to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all
the Mrs scher mrs m here mrs perry here mrs quinn here mrs reynolds here mr jordan here [Music] now I'd like to um introduce our Spanish
interpreter Miss Susette Marie Carter hello thank you the New Jersey open public meetings law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice of and to attend the meeting of the public bodies at which any business affecting their interests is discussed and acted upon in
accordance with the provisions of the act the board secretary has caused notice of this meeting to be published by having the date time and place thereof posted on the bulletin board located in the hallway outside of the administrative offices and notice was provided to the Courier News the Home News Tribune and the Middle Sex
Book sorry Todd I forgot you were here it's all right here i saw I saw Okay we don't have um any reason to go into exact tonight so we will start with our presentations and our first
presentation is the final 2025 2026 budget i don't want to speak
[Music]
you [Music] never want to [Music]
what note is this what note is this okay let's play it with you [Music]
[Music] [Music] thank you to support continued stability our 2526 school budget is put into place for
educational excellence we are using the full allowable 2% tax levy increase this approach ensures the continued support and stability of all existing educational programs and services by maximizing available resources within the statemandated CAP the district
remains committed to maintaining high quality instruction preserving student opportunities and meeting the needs of the school community thank you um do we have any discussion on that i know we had we discussed a little bit
last night body from the board before I open up the public comment nice job okay so now we will have the open public comment public hearing on the 2025 2026
annual budget comments at this time are limited to agenda items only please come to the podium and put your name address email address and subject of your comment into the record book before speaking please give your name address and subject of your comment to Miss Annette Gordano
business administrator board direct your comments and questions to the board president you may speak on two separate topics for up to three minutes each i will close the public comment portion of the meeting the first public break okay we'll move on to our
announcements um so I just have a couple of things some good things um our our very own Sharon Schuler was um nominated for the Middle Sex County School Boards Association second DP for legislation um the vote the final vote is to take place
at the um Middle Sex County School Board Association annual meeting i think that's in May so good luck and thank and Sharon is a wealth of knowledge so it should be an easy choice how many people run so I don't know how many were
were submitted um resumes this is actually my third or fourth time submitting to the county um this is the first that I've gotten the nomination from the graduation will you find that reserve again uh so it's basically they
nominate a slate and then there can be nominations from the floor if anyone cho chooses to represent representative six we also um I'm excited to announce that we have official officially partnered
with big hugs as um another location for our prek program for next school year so that's exciting um and my final thing is that two of our teachers Mrs hoff and Mrs albaneseise have been chosen to have their exemplar instructional practice videos featured on the New Jersey
Department of Education website these videos will be available for educators to view um congrats to Mrs hoff and Mrs albaneseise and thank you to Miss Gomez for coordinating this so we're very excited that our teachers are going to be um on the NJDOE website for being
exemp exemplar teachers and that's all I have we'll move on to our superintendent of schools Dr robera Freeman good evening i just want to talk about today which our Steep is going to go a
little bit deeper about today was bring your child to work day and I was able to be a part of a scavenger hunt which is always wonderful and fun so it was really a great day that our teachers and our staff that there are families got to
see what we do every single day so hats off to our staff and for creating a really fun day for the students thank you thank you we do that every year yes i know it's the day but I didn't realize the school
okay now our business administrator board secretary Miss Annette Jordano good evening welcome everyone we have no announcements or updates from the business office thank you for being here it's good to see a full audience and um
that it Thank you thank you now we'll move on to our leazison reports um first our NJSBA legislative officer Mrs sharon Schuler um so the legislative committee did meet um I um will send out the minutes of
that meeting once we do um get that uh however the other um job that I do do is the um delegate to the delegate assembly so New Jersey school board's delegate assembly is going to be on May 10th i am also a member of the
resolution subcommittee so this time thankfully we got the documentation before the meeting so I could have a conversation with you all um and um there's only three resolutions instead of 18 like last time so real
quickly I'm just going to like get let you know and then I will send you something if you have any questions or concerns because my vote that I take to the delegate assembly should be the board vote it's not necessarily my vote um so the first resolution comes from
Woodbury um Board of Education in Gloucester County and I know we had the gaming the esports here their recommendation is to update the school board's manual of policy
and position and policy on education to include the ability for esports to acrew a um a varsity letter um so that is the resolution subcommittee did recommend to
approve it to go to the delegate assembly and are recommending approval to be added to the manual of positions and policies the second one is from Franklin Township Board of Education in Warren um and they propose new language
supporting the belief that the state should modify the criteria for the school nurse non-instructional endorsement to eliminate the requirement of holding a bachelor's degree and complete the DOE's um college curriculum
for the preparation for school nurses with a minimum of 15 semester credit hours the resolution subcommittee did recommend approval for that um and again I just want to specify that this is the delegate assembly approves things to go
into the New Jersey school boards manual it does not do anything with the state except allow New Jersey school boards to advocate for these things um and then the third one comes from Kenneti board of education from Sussex
County they had one at the last um delegate assembly also but this one is to um change the attendance regul regulations to include state excused absences for students who are competing
completing steps necessary to enter skilled trade professions um it would give them an opportunity to um like you would do a college visit see some of the different unions and you may
have to take testing etc um so their last one was about military this one is about um skilled trades so again the resolution subcommittee does recommend approval of these resolutions and I will send these to you and if anyone has any
concern or question that we think we need to discuss before the the vote on December on December May 10th um um just just let me know but um at this
point they seem to be three fairly easy um things to support so um I think that's all I have thank you so now our Middle Sex County SBA delegate and also our Burough Alliance
on Mr tom good evening uh number four yet on both the lines committee uh next meeting for the lines committee is May 15th and the county meeting is May 22nd which is also
our meeting so I'll be going to the Somerset County meeting in a couple weeks thank you thank you for stepping up and taking now our Middle Sex Public Library Board of Education representative Miss Aaron
Gomez good evening everyone um I just wanted to talk about something that our librarians are doing in conjunction with public library which is to help build the bridge between our libraries so our librarians with our the director of our
public library Mrs chrissy George and our youth services librarian Kayla Ward are working with our schools um to come up with challenges for students to do in order to win prizes and raffles to check out books from the libraries here but
also check out the books from libraries the public from books from the public library to be able to get students to come in to get library cards and all those sorts of things going into the summer i also have a meeting with uh Mrs
george next week we're going to sit down and talk about some of the things that we're going to continue to do now that the weather is nicer to connect the school with the public library thank you and now our stu
student I can't say student representative Miss Archie Farmer good evening everyone you know me um here it is no give me one
second so good evening once again and welcome back from the break um I have to make it work by my hands so I want to let you all know that I'll be leaving early today because maybe uh while you'll be leaving you'll see the kids are decorating our hallways today and I
also have to participate in it otherwise they'll be very mad at me so have to do it so let me tell you one hallway we're decorating now so it's senior versus junior versus sophomore versus the freshman so um seniors me and all of us
so we have our topic is spunball so the senior hallway is going to be decorated completely like Spongebob and also there are going to be the pictures of our childhood so there's going to be my picture also it's tough to find my picture juniors they're having strangers thing the juniors really wanted to do
strangers thing so we gave him gave them their topic sophomores Adam's family i still don't know what that is but we were fine with them doing it freshman Frozen i knew Frozen because it's a very famous movie so I knew about
that so this is what I want to let you know about the holiday decorating which is happening right now and um I don't know who's going to win hopefully seniors because I'm a senior but I'm going to let you guys know in the next meeting who is the winner um the next thing is powder puff so as many of you
might know that powder puff is a uh game which is played in high school towards the end of the year this is usually where girls they play the football now it's a cusp or a plex football i knew about this i actually did a huge research just to present it
today we don't play these games in India so this is uh where usually there is a role reversed uh as we all know that boys they play and the girls they do the cheerleading but this is different boys they do the cheerleading and girls they play so it was very fun
and it was $2 to see and $5 to play i did not play i I went to see and record for today i couldn't play i'm not athletic at all and it's breaking tradition of gender not so I have a video um I'm sure as many of you want to
know who won so can anyone want to guess yeah like senior junior the seniors yeah the seniors win i have a video of their celebration you'll see me yelling in it so just get together for today
okay seniors three two one okay so take your child to work today this is one of our favorite and the most like awaited moment of the entire year so this is where uh today we had our teachers they brought their kids in and that's why you'll see all these
decorations happening i know many of you might know that this could be for you but unfortunately it wasn't for you it was for kids and right where we are sitting over here we had many stations like a slime station breast uh breast making stations coloring station
and and few things which are gone it's American things i'm sorry there was a few games both games and then right over there we had the kids where they were doing the drawings and uh the pictures are from the kids and they made like the boxes and they made very unique things
uh right over there as well walking in you might have seen the butterflies and diamonds hanging um so there there was this one kid who I really love the most and that was he wanted to become president of the world so whenever anyone wouldn't listen to
him he would put someone in the jail and I was to jail so this is what we did today it was a very hard time so who organized it fccla we have a club FCCLA yeah it's a short firm we have a very huge name i do not know the name i
remembered i just forgot i'm sorry so it's ran by Miss Gabriella Smith and we have uh co-presidents Mackenzie Martin and Blake Thompson who did a great job organizing it uh and I have videos i have many videos for this one so I think
the first video is okay never mind we don't have a video right now let me tell you what we did so dance we had dance functions over here in the gym the kids who wanted to dance they went to the uh gym and that's where they did the dance with the uh students who
were in the uh in that classroom at the time the second thing coloring and bristle making as I told you craft video game s uh station so right over there our esports they did a great job today by letting the kids play the video games um okay Kevin Hunt i had to talk about
this because uh two of my teacher they take 10 they took 10 minutes just to help me how to pronounce it so I didn't go over there because someone had to be in the library because if someone had to go to the bathroom someone w need to be like a coordinator so I was the bathroom person who have to
take them so I was in the library i missed it but I knew the kids when they came and they were very happy they were like jumping because they got their puzzles ready the trick was that they have to get all their puzzles and once they got all their puddles done they have to go to the teacher's log and
that's when they'll make the puzzle together whichever group gets the puzzle together first they were given the candies um it made them happy now at the end we were planning to go to the playground but we didn't go because many reasons first the kids were very tired
already they want to make them more time it was very hot today so we just kept it what else do we have anyone getting lost so please stay with one of the teenagers or like you know in your So this is the video where we were giving them
instructions and try to be with us if you're going outside the library in the library it's easy to find them it wasn't easy at some point we can find them but outside we couldn't find them and we also taught them not to go outside these doors
another video i don't know what's Oh I love it as I was talking uh before the meeting starts business that uh the kids they went to the gym now it was very great to see how our students in Middle Sex High School they were helping and playing
with the kids in the gym as um few kids they were playing soccer and intentionally they were losing just to make them happy they were playing basketball they were playing um pickle ball yeah they were playing pickle ball and hockey so it was very fun to see them playing in the gym and
also dancing with those kids um the next video I think it's my favorite video video the next one it might be me and one of the kid who I totally want to be the president of the world he's Mr schwartz Arjun featured his son and he was entire time with me so if he was
with me he got to know about Dr mike so So this week we have spirit week going on in the school so today was dress like your favorite celebrity and yes I dress like Dr mike so he asked me what was my name i told him my name is Arshib he never got that so I asked him to just
stick with Dr mike so he knows me like Dr mike i hope that's the next video no it's not it's the kids thing that came in all right movement so the kids they were
playing video games over here not for the entire time because we also do not want them to just keep sitting they were uh changing their positions like they were rotating and as I told you esports and the technology department they did a really great job to let them play and also teach them how to play because uh
four or five years old kids they want to play Fortnite but they didn't know how to play so they did a great job explaining that i hope the next video is the one which I was talking about that's Mr regan's tail it's not that video he was concentrated on making a
brisket now I'm sure it's the last video so you'll see me and him talking i made this video especially for So I really really like playing with my new toys I have what about me about
she played with me all day you had a fun yeah and she was really really nice are you going to remember me yes what's my name dr b facebook i love I love
Hi hello Dad i love you so Dr mike [Music] it was very fun i love it i'm graduating um this year and I wouldn't see them again so it was very fun and he wanted to take me with him to his home at that
time so the next thing is National Honor Society so we have one of the best uh club national honor society there are many requirements to be in the club i'm in it um so I'm going to talk about two things the fundraising which we did and the second thing was blood drive so talking about the fundraising I can't
speak from that so oh my bad blood drive so the blood drive is going to happen on Friday May 2nd uh it's happening in high school gym and it's organized by Red Cross organization now it's not that any kid can do it there are many uh requirements like the
requirement is age requirement you should be 17 or older not only this there are specific age borders as I just told you parental consent is very important in this like I'm convincing my mom so she can allow me to do the blood drive if she gets convinced um the third thing uh is
height and weight usually it's very important to also make sure like there is height limitation for general also like for girls they are different height and for boys it's a different height same goes for the weight it's on the website all the kids have the website on the Google classrooms and also on the
corridor on the hallways we'll see the hangings of the fireio where they're going to be the QR code where that's our information is for the parents to access and also the students to access and precaution uh we do not want anyone to get to give the blood and then fall so
we really want them to take the precaution the precautions are very simple stay hydrated eat a nutritionrich diet and eat a protein richch diet mom let me do it so fundraising so for fundraising New Jersey uh prevent child abuse this is
where all the fundraising from National Honor Society event um we raised up $2,000 this year uh the goal was to provide support in in coping of the kids from the abuse the abuse could be mental physical or any kind of abuse in any form the money is going for a good cause
and it's a nonprofit organization and they have this famous quote nonprofit builds resilience and social emotional health within children and families so this is one of like uh the best way and many of our staff would know that we kids we were coming to them asking for
if they want to buy a donut so that the money from the donuts was going all the thousand dollar went to this uh nonprofit organization and I also did participated in it spirit week as I just told you we were we are having spirit week going on and tomorrow is the last day of the
spirit week and this is the last spirit week of this uh year which I'm very sad about because I always party into it now tomorrow we have our pep rally tomorrow we always wear our class colors um and we have dressed like your celebrity rest of like so much
yeah so diversity day uh I'm going to talk more about diversity day in the next meeting because it's happening on May uh on 30th of this month which month is this april april 30th uh this is where usually the kids they have two option first they can have their
individual tables second they can have like the class tables like class of 2025 or class of 2024 there are many delicious foods coming that day i'm going to bring food so it's going to be very yummy because that's the only time when I get to eat like a lot of spicy food usually so it's very fun and the
kids from National Honor Society are volunteering into it they're helping in organizing and they're also taking part in it um so I'm going to talk a lot more about it and I'm going to come with the videos and pictures uh just to show how it was um okay well that's Thank you
[Applause] is the blood drive open to the public um I have to look into this because I'm not sure if it's open to public um because it's in school gym so I might not be sure about this i'll let you know i'll
ask Mr priy and or Mrs because there's a club advisor and then I'll email you about it okay thank you thank you thank you everyone thank you i'll be leaving now i'm sorry have fun hope you win i hope so
we're We're a little bit partial me you and Trish hoping that the seniors win in the hall decorating we all have seniors too so we're on your side we're rooting for you thank you everyone have a great evening okay now we will move on to our meeting
minutes um we have minutes from the committee as a whole and the executive session and the regular public meeting and the executive session that night which was they were March 18th and March 19th um we have corrections and
revisions to previous board agendas as noted um does anybody have I'm sorry superintendent recommends approval of items 5.01 to 5 sorry wrong thing i'm looking at the
wrong just um approval of items 6.01 to 6.03 as presented so move second anybody have any questions annette can you please take the the role this is um I need to abstain
from the regular public meeting and the executive session on March 19th yes to the rest mrs schuler yes miss Jeffrey yes mr nickel yes mrs perry
yes mrs quinn yes mrs reynolds yes to both meetings on March 18th abstain from both meetings on March 19 mr thornton yes thank you
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 the superintendent to asssure that the members are fully understand the matter when the committee is satisfied with the matter it 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 okay we'll move on to our personnel report from our committee chair Mr nicholas thank you Madam President um personnel committee met
earlier this month superintendent recommends approval of personnel action items 9.1 through 9.12 that is prevented second does anybody have any questions can you please take the role mrs fancy yes mrs schuler yes miss Jeff
yes mr nichol yes mrs perry yes mrs quinn yes mrs reynolds yes Mr gordon yes thank you we'll now move on to our education report by our committee chair Mrs brener excuse me the superintendent
recommends approval of education action items 11.1 through 112 as presented so second any questions or discussion annette can you please take the role mrs parent yes mrs scheler yes
miss Jeffrey yes mr mr nicolai yes mrs perry yes mrs quinn yes mrs reynolds yes mr gordon yes thank you um we don't have any policy action items so do we need to we don't need to do
anything perfect we'll move on to our facilities and finance report by our committee chair Mr toddler thank you Danielle the superintendent recommends approval of facilities and finance action items 14.01 01 to 14 so move
second any questions or discussions um can I just make a quick comment about the budget um good evening ladies and gentlemen um I just want to say um thank you to Danielle Dr freeman Sharon and
Tom we did meet to discuss concerns that I had with the budget and um we had I think a good meeting um but I I still have some disagreements about it so I just want to explain a little bit to the board um why I'm going to be voting the
way I'm voting um the parking lot project for Parker School um not against the project i just I just the cost for the million dollars um I just think that's way over what it
should cost for a parking lot and also the other issue I had was with other expenditures that's at like 19.9% and that's about 10 million of the budget and just maybe looking into that
more of what items in that because of being such a large amount of money as other expenditures that was my other issue and um moving forward I just ask the board to be conscious in the spending because of the uncertainty
today with um the economy and also what will be happen with funding in schools so just that um we look out for the taxpayer and that we try to keep low percentage increases moving forward and
um thank you thank you can I ask a real quick to piggy back yes um no you make a good point and I'm not disagreeing i appreciate you sharing your thoughts we do we have to take the
lowest bid right so when we have these costs it's the absolute lowest bid of any company that comes to us so we're not legally we have to take it i didn't know if if you were aware of that so I Yes aware of that but I don't know if
this has been bidded out yet or is that just an estimate so that's why I was just concerned about the amount of the estimate that's my concern and I'm hoping it comes in under that as well but so that's not confirmed the amount that is going to be right
so we do we do have to estimate according to our long range facility plan which we did talk about last night there are prices kind of associated with the cost of different things we do have to give an estimate so that the money can be allocated from the capital of the
capital improvements budget when we do go out bid if it comes in at $500,000 then we spend $500,000 and the rest goes back into capital improvement fund if it came in
over a million dollars we either rebid or we don't do the project and the money goes back into capital we usually try to estimate enough to so that the project can get done correct okay and it's not just resurfacing a
parking lot it's similar to what we did at Moger in I believe it's drainage grading digging it out the the new drainage uh the lights the everything it's it's an all it's for safety and security of the staff and the students
so and correct me if I'm wrong Annette but I think that there was an estimate part of the long range facilities plan but we obviously have to up that because that is a number of years old correct right and we all know that everything is
way more expensive okay any other questions or discussions on that yes regarding the U budget and um I know um my concerns are also with the amount of spending especially with
the parking lot especially with the projects that we have voted on the generator the cost of the generator project parking lot we're doing the in the uh school here we're doing the
ceilings or I guess uh remediation it seems like this well from what I see seems like we're spending a little too much this year to try to get things going um too many big projects at the
same time that's my concern um because of those having those projects it's affecting the budget it's affecting the taxpayers it's everybody um that's just my feeling on it is that
is there possibly puts something off instead of having all these projects going simultaneously um and I I think that again correct me if I'm wrong um but I believe that some of these projects were also part of the referendum correct the
Um the ceiling abatement project here that's going on in the summer is part of the referendum yes um the generator was not that was from capital money from last year but that's this year's budget
right that's not last year's budget oh yeah yeah or or should I say this year's budget yes exactly so that Yes that's not part of that's not part of next year correct um and then again I 16 years in this seat I'm going
to tell you the long range facility plan we talked about it last night $87 million four years ago if we are doing a project a million dollars at a time we're never getting anything done at at this at the school
because we we can only afford to do two projects a summer and when we get done with those two there's millions more renovations that need to be done on five extensively old buildings
so we we spent a lot of years between 2008 and 201 12 14 not doing a lot of these things because there was no money we were not getting money from the state we were not I I honestly I understand your
concerns but I'm just saying two projects a summer is not a lot actually for a school district so that's just my view we we need to start chipping away at these things and especially if you know some of them are
for the safety of the staff and the students i mean these are things that definitely I was say they're not glamorous nothing glamorous about these these renovations and I just want to remind the board that capital reserve money must be spent in
capital projects as you know so this is not money that can be transferred in any other line item in the budget they must be spent on capital projects and the money is meant to be spent in those areas in that area so it's not like we can't pull money
from here to add it to something correct yes any other discussion annette can you please take the role mrs yes mrs schuler yes miss
Jeffrey here mr nicolai yes mrs perry yes mrs quinn 14.13 no for the budget and yes for the rest mrs reynolds yes mr thorns
1412 is no for the budget 1413 and uh Yes for the rest thank you do we have any new business any ongoing business okay we'll open the public
comment portion of the meeting the second public comment portion comments at this time can be on any topic please come to the podium put your name address email address and subject for comment into the record book before speaking please give your name address and subject of your comments to Miss Anette Urano business administrator board
secretary direct your comments and questions to the board president you may speak on two separate topics for up to three minutes each good evening Dr freeman board members staff and community members my name is Connie Stanzion and I live at 30 Whitney
Drive where I have been a resident for 48 years i am a retired teacher from Franklin Township School District in Somerset while I never had children on my own I have always voted in favor of school
referendums because I understood the direct impact that supporting teachers and staff has on students academic success dr freeman on the day first on the first day of school you spoke about
vulnerability when our community was considering a referendum it was indeed a vulnerable time for both teachers and students unfortunately that referendum did not pass forcing the district to
make difficult adjustments it was discouraging now as I continue to work in the district as a lunchroom and recess a teacher assistant and a care
supervisor I see firsthand how dedicated our teachers are they meet students at their individual levels challenging them to excel and encouraging them to grow into responsible leaders none of us want
to see mediocrity we want to see students thrive at this moment Dr freeman and board members there is an uncertainty that must be addressed we must move beyond hesitation and work
together to find a solution that benefits our teachers staff community and most importantly our students let us do what is right thank you for your time thank
you i'm sorry you just um you just need to put your name in the book oh I'm sorry your name um your address and your email address please thank you good job nice job hi my name is Regina Reed and this is my
daughter Sophia i teach fifth grade at Woodland School i am here to speak on behalf of the Middle Sex Education Association this is my 23rd year here at Middle Sex i began my career at Parker School i then worked at Logger and now
Woodling for many years i have cared for Middle Sex children and their families for literally half of my life i go to school early i stay late i sometimes do work at home i am not home to drive my own children to school or to pick them
up i have missed every first day of school as well as things like Halloween parades and award assemblies why because I'm here with the children in the Middle Sex i spend hours a day in a classroom that I pay to decorate myself so that my
awesome students can learn in a pleasantl looking environment unfortunately though the room is sometimes sweltering because there's no air conditioning it is very warm indoors this week and I cannot imagine how ridiculously hot it will be on June 25th yet my students and I will continue to
do our very best to focus on our very important work because I give this time and energy my heart and soul really to my students every day it is time for the Middle Export Board of Education to care about me and my family in return i have two teenagers that need to
go to college soon and I need money to pay for it in case people are not aware some universities cost more per year than teachers make here in a year i worry about how I can make my own kids' future dreams come true and still pay my mortgage the truth is the Reed family
deserves better please care about us as much as I have cared about everyone here for the past 23 years i beg you to give my amazing colleagues and I the respect and fair contract we deserve this coming Monday we have been waiting for 297 days
thank you [Applause] my name is Caitlyn Palinas i live at 11 Dawn Street in Hampton um and although I do not live here now I am a former
resident of Middle Sex i grew up here i graduated from Middle Sex High School and have now been teaching in district for over 10 years so I am here speaking today to urge the board to settle our contract it has been mentioned before that we are facing a teacher shortage which is undoubtedly true however I would like to highlight a specific
population of our staff and district that is going through crisis level shortages special education right now we are struggling to fill special education positions and the reality is stark fewer teachers are entering the field while the needs of our students continue to
grow the shortage of qualified special education teachers has led to increased case loads reduced individualized attention and the reliance on long-term substitutes to fill vacancies for example I am the district's single autism program teacher
my students receive onetoone instruction and require support in many areas such as communication social skills and daily living skills this school year there are two autism classrooms but again I am the only teacher so who is teaching the second classroom the district began
looking for a teacher for the second classroom in May 2024 last year it has been almost a year and the district has yet to hire a teacher for eight months now the second autism classroom has been taught by a teacher assistant this is not a unique problem for the district
during the 2023 2024 school year Woodland was without a teacher for their fifth grade LLD program a teacher assistant was used to cover the class for months on end one of the elementary multiple disabilities classrooms started this school year off without a teacher the teacher assistant was used to teach
the class earlier this school year the high school multiple disabilities teacher resigned the district has been posting for the position since mid-occtober the classroom is still without a teacher a teacher assistant has been covering for months now while we have wonderful dedicated teaching
assistants they are not required to have teaching certifications or be certified to teach special education these examples serve to show how difficult it is to fill our special education positions with qualified candidates also by using our teacher assistance to cover classrooms long term we are taking them
away from the classrooms that desperately need their support to further highlight the district's difficulty with hiring special education teachers the district has been trying to hire a second multiple disabilities teacher for Woodland since May 2023 it has been almost two years and still no
teacher has been hired the district began advertising for a boardcertified behavioral analyst position in May 2024 a critical position that would help support teachers and students with behavioral needs it is still currently unfilled while I have more examples I
will stop there for the sake of time this shortage doesn't just affect special education students it ripples across entire classrooms overburdens general education teachers and challenges administrators to meet federal and legal mandates with limited resources and the toll it takes is not
just academic it is emotional developmental and deeply human if we are serious about equity in education we must invest in recruiting and retaining special education teachers when we can't fully support our special education programs we risk we risk failing some of
the most vulnerable learners in our district we need to prioritize creating environments where all of our educators feel supported valued and inspired to stay right now that means settling our contract with the contract I hope you can move towards not only filling vacancies but also strengthening the
foundation of inclusive education in our district settle our contract our students and staff deserve nothing less thank you [Applause] thank you guys
that's perfect thank you because it's se directly into what I'm name is Jessica i live at 21 Lane in Fington uh for those of you who don't know me I am the reading specialist at Woodman Intermediate or I was until
December when I was switched to teaching special education math now I understand that times are tough and people leave and we need to fill positions but the problem is there's nobody to fill these
positions i have 40 plus students that are not receiving services that they so desperately need because we cannot get teachers to come and teach in our district and to highlight that need in February of 2024 Ruckers University
provided concrete data surrounding shortages a report from Rucker University's John J heldrich Center for Workforce Development found that 10% of teachers leave the profession within the first three years additionally the report found that the number of provisional teacher teaching
certificates issued in New Jersey during the 2022 2023 school year dropped nearly 40% from the previous decade i'm going to date myself now i graduated in the year of 2007 with an elementary
education degree we were a dime a dozen i could not get an interview there was 300 plus of us trying to get a job for one position right now it is a teachers market you could leave you can go you can ask what you want because we are
desperate for teachers there's a 40% drop in teaching certificates all these people are not going to school to become teachers what are we going to do to get our teachers to come here so that our students can receive the services that they so desperately need i cannot
continue to fill all these vacant positions i am one person and it is not just me it is all support specialists getting pulled constantly to fill these vacancies and we are selling our students short you want to talk about test scores you want to talk about
special education population what are we doing to help this if all of our support staff is being pulled and we can't help our students please settle our contract so that people would like to come and work here if I'm a new teacher and I'm coming for
interviews and I find out that we don't have a contract and we're we've been going about this for a year two years I'm choosing to go work somewhere else we need to settle for the sake of the students in our
classrooms thank you [Applause] hi good evening stacy Ma South Point New Jersey um I'm fourth grade teacher at
Woodland and this is my 22nd year i'm also a proud graduate of Parkland Logger in the high school so the district holds a special place in my heart as many of you know although we are told to put family first I've always felt that putting my job first was putting my
family first since this is how I support my family and show my daughters the importance of being dedicated to rewarding and what I thought was a respected profession i am not feeling the respect but I continued to show up with
the same energy and enthusiasm despite having nowhere no matter the circumstance i showed up while my parents were dying i showed up to miss my child's concerts awards ceremonies and other special events by the way my older daughter asked why I never went i
isolated myself and my family during the pandemic so that I could show up for the kids every day i have spent hours volunteering my time before during and after school throughout my career i've spent countless hours doing work at home and
my own money to enhance students experiences i am very concerned that we will lose the highly educated professional and caring teaching staff that has recently been hired at Woodland i do not want to see them have to hold a
second job their first 10 years like myself and others still do why should they stay when surrounding districts are making up to $20,000 more with no duties and lots of stipened options also having to fight for
compensation for missed preps losing even more valuable time for what is rightfully and legally ours there is more on our plates than ever there is not a hat rack large enough to hold the amount of hats we are expected to wear
outside of our role as a teacher there is no such thing as clocking out with their contract this is like the fourth or fifth time that I've gone through this in my career it's disheartening
[Applause] good evening um board Dr freeman Miss Gomez my colleagues i get sentimental because I love my colleagues so it pains
me to hear what they have to say my name is Maria Siden i've been living here a very long time over 20 years in Middle Sex i did not graduate from Middle Sex i went to school in New York City so
this is very foreign to me when I first came i've been teaching for 20 years plus and I haven't left because of the strong community that we have dr freeman that was the last thing you had in your presentation and I agree with you we are
a strong community as neighbors as colleagues we are strong in every way and I value that i am proud of our town i am proud of our schools i am proud of what our graduates do beyond the high school to
see my former students like Miss McDonald who's a teacher a fabulous teacher the students that are attorneys right now that are nurses that are academics it is something to be proud of and they are the way they are because of
the strong community we have and a big part of it is the teachers those of us that have been here for a very long time a number of my colleagues mentioned about the new staff that came in we have fabulous new staff please don't
leave i remember when I came to that board meeting in August there were so many new hires 11 12 it was exciting i hope I'm able to see that again this coming summer because I hope by then we have a
contract we are a close community that deeply care about our neighbors and support one another at times of need during the funeral of Danny Baraf there were hundreds of people there during the recent tragedy facebook was
lift with support for the family this is the case as well within our schools i am proud of my colleagues we all give 110% to our students not only by guiding them on a daily basis on their academics during and after school as they said
beyond school hours some teachers give extra help for 400 p p.m so we should be gone by some of us working beyond our regular schedule with our students we also serve them as counselors
always with a shoulder to lean on during the times of need when they need somebody to talk to teachers have gone out of their way to buy our students clothing coats shoes grocery gift cards
for our students in need none of this is in our work description but we do it because we deeply care about every one of our students and their well-being parents whose children have transferred from other schools have taken notice of this they've made comments they were
very surprised that we actually call parents they never had that before that we call them in for meetings that we send them emails we care about our students we communicate with our parents this is what we do on our own time at 4:00 at 5:00 at 7 a.m because we don't
have time during the day everything we do is something I think that you need to consider please consider the human aspect of our jobs when you meet on the 28th i
would encourage you to please consider that we're not just teaching subjects we do not just operate in a vacuum we built relationships among my colleagues which I absolutely love with our administrators and with our students and
their families i believe that trusting relationships is at the core of our careers and our field i trust that when it comes time to meet for you to meet on the 28th you'll keep that in mind working without a contract as you can tell impacts our teachers in more ways
than you can imagine is stressful and demanding teachers here should be at home they should be with their kids and on days when teachers are not here at the board meetings it is because we trust that you
do what you're supposed to do i trust that you will do what you need to do he settled the contract on Monday the 28th [Applause] christine's getting there
good evening my name is Kristen i'm a teacher at the wood and I have worked for the Middle Sex Board of Education for the last 20 years where I've been committed to seeing our students succeed i'm respectfully urging this board to settle the ongoing contract
dispute we all know that negotiations are complex but what's at stake here is not just a contract it's trust it's community it's our children's futures as educators we feel unsupported stretched thin and undervalued this isn't about demand it's
about fairness teachers aren't looking for luxury we're looking for livable wages responsible working conditions or reasonable working conditions and the resources we need to do our jobs well a settle contract signals that this district values its educators it sets
the tone for the kind of place we want our schools to be it's time we move forward and settle the contract now [Applause] she's talking hi all I'm Christian Jenkins i teach at
Hazwood School i'm a reading support teacher i'll be talking about the contract and a few other issues as a teacher in this district I chose to speak tonight because I had a few concerns as I stated the last time we spoke at a board meeting I've been
teaching in this district for 22 years many of those years were full of support from the community that I love they love this town and the administration for years I felt heard while not everyone agreed with me they
listened i was included it felt collaborative i was given opportunities to sit on panels of respected teachers and administration if I spoke up about an issue that was occurring in the district it felt respected now all decisions are made by
the administration we are not included and our opinions hold no weight the current climate feels very different it feels angry resentful and at times manipulative i don't feel like I have a voice and now even worse when I do give
my opinion I'm giving it at the risk of being labeled disrespectful which I was told could lead to me being written up i do not consider expressing my opinion as disrespectful and I don't think any member of this staff many of whom have dedicated their careers to
this community including me should feel nervous to speak up with fear of repercussions on the other hand I do think it's disrespectful to not actively listen when any staff or community members are up here sharing their
opinions we deserve to be heard i watched the last meeting on live stream from my son's hospital bedside he was sick and I couldn't attend i couldn't believe what I was watching i saw teachers stand up here
pouring their hearts out with many many of you not all not actively listening and while I'm sure it's hard meeting after meeting hearing about staff and community concerns it's part of the job it's not personal and it
comes with the territory we don't expect things to change immediately but we do want to feel respected and valued and that we know that we matter to you and to this district we deserve respect and most
importantly we deserve a contract settling the contract would be the first step in the right direction that we all need right now if we would step if we'd step away from all of this negativity and forward into a more positive unified
district please settle the contract i appreciate your time [Applause] hey everybody um I'm Amy Nash i am a school technologist with the um
elementary schools um I've been in the district for several years now um I wasn't going to focus my um my talk on special education but I did just want to piggyback off of what um Melchinis was saying in terms of the lack of teachers
and um I just you know from a from a personal standpoint my my older son is a sophomore at Ruckers and I was helping him they're going to they were doing a virtual job there so I said you know like let's look and see where you should go you know so you can try to get an
internship for the summer and there were all these school districts on there advertising and I was shocked that Middle Sex was not on there because I would think that Ruckers would be you know great pool teachers so I really hope that in the future you know there were from Bergen County from Union
County where I lived you know there were just school districts so I really hope that we we take advantage of that so anyway um so over the past several months you've heard many different voices and perspectives regarding the lack of a contract and I just wanted to echo that and I really hope that you
know at some point everybody and their collective stories will be heard um I just wanted to say you know as the months of this school year go on we're almost in May um the toll is just it's really heartbreaking um it's become increasingly hard to come to work with
the joy and enthusiasm that we once had but for teachers or related service providers or in my case child study teams um you know we put on a great face you know we we put our best foot forward we don't want the kids to know the
stress that we are under um because that's what the kids deserve and that's what the families deserve um you know I I have heard through the grape vine that there are teachers that are looking for other positions really really good teachers that would be really terrible
if you lost so I really really hope that you consider all of these things that we're saying when you come to the to the table in one day and that you really really listen you know on both ends but that you can come to a fair contract
because enough time has passed that people are really hurting and you know that would really go a long way so thank you [Applause] Um I know I was late that was by my
choice to be here on time at a meeting or to watch my granddaughters went and attract me there was no doubt in my mind because um I come almost to all the meetings and I voice my opinion and make statements and I don't get any answers and it's
it's pretty frustrating that I come and there's death errors here so I need to express what I should have expressed before the budget but even if I did it before during the budget um agenda items um I knew it was going to fall on decks
anyway so I'm going to ask the board members to think about this and you can't you won't give me an answer but there were 95 pages for the line items for the budget i took the time and I sat there and I went through
line by line by line i have a million questions but I'm not going to take up everyone's time here with them just a few so there's a statement of priorities that you have listed there an example career readiness life reserencies and
key skills so when you look at the code numbers it looks like it's built into the teacher salaries and then also money coming from general supplies so does that mean you're going to be asking teachers to do more so I don't know if you board members read all those little
details but I think it's very important even now that you go back and make sure you read every little detail there um there's a line for salary for a secretary and clerical assistant for $69,000 it's just a line by itself so I
spoke to Danielle several months ago when money was being spent and she kind of indicated to me that I wasn't at the budget hearing for the last budget so that's why I'm here but um I don't know if that's going to be a new position or
not but we don't need any more new positions um total security is listed at 400 400,4434 i'm wondering if that's for the class three officers that we've been wanting to get in place and the year is
almost over and they're not there so that's my question to you is that where that money is going i see there was money in the budget last year $260ome,000 and if it is for the class three officers I would hope that the
board or superintendent I don't know who has to give the go to the police department to make it happen but I would hope that you would do that sooner than later um I'm wondering why the community school director is under a whole
different plan she has private insurance there's all different things listed there i don't know if you're aware of that but there's a whole list um also under security under special the special ed program there's a total security
amount of $257,000 is there a special security for our special education people i don't know and my last comment will be I understand that Hazlewood school
had a little bit of a debacle with a fire drill the other day and I'm just wondering if Mr john Keelia the uh principal on special assignment to one of his major duties and responsibilities to serve as the primary
emergency management management official for the district i wonder if he was allowed to go to Hazlewood School to get that situation straightened out he's not allowed there i come every meeting and I ask questions i go to the board corner
to get my answers there are none i go to my emails to get answers there are none so I fall on deaf ears i'm just a resident um concerned about what's going on but these people deserve more than deaf
ears they have been coming expressing all their concerns and I've been here several meetings with them and it seems like we're going backwards instead of forward i urge you to please listen to these people they
have serious concerns going on and you need to take some action to get them going he's a son good evening everybody good evening good evening to Dr freeman and to the board um here today my name is Vincent Rouse
60 Washington Avenue uh Middle Sex and I wanted to come and share today um a concern but I think we get rectified um Middle Sex uh my family moved to Middle Sex some years ago and when we moved to Middle Sex I did not uh directly put my
children in Middle Sex public school i kept them in private school uh then I made a decision after research and being around the town for some years that I would allow my children myself and my wife allow my children to come and be uh in Middle Sex Public School um it has
been a good experience let me tell you why because Middle Sex have uh some great educators all right i'm not just a parent but I'm a former educator myself um and still is involved in education and I've been able to see some things
and I know some things um that are right right a lot of time people come and talk about the negative stuff all the time but there are a lot of positive things that's going on here in Middle Sex Public Schools but one thing I want to encourage because I also have the opportunity because I'm going back into
education is to be a permanent sub in in Marvel and so my daughter attends Margaret but I'm also there every day and I get to see for myself the love the concern the care and the the quality of teachers that are in Mark i can't speak
for the other schools yes I can i can speak for the high school because my son is also in the high school right and so when there's something wrong Mr smith is on it 100% right our emails detailed from top to bottom his teachers are calling i'm in Chromebook all the time
watching you don't get that every place you don't get that every I'm telling you I know what I'm talking about and so I want to encourage us to work together we have a great superintendent we have great teachers to work together to make sure that they get this contract because I don't want to lose any of those
teachers and my daughter is in sixth grade i want her to be here for seventh grade for eighth grade and I want those teachers that I work with every day to be able to teach my daughter because I see the quality of education that they provide for these students so I'm asking you please make sure that we get this
rectified so our teachers and have a wonderful summer and we come back in next school year and Middle Sex will be the the place that everybody's looking to come and teach because we can be the example for the entire state of New Jersey thank you i'm just going to write my name and have
all the other information nobody's contacted me even though I talked for the past two months uh you didn't know where to find me to observe me the next day after I talked here uh and stayed till 10 p.m so thanks for that um so just to piggyback on some of the issues
that people stated we need to acknowledge that Hazelwood is a hostile work environment for teachers staff and students i'm concerned for the well-being of the children of the school who are being subjected to such toxicity by default of
having to exist in that environment when people are difficult to work with and are not being a team play there is an emotional toll it takes teachers simply having to process the threats that are being made to document things such as tone to be placed in permanent
records takes time and energy that our teachers should be dedicating to our children a principal is not meant to lead by simply stating they are a principal they should foster an inclusive environment where teachers and administrators work together for the
greater good of the student as a current parent I have learned firsthand how when the teachers are not there as a buffer it's been obvious the school environment is toxic to our students students who are not
emotionally explosive or school at first started showing signs of those issues almost immediately i know you like to claim 98% of the school is happy it's just us few loudmouths who have issues and you write us off as we don't like change we're
racist we want Mr gbback let me be very clear am I happy you are wasting $200,000 a year of our tax money in salary and benefits to put a principal in the closet absolutely not does it have anything to do with the fact that
the Hazlewood principal cannot do her job well no and any He'swood parent who's not up here who's not having these issues thank your child's teacher because I was that parent i saw the
chaos of the other class i knew things were not going well but it didn't affect me so I couldn't speak to it and it was a freak accident that could have been couldn't have been planned for but I also can't plan the weather but I can open an umbrella once it starts raining
or take shelter or leave a little earlier than usual when it snows nothing was being remediated for that class and it was obvious but what could I even planned ahead and contacted the principal about a concern for no
replacement for our class a planned absence everyone knew was coming she deferred me to someone else and they clearly did nothing to get a teacher in their class it was weeks and our current replacement teacher worked in the building so save the excuses it took two
days two days to change once we lost our buffer the teacher my life and my daughter's life was upended i was up with her for nightmares every night my kid who had maybe said they didn't want to go to school twice since attending
Hazlewood at prek was actively fighting me not to go crying uncontrollably as I was putting her to bed because she knew the next day was a school day all because this principal didn't do her job and the kicker is we had the good sub
the sub that had taken months for the other class to find and it was still that bad for these children i will say uh I'm happy to finally see Miss Aish being approved on this agenda it took a week or so but the nightmares
have stopped and the sobbing at night has stopped i am so appreciative for her of for her of her for that but the reality is this principal caused this and it's not just in my child but many others it's also easy to notice many
many substitutes throughout the building as well as the onslaught of coverages necessary how do we know our students aren't getting the services they're entitled to due to these issues the environment is clearly taking a toll on the teachers and their mental and emotional health this in turn is affecting the
mental and emotional health of the students which goes against everything this district is supposed to represent the environment is not healthy and needs to be changed immediately to ensure our students well-being is the ultimate priority how do I know all this i teach
at the high school and maybe I'm more sensitive to this because we went through the same thing a principal who didn't fall in line was removed the only difference is no one was very upset about that nobody came nobody spoke up a new principal was hired and it quickly
became an absolute disaster that disaster honestly lasted too long and I'll be the first to say I was involved in that interview process not like now where they don't allow anyone to be involved and on paper and in that interview at least in the first
round that was the best candidate the problem is paper and the solid interview don't always translate to good leaders it was so toxic for teachers and students and finally something was done but the difference for the students was
they were high school they were adults in training they understood the decimation happening and could comprehend the cause these children cannot it shows in their emotions and in their fears that is not fair to allow
any longer how was it fixed at the high school you've realized you needed someone inside to come and quell that storm to restore hope in competent leadership and to honestly take some of the heat off the administration and the
board of ed so please help our children's the ones most of you know help our teachers who have taught most of your kids i cannot tell you how many people after the last meeting came up to me not only to thank me for what I said
but to tell me that they appreciated that I was speaking for them because they moved to this town for the school i have to say I'm a lifer you're stuck with me i'm always here okay but I was very surprised by how many people said they moved here for the schools and are
now considering moving out and they can do that i'm stuck i'm a lifer i'm just going to keep getting up here and saying what I'm saying okay but there are literally people moving out of this town because they move here for a certain school environment that we are
not providing okay come on thank you thank you [Applause] my name is Courtney Shen 233 science i was not planning on
speaking um but I am a parent um at the wood and I have a different view i absolutely love the principal um although I realize that I am not in the school and see what every teacher or staff member see um I do get to interact
with her more being on the PTO um I have two children in the school one who's in kindergarten who is an extremely shy student um that I'm still trying to figure out how to get him to adjust because it's not like my other two children and then I have a really
outgoing third grader um my kids love going to school they see the principal in the school in the classrooms every day i've been in the school several times when she doesn't even know I'm in the building and I see her coming in and out
of the classroom and I didn't see Mr doing that and everybody has their own views but I've been on the PTO for several years i wasn't a fan of Mr he had he liked who he liked i've had issues as a parent didn't appreciate how things were handled it's
fine everyone's not going to like everybody you know what i go to work every day i don't like every boss that I have but I do it i I see this year is not I'm not saying that all the teachers are bad but I think it's very sad that
our kids are suffering and I truly believe our kids are suffering because the teachers are that are very upset that Mr g is not there are creating a mean girl attitude which is hurting our kids there's things that have gone on in
the school every year that isn't going on this year because teachers aren't targeting it up that the principal doesn't know and every district runs different so what Dr clark Holmes did in her other districts doesn't mean that that's what goes on here so if we're not
going to support her our kids aren't going to be supported and it's really really sad to see it's an awful year for for the kids and she's not to blame if he was there it would be the same
problem if the teachers came to school there wouldn't have to be someone filling in in the classroom dr yeah I agree that a contract that they should have a contract i think you should settle it on April 28th 100% i don't think there's any reason why it
shouldn't have gone on as long as it did but I also think that these te that if these teachers came to school then they would not have this issue so I don't care that I don't get a class or I don't care it's not about that this is the truth and it's sad that our kids are
suffering i see kids I see social media people complaining their kids are so upset and I'm in the school watching the kids smiling all day i don't go on social media and write that because that's not where I need to say it but I see kids happy i see things
different that are going on but I think if we all worked together and supported each other even if we don't like one another we're doing it for the greater good of our kids and then maybe we would have we would be better for it because again outside of school we don't all
love who we work with but we put our differences aside and we do what's right so if we really cared about the kids we would do what's right thank you thank you can I talk again i very much disagree with what you just
said um I will say this change is hard it was hard for all of us there has been some delay in adjustments that were frustrating for some of the staff that being said with
time things are improving and I mean that honestly from the staff's p perspective and they did just discuss all the the issues that I am having the issues that I discussed are the issues I continue to still have that being
said it's hard change and yes that was a hard transition for us but the staff at Hazlewood School is wonderful they are wonderful we are passionate caring staff and yes they are all my friends but we
are a unified staff and we supported our old principles and what is wrong with that there's nothing it was us being respectful and supportive of our administration and a decision was made and that was hard for us but there is
nothing wrong with supporting your administrator and that's what we did and we are not resisting supporting this administrator she excuse me i'm sorry okay i'm just gonna stop
everybody there you can continue but I'm just going to quickly say this this is a public comment um session for the public to address the board we're not going to address each other um because we're not going to let things get out of hand and there will not be disrespect in this room so I just want to make that clear
thank you i just and my point is if you spoke to her I have been nothing and our staff has been nothing but respectful and if there is something that came across disrespectful it was misinterpreted and
that is what I was trying to say up here before we are respectful staff that are there for the children and listen my son was in the hospital for a week and if my son's going into the hospital in the ICU I'm going to be by his bedside i would assume you would all be there too he's
my world my kids are my world and I will be there with them but those children that I teach I love and I've taught so many of your children i love them i still love them now I am so sad to hear the comments
that I just heard that hurt me so deeply it doesn't represent us it doesn't we are a wonderful wonderful staff that sometimes maybe can get too passionate but we are there for those
children we are there for your children i was there for her children and I still am and we still all are i love our school and I 100% stand by them and support them thank you
[Applause] hi my name is Matthew Milour i live on 312 Brad Lab the last time I spoke at a board of ed meeting it was a speaker on Mr johnia a great principal great person and great role model who was taken from
his spot which was wrong tonight I'm here to speak about the teachers contract as a former Middle Sex High School student it amazes me how the teachers in our district are being treated i am lucky enough to say that I've had had a lot of these teachers in
our district from kindergarten through 12th grade and they were all amazing teachers and people they are people who come to school before it starts and stay after it ends and put their time in on the weekends too i can actually make this statement true because my mom's a teacher in the
district and I see firsthand all of the time she puts in for her students what bothers me is that most is when I see these amazing teachers standing outside on Route 28 in all types of weather rallying for you to settle their contract to me this seems very degrading
and belittling to people who put their whole heart into what they do every day what are you doing i just want to share one thing that my college professor said this week that caught my attention failure and success are two of the hardest things for a leader to handle it takes a great leader
to admit their failure or mistakes and they also know their failure and mistakes and they try to fix them on behalf of all of the wonderful teachers in our district settle the contract now thank you [Applause] hello my name is
Jamie Green and I kind of feel in the middle of everybody i'm one of the parents who moved to this town for school um I've been a little disappointed i I think the communication is not where it should be i have a kindergartener so I
don't really have any basis to go off of how it used to be or what people think it should be i just know that I feel that we should be communicated when things are happening um it's been multiple times where we found things out from Facebook which is not a reliable
source you know everybody knows that but I just for example yesterday a whole fire drill i mean I understand people make mistakes you didn't trip the alarm you didn't call it in whatever that's fine but if I'm an hour away at work and I
happen to open up Facebook and the first thing I see is Pierce Fire Company number three 800 Hazwood ABS activated fire alarm and it happened two hours ago what do I do immediately go to my email no email nothing no
communication which seems right because I mean I'm a working parent as most of us i think all of us are i worked three jobs i was looking forward to camp huh missed the cut off for summer camp didn't get the emails why didn't I get the email i don't know my daughter's
father email was the primary email i don't know how he's never even been in proare if I was in a contentious relationship with him that could be a problem um thankfully we have an amicable relationship but if I was not in a good place with him how do I know
that other things weren't sent to him my you know if I sign up for something with my email that should be what gets communicated i just I just think there need you to see better organization with that it's a little unnerving um that if you're at this the level
where you are if you're in charge of something our personal information and things like that should be where they they should be proper i mean what else did I miss out on is basically what I'm getting on
that's it thank you [Applause] excuse me i have You speaking up yeah I was going to you're going to miss it you can let me know
i may take long enough for you to come back good evening uh thank you Dr freeman uh members of the board for allowing me to speak mr nicolai is my neighbor so that's why he's saying that um I want to
start off with the gentleman in the back made it so eloquent about talking about these teachers you wouldn't see the emotion here if these teachers didn't care i think you all know that they deserve a
contract many of these teachers I know personally i've worked with them and I can see how much they care i can I've been in their classrooms i've seen how organized they are this contract needs to be done because it is going to hurt
the children i think we all know that grades suffer i have in front of me the proficiency rate for federal accountability for the high school um English language 2022 2023 was
45.3% proficient at the high school levels in 2324 that went up very good it went up to 53.6 i would like to know from the board where we think the numbers are for this
year i know you're not going to answer that question um now in terms of math proficiency as you know I'm a numbers guy um math proficiency in 22 23 was at
26.8% proficient in high school math that number went from 2324 to 15.7 i don't blame these
teachers what I do blame is the things that are going on the outside things like lack of a contract i would like to also know where that number is for this coming this year i don't know if that measure I'm sure
that measure has been taken or it will be taken in the next couple weeks i trust our math department i really do i know how much work they put into it i've seen some of the work that they do so I would hope that our leaders our people
that play in curriculum like um not Joker what is what's his name again tom um that you're getting with them and they are getting with these teachers and figuring it out one of the distractions in our society
today some of you are not going to like this diversity equity and inclusion we are a meritbased society a meritocracy you go for
DEI you go for a C you go for average where do things go if you shoot for average they go average or below if you shoot for merit and you shoot for the A people
students will learn they will learn to meet that level they may not every not everyone's going to get an A depending on what you're interested in but they will shoot for a higher grade so we are a merit-based society i went on the
website under departments under um what is it under under departments and under curriculum there is a web page that says diversity equity and inclusion we didn't have that back in my
day and I'm not saying it was right or wrong but we handled things we talked to people we were based on merit we were striving to be good i would like that removed you can easily you have Michelle
could do it in five minutes i would also like to know I would assume that's Mrs p's department i would assume that's teachers training i would also assume that um that capability assemblies with students I don't know if you were are
aware of this president Donald Trump signed executive orders on diversity equity and inclusion you're a meritocracy i would like that removed i would hope you consider that and get
these teachers there their salaries make it work they are worth it for our kids thank you thank you one of the things Dr freeman thank you for answering the questions i'm going to
refer them to the uh mayor and council thank you [Music] oh please post it on the website here thank you good evening everybody
um I just wanted to make a quick statement when I moved to Middle Sex I was in sixth grade and it was kind of one of the stablest places we had spent because my father worked for the government so we moved every two years
all over the East Coast so the one thing that I can remember about being in Middle Sex was everybody knew everything about everything that you ever did and I could not
wait when I became a senior to get the hell out of this town because I was so sick of everybody knowing everything and my parents knowing everything that I did and Mr disco saying you know I'm gonna I'm gonna knock on your father's door
and tell him you know he's when he was gone and I mean that's the way that I grew up then I got married and I said to my husband he's from I'm not going that way i said so we have to come this way
so he said all right well I like Middle Sex why don't we look at Middle Sex okay so we found a house three houses away from my parents which was perfect for me and when we had our kids the one thing
that I thought of was my god I'm really glad my kids are going to go to Middle Sex because now I will know everything that my kids do right so I'm like you know like they'll tell me if they're
smoking they're gonna you know I'm going to get phone calls my neighbors gonna tell me when they're skipping school like I know what's gonna happen and it did people didn't tell me and you know you have to handle it
then when my kids grew up they couldn't wait to get out of this town because they were so sick of everybody knowing everything they did of course I had tell them that because I was like "Oh Middle Sex is great." But now they live in Middle Sex and they have kids so they
know now how I feel about Middle Sex middle Sachs is small but mighty town the one thing is we stick together you will hear it all the time there'll be arguments about stuff but you go to a
bar and you'll see them at the bar and you know you're sitting there remembering things or talking about things that happened everybody is very close and when I was on the school board and I went to convention one year and I
was sitting with other schoolboard people and they asked where I was from and I said "Mel sex." And they said 'Oh you guys are called the hidden gem of New Jersey and I'm like yeah they're right we are the hidden gem of New Jersey we
are small but we have a very good school system and we always have had a very good school system but now there's such a division about things and about
the way people feel about things but I don't think it's changed that you want what's best for the kids and being on the board i know and even though it was a long time ago those things don't change you're still devoting the amount
of time that you devote and you're still looking at the things you have to look at and deciding about what's best for the kids it doesn't mean if you don't agree with it that you sit there and you say yes it means if you don't agree with it you sit
there and you say no go back to the drawing board and come up with something else because you don't all have to agree with stuff okay but you know after school boards was
here last night doing a demonstration you guys should have been here it's pretty interesting um and there has been a lot of things that have changed but the one thing that she had said was that you should make sure that people
have your school address and I tell you people don't have your school address i am not going to go on the school website and email you guys because I'm not going to go into another website with my information because you
have to sign up well I don't belong to Google so I don't want to sign up with Google but you can't find your email anywhere because then it can't be CC or
BCC to somebody okay all I'm saying is there's no reason in the world why you can't have an email address on the school website to me it's ridiculous there should be an email for every
single one of you that doesn't mean that people can email you and be ready or whatever like that i don't agree with that but they should be able to contact you if they want to and I think that should be remedied right away um I wanted to clarify something about
there was a comment made about the community school that when this community school started in Middle Sex which I was a part of it started under my watch and Mr coyle's watch
and the Smith's watch and Rosemary Walsh for those of you remember her it was started to be run as a subsidiary of the school it would be contained with their
own like if they were doing cookies with mommy you had to make sure you charged what it cost to do that with the person that was doing it and how many you had and there had to be a limit and if you were doing a trip you had to make sure
that it was self- sustained not once was the Middle Sex School Board ever paying to take care of the community school
community school was formed to have things go on in the community that could be run through the school that the school could then get the money and if there was a profit at the end of the year it got added onto the school budget
to help alleviate some of the money so we wouldn't have to increase this much or we could buy extra things for the school not once was it ever
paid from the school budget there was a line item on the school budget but I believe it still is but we didn't subsidize it so whoever is doing it now and I don't know how it's done
now but there was a comment made that this is the first time that it's being subsidized on its own it's wrong it was never ever subsidized by the middle of school board that's the first thing
well yeah um the only other person that went over six minutes was Missy everyone else was under three minute three minute for up to two yes two topics um
students it was the community school and the email addresses on the website all right hi everyone my name is Angela Opeka or Opeka as my student call me um I was
advised to not speak tonight um but because I am a new teacher but we teach our students to advocate for themselves and I practice what we preach and I don't want to be afraid to advocate for
myself i teach at Woodland i teach fifth grade ELA resource room at Woodland i am a teacher but I am also a therapist and sometimes a mother figure for some of these kids
sorry first of all I love all of my colleagues that I work with i was welcomed with open arms this is the greatest group of women I've ever had in my life this greatest support group I've ever had in my life um and
then I love my students as well like I treat them I'm only 23 but I treat them like they're my own kids um so because I teach special ed as well I often I spend hours modifying the
curriculum at home to um address like their individual needs they all have so many different needs that it's not written in the curriculum for me um I spend my own money on my students and I'm happy to because they
deserve it many of them don't have pencil cases or pencils or boulders or sometimes even winter coats i've had to put money towards one of my students winter coats because no one no child deserves that and again I love these
kids like they're my own kids and I will support them in any way that they need me to and they know that I am their number one supporter i show up for them i attend their sports events anything that they ask me to I'm
there even though sometimes their own parents don't show up they know I am their number one supporter i work three jobs i do not make a livable wage even though I did everything the
right way i went to high school i am tens of thousands of dollars in debt because I went to college to get my degree like I was supposed to that's what I was taught in school that you have to go to college and I've always wanted to be a teacher but again I did everything I was
supposed to i got a job right after I graduated um I did I did everything I was supposed to do but I still can't afford rent and I work two other jobs on top of this
um Dr freeman you held my hand and danced with me down this aisle on during our new teacher orientation and I will never forget that i will never forget going back to the new people I just met and saying "I love it here this sense of
community this is why I chose Middle Sex and why I wanted to work here." So the day I felt the way I felt that day it feels a little bit different from how I feel today i wish that me and all of my colleagues would feel that same support
that I felt that day coming in um yeah and I one last thing I remember during my final interview um I was handed my contract contract to sign but
um was told that oh like we still haven't settled the contract this my salary number would go up don't worry i was like "Okay I'm just wondering when that will happen for us because I don't want to leave here i love it here i love
my kids i love my community i love my colleagues these are my sisters and my own mother figures here and that's all just for us so thank you thank you
two things topics yes two topics okay i was here last night and I didn't know that there wasn't going to be another open session of course I was late last night so
um the budget I don't know what you said tonight but last night you explained how um it was only $10 more a year per tax on average on the average is it a month
or a year a month a month okay on average $120 a year yeah on average based on the average home value i have no problem paying okay my car insurance went up more than that okay so I don't have any problem paying that i have a
problem sometimes with the way this funding is done in the district and that's why I have a problem and I know you guys it's like a it's a funny game when you sit out here and listen to it i'm thinking you it's a game like okay well we could have gone over but we didn't go
over and like if you don't go over the 2% you're allowed to go over then maybe they won't give you 2% next year you know so I I feel like it's a game between the school systems and the state which is okay if you got to play the
game but play the game for the benefit of the students and not the benefit of some unnecessary spending that I think happens in this district just my comment okay yeah and I mean if
you have specific examples of that the spending that you're concerned about you can definitely send it okay well and you know what they could be little things like I know Laura brought up before about the stage for graduation and you write these gowns for the teachers that
walk up i don't know they're called something and I don't yet yeah so like to me that's unnecessary spending we're talking high school graduation they all love to walk across the football field it's not a big deal yeah it's
$10,000 but I also heard from somebody that there may be may have been a contract on that for several years so now we're stuck in now I don't want to you know but unfortunately that's how we find things out you know through social
media or whatever i don't know if it's true or not you can clarify for me if you'd like to send me an email if it's true or not but I had heard there was some kind of contract on it for the next three years so I mean so that so I'm just saying that's like $10,000 that
maybe could have gone to something else maybe to a sports program or maybe I don't know to the kids to me a stage to walk across on graduation is not for the kids to shut my
opinion um but I appreciate that you kept it at 2% because I don't know we would have voted any higher um but again I just and when we do find things we'll come to the board and we'll say and I hope you would
appreciate the fact that we took the time to come up here and maybe they're unnecessary or you you you think maybe $10,000 isn't that much but several $10,000 of dollars adds up so the second
comment I have is with the calendar i don't know when in this district we started saying it's okay to finish school the third or fourth week of June i have a problem with that and I did today spend some time on pointing
out other school districts calendars and I'm just curious to know if you do that as a board do you look at other calendars like and why are we now going till the 23rd 24th 25th of June that's like the That's like to me the
beginning of July so that's one part of my calendar statement the next thing is there's two classrooms in Hazel that don't have air
conditioning just two every other classroom has air conditioning and my granddaughter's in one of us they come out of that classroom sweating to death so I would like to propose to Dr freeman if she could please look into getting
those two classrooms and air conditioner since we've got to go to school till the end of June and it's been extremely hot these this week i'm sure everybody had their air on this week except for those two classrooms that's all I have to say
thank you thank you [Applause] tomy I just have one quick question i send several emails i just wondered if you could please tell me who's in charge of the marquee advertising in front of
the high school anybody have any high school principal high school principal okay so I sent several emails to the superintendent i didn't get any answer and the reason I sent the email was because a lot of people don't go on
the website to to look at things people driving around though always can see three things that are out in front of the high school so I appreciate that you put on there uh to join the swim pool i appreciate that you put on there to uh
the Victor Croll Park cleanup committee but I felt it was very important to put the budget hearing meeting on that board and also maybe to put the regular board of bed meetings so people will be aware when they take place just a little more
communication with the town with what's going on thank you okay you coming back um I just wanted to harvest um I wanted to talk about
the what what was talked about with the policy last night about being held liable if things are mentioned i don't know if you could read that again but um it's basically if we the public say
anything against anybody staff or board or superintendent or anything like that that we could be held liable and that they could sue us um but I not not the board can sue you well which talks about what if you're defaming somebody else
they have they have legal rights to do whatever they want we weren't saying the board can that's not what the policy says it doesn't say the board can so you individually if you find it in planning that you could somebody if if somebody comes up and speaks um on a staff member
in a derogatory way that staff member has legal rights where they can they can go and get a lawyer and say there was defamation of character or something like that we're just that policy is just saying we're not responsible for that that that's on the staff member they
have legal rights and we're just letting the the public know that if you say something derogatory about a staff member that staff member can then go through legal channels so it's just just letting people know that right and that
also goes for the public so somebody says something to somebody like referencing something in publicly or through a text message or messenger or something like that that could go the other way as well well who
are we referring to we referring to board members no I mean saying are we saying board members or are we saying board members to the public yeah i mean I guess everybody has all individuals have have personal rights
um to take whatever actions to the extent they think they have been defunct regardless My name is Jessica i'm here to support my fellow
friends on the Hazlewood i'm here as a lunch i'm here as a mom i'm here as a taxpayer too all I have to say is that I will say that our morale has been down at school um I feel like our teachers
have come together i feel like as a parent I'm very proud to be a parent guy that he has always I'm very proud to know that when my kid goes to school every day and he had a very bad problem Mrs lewis Mrs gotner even Mr janquits
and Chris Navlon and all of my fellow workers friends have been there for my son as an employee have gave me guidance when I felt the morale maybe it was low at school and maybe I didn't want to
come to work because I didn't know if I should be a parent or a worker at the time i'm also put in a very hard position as a lunch i'm a lunch going into working in classrooms of disability
and watching my these teachers work so hard and it just upsets me it's not the principal this is bigger than the principal um I don't have an issue with Dr clark Holmes i think she's great i
can't say I haven't had a bad experience i also haven't had a bad experience with Mr g i'm at here as a principal regarding the principles i know that I had problems in the beginning where not getting my kid what they needed for
their um services i was upset i was told what to do and what I need to do i addressed those issues i gave it time i waited for a respond i got my response from the principal um when I go to work I feel comfortable i feel I want to be
there um I used to get sick to my stomach all I can say is that please give my please give them a contract and get us the support we need for special education because I'm a lunchy and I don't mind
going into the classroom and I love those kids and like all these teachers say they give their money they give their coats whatever they need and I will do the same and I get paid nothing and I do it because I want to get out of the house and I love these kids and I
love these teachers and all I have to say is please skip a contract and I have no problems with the principal and she's doing the best that she can but things need to change and I'm so sick to see these kids
suffer and my son has gone through counselor after counselor also and that's another thing get our kids a counselor that's going to stay and not play games they need a counselor my son
felt like he wanted to hurt himself and I had nobody to go to and the people that came and helped is Dr clark Holmes i did address it and my fellow people that I work with helped
me and thank you Miss Lewis wherever you are and thank you Mrs and for always sticking up my Sophia since kindergarten and that's all I have to say thank you thank you
[Applause] caroline I wasn't going to talk tonight sometimes I think it's better that you hear from people other than me and I am amazed by my uh my colleagues and
their their emotion they brought tonight and their their positivity despite everything we're going through but I usually come to this podium and I try to smile and I try to be positive and and I try to know that we're working
together and I I can't be that way tonight and I did want to be the last one to speak tonight because I want what I say to be the last thing you hear before we meet Monday night i spoke to you months ago about what's going on in the education field
i spoke to you about experiences that I've had on the NJATA when people are laughing at this town that we can't settle a contract i mentioned that the only people that have not settled a contract in Milsex County was North Brunswick which I believe was also represented by
Bush Law Group they saw an exodus of 84 people because of the lack of being able to settle now I didn't ever want to believe that that was going to happen in this town and the reason that I needed to speak to you tonight is because today alone I had
two people contact me about resigning it's starving it's not worth staying in a town where you don't have stability and people don't want to come to a town where you don't have stability and we're not asking for anything more than what
our colleagues in other districts have gotten so before we all come to the table on Monday we've got to be willing to take steps forward to each other i just ask that you think about that this weekend we've got a lot of
work to do on Monday and I hope it's successful [Applause] okay we will now close the public comment portion of the meeting we don't have a need to go into
executive session does anybody have any board members have anything else then I'd like to make a motion to adjurnn second all in favor