Uh public comments will be held um at two points during the evening. Um and that since we are on school grounds, please no smoking or vaping pursuant to our policy both either here in the building or outside. Uh we're going to rise now for the pledge of allegiance. And I understand we have some students
from Dugan who are going to lead us in our pledge today. Right. Roll. Oh, sorry. Give me a second. I've been instructed we have to call roll call. Hold on. But thank you for being so quick. Roll call. Mr. Carabella, Mrs. Balomo,
here. Mrs. Carrero here. Mrs. Gandhi, Mr. Hyatt here, Mr. Alonsky here, Mrs. Mendes, Dr. Msquitz, here. Sorry. Mrs. Seawart here. And Mr. Cohen here. Okay. I got so
excited about getting our meeting started. Let's start with the pledge of allegiance. And who is going to lead us tonight? A thank you so much. We're all yours. I pledge aliance 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. Would you mind telling us who you are? Um, I'm Fiona Pollock.
I'm Abigail Pollock. I'm Juliana Balo. I'm Gabriella Balomo. Thank you so much for leading us tonight in our pledge of allegiance. So, we're going to get started. I would like to just take a moment of silence and I'm going to read something um as we
get started. Uh this is um in recognition of a uh loss that the the district or the the community suffered recently. Uh the Marorrow Township Public Schools will be observing a moment of silence tonight due to an unexpected and sudden passing of Maria
Marokco, former Marorrow Township Public School uh student and daughter of Jill Strachi, former board of education member. Maria attended Dugan Elementary School where she was awarded the citizenship award. She then attended Barboro Middle School where where she was awarded the English honors medal
upon graduation. She then went on to attend communications high school in Wall where she was selected to be a member of the National Honors Society. Maria was a passionate and talented writer. She studied literature at the College of New Jersey earning her degree at from the honors college. The
community and her family lost Maria far too soon on May 7th, 2025. And although she was young, she always possessed an old soul. With an artist's heart and a philosopher's mind, Maria felt things more deeply than most. Please now join me in a moment of
silence in honor of Maria. Thank you. Okay, let's just get started with our agenda. Mr. Malone, staff respect certificates. Thank you. Good evening, everyone. As we do every month, uh we
recognize our staff members who go above and beyond. So, uh this evening, we have two staff members that I'd like to recognize, and I'll have a little uh some words for each staff member.
This first one is actually being recognized by a colleague. Thank you uh Mrs. Barbara Byer for um providing this for us on behalf of Britney O'Donnell. I have been watching the board meetings and enjoyed seeing Marorrow staff members being recognized
for their dedication and contribution to the success of our students. I was welcomed by the Defino staff in September which was a comfort experience coming from Memorial. The fifth grade teachers are a team of professionals who work together to create a positive
learning environment for their students. One particular teacher I have the privilege of working with is Britney O'Donnell, a fifth grade special education teacher who works miracles with her class. She confronts each challenge with compassion, kindness, and makes her
students feel proud and confident. Too many times we are dealing with negativity. I would like to bring some positivity to my experience here at Defino. Congratulations, Miss O'Donnell.
[Applause] And our second uh respect certificate is it actually comes from another colleague. Thank you Mrs. Farabono for recognizing um your school
principal Mr. Giratano. [Applause] And here's here's the email I received. I would like to nominate Anthony Girano for a respect cert certificate from the Robertsville school community. Always a professional, kind, courteous, and
respectful. Mr. G has changed the culture and climate of Robertsville for the better. Furthermore, his consideration for the safety of the students and staff is remarkable. Never placing undue stress on the staff. He steps right into the situation and takes control.
Decision decisions are made without hesitation and information is communicated respectfully. I could give a multitude of examples. However, the short version is Anthony Giritano respectfully deserves this recognition.
Congratulations, Mr. G. [Applause] Thank you, Mr. Malone, for the staff respect certificates. Let's move on to our next item which is student recognition and respect certificates.
Yes. Uh so this month we have students from Frank J. Dugan Elementary School. Uh Mr. Pagera, would you like to come up and introduce your program? There he is. There you go. Thank you. Um, good evening, Mr. Balone, Mr. Cohen,
board of education members, fellow district administrators, colleagues, and the Marorrow community members both in attendance and watching live on YouTube. First, I'd like to thank you for the invitation to tonight's meeting. You are in store for a
treat. I am accompanied by Dugan's vice principal, Mr. Justin Lavoy, and a remarkable educator, Dugan's media media literacy specialist, Mr. Jay Cybert. Jay's passion for science, technology, media, and how he ties them
into literacy will be on full display this evening. Mr. Cybert has invited several of our dooen dragons who participated in this year's science fair. They will share about their meaningful experience designing and exploring
experiments or scientific demonstrations for our school school community to learn about. After our students share about their projects, we will play a video that Mr. Cyber prepared with live footage recapping our school event which we are highlighting tonight. So without
further ado, I'd like to invite up Mr. Cybert and our Dug and Dragons. Good evening everyone. Uh my name is Jay Cybert. I am here on behalf of all the amazing students, families, and faculty at Frank J. Dugan Elementary School where I have the pleasure of
serving as the teacher of computer literacy and share my passion for science, technology, and media with students from kindergarten to fifth grade. Tonight, I've been tasked with the responsibility to showcase our annual Dugan Science Fair that was held on May 9th. With the help of our
incredible PTO, the Dugan Science Fair is one of our biggest events. This year we had nearly 200 attendees. We had volunteers from the Girl Scouts of America robotics team and the Teen Action Committee as well as small businesses from Malro and surrounding communities that focus on STEM
education. I brought some students that participated in the science fair along with me to share some about to share some more about the event followed by a short video that captures the spirit of scientific inquiry. We'll start on this end here. Hi. Hi. My name is Abigail Pollock. I am
in second grade. My teacher's name is Mrs. Cler. My favorite part of the science fair is getting to explain my project to everyone. Hi, my name is Fiona Pollock. I'm in fourth grade in Miss Google's home room and Mrs. Watson's science class. My
favorite part of the science fair was sharing my project and seeing other people's projects. Hi, my name is Gabby. I am in second grade. And my favorite part about the science fair is letting kids see my project. Hello, my name is Juliana Bomu and I'm in fourth grade. My favorite
part of the science fair was seeing everyone's creative ideas for projects. I also love seeing all the designs on our boards. I really hope I see some new cool ideas next year. Hi, my name is Science Bera. I'm in the fourth grade and Mrs. Riner's
class. What I loved about the science fair was when Mr. Cyber interviewed me while I was part participating. Hi, my name is Park N. I'm in third grade. My favorite part of the science fair was the planetarium. Also, I'd like
to give a shout out to my family and my teacher, Miss Gobino, for helping me and guiding me. Hi, my name is Matthew and my favorite part of the science fair was me doing the live
stream. Hello, my name is William Blake. I'm in fifth grade. I'm in Mrs. Smith's class. My favorite part of the science fair was the robot soccer. Hi, my name is Ava and I'm in kindergarten. My my teacher is Miss
Hershorn and and my favorite part about the science fair is doing the activities. Hi, my name is Shaina Blake. I'm in fifth grade and I'm in Miss Nvin's home room. What I love most about the science fair was participating in other people's
science fair things. Hi, my name is Hunter Jane Shell. I'm in fifth grade and my home room teacher is Mrs. April. I made a hand for the science fair. My favorite part of the science fair was the Icode booth.
[Applause] And now we have a video recapping our science fair. The science science rules.
[Music] I'm here with Sange. Say, what grade are you in? Fourth grade. Who's your teacher? Miss Riner. Shout out to Miss Reiner. science. What's your science project? My science project today I'm
going to show you a volcanic eruption. Uh is that safe to do in school, dude? I mean, yeah, but caution. We're not No lava is included in this video. Okay, that's good. I feel a little bit safer
now. So, first we're going to do a little bit of vinegar. Just a little bit of vinegar. It's not done yet. Not done yet. And then finally, a little bit of magic.
Watch the magic. And we're here with a and Shaina and William. And together they're the Blake Trio. I think it's a good name for you guys, the Blake Trio. Okay. Um, could you tell us a little bit about your project? Static electricity.
Static electricity. Static electricity. Yep. Okay. Got that three times. Yep. What What is static electricity? Basically how this works, how this ball works is when you touch it, positive and
negative particles will interact with each other and cause something called a static charge. And then when you touch it, it like explodes. Not an not in an exploding way, but like um got it. It explodes, but not in an exploding way.
Let's go to the kindergartener. Could you explain it like a kindergartener, please? What? Why? Because I don't get it. It explodes but not in an exploding way. How can you explain it? It's an explosion. Yeah, I know. But not in an
exploding way. No, like No, like if if it like if it was like like it was actually if it was actually to explode, it wouldn't do that. But like it's like moving around so much that it looks like it's going to explode, but it's not. That completely makes sense. Expanding
explosions. Yeah. Kabooing. If it become if it expands too much it forms lightning. Oh and that would charge that charge would cause lightning. Lightning. And after lightning comes the All right, girls. Tell us about the project. What What are we doing here? So, our project is that we're making
boats out of tin tin foil and we are trying to see how many pennies we could put on the boat before the boat sinks in the water. And the tested one is the square, but you could do other shapes. It all depends on the weight and the size. So, start with the square and then
change the shape or whatever. All right. Show me show me how to do this. We're going to put the square and we're going to take one at a time. Okay. And we're going to try to see how many pennies we can put in before it
takes. So, I just want to see. You're Hunter. Tell us about your project. So, this is um a robotic hand. As you can see, I built three different robotic hands. Two of them are actual hands and one of them is like a glob but they still work as the 10 hands and your
actual hand. Everything is good. Which one was your first prototype? Um so this one was my first prototype. Then uh we tried going for a more basic design and then uh we uh ended it all with this
one. The important question. Can you pick your nose with it? Yes. Have you tried? No, time is up. They just missed. I can't believe it. And Parker, what is your experiment here today? Tornadoes.
You're allowed to like make tornadoes in school. Won't that like do some damage to the school? Yes. Okay. All right. How do we make a tornado?
You take two L bottles and you cow. I got to go. Julia, we got cows. We got Jules and Gabby. And you girls are making slime. So, do you have a slime recipe? Yes. like glue and glue glue and then
activator. Glue and activator. That's the recipe. Can we take consideration that we have a kind customer here that we should talk to? Sorry, we have a paying customer. Let's ask the customer. Hi, what's your name? Giana. Giana, are you a paying
customer? No. No. Good. So, what's the best price for slime? I don't know. All right. What's your name? Matthew. Now I'm Now this is my experiment of how tomatoes, potatoes, and and lemons could
make electricity. Yeah. Now they all have acid, which has ions, which is a type of atom that makes electricity. And they have a chemical reaction. And there's the negative tossed ones and positive tossed ones. And they all and the negative ones goes with the same
metal. And the positive ones goes with the copper and they go travels through the wire and then boom, they go into the light bulb and the clock. And there you have it. That's how you make electricity. What do you think about the science? Is this your first time at the science fair? No, this is
actually my second second time at the science fair. So you like coming to the Jugan Science Fair? Yes, I love it. Cool. Thanks, Matthew. Okay, bye everyone.
[Music] Heat. Heat. [Applause]
[Applause] So, if that video does not make you want to uh join a lesson in Mr. Cybert's media center, I don't know what would. but it shows his creative, innovative, and infectious spirit that he brings to the media center on a daily
basis. I also invite you to subscribe to his YouTube channel, our YouTube channel, FJD Media Center, and you can see a sampling of his great work that he does with students every day. Uh again, I thank you for welcome us here this evening uh to provide you with a glimpse
of the wonderful things that we do each and every day, not only in our school, but in our district. Um, I also want to give a thank you to all of our parents. Thank you for sharing your children with us every single day. That's truly what makes us come to school every single day and hustle to do what's best for all
these guys. So, so thank you parents. Thank [Applause] you. And now we have our respect certificates for our participants. Sange, sorry. He likes to shake it.
Gabriella, you're gonna go in the middle over there. Juliana, Ava, Shaina, William, Matthew, careful push. Congratulations, Matthew Hunter.
Parker, congratulations, Parker. Abigail, congratulations. And Fiona, congratulations. And unable to join us tonight, we have Hassan
Thank you so much for sharing with us uh the Dugan experience. It was great. I love the video. I love the experience. I feel like I was just brought back to my my my days of science in in in third, fourth, fifth grade. So, thank you so much and congratulations to the students
and to all of you for doing such an amazing job uh in in bringing the sciences to our school and to the rest of your community. So, congratulations again, [Applause] Mr. Cohen. And how about that amazing
teacher? Oh my god. You are so lucky to have them as students and I think they're so lucky to have you as their inspir their inspiration. Thank you, Mr. Malone. Our work on display. Student impact first. Y
Oh, student impact. Yes. Thank you. So, this month's student impact uh comes out of the power program which stands for parents operating with educators for results. It's a title one program. Um, thank you Mrs. Gross for putting the program together and thank you for all
of the staff members and students who took part. Uh, this year was a great success and we have a short video for you. Is a power program is a federally funded program designed to help close instructional gaps in English language arts and math for eligible students in
grades 2 through 5. To celebrate the students hard work and progress throughout the year, they were invited to the Power Parent Academy event on May 8th. The theme was New Jersey Boardwalk and students rotated station named after iconic New Jersey Boardwalks where they
played academic games and earned prizes. [Music] [Music] [Applause]
[Applause] Heat. Heat. [Applause]
[Music] Thanks to the creativity and dedication
of the MTPS staff, this event was a huge success. and not only celebrated student achievement but also created fun memories for all. And finally, the artwork on display that you saw um if you got here a little early, you saw it that it was on a loop
uh playing. And here's just a quick description. Students in grade three and four at Asher Holmes Elementary School took part in a cross-curricular project that integrated art, ELA, and media literacy. Inspired by The Wild Robot by Peter Brown, students reimagine the
story by working as both authors and illustrators to create original narratives with tales brought to life through the voices of imaginative narrators Blue Berry and Pancake. The celebration of student creativity continued at the Asher Holmes art show where friends and families admired
framed masterpieces inspired by Monae and Georgia O'Keeffe. Finally, students engaged in a gallery walk showcasing art form from around the world and throughout history. The third graders studied American pop artist Andy Warhol to create expressive self-portraits. While fourth graders drew inspiration
from Japanese artist Kachushika Hokusai to recreate the iconic great wave at Asher Holmes. Art education is more than a subject. It's a journey through history, culture, and creativity designed to empower and inspire the next
generation of artists. Thank you. [Applause] Thank you very much for sharing that. Um, and to uh for the student impact and the power uh celebration that was really very very uh exciting to watch as well. So, thank you. Uh, I'm going to make a
motion that we take a 10-minute recess so our family and our and our students have a chance to sort of take some more pictures, but I think some of the board members really want to go up and see some of the science projects that are on the behind us on the stage. That'd be great. Can I have a second? Mendes. All in favor? Anyone
opposed? Great. 10-minute recess. So, do a roll call, please. Mrs. Carrero, here. Mr. Hyatt, here. Mr. Alonsky here. Mrs. Mendes
here. Dr. Msquitz here. Mrs. Seawart here. Mrs. Balomo here. And Mr. Cohen here. Thank you. Okay, we're going to move on with the uh uh the agenda and we are up to announcements. Mr. Bologn,
I have none. Thank you very much. Mr. Caribella, school bus driver abstracts. Sure. All abstracts were run and all have privileges and good standing. Thank you very much. Moving on to the next item. You have a presentation on the referendum process. Yes. M. It's a It's a PDF, so
All right. Thank you. Okay. So, good evening everybody. Um, so I promised we would continue the discussion about our referendum that we have coming up in December. Um, this was provided by by our bond council. This actually is also been produced to us at
NJSBO conferences. It's basically just a an overview and a timeline, just a sense of just understanding what the process is for a referendum and what goes into it. Um, so the couple things we'll just discuss is just an overview of if you
have any questions, just feel free to just jump out at the slide like always. But we're going to go over the referendum process and then after the process is completed, what the process is for issuing the school bonds or note, whatever we decide to whatever um tool we decide to
utilize. So, a note is a short-term loan and a and a bond is usually a long-term um vehicle to utilize for for funding. So your your referendum process. So basically when you are considering going out for referendum there's a lot of
moving parts that we'll look into. So some of the things to assemble the team of course you have your architect, your engineer, your your construction manager. Um we utilize we usually don't utilize a construction manager. We will utilize our building and ground supervisor for that. And then you have
your bond council, your municipal adviser, and and then your auditor finally because your auditor will basically determine what kind of financial tool you should be utilizing and how it should be recorded. So either a note or a bond. When we determine the needs of the school district, we look at a various
amount of things. In this instance, we looked at our long-range facilities plan, which included those two HVAC projects that were going out for. And then you have your enrollment projections that we utilize. But um in this case, we know we are pinpointed at two schools. Sometimes you look at technology security. Some people go off
a referendum for compliance with uh ADA. And then also you have to keep in mind your borrowing capacity. So when you exceed your borrowing capacity, if other districts have loans or outstanding debt, they usually need department of education and state local
finance board of approvals. And in that instance, we technically do not have any debt. The only debt we have are are purchase leases through through buses. So other than that, we do not have any debt. We have no referendums, no past referendums on our books anymore. I think the last one was paid when I first got here in 2020 was the last year for
that. So your borrowing capacity. So there's basically a statute that that is basically a table of contents which basically says that your net school debt of the district really cannot exceed the average ex equalized valuation of
taxable property set forth in this table. So we are a K- through8 district. So we would fall under number two which means that we wouldn't be able to borrow more than 3% without approval. This referendum that we're going out for is not substantial in the amounts of some other districts, whether it be 100
million, 200 million. This is a $5 million referendum. So, this is really not applicable for us, but this is the table of contents that people have to keep in mind when they are going out for funding. They can't go over that that threshold that's set forth. And you can see grades 9 through 12. If you have a district that's K through 12, it all
varies based on the taxable valuation that they set. They don't include prek. Thank you. Sometimes they do not include prek um because it's it's not mandatory per the state. I believe it's an optional grade level. So they don't usually include that in their in their
formula. We don't even get really funding for prek students because technically can't record them on ISSA yet. So when it comes time to making the decision, you usually have to look at the special election dates. So as we discussed, there are four different special election dates that you can
utilize. One is the fourth Tuesday in January. Um other one then when a presidential primary occurs, you have your second Tuesday in March. You have your last Tuesday in September or you have your second Tuesday in December. And then of course you can do the annual school election in in November, the
general election. We're proposing to do the second Tuesday in December. So that would fall into the special election category. Can I can we pause on that for a second? Um I know I asked this in last meeting when we go with the two with December and I appreciate the proposal.
Is it a vote? How do we land on what election it's in? Is it a recommendation that we just follow? Does the board have to formally vote on it? How does that work? So Michael, I believe it's a vote, right? So you would have to vote the second you set the date. Okay. So when
will we vote on that then? Um when the bond question is proposed. Usually everything is proposed in one resolution where you have to vote on the exact language that will be in the ballot and also the date it goes in. Thank you. Again I can only recommend that this board does not go with the general
election. I think you'd be I don't think that would be the smartest move to go with the general election in November with the governor election and everything else that's going on. So yeah, I think a special election is is beneficial for us, but that's up to the board. Yeah, just that
thought on that one. I think the past two refer referendums that failed were in December from what I heard. Is that correct or no? Um I would have to look at the sheet that I proposed. It had all the specific dates where I think the past two that failed in December uh
failed in December. So I I'm I'm with you like what's the better option? I believe from just I guess word of mouth around town like asking tell me the history or whatever it looked like the November date the November was avoided
because and I'm not speaking fact I'm only speaking hearsay so nobody quote this as like real all I'm wondering is was the proposal not from you in past referendums for December because they felt that more parents would come out and vote yes as opposed to everybody
coming out and feeling like it didn't apply to them. I don't know the story. That's why I'm asking the question. So, I'm on the fence with December because it failed twice and we know, you know, I don't know. So, that's my question. Well, we also just need to be mindful of the timelines. So, if you don't get in a
certain election date, you may have to wait until the following year. Right. So if we so if I don't know how that work I know what you just said about the proposal and all those things but if we have to make a decision sooner rather than later right based on what you said then I'm happy to discuss it whenever so
that we can if we want to hit November we don't almost miss November it just saying if that's how the board votes. Yeah I believe that's that's a public discussion that the board is more than welcome to have with each other here when it comes to what election date all of you feel is the most beneficial for
the referendum. I I would I'm just only advised what I believe was the best, but absolutely and I don't get the vote. And then one other thing that I had asked in the last meeting, I don't know who would get this is is is clarity on when it was. So I think I heard that, but I
don't know if it's true like when it when they were and the dates and and what the stats were. And then um the other there was one referendum that passed I think in the last meeting. What when was that? Was that November or December? What election did that take
place? And I'm not sure who gives us that information or if I'm to find it on my own, but I know I had that. Okay. I think that that last presentation I don't I don't think you were here, Valentina. Were you? I was here. That's when I asked that question. So, the last presentation had the list of all the referendums and showed the date exactly
when they failed or passed. I would just have to go back and look or think it's on our website. We put that slideshow. Um, I'll go back then if it's there. I just don't remember what it said. If it said November, I think it might have been September. Okay. To be honest, but I I would have to double check. So,
don't quote me on that, but it is on that slide show. That's fine because I was here and I just couldn't remember. Thank you. You're welcome. So, just the notice of the special election elections, they need to be given to the county clerk, the municipal clerk, and to the county board of elections no less than 60 days prior to
the day of the special election. So December, September, we've definitely missed that vote or we're getting close when it comes to everything that has to still happen. You have your special election dates are really December, January, March, um that you would be able to to look at. And then of course
the general election, assuming we can make that time, which I believe we we could because it's it's not far off from the second Tuesday in December. So again, the timeline. So basically, at at least 60 days prior to the special election, what you do is you send the letter to the the county clerk, the
board of elections, the superintendent of elections, um, and if if applicable, the the municipal clerk in Maro Townships, and then you request them to conduct the special election. And then 29 to 59 days prior to the election, the county board of election should publish the notice as
required by law. And then you have 55 days prior to the election, the publication of persons wanting mail-in ballots, the notices to the municipal clerk. Then this is where we adopt a resolution authorizing special election and form of proposal. So all of that
would need to happen before we adopt anything. So in reality, we should have discussions when it comes to hammering down a date because we wouldn't want to get to the middle of this and then say, "Oh, wait, maybe that's not the date we want." So that's why we have these discussions now. And my question then on
this and you you might get to it so I can totally wait is just you had mentioned like next steps like where we go when you said we have to come up with language and all of those things. I'm assuming you're going to cover that in this. Yeah. So um as discussed we have a
kickoff meeting in June with Michael and myself and all of the members that involved with so it's the architect communications company the engineer the uh bond council and with everybody's going to basically formulate a plan and that's when we come back and report out
and that's when we have discussions about how we're forming the committees, how we want them to look, who do we want on them, um how do we want that to flow and run when we feed information from the professionals to the board, we can have them come here. We can be the conduits for that as well. So, it's
really it's really a communication flow and how we want to just have the output go to the full board and then essentially next to the community. Yeah. No, that and I appreciate that and I did read that in the notes might then if just asking 60 days prior to the special election, let's just say hypothetically
the board votes November, not saying we are, just however we go. That would mean that we'd have to get that solidified in September, which would mean we'd have to have all of that ironed out in like July, which means a meeting in June 10th is we're just cutting it a tad close that we're almost making it that we can
only do it in December. So, I just want to be full for all of us. I'm just saying whatever work we need to do, happy to do it. Just mindful of that timeline because I don't want to get to a point where we're like we missed it because we had so much to do. That's all I'm asking. So, we don't make it in December. We have January and March.
I know. But we I think our goal is to get it done sooner rather than later. I I think what what Miss Mendes is saying is that at this point in time, our options are beginning with November. She I don't I think you're saying you don't want to eliminate November as an option because we have so many things to do.
You want to be able to leave November on the table as well as December as well as January as well. Just so the board can vote on all the available options. That's all. And whatever we land on, we land on. I don't want to get to a point where we're like we cut it out and we're going to push it and push it like the sooner we can get it. Whatever we need
to do to support you, that's all I'm asking. I I think the board needs to have a healthy discussion on what date they really want and then once it's consistent and we don't have to worry about which date we're choosing, we would know and we would we would hit the ground running. Do we do we have that tonight then or do you want to do it in
the next meeting? I just want to know when you want to have We could certainly bring that up under old or new business if we want to discuss that. Okay. Um, and this way that'll give me some clarity when it comes to when we meet with like bond counsel because they're really going to advise us on next steps when it comes to how they're going to
formulate the bond question, how it's going to be distributed to the board and when it's going to need to be approved by so he can get all that stuff into where it needs to go. Um, and he's going to want to know the date that we're going to want to select. Absolutely. Before he puts even any of that stuff together. Thank you. My my only point
will be and if you would like to have a discussion tonight, at least begin the discussion tonight, that's fine. But I think you've raised some very interesting questions that if Mr. Caravella has an opportunity to come back to us next month with the answers to some of those questions, they may better inform us in our discussion
rather than have it twice. Absolutely. I think to start it tonight at least to have everybody talking through it. And I'm with you, Brian. There's some good information. I think that would be helpful. Okay. So after we adopt a resolution um authorizing the special election, so as
of the date proposal is adopted, that's when our other professionals would start preparing supplemental debt statements um and provide those to the municipal clerk and the schoolboard secretary's office. So prior to the adoption of the resolution, we're going to have to sub we're going to have to submit financial
statements showing that we are capable of funding this referendum. Um, and that's why there's a timeline here because in June we are going to put on resolutions basically maximizing a deposit into our reserve accounts. So whatever we include on our financial statements, we want to make sure that
we're able to fund what we're saying we're able to fund. And then at the end, the statute requires that this must be done at least 19 days prior to election. Counties may request more time. So you have to send your certified copy of of your proposal to the county clerk, county board of elections and the superintendent of
elections if applicable requesting them to submit the proposal at spec special election date to be scheduled for. So you going back to your your question there there is a little bit of a gap where you do have some time to to discuss what date
you want because it has to be 19 days prior. In reality, when you put together a second question, when you put together everything that's going to have to be board approved, you want there to be as much clarity as possible and it just in the most extreme form, so you're not
pivoting to where say the language or say what we discussed at a meeting says, "Oh yeah, we're going out in November." And then 19 days prior we change the date. We want everything to just be uniform from start to finish. I think then in that regard because on the top it says you have to send the letter requesting the special election 60 days
but then n what's the difference between the 19 days on the bottom? So the 19 you basically have you have an option to to to to change it if you feel like you're going to run into a timeline issue or you're going to run into funding issues. Oh gosh. Okay. So it would be like a
modification more. Thank you. So then the next the tail end of the timeline is so basically when we send that to everywhere the commissioner determines the final eligible cost and informs the district in writing. Um in the calendar week next proceeding to the special election date, the county
board of elections should again publish the notice as required by law. And then right prior to this special election date, they file the supplemental debt statements for the financial statements that we've provided. On the seventh day and again on the day preceding the election, the
county board of elections publishes notices to registered voters. And then hopefully when everybody gets to the ballot box and it passes, once you get to a successful referendum, we have to file a copy of the proposal with the commissioner of education and now prepare with our
financial adviser for the proceedings. So the bond proceedings or the note those steps where it says the special election timeline, I'm sorry, I just want to make sure I'm on the right page. That would be anything outside of the November election. Yes. This would be a moot point if we went in um November but
December others, right? Yes. So this covers December, September, uh January, March, th those four dates. Thank you. Okay. So next is just so after all of that timeline takes place, you have your
issuing of your school bonds. And so the next slide which kind of gives you an idea and again I'll post this on our website so everybody can see it a little bit better. That's just basically a template of what a bomb proposal question will look like. So
basically you will write your narrative your your question and then at the bottom you'll show your total project cost your total eligible cost and then it shows the state share. So basically, when you outline that in your question, when you submit your financials, you have to show that you're able to to fund that because they're not
going to have you go out for a question and approve it if you can't fund the portion you're supposed to fund. They they would be like, "Why am I giving you money if you can't right if you can't meet that obligation?" Now, if we couldn't fund it, then we would have to note that we're going out for some type of loan vehicle, whether it be a note or
a bond. And that's when it is a cost to the taxpayers. when it's not a cost to the taxpayers is when you fully utilize your reserves and then the other 40% comes from the state share of of what you get approved in the in the referendum. So just a question on the I know nobody's surprised I'm asking a
question when it comes to the proposal question and I appreciate the sample here. Is it open that here's a sample, feel free to write it how you like? Not saying whatever. I'm asking that because this is long and wordy and gets lost in the sauce and keeping this super simple
so people just know I'm voting for air air conditioning or not. Well, yeah. So, that's something we'll we'll put together a bond council, but exactly how it's supposed to be written on the ballot is exactly how it needs to be written in the resolution for the board to approve. there can be any differences because I'm more of the less is more
theory of like don't over complicate it, right? So, this one is a little bit different because they have to put out that they have project costs, eligible costs, right? They have a lot in there. Yeah. I just like say yes or no. Do you want it? You know, but I I get it. Thank you. And again, there's there's certain
statutes that there's certain guidelines and statutes that that question needs to meet. It has to include certain things. So again, there's going to be a structure to how this question is going to be put together as far as putting in simplest form. Just getting to the point of saying it's for HVAC or
property. Um but again, the bond council will will refer us to how specifically that's supposed to be met so it doesn't get rejected or or turned down. Absolutely. And we have to revise it. So it says what? Sorry, Mike. So it says like on the right hand side it says what
do I need in my ballot question. So these are the these are the things you have to include. You have to include the projects to be completed with the referendum. The total cost of the project the amount to be borrowed. So in this case we're really hoping to do it all but our reserves. So we would hope
to not put any amount that needs to be borrowed. Your eligible ineligible cost needs to be mapped out. And then any transfer among projects. Again not many transfers among projects. It's pretty simple. two schools with HVAC. And so once it's successful, you
need, again, this may not be applicable to us, but how this is going to work is they're basically going to we're not looking to go out for a long-term bond. Um, this is when your auditor, your financial advisor, your
bond council, they all discuss with us what the best option is here because what happens is when you have to secure funding. Yes, we have the reserves to pay for the project, but we still need a funding source. So, we're going to have to take out a short-term note and we're going to have to get that money that we
need need and then once that comes in and secured, we pay it off with the reserves that we have budgeted in the in the future budget that we're going to anticipate doing. Would the bond you're saying Vinnie be the piece where if I didn't have the money handy per se, I
would then have to take the bond like when would that come into play? You have to look at the time. So the timeline here is so say December we get approval and then this train doesn't stop by December. I'm starting to talk
about the 2627 budget. The 2526 budget we just discussed does not have a withdrawal of capital reserve included in it. So I'm going to have to put in the 2627 budget the withdrawal capital reserve I'm making for this. So in
essence if I want to secure the funding from the successful referendum I'm going to have to take a short-term note out for that that money. And then once the budget gets passed in May with that withdrawal of that reserve amount, that reserve amount gets gets thrown to that
note and gets paid off completely. This way it is no cost to the taxpayer. You're basically just taking a short-term notice out to pay it off. There's not going to be an amortization schedule, right? It's not going to be a maturity date. It's really you're just taking that funding source and you're going to pay it off with the reserve
once the budget's approved. Y okay. So, this is the process if you were to take out a long-term bond. Um, so a lot of districts they will when it says a cost to the taxpayer, this is what they're doing. They need to actually fund the referendum fully because they don't have enough capital
or maintenance reserve on hand to do so. So, they'll take that um through the form of a bond or a note. Normally, it's a bond because they'll do a long-term amortization schedule and they'll build it into their fund, their debt service account, and budget for it each year.
So some of the things that you do again and this what we'll have to do for a note issue as well. We'll set the closing date of the note and we'll try to timeline it as long as possible. So it almost correlates to where we pass the budget, we secure the funds and we're able to just pay it off.
So there's really no interest earned or anything that's gained from having a note down. And then you select the payment dates. Again, this is similar to the ESIP project. We have an amorization schedule. We selected the payment dates. It's now built into our budget. This would be the
same basically the same instance, but we're not doing like a 15 20 year schedule. It's going to be like instantaneously where we want to pay it off. We will be um saying that you know constantly that
we want we're going to pay this off quickly to for the public to know. Yeah. So so when we do that's what we're advertising. So right now what we're advertising is we want to pay it off with reserves in June. We're going to have motions on there that's going to
designate your deposit for your capital and maintenance reserve not to exceed a certain amount. That amount is going to be enough to put in your reserves to cover that project. When we start closing out our year and we start seeing our surplus and our fund balance available, we're going to designate with our auditors a certain amount that we
approved in June for capital reserve and then the rest will go into our fund balance or our surplus how we build our base for our our following year budget. So when you see like the following your budget where it says fund balance 2 million 1 and a.5 million that's the base that you built with a surplus from
the previous year you have left over. Now again if our surplus is not as healthy as we think because of at the end of the year we we will have a different conversation and we may have to either pivot and wait or we might have to take out a bond or a note. I mean,
I'm going to be completely honest with everybody. Um, because at the end of the day, you don't want to deplete your your full reserve account for this to zero. So, tell me tell us more about what you're thinking then like
when you're saying that statement, are you leaning a certain way? I'm saying this is why No, I'm saying this is why we're having constant communication because we're looking at our surplus and we know what needs to come out, what doesn't. But things happen and things arise to where you may not be able to put in as much as you can. Right now
we're anticipating we can put in enough. Um but I don't ever want to just say, "Oh yeah, all in. We're guaranteed." I'd always want that's my job to be the fiscal steward of this district and to make sure that we're in the best position not only for this year, next
year, but to years to come. So we are confident that we are going to be able to put enough in the reserve account to finish this project. But then after that, there may be a slow steady gain of where you're not doing as much anymore because we need to really build our reserves up or we're going to be creative and do more projects out of our
maintenance reserve account which does have a healthy balance. This doesn't qualify under maintenance reserve because it's a new capital improvement, right? Could we just take a minute on that point you raised when we when you're saying because I know you did mention we're okay right now things
could come up. Are we putting anything at risk or you feel I know you said we're okay now. Are you thinking another way? Should we be talking about something else with funding or I mean that's a load of I'm always thinking a lot of ways. I appreciate
it. I don't want to leave us in a spot either. I want to just make sure we're talking through all parameters, right? Like what's what could happen? A million things could happen which we know. And so, are we leaving us so close to the to an edge where it's like, hey, if if one
big thing happens, we don't have enough money. Like, I just want to make sure where we are. But I can't I can't anticipate what's going to happen if it hasn't happened. So, I'm just I'm looking at the numbers and I'm making sure that we have enough to put into the reserve so I don't have to come to you and say we need a loan in
a bond or a note. So, so I think what if I'm understanding it correctly, I mean, we're we're planning for the appropriate funds to be put into the the capital reserve to cover the cost of the
project, barring any unforeseen emergencies or unpredicted events that occur. And if those events do occur, then we may need to make some decisions as to whether or not the investment for those other projects need to happen immediately or not. And if they do, then
we may have to have some sort of, you know, alternative approach to continue to pay for or fund the air conditioning project based upon the referendum. Correct. Right. However, you're also saying that some of if something does come up, there may be an opportunity to
tap into the maintenance reserves if in fact the project would not the air conditioning project but the other event that may occur qualifies for that type of a use of funds. Yeah. So, our maintenance reserves cover all those projects that you see on the board when
we we talk about during budget. So your asphalt repairs, your sheds, your repointing, all that that equipment and stuff that that qualifies under maintenance reserve, we can still utilize that each year. The problem is if I have to designate so much money into capital reserve, I'm not going to
be able to designate money into maintenance reserve. So you just have to be mindful of that that piece, right? Because I'm thinking about technology and or or something that will come out of the operating, right? So I just want to make sure in our in our verticals that we're covered in all aspects. Yeah.
So that gets built into the operating budget that and you feel okay. Okay. Has nothing to do with the reserve and I know you can't predict the future. So I understand that. I just want to kind of catch what you were, you know, what you were thinking. Yeah. Again, I'm going to tell this board every situation or every angle that could possibly come up. But
our still our main goal is to get air conditioning in Asher and Robertsville. 10,00%. And we're going to try to make that happen for you. Um but and we want to do that in no tax increase to the taxpayer. And that's you have to do it solely through the reserves. There's no other way. Y and Val, I think that's the
piece that we have to focus on. We've got to get these kids getting their 100%. So, you know, we have to worry about something else in the future. We worry later. Yes. But I don't want to worry later and and not be prepared. We're not antic, you know, can't
anticipate anything. So, absolutely. Let's let's focus on on the positive and let's get this thing passed. It's it's all positive because I feel good about it, but we still have to look at the numbers and and weigh all of our options. That's all. But, you know, it's a positive thing and we all, I think,
want AC in the schools. I'm with you. Absolutely. Yeah. I think that's the driving force here is we want just for us to be caught back up to the 21st century and have air conditioning. Um, so that's I think it's a good conversation. And I think, you know, I think the the interaction, the back and
forth, you know, indicates a couple of things. One, you're still watching the capital reserve funds to make sure we have sufficient funds to cover this project and anything else that may come up. You're continuously putting money into the maintenance reserve. There's a healthy balance there right now that sort of should help continue to to
support anything that comes into that category of the need for investment because of maintenance, right? and that you know we just need to have you continue to keep us informed and you do in the context of budget um to make sure that we are not seeing anything unusual
that we have to potentially prepare for and as long as we're sort of staying focused and aware of that and you're keeping us informed I'm comfortable that you know we're all going in the right direction right and I put everything on the table because I don't want there to ever be a surprise where I'm up here and
be like oh sorry can't do all angles of everything used all this money. We didn't realize that X, Y, and Z. So, I appreciate you giving us all of the options and I I think we're in a good spot, but I appreciate you answering that. Thank you. And then the last steps are usually you
have to get your bond rated. Um, and then we also must need to get a credit rating. So, anytime you ever go out for a loan or any type of finance tool, you need to get rated as well. And then we have to file file that also with um the secondary market disclosure requirements which I had to do when we had our last
referendum each year. All right. So that is it for me. Does anybody have any questions? Thank you. Thank you so much. This has been really helpful. So I appreciate you always updating us. we're all going to become um experts on
referendums and bonds and counsel and you know um we'll we'll go on the road show and help other districts. Thank you, Mr. Garavel. All right, so we're going to move on to our next item on the agenda which is a report on anti-bullying
bullying bill of rights. Mr. one. Thank you. For board members who have been here, you understand the cycle, but for uh the newer board members who came on in January, I'll just explain to you. Um beginning in uh the 20112 school
year, our district has implemented the requirements found in the anti-bullying bill of rights. And essentially what happens is in the fall all of our schools do a self assessment on uh the anti-bullying bill of rights and there's a rubric attached.
Um there are eight core elements. They include programs training for board members, training for other staff, curriculum, personnel, school level incident reporting, investigation procedure, and just overall general
reporting. So what uh our schools do in the fall is they do a self assessment um in accordance with the rubric. The highest score is actually a 78. So when you see scores in the 70s, don't get concerned. Um we're doing very well. Um, so that happens in the fall and then that gets submitted to the New Jersey
Department of Education now is when uh or the New Jersey Department of Education from the fall until now reviews all of the school districts um self- assessments and they come back and they either approve or not. Um we've always been approved. So now they have
approved our scores and we are required for the board to acknowledge the New Jersey Department of Ed's approval. So, it's a two-part process. Submission in the fall and now approval from the DOE in the spring. And that's what you're seeing here. All of the information is
detailed um in your notes that you received on Friday. Um I'm happy to speak about any of our scores, but I I can tell you uh you know, anytime you see a score that's less than 78, we're in the high 70s. um every single one of
our locations is either meeting or exceeding uh expectations for adherence to HIV. And I just want to say you gave us a timeline of the scores over the years and all of that. And the scores stayed in a really good spot it looked like. Yeah. The first year they were a
lot lower than where we are now. you know, in the 20112 year, they were significantly lower. And with the improvement of policy and programming, um, and our, uh, coordinators at each building, uh, we have improved. Yeah. I just wanted to say kudos because I saw
the the rise in that. So, thank you. Thank you very much, Mr. Malone. Uh, we are now moving over to public comments. Mr. Carell, do you have a list? Sure. I have one on my list. Megan Fitz Simmons. Let's see where it's going to
become our next um AV person. How about now? Okay. Good evening everyone. Uh my name is Megan Fitz Simmons and I'm speaking here tonight as a staff member at the David C. Abbid Early Learning Center. There are some staff members whose names show up under
the personnel uh section that I just want to make note of. We've got Carolyn Brock, Margot Okconor, Kristen Berry, Jessica Lawrence, Kelly Monttoano, Morin Murray, Shira Schaefer, Alyssa Visakaro,
Jamie Warwick, Sandra Isabella, Penny Cooper, Dalia Salama, and Trish Shore. these 13 staff members due to the program changes will be leaving our school for the 2526 school year. Um I've
been at the Early Learning Center since January of 2004. So I've had the pleasure of working with all of them and I just want to just publicly acknowledge them and thank them for all the great work that they've done over the years with our students. They always put the
students first and they give 110% no matter what their position is. And just to let the schools that will be getting these staff members, we're sorry to see them go, but they're very, very lucky. So, we're going to miss them, but uh we wish them well in their new positions.
Thank you. [Applause] Thank you so much for recognizing them and for for offering those thoughts. Is there anyone anyone else on? No one else on my list. Would anyone else like to speak? Just please come up to the mic,
say your name and where you're from, and please go ahead. Good evening. I'm Jill Strafasi, 25 Canadian Woods Road, Malboro. Um, you know, when 911 happened, and I don't, by the way, I don't even have a speech, so I'm off the cuff, so I
apologize. And I'll try to keep to three minutes. Um, don't worry about the clock in front of you. Thank you. But when um you know when 911 happened um you know Mr. Rogers came out and he said look for the helpers. Look for the helpers. So since the worst night of my life on May
7th I've really been trying to do that. So I I sent an email to all the rescuers that were involved in uh in getting my baby back to me. And I also wanted to thank the helpers in the Malboro uh
school community because they are so numerous from Mr. Balone who has texted me and came to my open house and has been so wonderful. The MMS teachers, Jamie Stockrocky, present members and
past teachers. Uh I just 15 minutes ago got a text that Mrs. Ross dropped off her famous cookies to my kids. Uh just the support and love has been unbelievable. The Dugan staff, so many of them uh have reached out to my
family, looked out for my kids. Uh and even past people like Erica McEnroe, Dr. Lauren Young, like I got a text from Dr. young even today. Nancy Astra Schultz again, they keep checking in and checking in and checking in. Getting a uh emails from uh the guidance
counselors and and the school psychologists at MMS. Just getting texts from teachers saying, "Your son's doing okay today. It was it was a good day. Anything you need, anything you need." Those are the helpers. And in the midst of this tremendous loss,
um that's what I keep going to and and looking for. So, I just want to thank the staff for because we are so very lucky for the community coming together and so many people coming to our home last weekend and sharing the most beautiful memories and not even people
who just knew Maria, but um her siblings and if I don't know if Mr. G is still here, but he was one of Maria's biggest fans and told me tonight he still had her writings from when he was her literary uh magazine adviser. She adored him and he adored her. But that just
goes to show you how lucky we are to have the teachers we do who go above and beyond not just for their present students but for past students. So it's impossible for me to write thank you cards for all of the staff. Um but
hopefully they will watch this video and I will say thank you. Thank you for myself, my children, my husband. Um, I will never be able to repay the kindness. Um, and again, like Dugan staff and and and Mr. Balone, um, I sent
him a screenshot. He can show you. Um, so many people contributed and they made an incredibly generous donation to the mental health association of, uh, Mammoth County, and they sent a letter back to one of the teachers saying, uh, so many donations have been made. So,
thank you. Thank you, Malo, uh, staff and administration for your tremendous help. Um, finally, I just want to say very quickly, um, so many of you tonight have been saying, just let me know what I can do to help, and it's really not helping me, but my last request would be
for you to strongly consider and see if you can find it in the budget. Um, and I and I did speak with Mr. Balone about this previously. if we could get um a clinician back in in Malbero Township. When I was on the board, anyone who knew me knew I was all about mental health
and I spoke about it at the meetings and um and special education and and the arts. Those were my passion projects when I was a board member and it's still they're still my passions. And if it's at all possible to get either take an
LCSW that maybe is working as a case manager but is working as a private practitioner and switch them into position in a position so that the students get the actual clinical therapy they need so that we can catch a kid at stage one mental health issues rather
than my daughter who is unfortunately stage four. You couldn't have seen this. You may not have seen it on the medical scans, but my daughter, she was a stage four, and I don't want any other child or family to go through what we went through. So perhaps if you know I know
you used to have a Ruckers clinician and and but if you could bring back Ruckers or have Effective School Solutions or Thrive or somehow get one of your current staff members and switch their job position so that maybe they don't have to worry about being doing case management but they can do actual true therapy so that they are a specialist
for these kids rather than a general practitioner. um you would save not just one life but future lives that when that person grows up and they get married and they have kids and and you know that could be one of your god forbid but it could be one of your loved ones or
someone in your community and th those generations will keep going. So, that's what I'm advocating for tonight because even though my daughter is gone, I can't stop advocating. And I know that's what she'd want me to do. And she was really proud of me when I was on the board. And
she saw how people who were angry. It was a very angry time, especially coming out with COVID, and they would come up here and they would insult me and everything. And she'd say, "Why don't you resign?" And I'd say, "Because I'm doing it for, you know, I'm doing it for kids like you. I'm doing it for the kids
who might not have a voice." So, I implore you all tonight, if you maybe it can't be for this current budget, I understand that, but maybe for the following school year, if you could all consider that, I would be so deeply grateful. Thank you so much for your kindness tonight.
Mrs. Stravachi, again, um thank you for coming up here and just recognizing the staff and for the things that they did. Um, I'll speak for myself and I'm sure the board members um, if they want to, they can sure to, you know, add to my words, but my deepest consol condolences
to you and your family and and my deepest sympathy on your loss, um, for your daughter. It takes a very special person to come up to that microphone after your loss and not to advocate for your daughter or for her memory, but for
everyone else and for and to sort of, you know, to to express concern over what you want us to do for others. And thank you for doing that and thank you for reminding us about just how important it is for us to sort of, you know, always be grounded in the role we
have here as board as a board member and as an administrator. And finally, just, you know, thank you to you as well for the time that you spent on this side of the microphones um and for the service that you've done to the community and on the board. And again, you know, um we
all know what that role is like and what you endure and for what we all endure. Um but we also reme remind ourselves just how um important it is for what the work that we've done when we signed up for this position. So, thank you for your work and thank you for thinking of the
people of this community and the salute students in our schools. Anyone else want to I just wanted to say Jill again I know we talked a few times but I know it took a lot to come up here tonight and your story resonates with me
and so just thank you for sharing that. Anyone else would like to come to the microphone for first comments? Yes. Miss Bono. Hi Barabono, Nasha Drive, Malboro, New Jersey. I'm here about the brief
referendum discussion and I thank you Mr. Caravello for encouraging a healthy discussion of board members. I was not able to make the last meeting and I see we have a nice addition of technology. Um having said
that ask questions, get your questions answered. People on this board and passports have promised me that Robertsville would be next. I was a student in the district when Dugan was built and Mr. Ellsworth pulled all the
students or pulled students and certain staff to open up a brand new building in the 80s. They have air conditioning. We do still do not. Asher Holmes does not. I don't understand where the equity is
in this. I understand you need money. I can tell you I've been at the board when referendums have failed and I applaud all your questions, but we can't play whatifs. The time the referendums have failed have failed because we did not have a
united board. The times in the town that the referendums have passed, it's when the board members came together to pass the referendum. I am asking you be united. Ask your questions, get your answers, and be a united front so that
we can have a past referendum. Because when one member of the board does not work with the rest of the team, it is apparent for all to see. So please join us. Work
together, become a team, become united, pass the referendum, cuz I know the other buildings would not hold off turning their air conditioning off on until we got air conditioning at Robertsville or at Asher Halls. And I'm
not speaking for myself. I'm speaking for the children of both buildings. come together, pass the referendum, work as a united board, and put your personal agendas aside for the town of Malbero.
Thank you. Thank you, Mrs. Bono. We we are with you and we appreciate your support and it's that type of support we're going to want to sort of, you know, depend upon when it comes time for the referendum. Uh, anyone else for public comments?
Just hold it. Uh, Scott Samaya, Marbor, New Jersey. Uh, good evening members of the board, Superintendent Balone, and everyone here tonight. I'm speaking tonight as a parent in the district and also as a forensic accountant. I have expertise in assisting organizations detect and prevent financial fraud. And
I want to share a perspective that I hope is helpful. Just recently in Deepford Township, a PTO treasurer was charged with stealing over $50,000 from two elementary schools. These were funds raised by parents and volunteers intended to benefit kids and unfortunately were allegedly mis
misappropriated for personal funds. As a parent, it's shocking. However, as a professional, it's sadly not surprising. I've seen this happen in organizations of all sizes, and almost always the root cause is the same. Weak internal controls and oversight. I want to be
clear. I am not suggesting anything improper is happening here in Malro. But I do know this kind of thing has happened here before. It was before my time in the district and I don't know what, if any, changes were made at the board level after that incident. That's exactly why I think it's worth revisiting now. Strong financial
controls are not complicated. Simple measures like requiring two signatures on checks, providing clear guidelines and training to PTO's and other school connected groups, and encouraging routine financial reviews can go a long way in protecting the people who volunteer, and more importantly, the kids these dollars are supposed to
support. The vast majority of people involved in our school groups are honest and committed to doing the right thing. But good intentions aren't a substitute for sound policy. We owe it to our students, our schools, and our community to ensure the right guardrails are in place. It's much better practice to be proactive before something happens
rather than reactive. I hope the board will consider reviewing current policies and making sure that they are as strong as they need to be, not in response to a crisis, but to prevent one from ever happening again. Thank you for your time and for everything you all do for our district. Appreciate it.
Thank you, Mr. Somaya. Anyone else want to come up? Aldo Aldo Petrno, uh, Morganville, New Jersey. So, um the gentleman that just spoke um about the audits and financial reviews,
um I actually don't disagree with you, but um you know, much like the conversation that was had um last year or the year prior, um I don't think it's should be limited to the PTO and PTAs of the district. Um,
this is something that, you know, all of the charitable organizations that are working to benefit the district and the kids. Um, whether it's MEF or SCOPE or any of the ones that I I'm not sure
which ones collect money and which ones don't, but if there's finances involved, I think they should all be subject to the same the same exact scrutiny. I I don't see a reason why they should uh differentiate between any of them. Um so
that aside for you know thank you for your comments. Um Dr. M uh Dr. Mscowitz um I just wanted to introduce you to Danielle sitting next to you because on Facebook um you made it seem like you didn't know
who she was uh when a picture of her was posted. So, your sarcasm didn't go unnoticed and um yeah, it's uh real big of you. So, have a nice night.
Thank you, Mr. Runo. Dr. Witz, did you want to respond? I don't have a response. Thank you. Anyone else want to come up for public comments? Seeing none, motion to close public
comments. Second, Mr. Lansonsky. All in favor? Anyone opposed? Thank you. We'll move on with our agenda. We're up to communications. Mr. Balone, superintendent report.
the HIB report from the time period May 2nd, 2025 through May 15, 2025, there were five incidents reported. Thank you. I'll make note of the meeting dates for our next two meetings. June 17th will be a regular meeting. That's Tuesday, June 17th, and Tuesday, July 22nd. Both of
those will be um regular meetings. I'll also make a motion to approve our minutes from the April 29th, 2025 meeting, regular and executive. Can I have a second on that motion, Miss
Seawward? Any discussions? Mr. Caravilla. Mrs. Palomao? Yes. Mrs. Carrero? Yes. Mr. Hyatt? Yes. Mr. Alonsky? Yes. Mrs. Mendes.
Dr. Msquitz. Abstain. Mrs. Seawart? Yes. And Mr. Cohen? Yes. Next item is secretary and business administrator's report. Mr. Caribella. So this is the uh monthly submission for the board secretaries report for April
30th, 2025 and also the payroll certification for April 2025. Thank you very much. Any comments or questions on that? Thank you. We'll move along to committee reports. Uh we have three committees that are reporting out tonight. Uh communications committee,
Mr. Hyatt. Sure. Uh we actually met just before the meeting. Um, so thank you Mrs. Gross. She's actually getting the website stuff in order so that we can make updates to the board page. So hopefully by the next meeting we can have some progress on that. So thank you. Uh, and then we talked about the
continuation of uh pushing out our updates through the township channels which has been working out pretty good. Uh, and then the final thing we talked about which we will start here soon um just starting to promote the advisory board and the advisors that we need. So coming up with the communications materials, those sort of things so that
the advisory committee can go out there, communicate and recruit advisors. So those are the priorities for the next couple weeks. Great. Thank you. Any questions or comments for Mr. Hayyatt? Anyone else then want to add to any of that? Thank you. Moving along to the
curriculum committee. Dr. Msquitz. Thank you. Thank you, Mrs. Rose for um printing out the wonderful notes that you keep all the time. uh we had a very u healthy discussion the other yesterday and um I'll just
give brief uh explanations of the agenda on we were discussing world languages and compare the question was are we being um comparable in our selection of only having f Spanish for our uh the
lang our world language what are the other schools doing? What are the other districts doing so that we're preparing them for the high school? Then we discussed the um math summer uh 2025 virtual uh facilitators
for students transitioning to the C-level or accelerated levels. And Mrs. Gross explained that these um positions are for children that are going to be basically skipping a
um grade level in this thing. And so they're doing it over the summer that it's self-paced. The um then we discussed the grade level waiverss. So, and that has to do with children that are coming from other
districts so that we can um assess so the teachers can assess where they should be placed. special education curriculum writing there. Um this it's on the board agenda that the there's going to be additional special
ed curriculum writing this summer to add to the modifications and accommodations that special ed children will be needing. Then the um the uh two with the last two things,
the 911 exhibit that was discussed last month. We're still working on that. We're trying to see how we can fit it into our budget, how we can get monies for to get this here. It's already uh
booked till I think 2028. Was that the date? So um and Mrs. Seawart did I have to commend her. She did a lot of background research for us. So and now it's in the hands of Mr. Balone. So u
thank you Mrs. Seart. And then we got the best part of the meeting was the steam tank challenge presentation. We got to watch it on TV and it was it was great. It was really the kids did a wonderful wonderful job. It was a little tech problem, but it was worked out and
it was wonderful and I can't wait to find out the results. That's it. Thank you. Can I ask a question on Yes. You had said um Mrs. Seawward, I know you had that uh really wonderful idea of the 911 memorial. Um
what is the dollar amount Dr. Wood that you're referring to? It it was high. Yeah. So, typically the twoday stay for the Never Forget exhibit is $14,000, but for school districts, they
like to um almost piggyback on another local um exhibit so that they could offer it to us a two-day exhibit for 7500. So, it's, you know, a little more than half of what we would have normally paid. But um I know the amount allotted
for the cattle car was 5,000 per day. So we were like comparing the two. Um the district paid for one day and who paid for the other? I'm sorry. It's slipping my mind. Karma through the Oh, right. right. And Karma paid for the second day. So we actually just very briefly
touched on maybe applying for a grant maybe through the MEF to supplement for the over budget of it. that the baton has proudly been passed to Mr. Baloon and Mrs. Gross because they um Mrs. Gross is attending a virtual presentation for 911 material and um now
they'll be in touch with the woman Jackie my contact at the Steven Siller Foundation. So things are moving along but because the 25th anniversary is on the horizon they're not taking any reservations for all of 2026. So that kind of puts a hold on it and now
they're booking into 2027 and 2028. So, the cost was one part of it. The availability is another part of it. It's definitely a lot of moving parts. It's not as easy as I thought it would be. I don't think I I think that the your proposal makes sense. And I think the
7500 I think we can get creative. I I know I won't be here at that time period, but I think that whether we collect donations or however we can get it, I think it'll be great. Right. So, we were even talking about having it open to the public, so maybe the public could contribute to the cost of it if
they would like to come see the exhibit. But again, these are all just, you know, talking points and I will only have one kid left in the district by that time. So, um I won't be on the board at that time either. So, uh again, Mr. Malone, Miss Gross, the
curriculum committee, I entrust that they'll, you know, make it happen. Miss, um, thank you again also for bringing that up. We've had we had a really good conversation about the importance of this. And, um, you know, I don't see the the cost of this being
extravagant in the context of the value of an education and the experience that our students would get from it. Um, so whatever I can do to help sort of, you know, with grants or fundraising and things like that, if we had to, I would be happy to help be a part of that. Logistically, it wouldn't even cost that
much less if we bust the kids to the 911 museum in Manhattan. Between busing and paying to get into the museum and if you if you took all of the eighth grade, let's just hypothetically say, and brought them to the 911 museum, it's like 60 bucks to even walk through the door and busing and chaperones and, you
know, the whole kitten koodleoodle. So, thanks. I appreciate the support of it, though. And it's a very and quite frankly it's probably more a better experience than here than it would be for them to go there. Yeah. I was recently there and it was an amazing incredible experience. Yeah. But also
Mr. Balone brought up a good point about the age appropriateness of the never forget. There are some pieces that could be obviously there's very sensitive information that is brought on with this type of exhibit. So that's another moving part. But that is very true.
Yeah. Well, the um cattle car had accommodations to be age appropriate because there were some graphic details about it. So, that was something that we learned from having an immersive experience in the district already that we're a K through8 district. A lot of people have a hard time as adults, you
know, reliving museums and exhibits like that. So, that was something else taken into consideration. But it feels really nice to know that we could put our heads together with something like this and just bring a good experience to the kids and and enrich them more in culture.
Do I do I see correctly the material that you shared with us um recently that was there were some dates in 2025 that were potentially available, but I think it's very hard to sort of plan that this it's right around the corner. It's the week of Thanksgiving and the first week of December. So it is it's literally
right here. So with the referendum on board, you know, like there's a lot going on. There's a lot going on. So like I said, as long as the conversation is moving and if there's any other immersive experiences that come from this as well, it's a great snowball effect. Could you just share the materials with us? I'm just eager to see
what it would look like. Sure, I can follow the email. I think um I think there was a link in the in the email that Miss Hawwork shared with us. Yeah, I'll share it with all of you. It's the Tunnel to Towers Foundation. and it's on their website, the never forget exhibit, but I'll share it with you. And there was a video with us that showed the experience of actually it's this is a
huge trailer that requires a lot of flat space and as I liked it and appreciated her explanation, six very strong people to help set it up. Yes, there's an actual steel bean inside of it from the site. It's really again, I don't know if
beautiful is the right word, but it's very touching. Can you forward that email to everyone on the board because I didn't get the I think it was shared with the curriculum committee and we'll be happy I can I can forward it to them without No problem. It wasn't intentional to be back from anyone. It was just the curriculum committee. Yep.
I'll be happy to share it. Okay. Um policy committee uh Miss Gandhi is not here today. So Mr. Bologn you'll do that. Yes. So the policy committee met on May 5th and the primary focus for that meeting uh are the two policies that you see for under first readings
for tonight. The um our brand new technology strategy policy 8100 um you'll notice that is in its entirety. It's it's bold because it's brand new. That's why you see that. And then policy 1523, the comprehensive
equity uh plan policy. Um we we made some minor changes to that with some input from the affirmative action team. Thank you uh to the three board members who contributed to that uh back in I think it was April. Um so so that helped
inform uh that policy number 1523. Um and we also touched on the need um due to some of our not due to but in alignment with some of our public comments um regarding any policy um that
deals with PTAs, PTO's, MEF scope, any any organization that raises funds that we should be looking at uh all of those policies related to those organizations. So that's something that we're we're putting on the docket for the future.
And of course um anytime we make s uh you know policy changes like that we'll also bring that to we meet monthly with the uh PTAs PTO's scope um MEF CPAC also comes but they don't raise money so um
any anytime it affects them we we would certainly share any of those proposed changes and and uh get that feedback from them. So that's to come on the horizon. Um, so thank you for for raising those issues and and bringing those to light. Um, and that's it for
policy. Thank you. Thank you. Any questions for Mr. Balone? All right. Thank you. We're going to move on to the agenda and to financial business matter operations matters. Miss Mendes, would you read that? Sure. The superintendent of schools submits the following
resolutions for approval. One, transfers. Two, list of bills. Three, secretary monthly reconciliation reports. Four, travel. Five, harassment intimidation bullying report. Six, approval of professional services
agreement with Center State Engineering. Seven, approval of joint transportation agreement with Colts Township Public School District. Eight, approval of transportation agreement case number 951-2526 ESY. Nine, approval of transportation
agreement case number 951 2526 school year. 10, approval of transportation agreement case 972 2526 ESY 11. Approval of transportation agreement case 972
2526 SY 12. tax levy. 13. Participation in coordinated transportation with the Educational Services Commission of New Jersey, ESCJ. 14. School bus emergency
evacuation drill report. 15. Approval of agreement with Cable Vision Light Path NJ LLC. 16. Approval of agreement with Epic Environmental Services LLC. 17. Amended resolution approval of
agreement for all care therapy service 18. Amended resolution approval of agreement Mammoth Ocean Educational Services Commission 19. Home Instruction 20. State contract purchases. ISO move. Thank you very much. Can I have a
second? Dr. Mskowitz, any discussions on any of these items? Yes. I have a question for number 18 for the oeesc. I understand that as a board last year or for the 24 September
4th of 24 to June 30th of 25 we had approved in the July 16 24 meeting $100,000 um would it would not exceed $100,000 for the contract with and it looks like we're amending that cost to not exceed 156,000. So an additional
56,000. Can you just clarify or tell me did something change or what is that additional cost? The services for behavior have upticked due to the the amount of students that need those services. So, we have to raise the amount because we
were scarily approaching that threshold very fast. And then we're raising it to 156,000 because we're anticipating that's what we're going to need up until the end of the school year. But we were getting close to that limit and we're just raising it. So it may not get to 156, but we feel that's a comfortable
number to just not to exceed until the end of the school year. Okay. So thank you for that. And so not to exceed 156 by the end of this school year. So in the next month or so. Correct. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. Any other questions on any of these
items? Okay. Mr. Carella, can we have a roll call? Mrs. Seart. me. Yes, Mrs. Balomo. Yes, Mrs. Carrero. Yes, Mr.
Hyatt. Yes, Mr. Alonsski. Yes, Dr. Msquitz. Yes. Mrs. Menddees? Yes. And Mr. Cohen? Yes. Okay. Thank you very much. We're going to move on to curriculum matters. Dr. Mskowitz, would you read that one, please? Sure.
The superintendent of schools submits the following resolution for approval. One, affirmative action team. Two, comprehensive equity plan. I so move. Thank you very much. Can I have a second? Miss Mendes. Any discussions on
any of the items under curriculum? I see. Mr. Caribella, please. Roll call. Mrs. Balo. Abstain. Mrs. Carrera. Yes. Mr. Hyatt. Yes. Mr. Lansonsky. Abstain
from my name. Yes. To everything else. Mrs. Mendes. Yes. Dr. Msquitz. Yes. Mrs. Seawart. Yes. And Mr. Cohen? Yes. Okay.
Exactly for the record. Okay. You have that correctly? Yes. So, Mrs. Carrero is abstaining from her name only. Yes. That was Mr. Milan. Mr. Lansonsk's Yeah. As well. Okay. All right. Uh, we are moving on to the next item. Personnel matters. Mr.
Hayatt, would you read that? Sure. Personnel matters. Superintendent of schools submits the following resolutions for approval. One, retirement. Two, resignations. Three, employment transportation coordinator. Four, amended salary certificated
staff. Five, amended salaries non-certifi certificated staff. Six, stipen, supervisor of buildings and grounds 2024 2025 and 2025 2026 school year. Seven, reassignment certificated
staff. Reassignment transferred certificate staff. Nine, transfers certificated staff. Long 10, transfers non-certificated staff. 11. Curriculum writing, ELA, assessment revisions, grades 1 through
eight. Curriculum writing, gifted and talented. PEP revisions, grade K through 1. 13. Math summer 2025 virtual facilitators and students transitioning to C-level or accelerated math. 14. Curriculum writing. Math. Revise units
of study based on feedback grades K through five. 15. Math. Revise units of study based on feedback grades six through eight. Curriculum writing. Math. Revise units of study based on feedback. Algebra 1. Geometry. Curriculum writing. Math. Revise Google Docs and Link Kit
compatibility based on formatting and data grades 1 through three. Curriculum writing. Math. provides Google Docs and link kit compatibility based on formatting and data grades four through five. About halfway through. 19. Curriculum writing math revise Google Docs and Link
compatibility based on formatting and data grades six through eight. Curriculum writing math revise Google Docs uh based on formatting and data algebra one geometry. Curriculum writing math check Google Docs same as above grades one through five. Curriculum
writing math check same as above. Grades six through eight, algebra 1, geometry. 23, grade level waiver assessments. 24, ESL screening. 25, mentor resource facilitator 2025 2026 school year. 26, curriculum writing,
health services, nurses, updated nurses manual. 27, curriculum writing, special education, ELA assessment revisions, grade 1 through 5. Curric um 28, curriculum writing, uh same as above, grades six through eight.
29. Same as above grades K through five. Curriculum writing uh special education math revise units of study grades 6 through 8. Uh curriculum writing 31. Curriculum writing special education math modify
Google Docs and link kit items grade 1 through 5. 32 same as above. Grades 6 through 8. 33 same I'm sorry. Curriculum writing special education specialized reading room program. Grade two through eight. 34. Curriculum, lighting, special
education. Four. Is that four? Four. Tag me in. Tag me in. Tag me in. Tag me in. I'll finish for you. It's so much. Is that Is that Is that permissible? There's 51 items. I got to keep going. Okay. Thank you, though. I appreciate
it. You can see I'm about to pass out. Uh, where was I? 34. I read grades one through five. 36. Uh curriculum writing special education for supplemental resources scope and sequence grades 6 through 8. Curriculum writing special education executive functioning scope
and sequence grade K through eight 37 curriculum writing special education LLD program supplemental resources grade 6 through8 38 curriculum writing special education autism program supplemental resources grade K through 8 39 curriculum writing special education preschool thematic curriculum writing 40
curriculum writing special education WJV materials integration into educational evaluations 41 curriculum writing special education ERRI supplemental support 42 school counseling ing summer work. 43 student observations. 44 paid
medical disability leave. 45 unpaid leave of absence. One more. 46. Amended resolutions. Leave date. I so move. That's it. That's it. I so move. Take some water. Thank you for your support on that. Can I have a
second, please, Miss Carrera? Um, all of your fellow board members are appreciative that they didn't get picked to read that one, Mr. Hyatt. So, thank you for stepping up on that one. Uh, any discussions on these items?
Seeing no discussions, Mr. Caravilla, would you do a roll call? So, yes, just for um for number nine, transfer certif certificate certificated staff. Sorry. Um, Carol Anne Foreman, it says that she's being transferred from Frank J. Dugan Elementary. It should read Defino
Central Elementary. So just that correction. Third one down. Third one down instead of Abbott. Instead of Dugan, it should be Defino. Oh. Okay. Mr. Carell, would you take a roll call as amended? Sure. Mr. Alonsky?
Yes. Mrs. Mendes, yes. Dr. Msquitz, yes. Mrs. Seawart, yes. Mrs. Balomo, yes. Mrs. Carrero,
yes. Mr. Hyatt, yes. And Mr. Cohen, yes. With um one just one note that item number three, Mr. Gregory Cohen is not related to me in any way as far as I know. So, I just want that perfectly
clear so I don't have to abstain on it. And uh Mr. Balone just pointed out that Mr. Cohen is actually in the audience. So, welcome. Yes. Congratulations, Mr. Cohen. He didn't recognize. All right. Um I can we Huh? Are you not
related? Really not related. No. Um Mr. Bologn, you have retirement comments. Yes, thank you. Retirement comments for Loren Labuzza. Loren Labuza's journey in education has been nothing short of extraordinary, touching countless lives
and shaping the Marbor community for over two decades. From her roots in Marorrow, where she attended Asher Holmes Elementary School, Marbor Middle School, and graduated from Marbor High School, her passion for education has always been deeply personal. Her career
began as a student teacher at both Asher Holmes and Marorrow Middle School in the fall of 1999. And then in January of 2000, she was offered a position at Robertsville where she shared her love of learning with fourth grade students. In the fall of 2000, she transitioned to Marbor
Middle School where she was able to specialize in life science and share her enthusiasm and passion for the subject with her seventh grade students. It was in 2003 when this school, Marbor Memorial Middle School, opened its doors that Lorine truly found her professional
home. As one of the founding educators of Memorial, she continued to ignite curiosity and a love of science in her students. Her impact only deepened when she became vice principal in 2014. In this role, Loren's dedication of students extended beyond the classroom,
guiding the school with kindness, integrity, and an unwavering commitment to academic excellence. As the K8 science supervisor for the district, Lorine was instrumental in shaping not only the science curriculum, but also fostering a culture of collaboration and growth
across the district. She has been a mentor, a leader, and a friend to so many. Her thoughtful leadership and tireless dedication to both her students and colleagues have left an indelible mark on the Marbor school community. As she steps into her retirement, we
celebrate not only the remarkable educator she is, but the extraordinary human being who has inspired generations of students and educators alike. Lorine's influence will continue to resonate in the classrooms, hallways, and hearts of everyone she's touched. We
wish her a retirement filled with all the joy and fulfillment she so richly deserves. Her legacy is one that will live on. Congratulations, Lorine. What what an amazing story. I mean, you want to talk about somebody who has such deep ties to the Marorrow
Township public school system. You can't get anything more deeper than this. from teach from learning to training to teaching to retirement. Wow. Thank you so much, Mrs. Leuza, for the lives that
you've t you have touched. What an incredible story. Wow. Um, okay. Can't top that. Um, let's move on to the next item, which is policy, development, community relations. Miss Carrerero, would you do that one?
uh policy development and community relations matters. Uh the superintendent of schools submits the following resolutions for approval. One, first readings. I so move. Thank you. Can I have a second, please? Mr. Lansonski. Any discussions on this
item? I see no discussions. Mr. Caravell, would you do a roll call, please? Sure. Mrs. Mendes. Yes, Dr. Msquids. Yes, Mrs. Seawart. Yes, Mrs. Balomo.
Mrs. Carrero. Yes, Mr. Hyatt. Yes, Mr. Alonsski. Yes. And Mr. Cohen? Yes. Okay, we are up to our liaison reports. Um, we're gonna start out with Miss
Seart Freehole Regional High School and Abbott, please. I'm gonna read this from under the table. I feel like worse than last time. Well, I guess that's to be TD. Um, thank you, Michael Messenger,
for the uh update. I'm going to read it verbatim from the email. Last night, we had our May meeting, which was May 6th, which was also their budget meeting. I had pointed out last month that D-Day had arrived. Well, as a result, the board approved a budget last night of
236.3 million that included a tax increase of 19 million. This is an increase in the tax levy of 8.66%. However, Marorrow residents will see a tax increase of 13%. Marble residents will go from paying 0.514 per $100 assessed value of
their home to 0.581 per $100 of assessed value. The tax increase is so much higher than other towns due to the state's formula based on enrollment and assessed values of property in the town. Taxes were increased so that the board could avoid having paytoplay for extracurricular activities, the end of
courtesy busing, higher class sizes, and potentially closing a school that would require Marbo students to be redistricked. Magnet schools were also in jeopardy of being reduced. The tax increase will be spent on adding teachers, 10 teachers, excuse me, in
math, science lab renovations, a gym floor at Marorrow High School and boilers. Down the road, the district will be looking at spending tax revenues on roofing, plumbing, and air ventilation in classrooms. The state would have allowed the board to increase taxes by 30 million since that is the amount we are below adequacy. The board
voted to approve a $19 million increase. Marorrow pays 23% of the tax levy in the district. Even though the state has cut funding from 50 million to 29 million to Freehole Regional High School District, most recently they cut another 965,000 despite S2 cuts supposedly being
over with. S2 strikes again. In other news, a new vice principal was hired at Freehold Township High School and the principal at Freehole Brow is retiring effective September 1st. Grim, I know. Um, and this one is
from Mr. Perno at the Abbott Early Learning Center. Kindergarten field trip to Ferno Woods was a huge success. Students enjoyed learning about local plants and animals. We are busy hatching butterflies in each class. Within the next week or so, classes will start to have their butterfly release
celebrations. Due to rainy weather, the PTO spring fling has been rescheduled to June 9th. The event will feature music, dancing, and a variety of games and crafts. A few things coming up. Teachers are busy planning the end of year celebrations. Each class plans something unique. Parties, concerts, picnics. Each
class plans something special to celebrate a year of learning. Field day is coming up on May 29th. There are a variety of outdoor events planned for the day. And we have our annual chick hatching program coming up on June 2nd. Students will be studying the life cycle of a chick and observing them as they
hatch. Students will also help care for the newly arrived chicks until they return to the farm. That's all. Thank you. It's something exciting about watching the chicks hatch. Um, next up is the Marbor Education
Foundation and Dugan. Um, Miss Gandhi is on here. Dr. Misswitz, do you have you have Dugan and I think Mr. Hyatt? I have a quick update on MF if you want me. Okay, let's um do MEF first and then we'll do you want me to do MEF and Asher?
Well, you'd have to do MEF, Asher um and Mammoth County School Boards. Yes. Uh, so the quick update on Marble Educational Foundation. Um, I think they've paid all their vendors and um got a tally for the Wizards game. They raised over 21,000 I believe. So that
will all go to obviously educational grants that teachers can apply to across the district. So just a thank you uh to the community for coming out and selling that out. They raised pretty good revenue that will directly benefit our schools. That's great. Thank you for sharing that. Thank you to the MAF for
um for supporting our schools and our grants. That's a great number. From what I understand, that was the largest that that I didn't ask, but I can find out. I I heard I heard that somewhere. I don't know where I heard it, but I I thought I read it somewhere or I heard it somewhere. I remember what they raised last year. It's definitely substantially
higher. So, probably Well, that's great. I mean, it was a sold out event. And I I'm going to play next year. You're going to play? You better believe it. I'm going to talk to him. I'm going to practice with him. So when we update the MEF policy, no board members are allowed to participate
in MF. I mean, I really couldn't protect myself out there. Fair enough. Um I don't have an update for Moth County. They had their board meeting actually May 6, the same time as our board meeting where they honored their um teacher of the year and a couple other things. I don't think I'll
have an update because that was their last meeting of the year. Uh for Asher, I have an update. So May is shaping up to be fun to be a fun-filled and exciting month at Asher. NJSLA testing is finishing up and they are gearing up for the PTA color run which is this
Friday. The fifth grade picnic at Black Bear was a huge success. Both the kids and adults had a great day of paddle boating, obstacle courses, craft sports, and lots and lots of food and ice cream. We they have a schoolwide assembly planned for the day after Memorial Day weekend. And then they will prepare
for all June has to offer, including a buy one get one book fair, band concert, PTA carnival field day, and other fun fifth grade activities that lead up to the moving up ceremony. Earlier this month, they celebrated staff appreciation week, and they cannot thank
the Asher PTA enough for all they did to celebrate each and every one of the staff members. Fresh donuts, coffee, two fabulous lunches and candy table, bubbly drinks, I don't know what that is, but sounds delicious, and popcorn bar along with yard decorations with a circus
theme really make us feel like the greatest teachers staff on earth. Uh they are lucky to be supported by these wonderful parents and guardians. And then finally, on May 6th, uh they took the time to celebrate school nurses day with one of our one and only nurse, Neri. Thank you, Miss Neri, for the care
you show all students and staff daily. You are the crazy glue that keeps our circus safe and healthy. That concludes my updates. Thank you very much. Uh Dr. Miscuits, we'll do yours when we do all three of them. I'm just going to continue down my list first. U Marorrow Township and
Marboro Middle School. Mr. Lansonsky. Yep. Uh thanks to Len Franco. Um, this Marboro Swim Team is holding tryyouts at the Marboro Swim Club on June 9th from 4:30 to 6 p.m. For more for more information, email marbor marlin swim
team atgmail.com. Monday, May 26, the Township Veterans Volunteer Committee will hold a Memorial Day ceremony at 11:00 a.m. at the Veterans Memorial in front of town hall. This is a short ceremony. All are welcome. Light refreshments do follow. Additionally,
town hall and the recycling center will be closed Monday, May 26th in observance from Pris Milwaukee at the middle school. Very special thank you to PTO and M MMS parents who prepared and hosted an amazing staff appreciation week of treats, raffles, brunch,
lunchon, ice cream sundaes, and more to celebrate the staff. The circus theme was incredible. Every day was a new surprise. Thank you to everyone who contributed to the week of events and surprises. The events in May include May 21st, the final music concert of the year at 7 p.m. May 22nd, peer-to-peer
family night beginning at 5:30 p.m. May 30 31st, a music competition trip to Hershey Park. Grade level trips have been planned this month. Sixth graders will visit Great Adventure Safari and see a show at the Glanc Theater. Seventh graders recently had a class trip to
Medieval Times. And eighth grade recently had a great time on their class trip to I play America. and they're going to begin planning for graduation very shortly. From the PTO and Lauren, thanks to all those donated bags of clothing and other items to our spring clothing drive, we were able to raise
almost $800. Attention parents and guardians of eighth graders. Lawn signs and keepsake keepsake bath beach towels. Orders have been submitted to our vendors and pickup details will be communicated within the next week. If you purchase a graduation
locker ground for your student, please note they will be decorated after school on Friday and June 6th and soon to be graduates will see them when they come into school on Monday. The eighth grade dance will take place on June 11th at the Grand Marquee. Eighth graders will have a one session day. Wristbands for mittance will be distributed in the
school that morning. That's it for me. Thank you, Mr. Lki. Um, moving on to New Jersey school boards and memorial. Miss Mendes. Yes. I just want to say you left out the almost error store that the township hosted.
I was gonna go but it wouldn't join me. Um anyway anyway average age of eight I just um okay so we'll start with NJSBA. Um on May 10th they had their annual their I'm sorry their delegate assembly
and so I did attend that. It was um down at the Mercer County School and they had um couple of things that they were doing just to give a little line of sight into what that means. So when there's voting that takes place at this delegate
assembly, each of the districts can you know and I'm your delegate but each district can send a delegate. A delegate can go. Not everybody goes but it's good forformational purposes. But what happens after these votes take place, if it passes or if it doesn't pass, is that
then NJSBA can add it to their policies, whatever passes, we don't have NJSBA, so the impact is minimal, but what they can do is they then can take that information and advocate and lobby to local government for actual change outside of just NJSBA policy. So that's
what the delegate assembly its purposes. And so it's a it's an interesting place to meet other board members and so forth. So anyway, so I attended that. Um there were a couple of pieces that came up and I'm not going to get too in the weeds, but I do have a booklet here if anybody's interested um in reading it.
It's also on their site uh what it was. They have a variety of things, but there were a couple of votes that took place. One was on esports. Some districts do actually um have esports in their schools and they wanted to award esports
v varsity letters. So they wanted to make esports um comparable to other sports like baseball and softball and football. Just elaborate on what esports is because I was pretty floor. Oh yeah. Yeah. I was sharing that esports for anybody that doesn't know is is actually gaming,
right? And as we know because we some of us know some serious gamers um they take it very seriously and it's its own sport. So, they were using that as a way of, hey, maybe they're not playing out in a field per se, but they do want to
actually um award varsity letters. And there were a lot of conversations about why people do or don't agree with that. And so, that vote did pass. Again, it would be in NJSBA's policies. We don't have them, but um anyway, it's there and
they can advocate for it if they'd like. The other one that came up was about nurses. And so that one, they actually want to um I guess they have a shortage of nurses in this school district that proposed it. So districts could propose a resolution and so forth. And this
district felt that they wanted to lower the requirement for a nurse to not have um an RN per se. And so uh a lot of conversation people had around that. And so um they want to eliminate the bachelor's degree requirement for a school nurse. And they had other
requirements so forth. So, um, that vote did pass as well. Again, it's a policy of theirs. We don't have them, but I just wanted to let you all know. And there were a couple of other resolutions. The other one that the last one that came up in this meeting was that
um, right now a student can in high school can miss school and have an excused absence for um, if they're in the military and they're going to visit the school or college visits and so forth. And so they wanted to add a piece where if a child was visiting a trade
school, right? Because maybe they're not going on the college path and they're going to trade, they wanted to make your visit to a trade school an exempt um absence as well. And so that vote did pass as well. So those were the three that were from that day. It was a really interesting uh day and there was a lot
of lessons learned there. So just wanted to share that with you. And then for memorial The peer-to-peer held a special event on um May 14th. The student leaders facilitated discussions about issues of substance experiment experimentation,
trust, and decision-making that kids in middle school face uh with seventh grade students and their the important adults in their lives. Thank you to all who attended this past weekend. Our select music ensembles compete at the Music in the Parks festival in Hershey Park. Our
select choir and orchestra received first place finishes and superior ratings. Our select band received a first place finish and an excellent rating. There's also a student who won the award for best coral accompanists. And congrats to our directors, Mr.
Goalie, Mrs. P, and Mrs. Dokus, and to all our musicians. This Thursday is the sixth grade spring concert at 7 p.m. And then from Thank you, Mr. Pacificico. And then from the PTA, uh, we raised about $4,000 in donations
for teacher and staff appreciation week from families. So, thank you to all the families. We also got a lot of donations from local businesses and restaurants and had a fantastic staff appreciation week that was catered with all different things, gifts, breakfast, and all these cool things. We got some beautiful notes
from the staff. So, thank you so much for that. Um, 8th grade, they're coming. They're graduating soon. But anyway, the dance is coming up. We're excited. Lawn s signs are for sale until tomorrow is the final day. Lockergrams are until May
28th, the sales. Um, and we're looking forward to the eighth grade trip. Thank you, Miss Mendes. Miss Seward, I know you're going to say, "How does he know this? There are about 3,000 school districts across the country that have esports programs." There are a few here
in New Jersey that actually do have it, including Atlantic County. One of the most you got your varsity one of the most one actually a very very good um successful program. Huh. Yep. Well, they start they started out in college. They began then becoming very popular in high
school no they're they're very competitive programs nationally fully aware. I just was surprised that the varsity le letter piece of it. In college, they're actually college associated that with the physical. In college, they're actually controlled by the same organization that controls college football college sports.
The NCAA controls the esports programs there. It's it's incredible. There were some parents there who came up to the microphone. Well, board members, also parents whose children actually had scholarships to colleges based on esports. So there was a very healthy discussion on Listen, if my
husband could have got one for playing Halo back in the day, it would have happened. So I get it. I get it. All right. Thank you. Um Robertsville, Miss Carrera. All right. Thanks to Mr. G uh for
preparing this report. Um and congratulations again on his respect certificate. It's very welld deserved. Um this week our fifth graders will enjoy their well-deserved fifth grade barbecue at Frogbridge. Our band concert for fourth and fifth grade families will surely be a hit. Field day preparations
are well underway. The glow dance that was sponsored by the PTO was so much fun for our students in grades 1 through 4. A special shout out to Mrs. Georgees, our teachers and support staff who executed NJSLA testing with precision and and efficiency. Mrs. Carney
organized such a memorable art show this year. The displays truly showcase the skill of our students as well as their love of art. Robertsville is very excited to welcome the students from Marorrow Memorial Music Program to present to our fifth graders. Robertsville is also gearing up for our
moving up ceremony on June 18th. Uh as days draw closer to the close uh to the close of the school year, our teachers and students continue to consume knowledge, show respect, and enjoy every moment of their school life. We are so proud of all of our road runners.
Thank you, Miss Carrero. Uh Doc Nisco at Scope Morel and then Dugan, please. Is your microphone on? Thank you. I'll do Dugan first. Sure. Okay.
May is no May is notoriously busy a a no May is a notoriously busy month as our Dugan staff and students cannot help but think about their upcoming summer break. During the week of May 5th, our staff was pampered by the PTO, showing
them well-deserved appreciation for their commitment to all our students. Dugan truly would be a blank canvas without our amazing faculty. The character pillar of digital citizenship was recognized through the through engaging digital citizenship escape
rooms in grades three, four, and five. Thank you, Dr. Barry and Mrs. Balawa for organizing a fun and educational experience. Dugan's kindergarten visited Long Street Farm for a field trip and the first and third graders are looking
forward to their upcoming trip at the end of the month. Bravo to the fourth and fifth grade band who under the direction of Mr. Young performed marvelously at the spring concert. Lastly, today concluded our regular administration of NJSLA testing and we
are looking forward to rounding out the school year in the coming weeks. Yay. I'm talking from past experience. Yay. May's battle of the grades continued with Oh, this is from the PTO. I'm sorry. Dugan PTO report. May's
Battle of the Grades continued with fun. May the force be with you event where Dugan students were encouraged to join either the light or dark side by wearing either white or black to school. Double points were awarded to classrooms whose teacher also dressed for the
theme. The Dugan fifth grade farewell dance will take place on uh Friday, May 30th from 5:00 pm to 7 p.m. This is a drop off event and is open to fifth grade students only. Registration is required by May uh 29th. Attention fifth
grade parents, celebrate Dugan Friendship and Memories with a special day of fun and activities at Blackbear Lake Day Camp on uh Tuesday, May 27th, 2025. The cost includes transportation, lunch, snacks, activities, t-shirt,
towel, and string bag. T-shirts, towels, and bags will be distributed before the week of the celebration. The picnic lunch will consist of an unlimited choice, including hamburgers and cheeseburgers, hot dogs, black bean veggie burgers, grilled chicken,
macaroni and cheese, fixings bar, potato salad, pasta salad, kleslaw, potato chips, and pretzels. watermelon cookies, bottled water, iced tea, and lemonade. The camp is nut-free, but foods may contain other allergens, so please
contact Danielle Blommo via email with allergy concerns. Don't forget to order the 2024 2425 Dugan yearbook through our website, duganele.ptboard.com. Save the date for the annual Jugan art
show. Thursday, June 12th in the cafeterium from 5:00 to 7:00. All Jugan students will have artwork [Music] displayed. Now, um this is for Morell. On 5:20 the day, the band concert um
with the students in the grades four and five bands will uh have already put on a concert for their peers during the school of school day and the families saw it in the evening. Um once again they are thrilled that the NJSLA science testing is completed. Art
show is going to be on 522. Parents will be invited into the halls of Morell to see a showcase of student artwork throughout the year. 5:27 grade 2 uh coral concert will be presented to peers during the school day and families in the evening. On June
2nd, uh, Marorrow Middle School conflict managers will visit the fifth grade home rooms for transition to middle school lessons. In 64, final PTO meeting for the year and PTO volunteer appreciation breakfast. 66 will be the grade five
bagel breakfast, grade four biography presentations. 69, grade three recorder concert, 611, grade five moving up ceremony. 613 kindergarten flag day
celebration, 617 field day, and 619 class parties. And we're ending the school year soon. So, now one more. Um, this is for Scope. Scope would like
to extend our heartfelt thanks to the many parents who attended our recent night of inspiration featuring Ben Hartman, an incredible autism advocate whose message left a lasting impact on all who joined. We're also deeply appreciative of the administration for
their support in making this meaningful event possible. We loved working with Circle of Friends to uh sponsor the delicious food for the evening. As we look ahead, we're excited to share that planning is already underway for our end of the year celebrations and summer programming. The students in ESY can
look forward to some fun and ice cream treats to keep cool and celebrate the season. The end. Thank you, Dr. Msquitz and C. Just one sec. Can I just shout out Mr. Young um the band director at Dugan. We had our concert. I'm sure it was an
oversight that it wasn't on the update, but fourth and fifth grade band concert at Dugan was adorable. The kids did so good and Mr. Young is uh he's like a a Jack Black at that school. The kids really look up to him and they they really performed so nice and I just
wanted to say from a parents perspective, it was really gratifying to see all the hot cross buns hard work played off. So, I just wanted to give a shout out to Mr. Young. Thank you for sharing that, too. Okay, CPAG and Defino, Miss Palmo.
Sure. I'll start with Defino. Thank you, Dr. Stratic and Nicole for the update. Um, we're racing toward the end of an awesome school year. We have a fun-packed May and June at Defino with concert, wax museums, field day, and end of year celebrations. Kicking things off on May 27th, our third graders are
turning themsel turning into time travelers with their wax museum projects. Picture these kids decked out as historical superstars, famous athletes or celebrities, giving many speeches about their lives and accomplishments. They truly bring history to life with this project. On
May 29th, our fifth graders get a VIP visit from the Memorial Middle School Band. These middle school rockstars will share the scoop on joining band next year and treat our kids to a couple of musical numbers. Fast forward to June 6th when our kindergarten crew shine at the end of the year celebration. Then on
June 12th, our fourth and fifth graders take the stage for a band concert. These students have made incredible progress under the direction of Mr. Young, and we cannot wait to see them perform. On June 17th at 9:30 a.m., we have our moving up ceremony for our fifth graders. It's a
heartfelt sendoff as they gear up for the middle school adventures. We can't wait to celebrate our fifth graders. The next day on June 18th, we have field day. It's hands down one of the most joy- days of the year. To top it all off, our incredible PTO is hosting a family ice cream social on June 19th to
scoop up some sweet memories and celebrate an unforgettable school year. Next, I have the CPAG leazison report. Thank you, Angie and Robin uh for getting this report to me. Um CPAG celebrated all the staff, teachers, paraprofessionals, PT, OT, speech
teachers, BOE, BOE, and transportation drivers last week during NJSBA special education week. MTPS is the glue that holds us together. Thank you to all for sticking with the job. All the encouragement, commitment, and involvement with our children all year long. The final spring parent academy by
special services will take place on May 18 on May 28th and will be on the role of the BCBA and the FBI in school. Please see the March 11th email with additional information and the virtual link.
The last virtual CPAC parent meeting of the school year will be on Thursday, March 20 will be on Thursday, May 29th. Yeah, May 29th. Thursday, May 29th at 7:30 p.m. Please see the CPAC Facebook page closer to the meeting for the virtual meeting link and the agenda. Please
continue to check the CPAC Facebook page as webinars and resources are constantly being added that parents and guardians might be interested in. If you aren't a member of the CPAC Facebook page, this is where we provide additional resources for parents in between our regularly scheduled CPAC parent meetings.
Thank you, Mrs. Balomo, and thank you everyone for your reports this month. Um, they are always um very interesting, very helpful. So, thank you. All right. Um, our next item is old business. Um, I know Miss Mendes, you wanted to bring up
the referendum dates. Yes. I just I don't want to belabor the point. I just wanted to make sure I formally put it out there that I just would like to weigh all the options and make sure we don't run out of time. And so I just wanted to start a discussion
on November versus December versus anything else that's important, I know, to all of us. And so I just want to make sure we come together and talk through the dates. That's all. So, if anybody has any thoughts on it, I'd like to try our hardest for either
November or January. I think December is just such an obligatory month for families and voters to put something else on the calendar. Maybe it was not the turnout that they expected or hoped for in the past because of that. I know, you know, school gets crazy at that time of year. Family obligations gets crazy.
So, what did what the third Tuesday of December is? Can we pull up that slide from last time? What? Can we pull up that slide from last time? Yeah. And like what the asks were like cuz depending on like you know. So last
time last meeting when we presented so the history of referendums April 1985 pass I was two March 21 I wasn't born March 21st 1995 pass
thanks thank you March March March 14th 2000 pass January 25th 2005 fail September nomber 29, 2009 pass. Uh November 3rd, 2015 fail and then
September 28, 2016 fail. So we've never gone out in December. Did we have We never done a general. What were the We did in November of 2015 and it failed. It was $46 million. The last one we went out for was $26 million. Yeah. The one
in 2009 passed because it was zero dollars because we had leftover money from a previous referendum we needed voter approval for. And and I'm sorry if you could just go back. The one you just said, the latest one, the last two that were um it was September 28, 2016 and it failed for 26 million. Okay. And then
what was the one before that? November 3rd, 2015, and that failed for So it was November and September. Okay. It doesn't feel like there's any correlation there. But so when you talk to bond council, when you talk to the um communications agency, when you talk to architects, they will advise you on the best time to
go out. I would they'll give you more data. I would say um I mean in reality it it really depends on the community. It really depends on how we advertise this. It depends on how we you know what's our message, how we send this out, how it impacts us, and
how we really discuss how this is going to make our district better, which I can tell you just from the cost of how much it costs to just put in window units in those buildings due to medical needs. The cost alone right there is draining
our utility bills from window units. Um any of them can be anywhere from 5,000 to 10,000 BTUs to do a whole classroom. So from that aspect, it's it's not so much the correlation of the date. It's really just what we feel comfortable with and how and what timeline we feel
most comfortable with when it comes to like talking about our message and and getting it out to the community and discussing it and continuing to discuss it. Um makes sense. Honestly, there's no bad there's no bad choice. So, in reality, I think from our
history, it looks like the springtime we've had success, April and March, but that's going back to from stats that are from anywhere from the 80s to 2000, right? You you would be delaying that longer,
which has other impacts, not just just the the amount of time it will take to get air condition, but also the potential rise in cost again. Correct. I mean, I know tariffs have been postponed, but I don't know how long that's going to be. And the longer you wait, the longer you anticipate possibly having to ask for more
if if we do it, you know, either November, December, will we have it for next, you know, when when would it be able to be installed? How long? So, this work because it's it's very labor intensive, like you can't do it during
the school day or you'd be doing it second shift, which costs more money. So you're going to be looking at not this summer, the the following summer of when that work is going on next summer. Summer of 26 done. Started. Yeah. Started started. But
that, you know, so I want to get this done. I mean, we still will the certain classrooms will still have air conditioning in Robertsville Asher because it'll be per a medical note. Yeah. But that's but it's the rest of the building that right the rest of the kids and that's the piece that I don't
like because there's no equity there. These kids are not everybody is getting the same and they everybody you know everybody's paying taxes. I know you know everybody you know their children deserve to be in
a comfortable I've been here for five years and if you go back to my discussion that I had with the board in 2021 2022 was a three to five year plan. So, we are on that timeline. It's just you have to be fiscally responsible the way you navigate this because we do have
11 buildings and quite frankly, happens. Um, so you can't just spend all of your money on just put when everybody else has it. I want, you know, I want That's a technical term. I do. So, can I just ask
then on the on the date then for that? So, I know you're going to meet with bond counsel and you've provided a lot of the information to us in in the green notes. So, I appreciate that. I just want to ask this question. So, June 10th, I understand you're meeting. You've shared all of who you're meeting with. Then you're going to talk about
the committee and all that. But in our next board meeting though, by June 17th, could we I'm just asking make a decision so that you feel like you could have so with that decision comes I think some strat planning. I think that you're is that in the June 10th meeting? Yeah. So
absolutely. So June 10th, one of the things will be what are our options? And then June 17th, we can come back with really concrete information from our bond council saying December will work, here's why. November will work, here's why. September is not going to work,
here's why. Um, and he'll give us the the reasons why each date will work or not work, and what the timeline looks like after that. And I'm sure you're going to send this. I'm just going to ask, could we get that information in advance of June 17th and maybe even before the green notes for the Friday if
you have it? I'm not rushing. I'm just asking because that will allow us time to kind of think about our questions that we might have if Yeah. So, after our meeting, I can send an email to the full board just knowing what we're going to discuss and then just relay the information for the like the specific
dates and what they recommend and why. I mean, I that's not an issue. Okay. Thank you. And then hopefully when we come to the June 17th meeting, we'll have enough information to where that'll be the last discussion where we figure out what date we want and we go forward with with that date
and and streamline the process. This way we don't have to go to the 19-day window or anything and abruptly change it. We can be consistent with with the date and everybody's comfortable with and then and I know I'm not part of the communications committee and so I know we'll talk about all that. They'll talk about all those things too, but then I
guess I'm not sure what that council meeting look like. Will it have like are you mapping out a strategy there or is it just they're just giving advice on language for and um so that everybody's going to map out strategy including that's what the communications company's going to do is they're going to help us
map out a strategy and what's the best approach for us to be able to relay this information to the community and also have it at the fingertips of the full board. Right? because I just want to make sure we're doing our part in the promotion of it too. So that's why I'm just that's why they they when they spoke they talked about a referendum
committee not knowing we have so many committees already that things can flow through. Um maybe we tell them we want to act as a referendum committee as a whole. I was just going to say that there's a thing the committee of a whole too versus I'm just asking I'm not saying that one's right or wrong just could we discuss both options. I think I
think having a referendum committee as a whole is the most beneficial because if they do have if they do have Q&As's like they say they're going to host like virtual Q&As's or or inerson Q&As's we would just put out a public notice and we
would have a meeting and that would be basically considered you know a referendum hearing or a Q&A for the referendum and everybody can be participating in it rather than just to select three members or four members or have to be rotating. ating, right? So, I
think that's the best that's the best way to go. The only the only cons I I'm fully on board with the the referendum committee being a committee of the whole because I think that's how we've been operating all along um for the work that we've been doing in the context of the
referendum and yeah our finance committee is a committee as a whole and most of this stuff has transversed through the only the only concern I have is that some of this work may require a smaller group of people to be able to get together and to work without having to trigger the open public meetings
laws. So we may need to have still some workflow through communications or we may have to have some work through we may have to I may have to create a ad hoc committee that would support the referendum or the or the communications committee and then that way we can use
that to report back out to the referendum or we could get creative right if you said well the def decisions of the referendum committee as a whole can actually even flow through the advisory committee when it comes to if we want certain community members or certain professionals or anybody that the that the the communications company
would recommend almost being like our outlet or our conduit to even get this further to the community. That's how you can flow through those community I mean those committees right or even hosting like smaller subset meetings right if you're not doing the ad hoc like if four
board members can come one day I'm just trying to get creative to not make extra work for the ad hoc maybe you're just like here are three days can three people sign up here and four people come here I think it's just most effective for us to continue to talk about it as a whole here because then when we do
reiterate our message we can refer to people to watch these videos and see what we've discussed, refer them to the website. There'll be a a trail where you can gather information and knowledge on this. Yeah. Rather than just word of mouth, right? So, we all feel looped in. We're all promoting it and, you know.
Okay. Thank you. I think that provides a lot of transparency, too, which that's one of my key things too. I want to make sure that everything is transparent to the people to the public. So, I think that's a great idea. Thank you for your
But yes, I will come back to you with information regarding the special election dates and the general election date and what we are in a great position to do and what we're not. They will recommend us, he will, Mr. Salomi will recommend us what the best date to do is and what the timelines look like for
those dates in that meeting. Is that where you're going to also come up with some potential language that will be on the on the ballot or is that later? That's just going to basically start. So the architect, the engineer will get involved. We'll be passing out information. And I know the communications company will talk to the architect and engineer to start building
stuff that's really specific in nature when it comes to information. And then you'll have your bond council basically tell everyone at that meeting how this is going to play out and how this is going to work and that's when we'll bring up the conversation with the dates. Okay. And then the Laura Bishop
firm, I saw that you had some notes in in there for us about having a meeting or something or that's what I'm referring to. Okay. So they'll be at that meeting as well. And then will they have a strategy mapped out? I know they presented I know I wasn't here but I did watch the meeting. Um they presented
what they would provide the services. Are they now after that meeting going to provide like the strat plan of what they're going to Yeah. So um they'll start reaching out. They'll start building a website for us. They'll start putting information together of what they obtained from the bond council, what they obtained from us, what they
obtained from the architect and engineer. And they'll start building that. And then when we're ready to disseminate that information, that's when they come back to us and say, "Hey, we can do it this way, we can do it that way, we can send out this, we can send out that." And then that's when when we talked before how we would have a
discussion on how we want that to look and how we want to go out. Yeah. And then my last piece on this one is that I know I raised in the last meeting about communications. So giving us um instead of monthly, which by the way, you give us great information. I'm not saying that. I'm just talking about moving
forward. You're not always that person, right? I think they're going to do some work too. So, not putting it on Brian, just asking whomever some sort of update weekly where this happened, that happened because if you're saying they're going to build a website, they're going to do all these things and
just how can we get the communication of what's happening and where it's moving more than once a month. That's all I'm asking. Okay. Yeah. You know what may be helpful is we just map out a couple of milestones and the date that the milestone was you know progressing and
just report back out on yeah I think as they happen and when they start we just forward them to the full board and as I do say individually if you have any questions reach out to me um so like when the website gets up and running or if it's in a draft mode share it with the board. Yep. Those sorts of things. And if there's and just when you're
meeting with that firm, I just ask also if they're going to create materials that we could share, right? So if if the goal is for the board members, which makes sense. So for us to also promote this, are there going to be any materials that we could use, right, to
to post wherever we do too? just Yeah, I think that's the part where I was saying where anything that they advise us to make or they advise us to send out, we're going to come back to the board and tell them what that is. Yep. Okay. And then you would be able to if that's a green light, we take them and we send
them out and we whether it be a mail distribution or a flyer or something of that nature. Thank you. Thank you so much. Um just you know miss going back to sort of I know your first statement was if you had a preference it would be could
disregard that I think November or January. No no we could we could rene that because I thought that the failed referendums were that's what I was asking. Thank you. It's a moot point now. Thanks. Okay. Personally, I mean from from what you shared so far with absent any additional information from
the adviserss and recommendations that they may be able to provide us at the next meeting to me it sounds like December January is probably more ideal. December being even frankly December being untested for us because it down sounds like we haven't done December
yet. um that may be the more ideal one and if we had to with your 19day rule that if we had to shift it we can always shift it but I'd rather shift it forward to December January or and try not to go past that and I just
thought being strategic the general election sounds great because then you save on some of those costs but whether it's a presidential election or our governor pre uh election it's usually that's that could be that could be tough it could get lost in the sauce per se when it comes to
have getting voters out to vote for that specifically. That might just be like a check on the bottom of the box because people are there with other reasons. Okay. And the the other thing is that in your response to your comment about, you know, regular updates, whatever the the
cadence should be on that, uh I'm going to definitely um depend upon Mr. Caribel. will be more communicative on this since you're going to be what I view as being the top person who's going to be engaging in all the activities associated with this. So having you
provide the regular update to the board as frequently as possible that would be great. Yeah, no problem. Okay, any other questions on referendum? Any other new or any other old business? Mr. L, just real quick. So in
in as a year of respect has come by first of all I want to thank Mr. Balom, Mrs. Gross, our administrators, our staff, our students for participating and I think we had a really good year of respect and I think it went really well. Um in that vein as June is coming and
the end of the year is coming I think as a board we should pick a new pillar for next year. It shouldn't end this year. Maybe it's kindness. I don't know. There's a bunch over there in the wall. Maybe maybe it's kindness and maybe if for next month's agenda we can put something on the agenda to have a discussion on what our what our year
should be next year and it give the administration time to plan over the summer and uh get it going. So we got five more years on that board. It's like a cheat sheet. There you go. Right there. So I I I like the idea and and I thank
you for for both, you know, being the the champion for the ear and respect, but also for suggesting that we we not lose sight of the fact that it's time for us to do another one. Yep. Great. Any other old
business? Anyone want to bring up new business? I do. I have one thing. Um, I just wanted to let everyone know that last month, um, Marorrow Township Public Schools was honored by the Girl Scouts of America and the Girl Scouts of the Jersey Shore, uh, with the Good Neighbor
Award. It's a award that is awarded to, um, someone who aids in, uh, the Girl Scout program. Um, I was involved in the nomination process uh, with the Girl Scout troops that I lead. And I just wanted to commend Mr. Caravello for the wonderful job he does helping the Girl
Scout troops facilitate um their meetings and their events uh and always allowing us to do the best we can with administration to utilize the schools to further these girls um journey and leadership through the Girl Scouts. Um unfortunately I was I was there
fortunately receiving a separate honor. Uh unfortunately no one was present from Marbor Township Public Schools but there is a beautiful plaque that is waiting for you. Um, I had reached out. Um, but uh, if you want me to pick it up or if someone wants to go in farms, I could give you the address for that.
I I didn't I didn't know about this. This is this is Mr. Bloom was the contact. Okay. This is great. Thank Thank you for sharing that. We can have somebody pick it up. Other new business from the board
members. I I just want to No. Okay. I I just I I just actually I'm sorry. Um I just want to pick up on something that um Mr. Somaya said as far as um sort of
the board's interest or the board's um focus on what they would like to do as regarding the um I guess you if I remember correctly it was referred to as um the the concern associated with this
$50,000 that was stolen by a by someone in in depth I think it was right. Should we as a board be looking at our policies to sort of consider whether or not we have the right policies in place to ensure the you know controls or the the
guidance is given here in our district going forward. Is the board interested in pursuing this? Is this something that the policy committee should look at? Um, I just wanted to get your sense, your feeling about this so that you know, Val and I are on the policy committee. Adid
is not here, but at least it gives us guidance and direction on where you would like us to sort of begin to to look and focus our work on. Just I would look at the policies if I were you. I'd defer that to you guys. I I just want to go over that for a second. We did So, we did First, I'm not opposed to looking at
any policies. We did review and update the the uh parent organization policies last year or this year, I can't remember. They all blend. Um, but we did review it. We did add in the parameters
to align with the foundation policy 9191 of the requirements that the district um needs, copy of the bylaws and all of the things um that we required. I just I'm always open to looking at anything just
food for thought. PTO's and PTAs are independent organizations. So the level of oversight per se or requiring dual signatures on checks and so forth. I'm not opposed to anything, but I just want to be mindful that there are certain things we can't dictate when it comes to
these organizations. Um but we should look I'm not saying we shouldn't look at it, but I just wanted to put that out there. The other thing I just want to say about the financials because we had very in-depth conversations under also attorney guidance is that the board when
you open up that box of let's look at the financials per se and take an in-depth look at every single PTO or PTA um it could you just have to be mindful of how indepth you're going to go when it comes to financials and you know Mr. Rose, I
don't know when or where you could speak to that, but we did get guidance at one point from past attorney of of being mindful of of the level of oversight the board would try to kind of um take on. So, I think we should have discussions for sure, but I think we also need some
level of guidance. They are nonprofits and they're independently run. So, we can't, you know, run the PTO or PTA. Just just my thought. But again, we should know things, but I don't know how what we can and can't look into. So, I think we should just get more guidance
on that. Anyone else want to weigh in on this? I don't disagree with you. Um, I think that, you know, we need to understand what the role is of the board versus, you know, overstepping the
role of our authority. And I think that's where we need advice from council which would obviously have to be done in the context of um either an executive s session or even a policy committee meeting. So I think that would be a good place for us to get guidance from him
and then we can sort of look and see you know come back to the board and say these this is some of the advice that we've been given and you know how much breath or depth do we want to go into um from a a board perspective. Um, that's just, you know, just it it needs to help
us map out what we should and should not be doing. But I think, you know, um, can I just play devil's advocate on this for a second? Yeah. This just bad people in good organizations doesn't necessarily mean that I agree with you.
You know, one isolated incident in a different district or town should, you know, form an investigation to our honest, hardworking volunteers. I think the PTO's sometimes come under scrutiny and the board should stay in its lane with things like that. But
um then then comes the question of where does it end too? Right? If every if we're going to have a policy for every single entity that touches any type of finances, then are we going to look into school sports? Are we going to look into you know like you you have to kind of
draw the line somewhere where the board isn't? Just just so it's clear because I may I know maybe I I mis said something or I want to make it perfectly clear. I'm not suggesting an investigation. No, I know that's not what I said. I specifically speaking to the comment from earlier also like that one incident
that he referred to. There's things like that that happen every single day. Yeah. It just happened in a neighboring town not that long ago, but it's it was a bad choice by a person not to be assumed that they should all be looked into. That's all I was saying. I I I also
understand it happened here a couple of years back. Well, so I mean it could happen anywhere. It could happen anywhere. Exactly. I mean I just feel as you know as a board, how do we make sure that we're giving the right Again, I use the word guidance because I don't know
what the scope of our authority is, but we can offer guidance, right? We can offer advice. We can offer suggestions based upon best practices. there are things that we can potentially help, but I I'm not suggesting that we have the authority to sort of hold anyone to responsibility. And I just want to and and I'm with you. I just want to be
mindful too of that. I think just consulting with council first, understanding that, but also just putting out there, I know we're all in agreement, but our PTO and PTA are vital to the heartbeat of our schools. And so I just want to always keep them looped
in, which I believe I know Mr. blown had stated we're going to keep them updated in your monthly meetings with them which is great but constant communication with them too just out of I would say just a level of respect they dedicate countless
hours and I'm saying my farewell to the Marbor Memorial PTA is my final year um on it and I just see them dedicate so much time so I want to always let them know they're invaluable which I know we are all in agreement no one's saying they're not I just want to make sure
we're constantly ly communicating with them so they feel looped in. They feel like we're respecting their rules, too. That's all. No, I I I I completely agree with that. I think, you know, they have a much
stronger and educated experience of what they do and how they do it than we could ever understand. Except for, of course, Miss B, you've got you've got firsthand experience with as well. I mean, so, absolutely. And and obviously they work great with our staff. the staff is
amazing, the other piece of the heartbeat. So, I think they all just work well together. So, I just want to respect them all. Maybe they maybe the PTO's or PTAs just need guidance on how to make sure that they are safe. You know, we could look at it from other I
just want to be like a specific problem because you know I just from I know every PTO president and treasurer in this district. Is there a specific issue that so what kind of guidance would you be are you going to give him accounting advice? No, not for me, but I do know I
do know and um that it it does happen, you know, probably a lot more than we realize and um I know it for a fact, not within Marbor, but I know it for a fact. And that's what I just, you know, I want
to protect them, not, you know, I don't know how much input we should have from us or how this should go, but um sometimes the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing and because
I s I've dealt with it personally. Not me, you know, I did I wasn't on the PTA or PTO piece. I but I had to deal with it. So it it does happen and you know and it was it was a surprise to the people on the the PTA. It was a PTA at
it was a surprise to them. They didn't anticipate that this would have happened but it did. I think that just from going to multiple PTO meetings, budgets are presented at every general membership meeting um and are open to the public uh
to see budget in, budget out, what each fundraiser makes. So like you know I just generally speaking not any PTO in specific but from the PTO's that I've observed uh budgets always readily available at general membership meetings um which according to bylaws occur at
different rates. So maybe some have it six times a month a year some have it three times a year but th that information is always available and it is embedded in our parent organization policy talking about like on an annual basis. Uh, I
believe we put in there something about financials for like on a board level, but I would just again caution us and and be mindful that I don't want to give them guidance per se. I just because I know they're all really working hard and
doing a beautiful job. I just first want to know what we can and can't do because right now they're independently run and I don't want us to step where we don't belong. But and I just want to thank them for what they do. But open to any discussion. Yeah. I don't and I don't
know how it how it's done. But do they get audited? Do they have self audit? I don't know. So where So I can only speak on Memorial. We are a PTA. So we do have I don't think that we should be talking about PTO's and PTA's individual financial system. Right. So I'm not
talking about that. I can only tell you about a PTA is not their financials just in general. there for New Jersey. There are some guidelines across the board that a PTA has to live to. The financial piece I can't speak to, but I can just say on a PTA level. I think though
before we just for me, I think I would be eager to know at some point from Mr. Gross again where we could lie because I don't want to take away from from what they do or try to even overstep where I don't belong. Um so, okay. I I think I
think we're all on the same page for whatever next steps should be, which is again advice from our attorney, you know, what we should or should not be doing in the context of our policies. And then we can decide next steps, whatever the next steps should be or
shouldn't be. Um, and I and I'm fully I am fully supportive of both the work that our our PTAs and PTOs do and quite frankly making sure that they're part of the process. collaboratively in any way possible. Um, you know, that's you can't
you can't do that. You can't do any of this, you know, without transparency and without collaboration. So, I I'm fully informed. I'm fully invol informed fully on board with that. Any other comments or questions about this? Any other new business? Okay, we have public comments. Round
two. Anyone signed up? I'm sorry. Oh. up. State your name, please, and where you're from. Hello. I'm Danielle Balomo, Marorrow, New Jersey, and I am speaking as um I
just wanted to delineate between my role on the board and I'm speaking as a parent and PTO member. Um I would be remissed tonight if I didn't recognize someone in the audience. We have Officer Josh here on Happens Stance. Um, last month we were able to recognize at Dugan
all of the heroes among us in Marorrow Township. Um, I know our social media team was there, but I haven't seen anything on social media. And I just wanted to give a shout out. The work that um, our police officers, our EMTs, our firefighters do in this community is
incredible. Um, we were able to have a parade around Dugan where all 600 plus students came outside with signs. um any child who had a family member or a friend that was a first responder who came, gave them a little bunk cake as they drove by. We took pictures. Um and
as a result of that, uh the PTO was able to donate 800 uh $700 to Officer Josh's uh service dog, Bolo, um who he had there. um and just the work that you do is incredible and the compassion and care that you give to these animals and
bolo specifically is incredible and very admirable and also a great example for the children to see. So I just wanted to say thank you here because happen stance you're here and it makes it easy to thank you. Um, and then I also wanted to recognize uh the Lost Stuffy Project,
which uh helps get reunite children with their lost um comfort items uh that are lost in fires. And we were also able to give that charity $700. On behalf of the wonderful families of Dugan Elementary School. So again, Officer Josh, thank you for everything that you do. And to
our first responders and the heroes among us, on behalf of Dugan, I just wanted to say thank you. Thank you, Officer Josh, for for the work you do is right. I would thank you. We do appreciate as a I do as a board member. So, thank
you. Anyone else for public comments? Good. Uh, Angela Colby from Morganville, New Jersey. I just want to piggyback on some of the conversations that were had tonight regarding the referendum and the PTO's. I was going to offer um a
suggestion in addition to um publicizing this through the Marorrow Township, it might be a good idea to talk to the PTO's and the PTAs um to see what their policies are in regards to having a board member attend
some of those PTO and PTA meetings to talk about the referendum and what the impacts are. I know tonight there was a conflict in a PTA meeting at MMS. Um, and there was about three times the amount of parents at that PTO meeting
than there is at the board of ed meetings. So, I thought that that might be a good opportunity for you guys to publicize and talk to the parents um at that at those meetings. Um, a second comment or question that I
have is recently I heard about some chronic absences within some of the schools and that there was some um data collected or some kind of audit that was done within the schools and I would like to um hear more from Mr. alone related
to what that audit entailed, what we're doing at those um two schools to mediate that, if it's going to go districtwide, um and a little bit more details because I haven't heard any information um regarding the absences and the process
of improving within the district. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, I just thank you very much for that idea about the the PTAs and PTOs for referendums. Um, it was something and that I did think about. I'm sure others have thought about it, but you vocalized it for us. So, thank
you. And I made a note of it. I just want to say I did speak to Lauren before the MMS meeting tonight and she did have on her agenda. She gave her a blob about our referendum, how it works, what we're doing for two schools, and how there's no tax impact and what she's going to present at the meeting as well tonight.
So, it was presented at the MFS tonight. Oh, great. Thank you. Usually if um a district administrator um coordinates with building administrators, I know from the past when I was on um Abbott's board as well as several years ago on Dugan's PTO, um
usually the administrator does come and talk to the uh the general membership about anything that's upcoming on a referendum. So, we've had the superintendent or the BA or a district level admin come
I also think that that's part of the work that um the Laur lower Laura Bishop firm will do too is also go out and do some of these town hall meetings or these local meetings that they'll probably host a town hall meeting but to go out to like the
individual organizations it's probably going to fall on on you. Yeah. Or us. No. Or our team. Excellent. Thank you. Did you want to Uh with respect to chronic absenteeism,
we have two schools that were identified as uh chronically absent. And what that means is uh students are required to attend school for 180 days per New Jersey Department of Education requirements. Um you have to be in
school for 165 days to be considered not chronically absent. And and if you're over that, um the threshold is 10% uh overall. If you're over that, uh Memorial and Robertsville were deemed chronically absent. Um we
are we sent out a survey as required by the New Jersey Department of Ed as part of a remedial measure. Um we're taking that data into consideration. Um I've also met with every single principal um really regarding their evaluation,
but in terms of um a lot of them even outside of Memorial and Robertsville had talked about chronic absenteeism and um that was another thing that I'd like to bring to the policy committee to look at our attendance policy and maybe tighten that up a little bit. The the
biggest the biggest difference that we're seeing is here at MTPS, we regard absences in one of two ways, excused or unexcused. The New Jersey Department of Education just views an absence as an absence. They don't
differentiate between excused and unexcused. So, we're not advocating for students to show up sick, right? if if a child is sick, uh stay home, use all of the measures like 24 hours fever-free, um things of that nature. So, we're not
looking for students to come into school sick. Um so, don't get me wrong on that piece. Um what we're trying to prevent are things that could be scheduled outside of school hours like doctor's appointments that you know not an urgent doctor's appointment but doctor's
dentist um extended trips attached to vacations um extended leaves out of school at the end of the year. Um so we're we're looking at those sorts of things um that really push us over the
threshold. We're also looking to engage families um a little better in terms of letters sent home. U we do have letters sent home at 5 days, 10 days, 15 days regarding truency u which could require
a family member, parent or guardian to attend court, right? And if truency charges are filed. So we do have those measures in place. Um, but we really are looking to instill in our parents and guardians
that 180 days is 180 days and we need to make sure that students are in school, you know, barring any any illnesses or anything of that nature, but we need to make sure that they are in school um at least at that 165day threshold.
And when it goes beyond that, uh, we will be deemed chronically absent regardless of the reason. So, um, we're going to communicate that a little better to our parents. Um, I will bring that to the policy committee as a as a review of the attendance policy and, uh,
and we'll move forward. We're also going to look at what other districts do. And, um, I think we're looking we're going to look at Freehold Regionals policy. I think they're a little stricter than we are. Um so so we'll be looking at what other school districts do. We are seems
like we're a little too lenient and we need to tighten up a little bit. Just a question. Are you do we extract children from on that are on home instruction from the reporting? Yes. Home instruction counts as their right.
They're just extracted from Yeah. Sorry, just a follow-up question. Do you do data collection around the school calendar and the holidays and the vacations that are planned? Not the vacations, the teacher conferences, the three-day holidays. Are you doing a a
mapping related to the absenteeism um and and collecting data over the last couple years to modify the calendar? I don't have that data and and I haven't looked at this is the first year we we have been deemed chronically absent through the school performance report.
So that's something we can certainly look at. Um, you know, we we do have I know from from a community need standpoint, we do observe several holidays, right? And and some when those fallen school closures, we we try to really
accommodate. I know this board has been very good in accommodating the diverse needs of our of our community. Um and and sometimes that uh requires school closures and um you know sometimes weeks
are you know we're in we're out. Um Thanksgiving also November is a tough one with with teacher convention. So there certain things um that are out of our control but we can certainly look at what that looks like. I know in the past we uh we did
away with a a large number of the half days um where we had them scattered throughout the year. So that's something we've tried to adhere to uh to the best of our ability, but we can certainly look at trends on on when students are absent. I I think the biggest piece really is
um communicating to our to our families that the chronic absenteeism number does not differentiate between excused and unexcused. And there could be maybe some uh some of our parents maybe not really fully understanding
that. Thank you. Any other public comments? Not seeing any. Aldo Petruno Morganville, New Jersey. Um, I just want to start my public comment by welcoming Mr. Greg Cohen to
the district. I didn't realize you were going to be here this evening. Um, I do have a question though in regards to um the replacement of Miss Tierney who retired according to the
um the agenda. um the salary that she was making when she retired. Um would you be able to provide us with that number? Cuz I tried looking online and I'm
getting somewhere around 99,000. Um, and I'm trying to understand how we went from 99,000, if that number is correct, which is, you know, Ben, if you can let me know, to 123,000 when we're
already facing all these, you know, financial hardships. Is there a question? Yeah. What was Miss Tierney's salary when she retired? I don't know off the top of my head, but I know it's on an agenda somewhere. All right. I don't know how accurate NJ
gov is, but it shows it at 99,000. So, if that's accurate, then I'm assuming the board saw fit to give a new employee a 25 23%
increase to start a position when she's been here what, like 30 something years. Just doesn't really seem fiscally responsible. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Mr. Any other public comments? Motion to close public
comments. Mr. Carrerero. Second is Dr. Msquitz. All in favor? Anyone opposed? Thank you very much. Motion for an executive session, please. We will be going into executive session next. We have a matters of attorney privilege. We have a personnel matter. And we have
some labor discussions. So, motion to go into executive session, please. Mr. Hayyatt second. Miss Carrero. All in favor? Anyone opposed? Thank you very much. The board will not be coming back after any public decisions or any public
matters. Have a good evening everybody and thank you for being here.