance versus growth. So you're actually looking at performance here over time. And we went
all the way back to the spring of 2022. So you're looking at a a dashboard, I guess. Um, so you're looking at uh ELA is on the left hand side and math is on the
right hand side. So in the spring of 2022, you have uh 70.5 performance and 61.9. So essentially 62% um in math. And as you look across now to the
right hand side, spring of 23, our performance went up both in ELA and in math from 70.5 in ELA to 72.9, 61.9 to 64. And now if you look in
the spring of 2024, which was last year, um we also went up. Now we went up incrementally. Um, this is district-wide information, right? So, it's not grade level specific. There there is grade level specific information that you can dive into and look at on a more granular
level. But this is good news, right? This is showing you from 22 to 24, we consistently grew as a school district from the performance end. So, our students are performing
better year after year. Now, of course, we have pockets, grade levels. We have students um all the way down to specific students who will always need remediation and help. And we also have students who will always need enrichment and and advancing forward and everybody
in between. And we do a really good job at individualizing instruction for every single student in our school district uh dependent on their needs on on both ends of that spectrum. So, this is really good news for us as a
school district as we continue. Um, it's great news historically. It's now tough news for us moving forward because we're only expected to get better for next year. And that is really that's our goal. Our goal is to be better tomorrow
than we were today. Um, it just becomes more difficult as you get better. And that's a nice segue now into growth. Right. So again this was performance. Now if you look at the next slide here we're talking about historical
growth and we're only giving you two years here because growth looks back on the previous year and uh the school closures did not allow us to look back for you know the three years. So um
remember growth is the amount of um actual growth based on your performance. So as your performance rises generally speaking your growth will will be smaller and and the what what can help
wrap your head around this is this analogy. I want you to think of an Olympic athlete and maybe use swimming as an example. Olympic swimmers to shave time off their swimming time because their performance is so high, their
growth is is smaller, right? in order to really shave time off their off their personal record, it becomes their growth is going to be much smaller versus the average person who is not an Olympic swimmer who maybe trains for six months,
their growth will be great at the end of that six months because they'll train, they'll be conditioned um and and their growth will be higher. So when we look back at our performance here, we have as we advance and and and
increase our growth and and we can look from let's say just as an example look at math which is the right hand side of your screen and just compare the spring of 23 math to the spring of 24 math. You have a
1.5% increase. Right? So with that 1.5% increase you look at the growth. The growth went from 50 to 48. Growth actually went down. Technically, it's still in the green, but it went down because we got better. So, I hope that helps you wrap your head around
performance versus growth. Um, we really focus on performance. Obviously, we want high growth as well, but we we really we hone in on performance and figure out how we can increase our performance. Um
and then growth obviously in some cases in in this case especially will will look worse but it's actually a good thing that our performance is so high. Miss Gross, do you want to take this slide?
Sure. Um so when we do look at the the data when this is released um we do compare to similar districts. Um, we're an I district, so we look at districts in the regional area that are have a
similar demographics and are either GH or I. Um, and when we did look at that data, and we don't just look at it internally, we actually uh compare with the regional school districts and I actually meet with the other assistant superintendents and directors of curriculum and we compare notes um
because we have a really good relationship with them and we say, you know, how did you please tell me what you've done uh to do so well in grade three ELA? And we we talk about that. Um so across the um grade levels at test we
are always either number one or two. We um depending on the year and depending on the cohort of kids but we're always at the top. Um this year actually specifically um grade three ELA we were number one
which is important and noteworthy because that's the first year the kids take the online NJSLA and we were 11% we were at um 11% higher than the district that was placed at number two. So that's a huge jump. Uh
we had a whole meeting just to talk about what we're doing in our early literacy programs and we discussed how we do have a phonics program and how we also teach comprehension and writing because you don't want to focus on any one area in literacy or ELA because you
could be really strong in phonics and then you um don't focus enough on comprehension or reading comprehension or writing. So we have a nice balance. Our uh what we're not only are our programs but also our curriculum that's written by our teachers uh the work with
our coaches has been instrumental in that. But again just want to repeat that we were number one in grade three and that was 11% higher than the district that was placed number two which was something that the original district was really interested in knowing more about.
Um and again I speak I think that speaks to our ELA programs. Um Mr. Bowman, our ELA supervisor, is extremely intelligent and has done a lot of work with this over the years and they've it's been deeply embedded in everything we do and our
teachers are experts. Um, and it shows. So that is something worth uh sharing. Um, did you want to talk about the magnet programs? Sure. So um many of us know and if you don't um so there are basically two types of
programs uh when students leave here uh in 8th grade u they can either apply to Mammoth County vocational programs um and we're lucky enough that our students also have uh similar access to programs at the Freehold Regional High School
District. Um very noteworthy to to mention here. Uh we have over a hundred students who um were accepted into the Freehold Regional Magnet programs and uh over 80
I think it was about 85 students into the Mammoth County Vocational School District which is um they're just huge numbers. These programs are not easy to get into. They have a very uh uh tough application process and um our students
historically do very well. Um in fact, you know, we we are told that um Marbor students stand out when they get to high school and we hear that a lot. Um we're proud of that and we want to continue uh moving that forward. As I mentioned before, we still we always can get
better and that's that's going to be our focus. But, you know, putting a hund over 185 kids into magnet programs as they leave here is is something we should really celebrate. Um, here you see um many of our staff members and they are smiling
so they're happy to be here. Um, I'll I'll jump down um actually. Oh, one more time. Okay, there we go. I was like, I can't see it. Um, I'll jump immediately to the bottom and then we'll go back up. Um, we keep our
staff members here on average of 13.2 years, which is uh really commendable. That means people are happy here. Um, they they love it here. They are uh dedicated. Um, and you can see them right here. This was on one of our staff
appreciation days. Um, I'll give a little plug to our local Dunkin Donuts both on uh Ryan Road and here on 520 and 79. Um they have provided free coffee to our teachers on um actually all of our
staff members I should say on staff professional development days and even uh coming this Friday for uh teacher appreciation week they are providing free coffee unlimited free coffee to um all of our staff members. So, um, I just had a phone call yesterday with the
owner and he just absolutely loves our school district, loves what we do, and believes wholeheartedly that we need to, uh, support and invest our youngest learners because those are our future workforce. So, um, more to come on that,
more partnerships hopefully with them. Uh, but they are so appreciative of us and we are so appreciative of them. Uh, so staff members, if you're listening or if you hear this later on the recording, bring your ID this coming Friday. Unlimited coffee, as many times as you
want. Um, all right. So, now back up to our data. So, I did talk about um the state data. So, just as sort of a reference for timeline. So, in the spring, NJSLA administration takes place, which is what we're living right
now. Uh but looking backwards, so last year, last spring, we administered NJSLA. Uh those results do not get here until the fall. I'm going to repeat that. So students take the assessment,
let's say in May. So we're here only in June, right? Then we go through July, August, September. We get the first file that is not usable. And then October is where we get usable files and we
normally report out to the board the results. Those students are two months into the next school year. So remember what I said about timely feedback on on standards and assessments. That does not help us. Well, I should say it it it
helps us a little bit, but it it's it's not effective in addressing issues in the moment. um during the year during the academic year we have common assessments we'll say for argument sake
once a marking period I know in math we we do that a little more often uh but but for argument sake it's once a marking period where every student in every grade grade level takes the same assessment um those are tightly aligned to our pacing guides tightly aligned to curriculum tightly aligned to standards
and our teachers do such a good job and our school administrators, teachers um provide the assessment in the moment. We can run reports immediately once once students hit submit. We can run reports on where they did well, where they need
remediation, where they need enrichment. and our school administrators along with their local data teams, their coaches, um, vice principles and teachers all come together and look specifically at every child and
how they've done on specific standards and they immediately within a day I would say go into small groupoup instruction and differentiate learning for those students and remediate those skills in the moment. So you see the stark difference, right? state assessment, they're in the next grade
level when we actually get the usable data. Local assessment, they get the the information the next day and they can act immediately. Um, so here we are moving forward now. We're in the spring of 25. So we're back in the in the cycle NJSLA
administration. Um, this summer we will make revisions to curriculum and common assessments. You'll see that um on a future board agenda very very soon uh for curriculum work that comes out of the curriculum office. And um those
revisions are informed um oftentimes by our data teams at the building level, our our district data team um at the district level and um state state assessment information, common assessment information and we also take feedback
from teachers. Um I should mention as well we work in tandem with uh special services to make sure students get the appropriate accommodations. So um students who are taking our common assessments with accommodations we work very closely with with uh the special
services team uh in in accommodating the needs of all students. Is there anything else you want to add? Just want to add a couple more things just to give some acknowledgement. Um thank you for covering everything. Obviously, I've worked um under Michael Balone for a
while as an ELA teacher. He was the ELA supervisor, then the director of curriculum. Um so, I have to say this, all of these uh these processes have been in place for a long time. And it's to the point where our teachers have um
if you took any piece of this away, they would be, you know, banging at the door asking for it back because it's become a part of everything they do. Um, you know, even as a teacher in the district, I was using common assessment data, breaking it down and remediating
immediately. And so, I just want to give some acknowledgement to our data specialists are really important in this in in all this work because what they do is they are experts at collecting all the data and really breaking it down and also taking feedback from teachers to
see what information that they need to do what they need to do in the classroom. So it really gives them time to focus on students. Um and they also provide data and information so that the principles and supervisors and coaches can have
really really specific targeted intentional conversations about every single kid in their building. Um they have at risk sheets that basically they continue to add data almost I would say weekly or you know monthly as
information is coming in. They're they are using formulas to pull it in and they are keeping an eye on every kid. So if that that impacts the RTI process, we're super consistent across the district because of these um these key players, I guess, and and making sure
that that all the data is consistent and and timely. Um and it allows us to really make sure that we're addressing the needs of kids immediately and also providing enrichment for those who need it. Uh, another I would also like to acknowledge I know I acknowledged Mr. Bowman, our ELA supervisor before. he's
been here also worked under him as a ELA supervisor. But our math supervisor, Miss Caliente, has also done a tremendous amount of work really um working with first one one group of teachers to dive very deep on the
teacher created assessments and really unpack the standards and make sure because what they were finding is the kids were not doing as well on the CAS and I know Mr. blown spoke about how the CAS are important because they're timely, but they're also a good predictor of how they're going to do on the
NJSLA. So, um, she has done this work with teachers, which they have loved and appreciated the time to really dig in and they realized that some of their assessments were not as rigorous as they should be. Um, and they've and the feedback from
the teachers has been amazing. They're like, "Oh my god, our CA scores from last year are flying up." Which again is a good indication of how we're going to do with our NJSLA. Which I think is what you saw with our school performance report this year where you saw an increase in math
because of the work she was doing. So now she's working with other grade levels doing the same work. And now we have teachers from um other content areas saying, "Can we do this work, too?" So, our teachers were so lucky to have them because they are intrinsically motivated to do the best job that they can do and they ask for time together.
They ask for time to dig into data and to look for ways to improve their instruction and to help their kids. And um you know even with our grade three kids doing so well on ELA um you know we have kids that need something different and we listen to them and we've made
changes to help support them when they're trying to differentiate for kids who are needing support in grade one um or any new kids that are coming into the district. So I just wanted to make sure that I really acknowledge our principles, coaches, data specialists,
supervisors for the work they do every day because it is very consistent and Mr. Bologone has been a big part of establishing all the processes that we have in place that we've used for years and years. All right. And then I believe this is our last slide. Um so I did mention uh
the New Jersey Department of Education did acknowledge us. They actually came here. Uh the assistant commissioner at the time, uh Dr. Linda Eno, uh that's the picture on the left, uh with Dr. David Greer. Um they came in and um just learned all about our really our local
assessments. Um and I actually did share with with her at the time, um that my wish, if I were King, uh would be that state assessments would go away, provided that we could prove that we have a really tight assessment system locally in house.
Um, I'd like to think that someone heard me say that because they're actually having discussions about that right now and and it's been a little longer than I would have liked, but they're actually starting to engage in that conversation about um, you know, keeping federal
funding um, pro but but provided that uh, local school districts can if they can prove that they have standards aligned assessments and they they really can deter determine where students are. Um on the continuum uh across the
standards by grade level that perhaps big big maybe uh we could do away with state testing because it's it's redundant in my opinion, right? And it's actually it doesn't it's not the data we get does not help us as much as
our local data. Um you'll also see on the right there our very own uh Mrs. Gross. She's actually working with the the department of education. Um she's working uh this was on assessment design. Um this was one of the same year
she was actually so this was I believe in New Jersey. Uh but this same year she actually went out to New Mexico and worked on a national level and looked at uh state uh testing items to be sure that they were sensitive
to all groups. Right? So, um, as an example, if a an inner city child were taking an assessment, would that child understand, um, you know, maybe an article about farming tools or if it if it was about farming tools to make sure the article
defined what those tools were and vice versa, right? Would a would a a rural student understand maybe um some context about maybe an inner city inner city life or or, you know, relate to it? So, um there was a lot of work that they did
um in terms of accessibility and to be sure that it was a they were fair assessment questions um and that was that was the national work that that she's done. Uh but this was more on a local level. Correct. Yes. And we brought Marorrow to the
table because they were so intrigued by the conversation that they actually brought a whole bunch of DOE's from across the nation to sit in the room I was sitting in just to listen to the conversation we were having. It was really interesting work and I did take that work back with us to analyze our own common assessment. So, it was really
meaningful and and helpful. Thank you so much. I hope uh that gave you a little bit of a glimpse into some of the the really good work that we're doing and and the the performance growth that we've uh experienced over the last three years.
[Applause] This was great. And I'm sure there's probably some questions. So, let me just first turn to the board and see who would like to ask any questions. See, respectfully, this is my third presentation on data collection since
I've been a board member. Um, when was that Department of Education meeting that you traveled nationally? Because I feel like I've been holding my breath to eliminate state testing. What year was that that those pictures were from? I
think that was uh 19, was it? Yeah, 19. Yeah, it's been a while. That's why. But but now all of a sudden it it's it's coming to fruition. So someone someone heard it somewhere. I know. I feel like there's just been a lot of turnover since then. So I'm just getting
impatient. Thanks. You have any additional questions? Miss, any other questions? No. Thank you. Anyone else have any questions? Miss Mendes? I did. I think um which I thought was interesting was the part where you said that they were trying to
to kind of glean from what we've been doing which I thought was great. Were there any things that we took away from these conversations that were insightful for us to learn from that we're going to implement or something new? Just curious. You talking about from the state visit?
Yeah. Um they were actually looking to learn from us. um they really um that was I think the first time that they heard anyone with the idea of possibly doing away with state testing and um I really like to think now she has since
retired Dr. you know, but I really uh believe or like to think that she got that somewhere, right? Like in her retirement saying, "Look, I'm I'm retiring. I'm leaving this place, but I'm going to leave this with you, Department of Ed." And you know, they've had some uh restructuring there as well.
Um with with their commissioners, and we're hoping moving forward now with the new commissioner who's not acting anymore, he's in place, that um there are really good things to come. But no, um they really the purpose of their
visit was not to necessarily offer um the great things that they think we should be doing. It was really to witness really for them to learn from us. Anyone else for questions? Quick question um for you or
Miss Gross. Thank you. This was this was a great presentation because I think it really just frames for us the importance of what you do in the district from a testing and success perspective for our students versus where the state's testing is. And you know, um, I think
the value here is that, you know, I think you've explained to me once before that high schools, whether they're the the regional schools or whether it's the magnet programs or even the Mammoth County system, looks at our regional
data when they assess a student for a mission, but not the state data. U, so I think it's really important that you're focused on that and that you're taking immediate actions to it. um it's a true example of really of how
data is informed data being used to inform decision- making also drives action and success. So I I congratulations on that. My my question to you is how and you you I know you sort of spoke to the importance to the teachers. How are the teachers using
this? what resources or what tools are you giving to them so that they have the data at their fingertips to sort of be able to be right there in front of the students? Um, so we have a platform um called
Blinket and that platform is really awesome. We've had it for a really long time and I'm going to say this, I know it sounds like we're we're we're showing off here, but it's true. um they look to us to to improve their platform because we use data so well in their platform.
Um we're probably one of the first districts to start using it. So what it is is that's the this is the same platform that the students take the CAS but it also allows the teachers to take results literally immediately. like the kids could finish the test one one
period, you know, period one and by lunch they could be taking that information and grouping kids by standard and you know addressing that the next day. So it's um it's very intuitive, but we also provide training
and that it happens a lot through our coaches. Um, and we we also again we have like our spreadsheets and and the work that our data specialists do, but the linket platform is a really important piece of being able to run reports, be able to manipulate data.
It's it's all um they can literally pull from all their classes or um one class or one small group of kids and really manipulate it to whatever their needs are to address the needs of the kids. I don't know if you want to add anything. Yeah. And then in addition, um not that
online programs all the are the end- all beall because they're not. Sometimes there is a place for paper and pencil and sitting with a small group and teachers do that all the time. But uh we also we purchase online programs that are standardsbased. So when we pull those reports from linkit, we can sit
very easily. We teachers can pull uh small groups of students and um let's say they're they're they're working with a group uh indep working with a small group. There could be other groups throughout the classroom working on an online program
through some of our uh some of the standards that they need to remediate. So there there's a balance between uh technology, no technology, but um that all comes together in in the spirit of remediation and timely feedback. I'll
continue to come back to that because that is the most important. Um especially I'll say I mean math is is a little more concrete in that sense. If you can if you can address skills that
are deficient immediately. Math is such a building block type subject where you know you can address it in the moment. So then application for the next more advanced mathematical concept that that kind of is dependent on that original
concept um can be fixed in the moment and not you know we don't have these misconceptions going on for days or weeks and then having the students then now struggle on a on a more difficult concept that's related. So it's it's really important that we bring all of
that together. I just wanted to add one more thing. It's not so much at the classroom level, but at a higher level, we also use this information to um target professional development. So, like I said, Jack, Miss Calient has been working with math teachers to really hone in on teacher created assessments,
but also um it helps teachers be reflective in how they're teaching. I have one example that I can give you from when I was teaching when we first started to administer CAS through linkit. I found that me and my my colleagues at the same grade level found that our kids did not do so well on a non-fiction text uh
question but at that time in the marking period we were heavily focused on narrative um and what I what we all realized was oh my god we need to infuse more non-fiction text so we started to the next year infuse and synthes have
students synthesize both non-fiction with fiction and that question we saw a huge difference next year so it's not just about remediating for kids, but it's also uh helps the teachers reflect on their teaching and also for the district to reflect on any kind of curriculum revisions.
I I just had um two questions or one for now, but where we did see the growth, which I thought was good. Was there what were the things that may have changed that helped us to get to that growth? Um if you if you have that data quantified,
we do. Yeah. So, um I I really believe it's the incremental steps that we took over the years to um you know, it it all starts in the summer with our revision of of uh pacing guides and units of study, especially in ELA and math.
That's that's where we we have the bulk of them. Um and and to Mrs. Gross's point, the the teachers really learning about themselves and saying, you know what, last year this didn't work so well. Um, we've also provided common
times and and we're going to get better at this as well, but during our professional days, teachers are hungry to articulate amongst themselves, right? So, if we could get, you know, all of the fifth grade teachers together in one room and talk about what works for them across the district and start
cross-pollinating between, you know, all of our elementary schools um as opposed to just working, you know, in isolation. Um, we're trying to offer more opportunities of that and people learn from themselves better than really anyone, right? So, if if I know that my
my cross town neighbor at Asher Holmes, let's say, and I teach at Dugan is doing something really well and they're they're, you know, for a particular standard or in a unit. Um, we're trying to provide opportunities for for teachers for that and and we're seeing really good success. Sometimes
logistically it's hard, right? Because we don't have that many prodays and it's difficult to get people together, but when we do get them together, they find real value in that. So, we're going to try to explore more opportunities for that. So, I I believe that's all part of why we're we're seeing success. Yeah, I
appreciate that because then Mrs. Gross, you made a really um good comment about how some or or all I don't know use the data because I do the same thing to drive change also right so if I know so do we do that is that the practice per
se that holistically across the district we're taking all of the data and looking at those hot pockets and revising the curriculum across the board or is it that it's because you brought up a good point some teachers are looking at their data And so holistically, I'm assuming
or hoping that we're quantifying the data and looking at it to say we have to spend more time here. Is that something that happens? So it yeah, I would say it starts with the district. I meet with um supervisors and data specialists, uh the district data specialists
um several times a month and we look at data. Again, it's coming in constantly. So we're, you know, we're looking at performance, we're looking at standards and seeing where kids are needing some more support. Um and again that could be looking at how teachers are instructing or it could be meeting the pockets of
kids that need more um more support or enrichment the other side. Then the buildings do um they have grade level meetings. They have meetings to with coaches to discuss kids that are on RTI and then the coaches will have grade level meetings as well. and they'll give
resources or instructional resources for the teachers to use to address any kind of areas that um we're seeing kids struggling with. And then at the classroom level, the teachers will use the information that's kind of been trickling down so it's consistent. I think that's really important to all of us here is that it's consistent so that
one school is not using these three pieces of data and then another school is using a totally different set. It's all consistent information that we're all looking at. Um, and then the teachers get, like I said, the at risk sheets. The data specialist will even break it down for specific teachers, so
they're only seeing their kids. Um, one example for, um, is ELA middle school. There's ELA teachers who have a spreadsheet with all their kids and as they're completing common assessments, more information is added
again through formulas so that they can see because it's a little different with ELA because the standards essentially are repeated. So they can see within the same school year if they've addressed it with that student. So they'll they'll see or they'll see from last year, okay,
the kid this this this same student did not do so well on this exact standard. you know, maybe main idea. Um, and the teacher knows that from the previous year so that they that teacher knows to work with that student it from last year's data. Um, I don't know if that
makes sense, but they're using historical data plus current year data to um address the needs of students. Yeah, that actually no, that made sense. I appreciate you clarifying and this is my last question. I think um just because I found it interesting then are
there trends and you don't have to answer today if you don't if you don't know off top of your head just are there trends to say this these are the areas like you said about the text that children struggle with are there trends to say here's where they're doing really well just a couple of pockets as like parents to say yeah they're doing really
well with this this is a struggle and you don't have to answer today if you don't have that information I could tell you I I mean I live it every day um I could tell you that yes there's always pockets and it changes um you know one year it could be main idea there are some consistent standards that seem to
be challenging for kids um I would say main idea is one of them that's why I use that as an example as the kids get older there's collecting more information from multiple resources that's always challenging on the math end uh it also becomes more complex I think this is why it's so important that we let the teachers get together not
just by grade level they're also asking you know fifth grade teachers are saying I would love to spend time with sixth grade teachers to see what they need from me to make my students better prepared to go into sixth grade. So there's there's a lot of information that
um you know that we look at constantly in different ways. Again, it could be a standard or it could be a whole class. It could be district level. It could be looking at a question and saying, you know, it could just be something as simple as the wording of the question could throw kids off. Um and then that's
maybe is taken into consideration to either revise or to you know focus on language. So there's a lot a lot of information that we're constantly analyzing but the pockets that you're that you're looking at. Um there are some things that definitely they consistently struggle
with but we address that. Um but then sometimes it moves it changes depending on cohorts of kids and and and things like that. Right. So I get the whole thing with performance and the growth because we got great performance we get less growth
to use your analogy. So the Olympic swimmer, right? So the trainer is going to change something. The trainer is going to change the rigor is going to change something to get better growth out of that swimmer. So, are we just teaching to like the standard and then we're at that performance level and then we're getting close to not getting growing because that's where we're
teaching to or we looking to do better and and do better performance and grow more just because we can. We're at the top, right? We're both so eager. Um, I just I I and I know you probably have more to add to this, but again, I'm kind of going off
my own experience as a teacher, but this is this is the same at the district level. When I was teaching, I taught um, you know, general education students and I taught uh, advanced. I used to have so for let's just talk about breeding level
or Lexiles. My advanced classes, those kids were already at the top. So that let's say 1500 is or 1600 is the top reading level you can have. A lot of them are at 14 1500. So my expectation of their growth could only be one or two points. Whereas my general education
students maybe are at an 850. I have a lot more room to get to that top. So of course our our goal is always to constantly enrich students even if they make it to the top. Um, I've had kids who were at the very top of the reading level and I would be feeding
them um, you know, giving them access to books that maybe honors kids were, you know, reading as long as it wasn't interrupting the honors program. Uh, but we're always looking to enrich them even if they've already met the goal, if you will.
And and just to add on to that, so um we have a lot of different um programs here um all you know for for all levels of learners. Um I I can think of one student recently we actually had to
deliver algebra 2 to that student. Um and um we came to the board at the time and said we have to we have to pay for this student. it's our job to pay for this student to to move forward. Um so
you know this student had taken algebra 1 and geometry with us already and was still not graduated from here. So um we sent him uh he took algebra 2 and then he finished algebra 2 and still didn't
graduate and we sent him to Ruters so for for advanced math courses. So we will meet students where they are and if they are if they are performing at the highest level we will find another avenue for them uh whatever it
takes. So so we we do continue we push but we don't push too hard where we frustrate but some students need a little more than others. Um and this student clearly was uh very accelerated in math and we gave him what he needed.
I hope that is applicable for the special needs students as well. I know it's different data collection, but I'd like to know if the special needs students are also being pushed to excel to the next goal even if they're meeting standards. Some of them are, you know, on the higher functioning of academics
or just Absolutely. Yes. I know it's a different data collection, I'm aware, but yeah. Well, and and some some of it's the same, right? Because we have uh a lot of special ed students taking our common assessments. Um, so as I mentioned, we work with special services. Um, while they do have specific goals that that they're
meeting, um, we never want students, it doesn't matter at what level they are, we never want students complacent or, you know, just kind of getting by and and we constantly, that's that's the that's the
piece really on the ELA side, but um, is is where it's a little easier to understand. Um, but we do it in in other subjects as well. But on the ELA side, even if you have a student reading below grade level, you still have to continue to to push that child to read at a
higher level, not to frustrate. Um, but to to slowly push them um and and I've I've done actually research on this and presented on it. Um there's a there's a great danger in complacency especially
in reading. So when you can actually take a student uh an ongrade level student in reading and not push them not continue to push them appropriately not frustrating but to push them forward in two years they will be reading below
grade level. So, we we have to continue to with purpose um give students that that little nudge and and keep advancing them forward. If it's a special ed student and they're two grade levels behind, it might take a
little longer to get there. Um but we have to constantly push them. Um otherwise, they they will remain uh complacent and they will actually regress. Any other questions?
Just, you know, one observation and I I have to say just to Mr. Lansonsky's point, you know, the opportunity to sort of find opportunity to put strategies in place to invest in
the opportunities for growth, right? And I I have to imagine that there's a lot of things that we can learn from other districts and from the privates as well because I'm sure they're they're focused very heavily on sort of improving growth and performance. So, I just, you know, I just suggest that because I'm sure that
that's probably something you do, but it'd be great to hear how we've adopted or how we've looked at some of the other strategies and in going on around the state or around the county um where we can leverage that because um
creating that opportunity for challenge um now will also help them to help our students grow academically. at the next levels, right? High school, college, and beyond. So, um I I I think that's a great idea and it's it's really
that maybe would help push our growth numbers even higher than the the 1.5s because we're closing. We're we're pushing. So, I I I think that's great. My my bottom my last comment is that thank you. Thank you for showing us how data is an important part of this district's activities. Thank you for
showing us how it's in use is being used by our our administrators and from every level uh right into the classroom. And thank you for explaining that it is looked at the district-wide level, but you have the ability to drill down straight into the student and sort
of, you know, use that data to help sort of take immediate actions. That to me is, you know, what it's all about. So I appreciate that. Thank you. Okay. That was excellent. Thank you. Uh, all right. So, our next item on
the agenda is because today is also our public hearing for budget, right? So, I'm going to turn it over to Mr. Carella. Okay, good evening everybody. So, this is our um public hearing for our 2526 budget. As you know, it was originally
scheduled for last Tuesday, but we did not receive approval in time to advertise. So, to meet the 4-day requirement for advertisement, we moved it to today. So again, I just like to go over the budget process and timeline. I know we've gone over it many of times, but
just to give a refresher before we close out this cycle of or this year's cycle of uh budget preparations. So December, as you know, we did our enrollment projections. Um we began budget discussions with the principles. Um the intro budget discussion was at the
December meeting with the board of education. In that time in January, we continue continued budget discussions with the departments um with the administrators. We had individual discussions with departments also and then we also had individual discussions
with the board involving those departments. February, we continued our budget discussions waiting for our state aid numbers patiently. They could have taken them back and given us better ones, but we received them about I believe February 27th or 28th. Um and
then in that window it doesn't give us a lot of time to then prepare a tenative budget if you lose money and in this case we did uh lose a little state aid. So March we adopted the tenative budget and now here we are we have our public hearing on our budget and then this is
the final adoption of the budget. So to stipulate there are no changes in this budget compared to what was presented at the tenative budget. So, some of the challenges in developing this budget, of course, you're at the mercy of the 2% cap unless you have bank
capped or or waiverss, which we'll get to. You always have to uh look at your contractually obligated salary increases and also your health benefits that are tied to those and those are all based on your collective bargaining agreements. You increased your increased costs for maintenance of facilities. Your
increased cost for transportation services continued with bus driver shortages with c which cause us to actually go through jointers with other townships or or contract out routes is a factor as well when it comes to what we have to budget for. Your increased cost for related services such as uh your
special education students both in district students that require services and your out of district students. The health benefits cost increase was set at 14.3%. So, we had to budget accordingly for that. Again, your your insurance package
also is set forth with an increase. We work with our broker and they do their best to try to keep it down. But again, the underwriters have been increasing a lot of the policies. And I think we we noticed that because we did go out to RFP a few years ago or maybe a couple, and still it was across the board that
that's what the underwriters were doing. It had nothing to do with the broker. your mandatory PERS pension and your DCRP contributions. So we received that number from the state. We are obligated to budget that. So as you can see before S2 um 2018 2019 we already saw a change in
state aid that was a decrease and we just continued to see them without um 2425 which we actually saw a slight increase. But um overall in the last seven years, you've seen about between the chapter 44 decrease and our state
aid decrease, you've seen about close to $4 million that the district has lost in funding, whether it be from shaving off the top of your tax levy cap in chapter 44 or your state aid decreasing. I think that comes out to about $572,000 a year that on average you
would have to to navigate. Some years were more, some years were less, but on average a half a million dollars is what we already know we would always have to cut out of our budget. So we do take various amount of strategies to try to just reduce the tax impact. We know it's impossible to keep it under the cap because of everything
going over the cap. We always have to utilize what is given to us to build our base and continue to grow. Um, so one of the things are we do request the departments to utilize zerobased budgeting. Again, it says to embrace a culture doing more with less, but we
really just want to be mindful of what's in the budget. We want to educate everybody on what you're budgeting for, what you need, what you don't need. This way, any excess or any waste can be put back into the budget or put towards students. Your position reductions. So we always look at basically our
enrollment projections and in doing so we work with the administration to the building administration to look at what positions can be moved around what positions can be reduced. So this budget did have posi position reductions included in it. Again what we talked about at the
tenative budget this is not people losing their jobs. This was just a reallocation of individuals back into certain areas where there's a need. I just wanted I wanted to make that clear. Um, one your reduction of your kindergarten ELA coach and kindergarten
math coach and it was a reallocation of their their coaching duties to the other coaches grades one through five. Reduction of two middle school teachers and that was simply due to enrollment and so they will now just be I believe Michael they were they were from retirement and we actually just we
will utilize them in areas that we need them. Which which positions you talking about the world middle the middle school? middle school. No, those um those are being reallocated. So, just taken out of the middle school and reallocated into other schools. Okay. So, my apologies.
Um elementary world language teacher, you're restructuring the the elementary world language program. Now, I believe that's due to retirement. Um and then your reduction of your instructional assistant, that's due to just fading based off of district need for each individual student.
some of the other strategies we look to reduce. So we analy an analyze the utility trends and we always try to accurately budget for utilities. Unfortunately sometimes that's that's hit or miss. We go by basically what is projected to to us. We know that in June of 2025 this year we're we're going to
see a huge increase in rates set forth by the BPU. So we're just trying to anticipate that for next year. We try to utilize our reserves to offset money in the operating budget. So any capital projects or any any facility maintenance we can do, we try to do that out of our
reserve account, specifically our maintenance reserve account. And then we utilize our surplus and our fund balance to help offset any other inflationary increases that we know are coming. So your surplus and your fund balance are your base of your budget when you're building your revenue side. And that
really you try to stay consistent with that because if you do not um you'll be making more cuts than you anticipated. So you always try to be mindful and plan ahead and know what your surplus is, where you can allocate certain things back to reserves because you want to maintain a healthy surplus so we can continue to
just function and set forth a normal operating budget. The last one was your as I talked about your bank cap and 205256 is we're utilizing that that is part of the tax levy and then also due to the high health cost uh increases the
state has given you a waiver to apply for. We're applying for that as well in the amount of 1.8 million to try to offset some of the health benefit increases we're seeing and I believe it's 15%. So some of the I mean we went in depth to the departments. These are some some just overall budget highlights. So
in this budget these are some of the key components that we we strive to continue uh year after year. So we maintain all the instructional programs and services. So that includes your core subjects, your special education and your your related arts. Um even though we lose and
state aid is reduced, we continue to keep that core mission value a part of us. Also is maintaining the current classroom staffing level. So our teacher to student ratios. We try to just maintain those at a healthy level so they do not increase. Um, and if they do
increase and we do have bubbles, that's what again when we talk to building administration and we we we just gather data to make the best informed decision and and make the class sizes the correct amount that we're util used to here. We continue to focus on student
achievement. Um, and that's in all areas of the budget. Everything is based off of student achievement. So like when I say if there's excess in certain budgets such as BNG or transportation that not utilized, we try to reappropriate that funds and bring it back to the students if it's there's no need for for it in those
departments. We sustain our technology hardware and our infrastructure, our IT infrastructure. One of the things we do on a rotating schedule, we budget for Chromebooks, a replenishment of Chromebooks because those devices age out, they phase out in about four years and they stop being supported. So, we continue to just update that cycle so we
never fall behind with uh student devices and we continue to support all the shared services we have with the township and that includes the the class 3 officers and our SSOs. Now, in special services, we're establishing two additional sections of the ERRI program, one for grades 1
through two and one for grades 6 through 8. So there are no reduction of services for special education students in the 2526 budget. The curriculum includes replacement textbooks and also other ancillary supplies for your maths grades
two and five. And this is a similar way of how we've been doing it in years past where we go on a um basically a payment plan for textbooks and we we budget accordingly throughout the each fiscal year so we don't have to pay all of that cost upfront. Your transportation includes a
replacement of four 54 passenger buses and two 25 passenger wheelchair vans. So we basically cycle out our old vehicles. Budget accordingly again to keep that rotating stock of just having functional things in the district and and and newer things so we don't
have any emergencies or breakdowns or things that you know might bite us in the end when it comes to you know trying to operate fully and functionally. So when I talk about the maintenance reserve, the projects that we try to offset of the operating budget, here's a list of the projects that we're doing
with that 600,000. So in that list you have again we try to do our district-wide asphalt and concrete repairs. So we'll work with our engineer and we'll see where the area of need is and we'll we'll utilize those those budgeted funds go out to bid and see how much we can do within that budget cycle.
your flooring and tiling at middle at Hold Middle Middle School and Robertsville. So again, there's some areas that we have noticed walking around with the B&G director is that a lot of these areas need to be upgraded. So we'll again, we'll budget accordingly for that. Last year we did the auxiliary gym
A in Marorrow Middle School. This year we're doing the remediation of Marorrow Middle School auxiliary gym B. So this would be the second phase of of uh basically part two of three. Our third part next year will be to do the the full gym
remediation. So we are budgeting for a storage shed at the B&G facility. A lot of our things are really not secure at the Morganville property. So we do need to have something there basically just just secure our our tools and our
equipment. Middle schools uh HVAC systems are aging. So, we are budgeting for univvent cleaning at the old middle schools. You have districtwide painting that will be used where appropriate. Um, brick repointing at Marell. You we're planning on upgrading
our burglar alarms at Dugan. Um, and then there's a couple of other ones where we're refurbishing the auxiliary gym at Marbor Memorial and also we have to tie in some HVAC controls and fire controls for for art to use at uh
believe it's Defino. So again, one of the things we also look to do is partner with whether it be the township or other neighboring districts for shared services, which will help try to drive the cost down when it comes to having things that we we desire in this
district, but also being efficient as as efficient as possible to have them. So a lot of them we do with Marorrow Township. So we do have our SRO's, our class 3es through Marorrow Township. We also purchase our fuel for our buses and and and maintenance vehicles through the township. We do a joint reverse energy
auction to purchase electricity with the township I believe every three to five years. So that's actually coming up which actually helped us in the long run because where everybody's seeing increased cost we're locked into a rate. Um so that actually it it does help us partnering with the township with that
stuff. Um oesc we utilize for purchasing um goods because they've actually opened up that window now. We actually use them for regular education and special education routes. Um, non-public services. And then Freelo Regional
School District we partner with and they handle our aid and loo. So our nonpublic uh student payments. So this is your projected enrollment for next year. As you can see, both your middle schools are the majority of the of your
enrollment where then Dugan is your highest elementary school where it's projected to be 516. Our total enrollment is projected to be 4513. So, not so much of it um of an increase really. It's flat. I believe last year was like 4511 or or somewhere
around there. So, we try to build the enrollment based off of how we really think our kindergarten level is going to look. And um we do pad that based off of what the news was tonight is that you know it it could possibly get to that level but we are always prepared for
that of the incoming students. So your expenditure total. So this is a breakdown of your total expenditures. As you can see the the total expenditure number is 102 102,254,945. 75% of this is instruction, pupil support, and
benefits. As you can see the breakdown of the other areas, administration, 7.6%, transportation is 6%. Your maintenance and operations is 11.2%. Your capital outlay, which is your fund 12, all your equipment is 0.3%
and your staff development is is 0.2%. But the rest is is your benefits, your pupil support, and your your instructional salaries. Your revenue total has to match your expenditure side. As you can see, your local tax levy is at 89 million. That's 87% of your
budget. If you partner that with your state aid, you're at 95% of your total revenue budget. That's that's where all of your revenues are coming from. So those are your two most integral parts of your budget. along with your fund balance and your surplus, which I explained how we want to keep that at
least at a moderate level so we can continue to set forth a a budget with not massive cuts. But every time your state aid goes down, you have to recoup those funds somewhere or you have to make cuts. Um, unfortunately, some of the other areas,
you really can't there's really not much wiggle room to recoup some of the funds that you actually lose through through state aid reductions. We actually did see a bump in interest earnings and that's due to the high interest rates. Um extraordinary aid is usually set forth
flat. Again, extraordinary aid, if they don't fix that formula, that's another formula they need to fix when it comes to the reimbursement of special education costs. Um that would be another area that would help us drastically as well. So with that being
said, just our tax levy is 87% of our budget. The state views us as an eye district. So that is one of the indicators that's also used to basically predict how the taxpayer what's their ability to pay. So that's where over
adequacy and underquacy come into into play. So when you are your district factor group is considered high. They're basically saying that your adequate level of spending is this amount your over adequacy. So you really don't need any help from the state anymore. That's
why you see your reduction in state aid. feel like you can go more to the taxpayer for and lean on more of the taxpayer for revenue rather than than the state. So this information actually comes from we like to share this every year. This comes from the taxpayers guide to educational spending. So this
is basically just a a look at your staffing and your efficiency. So on the left side you'll see your state average for your K through8 districts and on your right side you'll see what we are. So your budgetary cost per pupil average is 20,367. Our cost per pupil is 18,994. So
we are lower in that category. Your student to administrator ratio, so the average isund round up 130 students per administrator, we are actually at 180 students per administrator. Your faculty administrator ratio is at 15 faculty per
administrator and we're at 19.8 faculty per administrator. And then lastly, your student teacher ratio is 10.2 students per classroom teacher. And we are right there at 10.8 students per classroom teacher. And the reason I like to share this is because I know one of the topics
is always administrators, but you could see that each individual administrator services more than the average K through8 district when it comes to how many students they have and how much staff they have under them. So your average property tax bill in
2024 for other eye districts, as you could see, we fall in that category. Again, not directly in the middle, but not first. But if you look at other comparable eye districts, so a lot of districts that are incomparable in size and also how many buildings and how much
staff they have, you have East Brunswick, I believe, which is a lot larger than us, but Livingston has mostly been compared to to Marorrow Township over the years. And then you have Princeton Regional. So again, this is based on your average assessed home of 500,000. And this is from the
Department of Community Affairs, but we just like to give you an overall sense of, you know, we may be going over the 2%, but we still are mindful of of what our average property tax bill is. And we try to stay within that realm to not really exceed it too much and try to,
you know, blow it out of out of proportions. We really only go for what we need or what's available in that time. Um, other than that, if we don't need to exhaust those options, we wouldn't we wouldn't go those routes. So your total tax impact is about 4.35%
this year. And you can see your your tax rate is about 1.135. And it breaks down basically your basically your payment for your average assessed value for what your taxes are anticipated increasing by. So
you have your $300,000 assessed valuation of your home all the way down to 800. And then it'll show you basically so your 800 so an $800,000 assessed valuation is anticipated to see a $265 tax increase for the 2526 budget.
And then in yellow you'll see that the five-year average from the last five budget cycles. So that is it for me for our public hearing. Does anybody have any questions for me? I do. That was loud. Um two things.
First one is um if you can just explain a little more about the ratio of students to administrators. A little bit more about what that means. Uh I understand student teacher ratio, but tell me more about what that one is. Well, that's basically just the ratio takes by what they classify as
administrator and how many students we have and it just breaks it down basically by that ratio. So, it's saying that each administrator in this district would be responsible for 180 students ratio-wise. Is there an impact? Because there's a decent difference
between the two. Is that a hindrance to us? Is it okay? There's 130 on one side and 180 on the other. Just curious as to what that would mean. I mean, everybody would love more help, but I think we've been very efficient for for what we have. Um, so I wouldn't say it's a hindrance because I think we operate
very efficiently with the administrators we have here. It's just basically to show that I know sometimes a topic of conversation is well we are top heaven when we have too many administrators. The statistics say otherwise. Thank you. The other piece is
the 4.35% on the taxes. Just to clarify that one because I understand that Mrs. See, were in the last meeting brought up the Freehole Regional potential increase, right? Because I think they're voting on that city tonight, right? Yep.
Coupled with the four the potential 4.35 here. Just putting that in perspective because differentiating but ultimately to the Marboro taxpayer then right that could be a significant increase. Just I know we're not the 13% just putting that
out there. Yeah. So, the 4.35% includes your 2% cap that you're allowed to go up to that you're allotted to um your your um health benefit waiver and the 1.8 million and your your available bank cap that you had from left over from a
previous year that you didn't utilize. So, that's what makes up the 4.35%. Um, in reality, the health benefit waiver, it helps really offset the health benefit cost because if we weren't if we didn't have the option to take that waiver, we would have been talking about cutting possibly $3
million out of this budget. And so that does help without having to change our outlook and our makeup so drastically. So, because if you're cutting $3 million out of a budget, you are taking staff coupled with those
those benefits that you would have to lower. And the caveat is that waiver, you lower the benefits. The waiver is low as well because it goes by it's calculated by how much are you putting forth with benefits? How much are your your true benefits? And this the county asked for that too. They want to see a breakdown
of your benefit costs, who's getting what, and your total to make sure you're not inflating that to get a bigger waiver. So, it is it is within reason of why we're taking this. It's not just like we're taking it just to to have additional funds. It's really to help offset the
health benefit costs that we're facing. Does anybody have any other questions? Okay. Thank you. Can I can I just stay with that chart for a second? Yeah. Just so I'm I'm reading it correctly, the 4.35% is not the amount that we're
raising taxes. It is the total percentage of your tax bill that goes toward funding education. So your total your total revenue source for your for your tax bill, it's 87%. It's your 89 million. That's the amount we're raising
our tax levy by. 4.35%. Right? So it's our levy but not but it's it's the total levy per per household based upon your right our actual tax rate that is that we have is 1.192 for the 2526 budget
which means 95.65% of I pay per year in taxes is going someplace else give or take it depends how much each other individual piece of that pie raised their taxes or for right but the 95.600 6 is just going someplace else.
Whether it's Marorrow Township, whether it's free or regional high school, it's going someplace else. The the district here is getting the 4.35% of the assessment bill that I'm paying. No. So the 4.35% is basically what you're
raising your 2425 tax levy by. So your tax your nominal tax rate is your 1.192. So on your tax bill, the schools the schools do take up a bigger portion of your tax bill due to the the culmination of how many times
schools have had to increase their taxes to keep up with with the ever growing cost and to fully fund education. Um so really your tax rate is 1.192. The 4.35% is what you're building your tax levy
by. Thank you. [Music] I just have one more question because it's just not it's not sitting well with me. The uh average home in Marro Township. Is everybody okay?
Um if if we're all paying attention to our local um you know comps in our neighborhoods, I'm not seeing many houses going for $497,000. So I just was wondering if there was going to be an updated
average house value because well so I go by what the community affairs tells me department of community affairs and their average in 2024 was 497214 the difference between assessed value and that's your average assessed value assessed value is different than what you can sell it for. Yes. Some homes
with actually large property but yet it's but yet it's um been designated farmland will assess at a much lower value than a home that will be next door that's not that's not raising animals. Yeah. So like the so basically the middle part is your
your 500,000 your assessed valuation and that's where we start and then you have your assessed valuation going below and then is everything okay? I know. I'm just communicating with both of you at the same time. I have Chris in one ear,
coughing in the other. I'm just trying to focus. Sorry. Thanks. Thank you. Any other questions for Mr. Caribella? Thank you very much, Mr. Caribella. Um, and great work. We appreciate it. Always again, uh, a very clear and concise
budget and not an easy thing to communicate. Um, okay. We are continuing with our agenda. We are at the discussion items. Uh Mr. Bologone, you have um before and after care program.
Yes, Mr. Caravilla and I well actually let me back up. Um back in March, I met with some of the parents I see sitting here. Um so, thank you for coming. met with and or spoke with on the phone um and um got some of their concerns from
the uh current year from the YMCA. I won't list all of the concerns, but I'll kind of list some of the highle concerns that then Mr. Caravello and I brought to the YMCA when we had our first negotiations meeting. The big one
was opening on delayed openings. Now, we've only had two delayed openings this school year. I'm going to knock on wood and we don't have anymore. Um remember the late openings are not just for snow, could be for anything. They're called,
you know, it's for emergencies. So, um we had two, but it adversely affected some of our families. Um so some of our families who need to get to work early, some of our families are teachers in other school districts and when we
have a delayed opening um it requires them to not not have the ability to go to work um because the before and afterare program did not provide any service during those delayed openings. So um
both of us did communicate very strongly that we need an option for that. what that looks like. We'll come back to you. Um they're also going to come back to to us uh with their decision. Now I'm coughing.
Um I did stress to them uh very strongly that um while not speaking for the board um and I was very clear with all of our families um but I did say if we do not have an option for a delayed opening next year it wouldn't shock me if we
went out for for a program that would provide that. So that was a big item that many of us uh many of the the parents I spoke with that was a that was a big item on their on their list to say look we we really need that even though it's only it was only two days this year
um that weighed heavily on our family. So I did share that um some of the other things um communication their system their online u their online module or portal um little difficult to navigate um I
know I had u someone basically say that u if they miss the deadline there's no flexibility in joining they have assured me that there is even if they tell you there's not or maybe they maybe in their publications it says there's a deadline that they have to uh publicize that. But
if you reach out to um I know Stacy Lella said, "Look, reach out to us individually. We will make sure we provide the flexibility." So um there's a little bit of confusion there. Maybe you were reading their literature and not talking to someone. We urge you if
you have any any circumstances where you need some flexibility, reach out to them. And they said they would surely be happy to help. Um, the other other big item and again as I said I'm not going to touch on all of them but another big item was the uh
use of our secure vestibules and that is a non-negotiable for us as well. So we had to address the previous company in using them and we've had to address the YMCA this year. They've been very responsive. Um, and they should all be using our secure vestibules. Um, if
they're not, I only know what I know. So, please report to us if they're not. And um but from my understanding, and I actually did some site visits, they are using them. And um I I haven't heard anything lately. So So my guess is that
they're they're um they're using our secure vestibules. Um the other piece, they they are not going to increase their rates. Um well, I should there's a little caveat there, right, Mr. Caravell? They're not going to increase their rates overall, but there is going
to be an increase in the drop in rate only. So, right now, I think they're charging $20 for a drop in rate. Um, they're going to bring that to 25, uh, which is actually in line with our previous provider. Um, and in line with all of the other school districts they
work with. So they they did want to work with us that first year to say, "Okay, we we can bring that rate down, but they need to bring that up um in order to to fund their operation, but everything else is going to remain unchanged." Mr. Carabell, anything else you want to add?
No, I think you hit all the points. one day a week. Oh, so they um yes, they did mention that they were going to create a one day a week program. That would be cheaper than the the drop drop in rate that they're setting. And I know that wasn't
um an offer for them this past year. They I think they started with a two-day program, went all the way up to 5 days. So, they will be offering a one-day program as well is what they said to try to provide more flexibility if someone just needed the one day. Thank you.
Um, so you know, I appreciate the efforts that you're taking and it's this is a great first step and actually great several steps because you've had several meetings with not only with the the parents in the district who are using the services but also with the district. So this is great. What's the next step
for you? So the next step is for them to come back to us. they're um they're going back to their team and determining all of those requests that we've made to see if they can actually carry them forward. So, we're we're in the process of that now. Um if we don't
hear from them in the next week or so, I'd say we'll reach out to them because we we need to get them Mr. Caravello on the agenda really for July 1, right? Yeah. So, we would be putting it on the next agenda or the June agenda for
renewal for the year because they would need to start with their summer camp. Um, because even if we didn't have a provider, we would still need someone to provide a summer camp for us. Thank you. Questions from the board. Okay. Thank you very much for
that. Um, we look forward to hearing back from you on Next steps. Um, referendum recap. Okay. So, I wanted to bring to the board just a a referendum recap basically of where we are, where we're going, maybe some
history. I want to try to continue to do this each meeting, similar to how we did with the budget, just to continue to keep it on the forefront and talk about it. Um, I know there's a great presentation that our bond council provided to us from an NJSBO seminar we
had attended in June. It was a couple years ago where I think it would be beneficial to provide to the board and present it in public and it basically goes over the whole process of a of a referendum from start to finish and everything that is included in
it. So you might see some of that stuff next week or the next meeting that I'm going to talk about now, but this is from our lens and what we've been doing and what our role in it is. So again, the referendum for 2025 is just HVAC additions for Asher and
Robertsville. Now, I know a lot of people have been utilizing like HVAC upgrades, but you have to have something there to upgrade. There's nothing there. So there is only HVAC in your media center, in your offices, and into your gymnasium in Asher and Robertsville. So
that's one of the things that I think we all need to clear up as a township is it's not HVAC upgrades. It is HVAC additions because the classrooms where the kids are and the staff is do not have anything unless they have a medical note where the student has a medical
note and they have a window unit. So again, just a quick overview. I won't read it in full, but we are planning for a public public referendum to secure funding for air conditioning at Asher Homes and Robertsville Elementary. The total cost of the project was originally estimated to be at 3.2 2
million. We received and I believe I said this the last meeting as well. We received um information that we need electrical upgrades in both schools and also the tariffs are a concern when it comes to you know we have to make sure that we don't sell ourselves short when we're
going out for a referendum. So we need to make sure that all the costs anticipated in going into this thing are included because a lot of the costs that we are have to set forth and put out upfront are included in the referendum that we're going out for. So there were multiple funding
options to be considered when we originally brought this to you during the budget time. Um we ultimately chose this route because by seeking voter approval, the district would be entitled to receive debt service aid. Now, debt service aid is up to 40%. Our bond council came here
in February and basically said more like 30%, but you can you can apply for 40%. But he hasn't seen more than people getting 30%. Still, it's funding that we as a district should be fiscally obligated and responsible for. This is something that we want to go after and
get the project fully funded for at least 30%. And then the 70% would come out of reserves. Other districts, if they don't have reserves, would have to go out with other funding sources, whether it be notes or bonds. But we all pay taxes clearly from the last
presentation. We all pay it. So why would we not want to try to recoup some of those taxes in the form of debt service aid? Everybody else gets to do it. And I'll everybody else in Mammoth County that I know has gone out for a referendum. They've actually secured
lots of funding. And a portion of that is all of our taxpayers that taxpayer money. So why not take a turn in trying to do that for ourselves and really get something that's going to benefit children and staff for the long haul, not just for tomorrow. So this is this is the graph
that I showed you months ago. Basically showed you your options. So your first option, which is what we're doing, is to go out for a second question referendum. Now the numbers have been updated uh to reflect the new amount. Option one required
voter approval max of 40% funded by state the state debt service aid that could come up to a total of 2.1 million. The balance of your funds would come out of your capital reserve account of 3.1 million. the district. If the district can save the monies, if they cannot, if
we cannot save the monies and our our surplus is not high enough and we can't designate it for capital reserve, you would have to go out for a different funding source, whether that be a long-term bond or a short-term note. So, you'll be seeing in June, you'll be seeing on the the agenda,
you'll see two motions, and it'll be um basically designating a deposit to your reserve accounts, your capital reserve, your main reserve. We do it every year. We're required by our auditors to do it. We just have to set a not to exceed amount. So I could set a not to exceed amount of $2 million. Doesn't mean I will be able to put that in there, but
at least the motion's on there to when my auditor and I have a sit down, we go over our surplus and our fund balance and I say yes, that's what I want to put in there. So we are going to be setting forth basically two motions. It'll be for your maintenance reserve for your capital reserve. We're going to set the motion
to where we want to put enough in there to fully fund this project. with a little bit of extra because we don't want the case of just draining our whole reserves just for this. So we are going to try to be mindful with it. Now keep in
mind this process we have a December of election. So when we're building this in December I'm going to be coming to you with the 2627 budget already and we're going to be halfway through the fiscal year. So that gives us almost another year by June closes out to put more into our reserves that we may have depleted
from this project. So it's really it's it's the long game, but it's also something that we need to plan now for if we really want to do this rather than not doing anything and then just fully funding the project out of the reserve accounts because that's what will happen. If we cannot pass a referendum
and we still want this project as a township to be done as a district, as a board, as a community, we are going to have to fund it some way. And that could be your other funding sources. Option four is completely out of the table. We've attended meetings with them. We've sent letters to them. They are just not
funding this these projects. Unless you have an approved referendum on the table, they're not doing it because they feel like it's circumventing voter approval. And technically, they're not wrong. So, I don't believe we're going to get that. Option three is your five-year
equipment lease. Again, your five-year equipment lease, that's a way to stretch the payments over time, similar to what we do with textbooks, similar to what we do with sometimes devices. Anything we can do to try to stretch your your money long term to fit in the operating budget, but you are paying interest on that. So, you are
going to pay interest on that. Um, and I believe a lot of that can't be actually none of that can be funded out of your reserve accounts. That has to be budgeted in your operating budget. We've actually spoke with the county. You cannot use a purchase lease and funded out of reserve account. Has to be
somehow implemented into your operating budget. Similar how do we implement the ESIP payment we do every year in the operating budget. And then so your option two is we pay for it ourselves. But that's going to require me having to save and me having to basically be smart with our
surpluses, be smart with our fund balance and be able to pad that reserve enough to where we can start doing a school or chipping away whether it be half a school or a full school or a school and a half or just something to get the project started. But we will be funding at 100% out of our reserves or
out of our operating budget or by some good grace we get additional state aid that we can just start putting back into the budget. So I just wanted everybody to see that because in essence you have three options here. You do purchase lease, you pay interest, you pay for it all of yourself out of your reserves or
operating budget or we try for the referendum. And I think it's I think it's the most fiscally responsible thing to try to get the project funded 30%. Maybe 40%. Maybe they see that we haven't done it so in so long and they
they want to give us 40%. Maybe they're feeling generous. That's why we're going out in December. It's the holiday season. Everybody should be in a giving mood. So you're you're not going to be able to see this. I will post it online. Um, I just wanted to try to cram as much information here as possible and then
everybody can access it access it online and and see it for themselves. So, these are the costs that go into what we're doing. So, your first one was your bond council. We had him here in February. He was approved on the
March 11th agenda. already that's been approved is the $8,500 that needed to be approved for him to get started to represent us as bond counsel. After that, if the referendum passes and another approximate $14,800 will go on the
agenda for next year, which you'll have to approve for him to actually secure the funding and be able to work with our financial adviser to be able to basically lock this in. The scope of work included in that is again acts as a specialized legal adviser for the school
district ensuring the bond issuance process is legally sound, financially viable and attractive to investors. He is basically our our conduit to securing this funding, working with the uh Mammoth County elections and basically
having this question on the ballot in its rightful form and how it should be presented and making sure we don't miss any deadlines and any dates or any really anything for that matter. He's he's hired to really try to to help us see this through. He also works handinhand with
our district financial adviser. Now, you'll see we'll get to that. Um the next service involved in this is your architect. So we approved Takarski a millil on March 18th for the amount of
18,460. And in that approval he built the specs. That's where we learned about how we had to have electrical upgrades. So they go out with their engineer, they do their updated specs, they look at everything with an in-depth review because what they have to do is they have to prepare Department of Education
project application which we approved also. and basically he's sending in to basically get the project approved so we can get get forward with putting it out on the street getting it out to bid um in a timely manner because at the end
of the day the question will be in December you want to at least have you want to at least know your figures before you even send a question in and that's where that estimate comes from they build that estimate and when they build that estimate they also include all the costs associated with
the estimate So 5.3 million includes all of these costs in there to recoup. So again, our architect will attend meetings as required to discuss project components and he will be involved heavily with um the committees involved with this referendum and will
work with the communications committee to provide information regarding to the project specifications. So everybody will will eventually cross ties and work together. Now your third one um Laura Bishop Communications that was approved at the last meeting and that is for
40,000 and in that 40,000 their scope of work was a website with comprehensive facts and other materials to be the source of accurate information collateral materials that may include flyer and our postcard based on district social media strategy your slides for an in-person
um or virtual presentations. is again we elected that we will not be doing virtual unless necessary but virtual also might be an option if a lot of people cannot attend and we want to expose this to to everyone because not everybody can attend with children or or or for anything for that matter. So we
want to make it as much accessible as possible to everybody who can who can be involved in this. Another one was the coordination of your on-site website. So they will build a website for us. Um they will have streaming opportunities for community engagement. They will post
facts, questions, videos, voiceovers, anything that we want. But they will manage the communications and the marketing of this and they specialize in this. Now, everybody keeps asking me why I did not go out to bid or go out to RFP. First of all, it's under the bid
threshold. Second of all, it's an extraordinary unidentified spec specific service. Not many people have expertise in this New Jersey bond referendums and marketing and not everyone has a proven track record of
having a success rate that they do. So you can find any communications company you want but if it's going to be successful I don't know. They may not have any experience and I don't know how I would ever recommend a communications company that has no experience in securing referendum funding or even
passing one which I believe they have an 85% success rate in passing the referendums. They just passed one next to us for $und00 million. We're assisted in it. 86. Okay. Thank you. Um so that's why we put them forth because we want
this to be as successful as possible. We don't want this to fall flat on its face like some of our other referendums have. We have a history of referendums going back to 1985. Can't wait to show you guys. Sorry, I I don't mean to interrupt you, but would you say
that leading going back to past referendums that column one and two, which is the bond council and the architect pre-referendum, that cost was paid for previous referendums that did not pass. Is that correct? Yes. and every other
district associated with referendums includes these costs in the referendums as too. These are the these are the factors the key components that go into these are the ingredients right. So roughly and again I I understand that previous years may have been slightly lower but we're looking at anywhere
between 20 to $25,000 over the last three different referendums that we paid for and lost and we didn't pass a referendum. Okay. Thank you. Just a question. I'm going to wait till the end. But do you want us to
ask per slide? You can. So it's fresh in Okay. Because I because then I need to go back to the beginning. So I'll wait. That's why I was going to wait till the end. I took my notes. I wanted to be respectful. So question. Yeah. Tell me more about the logo. No, I'm just kidding. I I wanted to be
respectful. So that's what I'm saying. I'll wait till the end. No, it's fine. I think we need to have sparked the question. So I was like I think we need to have a healthy conversation here so everybody that's watching can also keep track of where we are. So then my question is back one more
no the next yeah okay the the first question is on the the dollars and so I just wanted to go back so I understand option one I know we talked through that one before but if the referendum doesn't pass is it that we vote again I may not
be here by the way I'm saying whenever that happens right um but then we would move to option two or three a choice is made at that point in time or do we make a decision now? Like how does that work? So you would not be looking to do
another option until you know for sure if the referendum passed or not. So in reality when we have the the special election in December, pretty much by January 1, you'll know if it passed or not. If it didn't pass, then we're going to
incorporate what we've been talking about into our budget conversations for 2627 and we're going to basically get back on the saddle and figure out what we want to do differently if that doesn't work. Okay. Um but it all depends on what you have in your budget.
Budgetarily, it all depends on if there are constraints. If there's no constraints, can we fit something in? Can we be creative to try to start this? In essence, in the 2627 budget, we are going to start this one way or another through our reserves. Whether
it's funded 100% or it's funded, you know, 60%. That's really depending on if the referendum passes or not. But that's the ultimate way I would go is utilize our reserves because I don't think we want to pay interest, right, on things we don't need to.
you had said about you're going to have in this in the agenda for us the not to exceed amount and you're saying that when we vote on it that whatever the dollar amount comes to it's not going to exceed that particular amount right so you have some wiggle room in there is
what you're saying for whatever that might be but you're letting us know that when we vote it will not exceed x dollars is that correct so if people go back to the last meeting we had now again we've been doing this a little bit different approach. It's not like I'm just slapping on a service on the agenda
and saying vote for it. I'm bringing these people out and I'm letting them have healthy conversations with all of you so you feel comfortable before we award them in what they do and what their role in it is. That's similar to anything else we put on the agenda. If it says not to exceed whatever the amount is, that means I can't go over
that amount or pay a bill over that amount unless I come to all of you again for reapproval. Yep. Um, and I believe they they basically said that it will go over, but they would eat the cost because they want this to succeed. So, they're saying that the cap is 40,000
for us. Anything after that, they're going to take on themselves. The only thing that's not included are promotional materials and that falls on us. That's something that we can take on on our own. We don't need anybody else to do that for us. Correct. And I'm going to come to this slide since you're telling me to do it in order. I just Oh,
did you have a question here? So, I have a question on that. Go ahead. How are you going to take that on yourself when printing? So, if you look at Manalith, who I've spoken to, um they sent a mailer to every resident's home. Yeah. That could cost upwards of 10 to $15,000 by the time you have printing and
mailing. Uh you they talked about pizza box stickers. To print a pizza box sticker, you're looking at another $10,000 if you do. But we don't need to do pizza box stickers. Um, but if they're making the design work and we're getting this design and that's included in your $40,000 not to exceed, we're
going to get the designs and then not utilize them. So they where they can make the designs, but we can utilize them how we see fit in other marketing tools that may be costefficient for us. Doesn't have to be a pizza box, doesn't have to be a flyer over Belmar Beach. It could be anything that we want it to be. So we have on here that we're going to
get flyer and a mailer. Um but that you know the and there was other things in the contract um that were not included. What are we going to do with these materials once we got them if we're not going to print them and what is the cap on the budget that we would
spend with printers and mailouses um you know post $40,000. So if I'm understanding that you're asking all the promotional stuff, how are we paying for that? Right. we would have to pay for that in our operating budget, but it depends on how far we
want to promote this. They're going to work with us in designing and running a website. It could be all electronic. It doesn't have to be physical form. But I thought that the point of hiring them is because we want to meet the audience that's not on social media and not virtually. So, we would have them
design materials in a $40,000 budget that we're not going to print or we may print. But there's no But who said who said we weren't going to print them? But then we need to know how much money that is projected to cost because that could be another $40,000 when all said and done. But that's that's
unfortunately if you really want to make an omelet, you have to break a few eggs. So I understand $100,000 all in to promote a referendum that may or may not pass is seems it's like a you know an exorbitant cost on a $103 million
budget. Yeah, it still does to pass referendum. Where are we getting this $100,000 budget from? Because I know promotional m I mean, we've all done this. We live this for we do this for a living as well. $100,000 seems excessive. That's
almost $60,000 on promotional material. So, I want to understand how did Mrs. Balo come up with that math? Does she have a grid that she can share with the board? I'm very interested in knowing. Uh it's it's going to be helpful for us. So, we want to make educated decisions. That's why. I I don't know. But all I know is we can control the level of promotion we want to do. So the pizza
box stickers we may not have to do. There are other ways to get in touch with everybody without breaking the bank. So as far as a dollar amount goes with how how much we want to promote. That really is up to us and what we feel comfortable with promoting for this referendum. But they are going
to work with us to design all of this stuff and get there. And then we may not do anything with it. Who says we wouldn't do anything with it? that if we don't have budget, if we're not going to spend the money to print it, then we're not going to do anything. So, it's it's one of the or we're just going to put it online, which is something that we could
do ourselves in house. We can't because we don't have the expertise that they do for a referendum. We don't have that. Adidi just said she was in, you know, she does this for a living. Adi is not an employee here. Correct. And volunteers can't run this, unfortunately. We need professionals to
do it. Do you think Laura Bishop Communications can help us identify some of those targeted audiences that were that might not be, you know, in super engaged where I feel like we can kind of target that and not break the budget that way, you
know, like the maybe the senior citizens in the community. I don't know if that's part of their what they're kind of targeting, but I think that's part of their strategy when it comes to their their outreach is they're going to tell us how to achieve that. Exactly. Thank you. because we may not be equipped to know how to get in touch with all those
different demographics or those different areas that have a vote. Were you able to look at the materials that were distributed from an alib? I did. Yeah. And you looked at all of the flyers and the pamphlets and did you see the associated costs with that? No. So, I did and that's why I'm bringing this
to the table because it seems exorbitant for what we're trying to pass. their their referendum that they were trying to pass was for, you know, a hundred million $115.4 million project. That's a lot more than what we're trying to do.
So to invest the same structure of communications for a much easier to understand referendum, like I said, seems like a waste of money. So let's just let's just take $100,000 and let's look at it the positive way. So, you're saying that if
if it were to if it if it were to pass, you're okay with just not going off the referendum because of the $100,000 that could potentially be in advertisements, but we're okay with leaving possibly $2.1 million on the table to take for a project that we don't have to maybe fund out. No, that's not what I'm saying. I'm
saying that the Marorrow taxpayer and voter understands, do you want the HVAC project? What does that mean? Air conditioning in the two remaining schools that we don't have. If you look at Manalopin, what their referendum included, it was a page long of things that were included in that referendum.
We do not need the same level of communication for a oneline HVAC or no HVAC vote for our taxpayer. They understand what it means. It's air conditioning or no air conditioning. We are not trying to explain a multilevel piled high 115 million dollar
referendum to our tax. That's where this district has gotten into problems of not being able to pass referendums. They're constantly just added things and added things and added things rather than just going out to what we truly need to succeed. And that's the two remaining schools and all those children and those staff members not having air
conditioning in their classroom when all the other elementary schools do. 100%. And I like I am all in favor of the referendum. However, it is a very easy one question air conditioning or no air conditioning. a communications firm that's going to cost or at least
approach six figures. It seems exorbitant for a one question air conditioning or no air conditioning referendum. The communications company cannot approach six figures because we only approve them for 40,000. So that's the only amount of money I can pay to them unless the board reapproves something higher. So we'll approve all
the printing, mailing, promotional, taxes, shipping. We'll approve all that. Yeah, the board should be involved in all of that because we're the ones. So each cost will come to the table and we can say I don't know what cost you're identifying. You really need to help me with what you're where you're getting your numbers from. Printing, mailing,
promotional materials, and then there was also shipping, um extra fees for services, extra design fees, it was all listed in the contract. So each one of those fees that they said will be built separately will come to the board and we will approve each one of them. Is there
a cap? Is there a a number that has to be met before we have to approve it? What does that look like? That's all that's all negotiable. You don't have to do anything with that. But if you choose to get the designs and then you do print them, we will approve them line by line.
If you would like to approve them line by line, I will give them to the board fully. But what I what I just don't I don't understand why you're against this referendum. I am not against the referendum. Okay. I am against the communications firm. Strongly against. Since you looked at the numbers, can you
quote how much um the same um communications firm charged um Manalopin if they were working on the $und00 million budget? I'm so focused on what? No, I'm talking about I'm talking to Mrs. Bommo right now. Since she has all the information, it would be nice for the board to know. Um would you be able
to tell us how much they charge the Manalin district? No, you can reach out on your own. Oh, okay. Great. Thank you. So, you don't want to share information. Um and I'm just Okay. Thank you for telling me that you're not going to share the information with the full board. Um, so there's a possibility that it could be a
lot more because it was a much bigger scope of work, right? They're looking to do a lot more. So there's a very flat could have been a lot more than ours. Yes. Than what was quoted for our size, right? No. Or not. Well, that makes sense. So that's I just
wanted to make that clear that because I know it was brought up right now that $40,000 for a 3.5 when Manalop passed a hund00 million budget. I just want to bring things into perspective that we're getting charged 40,000 whereas Manalopin probably got charged a lot more because
they were working on a hund00 million referendum. That's all. Possibly. I don't I don't know what Man was charged for. So this is 5.3. Theirs was hundred million. The cost to scale may be different, but I don't know. That's what we were quoted at, but we can't go over 40,000 with them. All the other
promotional stuff that we talk about, that's our realm of how we want to handle that. So they will work with designing us with that stuff within the 40,000. But how we want to successfully navigate that and promote it, we can take their ideas and we could do it oursel if we truly want to. If if we're
worried about, you know, driving the cost up tremendously with a communications company. Can I don't understand do it ourselves. What do you mean? Like what does that mean? Like print it ourselves. Like what does it could? Yes, I could. Like where? Staples. Staples. No, that would have a
cost, right? Staples isn't going to give it to us for free. There's a cost associated with it. It doesn't break the bank. I'll go. C can I can I just ask a question? I I'm sorry. I just have a quick question. I mean, but wouldn't the committee be approving all of this stuff? Yeah, I
just that's where I want to go. So, if you don't mind if I could just go there first of all, I was on I was on the previous slide, but I'll stick here and I'll ask my question here for a moment. So, I'm sorry again I missed last meeting because I had a work obligation. I know I told the board, but my apologies on that one. So, I know this
passed. So, that part's a moot point because I know it passed in the last vote. But my question is is on the scope of work. I understand we had a contract, all of that. But back to Mrs. Balomo's question because that was mine too. When it goes exceeds a certain dollar amount,
and I know we get a list of bills that come to us to approve the things that are outside of the scope. I'm asking would the board have line of sight into that or is it that we don't like what would happen? I'm just genuinely asking
if they build the website. All of the promotional materials that get approved or anything we do has to go through a referendum committee which they set up. So we're not going to send anything out until it's approved. Yeah, that that's fine. I'm just asking how we send the matter of how we send it out is really up to our discretion. My only question
is on the board level of I understand the referendum. get that whole thing whether I agree or disagree it's not that point the point is that if there's dollars that the that are being spent does the board see it or is it
that these things are paid and we don't know or is it go to the committee like after the 40,000 if it were to exceed that where's the approval process lie on any additional dollar amount well everybody will you all of these always approve all the bills right that's what
I'm saying is it on the list of bills bills. Yeah. Okay. That's what I'm asking. It's no different than an architect. So, an architect when they charge for ancillary things such as mailing and postage and stuff, they we only approve 40 for them. Vinnie can't pay him a penny more unless we
approve it. It can't be a list of bills unless we approve them specifically getting more than 40,000. I'm not talking about the promotional stuff. I'm talking about that company. No, no. I'm asking in general for us as a board and for the public to understand when if it were to any if it were to exceed the
40,000 which by the way it can because I understand there were additional things outside of it. So we can't say it's not because but it won't because we approved it to only we approved it to 40 but there may be additional things. I I understand because I deal with contracts ultimately. Hey, if you want this
there's an additional cost. I get it. All I want to know is if that additional cost were to come our way, right? Is it who approves the additional cost? That's all I'm asking. Is it in our list of bills for us to approve? Is it the referendum committee? I just want to know if you ever see above 40. And
somebody can answer. I just want to know if there was scope outside of work, who approves it? That's all. So, so Val, as I understand it, the motion last week was to approve a scope of work that was not to exceed $40,000. If Laura Bishop comes back and says to Mr. Caravello that if you want
these additional works done and they're going to cost$10,000 20,000 or $80,000 we as a board have to authorize that additional cost because the contract said at a not to exceed $40,000. Let me just finish right and I'll get to you.
Um in addition Mr. Carell just correct me if I'm understanding this if I'm not understanding this correctly. We're talking about two established budgets essentially. One for the communications company to do the work that they're doing from a professional consulting
perspective, right? And the second source of or the second budget is for what we would call promotional materials, printing the ancillary costs associated with the work that the budget that the consultant is providing. Right?
The second part of that budget, the second part of that has not been set. So, can I can I before we have those conversations, can I suggest because there's a lot of question about what that budget what that cost may be,
right? Laura Bishop is probably in the best position to give us advice as to what we should be expecting to see as a potential cost associated with a communications program. Here's where I'm I'm having a hard time understanding some of these
questions. Laura Bishop Communications, the 40,000 includes all the strategy work they're going to do to try to promote this. If you take them out of this, you still have to promote it and you still have to pay for all of that stuff. Correct. So that money has to come from somewhere. So I don't know how
that piece is tied to them. Not so that's I I just want to say though when a strategy is built, right? By the way, I'm not saying anything. My question was genuine like additional cost which by the way we work with vendors all the time. A vendor can come back. I'm not
put it Laura Bishop aside and say hey I have some extra things I could do for you and it would cost X dollars and that's fine right because that's what they do but social media strategy is one thing I'm going to develop the strategy now you run and implement it. A strategy
versus implementation are two different things. So I'm just saying they could come back and all my question was and Mr. Cohen answered it is as long as I know that there's some level of monitoring of I'm not saying you're not. I'm just wondering the level of insight for the board of cost. That's all. But
that's what I'm suggesting. I'm suggesting that and this is exactly aligned to what you just said. There's a cost for the services which is what Laura Bishop is providing. The strategy includes the the slides, the website includes this whole laundry list of other things that they're doing, right?
And then there's the cost of once we say this is what you should be doing, these are the things you need, right? And I think that those things that we need, whether it's flyers or forgive me for not knowing what a pizza box sticker is, okay? But whether it's a flyer or a pizza box sticker or
whatever that may be, right? They should be able to tell us what that budget should look like based upon the size of our district, the level of effort needed to communicate the $3 million or $5 million need, right? Which is very
different in complexity than the hundred million. But yet we have our own complexity because we need to explain also how we're funding this, right? But we're not. So let me just add to that. They could come back and say we needed a targeted mailer of a thousand people. It's going to cost you $400, right? Just
hypothetically, all this is hypothetical until they set the strategy. Until they sell tell us what the strategy is. We can hire them and we can go and pay $40,000 for a mailer hit the whole population which was the wrong strategy backfires on us. We all voted on this. I don't know why we're having a discussion about it. Now, I understand the
questions. These are all all incredibly valuable, but this is all hypothetical until we get into actually activating this. And we can't do that without expert consultants at the table to tell us the best way to communicate this to the community. That that's my view. I
think they're essential to this. Theoretical in some ways we're putting the park before the horse because we don't know what we should be spending the money on until we know what the strategy is. But take away the $40,000 for the um the communications group. We
would, and I quickly like calculated all the rest of We would still be paying 260,000 for the other parts of the referendum, parts of the the ingredients you said, right? We would still be wasting all of that money. Well, if this doesn't pass, of course, we have to
shell this money out. We've had to try to pass this referendum, and this is how you have to try to pass this referendum. Yeah. I just want to ask a big risk is Yeah. I'm going to add a I'm going to try to simplify this. So there are two different buckets here we're talking about. Bucket one is the communications
company. They said it and and Val, that was a really good question because I had that as well. Um and I think a few of us asked Laura Bishop when they came presented last week. They said it could it's going to go up to 40,000 but not to exceed 40,000. So the scope of work this
is just you know six bullet points I've put in there. Bullet point number two, which is collateral materials. If we want to choose to go with a flyer or a postcard or whatever, that would fall under bucket two. Bucket
two. So, they will sit there and say, "Okay, well, we've done x, y, and z so far. We think we can add a little bit more by doing a flyer and it's going to reach x number of people and it's going to cost if we printed for you." I mean, the development of it is already
included in the 40,000. in the scope of it's the actual printing and the postage that we would have to pay for. So they will come to us and say we have reached an x amount of people this is the success rate I think this is the group that we're still seeing you know not the
response that we want let's do a targeted mailing and that goes from I don't know say 40,000 people to maybe now 5,000 and then we're going to then take that and decide and say all right well if Laura Bishop prints it and does the mailing it's going to cost us $2,000 but if we do it on by ourselves it's
going to cost us a th000 so then we can opt to take that make that decision and say we're going to be prudent in how we spend our money and we're going to print it out and just spend the $1,000. So that's how a communications company is going to work with us. So the 40,000 we don't want to confuse the two things.
They're very two separate buckets and any of those printing costs is going to go through our board from what I understand for approval. So thank you for asking that question again. before we even go through printing. And back to back to your your question, they are two
separate buckets, but it seems like the the issue is just not knowing how much it's going to cost. And what is that cost? I won't know until we work with the strategist to say, "Hey, we're going to need about 5,000 mailers for you to go out or 2,000 postcards." And I say,
"Okay." And then we look and see how much that's going to cost. And then we come back to the committee or the board and say they've proposed that we should do this. Here's the amount of here's the cost that I found associated with that. We can do it this way. We could do it that way. We could do it that way. So
that's how I'm going to be able to really relay what this stuff costs when it's provided that that expertise is provided to us. But the $40,000 that's initially an approved communications company to help us hit the ground running to try to communicate this thing
and start taking the steps to having it approved. they're strategizing with us to make sure that this is as successful as possible because I know one of the things are we have our own communications, you know, people, but they don't have the expertise and the strategy and the and the familiarity
with bond referendums and knowing how to pass them and what needs to be said and what doesn't when it comes to how to promote this as successfully as possible. And I have one more question just ask. So the 40,000 that the communications company is going to charge us to get to the six figure
amount that Mrs. Balomo is quoting, we're talking about a difference of $60,000. Do you think mailers are going to cost us $60,000? I don't know. I I don't know. Depending on quantity and what we need and what they recommend, I don't I don't I don't want to put a dollar amount on anything because I don't know. Do you know if data is included in their costs? Because with
most communication firms, it is not. And we will pay for data such as who's voted in a referendum election in the past. um you know what demographic they are, where they're located. Data costs money. Is that included? Because it's said in the contract it's not. So, I'm trying
We'll make sure it's included. So, you're going to tell them that data has to be included even though there's a cost associated. I will call them tomorrow and tell them I'm not paying for data. And it you think they'll agree to that? It's not expensive. I I I think so. I know data is not expensive which is why
as a board we could have just gotten that same data for a couple hundred dollar instead of $40,000. We know what we're looking for. We know which demographic I just think wait let's almost finish and then I'll I just believe that we are spending $40,000 on
the same thing that could have been achieved with $300 worth of data, a Canva account and a cell phone. So, from where I sit, it's an exorbitant cost that's being taken away from our kids. When we're cutting instructional coaches, we're going to hire $40,000 PR
firms with a question mark amount of added printing and whatever else services to pass the referendum of a one question air conditioning or no air conditioning. It does not seem logical to me, but I'm just one. When people see
referendum, they think that taxes are going to One second. Just give me a second. First of all, um the $40,000 contract was already approved by the board last week. So that's that issue I think is been decided. Right. The
question at this point is proceeding. Right. So, if you have the opportunity to take some of the board's concerns back to Miss Bishop's company and express concerns over data, the concerns over the need for uh more clarity on
what the strategy is going to outline as far as materials and things like that, and they're able to sort of give us a straw person budget for that, an idea based upon the size and complexity of the scope. Their expertise is going to be helpful to inform us. I think then the board will have more clarity on what
the other potential costs will be for this and that will allow us to sort of be able to decide as a board how much more we can afford to invest or how much more we want to invest as a district in the in the referendum. I mean, if we do if we don't have a communications
company that that ex that is an expert in this and strategize in this, I can guarantee you there's not enough hours in any of our day to just create a Canva account and be able to promote this. We've already decided that that's what they're being hired to to help us elevate this. Yeah, we've already decided that. All right. Um, so I'm
sorry, I was just on the question. Did somebody Yeah, I I actually every one of you at this side of the table wanted to talk. So I do you mind I'll go straight down. Miss Carrera, you go. Then Miss Gandhi. Oh, no. This I'm I'm not reopening this.
I totally agree about moving forward. It's just the problem is is some of the language also around it that once people see referendum, they're not willing to re like it's a tax increase and people say no all the time, not being informed. So that that was all I was saying. Thank
you, Miss Gandhi. Okay, Miss Mendes. I need to go back to the 17 questions I had. when we first started. Can we can we at least stay on this slide? Yeah, we'll stay on this slide. Otherwise, I'm going to go to Mr. Hayatt and then we'll go back. It was on a previous slide, but
there's some here too. So, just back my question was just the simple fact of I think you're going to come back. I think we've answered anything additional costs outside of the scope gets approved or reviewed by the board and then has to go
through an approval process similar to how we approve costs all the time. Just want to confirm that that's correct. Right. So I share that same expectation. Okay. So that's that's my first thing. Second thing is moving off of the comms for a second and on to the other halves
of it. The other piece were the special election for December when we're paying $65,000 approximately and so forth. Is that a standard? Is that something that other groups do? Is it a requirement to put it in December as opposed to other
places because we're paying for ballots, poll workers, voting machines? I'm just curious how that came about. You can put it with your general election in November. Um, historically we've tried to stay away from that and try to let it be a standalone special election so we can promote it so it doesn't, you know,
fall by the wayside when it comes to especially this being a governor election. So you can do that and and not have to do those costs. But that's an approximate figure. So I know we we we got information from other districts.
Um, one district was 72,000, one was 65, one was 63. So we put approximately 65,000. That includes, you know, printing of the ballots, the pole workers they have to bring here to set up an election, your mailing envelopes, voting machines. So that includes all
those other costs that are associated with with an election. And not saying that I agree or disagree at this point. I don't know enough about that. But is that a thing that comes to the board to vote or is that a decision that was made or was that a recommendation?
So once What will come to the board to vote is the approval to set forth a second question to go out for a second question to go out for a referendum. So, bond council will help us put that together and that will be brought to the board for approval. Once that's approved, we send that to the Mammoth
County elections to be put on for December's election. But then all those costs are come with that. So, so if we approving that, you're technically approving all the costs associated with putting that on the ballot. But the date that it could be in just asking just genuine asking if the date that it could
potentially you said be in November instead of a special election in December. Who made the choice to put it in December? Is that selected by Mammoth County or is that I've recommended that? Okay. So you recommend that call. You can go you can go out for November, you can go out for December. You can go out for January.
Right. Is it a dis and that that was my understanding just not to interrupt you and I apologize but if I recall correctly the bond council advised us and said after it's approved by after the the paperwork is done it goes to the state we must give the state a minimum
of six months to approve it. So if we figure it went out in end of April, beginning of May, you got May, June, July, August, September, possibly October, and then we have to give Mammoth County another 60 days after that to put the special election
together. So I understood is that we had a minimum of 8 to nine months that we could not do anything, plan for anything until in fact from the point in which we submitted the paperwork to the state. And while the state may come back sooner, I remember the bond council telling us plan for at least six months
for them to approve it. Yeah, I remember when that gentleman was here too. So I just want to and thank you for that. I just want to ask then another question on the the data side. Is there and you may not have this. I'll ask somebody. Is there data to show me the success rate of November referendums versus December?
I understand the recommendation. I'm just asking that question of I'd like to see the comparison to better understand and then is it a discussion point for the board or is the decision just I appreciate the recommendation. I'm just asking where we come in on something that the board has to approve the costs
for. I mean I can ask for data but it's it's going to prolong this process. So I don't want to prolong it. I just want to know. I'm not saying because I don't know how it would prolong it if if someone just gives me a report to show me November and December because I'm not holding any of this workup. The
communications was already approved um last meeting. I'm just curious to know the data for us as a board to say, hey, November has a higher success rate or December does. That would just help me to feel better about it. That's all I'm curious. And can I add to that if there is, you
know, a difference to Val's point, um, it would set us back if we were to say now like, let's not do this in December, but do it in November. Would it set us back? We might not make the November. You might have to do it in January. Okay, got it. The only time you get out of the cost is if you do it in November's general election. And I
believe the slide will show you that we've done ones in November and they've failed, right? I I have it on here. Um, thank you. And I think that's important to know that if we don't do it in December, there's a potential that we may actually just miss the mark and not be able to do it,
right? Like like the story, right? Here's your timeline, right? To what you raised before, Mr. Cohen. If you do it here, you're going to miss your cuto off. Like all of that is is valuable information. So that's all I'm asking for. And then um the other piece is well, let me pause if there's questions
because I had one other question about the previous slide. Maintenance and capital reserve the difference. Can you hold it there and let me just go to Mr. Hyatt and see if he said N Y N Y N Y N Y N Y N Y N Y N Y N Y N Y Nope. So Mr. Hyatt has now said no more. So yes, I'll let you wrap it up. So this way we'll wrap up on these two and then
I'll have more I'm sure. So on maintenance reserve versus capital, which I appreciate you were telling me like some money would come from either or or both. Is there a difference an impact to the district which one it comes from? I'm just curious. It can't come from maintenance reserve because it's a capital improvement because there
is no HVAC there. It has to come from capital reserve. If the HVAC was there, would it be coming from maintenance then? You're saying? Um, I'm just trying to understand the difference. Still be doing capital because it's technically a capital improvement. It would be a fund 12. It's a replacement. Okay. So, it would always be capital. Maintenance is like your your smaller things, your
services, um, you can replace a unit, but when you're replacing multiple units and it re reaches that dollar threshold, the county may say you're teetering on the line of saying it's not a capital improvement. It is. So they'll want you to use okay reserve.
So if I remember correctly when you started this whole thing you said we will be talking about the referendum regularly. So the good news is that if you have future questions as a board we get to continue to ask them. This is conversation is not going to end tonight. It's not going to end until the
referendum passes. Right. Um so Mr. Carella do you have more on this? Uh a couple more. Okay. Um, but all these costs get built into that 5.3 million. So, if the referendum passes, these costs are associated with what was just
passed. So, we are going to recoup some of these costs or they're going to be funded out of your funding source. So, right now, this is this is this is what you need to do in order to succeed. Like Mr. said, high risk,
high reward. You have to do these things and take these steps necessary to try to elevate this as best as possible because we don't have a great track record. Here's the history of Marorrow's referendums that I could find. April 30th,
1985, it was about a $8 million referendum for building a new elementary school, Dugan and Marorrow Middle School improvements. It passed March 21st, 1995. Renovations to four elementary schools and the middle school, HVAC at Marorrow Middle School in instructional
areas. It passed. That was about 15 3 million. Then in March 14th, 2000, that's the well-known one. That was the one that passed to build the early learning center and the new Marbor Middle School memorial, which we're standing in now for 41 million. And
then after that, that's where the success kind of teetered off. So your January 25th, 2005, build additional classrooms, cafeteria, and library at the Abbott Early Learning Center. That failed. Your September 29th, 2009 one to build the six additional classrooms in a main
office edition at Defino School. This passed because again it was zero. So what happened here was they had leftover remaining funds from a referendum that was passed previously. In order to utilize those, they had to go back out for re v voter approval, but they weren't asking for anything. They
had it already, so that's why it chose zero. And then after that, your most recent ones were 2015 2016. Both of these included a slew of items that were later addressed through the EIP project. But I mean there was tons of work
included in both of these. As you can see, one was 46 million, one was 26 million. They both failed. Um, all of these included the cost that I went over. We did use a communications company, I believe, in a few of
these. So, I I I I just I implore the the board to realize that like it takes a lot to pass this and to try to make this successful. It's either going to be successful or it's not going to be up. It's not going to be, but it's really up to us also to do that. A question on the
2015 and 16, which I know both failed when you said we used a communications company. Not sure if we used it during those, but did we use it during those? I will check, but I don't believe we used them in both. Okay. Because I'm curious and and if you can come back and tell us if we did and what were the things that
they did that we could avoid, right? Because if we are going to utilize them, I would want them to do something differently if we did use I I'd like to look at a new strategy and who we used. Was it the same vendor, not saying as this one, I'm saying for those two and then I'd like to know all the things
they did and then to say what else could we do to get creative because I'd probably steer clear of some of those things that didn't work. Just if we can have some of that. I'm not trying to put more work, but I am curious as to what they did and I'd like to share that with the Lord Bishop firm to tell them then here are things that were not
successful. So, if you did some sort of website that had X, Y, and Z, let's amp it up. That's all I'm asking. I don't No, I think that information is incredibly helpful for whatever communications committees we have and referendum committees we have because they need to be informed with what worked and what didn't work because, you
know, the definition of insanity. I know historically from what has been told to me, the only way referendums have been derailed here happens in this room. So in order for it not to be a failure, we all need to come together and make
sure that we promote it positively. Even if sometimes we don't agree with the cost, the questions are good to ask and then I need to have the answers for you. Yeah. And I need to be able to provide that. But I think we also need to just have a positive approach in this and making sure we do what we set out to do
and that's try to get air conditioning for the two remaining elementary schools and all the kids and staff that are in it. Again, I know I love my timelines, but um this is basically just a timeline of of everything I went over. And right
now, as you can see, May through November is really where everything starts to get kickstarted. So, we wait for the sub the project approvals from NJDOE. Then, we start doing everything with our bond council. In that time period, we start communicating this and start building and working with the
communications company to build a committee. See how that wants to be formed. whether it flows through our committees. We have one gigantic committee. We do it as a board as a whole. There's a ton of ways we can do this. We just that's why where the communication piece opens up. Could I
ask on the referendum committee to be formed and meet monthly? I think you just touched on it. Is that a discussion that we have of like what does that look like? Is that a later date? Because we are in May. I'm just curious like what would that be? So we have an a kickoff meeting with them internally just to see
how we want this to look out and all the feedback you give me we're going to provide. So basically um when you say we have a meeting with them who's the wei and the them. It's like myself Michael um just to really start on a strong
footing and tell them you know what the board because we can't all meet with them is them Laura Bishop. Yes. Okay. Yeah. And then also in that meeting is going to be the architect the bond council. Everybody's going to be on the same playing field and communicating. This way we can set up a formal plan to
and then how does that referendum committee get formed? Is that after that meeting? I Yeah, that would be after that meeting. Okay. And then we could discuss who it would include and what role the board plays in like anything. I'm here. I want it to pass. I mean the
committee usually consists of your architect, your bond council, board members, um people from the town. It includes a slew of of people that they would they will tell us who they re not specifically in person who they specifically recommend but like the roles
like like do we want somebody on there with this type of expertise this type of expertise that type of expertise and then we would come back to the board and we would start formulating that committee together. Would it be possible to get the information that Val just requested in terms of you know when do
we use the communications company and stuff before you have this meeting with I can check that. Okay, perfect. Thank you. Again, everybody can email me individually and I can be a conduit and use those questions and ask um so that that that that's not a problem and
that's actually quicker than waiting to meet here, right? which is which is consistent with the question I asked last week which is who would be the point of contact specifically for Laura Bishop and that would be Mr. care about. But we obviously have work to do to think about committees because we also have structural concerns we have to
consider in the context of quorums and requirements, right? And I know that this is a very passionate and very important topic to many on the board. So I want to make sure that we have an opportunity to sort of have um give everyone an opportunity to see be a part of this. Um and maybe we have to think
about um you know rolling attendance to the committee so there's no more we don't pass the four member quorum requirement. So could we just add to the list please Brian on the level the expectation to set expectations on the level of communications the board would
like to see when it comes to this. I just I don't want to have it monthly. I I'd like more like updates and I'm not putting that on you or anybody in particular. Thank you. So, like how would we be communicated with on things as it rolls, right?
Because it's going to be an ongoing thing and I I for me personally, I don't want to wait till a monthly board meeting, but I also don't want to put extra work, but I would like a level of communication of just updates. No, we should get we should expect that. I don't I don't think that's unreasonable that if there's if there's progress or
if there's work being done or if there are challenges being faced, the board should hear about it, you know, either through Mr. Caravell or through our communications company. That's the whole point of them being able to do this work, right? Yeah. And I just want to say thank you because I know I had six billion questions and I I thank you for
answering all of them. So, thanks hopefully satisfactoryy. Yeah. I want to do the same thing. I know a lot was put in um Vinnie when you did this. Um so, thank you so much and thank you for ask you know even though we passed it last week, thank you very much for answering
all of our questions right now. Um we really really appreciate all the hard work that you put into this. So, thank you. Thank you. Any other comments or questions? I have a comment. Yes, Mrs. Seart over here in Lost Island. Um, I just want to remind the community that
this is a new fresh referendum and to not hold grudges or compare the past referendums because of past administration. And I just want to remind everybody that even if you don't directly have children in the buildings that you need to consider the feeling
that you may have being a parent of a child or a staff member in Robertsville or Asher. Um there's a lot of chatter online about why the referendums failed in the past and I think it was personal feelings towards previous administration. So I just would like everyone to kind of start with a fresh
start, new perspective. This is a new referendum. This is a new time in Marro. So please just consider Fresh late clean start referendum 2025 is much different than referendum 2015 and 2016. Not to compare the two. Thank you. That is that is such an important
message and I appreciate that because you know um there's lots of confusion just about the number of schools that don't have air conditioning in the district. Some said two. Some thought the middle schools don't have air conditioning. I mean, this is just a lot of misinformation and we really just need to make sure that, you know, the
messages that do come out are are intended to clarify and not to confuse. So, I appreciate that. Um, okay. So, we're going to move on to our next item. Thank you, Mr. Caravello. Um, we look forward to hearing about this every board meeting. Um, so we will move over to public
comments. So, uh, do you have a list? Yes, I have uh one person on my list, Brianna Maglio. Hello. Um, okay. Good evening, members of the board. I am here tonight to speak about an issue that affects our students at the most fundamental level. Surprise,
the lack of air conditioning in two of our elementary schools, Asher Homes and Robertsville. Um, while the rest of the district's schools benefit from climate controlled environments, these two schools, including the one that houses our elementary autism program, remain without adequate air conditioning. This
is not just a facilities issue. It's an issue of equity. When some children learn in school, comfortable, I'm sorry, when some children learn in cool, comfortable classrooms and others are forced to endure high heat and stifling air, we are sending a message, whether we mean to or not, that some students
matter more than others. and I find that to be unacceptable. Um, I also work in education and understand the importance of meeting students basic needs before learning can happen. Maslaw's hierarchy of needs remind us reminds us that before any child can learn, grow, or
reach their potential, their basic physiological needs must be met. Air conditioning is not a luxury. It's a foundational requirement for safe, focused learning, especially for students with sensory processing challenges or health vulnerabilities. As we look forward to the December
referendum, I urge the board to take this issue seriously, not just in facilities planning, but in communications. Many community members are unable to attend or have the time to watch YouTube broadcasts of board meetings and thus do not know of the issues being discussed. Personally, I
did not know about the inequity with air conditioning in the district until I saw a recent Facebook post. Unfortunately, this issue affects my own children as my oldest currently attends Robertsville and my youngest will attend either in kindergarten next year or in first grade the following year. Additionally, other
community members may not have or no longer have children in our schools. Thus, they may not realize that two schools two schools are still lacking air conditioning or that one of them serves students with autism. What they do see and worry about are the potential impacts on their property taxes. I know
all community members are concerned about the rising cost of living and may fear that allowing the district to complete the HVAC installation in rem the remaining two schools will come out of their annual budgets. My understanding is that this is not the case but the community is unaware of this fact. This is why I strongly
encourage the board to consider hiring a professional communications group to proactively share the facts, explain the urgency, and show the broader community how this investment supports all children in our district, not just a few. When people understand the full story, including the financials, they are more likely to support it for the
benefit of our children and our students. As it is now, our district is inequit inequitable with how it accommodates students classrooms. This is shameful. Equity be means ensuring every student in every school has access to a safe and supportive learning environment and that begins with
something as basic as air conditioning. Thank you. [Applause] Thank you, Mrs. Magio. Um, I hope this past conversation that we just had um assures you that we are also equally um committed to the communications.
Can you just state your name and town, please? Sure. Hi, good evening. Namaste to all. My name is Swapnal Naik and I live in Morganville and I am a proud resident of Malbor Township. Today I representing
Hindu education foundation which is a program of Hindusan Sevak Sanga. Hindu Swans SA USA is a 501c3 voluntary nonprofit social educational and cultural
organization. To honor the teaching community for their exemplary service in educating the students, the first week in May is considered teacher appreciation week in the United States. To celebrate the special occasion, we organize an annual event called Guru
Wandana. Guru in Sanskrit means teacher, spiritual master and mentor and wandra means salutations. Guru wandra means reverence to the teacher. It is an expression of love, gratitude and reverence towards the teacher. Teachers
play a critical role in educating and shaping our children into the future leaders of our country. This kind, patient, hard-working, dedicated and understanding professionals help mold our children and guide them in positive
directions. We entrust our childrens with the teachers during the school year and they play a pivotal role in their lives daily. A well-known addage from my culture says achara devo which means teachers are next to god. Teachers are
revered in our traditions. They occupy the highest position and role in society. Hindu education foundation is working towards building the collaboration with teachers and students to enhance the understanding of Hindu culture. Along with guruana event, we
have conducted a yoga in Edison school district which was attended by 700 students. Hindu cultural workshop for 80 teachers in Wang Bor School District and Daruna Hindu poster exhibition which was attended by more than 600 students. HSS
has more than 250 weekly chapters in USA nationwide. On behalf of the Hindu Education Foundation HSS, I humbly bow and thank all the wonderful teachers around. You are our superheroes. Thank you and namaste.
[Applause] Thank you so much for sharing that. Um, anyone else right after the speaker? Thank you. He's going to yield to you. Thank you, Mr. Kadakia.
Hi there. Hi, I'm Juliana Tam and I live in Marro. Juliana was going to wait for the second public comments because we saw something later in the agenda, but it's getting to be past her bedtime. So, she's gonna just kind of say what she wanted to say now so that she can go to
sleep. I just wanted to say that um Mrs. Pagante um everybody in Dugan is going to miss you. [Applause] A Juliana, thank you so much for sharing
that and for just reminding us about how special the people are who work in our schools. Yeah, I want to see who would like to get up after that act. Thank you, Juliana. Um, good even good evening everyone. My name is Nio Kadaka, Morganville, New
Jersey. Um I wanted to speak about the AC unit but before I do I do want to acknowledge the amazing data uh for student performances that we had today. Um and you know we should all be proud of the results. Many thanks for our teachers and staff. I do have one
question or or comment on that. Right in the presentation we did speak about um coaches and how invaluable they were. I know we had to make some cuts this year um you know move folks around. Um, so I'm hoping next year as we prepare the budget, we're able to um, you know, prioritize these positions because it
does look like it's really critical in our uh, students uh, success. Okay. Um, on to the AC's. I know um, I know that everyone here wants our schools to have air conditioning. I mean, that's just obvious, right? We don't want our kids to to suffer. I have two daughters at
Robertsville. My older daughter is about to graduate um in a couple months and my younger one is going to be aged out or she's going to graduate by the time this project even gets started. So, I'm not here to advocate for them. I wish I could, but I'm not. I'm here to advocate for all the other students that we have
in both Robertsville and Asher. It is 2025. The fact that we are sitting here or standing here talking about air conditioning in our schools is absolutely pathetic, right? The fact that we have to do a referendum now. we this this is something that we should have been doing years ago and
unfortunately referendums had failed the conversations that we had today. It was very disheartening because I felt like for for about a $40,000 spend.7% of the referendum we're nitpicking we spent about a good 45
minutes on a $40,000 line item. I understand it's important every penny counts but we spent 45 minutes on one line item. My concern is as a board, if we can't if you can't agree on these things and and
come together, how can you go to the community and make sure that they do what's right in passing this referendum? I um the second thing on that and another concern is there's just so much misinformation on social media and I am
hoping that you know Mr. Cavell you had presented this wonderful information. I apologize if I mispronounce your last name. Um, wonderful information. So, I'm hoping that that's something that's consumable for the public in a in a more consumable way, not just on the website, but maybe um Facebook or or some kind of
social media and stuff like that, just so folks know what we have. Um, I do have one question. Is it a guarantee that we will get 30 to 40% from the state or is that still a variable right now depending on whatever factors? Um,
and the second question I have is if we take from the reserves, how will we quote unquote refill those reserves? Is that a um increase in taxes or we just have to, you know, hopefully we don't spend other money and we have extra um money that we can put into reserves. Thank you. Thank you.
So, it's set at 40%. Um but our bond count council stood up here and said that all of them that he has processed you never achieved the max 40% that it's more like 30%. So really it's a range you will receive aid anywhere between 30% and
40%. For your reserves what I was talking about last um previously about how we designate a resolution to add to our reserve accounts based off of our end ofear balances. That's how we replenish our reserves. So, whatever our end of the year surplus is, whatever our
unspent balance is, we designate a portion of that to our reserves and then the rest of that goes into our restricted fund balance or our surplus that we use to build the base for our budget. Um, again, you have balances because you do continue to build your
base and raise your taxes. So, I can't say that the balances aren't from taxes. They they might as well wipe might be, but sometimes things in the year you have breakage over. So you achieve a higher surplus one year than you do another year because you have breakage
over things whether it be retirements, whether it be um unfinished projects or yeah gas goes down, utilities go down, anything can can fluctuate what your balances are yeartoear. So that's why we continually monitor our
surpluses each month. And that's noted on the board secretar's report. That's why we submitted to the board to basically show what our balances are and do we have a healthy net position for the district. Also, Vinnie, can you please give just the cliff's notes of
how long we've been working on HVAC in the elementary schools and the middle schools because this isn't a project that just started recently. I feel like since I've been here, I've been here for 5 years and two months. So, we started with we started with Dugan and Defino. Not like 2020 is acceptable for no air conditioning. I just want you to know
this is a long Yeah. our ele none of our elementary schools had air conditioning in the classrooms. So we started with Dugan and Defino. We were created with our um ESER funds because we could utilize that towards ventilation. So we were able to finish two schools during
then and then we just did Marel Marbell Elementary that's just closing up now and should be starting up by June uh through the source of a Rod grant which was also basically I believe 30% they funded the project for. Thank you. Anyone else have any other
questions? Or please come up up. Hi, Angela Colby from Marorrow. I had a couple of questions related to the agenda and some that were not on the agenda today. I know that it was mentioned um by Mrs. Mendes a couple of meetings ago and I just wanted to find
out what the results were from the letter regarding DEI that was supposed to be signed by the district and the pull of the funding wanted to know what the status with that um what that was. I also wanted since we're going into
discussions with the YMCA and afterchool care wondering if we could ask them to see if we could bus the students that attend ESY to the summer camp that they offer. I know some parents have um
issues finding summer camps and this would be a good opportunity um for the YMCA and for the students that um attend ASY. A recommendation and I would like to find out a little bit more information you have on the agenda
regarding OPER requests. I was just wondering about how much um money we have received as a district for OPER requests and if there was a way um to increase the revenue in the district to
increase the amount that is charged for an OPER request if if it is not related to your student or to your child or a student record. So, if it's something that's miscellaneous, Oprah request, um, or something like that, can we charge
that person an additional fund to help put that money back into the, um, back into the district. And also I've seen on social media that there have been several school bus
school bus incidences um related to safety concerns, bus drivers running stop signs, speeding through red lights. Um, and I was just wondering with the amount of um, buses
that are contracted if we were going to continue and do an evaluation of that current company um, and see if there's something else that we can work with Colts neck or um, other school districts to make sure that our students are safe while they are transported to and from
school. Thank you. Do you want to respond to some of those Mr. Caribel? So the letter for DEI. I'm not My question on that one was on the executive order and how it impacts school funding and I know you said we
would discuss that. Okay. So that was my question later that I would bring up in old business. I haven't received any information from like my associ associations that I'm a part of um as of I've I'm under the assumption that like federal funding and
stuff will be I'll deal with that. Okay. Yeah. So that might be more of a legal conversation depending on what knowledge he has but I don't have anything regarding that. Oh yeah, I was going to ask that in exe. We're waiting for val to return for an exec.
So we can we can have that today if Yes. Thank you. Um Oprah requests. So I am allowed most OPER requests come through electronically. Most of them are requested to produce those those documents electronically. So we don't
charge. The only event that we do charge is if the amount is I mean if the request is over broad or it contains a lot of documents, a lot of emails and will take a lot of the district time and effort to put together. You're allowed to put together a special service charge
and submit that to the requester. And you're not allowed to go forth with the request until the requester agrees to pay that amount in full and has to pay it up front. I believe um I haven't I've submitted special service charges to requesters. I've never received any of
those paid. So those requests have technically just ceased. Um so I have not made any revenue from Oprah. It's really just it's through email. Um, the only money that the district is really, they're really not making any money because the amount of time and effort it
takes for me to pull each OPA request and go through things and redact things and and follow up. That's where the district is losing money. The money you can't see is my time taken away from other things. Um, I know you had emailed me about a
bus incident and um, sorry for not getting back to you in a in a timely manner. I don't know if transportation had reached out to you. Um, but I will definitely follow up with you and I agree with you. When it comes to contractors, we want to vet to make sure that we have the correct contractors in
place that meet the needs of our district. We don't want any contractor that's not really going to fit our mold or our the way we do things. So, thank you for bringing that to my attention and that's something I'm working with transportation for next year. But we will need them for next year because unfortunately I think we have just too
many open packages and too many open vacancies for drivers that just it's very hard to fill. And we've tried a lot of things, a lot of different things. Um, as far as sending a survey out, it may just be where if we know we don't
like a a contractor, we're just not if they win the quote, we're going to requ it out and just not have them anymore. I can definitely ask YMCA. I know they're doing the summer camp at I think it's don't I know it's between Defino
and Marl. I believe it's Defino. It may be Marl D. So I'm not specifically 100% sure. Um but we can ask them if they have a busing service that parents would be interested in utilizing if you want to go to I guess is there a camp at the main campus on Robertsville Road? Is
that what you were referencing, Mrs. Visant? Okay. So, the summer camp is at one of our schools. Okay. So, I can ask them. So, I can ask them if they if there's a busing option for them to bring the kids to the central location where they're going to
have it. You're welcome. Be helpful. Also, I think just to also know what the demand is so that if you are talking to them, is it one child, 10 children? How many children are we talking about? So, they have a sense of what the demand would be. Okay, thank you. Um, any more speakers?
Uh, Scott Somayro. So, I'm here just like a lot of other people talking about the referendum. And Mr. Caravello, if I say anything incorrectly, please correct me when I'm done. Um, I'm a forensic accountant. I've led numerous forensic
investigations on behalf of municipalities and school districts just like Malro. I have given presentations in front of boards of education just like this. So I'm uniquely qualified, I think, to kind of put together an executive summary of what I think and
dumb things down for lack of a better term for people to better understand. So essentially the district has two pockets of money from which to pay for everyday expenses and special projects like the HVAC upgrades to Asher and Robertsville. Pocket A is the operating fund which is
used for everyday expenses such as paying salaries and benefits for the teachers, administrators, and staff among other everyday district expenses. Pocket B is the capital reserve fund which Mr. Caravella talked about. The $5 million project cost is being paid for
from pocket B, the capital reserve fund, including the bond council fees, the architectural and engineering fees, and the 40,000 PR firm hired to assist with marketing the referendum. I understand people have concerns such as why are we spending $40,000 on a PR firm when we
eliminated five positions in the district for next year? The $40,000 coming out of pocket B, the capital reserve fund, has absolutely nothing to do with the operating fund budget deficit that resulted in eliminating those five positions. There are restrictions as to what the capital
reserve funds can be used for. And unfortunately, that money cannot be transferred to the operating fund and be used for teacher salaries in any way. So this is an irrelevant argument against the referendum. And remember, yes, the district eliminated the positions but didn't lay off anybody. Every single
person without who did not retire was reassigned within the district which happens in organizations around the world every day. The referendum is a lever the district can use to get about 30% of the project funded from from the state. Most importantly, it's critical for the public to understand that no
matter what you may see or hear, as of today, the referendum has a zero tech impact impact on the community. Plain and simple, our taxes will not be increased as a direct result of the passage of this referendum. So from where I sit, there's no reason not to pass it. In closing, my children will
not be impacted by this project. My kids go to Dugan and Abbott, so they're lucky to have Central AC. However, I believe that all kids in our district should be afforded the same basic resources which allow for the best learning environments. Simply put, equality for all in this instance is not only a positive, it is imperative. So pass the
referendum. I think it's a no-brainer. Thanks. Thank you, Mr. Samaya. Did you want to correct him? Um, so when we talk about that was a great analogy with pocket A and pocket B. So, but when we talk about the associated costs that we have to put up
front, they're coming from pocket A right now. So, they are coming from the operating budget to get this started. We can filter that back through the referendum where if it is approved, we can supplant those costs out of pocket B. But without an approved referendum, I
can't touch the reserve account for stuff like the communications or the the professional fees, everything that was on that board. So in translation, it can be coming from pocket B as long as we approve the referendum. But right now, to get it started and to get the foundation going, we have to use what's
in our operating budget. So we're advancing it out of the operating budget until, in fact, the referendum is passed. And if the referendum is passed, then you will reimburse the operating budget with funds that come out from the referendum. Correct. because we will associate those costs what we imple what what we put in for with the project. Um
but that's why I keep saying that if it doesn't pass you eat all of those costs and when you eat all those costs it's in an operating budget. You get one minute that's just the includes the bond council fees too, right? Includes all of those fees. Yes. Okay. Which was passed unanimously.
Wasn't you I don't remember but I I think the other costs were passed by the full board. Yeah. Gotcha. Anyone else? Mr. Pollock. Yes. Bond council was passed 90. 90. Thank you.
Adam Pollock, uh, Marbor, New Jersey. Um, number one, wanted to call out that it's teacher appreciation week. So, wanted to send out a shout out to all the teachers and all the administrators. Everyone is supporting the teachers. story. We love our teachers here in
Marboro. Um, I also wanted to give recognition to Mr. Bologn and the administration on that student achievement presentation. I thought that was uh very strong. I thought the numbers going up all that the anecdotal stuff about
Marboro from the high school and and all of that and the acceptance rate and vocational and to the magnet school is super impressive and we should all be super proud of that on teacher appreciation week also. So thank you.
Um also wanted to say thank you to everybody for taking the feedback from the community on the YMCA and the afterare program. I know that was a hot button item for many of us uh in the community and I'm just glad that there's action being done there to uh make it
better for everybody and definitely that delayed opening thing resonates. So, thank you for that. Um on the referendum, I just want to say I couldn't agree more with every other parent that got up here and is supportive of the referendum. I think
it's an equity uh situation that everybody in our town should be on an even playing field and every student here should have um air conditioning uh in the school. So I think it's pretty clear that the community is very
supportive of that and um uh we um appreciate that the board is moving forward with the referendum. Um, the thing that Vinnie said about all of the different ancillary costs at be it Laura Bishop or being the the
architect or being the special counsel or the special election, if you add all that up, it would seem like it was $275,000. And to Vinnie's point, on a $103 million budget, a $5 million referendum sometimes, uh, it's just the cost of doing business to get some of
these things done and make it be successful. So, I just really think that, um, the I think one of the big miscommunications that happened this week was that all of those ancillary costs were included in the 5.3. Right? It's not an addition. It's in the number
that we're being quoted. I'm surprised that no one has brought up yet that just by waiting we've increased our costs, right? Like even since the last time that we've talked about this, it went from 3 million to 5 million because of
things that are happening. It's only going to go up more if we as a community don't do something about it. So, um it's in everyone's best interest to move forward. And as a parent who does not have any children in those schools and
my children are in Dugan, I think the more we come together as allies across the community and this is not a situation where just because my kids are in a school that has air conditioning, I'm as supportive of this as anybody uh to get it passed. So I think that we
should make that clear to the community that we all the parents regardless of school are super supportive of uh passing the referendum. So thank you. Thank you miss very much Mr. Pollock. Anyone else? Dan Bono, Marbor, New
Jersey. Thank you to the board, Mr. Balone. Well done on the results. I missed half of them, but thank you very much for all the hard work. Board, thank you guys for um all of the questions on Vinnie's presentation. Vinnie, thank you
very much for the presentation and putting out facts. Facts are a very important thing and I'll get back to that. I want to thank Miss Seawward for tying a bow at the very end of that. It's important to get air
conditioning for these kids. No matter what school your kids go to, whether they go to school or not. But when it comes to facts, I missed the last meeting. You guys voted, you passed the PR firm, for lack of a better term.
Uh, it was approved and people on this board took to social media with falsehoods. Marorrow didn't have negative five teachers for next year.
They were reallocated based on needs, based on schools, based on retirements. So to put a tit for tat in your posts, that's not what it is. That's fear-mongering and that's
gaslighting. And to do it on a website of your election for a position, not on this board. It's all dishonest and disingenuous, and I don't
appreciate it as a community member. Thank you, Mr. Caravello, for clarifying for the public. Yes, this is going to cost money. We trust in the board to do what's absolutely necessary for the best of our children. It is so frustrating to sit here for hours to listen to members
bicker back and forth as they push their personal agendas. My wife has been coming for years and unfortunately is not well enough to be here tonight. You promised her a taxpayer, a staff member, air conditioning for the two remaining schools. Dugan was built decades after
Robertsville, so why was it prioritized for an HVAC system first? It is your job to put the students of Marorrow first. I'm proud to say in this town, all students are equal, all schools are equal, and the administrators are trying to pass a budget that puts our children
first. This referendum is not a secret administrative agenda. It is here to help our schools. So, I ask, please put your personal agendas aside. Work together. Work like you're running for a reelection of the board of ed and knock on doors. Stop the haters from spreading
false information. Stop the spread in our adult communities. Help the cause. Don't hurt it. Thank you. [Applause] Thank you, Mr. Bono. Anyone else [Laughter]
for Anyone else for public comments? Motion to close public comments. All in favor? Anyone against? Public comments is closed. Thank you very much. Um, we will continue with our agenda. Let me
just uh bring us up to communications. Mr. Caribella, I think you said you had an announcement. Yes. So, I have communications that was sent to me. Um, well, actually was written to Michael. Um, and I'd like to read it for him um because it is about him. Um, dear
Michael, on behalf of the Center to Combat Anti-Semitism and Reinforce Multicultural Acceptance and Jewish Federation in the Heart of New Jersey, thank you for your dedication, support, and hard work in bringing the Hate Ends Now Cattle Car Exhibit to fruition. It
has been an absolute pleasure to work with someone as thoughtful, caring, and committed to building a community free from hatred and intolerance. Thank you for all you do for our kids. They are lucky to have you and we are very sorry and we are fortunate to have such a strong leader who fights for what is
right. Appreciatively Stacy [Applause] Gallon. Thank you, Mr. Caravilla. That brings us back to remembering exactly what we do and why we do it and the impact it has. So, Mr. Bologn, thank you
for that re, you know, recognition welldeserved and a message that we can never stop communicating. So, thank you for that. All right. Um, Mr. alone HIV and I'll follow that with uh the HIV
report from April 25th through May 1st has zero incidents. Thank you. Um I will um remind everyone of our meeting dates. We will meet again on May 20th. That will be a regular meeting. And then we'll meet again on Tuesday, June 17th, which will also be a
regular meeting. Okay, we're going to move on to organization matters. Um, Miss Mendes, would you mind reading the organization matters? Sure. The superintendent of schools 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 2025 2026 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. Can I have a second? Miss Miss Gandhi, any discussions on any of these items? Mr. Caravell, will you do a roll call, please? Mr. Hyatt,
yes. Mr. Lansonski, yes. Mrs. Seawart, yes. Mrs. Balo, yes. Mrs. Carrero, yes. Mrs. Gondi. Yes. Mrs. Menddees. Yes. And Mr. Cohen. Yes. Okay. Moving on to our
next item on the agenda. It's financial and business operation matters. Mr. Bulanski, would you mind? Of course. Thank you. Financial business operations matters. The superintendent of schools submit the following resolutions for approval. One, final
2025 2026 school year budget adoption. Two, adjustment for health care costs. Three, use of bank cap. Four, maintenance reserve withdrawal. Five, travel and related expense reimbursement. Six, authorized
signatures. Seven, uniform minimum chart of accounts. Eight, after school sports enrichment programs. Nine, renewal of contract educational data services for purchasing procedures for the 2526 school year. 10 contract renewal year
three food service management company FSMC contract 11 harassment and house intemptation bullying hip report 12 approval agreement -ate consulting inc 13 approval addendum to extend
professional service agreement between MT MTBOE and ESS northeast LLC 14th approval of agreement landscaping services 15 amended resolution our District placement for the 2425 school
year. 16 travel. Thank you. Can I have a second? Miss Seawart. Thank you. Any discussions on this item or any of these items? I I just want to make one comment, Mr. Caravello and Mr. Bologn. um thank you
for um presenting a budget that was manageable for our district and um had very minimal impacts overall considering the fact that from all of the press and discussions across the state, this has not been a good budget year for some of the districts and and uh while I feel
their pain and we hope that they are able to manage through this um we're thankful I'm thankful um in my seat to sort of say that you've made this much much more of an easier discuss And a lot of that also has to, you know, go toward um decisions that previous boards have
been um proactive with on as well. So, thank you for making this an easier vote for us this year. With that, I will turn it over to Mr. Caravilla for roll call. Mrs. Mendes. Yes.
Mrs. Palmo. No to one. No to 10. Yes to everything else. Mrs. Carrerero. Yes. Mrs. Gandhi. Yes. Mr. Hyatt. Yes. To all.
Mrs. Seawart. Yes. Mr. Alonski. Yes. And Mr. Cohen. Yes. Moving on to curriculum matters. Mr. Hi, would you read this? Sure.
Curriculum matters. Number one, curriculum guides. Sorry, I'm sorry. The superintendent of school submits the following resolutions for approval. One, curriculum guides. I so move. Can I have a second, please? Miss Mendes, can I have any
discussions on this? Nope. Thank you. Mr. Carville. Mrs. Seart? Yes. Mrs. Palomo? Yes. Mrs. Carrerero? Yes.
Mrs. Gandhi? Yes. Mr. Alonsky? Yes. Mrs. Menddees? Yes. Mr. Hyatt? Yes. And Mr. Cohen? Yes. Moving on to the next item, personnel matters. Miss Mendes, would
you read that? The superintendent of school submits the following resolutions for approval. One, retirement. Two, resignations. Three, full-time teaching staff. Page 32.
Four part-time teaching staff. Five, school psychologist 2526 school year. Six, certificated administrators, 2526 school year. Seven, operational administrators. Eight, stipened assistant supervisor of buildings and
grounds 2526 school year. Nine non-aligned certificated administrators. 10 non-aligned non-certificated administrators. 11 non-aligned support staff 2526 school year. 12. Secretarial
Personnel 2526 school year. 13. Bookkeeper and clerk 2526 school year. 14. Special education instructional assistance 2526 school year. 15. Kindergarten basic skills instructional assistance 2526 school
year 16. School monitors 2526 school year. 17. School aids 2526 school year. 18. Buildings and ground staff mechanic groundskeepers and maintenance mechanics 2526 school year. 19. Head custodians
and night custodial supervisor 2526 school year. 20. Stipened head custodians and night custodial supervisor 2526 school year. 21. Courier 2526 school year. 22. Bus
drivers hours and salaries 2526 school year. 23. Bus attendance hours and salaries 2526 school year. 24. Computer technicians 1. 2526 school year.
Computer technician 2. 2526 school year. 26, District Network technician, 2526 school year. 27, Registered Nurse, 2526 school year. 29, uh, 28, permanent floater, school nurse, 2526 school year.
29, unpaid leaves of absence. I so move. Thank you. Have a second, please. Mr. Lansonsky, any discussions? Mr. Gross, you have something you want to add? Just want to make sure since we have several pages
and a lot of different items on here, board members certainly have their right to vote yes, no, orain on any one of these items. Just to make job a lot easier if you're going to be voting no, or abstaining on any of these items. If you
could just please designate the page number it's on, the item number that it is, and what number it is in the column. For example, item one, uh, page 19, item one, the second name, etc. Just so it'll
make it easier for him to be able to tell correctly. No, I just said it just say page 19, paragraph one, paragraph number one, second name down, third name down, or you can vote no on everything if you want. If you want to vote yes or no on
any individual item, which you have every right to do, in order to make it easier, you have to be able to designate for Mr. Caribella to know what you're voting no on and what you're abstaining on. Okay. Thank you. Any other discussions on this item, Mr. Caravell? So, for
before we take a vote for number 15, kindergarten basic skills instructional assistance 2025 2026 school year. So, um, Doris Gross, the salary needs to be amended. So, it is not
$18,308. So, there needs to be a correction. It's going to be $18,280.38. Okay. Roll call vote. Mrs. Seart, yes to all. Abstain number nine. Mrs. Palomo, yes to all. No to number nine.
Mrs. Carrerero, yes to all. Mrs. Gandhi, yes to all. Mr. Hyatt, yes to all. Mr. Alonski. Yes to all.
Mrs. Mendes. Um, yes to all except page 35 number nine. That's a no for me. Okay. Mr. Cohen. Yes to all. So everything passes.
Okay, moving on. That brings us up to um all business. Any old business, Miss Mendes? Yep. I just wanted to formally raise my question and thank you for waiting until I got back
on the um potential of school funding being impacted by the executive order potentially. And so I just wanted to raise that. Right. And as we previously agreed, we would do that in exec. Yes. Thank you. Because that's attorney client privilege
and he's giving us advice. Thank you. Thank you. Any other old business? I'm sorry. I just wanted to take a minute. I don't I don't think it's really old business, but I just wanted to say thank you to all the parents that have young ones at home that came and
spoke on behalf of this referendum supporting it. Um, I appreciate it because some of you don't even have kids that go to these two schools that need air conditioning. So, it means a lot. Um, thank you for supporting the the board in the communications firm that
we're basically that we agreed to hire. So, I just want to thank our community and I wanted to thank the parents. Thank you. Any other old business? Mr. going just one one thing in here we talked about and I know at one point we
talked about the strategy for increasing like what we were going to pay bus drivers and and all of that. I just was curious have we had any success with that and you don't have to tell me today just where it stood did that strategy
prove successful just curious. So, we brought that back and we would actually have to create a sidebar, open up the the union contract to negotiate that because um it was stipulated that we would have to pay a bonus to
everyone. You see, so we just wouldn't be able to afford that. You're talking about the sign on bonus and Yeah. Yeah. So, we had to pump the brakes on that um because that's that's a larger scale item which requires negotiations with the the CBU. Okay. Understood. Thank
you. Any other old business? Okay, before we move on to new business, Mr. Bologn, I believe you have some retirement comments. I do. And as we did at the last meeting, we'll start with um any staff members
who are in the audience. So, we'll start with retirement comments for Rosemary Morgante. I certainly can't uh follow the public comments that were made, but I'll read what I have prepared here. Since September 2009, the chimes of her
xylophones famous cords have echoed through the Dugan hallways each morning, marking the start of a new school day. After years of faithful service, Rosemary Morgante has announced her intention to retire. Throughout her time at Dugan, Rose served as the steadfast
heart of the main office, working alongside three principles, four vice principles, and two secretarial partners. She took great pride in supporting the staff and students, remaining a pillar of consistency in an office that experienced many changes over the years. Some of her fondest
memories include participating alongside her close friends, the teachers and staff in talent show acts that brought joy and laughter to the community. She lovingly refers to Jugan as her quote unquote home away from home and
shared how deeply she will miss it. Ro looks forward to traveling and cherishing time with her growing family, her husband Rich, their sons, and their wives, fully embracing the next chapter with excitement. In her own words, deciding to retire was an extremely difficult
decision. But I will keep close to my heart all of the special friendships I have made. As they say, once a dragon, always a dugan dragon. Cheers to a well-earned retirement [Applause]
row. Congratulations, Mrs. Morgante. And thank you for touching so many lives. And you know, we had firsthand evidence of that. So, congratulations to you and best wishes for your next journey. Okay, the next comment are uh comments for Deborah Lamoot. Mrs. Deborah Lamoot
began working for the Marbor Township Public Schools in 1994. At the conclusion of the 2425 school year, she will have completed 31 years of service, having taught solely at Marbor Elementary School. Mrs. Lemu taught second grade for 10 years and has spent
the last 21 as the school librarian. A couple of her favorite memories in the classroom were when she ran an Amelia Bedilia Hat fashion show and when she ran a Mother's Day book club in which moms and their children read Ramona and
her mother by Beverly Clear Clearary at home and then moms came in to discuss the book with the class and enjoy treats. Mrs. Lamoot has left her mark on the district and her students by always trying new and innovative ideas in the library. She has always led schoolwide
events that impact both teaching and learning as well as school culture and climate. Mrs. Lamoot has oftent times been referred to as the school's cruise director, organizing contests, s staff lunchons, and schoolwide events. In her
retirement, she plans to spend more time playing pickle ball and being able to take small getaways. In addition, she plans to continue working a few hours a week at a family-owned restaurant. We wish her well in her retirement and thank her for her years of service to
the [Applause] district. And finally, retirement comments for Deborah Longo. Mrs. Deborah Longo began working for the Marbor Township Public School District as a substitute teacher in
1998, subbing at Marbor Elementary School. She said she liked to sub exclusively there because it was one of the most welcoming places she had ever worked. During the 20201 school year, she took on a long-term position and
then the following year was hired full-time. In her time here, she has taught in grades five, four, and two. In addition to her work in the classroom, Mrs. Longo was a leader amongst her peers by serving as a building delegate to the MTEA for many years. When asked
about her most fond memories during her career, she noted how much she enjoys it when her former students purposefully come past her classroom as they enter the building, greeting her and wishing her a great day. Being a resident of town, Mrs. Longo is fortunate enough to
see her students as they grow beyond the walls of their elementary school. She enjoys running into her former students in the Marbor community and learning how much of an influence she has had on their lives. It really warms her heart when she gets to see the fruits of her labor. In her
retirement, she plans to travel with her husband and looks forward to spending time with her family. We wish her well in her retirement and thank her for her years of service to the district. [Applause]
Thank you very much. And to um to our retirees, we wish you also the same. um best success in your next endeavors and enjoy your retirement and thank you for your tremendous service. Yes. Oh, see we started a trend here. Started
a trend added up. 31, right? That's 58. We're up to 58 and then then 21. 58. 79. 79 79 years.
Yep. A lot of a lot of institutional knowledge is going on to brighter days and sunnier days. All right. Um we are up to new business. Any new business? I have a little bit of new business. Yes. Um I
thank Mr. Pollock for bringing up teacher appreciation week, but I would be doing a disservice to my mom, who is a school nurse, for not bringing up nurse appreciation week. So, I just wanted to commend the 11 nurses that we have on our agenda, but specifically
um our school nurse at Dugan, Carrie Marcus. My son is the king of boooos, and she really takes such good care of each of the children. She communicates clearly with the parents. And I'm just so grateful that there's someone in the building that he trusts and he can go to
when he needs to take a walk or he's just not feeling well, whatever the case may be. But um thank you to our school nurses as well, especially since they're in the buildings with the teachers. I don't want them to be forgotten. So, thanks nurses. I don't think as a parent um we we all
have some special affection for other nurses in our school for what they've done for our kids. So, thank you for mentioning that. That was super important. Any other new business? I do have some new business um that I'll try to get through quickly. Um I just have to say it tonight. Uh I wanted to speak
about something um that many refer to as shared sacrifice. Um, when we talk about our budget, which I do believe was very well prepared by Mr. Caravello, um, we talk about where cuts are made. Although
five positions were not cut, instructional positions were removed, the burden falling on the remaining coaches to absorb those responsibilities. We heard from one of those coaches at a meeting as well as some other um teachers and coaches that
have spoken to board members about the responsibilities that will be absorbed by the loss of those positions. While I understand Mr. Calerell's job is to make money work, um I don't believe that it should be at the lack of at the cutting of
instructional positions. With that being said, we're faced tonight with a decision um a decision that district administrators are taking full um liberty with their raises, some even doubling and going retroactive to
receive a raise. Um, I believe that this is extremely topheavy and when we talk about shared sacrifice, we talk about the sacrifice of the taxpayer, the sacrifice of instructional positions, and we should also be talking about this sacrifice from the top down. I believe
it's important. I know it's going to be unpopular with the four or five people that come to the board meetings, but I know from interfacing with our community, it is not an unpopular opinion. Um, and I really had hoped that we would find other ways to cut
spending, especially when we have found money for raises and PR firms and um, exponential spending um, to keep instructional positions because like we've seen in the past, once those coaches are cut and that facetime is lost, those positions rarely if ever
come back. So, I just wanted to bring that to light and I feel like it is my responsibility to the constituents to make these points. It's not anything to do with what said at public comment. Um, two positions were removed. That is a
fact. Those are FaceTime positions with our students. That is a fact. Their work will be absorbed by other teachers and coaches. That is a fact. Um, and that's just what it is on paper. So, I wanted to clarify that. Thank you. Thank you. Any other discussions or any
comments? Um so in terms of um the vote about well you just brought a constituent uh with retroactive um I'm not going to say anything but I cannot imagine how
demoralizing that was to be denied. Um so to write that wrong absolutely um doing more to get less that sends the wrong message. This is about retention retention being a vital asset. Um
earlier this year we raised the rates for subs uh because they were competitive. We want to keep the best in our district and I mean happy admin, happy teachers, happy kids, they achieve um so yeah to stay competitive um and
needs change in a district and I reallocation is always a part of any job. Um and that's exactly what happened um with this last year uh also. So that's all. But I look
forward to uh continued collaboration um and keeping uh people on board. I just want to um clarify then since I can only say very limited on on my vote in that section, but um as someone who was on
the board last year, um I had reasons for my no vote um which out of respect to Mr. Balone. I did share in advance my thoughts and thank you for we had a nice conversation. Mr. Cohen was there um as well and we had a healthy conversation
and so I just want to say thank you for that. But there were reasons behind my no vote and so I was on the board last year and and I stand behind how I felt last year and and my vote this year. No disrespect or lack of appreciation for
anybody in this district, but as a pre as a board member here last year, there were reasons why um I voted no to that one. But again, appreciate all the work that everybody does. Thank you. Any other discussions, comments? Okay. Uh new business is
closed. Let's move on to public comments. Anyone wanting to speak for a second round of public comments? Mr. Carroll, do you have a list? All right. There's no list. So, please come up. Good evening everyone. Um, on behalf of Mrs. Balomo and the Dugan PTO, we just
wanted to take a moment during public comments to say a few words about someone who means so much to so many of us, our amazing school secretary, Mrs. Morgate. She recently announced her retirement. And while we are all so happy for her, it's impossible to not
feel a little heartbroken, too. She's been more than just the person behind the desk. She's truly been the heart of the front office, a second mom to all the kids, helping them when they forget something at home or need answers to their questions. To our kids, she is someone they trust and will miss seeing
every school day. Speaking for Mrs. Balomo and the PTO, we can say she's been absolutely incredible. Whether it was tracking us down to answer emails, helping with field trip forms, calling to check in on the kids when we forget to call them out sick, she was always there looking out
for us, no matter how busy she was or how crazy the day had become. She made sure we had everything we needed to run events smoothly. We don't know what we will do without her. We'll miss our office chats, her stories about her family, and just the comfort of knowing she was there. She brought so much
warmth, kindness, and humor to the front office. It really won't be the same without her. Even though we'll miss her dearly, we are so happy she gets to spend time doing all the things she loves. She has more than earned it. Thank you so much for everything. You'll always be a part of the Dugan PTO family
and we will miss you so much. And again, as we said, once a dragon, always a dragon. [Applause] Thank you for sharing that. And again, it just is a continued demonstration of
how every position in our schools are extremely important and valuable. Any other public comments? Thank you. Motion to close public comments. Miss Mendes, seconded, Mr. Hyatt. All in
favor? Thank you. We're going to go into executive session next. Can I have a motion to go into executive session for matters of attorney client privilege? Miss Mendes. Second, Miss Seawward. All in favor? Anyone opposed? Thank you. We will not be returning into a public
session tonight. Thank you everyone for being here.