Mrs Foo here here Mr Palama here Mr Petrino here Mr Rapaport here Mrs Smith here miss Zuckerman Mr doy here Dr modra here Mr
brookhouser here miss Patel here okay pledge allegiance please to the flag of the United States of America to the rep it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and justice for
all open public meeting notice please the New Jersey open public meeting law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice of and to attend meetings of public bodies at which any business affecting their interests is discussed
or acted upon in accordance with the provision of the act the Montville Township Board of Education provided a public notice of this meeting which included the time date and location that was posted at the Montville Township Municipal Building all Montville Public Schools the Montville Public Library the
Montville Township Board of Education administrative office building the district website and advertised in the Daily Record and the monfil tap into the board's official newspapers on February 2nd 2025 okay thank you high school reps
report how you doing today good how are you I'm doing well thank you so so good evening everyone um as usual I'm going to start off with the past and I'm going to start off with the sports so baseball softball boys and girls across track and
boys tennis are all just starting their practices and scrimmages through the next couple of weeks till their first games and that's pretty much it with all the sports and we're going to move on to the school so the mths theater company performed big fish from March 6th to
March 9th this fun family musical was a huge success Deca had their state leadership conference competitions in Atlantic City from the 3rd to the 5th Amy Zang and Jenny Wang qualified for the national leadership conference in Orlando this year Trevor Pasqual and Sophia modra
performed a community service paper for the conference and were awarded two spots at the national leadership conference as well on March 10th Key Club joined together to make breakfast bags for the Morristown homeless sh shelter on March 10th through 12th FBA
had 77 members attend their state leadership conference in Atlantic City the following members placed top four in their events and qualified for Nationals in Anaheim this summer Antonio gustitis Shireen Sayed Isha Jane Mana Peri ishan
gokaraju shui swaminathan Anisha Mulin Amy Zang Jenny Wang Ana saah and Shari Kana last week allun Juniors took part in the NJ GPA testing for both math and
reading and now I'm going to pass it on to Gia um we'll move on to the Future now this Thursday the AP French students will be taking a field trip to the Met Art Museum in New York they will also be visiting a French bakery on March 20th
the counseling department will be holding an event called the Journey Begins for parents and students in the auditorium it will begin at 7:00 p.m. topics covered will include factors in college admissions standardized testing the application process and establishing
timelines current seniors will also share their experiences about navigating the college admissions process this event is for current freshmen sophomores and juniors this Friday March 21st Key Club will be holding their 43rd annual
volleyball Marathon signups open on Friday March 7th this year's theme is superheroes and villains and each team will choose either to represent the event will begin at 4:30 starting April 1st the entire high
school will be participating in the spring Spirit Week the themes are for Tuesday pajama day Wednesday USA day Thursday anything but a backpack day and Friday Hawaiian luau day at the end of
the spirit week on Friday will be the spring pep rally that's all we have for today thank you okay thank you very much and good good luck to everyone in ATA and fpla so you could tell these students have been doing this for seven months
now so Ben took every single thing I was going to mention so great job appreciate that put me on the spot here I just want to add that we have medick enrichment I mentioned that last time medick enrichment for the spring uh week that we're off we're offering that for parents if they want you know some kind
of services during that week we also have it for the holiday Eid which is on March 31st which we celebrate so that date is also open for anybody that needs medle services and then this summer we're going to be offering enrichment programs and one of them is going to be
a school play uh option for students along with a lot of other enrichment activities this stuff will be posted on the website as well as being sent out through our uh communication um social posts and things like that so that's going to be coming out either tomorrow or and the rest of this week so keep
that in on your radar and next we have all these wonderful people here in the audience Mr Connelly come on up and tell us what great stuff you're doing uh this year good evening um I have a couple of my classes here from international
business practice firm I think this is my third year where I've brought the classes in and uh these this is a Capstone Business course that mostly seniors take after taking accounting and marketing um during their uh under underclass years and uh what they do is
they start in September they spend a month um in class learning how to write a resume cover letter they interview for jobs they then um you know from a CEO down to a social media Finance accounting HR like a typical business
they then uh come up with a business idea um and run a business throughout the year and part of that is you know paying the bills uh you know marketing to other high schools that run the same program so it's a virtual economy where you're trying to get other high school students to purchase your products and
they do the same um it also involves competition so they're here tonight um they participated in January at fdu in a business plan competition where they presented their business plans uh and I'm happy to say that both teams uh advaned to the finals with one of the
teams advancing to Nationals which is in uh at the Javit Center in New York uh in early April so we have had a bunch of competitions uh they've done a terrific job I mean really I can't speak highly enough about these students and what they've done their their work as you'll
see tonight uh in the slides and their presentations um how well they've learned to do all of these things that they need to know when they get out in the business world so it's it's great and appreciate the support of Dr Schwarz who's here tonight and I also have another guest uh Mr David Crow who's
been who's had a couple students students here has one student that's a senior but he's volunteered his time to be a mentor for both of my classes and teach them what he knows about business so without further Ado I'd like to call up the members of burst
strips they'll be the first team to uh present their business plan hi we are burst strips Alec why are you yawning right now I'm sorry I'm tired here here's a burst strip hi I'm ran Carney I'm the CEO hi I'm Alex ail I'm
the CFO hi I'm AE I'm the CMO hi I'm Divia I'm the COO hi I'm Shay I'm the sales Vice President we surveyed 175 students at mville Township High School now 98% said
that they feel unmotivated throughout their day 81% said that they struggle to fall asleep and relax and 79% said that they struggle to hydrate and recover after their Sports so we created burst strips a thin dissolvable flavored strip that serves three different purposes to
energize to help with sleep and to recover our mission is to empower people to feel their best with fast acting science-backed flavored strips for energy sleep and recovery at any time or anywhere which provides our customers the ability to maximize their
productivity throughout their day we as a company operate as an LLC which is better known as the limited liability Corporation this means that we not only issue stock to our shareholders but our Angel Investors as well and we also are not each legally liable individually rather we're legally liable as a whole company as you can see here
this is our website we have our discount popped up as well as our products listed and then as you scroll through the through the top tabs we have our frequently asked questions and our contact info compared to our direct and indirect competitors um bur strips is the only
company that's fast acting Innovative low calorie and convenient so in terms of bir strips SWAT analysis internally um some of our strengths include our affordability and diverse product line we've priced ourself competitively to ensure we encapsulate a multitude of income ranges
um some of our weaknesses include that we're a non-essential good meaning it's not required for everyday use and we have high initial debts but our opportunities include a very accessible Market um that allows us to partner with influencers in the future and some of our threats include shipping delays
because we are reseller and not manufacturer and high competition so for our target market our primary Market is high school and college students ages 16 to 24 who are juggling many activities and jobs and lack adequate sleep hours and our secondary Market is the young working
class so this would be ages 25 to 35 who work tiring jobs with long hours and finally a tertiary Market is athletes and fitness enthusiasts who uh range from 18 to 33 and put a lot of physical strain on their body in terms of our product we do have
thin dissolvable strips that serve caffeine and Aline electrolytes and melatonin and we also have our new products that also incorporate melatonin and serotonin as of 2020 we found that the average cup of coffeee cost $4.90 and one bur strip cost 62 so we're
lowering the price a lot and a total of 120 strips is $64.99 and then we have our two pack which is $24.99 with 40 strips we're currently promoting our products on Tik Tok and Instagram we're hoping to expand
to new platforms such as X and Facebook so one of the main risks with our company is that we have a lot of Reliance on a third party manufacturer meaning that we don't directly make the product now this can lead to shipping delays or issues with a customer so to
prevent this from happening we're going to ensure contracts to make sure that our product is the best possible quality so moving on to the finances um shown here is our break even analysis so for us to break even in this fiscal year we would have to sell about
64,65 units which is roughly 1.77 million in Revenue next is our summary profit and loss so Up evolve you'll see our gross revenue for the fiscal year below that you'll see our cost of goods sold which equates to our gross profit margin of 44% and some values included between
those numbers are our gross profit total operating expenses and our net loss lastly uh is our company balance sheet so here's listed our assets liabilities and total uh stockholders Equity as you can see on the bottom of both tables our total assets do match
our total liabilities and stockholders Equity with the value being $296,200 wow Alec you seem a lot more energized so if you guys want a health conscious Innovative product please buy burst strips thank you any questions okay so uh yeah so I'll ask
one somebody might say okay it sounds like an interesting product why should we use your product instead of just drinking a Red Bull doesn't it accomplish the same thing um so it does in fact accomplish the same thing however there's a few differences with bur strips one is that the target market
that we are um trying to aim towards are students right meaning that one they are focusing on a budget friendly alternative and two is that they're focusing on something that's more accessible so this is something that you could think of like a pack of gum where you keep it in your bag whereas keeping
dozens or big packs of energy drinks just isn't feasible for the average student um and also burst strips because it absor it absorbs in your bloodstream it acts a lot faster than an energy drink Road you mentioned um
that just press one of the bir strips has melatonin do they all have melatonin or just the ones needed for sleep yeah so there's there's different functions so the one um that you'd purchase that has to do with sleep those ones have melatonin um and uh like divy explained
the ones that have for are for energy um they have caffeine and the ones that are for Recovery have something called alanine which is found in green tea thank you I have a question um regarding like melatonin you can only should only take a certain amount caffeine you
should only take it a certain amount otherwise it can become dangerous do you have any thoughts on that or is there anything on the label that says only take one every six hours or anything like that so yeah on our packaging we would basically explain not to overdose
or take too many of these bear strips yeah um so uh us rowing um and I think NCA as well frown upon drinks like Celsius um have you looked at what the rules are for the various Sports
organizations and whether Sports strips will first strips would be uh uh usable for for athletes who are participating in those leagues yeah so a big part of it also is that we're a third part like we don't manufacture the product right we get it from a third party
manufacturer so they are in charge of things like that but our product is FDA approved and um we try and be as transparent with our consumers as possible they know what they are purchasing when they buy it um they are aware of the amount of caffeine in it and on our packaging it says um the
recommended dose so it is the same thing as whether you were to purchase an energy drink or buy um a bottle of melatonin gummies it is left in your hands how much you cons but the recommended dose is on the packaging and how do you uh do quality
control on this do you do your own quality control or just rely on others well because like Ria said we are third party man manufacturers we don't really depend on that but we can control that through our contracts we set up with them to make sure that we're selling to our customers the best product that we can give and do you check for other
ingredients other than just these basic ingredients yes because there is more than just what these are involved but it is uh zero so we do manage the amount of caffeine that goes into the bur strips we make sure it's the safest to use um and like re said it's also FDA proof they are
there any other additives or herbal products in these um we have it we have a slide if they're able to put I want some there are other ingredients but um
so those are the other ingredients that are on the SC sizers okay electrolytes are great is your third party manufacturer in the USA yes I believe so there we go okay I
know this is a for school class but I think you made a trademark this as soon as possible there's there's something here there's definitely something here this could be the future of our uh uh Revenue to turn this class into Revenue prod this could be something good
awesome job wonderful job thank you so [Applause] much that is very cool hi my name is Shy Swan I don't know Eli why are you late sorry I'm really tired Eli driving drowsy is a serious
thing have you ever tried Essentials hi my name is shuy sanan and I'm the CEO of Essentials hi I'm Eli Rosen I'm the chief operations officer of Essentials hi I'm shery Cana I'm the SE Chief marketing officer of
Essentials Essentials was established in Montville New Jersey in October 2024 we are established as an LLC or limited liability Corporation due to the favorable liability protections and the ability to attract unlimited investors as you can see in this picture our team
consists of 13 employees and three departments which include sales and marketing HR operations and technology and finance and accounting have you ever experienced morning fatigue well did you know that it was a silent and deadly killer well it may not seem this way
morning fatigue can easily lead to drowsy driving and did you know that drowsy driving is comparable to driving Under the Influence while drowsy driving drowsy driving in itself may not seem that serious of a problem when you realize it's comparable to something this serious it suddenly starts to seem
like a bigger issue coffee and energy drinks are some short-term solutions that can be used to alleviate this issue but they contain caffeine sugars and other other unhealthy additives that are not plausible for a solution in the long run to make matters worse we surveyed
163 high schoolers at Montville Township High School and we found out that nearly 75% of this population has at one point experience negative side effects from caffeinated products our solution let me introduce e Essentials naturally energizing air freshers and candles our
product line is infused with alanine Aline is a natural chemical it's a stimulant proven to naturally stimulate your body's serotonin production serotonin is responsible for regulating your body's mood your energy and your alertness levels meaning that we are offering you a 100% natural solution to
stay awake alert and just overall energized our products come currently come in four scents which include Rose lavender eucalyptus and citrus as for our car fresheners these devices are electronic and come with a built-in timer meaning that all you have to do is take your built-in safety guide that
comes compliment with your product look at the recommended time limit based on your age and demographic and set your electronic Essentials device to the recommended time based on the safety guide our smart memory feature means that your Essentials device will remember your preferences so every time you turn on the freshener it'll
automatically be set to the recommended time limit as for our goals by March 2025 this month we wanted to expand our product line into candles and plug-in air fresheners we initially did start out with just car fresheners but this month we have EXP exped into candles we
also plan to we are in the process of currently expanding to plug in air fresheners Now by September 2025 we want to grow Essentials into a leading brands in aroma therapy making it a known name in households across the country and by January 2026 we want to make sure we
have established at least 10 partners with Partnerships with different wellness and fitness centers establishing Essentials as a safe and health conscious brand moving on to the competitive analysis essential is one of the only companies in the world and in the ve world that offers all of these four
products it has alanine it offers as car car fresheners has numerous scent options and increases alertness our main goal compared to fabreze and little trees in the real world and in the industry we're expected to see almost A3 billion increase in the total market so
our sales are up to rise for our target market we want to primarily Target students or people entering the workforce who have a hard time balancing a life between balancing sleep their extracurricular activities any internships job opportunities that they have and it's practically
impossible for them to get the recommended full eight hours of sleep and for secondary parents parents are the number one people that look after their children's safety and we want to make sure that our product reaches them and for our tertiary uh target market we want to make sure that we get our uh any
people in the truck driving industry or the automobile industry who are spending lots of time on the road and need that special boost of energy to make sure that they can get through the day safely and securely for our product and pricing for this we have the air fresheners the bundle right now we're selling for
$84.99 which comes with all four cents and the individual is sold for $24.99 it comes with the packaging and a safety guide recommending users according to their age about the amount of lanine they should be consuming and time limits for each of their recommended
ideas on the other hand for our candles that we just recently launched we have the the bundle selling for $139.99 and individually products sold for $39.99 again the produ the product comes with packaging and the safety guide for our placement right now we're
in the ve Marketplace along with a link that connects them to our website built by our own ve employees along with that it connects them to seeing our products a little bit more about us and any deals and special offers that we're offering as for our promotion we're
right now on Instagram and Tik Tok the two most popular communication modes for our for people our age along with trade shows even yesterday we made $177,000 in in a virtual trade show that we held all right so moving on to our balance sheet here's our liabilities and
stockholders Equity um our trr total current liabilities are around $8,400 and our total liabilities are around $151,000 creating our total liabilities and stockholders Equity to around $2.6 million moving on to our assets our total current assets around $2.4 million and
our total assets are around two are around $2.6 million in total as for our profit and loss statements through the end of January our total revenues are around $2.2 million our total gross profit is around
$700,000 and our net income is around $395,000 through the end of April our total revenues are around $2.5 million as predicted um our toal gross profit is around $750,000 and our net income is around 88
to $889,000 as we will be paying our employees through the end of the fiscal year to sum it all up Essentials are innov Innovative devices infused with alanine something never seen before in the car freshener Market our devices come with smart stent scheduling meaning
that all you need to do is set the timer once and never again they're versatile and portable our car fresheners can easily be attached to your vent no ha overall we want to provide you with affordable Wellness after all it's essential to use Essentials thank you
any questions so on be on behalf of this entire side of the table what's a ve so virtual Enterprises it's essentially what this class runs through it's a virtual Marketplace that connects us with firms all across the country
internationally actually so it's the um virtual economy that we sell our products in so it's how um we purchase other firms products and they um purchase ours because obviously we're not actually selling these products so that's the um virtual thing that we sell
it through thank you so for the car fresheners about how long do they last and when it runs out do you have to buy a whole new one or do you have like refill packs so the average scent lasts about 3 months and we did recently add
refillable cents so you can buy one pack of refillable cents that comes with four cents so if you purchase one freshener and one pack of sents it'll last you a little over a year is it possible if you go back like two slides to the balance sheet there
yeah that one that one one more no you went to one too far wait that one okay yeah see through 13125 and through 43025 they look pretty much the same except for one line that's total operating expenses where they really
ballooned in that this projection through 430 why the balloon and in the future do you expect the number to be closer to the 305 or the 845 oh yeah so we believe uh that we will eventually catch up and get back to
this $35,000 uh we believe that as of now um it's very expensive as a startup company paying our employees um so this is just a very uh cost costly thing as of right now um so we expect to get we expect to get back
to around 305 uh $300,000 sorry one more thing um we were able to notice this trend and therefore we were able to increase our prices for our air fresheners from around $10 to now $24 and this is accessible to everybody in the ve Marketplace since it's not real money but at the same time
we're able to recuperate for any losses that we were able to fory in for April and any other months going forward askf question so you're releasing this into the air which means other people who may not
fit the demographic that it was programmed for are breathing this in especially when you think about families because you mentioned families specifically if you're programming it for an adult and giving an adult dose and that child is in the room would
there be any adverse effect effects on that child so Althena in itself isn't dangerous it's just when your stero honin levels get too high some people may experience minor side side effects which can include a headache dizziness whatever it may be so to alleviate this
we would recommend um on our safety label we would of course have a little bit more description about the adverse effects of alanine we would definitely recommend that if you are in the car with someone younger to reduce the time on your timer because although it does
automatically set every single time you get in the car you can of course manually change it the only thing is if it does if you forget to um change your timer the time ranges between age groups don't vary too much I would say between
the range of 10 youngest 30 minutes oldest so you're not at a major risk of side effects but in the case that you do forget to change your timer you would maybe experience a minor headache but nothing life-threatening or dangerous
and what about the persistence how long does this persist in the general atmosphere if you have it in your home or a car so it like I said the the chemical itself isn't really
what's affecting your system it's the fact that your serotonin levels are um increasing and it kind of works similarly to caffeine in a way gives you a natural boost although you're not going to get the same boost you would get as chugging a Red Bull before school
it's just naturally gets your levels up to the safest maximum that they can be and it would take you throughout the day it wouldn't cause an energy crash in the same way that caffeine does when you have too much and your levels Spike down since your levels aren't being taken out
of what would be considered regular there's no really crash or anything you experience you kind of just float on that same level okay one last question what happens if I took a burst strip and then got in the car with this I think they're in cahoots I mean I mean what
happens now I'm getting a birth strip I'm getting an e i what what going to happen to my mind awesome job everybody that was wonderful thank you so [Applause]
much yeah it was a very good job they're sending us a signal right yeah we need to shorten school and start it later that's what I'm hearing it's the cell phones yes students please big group picture
yeah or all all together it's fine all together all together Sandy everybody in there yes it's crowd now come on come on get in there had the same to similar
products squeeze it in go to market and while they're doing this let me just say I I know Mike probably feels the same way Mike and I both know so many of these kids and have watched these kids grow up from you know just little ones and from Kitten Garden all the way
through and to see them excelling and doing these kinds of programs and projects is really really nice good job good job guys listen uh that was an incredible uh presentations we we appreciate the job you're doing in
the classroom for the volunteerism and sy's Leadership and everything uh we know you're going to be successful in college and whatever you pursue afterwards so obviously this is the foundation and the spring board for the future so we wish you well and everything you do so thank you for coming
tonight thank you for thank you thank you and if you want to come back and start an alumni association for us all right um moving on from the ve world to the real world we have Miss slunt with our budget uh tenative budget
for tonight our virtual budget um a few months ago we had the Auditors come and we talked about the uh annual comprehensive financial report which is the end of our financial cycle tonight
we put forth the tentative budget for the 2526 school year which is the beginning of the financial cycle um some high points in terms of the process that we go through uh this
document uh which you all received through a courier uh dropping off of them at your homes is begins with the Departments and the Schools administration and they provide input as
to their needs for the next year that includes everything from Staffing all the way through to new initiatives that they would like to see done in the next school year those come in they are reviewed by us and basically we are
evaluating what we can and cannot afford when we're looking at those uh documents from that process we then wait to see where we are from a state aid point of view the state increased our Aid by a little more than
$300,000 and allowed for us to apply for a waiver that there are certain waivers that we are allowed to apply for that enable us to raise the taxes above the 2% statutory cap one of them being a
waiver for increased enrollment so due to the increased enrollment that we have been experiencing over the past 18 months that enabled us to be able to partake in that waiver and the combination of those two events an
increase in state a and the ability to participate in that waiver enabled us to find a balancing Point uh where the revenues that we were able to raise are are sufficient for the different
expenditures we intend to have that process of a balanced budget revenues equaling the expenditures is a Cornerstone to the budgeting process for schools in New Jersey meaning that that has to occur
additionally we have put money aside for Capital and maintenance projects that we are going to incur and we will be making withdrawals from those reserves in order to do work this Summer that work
includes the vestibule projects we had started with three we have four left and those four would be done this summer we'll be doing work on some HVAC and boiler work that needs to be done as and then uh painting freshening up uh
hallway lighting hallway ceilings projects like that collectively um we are very pleased that we were able to bring this in um and and bring it in balanc you are hearing a lot of districts who are speaking to the fact
that they are not able to do that and there as a result they are cutting staff and cutting programs we are not in that position at this point but I will say as I've said before that with a 2% cap and
costs Rising significantly above that 2% number eventually you can no longer make the two sides balance one very helpful piece was the decision to participate in a private health insurance provider that
brought us from a 20% increase in health benefits down to a 5% increase and that's just simply the change in providing ERS those types of um Solutions we continue to seek we continue to challenge the administration
to come up with ways in order to provide better ways to do the same thing provide the type same type of services to the kids but in a cheaper fashion but eventually those are going to run out so this is a very good news type of budget that we're presenting you have a
resolution on the agenda to accept this as our tentative budget this goes to the county if you accept it uh tomorrow for them to then go through it and then we will be having our public hearing on the 29th of April in which we do a full
presentation on the budget don't know if anybody had any questions um you mentioned health is only going to be 5% increase rather than the 20% increase um that's great it first question is is that going to last
next year will we go up to to 20% or will we go higher than 5% or the arrangement that we made with Horizon when we switched from the State Health Benefit that was going up by 20% to uh the plan that we selected it was an
18month period where the rates were locked so that 18mth started in January it was running from January to June and then it'll run from July to the following uh June at which point then it
opens back up and yes it is possible that we will have an increase that will be much more than 5% okay so then the followup question is is what are the top uh top issues that are straining our
budget and will strain it in the future uh benefits is definitely one of the biggest ones because we have no ability to control what those rates come in at you're talking about four different benefit packages Medical medical prescription Dental as and vision any
one of those can rise I mean inclusive of this 5% was a 15% raise on the benefits that one happened to come due for July 1 2025 or 2025 and as a result we absorbed that from the savings we created from The Horizon netting to a 5%
raise transportation is also a big area that uh continues to grow although it has stabilized a lot since the covid days when it was uh completely unpredictable but it's still an area
that is increasing um we have a lot of with with the influx of new students coming into the district there are a lot of additional needs that we're attempting to address some of that we did in this particular budget by implementing new types of programs that
will hopefully begin to meet those needs in in a more more um Innovative way and try to see if we can save some costs related to that but certainly the influx of new students has definitely put more pressure on the system thank you other
questions yeah yeah see for additional Staffing I saw Elementary part-time USIC one half for an addition so just so I'm clear is this really an addition of a half or are we basically changing the half to a full which will then result in
the half teacher Lazar being a full teacher it is affecting Lazar as well what's happening currently is we have a teacher who spends half of their time at Lazar and half of their time in the elementaries this would enable that Lazar teacher to spend full time at
Lazar and then we would hire a halftime Elementary to meet the needs that we had at the elementary level don't we have a halftime Elementary music teacher now or not uh we do that is certainly a possibility that that person could go up to full time we'll leave that to the
administration to decide how they want to package that oh okay so you might do one fulltime or you might do two part time exactly I would okay yeah I would just my personally I would recommend the fulltime because the part times they tend to come and
go uh I I would just like to reiterate something that I stated at our last meeting and that is um Mrs slunt and her business office Works tirelessly to bring in a budget that is efficient
and adequate um and that's accomplished by not only her and her staff's hard work but we simply don't take one year's budget and make it the next year's
budget with a 2% increase every single line of the budget is gone over and every single way to squeeze out whatever money is available is utilize so so again I just wanted to clarify that and
make sure people understand that and I want to thank you Mrs slint and your and your um office you're absolutely right we we start the process in about November and then it really kicks in in December and then we continue to have meetings and talking to all the players
and and fine-tune this and then we keep our fingers crossed and seeing what the state numbers are going to be and that's always the you know the unknown and as much as we make it work year to year we're always worried about next year or what could happen with the new governor things the the State of Affairs and
things like that so uh it is a very strong budget especially when you're seeing what's going on with a lot of surrounding towns uh that it's just unfortunate that a lot of people are in this predicament but we're very fiscally sound right now I also wanted to say thank you to
you Mrs slun and your team in the business office really I feel since I've been on the board I feel um so much trust in your office and I you know you're a squeaky wheel and I appreciate that as a taxpayer as well um I want to
ask you Dr Gorman I know that you speak to other superintendents about shared services but I also know that takes a while to do um is there anything that maybe you're speaking to neighboring districts about or any ideas so yes
we've had two meetings so far with different I have two different groups going going on at the same time but the surrounding towns we're meeting with the superintendent and the special ed directors uh we already had one meeting about a month ago we have our second meeting on Thursday of this week uh which may uh turn into some students
that may be coming here to utilize our services in the special ed programs that we offer uh we're also looking at busing options with them because everybody's in the same boat so we're trying to find ways that we could be a little bit more you know sharing these services to really help out each other and and
hopefully we can benefit from that and then who knows what's going to happen with the other group I'm meeting with as well but it's tough it's tough but we're trying and can I also just add on to that that superintendent um and the district we are actively trying to work with the
town you know just to share services within the town anything that we can possibly do you know to collaborate and work together we try to do as much as we can so that's another Avenue that we're trying to save money in and also that it would save money for the town as well
but we are looking into that and to just you know Echo something that Karen said also just by virtue the fact that I am involved in certain extracurricular groups and have family members also who are teachers and the curricular groups I'm in also have a lot
of people involved who are teachers I have an opportunity to speak with many people from many other districts and it's absolutely scary how many of them are lamenting to me that their district is a mess they're cutting left and right they don't know what they're doing
they're in a financial crisis and when they ask how we're doing we're saying we're actually doing very well right now and there's a lot of jealousy there and um you know the balancing act that we do really makes us the Envy of a lot of different towns and you the fact that
we're really one of the few towns around here that's not a mess right now is I think just says wonders to the business department and the uh superintendent so again I want to thank both of you for job very very well done and for keeping
us uh solvent and uh in a position where we don't have to inflict pain on our students and staff you're absolutely right I appreciate that but but if you go back several years it's also a lot of these decisions are made by the board so boards you know do some kind Sometimes
some quick fixes over the years and then it always catches up with you you can't you can't get away from that so sound decision making over the number of years are putting this in this great position right now are there any other questions no
okay um anything else to report slot no Gorman okay uh let's move on then to committee reports okay Finance Karen the committee me before tonight's board meeting um we
went over the proposed annual budget for 2526 uh and we also talked a little bit about the summer construction projects okay thank you uh Andrea uh since Michelle's not here I believe we have a meeting for curriculum when next Tuesday
March at 5 at 5: PM okay thank you uh policy John uh no report okay Communications Joe no report safety Christine no report okay uh de delegate liaison New Jersey school boards Karen
on March 15th uh New Jersey school boards conducted a legislative committee meeting um at that meeting we did go over some uh bills of interest um I think of interest to the board the first is that the governor signed a temporary
relief for posting Public Notices bills on the move as they're called are common application for educators a cell phone and social media policy the Department of Education the the law the um law would require the
Department of Education to come up with guidelines uh that school districts would follow they're not going to be prescriptive and they're not going to force anything but they will be guidelines there was also a move on cursive return of cursive instruction
and also allowing excused absences uh for those students engaging in military Enlistment activi activities um also touched on the state budget the state budget this year is 58.1 billion it's similar to last
year school aid is 22.2 billion and direct formula Aid is 12 billion the uh the uh school funding Reform Act was fully funded and the12 billion represents the largest investment in
education ever um and uh tomorrow is the Le group meeting I think I've mentioned to the board a few times this is a group of um leaders in educational uh societies and and groups
um generally we meet with the commissioner of Education uh and on Friday is the women's leadership conference hosted by New Jersey school boards it's the second inaugural meeting and on the 28th we're
going to conduct our board of directors meeting that's it okay thank you just one point on just one point on the cursive initiative that they're talking about uh we do teach cursive in third grade through our system the amplifi system so uh I believe we're going to
check that box if it does get passed that's good cursive wow who knew okay thought that was gone okay uh moris County School boards Mike rport no report okay Joe uh more count
Educational Services uh we met virtually last week um we also discussed the proposed budget for 2526 for the commission and approved it and also uh after months of negotiation they uh bought the property at 5G Street the
facility is now owned by the commission so they not leasing it anymore good probably cheaper uh and also drug awareness then um we met last Wednesday with the administration to discuss a potential life skills program curriculum
uh it was a great discussion we had so we um left it to them have some thoughts and uh you know possibly further discussion okay good to hear John athletic boosters uh no report upcoming meeting this April I want to say fourth
don't quote me on it okay just be there okay like pass M okay Cedar Hill Karen um on March 88th I attended the most wonderful performance of The Wizard of Oz um you
know when I bought the ticket um knowing it was a group of elementary school children I you know was a little hesitant but I wanted to go it was incredibly entertaining those kids did an amazing job and I'm so happy I went
um and uh there was a meeting on the 11th um where we went over activities uh going on at Cedar Hill School um I didn't want to mention one thing um that Mike brought up on uh
April 2nd there is a Mars County School boards meeting and that's the evening of the unsung heroes and I think every school district has an unsung hero that will be honored so it it'll be in person and I'll make my offer again to carpool
if you guys would like too U and just real quick uh you mentioned uh was heras uh I oh actually never mind I'll mention it later uh Christine hildale um their meeting will be in a few days March 20th virtual okay
uh Caitlyn valy view uh virtual meeting tomorrow night but the highlights of it will be that there's a big event this Friday night at Valley View um neon glow night and they'll be starting the election process for next year's board
young okay John William Mason uh same as Valley View meeting tomorrow night and stay tuned no neon glow not that I'm aware of no uh Woodmont Mike Palmer we met virtually on
um yeah virtually on March 10th um talked about a bunch of things talked about the uh students in the the month the readathon holiday Boutique talked about the videos which we saw at the last
Board of Education meeting which are seen all around the world he discussed the fundraisers for the California wildfire fires and the American Heart Foundation uh discussed trying to expand Woodmont playground and finally last but
not least the Michelle suvan game now I guess most people by now know what the Michelle Sullivan game is it's always been a traditional basketball game between Woodmont hildale in memory of a young girl named Michelle suvin who tragically had many many years ago was I
think 11 or so and was killed by a drunk driver and um this year for the first time um um instead of just Woodmont hildale being involved it's going to be all the schools I asked how they're going to do this but I guess it's they've got some formula in the head for
kind of like a round robin tournament or some such thing but it's going to be on uh April 26 I believe it's going to be here at the high school and um what it' be interesting it's nice to see the other schools get involved it's a very worthy cause and it's a it's really a
very emotional night usually the parents of Michelle come and if you'd like to see one of your fellow colleagues embarrass himself as a former wrestler turned basketball player that that day uh come
out and dang heckled me good all right be sure to glad you're doing it okay Joe do you have anything for Lazar no okay well then I'll I'll mention real quick uh in relation to the Wizard Oz isn't uh Lazar doing their spring musical this
weekend yeah Freaky Friday not this weekend next it's next week okay next week so practicing now yeah so they're practicing right now but yeah um you know the kids start in elementary school and they get to middle school and then they get to the high school and that's why we have such a great outstanding
high school program because these kids are ready by the time they get to high school so I encourage people to get out there for for that one uh for the high school uh I'll just go through it real quick um so there's a lot going on there
they they spoke about a lot of different things uh they spoke about what's going on in the school uh some of the things that they're doing include talking about AI practices in their English classes obviously AI is important so they're talking about uh good AI practice practices they're they were preparing a
a zombie apocalypse Escape Plan oh my goodness just for fun yeah I know turn that off um they're getting ready for the Seal of biliteracy tests that are coming up just have to move somebody there
because we have such a big audience there's nobody in the audience so the see that way but yeah okay they talked about go guardian and Gaggle and the differences between them go Guardian is for classroom in classroom use only it's pre-existing software that we've had for
a long time Gaggle is the new software that we've discussed repeatedly here um and talk yeah gag so I don't think we need to go through that again and then they put out one last request that the
PTC board is going to be turning over as it does at almost all schools I encourage all parents to volunteer get involved D you'll be surprised at how much fun it can be to be involved with your local school just a note on Gaggle
just to let you know I think it's probably been about a month that we've had it in in place and it's died down now that it's in place we sent out two Communications about that just on average the high school gets about one maybe two a day a gaggle alerts uh
Middle School gets couple more than that and the Elementary's got a couple one or two per week or something like that so it's working uh we've had some serious alerts that we were able to work with the families notify them what's going on and they were able to work with their children on that but it's already uh
paid for itself and and the alerts that we've uh seen already so I think it's now balanced out I think you know the worries and concerns are gone and now it's being used as a very uh great safety tool wonderful thank you can I
just say I was able to attend big fish at the high school and it was excellent I had no idea the storyline going into it um I was hoping they didn't turn the lights on too quickly at the end because I was crying by myself in the audience and it was every student I'm amazed
every year by the talent that these kids have from the acting to the set design um the stage crew Everybody just did a really phenomenal job my daughter said she was balling her eyes out at the end yeah it is but yeah it was sad and
you know I knew it was going to be a tremendous production we have like an embarrassment of riches of the kids both in both genders which is something a lot of schools don't have and even the inside vocal work is great because we have two great vocal music programs one
at the high school and one at the middle school and I knew it was going to be a great production I wasn't sure going in if I was actually going to enjoy the play itself I mean I didn't have a long run on Broadway didn't even Run 100 performances but that it turned out I
really did enjoy which I guess shows that there's an there's a very fine line between a hit and a flop but um it was an absolutely wonderful Musical and um you know like you know Mike sherff said to me once we was talking about the Lazar program he said I wish when I was
running the high school program if I had I would have killed to have a feeder program like this when I was running it and again most schools don't have a feeder program like we have and it's just phenomenal I heard 80 kids are doing freaky Friday of course so well as
I mentioned to the township committee I always encourage the public to come the tickets are relatively cheap it's a great night and I encourage people to come and support the kids we will skip public participation because if the cameras don't show it we have no
public okay on that on that note and Sue can attest to that we have a number of people that are watching it uh after we do so it's not like we're speaking to nobody people are viewing these things uh days if not weeks uh around the world
and just here in Mudville so they are seeing this well I encourage them to come and see it in person it's a lot more fun and entertaining okay consent okay I need a motion for items I through n on the agenda I'll make a motion second thank
you questions on the minutes what about section J gifts Etc K facilities Finance any questions okay Personnel section L hadou
yes yes we have uh two retirements we have Joanna machete who has completed her 13th and a half year with montfield Township Public Schools culminating a career marked with unwavering dedication and a profound commitment to her Student Success possessing a master's degree Miss machete has consistently
demonstrated a passion for teaching and a genuine concern for the well-being of her students uh as she prepares for her well-deserved retirement we extend our deepest gratitude for her years of service and her invaluable cont contributions to the Lazar Middle School Community we also have Chuck fiser here
at the high school who's been with the district for approximately 24 years as a special education teacher primarily in the math department he has had the privilege of working at both Lazar middle school and mountainful Township High School in addition to his teaching role he has dedicated his time to the
athletic department as an i ice hockey uh coach and overseen the high school weight room in 2009 while he was the coach uh the I hockey team won the hos cup we sincerely thank Chuck for his dedication and service to the students and the families of mville Township so
we wish them both very much in retirement you have a and then moving along we have um l15 on the next page l315 uh it should say for Amelia mcginness uh the pro-rated amount should
be $1,447 okay thank you uh any questions on curriculum any questions on policies that are listed okay roll call vote Please Mr dalry
yes Mr Rapaport yes Dr cordino yes Mrs Fano yes abstain on Section I minutes Mr Palama yes Mr Petrino yes is abstain on Section I
Mrs Smith yes Dr modra yes accept abstain on Section I okay um see now any old business General board [Music] comments oh um we
received yeah or or general board comments we can just do it all okay say okay any old business uh some of us went to the Chamber of Commerce dinner on Thursday um Caitlyn was there Dr Gorman Michelle Zuckerman Mike
Pudo and I'm missing people but um we honored Sue over there yep Sue was there that's right and her husband um so there was citizen of the Year Tony Smith business of the Year
sebres organization of the Year Gracie's army public safety Chief Andrew kiano Public Service Kelly Kio Good Neighbor Cafe Club Silver Service Sandy Pernell gold service Toby con Cohen and president award Al pelli so it
was a really nice evening it was wonderful we so Toby was recognized for 51 years of service here in monville at Lazar teaching math and she had three years prior to that in another school in Illinois so uh great great career by
Toby was Charlie there yes Charlie was there okay thring joke that Charley gr was her math teacher yep any other old business okay new business General board comments new business uh I'd like to
begin a discussion on Middle School sports and a team for our Lazar School uh we recently received some feedback from the community that there was interest in a girl's basketball team um you know that's wonderful uh but I think
you know if we were to offer Sports at Lazar uh in in a middle school league it would have to be a broader approach uh across multiple Sports um I as you guys may know I sit on the the Executive Board of the mville Broncos
and and that that organization covers girls basketball boys basketball wrestling football and both competitive cheer and and regular cheer um and that's great but it's not every sport either there's a lot of other sports I
know this town also has mville baseball and softball Association you know mville lacrosse um and I'm probably missing some and it has uh you know wreck programs across oh and and of course
mville soccer um you know I I've done a little asking around and there's been some feedback in uh positive and negative from the directors of those various organizations on how they you know feel about a middle school team uh
I think personally it would be great to to have school U you know Middle School sports more Sports the better in my opinion I think it's not as easy as just joining a league uh and it would take a lot of coordination work by our admin
Administration and most of all funding this is not a an an inexpensive Venture and you know I'd like to hear what others think um when my kids started in the district I was shocked that we didn't
have Middle School sports because I grew up playing for my middle school team and I told my husband you're wrong they definitely have it what school doesn't have it and then turns out he went to school here he was right he knew what he was talking about I think it's a great idea I think it's a great way to for
everyone in town to have the chance to participate um one of the big feedbacks has been that our our Broncos organization Sports as well as other you know the mbsa and soccer can be too expensive for families
um and that hinders people from joining the wreck programs are not as expensive but for kids who are looking for that higher level of competitive play it can you know derail them a little bit my concern is while the leagues may be
cheap to join there's so much more that comes with it um hiring the coaches getting the uniform Ms and one of my biggest concerns is the facility use um being the full-time scheduler for the entire travel basketball program I know
firsthand how difficult it is to obtain gym time so if you're now talking about high school sports Middle School sports plus Town organizations running their Sports I don't see how it's physically
possible um I do think if we added Middle School sports that might tone down the number of people participating in the organizations so you would gain back some facility time there because I think those other numbers would be lower um but I do think that definitely plays
into it and there was one other thing I had and now I can't remember um but there's definitely positives and negatives on both sides of it so it's worth the discussion yeah I would say that there are a lot of positives and
negatives um but it before we can really Vote or discuss this in any real detail we need to have a lot more information we need to understand how much it would cost us to do this we need to know how it's going to impact the town wreck
programs the Broncos the other organizations we would have to have discussions with all of them to see what they thought of this I mean there this is not going to happen anytime really soon it's going to it would be at least a while at least a couple years before
before we got it off the ground I think um but if the board wants we can have we can start talking about this and start talking to the other the stakeholders here I would just caution us at this point I would love a
middle school program um I considered myself an athlete at some point in my life um but I think there are a lot of obstacles and in particular at this time of uncertainty of financial
constraints um I I I am concerned that we're asking the superintendent to if you know if we get the information that we need to make a make a decision he's going to be diverting his attention
away from uh academics curriculum um finances that's a concern okay just a couple thoughts I mean first of all John I
guess it doesn't surprise me if you're such a strong supporter of sports because I was on the board with John Petrino 20 years ago but it wasn't the same John Petrino it was your dad was also tremendous supporter of sports and you know God rest as so I miss him every day
but um obviously there are pluses and minuses as Karen said the plus is that for a lot of people um the rec program may not be affordable um it helps I think having a middle school program might promote
catery between the students kids get to play the same kids coming up and that's a plus financially I don't think you could even think to do this unless we had were're able to say pass a second question to increase the budget because
we're not just going to take a million dollars or whatever it's going to take out of our budget and just cut education to do it um and the camaraderie part of is really kind of a two-edged sword as you have the recck programs we had a number of students and I can say it's from my own
experience with my son playing both Bronco football and uh lacrosse he had a number of kids who did not go to the Montville Public Schools who were able to participate in these programs so you say on the plus side um gives kids an
opportunity to play sports with their colleagues might not be able to and on the downside as the Practical side sometimes people tend to say well good you got this kid who's are starting quarterback on the Broncos what good is it going to do we know he's not going to go to the high school so it kind of cuts
both ways in that regard and I do think if we had a program at the middle school I think it would inevitably lead to a shutting down of the wreck programs because you can't have both teams running simultaneously or else you're going to have immediate a a
mediocre Middle School team and a mediocre Rec team because you're going talented divided between the two teams kids to say well you're playing wreck I'm gonna play middle school and it's gonna be diluted both ways so that's just you know something to think
about well it's clearly not as it's not a simple question no absolutely there's no simple answer so that's why we should probably talk about it more at least amongst ourselves and Mike did you have something uh yeah uh just just to say that uh I I like the
idea of having Sports in the Middle School um I I think that's a good thing just uh as as other people have mentioned uh and Mrs slun has said that we're we're getting close to outrunning our 2% cap and this will be another
major expense being added to the budget so I think it's it's worthy of Investigation worthy of discussion um not immediate but over over time to to see if it's something that can be worked in or if it's just not feasible um and
then coming back to the board with recommendations on uh on on on how they see how the administration sees uh that we should proceed at the question just from a financial point of view if we ran as a second question and
it passed that that would basically alleviates them yeah year to year because you'd get that it you're add to our basis correct so you'd have that extra budget kind of in perpetuity correct correct so all you need to do is pass it once and then it's kind of built
in yeah correct and then it also has increases associated with it and right if we and there's again a lot more to talk about but I think for now unless anyone has any other comments about it yeah I I would just add that I I think as a Next Step um you know identifying
the appropriate Sports is key because we would have to then find coaches un you know we could build a budget easier once we know how many sports and what sports they are um you know we it would be a first step if if the board even had interest in
that and then I would you agree with Mr Palmer's suggestion that it would have to come from a a second question uh because you know we wouldn't want to take away from our you know educational or other extracurricular activities that are currently in place um you know I I
without hearing anyone else I would volunteer to you know chair a subcommittee to to find out some more and report back I'm not sure committee is quite okay ready yet I think maybe we can just make a few phone calls talk to
your people a little bit more we need to talk to uh the different organizations in town you need to think about just a general ballpark what are we looking at and then we can talk a little bit more about it before we actually get down to a subcommittee sure and I think also
it's participation if there's low numbers and we invest money then what do we do you know it's like a so that is a concern of mine there's a lot of concerns but anyway we'll talk more about this uh we
can talk about this amongst ourselves and okay uh anything else for the good of the board no then a motion to close so moved thank you thank you good night a motion to adjourn I should say that was motion to
adjourn than