I think time is now 6:32 and I calling our March 9th regular meeting. Um, the New Jersey open public meeting law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have dance and to attend the
meetings of public bodies at which any business interest in discussions act the man regional school district of education advert this meeting on February 27th in the park press. This notice was sent to the municipal clerks
of tomorrow and public library. The notice was also placed on the district's website to the flag of the republic for it stands. One nation
under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all Mrs. Foley. >> Yes. >> Mr. McGovern. Mr. Mandela >> here. >> Mr. Monto >> here. >> Miss Pal >> here.
>> Miss Scott >> here. >> Miss R here. >> Miss Fus >> here. >> Missing here. At this point I would like to um ask for a motion to second to move
our executive session and continue on with the agenda as noted. Second. >> Thank you. Can I have a motion on a second to approve the minutes? So all in favor of voting and moving exactly >> I >> thank you a motion the second to approve
the this a little bit easier. >> Sorry, our board secretary was right now. We're we're kind of wigging it a little bit here. Our person that keeps us organized unable to attend um minutes correspondence to the board. Motion and
a second, please. Staff I'll second by this. >> Thank you. I would like to know. I'd like to now turn over our um presentation for the superintendent.
>> Thank you, Mr. Thank you David. Twice a year the district is required to inform the board of education that HIP and student safety data is submitted to the Jersey Department of Education. Our reporting period data which is collected from September through December has been
successfully uploaded to Department of Education portal. The data reflects the hand reports for a shared floor and group each period. This toies that we are thank you and before uh we move forward
with the presentation I just want to give a statement to the community. Earlier today the district was placed on a lockdown while law enforcement investigated a reported threat at the Maran Regional High School. Due to the nature of the threat and within a limited amount of precautions, the Aine
Police Department advised the district to place all schools on lockown. While we are in while we were in active lockdown and focused primarily on the safety of our students, staff, and school community, we were unfortunately limited in terms of sharing the specific details of the investigation while this
was going on. Thank you for your patience as we addressed the situation, the initial moments of the situation. We communicated quickly with limited information and we recognize that. But it was in it was to ensure that we could
prioritize the safety and wellbeing of all of our students and staff. Today, after a thorough investigation, law enforcement determined that threat was deemed not and advised the district to list them off. The district will not be will not provide additional information about the threat under
advisement of the law enforcement. any questions you may be directed to law enforcement. We are incredibly grateful to the Aberine Town um township police and the M County Sheriff's Office for their quick response and investigation. Their collaboration with our
administration ensured that students were safe and grounded situation. I also want to express my deepest gratitude to all the building administrators in each of the buildings that were here today, the teachers and the staff at each of the buildings who followed all safety protocols during the lockdown.
Additionally, our counselor staff were readily available to support the students and the staff after the lockdown was lifted and we were available at every single building and there for students and staff. Any students who would like additional support are required to speak to somebody about today's events and follow
up with their counselor or their principal tomorrow when they come to school. Finally, all schools will follow their schedules as planned tomorrow. Please note that there will be police presence around the schools tomorrow. Thank you. And I appreciate the word for
your support and text messages and I know that um in terms of communication these things are happening. We're in we're in a mode and it's really really challenging to get communication out there but um I'm just happy that work together
for us. I also want to be the board of education police departments county sheriff's department all the staff teachers community. I know that they followed the, you know, the drills that they practiced very closely and
carefully and I helped make sure everything was safe and done and I'm grateful that it was not threat. Um I I had heard talking about I wanted you to reiterate that
counselors will be available and um will also be on site directly. I personally feel obviously it's up to student discretion but I think that um you know becoming maybe better stay home being around your friends and getting any
support that you might need knowing the place But the Heat. Heat. First, I want to welcome everyone to tonight's meeting. Um tonight we're going to discuss shaping the district's future. It's an exciting opportunity to
explore redistricting um and the proposal that we're presenting tonight for the board's approval. As you can see, the focus and you'll this slide's not up yet, but um the focus is really ensuring that our schools are well positioned to serve our community's needs. We'll be diving into details
shortly. Um but first we want to take a moment to appreciate the importance of the initiative and thank our school community um from administrators and families to the board. We want to thank all of the community members for their feedback
from parents to staff to our school community. All I'm going to say is that today I'm going to sidetrack a little bit. book this week. Last week it was right across I read a book to the kids and the title
was when things go left. What do we do? We go right. So when you're having one of those days we just go right and forget what's happening over here and just move right
and move forward and with positivity. So, I'm going to take a break because there's a malfunction of the mic and that's probably because if we walk around it's not necessarily because the mic >> I was going to add that um we're all very jittery. Shake it up. We have a lot going on
today. So, really appreciate you as we kind of get going on this. Thank you so much. Thank you. So, um what we're going to do this evening, it's going to be a two-part presentation. On tonight's agenda, we're going to um well, we're going to have Fred, who's our
consultant, um that did the demographic study, and he's going to present on all of the details in terms of how the proposal or how the scenario came about that he's going to share this evening. Along with that, without um I can't start the meeting, I can't start the
presentation, but expressing my deepest gratitude uh to the community members. When I say community, it is everyone um in this district in the community. It's our principles who have been um essential in terms of working through kinks, our full administrative staff at
central office, the board of education who've um asked questions throughout everything and really gave us some great feedback and insight from some of the community members that they're hearing with and also our staff and our students. So, some students, you know, provided feedback as well when we were
walking through the building. So which is really nice. Um and our staff um they gave us a different perspective in terms of um historical perspective which we did not we may not have been aware of. Um and that really really helped us along the way. So tonight we're going to
talk about um so tonight's evening um Fred from Citygate will um give us some insight in terms of the work completed the how behind the scenes and the why and what you can expect from Mr. Leman and myself who will be presenting. Um we are going to discuss everything on what
to expect in terms of changes from school hours to schedules, enrollment to class sizes, student experiences and opportunities. Student experiences and opportunities because that is what it is all about. It is about our students and ensuring that
they have every opportunity and experience in any building wherever they go. and we want them to have the best experience. So without further ado, I'm going to turn it over to Fred, our consultant. Going to pop up.
>> Good afternoon everyone. Um again, um I'm Fred Jos with City GIS. I uh initially did work on the demographic projections for enrollment for the next decade and then um there
was a redistricting that was the following and what I'm hoping to do tonight is go over sort of step by step how we came about to create the plan that we have uh um we have here tonight. So, I'm not
entirely sure which if I'm showing the presentation or if you guys are going to have it up. Fred, if you could share your screen, I sure can. Scroll through your slide deck. All right.
this. Um, can you guys see the the first page? Yes. Perfect. So, um, one of the one of the things that I wanted to go over first was the project objectives. Um because these
were created at the uh project's concept and I wanted to as we went through the whole process um we tried to sort of pay attention to these these uh uh project objectives and make sure that we can start to add other issues that were not
initially considered to be um critical to the project and that started with balancing out tennis areas with school capacity. So that's that was the number one goal. Um we wanted to adjust great configurations to optimize facility utilization and account for future
growth district. Um keep the communities and neighbors together to the extent possible. We wanted to improve um student transportation. The process needed to be uh transparent and open. Um, we took community input
and anytime you do redistricting, you want to create the least impact um, needed to get sort of your other bars done. Um, with the final goal being that this was going to be implemented in the 20167 school year.
So where we started um when we do redistricting we generally want to do that um at the parcel boundary um level. The reason is we don't want ambiguity of where the lines are. So by doing it at
parcel level you can specifically say if you live on this particular property then this is the school that you go to. And so using parcel boundaries removes any kind of ambiguity out of the out of the uh final final product. So we
started by um getting the parcel boundaries for the district from um from the county and the map that you see on the right side of the screen is what we started out with.
So the next thing that we do um with that map is we create what are called planning. The individual parcels are too fine um of the geography for us to draw maps on mostly because you can't project um
enrollment on such a tiny um um piece of geography. I can't know 10 years from now who's going to live in this particular house. So what we do is we try to aggregate them in a way that um we can actually create projections for the individual um pieces of geography
and these are going to become sort of our Lego building blocks that we're going to use for building our our district. Now uh building I'm sorry planning uh sorry late in the day building our school attendance areas.
So, as we are creating these planning units, um, I put two examples on the left side of the screen because we're trying to pay attention to how the ultimate boundaries are going to affect transportation.
So, for example, as you can see in the um in the circle of the top, you want to make sure that you grab both sides of the street and draw the boundary on the back side of the parcel line. So as the bus is going down this this particular street, it's big enough
gets on both sides and you don't have to um send the bus down to us. So, same thing down here as you're coming around this um into this uh subdivision. Make sure that we sort of run the line unit on the back side of the properties so
that we sort of keep account of minimizing as much as we can um the bus the the transportation boxes. So once these planning units were created um because I'm not from the
area, we put these on the web and I asked the the um the school district to comment and allow us to make changes wherever we had either split sort of incorrectly or if further splitting was needed or if we needed to act in the
area because ultimately what these planning units mean or all of these people anybody who's in a single planning unit is going to end that will be the same attendance area. Um the next step was to take all the
excuse me um students um as of 2025 and plot them on the map and then use the projections that we had um previously created and figure out from each of these um pieces of geography
what our enrollment expected enrollments going to be over the next decade. Now two pieces of information goes in went into this. One was of course the projections we did and the second was the individual uh developments that we knew of because those were specific they
had specific geographies. We placed them in the right location. So we found which planning units each one of these developments were in. Then we took the number of units and the number of um students that we uh estimated as the yield from those units and we added them
to the uh expected um student enrollment. So once that was done, I started to look at um how would how would the physical features of the district sort of play a part into
um drawing these boundaries and there were two major sort of pieces of geography that cross crisscross the the district. The first one is the guard state parkway which I had read and the second one was essentially all the water
features that bisect the uh the area. So I looked at those as being sort of my guide as I was looking at where boundaries were natural boundaries. Um the next thing we looked at was the
existing boundaries. As I mentioned, one of the things that we try to do is minimize the impact and stay as close to the previous boundaries as possible um while achieving the goal of um balancing out the the student population with
capacities. So this is what the elementary boundaries that I had from existing boundaries. So once we overlaid those um we basically came out with this
particular scenario as our as our configuration and the line that goes between Lloyd Road and and Strathmore was essentially created to balance those two boundaries with their capacities and sort of
segregate the schools such that it was one school of the boundaries. The schools are very close to each other. So the line is the line between them um went through the middle. But um essentially uh we followed um the
natural there was a stream back here. So we followed that as our as our as our rout. Once we adjusted the lines, we had as I said um calculated enrollment for the next decade. So as we uh move some of
the lines around the software provider provided us with the 25 26 well it provided for every year between now and 2034 what I've shown here is the 26 30
and 34 and I want to note that as you get further out your confidence level goes down. This is a prediction. So um your confidence sort of um goes down as the years go by but based on our
calculation all the schools remain within um reasonable deviation and near their um capacity on through 2034. So once we had a uh working plan uh the next step was to take community input.
So to do that, we basically put the the maps online and um we also added the potential clock zones which is highlighted in sort of that gray area. Um and the map allowed the users to turn the individual schools
on and off as well as turn the walk zones off on and off for each of the schools and then provide us with feedback um that was location specific. So they could put a point on the map and provide comment specifically and um they
had a choice of dislike or simply opinion or like and then they provide additional comments um their information contact information and then they placed the comment. Their comment was um email verified. So
each person that placed a comment received an email that they validated and um so we received 62 individual comments and um you didn't have to comment. If
you looked at the map, you could just not comment. It was not required to comment. So we had 3235 people that visited unique um sorry people that visited 3167 were unique visits. So 3167 people looked at um the
uh the maps and where the um information on it. The graph at the bottom shows sort of how um the visits per day were. So we releas we released this uh map on the 7th of
January 2026. There was a big spike over that weekend and then uh the number of visits slowly sort of gradual gradually went down um as the days went but we had a fairly good um response and a number
of um comments that we received during the process. Um after that process was done we started to look at the transportation because one of the goals of the project was to make sure that we were reducing
transportation costs and we were improving um how transportation moves. So in order to do that we had to essentially model the entire transportation process that started out with for each school identifying the um
the walk zones identifying the schools that the students that will be bus versus the ones that walked and then um doing um doing a transportation analysis. And ultimately we went through the
process that did a routing analysis and um determined that yes the plan that was being considered would work um and that would be a viable plan for implementation. So where we are now this was the trans
uh project timeline that um we showed at the initial community engagement. So we're going to develop scenarios between December 25 and January 26. Get community engagement. Um really started in mid January and went through February
and then um here we are at the uh March meeting for the implementation plan for March through August beginning of the school year 2026. So that's essentially the entire process
from beginning um to where we are now. Um, I don't know if you guys want to do questions now or save questions for me. Does anybody have any questions on that part of the No,
>> okay. Well, I'm going to um mute myself and I'm going to be uh available for the rest of the game if anything comes up um certain. >> Thank you. We're just getting the other presentation. I just stop sharing the screen.
Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Go back to one screen. All right. So, we're going to begin here just as we're all clear and we had several meetings. We sent our correspondence just so that the board is clear and our community is
clear what the recommendation board is for this evening. It's up on the screen. The models repeat this ravine drive, Strathmore and Cliffwood would be preschool through fifth grade road would
be K through 5 and then preschool only at Park. So that is the recommendation. So, Mr. President, I'm going to advance one more about the process. Just to give everybody a timeline, some background
knowledge, maybe refresh your memory if you haven't been with us since November when we had our last meeting. So, Fred, who's just on, he was the we hired last last year of the school year. He presented to the board in July. the board accepted his report in terms of
where the district is going in terms of movement measurements. So that's the process began. After that report, we work on several things. So there's a lot of moving on the screen. They all happened at the same time and they were interwoven in the process. So we looked
at enrollment numbers that we currently have that was projected by the demographer. We looked at our building capacity with architecture plans. So we knew what can be housed in what classrooms and facilities that we had available to us. We looked at you saw this the transportation routes the
number of buses the capacity of buses where they would have been able to move around town. We looked at walk zones, transportation zones. We asked for community feedback and we asked for community feedback in several different ways. Comments were posted on the map itself.
So Fred had mentioned that and he showed you a quick graphic when the map went up. folks who log on down to the site to the map could actually enter in your address. Your address will pop up and you could hit a button and you could post comments directly to thread and then come to us. So that is one way to
post comments. There is the community forum which has been on our district website for a while. That's the typical way to correspond with the board administration. We had an FAQ posted on our website. So as questions were coming to us, we would be able to post that on our district website. So you can see the
running list. There was our pre-district email that people on the course drafted through email and we do that. We had parent conversations at the building level with principles and supervisors with us at social office. We had conversations with staff as we walk
through buildings and staff were very welcome to give us some historical knowledge to give us some background what the district had looked like 10 years ago, 20 years ago, 30 years ago and the change that seems to happen every decade. So a lot of good historical information shared with us. And then of course we've had cross
department meetings which allowed us to do a lot of the planning. The planning phase is at this point we're going to share a lot with you and then there are some details that we continue to work through which is typical for us as educators. We go through a school year we get to June and while the kids go
home to all of you take a break we continue to work. We continue to plan for September. That's normal personal business business for us. So in terms of in terms of the FAQ themes um these are the running themes. So when questions were coming in whether
regardless of the email if it was a board email or redistricting email or my personal email we were keeping a log of all of the questions coming in and these are the top themes that came out throughout all of the questions. They were your school star times. Um we heard
feedback in terms of the times happening currently, how it doesn't work for some families. Um we did hear that um we heard uh questions about programming for special education services and related services in terms of ensuring that services are offered at each of the
buildings that we were not going to have one house in one building. In terms of equitable access to four or five programs, I we're saying equitable access because we've heard a lot of we got a lot of feedback from our families and from our principles in terms of the
programs that are taking place in grades four to five. So whether they're your clubs, extracurricular um your schedule. So those questions we we're going to discuss and ensure that in terms of how we um how we were able to address it through this process. Preschool
programming um we all know the community knows that the preschool programming that we receive a ton and ton of questions and um in terms of where they are, where they're going to be, are we still going to house them? Are we not going to house them and what?
And then our student experiences. We got a lot of questions about class sizes. Um hoping and some great feedback in terms of for example reduce class sizes to certain great levels from our parents. They share that. Um they also ask questions about specials. Um the wait
period that's going on in each of the buildings. Um they share what's working, what's not. Um and also transitions from building to building or sometimes grade levels. So that really varied. and also transportation in terms of ensuring that kids are not on the bus for a long
period of time, arriving to school on time, getting home on time. And so in terms of the preschool program, what we included this evening is um where we currently are right now, we have 18 classrooms at Cambridge Park,
two at Strathmore, um two at playworth, ravine drive and light. So in terms of our preschool disabled programs. So those are those are separate because we are not funded for our preschool disabled programs.
That is funded through local dollars. Our PDA what we refer to is funded through the aid the expansion aid that we applied for. So we have two preschool disabled programs. Um one at Strathmore Flipwood drive and
at the reason this is important is because two things. Um we wanted to make sure that the plan that we're supposed to be seeking federal programs are in our elementary it is early but it is part of early childhood education. So we
felt that that was important to um continue. The other piece um is in terms of our disabled programs. We also want them to have opportunities in their community schools, but also to have that option if they need to if they're looking for
relationship environment, looking for opportunities to increase inclusion. Therefore, we added a school safety program in each of our programs. So, one thing that I will note and we've heard a lot of feedback from our community members in terms of preschool,
we have um a total of 29 classrooms this current year accommodating 46 general education students. Next year, there will be a decrease in enrollment. We will have 24 classrooms
which will allow us to serve 336 students minus around 70 students. Out of the 336 general education students um that we will be offering physical to
180 slots already filled because we have our threeyear-olds that are rising to four year olds. So adding that then we determine when we find out how many lottery seats will be open for March.
So as of right now today March March 9th we will we are proposing that we will have 150 seats for the lottery that will take place at the end of the month. So um we've been actively doing pre-registration and then the lock will
be at the end of the month and all the parents will be notified. So that's the process that's the process that we've had all along. The difference um from for next year in comparison to other years is that we have not had to have a
true lottery um at the date that we did. So every March we did a lottery we were able to accommodate all of our principles. this time we may not I don't have the exact numbers in terms of queue for pre-registration but it will run as a true
however the positive and I saw said you know when things go left right so the right the right is um telling us okay we hear people from our community we are going to look for opportunities for expansion with community providers we have two classrooms ready at
lightbridgeidge we are scheduled to see if any of the additional classrooms um on site at library that they are that they are eligible to be able to offer program. So a few years ago we had three classrooms there's the classroom those are questions for us to ask is another
classroom available anytime that we partner with um with a community provider that only answers to them now to students. So that'll be that process though will not be in place for September of 2026 in terms of the
providers. That is not the process that we need to work with the department of education and ensure that all of the they meet all the requirements including classroom space including playgrounds because we want to ensure that the playgrounds are safe and that they are
accessible to all of our students. So that will be my process that we will share with our school special education program. So we have received a lot of feedback throughout the process from parents who were concerned that perhaps it wouldn't be
special education program at their school or would have programming for their child. That's not the case. Not the case. They will be special education program at all. All replacements are returned by students on page. So all the elementary
programs continue to have program inclass support placement. Each building has operating level by each building. Each building will have self-contained programs and then related services like speech that will continue to be offered at all buildings. The goal of special
education is always these restricted parking. When we perceive when working with students, parents, it's always about environment and creating those environments for kids having. So more details will come to those
families, but we want to walk away this evening with this that we'll continue to have special education. Right. as a lawyer at school. Some additional feedback that we had received during the process were request that feedback was our rising fifth graders,
students who are currently in fourth grade, next year rise to fifth grade. The request we asked was who we consider grandfathering students and that what does that mean? It means we allow rising fifth graders to all steady group. So we
we put out a survey to families and one of the things there's many things we love about our community. One of the things that we love about our community is that parents are not afraid to give some feedback to us but things great but things are not so great we hear from them. So we heard you the survey wasn't the greatest survey that perhaps we
could have put out there. There was a little bit of confusion. The intention was not just to confuse people and dart people on the process, but it was really to take time to capture the gauge that we see where we were thinking with this grand offering. So we did hear feedback.
We heard feedback on both sides. So yes, I want that to happen. No, we don't. At the end of the day, we have to make their own decisions. And so the decision is to not grandfather those students, which means that they're going to go to their own schools. And we looked at it
through this lens. When we look at class size and we look at the current class size where there are 24 to 26 students in a class and we kept the fifth graders there and class size went up again where it could be 27 28 29 students in a class.
That's not the best looking. While it does happen and it happens this year and that's the reason we're going through this process because ours are crowded. We don't want to create those situations where we can leave things. The whole plan is to district help bring down class size, balance out enrollment, and
ensure that we have effective transportation. So, we did make a difficult decision and we we know it's not going to sit well with everyone. We've heard from parents, we heard from students, and we we listen and we try to emphasize as much as we can, but the decision is not very
In terms of student experiences, um we heard a lot from our parents um and also from the staff and our administrative team to um pay the bi in terms of what's working, what's not. Um we favor to our principles were charged with if it's not working, how can we utilize this, this
proposal, what we're doing, what we're working on some of the areas and the challenges that we're seeing um in terms of whether it's firing a building or lunch periods etc. So we really took an opportunity and really gave every um our thoughts were with intent to improve and
strengthen the program. Um currently right now um the offers at each of the elementary buildings they will be consistent and what we mean by that in terms of schedules language arts, math, science periods that is all consistent and we'll share a little bit more about
that. Um curriculum and resources all the same. All the same. Instructional minutes, all the same. The intervention lock, all the same across all buildings. The enrichment programming, all the same. And LB to our elementary
buildings, ESL, um, specialized services in terms of related services is turned on their IP, but again, as we mentioned that they were offered at all buildings. Um, the clubs and extracurricular activities, they will be offered at each of the buildings and it will be age
appropriate. So for example um to be safe control we're looking for older that um help on the bus um and help in the hallways and things like that. So they will be age appropriate in grade levels.
Some of the activities or the programs that will run at each of the building is safety control club games um and chess and instrumental and chorus which will be instated in there. In terms of school enrollment, what we
have listed is our current year 2526 and then total enrollment projected next year. It adds a little aster over there that says based on the data from March 2026. Enrollment fluctuates. It's fluid. It can change from today to tomorrow till
September 1st when we open up our buildings. So in terms of the comparison you can see that some of most of our buildings um they went down in enrollment and some increase. So for example if you look at woodro they went down in in enrollment
not necessarily enrollment but because we're going 3 to 5 they will now have 476 students there. um at Strathmore 424. Keep in mind that that does include um preschool, Cliffwood 408
and Bane Drive 403 and it comes to a total of 7 1,711. So there is a dip right there in terms of enrollment from um 8 to 5. Um the difference also reflects that there's
fewer preschool preschools in our elementary buildings as well. So sample school times one of the modified products of going through the process of redistricting that allows us to take a closer look at starting for
our students. So we're here for a K5 redistricting conversation. So we'll talk about feedback in just a second. But we heard look for consistency, right? So that's one of the things that have consistency across our buildings across the district. So we look at our K5 buildings
to be on the same times. It does some great things. It allows staff and makes some conveniences for parents which we'll talk about in just a second. What it also does, we take a look at times allows us other buildings that are not pay for example the high
school. There is a lot of research that tells educators that our teenagers do better with a later start time. When they can sleep more, sleep consistency and their brain grows better and they can process information that they're learning. Teenagers later start time is
better. That also transcends into middle school students as well. So what we are looking to do is for high school for middle school a little bit later having our K5s at the same time. Now you may notice Cambridge Park. Remember
Cambridge Park is preschool. You have that on the same tier of Boston. That's high school. For those of us at Bway have three children who are aesthetically at the previous slide. There is a footnote that says this is the same
time. We are still working through some details at the moment. This next slide here changes schools behind it. ucing on some of these alignment with elementary schools. So the peer models on the bus that blouse
we have K5 students ride the bus and our fifth graders our peer buddies and our safety patrol that allow us them to be role models for our younger learners. That's great. some family logistics. We've heard from families up to this year, including this year, that it's
difficult if you have a child to go from Cambridge Park to strain more time in between driving from public events. This allows additional time if you're a walker, you drop yourself to school, you need that time that before
and after programs. So if you run that through my time through Y continue to have those programs just tons and then piece parents often say what you start at high school how that impact athletics. So we continue to have
athletics at the after high school practices after school to attend games. So athletes and out of district activities we'll maintain we'll have we should actually have better transportation systems everybody come back
in terms of class sizes um this is projected what it will look like for the following year we included each of the building from cliffwood road strap at our feet drive. You will see that the class sizes are running between
um 17 to 24 students in some buildings. What was really important to us and we heard from um community and also from our leaders that they wanted to make sure that we weren't just going to have a single section section of the grade level. So like we would as you can see
on the slide we have multiple we have two to three session sections of each grade level running at each of the building. If we saw when we're you know going working through things in terms of what we didn't want was one grade level of fourth grade. We wanted them to have
more of their peers in each of the building. So this is how in terms of the scenario proposed this evening we were able to um ensure that it's you know the numbers are pretty much the same across the board. What I want to point out with this is that with for example with Lloyd
I'll use Lloyd Road um for this current year our science and our social studies there are certain content areas that go well above 27 students at this time. Um so in terms of proposal this evening we will not see that. So we were able to
decrease class sizes specifically in our fourth and fifth graders, our fourth and fifth grades add. So now it's pretty much across the board. That's demographics and I and I notic in the audience we're taking notes. Great. We're taking pictures on screens. Great.
Um just a quick reminder here all the data and tables and charts that you're seeing, we shared that with community last week. So it is in your email and this will also be posted to our district website. So if you happen to miss something you will have access to this. So the numbers might be small if you're sending
back space. So if you have attended by the older news you attended our presentation on student test scores for the fall and then in November when we were at William the community we talked about current demographic numbers. These numbers reflect the new zoned schools.
Again, we're looking to balance students, balance out the enrollment, balance out demographics. So, you look at our numbers, we are a lot in terms of balancing out based on race and ethnicity. And what's probably has been more interesting for us that the last
column, if you go all the way to the the right, it says meals, those students who are eligible for free lunch. Those numbers are now also balanced. What's interesting is that they they have been increasing for the past couple of years. Um so that gives us opportunity to work with those families and work with those
students. But when we look at just through the lens of our district and looking at the classrooms in our new schools, this is what the the numbers are showing us. So a sample just schedule. So we I talked a few minutes ago about some of
the details that we're still working on. We meet with speak with principles all the time. and we meet collaboratively with our principles and our curriculum directors and we talk about scheduling what the schedule would look like in the new model of K5 or preK5. So here's a sample schedule. First thing I want to
point out second thing I want to point out is that the times going down are going to look a little bit different than what we just talked about on the previous slide cuz you're still working through what those details would be like if you were to align the start times. But we wanted to show you that there's
some consistency. So if you look at the period one 9:30 that says when open period is what I need that's an opportunity for students to get enrichment to get some remediation some prevention that is going to be a consistent model similar to what's
happening this year at the road will consistently happen at all four. So same time, same approach, same curriculum, same resources, same desire to help students achieve. And then as you look through the schedule, you'll notice that we have our
web of contents. There should be a block for writing. There is there's a block for reading, data reading. So that's phonics, that's um shared reading. There's a block for math, science, social studies, your enrichment courses, that's your art, music, physical world, language. They're not going away.
They're studying. We're actually building schedules are more consistent from building to building which is important. Not this happens often but if it did if you lived in Cliffwood and moved to the burrow of Maton and you live you should be able to move on to
the next school and the schedule will pick up and I say okay that is the goal that tightly for students this is what we're working on. just want to um talk about transportation. Um again um we have two options.
We're currently on four tiers for transportation. This is the times we had to then the times are going to dictate the ti proposal. It will bring us to three tiers. Um and with that that will allow
us to bring some routes back in the district. Um so for example our added district students that go to whether it's non-public or public um we would be able to um bring those routes back in and they will be driven to and from
school with our with our buses. Currently we have an estimated $2.4 4 million that we scheduled that are um that's projected each year um for all of those additional crafts. Those additional crafts are not only special
education. They include our vocational um our vocational students that go to um our M County vocational schools which are five of them and our career center. Um it also includes any homeless um that we are required to transport to and from school and it also includes any charter
schools. So, some of our families, they've chosen to go to private schools, charter schools, and we are responsible to transport. Now, we save $2.4 million um because we can't bring in all of the routes. However, there will be some
routes that we hope that we can bring um bring in the other piece to that we will add on for the 26 um going into the 26 27th school year. We currently this year we had eligible preschool eligible um preschoolers that were eligible for
transportation about approximately about 157 students to Cambridge Park. 157 students that were eligible under our current transportation policy. 53 students are
taking with us. 53. What we look to do is to again in terms of efficiency is that when students are not taking the bus, we will send out a letter when they first register. Number one, if you are eligible for busing, are
you waving transportation? And the other piece is that when we start school on day one and we are not on the bus, if the child is not on the bus, asking again and outreaching to our families to ensure are they going to take the bus? because we have buses
going to each of these homes every single day and the kids are not getting on the bus. That is not efficient. That's not efficient. So we are asking for our community members and our families to help us in terms of addressing that because when we get
asked and our board of education members get asked in terms of can we get transportation across 35 can we do group sounds can we do all the things we can't do that because if parents are not saying they are not taking the bus and they don't sign off that waiver we
cannot cancel the bus. we are required by law to offer based on our hazardous routes and our current policy. So I beg even after tonight, you know, in terms of even with anything that happens, that is something that we need to all
together work as a community and collaborate on that with that. There are parents that are asking and asking there are parents that are paying for Ubers that to get their child to school when if we had availability then we can work together with the board of education and
also with community members and see if we can make any changes in terms of our current policy. We can't do that now. So at this time so like I mentioned we'll send it out more information on that. But right now the projected in terms of the proposal um and what projected is three tiers um to be able to help with
efficiency in terms of busing. Also with the busing what was interesting is that Fred um mentioned like all the routes and the lines. Um but was pretty neat about that is he he drew out lines in terms of where how busing how they're going all around town between Malon and
Clifford Beach and Aberine to get students to school. They're they're on the bus for a long period of time. So sometimes going across towns. So in terms of this process, we were really looking to um to ensure that kids weren't on the bus a long time, but improving again efficiency and that
they're not going across towns and we're able to go say down one road maybe a left or right, go down the same area and those kids are on the bus. The buses will have um K5 at this time. We're projecting that K5 will be on the bus.
sustained. Our staff is extremely extremely important in this process. Not only from the very beginning of giving us feedback in some historical context, but then moving forward the success of this redistricting, a lot of that responsibility will be with them. So,
we're here to support staff. So, there will be opportunities ongoing opportunities to support staff, provide professional development for specialized programming. So there there's going to be an exact classifier. We met the staff last week. There going to be some movement teachers that if they hadn't had the opportunity to be trained in
specialized programs like foundations program schools or tools of the mind okay opportunity that they will be trained in those programs so that way they're ready to come back in the fall. There's great opportunities for vertical
articulation. That means when you have K through five teachers that they can talk to the grade level above them. So that articulation is a great thing to have in place where they can say hey what are you learning in the previous grade? What should we expect when the kids come up? So that vertical articulation is great.
And now that the K5 schedules are similar, we can have horizontal articulation. So third grade teachers across the district while they've always been they've had an opportunity to come together. That's not a new thing. This just makes it a little bit more efficient.
Part of the process we have been going through regulating staff certifications. So in the state of New Jersey, you have to have these certificate to teach a particular grade level course. So every educator holds a certificate. So we go through review the certifications to make sure that the certificates are
aligned to what teacher certificate someone has that that they are teach. That's a good thing. and that we we met with we met with staff in this room last Wednesday of the presentation. So the staff this we've traveled the buildings
the directors principles constantly contact with their staff. So typically our staff find out in June what their assignment is going to be for next year this year. When we get back from spring break, staff notice in April, they will find out what their assignment is and
continuously and what their location is new location. They'll be well aware so they can start the process of preparation. In terms of what everyone can expect and looking ahead for spring uh 2026, you can still expect end of year activities
that are taking place in the elementary buildings. those are still on the grade level celebrations. Um and we also we over the last few weeks we developed a transition committee um that is our school social workers, some teaching staff along with um school psychologist
to create um resources um for parents um resources for teaching staff in terms of how to support their students if they are transitioning to a new program and 20 and then we'll work through that throughout the summer as well for 26 27
school year we will have we do plan on having districtwide fifth grade activities and experiences. What that means is that um so for example and these are ideas we may need to come to fruition but these are things that were discussed at the table. Um so why not
have a districtwide fifth grade um art the night of the arts where we house um all of our fifth graders come together they demonstrate their artwork or if it's the talents if it's um chorus and band and pulling
along together and even have holding these activities not at the rope but holding on at the so this way they start to see the man's experience um because that'll be here together. Um, and they have opportunities to be able to walk the hallways and things and do those
sort of activities together. And most importantly, but the key piece is bringing all the kids together. Um, we talked about even dances um as well um for the holidays. All all things are on the table in terms of planning. What we will we will do like we always do is
collaborate with our PTOs and our parents in each of the buildings so that we can help coordinate this as well. The other um the other piece too is the preparation for the man's experience. Um in terms of we man holds a lot of shows. They just had grease this weekend,
right? So um but taking our fifth graders over to Ms and seeing some of the shows so that they know the offerings too that are going to take place at M. So the team at MS um the administrative team at MS will will be taking the year in terms of how they're
going to bridge um fifth to sixth grade and strengthen that transition time um for the for our students and whether it's schedules, electives and different activities. Um Wood Road is hosting a color run here. Um, but how great would
it be to have like a districtwide color one? Um, and that we're all not just one building, but as a district that we're raising funds for what if it's back to go back to the schools wherever wherever um whatever we want really. But I think it's just really really lends itself to really creating that community feel for
all of the buildings. So at this time um I'm going to turn it over to Miss provided I will ask if there's any questions. Um um I I think we'll start with four. Um I
think we'll hear from the community first. Is that okay? I just had two things that I wanted to bring up. Um one is the preschool universe where the state determines um how many preschoolers we can or they expect and
how many we've decided that we want to have. Um And then I just had a quick question. Is the wind program in all the schools now currently? >> Yes, but operating a little different. There's there's some variation in each of the um to to answer your question with the
universe for the 26 27 school year. Now this was before um before elections um each district who receives PDA funds needed to make a projection complete. They gave us the number and then we had to say okay these
are the number of students etc and submit to the department of education so they could come up with the formula how they're going to fund all the preschool programs. So the department of education told us that our universe back in the fall for the 26 27 was 505 students. So
it was an increase in terms of the university and as I mentioned before on the other slide that is not what we will be serving for the following school year. Good evening. My name is Amanda Nallet and I'm a parent in the district who will hopefully have children attending
both Cambridge Park and Lloyd Road. I'd like to express my concern about the proposed start and end times for these schools. As they are currently presented, the schedules are drastically different. And for families like mine with children in both buildings,
coordinating morning drop off and afternoon pickup will be extremely difficult. Additionally, Lloyd Grove does not offer prek like some of the other schools. This already separates families who may want their children in the same building when possible, and the large difference in start and end times
only adds to that challenge. I'm also concerned that having white road and track started and end at the same time could create significantly heavier traffic in the area during arrival and dismissal, which could impact both efficiency and safety being
that they are so close. I understand that balancing schedules across the district is complicated, but these decisions have a real impact on famil family's daily lives. My question for the board is whether the impact on families with children in both Cambridge Park and Lloyd was considered when
determining these times and if there is still an opportunity to adjust them. I strongly encourage the board to reconsider the current time differences in a way that better suits families in our community. >> Thank you very much. Um before you
respond to this question just I would like to keep this portion of the meeting to questions specifically related to the presentation. Public comment will be part of a regular board meeting as we usually have. So I appreciate that but comments will be for public comment. This is for questions. Um so we'd like
to stick to our you know just questions based on this presentation. So specific um scenarios that apply to your family would probably test um directed to the administration.
>> Yes. So, thank you for your feedback. Of course, we appreciate that. Um is there still room or opportunity to move times? Yes, this that's a sample of the schedule. Are we locked in? No. But are we pretty close? Yes, we are. In terms
of traffic, knock back it out. If you go to constructor, for example, for missiles, the traffic that section, we understand that we work with police often in terms of how we best approach buying the cars around our buildings.
That's an ongoing conversation with them. It's a work in progress, but it's on top of our in terms of keeping community safe travel around town. So we recognize that we look at the current schedule and we have road different
times in straight on the same schedule. Will it change volume? Yes, we're aware of that. The timing for that. So we do the best that we can knowing that we create the walks. We anticipate that there are older students who are walking
through bikes. It's a great thing there. We do allow our older students to walk with younger students. So there are opportunities for that to go all over again. Right? So not only are we creating some of the traffic for for us moms and dads coming over there
streets that people access. So >> if there's um specific I've witnessed the administration work families to solve problems of all kinds. So I think it's best to email them or directly you have a specific concern for your family
there's anything that can be worked out before. >> Hello. Thank you. I appreciate you guys taking questions now very long. Um some questions I had um regarding the information down uh there's been
reference to five tiers 34 tiers actually sure what the four are currently I'm just language tier the elementary road maps high school plus all of the other
districts so I was wondering if we can consolidate it down to 84 or if there's a way to manage the out of district buses correctly run as of the last meeting two different buses to partition mentality of those just one bus we are
able to cut off that way to possibly consider changing the time and keeping my bridge and bridge closer to that 8:45 lead down to 8:30 8:15 just because for 34 year olds they're open they're up to
7 a.m. in terms of if we are at home is able to get them up and out of the house 7:30 kids who might be going to school at 95. Um, and then I know for that sake is not out there
for Cambridge and Wbridge. When my son went to Whitebridge, he's currently going to work next year. He was automatically signed for bus. I had no idea he was even on it until I turned Genesis and transportation be like, "Hey, he's not taking the bus and that's on it." So, if there's a way to kind of
My parents said, "Hey, we're on it Genesis. Opt out." That way maybe we could plan to adjust the one bus that's going to heat one bus that's maybe a big bus
there. And let's see in terms of a foreign afterare um if we can get pricing out for that less fee and currently they're going to be operating a $35 premium afterare which is a significant
difference in cost between me and that time they were not aware of the time change when I spoke to them last week so they have not yet and that's something to keep into consideration because a bridge
preschool students at the same time at the same time have to pay difference in which we'll have to every single day so that's going to be something that's a big
family for us and also in terms of the high school starting later I know there has been a trend of times moving later I know some schools delivering back to that in the area pushing back that earlier. And in terms of the athletic
component, I just looked at my email. I have 20 emails I did of students who had to leave before we released different dates because students had to be released earlier between 12:30, 12:30, 1:15. So if the school day is getting out later, that means they're missing
more school. They're not just missing 45 minutes, missing an hour and a half or maybe two hours. So that's something I was wondering you take into consideration >> especially speak about Lidge. >> Yes. Um like Life Bridge received the
same community notification that was sent out to communities. Lidge is not um is they're a community member. They wouldn't receive any of the specific details. That's so that's why they don't know exactly what's happening for all of the buildings across the district. um
when we talk about five will have before and afterare um we will address um any separately those terms and costs exactly um those situations and then YMCA will be placing out once we finalize um schedules and things like that they will
begin to finalize their prices as well um that all comes out we're right in the middle of planning so that is all coming out within the next few weeks that's our typical um that's just our typical October is not um in terms of any other
the other brief shape or feedback we definitely um I want to emphasize that that is a sample schedule that is tenative to change and that's why we as larger um I know what everyone needs to walk away is that there will be changes
in the school in the school hours there will be changes um what they they may not be mapped out specifically that way however there will definitely And that was the purpose of us sharing that with our community that there is definitely going to be change in school
hours for next year. The board does not vote on the school hours. What they're voting on this evening is the redistricting and the zooming um for next year. Any specific questions? >> Question or comment?
>> What was the reasoning behind Cambridge. So uh boy road um we cannot house there the playground is not so um and then park we all those classrooms
are out school in terms of keeping it clear not transporting kids have a lot that we have it kind of put us in a spirit. That's why
they probably have bathrooms. However, the outside remember years ago was um we have in terms of buildings department that So they'll say for example
they said you want to use those two classrooms they don't have bathrooms they went around the building we said that that classroom has bathroom that classroom has bathroom those parts so they tell I also want to thank you guys for giving us the time to comment and ask
questions. Um, for context, my family was reasoning to Lloyd in Cambridge. So, I want to see a lot of this people have spoken up already. I don't want to meet a dead horse. Um, but my question, Mr. Le, you had mentioned that one of the reasons we're having the gap in the start time going to Cambridge is so
parents have time to take their kids to both locations. But in what scenario would you need over an hour and 80 minutes to be exact, to get from Cambridge to Long Beach? I also want to say that my school asleep
until 7:30, if not 8. But the the concerns that you're sharing, you're thinking of in terms of um the amount of time being too much. You can flip the room and have 50 people here saying it's not enough time and that
feedback that we've been hearing stress this year for many many years. It's not enough time. So we have to find a balance, right? So take your feedback and take your feedback to try to find that balance. But just be aware the same frustrations that you're feeling the
opposite frustrations are happening. I also want to point out that we also we also I look back at school times we also said hey can we do a like so we're kind of we're still again I can't emphasize about that we're still working
that was my first I'm like let's do this and then no that doesn't work like so everything that we did before right now what is it we can't you can't work sometimes between the end times and
this time so it's very glad transportation type actually help us as well. So we're also troubleshooting with our department here but then the department that works at city they're also they have all of the
information as well. So they're also saying hey you guys that this might work better. So there are still that question. >> Hi um I appreciate that you guys did some districtwide fifth grade
activities. Um I noticed you specifically mentioned certain like PTO activities like lipstick, graduation, carnival and all things that you can create normally together. Are those included in it as well be talked about? >> We would love that. That's for um for us
to to discuss and collaborate with so >> Hi. Um my question is pertaining to more towards the boy road teachers. I know that most of them have taught fourth and fifth grade basically for quite a while. And I know if you're um elementary, it's
K through five, but are we going to have some early childhood education teachers transfer there as well? I don't know. My daughter is younger, so I'm a little more concerned that those teachers are used to the older programs and maybe to get some other teachers
coming in or just get their own train, but you know, just a refresh on some of the younger programs that I love that question. Um, and we are in the process of staffing and that is our goal is to ensure that our staff
at the grade level um in a sense with their experience or personal certification and then um also with experience we can make everyone happy. Um however um we did um as part of our
workflow each year this time we send out all staff members um and intent to return. And so after that form is distributed the all staff members are required to complete it to boss personnel and they
include hey you know I love my spot or I would like to transfer I want to try a second grade level I'd like to switch and they could range from retirement there's all sorts of reasons that they can put in terms of indicate how bad that form went out before the plan and
then we went just to ensure that our staff had voiced we distributed next month. So with that um with the test staff are asking for what they're requesting may be able to accommodate um
may not um in that building now in terms of ensuring that all staff um we have experienced staff at the level um so that's where the switch is really but yes it's very impressive and
if they don't have the training and they selected to teach first if they don't know what they selected first grade. Um, which is great too because then they know where they're scaffolding up to get them ready for the next grade level. So those are always always wonderful opportunities. They know what to teach
the kids um to get them ready to grade level. So that's a great opportunity. But at the same time, we also recognize that any changes like that. questions on the presentation. Thank you so much for answering all the questions. I will question as well. Um
just to reiterate if you have a specific concern about your own family situation, please and you know see what any alternative solutions or just even to for lack of a better word. I'm sure you know we've been hearing from lots of
people and you know we are the best for please don't let you reach out to us we are not personalizing we recognize that um this is a big deal for um um we recognize that um two guests
are older but it's always very daunting transition children so please know that um presented was thoughtful. It was interpreted and that really question
Um, so some of our questions were actually similar similar to the audience questions. Um, but a couple of others that I know that answer that really was that was basis for a lot
of the questions that you just want to clarify what you just mentioned. Um, Okay. So, so we still have that. So the general so regular specials are integrated and then still have so like
enjoyed but um they used to have the art club after school after school and fifth graders in um at the elementary not all
some activities that we offer in the building, right? So the team the administrative team at each of those buildings came up with the interest that students are saying that they had and also based it off of what currently has
where their interests are. So your board name is another one but they have so and then I'm guessing school based on the students that are actually in those
schools where the interests are whatever it is they will find out where the interests So of course for example And then I know it sounds like the lunch periods. So in terms of lunch
periods maybe right now it's a time Just make sure like that's They are possible right now. Thank you very much. I know that a lot
of times this building together. Share with the community. Perfectly perfectly aligned with our teaching plan. in terms of the specific schedules and
all of that will be forthcoming to um share that but also share um before the school year starts. So it may not be by June but early July finalizing schedule. And again, this is something that the
board does not have any voting ability on specific even um just occur to me that opportunity to do very
couple special. Um so I have a third grader who is directly affected by two children system my elementary school. Um my third grade
so um a big um concern for me with all the um enrichments and the extracurriculars and all those things that occur. very important to me that um they are
implemented in all four elementary. So I know that we're talking about it now together and that's phenomenal. Thank you. I really really really hope that we see that through um this next year.
Um, I would love to see the Google form come out in the fall that does every fall with the interest. I know that we're talking about interest now in buildings, but what's the interest next year? So, gardening sounds amazing. I didn't even know that was a club.
Fantastic. But I can't say I think my children are interested in gardening. Um, you know, games and chess, that's fun, too. But I think there are other ones also that we probably talking about because not here, but I just want to make sure they're all getting like art.
And then there are indoor sports that the kids like play and rotate through. I think that's a club also. Um Buddies is phenomenal. Safety patrol continues. Um and I'm assuming that the clubs are really just geared towards the older
children, the older grade levels in elementary schools. Like I don't know if it's the fifth, third, fourth, and fifth. But I don't even sure how that's going to play out, but um I do really want to see all of those again by interesting
unfortunately, but by interest um so I hope to see that. And then uh my next um my next main concern was the transitioning of the fifth graders, the fifth graders, the incoming fifth graders. I know that they're going to be
missing their friends like a lot for one year. Um, and all the activities that we do and road um again such a phenomenal um I hope that by the PTO maybe the PTO's can collaborate, right? I hope the
PTO parents out in the audience now maybe the presidents can talk in all the buildings and maybe come up with districtwide um events that all four buildings can get together. I know a lot of fun things are fun.
So maybe there are some things that go buildings can get together and together. I don't know. I I asked some of the moms today actually maybe try to do something like that. I'm not on the details, but um I think that
would be really special to readers um because they are amazing, you know, together events that they think. Um and then uh my last thing I guess I was just curious about the first thing
because I do see um 7:30 I mean I know early forever um but 7:30 is early so I'm wondering like do they
transformation. >> Right. Right. So, right those that eligible for transportation. Okay. Because I see that makes sense. the dance because there wasn't enough time
to get all the basketball. I was thinking if there was no transportation for the preschool. people knowing that babies are required. to make sure that it is probably something to
It probably takes a lot longer for three or four year olds to get on and off with us. So that's also part of that time because you particularly like seeing the class sizes even though you know the cohorts are all going to be like in two third
grade classrooms and two different classes. The fact that there's like 20 grades. Yeah. So the fact that their class sizes are um 20 to 22 students roughly I think that's 20 to 2. I think that's going to
be something experience you know you can pay more attention and get more I don't know but I feel like you be able to spend a little bit more time with the students having students in the classroom um
but anyway thank you so much for I I only have one kind of piggy backing on because of the opportunity here because we have a lot of very active parents. I'm seeing a lot of folks that I I know are very active parents. Um so this is more of a question comment and
it's probably more open to the community because it's um we're I mean I'm aware and I think we're all aware that Floyd Rose PTO is going to be kind of most folks are not going to be there anymore. So those of you all I mean my
kids are older unfortunately otherwise I'd not but those of us that are still need to start thinking about how we can support that and and those with the community I think that need help especially those who need um because
that kind of has to get built um because almost everybody else we got a today funds. So, we obviously have nothing to do with PTO funds, but I think a question was valid in terms of
the funds that are at PTO right now. Um, you know, that's another question to put to our PTOs to see what the plans are and just to the members and the parents requested a few times over a couple
years sometimes administration together leadership all together to talk about an issue issue conference. Um and so maybe this is a time for everybody to
come together. Anybody else? >> Yes. You know, we spoke about it the other day and now I'm stuck on it and I think it's a great idea while we're redistricting one stop bus stop for community members. One of the
suggestions and I think that know how long ago, but there used to be more roads. There used to be um group stops by 34 and 35 where students if they wanted to take a bus shutt
days. Um, and they cross those highways. And then um so that discuss something and see what we can do to support However, >> thank you so much. Um, thank you,
Mr. getting this contribution together building principles, administrators, directors, supervisors, appreciate all your help. Um, I know it's a big thing that's going to, you know, benefit
including our class sizes and things like that. So, um, moving on, um, I'm going to um, we're on to our next big list budget. Last year, the board approved a balanced budget without the state's tax incentive proposal that would raise the
tax by double digits. The difficult decision to reject the increase reflects our commitment to protecting taxpayers while safeguarding instruction and services. The same disciplined approach is guiding the 26 27 budget. A public hearing and board adoption of the final budget is coming this spring. Details
will be provided as we get closer. This year's planning has included considerations tied to redistricting focused on resources, staffing, programming, and transportation. We're also keeping the state of our facilities top of mind. Some of them are aging for the systems in MRA. As always, the
district must include unfunded and state required in our budget consideration as well. For example, just one is the cursive writing curriculum. So, we have not talked cursive in a while. there's going to be some curriculum attached to that, some training attached to that
that will be um an unfunded cost to the school district. Um next year, uh as everybody is probably aware, the phone the man the state is mandating no cell phones bell to bell. So first bell to last bell, no cell phones districtwide
statewide. So um the board of education's current policy is pretty close to that to be honest. So um we will be looking at that getting it ready for next year to make sure that it's completely wellto eliminated and how the
you know how that it's followed adhere to and and discipline involved in that as well. Um it's an effort to support focus engagement and meaningful social connection. Um, one thing that me personally, and we'll talk to the board
about it, I'm considering initiatives to delay social media use among students as research continues to demonstrate its detrimental impact on youth mental health. There's a lawsuit going on right now following in court that claims social media companies know that or knew
that their apps could be addictive for kids and failed to to change actually made them more addictive. Um, Mammoth County and on that note, Mammoth County Mental Health Symposium at Brookdale Community College is happening on Wednesday. It's one of the things they talk about. Um, last year we focused on
a book called The Anxious Generation. It's very eye opening uh book and uh it's free and open to the public. It's on Wednesday at Community College at 5:30. I've gone the last couple years. This year's keynote is called Positive Childhood Experiences Are the Foundation of Lifelong Resilience. And the first
300 people will get a book called unselfy themed at helping kids keep others in mind in a world that's centered in an all about me that too. So sounds interesting and that is the president's report. Move on to agenda items curriculum and instruction.
>> Thank you. We're asking the board to take take action on this agenda. So item A is travel. Item B in red lab. We're asking the board to take action. Superintendent recommended that the Mad Lab Regional School District Board of Education
approve the MSD redistricting school proposal which includes grade level configurations and school boundaries for implementation beginning the 26th December school year. We're also asking the board to approve items 2, three, and four which are field trips. That
concludes curriculum instruction. >> I have a motion and a second to approve the curriculum instruction agenda. Any questions? >> Student services. >> Student services arrest board to take action seeing on listing services
agenda. Arrest the board to approve item number one, which is bedside instruction for students as listed with cost effective dates as listed. Item number two, which is a permission to approve bedside instruction for the student as listed with cost effective dates as listed. Item number three, we're asking
the board to approve the following students who attend district placement 25 through 26th school year program cost listed. Item number four, ask the board to approve the following tuition and extraordinary aid rebuild for the 23 24
25 school year as listed. That's on the bottom of page 102 continues on the top of page 202. And item number five, ask the board to approve a revision of the student was previously approved at the June agenda.
We're asking the board to approve the recommendation for the student title 121 for this replacement for 25 days of the school year with the program cost listed that includes student services. >> Thank you. Can I have a motion in the
second to approve the curriculum and sorry student services agenda? >> Any questions? I have a question about the extraordinary aid rebuild. Can you just explain why that happens in
I know I know this case isn't here but it's an important piece that I think is all about. >> So basically they can bill us as long as they want to. Avery bill is there was an original approval rule that the board approved um perhaps a year and a half
ago, two years. Each each um private school they have up to 2 years to say hey was the wrong rate. Um we increased rates we you need to pay
change and we have to pay that makes sense. This case really we have we're obligated to any other questions and personnel. >> Thank you. Uh this evening we are asking
the board to take action on personnel items as follows. Uh we have several items in red. uh one including the resignation and retirement of page 106 I'm sorry the retirement of Kelly Vera uh 32 years of service um as listed and
then in section B we have leaves of absence as listed uh all leaves of absence on page one of six and 206 have gone through the proper protocols and terms of approvals on page three of six
we have appointments as listed. Uh we have bus drivers, both appointments which are going to help us out in the transportation department. Uh we then have curriculum construction approvals for a midday tutorial program taking place at the high school which is
exciting. Uh and then on page three of six we have staff rate changes. Uh all staff array changes uh have gone through proper scrutiny in order to provide services for students in those classes with certified teachers. Uh that goes on
to page six listed. On page five of six, we have three student observers. Two of which are new and are red that we're asking the board to take action on. Uh these are students who will work within our school district not volunteer but uh they would be doing
fulfilling class requirements for college or university. Uh we have volunteers listed. Uh we have a district volunteer um who is a district employee and then we also have a non-dist employee as a volunteer is listed.
In section D on page 506 we have the ifs from last month we have school nurse for graduation events for both middle school and high school uh to supervise our graduation in June. And then on page six
of six, we have this calendar up and we also have in red items five, six, and seven um as listed. That concludes personnel. >> Thank you. Can I have a motion and a
second to approve the personel agenda? >> Um any questions? more of a comment than a question. I know that the Jewish calendar functions differently in the history um calendar, but I'm very disappointed to see that there are no days off Passover. I think
this is the first year since I've been a resident of Man. I don't So, so very disappointed to see that as a choice. >> Any other questions? >> Well, I I did have a question. the uh uh
I just for background a little bit my younger son has been on one of the roots the double up roots and I was just wondering these new hires are all open positions filled now for school bus driver >> no unfortunately not but we're close to
but we do have some folks who are on the scene I talked with supervisor today and these folks I think And then I also want to take a moment to um congratulate Mrs. Farah on her retirement. Um she again her son she had
a very outsized role in his young education and support our family during a critical time. So I I appreciate her. Mom's going to pick you up. Well, I'm going to piggy back off of you and congratulate um Miss Dra on her
years of service here. or 812 32 years. Um, and I hope you enjoy your retirement. Thank you. Um, so there go congratulations to Okay. So, um two questions. One is regarding as
the um high school midday tutorial. So, how does that work? Is it how is it determined when students get to take part in it? When do they take part in it since it's day? How does that work? So
did this grant. And so part of the grant is to identify subgroups of students who fell all the benchmark assessments. And so typically those subgroups similar to the chart I showed.
As I know this is two of the three. So staff are available. Um, I have one other question which I know I sent in. Um, over the past several months, uh, you know, ironic and
so I noticed that we have this agenda, um, five positions in transportation. Um uh well between the two agendas we have a number of leave of absences um in the
transportation department and I just want to make sure I want to better understand how are we feeling about coverage. Do we have enough coverage number two how are we handling it? I know you mentioned doubling into your doubling route. Um as we move
I want this to be top of mind for all of us and we're saying we're dropping from with that and make sure that it's empty. Um but just something we really have to be mindful of um especially dropping
down So um to answer your first question if it's impacting um the operations of the department it is um doubling um some rounds and our transportation coordinator and another staff member
that is usually in the office um they are now on house as well. So which then takes place when a parent is calling um as we all so it
ensures that they are all they're allian monitor get Hi, I have a question about the volunteers. I see that one district volunteer is a district staff member,
one volunteer is not staff member. Is there a difference in the vetting process? Um how is it selected that someone is from district or non-district? How how does that process work? >> The the process is the same. It's the same process. Um if it's a district
employee, they won't have to go they wouldn't have to rather go through the same protocols at the time because they have previously been to work and students would rather say but the process is the same. We wanted to distinguish so that community would know and board would know that there is a
variation between the two. >> Thank you. I know that there is a specific requirement in terms of coaching that that there has to be at least a subcertification according to the board policy. So that that volunteer is either certified or will be alongside a certified coach.
>> Yes, we're still following this. Sorry. Um I know that uh I'm always very intrigued by like all the different offerings in the high school, but I don't quite understand everything yet. Um probably will, but um I see that I in the past we've talked about how
like we have um collaborations the the Malawan region collaborations with different colleges in the area. So, I wrote down a while ago like FDU, Rowan, Delaware, and I don't know if Common was one of them or not, but I see we have two um we have two what is this um
observers um coming into the district for teaching and one of our students. Yeah, all for teaching special ed and then math. So, is that because of the collaboration we have or is that just because people are want to come to our district to observe?
Oh, they live they live in there. But is that because of the collaboration or not? >> No, I'm sorry. That typically the program, the university they assign, but sometimes students do have a say in where they would like to go and if they
live in town, they will say, "Hey, can I get paired up maybe with my school that I went to? Sometimes that does happen, but typically the university has partnerships with the district." >> We have partnerships with universities. So, correct? >> Yes. In these cases, these are students
who attend those those universities. >> Yeah, but that's not okay. >> No, no, that's just >> But our collaboration then is for credits for different for different career paths. Is that what that's >> Yes, you're talking about more pretty
much. I think Mr. Le was just talking about programs and things like that. religion. I think you said FDU. >> Yeah. We have like a STEM with FDU and then those those are programs where like some students are in high school but they can also take
college courses while they're in high school simultaneously. So those are those types of partnerships. So that's more of that explain more. But >> can can you quickly I always love hearing about this and I'm in that trajectory like I'm heading there. So I'm I'm just I'm sorry.
>> Sure. So you're speaking of um dual enrollment dual junior college courses as our high school. Yes. So FDU is anticipating partnership uh has a couple Stevens Institute for next year that
Delbert Doug pass on the university of course program. So those are opportunities where that organ high school students were enrolled in the high school and also enroll those universities in a course and earn high school credit.
>> Okay. Okay. more on the agenda don't have that type of relationship but we have a very good relationship. >> Okay. Thank you for clarifying. Appreciate it. >> Thank you. I always see um familiar names for student observers. So I know
some of them do come from the community and it's fun to see that I knew them the way that went. So um also congratulations to Miss Farah. She's my older daughter's um I only have one daughter but my older child's first principal. And just fun fact, I used to
go to high school and college with her but we didn't really know each other principal here. Um and I also had a question about Oh, it was answered. It was about the coach. So that's it. Any other questions about
personnel? Um okay, moving on. to policy. Dr. >> Thank you. Uh we are asking for to take action on one policy per second read and
adoption. Uh that policy is 8561 procurement procedures for school nutrition program. Um which this is a second read. That's all for policy. >> Thank you. Can I have a motion and a
second to approve the agenda? Any questions? Finance agenda. >> Good evening everyone. Under finance, we're asking for approval on the following items. the board secretary monthly report for January 2026 payroll
certification under items number one receipt and acceptance of the January 2026 board secretaries report item number two the treasur's report item number three um the appropriation transfers item number four the revised
added district 2526 school year item number five the added district tuition for 2526 for um one student um which is prrated to attend our peace academy. Under item number six, another student um pr-rated
for the remainder of the year to attend our peace academy. Under item number seven, approval for the special education Medicare initiative known as semi action plan for the 2627 school year. This is required
um for approval prior to a budget presentation. Uh we do not meet uh 90% parental consent responses uh for the revenue for um for students who are getting services, but we're trying to
build include some fun medic. Um under item number eight, we're asking for um February 2026, the acceptance of the district enrollment report. Item number nine, fire and evacuation drills as listed. Item number 10, award of rental
contract for student transportation. And item number 11, um the award of transportation of ad district routes for the um 2526 school years. There were some adjustments as listed that includes finance. Thank you. Can I have a motion and a
second to approve the finance agenda? >> Any questions? >> Okay, thank you. Okay. The board of education recognizes the value of public comment on matters of interest to the school community. Individuals wishing to speak must state their name and address. Comments are listed for three minutes duration and an
individual may speak a second time after all others who wish to speak on the topic have been heard. All statements should be directed to the board president and no participant may address or question the board members individually. All speakers are requested to express themselves in a civil manner with due respect for the dignity and
privacy of others whose legal rights may be affected. Please note, while it's not the board's intention to stifle comment on matters of legitimate concern, the public should be aware that if their statements violate the rights of others under the law of definition or invasion of privacy, they may face personal
liability to the injured party. If speakers are uncertain of the legal ramifications of their comments, the board urges them to seek guidance beforehand from their own legal advisor. Do we have any public comments? I am Hoffman and I live in um I have the
unique ability to be a teacher in this district and also a parent. So I guess I'm going to ask from the teacher point of view is there any way your calendar can be rebuilt that now it might not reflect this but in the past elementary schools for parenting teacher
conferences have been the same as Cambridge Park. So, I have not been able to attend Rebecca's conferences. Is there any way of Cambridge on its separate place than elementary? Um, and one year
the high school um could put and Cambridge all on the same schedule. At least high school was flip-flop with my schedule. So, I have never been to I really like to. So, I don't know if it's set in stone. I
don't want to make more words, but I really really appreciate. >> I'm sorry. Can you just tell us your name and your where do you live? >> I'm Cameron and I live at three Bailey Road. Dearend, assistant superintendent
President and the and the board of education members. I'm great student. I'm speaking in regards to the redistricing plan for next year. I I understand you are decisions to make
for all students in Meline and Aberdine. However, I disagree with your decision not to bring in color students into Lloyd Road to want to stay. I disagree for a couple of reasons. First of all, I have worked hard to adjust to Lloyd Road as a new school. I'm a straight A
student who cares a lot about school, but changes still are. Switching back to Strathmore where I was from kindergarten to third grade and then to the next year means three big changes in three years. Second of all, I have made some really good friends since kindergarten at
Strathmore, but they are all staying at Lloyd. Also, me and everyone had just entered Lloyd where just met new friends and now you're separating us. Many of my new friends will go back to Raven. So, what I'm trying to say is that because of this redistricting, it feels like to
all of us that we have to say goodbye to our brand new friends. My request is to allow students that want to stay at Louis Road to stay there. It is a single year but would make a lot of kids happy. If the main problem is the class size, I don't think it would be a big issue. I
currently have 26 kids in my classroom and I don't think that a couple more kids would make a big difference, especially considering the tradeoff. Thank you for your time and consideration. >> Thank you so much, Cameron, for coming out and and talking to us. We appreciate
I know that it's not easy to do and thank you so much for waiting until your turn. I appreciate it. >> Good evening everyone. My name is Rich Valley Road on campus staff. Um I appreciate all the work that's gone into
this redistricting plan. It's a lot of work, time, and effort um to balance the the enrollment and maintaining optimal class size. A letter sent to the community states that the plan is intended to provide stability and support continued educational success. I
respectfully ask that the board consider allowing current fourth graders the option to be grandfather so they can complete their final year of elementary school at Cameron attended Strathmore third grade from fourth grade will turn into Strathmore for fifth grade then
transition again to middle school to sixth grade that's four schools in four years which feels like the complete opposite of stability for a child research from organizations like the American Academy of Pediat atrics and the National Association of School Psychologists emphasizes that children
in late elementary school benefit greatly from stability, consistent routines, strong peer relationships, especially in the years just before transition to middle school. I also understand the the goal of managing class sizes. The materials reference class has a potential reaching 27 to 29
students. But as Cameron shared, her student her class is already 26 students and projected to grow this year, which suggests that allowing this one grade level to remain would likely have minimal impact on class size, but a mutable impact on the students involved.
Allowing grandfathering for current fourth graders would not change the district's long-term plan. who has simply allowed this group of students to finish their elementary experience with classmates that they've already grown up. We we support the district's long-term plan. We're simply asking for a little
flexibility for children who are already in the middle of their elementary school journey. Thank you for your time and consideration. >> Thank you so much. Um, first I want to thank Cameron for um for your courage and for coming here tonight. You waited a long time and I love the email
that you sent um to myself and the rest of the board was beautiful, well written. So your your experience I can see just in your writing was phenomenal. Um, and you know, I I I wrote in terms of friendships, um, I hope you know that
friendships are going to evolve. You're going to keep your friends and but I know, however, it is a difficult time for our kids to build those friendships and sometimes they have to go through a change, too. Um, which is challenging, but we're here for you, too. Um, so Mr. enough. We did um like we there's a lot
of there's a lot of the work that wasn't shared tonight and one of once we heard about um families and kids wanting to stay at the board and considering that grandfather in we worked tirelessly and really hard to try and make that happen.
However, it put us over capacity building. So um that is why we had to say all right we have to make a hard decision in terms of um you know not allowing it and then to select certain
individuals who um wanted don't want it um there was a mix of feedback of that as well but we really really did try to over capacity over over building when I say over capacity not the classroom over building capacity for the one year but we did we did really try to do that with
this Yeah, I think um it gets to be very tricky when you want to try to individually approve um certain exceptions and it puts the district administrators in a really awkward spot. So um I understand why
that is not considered that way. Um the other thing that I just want to bring up is the stability piece is while stability of the students is really important the way we were looking at it was the stability of the district the the health of the district over the next
decade. So that is a little bit different from the kind of although very important is different from the stability that you're speaking of just to clarify that. Hi, Angela Del University 75 in Delaney. So, I know um spoke about a lot. I think it's a big thing with the fifth grade
activities. Um I had more of a suggestion talking about this with other parents. Um having a fifth grade whole PTO instead of each school. So, a PTO for fifth grade and that's where kind of use the boy fun that fourth graders, fifth graders use for that. thing that
that stability for the kids my daughter's very upset her best friend she wants to travel more so just to keep them together especially graduation stuff so I think that's a s suggestion for PT as a whole to do whole fifth grade stuff together
that's a good suggestion also maybe um even if it's for that transition year you know to have that overlap of a PTO that's covering the entire grade while we get through this. You know, I think we all know that that fourth grade
current fourth grade cohort is the most impact. Thank you. If you don't mind just kind of commenting on that that I think I'm hearing exactly what's going through my head is that some of the things that our our fifth grade right now was capable of
doing is because it's so big and that maybe something like that. That's not a bad idea. a fifth grade district-wide PTO if people are into it because then going forward that that you're not I don't know it could be interesting like
a healthy transition to dance and you're able to do some really spectacular things but you got that many kids so that many parents involved just thank you so much um I really appreciate all the thoughtful questions responses
emails, board, lots of questions. Um, we're asking a lot of the same questions that the community is asking. Um, so we're kind of here as the that's our sort of role as being representative of the community. So, we're really taking
that seriously. We hear from other people, not just ones email us. We're hearing from, you know, friends and family and all of that. So, um, appreciate everybody here and your thoughtful questions as well as all of you who have come out, emailed us and, um, submitted questions as well and
comments. Again, we get feedback, good events. So, it's always great. It helps us learn and grow, too. Um, I think if there's no other public comments, we we'll move on to roll call vote. This is a tough one. >> Mr. Skooley.
>> Yes. >> Mr. McGovern. >> Yes. >> Mr. Montella? >> Yes. >> Mr. Montel? >> Yes. >> Miss Pal? >> Yes. >> Miss Scott? >> Yes. >> Miss Fru? >> Yes. >> Miss Files? >> Yes. He says I have to abstain from
student services number five. >> Thank you. And Miss Warick. Yes, Cameron. Hi. I would just like to say this isn't an easy decision. I It affects my son also. I know um he's in
third grade, so he would be going to Lloyd Brook School and having the experiences that you had there. and some of his friends are going he's districted for Strathmore and his friends are going to um he's not going to have the lawyer experience and he's going to be
separated from his friends too for 2 years and when he sees his friends again at Vans they're going to be completely different people but you know what I'm going to do I'm going to do my best to keep them together as much as I can in those two years because it's not an easy decision to make and I have to you know
keep our friends our friends regardless of what building All right. Okay. But you'll see your friends again. Okay. >> Thank you for that. Sorry. Do we have any unfinished business? >> Okay. Um I think for unfinished business
we can give an update on Do you have any updates for facilities and finance? >> Uh we did and um board workshop where we went over finance in terms of um so in terms of uh we met uh we
discussed that the governor had pushed out the um stated budget to u March 10th right yeah tomorrow um and then from there we hope to hear our numbers shortly thereafter. And then
on the 23rd of March, sorry, um on the 23rd of March, uh we'll do a topline um budget presentation for um approval and from there uh at the end of April will be the bigger presentation um
to the community. Uh yeah, so we're keeping everything in mind. Um you know, we've talked to I think the last time I updated the community, I said we talked to all the building administrators um to see what the priorities were. We've also since then talked to facilities um to
see with that as we've discussed numerous times um across quarantine past year. Our roofs are in um not great shape. Obviously our all seven buildings are out of um therefore next year um and
we'll be discussing it a lot more in months to come. do plan on putting out their referenda from the roofs. Um, currently, especially as we did snow. Um, we had a lot of leaks that happened within the buildings. Um, so actually two buildings in particular, it was road
and drive. Um, so something to keep in mind, but we're also keeping that in mind for this year's budget, any sort of grouping workers that can roll this over. Um, and those are big topics for finance.
>> Thank you very much. Um, policy update very general. I think we're kind of on pause right now. Um we closed out policy, healthy coaches policy and we're putting on hold the facilities to publish what we're doing
with the budget and in the meantime I think the next one will stop what the state previously will start towards the cell phone policy. We have the state guidance already so things in place. >> Yes. Thank you so much. I think we
worked um hard to get it to a place um that it's not going to be a huge change. I think it might be a huge change for the students um but because they're used to having it at certain points in the day, but hopefully they'll get used to it. It'll
be better for any new business. I I did actually this is New Jersey School Association um that I wanted to share. that the um schoolboard association um uh Mont County Association, excuse me, is having their eighth grade dialogue tomorrow. So
that's um eighth graders from around the districts um uh join up at at their location county and they just talk about um emerging issues as they see it in education which is really cool because they're eighth grade. Um, and so we have a we have a member uh coming from all
hands and so um I'm going to attend and uh yeah, it's going to be a good time. >> Thank you, Miss Paul. I was hoping somebody would be able to attend from the board because unfortunately I won't be able to make it. Um can I give a little shout out to um uh
the M's production of Greece over the weekend? Um, I had the privilege of attending on Friday night, opening night, and I have to say that everybody is so talented up there. They did a great job. Again, Mr. Lavine made a uh
surprise guest performance appearance. Um, so that was pretty cool. Um, I just want to congratulate everybody. It was a really cool show. I was the same. I had the pleasure of seeing it multiple times in a 24-hour period. Um, and it was great every time.
And those kids work so hard and unbelievable. They're so proud of themselves. And uh, the high school has coming up in two weeks. Thank you. I participated in Reading Across America Day in Strathmore. It's my first time reading there. Um, I
actually did move from somebody mentioned it to Everine. So, um, didn't get to I went to Cliff. My kids went to Cliffwood and so I've never really been to Strathmore. So, that was kind of interesting and good to get inside there and I had a nice time reading to the
children. They were great. Um, I read One Fish, Two Fish. Forgot how great that book is. It's a pretty cool book. That was fun. Um, any other? No. Thank you so much. Be it resolved that a closed session be
convened for the purpose of discussing privacy, personal matters, and legal advice. The subject matter of these discussions will be disclosed to the public when the reason for confidentiality subsides. Although the board cannot guarantee it, the length of executive session is estimated to be 45 minutes after which the public meeting
of the board shall reconvene and proceed with business action will not take place. Can I have a motion and a second to convene close session? Motion. Thank you.