onto her leg and then by the end of the summer she was belting out show tunes in the mirror getting ready for the talent show. She had never seen growth like that over such a short period of time. Or the boy who was afraid to get in the pool and then by the end of the summer he's jumping off the side doing cannonballs. It's that kind of stuff.
Oh, Mr. Gossa, you would like this one. One dad reached out to us said that his son was terrible and I asked him if I could share this. He said yes. I don't know if I could share anything but he said my son was terrible at losing. He was the sorest loser ever. and we would see it at camp and he said by the end of
the summer he learned to lose at camp and he goes we were as a family playing knockout in our backyard and he lost and he didn't throw a temper tantrum like he normally does. He goes hooray that's a big win for us. So um again this is not child care. This is child development.
This is child growth and um this has been something that we've been working on a long time. a lot of late nights, a lot of early mornings. Um, you know, coming to school and working and going to wrestling, getting home at 8:30 and then answering emails till 11:30 and
then waking up at 5 and putting flyers together before coming to work. It's a lot of work and this has been a culmination and really uh the next phase in what we're hoping is uh not just a one-year partnership, but hopefully a a long-term partnership that uh that
continues to grow over time. So, um, thank you. Happy to answer any questions if anybody has any, uh, they'd like to have >> I have a question. Oh, I'm sorry. The after school enrichment, you said it's only once a week. >> Yeah. So, so the pilot is going to be a
six week program once a week after school. So, it'll be like STEM and robotics K to2 Tuesdays for six weeks. Um, yeah, that that's how it's going to be structured. Andrew, you question. >> I did. Um, actually I follow you follow
this on social media and I'm like, where's a phone number to call and talk more? You know, some parents have said they're looking I'm one of those parents looking for transition for like a kindergartenner who kind of outgrew preschools or where they going to go for
the summer. Is there an orientation for parents for the summer program? And I'm asking for the public because I was wondering for myself that they can um attend um because dropping your like for me dropping your kids in a different environment
>> that you've used to for the last five or six years at a preschool where you have a relationship and a bond with those teachers and now you're like okay where are they going in the community for the summer they can't stay home for nine weeks. Um, so I was wondering if there's an orientation that about the summer program where people could kind of get
to know the team or kind of get to know more rather than following it on Instagram and Facebook. >> So we do an open house uh but I'm glad that you asked this question because it's a good idea. So we do an open house for people that have registered and they
kids come they pick up a t-shirt. We should go through what we do. But for parents that might be interested that want to learn more, that's that's a fantastic o uh uh question that you've asked because I think it's a good idea um in order to fill parents in that that
want to learn more about it. >> Right. Before they register, make sure it's a match for them. >> Yeah, we're going to get that put together. >> Okay. >> Does anyone else have any questions? >> Correct. Miss Bernardo was here actually
in 1990. Oh, Miss >> I thought she might have been. I didn't want to say it. >> But I'm just >> When was she? >> I don't remember. >> I I went to college with her early 90s.
She was here. >> We're discussing here. >> I graduated. >> Okay. Okay. Does anyone else have any questions? Okay. Thank you for the presentation. >> Thank you all very much. Appreciate it. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Superintendent of Schools.
>> Thank you everyone. It's been a little while. First of all, I want to thank the musical participation phenomenal. And you know, watching Dr. Guar's face as the army of children kept entering and usually she's
very stoic and she just you know her face lit up. Uh participation is great. That's a the signs of a healthy program and uh I truly appreciate them giving that opportunity to the students. I appreciate the students taking their time to participate and work hard. A lot
of people don't understand how much work is actually put into a musical. from the set build to the rehearsals to I don't know learning their lines and everything uh from the pit orchestra all the way down to the stage crew. Um it's truly a
team effort takes a lot of work, a lot of volunteerism. Uh just it's a lot and I appreciate that many people participating. So thank you for coming out. I also want to thank you know Mr. Gear for coming out. you know, he is looking for a partnership um that we've been discussing now for a couple of
months, trying to see if it's the right fit for us. Um if you have any questions, we're not voting on anything tonight. Uh we wanted to give you that presentation and if you have questions, now's the time to email me, reach out to Dr. Coochar and I and we can, you know, facilitate a conversation. We've already
had some and they've been actually very productive questions that have given us insight and made us look into things. So, um, it's a one-year trial and we will see, but we think it's a pretty good opportunity for us to gain revenue, solid revenue that we can count on, as
well as you see, it provides income to our teachers. Um, safe place for kids to go. And I will say in terms of camp, it's nice having actual certified teachers running the camp because they know how to treat kids, you know, not
only like, you know, as a little people, but like pedagogically. teaching them and and getting them to grow. So, if you have any questions, please email us. Uh, all right. Under board action, I'm looking to get approval for the January 2026 HIV report. In Milford High School,
there were zero HIV 338 form submitted. In DEO, there were zero HIV 338 form submitted. Berkeley, there were zero form submitted. In Gibbs, there was one HIV 338 form submitted. The HIV was investigated by DMV specialist and was unfounded as it did not meet the
criteria of HIV. And uh I also wanted to get approved for the January 2026 suspension report. There were zero students suspended. In Wilbert High School DEO, there were three students suspended for a total of three days. Each of them served a day of
in school suspension. Berkeley, one student served one day of in school suspension and in Gibbs, one student served a half day of in school suspension. Under personnel, I'm moving for the approval of the following retirements. With regret, Mrs. Urba, uh, who has been
serving the district since 2008. Mrs. began her career as an instructional assistant before transitioning to a role as secretary at David Owens Middle School in 2011. So, she was here when I was here um before I left and came back. Uh, she's been a cornerstone in the main
office for the past, you know, 15 years. Uh, so we wish her luck in her retirement. She will be missed and I know she's only a phone call away. Also, Mary Casey has served the district as dedicated power professional in 2021. Most recently, she has served in Berkeley and as we know, our power professionals do God's work. I mean,
they they are in it and they do a tremendous amount for our students. So, we wish them both uh you know, happy days. under personnel also uh looking for approval for the following individ individual serve you know not just in the pit orchestra uh but to help
supplement the musical it's a big production as you can see uh the pit orchestra I talked to Miss Hayden Bower about this it's just an element with live performing music that they think is vital to the theater feeling and with their fundraising efforts at this time they feel like they can you know afford
it and provide that and so um there's a list of people to approve under finance and facilities. You know, Dr. Cutra will talk mostly about this. Uh but I really want to point out the Ed Foundation. Uh they are donating two classrooms of furniture to us uh to the
high school. Um brand new desks and uh teacher podium and teacher desks and they're looking to sustain that over the next couple of years and at least donate one classroom. Um, so we can slowly just start making the classrooms feel like it's left 1972 in some of them. Mr.
Peron has some of those seats. So >> your seats we call your name. >> So they also donated a vacuum for the >> W, you know, I thought was hilarious and wanted to mention that. So thank you at foundation under athletics and
co-curricular. Thank the volunteers. Mr. Goodellic flag football. Miss Otto, new middle school teacher getting involved and volunteering for softball. Mr. Seidner, another new teacher volunteering for baseball. I love the young teachers volunteering for things and getting involved. And if they do a
great job eventually, they stay with it. There'll be a paid position eventually, but that's that's the pecking order what you have to go through. And also like to thank Mr. Hayden Hour for volunteering for the Supreme Court as well. Uh, real quick district update. You
know, Emma does a great job, but I really want to thank the town and the building and grounds crew for all their efforts with the snow. Um, I must have talked to Mr. Pierro throughout the day on Sunday bothering him. Throughout the day on Monday, he
was here plowing all day. I stopped by with my son after we did, you know, our driveways and everything else. I just want to point out how hard these uh gentlemen worked and they were here since 7 8:00 in the morning. I got here
at 3 to check in on them. They were still shoveling and on all their machines and then they hadn't even shoveled their own homes. They came here without shoveling them. So they put us first before their own homes. You know what do I say about that? But that's one
of the reasons why along with the town shoveling so well and plowing so well that we had the ability obviously Monday was going to be closed. is too much. But we had the ability uh to open a delayed opening on Tuesday. And I want to
impress upon everybody how important that is that the town, the DPW, they're in constant communication with Sil, Vince, I even stopped by there in person to talk with them and thank them, go through chief of police, the mayor, those constant phone calls. And it truly took a collaborative community to make
this happen. And we saved an emergency snow day. um which is huge because I want to make sure the public understands they're just not free days and that the students I get student emails um saying hey we think this should be as a representative of the student body that's and we think there should be a
snow day and I answer them back and say please understand that these are not free days that we just give away you'd have to go later in the summer um but at least they're advocating for their position uh they have not won yet but hopefully you know they they take my
explanation and understand but I really do want to thank when when 63% of districts with high schools were closed uh we were open which is great you know not every district is different but pagod you know closed dum closed bing
closed uh bram closed you know each is individual but again testimony to everybody involved I I can't thank them enough so we still have one emergency day right now if it all goes well Tuesday pending. There's another storm coming Tuesday supposedly. We're keeping
an eye out. Um that last that last day is June 21st. Um we'll see how that goes. But if we use it, we have to we use it. But I mean it's safety first for the teachers as well as the kids. And I also want to thank we have great
attendance on Tuesday for teachers coming in. That's also very important. If we open up schools and teachers don't show up, uh that then a different kind of problem. So, I thank the teachers for showing up as well. Uh, and
administration, baby, they had show. Uh, Berkeley Casino night uh was great. We have New Over High School Murder Mystery coming up this Friday. It was great last year. A lot of fun. I look forward to it again. We had the 100th day celebration at the elementary
schools. I want to give a shout out. Uh, I was visiting Berkeley on that day to Mrs. Bardino's class. They dressed they dressed up as 40-year-old human beings. Uh they had they go to >> Yeah. I mean that they I'm shouting them out because they had tremendous
participation. I mean everything involved participated. I mean some were life alerts. They had wigs. It was pretty phenomenal. Very funny. Uh rare disease day was celebrated on Friday, February 27th. uh just to kind of honor we have a very diverse
population of students in terms of uh I don't know disabilities and we're going to honor them. I'd like to give a shout out to Ian Lee who's a junior in HOSA. Um HOSA is a very very popular club uh
in this uh in this school. It's future healthc care professionals. He has like 70 kids in it and Ian Lee last year won first place uh in the dental terminology category for the new for the New Jersey host Northern Regional Conference. Well, he did it again first place. So now we
will represent New Milford in the state competition. Last year he I think took first place in the state either first or second and went to the national competition in Tennessee. So he's only a junior, so I expect even more out of him. So no pressure. Uh but good luck.
Great great kid. Uh the unsung hero award will be celebrated next March 4th I believe um at 6:00 and the unsung hero award is every school district in the county gets to honor someone and in our case it's Emily
Barzone Cabrera and Emily transferred to New Milford High School at the start of her junior year facing the multi-layer challenge of adjusting not only to a new high school but also to a new country and a new language her progress has been nothing short of remarkable from her first day Emily has been a model of hard work determination ambition. She
finished her junior year with outstanding grades and a clear goal to pursue a career in healthcare. This school year and efforts were further recognized when she was accepted in Milbert High School's competitive internship program. Her maturity professionalism has proven to significant asset in the hospital setting where she is currently serving.
She's an intern in a hospital. She takes great pride in uh and her consistent demonstration of resilience and drive to succeed will make her successful. So we congratulate her. will be honored at the mangling hero award. Uh voices of the Holocaust were presented to our eighth
grade students. It's Holocaust but also musical at the same time and our orchestra plays while the slideshow is going. It's was pretty emotional. Um it's great and they've been doing it now
for a number of years and I hope to have them back next year. Emma mentioned names not numbers. I don't want to to understate the significance of this. This name numbers thing is a huge deal. Um, not many school districts have the
opportunity to do it. We have multiple Holocaust survivors which is very difficult to find coming to our school and they're going to be interviewed by our students and they put together a huge documentary a legit documentary at the end of the year that we have to edit
with them and then we have to have a screening at the end of this year. I believe it's mid June, June 16th and we are going to invite the house and we're hoping to pack it and it is like a professional documentary that is free to us but they our kids just interview
survivors and they're taught how to ask questions, how to do follow-up questions, how to show empathy. I mean there's a lot of people skills involved in this as well. And when you're sitting in front of a 90year-old person who's involved in genocide and they mentioned
a liberator of one of the camps and there's still a lot to tell about it. This is a huge thing that Mr. Grath, I got to give a shout out to him. He has really taken the bull by the horns and is doing a lot of work to make this happen. So, um I'm very much looking
forward to that. All right, update on sports and co-curricular winter sports update. Girls basketball. I know uh and we talked a lot about this, but we have a state tournament Friday at Midland Park at 5:00 p.m. Boys basketball, state tournament Friday at Crescill 7 p.m.
They wrestling, they qualified for the state tournament last week. Uh they lost to Pompton. Uh the district begins Saturday, February 28th. Uh bowling, we mentioned Leila Grun, 275 is the new high school record. That is phenomenal. Uh she's the highest female
bowler in school history. I mentioned winter track. The states start this Saturday in Tom River. We mentioned again a bunch of great athletes going down there. Competitive cheer. They were league champs. Uh the states are March 7th or 8th. It got
postponed from last week. Um your daughter was a film, right? Park. Yeah. Awesome. It's awesome. Awesome. And then I want to give a shout out to Sophia Sintelli. She was first team all state and Colleen will a second team all
state in competitive cheer. So great swimming coach of the year Emily Ka second time in a row. Uh they're wrapping up their season with individuals now. Ice hockey loss in the first round of the states but we have two students who earned the co-op um Northern Valley ultrist Alex Lee and
Logan on project unified. We've been playing basketball with other towns as well as bowling, but we're in basketball season now. And we were to have one today, but it got cancelled. So, we're hoping for
another home game because that draws a lot of crowd. The bleachers are packed. If you have not been to a project unified basketball game, I would strongly suggest you do it. I reached out to Midland Park in my former district and I'm going to have representatives come down to be like you should be doing this because it is is a
phenomenal model to other districts. Uh also in athletics uh we got recognition for the NFH school honor role um because our coaches do trainings 90% of our
coaches do enough training so we were honored with national distinction. Um we are also our middle school is an official official revolutionary school uh which is in New Jersey is a voluntary NJOE recognized school or district designation honors the 250th anniversary
of the American Revolution um and our social department at the middle school is using their resources to teach about the revolution which is great. We had 12 students uh achieve a seal of bi literacy which means they are proficient in Spanish in this case and
also English. Um I also want to just discuss uh ICE real quick. I've been getting a lot of uh emails about ICE and our response to ICE. And just to make sure everyone understands um if ICE ever did show up to one of our
schools, they would not be allowed in callery right away. Uh so once they're in school, you know, they are they are safe. Um ICE has affected our community. Uh to be very clear, um and not to make anything political or anything like that. Um but ICE has affected our
community. It's something to be aware of and it's a conversation to have with your children because if they walk to school or anything like that, they should be aware of resources that are available to them and what to say. But once they are in school, um they're good.
We accept and encourage everybody in school to come to school at all times. We have a very we are lucky enough in Florida to have a very diverse community. That's one of the aspects that makes this school district great and I think different than a lot of other school districts and we promote
them. Upcoming events, February 27th, the murder mystery. Uh also March 2nd, Read Across America. Uh if you'd like to join, you're more than welcome. uh the fourth and the fifth the Holocaust survivors comes in unsung hero award the fourth legally blonde we have the senior
citizen dinner and show which is the dress rehearsal on the fourth very much looking forward to that we get a big senior citizen tournament because it's food and we do a lot with the senior citizen program uh a lot so it's
wonderful and then 313 is empty bowls fundraiser it's one of my favorites I'll bring my whole family to that March 14th SATs and March 16th NJTPA begins which is state testing. That is it for me. Are there any questions?
>> Yes, sir. >> I just have a quick comment. Um I actually had emailed Miss Oliver about this. Unfortunat I can't be at Dr. Seuss 3 across America today, but in last October I was fortunate enough to take a quick trip with my wife to Springfield,
Massachusetts, where the Dr. Seuss museum is and uh took a lot of pictures and I sent her a few of them. But um I would highly encourage anybody who may be interested in taking their kids to a museum. It's it's pretty cool place. >> I've been there. It's amazing. If you
have young kids, it's an amazing museum. Highly recommend it. >> Up to what age you think? >> I don't know. I think fifth graders would enjoy it because you can run around and it's like it's really cool actually. It's very interactive. >> You enjoyed it. >> I loved it. My favorite enjoyed it. It's it's actually a really good place.
There's a couple of different museums in the quad, I guess, is for lack of a better term, but um it's pretty pretty interesting place. >> Do they serve green eggs and ham in the you know, if they did I didn't get that cafeteria, but there was certainly a lot of green eggs and ham. It's actually
really cool. They have um his, you know, workstation where he drew. It's It's really educational. It's really cool. >> Okay. Okay. Uh, assistant superintendent report, Lauren Doca. >> Good evening. Great lead in because I
was kicking it off with testing. So, thank you. Um, testing season is here. We begin with the NJGPA now adaptive. So, it's NJGPA a um in March followed by NJSLA
adaptive at the end of April and then leading us into May. Um, for the NJ GPA, all of our 11th graders will be testing to measure their graduation readiness in
ELA and math. And in for NJSLA, we will be testing in English language arts, 3rd through 9th graders. In mathematics, 3rd through 8th grade, plus high school math courses, including algebra 1, geometry, or algebra 2 as needed for
accountability requirements. Um the assessment as I have spoken about previous at previous meetings is now adaptive. I just want to clarify that um the actual tests are not fixed. So they
will change based on the responses to each student's um how they're answering the questions, but it will not go below or above grade level. So it's still measuring their grade level content. Um,
we also just concluded, well, in January, our universal literacy screening for K3. So, this new law requires us to benchmark students in K through3 at least three times a year. Um,
and then we upload the reports to the Department of Ed twice a year. So, the screening has concluded, the report has been submitted to the Department of Ed, and The family reports are going to be delivered via parent square tomorrow at
11:00 a.m. So, they were sent out in I want to say November, maybe late October, November with the fall results. So, keep an eye out for that. Um Friday morning the schoolbased testing teams are going to meet with me for
training and then uh more information will be disseminated regarding the actual testing process in the schools. Um an update I know earlier in the year we approved the acceptance of our ESA funding our federal funding and all of
the different titles. So I we had spoke about allocating some funding for6 interventionists, four of them, two at the high school level, one at the middle school and one at the elementary level. We've since approved one
interventionist. We have not been able to secure part-time um teachers in to fill the other positions. So, we're now looking at um reallocating that funding so that we can bolster things that have been really
successful like our after school tutoring programs um sharpening skills for right before testing and thinking about how we can provide as many supports as we can by the end of
this school year. So the funding is only um we save this year's money for this year's kids. So the program period runs from July 1 through June 30th. There are some things that we would hope to have been able to provide like summer step up. Unfortunately, we can't use this
money for that because it takes place after the expiration um when our funds must be expended by. But we're hopeful that the um things kind of return to normal. we don't get the allocation as late as we did this
year so that we can provide some of those supports um you know for for populations that require it. I recently attended an associate under professional development and a multilingual learner workshop and it was actually hosted by a
new Milford High School alum Darlene Dhan who um has a wealth of experience and it was great spending the day with her and she gave a shout out special shout out to Milford and I'm hoping that we can connect our ESL teachers with her uh for some professional development
moving forward. Um C252630 on the agenda tonight. We're seeking approval of score. So this is a tool that helps students
explore colleges and careers. Um build their college lists, prepare their applications, prepare their uh request their transcripts, recommendations, kind of house everything in one place. right now and for many years we've been
using Navvian um score as well as other platforms were recently researched by our uh guidance department here at the high school and this was an obvious front runner. uh also provides a
cost savings which is really nice and it's going to help families and counselors kind of keep um better support students in that like planning life after high school. So we're really excited about that transition
and I think that concludes that's everything that I have for tonight. Anyone have any questions? Okay, thank you. business administrative report Stephanie Kar. >> Good evening. Um, I just want to start
by saying I really am so impressed with that news and all and the amount of students. It really rivals the high school football team. I can't get over how many kids. And so that's a real shout out and testimony to the program that's been built up over the years. Um,
and I know just how many hours and hard work and I know Mr. Pre was here doing the set builds um, trying to get it all done before the snow. Um, so I'm sure it's going to be a great production, but that was an enormous cast and crowd. Um,
so it's really nice to see such such student participation in that. Um, I know that the buildings and ground staff it's their job, but the time and effort that was put into having to move the snow because there was no place to put
it. Um, and having to physically move snow um, especially at Berkeley from one side onto the front lawn so that it would be an easier drop off and access for the students and staff. Um, so I just think that they really did a phenomenal job. Um, and like Mr. also
said they were here before they did their own houses. Um I know the maintenance crew who I affectionately call the red shirts um came in. They were supposed to be here at 6:00. They were all here by 5:30. Um and so it's
just a real really impressive crew and job that they did um that allowed school to open on Tuesday. Um at our last meeting, I believe it was the last meeting in January, um we had the audit presentation and the only
recommendation that was presented by the auditor was um the night care. And so I think it's important for the board to know what hard work um that Miss Hourback and Miss Han have put into that
program because we did run um an audit on it through December and worked with the auditors on it and they they are not running a deficit and they've really turned the program around after two years of running a deficit. Um it's now
back in the positive which is really nice because um especially in such a tight budget we are looking to use some of that money to offset some operational costs. What that may look like is some
um part of our buildings and grounds budget. We refresh the wood chips at the elementary playground that's also used by the night care staff. And so we'll be using that money to refresh wood chips.
Um so it allows our operational costs to go to other things so we don't need to to cut additional monies. >> Wood chips are expensive. >> Yeah. And that's why I use that example. >> They're expensive and gives we expanded the playground. So just more wood chips. >> It was it. It's so it's so wonderful
when the PTO donates all of these great things like air conditioner. But when they do that, we have increased costs. So now we have increased wood chips, we have increased electricity, we have all of these things. It's all great. Um, but it's things to consider as as you move
forward. Um, so I just want to thank them for their hard work and sort of really looking at what it takes to run a program and not just staffing it, overstaffing it or um, and really meeting the student needs. Um the board
had directed um to put out an RFP for special ed counsel. It was posted, it was advertised. Uh we received zero responses. So um
it is what it is. That's the update. Um >> okay. Probably not what the board was was wanting to hear, but there's really nothing we can do when it's posted. Um we posted our website. you post it to the newspapers, it goes it goes out and unfortunately we didn't get any
responses. So um there's that the March before I do that F2526.166 um in the current
2526 budget um last March or April the board designated $2 million to be withdrawn from Capital Reserve. Um, and the money was
designated to do the windows in the high school cafeteria. A big the the facility concerns in de Milford is a very large list. This has been talked about at length over many
years and for a long time the roofs were not done. They were 10 15 years better life expectancy. The board made the investment and every school now has a new roof. And so the next thing is not really something that the community or
or really even the board really wants to invest in is your um windows and doors. But what that does is it creates efficiencies in other areas because when you have single pane windows and you're heating, you're heating the town. Um, and so you always
want to protect your assets. And so in an effort to continue with that project and move forward in our facilities, we want to continue the project and move forward with the first floor downstairs.
And then the next phase in the 2627 budget from withdrawal of capital reserve will be to do the second and third floor um on the on the back side of the high school. And the reason for the second and third floor is is those you cannot do the second floor without
doing the third floor or vice versa because it's a curtain wall system. So all of those windows are connected. Um, and we just thought it made sense to continue with that side of the building because that's where the cafeteria was. And the reason the cafeteria was chosen
was because it services the most students. It services the community. There's a whole lot of events that happen in the cafeteria. Um, and so we're looking to move forward with continuing that project. We want to do
it as a change order because when we were fortunate enough that the company that started the project was on a co-op and what that means is we didn't have to put it out to bid and so we got very favorable pricing on the windows and
doors and so we until March 31st because I don't know what governor it was but signed um there was an issue with co-ops and so Now, there's a whole host of issues with co-ops and
purchasing of it, but because this is a change order, we're able to secure the pricing, and we have the money allocated in the budget through capital reserve. So, that's why we're bringing this forward now. Um, it does not affect our operational costs at all. It's completely separate money, which I think
is a very important distinction because it's money that's been set aside for capital needs and can only be used for facility projects. Um, and so like I said, this would be the second sort of phase. And then phase three
would happen because we don't have the money available in this budget would be to allocate additional funds for the 2627, but still use the co-op pricing because if not, then you get into um putting it out to bid and then the contractors will fight and jack up their
prices. And so if we can continue and at least get one side of the building with high efficiency windows and doors, it helps our costs for the future. >> And the goal is like you know there like we continue to reassess and to the side
of the building and encapsulates that keeps talking Dr. always talked about encapsulating our assets and we have the roof and this continues to encapsulate our assets and that's very very important especially when we are hemorrhaging heat crusts
with some of these windows there's they're as thick as this little water bottles you know the glass >> and there's certainly a need at the other buildings but the reason the high school is really being targeted right now is because it's the only district that doesn't have high efficiency
boilers we the steam heat. Um, and so we're constantly pouring money into the boilers and steam heat. It's not efficient at all. And so if we can try to control those costs somehow, it would be through windows and doors. Um, so
it's it's an investment, but it's an investment into the future and that will realize savings through reduced energy costs. Um, and then lastly, the with the new with a new governor, you typically see
this the budget is in state statute and never really moves. Every I think it's March 20th, the preliminary budget is due and like May 10th, the um public hearing has to or May 9th the public
hearing has to happen. And there have been times in the past when the governor has delayed the state budget address and the district budget has not moved. This year, they're so gracious and extended
the deadline for the preliminary budget to be submitted to the county office. What that means for the board is we had a work session on March 11th and we had the regular session scheduled for March 18th. the preliminary the governor's
address will be on March 10th. We'll get our state aid numbers on March 12th. Um so really the March 11th meeting is not really has served no purpose at this point and the preliminary budget was originally
due to the county on March 19th and that has been pushed to March 27th. So my recommendation would be to have a work session on March 18th and have the regular session
on March 25th. Um yeah be pushed back if we can if we can look at your calendars just because this would be a change app. We need a
majority boards. I'm really >> Yeah, I'm not available. >> Those are Wednesdays, right? >> They're both Wednesdays. >> That's great. I'm okay with it.
>> Cheryl, you're not good on the 18th. >> Does anyone else have any conflicts at this time? Are you good, Andrew? The alternative would be >> to just have one meeting on one date, but I think um to be fully transparent
right now, um the budget has a 6% I'm projecting a 6% loss in state aid. Um and that was based on what was told last year was it was capped at 3% and the following year was going to be capped at 6%. Obviously, with a new governor, that's completely out the window, but
you have to start somewhere. And so, anything beyond a 6% loss would mean significant cuts. And so, I don't know how quickly those decisions can be made in less than um so that's why I really think if we
can do the 18th and 25th, it would be okay with that. Okay. >> Okay. So, I will advertise those and let the rest of the board know that the work March work will be the 18th
bull starting at 700 p.m. and March 25th 7 p.m. That includes my report. >> Anyone have any questions? >> Okay. Any leazison on board committee
reports? Hi, I'm Kendra Moore for the public to the board since uh November. Um I am now the leazison for the mayor and council with Mr. Dcasta. I attended the meeting I d one of the days in February introduced myself. Um it was a
pretty short meeting. They didn't have any correspondence for us. They just said they'll take my name and number and reach out if needed. My report >> Thank you. um February 10th, finance and facilities committee met. Um just before you know going through this, I just want to
actually I want to really express thanks to uh Dr. Fuchar and and Mr. Gaso for really the very hard work they're doing uh with the budget and budget challenges. As the chair of finance and negotiations, I've actually spent way
too much time with them now and the wood chips thing like really hurt me. like I was like we need more budgets um because it is it is a very very difficult tight budget that we're under and because of the leadership of uh Dr.
Gujar and Mr. Cl. So we are not nearly in as bad a situation as some of maybe the more surrounding districts that you know have been in the news but it is still a lot of difficult decisions have been made um and are going to continue to be made just based on um on things
that we expect would happen. we don't even know exactly how much they we're not going to have. So, um it has been a challenge um and something that with their leadership has been obviously much easier than also the you know commitment and the uh the hard work of of the
committee. So, uh we met on February 10th and we talked about some of the things that um Dr. Huchar mentioned, you know, the high school cafeteria, um the windows, uh you know, there were some discussions about some other potential projects that we could take on. um from
capital reserve which for the public capital reserve is not you know just because there's going to be cuts in the budget potentially um capital reserve is a whole different account that you need to use uh for specific things. So so if there are improvements to the windows
and things like that just to be clear that's not coming out of like we're not cutting and then all of a sudden making these improvements like we we are mandated to use the capital reserve for those specific things. Um obviously during the meeting we talked about you know the the 2026
uh and 2027 budget. We talked about the benefits increase that um it you know has been planned and then also uh I think Mr. Gos told me I think it was over the past two years it has risen 58% >> right? Um
>> yeah, so just if I could jump in for a second, um a school budget runs on a fiscal calendar July 1 through June 30th and a health benefit cycle runs from January through December. And so we know
what our costs are for 6 months and we have to project what the next six months will be in any given budget. And so this year we were hit with I believe it was 27.8% 8% um across the the four plans were in the state health benefits plan
and for next year they're telling us to budget another 30%. And so when you're tax levy is capped at 2% your other revenues are pretty well fixed and then you have the rising costs of everything else when you're getting hit with those
significant increases in health benefits alone. It's just not sustainable. And so when the board is going to be paying the state health benefits plan, we're projecting over a million dollars a month for the benefit year 2027. There's
there's no place else for that money to come from or go. Um and that's just it's to no fault of anyone. We did on February 20th, you're able to request your experience rate from the state um to potentially go out to the marketplace
um we did it two years ago. I guess they did it on February 19th, 2023. Um or 24 and so now we could do it on February 20th, 2026. And so we did. It's probably not going
to be too good um because we we we used the plan um the plan which is that's what it's there for. But it doesn't help because now what's happening is any district >> um who could leave the state plan is
leaving the state plan which is just hurting the pool of when when they go for renewal. And so here we are with these highs. Wait for the damper on on my >> way to go. Um
but uh yeah. So >> the horse to >> the the good news uh committee over here just ruined my uh aura. But okay. So uh that's the bad news. And there's you know obviously more bad news which is that we are losing revenue and tuition.
We have lost state aid three years in a row. We have, you know, all different things that um that we're considering and things that we're working around. And um you know, again, I I really can't um and by the way, this is not this is like a like a world problem, right? This
is not like a school district problem. Insurance costs are, you know, rising everywhere. So this is not something, you know, that is anybody's fault within education. Um so anyway we did talk about the varsity partnership which I think was a really positive uh
presentation here by Mr. Tier. So you know it we we are working with whatever problems are given to us the the administration is solution based completely and um working hard with the board and others and and their staff and faculty and everybody's making sacrifices to really make sure that
these uh these cuts or anything that's going to happen is not going to you know adversely affect the children. So, and that's our main goal. So, that is my financing facilities report. And then, um my my secret committee that I meet with uh every so often is negotiations.
I'm the chair of that one too. And we are even though the the um the contract with the teachers uh is a 5-year contract. In that contract, we uh have something in there to talk about like to renegotiate potentially schedule uh CN D, which is what we're doing right now.
Um, I can't tell you anything that was said, but we did meet uh a productive second meeting uh with the group and then we're scheduled to meet again uh next month. >> Thank you. >> Thank you, >> Tony. >> Uh the policy committee met in the uh on February 2nd and Mr. Colasso sent out an
email today reminding us that we're not having a March meeting because of the timing of the board meeting, etc. Um, in our in our committee meeting, we talked about all the uh policies and regulations that are up for first reading this evening. Um, if I can draw
your attention to the bottom for when we get to the uh page of agenda, we're abolishing four different policies and regulations. And essentially what that is and the state's uh infinite wisdom at one point concerning sexual harassment there was one policy and regulation for
certificated staff members and one for non-ertificated and quite honestly they were almost the same thing. So the state realized that and put it all together into one policy regulation and also touched upon t uh title 7 and title 9 in
terms of different types of sexual harassment. So those policies include the different areas that have to be investigated, who investigates it, etc. And that is a relatively new policy that we're putting together tonight or first reading. Uh we also have nepotism and
the employment of chief school administrator as relatively new policies that came from our policy vendor. We also have continued our task of taking a look at existing policies and trying to refresh them where necessary. either they got missed at some point over the
last seven or eight years or it's just a matter of you know let's take another another fresh look at the policy get a new policy approval date to show that we're constantly looking to uh review those types of things so first meeting tonight only for all things on the agenda thank you
>> I just want to bring up we had our first inaugural transportation committee on January 26th um and really it's an important committee because it kind of loops into finances and how to how to fix some of our problems with transportation, either eliminating routes or merging routes so that we can
do it more effectively and costly. Anyone else? >> We're going to go any correspondence. >> Okay. Open to the public for items on the agenda. A deadline and email from board of education bylaw 0167. Each statement made by a participant shall be
moved for three minutes. I seek a motion Joe seconded by Stephanie. All in favor? Opposed? Anyone from the public? Please state your name and town. Lyn location. Just for my own curiosity, um P25
2668. The last one is a substitute teacher. And I'm just curious, there's two different amounts there that obviously will be added together. I'm just curious as to where they came from. >> All right. So, uh you're talking Mile
Gambal. >> Yes. >> Yeah. Yeah. Um so he is typically was hired as a PAR professional for us. So his daily rate is 172.97. Okay. >> When we increase him to a substitute, um
he's taking on more responsibility uh with lesson planning and such. So, we have kind of defined amongst, you know, administration uh that for a substitute, it's a long-term substitute for the district is $200 a day. So, we make up
that difference with that. >> Okay. Thanks. >> Anyone else have any questions regarding the agenda? Okay. I seek a motion to close to the public. Tony, seconded by Joe. All in favor? >> Opposed? Okay. Board action. Have a recommendation of the superintendent. I
seek a motion for BA25-26.56 and.57 Andrew seconded by Tone. All in favor? >> I >> opposed. Educational programs and curriculum Stephanie Cinger makes a
motion to seek approval for C25-26.28 29.7 and 31 and 32. I need a second, Andrew. All in favor? >> Opposed?
Okay. Personnel. Um, receive the motion for P25-26.68 69.70 71.72.73 and 74. I need a second. Stephanie Roll call. Mr. Al. >> Yes. Miss Caldero,
>> yes. >> Missinger, >> yes. >> Mr. Olardi, >> yes. >> Mr. Lumo, >> yes. >> Miss Moore, >> yes. >> Vice President Dun, >> yes. >> President Gomez, >> yes. >> Okay. Finance and Facilities, Cheryl Kilmer. Um I take a motion for the
approval of F2526.147.148.149.150.15152.1534 I just say.147 through >> yeah so many I don't know I never yeah let's do it years 58.159.16 60.161.162.163.164
2165.166.167.168.169 and 170. >> I need a second. >> Wait, do you have a question? >> I just wanted to say I just wanted to say something about one of them if I may. Um and then I'll second it. But um 2526.163
is a new scholarship um honoring uh Judge Bachmann whose kids went to school here. Um I knew Keith personally. Keith was also a student here. And believe it or not, my wife's aunt was actually his like first grade teacher. Um and just a
wonderful man who unfortunately we all stayed with us. >> Okay, >> that's all. >> You chose our second. All in favor? I oppose. >> Okay. Athletics and co-curricular Nicole Dunn. >> First, I want to thank the volunteers
for these positions. So, I seek a motion for AC 25-26 26. A second. >> Joe. All in favor? >> Opposed? Policy. Anthony Algro. >> I wish to move policy 25-26.6, 6 which as I had mentioned before is the
first reading of policies and regulations. >> Need a second. Andrew. All in favor? >> Opposed. Okay. Any old business? Any new business? >> Any board member request for additional information.
Okay. I see the motion as out to open to the public as outlined for board of education by law 0167. Each statement made by a participant shall be limited to eight minutes. Need a second. Nicole. All in favor? Opposed? Any questions on the public? Seek a motion
to close the public. Tony, all in favor? >> I oppose. Okay. And we are already. >> I need a motion to adjurnn. Andrew, seconded by Joe. All in favor? I opposed.