of the board president. As the board vice president, I'd like to call the meeting to order if we could please. Um, this is a calling to order for the Matuchin Board of Education meeting on Tuesday, April 28th. Please stand to salute the flag
to the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you. If we could have the notice of the meeting, Mrs. Aliage. >> I hereby make the statement to indicate
compliance with the open public meetings act known as chapter 231 of the Public Laws of New Jersey 1975, which became effective 90 days after enactment January 19th, 1976. Notice that this meeting was given by providing the location, time, and date of this meeting and posting the same on the front door of the board of education offices, by
delivering copies to the burough hall in the Matan public library, the home news and tribune, and by filing a copy with the burough clerk as prescribed by this law. >> Thank you. >> Oh, roll call, please. >> Yes. Mr. Bach, >> here.
>> Miss Cheetah, >> here. >> Mr. Derlinger, >> here. >> Mr. Glber, >> here. >> Dr. Dr. Johnson Marcus, >> I am here. >> Miss Colleen, she is advised she won't be here today. >> Thank you very much. Um, Miss Michael Smort is not here
today. >> Dr. Spner >> here. >> Mr. S >> here. >> Miss Zimmerman >> here. >> I'm sorry. It's me again, right? >> Good. >> All right. Dr. Caputo, we have a showcase of success tonight.
>> We do. Thank you, Madam President. The Edgar Wind Ensemble under direction of Robin Keith is here tonight. The ensemble is a combination of band students in seventh and eighth grades. Tonight, we'll all hear Metro Dance by Randall Standridge. It's a concert celebration that pulsates with the urban
groove one feels when walking through the busy New York City streets. The Edgar Spring Band concert will be held May 14th right here at Matuchen High School at 7 p.m. And we encourage you to attend. Miss Keys, thank you for being here tonight. >> Yeah, thank you guys. um um community member, thank you so much for supporting
the arts. It always means a lot. You guys do so much for the community and so we always appreciate doing an event like this. So again, our concert is May 14th. Thank you guys so much for coming tonight. All right, guys. Ready? One, two, three, four.
Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat.
Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. HEAT. Thank you. Right. Um, first of all, thank you for representing the program. You know how much it means to me that everybody here goes on every building. All right. You're part of the building block of a big program. So, thank you
for that. We got to clear the stage and be respectful. Thank you. >> Thank you, Miss Keys. Great job. Seventh and eighth grade band. You knocked out the park tonight. Great job. >> What a delightful performance. Pretty simple.
>> Great way to start the meeting, right? >> Absolutely. Always. Always great. >> Moving. Solid. All right. >> Do you want do you want to mention when the the show is again the performance?
So again to see again to see the entire seventh and eighth grade uh band uh concert uh that's May 14th here at Matuchen High School 7 p.m. That's the entire Edgar Spring Band concert. May 14th, Matuchen High School, 7 p.m. We
encourage you to come out and see the whole show. >> Thank you, Mr. Glassber. >> Thank you for that reminder. Always nice. I think it's such a delight within our community that we get to see our students perform on a regular basis in this way. It's really nice. Earlier
today, I was at the Somerset Patriots game where the fifth and sixth grade uh chorus performed. So, that's was really nice. They did the uh national anthem to open up the game. So, it was always nice to see our students out in >> with touch of music always in motion. >> I love it. All right. So, we are at this
time open to the public for comments. It is all good. All good. Uh so if anyone wants to approach the podium, this is your time. Got to get myself back on track here. >> Just reminder,
>> just kidding. I thought it was going to be quieter. >> You want to give her give her a break? Yeah. I love that you would ask me. >> Are we live? >> Nice job. Middle schoolers are awesome as usual. >> Let me get my place. >> I don't know. I never know which camera.
>> Just one second. We need to wait for our tech guy to make sure you're captured. >> Are we good to go? >> Oh, not yet. Okay, just kidding. >> So, the camera see that one just turned. Yeah, >> I don't know where the right camera.
>> I just look generally in that direction. I hope it works out. >> We're good to go. All right. Thank you so much. If you could just state your name and address for the record, please. Thank you. >> Yeah. Uh good evening and namaste to all the board members and thank you for giving me an opportunity to speak. I
won't take much time 3 minutes at the most. So my name is Nirja Sharma and I am a proud resident of Mitachin Burough for about 30 years. My two kids attended all the mitachen schools and uh uh the
way they grew up I appreciate a lot to the school system for giving them values and education uh which uh you know made them succeed. My daughter is uh 26 and my son is 22. So Mr. Kaputo knows Ashima
Sharma Arav Sharma. Uh well today uh I am representing uh Hindu education foundation standing here in front of you. This is a cultural uh organization with uh over 250 weekly chapters across United States. Uh Hindu education
foundation is an initiative of Hindustam Sebak which is actually 501 uh C3 voluntary nonprofit social educational and cultural organization. Uh during teacher appreciation week in
May uh usually we organ uh recognize and celebrate the in invaluable contributions of our educators. As part of this we organize an annual event called Guru Wandhana. Uh in Sanskrit guru means teacher or mentor
and wandana means offering respect. So together guru wandana represents an expression of deep gratitude and reverence towards teachers. Um teachers play a critical role in shaping not only the academic journey but also the
character and future of our children. Their patience, dedication and compassion leave a lasting impact on generations. In this tradition of you know Hindu culture there is a saying saying
Devo bhava which means the teacher is to be revered like god. Uh it reflects the highest respect accorded to educators as guiding light in society. Uh through the educ Hindu education foundation we strive to build a strong meaningful
collaboration with schools and educators. Some of the recent initiatives which you know this organization has taken uh yoga programs in Edison schools reaching over 700 students a cultural workshop for 80
teachers in Wang Burough school district. A darina poster exhibition attended by over 1200 students. collaboration with Woodbridge schools uh where we donated about 10,000 pounds of
uh food to local pantries which was done under Diwali you know the culture uh festival Diwali they collect the food and provide to local pantries so that was one so like that you know those initiatives are uh taken and uh they do
every year um so this year I thought you know I have always wanted to reach out to uh our district um showing my appreciation for all the teachers and educators and you know we get involved in all kinds of stuff and never get to
do those initiatives. Now the kids are older on their own. I have all the time to do all of these things. So um that's why I decided to come and present in front of you uh to bring this kind of initiative. uh if in coming teacher
appreciation week uh if we given an opportunity we would like to collaborate and do some event to appreciate the teachers uh you know that's what it is so on behalf of Hindu education foundation and HSS I extend our great
heartfelt gratitude to all the teachers your dedication inspires uplifts and shapes the future so thank you for everything you do namaste >> thank Thank you for the very kind words. Um, I will pass those along and please feel free to call the office or send me
an email and I'd love to talk to you more about uh help helping you help us recognize the teachers sometime in May. That would be fantastic. >> Great. Thank you, Mr. Caputo as always. >> Thank you so much for coming out. I appreciate that. >> Thank you. >> All right. Is there any other member of
the public who'd like to speak at the podium? Did you just forget a sweater? All right, seeing no one else coming to present, I turn it over to you, Dr. Kabuto, for some presentations. >> We do. We have four presentations tonight. We'll start Mr. Prowski. Thank
you for being here, Mr. Prowski, to present the uh chronic absenteeism plan for Matuchen High School. >> Good evening, folks. Uh thank you for the opportunity to meet with you and share some information regarding the Matuchen High School this evening. As you may know, the new New Jersey
Department of Education monitors chronic absenteeism rates for all school districts. Recently, they have implemented a requirement for schools not meeting the chronic absenteeism rate to develop and implement a corrective action plan to guide each student each
school through the process of lowering that rate. In order for me to better explain our plan, I'd like to back up a little bit and I'd like to share that in January of 2025, so that's about 15 months ago now, I had first shared first
semester data with the members of the MHS school leadership team. We had been observing the trend and was concern and we were concerned that we would need to address our absenteeism rate. So, we reviewed the data that was collected back then.
As you can see from January, wow, this didn't come out very well when it uh translated there. Um, it is posted on the website as well for you to review if if >> I know it looks really good. Yeah, it looks good because I have it in front of me and you have it online. So,
>> so it doesn't look as good here, but I'm going to keep on explaining as if it does look that way. Folks in the public, you can check it out online. >> Yes. uh from January of last year through now there has been continuous engagement in these conversations and where you see a
lot of overlap in graphic representation from January through April of last year you'll observe the concentrated effort given as we continued to bring more minds together to discuss the trends that were being observed over the past 15 months you'll notice the number of
meetings brainstorming sessions action planning and communication about the concerns that were accomp accomplished through parent advisory, PTO, school leadership, faculty, and student advisory collaborations. Our goal is simple. Turn the chronic
absenteeism rate around to under 10% of the threshold. You see, last year the the last year's number, we were at 16.9% chronic absenteeism rate. The mandate is under 10% and currently as of March
30th, 2026 we are at 9.9%. 10% equal equates to a total of 18 or more absences during a school year. Examining the data more closely, we noticed that there was a significant number of students who had between 18 to 21 absences last year.
In fact, if we look directly at that number of students, if we were able to decrease their attendance to below that threshold, so even just getting them from 18 to 21 down to 17 absences, our absenteeism rate would have been well
below the threshold itself. Specifically, we would be underneath 8.7%. By 8.7%. As a collaborative team communicating our observations and experiences with attendance, the leadership teams, parent, student, and school leadership
identified that these were the areas that were impacting our attendance rates. In order to confirm our qualitative findings, we conducted a parent survey in the winter of 2026 as well, which confirmed the top three re reasons for absences according to
parents. Please note the insight that we have when analyzing the data. Absence was rarely driven by deliberate school avoidance interventions needed to address medical documentation gaps, family travel planning, and mental
health support. So when we're looking at this information, the leadership's observations, we specifically identified things like parental reinforcement of attendance, medical issues without documentation, mental health or inpatient care, family vacations,
minimal consequences that were given for a lack of attendance, and some academic struggle. when we're looking at the top three reasons the parents identified health and medical issues, family trips and vacations, and mental health anxiety.
When collaborating with all stakeholder groups, we all agreed it's not about establishing further punishments, but building incentives that would inspire students and families to aspire to improving their attendance. This mindset, we're hoping, will make all the
difference now and in the future. Our goals were three-fold. Establishing incentives, facilitating one-on-one check-ins, and establishing early warning communication systems. What is interesting is that these were
constructed in the spring of 2025. The data gathered from the parent survey confirmed that they were on board with the processes that we had implemented for this school year. In our original review of the fall 2024
semester, we were able to see the trend that juniors and seniors in particular had a much higher absenteeism rate than our 9th and 10th graders. As a result, we felt that we should focus two two incentives on privileges that students
would have in their junior and senior years. Parking and senior privilege, whether that's late arrival to school or early dismissal. So this is how we set it up. You'll see that, you know, the baseline standard is 90% attendance rate. They have to meet that rate in
order to then earn the ability to have those uh specific incentives. So for example, in the fall, senior privilege um and parking, say for instance, looking at parking in particular, in the fall, they had to maintain a 90%
absenteeism rate. So, they had to be here 90% of the time in order to then be able to park on campus in our spring semester. Same thing for our juniors. We're trying to incentivize it for them so that they had to maintain if they were getting
their license this spring, if they wanted to park on campus, they needed to have that 90% uh rate as well of attendance here in the school. the class of 2027 as they're hoping to
plan their schedules for 2020 uh 2026 2027. We look at their senior privilege. If they've maintained a 90% attendance rate or higher, they have the possibility of having a senior privilege either early arrival or late dismissal
if it works in their schedule. So that's how we're kind of working that at this point in time. And we've also kind of established it for our sophomores as well, seeing that we are they're working towards this themselves. If they want to as a junior, if they are turning 17 in their junior year, they
need to meet that same attendance requirement. Now, the other incentive that was created through looking at attendance was reinforcing the importance of not only good grades in the class, but earning seat time requirements. As such, we constructed the final exam exemptions
potential for nonAP courses. Why nonAP? Because we already had an AP course exemption practice and we wanted to ensure equity and opportunity across all learners. So note that the expectations
for attendance, academic achievement and academic performance, and most importantly, we are requiring teacher approval for a student to potentially be exempted from a final exam. Ninth graders, sorry, it's
your first year in the high school. You're going to be expected to sit for all of them. In 10th grade, the students have an opportunity to potentially be exempt from one of their exams, the potential for two exams in 11th grade,
and the potential of unlimited non-AP exams in 12th grade. And again, I put the uh slide on there to show you the AP students exemption requirements because that's, you know, not only attendance, not only performance, but they're also
sitting for the AP exam. What I want you to be aware of is that uh everything again I said teacher approval you see exemptions are not guaranteed as the teacher should collaborate and communicate with the
student to make a final decision. So now how are we communicating and addressing attendance issues with parents and students? We start with with the radar early warnings, the review monthly data checks with communication to support services to aid in
communication and the response check-ins with individual students and parents, alerting them to concerns and engaging in dialogue around trends observed and establishing expectations. We've communicated in a variety of ways, including through our handbook,
newsletters, and direct communication with parents and students the process we're taking. Following the guidance from the district policy and regulation 5200, we conduct data reviews at midpoint and end of each marking period. We send out communication detailing
warnings, classes at risk, thresholds students are currently meeting or exceeding, an appeals process, and establishing meetings with both parents and students together. Those meetings are conducted through an ad hoc attendance committee, which is an
offshoot of our RS committee. After a formal appeal, a decision is made for receiving credit for courses. We then bounce back to the counseling department and CST to determine how to modify schedules, establish credit recovery if
possible, or even plan for next year's courses based upon the needs of the students. We continue to highlight and explain policy 5200's updates and regul to the regulation that were adopted by the board in November of 2024.
We clarify information on seat time. We continue to examine and try to address issues in Genesis regarding how absences are specifically reported. And we also send out bi-weekly letters to families of students who are close to meeting any
attendance threshold. Over the past year or so, we've upped our game with parent communication. My newsletter, the MHS school shorts, continues to provide information about attendance expectations. We have letters communicating dangers of credit loss.
Instagram posts highlighting attendance in the meme format because that's the way our students will read it and respond to it. I highlight the importance through our daily announcements. We have daily automated phone calls, texts as well as the
letters that are sent out by bi-weekly. What we've noticed, however, is the response to phone calls, texts, and emails has been that some parents are starting to turn off those notification options in Genesis, which makes it a
little harder for us to continue to communicate directly with our families. We've also noted that there are a lot of misunderstandings and misinterpretations regarding what the state and district define as excused absences. the states
the state's excused absences are more stringent, but I've encountered many conversations and comments on surveys that lead me to believe that the further that further education on absences is necessary. In fact, in my last
newsletter just sent last week, sent to families and available on the MHS website under documents, probably where you can also see this presentation in its former glory before tonight. I shared an infographic that I created
entitled attendance matters, what's working and necessary clarification points. In it, I defined state and board excused absences, the chronic absenteeism rate, and the listing of state and board excused absences. You
see, I had parents telling me things that it's unfair that a student's illness, a death in a family, or interviews for prospective employers for those entering the workforce after graduation are not acknowledged as absences, which is not true.
In fact, we do have these listed as district excused absences. So, we needed to clarify that information for families as well as for some others. Now, I truly hope that they're reading what I created because I designed my own infographics and I put my heart and soul into the
communication and communicating effectively and efficiently. And I pride myself on my creativity and my communication skills. On a side note, looking at this presentation and whatever it looks like right now, I may have used Notebook LM
to help me construct these slides based on my corrective action plan report that I wrote for tonight's presentation. I did so to show that this old bulldog needs to learn how to use it so that I can model appropriate AI usage for
students and for staff alike. Just letting you know as I've shared our goal is to decrease the chronic absenteeism rate and this is going to be fixed is in one year. No, probably not. But we are sure trying. As
of March 30th, you see that we were at 9.9%. I'm not sure if we're going to hit that 10% underneath 10% rate this year, but I'm hoping that we're getting closer to that so that we will see a decrease over time as our practices get better.
So our goal is to sustain momentum with this plan to reinforce the incentive structures, provide more communication and education to our families so they understand what our goals are here and continue to audit the students progress
in maintaining a rate that is below that 10% threshold. Ultimately we are shifting our thinking. I'd like to publicly thank the members of the MHSSLT, my parent advisory, my student advisory,
the MHS PTO, Dr. Caputo, and Dr. Herzog for their continued support, collaboration, and guidance. I also want to thank the MHS teachers, the administrative assistants, our school counselors, and our CST members for their continued hard work in addressing
this issue with empathy, genuine concern, and a dash of tough love for those who need it. While I'm the one speaking here this evening, it's their efforts that are being reported here. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you, Mr. Prowski. Really
appreciate that. Yeah, there may be some questions. Yeah. >> All right, folks. Are there any questions for Mr. Proski? Thank you. And I appreciate you as always modeling how to engage and grapple with new tools uh to serve as an exemplar for your uh
students as well as your peers. Dr. Sper, one quick question. It's a very good report and thank you for all of that um information you provided and the uh graphics. Really cool. and thank you for the transparency on AI as well. I appreciate that very much as a
governance person. Um there was an earlier slide that talked about an intervention is which is what um one of the steps was a one-on-one check-in. Can you tell us a little bit more about that? >> Yes, that is check-ins normally with the school counselor uh case manager or uh
one of either myself or Mr. Stike calling the student down talking them to to them directly and saying, "Hey, what's going on with your attendance? I'm noticing your route. you know, you need to be here. How can we help you? How can we plan this better for you? What's happening? Is something at home
not getting you here on time? Or is something else like preventing you from being here? Are you like, are you feeling okay? Are you have you been sick? What's what's happening? And it's a just a conversation, a way for the students to realize that we're watching,
we're paying attention, and we want them to know that we're here on their side for them. >> Sounds good. Thank you. >> Of course. >> Other questions, uh, Mrs. Zimmerman. >> Thank you. First of all, great um, great job engaging the community and and
really pulling everyone in to tackle this problem and and thinking about it from all sides. So, well done on that. Um, I had a question about the parking incentive. So, for sophomores who have summer birthdays and wouldn't unlock parking privileges in their junior year,
is there some alternative incentive for them? not necessarily for that particular incentive, but I think that the other incentive specifically with the exam exemption is definitely much more appealing to our students, especially as they're walking through
the hallways now, stopping me and saying, "Oh, Mr. Powski, what's what's my attendance rate and what do I really need to have in order to uh consider that I could be exempt for a final?" And I just keep on reminding them, it's not only your attendance, it's also the the approval by your teacher and you they
they have to make that decision. So hopefully that is going to uh show its dividends and we're going to do well with that. >> That's great. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. Other questions? Mr. Glasber, >> thank you as well for the presentation.
Um, I think it it's so e it would be so easy to say this is just a state and national trend and this is just what we're dealing with now postco. Um, but what I appreciate is that you're taking some creative approaches to it. I
appreciate the um incentive type strategy over the over the punishment strategy. However, uh you did also mention credit recovery and I'm curious what what would trigger credit recovery and what does that look like? So credit recovery would end up being like they
have missed an excessive number of there there have been excessive number of absences in a course. For example, uh for a halfyear course if they are over the threshold of 10%. >> We closely look at their attendance
rates. we say, "Okay, is there a way for you to um make up that seat time and continue doing your work in the class or are you like progressing along so far that we need to have you retake the course or complete credit recovery?"
It's never like a specific number because we're looking at the student, we're looking at the situation, we're talking with the parents and making decisions together um that are in the best uh that we can do our best to uh ensure that our students are learning,
growing, and uh attending school as well. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. Any other questions for Mr. Prowski? >> All right. Wonderful. Thank you so much. >> Thank you. Have a great evening. >> Mr. Powki, great job. Could you just pass the um the clicker over here? We're
going to do the next uh budget presentation from this spot. Thank you. >> Great job, Mr. Proski. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thanks, Mr. Neik. Appreciate that. So our next presentation tonight um madam president is our final budget hearing.
I'll do the first part of the presentation. I'll we'll now switch clicker and Mr. Harvey will take us through the second part with the financials. Um I want to talk a little bit first about the budget timeline. We start in last summer. So we started in July and August with the budget preparations in the fall dece um up to
December. The principles prepared their schoolbased budgets. Yeah. >> I need a motion to open public hearing >> before that. Uh, sure. >> Okay. I motion to open public hearing on the budget. >> Is it that M Mr. Glasber seconded? All right. Now we're good, I guess. Thank
you. All right. >> Yes. Appreciate that. Um, I'll just continue from there. Sorry. In December, um, Mr. Harvey and I review all the submitted budgets and in beginning in January, and that happens at our January through April meetings, as you know, presentations from Mr. Prowski, the
other principles, uh, Dr. Bonisa, the Mr. Cathkart, Dr. Herszog, all the budget managers uh make their presentations and interact with the board. We received our uh state aid information on March 10th. March 24th was our preliminary budget hearing and tonight is what's called the final
budget hearing where the board votes on the the budget for the 26 27th school year. So we'll take you through some of the highlights. Um so a budget is not just a list of numbers, but it's really a um expression of our values. >> Um and so what does that get us? So, at
Matuchen High School, um, Mr. Prowski listed a couple of the the rankings. So, we ranked 45th in New Jersey and 126th in the New York metro area, and that's top 5% across the nation. Um, we were ranked number two in in niche in the
county. Um, we received a silver award in sustainable Jersey. Number of schoolwide initiatives, community outreach, academic highlights. I'll just mention that 91% of our students in the class of uh 25 pursued higher education. We had seven commended scholars and one
semi- finalist in a national merit scholarship program. And you know, I'm awfully proud of our advanced placement program. We received the AP school honor roll of bronze award. And we had 555 AP exams taken last year. Almost 84% of those students received a passing score
of three or higher. So, it's just it's just outstanding. um athletics, a whole list of um champions and repeat champions, and of course our co- extracurricular heights, and you always see those presentations. Um of course, this year we you saw the Crucible and
and Shrek from the high school. Um we just really proud of that the work that comes out of the high school. Sweet to Edgar School. Um Edgar is a sustainable Jersey bronze level recipient. They also received a grant for hydroponic system,
which we're really excited about. a number of schoolwide initiatives. Uh we talked about last time the the excellent um spring musical they presented. Uh they've had speakers, student advisory board um model after uh the one I have here. A number of community outreach uh
efforts including the bulldog briefs and adopt the family and also academic competitions. The first Lego League competition, it's important at Edgar. Um students were selected for regions honors orchestra band and jazz. and our math school team finished in second
place this spring in the uh AMT&J middle school competition at Campbell School. Uh they continue with their motto um with children, families, and teachers, and it's listed there for you. Uh a number of additional schoolwide initiatives. We received another award
from the American Heart Association. Um I've heard that we may be in line for another award this year um for next year. um monthly bulldog Bike Brigade, which has just been supported amazingly by the community. Um and we have our book swap and our bimonthly surveys to
find out how we're doing. Um our food pantries, our Campbell Friday 3, and of course Dr. C's um coffee or tea, and that's sponsored by our great partners at our PTO. Most school a number of awards. Uh they're currently a state school of
character. They're currently a national school of character. They received uh Jersey certification uh Jersey sustainable schools bronze level. Uh and of course our one of our major highlights this year was the opening of our first full day kindergarten ever. Uh Miss Asperola and her staff. Yeah, you're welcome. We're really proud and
happy that we're able to provide that. Certainly our updated facilities um part of the referendum project. They're listed there. We've enhanced our assessment tools with Dibbles and Fontis and Panel and I Ready. We have additional uh foundational skills instructional materials including
Wharton Gillingham and Heggerty. Um and we also received the New Jersey focus grant, differentiated math approaches and community outreach again with our book swaps, our assembly programs, our food drive, our clothing drives. Uh we hosted um our friends from Africa uh and
uh the preschool fashion show was just one of the highlights of this year. Just outstanding. The budget also supports our special education um budget and our focus areas there around specialized programs and related services, counseling and
behavioral supports and literacy intervention that includes reading intervention, targeted PD coaching and progress monitoring to get the best of every student in the district. Um with the help of the 2019 referendum, our budget also supports our mental
health initiative. Dr. Herszog will have a full presentation uh I believe the next meeting on that uh and she'll go into more about the our our model of prevention education and support that involves students and parents and staff. Um you'll hear a lot more about that.
The next slide reminds us of the components of our meth mental health referendum from November of 2019 that allowed us to bring on behavioral supports. right now. That's the Rucker's uh Nest program, additional school psychologists, therapeutic programs, academic interventions, and and a tiny
piece for clerical support. In short, the mental health referendum is on slide 11. Um the bulk of that goes to our therapeutic programs. Set next equal amounts between academic supports and the school psychologists, small amounts to behavioral supports, uh
the health insurance, and the clerical support. Our proposed budget around curriculum uh is in five areas. Curriculum writing and revisions. PD and with consultants and vendors. We've listed a couple of there um for the public to see. Um we prove
that you see us approve those on every uh board agenda. Our systems management like frontline and link it. Our PD which is led by district experts and those are teacherled sessions for inservices, mentoring and PD related to our district goals, mandates and um areas of need and supplies for the curriculum office.
In the area of technology, our 2627 budget allows for one-toone devices for our rising third and 9th graders, hardware upgrades throughout the district, and in a savings through choice of laptop and desktop platforms, various interactive whiteboard models,
and the extension of our Chromebook life expectancy beyond what we've used to uh up to at least six years now to get more life out of that. And our tech uh department does a great job around that. We also at this point when we talk about the budget uh there's a lot behind the scenes. So we always give each year the
status of our network infrastructure. Um so we have our wiring, our switches, our servers, our firewall which will replace next year. Our internet services going from 3 gigs to five big gigs bandwidth. Um access points. Um we we revise uh
older ones with newer ones and all of our new construction has new equipment. um a fiber backbone with 10 plus gigs throughout um the building and the new construction maintains that standard and our WAN uh across the the building links as well.
Our budget allows for facility and safety um which is continued proactive maintenance of our beautiful buildings and our beautiful athletic fields. And I can't tell how many times visiting folk come and they say just we're just so impressed with your fields and now the with the new fieldhouse. Um, so we're
fortunate, but it it doesn't happen by accident, and we commit u um public money to make sure those we're maintaining those fields. Continued parking lot maintenance at all of our buildings, HVAC upgrades, and roof repairs. Um, and I'll switch with Mr. Harvey to turn you over for the current
school budget, starting with fund 10. >> Uh, thank you, Dr. Caputo. Um the first slide just gives an overview of the four funds for the school district. The four accounting funds. First one is is the general fund and
that's where the majority of the accounting takes place. Uh the 2526 budget appropriations is 54.3 million. 2627 is 53.5 million. The reason for the decrease is last year we transferred a
lot a lot of about 1.9 million into capital reserves. That's the reason that it it went down from this year to last year. The uh special revenue fund that's where all the grants earmarked for a specific purpose are accounted for. 2526
appropriations 1.55 2627 is 1 million.511. So a a slight decrease there. Uh the federal grants are a little bit uncertain at this point. That's that's the reason for the decrease. Fund 40,
this is where we account for the the funds to pay off the bonds that we have outstanding. 2526 the appropriation was 6.1 million. 2627 is 5.9 million. And that's just a decrease that was in the
amortization schedule that uh we agreed to. uh summary of appropriations. On the next slide, this gives you a summary of all the appropriations for fund 10. See at the bottom, it totals 53.5 million.
The first three lines make up 83% of the budget. That's salaries, health insurance, out of district tuition, occupational therapy, physical therapy, speech make up 83 about 83% of our budget. And education is obviously a
laborintensive budget, a laborintensive industry, and that's why it makes such such a big percentage of the budget. Um the next slide just is a graphical representation or of the um or pie chart representation of all the appropriations
and you see, you know, salaries and health insurance taking up most of that. Next slide discusses our revenue and fund 10. Local tax levy is 47,16904. State aid is 3.5 million. Budgeted fund
balance is 1.6 million. Transfer from capital reserve 554,000. Transportation revenue 325,000. Miscellaneous revenue 266,000. That's interest earned on our uh cash.
uh tuition students and rental income that we a little amount of rental income we get. And the last item is is uh Medicaid reimbursement for a total of 53.5 million. And the next slide just shows those
numbers in a pie chart. State aid special for state aid we got a total of 3.5 million. The breakdown of special education is 2.8. Categorical transportation aid is 362,000 and
categorical security aid is 346,000. The next slide shows the t tax impact for fund 10 and fund 40. The ratables are 1 1 billion 97 million. They went up slightly this year. The total tax levy
is 51,478096. The tax rate is 4 4.69 69 per 100. School taxes on assessed at 211,000 is 9,898. That's an increase on the house assessed at 21143 or $330 and the percent
increase is 3.45%. This has been one of the more difficult budget years in a while, probably since 2010 2011. The main reason is because of the drastic increase in health insurance. We were actually lucky that our health
insurance only went up by 12%, there's districts where the health insurance went up by 25 and 30%. Uh so 3.5% is is a is a high number. Um okay, the next one is the tax levy
analysis fund 10 and fund 40. For the last 15 over the last 15 years, the average increase to the taxpayer is 2.4%. Just to highlight a couple of items that that 2.4% 4% the average of 24 4% over
over the 15 years. That includes the mental health referendum and it includes uh the the the referendum that we had, you know, the the payments for the referendum, current referendum. Um next slide just shows some budget efficiencies. I won't go through all of
them. I'll highlight a couple of them. We're participating, the board's going to approve it tonight. We're participating in an energy savings improvement plan. This what we we will be doing is we'll be implementing we'll be contracting with our architect SPEL and we'll be
implementing some energy conf conservation measures that the board of public utilities identified through their audit that they did of our district. We're also going to the board is also approving the uh solar paralle solar
panel in uh panels on all of our roofs and we also as mentioned earlier we also completed the energy audit. So that completes the slides. Are there any questions? >> Thank you Mr. Harvey. Appreciate it. Um
>> Mr. Sus can go first. I know he's he's our finance shift. >> Do you want to go first or Mr. Sus? >> So, Mr. and uh actually the whole administration um thank you for all the work. Yeah, the whole board sees it. I'm not sure the uh public sees I know uh
Dr. Kudo, you mentioned this all started in uh January, but >> really starts last July, but yeah, July in earnest public sees it. >> The number of phone calls that we've had, etc., any questions is is is uh thank you for answering all of them. A couple questions. Um this slide 19.
There's a new item that didn't show up last year. So we have um speech mental health charter school is the third item. Then there's another charter school item at the bottom for 55,000. What is
that one? Slide 19. >> Charter school 55,000. That's for we have a couple of students that go to charter schools and the the district is responsible for the tuition pay the tuition to those. >> So what's the difference between you have charter school and the on the third
line? >> Is that different? >> Yeah. No, that should that's a typo. That should be in there. >> Okay. So the totality of the charter schools in the last line,000 >> is in the last line. >> Okay. And then just a question just to
highlight for the um for the public. So you're estimating transportation and this is on slides that was 1920. This is slide 21. >> There's no number but you go advance two slides. >> I'm sorry. I I was question which slide.
>> Uh two slides. Stop. Yeah. This one. So um transportation revenue you're expecting $325,000. >> Yes. A and how much are we and how much should we um budget for uh courtesy busing
>> about 775 >> so I don't my calculator quick math 775 >> 450 >> 450 >> so the the just for the public's record we're uh basically losing $450,000 on
courtesy busing that we're picking up >> that's why we call it part partial courtesy busing. Yes. >> Yes. Part >> partial subscription courtesy bus. >> Partial subscription courtesy busing. Yes. >> That's it. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Sus. Mr. Glasber, I know you had a question.
>> Yeah. So, transportation, that was one of mine as well. So, it would it would probably cost somewhere around $1,000 a child if we were to break even on uh >> on subscription busing, >> maybe a little higher. That was that would be assuming that all the students
that currently take busing at the lower amount took it at like $1,200. Yeah. >> Right. Right. Okay. So, we're we're subsidizing it by about 400 450,000 somewhere in that range. We've collect and we're expecting to collect 325.
Okay. And we added the extra uh school. >> We did >> for the for this year, which is >> that's part of the budget. >> I know that was a big struggle to work out some of those details. So, I'm glad that we were able to do that. um question slash mainly point for the public about the house assessment
because somebody might look at that 211,000 and say my house is not 211,000 how much more is my are my taxes really going up can you explain why we use 211,000 and why this is applicable to the average
taxpayer >> yeah so this is the this is the assessed value not the market value of the house so whatever the value at your house is assessed for tax purposes and the average house is between 211 and and the average assessed value, not
market value, the average assessed value is between 211 and 214. For consistent consistency purposes, we just use the same number we used last year. >> Okay. So, there hasn't been a reassessment in town in decades probably. I I don't know the exact but
many many many years. So, this is used for consistency because regardless of what >> regardless of what our house is valued at today or what you might sell it for, it's still assessed at approximately that number on average. Okay. Thank you.
>> Thank you, Mr. Glasber. Any other questions on the budget, folks? >> Mr. Sus, >> that's just a comment on what Mr. Glasber said. So, everyone should have received a postcard from the burrow for their for their taxes and on that card is the assessed value and that's what's
used um for for these tax purposes, >> right? And you can compare that to the 211 number. If your number is higher than 211, your taxes are higher. If your number's below 211, it's less than the number that we have up here, >> right? So, it was a green and white postcard. Should have come in like January or February.
>> Thank you, Mr. Sus, for that helpful clarification. Uh, any other questions or comments on the budget? All right, seeing none, I think we're also also supposed to accept comment from the public. Yes. But seeing none,
>> I will motion to close the public hearing on the budget. All right. Do I need a second for that? >> Yes. >> Sure. Why doesn't Why not? >> Somebody want to give me a second? >> What? >> Dr. Spner. All right. So, now we move on to the
district goals update from Dr. Caputo. >> Yeah, these will be a little shorter. I'll do these from the um the podium so I have a look at >> all good district goals. Here we go. Thanks, Mr. Ul queuing these up. So,
every moment matters. Uh that's been our motto for the 2526 school year. Um we I present these in August or September, give you an update around Thanksgiving, a second update after spring break, and we'll do a final um analysis, final
update in the second meeting in June. But the what you're seeing today is the um the school's input up through spring break. So there's still a lot of time um for these goals to be even accomplished further, but I'm really happy where we are at this kind of spring break second
update of the year. So our first slide today reminds everybody of our priorities. Um Dr. Dr. Herszog spent a lot of time going through past district goals um and formulating this one pager around inclusivity, collaboration, communication, celebrations, the whole
child seal partnerships, mental health and academic achievements and enriching experiences. We use these from everywhere from our goals to our interviews of new candidates. Uh this is kind of what guides our work from year to year uh and spans the the um the year
of the district goals. This year, every moment matters. We have five goals to remind everybody. Goal one is around classroom and community engagement. Goal two is around building forward together, a play on the the um the construction project year. Goal three, sky's the limit. Another play on
words with New Jersey sky data. And I'll have a little more information about the current school year sky data. Um I'll include that in my user email tomorrow for everybody. Goal four is around information literacy when it's really important to me. And goal five is around the best me. Being the best adults,
being the best students, being the best staff, being the best community that we can be. So, here's how we measure our progress. This is a self-designed uh scale. We went through a couple in the early years over a decade ago. We settled on this. We we created ourselves. If you see a
score of one, that means we didn't do it. Something's prevented us from doing that. Go um a score of two means some progress has been made. it's been minimal or not yet at the student level. A three is good progress but it's not completed or it's limited evidence of student impact. Goal four, we did it
well and there might be some goals. That's where it ends. We did it well and there's some evidence of impact at student level. If we can have district goals that impact the student, we're doing something right. And that's our four. Our five is a is is hard to live in. We visited sometimes. That means we
did it well and there's significant evidence of impact at the student level during this school year. District goal one, as I mentioned, is classroom and community engagement. Um, we have three key actions for this year. Teach students about food equity, reduce waste, uh provide reliable sources of
nutritious meals for those in need. Uh, that includes share tables, donations, and community partnerships. The second key action is empower student leaders and engage the community around environmental stewardship. That's tree related education, benefits of trees, strategically planting new trees. Those of you who pulled into the high school
today, um saw 50, 40, 50 new trees planted just last week. Um really all through the work of our our tree ambassadors under the guidance of Kate Lemmer, Yokoono. So happy to see those going in. And three, to enhance critical thinking and deepen understanding of ST
and STEM subjects. um that's strategies, book studies, uh facilitating differentiated um centers and using real world contexts. So what I did for each of the district goals, uh I asked the principles to score themselves in each of the three areas. So for goal one, we
had um three scores from each of the four schools. I averaged those scores. The mean score is 3.5. It ranged though from one to five because you know some some some of these are spring projects some have been completed major impact on students and for each goal I gave you
one example just one of something happening at each school so at Moss there's planned collaboration with the high school honors math classrooms around authentic learning experiences um Mrs. Cole's talked to us at our meeting today. She talked to us around, you know, the success having the math honors
classrooms, having the student readers from the basketball and wrestling teams, and how important that is to her and her staff and her students with those collaborations. At Campbell, students are independently selecting strategies, revising their thinking, sustained academic discourse
with a high level of cognitive demand, and importantly, an ownership of their learning. at Edgar where this our shared tables began. Uh students continue to collect unused food during every lunch period every single day. Students have visit the farm stand throughout the afternoon if they're hungry. That's what
the their farm stand is available for. And they also bring food to the nurse's office for students who are in the nursurse offices and you know and and and need a little nutrition. At the high school, I already mentioned the tree ambassadors reviewed and provided feedback on final tree plantings across the district. I'll talk a little about
tomorrow in my uh community message about the number of trees being planted as a result of Miss Lmer's um securing of this $167,000 grant which we've celebrated before and now we see the actual trees going in. It's going to have a huge impact. I told the students
who were overseeing the um the installation of the trees last week that they've made a tangible improvement to their school district and their community and they could see it. They were really proud. District goal two is building forward together five key actions standardsbased
report cards and aligning grading and reporting practices. Reimagining the instructional spaces that extend the core clarifying a common understanding of collaboration. And we had a just a fantastic day on Friday with our district leadership team which included
administrators and teachers and three board members uh down at Ruters. And we were really I was really proud. We were held up as a a model for the state and beyond. Uh we had two presentations there. Um so we're we're we're not resting on our laurels. We are that's we
made that a district goal this year. Uh key action four was coordinating staff assignments with input from those staff members to ensure transition between schools continuity of instruction and consistency in student support. And fifth uh action was to plan for the use of new spaces to maximize opportunities,
support teaching and learning and really enhance student engagement. The mean score uh for gold 2 up to this point up to spring break 3.3 again a wide range of 1 to five at Moss a highlight was the reimagin of the K2 specials um we're
going from a half day now a full day kindergarten program to a comprehensive prek to two program with the appropriate specials and is collaborating um a collaboration around the programming in all the new spaces at Campbell. One of the highlights was the fifth grade team participating in their school leadership
team since last year knowing the fifth grade was coming and not necessarily knowing which teachers but representing grade five. Um special meetings were added the fifth grade team to ensure that they were included and prepared at Edgar. The SLT collaborated uh on
this year on a brand new self-designed by Miss Evans AI chatbot that was geared to helping students identify careers of interest. It's been a big success. We didn't know when you kind of experiment like this. It's been a huge success. The results were shared with teachers and they've made connections between the
content they teach and careers that students may be interested in. Dr. Herszog and I visited and we saw in action teachers administrating administering this um survey with the chatbot uh and the product that it put out really led to a lot of good work that they're really proud of at Edgar School at the high school. Um they're
looking at their grading profiles. Their grades obviously changed from letters to numbers. Um, and the appropriate first semester grades and GPA were reported to colleges and universities. Um, and it was seamless, but it wasn't without amazing amount of work behind the scenes
by Mr. Prowski and his staff. Goal three, sky's the limit. Two key actions, and it's really about collaborating with parents and students and school leadership teams and committees to analyze that school climate data that we collected last spring. Uh and secondly to engage in shared decision-making around the data
to develop and implement action plans. So I'm I'm happy with the the mean score is 3.75. It's a tight range. We're in the three to four range. So we're seeing impact at the student level. Um right now goal three is the highest goal and also the highest increase since I last talked to you around Thanksgiving.
The MOS SLT paired with Campbell staff who are moving next year to define um um and select a focus. The focus was the moss school way and it's assisting students through the tiered systems of supports around academics and behavioral supports. At Campbell, action steps were
based on the winter data which included strength and learn learning for all uh expanding the enrichment steam opportunities and increasing challenge and support across all levels. At Edgar, they've completed already two no place for hate buildingwide lessons. They were developed collaboratively with the
student support team based on trends seen in the uh sky data from last year. The bulldog values came out of the sky data. They were created in collaboration with the union leadership. Again, as a result of that data, we'll be administering the survey this um this spring again. Um and some of that
information has gone out that'll be going out for the school from the schools. I'll include tomorrow just a summary of those um those dates so you know when to look at home when students, staff, and teachers will be taking those uh surveys. And the high school survey results you
heard a lot about today about attendance was taken from the parent survey reviewed by their advisories and teams ways to be better homeschool connect to ensure better attendance practices. Mr. Prosky takes I was glad Mr. uh great questions from everybody. Mr. Glberg mentioned how this is just one of those
state mandates and I'm sure in some places it's taken as a here here's what we're doing and it's we wanted to really highlight this as as shared work that's that's incorporating students and parents and staff and the administration
and again as noted by the board members not around more punitive um actions but around positive reinforcements for student incentives. So that's all out of this um the sky data. So, we're really looking forward to again a high-end
number. Um, students will be provided time in school to do it. Staff will be provided time at faculty meetings. And we really depend on parents to take a few minutes to complete the NJ Sky survey. Um, we use this data seriously. You'll get a um a summary again before
summer of the results that we collect. Uh, and then we'll be following this data throughout the year again next year. Um, looking for these impacts. This was the results that we shared and we keep coming back back to this. Last year 486 3 to five students took it over
a thousand secondary students took it over 200 staff took it and nearly 400 parents and caregivers took it. We want the as high or higher end numbers this year. Goal four is around information literacy. three key actions um
collecting, analyzing and interpreting real world data and in using representation tools like graph stats and other tools guiding students in evaluating the reliability and limitations of data sources in the flood of misinformation.
We can't do enough of this and I'm really happy that a number of the examples point to the first action there. Implement AI plan with tools for screening and curating resources. pick your own path for staff PD opportunities and a really exciting prompt engineering and responsible use tools that have been
put out by Lindseay Omar and Caroline Ford and our um AI committee. I mentioned before on Friday we were asked to present around challenging behaviors and all the work that we've done there and also around u AI planning and um Lindsay Omar and Caroline Ford knocked
out of the park um representatives from 13 district different districts across the state involved in some collaboration work were there and it was a really proud day for us and thirdly our key action on information literacy emphasizing voter rights and registrations and that's to build
readiness around civics grounding instruction in primary documents, current events, um, and fostering respectful debate in how geography influences culture, society, and nations. Our mean scores here is 3.42, and I'm excited that this is only up to spring break, and there's a number of
months uh, and um, an opportunity to to raise that score. The range is 2 to five. Moss is really proud around their morning meetings and the inclusion of a daily bar graph uh, using student votes around would you rather. So, it's a great opportunity around voting and data
representation and involving students in that is is fantastic. Campbell students are engaged in analyzing data sets connected to real world data, graphs, visual representation, looking at trends and drawing conclusions and they also discuss the accuracy and limitations of data. Teachers prompted them to consider
source and reliability. It's never too young for students to look at where the data comes from and is that reliable? Students can understand that is can we trust this data? Can we trust in this information? At Edgar, all students have been trained in district AI. Really, it developed out of um Edgar school. Every
classroom at Edgar has the district AI guidelines posted. Students and staffs were all trained on the use of Notebook LM. Some of you noted today that Mr. Prowski used Notebook LM modeling at the high school as well. Everyone at Edgar has been trained. And at the high school, Share My Meals data is shared
out monthly in the newsletter which is curated by our environmental club students. um district uh teacher has lessons on reliability of AI. They're January and service sessions on media literacy and reliability using slow reveal graphs. Another um uh tool
brought by Ms. Lmerch. They're being used in our classrooms helping students engage in interpreting data and identifying strengths and weaknesses in in those data sets. And finally, goal five is the best me three key actions. school-based teams reviewing and setting behavioral
expectations around positive student interactions, but also empowering students with the strategies they need to have healthy relationships, aligning our interventions, our services, and our character ed programs to the NJTSS framework and providing PD on tiered interventions for areas beyond
academics, mental health, social emotional learning, behaviors, mean score of 3.5, range of 2 to four. What are we most proud of at Moss? We've had these rotating lunch bunch groups on target interventions, coping skills, building friendships, anxiety, um the
ability to to um participate in story time when students need it. At Campbell, the light bulb lunch club has been a big success developing expectations around their new touchstone. Edgar's been focusing on tier one character ed through their advisory lessons, the aforementioned no place for hate
lessons, their morning announcements, month character ed themes, as well as their bulldog values which are in every classroom and are part of every discussion um when there's a chance for restorative practices at the high school. Again, really proud of the work around chronic absenteeism, examining
how to formalize the actions taken as a three uh three- tiered system approach. In June, um, we'll have numbers assigned to these. Right now, this is just the alignment between the district goals and ASCD's whole child tenants of healthy,
safe, engaged, supported, challenged, and sustainability. Um, and we'll have scores in there. Um, because it's an important measure against ourselves. We come up with these goals, but we want to tie them back to some established standards. This will be one that you'll see in June. You'll also see our tie our
district goals back to the alignment to the school quality review indicators. Uh there's 11 of them. Curriculum, pedigogy, assessment, environment, expectations, resources, goals, supervision, shared leadership, improvement, and student growth. You can see which goals those are aligned to. And we'll get a score under each of
those indicators as well. Hopeful that this may tell us something somewhere in areas lower than we expected or maybe higher than we we expected that we could get this year. So, um we we'll look at that data and share that out the second June meeting as well. And that's my presentation for the second goals update
of the year. again third one at our uh second June meeting um before summertime. >> Great. Thank you so much Dr. Caputo. I really appreciate your going into depth in terms of our progress on the goals. They're really important goals. So I am really always excited to see the
examples of how they're being manifested within our district. Are there any questions for Dr. Kabuto on the district goals? >> Not a question. Just a quick comment when you mentioned about the Ruckers event. Chris, uh Mr. Derlinger, Dr. Johnson Marcus and myself were there and
I think Matuchen just did an amazing job. Uh the staff who presented it was very impressive and it was recognized by the other districts that were there. So we have a lot to be proud of and glad that you were able to highlight it in the presentation for the public tonight. >> Absolutely. I want to pile on that
praise because I think it was a source of pride to observe our team up there being um seen and held up as experts in this space. And for context, the room had 170 people in it, which is quite
spectacular. Across the state, we punch way above our weight. So, it's very it's always uh a prideful moment to go to these events to see our folks being recognized for the rock stars that they truly are. So, thanks for highlighting that. >> You know, I highlight the support of the board as a whole. So, we really appreciate you supporting our work
around the collaboration. Um, it's not supported everywhere. Um, and you know, the folks that were there, you got a chance to talk and roll alikes with other board members. And, you know, I know there's, you know, we're we're already at the top of a select group of districts that are really engaging 32 districts across the state, including Newark, the biggest district. Um, and
we're really proud that we're held up as a a model among those high-f flyers. >> Absolutely. Thank you for your work getting us to this place. Thank you. Any other questions or comments on the district goals? Mrs. Zimmerman, >> just thank you for the the great update and it's great to see the progress we're
making already. I think it's it's remarkable how far we've um come already with with one more update to go and also um I just love the foundation that we're laying for the transition up ahead with, you know, fifth grade teachers being part of Campbell meetings. um you know
the the specials changing all the preparation work just really remarkable um teamwork and planning to get us ready for September. So thank you. >> Thank you. >> Wonderful. Thanks Miss Zimmerman. Any other questions or comments on the district goals? All right. Dr. Kabuto,
are you also doing the anti bill of rights? >> The short uh presentation today Mr. Ulick will make that uh seamless transition for us. >> Fantastic. >> And this one will be a little shorter. Um, as you know, um, every year I, uh, Miss Alvich and working with, uh, a lot
of cases Miss Curtain, uh, and the and the and the school ABS's, uh, I make two presentations annually to report the period data out. And also each year we have to present out the official release of the um, the district school and grade
report. You've seen this data before. um we send this in, we report it to you, we send this to the state and then several months later, sometimes 6 months later, we get the official release where they basically say, "Yes, these are your grades. Good job for calculating that." But I'll go through it again as our
official presentation today. Campbell School um um or by the way, you can see on the top it says official score release and our district grade is 80 74. It's not 74%, it's 74 points. Campbell school is broken out here and the school
grade at Campbell is 72 out of 78. I don't know why they don't make it out of 100, but it's out of 78. So, um, Campbell school is 72 out of 78. Edgar school again, you see the district score is 74 out of 78. Um, at Edgar, we
were 73 out of 78. And the core elements are all scored um in a on a rubric by each school. at Matuchen High School. And by the way, the numbers next to it is that's just the official CDS uh number that the state assigns to every school. That's
why you see Muchen High School 050. It doesn't have anything. It's just an identifying number of the school. Uh again, the district grade is 74. Matuchen High School scored at 73 out of 78. And at Moss, um again, with the average 74 across the district, Moss school was
uh at 76 out of 78. That's our official release. This is the official presentation. You've seen all this data before and this is posted to the website or will be shortly. Thank you, Miss Elich. >> All right,
questions, clarifications, comments. All right, I think we're good to go. >> All right, thank you. Thank you everybody. All right. And as you make your way back, I will point out to the people
that I have no report because it's like 9:29. Come on now. So, no report for me tonight. And I imagine Dr. Caputo, you have spoken quite a bit. So, perhaps you do not have a subsequent report. All right. So, now we turn it over to our committees. And
I'm going to start down on my right with Mr. But equity and community engagement, please. >> Sure. I will uh I will keep it short and sweet. Uh I think continue to support uh the work that you've heard uh spoke of in in in the goals with respect to
community engagement, service learning uh through food equity uh supporting district goals uh as a primary focus for the uh equity side. And on the community engagement side, we've made a decision to really wait for the upcoming goals
for the upcoming school year uh to see how we can do what we did with equity on the community engagement side in partnership uh with the board. And we'll do a more thorough recap of the year when we come back in June. >> Wonderful. Thank you, Mr. Bot. Moving
over to you, Mr. Glber. >> All right. Just a brief update. Uh our next construction meeting is on May 18th, but uh just a little update on what's going on. We're in mostly punch list items at this point. A lot of landscaping that's taken place recently.
I do appreciate, you know, we've had some feedback from from people um pointing out different things that still need to be worked on and we're aware of that, but I never mind hearing that. I always pass it on to Mr. Harvier who who looks into it. Um, with the landscaping,
it's maybe good to point out um, some of the things that may not have that may have been planted a while ago, possibly not at the best time. Uh, we do have warranties on those things. So, if they are if they didn't make it through the season, they do get replaced and that's all part of uh, the budget. No
additional monies that are being spent there. So, a lot of that work is taking place. We are uh, looking forward to some events that will take place at each of the spaces. there will be opportunities for the public and there will be more information on that soon.
Uh also in con through the construction committee although it ties in closely with finance. Um Mr. Harvey mentioned it briefly before is we'll be voting on a EIP resolution that's an energy savings improvement plan. A big part of that is
solar. Uh so this has been a goal but one that we were not able to do at the beginning part of the construction process in the referendum. It was talked about a lot uh by us and by some members of the public and by some students as
well. And with tonight's resolution, we have the potential to save over $200,000 in year one and uh each year after that during the length of the term. um that will go a long way towards helping us
with some expected increases in electricity costs for two reasons. One of which is that as everybody knows electric rates have gone way up um recently and a second reason is is because we have air conditioning now in
all of the buildings and that's going to be an increased load. So this will help us offset that. And with the solar, we have the potential according to the plans as they're currently drawn to generate over 1 million kilowatt hours of energy annually, which is an
incredible number, probably the large um I would assume the largest project in in Matuchen. uh you know just for example at at your house perhaps if you had solar on your roof you might have um somewhere between 4,000 and 10,000 uh kilowatt hours per
year and we're talking about over a million. Um so that will be a great benefit both environmentally hopefully educationally because there's some elements of the plan that include some educational components for our students and uh and then also financial savings
as well which is wonderful. Fantastic. >> That's all I have. Thank you. >> Thank you. I I feel like there's a theme across your reports about how we can make sure that literally everything we do is educational for students and I love that for us. >> All right. Thank you, Mr. Dlinger. Curriculum, please.
>> Thank you. Curriculum met on Tuesday, April 22nd. Uh we first met with assistant principal Brooke Kersner and Mrs. Lisa Levin as part of the district's social emotional character development committee. and they shared with us some uh of the current updates
for this year. We also discussed um with the transition of grade alignment in the buildings that will impact how we run our gifted and talented programs. So we uh were looking at K2 models of what
that would look like as well as the 35 model. Um so we received an update from Dr. Herszog for that. Uh we discussed upcoming necessary social studies and health curriculum writing um that will be underway. We also discussed this
year's upcoming summer institute. That communication has already been shared to families, so everyone should have access to that. We talked about a grant opportunity, the Goit program. Um it's a new week-long summer course for middle school students around technology and
financial literacy. Exciting stuff. Um we discussed plans for the um elementary report card um pretty much the the framework of that moving away from uh graded report cards
in fifth grade to standardbased report card models to align it with our elementary school um making that uh 3 to five band. Um we are also uh we also talked about cursive implementation. There was a new law
passed about um cursive instruction for handwriting. So that will impact students in grades 3 to five. And we also talked about our grades 6 through 8 science curriculum resource leadership team. So a lot of work around um that
area as well. And our next meeting is on May 19th. >> All right. Thank you so much Mr. Derflinger. I'm turning it over now to Dr. Spner of policy. >> Thank you. We had our meeting last Tuesday, April 21st as well. We had uh
several items on our agenda which kind of intersected with some of the other committees here. >> Um so I won't spend a lot of time on it, but we did discuss the cell phone ban, which was a law passed by the state and we were issued some guidance from the Department of Education. So we had that
document to reference and um it was uh reinforced to us that our district is already abiding by most of those uh principles required by the law but there was some guidance that's still needed for high school students specifically and who allowed to use their devices
between classes. So that has to be um worked out and to be aligned with the law and we're waiting guidance from our SMA policy advisors from for that. Um we talked briefly about policy on cursive writing which might have been discussed in curriculum at some point too and the
process for incorporating um the mandate that third through fifth grades have to meet and the milestones for each of those grades. Uh we discussed the new bus routes implementation um and those uh the schedule for buses
has to be finalized. So we just discussed like um intervals between different schools and how that you know affects uh parents and and students. Um the district calendar had some revisions on it mainly related to uh early dismissals
and a couple of other items uh aligning with things like bus schedules and other um items that we have to make some adjustments for. and we discussed the gifted and talented program and Tanya provided us um an explanation of the
because of grade alignment the fifth grade um model has to be looked at and tweaked and uh you be working on that I believe through the summer and uh aligning it with an elementary model for the fifth grade. So lots lot was on the agenda and a great discussion and thank
you for administrators for uh walking us through all of these items. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Spner. Uh, Mr. Sus, I believe you have a double header of a report. >> Yes. >> Finance on extracurricular. >> Yes, I'm covering for Miss Colleen, who could not make it tonight. The
extracurricular committee met last night. We discussed um three volunteer uh after school clubs. Two of them you'll see on the agenda for approval tonight. We discussed the actually the just the
general um club approval process. We um also discussed uh a proposal for varsity volleyball. Uh we are not recommending it for this year. Uh but we
do recommend that the um interested students should petition for a volleyball club for next year. So, um, as a as a means of at least getting things started. That's pretty much it.
>> Thank you. Over to finance. Chats. >> Finance met before the last meeting. >> Oh, you haven't met since? >> No, we haven't met since. All right. Mr. I wasn't here. Mr. Harvey, did you provide a report on that one? >> Yeah, someone reported.
>> I think you reported it last meeting. >> All right. >> Okay. So he reported I was not here. >> All good then. Wonderful. All right. So that's it for reports at this time. Our student board members not here. So we'll move right on to >> actually actually I did have a question for Dr. Sper. I'm sorry.
>> This is us. >> So I know I know they added cursive to their curriculum, but we actually have to have a policy about it or you were just >> a mandated uh a mandate that came from the state. >> Yeah. has to be >> it was a mandated law. So typically in
policy committee we discuss those. >> No, no, no, no. Do we have to have a policy? >> No. >> Oh, that's what I was just checking. Okay. Like you know 5235, right? That's what I was just checking. >> Yeah. Just >> uh figuring out the milestones and alignment, >> right? No, no, no. I was just I thought I was just like making sure we don't have a policy about
>> it gets thrown to curriculum. >> Got it. >> Yeah. >> Okay. >> Yes. A lot of overlap over there in those those reports. >> All good. >> All right. Thank you so much. Now at this time we turn to old business. Dr. Spner, might you have something to
share? >> I just a little if you would indulge me and thank you for I >> certainly would for agreeing to do so. So good evening everyone. It is with sincere regret that I announce my resignation from the board of ed.
This decision is based solely on personal reasons that impacted myself and my family. I made this very tough decision to step aside, give someone else the opportunity to serve the remainder of the next six months, I guess. I thought it was the remainder of
my term, but I think it's the rest of the six months. >> Hoping that they do so with the full dedication our district deserves. I've grown a lot from being on this board personally and I highly recommend it for those of you who have the time and the commitment the uh to public service uh
to education and I highly recommend it as a enriching experience. I want to thank my fellow board members who have been exceptional colleagues, mentors and friends. President Hazel Hazelanne Johnson Marcus, Vice President Christoff
Finger, you are both amazing leaders with your own uh professional acumen and I thank you for your leadership. He's learn you encouraged me to run the first time and I had the privilege of running with Chris on the same ticket for both terms and I really appreciate all that
you've done to guide me through all of the nuances and and and holding my hands through that. I also want to thank Bri thank Brian uh Glassber for his leadership uh especially during some very critical decisions we had to make as a board. I learned a lot from you
Brian. You had a high standard and I really admire you for that. Thank you for your guidance and friendship. Eric and Alicia I thank you for well Alicia is not here. Your collegiality and the expertise you shared so generously. I've learned a lot from
being on the committees with both of you and I I truly admire your dedication to the board and to the community. Nadia, Sunni, and Jen, I have every confidence you will be passionate, effective advocates for the children and
families for this community. I admire each and every one of my colleagues, all of whom who are here tonight, not here tonight, and past colleagues who I've served with, Jonathan Lifton and Dan Benderly as well. All of you your dedication to public service is truly in
I'm truly in awe of that to our administrators and staff and especially Dr. Caputo, Dr. Herszog and Mr. Javier with whom I've worked closely on commit as on committee as chairing some of the committees. Thank you for your patience, your guidance and your unwavering
dedication to our district. our community is stronger and you're leaving a true institutional legacy with your leadership and I think we're really good hands with you with all of you and your staff. I've always been committed to public service in my careers and as a
volunteer profoundly grateful to the residents of this community who trusted me not just once but twice to represent them on the board. I will continue to champion for equitable values in public service and in treating each other with respect for our diversity, our rich
cultural heritage. I have seen and experience that it benefits our students tremendously when we provide equity in public spaces and institutions. At the top of my priority is to continue to advocate for the health and well-being of our children so we live in a community that is safe, protected,
healthy, and thrives from all of us being respected and treated equally. I'm proud to have served in a district that works hard to achieve these goals for our children. And it was so obvious tonight from the data that was presented that that is truly our values. Thank you for the honor of serving you. I'll see
you all around town. Thank you so much, Dr. Speer, for your kind words. It is always bittersweet to celebrate a retirement of a colleague and a friend. I will say having met you while serving on the mayor's equity commission back in the day in 2020 I
believe we were uh commissioned. Uh it was clear to me your passion for public service. So when an opening was coming about I was like hey I know someone who'd be really fantastic and I was right. Uh we are thrilled for you to be starting your new chapter but of course you've got some big shoes to fill. uh
you have worked tirelessly. Uh again, you mentioned it in your remarks, but to focus on equity to make sure that as we thought about hiring as we thought about building out the team that will make sure that our children are well served, equity was always your focus. You
chaired our equity committee. um you work to ensure that our recruitment efforts were not just focused on outstanding candidates, which they are, but also about ensuring that every adult in our building reflects the brilliance and the breadth of the diversity of our
student body. Um excellence and equity are not two separate goals. You keep reminding us they are one and the same. Indeed, in chairing policy, which is not for the faint of heart, he brought a rare combination of meticulous detail, but a deep heart
because policy is the soul of a school. As we talked about our budget earlier, budget, policy, this is where we enact our values. Um, and you made sure that as we had those conversations in our policy meetings, we were focused on alignment with our values and that our
policies are a framework for support, making sure that none of our students get left behind and they all have what they need to be successful. Uh, you've been a steady hand, you've been a calm voice whether we're navigating complex budget questions and concerns, your focus was always on what's best for the
children. Um I think it is really important to acknowledge and appreciate someone who has served in this volunteer capacity her community with such distinction. So thank you for your service, your brilliance and your unwavering commitment to our community.
We wish you a retirement filled with the same joy and purpose that you brought to your board service. Congratulations. >> Thank you. Thank you. >> All right. Thank you so much. Um, at this time I am turning to see whether
there is any new business. Okay. Um, I've lost my place, but I found it. Okay, here we go. I'd like to move to approve the minutes of the board of education meetings of April 14th, special business meeting one, special
business meeting two, as well as the board meeting. Is there a second? >> Do I not ask for a second? Oh, yes. I was looking to you. Usually you're like, "Yes, let's go." Miss Zimmerman. >> Um, and I'm doing a roll call. Yes. I didn't write it down. I'm all like, "No,
you're good." >> Mrs. Alamage, could I have a roll call, please? Again, it's after 9, y'all. It's just, you know, it's a wild west out, right? Mr. Bot, >> yes. >> Miss Cheetah, yes. >> Mr. Derlinger, >> yes. >> Mr. Glasper, >> yes. >> Dr. Johnson Marcus, >> yes. >> Dr. Sper,
>> abstain. >> Thank you. Mr. Sus, >> abstain. Thank you, Miss Zimmerman. >> Yes. Motion carries. >> Wonderful. Thank you. At this time, the meeting is open to the public, but given that it's 9:47, I can't imagine anyone is running down here right now. So, I
will close that section of the meeting. And now I'll move to the recommendation of the superintendent of schools. Oftentimes, it may appear to members of our audience that the board of education takes action with very little comment and in many cases a unanimous vote. Before a matter is placed on the agenda at a public meeting, the administration has thoroughly reviewed the matter with
the superintendent of schools. If the superintendent is satisfied that the matter is ready to be presented to the board of education, it is then referred to the appropriate board committee. The members of the board committee work with the administration and superintendent to asssure that the members fully understand the matter. When the committee is satisfied with the matter
is presented to the board of education for discussion before any final action is taken. Only then is it placed on the agenda for action at a public meeting. At this time, I'd like to move personnel items A1 through A15. Is there a second?
Mr. Derlinger, are there any questions or comments about the personnel items? See none. Roll call, please. Miss Alio. >> Mr. Bot. >> Yes. >> Miss Cheetum. >> Yes. >> Mr. Dinglinger. >> Yes. >> Mr. Glber. >> Yes.
>> Dr. Johnson Lorcus. >> Yes. >> Dr. Sper. >> Yes. >> Mr. Sus. >> Yes. >> Miss Zimmerman. >> Yes. Motion carries. Wonderful. Dr. Caputo, you have some remarks. >> I do. Uh the board just approved um a number of personnel items. Book ending those number one and number 15 are are
two uh retirements. >> Yes. >> Uh item number one, the the board accepted with with regret the retirement of Kathy Kira's Noli. After more than four year, four decades of dedication at Campbell School, we proudly celebrate the retirement of Miss Kathy Kir truly Campbell ameritus. As both a PE teacher
and administrative assistant, Miss Gears has shaped the Campbell experience in countless ways, bringing energy, care, and professionalism to every role she's held. Remarkably, her journey comes full circle. Once a student at Campbell, she returned to serve the very school that helped shape her, going on to witness
over 40 first days of school. >> Miss Kir has been more than an educator and colleague. She's been a constant, a source of positivity, and a steady presence for generations of students, staff, and families. Her impact lives in the tradition she upheld, the relationship she built, and the spirit
of Campbell she carries forward each day. We thank Miss Kes for her extraordinary service and wish her a retirement filled with the same joy and energy she brought to our school community. >> Absolutely. >> Number 15 tonight. Um tonight we also celebrated the retirement of Mr.
Jonathan Noli. Known to many as Campbell School's resident scientist and beloved educator for 33 years, Mr. Noli has inspired generations of students as Campbell's hands-on science teacher, sparking curiosity, creativity, and a lasting love of learning. Throughout his career, he never lost sight of his
calling to make a difference in the lives of students and is exactly what he has done. As Mr. Nolley often recounts, "You don't change Matuchin, Mat Matuchen changes you." >> His remarkable tenure speaks to both his impact on the community and the strength of the district he helped shape. While
we use the word retirement, Mr. Noldie is simply being a new chapter, one filled with adventure, including continuing his pursuit of the triple crown of long-distance hiking alongside his wife Kathy. >> On behalf of the board of education, the Muchachi community, we thank Mr. Noldie for his 33 years of 33 years of
dedication and the countless lives he has influenced. Congratulations, Mr. Noldie, and best wishes on the journey ahead. >> Wonderful. It's always again bittersweet to accept those because they are truly stalwarts of the Campbell community. So, um, I wish them well in their retirement
and their adventures to come. The the the hiking, the kids all know about it. >> Yes. >> All right. Wonderful. Thank you, Dr. Caputo. >> Say something. >> Of course. >> I just want to make a quick note. Um, both Mr. Noli and Mrs. Kier Noli were my teachers when I was at Campbell. And
there is something phenomenal that happens internally when you're sitting at the dinner table and you hear your own children talk about their experiences with the teachers that made you feel precisely the same way. So I have to commend the sustainability of
all those years, the ongoing passion, the the ongoing compassion for students and really making every student feel seen um was a proud parent moment and a really a proud board member moment as well. I really appreciate both of you
and I wish the best on your retirements. Congratulations. >> Absolutely wonderful. Thank you, Miss Zimmerman. >> I just want to say quickly um I hope I got these numbers right, but Mr. Noldi um said that this science fair the third graders had the highest participation
he's ever seen with about 95% of kids participated for a voluntary science fair and I believe the fourth graders had I think the most projects he's ever seen. I hope I got that right. But just uh tremendous tremendous work on his behalf and um engaging our students around science and technology. So want
to acknowledge that. >> Absolutely wonderful. Thank you Mr. Glasber. >> Uh Mr. Derflinger. I'm older than you are and I also had Miss Kier. Um, and you know, I just I'll say something as a young child. Uh, she was
a I guess a young teacher and I was at Campbell School when it was up to seventh grade at that point. She was quite attractive um to me as a young child. >> Is it remember, you know, little crush, you know, as as a 10year-old or
something, whatever I was recorded. >> That's okay. That's okay. >> Really blessing at home now. >> But good memories. >> Oh my stars. All right. >> We get really honest. Dr. >> Thank you. I guess. >> All right.
>> Dr. Johnson Marcus, I thank you. No more no more comments. >> Are you ready, Mr. Cess, to move your finances? >> I'd like to I'd like to move items B1 through B15 as listed on the agenda. >> Is there a second to the finance items, please? >> Oh my good. They're like, "Please don't
let him talk anymore." Miss Zimmerman, can I have a roll call, please? Mrs. Alage, >> couple things I need to point out, Dr. John Marcus. What? >> Couple things I need to point out. >> Okay, very quickly, >> these are your comments. Sorry. >> Yes, these are my comments. >> Me laugh and now I'm all giggly. >> This is a very very exciting finance.
Um, so one is you you'll notice that we got handed out a lot of uh pieces of paper. Um, so items five, six, 7, 8, and 15 are all related to the ESIP project, which Mr. Glberg and Mr. Harveier mentioned earlier. Um, I won't go into
exactly. Item nine is the approval of MOS bus routes. >> Yay. >> So, that's very exciting than I intended. >> And item 13 is the actual budget that was presented earlier. Thank you for the clarifying. No problem. That's to ensure that folks
know where to look to find the relevant information. Are there any other comments or questions on the pineasma that we've gathered ourselves? >> All right. Now, may we have a roll call, please? >> Mr. Bot, >> yes. >> Miss Cheetum, >> yes.
>> Mr. Derlinger, >> yes. >> Mr. Glber, >> yes. >> Dr. Johnson Marcus, >> yes. >> Dr. Sper, >> yes. >> Mr. Sus, >> yes. >> Miss Zimmerman, >> yes. Motion carries. >> Thank you so much, Dr. Spner. For the final
>> final policy, >> I'd like to move item C1 through C4 as listed on the agenda, please. >> Wonderful. May I have a second, please? >> Mr. Sus, are there any questions or comments on the policy items?
>> CNN. Roll call, please. >> Mr. Bot, >> yes. >> Miss Cheetum, >> yes. >> Mr. Derlinger, >> yes. >> Mr. Glasper, >> yes. >> Dr. Dr. Johnson Marcus. >> Yes. >> Dr. Sper. >> Dr.
Yes. Okay. Mr. S. >> Yes. >> Miss Zimmerman. Yes. Motion carries. Wonderful. Thank you, Mr. D. >> Excuse me, Dr. Johnson. Marcus, just want we want to point one thing out on the calendar. I think that was changed. That's might worth for the public. >> Sure. Carry on. >> Go.
>> Oh, me. You go. you were going to >> Oh, you a chair for like, you know, >> one of the changes on the calendar was uh early dismissal day that was moved from one point of the calendar to the other to uh provide some uh
>> first day set up. >> Yeah, first day setup for teachers. I just wanted to note that so in case any confusion. So, any questions? >> So, the first day of school is now a half day. >> Correct. And for students, the teachers will be there all day and the last three
days, which are usually half days, there will be two half days at the end. >> Correct. >> Yep. >> All right. Thank you for pointing that out. In case folks are taking a look and wondering, hey, what changed? >> All right. Uh, were we did we move? >> Not yet. >> No. Okay.
>> Thank you. I'd like to move. >> Yes. I'd like to make a motion to move items D1 through three as listed on the agenda, please. >> Thank you. Is there a second? Mr. Sus, are there any questions or comments on the curriculum items?
Seeing none, roll call, please. >> Mr. Bot, >> yes. >> Miss Cheetum, >> yes. >> Mr. Derkinger, >> yes. >> Mr. Glasper, >> yes. >> Dr. Johnson Marcus, >> yes. >> Dr. Spigner, >> yes. >> Mr. Sus, >> yes. >> Miss Zimmerman, >> yes. Motion carries. >> Wonderful. Thank you. At this time, we
are open to the public, but at this time it is 9:57 and I am not seeing any people running into the auditorium. So, I shall close this section and turn it over to Miss Zimmerman for the announcements. >> Okay. I'll try to keep it brief, but I have a couple things tonight. So, um, as
the teachers and and administrator administrators know, we have NJ SLAs's coming up. I wanted to flag that for everyone. So, um, the high school began their ELA and math testing this week. Um, and they'll have science testing the
week of May 18th. Um, Edgar will begin testing this Friday. And then Campbell will have testing the week of May 11th. So, if any parents are watching, make sure your students charge their Chromebooks, bring their wired headphones, um, get a good night's sleep, eat a good breakfast, and be
ready for NJSLA. So, that's the student learning assessments coming up this month. Um, we also have Dr. Caputo alluded mentioned this in his presentation, but the New Jersey School Climate Improvement Survey, which I sounds like you call it New Jersey Sky.
All right, so I'm learning all the lingo here. Um, so the New Jersey School Climate Improvement Survey, um, parents, keep a lookout for that. We'd like you to participate. Um, the survey dates, okay, Moss and the high school, parents will be able to take the survey from May
1st through the 15th. Campbell and Edgar families can take the survey from May 18th through June 1st. So, look out for a link um in your email um or look for that online. Okay, a couple more things. Hang on. Um staff appreciation weeks are
coming up in May. We have uh Moss Campbell and the high school celebrating staff appreciation May 4th through 8th. Edgar is celebrating their staff May 18th through 21st. Okay. Moss. Uh, Scholastic Bookf Fair is tomorrow and
Thursday. Family night is on Thursday from 3:00 to 6:00 p.m. Campbell. Um, the PTO is doing a really cool staff appreciation card making event after school tomorrow from dismissal until 4 p.m. So, if your students would like to
stay after school, make some thank you cards for their teachers and staff. The PTO is hosting a card making session that's tomorrow after school at Campbell. Edgar, we heard the orchestra, the band tonight. We've got the orchestra concert on May 11th. Chorus
concert May 13th. And the band we heard tonight May 14th. Um PTC parentout fundraiser is Friday, May 8th at JR's Pub. And the silent auction is online. You can check it out at matuchenptc.com.
And if you're still hanging with me, our next board meeting is Tuesday, May 12th. >> Wonderful. Thank you so much, Miss Zimmerman. At this time, I'd like to move to adjourn the meeting. Is there a second? >> All in favor?
Good night, everyone. 10 o'clock on the dot.