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good morning everyone uh it's welcome to town hall it is a uh exciting day what I feel like is a very exciting day for Middletown because what brings us here today is incredibly simple middletown is
standing up for its families for its neighborhoods and for its future we all know how important it is that our neighborhood schools continue to thrive because they are not just where children learn math and reading but where they
grow and and where our families connect and where the heart of our community beats strongest so when the possibility of school closures was introduced last month I heard the same thing from many of you we have to find a way and that's
what brings us here to town hall today over the past several days the township committee and I have worked closely with the board of education to craft a real solution one that is responsible sustainable and focused on keeping our
schools open and strong i'm proud to share that the township committee this morning has presented a proposal that we believe will prevent the closures of Navas Inc and Leonardo elementary schools and avoid any changes to
Beayhore Middle School this proposal includes two key pieces first we are pro proposing that the township acquire a 10 acre parcel of land near Sleepy Hollow and Kings Highway using our open space
trust fund which will provide the board muchneeded revenue without raising taxes second we've restructured our agreement with the special law enforcement officers our class 3 police who help protect our schools every day this
update will keep our students safe while helping to reduce costs together these two actions will provide the district $2.6 million in support funding that can stabilize the
district and keep these schools open so let me be clear that this is a solution that puts our students first with no in-classroom teaching positions eliminated and reductions made only to
administrative and duplicate roles we've made sure to protect both the quality of education and the interests of our taxpayers we believe that this solution is ready for a vote this proposal now
rests with the board of education and I want to thank President Capone and the rest of the board of education for the constructive dialogue that has taken place throughout this process i believe that this proposal gives us should get serious
consideration and should be voted on on Tuesday to the parents to the teachers to the residents who spoke up showed up thank you you showed up for our kids and I'm incredibly grateful your voices were
heard and your involvement is very much appreciated this is how Middletown works when our schools are at risk we have to come together this township committee came together and we will lead with solutions not politics and we will put
these schools first we have work to do but today we're moving in the right direction and I'm proud of what we've been able to accomplish and I look forward to a unanimous vote on Tuesday thank you all very [Applause]
much um with that I I'll answer any questions that anyone might have hi Christine CBS um is there anything you could say about what might have contributed to the deficit in the first place well I think that across New Jersey
you're seeing school funding formula issues and and uh an issue that is not just from a Middletown perspective but you've seen school districts looking at 88% increases 36% increases um New
Jersey needs to to look at at this holistically it can't just be about a state funding formula or or tax bases it has to look at the entire thing again it has to look at it and reinvent itself and uh I hope that conversations like this and conversations that are
happening all across the state the efforts of parents here will help contribute to that at every level of government as I know the board of education has has committed itself to was a difficult I guess kind of get here
like this kind of the nature of making this decision challenge to get no decision is is easy but you when you when you start out making decisions uh it's easy to get there when everybody
has the same common goal and I think everybody on the board of education has the same common goal and that is to protect our schools to protect our students that's what we're doing here today so while we you know have spent many long hours and and nights uh upstairs uh trying to get this done
including just up until a few moments ago before I came down here uh this this decision is is easy because the goal is the same for everyone can you explain how the purch Yeah so the the township would would
acquire this land via our open space trust fund which will preserve it and prevent it from being able to be developed uh the that process since the the board of education has already received an appraisal that is lined with the assessed values of of the town's
value on that same property uh makes this process a little bit easier i know that there is requirements that uh the department of education has to authorize the sale of that property but that's been in the works so and in the discussions that I've had uh I believe
that that can can be completed very soon and that this contract and and uh ability for this asset to be sold will uh be very simple and then the restructuring of police are you going to take away those police officers in the school or you just absorbing the
absorbing the cost the township will be absorbing uh part of that cost and I want to thank Chief Weber and Lieutenant Bulan wherever they are chief thank you very much for your efforts um because uh without their help in in getting this done uh I I would not and I I think I can speak on behalf of the entire
township committee they would not be willing to sacrifice safety uh so uh I wouldn't vote for something that that compromised that safety sorry just making sure they there won't be any cuts to those the schools will have police officers stationed at them
every single day just like they are today so but I want to I want to thank the Save Our Schools folks thanks for coming out today thanks for your advocacy and and thanks for for everything that you do thanks to the entire team and uh let's get this done let's get this for a
vote and and hopefully on April 8th uh the board of education will vote to approve uh our proposal and would it be effective immediately if they vote on it i believe the board of ed has to pass this would be a new tenative budget and the board of ed would have to pass their
budget on April 30th all right thank you all so very much appreciate it thanks again