WEBVTT

METADATA
Video-Count: 1
Video-1: youtube.com/watch?v=-Y4HK9y8iOA

NOTE
MEETING SECTIONS:

Part 1 (Video ID: -Y4HK9y8iOA):
- 00:05:30: Call to Order, Flag Salute, and Roll Call
- 00:07:35: Student Report: SAT, Robotics, Spirit Week, Extravaganza
- 00:11:18: Introducing the Phenomenal ROC Program and Cadet Achievements
- 00:27:47: Final Budget Presentation, State Aid, and Tax Levy
- 00:48:55: Board Member Questions on ASD Program, Charter Schools
- 00:51:51: Public Comments: Budget Priorities and Tax Impact
- 00:56:36: Public Comments: Cost Per Student Question and Transparency
- 00:57:59: Public Comments: Healthcare Costs and Reserve Utilization
- 01:01:14: Public Comments: Team Teaching Model and Expectations
- 01:04:39: Public Comments: Extraordinary Aid Usage and Spending
- 01:08:58: Board Responds to Budget Presentation Public Comment
- 01:27:56: Personnel Committee Report, PTO/PTA Announcements
- 01:31:34: Public Comments: Pending Lawsuits and Legal Costs
- 01:34:17: Addressing Initial Questions, Clarifying Teaching Model
- 01:35:14: Consenting Agenda Vote and HIBS Public Comment Begins
- 01:37:37: Public Comments: Concerns about HIB Investigations
- 01:50:34: Public Comments: Dissatisfaction, Recurring Costs, Admin Bloat
- 01:54:13: Remaining Public Comments: School Administration Inquiries
- 01:55:05: Board Comments, Congratulations, and Recognitions
- 01:57:17: Motion to Recess to Confidential Session
- 02:54:27: Approval of Independent Investigation Appointment


Part: 1

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Please rise for the flag salute. >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Please remain standing for a moment of silence for the men and

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women of our armed services. Thank you. >> The notice requirements of the Open Public Meeting Act of the State of New Jersey have been satisfied by the inclusion of the date, time, and place of this meeting in the notice of regular meetings adopted by this board on

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January 5th, 2026. Such schedule and notice of meetings is posted at the municipal building, the Mount Olive Library, the Board of Education offices, and the six schools, was submitted to the daily record for publication on January 6th, 2026, and was filed with the clerk of Mount

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Township on January 6th, 2026. I direct that this announcement be entered into the minutes of this meeting. Roll call. Miss Shony. >> Mrs. Aquino >> here. >> Mrs. Brett, >> here. >> Mrs. Fitzgerald >> here. Mrs. Melendez >> here. >> Mrs. O'Neal >> here. Mr. Mr. Orzillo >> here.

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>> Mr. Petri >> here. >> Mrs. Faggera, >> Dr. Gardano >> here. >> Bear with me. Today we're not working off board docs. You have to go old school. Um, approval of minutes. Mr. Quino, >> I'd like to make a motion to approve uh

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action item 2.1 and 2.2. >> Second. >> Question or comments from the board. >> Seeing none, roll call. >> Mrs. Aquino, >> yes. >> Mr. Petri, >> yes. >> Miss Brett, >> yes. >> Mrs. Fitzgerald, >> yes. >> Mrs. Melendez. >> Yes. >> Mrs. O'Neal. >> Yes. >> Mr. Ozillo. >> Yes.

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>> Dr. Gordano. >> Yes. >> Petitions, communications to the board. >> Superintendent. >> None. >> Thank you. Reports and discussions. Dr. Banjo. We will turn it over to your superintendent report. >> At this time, I would like to have the student report go first.

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>> You can sit right there. >> However you want to do it. >> Is it on? >> Okay. Dr. Daniel, I just wanted she >> It's fine. >> It's fine. >> Okay. Okay. So for past events, we had the SAT on March 25th. We also had the Mount Olive Robotics District event on March 27th through the 29th. More ended

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up in second place as alliance captains of Alliance 2, so we're really happy. And we also competed at the district championships at Lehigh University. We made it to quarterfinals and we were alliance captains of Alliance 7. We did qualify for worlds and we are leaving

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tomorrow morning until um April, not April, sorry, May 3rd. So we're really excited for that. looking forward to it. We also had a spring spirit week on April 13th through April 17th and we had more participation this time and it was a great way to welcome spring. We also had a community awareness night on April

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7th where the seniors presented to different health projects to raise awareness in the community. The social studies department also provided voter registration information and they set up booths during lunch as well which is a really good thing. And the international club extravaganza was on April 17th. We had a lot of different performances by

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students and it included international performances and different cultures and it was really nice to see all that representation and our students performing. It was beautiful. We also had the spring performance of Freaky Friday on April 10th and 11th with the two shows on Saturday. It was an amazing performance and it was really great to see how the kids were able to jump back

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after the setbacks they had previously. They also won eight Foxy Award nominations for past shows. So for Greece, Brandon Harvey won best student lighting designer. Riley Thomas, outstanding stage manager. Lincoln Vera, best lead actor. Tyler Randazzo, best

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supporting actor. And Riley Cahili won best featured ensemble member. And from Mean Girls, Riley Thomas won outstanding stage manager. Dylan Kovat won best lead actor and Zoe Vajio won best lead actress. So, we're really proud of them. At the Bucks County Drama Competition,

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they also won a number of awards for Freaky Friday. They won outstanding ensemble. Singer faceoff award for outstanding vocals went to Emmy Bosch and Marin Misagia and best dramatic duo was Kayen Blakey and Prince Gudya. I went to watch the show and it was really amazing to watch. So coming up we have

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the NJSLA science 11 starting tomorrow and ELA 9 NJSLA as well. The math will be on May 19th with algebra 1 and geometry for the freshman and sophomores. We also have the freshman class officers coming to the middle school on the 28th

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to speak on a panel and answer any questions that the eighth graders may have about going to high school, the transition, anything like that. Actually, something new we're starting this year, so we're really excited to see how that's going to go. We are also having a career fair on the 29th at 9:00 a.m. in the dome. And we encourage all our students to take advantage of the

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amazing resources that are going to be at this fair. AP exams start on May 4th and they are going to last approximately two weeks with exams in the morning and in the afternoon. So, we're wishing our students the best of luck. We have an open house on the 29th at 6:15 p.m. includes tour of the high school and all

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elementary and middle school families are welcome and encouraged to come. We also have a ton of inductions happening soon. So, we have the National Art Honor Society induction on the 30th, the National Honor Society on May 4th, the Thespian Honor Society induction on May

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5th. So really excited for them. Congratulations to all the students that got accepted. Foods Club is also doing a Cinco de Mayo celebration on May 5th at 5:00 PM and we're excited to see what they're going to cook up for us. And the Air Force Junior ROC Military Ball is on May 9th as well. We also have the spring

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arts festival on the 20th and prom is on the 29th and we hope all our seniors have an amazing and safe time. And that is all for me. Thank you so much. >> Thank you. Question or comments from the board? Board members have any comments, questions?

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>> Thank you. Good luck in Houston. Oh, >> Dr. Banjo. >> At this time, I would like to invite Mr. Kevin Stanbury up who's going to be introducing our phenomenal ROC program. >> Okay. Okay. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen and board of education members. It gives

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me a great deal of pleasure to introduce two individuals that have been the right people for the right programs for the right purposes. and uh I couldn't accentuate that more um with

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the work that they've done since standing up the program in 2016 2017 very fortunate to be selected by the Air Force to host Mount Olives Air Force Junior Rosi program. So without further ado to give you an update on their year

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and review. Chief Master Sergeant Robert Bedell, how about a huge round of applause? He hails from Banganger, Pennsylvania. Just saying. Okay. Banger, Pennsylvania. Just write that down. And also joining him is Master Sergeant Nathan Crutoff.

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>> Senior >> Senior Math Master Sergeant Nate Crutoff. Come on up. Uh well, it is always an honor to come before you guys and obviously the last time we were here was our state of the unit back in November. So, thank you again and and really I want to start

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there because with that state of the unit, it really set the stage for this year. So, if I could have Cadet Colonel Ona and Cadet Lieutenant Colonel Bowen come on forward here. Uh so these two along with uh cadet captain Sierra

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Freda, they're our top three. They're the ones back in August before school even started, they're the ones that set those goals that you saw before you uh back in November of what they were going to achieve this year. And and so everything starts with them. They're the

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ones we're going to highlight a lot of the teams and the individuals, but really this year's success starts with these top three including FA to make this all happen. So, I just really need to have them as they're our seniors graduating and moving on. And of course,

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we'll do a change of command on uh at our military ball. So, Ona will have to relinquish his command uh onto our new commander next next for next year. But I just want to acknowledge you guys. Thank you so much for your leadership and everything we see from here on out you

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guys put into play. So, thank you guys. Do I have one slide ahead of this? I believe. Nope. Ahead. Right there. Awesome. Could I have Ethan Scarcy come on up here, buddy? So, Cadet First Lieutenant Ethan Scarcy,

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a junior as well. Uh he is our Raider team commander and so he lives and breathes Raider uh since he was a freshman. Matter of fact, even before you were a freshman, wasn't it? Yeah. You came out uh saw some of the stuff we were doing at our Marauder Challenge

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even before he was in high school. Uh but he's the one who puts the teams together. He's the one who puts together workouts twice a week uh for the Raider team, but he also does the teams. What you see on the slide there was our latest competition at Highland High

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School. Now, I will say a little bit daunting in the fact that we show up and there are four Marine teams, Marine Junior RTC. Now, they didn't seem to be daunted at all. I was a little bit nervous. So, among all them and the

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other Air Force teams there, for us to walk away with three second places, and by the way, that third place, we were a second away from second place as well. So, uh, just a phenomenal deal. But what I am always encouraged by Ethan is not

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only his his team mentality that he does with with his folks from freshman all the way to senior, but also he's the one who puts the teams together. And we've had a lot of lastm minute shifts when all of a sudden and when we look at the drill team accolades, he puts together

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an athletic challenge team uh to compete at those drill competitions as well. So, it's not just Raider. I was hoping to be here to give you more accolades from this last from this past Saturday, but unfortunately the competition out Reading, Pennsylvania was cancelled due

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to weather. So, uh, but we do have another shot. Northern Burlington 23 May and we'll be collecting more hardware there. So, ladies and gentlemen, Ethan Scarcy. All right, Miss Julia Markle, come on up. So Julia uh she took on Can I go

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next slide? Thanks. Uh we had a phenomenal phenomenal uh season last year. So you know how hard it is to follow up such a successful season and and First Lieutenant Julia Markle was up

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to the task. Dedicated teammate. She was the one who puts the teams together. Uh they get together. You need to understand drill practice is at 6:00 in the morning. They have to be driven there. It's the only time we have gym space, gym room space. So, they're

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dedicated. They come three times a week and then about two weeks out from competition. They do it every day, uh, 6:00 in the morning. But she's also teaching the new cadet drill. These are first year cadets. She does that during TAG. Then after school, we have color

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guard competition uh, practice. We have exhibition drill practice. All those things. So, the level of dedication among everything else that they do for them to do for junior RTC, well, I want to highlight over on the West Orange High School drill comp. Now, that is a

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successful drill meet, just so everyone knows, but not to this drill team. They went and left with a first place, second, a third, best armed commander for cadet owner, all these things, but they were just like, h, it does not

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compare. So we went to Old Bridge and as you could see they just dedicated themselves even more and uh we cleaned house. Every single cadet contributed to a trophy which allows them to get a special teams uh ribbon. Uh so the fact

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that everyone there and the first new cadet as I said the one who teaches new cadet our very first trophy in new cadet was under Julia Markle. Uh, so very very proud of this team. A great year following up a great year last year, even even better this year. So ladies

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and gentlemen, Julia Markle. Thank you. So these are our teams, but let me cover our some more some of our individuals. So if we can go next slide. Mia Capone, could you please come forward? So, I don't know if you know at Air Force Junior RGC started about 5 years ago a

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um aviation a flight academy. It's scholarships. And we were fortunate enough two years ago, Matias Clink, he was our very first flight academy uh scholarship. He went got his private pilot's license. He's now in college up in South Dakota for to become a

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commercial pilot. Uh so it all worked out great. Well, Mia Capone, she comes with the same very similar dream to fly and but this year is different. And so, not only is it awesome that she got one of the scholarships, but I need to

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explain normal years where is about 200 scholarships to give out this year due to government shutdown and budgeting issues, they had 90 scholarships to give out. That's across all Air Force Junior RTC, including some of those go to

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senior ROC. So, college kids that are in ROC. So, we have a very small pool to to draw from and she made the primary list. Now, to brag a little bit, Jona is on the alternate list. So, for a school to

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get two, you know, I I just had to stay quiet within my region, right? Uh we were a little bit there. But Mia Capone, she's going to head off Tulsa, Oklahoma, attend Spartan College. There you go. OKLAHOMA. AND THIS is an 8-week long very rigorous

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training six days a week uh to in order for them within 8 weeks to leave with a private pilot's license. Uh so from 15 June to 8 August you'll be enjoying Oklahoma hopefully no tornadoes and the weather will support her uh first flight

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solo flight all those great things. And then next year she will be when we wear utilities she gets to wear a flight suit. So pretty cool. Pretty cool. And she'll get her wings and all that cool stuff. So very unique for us. Very happy to have her. And uh looking forward to

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uh graduation on 8 August. All right. Mia Capone. Not sure how versed you are. Next slide, please. With girl state and boy state is through American Legion. Uh it's a it goes through the whole political chain and and they fill different government

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uh agencies and stuff. A few years back you might know a Gabby Dr. She's currently at West uh West Point. She brought to my awareness girl state. I always knew boy state but never girl state. So she got us started. We've been sending nominees every year. So you see

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two photos and that's rare. So understand there's only 200 billets that go to New Jersey uh to Jersey girl state. Every um chapter has one billet to give throughout Jersey. Okay. So we

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sent So come on up Capine and Katie. So these two amazing ladies, they pretty much had to go interview in competition with each other. So, the fact that uh there was one billet for them to get. Well, the

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interviewer gives me a call afterwards and says, "Your girls were phenomenal. They were so good." And he goes, "But I only have one to give, but I have good news. I've reached out and got another billet." So, two of them are filling two of the 200 slots.

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So, absolutely unique opportunity. Again, like I said, they had to interview for these positions. They weren't the only two. There was many other girls that got interviewed as well. Uh so very very proud that not only did we steal the primary, but they even went out and found another one because that's how amazing these two

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young ladies are. So give them a round of applause. So again, amazing year and again, you're just seeing junior after junior after junior. I don't know what I'm going to do after they graduate next year because this is a phenomenal year. But yes, we're doing boy state. This is common.

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Normally we have two billets and again you see a third. So Mikey, Alex, Yao, please come on up. So they're going to be going to uh Ryder uh Ryder University uh to attend Boy State here at the end of June. Matter of

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fact, right after graduation or right after the end of the school. They'll be going that weekend. Same as girls state. They had, by the way, they go to it's like Georgia. What the heck is that place called? It's in Lakewood, New Jersey, which by the way is the hometown of yours truly. That's where I was born.

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So, uh, raised in Tom's River, but I was born in Lakewood. Uh, but it's like George Georgian University or something that they'll be attending. >> Georgian, >> thank you very much. That's the one. So, with uh going to Ryder now, this is large. Boy State is heavily funded. post

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911 out of Wharton, New Jersey. We have a uh an ongoing community service relationship with them and uh general uh brigadier general retired uh dolpher is the adjitant there and I give him leads. Well, I have amazing cadets. So, I'm

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like, hey, is there any chance? He goes, "Well, let me see if I can get a third." Because what you see in front of you are two Mount Olive, but as you know, we have Roxberry with us. And Mikey Surreal has been a phenomenal cadet since

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freshman on. He's been with us since we stood up the cross town and so awesome that he'll be pushing forward. Also seeking USAFA Air Force Academy, by the way, after next year. So, we're looking forward to seeing that happen. But all three. So, General Dolpher said yes,

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we'll be able to fund them going. He sponsored all three from his from his post and they'll be off for a week long just in gross training the same as girl state in the political path and change. So, we look forward to getting a huge benefit from these three uh amazing

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cadets. So, ladies and gentlemen, give them a round of applause. Thank you. Now, my final uh award here, if I can have my CLC cadre come on up, please. Thank you. Thank you. So, you have here

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Kyle Enzinger, Julia Markle again, Moi Panchchal, and Sarah Magson. So, yes, give him a round. So, so there is also another one, Mason Kilka. He was unable to be here tonight. uh but five of them what makes it unique

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for them and if you look up on the photos this is them two years ago when they were basics at cadet leadership course so you to be selected for CLC you have to be pretty sharp there's a fitness requirement you have to be a leader show potential in leadership so

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back when they were at the end of their freshman year they went off and did CLC for you to be invited back to be cadre and actually run the camp is a whole another ball game. And so I am very honored that we have five of our cadets that will be returning back. We don't

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know their specific billets. We'll be doing that on May 19th of their positions that they will be holding there. Uh but pretty honored to have five of our cadets returning and really running CLC. This is the premier leadership. It's kind of if you think of

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like a leadership lab, everything we have taught throughout the year and throughout the years with them, they put to practice here this week long down at Joint Base Maguire Dicks uh Lakhurst down south Jersey. And so it is a hot

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week, a very rigorous week. It is very basic trainingesque. So there is a lot of yelling, there's a lot of pressure, and every minute of the day is taken up with something. So when they go to sleep, their eyes close and then it's Revy wake up and they're back at it

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again. So very excited for them, excited for what they're going to do for the upcoming cadets behind him. By the way, this is this program has about 17 different schools, junior RC programs go there. About 260 plus uh cadetses will

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show there and uh they'll be in charge. So not too bad at all. So ladies and gentlemen, my CLC cadre and then just quickly, we just did our award ceremony for the year. Thank you for a few of you that were able to make it out there. That that is huge. And

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again, I'm so proud to watch them run that program and just sit there as like a proud pop of just watching your kids and in this case, my cadetses just shine just as these guys have. and we have our military ball coming on the 9th of May.

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Thank you for those that are coming. Uh and another great event run by the cadetses and we just get to just mentor them through it all. So great program. Thank you again for your ongoing support and what you do for us day in and day

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out. Thank you so much. >> Thank you, Chief. Dr. Bania on with the budget presentation. >> Sure. Um would you like the families to be able to stand? >> Yeah. Chief, if the cadetses, you guys have to go. You don't have to stay for the budget presentation if you don't

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want to. Uh in the way, just let the public know we're going to have the budget presentation and then I'm going to open it up to the board member questions and then I'll open it up to public comments or questions just on the presentation of the budget. So, >> congratulations to all. >> Yeah. Congratulations guys and ladies,

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cadetses. Sorry. Dr. Banjo, the floor is yours. >> Good evening, everyone. We're excited to be sharing our final budget presentation for the upcoming school year, 2627. I'm going to turn it over to Michonne, our business administrator. >> Hi, good evening everyone. Welcome to

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our budget hearing for the school year 2627. Thanks. Uh this is a brief outline of what we're going to cover this evening. Uh so this is uh this is uh the calendar of events that we dealt with during

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budget development. March 23rd, we presented our preliminary budget. Uh we had to submit our budget to the county. On March 27th, uh the county approved our budget on April 20th. We posted it to our website,

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our advertised budget on April 22nd. And this evening, we're having our public hearing and final adoption. This is a brief overview of our state aid for this school year. We um received a $275,000

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decrease which we were actually pretty happy about because we were told it could be between uh 1% and 3% and 3% to us was a little bit over a million dollars and that would be quite um a

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feat for us to deal with. You could see the bar graph. Oh, are you driving? I thought okay. No, no, you can you can drive. Um the bar graph of where our state aid is comprised of with the various equalization aid, special ed aid,

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transportation aid, and security aid. Equalization aid makes up the largest part of our aid which represents uh the wealth of the community. Key insights to the right. Um we have we just broke down the aid even more. Um

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extraordinary aid we're budgeting this year of about a million dollars. it is not included in the above $39 million because that is an aid that the district has to um apply for the aid. We have to submit applications uh for our students

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and then based on uh the amount of money that the state has available. We receive our aid. Unfortunately, we do not get 100% of the expenditures we report. Um over the past five years, the district has lost about $5 million in

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extraordinary aid. It started off five years ago funding 90% then it went down to 80% 70% and so on. So right now we're at 50%. I'm hoping that we stay this year at 50% 60% would be a lot better,

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but we have to see where we go. Um this is a nice um summary of the district state aid and tax levy history. You'll see I I went back to 20 uh 20134 school year basically because when you

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go to our website, we have budgets available going back to that year. So should anybody have want to spend some time and look at our budgets, they'll be able to see these numbers. So you could see over the past several years uh the

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board was within their 2% uh statutory allowance and the corresponding state aid. And all the way to the right you will see the increases um sometimes zero increase, sometimes a moderate increase. And then as you work

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through uh the school years, you can see that the district was starting to receive more money because I'm sure you've heard the state and their funding formula, which doesn't really seem to work out too well because you can see all the fluctuations in our aid. One

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year we're getting $5 million, then $7 million, then five, and then we drop to 340. So, it's kind of very difficult to build a budget um with the numbers not stable at all.

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We put a slide together of comparable districts in Mars County. for your um purview. You will see um Mars School District, Mount Olive, Parcipony, Randolph, and Roxberry along with their corresponding enrollments, their total

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budget, their tax levy increases. You can see we're all in the same situation. Everybody's expecting higher increases in their state health benefits. You have Paripany with a 31.4% 4% increase. We're

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at We're one of the lowest with the exception of Mars School District at 20%. And you can see across the board that districts in general benefits represent close to 40% of our operating budget. Doesn't leave that much room for

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anything else. And you'll see they're all taking their health care waiver to expand because that's how they're getting to that tax levy. So at this point before we get into the um other numbers we wanted to give it provide an overview as far as what we're planning for next year. Um obviously at

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the heart of what we do as a school district is our students and certainly we take our decisions financially very seriously because certainly we recognize we are coming from the taxpayers. So, we're very mindful as far as what we want to focus upon, which is what's going on not only literally in the classroom, but what's going on with

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their students. One of um things that we wanted to expand upon for next year is our expansion in a number of teams here at in the middle school. The teams are in which how students are operating as far as their classes. They have the same English teacher, math teacher, science, social studies, and that's allows them

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to have a home within a home. We introduced a fourth team in the sixth grade level and the impact has been tremendous. um student achievement has gone up, disciplinary referrals have gone down, student attendance has improved, and certainly we wanted to carry that on into seventh grade um with

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those students as well. However, based upon um strategic decisions made as far as um um I want to say positions absorbed from different locations, instead of having to hire six um new positions for this new team, we're only going to need to have hire one. and we're able to relocate staff from the

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rest of the district in order to ensure that we have the same um impact that we had in sixth grade to happen in seventh grade as well. So, we're excited about that. Um, another area that we are expanding is our multilingual programming. About five years ago, we had a little around 120 or so students

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who are considered ML. Right now, we're over about 230 kids. So, obviously with an increased number of students, we certainly need to um enhance our um programming. And so certainly we're looking to add one multilingual teacher at the high school.

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Another area um as far as students needs are concerned or gifted and talented program. Currently we have one G&T teacher that services our entire elementary schools. We have four um schools across the district. We're looking to add one more. So this way um each teacher can cover two buildings. Um

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also we are excited to show that um case that we are actually expanding our ASD programming. For those who are unfamiliar, ASD is our students on the spectrum. And um right now we have programs both at CMS and Sansore. Because the needs of those programs and the number of students who need to be

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serviced have expanded, we need to add a new section at Sansore as well as we're introducing ASD at the middle school, which is an exciting expansion. Um for those in the audience understand that um if as a district if we choose not to offer these services within the district

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then we would have to go outside of the district and that requires out of district placement and tuition which is a much more um higher cost as opposed to starting a program um in in district. Another um area that we're um expanding upon is um partnering with Insight

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Health Services. Currently we um are partnering with Thrive or sort of mental health services. Um in Insights is actually a little more advanced from a technology standpoint. So now we're going to able to expand opportunities for families to get the help they need um on the online basis. So once again,

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but at the same time not adding any money to the budget. So we're as you can see from this particular page that we're expanding a lot of programming but being mindful as far as um the financial components are required. In relation to that, we're doing continuing our expansion on our ELA

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curriculum resources. This is a bit has been a huge initiative for the past couple years. Um, one of the big things that we want as a district is to really have a K5 program across the district and that's um something we started about two years ago and we're expanding upon that. PhonX instruction is also

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something that we're trying to expand upon on hands-on learning materials. We're also continuing our math curriculum renewal as well as our alignment to the standards. Um, from instructional programming, we're continuing our partnership with Conquer Math to ensure that students not view themselves only that they can do math,

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but they're math people so they can be um, lifelong learners. Along with that, as we talked about multilingual learners, we're going to be expanding our resources for that as well as providing PD targeted for our staff. and then continuing instructional excellence area focus is also continued growth on

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our four-year technology plan including the expansion of devices or replacement end ofear devices um Dr. Dr. K and her team have really worked on ensuring that we have a um life cycle replacement. Michon has been instrumental in ensuring that we built that into the budget that's a manageable replacement schedule

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as opposed to being I want to say woped every couple of years. So we've been really been keen on ensuring that it's done on a timely and regular basis. Also as you know um software systems updating and also subject security has been a focus of the district. Um from a transportation facility standpoint, we

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are dedicated to keeping our in-house operations as far as um um hiring an additional transportation mechanic. So this way all our buses are able to be um fixed as much as possible in district as well as also facilities management of making sure that our um operations are

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dealt with and expanding with our part-time dome operator as well. So this is um an overview of the revenues by fund source. We have our operating budget, special revenue and debt service.

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You will see that on the right side um our local tax levy, our taxpayers contribute uh they're the primary funding source and then state aid um is second with about $39 million. Um, this is just another example of our

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tax levy, our state revenues, and again, this is our our state aid plus the million dollars from our extraordinary aid that we're budgeting representing about 30%. In addition, our other revenue sources of about $6 million.

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That is our budgeted fund balance. Budgeted fund balance represents the money that the district is saving during the current school year. um that we're reserving out of this year's budget to use to fund next year. The district has

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been diligent over the past 13 14 years in spending wisely so that there's money saved for subsequent years because keep in mind we're building a budget now for next year. We don't really know what our we have a good idea

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of what our expenditure is going to be but we don't know obviously for certain. We don't know what's going to come to us that we haven't planned. So, we try to be as reasonable and conservative as possible. So, in addition to the budgeted fund balance, we also have our

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capital reserve withdrawal of about $3.5 million, which directly supports the capital projects that we have planned in this budget, as well as $500,000 from our maintenance reserve account, which will support all of our required

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maintenance um expenditures in the budget. on the right side are local sources. We have um about $870,000 which is tuition from other school districts sending to us for our special

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education programs. We also have a preschool program that is parent paid um rents and royalties of our renting out our facilities. And we have um unrestricted miscellaneous revenue of $640,000

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which represents bank account interest miscellaneous revenue and $30,000 for parking permit fees. U a brief amount of capital reserve interest for $7,500 and Medicaid which is federal aid of

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$77,000 that is given to us uh from the government. This is another um detail of all the revenues that I just discussed, so I'm not going to talk about it again. Our appropriations. So appropriations,

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what I try to do on our district website is the advertised budget. So when we do this presentation, I like to discuss the advertised budget so that when you're looking at it, you have an understanding of what of of what we're actually

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spending the money on. We have instructional programs and support services. And on the next slide, it'll be detailed as to what makes up these items. Capital outlay and transfer to charter schools. This represents students who choose to attend a charter

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school. This presentation will be on our website by tomorrow. I know the numbers are very small. Um, so you won't have to take so many notes. You'll be able to have this for tomorrow. This breaks this down for you. What the instructional what the

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instructional programs are, regular instruction, special ed instruction, basic skills, bilingual. I need my glasses. uh bilingual school sponsored which are

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your co-curricular and your athletics for and after school programs summer school and an alternative programs our support services are cannot say that wrong are um our added district placement tuition

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attendance our nursing services speech and related services related services are OTP um we We have other support services such as guidance, extraordinary services, one-to-one services. Um,

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students who need a one-to-one aid or specialized instruction, guidance, child study team, our supervisors, which is known as uh improvement of instruction, our library and staff, excuse me, staff development.

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On the right side, administration, which is the general administration, which is the superintendent's office, support services, school administration. These are all the main offices at the school buildings, central services, which is the business office, and administrative

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technology, which is our technology department. We also have operations and benefits which is our facility department, student transportation, and then personal service and employee benefits. And it's here I'll note that

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that $31 million line represents 23% of the entire budget. So you just can't escape your fixed costs with salary and benefits. And on the bottom capital outlay, the $3.6 6 million represents

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about three and a half million for our capital outlay projects. We have about $125,000 that every district in New Jersey is assessed to pay back debt service aid

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and um the nominal $7,500 for capital reserve interest and the transfer to charter schools. and that all totals about $136.5 million. These are a list of the capital projects

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that we have planned in this budget and we are already starting to work on especially with the rooftop units uh to provide um fresh cold air, hot air. It's some of them especially at the high school level have been long overdue for

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quite some time. We're planning on replacing the roof at Mountain View. We've replaced sections partial roof at Mountain View now, right? Partial roof. Yes, excuse me. Partial roof. Um the auxiliary gym floor replacement

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at the middle school. We need to replace the elevator at the high school. We're placing a gym door, gym door replacement, the lockers, flooring at Mountain View, and another rooftop unit at CMS.

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Our debt service aid, this is um the debt, the bonds that were issued years ago. Um this is um principal and interest, a moderate 1.38% of our budget. Special revenue. special revenue are our

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local, state, and federal funding. The majority of it is federal funding of $870,000 that we anticipate for IDA, title one, title two, three, and four about $1.1

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million. We are um instructed to budget at 75% and we're hoping that we get more than 75% because every little bit helps. And we use all these monies

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rigorously. They're all planned out. Tax levy calculation. Our tax levy to strike it, you take the current year tax levy, $81.3 million. You inflate that by the 2% allowance,

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which is 82.9, and adding to it is a healthc care adjustment of $3.6 million. That healthcare adjustment is the result of a software calculation, the budget software. When we put in what we

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anticipate for our health care expenditures, and in this case, we're anticipating a 20% increase, it automatically generates this adjustment for us that we're allowed to expand the tax levy. So by expanding the tax levy,

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it generates a 6.48% increase. And you'll see on the right um we put for you um the tax levy trends over the past few years. I was going to ask you to change it and

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I'm holding it. Um you can see on the left the the valuations have gone up slightly from last year. The tax rate increased slightly for the a the average home in Mount Olive is $325,000.

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The average assessment would be about 364 $364 annually or $30 a month. And that's it. Any questions? >> I have quant

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seats. Miss Brett, go ahead. Was that Oh, was that was that Miss Mom? I'm sorry, Miss Mendes. Go ahead. >> Yes. Uh going back uh to page in page seven uh the inception of the ASD program at the Manolive Met School. And

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so those positions are all for that program for the inception of the program. Right. >> So those listed up there is actually for Sanhore at the middle school at um we're having internal staff um expand into that program. So we don't have to hire anyone at the middle school. >> Okay. So those positions are for

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asshore. >> Oh, all sanor. Correct. >> Okay. Okay. >> I should have clarified. I'll make sure before we post that I clarify that. >> Okay. And then the other question was um page 16 in capital and other what is transferred

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to charter schools? >> We have uh four students that attend charter schools. They're Mount Olive residents, but they choose to attend a charter school. There's Unity Charter is one. Um, Ridgen Valley is another charter school. I believe we have two

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students who attend there. Uh, and there's one more. I can't remember the name, but that's that's how they they phrase it. Transfer >> for services that we are not able to provide them or is for personal choice. >> Their personal choice. Charter schools are not specialized schools.

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>> Okay. Thank you for the clarification. >> You're welcome. Any other questions for the board? >> There was no imp. >> There were no improvements for Sansore. I didn't see anything listed >> as far as facilitywise. >> Yes, that's just for capital. We're

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doing internal projects at all our buildings. Those are coming out of our capital funds. >> Say that again just because uh just to be clear, those are just for the capital reserve. There are a lot of projects across every building that we're going to be doing, but those are the only ones being funded through capital projects. For example, one of the big things we're

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doing at Sandshore is converting a classroom um in um we're moving the art room. So, we had to do some internal construction taking place. We're making some renovations in order to accommodate um that move. >> Also, we just completed this year direct install project at Sandshore uh

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replacing H HVAC units. Anyone else from the board? >> No. All right. Super. I will now open the floor up to public comments just on the budget presentation. Um again, just ask your question or make your comment to the um to the chair um well to the

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board president. We'll write all the answers down, your questions down, your comments, let other people ask um and I'll close it and then we'll answer your questions. Um and then obviously it's on the agenda for approval. So you'll have a chance when we get to uh um

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action items as well to ask again. But right now, stand up, say your name and address for the record, and ask away. >> Wouldn't be a meeting if I didn't stand up. Uh Martin Wells at 25 Woodrest Avenue, Bud Lake, New Jersey. Now, I did ask my wife if she wanted to come here today verse me, and she says it wouldn't

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be the same. So, um obviously, I've been looking at the budgets, not just for our town, but for surrounding towns. Okay. Um, over the past several years with the budgets, I we got the windfall schedule of $7 million and we got a $5 million and we got a $5 million now. And it's great that we got that money then, but

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if you notice the trend that's happening, it's not increases, decreases. The Democrats in Trenton have been failing our school districts in the red areas of the state of New Jersey by not funding us properly. Now, luckily, Mount Olive has not gotten whacked yet,

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but it's coming. And so, what my questions are the following. How many total employees are we adding? Number one, what is that cost of the total employees being added, including benefits? Okay. And what happens next year when we have a large cut to our

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budget? Are we going to start laying people off like Sussex County, Pipony, Roxberry, laying off 23 people? Because it's going to happen. You're going to have to have a choice down the road. Are you laying off staff or you cutting programs for the kids? So, in some of

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the guards, I'm looking at it this way. If we keep on adding all the staff, the next cost that's going to happen is not going to be staff because we never want to fire someone from a job half the time. It's to what less services we're going to be providing to our children. So, obviously, I'm not happy with a 6

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and a half% increase in my taxes. Um, for me, between the whole town, I'm going up well over $1,000. You know, you guys only look at the one piece of the pie, but that's several hundred dollars for me. Thank god we're not Randolph trying to add a $10 million business uh IT building and a lot of other stuff

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going on out there. But like I said, eventually it has to come through. So we have to figure out ways to cut spending, okay, through attrition or or planning for the future. Now board of eds historically always plan for spending

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more. We have to get to the mindset eventually of spending less. I know we have aging infrastructure. You know, there was a report put out there that Randolph was putting away $15 million in their capital spending fund. I looked at our records. We were at 7 to89 million.

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But that 789 million is still the taxpayers's money. Okay? And that's what people need to understand that this is taxpayers money. Randolph is his own beast, and I'll be at their meeting this week, too. They're going to love me. Uh asking their attorney to to resign. Uh

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but we have to figure out what are we going to do next year if our budget gets cut three million. four million, five million, because the rate you're looking at now, you're not planning for it. You're praying, you're crossing your fingers and praying it doesn't happen. But the trend is not our

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friend. Look at Jefferson. They have no extracurricular programs anymore. They don't have sports. They don't even have music. They don't have anything. They're selling their schools. That's what I fear is Mount Olive's future. So,

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you know, I it's I know M Nicole, you've done an amazing job looking at all this, but we always look to add more versus protection of the future. As a financial planner, I plan three years, five years, 10 years, 15 years out for my clients, thinking about revenues, costs, taxes,

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will social security be here, not be here. In this case, instead of thinking about social security, I'm thinking state funding. All right? Because in one day, it's going to be cut worse. You know, I don't know if you guys watch all the news out there where New York contributes their taxpayers in New York

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contribute $44 million in taxes to the state from the resident that live in New York, but they get 1.3 billion in revenue from the rest of the state. They spend more per child, correct, failing child. All right? And they have phenomenal board events. Hawaii, you

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know, so I'm glad we don't do that. But we have to figure out what are we going to do to protect us. And I know I'm a critic and and I don't mean to hurt you guys, but there's going to be a time when the buck's going to have to stop somewhere. And next year, are you going to tell me if we have to do cuts? Are

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you going to cut staff or you going to cut programs for the students? >> Thank you. >> Thank you. Uh my name is Neno Collab 5 Jeffrey Corton Flanders. One two questions. First is why is the cost the one of the

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slides showed costs per student. Why is the cost per student in Mount Olive? I believe it was higher than the other three surrounding uh districts that were shown on the slide. That's first question. why ours is higher than the surrounding uh school

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districts. >> And next question is nice presentation on the budget plan very easy to understand um and I'm new to this so I don't know if it was that made available to the public prior to went along the process was that made

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available to the public. It was obviously impossible to evaluate that here or look at it here. Uh so if it was available I missed it in the future I'll be better at that. So, I just want to know if it was if it was available to the public. >> Closing the public comment on Okay.

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Yeah, there you go. >> Hi everyone. uh Trista K28 Joseinda Road Flanders and I first want to thank you for putting this together. It is a very good presentation and I had expressed to Dr. Bani at a different time that this

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does not seem easy, straightforward um at all. So thank you for that colossal effort. as kind of a lay person just looking at this, I have a few questions. And one, I guess I just want to reiterate a little bit of that unease that Mr. Wells Miller

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was uh putting forward. Just knowing that state aid is not getting fixed this year, the healthc care crisis is not going to get fixed this year. Um it feels like we're still going about business as usual when we we and almost

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every other district that you highlighted are using these extraordinary measures to meet our obligations for our current staff. And I just um want to reiterate the the need for prudence in in making these plans as

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we look forward. And then again, not knowing much, um I see that the healthcare adjustment is around 3.6 million and at the same time that we're doing improvements for almost the exact same amount of 3.6 million. Um

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what is the availability of funds to use? Is there any availability to use some some of those funds maybe not all of them from reserves to meet the healthcare adjustment instead of raising the tax levy? That's something I, as I

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said, I'm just a lay person looking at this. I don't know any of that. But I know um if I had $3 million in the bank, but said I need to go on vacation and I'm going to take out another loan, it to me

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that wouldn't make sense. Um and the other thing I don't know about is about the support services, which seems to take up a large amount of the budget. Are those all things mandated by the state or are those Mount Olive internal decisions? Um, and how does that impact

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the students uh directly? The other thing I have is not really a question but more of a comment that as a parent and then even maybe more for the greater Mount Olive resident who doesn't have a student in the school district, we cannot see the condition of the

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schools that much. Even as a parent, we're very limited to u maybe the teacher conferences, the art show, ReadAcross America, and maybe if we volunteer on a special day, we can't see all the things that are needed to be done. And so, I would just like to

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encourage the district and the board to use social media as a tool for good. It it seems to me it wouldn't be that hard to film the auxiliary gym and show the condition of the floors, which I only saw when my daughter did basketball there this year. So maybe because you

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are on the board and you're in the district, you're you're seeing the needs more, but maybe just using again social media as a tool to show the residents of this town the conditions of things. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you.

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Hi, my name is Precious Phil. >> Hello. >> Hi. I have a few concerns about what was said today. So, um Oh, my address is 37 Whipper Will Road, Bud Lake. >> If you could speak up, please that would be great.

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>> Okay. Can you can you hear me a little better? >> That's better. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. >> And so the first thing is that it was said in the in the report today that the mom's

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students is going to be having the same teachers for sixth, seventh, and eighth grade. Is that accurate? Did I hear that correctly? Um, >> we we'll respond after after you get everything out. >> Okay. I don't Okay. So, if that is

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accurate, because you did that last time, too, and then it you kind of like took it a different way and you didn't really address what I said before. And so, if that is accurate that the same teachers that our children have for the sixth grade, they're going to also have for the seventh and eighth grade. That

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is a bit concerning because he has a few teachers who don't really engage the students as well as it seems as though they don't really engage the students as well as they could being more hands-on as opposed to

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too instructional. And I've done a lot of research on this in regards to why that is the wrong way to teach children and expect them to be more engaged and to do well in school.

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And I also posed these I posed these suggestions. C >> can I just ask you one real quick? I I hear what you're saying. This is more for the second open session where you have concerns about the not concerns or questions about what the ongoings of the district have overall. This is just

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about the budget presentation. >> Okay. So, you're saying the portion in regards to the sixth graders having the same teachers for seventh and eighth grade. >> That would be part of the second open session when it was just general questions about what's going on in the district. >> I missed that.

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>> No, that's it's at the very end. We do that at the last we have two normally we have two public sections. one on the action items and then one about anything else going on in the district. That would be I I believe that's what you're looking for. That's the point of the meeting you want to you want to ask those questions or make your comments then.

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>> Okay. >> But but so but I don't so but to answer you yeah to answer your question that is not what's happening. So students that have teachers in the sixth grade are not going to have them in the seventh grade. >> Oh okay. >> So I I don't know if that that settles your that helped you.

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>> That does. >> Okay. Okay, >> I can speak to it after the close out. But the answer quick answer to your question, that's not what the intention of the comment. I'll explain >> once we close out, we'll have Dr. Ben explain a little more detail for you. >> Okay, that does because

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>> this is a valid point for sure. >> Yes. Okay. So, it saved his teachers for other meetings. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Thank you. Tim Capone, Highfield Road, Flanders. So, just want to clarify a couple of

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things. So, you're saying we're getting for extraordinary aid about a million dollars that is not in the budget, which means you have a surplus coming into the district of a million dollars that you have not allocated. Let's be clear on that. Okay. And the other thing is is

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that when you were talking about this, you were saying it used to be 90% and it keeps dropping. But what was it before it was 90%. >> 90%. >> Before it was 90%, it was like 55%, 60%. So you're leaving out the part where you

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it was increased before it's dropping. And I think as Martin made the point, okay, you spend every dollar you bring in as opposed to being, I think the word was, let's see, reasonable and conservative

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as possible. The last time we were here talking about budgets and the year before and the year before is the fact that you guys come in, you spend on personnel, which is a recurring cost, you increase the number of people we're employing, and you increase the benefits every single year. So when you got $7

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million, you spent it. When you got $5 million, you spent it. When you had a $13 million surplus, you still raised taxes and spent it. Okay, so we might have different definitions as far as reasonable and

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conservative because you said you can't escape the fixed costs of personnel and benefits. Absolutely, that's true. When you're continuously increasing it. Okay. And what are we increasing it on? How many people in this district are non- studentent contact staff? How many do

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you have in the district that are non- studentent contact staff? How many administrators do you have? When we're looking at the number of people and let's just use something, let's give a a real example, curriculum and instruction, which is our

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superintendent's expertise, right? You then have an assistant superintendent. You have how many district administrators? You have educational leaders within the building. You have supervisors, all of these people that are interpreting the state curriculum which exists. We're not creating

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curriculum from the state, right? There is a state curriculum. There are also 630 districts throughout the state that you can beg, borrow, and steal from instead of recreating the wheel. But how much do we actually spend to recreate the wheel here?

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Now, that goes to my next point, which is within your curriculum instruction budget, how many dollars are being spent on personnel, how much of that budget isn't actually buying things for instruction and curriculum and instruction, but is actually paying

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for people. So, we're looking at another 6 and a half% increase. Okay? And we're being told this is reasonable. According to your slide, we have 400 students more than Randolph, but our budget is $26 million more. Have any of

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the board members looked at to why that is? How they can spend $26 million less than what it is that we spend? Maybe they've got somebody doing their budget, okay, that's a little bit more savvy financially. Maybe their board members are asking better questions or asking

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questions at all. If you were building a needs-based budget, this wouldn't be a problem year in year out. But you don't. You roll all the costs. You increase the amounts for costs and benefits. You add to it, and then you just send the bill to the

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taxpayers. So, I I know you're not going to answer my questions, but I really think that as board members, you should know, okay, what are we spending our money on? Why do we have so many administrators to interpret curriculum that's given to you

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from the state, okay, to recreate that? and how much of our budget is going towards that which creates these reoccurring costs that create creates these additional benefits, okay, that we then have to pay for. >> Thank you. Seeing none, closing public comment. Um,

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so we'll go through and start with Mr. Wells Muller. Um, Um to answer one of your questions, Dr. B, jump in here in time if I if I missed something here. Um if if the state were to continue cut us, yes, those are things we have to look at. Like Ming said, they're already

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looking to plan for the budget for next year. You're budgeting a year and a half in advance, right? Obviously, um you know, the states the state and they're going to do what they want to do like they always have, right? And so we never know. So we we do budget conservatively. This, believe it or not, we do budget conservatively. Um and so but you're

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right the the next thing that gets cut if we get a state aid I remember what was it when former governor Chris Christie came in and slashed all state aid you know every other district lpped off but mount a because we had planned so much with Dr. Reynolds and we are planning two three years out. That's how

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budget should be. We should be planning budgets out. We're not just planning for this budget. We're talking about in the in the finance um and operations uh committee what the budget looks like as we're developing this year. What's the start look in the framework of that what's going to look like next year and the year after that. So to answer that question, you're right. If something like drastically like that would have to

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happen, we most likely would have to cut the only thing we can't cut staff and program. That's where the bulk of the money is in our district. We have very little discretionary spending. Um so that answers that. Um capital Um I think uh capital revenue. What was

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that question? Joel's mother said something about capital >> reserves. >> There there was a question about with the new staff, how much is that costing for salaries and benefits? >> Right. >> So the estimate for the staff is about $400,000.

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We're um we're anticipating significant breakage with retirements coming in. So I I think that may go a little bit lower. And regarding the benefit cost, it's hard to pin down depending upon what um their family, married, whatever.

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But I would anticipate that could be about another 100,000 on top of that annually. >> Correct me if I'm wrong, Michelle. We have to budget as if everyone's going to take family benefits. We have to budget that because everyone in the district could take that, but they're entitled. >> Correct. Correct. Um

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the other gentleman um cost per student amount that is I finally found that page thanks to Miss uh Fero. We are at I just lost >> what page was it? Thank you.

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>> Page six we are at Oh, right there. I'm sorry. 25 almost 254 and everyone else is at 23 22 23 22. Can we can we talk about that? I think Mount Olive even when I've been on the board for a long time has always um had some of the highest uh historically cost

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per student. I think that goes to what what what attributes to cost per student. >> Mount Olive provides um a lot of programs and services to our students between um co-curricular um athletics,

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um, drama, the arts, um, our our advanced placement students. I mean, you you see the when we award them every year, the students just thrive. >> The board also chips in to have those AP students take some of the more tests, right? The student pays for the first one or we pay for the first one.

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>> We pay for the first one and they pay for the rest and the students, some of them take five and six exams, but the board of education supports um, quite a nice program for their students and they and they success. But but to everything

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that's being said, yes, this could really come to a crashing halt because um we can't really best practice would be to budget two and three years out. We can't because we don't know what state aid is going to be. We don't know. We

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could say we want to increase this program and and bring this into the district, but if we don't get the funding for it, we have it with um could I answer another question that was asked? So there was the question about

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extraordinary aid. So we we plan on a million dollars to balance our budget. We spend over $4 million on that cost center. That's what we submit in applications. Um when the program first came out, I said they the state funded

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90% of these applications and it has dwindled over the years. So, we're not sitting on an extra million dollars. We rely on that million dollars to help balance the budget. >> Thank you. Um, and then the process made

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available. The public's not going to see this before the board does. That's why we have the preliminary budget hearing. Uh, we had that last month to kind of go over preliminary like an outline and submit that to the county and then it's up to the administration to um, put this together for the board. So, once we once we get the presentation, it'll be loaded

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up onto our website. Um just just for clarity, once the county approves our budget, it is it is advertised on our website, the userfriendly budget. >> Um that was uh advertised on April 22nd. Normally um it was in the paper. Um but

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the advertised budget if you go to our website under legal notices um the the advertised budget is there in print form and then subsequently um tomorrow we'll be posting what's called the userfriendly budget which will be um

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much easier for you to read than the advertised budget. The userfriendly budget goes into the detail that we've um expounded. I don't know why I'm pointing to the agenda. um expounded upon in the um in the presentation.

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>> Of course, once you when you look at that, if you have any questions, you can always reach out to me. My contact information is on uh the agenda, the slide, >> but the first presentation of it was March 23rd. >> Yes. >> Yes. >> Public presentation was March 23rd.

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>> Dr. J, I know I knew um Mrs. K, she had some questions. >> Yeah. Yeah. I'm going to get to I'm trying to Yeah, I'm trying to go in order for everybody. That's why I was going to the next um healthcare availability for reserves from capital by law, you can't you can't do that, Miss K. And I know as as a lay person, you can't take that money and you can't

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use that money for personnel or benefits, stuff like that. So that that that's when I first got on the board all those years ago, I was like right away I was like that was like, hey, let's just move that money over and you learn real quick that there's there's legal things we can and can't do on that. Um, >> what Yeah. Yeah. We can ask that

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question afterwards. We didn't want me over the again. We're not I don't want to have to go back and forth here. Um um support services. Would you like to talk about that? Miss K had a question about she didn't understand what support services were for our district. >> What that includes? >> So support services, these are all

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services that our students provided. Guidance, child study team, the library, um occupational services, speech services. these are mandated services that we need to provide for the student. >> Um that is a great idea, Miss Kay, about

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um you know leveraging our social media to get out there. What uh a little bit what we're doing is with those uh long range facility meetings is having people come in to see our facilities and the and they're in but I do agree with you try to to also get out there on social media. That's a great thing. So something maybe we can talk about the summer

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>> and just expand upon we do have our long range planning committee that we start at the onset of the of school year. We started meetings in December in which we have toured each of the different buildings in which um the principles gave an in-depth overview and gave a tour of each of the buildings. We wanted to make sure to your point we had

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families and residents available to come in and see firsthand and certainly I do um welcome the sentiment about you know putting things on social media and certainly we've been working on is trying to before and after pictures to see how things were before and the work that's being done and certainly we do um

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I thank you for that suggestion >> yes and well long range planning committ is made up of people in town. I just want to make sure that's clear. That's not a board committee. That is made up of taxpayers, people in town. >> Um and last by Mr. Capone. Um

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you we all have different what we think is reasonable and conservative. There's there's nine board members up here on this board, right? Um and although we're not always agree, we don't always agree and that's for sure we don't. But um you know, we work with the administration to provide what's best for our students and everyone's going to have a different opinion on what they feel is conservative and what they feel is

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reasonable. Um, there's no right or wrong answer for that. I agree with you. It's it's it's it's it's very ambiguous. It's very large large going back and forth and the long meetings we we tend to have at the facilities meeting. Um, they're the ones who who worked the whole year to put

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this budget together. But, um, curricular instruction answer his question. Um, how much are we paying for for the is that do we have a breakdown for just CNI like from the the assistant soup and all the supervisors? I know years ago when our budgets were being voted down um the board at the time just

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to give you some background for everyone here um refused as we were being votes you know the budgets being voted down the council was cutting 500 600 one year $2 million from our budget we refused to lay off staff um and cut programming so we started looking at things um like

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teachers I met so immediately we got rid of an assistant superintendent we got rid of all of our department chair people at the time uh what we found out moving forward you know now especially with COVID and and and and nothing's been an excuse for CO a long way out, but we needed to have some scaffolding

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and support. We do um I think Dr. Banjo, what the district our size, what we have, we haven't had that in a long, long time. I think it's something this board recognizes we need. Um there's a lot of moving parts in our district. If our district was 2,000 students less, I agree. We wouldn't have as many administrators here. I I agree. Um

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unfortunately, we're the third largest in the county. Right, wrong, or indifferent. Um and I think we do a pretty good job. Um I will tell you, Dr. Banana is not uh agree with her, don't agree with her, that's fine. Um she does not uh

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put personnel in the budget or want to hire personnel lightly. Um it it is arduous and sometimes I myself had bang my head into the wall saying this is what we need. Trust me, this is what and so it takes time for for her to get there with her research and she wants to get information. So, um I don't think

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anyone on this board or or the administration does anything um fly by the seat of their pants. I I think there's a lot of research and a lot of effort done. But, um do we have that question right now? Can we get back to Mr. Capone what that number would be? >> Um curriculum is budgeted with our

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instruction budget which is about $31 million. So, for curriculum, I can get back to you what the specific is. >> Email Mr. Pone that answer. That'd be great. Yeah, and just in CNT. >> Um, and that's all I got. And please, you got everyone, you know, if you have

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other questions when I open it up to uh action items, um, you'll be able to ask other questions as well. And I just want to let the crowd here know and people at home, none of us are sitting up here, you know, this doesn't sit well with a lot of us,

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right? I I we get that we're we're we're homeowners. We pay our property taxes. Some, you know, more less than others, more than others. I I get that. None of us are sitting here ringing our hands, twisting our our our villainous mustaches, giggling that we're raising taxes. No one does that, right? It's

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it's the system we have to work with. Now, you may not agree with the decisions. You may not agree with this budget presentation. You may not agree where we're putting the money. But that's what you elect us to do. You elect us to spend spend night after night after night, months after months after month putting hours in there going

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through these financials, going through these committee meetings for two, three hours a month. And it may not seem a lot and that's what we got elected to do. That's what we signed up for, right? Um but it is a lot. We're just not flying by the seat of our pants. And unfortunately in our state until they come up with a better way to fund

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education, right? This is what we have to do. The state wants the bases of the towns they deem to be wealthy towns. They want those bases taxed right, wrong or indifferent. Um that's what a lot of it fault with us too. It's also at fault an idea I had.

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Um I'm going to start reaching out to a lot of the school districts, the board presidents and superintendents and the surrounding districts that are affected by the Highlands Act. Um because there is more political power the more people we have um going and and talking to our elected officials down at the state. I know Senator Buco had put something in

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to try to alleviate or or help districts that are that are caught in the Highlands Act. Um because that's not fair and equitable either. If you're not allowed to build, then you can't spread out your your taxes through base and and and your enrollment goes down and then you're you're you're punished with declining enrollment. Um, so none of us

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I agree it's it's it's it's it's the most archaic way to fund education, right? And I said this before, you know, my parents in the 70s when the casinos were coming in, I lived in South Jersey, that was supposed to take all the problems away from property taxes. That didn't happen. The parkway, the turnpike, everything that this state generates revenue in does not go to the

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purpose of what it was meant to do, and that's lower our property tax. The only time our property taxes were lowered by the state was when they had an agreement with NJA that they stopped contributing to the pension and they started borrowing out of it. That's the only time. Think about that. That's that was in Governor Christy Todd's

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administration. That's when that that's when that happened. So, you know, it's not the state doesn't have a revenue problem that generates billions of dollars. They just have to somehow get it right. And I think it depends on all of us to to go down there and say this is what we need done. I think that's

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starting to happen because I think Mr. Well, well Muller is correct. You're seeing Jefferson, you're seeing West Milford, they have to close schools enrollment going down because they can't build. Um they have to look at, you know, doing other things. You know, one year Mount Olive, our budget went down and we cut courtesy busing and that was

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a big to-do, but that's what we did because we were not going to lay off teachers anymore and we let the public know. So those are decisions that yes, we may have to do that down the road. We may have to say we're only busing the kids that we have to bust in by law. That might be something as opposed to laying off teachers and no one's going to be happy with that because we don't

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have the best roads and sidewalks in our town, right? We I would argue we bus 95% of our students unless you live in a neighborhood like Clover Hill has sidewalks and sidewalks go to the school. So, you know you know it there's there's never a good answer, right? Someone is going to get hurt. It it pits

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people who have students in the school who want good things and good opportunities for the students against people who don't. It's it's not it's the whole system is rigged up against itself and and unfortunately this is what we have to do and and so we didn't you're you know if we didn't put that that

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health insurance uh increase in or that that that that cost increment we could do who knows we looking to cut a lot of things not be able to may have the things we have for our students and we may have to do that down the road. You're right if the state doesn't fix this funding formula because you can't keep doing this. We can't keep doing

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this. So um it's on everyone's mind. It's not easy. people. I know I don't sleep well with it. Um I know every board member here doesn't sleep well with it. So, but again, it's the system we have to work with, right? If we could change the system, I'd be more if you said Anthony Jano, you could change the system, I change it, I'd change it right

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now. I think the state should have to put in, you know, the the 75% of the tax and the town raises the other 25. That would all lower our property taxes, right? That would be great. The state's not going to do that unless we force them to do that. So, you know, so hopefully at some

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point, you know, the state wakes up and does that. So, so that's why I think, you know, education should be funded, right? It should be reverse, right? State funds the majority of it and then we we levy the rest of what we want. Um, but until

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the state changes, um, that's that's what we're stuck with. So, thank you for all your questions and listening to that presentation. Um, >> Mr. President, Mr. President, >> oh, I'm sorry. Hi. >> Can I make a qu a comment? >> Yes ma'am. >> Okay. Um is regarding the pupil cost and

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for the people that are at home it is important for example we have the manoli panor we have a difference of 457 students. However the big components to be to serve to those students is a student needs. Not all those 457

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student has the same needs or are regular and that could be a huge difference in the pupil cost all those services. In addition in addition to that the other component is the programs that are offered in Manolive. We have a

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lot of programs for all kinds of interests that the our students could have and for example we partner with Roxbury because we have the ROC here. So we have program that other school district they don't have and we offer

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here for our kids and our kids could enjoy those opportunities like the air the airflight academy um and the uh NJ boys state and the NJ girl state because we have personnel which is the next

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component the personnel that is well trained and that could offer the best education to our students. Another components are the facilities because in order for us to serve those 457 students, we need facilities and

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facilities where their learning is inviting to learning and to exchange their learning experience with their teachers and have enough equipment on those uh classrooms to teach those uh those students. So it's not only a

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simple number of 457 is what that entire entails and I just mentioned four components but in addition of that there is more but for me I the most important are don't so we cannot see simple

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numbers uh not in students and not in budget uh because those student that are going through our school system we have to make sure and as a board member We are very responsible to making sure and making asking question to ensure that

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those kids when they graduated that we're prepared for life and for whatever future they decide to go. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> All right. Move on to a personnel committee report. Personnel committee

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met tonight at 5:45. It was Mr. Moore, Dr. Bania, uh Miss Aquino, Mr. Petri, myself. Um, does anyone have any questions? A lot of it is going to be discussed in close session uh of what we discussed in personnel. Um, does anyone have any questions on the action items?

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All the action items were were were approved uh voted out of committee for the full board's consideration unanimously. Anyone? All right. Um, anyone have subcommittee or teacher parent association reports?

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Miss Faggera and then Mr. Petri. >> Mr. Petri, you can go first. I need to pull up my notes. >> All right. So, Mom's was supposed to be this week, but it was cancelled. Uh, but they did send out a note of it's being teacher appreciation week. The PTO is collecting gift cards and theme baskets to be raffled off during teacher

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appreciation week. If you're able to donate, please sign up. And then, eighth grade parents, celebrate your student with a lawn sign and t-shirt. Sale ends April 26th. Oops, we missed that. Um, that's all they sent. >> Thank you, sir. Any questions or comments from the board? Miss Vagger.

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>> Okay. On behalf of the FPTA, I'd like to share some news for them. Uh, teacher appreciation week is being celebrated May 4th through May 8th. They are still accepting monetary donations as well as breakfast juices, etc. for their breakfast on Monday. There are still

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looking for volunteers as well. Their spring buy 1 get one book fair is scheduled for May 11th through the 15th. They're also looking for volunteers for this. and there's a sign up DJ uh sign up genius on class dojo. They're planning a mental health walk-athon at

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Mountain View on May 27th. Um the students are looking forward to this annual event. They have a family fun day scheduled for May 30th. This is a free event. It is on a Saturday. Um however, without volunteers, this event cannot happen. They specifically need adults to supervise the inflatables as well as the

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dunk tank. And there is also a signup genius that has been posted for this as well. questions or comments for the board. >> Thank you, Mr. Fa. Um, Sansore uh school home uh Sansore home school partnership meeting was April. Um, I was not able to

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attend, so Miss Curry sent me notes. I do apologize. Um, old business, the boys dance had 76 tickets sold. Girls dance had 150 tickets sold. Uh, new business, fifth grade committee update, uh, 71 direct asks purchased. They raised uh,

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$3,700. Um $60 in donations. Uh the dance is May 9th. T-shirts and moving up day shared decorations. Uh bus driver appreciation day is April 28th. It's being planned there. Um plant sales May 5th through the 8th. Teacher miniig grants there's 15 or sorry 16 requests.

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They need to fill multiple positions on their board. Uh they discussed the end of year party and staff appreciation is May 18th through the 22nd. Uh Miss Curry spoke about trips. What a huge success was. I know we had several board members attend that. Um and the testing dates

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for NJSLA is May 6th through uh well science is May 6th and 7th. Uh and then um 13th, 12th and 11th of May for the different grades. Field days are the May 19th and then May 28th and then

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art show May 20th. Any questions or comments? There's so much more. I just kind of raised the raised the uh top there. All right. And I don't think we need a board president report because I already went through that. Okay. Public comments on action items. And there's a new little

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verbiage I'm going to say in here. Um thought it was a little bit easier to read off of this than just me saying. It's it's basically what I've been saying. We just add a little bit more to it. Uh the board of education welcomes and encourages input from the public. Being mindful of privacy rights regarding students and board employees. And to avoid any potential liability on

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the part of the speaker, the board discourages references to specific individuals. While directing your comments or questions to the board president, please understand the public comment portions of the meeting are not structured as questions and answer sessions, but are rather offered as opportunities

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for you to share your thoughts with the board. The board president may need to refer an issue to the superintendent if the particular issue has not been handled through the appropriate chain of command with the school district. However, responses may be provided at the end of the session. There are times when comments and questions will require additional fact gathering before response is provided. right now come to

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stand up in front of the mic ask any question on any action item from 6.1 all the way to >> 10.1 >> 10.1 Thank you Mr. Martin Wells Muller 25 Buck Lake couldn't see him. Board docs was down.

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So I'm pretty sure I'm probably the only one that reads them besides the staff but all day I couldn't read it. It was very disheartening. But I do have one question and I don't know if it would be addressed in the bills or not. With the latest lawsuit that hit the district, are you guys putting away special funds

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to cover the legal cost for that or is that just going right to the insurance company? And is Board docs going to get fixed? That's it. Thank you. question. >> This is just for the agenda right now. The ne the next open the after the board

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votes on the agenda on the action items, I will open back up to public comment. Ma'am, that that will be when you can come back up to finish what you're saying. >> Closing the public comment on action items. >> Dr. Gerardano, can I actually go back to the last public comment? I would be remiss to not because I did not

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completely answer Miss Peele's >> Oh, yes. Yes. I'm sorry. Yes, absolutely. Clarification as far as the team model is concerned every grade is divided into different sections, different teams and in within that team those students share the same core teachers. Those core teachers do not follow the children. It's just that for

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that particular year on average about 80 90 kids have the same social studies English science social studies teach teacher. However, when they move up to the next grade they have a different team with different teachers. I hope that answered your question. Thank you, Dr. Banger. I forgot about

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that, too. I apologize. Um, all right. So, we have a consent uh consent agenda approval. Mr. Quino, >> do we want to answer these questions? >> Oh, I'm sorry, Mr. WSM. I apologize. I got thrown off there. Um, uh, uh, the lawsuit has already been forwarded to

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our insurance carrier. Um, >> and Bordox, >> Bordox >> and Bordox. Hopefully, yeah, hopefully they'll be us. >> It's a nationwide outage at this point, so it's not only us. We're just very fortunate that we do have hard copies of everything on the back end. I wouldn't be surprised if that's not the case in other districts. So certainly it's we're

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waited with baited breath. >> Thank you Dr. B. So that answers that. Now Mr. Aquino consent agenda motion. >> Sure. >> Upon the recommendation of the superintendent, I'd like to move action items

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6.1 through 10.2. two >> second questions or comments from the board. >> Seeing none, roll call. Miss Shony, >> Mrs. Aquino, >> yes. >> Miss Brett, >> yes.

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>> Mrs. Fitzgerald, >> yes. >> Mrs. Melendez, >> abstaining 8.1. Anything any action related to Angela or Angie Sanchez? and yes to everything else. >> Mrs. O'Neal

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>> abain from 7.14 and anything that has to do with Christian Humphrey and yes to everything else. >> Mr. Orizillo, >> yes, >> Mr. Mrs. Faggera. >> Yes, >> Dr. Jardano.

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>> I have to stay on anything have to do with uh subs or sub pay rate and yes to everything else. >> Excuse me. Uh, also anything pertaining to the township. >> Mr. Petri, I'm sorry. I should have called you second. I apologize.

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>> I'm easily like Sunday morning. >> All right. Now, we're going to we're opening it back up. Just I hate paper agendas. Again, public comment. The board of education welcomes and encourages input from the public being mindful of the privacy rights regarding students and

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board members or board of not board members and board employees and to avoid any potential liability on the part of the speaker. The board discourages references to specific indiv to specific individuals while directing your comments or questions to the board president. Please understand that public comment portions of the meeting are not structured as question and answer

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sessions but rather offered as opportunities for you to share your thoughts with the board. The board president may need to refer an issue to the superintendent if the particular issue has not been handled through the appropriate chain of command with the school district. However, responses may may be provided at the end of the session. There are times when comments

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and questions will require additional fact gathering before a response is provided. You can open on any public comment of anything going on in the district. Welcome back. >> Thank you. Precious Hill 37, Whipperwill

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Road, Butt Lake, New Jersey. So, Is that a word that I can say or should I be spelling it? >> Well, you have a freedom to say whatever you'd like. I mean, some people may find that offensive.

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That's exactly what the people who did the investigations when my child was called the word three times. That's the stance that they were taking. That it's just name calling. And if people deny that they

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said it even though other people heard them say it, then the hips are just brushed under the rug. And so the first time when my child was called the

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word um this school year it was brushed under the rug. The child pushed my child first and when my child responded back and then a h investigation was taken was opened up.

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The people who did the investigation, they did very, very good with making sure that this child seemed very innocent, didn't seem aggressive. During the HIV report investigation, they didn't mention the fact that the

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child was throwing his I'm sorry, threw his um laptop so hard on the table that it jumped. It made me jump when I was watching the video. Didn't mention that. Um,

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the child called my son a ba And it was it was just it was just heartbreaking that I thought that this place this district was no place for hate when in actuality

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there's no place for it's no place for hate. But then there's like an asterisk next to that phrase, right? It's just a a catchphrase that sounds cool or it sounds cute. And so that's why the sign

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is outside of this door in the atrium that says that no place for hate because in actuality it's okay to hate because it's free speech. And maybe some people may find it offensive, but

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you can call people anytime that you want. And if you say, "I don't remember saying that." Or if some students say, "I did hear that child call this other child the n-word." Or and then other students say, "Oh, I

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didn't hear." Then the child who said it, he gets away with it. And the second time that it happened, um, a month later from that first incident, again, the the people who were

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investigating it, they made sure that the other child seemed very innocent and like they even Oh goodness. They even ask questions like did that child did my child use the

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word too? Does is he does he use that type of language? And our family, we don't use that type of language in any type of derivation. And it's just interesting how the people who were doing those investigations,

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they tried to turn the people the person who was the target or the victim per se into the person who was the aggressor or the person who was who was um

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who was the bad person in that in that instance asking those type of questions. And for the second instance as well, no, sorry, for the first instance, the investigation didn't happen until almost a month later. And then for the second

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instance, it didn't happen until about three weeks later. And my point of even mentioning these is that grown people, let alone children, their memories start to fade little by little.

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And it's very heartbreaking that even when students said that they heard studentu that student say it, they still didn't get in trouble for it because of Well, I'll say why after in a second. So

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the third time that it happened. >> Can I go quick though? Were these all Were these all opened up HIV investigations? >> Yeah. >> Okay. So you do know if >> But it was for play though, right? But you do know >> like the hibs were for play, >> right? But you do know you have the right to appeal an HIB to the full board. So then we get all that

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information in a private session, a close session, you could come to the board and we'd have all the information in front of us and the board then could say if the board felt that it was not founded the correct way, the board then can hear your concern and overturn

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what the administration and what the superintendent recommended. >> Just so you are you aware of that? So, sort of because last school year um or was it fourth grade? >> I'll just be honest with you. >> I tried to do that invested that um

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thing that you said the appeal last time when I tried to appeal it when my son was targeted by a few teachers here in the board in the district. And um it was so funny because they said that there was no issues, you know, it was just

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handled like >> But did you But did you file a formal HIV against teachers? >> I did. >> Did you put that formal? That's all. So So the we're this is just new information to us. I'd have to rever refer this back to Dr. Bania and I will ask her to look into this and see what happened and what the outcomes of those

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were. >> I mean um Anthony, that's like old news. Okay. I don't even want to focus on that. I want to focus on the word right now. So, let's not focus on that right now. I want to focus on hate right now. Not on

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that. I don't want the attention that I I would love nothing more than to to hear what you have to say on hate because I agree. I I I don't like hate. Um but I do have to keep the meeting moving. So, I I need you to wrap this up at some point. >> I'll try my best. >> Okay. And so the third time when my

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child was called a that child was he was an honest child. He did admit that he did say it and he got a 15minute um talk to or

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detention or something like that as punishment. And not only did he call my son a he also called him a big black monkey, too. And um not that it matters the the big black monkey part.

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Not I'm not trying to excuse that. I'm just saying that my child is so skinny and t you know why why where did he learn that type of language from? That's the point. Where did all these children learn that type of language from? Are

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their families using that type of language behind closed doors and then empowering their children to come to our schools and use that type of language toward other students? Why is it that this is a place for hate

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because people have the right for free speech? Why is it that HI investigations don't really do anything? even if it's proved, there's still some type of workarounds where it doesn't even come to fruition,

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where it's unfounded consistently unless the child admits to it. It's just it's heartbreaking. And I think that possibly the first two hibs were definitely unfounded.

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I'm just assuming this because the first two children were Caucasian. The third child Oh, you didn't like that. >> No, it's not. I like it. I like it. Third challenge at some point. He was brown. >> What? What would you like us to do? >> I would like for HIV investigations to

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really be real investigations, not where they're trying to turn the people who are opening. So my advice, not where they're trying to turn the people who opened the advice to you. My advice to you is >> how do you ask me a question? >> There's an HIV if there's an HIV investigation, you need to appeal to us.

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You're saying stuff to us. I I assume because we put a lot of money and training into our staff to train them on HIVs that they're doing an HIV investigation. It's not until a parent appeals a decision to the full board that we get all that paperwork in front of us to review it, to look at it. Right. That's how So you're saying

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things to me. I hear what you're saying and I'm being mindful of it, but but I don't have any of that information of what you're saying that you felt the hip investigation. >> You never you never heard of any of these incidents. So we get them on the agenda like we do it with no students names >> and numbers.

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>> They're numbers. So if you want us to hear an appeal at HIV, go through it here and come to us and and and produce more evidence and let us really look at then we have Dr. Bania come in with HIV coordinator and the building admin to really go through all that all those materials. That's when the board gets

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involved, >> right? And investigations by law have to be within a certain amount of time. >> So if you're telling me and and I know Dr. Banana has worked. I I've been on top of her about that because three years ago, our our our HIV report card, particularly at the middle school, was was god awful. And so, I know she has

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put a lot of time and effort into fixing those processes and procedures and training for our staff. So, we need and I appreciate you coming here to tell us these things, but until you appeal at HIV that we can see the paperwork, we don't get to see all that internal paperwork. We don't get to see more.

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>> I have to present more evidence. >> No, what what will happen is if you appeal an HIV Dr. Banjo will be required to and through the HIV coordinator and the specialists will come to a close session. You'll be able to appeal it and then all the information their notes

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they took things that they have are going to talk to you. They're going to we're going to ask them a bazillion questions you're going to be right there. >> And what is the time frame for that? >> She has to do with >> Yeah. within 60 days after you get notice of the of of the of the outcome of the HIV.

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>> Okay. So, we have surpassed that. We have surpassed it. So I'm saying to you moving forward if you if another HIV is is filed you know that you filed one or your son files one against another student and it doesn't get you think it was done improperly or didn't the conclusion wasn't to your satisfaction

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you can appeal that within 60 days to the board. >> Well we talk about these things from time to time and we're hoping that it doesn't happen again. >> Right. I agree with you. So my son said that since then, since that third instance, he hasn't been called a since. He hasn't been called a monkey

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since or things like that. That's really really good. And so we're just hoping to get through this school year and for it not to happen. >> I hope so. It does too. But again, I I if that does happen, um you know, let the building administration know and and file those HIVs and we'll we the district will investigate by law. We

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have to. Another concern is why do we still celebrate Christopher Columbus Day in this district? We celebrate Christopher Columbus Day. We celebrate St. Patrick's Day. We

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celebrate Memorial Day, which makes sense to me. we celebrate 911, which by the way, in regards to 911, when my children first learned about that, they both said that they were afraid. >> I have to tell you, you have like one

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minute left. >> They both said that they were very afraid bec I'm thinking they were afraid because it wasn't taught in a way that was very child-friendly. And so if our children are mature enough from grades K

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up through high school, if they're mature enough to learn about that, why don't we also observe Junth? And that's those are all my concerns. Tim Capone, Highfield Field Road. So,

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listening to those comments just kind of reiterated, you know, that uh I feel like I've heard and made similar comments that you just heard. Not completing HIPS on time, not thoroughly

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investigating HIPS. And so again, that means that I don't have an email from one of your administrators telling me that you would not investigate a HIPP, right? I don't have that because that's not something you would do, is it?

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Okay. And as far as public comment, okay, I don't see any notice here that says you limit time. Okay. Cutting people off because you don't want to hear what they have to say is not representative of what the community and public comment is. Okay? You're supposed

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to be listening to what it is that they're saying. Okay? Taking that back and maybe doing something with it instead of the same comments coming up time and again falling on deaf ears, seeing nothing change. And I'm going to

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go back to the the comments that I made about the budget. It's the same thing year in and year out. You spend every dollar. You don't plan for the future. You don't look to see, okay, what's coming down the pike. You spend every penny. You hire things that are going to

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be recurring costs. And you pass it on to the taxpayers. And then you come back and make comments about how, oh, we're going to have to cut teachers. You don't have to cut teachers. Cut the bureaucrats. Cut the extra administrators that you don't need. Okay? cut those people instead of

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threatening to cut teachers and programs for kids. Okay, very very cute at the beginning. What What does the top say? Children are our first priority. Okay, I I'm going to save that for another

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board meeting. Okay, with some very specific details. Thank you. I can't top that. But uh Martin Wells, 25 Woodrest Avenue in Lake, New Jersey. Um my question before was how many new employees were hiring, not just the

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dollar amount. Um if you know the actual headcount, that's what I was looking for and then I can back into some of the other data. Um and just let you know after last week's last board of ed meeting, I had a lovely conversation with her about some of the stuff that's happened to her son and it broke my

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heart. Okay. Uh, and I know how the HIP process works for the state of New Jersey. It's flawed. It it's it's horrible. I don't think it works. And you I know you guys are landlocked to follow those laws. I think that, you know, we we can do better, but we have

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to fix Trenton and what they did down there because they don't give any teeth to HIPS. And it's not fair to the parents. It's not fair to the students. And I I think that's what's not everyone knows that. All right. And

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the and the problem is the definition when you go by the definition of certain things. If something misses it by a millimeter, it doesn't count. And I wish sometimes personal judgment can come into to play based on good moral

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character and you guys disseminate with that as well. I think that would change a lot. That's it. >> Thank you. Hi, Trista K28 Justinda Road, Flanders. Uh, just listening to some of this. I just have a question now. As a parent,

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um, when a HIB is closed and the judgment is made, is there included in the email a notice to the parents that if they want to appeal it, are there the next steps? Is that included? >> Yes. >> Oh, okay. So, so people should be aware

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through the Okay. Um, that's it. Thank you. >> Thank you. Closing of public comment. All business from the board. New business. >> All right. Board comments. Mr. Petri. Uh, good luck to all of the kids taking

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the AP exams. Um, good luck to Mort at the World Championships. And I happened to see the first softball game of my life. It was the Mars County Championship. So when I got there, it was the second inning and it was already 11 to1. Um, I think they won 25 to1. I

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think we might be able to do a better job letting the town know how well we do because I find it difficult to see how all of the sports are doing. You should really have like a sticker tape on the on the website of sports scores for our teams to let everyone know how awesome

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we're doing. That's about it. >> Miss Brett, >> nothing for me. >> Miss Melendez. >> Yeah, I just want to uh congratulate uh to the Manolife High School win ensemble honors. uh they were um yesterday

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performing at William Paris University at the New Jersey State Band Gala. Uh 2026 for 10 years in a row there has been selected and it's a very reduced uh number of bands. They only selected 12 bands in the entire state of New Jersey.

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So we are very honored to have them and congratulate uh Mr. Darl Hendris and also uh a new uh a very young conductor Anthony Lucariello and he did fantastic also. So congratulations to the high

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school winning ensemble >> Miss O'Neal. Congratulations to all the ROC students and to the music students that when the NS and >> happy spring

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>> Mrs. Sher >> no comment >> Mr. Rosilla no comment >> nothing >> Miss Fgera >> very quickly I just wanted to congratulate and thank Mrs. Routan for her 23 years of service. Um, and I wish

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her all the best in the next chapter of her life in retirement. >> Super. You took the words out of my mouth, Mr. Be. Miss Mr. Routan is phenomenal what she does and will continue to be phenomenal what she does. Um, motion to recess in confidential session. Resolve that the board be in confidential session for the purpose of

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discussing negotiations, personnel, matters attorney client privilege, pending or anticipated litigation. Be it further resolved that matters discussed in confidential session be disclosed to the public when the reason for confidentiality no longer exists. Action may be taken. Can I have a motion? >> So moved.

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>> Second. >> All those in favor? >> I. >> We're in close session. Thanks for everyone coming out. Thank you guys. We're back from close session. Um >> put a motion that is 10.2. >> You want a roll call before? >> Oh yeah. I'm sorry. Thank you. M roll

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call. Money. >> Mrs. Aquino here. Miss Brett here. >> Mrs. Fitzgerald here. Mrs. Melendez here. >> Mrs. O'Neal >> here, >> Mr. Orzillo >> here, >> Mr. Petri >> here, >> Mrs. Faggera >> here, >> Dr. Gordano

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>> here. Um, action item 10.2 resolve that the board of education upon the recommendation of the superintendent approves the appointment of Christina Stefaner to conduct an independent investigation pursuant to the terms of Miss Stephaner's proposal in the amount not to exceed $6,100. Do I have a motion? >> So moved.

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>> Second. >> Second. >> Roll call. Michony. >> Mrs. Aquino. >> Yes. >> Mr. Mr. Petri, >> yes. >> Miss Brett, >> yes. >> Mrs. Fitzgerald, >> yes. >> Mrs. Melendez, >> yes. >> Mrs. O'Neal, >> yes. >> Mr. Orizillo, >> yes. >> Mrs. Faggera, >> yes.

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>> Dr. Gordano, >> yes. Motion to adjurnn. >> So moved. >> All in favor? Hi.