--------- good evening everyone It is going to start the meeting Um can we start with America and to the republic for which it stands One nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for
all Okay Can we please have a roll call mrs Mrs here Mrs here Miss Jeffrey here Mr Nicolai here Mrs Perry here Mrs
Quinn here Mrs Reynolds Mrs here Uh this evening I would like to introduce our Spanish interpreter Miss uh Susette Carter If anyone has any interpretation needs please see her Um
the New Jersey public open public meetings law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice of and attend the meetings of a public body at which any business affecting their interests is discussed and acted upon In accordance with the
provisions of the act the board has the board secretary has caused notice of this meeting to be published by having the date time place thereof posted on the bulletin board located in the hallway outside of the administration office And notice was provided to the
courier news the home news and the Middle Sex Burough clerk This evening we have a spotlight of our Middle Sex High School gaming club All [Applause]
right guys Good evening everyone We want to start by thanking Dr Freeman and the board of education for inviting us to speak tonight To kick things off I want to do a quick call with everyone that's here Please raise your hand if you have a
child or know a child that enjoys playing video games All right Now keep your hands up if you ever told them to get off the computer Now while going outside is important in hopping off your computer we're here to tell you that there are some benefits to
it And here at Middle Sex High School we'd like to introduce those benefits to you My name is Nicholaski and I'm Samir Townson and we are both seniors and esports student leaders at Middle Sex High School We are
also joined today by our club advisor Mr H [Applause] So what exactly is esports esports or competitive gaming is a structured team
based activity where students compete in organized video games competitions But it's way more than just playing video games Esports fosters critical thinking teamwork strategic decision making and communication skills all essential
academics and future careers Speaking of careers esports is a 1 billion industry with a job opportunities beyond just play Some of them include content creation video production event planning product management journalism software
and game development shout casting marketing and public relations as well as business and team management Additionally colleges are also offering scholarships with a total of $15 million awarded per year scholarship money Middle Sex High School is proud to
be part of Garden State esports the largest scholastic esports league in the country Here are some key stats from Garden State esports 42% of players were not previously involved in any school activities before joining esports 72%
say their esports team motivates them to come to school 82% say esports programs are a major factor in their college And 52% of players plan to major in STEM fields Over 12,000 students from grades
4 through 12 participate across 275 schools in New Jersey alone Our program this year at Middle Size High School started off with around a few members but we grew quickly and now we have over
40 members We welcome anyone interested in gaming people who want to compete competitively or people who just like gaming in general And for our competitive side we compete in Garnet Esports in three seasons the fall winter and spring seasons with four teams that
compete throughout the year which competing Valerin Overwatch Super Smash Bros and Rocket League Starting off our teams have grown massive success in the violent side they're undefeated against other schools in inerson matches currently 2 and 0
this season and defeated last year's champions which was Mr Ted County High School in a preseason scrimmage For the Overwatch our team captain received the most votes for Allstars in the first For Super Smash Bros there was strong performances across multiple tournaments
And for the Rocket League we won the fall mini season against 12 teams moving from the contenders league to the championship Basically like going from minor to major Now to go over some of our more personal stuff from esports Uh I've been
competing in esports since around 2020 2021 and through that I have received multiple esports scholarships Most of which being over $20,000 at other ones at school I've worked with various organizations in content management
management community management and event planning All of which I still do and even school for our service And I've won multiple awards such as that Overwatch Allstar one that won me and organization of the year for organization I used to work with that
was based in Asian Pacific region Alongside with my accomplishments I used to play for academy team back in 2023 which started my career here at Milk High School where I now play valet as the iname leader I have offers from division one three and five schools
alone in colleges I was a participant of state club Nicholas here I have seven through eight years of game experience alone and I repeated in tournaments at high schools for $1,000 or more We've made incredible progress so far but we're just getting started
Here's what we've been working towards We're looking to qualify for state championships at Trojan Court University Milwaukee League and Valerant We're looking to expand Inerson practices and competitions Right now we meet on a five schedule for around two hours but
students demand for more inerson times and sessions are growing This will require increased financial support for our advisor to direct Lastly varsity letters and esports Many schools already recognize sports as a varsity sport We want to ensure our student athletes
receive the same recognition for it dedication and achievement Beyond competition esports could also be seen as a pathway to career exploration and community involvement Here at Middle Sex we already have a game design class that is offered through our computer science
program But that is just one class related to esports There could be more done such as a marketing class or shout casting event management content creation video production All of those would be really good ideas to bring here and we would also like to do more
community events with the Middle Sex community here around esports because I know a lot of students would be interested in that I've had some ask me some ask about that and overall that been something that's been suggested to us a lot and I think it would increase more like community engagement and more
people feel involved As well as that Garden State esports offers a middle schooling and we would like to introduce that to Moger to kind of like introduce a three-year program so they could get esports experience and we could also teach them skills they could use later
on Well thank you all for your time and for giving us the opportunity to share We appreciate your support and helping us grow this program [Applause] Thank you so much I'm so excited to hear
that the uh club has grown to so many members and looking to expand to even more Um the next presentation we have is the district employee of the month Mrs Reed Please come to the podium
[Applause] Mrs Regina Reid is an outstanding educator who exemplifies dedication intelligence and compassion She goes above and beyond to ensure students feel supported and valued offering extra help
to both students and colleagues Her engaging teaching style fosters confidence and curiosity making learning accessible to all Known for her patience and cooperative spirit Mrs Reid maintains a positive collaborative attitude with
students parents and staff She creates a welcoming environment where students feel comfortable asking questions and mastering content at their own pace Her sense of humor okay brings joy to the classroom making even
challenging situations more enjoyable A true team player Mrs Reed contributes to a positive school culture by sharing ideas and re resources Her un her unwavering commitment to students and colleagues makes her a deserving
candidate for employee of the month [Applause] Congratulations Congratulations [Applause] Okay So the board does have need to go into executive session But before I read
this I'm going to acknowledge that instead of emptying this room we are going to take the executive session to another room So please feel free to sit and be comfortable and we will be back as soon as possible Pursuant to chapter
231 PL 1975 also known as the O open public meetings act authorizing a public body to meet in executive session private session under certain limited circumstances and the said uh requires the board adopt a resolution at a public
meeting before it can meet in such an executive or private session The Middle Sex Board of Education hereby determines that it may be necessary to meet in executive session on March 19th 2025 to discuss matters involving attorney client privilege confidential student
matter or confidential personnel matter So moved All in favor uh Annette take the role Mrs Schuler yes Mrs Yes M Jeffrey yes Mr Nichol yes Mrs Perry yes Mrs Quinn yes
Mr Yes Okay we will be back as soon as we Part: 2
okay uh thank you all for waiting the board has been in executive session for the past 28 minutes for the purpose of discussion discuss confidential matters as outlined in uh 301 the matters that were discussed will be disclosed to the
public as soon as possible once the reason for non-disclosure no longer exists uh so move uh please call the role mrs schuler yes mrs b yes m jeffrey yes mr nicole yes
mrs perry yes mrs quinn yes mr cordon yes okay as you've noticed uh Miss Parenti is not here this evening so I am filling in as vice president um and this evening
I do not have any announcements thank you good evening i have two announcements just a reminder that Friday is New Jersey Makers Day it's from 4 to 6:15 at Monger if you haven't been to
Makers Day it's an excellent event or stations and fun things our teachers do a wonderful job so if you can come on out please do and starting tomorrow night Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief will be here at the high school at
700 p.m so that's tomorrow night Friday and Saturday night okay uh next we have liaison uh reports um I know Mr thornton you are new to being the Middle Sex County Delegate and the Burough Alliance
liaison i don't know if you have anything to report yet uh no reports yet okay um uh Miss Gomez you are the Middle Sex Public Library uh representative anything good evening everyone yeah just really quickly actually to piggyback on
uh Makers Day that Dr freeman was talking about this Friday at the library they have Maker March so they have events happening every Monday through Friday all throughout March so if you go on their website you'll be able to see all the events that are coming up from now until the end of the
month okay and it's not listed but I am the New Jersey School Board's delegate and legislative um representative for district 21 in the state there was a meeting last um Saturday that was virtual um we did have an assemblyman
speak they reviewed some of the bills that are pending and moving forward within the state when I get the synopsis of the um meeting I will forward it to everyone and then finally we have our student representative Miss Arshi Karma
good evening everyone respected board members my wonderful teachers parents and my mom in the last meeting if you remember I mentioned that there in the last meeting if you remember I mentioned that there is a surprise and hopefully I will share it
in the next meeting and I'm happy to inform everyone present here that today I'm revealing that secret random acts of kindness club under leadership of our adviser Mrs vinicola a very hardworking and dedicated teacher with her constant help and volunteering on March 6 2025 exactly
at 12:15 p.m i took care of the time a medical sensation and practicing family medicine physician Dr mike Perski visited Middle Tech High School in his $350,000 worth Ferrari the car was
beautiful he was one of the best speaker ever had he shared his medical journey and how he saw social media as an opportunity for him to clear misinformation with his medical information and to connect with a greater audience today he have 1 billion views all over social media and 15.5
million YouTube subscribers i'm one of them and I have a sticker over here um later he had onetoone conversation with our students which was very knowledgeable and motivating now I would request everyone to please have a look over the
presentation hi so as you can see just in case you don't know who Dr mike is um here it is and I have a very quick short video to describing who he is and to also let everyone know that he was really a famous person who came over here i hope
everyone can hear me dr mikyle Barowski is a family medicine physician you have this massive following on YouTube you're trying to do something different to what ordinary doctors are trying to do but it has come out that he saved a man's life on a flight to Israel dr mike
is coming dr mike is coming so he's compassionate he's knowledgeable we want to get your take on this dr mike is here to show us how it does so now as all of you know that Dr mike is a very famous medical sensation and
we were very fortunate that on March 6 he came and visited Middle Sex High School um he came from his lunch break so that was very sweet of him um usually his cost was $50,000 for one hour but with the help of Miss Dinola with her
long email where we told her that we have very sweet diver and a little broke school so we might not be able to have $50,000 but we have kids who are worth of million and billions of dollars
so and on February 14th um yeah February 14 2025 in second year one of my teacher is here Mr brener he saw me how excited I was when Miss Bicola told me that he's coming now I'm telling you a personal story as everyone know that I'm new to
country I came here as a sophomore being honest when I came over here I only knew two things I knew Dr mike and I knew Kelly Jenner as she's famous so when I came over here I had so
many doubts so many questions but due to Dr mike and his constant dedication and his story of immigration helped me and taught me that if I if he can do it then I can also become the cardiothoracic surgeon in country America and because I I'm always passionate and I want to help
so many people and I've always have this perspective that many doctors go goes with money but this guy broke him and I'm 100% true that I'll be one of him i'll also not look for money because it's very rare that a doctor comes in Ferrari he came in Ferrari because he's
also professional boxer so he get a money from there but also to tell that he was my mentor to come to America so this was a very personal event for me and that's why I was very happy and excited and thank you Miss Dinola for listening to
me for listening me for one year when I was please can we call him and then she listened to me and then we were able to call him now I I'm going to show one of the presentation when he came here right over here he said all of this and he went back and I I don't know what he was
thinking but he made a one video out of it um he told us his medical journey how his mother's death from cancer made him to become a doctor and how he is breaking misinformation all over the world so I have a another quick short video about what he has been doing in
the world so now over a thousand videos later our viewership has created opportunities I never saw coming we've done videos with leading experts top athletes the sitting vice president went on a tour with a live show made some new friends and some
enemies started a podcast built an international team and we've raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for charity all without ever giving up my job actually practicing medicine more importantly I reached more of you in a time where misinformation is spiraling out of control we now have billions of
views accurately breaking down an endless amount of medical topics i get messages all the time about the content bringing families together or about lives being saved because of me banging on about pressure together we built something bigger than I ever imagined
possible and here's the thing we're just getting started stay curious stay informed and as always stay happy and healthy so uh a little more information about Dr mike he's a boardcertified family medicine physician a professional
professional boxer all the money he gets from boxing goes to charity so he's a huge charity giver and that's something which I always appreciate about him he's a well-known model and he's trained to being a Ferrari challenge race car driver and and he also do podcast so now
when I'm telling you about podcasts these are not those kind of podcasts where you talk about some random things the podcasts are about serious things like about vaccines or about how the presidents are going to help our country for let's say women's healthcare so
podcasts which are really u very important and valuable his videos usually focus about the things which you and me like public we have questions about medical and we cannot go and spend time one or two hours with our doctors so we ask him questions over the comment
section and he answers all the questions and he breaks down with information that's very important which we are liking nowadays and here are the pictures i'm not lying he really came and
his you said he came during his lunch does he practice medicine around here he practices in Summit New Jersey uh he did his residency I think at over yeah over there and over there um
so as I told you that he came from his lunch so he couldn't have a formal um audience he wanted to have a short quick um presentation so me and his wei decided to have like 50 to 60 kids who are really interested to go in
healthcare or who are confused because we have more seniors who are applying to colleges so am I and we are now and now we are choosing our career path so over here we had 50 to 60 kids who wants to go in medicine and they asked him so many questions like uh how
can I know if medicine is working or uh why I have to go in this field or many more questions about him and it was a very very knowledgeful conversation he gave us over here he wanted to stay for half hour but he stayed here for 15 minutes and that was very nice of him
and that's me just in case if you don't know that I'm really his big fan i have him on my and and um Dr mike he also posted on his Instagram as he says so awesome to see such engaged student excited about
healthcare and our middle sex high school we also posted a picture here's a fun fact we got first time what's that number I'm bad with saying numbers 180,000 views and we got 450 likes that have never happened in middle sex high
school system by the way so does sum up everything he came he motivated many I remember the kids 10 to 50 kids came in the auditorium in the library saying that they're not sure what they have to do with their period and they left with saying that they are going in healthcare
and this was very good for high school so maybe 10 to 20 years from now you will see doctors who are created from Middle Sex High School all because this one speaker changed their perspective forever and I'll at the end I'll say thank you to the board members who gave us permission to bring him and to my
hardworking teachers who helped us in uh like bringing the speakers in and of course Miss Dinola who always supported the kindness club random act of kindness club was behind bringing it we only have seven kids in the club but we still was able to bring such expensive speaker in it so at the analysis thank you to all
the hardworking teachers miss and to the board thank you you all take your very choice middle thank you okay thank you so much um our business administrator board secretary Miss
Gordana do you have any announcements okay um so this evening the next item is to approve the minutes um the superintendent recommends approval of the minutes as presented the committee of the whole meeting from February 18th the committee of the whole executive
session from February 18th the regular public meeting from February 19th the regular public meeting executive session February 19th and the special public meeting from 31125 so moved second any
questions okay annette please call the RO mrs schuler yes mrs dre yes miss Jeffrey yes mr yes mrs perry yes mrs quinn yes mr thornton yes
okay so I did um mess that motion up i apologize it also was to include the corrections and revisions from previous board agendas that is 5.02 so I am going to actually ask if there's any questions about those revisions and ask the role
to be called again because I messed that up sorry any questions can we call the role again mrs schuler yes mrs b yes miss Jeffrey yes mr nichol yes mrs perry yes mrs
quinn yes mrs dor yes okay so this is the first of two um opportunities for the uh public comment the guidelines are that the comments at this time are limited to agenda items
only please come to the podium and put your name address and email address and subject of your comment in the record book before speaking please provide us your name and address and subject to um our business administrator direct your comments to myself as acting
um board president and you may speak on two separate topics for up to three minutes each good evening members I'd like to thank you again for bringing Dr mike and I thought that I was up there too that was a blast of experience glad to have you
as a big fan that was awesome uh my first question tonight is on the second reading of the uh public speaking public section uh policy bylaw i'm sure there's a room for it uh under the new
proposed bylaw it's uh the same bylaw with additional uh information under the third paragraph under the public participation may be governed by the father following rules paragraph 3 states "Under the conclusion of the participants remark the presiding officer will acknowledge the participant
remarks and may respond andor direct administration to respond to an inquiry following the participant's remark or the conclusion of the public participation section session nowhere in the new revision and nowhere does it say I hope this isn't what they're you're trying to enforce is that it allows it
almost requires presiding officer usually the president obviously you in this case Mr uh it doesn't allow board members anywhere it doesn't allow board members to respond to comments is that how the bylaw was intended to be read
is that your only question or do you have a second one uh I have a statement okay so that's the first question um so I will say that sitting in the board president spot
I speak for the board at this table so that is why it is written the way it is written it is modeled off of many other districts policies and then my statement I guess would be on 501 of the minutes from the last meeting i talked about how there
was I'm not trying to start a beehive here and have a bunch of comments about the contract but la I'm going referring to the minutes uh last last meeting I mentioned the teachers I I roughly paraphrasing here I said they have no contract and
they and I said it was all at times the yeah the contract I was corrected in told they don't have a contract they just have an expired one but I think it's just disingenuous to say that when I think anyone would argue you have no contract you don't get a
raise could eggs tomorrow and none of these teachers work another six months and if they don't have a contract they will never get a raise and that's I can go on a tangent but I'm going to stop and reserve myself in the second public comment section about that thank you
thank you I would like to know if you could tell me how many campers were enrolled in the summer camp last year and if the tuition that is collected paid for all the fees involved salaries trips whatever
we would have to look into that to confirm but I believe that um for the last three years the community school has been self sustaining and funded fully from the monies brought in okay um and I know that the um tenative budget
is being sent to the uh Department of Education and then it gets reviewed and it gets returned what What are the steps that happen after that once it gets returned we do re we do review it we do have a public hearing that will be on
April 24th and at that time we would vote to approve the agenda as it is presented that night okay so the public will have input on the 24th of April you are always welcome to make
comment okay and um I've said several times at meetings that it's all of us here are cutting back not cutting back because money is tight don't go to Starbucks buy five big a week go two and it kind of upsets me when I see that
um uh extra money was put into the budget for travel and conference i would hope that if you go to those things that possibly you could go to ones that are local that you didn't have to stay overnight and that money wouldn't have to be spent on that we're all trying to come back and I would hope that you guys
would too thank you for your comments jeremiah Car 120 Shepherd Middle Sex getting better at my handwriting my this comment for this part just is um something that entered my mind you we
keep being told that um that you're in charge that you answer for the board at this moment and that there's examples of the school that you did it um is there a way that I can get an email um because it's hard for me to communicate this answer when I get questions about what's happened i try to direct them to you as
much as possible but people are having a problem finding your emails on your email site there are no emails with your name they can't get a hold of you they get a runaround um with a subscribe system this is the stuff I'm hearing i'm trying to like communicate on the best so you're saying that there's examples
that are picked what are those that means there's other examples so you can communicate but this is the form that you're choosing to communicate to better enforce the enroll which I think should be respected overall but there in my overall I mean people that are upset
that they can't talk to their elected representatives i don't know what to say to that besides I'm communicating that to you so you're adopting these rules when there are other choices to choose from and it's like they're not really even given at a cost um but I'm trying
to say like I understand where you're coming from i think people should give you guys the benefit of the doubt as well but that being said there are other choices i think that should be a strong effort put to like people feel like they could talk to the who they put their trust in and people don't feel like
they're talking to who they put their trust in um there's a consequence but then it can get overwhelmed i get a lot of emails i simply forward like "Oh I'm not the right person let me text you this way." Takes five minutes out of my day email settled somebody calls me five minutes out of my day it's settled i'm
open for you guys people call me because I'm now the board of leazison i've gotten several polls about the board and how you guys operate not my place to answer for you i explain this that we're different organizations and things go on as we move on for the the tax prepation one of the bigger answers is going to be
where $4 million is coming from i'm a little lost where you're on agenda because my brain goes crazy sometimes but um that I think it's going to be very fair to the people um on a constitutional right to like speak and be free to have that freedom of conversation but to respect the
organization and the framework that you guys have to communicate with us there just need to be more effort on that because people don't they're confused and when you can't create confusion um you know there's distrust there's the uh the appearance of unethical or ethical behavior that people talk about it
they're talking about it now and that's just the truth of what's out there and their perception so the more um I guess you would say open you are to listen to the people the more they will support and love you is so what I have heard even though it's
really hard at times Um but yeah I'm gonna shut up now can we move on with the meeting i need to put my email if you can that way yes ma'am thank you and thank you for your comments and I
remind everyone this first opportunity is for agenda items only and we will have a second opportunity for public comment later last month that it's awkward to talk and then session okay i am actually not here to comment
on the agenda but luckily um the budget for next year was added even though I thought that was going to be next month that's fine i actually appreciate being able to see the requests earlier um as you know I am a teacher in district as
well as a resident um and as was stated at last meeting we do not have a successor agreement so no teachers received a rate so I'm sure myself and most of the other people in this room in September had to sit down with their
family and say "Listen there's no more money coming we are what we are prices are going up things are more expensive and there's no extra money coming." It's now March we're still doing that price
of eggs yeah it did double okay you guys as a ward need to sit down as a family and say there's no more money coming you're draining everyone you're getting $800,000 extra from the state you have
from what I saw from the presentation last night an increase for instructional salaries yet you haven't settled a contract so I don't even know how you could factor that in hopefully that gets settled the 24th but asking for a 2%
increase just across the board no sit down as a family and go through and figure out where you could cut my family we didn't cut the bottom we didn't cut the every day your teachers who are here every day we've cut from the top okay the
luxury that's what you guys need to do i think asking for a 2% increase right now is actually insulting and I hope that you will really consider to go back go through do the work and figure out where
you can say "Hey you know what guys you elected us and we got you okay we're getting an extra $800,000 from the state we're going to put that to the best use and we're going to go through and see where we can make some changes so that you know what everyone in town gets what
they need but you're not getting killed on your taxes." Okay thank any other comments um on agenda items okay seeing none I'm going to close that portion of the meeting um and
move on to the personnel report um from our chairperson Mr nicholas thank you Mrs schuler um personnel committee LA met last Tuesday on 11 i'm sorry
oh I apologize one moment no problem oftentimes it may um appear to members of our audience that the board of education takes action with little comment and in many cases an 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 school 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 fully understand the matter when the committee is satisfied with that 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 again sorry I haven't led a meeting in a while um the personnel report from Mr nickel thanks again um yes the personnel
committee met last Tuesday on the 11th superintendent recommends approval personnel action items 9.1 through 9.13 as presented so move second okay are there any questions discussion
seeing none uh Miss Gerardo please uh call the role mrs schuler yes mrs ba yes miss Jeffrey yes mr nicolai yes mrs yes mrs quinn yes mr yes
okay next we have a report of the education committee um from our chair Miss Perry thank you uh superintendent recommends disapproval of the education action items 11.1 through 1113 as presented so move
any questions or discussion oh do we have a second thank you what happens when Trish is in here um okay any questions or
discussions uh seeing none Miss Gerardo please call the role mrs scheler yes mrs bay yes m jeffrey Mr nicolai yes mrs perry yes mrs quinn yes mr gordon yes
okay um our policy action items this evening we do not have any first readings the second reading is the bylaw for the public participation in board meetings uh revision uh we also have a variety of adoptions of the bylaws that
we already had a first and second reading on so uh this evening I would like to make a motion to approve items 12.1 to 12.3 as presented any questions or discussion on any of
the items i know we did discuss some of these at late last night so I'm glad we got everyone's questions answered um Miss Gordano please call the role mrs schuler yes mrs yes
m nicholas yes mrs perry yes mrs quinn for 12.2 um I'm going to say no then for the rest of it I will say yes mr uh yes on everything said 12.2 two i
think there needs to be some more clarification okay uh but I believe that is still five yes votes correct so the motion does carry um and we we do have an opportunity to
speak about that policy again um as that was the second reading and it is not up to adoption so if you have questions please get that to us um
okay uh next we have the finance and facility committee chair Mr nicolay thank you Sharon um facilities and finance committee also met last Tuesday after the personnel committee superintendent recommends approval of
facilities and finance action items 14.01 and 14.12 so move okay so we have a motion and a second and um I believe we have a presentation oh no no we didn't vote on
it we're not voting on it so we did have this presentation last evening but we felt that there was not a lot of people in the audience so we asked for it to be presented again this evening i need a few minutes michelle
Yes thank you your Okay I'm Dr robera Freeman i'm the superintendent of the school and last evening we did present portrait of a budget of a graduate please excuse my
back portrait of a graduate the 2526 budget presentation so sorry that this is a repeat but let's do this okay take a minute and I need you to think
about your why remember a few years ago we came together as a board and we sat down and we talked about our why and we discovered something very unique when we did that who would like to share their why
go ahead Sharon i didn't pull it up um don't leave her i'm not yeah anyone else want to jump in don't leave her hanging shannon I see you have your phone all right the students okay anyone else so at the time it was back in October of
2023 I believe um was to make sure all children have access to highquality education uh to make sure that all stakeholders concerns are cons heard and viewed and to use my voice to speak for those who cannot
shannon did you have anything so I said that I serve on the BOA because I want to make a positive change to our educational system also I want to help influence the fiscal health of our district is important to know
where why and how taxpayer money is spent and that was I think what 2002 or three 23 23 yes anyone else want to share their why
yes sure all last night um the reason why kittens are the number one important thing in this town in any town in any community they're our future uh they
should be given that top-notch education not only that they need but they deserve and we have to remember where we all came from
we all came from different backgrounds but we have to remember where we came from we have to remember when times were tough when guess what you got to suck it up um there's ways to spend money and being
fiscally responsible um at the same time um and I ran because of that um I got on the boards because we have to be fiscally responsible not only to the
kids mostly but their parents that are out there struggling a lot of parents out there struggling and guess what i'm tired of seeing people struggling that's why I ran that's why I'm
Anyone else want to share their why so because I can never do the same lesson twice that's what all great teachers do we change it up we switch it up so remember the year after
that we set an intention and our intentions were one word what's one word when you think about our students what's that one word your intention anyone popcorn it out mindset mindset success
success growth growth safety equality so why are we talking about our why and why are we talking about our intentions because when you find your why you'll find your way and that's what we've been doing for the past couple of years we've
been setting we found our why and now we're finding our way and that intention that we worked on it sets the course for us to find our way so tonight when we go through the budget I encourage you to not think
dollars and cents don't don't think dollars and cents we should think about our students because that's our why two years ago when we started this work we started with we built this city and
when we built this city when we were talking about the district it was about building the infrastructure of the district so there were many things that were put into place to build up the infrastructure there were many things that were not present in this district
that were needed severely needed to help going back to the students this year nothing's going to stop us now was the theme because we built the infrastructure and then it was about systems building those systems that were
lacking and getting those systems that no longer serve us so what are the initiatives that occurred over those past two years the portrait of a graduate starts in preschool it doesn't start at high
school in the senior year it starts in preschool so when we think about those long-term and short-term goals we had a long-term goal last year as a district that we wanted to provide tuitionfree
prek to our families tuition free because at the time we were running a two and a half hour prek program half debt so we applied for preschool expansion aid and this time last year is
exactly when we received the notice that no we didn't get it so as a long-term goal we said "Okay that's where we want to go but what can we do in the meantime?" Because there were many things that were happening in
our kindergarten classes and I'm sure some of the kindergarten teachers are in here and you can attest to the things that were occurring so a shortterm fix was in last year's budget we included teacher assistance to assist classrooms
of 25 so that learning would continue as a result that's exactly what is happening this year we have TAs in every classroom in our kindergarten classrooms and Miss Gomez can I call on you for a second
how are we looking i mean we talked about this last night but looking at our kindergarten besides the fact that we do have the TAs in the classroom and talking to the teachers about how much further they are at this point compared to where they were in the past is
exponential but also with the new resource that we're using CKLA our kindergarten classrooms have grown from first benchmark to second benchmark some classrooms almost 50% some over 60% one
classroom from 12% to 94% of our kindergarten students are at or above grade level in reading already in kindergarten so just exponential growth so to continue that
growth the preschool budget which is separate from the district budget next year will service 75 preschool students it will continue to be a full day six-hour program the program being used in preK connect for learning C forel we
are fortunate to work with the developers of that program and they work directly with our students our teachers preschool instructional coach that's in place this year will continue to be in place a preschool social worker
very targeted this program robust professional learning and enriching learning activities for our teachers for our students so the success that short-term goal that we had where we put the teacher assistance in kindergarten we've seen
success hopefully we'll see even bigger success as we roll this out initiatives in elementary and intermediate these are all things that are included in this
budget continue to be included in this budget teacher assistance as I just said specialized programming amplified core knowledge language arts that's our CKLA program that resource that we use new this year being implemented across all K
through5 classrooms guided mathematics miss Dr of you is in district today another researcher that comes to our district work with our teachers giving them that job embedded professional development so that they could do what
they do best to give them the resources that they need and the support that they need so that our children are succeeding researchbased science and social studies resources benchmarking and data warehousing robust professional learning
researchbased supplemental programming these aren't extras these are essentials and they are included in the budget middle school initiatives we had an exploratory committee this year in which the middle
school teachers examined language arts materials for next school year as part of that committee they reviewed several different resources and they have come to select amplify
English this came directly from the teachers and then it will be rolled out next year that's included in the budget what we have realized with our middle school scores is that they're a little they need some work and they need a
strong foundation and this resource will assist assist with building that foundation extended day initiatives are built into this program because like I just said our middle school scores they need a little help so working with the
administrative team Dr kristofferson she explained that there needs to be a little bit more extended day activities there should be something in place because currently there are no extended day activities academic for
students so building that into the budget two years ago we started the extended year initiatives in which they run it's like a summer school in the summertime that's included in the budget
specialized programming again benchmarking and data warehousing the same thing that was under elementary and preschool those initiatives will continue and those are the things that support our teachers and also support our students
high school putting supports in place for block scheduling innovative programming we saw the esports club we saw that so we are listening and how do we extend that how do we make it even
bigger specialized programming benchmarking same thing robust professional learning researchbased supplemental programming and supporting student growth with that that's our last year we put in place our counselor Mrs
jungles who but prior to her coming on staff we contracted with the Bright program for Ruckers a very expensive program and a program that serviced our student needs but we felt as if they could do better when
examining the cost of that program and hiring our own person it was more cost-effective to hire our own person last night when she presented to the board she shared how many cases that she works with how many students that she works with and just the fact that having
a licensed clinical social worker here in district to assess and help with the needs of our students is tremendous so with the students in mind let's review the numbers
2526 i need to get closer so I can see okay the first slide here is the general fund revenue and again this does not include any preschool aid from the state it does not include any federal or state grant programs that have separate
purposes um as you can see the proposed tax levy is up 2% the state aid is up 4.62% miscellaneous revenues which is pretty much just interest income uh any fees that we collect fines anything like
that so not a large number at all that's up 6% uh prior year surplus that is usually we try to get a million in the budget every year um that is purely funds that we have that are due to cost savings in the
prior year the state makes us take that in as a revenue every year uh then we have the maintenance reserve this is the first year that we're using a maintenance reserve on the book we have a maintenance reserve and we have a capital projects reserve uh maintenance
is exactly what it is it's titled it's for maintenance projects this year we'll do PA systems new PA systems throughout the the buildings um and then the other item here capital reserve as I said that's for capital projects and that
will be taken in as a revenue and we have slated to do a new roof in the section of Moger and also the parking lot at Parker School and that is the total of the general fund revenue so then on the other side of the
equation the revenue has to equal the appropriations and the appropriations of are what we spend the money on we have instructional salaries we have uh support services salaries support service salaries are child study team
guidance media things like that then we have administrative salaries that would be business office superintendent's office uh tech office and uh what am I missing oh school administration principals secretaries things like that
employee benefits were up 11% we dodged a bullet on that one because if we had been in the state health benefits program it would have been 25% the increase would have been 25% uh out of district
tuition that is down a little bit but we did not have room in this year's budget to budget for contingency students usually we plan on a few coming in maybe families who move into the district or students who are new placements and they
need either therapeutic services medical services things like that so in this year in next year's budget there's only two spices budgeted for new students out of district uh transportation expenditures that's up
2.3% uh other expenditures that would be supplies uh athletics extracurricular activities things like that that's budgeted at 2.6 and then I have the capital outlay which is the capital
projects I spoke of go a little bit longer in the parking lot at Parker and that's up 22% and that's the appropriation side so this is what's included in the budget there's really nothing new it has everything um that was in previous
budgets it has the district-wide upgrades to the PA systems which I said is being paid for from the maintenance reserve account the trailer rental at Wong is actually new um WHung is very very crowded and we need a classroom
that the current wind teachers use and they have that classroom broken into small areas so we need to put a full class in there so in the trailer the wind teachers and the special teachers will be able to have a space to hang their hat and they'll do small group
instruction in there uh replacement of the sound system at Parker i talked about that a little bit and then I have the capital projects the roof and the the parking lot okay it's going to come on again okay okay um this is just a pie chart with
the breakout of the appropriations that we saw on the other slide as you can see the majority of the budget is instructional salaries and then we have other expenditures as I said athletics uh extracurricular activities clubs and etc uh classroom supplies are in there
things like that um out of district tuition is 6% of the budget employee benefits is 15% of the budget that's quite a large number so again I'm I'm really glad that it didn't end up being that 25% increase there um
administrative salaries are 6.7% support services child study team guidance etc is 8.6% of the budget and then capital outlay is at 3.4 Okay this is from the state of New Jersey when our state aid notice comes
out there's a lot of calculations it's like an a 10page document um and this is purely how they calculate what our budget should be given our enrollment and what they project our enrollment to be as of October 2025 and then it
calculates what the state aid portion of our budget should be and as of fortunately as of this year's budget and also in next year's budget we are fully funded for a long time um state aid fell short of of what you know what was
supposed to be given to districts but now we're fully funded so it on the left side my left side um that's the calculation of what our general fund budget should be and they have a per pupil amount and as you can see there's
weighted averages for at risk students and special education students and LEAP students and the final calculation by the state is that the budget should be 46.8 million and then on this side of
the equation they calculate what the state share of that should be and then at the bottom it calculates the local fair share and the local fair share comes out to 32,974 and then on this slide this also comes from the state it's not part of
the state aid notice but this is actually out of the budget software where all the information is input there's probably 50 different uh tabs that need to be filled out if you will and they all cross check and there's edit checks and it's all it all needs to
tie together but this calculates district adequacy and it's called district status and pretty much adequacy um just indicates whether we are spending that amount for pupil that the state wants us to spend and if the state
aid is adequate and if the local fair share is adequate and according to the state calculations we are short by $3.8 million so the impact of a fully funded budget innovation in our schools expansion and
access to success that's for a fully funded budget and this is where the song was supposed to come in but that's okay all of that put together a portrait of a graduate is someone who will change the world thank you
Thank you so much thank you so much for repeating your presentation um and as um Mr nicolay had presented earlier he did make a motion and it was seconded to move the agenda
items as noted does anyone have any questions or discussions on the agenda items in finance and facilities uh can I just quick comment before the vote um I just want to let my fellow board members know that I've been really
looking over the budget and going past in past years of you know how the spending has gone and I do admire us having this vision for everything in the future but I'm sorry but for this person
here like I have to look at numbers and I have to see where our money is going and it scares me that we keep increasing the budget because it's gone up from 45
to 53 this year and these are just estimates I've got i went back and looked at the minutes on the budget that we voted on and I just was hoping that we didn't have to do the 2% increase and that maybe we could do the
1% so I just wanted to make this statement before I place my vote so that you all understand where I'm coming from thank you thanks okay i do also I appreciate your comments but I do
also want to make note that what we are voting on this evening is to send the budget to the county for the county to review it it needs to be submitted by midnight tonight um so it is going to the county and then it
was does come back and we vote on the final budget on April 24th okay any other questions or comments yes um I agree with the um what Shannon was saying we have too many i'm looking at all these um since I've been elected on
some of the uh budgets and some of the projects that are just sitting out there or they're in the process of doing they cost money um you're spending money that we simply the town does not
have plain and simple it does not have we got a 1.64% budget increase from the state that's what worked out as opposed to the percentage-wise on the budget there not only
are my family people in the town the employees of the town and we can continue because it's every other town is the same position we can't keep on raising taxes
we got to do more with less and figure it out plain and simple um and it it can be figured out there's work to be done let's get to work any other comments or discussions before
we vote okay Miss Gardina please um take the vote on finance and facilities mrs schuler yes mrs back yes miss Jeffrey yes mr nay yes mrs perry yes mrs quinn
for 1412 no and yes for the rest for 1410 1411 1412 no yes okay I believe we needed five and we did get five so the motion does pass uh this
evening I would like to um ask if there if any board members have any new business seeing none any ongoing business we would like to discuss okay seeing none now we get to the fun
part this is the hub public comment section that is open to any topic uh your comments uh at this time can be on any topic please come to the podium and put your name address and email address and subject of your comment into the
record book please speak your name and address for the um business administrator's records the director comments directly to myself as acting president and you may speak on two separate topics for up to three minutes
each my name is um I sat here last night oh sorry is it turned on yeah is it Is it green green okay okay i'm trying so I sat here last night listening to the
budget so help me understand something this budget is going to go to the county they're going to review it do they make recommendations like or do they just say "Oh okay we'll send it back."
If the town thinks that they can increase our taxes by that much then okay is that what happens or what what does it go there for yeah yes please
under the statute um it's the school um uh reform act for of 2008 actually so it's the SF school funding uh reform act of 2008 um the county reviews it for um
provision of a thorough and efficient education so it does what's called a T& um review so it looks at the budget and determines whether the budget is balanced and whether um in the county's estimation the way that it is structured
will provide for T& which is actually implementing the um what used to be the core curriculum content standards which is now the New Jersey learning standards so will they make recommendations back to you they may make sometimes sometimes
they do sometimes they actually will direct modifications sometimes they will just say it's fine um if they it is their professional judgment okay and then after that you're going to have
this meeting here to present to us gets advert it's a public hearing correct okay and do you vote on it then yes then then we vote so when you vote on it and then it comes out that like you don't
have enough money right then our taxes just automatically go up if that's what happens you go where do you get the money the surplus money us yeah I get it but when is it out of our tax the way it it
it you would get the state aid that you get right and then you have a local fair share and basically the way that this it's structured is what the state says you need which is based on the weighted your weighted enrollment and your student population
um versus what the state says you can afford to pay based on an equalized value which is both your property value and and and income um and then that equals your and you sub you subtract
those two things well one from the other and then that gives you what your state aid is um and then you also have your local fair share um so and then the you when you have a November election so
long as you stay within the 2% cap um with only adjustments for additional health care and uh pension benefits if you have any but I don't we don't have any budget um then it stays within the
2% cap then there is no public vote i think it could raise 2% okay yes yes now I get it okay so then that is where the board is the most important part to us as
citizens of Middle Sex right okay and so my statement is I think I did vote for each and every one of you up here and I would appreciate it very much if you would take an example
from this young lady who was worked her little spot off to get this doctor that was going to cost $50,000 to come here for nothing let her be your example to do that my name is Nicole Luciano i live at 20
Princeton Drive and I am here to speak about the issues going on at Hwood School i will get right to the point you as the board and the superintendent have a responsibility to make sure our children are getting the proper education they deserve our anger and
frustration stem from the lack of communication and the lack of planning from our so-called leadership let's start with the fact that one of your second grade teachers went out on medical leave obviously unpredictable but then the fact that there was no plan in place for a maternity leave which
left two second grade classes with no long-term subs until we spoke up while we appreciated putting Miss Hush in their classroom just curious why the job wasn't given to her in the first place you have the children coming home crying not wanting to go to their school
because you couldn't decide on a teacher for them the substitutes that are in these classrooms are not up to standard and I encourage you to go into those classrooms when they have substitutes if you're 8-year-old came home to you every
day crying and not wanting to go to school after she loved going to school you would be up here crying yourself it is disheartening i know I've spoken with a few of you you know where my tears are coming from and where my frustration's
coming from the anger part of this is they have not had technology or music all year where is their grade coming from on that report card because they're playing a computer program like that because they're playing a music program on their computer that counts as their
music class i don't think so especially when the other classes in the other elementary school are getting music that is unfair we should not be getting the short end of the stick and we should not be getting these notifications after the fact that Miss Slim was leaving okay I
understand she had a better opportunity but those children that utilized her didn't even get to say a proper goodbye miss Moren also we found out about after the fact the students adored her there was not one goodbye party from anybody in that school that is so
disrespectful and I left you a phone call i left you a message you called me back at 2:47 when you knew I was picking up my children and I had the courtesy of calling you back and still not one phone call back so I appreciate that Dr freeman i really do and as parents we
just want the clear communications answers and education that our children deserve if you are to walk into any one of these schools you would see clearly that these teachers are working their butts off without a contract they are not feeling respected by you as the
board or the superintendent and that they deserve to get raises they are the ones that need the money in their pocket not all of you i wholeheartedly um feel bad for I can only say this and I've said it
before this is the tip of the iceberg you are not being fiscally sound with the teachers at all and there is a shortage last night on the show there is an 87% increase in administration across
this country and an 8% decrease in teachers and the reason being is because when you work in administration you make the money when there's no teachers in the classroom you will hear parent after parent coming up here because it's
happening there are how many openings already at the high school and when we lose a teacher in whatever field it is there's nobody there you can't get anybody because there's nobody there but what if what
if the gratitude and respect on opening day were extended to t contract negotiations where you actually sat in the room with us instead of not and actually got down to the
business of negotiating instead of hiding in another room what if the gratitude and respect on opening day meant that the $7.1 million the governor gave you for teacher
retention and staff retention was actually viewed for what it was meant what if the 4.65% increase in state aid that you are getting for this upcoming year i don't
know where you got 1 something but NJ um New Jersey um 101 said it was 4.62% was used for staff what
if this board decided not to be like everybody else what if you decided to make staff and teachers the priority to keep people in the classroom so you don't have to listen to the tears what
if you today decided to make a difference in the education of the students here all these innovations are great but if there's nobody in the classroom they're not going anywhere what if you make a commitment
we all know it's hard and you know why there are innovative ideas to make this budget work if you talk to the people who are in the rooms instead of thinking you know it all thank you
so as a concerned parent I apologize my name is Kristen Bennett 23 now thank you so as a concerned parent and an educator I feel compelled to address the lack of SRO's in our elementary schools in Woodland and Logger as well as a halftime SRO in the high
school the ongoing stalemate in contract negotiations wasteful spending and the questionable hiring and the broader neglect of necessary building repairs across the district first the absence of SRO's
this raises serious safety concerns and in today's world school security must be a top priority as we've seen from yesterday the presence of trained officers at the elementary level is essential to ensuring the safety of our children and our staff while our middle and high schools have some security
measures in place it is concerning that our youngest and most vulnerable students do not receive the same level of protection i urge the board to take immediate steps toward allocating resources to place SRO in all district schools additionally the continued death
and contract negotiations with our educators is not only disruptive but also detrimental to the quality of education in our community despite mediation efforts there has been no meaningful progress why is mediation not helping what specific barriers are
preventing an agreement the longer this drags on the greater the risk of losing dedicated and experienced teachers to districts that offer better compensation and stability so if anyone wants to come to South Planefield join us our students deserve consistency and
quality in their education and losing valuable educators due to a preventable impact is unacceptable and in today's economic climate with a serious teacher shortage on our hands our children's families it is particularly concerning that some board members have children
attending these very schools yet the urgency to resolve this matter seems lacking are they pushing harder to secure a fair contract where the outcome directly impacts their own values if board members who have a personal stake in this district are not advocating
aggressively for a solution what message does that send to the rest of the community equally troubling are reports of unnecessary spending and hiring and administrative decisions while taxpayer dollars should be used to support students and improve the quality of education parents and community members
are instead seeing money funneled into what appears to be unnecessary hires meanwhile critical building repairs including the persistent heating and cooling issues at the high school and woodland are not being properly addressed these infrastructure concerns impact student comfort learning
conditions and in some cases safety the district's budget priorities should always reflect the actual needs of the students and the staff rather than administrative issues the struggles this district is experiencing are detrimental to this community as a whole and as a
lifelong resident of Middle Sex it's killing us a well functioning school district is the foundation of a strong community when schools are underfunded teachers are undervalued as we can clearly see and resources are mismanaged
has also been noted it affects property values discourages families from moving into the district and ultimately weakens our town's future a lack of urgency in addressing these issues sends the wrong message not just to parents and students
but to the entire Middle Sex community we all have a vested interest in seeing our schools thrive and it is imperative the board take immediate and meaningful action to restore trust and prioritize the needs of students and educators and I appreciate the board's time and
commitment to our district i truly do but these concerns can no longer be ignored get it together i understand why 15 years ago we had 2300 students in the school 10 years ago we
had 2,200 five years ago there were 21 now we have just over 2,000 students we no longer have a shop we no longer have home we no longer have the
early childhood intervention where the kids get to work with the the preschool kids and we called it a daycare we don't have that we have done away with those classrooms to give more
classrooms to the schools that was at Moger and at the high school so why are we not utilizing the classrooms that we have why do we have to get a trailer why do we have to move kids from a school that
they have been in to a school a brand new school just to make accommodations for a program why are we purchasing a truck for $64,000 to replace the truck is what
according to the meeting in February was but it was also stated that we spent the money for a $64,000 truck that could not then be utilized to transfer items from school to school because there was no cover for
it so they had to use a ban so why didn't we just buy a ban why didn't somebody on facilities look into how come we needed a truck when we needed a van and that was $64,000 why are we not Why are we
currently hiring teachers and principles at a higher salary than our current teachers are getting you say it's because you don't have anybody that's out there that's qualified but
I'm asking have you gone to the colleges have you looked at students that have graduated from our education that we gave them to bring them back here
because I would assume that probably half if not more have graduated from this this school system so I don't understand why we have to go to another district to pull from another district to bring here at twice
the salary that another teacher is making when we can't even settle the contracts for the teachers that we have that we're trying to retain and what are we doing to try to retain them we're not getting down to the business of the contract is what
we're doing why are we not hiring from within why are we under the assumption that the superintendent has given a directive that there will be no hires from within
and there will be no hiring of Middle Sex graduating students because that is the perception that's out there so I think if you want that to change you need to do something about that i still don't understand why the board okay was
okay with moving the beloved principal of Hazwood who had no bad reviews whose parents and fellow teachers stood up for him to now be used as I don't really
know what his title is nobody does he doesn't know what the title is officer or something getting a principal salary but then we hired a substitute
principal at Lland for $39,000 that's what we're paying out in the budget this month $39,000 for a principal that we have on staff
why do we need $4 million in administration salary and currently you have on the agenda for tonight you have four positions retiring so I'm hoping that we'll be able to get some kind of breakage when
you hire from them and I commend Miss Quinn who during that vote for Mr john said no she was brave enough to say no i'd like to know from the finance committee why are we taking money from a
retirement fund to pay for the substitute teacher because that was a line item transfer we also did a line item transfer for $10,000 for two-way radios not sure who they were for but
I'm hoping that they were used yesterday during the emergency that we did have on the bill list for paying almost $15,000 for bills from July and November of 2022 and March of
2023 in general how come there are no phone extensions or emails for the staff members when you go on the website you can only email them directly through the website but you have to sign into Google in order to do that i don't want to sign
into Google i want to use my email to email somebody i shouldn't have to go through your email of which I believe is also blind copy to the superintendent which as an attorney maybe you could
tell us is it legal to have a blind copy go to somebody else when you don't know what's going to them as a board members you need to do a better job you need to be more in touch with the community
you do not have to vote yes on every single item you have a voice our voice that's why we voted for you to look out for our schools our kids our town i said I commend Miss Quinn for
voting no on the removal of the Hazelwood principal she stood up for what she felt was right you need to vote for what you think is right and not for everybody to have a unanimous
vote also one other thing is do you know how rude it is that you're sitting at a meeting and there's a table of food of which I'm not sure if we'd pay for it or not i'm not asking that question but
then in the middle of the meeting there are board members that get up to eat that food in front of the people that are sitting here and then crack open a soda with no problem like it was a beer i think it's rude i think that if
you're going to do that you should have your dinner when you go into a second session we all come from work or our families maybe we didn't have dinner or offer it one or the other but I think it's a rude thing to do i appreciate the
fact that during exact during when you had to go to executive session you guys left and left everybody sitting in here lastly I'm asking the board and the superintendent to do their due diligence and take into consideration that this
town has been through and is continuing to go through tax reassessment for the next few years my side of town got over 20% increase adding to the additional
assessment that we already had this is a hardship on our town and the citizens of our town during this time of uncertainty wars stock market going down doesn't seem to be coming up going down
questionable social security us who are seniors who are living on our social security and people losing their jobs this is not a good time to be
increasing your budget to 2% i think you need to re-evaluate your expenditures and you need to give the town a break as board members living in town you have a vested interest in our
schools and our taxes and community thank you many speakers who are up here tonight are bound by the constraints of their employees i do apologize can you just provide your name my name is Ricky Corker r I C K Y G O R K A i live at 955
Lincoln thank you so much many speakers up here tonight are bound by the constraints of their employment i am not my name is Ricky Gora i am 16 years old and I am a product of the Middle Sex School system and so are many of you yet whether you are or not educators are the
reason why you sit up there tonight without the resilience and compassion of the educators any of you have encountered during your formative years you would not have the privilege to sit around that table these are the individuals who instilled beliefs in me I will carry to my
grave all with kindness and compassion you represent our school system but I have yet to see any of you in my classes have you ever actually seen one of our teachers teach really see them teach many of you in front of me today have never even been educators as a member of
the group you claim to represent I have yet to see you witness my education i implore you to sit down in my classes and if you have I'd like to come see your workday as well many of you know me for my community work and the previous times I have stood at this podium i do
not hold hate in my heart in fact I love with everything I have but to witness injustice and pass it would be going against everything I stand for rachel Carson once wrote "If a child is to keep alive his inborn sense of wonder he needs the companionship of at least one
adult who can share rediscovering with him the joy excitement and mystery of the world we live in never forget that these are the people that live and breathe to form your child in the positive member members of society these
are the people who kept your wonder alive and continue to keep it alive for future generations the student population and our families vehemingly disagree with the campaign you are pushing in rel in relation to the refusal to update the contracts for our teachers no contracts still working and
all of you lose no sleep at night the students and families of the Middleboro public school system stand for equality in every classroom in the workplace and throughout our entire communities thank you for your time good evening i'm Rox i'm at 23
i'm a mom of two boys in a school district one in Woodland and one in Hazland new Jersey is known for having some of the best schools in our country as a teacher myself it's our small towns that make our schools great our kids
grow up belonging to a community a family and everyone knows everyone and ideally parents and teachers work together to help our children learn and grow currently this is not currently at Hazerwood my son has a
new principal and new secretary a new sub for his teacher um no technology teacher no music teacher and rotating subs for different coverages different teachers covering it's very
inconsistent um my son knows no one of the people that have come in no one knows my son no one goes to special needs no one that he has no one that he can turn to this is not what our our school has ever been um this was not
always the case and I think this could have been handled better um I've heard that this is kind of the perfect storm of circumstances that have been out of control um
sorry but I that that's not trip okay um it's not true we need to have a district where teachers want to stay here and they want to be here okay with the changeover it's been cat catastrophic um the climate has changed
there's not a positive vibe going on in the building that once was the only reason why we have a teacher shortage in our district is because teachers don't want to stay here or be here and I implore you to talk to your teachers and settle a contract nobody
wants to stay in a district with no contract no one wants to come to a district that is appropriate with no contract um also I do think that there needs to be more communication and more
transparency um I've only found out information about lack of agency teachers uh changes in staff through other parents social media okay not from the district not from you you guys are elected to represent us
to take care of our children we trust you with our most valuable possessions in the world okay we trust you to do what's right and we trust you we just hope that you you understand that you're an extension of us and do
right by the parents and hopefully we can all work together to do the best for our children sorry my name is Victoria Lawa and I live at 406D Street i am also going to stand up here as an entitled parent as we've been
called as well as our teachers have been called entitled of Hazelwood School and our children i've been at Hazelwood School for the past nine consecutive years with my four children i have a son there who is an accelerated classrooms
that now cry because he does not want to be there there was lack of communication i had sent an email with my parental concerns to the principal directly three weeks it took her to respond to me only
because I said "Where are you?" Our teachers are bullied our children are ignored i have a daughter who relied on that guidance counselor one month we went without a guidance counselor
she also went weeks without a TA in her classroom because she had to sub in those second grade classrooms that my son is also in so I don't want to hear that every kindergarten classroom had a TA because it was not consecutive and I
wasn't going to bring up Mr rich John Kilia because that is what our excuse is right that's why we're entitled but that man deserves to know how amazing that school was while he was there and I'm not ashamed to say it and I'm not going
to be quiet anymore because I have kids that are crying and they're looking at the clock when I'm dropping them off at school and saying "I only have one more minute with you Mom." And they don't want to go in nine years at that school never once
have my kids felt alone that man was wrongfully removed from that school he did an amazing job if I ever had a concern minutes he would respond to me call me
phone calls are made at 400 p.m parents aren't answering their phones at 400 p.m or picking up our kids or coming home from work it's a disgrace that school has spiraled like I have never seen in my life nine years at that school this is the
first year I have ever had an issue and it all comes from the top all of it that's it so I was up here speaking as a taxpayer and educator and now I'm up here speaking as a parent of Hazel School
hazelwood is spiraling and not in a good way my child currently has no technology no music and no counselor where has a leave replacement counselor being paid at the top of our guide on the agenda tonight uh she originally didn't have a teacher for leave replacement but after multiple emails and rallying people you
tried to appease us in what educational world does a superintendent have to send a leave replacement update a world in which the leader of the building is inact it was dated February 25th which was that Tuesday but was sent Friday the
28th at 3:23 we all know that strategy right well done in proving me wrong though because I had called it be sent Friday at 4 p.m and by the principal you know the person who should have sent it also this leave replacement has been working in Hazlewood so was she
qualified and you just chose to not have a smooth transition until people complained or is she not certified for this position but you'll put her there to try to shut us up even though it goes against everything you claim in your rigorous and thorough hiring process there was also a day my daughter didn't
get gym class legally legally required because the gym teacher had to be pulled to be a sub in a classroom i've heard all the excuses the technology was moved to teach another needed class no one wants to take a maternity leave even people who don't currently have a job
that were begged by this principal don't want it people are getting better opportunities you can't fault them for that i get that but that does not change that you are not providing a quality education for my child as I said last month I deal with facts and the facts
are these were not issues before this year you could speculate they would have been a problem this year for anyone but you can't prove it and I don't believe you i know as a teacher when you love who you work for everyone goes above and beyond and when you don't the opposite is also true bare minimum of what's
required as far as helping the whole is what you'll get now you could also continue with your excuses there's a sub shortage there's a teacher shortage uh we know we've been up here warning you of exactly what's happening at Hazlewood it's just been accelerated by your
horrible decision to uproot everything that was working at that school hazelwood is an indication of what's to come at all your schools and yet you still didn't take Carolyn Muglia up on her offer last month to set up a negotiation you want to use the teacher
shortage excuse then do something to fix it and negotiate for real instead of trying to strongarm teachers into negotiating their time away now you may not know what other questions to be asking you're not in all the schools so here's some why has the technology
position not been posted why has music not been posted why was there not a plan in place for a leave replacement they knew about since November why can't the principal respond to emails in a timely manner why is the leave replacement position still posted when we've been
told there's an assigned teacher why are adults being made to cry in a school building why do our children not want to go to school this year why has every transition at Hazlewood been botched and shady why is the new safety position or
principal on special assignment not allowed in the building if he's in charge of safety are Hazlewood students don't deserve to be safe why is his administration so concerned about a so-called leak of information getting out to the parents if they have nothing
to hide why is every excuse to place blame on teachers and parents when leadership isn't doing their job why did you promise Esro and spend the money on a useless administration position instead why is elementary technology being dumped off on teachers
who are already losing prep and have no contract and if you apply for this prek this time last year why was nothing prepared when we finally got accepted why was everyone scrambling my second topic I'd like to discuss is
the most condescending letter I've personally received from a leader of schools it discusses chain of command which I want to be clear I followed and ironically this response actually didn't follow the J i was actually proactive in sending an email to the principal
concerned about no news of a transition she dumped it off on someone else who called me and reassured me there would be no transitions issues i'm good elementary teachers are a dime a dozen i felt reassured and I actually really don't fault them for being incorrect
because I believe they genuinely thought Dr clark Holmes could handle it they were very wrong though and let's be clear Dr clark Holmes never contacted me to ensure I had actually spoken to the person she dumped me on yep the second inquiry was met with a generic letter
sent to the entire class they were in the selection process okay I know that takes time so two weeks later I sent a follow-up letter asking for demo days or some sort of time frame she expects this was met with a phone call which is clear is another strategy employed by this
administration catch them off guard call as they are picking up their kids or just picked them up they'll be less combative from out behind their keyboard have you met me even so I was respectful but firm when she instantly blamed the teachers I said "I don't allow that you're the
leader this falls on you." and a leader that blames their teachers is not a good one but the result of the call was she had no candidates and has been begging people and they don't want to work for her doesn't sound like selection was accurate and anyone with children in
Hazel would already know that's the sentiment of the building my third email questioning and update how my child has grades for classes she hasn't had all year was returned with an email that says "See the superintendent's email." But none of my questions were actually in that email she's just assuming that
was supposed to shut me up well it didn't and it won't the self for this principal was hard pancake breakfast pizza parties the superintendent answering all her emails is she capable of anything there's no learning curve when you're hired at the top of the guide with a doctorate the final most
condescending part of that email speaks of people's inability to accept change it's a copout and it's gaslighting you are trying to place blame on the frustrated people and negate any valid arguments they make as fear well I see things differently if this is the change
why would I like that i suggest you all start looking to make a lot of changes because what you're doing is not working for our children the children you were elected to represent and for any board member who thinks that they don't run the schools you're 100% wrong you are actually our last line of defense in the
running of the schools and I'd appreciate it if you start actually listening to the people you represent please feel free to share whatever has you in this haze that things are going well here and it's the best it's ever been because you're not getting that from talking to parents teachers staff
or actually even some of your own admin now I know you're volunteering your time and I don't believe that when you allowed the principal of a closet position to be snuck in in the summer you intended these consequences but that's exactly what they are consequences of that decision i'm well
aware standing up here I'm on track to be teacher of the closet but these are my children and you are essentially ruining a significant part of their education my child who's been through that school on a computer with a mask gone through two other maternity leaves
which were handled seamlessly by the way has for the first time ever started asking to not go to school she has collapsed in tears as I'm putting her to bed because it was a bad day at school she can't identify exactly what it's
just not right so I'm here and I'm not going away for me the solution is simple undo what you did use that money elsewhere clearly you could use it you're asking for a 2% increase but even if you don't do that thing one thing is very very clear for Hazelwood dr clark
Holmes is not a sufficient leader everyone else is doing her job for her anyway and I really recommend you do not consider her for rehire i just want to say that I understand the passion and I understand everything
that's going on but I also want to one of the things that we did talk about tonight was our public policy and I want to make sure that you all understand that the students and teachers and staff have legal rights in the state we
cannot comment on it however you may be held liable for anything that you say at that microphone okay courtney the person that they speak about can you're not supposed to use people's
names um a legal claim they can be personally held sorry yes please be held personally all right my name is Courtney McDonald i'm nine Daniel Court in Lan New Jersey
and proud fifth grade teacher um picture this it's the 1997 1998 school year and you are a first grader in Carolyn Musla's class um you just finished an amazing crosscurricular unit on the 1998 Winter Olympics complete with a torch
fronted off and it is there you decide you want to become a teacher just like Miss Muglia picture this it's the 2004 2005 school year and you are an eighth grader in Maria Sikin's Spanish class she just had us create a rap song in Spanish of our daily routines and it is
there you decide middle sex is the place you want to teach picture this it's the 2008 2009 school year and you're a senior in Paul Bernac's human rights and genocide class you just finished a powerful and informative unit on the Rwanda genocide and it is there you
decide history will be your major in college picture this it's the 2014 2015 school year and you are officially a first year teacher at Hazlewood Elementary School you use your knowledge and experience from college and student teaching to
give your students the best possible all while being inspired by your former teachers the following school year you're named head coach of the high school cheerleading team another piece of Middle Sex that is near and dear to your heart so why did I take you down memory lane it's not to show my age it's
to remind you how powerful and magical the teachers in this district are we inspire we care and we deserve more than what we are getting in the famous words of my Angelou people will forget what you said people will forget what you did but people will never forget how you made them feel how do you think you are
making your teachers and staff feel when we are working under an expired contract i live by these words every day in my classroom my students are my life the reason I come to school every day 362 students have walked into my life in my
11-year career here and I've been honored and humbled because they can call me their teacher the love the love I have for my students is unmeasurable but unfortunately love is not enough to pay my bills or help me buy a bigger house for my growing family
so let's not be the district whose claim to fame is never settling a success or contract in a timely fashion do the right thing give your teachers your staff and yes even your coaches the contract you so badly deserve thank you sorry I have a little
Okay my name is Linda Rochetti um 316 found Middle Sex New Jersey um I'm just going to read what I wrote it's not going to be asing or captivating as um everyone else is we are not from Hazelwood
um so away we go um some of you may already know me those of you who don't I'm Linda Rochetti married to Carl Rochetti daughter Mia Rochetti fourth grade woodland um I've personally lived in Middle Sex for 13 years my parents
immigrated from Poland in 1979 and Polish is my first language um my family comes from very humble beginnings um my mother and my stepfather both retired as facilities managers from Bridgewater
Edison and later my stepfather um from Princeton University so we are no strangers to how the school system works and how things work as far as getting things done um many of you know my husband as um someone who has dedicated
decades to this district by way of volunteering hundreds of hours um to the wrestling program and donating thousands of dollars um to tournaments and other various donations without hesitation to support all children and all families in
town uh we chose to stay in town to raise a family to stay close to a family members um something that I personally love about this town because I'm not as fortunate um in my upbringing and always sought out a place to call home and I found that in this
town we are no strangers to opposition and usually tend to keep to ourselves amongst um this town drama but a line has been crossed and that involves our daughter in her education who is now in fourth grade and can only read at a second grade level and has passing
grades every semester um from teachers who from our experience are actually wonderful people um these elementary years have been spent at Parker where I embrace the diversity that mimics the real world
however we have had our challenges there too first was COVID preK kindergarten i don't want to use that as an excuse because that's not fair at this point um then first grade happened where we addressed issues about her reading and we were told that everything will be
okay and she'll just grow out of the situation and she did not um under the radar second grade um still had concerns but teachers assured us everything would be okay leading us to third grade where she finally did get assistance both in math and reading left third grade on
grade level um with no further action as to what was going to happen in fourth grade uh fourth grade she was flagged and I still don't know how and haven't gotten an answer as to how she was flagged that she was getting reading assistance from Mrs who um unbeknownst to us was told in
November no communication we had no idea that um she was no longer going to be a resource um in Mia's classroom uh to where Mia's uh backslid and her teachers were advocating for her saying that she's a disruption to the classroom anyone who knows my daughter or my
family Mia is hardly um a disruptive destructive girl um she is very smart knowing her you would not even know that she did not know how to read um so we are now in the hands of the child study team uh Mia Mayor may not come out of
this with a diagnosis or not because her personality and her social skills um trump the fact that she cannot read and all of the math questions um all of the math is based in reading so she is now also not doing well um in math as far as
her I Ready scores go i was told by staff members um at the child study team that um we were act we were asking for a solution based um you know solution based situation to our problem uh we were told that our
options were to either move out of um the district or find a school that can help her um which is obviously I can't use that because that was not either in writing or um you know I legally can't use that as anything but it was something that was told to me by a staff
member um so we don't um so not only are the majority of our taxes going to education but we were um also being advised to pay tuition at another school which is obviously not realistic so we kind of don't know what to do um I'm
grateful for my daughter's teachers who are advocating for her um which they she must drive them crazy all day because she truly is lost and bounces from chair to chair to chair um uh they also um are responsive and helping and um advocating for her um but
there's still no solid help or solution for um her going forward um she does not qualify for the spring um tutoring program which I spoke with Miss Gomez earlier today um hopefully she follows through and spearheading some solutions um to help uh my child in particular to
help her get on a reading level um and I know from speaking to other parents I'm trying to advocate for them as well because they don't feel that they can come up and be heard um and I'm not the only one and there are several other children that are falling just below the bubble um who are not being helped and
are being passed but their state scores show a very different story um things have been broken for a long time um I want to speak on positive change excuse me to my second topic um how are we addressing all these issues that have been
unressed um the fact that we need a contract and the staff morale is at an all-time low as a reflection of leadership at Parker actually was taken by the by leadership and there were no questions asked as long as there were results and there were results at Parker
uh Woodland has teachers and case managers that show up and they respond and at least from my perspective they're willing to do the best that they can in a broken system again I can only speak from my own experience and perspective um other schools in the district are not as fortunate from lack of security to
expensive ground vehicles that have been purchased and are not usable to broken windows and lack of air conditioning and specialized classrooms where and again I try to fact check my facts to the best of my ability the AC units were purchased and are waiting installation
and I believe that that's a special ed classroom that's in the basement uh just to name a few of my concerns um that I'm aware of that are uh not related to lack of contract or stack and shortage of um
it seems so that being said it seems that lately egos are as inflated as certain districts employee salaries and the only ones who suffer are our kids when people that are in charge only tell one side of the story
sugarcoat the other side use AI generated responses emails spy on public accounts while other elected members are not privy to certain information because of conflict of interest the board that we elected is rendered ineffective in all capacities think about that for a
second five members on our board are compromised and not are not allowed to speak on certain topics but to end on a positive note there are mostly really good district employees that show up for our kids despite lack of contract because they care they're invested in
our community it deserves security and support they deserve unwavering encouragement to grow in a competitive field that is ever changing please stand up blue J Blue for our teachers for our community for our future but mostly for our children who deserve nothing short
of excellence hi um I wasn't sure if I was going to come up here tonight um but there were some things that were said that um it just didn't I apologize i'm sorry i
apologize um Trish thank you um what has to come over um I've been a teacher here since uh 2001 and um there have been there's maybe one year I can think of that we came in with
the contract so this is tiring it's year after year after year um before I go on to what I want to say I want to thank all the teachers here for coming out and supporting everybody thank you guys i want everybody in town thank you guys
for supporting us we appreciate you guys and know that we hear you and know that we support you as well so thank you for that um it was said that we should not think about dollar signs and we should think about our students that's what we do all
day we think about our students i can promise you that but is the district thinking about the teachers you could say something alone i'm sorry how do you expect teachers and anyone in any profession to give it their all without the employers giving anything back
teachers are working multiple jobs to stay afloat yet they're at a standstill in pay until the contract is settled in an already lowpaying professional career we deserve a fair contract come to the table and settle thank you
anyone else yes I appreciate all of you speaking and I feel really bad i don't have any children in the school system now but I hope that we can get things straight now because you deserve it so I'm changing the topic a little bit
so the attorney uh stated that um the Department of Education bases the budget on student enrollment so I would like to suggest that we reregister and check to make sure that all students in our
schools do live in Middle Sex because I know the last time that this was done uh seven years ago i'm not sure if it's been done since then but 75 students were found that they did not live here so that's that's a big chunk of money so I would hope that you would start to do
that and also checking leases that's kind of a big thing um back in the 559 road um sorry if I'm ignorant this is my first time doing something like this so
I can I can ask a question you speak up oh I'm sorry um I guess I just want to know if I can ask a question typically Typically it is a public comment portion okay we don't necessarily have dialogue back and forth if it's my only question
was on the budget i saw a line for a 22% increase for other and I was just kind of curious what that meant um that it's like kind of it's a large increase for the for that part of the budget and everything else is a 4% or 2% or 1%
increase um but you know kind of a miscellaneous 22% increase is kind of something that I was wondering if there was a driver or a item that you guys could point to as far as why that went up as much as it did is that a fair question to ask or is it inappropriate
is that your only question uh no i have a statement as well okay um you want to do the statement and then we will see if we can answer that question sure um I'm a a milight president here to support the township teachers in their effort to secure a new contract um I
have uh friends and family that teach in the district and I have a child uh in kindergarten at Ewood um being a teacher is not a lived experience I can pretend to understand uh nor can I understand all of the effort that goes into u
mediating or negotiating a contract um what I can speak to is the character and the passion that these folks have for their jobs um in the face of growing distrust and lack of respect in recent years given to educators from the federal government down to students they
still work every day despite having no contract they provide as much of a service for the parents of this town as they do for the students so I would like to thank all the teachers present today for their continued service and to be clear that there are people in town that deeply appreciate the work that they do
thank you providing a contract and a fair wage for this essential group of people is the minimum that should be done to give them the respected age they deserve please engage in talks with the teachers in good faith hear their concerns and stop taking them for granted thank you for
your time i'm looking at the documents that I have and other expenditures I have is a 2.66 66% increase annette do you have um and I have capital outlay as the 22% increase
so capital outlay is the infrastructure um repairs that we are are planning to do for the next year you saw the slide yeah it's actually other is is right above capital outlay okay so I I think
that's just where the numbers got flipped in okay all right thank you thank you very quick real short you've now been presented with tears facts please and real life scenarios your staff and
families have laid their hearts bare to you are you ready to do this that is the question will you provide the answers and the solutions that this community deserves because we not we are not going to accept the excuses and the runaround
anymore these teachers and these students and these families deserve the best and you right now are not but you can do and we don't want sorry just car 120 shepherd app this is just
part of what I've been hearing um I'll talk quickly as a council leaison and then I'll do a spin in a circle and I'll try and talk as a dad um it's hard to read that this is just part of what I've been hearing as a council person and there's a lot more there's a lot more from the prek all the way up to the high
school i have four kids as well um both in prek middle school and um high school as well well my oldest daughter is in for which is a blue ribbon school and I can already kind of compare the differences of what what I've seen from them and what I'm seeing here from that
and I guess we're building there we talked about that briefly when you came in about the child in the chair and um you mentioned it in here that you gave me a shout out last time saying we talked about the child in a chair but what you forgot to mention Dr agreement as I mentioned those children didn't get there by themselves parents put in there
they're not alone like they didn't just say "Hi I'm a child here I am." No there's families behind them so when we do things it's not just for them as far as families i just wanted to make sure that that was noted it's not just the child in the chair but it's everybody
about that chair that puts them there for the support now I'm going to do a spin i am thank you thank you there it goes i think you should just admit you made a mistake at Hazlewood i think you should reinstate Rich um and I think that you should be held last year when your
members like tried to defame me about not being on a council that you guys were going to be held liable as well so it works both ways it really does the fact that we are going to threaten each other with court I don't want to threaten anyone what I'm trying to say
is that we are not going to respond when you talk about a staff member or a student that you are responsible for your own statements that's we the board cannot be responsible for your statements because it's public comment and you are allowed to say what you want
to say there and I can only stop you if you are using expletives and being aggressive and etc etc those are the rules that's what we follow cool so
um isn't that life so why do you have to be put in an ordinance to say and who's going to pay for that so if it does get a 101 is are we going to incur a cost as a taxpayer for who's going to pay for what if you're liable you're why why are we using the word liable no I'm not i'm saying we are not liable you would be
liable for your statements correct board is not liable so there's going to be no action between because I think there's a confusion people think that there's going to be board of education money used no no no the board is saying we are not liable for anything you say as a
member of the public at public comment so there's going to be no whatever people say up here is not going to be used against them it can be by the person you say it about by the person you say it about they have legal rights and that's just the normal
law stuff when it comes to something does hit that finances are on those individual parties tracking so it goes I wasn't talking to Mr nicholas there was there was there's a person like and that I'm saying that disrespected me last time that that was
him i don't want to have engagement with him i wasn't directing to him so it's like that's your role i understand but are you going to correct them all right so this is we're going to get here we're going to get here i don't like being upset
with one single person i can't even think straight because somebody makes silly comments for me that throw off neurody divergent thinkers if you're going to really think of people and think of people you got to take around and look at everybody there's so many people different here that there's you can't even start to to deal with that my
brain just went off so I will just simply go back to the fact that there are a lot of people in Hazlewood that are not happy they're just not there's a lot of people in um um Wat Chong and Parker and all them
that are not happy i hear it there's a lot of people in the other middle school um Woodland my daughter's in I can't even think of it woodland not happy merger not happy high school not happy that's all of them that's him i know I
ran out of unhappiness so it's just like I'm not too sure if we're being physically responsible i I also remember hearing something about an STR SRO and I just want to quickly want to say that the council did send a draft report and there was a receipt from the attorney's
office that we did put a draft for three SRO officers because we are worried about it as well we don't want to work things out and all the money comes from them as well us as well so if we can figure that out as well i didn't do a spin to switch back in council mode
you're welcome i don't know if that was but you're welcome and I like you there was there's it's very hard for people to come up here and talk um people do feel like they're going to be retaliated against people do feel like there's going to be consequences there's some brave people who don't care and there's other people who do care who just don't
want to say anything there's people watching online that care that are actually texting me saying "Did you just threaten them did" and I was like "I don't think she threatened them." But I like zone out because I'm singing some songs on my head sometimes you guys are rambling on which I'm sure you do but it's like um the biggest thing I think
you could do is get that there's been a mistake in our education with Hazelwood and we could start there i think the simplest part is to just have a conversation about going back to when things were in better times and I mean better times where are the grays where was the love um people went to there for
all their events you had an ice cream social people were there you have an event people are there people are sad they're not going and that makes me sad and I don't like being sad i don't think anyone likes being sad right yeah yeah so I mean I'm going to shut up because
my brain's numb but I heard a lot of craziness here today and I'm just got to process it i'll go over the video and watch it again um but again I will say to be an elected official is not easy you put yourself on a on a stone like you don't know who's going to say stuff
so thank you for serving thank you for being out there but like you said you're going to be held liable for your actions thank you hi Alison Kamano um we're Tony Ren AB i am also a teacher this is my 15th year
here in Middle Sex as a teacher about 10 years that I've been living here and I also have three young boys who who go to school in this district so I am very invested in this district in this community and in Bumi for a while um I do just want to say I think on behalf of
most of the teachers and staff it's time that we really need to sit down and start negotiating fairly we've gone on long enough we've been down this road in many years past as well and I just hope that we can move so everyone has a fair chance of thanks
okay my name is Lori John i'm a resident of this town 233 Giles Avenue this is basically the same comments that I made on September 24th i'm responsible for these statements i realize I'm liable i've lived in this town 52 years
i am the only sister and sibling of the principle of special assignments this is incredibly difficult i have severe social anxiety in front of adults i said this before I'm saying it
again i do not have anxiety in front of the students that I teach but I just cannot not come up here thank you to everyone who spoke on behalf of my
brother yes it is true yes it is true he cannot go in the school that he attended as a child or as the former principal of Hazelwood school thank you to the parents and residents who spoke so
eloquently we spoke about our wise tonight right here's my why my why they're my students my family and I'm so proud of
my brother and it is so hard for me to hear the impact that he made on Miss Leos he still is and I'm just the same comment that I had in September i'm
heartbroken i know him in a way that you don't he's probably home ready to kill me right now but he is still heartbroken too hi my name is Jaclyn Miner 511 Decator
Avenue um I have a very different perspective I think than most people in this room i'm not from here i'm not even from the state i'm not a lighter i didn't grow up here grew up here but I think it's clear to see the passion the community has from who was born and
raised and who chooses to stay um I'm an educator in another district so I do have comparisons to compare it to as we experience um but I was very easily persuaded by co-workers to move to this town when I was looking for a house um again I'm not from the state the
close-knit community that was presented to me was a big selling point um I was always my five-year plan i didn't plan to be in this town longer than that but my oldest is now in kindergarten when he comes home every single day loving his teachers and loving the staff members
and expressing how much he loves the district here it's hard for me to look at him and not want to leave when I know all of the people who are supporting him aren't being supported back it's very difficult as a parent i can up and go i don't care i can move anywhere i can find somewhere else to be but to look a
5-year-old in the face and not be able to tell him that the teachers are supported the exact same way he is by the staff is hard it's really not that difficult it's not a gray area of where the problem is lying it's clearly not the people in this room the parents are here to
support them the teachers are here on their own time once again to show their passion and support for the district you need to give it back you need to figure it out thank you okay um we have been in public comment session since 7:45 i'm going to
close the session at this time are you clo are you saying hearing not seeing that or you closing i had not seen you stand up i evening again this could be the last public comment but after hearing the discussion tonight there's actually been a lot of talk about Hazelwood and about
Mr john Keilia uh and I just ask the following uh maybe one or two board members to listen i move I ask for this motion to be considered after the public uh comments closes pursuant to the Robert rules of order I ask to suspend the rules and ask for this motion to be
introduced and I want is unquote i move that the board of education direct the superintendent to restore access Hazelwood school from Mr john Keilia a principal on special assignment effective immediately to support the gains of the school community this is not a motion of enforcement rather a direction to the superintendent to allow this access in accordance with the
board's authority under NJSA 18A 111 which grants the board responsibility to oversee the district and put the well-being of staff in suit i ask that motion be introduced and the suspension of rules could business pass under the rules of order but I ask that motion be introduced and hopefully a second and
have Mr john's act or a direction to the superintendent to read it thank you now I'm going to close the public portion of the um meeting i don't believe we have any additional executive
sessions can I have a motion to adjurnn i have to take the I probably smell I