that's it good evening welcome to the meeting of the Mountainside Board of Education in accordance with the state Sunshine Law and state regulations adequate notice of this meeting was provided by mailing a notice of time date location and instructions for accessing the meeting to the Union County local source and the Westfield leader filing the same with the bur clerk posting the notice at the main access door of the Mountainside Board of Education building and on the mountain Board of Education website these meetings are reserved for board deliberation and for review of items contained within the agenda the board reserves the right to vote on action items the board welcomes a participation of interested individuals we encourage questions about specific School practices incidents and events to be brought directly to the school administration each participant is asked to permitted to begin at the meeting of the be meeting at the agenda items only each each participant is asked to give his or her name address prior to making a statement in addition time will be allotted at the end of the meeting for public comment on any item speakers shall limit their comments to three minutes roll call please Mr Bill Dylan here Mr Michael bwin here Dr Dana CPA Jo Mr Jordan Heyman here Mrs Vivian Koo here Mrs Cano here Mr Carmine ven yes here at this time I would like motion to go into executive meeting it's 6:32 so moved second second we will return in one hour all those in favor I oppose motion carries we will see you an hour good evening we are returning from our executive session it is 7:37 um can I please have everyone stand for flax [Music] I pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for it stands one nation indivisible with liy and justice for all at this time I would like a motion to approve minutes from our December 19th and our reorganization meeting of January second second questions or comments comments roll call please Mr Dylan yes Mr Goodwin yes Dr grea CPO yes Mr Heyman yes Mrs poopo yes Mrs shano yes Mr Venice yes at this time I would like to open the floor for public participation ask any questions that on agenda items that we will be voting on tonight see none I do not have a president's report and next Miss Walling okay thank you so I'd like to first begin by thanking all of you it is January is School Board member recognition month and while I appreciate every day having you as members of my board uh is the opportunity to formally recognize and appreciate all of the efforts the time the dedication and uh the responsiveness to so many emails and parents and questions and everything that goes along with your role so thank you for the time that you put into it thank you for all you do to support the students of Mountainside the education the staff um and everything that really helps our students to grow so I want to recognize that and say thank you personally um we also have a motion on there um this evening under Administration recognizing everyone additionally our district updates uh while we were here just a couple of weeks ago for our reorg meeting January has been busy uh especially in the weather world so thank you to everyone for the patience for the um Grace as we went through every single type of school day we possibly could have had last week and it still felt like one of the longest weeks ever um but we we did and the weather this week is looking so much nicer even though it's rainy it's amazing what 37 degrees feels like when you're not dealing with windchill factors um and being able to be back into it so really busy January we've come back from break our students are all in the process of dealing with mid-year benchmarks so that has begun in both Beachwood and Deerfield for linkit and for I ready so taking a look seeing where our student growth is for the middle of the year and where we then can start to really dive in and continue to build that as we continue out into the spring and towards the end of the school year um in addition we have been working very hard at cusac we have been given our visitation date of February 22nd so that is when we expect the county members to be coming to be assessing on-site pieces however actually next Monday will be one of our first visits for a building walkthrough so Mr Weinheimer who is the county ba will be meeting with uh Mr Johnson as well as Mrs Sullivan and walking through inspecting the building of Deerfield and potentially Beachwood as well so they look at everything that goes along with our safety of the building our um building review sheets and all of these different aspects so that will be happening next Monday and uh we let the rest of it all begin so had did have a question from somebody at one point as to how quickly we know the results of husack um and the reality of that is who knows last year some schools I believe Springfield didn't get theirs until the summertime uh yeah it might have been later it might have even been a little bit later so a lot of it and some of it has nothing to do with the Union County side of our um executive County Superintendent it's some has to do with the state level as they review all of the information so we gather all all the data we share what we need to with them um and then we will take care of getting the information back and Reporting it out as soon as we have that opportunity um our school sports are ongoing right now our basketball teams are in full swing our musical practices have begun so the halls and the afternoons and the evenings of Deerfield are packed we have a lot of different things happening um I do along those lines want to you know comment um as it was shared with me unfortunately we have seen some increase in um visitor and audience Behavior at some of our sports activities that are concerning so it's just kind of an informational piece for the board and a reminder for any of our public that we're here to cheer on all students it's Middle School sports we love to see them succeed the best that they can but we want to do this in a a way that is acceptable and that it follows um unfortunately we have had the need for my administrators to ask people to leave our games on more than one occasion this year wow um and I'm hopeful that that is going to be the end of it um and that we will be moving forward in a much more positive way I do thank both Mrs Posner and Mrs jenss for their support and their assistance with supervising this um and we did have conversations we are going to make sure that we have our class two officers on site for any playoff games that may be taking place over the next couple of weeks just because we know as we get to playoffs it becomes a little bit more energized um if you will and so we are going to be making sure that when we have on-site games that we are ensuring that those pieces are happening um in order to ensure safety for everybody and an enjoyable opportunity um another piece that's going along our Sports Mrs jenss and I met today with Mrs Posner and while the board approved if you recall a number of months ago we approved a volleyball Clinic which grew to over 24 girls attending regularly at before school so 7 AM wow they are coming and they are coming regularly so we are going to be recommending the install in um the beginnings of a girls volleyball team for next fall oh great that's great so we are looking to expand it we have that opportunity there are six teams in the local area that Mrs Posner was able to identify who do have middle school teams for the girls um she has already reached out to Mountainside Recreation to gauge their interest in um jointly purchasing volleyball a new volleyball system for the net system um because the rec program does use our gym for some of their open gym time um for volleyball they have um verbally said that they would be willing to donate $1,000 towards that purchase um so we are we met today to talk about what it would take um how we could look to fund it without much of too much of an impact Beyond typical stien costs um and we have some really good ideas and I'm really excited to see this as an addition and an expansion for sports opportunities for our students so that is something that we are um really excited to get off the ground and and to support for next year excuse me um the other thing on the calendar tonight is our 2425 school calendar this has been discussed at committee it has also been shared with the mea um and upon approval we would share it out with the community it does fit within excuse excuse me I apologize um it fits within all of our needs we have three snow days built in along with um all of our necessary closures EXC I have tissues if you need done you're done she's done okay ashy's coughing okay we're moving on to hold I know I know I feel terrible um we're moving on now to our business administrator report so the only report I have is the calendar which Janet has on her laptop to display oh budget calendar yeah um I can talk to it okay and then maybe she can display it when she gets here um so the interesting thing about the calendar is there it was posted the state had posted their calendar on the doe website um and then all of a sudden they took it down so I'm not sure what that means I'm not sure if there's changes coming because it's no longer posted there but put it up then they took it down yeah yeah and I I I even like went to look because I I printed it and I was like yeah no I'm not losing my mind I have a printed copy of it but it's not there anymore so I I don't know whether that means something that the state is going to change the calendar um but you know we'll see so in essence the budget is in full swing um as you know I've only been here for three weeks and and I'm not here every day so I'm working very hard to get a first draft of the budget done um this is later than I would like it to be but unfortunately the timing is such because I just started um but we do know that this is going to be a very tight budget this year is a tight budget um building next year's budget is going to be very difficult within that 2% cap um so I'm really want to get that draft done so we can have discussions about what we're going to do to get to cap um and then you know discussions for years down the line of whether or not we need to do separate proposals or you know what what our options are um so we are meeting um between this week and next week Janet and I are meeting with all the administrators um so we should be able to start getting numbers into the budget um looking at enrollment of course looking at enrollment at going Berkeley Heights and getting some numbers from Berkeley Heights um the right now the budget calendar has the budget being approved on March 19th um because it is due to the county as of on March 20th um and that's a firm date it has to be into their office on the 20th so unless that calendar is changing for whatever reason now it could be that state aid is going to be delayed which would delay that date that's possible um although usually when they delay state aid they don't delay the due date it just delays the amount of time we have to figure out the final budget um but the the budget is as of now is we'd be looking to meet with the finance committee probably the week of February 26 to to review a preliminary budget and then again on March 11th sometime that week of March 11th so we'll send out some dates to the committee um to finalize that but we we'd be looking to have a preliminary discussion and then assuming we get State a by March 11th we would have firm numbers um and then the hearing the public hearing on the budget is scheduled right now for April 30th um I I don't know if you recall but we did have to actually move a board meeting to meet that date because the earliest we can have a public hearing is April 24th um so that's where we are right now if something does change if that calendar does get revised it is possible that a a board date might have to change if that happens um but as I said usually if state aid changes they don't usually change the due dates that would be good if you want or I think that would be good PA as a medicine the tea willon cut they're moderately effective there we go I'm done with them but you you can have the back we'll take a look thank you why something going on just a budget we we talked about it so I don't I don't know you don't need po I don't think we need to post it at this point anybody have any questions about the process or the calendar or anything I guess uh you touched on it but um just in terms of the the student population and and enrollment is there are there early indicators of of what we're thinking or estimating or we don't have anything yet to be able to say we're forecasting or we think we're going to land in this General vicinity terms of Berkeley Heights and and uh uh I don't know that yet yeah don't know that yet I I do know as I when you were out of the room I did I do know it's going to be very tight budget I do know that 2% cap is going to be very difficult um that that much I can tell without even having a draft of the budget done um so we're J and I have already been trying to brainstorm and come up with some ideas and state aid any early indicators in terms of I haven't heard a word not a word um which is not surprising um I'm you know I'm always hopeful that we're going to get some good news in state aid that would really help um but I haven't even heard any Rumblings of what's going on down there good times okay anyone else that's it okay now moving on to Berkeley Heights yep try to keep this as detailed as possible for you Carmen let see what I got for you uh so leaz report uh we've had two meetings since our our reorg meeting so their reorg meeting was January 4th uh and then they also had their first full meeting January 18th um for the January 4th reorg meeting uh two new board members were sworn in that's sakiri and Natasha Jolly onto that board uh hopefully everyone who has Facebook has seen the updates on on all this but um we had uh discussion and nominations for both president and then and then ultimately vice president that all ended in a 44 Tai at the reorg meeting uh and at the time that it was um sent to Daryl pal the the county superintendent uh between those two meetings January 4th and January 18th uh it was then basically handed back to to our board to to uh so no decision was made on on a president between the two meetings January 18th um we started that conversation again uh and there was no no uh answer on it so so after much debate 44 still on on president so essentially it goes back to the county superintendent to make a determination uh he has let that board know that in time for the next Berkeley Heights Meeting which is February 8th that we'll have we expect to have some decision made by then um happy to answer questions later on that uh I will note that uh yes your truly uh ran the meeting as temporary officer for that January 18th that's a that's a one-time appearance only so don't get any ideas Vivan um uh other updates from from J 18 uh on the student front uh so sports stuff uh GL hockey team is 13 and two I updated that because they they uh they lost to Westfield in the county Tournament final uh swim teams have winning records so far wrestling was 15- two they had two wrestlers who won County tournaments this past weekend second marking period just wrapped up on the grade front uh and most G students either uh have or will be finalizing course selection for next year um tonight uh is it tonight yeah tonight there was or is an eighth grade scheduling presentation at GL January 17th was sophomore career and counseling night if you've got any of that uh Winter concert was January 11th uh GL finished in the top third of all teams at a recent recent Science Olympiad uh and the robotics team just want to meet earlier this month in Milbourne uh we approved Sports schedules uh we also formerly accepted the resignation letter of uh superintendent Dr barley um Technically she's asked if that letter to stay on through uh the end of her contract term which is June 30th unless she accepts a position elsewhere sooner I'll spare you the back and forth on that um and then uh yeah under under new business so we did talk about I guess essentially what some of the process will be for that February 8th meeting which is a special meeting added specifically uh to talk about the search process uh so their ba has a a list of five or six firms which include school boards uh who who at some point I don't know if it's going to happen on the on February 8th if or or later but there will be a discussion as to uh selecting one of those firms to run the search process for for superintendent um so uh I'll probably know more actually can't make that meeting I'm away special meeting I cleared my calendar but they added that late so um I I'll have an update probably before then on uh who president is and certainly will share uh and then and anything that comes out of it they're also going to talk about uh there was a transportation report that was done recently independent Transportation report so that's been to the agenda for that for that special meeting um and that's it the next um after fe8 the next full regular meeting is February 26th so if we had another special meeting for any any uh CSA reasons I'll I'll share and that's all I got questions comments what happens if they don't agree even though he makes the recommendation if who doesn't agree I don't think we have a choice it it will be handed down this is this is the oh he's going to hand it down he's going to decide on president vice president is is my understanding he is he has told us by Feb six okay yeah just wondering because they haven't been able to agree from what I heard yeah not on much on not too many things yeah correct correct um I mean I I'm also hopeful maybe this is optimistic that if that happens that so they have no committee set yet but once they are set I mentioned this in my report in the past um I'll be making a motion to the next meeting I can get to that they reinstate a mountain side committee um and hopefully at some point thereafter not before but probably thereafter our ber heads committee could then perhaps set time with their Mountainside committee should be interesting yeah stay tuned for to thank you Mr Hyman okay at this time I like a motion to approve under administrations items one through six second questions or comments I have one dumb one and I don't want to make Janna talk but I I know we got way ahead of back to school night I have calls now there you go Halls of medicine do we I I know we've got our dates on our calendar um yeah you know my question once we have approved it I will be sharing them with Berkeley Hut with Governor Livingston so that they can plan accordingly okay when they are looking atting their dates thank you very much roll call please Mr Dylan yes Mr Goodwin yes Dr quas qu Petro yes Mr Heyman yes Mrs poo yes Mrs shano yes Mr V yes can I pleasee have a motion to approve under budget and finance items 1 through n so move second questions or comments I've got one uh number five sorry I should ask in advance sorry to make you talk again Janet for we we list the the the enrollment due to 2122 under number five as as part of the reason for this this increase is is that what what what is this is this a an update in terms of the the actual enrollment that we that we receive now or yes some of this you have the opportunity you don't have to pay it the very following year you have some opportunity to spread it out and if you recall there was also some questioning about our special ed costs in relation to gen Ed costs so once everything was evaluated um by Mr Robinson that's where um in conjunction with Berkeley Heights that's where we ended up with the um the the difference of that cost so that 50, 6146 is an aggregate if I've understand it correctly of 2122 regular enrollment 22 23 and resource room TR 23 yep so this basically put us all at an at at whole okay so we're just moving forward everything is now at whole as we move forward with the costs and I'd say without it being factual I think we've had this conversation here around our enrollment there decreasing yes right so if I had to guess um the majority of this is really resource room related because there's more credits coming back to us because of us over forecasting how many students be up there not realizing that so many of our students would be finding alternatives to Governor livon right so we've talked about this at other meetings right the there was a a bit of a change in philosophy too around some of the you know resource room special like cost and you know that then created more uh bills for us to pay yep okay thank you and we have just requested from them the midyear numbers so that we can ensure where we're at with the average daily enrollment for gened as well as the anticipated special ed costs as compared to our contracted numbers so that we approved earlier in the year just so that we're in a good spot as we talk budget but budget wise we we hope or expect to be in line with or closer to in line with what that bill will look like for for resource room special ed numbers I would think versus versus the the Gap that we basically made up for yeah correct uh one comment on on item number seven um which is the tuition rate for the peak preschool program um this was something that we did uh discuss at the commit level um we are aligned with the increase um Mrs Walling had shared and did an analysis on the other options nearby um the ages the amount of time how many offerings right and uh we felt that this was still a good rate um for us to proceed with it is an increase um but still pretty much in line with the competitive rates with others around what was the rate last year 4,700 okay okay any other questions or comments roll call please Mr Dylan yes Mr Goodwin yes Dr gu to cro Mr Hyman yes Mrs poopo yes Mrs shano yes Mr Venice yes please have a motion to approve under Personnel items one through seven second questions or comments I've just got one Janet numbers two and three just in looking at the attachments is are we sure there's no there's no redundancy there so that's fall approving fall session 1995 spring session for three graduate credits 1,995 and then and then fall 2023 one is the notification to take the classes one is the payment got it okay and there was just there was some confusion on the teachers part which just had that overlap and therefore we were able we put it on as two separate motion understood okay thank you so it's three separate payments or two two two payments so right now we're only making one payment okay so she has put in she put in for notification to take full classes and spring okay she already completed the fall so that's what we're paying for spring we will pay out at a later date okay she's requesting but she's requesting request for y to take and request okay any other comments or questions roll call please Mr Dylan I'll say yes for one through six and I'll will abstain from number seven Mr Goodwin yes Dr gu to C Petro yes Mr Hyman yes Mrs poopo yes Mrs shano yes Mr vennis yes yes and I'm excited to see a chess club at Beachwood yeah I want to join how many k two we'll see second graders doing chess we're gon find out I saw that too I will say the one that Mr Starling is doing here at Deerfield has a good has a good number of students attending on a regular basis Hold On Tight volleyball team soon it's gonna be chess competition uni County start them young hey moving on can please have a motion to approve under policies items one and two so moved second questions or comments roll call please Mr Dylan yes Mr Goodwin yes Dr to Petro yes Mr Heyman yes Mrs poopo yes Mrs shano yes Mr Venice yes moving on does anyone have old business new business so I have new business um wanted to bring up Bill mentioned it earlier around there was a discussion around Peak and the tuition discussed at the finance buildings and grounds meeting and I wanted to bring up a discussion around the possibility of bringing back the full day prek Peak program um this was brought up and we thought it would be best to get direction from the whole board in understanding where the board sat would this be a priority and we thought it was a good time to do so as well because if we were to do it we would want to make sure it was sustainable not a one-year thing but something that we could continue on and it should be built into our planning um you know and and Five-Year Plan so I wanted to bring it up to the group and to the board to see where everyone you know if there was any any thoughts comments and next steps where do our numbers live so couple of different things um that I've shared with the committee we have we have a couple of different areas when we talk about sustainability and longterm and I think that when we talk especially long-term five year strategic planning is is really a good piece of it to discuss as well so the first piece we have is space so at this moment the only space would become an issue if we expanded back to two classrooms in that it's not a concern if we remained at four kindergartens next year as we have this year however our current enrollment numbers for next year's kindergarten are already 10 above last year so this current year we have a total total of 63 students total enrolled in kindergarten which allows us to run on four classrooms at about 15 to 16 students we already with enrollment um are up to 65 as of this morning and from now till September we typically take on another 10 so that would put us up around 75 if those numbers bear out and we remained at four classrooms that would put us closer to 18 students in a kindergarten class which while it's allowable is not what I would consider educationally best practice um for our littlest ones and the programming that we give to them the alternative to that is losing um what we gained back this year in classroom space we were able to finally this year pre postco move a number of um programs out of the media center so we put our otpt we took our aim programming we took a lot of that out of the media center and gave them some space around Beachwood the only alternative spacewise would be putting them back in to Media Center or other shared spaces um again is it doable yes is it best practice in terms of how we are providing space for other students not necessarily um so numbers wise I ran a history of our Peak um through the years and of the 14 years that Peak has been running four of those years only is when we had full day programs the other 10 were all half day programs over time um the max number of students that we ever had registered when we had um and actually it was two years of full day only and then there were two years where there was Am Pm or or you could choose to do double sessions okay um the most students that were ever enrolled in our program was 31 when we had two of those double types of classes with uh 15 students doing the double session at that time um we've had so that's just kind of a comparison and I I share that because one of the most important pieces and I did share this with the committee and it kind of ties in to what we talk about with budgeting is that if we are to add on another classroom it has to be 100% self-sustaining yeah it cannot no preschool is not mandated at this time we are not receiving State funding we do not have the space to do which I would love ideally ideally down the road referendum bigger space we get the preschool expansion act we get State funding and we open up to our entire universe the more preschoolers we have the better we are don't get me wrong I love having the students in It prepares them for good education however at this time if we were to expand to two full day classes we don't expand our universe we currently have 24 students enrolled and at the most we would be going up to about 32 that's all we could take if we had two full day classrooms you would be you would be maxing out at 16 students per classroom um um so we're not really expanding the universe so much so the piece of it is right now we're able to serve 24 students through our morning and afternoon programming that's what we have the ability to do if we were to expand it would have to be 100% self- sustaining we cannot continue especially when we're looking at what's going to be unfortunately a tight budget living on a 2% to be utilizing funding towards that program we would be looking at a minimum of about about a $10,000 plus tuition rate at full day and we would have to be able to guarantee 15 students because we're looking at about $150,000 to be able to run program with teacher Tu um teacher salary benefits par professionals and outfitting a new classroom so those are kind of the just general numbers that we're looking at um in order to to look at that and explore it the um um piece so when I looked at it so when I went back and I started to look at okay who was paying because remember we also do serve our special ed population so there is some cost to the district no matter what because we need to have that program the district is currently doing that so with 24 students at a half day program we're still subsidizing $70,000 a year for this program it's 68 something so I round it up to 70 that's what we're subsidizing right now for the current classroom space that we have um and again we knew we know that because we do need to serve we that is our requirement that is what we do and that is how we serve our population we know that there's going to be some investment that goes to that however um If This Were to be explored I strongly recommend it is my in my belief that you would have to approach it from it has to be guaranteed and a fully self- sustaining program before it even is something that we look at concern as I start to look at our numbers is some of those are going to then come from kids who are there at half day right now so if we went to it we were going to lose some of those half day students they're going to go to full day we're then going to if this is self- sustaining we're going to take on more cost for the other classroom that is there and so it's again information to be shared because as the board looks at this I want that to be considered um so those are those are a variety of the pieces our current first grade or also just as we look at numbers and spacewise at uh Beachwood our current first grade is 100 students so we currently have five classrooms of first graders it is our biggest it is our biggest group in the district so we currently today have five classrooms of 20 students each at Deerfield that's huge I have some do we have any other grade that's even north of 80 no no is our largest wow but our kindergarten is our smallest at 63 it's a very interesting mix at the moment which again is why we have only four and it's just what's worked with our classroom setup for right now um so that is kind of a lot of the information um that we look at again when we talk and again are those class sizes un Unthinkable no but when we think about what our community is is used to at our different grade levels that is something that I want the board to consider as as you kind of ponder this and as we talk about it um so those are those I believe I kind of hit pretty much everything that I shared out with the committee so I have some how many students do you have enrolled for next year Peak for next year we have not started next year's registration no everything pends on have you considered maybe a survey maybe we have discussed that a survey to who though it would have to go out to the general community so basically to everyone because if we only survey let's say we survey the students that are currently in our school system how is a a family that just moved in with a newborn and a 2ye old whenever whenever we do preschool registration that information goes on the buau sign that information goes out to it goes out on our Facebook page it goes out on the website so we make sure that we're hitting everyone who is around okay so only and what you have to keep in mind is if this is part of consideration for next year it has to be done in tandem with registration because now is time for registration for next year as well so we did briefly disc disc that at the committee level what it would look like would be a here is what we have set as our half day rates this is what we know we have the board is surveying interest and consideration for a selfs sustaining full day program okay at a tuition rate of which we would have to agree upon should that be available would you be interested in that instead of a half day well oh that's my question this is my question to you so we would have two classes theoretically two classrooms let's just say would one classroom operate half am half pm and then would the other classroom operate as full day potentially depends upon interest I've seen it done that way I've seen it done where both are full day and you allow a half day am to overlap into it which was almost the the model that was used a couple of years ago have we ever I would not do I would not do a full day plus AM and PM because that just educationally is not good practice at that point I would only offer full day and am yes but that's how it was Pro before covid it was one classroom was full day the other classroom was full day but you can come for the morning session I I I would love to have a survey go out personally um I think the peak Program full day Peak program was wonderful experience two out of my three kids were in the peak full day Peak program and I think it was a wonderful way for them to get introduced to Beachwood and the teachers and I felt that they compared my oldest who the two who did go to I think that they had a easier transition I was with Dana and us with my my my daughter was there too for the full day and you know they they had a great transition into kindergarten from it was like they had been there well they had been there already and so and so do our and so do our half day kids I'm going to say I mean on either side they have the experience I had both experiences so my youngest did half day while my oldest my my middle one was in a full day and I I she was not she did not get the most out of it out of a half day she just didn't um when the next year I transfer switched her to the full day and it was it was totally different so I personally feel like a half day yes it was a great program and it was better than other programs around but the full day is what they real was so valuable I think that I think that we should take the I think we should get a survey out there and I think it's something we stopped it because of Co this is one of those things I was hoping we' go back to you know we when we started you know not Co but a survey would be a great way to see if we'd have interest before actually jumping in and doing something making any changes just a clarifying question on the survey though because what I'm hearing is it's not really a survey to new parents in mountain side we just post it correct it's just a communication that goes out on the website and goes out on the would be part of our it would would be part of our registration process so people would have to would be because we have to do both at the same time right we have to be registering because everybody around us now is the time when everybody has to make a commitment for next year so you have to do you have to dovetail both at the same time we can't say great give it to us and then we tell you what type of program we're going to have because other people need deposit checks or they're out yeah Out programs yeah and they're they're also looking not just at Beachwood Peak they're looking at private education in the same trying get bre trying to figure out so they're registering so basically what we're saying is this is what you know we have we have our halfday program morning and afternoon right at this moment however we are considering an expansion to a full day program should we go with a full would you be interested in that so they're registering they're giving us their letter because everybody sends us you know at 601 on whatever date we go live I want to be part of your program yeah and that's really what you're doing I you know whether or not you're interested in it two years from now is immaterial I yeah that was my I need to know that I'm filling a classroom now yeah we're not like surveying the community like and they we're with people voting that have one year- olds right now correct that because that's meaningless to us at this point no but on this on the flip side you don't want to survey you you get you just the kindergarteners that have a sibling that's coming up on no no no you want to survey the community that has a legitimate preschooler coming in I mean and if parents know that this is the anybody out there has who has reached out knows and they said they're told hey wait till after the January board meeting we're going live with our our rates will be out there we send it what we do is we give a one week Grace to our current students because they get space and we want to see if they're coming back and then we go live to the rest of the world with our whatever time it is and we go live with our pieces and we would just craft it as such so that we can gather more information at that same time you have how many Happ these students right now right now I have 24 12 and how many would be continuing the program next year uh I can tell you that in a second continuing because we have threes and how many three old have parents requested this we have not been hearing from I know Mr Goodwin has Mrs Mrs viring has not and she's heard from a lot of parents for a lot of things whether it was Teddy Bear Day or concerts well that's what we need we need our par to beware what are our chances of getting a grant for full day the problem with getting a grant for full day kindergarten is you need to have the space preschool preschool for for full day preschool you need to have the space if you do not have the space and you get the grant you then need to contract it out and have others and it becomes we then become the managers of it and I do not feel that that's a place we're expensive being in it in my own District that what's our chances of getting a trailer you know where the students could go on the trailer and would would need a building program we're not going to put a preschool in there we would put offices in there but again there's a cost of course there is but again how are we how are we sustaining it and what are we doing with that for the tuition rate um there is a current to to answer that first question though there are 12 potential students who are to to go to four is there a way to just start with them first and kind of pull them and say hey which are you planning on returning next year how many of you would be interested in a full day program if you were return if 12 them say absolutely we know right there we have 12 and you said you need 15 but out of those 12 six of them are special education students who are not tuition-based students that's right but we have to offer that anyway right because over 50% of the classroom have some so how do we reach out to the family that has a three-year-old currently and is not aware that we have a peak program just putting it on the sign well that's why kind I don't know because I didn't use the how do you we put it on the town sign we put it on our Facebook page we put it on the website it's out there that way put it on channel uh whichever the local channel is the same way that we've advertised for kindergarten registration that's how we got our 63 Mrs W didn't we have an enrollment survey like what does that survey say are we going to have an increase of we are expected to have an increase yes okay and and let's let's not forget that right so and and this is kind of the way I'm thinking about this it sounds like by doing this we're we're imp a very very small part of the population right I think I heard eight more students 10 more students whatever the case may be just remember right we've making a decision to do this we are going to impact class size there's no way around that we know that there are more students coming in we know that we have no more space right so by taking any one room and now dedicating it to this on top of what this board already has done in terms of prioritizing um some of our special ed rooms as well because it the old program didn't necessarily go away because of covid it we had made a strategic decision to reutilize the room right because of the uh special end outof placement costs that we had for our students right so while I while I know the survey may help get a gauge but if we decide to actually go forward with it there's no way that this the result of that wouldn't be the rest of the classrooms increasing in class size because there's nowhere else to put the kids so I just asked the group to think about it right are you willing for for the small population that would be allowed to then come full day as an option something we don't have to do when there are other programs in our community that they can choose to do so to sacrifice kind of what we are mandated to do and what some of our priorities have been in the past around class sizes and and inclusion and special EDS right there has to be a trade-off it can't be everything right right so um just something to think about right just recapping how we got to where we are today it wasn't just because we didn't want to offer full day uh Peak it it just there were other things that had to come first and we do have other programs around our district I mean our community yeah what is the recommended uh class size for a preschool class 16 16 MH at the most is that mandated by the state if you are part of the um the free preschool program the state funded it's 15 15 is the calendar I was I didn't know what the number was do we have a sense of the yet of the so you said 100 for the first grade but small grade right now kindergarten incoming kindergarten so incoming kindergarten already is 10 higher than last year's incoming kindergarten was at this same time got so we were we're right now we're at 65 this time last year we were at 53 got it and we were at 53 and we topped off at um we topped off right now NOP not kindergarten half day we have full day so our kindergarten full day currently is 63 we were at 53 and then we went we bumped up to 100 by the time we went to first grade no no no this current kindergarten okay last year when there was just pre-registration happening in January was 53 by September when school started we're now at we we at 63 that's where that extra 10 comes in okay 100 is first grade first grade 100 they were when they were in kindergarten when they were in kindergarten they were always a larger group so the bigger the so I I really loved the full day preschool the only concern that I do have regarding the whole space and not maybe necessarily for next year because I'm going to say this a class size of 18 children is not over the top at all we have 14 that's a luxury I think for this town if you were to survey any surrounding Town 14 students is nonexistent in any of the surrounding towns that you go to any socioeconomic higher lower than whatever you want to call it 18 is not an odd number of student that's not that's not setting us over the edge with number of students in the classroom the concern I have is years after with our numbers growing so while I don't have a con I don't have a concern with putting 18 kindergarteners in a classroom I don't think that's crazy um because I know many districts there's districts surrounding us very good districts that have 20 22 25 not that I'm saying 25 I would ever agree with but 18 is not a bad number uh 14 is very low we currently 16 sorry okay 16's very low very low um but when I look at numbers going forward that's my bigger concern of okay so maybe not for next year we can do this but then if we do it for the year after and our numbers are larger we will then be because at a certain point we're not going to just keep having the largest kindergarten class sizes either do you so then then we would be forced to open a fifth section of kindergarten and then what then happens to that extra preschool because the kindergarten class one is bandid and that is our first priority over the so I also have a concern because I don't want to make a commitment that well it's going to be good for this year for a one year deal and because that that plays with the parents minds too Absolut and I know that and how do you take a child who's there full day and then say Oh you have to go to next that's my bigger concern it's not a matter of like next year per se it's looking at the long term and our spacing and saying okay we can't play games with parents either every year where it's like okay they think like oh great now we have a full like you know for the for a one for a working parent they say okay this is great it's a full day preschool that's in my district I'm putting them in blah blah blah and then they have their they have that's there for their three-year-old and then they have their two-year-old coming up to be a three and they're like oh the year next year the year after we're going to be set I'm have my four-year-old and the four year program and my three-year-old in the threee I don't have to worry and you know and then all of a sudden we're like and we're taking it both away from you that's my bigger concern and we can't do that so you're right a a few years back uh I met with the county superintendent size and they said to me she took out some sheet she showed me we had one of the lowest uh enrollments for per grade and if you need to cut that was when you had to cut your budget she said you can cut it without any problem because your class size is low right right so like I said like I don't you know having 18 kids in a class to me is not aound we're lucky at all we're very very very lucky 16 in a Kindergarten class is a very lucky thing and but I also think that in the same aspect I think we have to look at not next year but the year the couple years after when our numbers are really growing and then we you know we do have to we do have to add that fifth section of kindergarten because I also don't believe that we should have a class of 22 kindergarteners either I I'm I'm against that as well um so that's you know that's my biggest concern if we move forward with the full day preschool can we sustain the program to be full day in the years to come because we can't play with parents' Minds no and the only way to do that is that you are committing to a couple of things you're committing to larger class sizes right and you're committing to loss of small group instructional space right so your resource room yeah your we would not have a space for that right and so that that would have to find that could whether it's now changing things or you are taking a related arts um and putting it on a cart which is you are I mean and again I'm throwing out I'm not endorsing any I'm just I'm throwing out I play Devil's Advocate on all of this with you but those that is if you're committing and saying this is where we're going now then you're now saying that everything else there's going to be that price of and we lose th those pieces of it um or we are buying trailers or we are doing these other things and then taking you know students whether it's small group whether it's whatever and doing those things in that type of a setting so that does have to be a part of it because I think that 100% behind all of this the sustainability piece of it is Paramount yes I agree and what concerns me are the costs of keeping that piece of it sustainable both financially as well as physically and I don't believe a resource room child should then have to also be displaced into you know we had to do what we had to every District had to do what they had to do for covid so that that goes without say there's a reason a student a special education student is being pulled out for res resource room I also don't think that it's educationally sound to have that student be placed in like I said Co we every every District had to do what they had to do so but I don't think that's an educationally Sound Decision that we have to have a resource room student placed into the media center where anyone's coming in and like dropping their books off and doing I just don't think that that's you know they they do deserve their own space privacy and small group instruction with the lack of distractions that could potentially come in a larger group area so wouldn't want to also see that go and and I understand that's Bill's point is that if we do do this we are losing C you know class sizes will go up um and spacing will spacing will become eventually the problem and then it'll you know it already is it we've been chatting about this and I really do think you know I I think the bigger bigger question the bigger piece in this I think comes as we start to think of our fiveyear strategic plan is you know and it's not just going to be Beachwood we've got that hund 100 plus group of students that are GNA come to be to Deerfield you know we're looking at bigger CL you know where we're going to have bigger sections and need for bigger sections or more sections right as not only that group but any other group as we start to move them through so I really think that it Spurs and not to not to stop this part of the ation but I do want that to start to think especially as we start to meet as a strategic plan and we involve the community there as well what is that long-term look like for Mountainside right yeah and the the demographic study does does have a fiveyear bump maybe not a 100 every year but there is one in there that is listed as estimated north of a 100 and seems like the norm is going to be closer to 75 plus so it's it's coming up M right I think we did the survey I think I think we we owe it to people who have asked and and it'd be interesting to hear um interest and also how how old are your kids so like is there interest in the next year two years three years oh like a General survey that we this is something that our district is considering and figuring out a way for our strategically for our Five-Year Plan however not saying that this is going to be incorporated for next well it's not going to be don't want to build hope no no because we don't we can't can't sustain it yeah right now with the space unless we cut other things right so or yeah yeah but I don't know if that then I don't know if that survey needs to go out during the registration process because I think I would if that's if that's the the angle I would do it as two separate I would do it as two separate things I would start our registration and go with it survey yeah and then I would create a separate survey that we would really get out there and I think we would do it again in conjunction with our strategic planning or even sooner you know as part of it because we use that to help Drive some of those pieces of it right because if it comes back then we start to take a look at okay what else is there something else because then we can say again it's it's budgeting but it's longer term budgeting is there a repurposing of space is there a construction piece that goes well is there like a refer like do you do but small or even smaller like again I think that there's those pieces of it but I think that that's different yeah I agree depending upon again where the board lands with thoughts so I I think we said before Dana that the draft of the budget was going to be February 26 are we talking about anything in terms of a survey that would impact our ability to do that no okay so what we're talking about here guys is getting the survey but not to impact what we would budget for now not that it would impact September right but I think the survey is after this registration for strategic planning purposes yes but I think you do the personally just do the you do the registration for preschool and when that registration closes that's when maybe then you send out survey you cannot it cannot even overlap because it will be parents will be so confused yeah like it has to be two separate entities when one closes okay then we can say yeah we're gonna do it I mean I think I just want to make sure from a budget perspective that we're not waiting on something we've got you know the the line item that was here today half day the amount of money so that you know we can achieve that February 26th yes Milestone okay so we're not doing it so we're doing a survey for the future to see what the future of a expanding a to a full day preschool would look like with certain Logistics in place to where we know we can sustain a program once we started today's the day for she didn't get it was it today's the day for servy I'm there okay is that it for new business the uh PTO uh liaison report the PTO spring fundraiser will be Thursday March 14th Thursday night at the Hilton in in Springfield R 22 where it was last year um this is pto's largest fundraiser this actually was one of the fundraisers that helped raise the money for the electric sign um and the theme this year is going to be a Shore thing so it's going to be all New Jersey beach theme gonna but can I ask a clarifying question you don't have to get dressed up like okay all right thinking no I wasn't card outfit yeah like literally somebody suggested like oh my outfit and I'm like I think my outfit's going to be my normal like but I was like actually it's funny because everybody yeah like moms are like oh my God what do we wear this year I'm like no no you don't understand we've never dressed up before yeah okay good all the years we've done this you cocktail tire and then last year was the the theme and everybody would n so this year everybody's like oh what do we dress at yeah that's why I just want to CL bini in a cover up yeah exactly I will okay sundress no it's just it's we're going back to just we're going back to just like a a theme cocktail it's Tire with a nice Fe we always had like some sort of Fe never you know required just want to make sure we weren't wearing costumes and there will be no I'm out however we will be having a cocktail hour that is all Jersey Shore themed Foods cocktails oh I was wondering about that as well there will be um are invitations out invitations uh were delivered uh I think a couple days ago oh really yes to the main office should be distributed out to all the but I can send them to the I can send it to the whole C yes yes um I believe that they were invitation dropped off on the board as well but I I can forward it I can forward at least a copy of it to the board because I have them in my email thank you looking forward to it yes I know it's a lot of fun I have a good time it's a great time I never win but I have a good time it's a I don't ever win we know that it is a short thing okay moving on that's it uh for committee reports or they we didn't touch sorry I'm like lost you know I don't have the date in front of me we did have one Finance buildings and grounds meeting uh the entire agenda was related to Peak uh Peak tuition right so nothing more needs to be said then kind of what I laid out before we voted sounds good thank you okay at this time I'm like to open the floor to for public participation please come up to the podium state your name and add address my name is Grant Garcia live at 597 Woodland AV and I guess it's also useful I'm coming from the context and the experience of a student who's been through Beachwood Deerfield GL um just a comment on the trailer I remember when I was a Deerfield soon there actually was a trailer in the parking lot us still yeah okay so um I understand if that's not like you said best practice but it has been an option in the past and if need be could be an option [Music] um let's see I have a lot of questions they're trying to order them um as far as information being readily available to the public you'd mentioned we have the local channel the sign and the Facebook and you had seen that those were like um like options that everybody could access but I just had issue with that because for my experience nobody watches local television anymore the sign depends on if you can make the light at 22 and the Facebook depends on if you have access to social media so I was just wondering if there are any other avenues for for example the referendum or a um survey on the preschool expansion how we could get that to every single household without you know luck or Antiquated technology excuse me local television but I know we have the town paper I forget what it's called top of my head but is there a way that we could Implement any of these opt any of these um ideas and Notions into that get in contact with the Town Council I understand that would kind of be more on their end of things but I'm just kind of putting that out there off topic of more comments and questions I guess a comment I actually was in Miss darling's chess club we did have one at Beach but I remember I would bust from Deerfield to Beachwood and teach the kindergarten for second graders and that was a very wonderful experience for me and kind of inspired me to be interested in education so I'm happy that's making a return um I guess also you'd mentioned the preschool expansion act I was curious if that was a local initiative or a state initiative and what other options for expansion and funding there are on the table I that was a couple that was like three different five different questions she's writing them down yep I I first of all thanks for being here we we do we don't get that very often no um the ideas of other ways we also use our website which again okay is is reliance on technology but I appreciate the idea I know that we have utilized um some of the you know Town information or local papers or also great ideas I love the idea of the older students uh helping out with chess yeah that's real that's a really um a great one and something that is worth sharing with our staff as they begin because I think that that's a wonderful way not only for the younger students but for you especially as like you said the opportunity to teach others and something that's that you were passionate about or you enjoyed so I thank lead too um the preschool expansion Act is actually a state level okay so that was introduced a number of years ago in order to expand preschool opportunities for students it began for more needy districts and then expanded to others so that is one districts do get opportunities for other Federal funding and state funding through different types of Grants some of it are is targeted to different things so for example last year we had a climate change Grant so we were able to receive funding to use towards um we purchased a Hydroponics system that's cool that's being used at the middle school level so different grants can come out for different reasons um some of them all districts get and some are competitive and some are more limited which unfortunately sometimes Mountainside does not necessarily get as much opportunity for so we we always look for those opportunities across the board is there any is it we have to apply for it or is there any way that we can get the community involved and build interest and um I guess generate Buzz for lack of a better word around that and yes get attention on a state level it depends upon which ones you are looking at so some of them are ones that we have to apply for so they're more competitive some are ones that are just given based upon our demographics or our information and some we you know if there ones that are more local we then go out and reach out to the community for example if you were to do a referendum that's homegrown and that's reaching out and Gathering um support through different Community groups and those um let's see uh I I understand the concept of you know you're in the context of budgeting you were talking but what is can you explain to me the 2% cap and it would seemed like a very big issue for you guys and the entire State yeah I imagine I understand that I was in the Park Service last summer and just from that context I understand how hard it is to deal with Trenton on the ground level and I guess I would just in you know I understand you have to say it nicely um what your experiences and you know how is challenging for you know progress and giving Equitable education for mountain side I'll try to explain the tax ly cap as simply as I can without everybody's head spinning um the tax levy which in a district like Mountainside majority of Revenue comes from local taxes so the state puts a cap on the amount that you can increase your cap your tax levy each year and that increases 2% there are a couple of areas that you may be able to exceed it for certain extraordinary costs but for the most part it's capped at 2% and the challenge that district has um Mountainside and many other districts is that our salaries are going up more than 2% and salaries are about 70% of our budget and then our health insurance for our staff is usually goes up more than 2% um and that's about another 10% of our budget so 80 % of our budget is just salaries and benefits for staff um and if that exceeds 2% then and your revenue is only going up to 2% that's the challenge that we're looking at and and many other districts in the state are looking at you feel this C what gets cut what gets minimized yeah um I understand benefits and you know insurance is not you can't you don't have that much control over that but how are salaries consistent who who DEC salary I guess my question is most of the employees are in a collective bargaining unit and so the salaries get negotiated to the yeah okay think about uh buses Transportation costs that we have gas isn't the busing private in Mountainside we paid oh my yeah my that the parents had to pay directly isn't that oh really oh I had to pay it depends on how far you depends on your distance from the school but all of our students who go to Governor Livingston it's over two two miles we cover that we pay that chge definitely yeah I remember when that change occurred um no that's very enlightening I very much appreciate I mean you guys have to be here anyways but it was a very no no it was definitely a very interesting experience um I'm a student at Sean Hall University I'm taking a public ministration class and an assignment was to attend a public meeting that's awesome and yeah thank you thank you um and you know I got off of work early and I was like I gotta go we appreciate no I really thank you I honestly very much appreciated being here and just it was yeah it's you know you I grew up just with my parents reacting to what was going on and me having to try and understand that and just going through the school system and it was very interesting to see how things were actually getting done I didn't expect it to be as personal as it was I didn't expect it to be as friendly as it was you know you expect you think of polit you think politics and it's not it didn't I didn't understand the the sort of camaraderie almost that I experienced come to GL uh 7:30 p.m on February 8th if you want to see a different meeting honestly yeah and you won't be the only person there yeah oh I imagine go get a so I imagine bre the heights is a lot more of a intense you're impress Professor you could do a comparison I do want to comment though you know I do appreciate you coming but I appreciate your questions you listened and they were detailed and they were great thank you I have genuine interest in Mountainside I love where I grew up and I definitely anticipate hopefully sitting at this table one day or with the council well I'm going to graduate first absolutely absolutely one thing at a time one thing at a time um but yeah I appreciate this and I need to find time to fit this in but I definitely would like to continue interacting with not just the board but also the council it's I think it's so very important that you know rather than the immense reaction and parents storming in and demand you know if there was a steady relationship I think a lot more could be possible and I'm sure you all probably think the same thing um also I was Al I guess one last question I was curious about how you mentioned that I guess you are liaison to the Brickley Heights Board of Education so what is how does the relationship work between these two towns because you know we send students up to GL and and yeah they deal with that but we're aren't really part of that board so yeah I was curious about that we are part of that board technically yeah so in a send receive District we send our students there uh and so therefore contractually at a state level we are we're given one seat on their board so it's a full voting member of their board as R aison obviously the person changes out not doing it for life he's been the lucky guy though for a couple of years but is basically as long as as our contract and our relationship continues with with Berkeley Heights and we we have so we that that seat doesn't vote on uh matters that would not pertain to the full District or the high school but uh everything else were included so interesting curriculum um obviously anything facilities related personnel as it relates to the full District or to GL we get a vote love that yeah yeah it's very interesting um I guess bouncing off of that I you know he was hear Whispers when I was moving through that system about oh we're going to Dayton OH we're going to Westfield oh we're going to um is anything like that on the table we are in the current of a fiveyear contract so we work through the contract with them and then we continue that that process on um I guess as my opinion I think GL was a very great option um I think it's a very special and unique relationship that Berk lights and Mountain Side share and I argue it would be a disservice to take that away even if there are maybe better options I think that the unique relationship for athletics and just friendship in general can supplement what you know what could be given maybe on paper as I guess you could say from surrounding towns um yeah I think that's all I have on that all right thank you for coming thank you for coming thank you I hope you guys get home soon good luck with your school thank you thank you everybody eat dinner yet and we yeah I next time I plan on coming not raggedy and no worri thank Jud here thank you okay so at this time I don't believe we have a second exec correct all right can I please have a motion to adjourn second all in favor opposed thank you have a great night