we have Good evening everyone like to call the meeting to order uh this is a special meeting of the board of education adequate notice has been provided uh the schedule and said notice of meetings is posted uh has been posted April 2nd 2025 and are
maintained uh in the interior window of the exterior school exterior door of the school administrative offices uh mailed to the retrospect courier post and file with the clerk of the bureau of Oakland uh all right let's uh call to
order roll call mr demarco here mrs love here mrs marian here mrs rotando
here mr schaefer here mr stoz here mr ty here i'll stand for the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible
with liberty and justice for all all right do we have a motion to move into committee of the whole so moves moved and seconded all on a vote all in favor i
I will turn over to Dr mcdow for uh our presentation tonight so good evening everyone thank you so much for being here uh at this special board meeting to talk about the uh new uh tax levy incentive program with the
department of education um and so as as always we always want to make sure that we are grounded in our vision and our miss in our mission and so and that is to make sure that we are um creating an environment that inspires um and and
empowers uh every one of our students uh and that they're prepared for what comes in in the future and so uh tonight's agenda is uh to give a brief presentation on uh the challenge that we are facing and how this new program can
help us navigate through uh some really challenging circumstances um that districts like Oakland and and districts uh throughout the state of New Jersey are facing uh review of timeline and next steps uh we're in committee of the whole so that the board um has an
opportunity for the free flowing of uh questions and discussion um and then uh wrapping up any additional questions or feedback uh all of the information presented this evening will be shared uh publicly um tomorrow uh it'll be in the inboxes as well as posted on the um
school district website and so uh before we dig into the program um we want to start with some positive news and some key highlights and so um there have been some very challenging uh years academically across our country across our state despite those challenges in
Oakland we continue to show growth and proficiency in reading uh with continued increases uh we have hit our growth targets in literacy and mathematics uh for the last three years in Oakland and that is because of the tremendous effort of our teachers the hard work of our
students and the partnership with our parents uh and this is something that we just want to continue to celebrate uh we also want to talk and and celebrate when positive trends are taking place because of the robust nature of our student support program here in Oakland we are
seeing a pretty significant decline in chronic absenteeism uh chronic absenteeism is defined as being absent for 10% or more of the days uh during the school year and so what does this uh continued decline mean it means that our students
are spending more days in school uh which gives them a greater opportunity to be successful uh and demonstrate that positive growth that we referenced in the first slide and so understanding the current landscape um I don't think uh we need to
spend a lot of time but uh 2025 is not the year that we anticipated uh the chaos and uncertainty in public education that has been dominating much of our news feeds uh and many of our our thoughts and sometimes nightmares uh with the escalation of the mental health
crisis is taking place and manifesting in our schools growing teacher shortages both at the state and national level the rising cost of goods and services um local budget crisis and cost of living increases uh to our citizens the
potential elimination of the United States Department of Education as well as the elimination of other federal programs departments and services and the impending uh reductions to federal K12 funding um as of last week the United States Department of Education
issued a mandate uh to states first and school districts second to eliminate uh certain items within their state curriculum within their uh state constitutions or face uh the withdrawal of federal funds um they have extended
that to the uh end of this month uh the New Jersey Department of Education is taking um the lead on this discussion uh but ultimately what what this potentially could mean is that if the federal government is able to uh begin
withdrawing federal funds those dollars would need to be made up either at the state or at the local level and so uh we are all working collaboratively with our uh state uh and county officials um in order to advocate for the funding that our students need and to make that we're
not continuingly increasing uh tax burden on our citizens and so what has been done in order to address the budget challenges uh that we are facing and so um we're just we're not going to read everything but there have been a multitude of
collective efforts coming from community members from board members and so uh several months ago uh and throughout the year we asked our community to uh write letters uh to local and state representatives in order to prioritize uh funding for students uh technical
reports have been written advocacy groups have been formed in Camden County specifically u uh we had board members um on this board participate in public hearings with the uh state of New Jersey uh and the governor and the state's response is this new uh tax levy
incentive program as a result of the tremendous advocacy from a lot of of different folks uh advocating for additional resources for students um in our districts and so what is the uh tax levy
incentive program it's a one-time exception to the 2% tax cap law it's an opportunity for school districts to raise their local tax levy and permanently reduce uh any potential budget deficits or funding shortfalls
it's an incentive for one-time use where the New Jersey Department of Education will provide additional funding for the 2526 school year only worth 5% of whatever the increase uh that local communities approve uh through this
particular exception why is Oakland eligible for this program the state has determined that Oakland public school is underfunded locally and has a budget that is below educational adequacy and so what does educational adequacy mean
this is a a complex calculation that determines the minimum cost needed to provide a thorough and deficient education to all students within your community and so what is the financial impact and so that's what we're going to we're talk about uh this evening um the
impact both in the community and to our school and so we've identified three uh funding scenarios or opportunities and so the way that the program works is that you apply for the program the state will then determine how much you qualify
for based on uh their calculations and then that approval comes back to uh the board and then the board based on feedback from the community based on goals and objectives of the school and the board they will determine uh what amount uh to to uh to be able to
implement um or not and so to give our community uh a sense of what's at stake uh with this uh opportunity uh scenario number one is with the full funding that uh has
been calculated um it would be an an average monthly cost uh to the average homeowner of about $49 per month with an additional one-time infusion of state aid of $37,500 what this would allow the district to do would be to bring back the uh staff who
were laid off last year it would allow the district to restore funding for curricular materials and uh supplies it would provide budgetary stability for for uh upandcoming out of district uh tuition as well as uh transportation
costs it would also allow the district to restore funding to update technology and so we are a onetoone computing district um and the technology continues to increase and our uh young people are pretty hard on their Chromebooks and so
we need to replace our Chromebooks uh every year it would also allow the district to restore uh the steam program in addition to replenishing our maintenance reserves we are very fortunate that our board has made really
wise um investments in terms of making sure that our facility was updated and there was no deferred maintenance however um in school buildings that are um a little long in the tooth uh maintenance is is always lurking in the
background and we want to make sure that there is no disruption of services to students um and that we have we continue to maintain a safe environment option number two and so what we're showing is is the the different potential options so you you have a
sense of the range uh of what may uh be approved in in the near future so option number two is what we're calling a midlevel increase this is about $550,000 average monthly cost is about $38 uh per homeowner with an a onetime
additional uh infusion of state aid of $27,500 and so the list is the same but what comes off the list is we would no longer have the uh the funding uh in order to update the technology we would not be able to restore the steam program and we
would not be able to replenish our maintenance reserves we would be able to bring back the staff who were previously laid off those those uh positions restore funding for much neededed curricular materials and supplies and provide a degree of budget uh stability
for out of district tuition and transportation costs and so to kind of share uh what does that mean uh last year our board worked really meticulously in order to uh reduce the tax burden uh because we were moving
into a very challenging budget year and so we were able to uh make really wise and moderate reductions to the tune of about $106,000 at the two weeks before uh the budget needed to be sent to the state we
had uh several families uh move into Oakland oakland is a desirable place to live we had several families move in and two out of district placements cost $99,000 those are uh part of our responsibility to educate every student
and so any cost savings that we were able to generate um was completely absorbed in in a two-eek period and so when we talk about having stability what we don't want is we don't want to be in an environment where we're having to reduce things in the middle of the
school year because we have a a financial responsibility to take care of our students and so uh that's what uh we mean when we say budgetary stability so that the budget we start with at the beginning of the year is the budget that we end with at the end of the year and
then the last option uh would be minimal funding increase minimal funding increase would allow us to bring back the two uh academic support positions that were uh cut last year due to the reduction in state aid
uh that would be at a $300,000 increase with an average monthly cost to homeowners of about $24.92 with a one-time infusion of about $15,000 in additional state aid for the 2526 school year and
so what are next steps and so this evening uh the board will be uh discussing and voting on a resolution to simply apply for the program they're not voting on the budget the application uh will be submitted uh to the state of New
Jersey uh on Monday April 14th for their review and so the application is pretty intensive it requires a line item justification for any uh level of of estimated increase uh they will review and they will come back and they will
let the board of education know what they have been approved for and then the board will do further deliberation to determine um what next steps would be prior to the end of of April all of these things will be taking place we will have a regular board meeting on
April 29th and we will have on May 6th our official public hearing where uh the board will approve the final budget which will or will not include um uh revenues from this tax levy incentive aid
program um that concludes the presentation do any board members have questions concerns statements that they'd like to make at this time i have some concerns um to be quite honest I'm disappointed with all three options um I
think when it says um staff that we've cut I think it's important to make clear that these are two positions that we did not have prior to CO and that they were through grant money so now we've decided that we're going to actually put them on
the budget and the reason I'm not saying it's a bad thing to have additional staff my concern is we're below adequate so why are we focusing on expanding when we should be focusing on retaining preserving and keeping things so we're able to function in years ahead i don't
understand why we're going to add two additional staff members that were through grant funding temporarily when we should be focusing on um an appropriate solution that isn't half of what we're asking to increase and so the the academic support
positions and so what we're talking about and so I'm going to I'm going to use a visual reference because I think that it's really important and so we think about continued growth and and proficiency our teachers are working incredibly hard but I I believe that
anyone who has stepped foot in a classroom in the last five years would uh would agree that the conditions in which our educators are operating is dramatically different and that uh uh was further exacerbated during CO but it didn't start with COVID and so uh the
needs of our students are very different and so what we see on this particular slide is that we have maximized our potential and we are showing moderate increases in academic achievement and so yes 57% proficiency uh shows uh uh
improvement uh but the goal is 100% and so what you are not seeing in this particular slide is um math we have made a focus for the last five years of targeted levels of math support and we are seeing growth in math uh but it's
not enough we need additional support in order to make sure that students are getting what they need and that our staff uh have the time and the capacity and bandwidth to be able to deliver the additional support and currently we have
we have reached the the maximum of our bandwidth to provide meaningful support those two positions that were reduced we're providing targeted levels of tier two and tier three instruction to students who struggle and when we think about our performance in in math uh
we're talking about uh three out of every 10 children are proficient which means seven out of every 10 children in our district um need additional help and so uh the board has been um acutely aware based on feedback that has come
directly from the faculty and staff at our school that additional help is needed i understand that but my concern is we're below adequate so I don't think we're in a comfortable position to put on two staff members i mean from my experience and I understand it's a
different ex uh district but when I was in the high school um there were positions that were being funded through grant money and the issue is that these grants are supposed to be temporary they expire and I'm just surprised that none
of these options specifically focus on needed instructional supplies on new curriculum on um maintenance that all of these options include these two staff members so option C is solely those two staff members that we never had before
we got that grant but it does but we don't have an option where it just covers um supplies and maintenance i mean like for example I've most of the stuff that's in the school has been here since I attended from kindergarten to 7th in this school so I just think it's
surprising that we don't have an option that solely focuses on that and so I I understand I understand the the argument and so let me I'm going to say something that is a declare a declarative statement um not meant to diminish or or
discount uh things we can run schools without books without computers without desks and chairs the most powerful uh tool in a school are teachers and so uh if an individual is asking me if I had a
dollar to spend um I'm gonna spend it on a powerful teacher over a thing um we can go out and we can find resources for things um finding highquality teachers that can help grow our kids that's very difficult
to find and I would uh strongly you know invite other board members um who were integral in the recommendations that are coming from our school um to weigh in also I'd like to weigh in and sorry Jen but just from a perspective of a parent
who has had a child who entered the school on Zoom in preschool in 2020 um and she is my third child to go through the school i didn't want to talk about this publicly but I feel like it needs to be said if statements like I've
heard are being made she has made progress every year and this year she stalled and the only thing that has changed is not having two MTSS which we talked about publicly last
year two teachers was 50% less services across the school that's the math of it um and now she's in third grade and now she's going to take the NJSLAS and I'm afraid that if we don't
take action with getting our teachers back to do this important work that we've seen have results then next year this board will be squawking about why the test scores are so bad so I think this is our opportunity to take action
to do what the mission of this board is um if I can jump in as well I hear everything everybody's saying um when I look at the options my knee-jerk reaction um is I I want to go
as little as possible with an increase and I know that might not be popular when our budgets like as squeaky small as it is but we we have a fiscal responsibility to the community to not continue to raise taxes at a rate that people on fixed incomes or whatever
situations there so I look at this and my my first thing is all right smaller is better and that's without weighing all the bullets that's that's the initial reaction but then when Teres makes her
point I'm the human capital I is just so much I I shouldn't say this i'm not an educator i don't know the value of this Chromebook but if if we had to get by next year with less of these or some broken ones i I think to have the
educators back is where we where it's at like I think that's the bang for the buck but what happens next year when we're faced with another cut are they going to go are they the first things to go so that's my actually bigger concern about bringing them back is because if they're the most expendable if we're
back at this table next year having a conversation turnover is expensive training people recruiting people doing all the things associated with that only to not be able to balance a budget next year are these people we
bring in are we going to potentially be talking about letting them go again so that's where I'm a little bit stuck but th those are my thoughts on it i I do agree that the value of a teacher having
seen our teachers in action and what we don't have the you know I guess teachers don't always have the easiest kids but like to get through that day with that support to be able to pull children aside and help them where they're struggling i I I I agree with the value
in that and I think it's more important the whiteboard or whatever other groovy thing we can get with some technology or the curriculum i just worry that as soon as we recruit them a budget thingy or whatever we'll be faced with that next year and then are they going to have to
go so is that is that right are we positioning them for success that's my concern just to clarify some of the information we've been given is a little bit misleading to some degree this is a one-time increase that means that we can
increase our budget by whatever the percentage is this year but it doesn't go away next year that increase is forever so your concern about the teachers u if you bought the increase is probably not there next year uh I am
concerned if we hired more teachers more support staff I I don't think there's any question but the kids would do better the problem is we're a public education uh entity we we have to educate everybody and you know there are limits to that you know if you want
individual attention you go to a private school uh and and even Catholic schools aren't doing that anymore uh so there are limitations to the number of people that you can throw at this u let me provide just a little bit of clarity we're not talking necessarily
about one-on-one instruction we're not talking about private school education what we're talking about is how do we make sure that that child that has an IEP um gets extra in their small group that child that's an English language learner that needs a little bit more time in terms of English support gets what they
need um there's not enough time in the day in order to answer 100% uh of the needs um but what the staffing allows us to do is to answer more of the needs so that more children get what they need in
order to be successful and so when we talk about a um what we're trying to to uh mitigate last year we saw a $632,000 cut in state aid um option uh three uh helps us to at least cut that
negative impact in half permanently and so we're trying to the state has given us an opportunity to to to write what was inflicted upon us last year uh and at least cut it in in half at a bare minimum yeah but when we look at the options as they were pointed out like so
like let's say hypothetically we go with option one that's 600 a year that would be imposed to the taxpayers won't be just for this year it would be every year correct and then whatever other municipal or whatever other reason that we increase taxes like the 2% might get
thrown in there as well and I feel like we as as a board have to be mindful of how often and how frequently and to what degree and to what extent we're increasing taxes for the town yeah so couple things um one I obviously might
be a little biased here but uh I'll invest in a teacher any day of the week over a Chromebook and twice on a Monday um what the teacher can offer is is irreplaceable when you have quality staff in there i've had the privilege of working with some incredible ICS teachers in Collingswood seeing the difference it makes uh working with
students with 504s and IEP um sometimes the problem is yes these positions have been salaried through grant money which in itself is an issue but the value of what that position brings and the quality staff member is is irreplaceable and no Chromebook or anything else can replace that um to to
Jen's point I I I do feel we it's it's a balance right with so many things um I I want to stabilize our base you know uh as you know for the district but we do need to be mindful at what cost figuratively and and literally for the taxpayer um you know when it it's it's
nice to break it down by month but we're looking at either you know roughly 600 460 or 300 annually um and that's a lot of money you know not everyone has has two incomes coming in um some people are on fixed incomes and it's something to to be mindful of which I know we are as
a board and and like so many things it's it's that balancing act i I want to stabilize our base for the future but at the same time being very mindful of the burden it places on our taxpayer and and any investment we make um again I think our number one investment is in is in
staff so just points to consider as we um navigate through this i just wanted to clarify what I said my intention wasn't to say that Chromebooks are more are more valuable than teachers what I was trying to say is my biggest concern
is that we put the teachers on there but our focus is on retaining teachers that we currently have and my biggest fear is that we go ahead and add these two teachers but we're gonna have to decide who we're keeping two years from now that's my biggest concern and the reason
I mentioned the um curriculum the supplies and other things is because those purchases we aren't having to make every single year that can be in that that can be saved for something else but when we have two teachers we have to pay
them every single year and that we're already on a tight budget that's why I don't understand if we add these two more teachers we're already struggling that's why I I I don't understand and just clarification too Fred your your comment about the state now gives us the
opportunity to to repair what they tore apart last year that's not quite right the state cut us that money last year from the state uh appropriation that we were supposed to get and didn't now they're allowing us to fix it by taxing these people uh so It's not exactly like
the state's giving it back to us they're they're not giving it back to us they're giving us an opportunity to get it back in another manner uh so that they don't have to they don't have to fund the formula that's their formula you know they work this through and we're supposed to get this much money but they
say "Yeah you don't spend enough so you're not going to get that much money." You will never have me defend the state funding formula good good we're on the same side just just a couple points uh bringing it back to uh the funding formula just for for members
of the public who are there out there uh this this actually goes all the way back to 2009 when uh the state uh mandated that districts are only able to raise uh our taxes by 2% um what that does is uh
locks us in regardless of how much our costs go up um Dr mcdow mentioned uh the the cost of out of district tuition and transportation um the state didn't cap those so if we have a student uh who uh
would would be placed out of district for special education services that we aren't able to provide um those out of district schools uh the transportation they can raise that as much as they want every year um so this gap that we're
talking about this adequacy gap um has grown exponentially each year since 2009 um so uh this is an opportunity for us to kind of take ownership of it as as a community close that gap and and to to
what degree we'll decide you know fully partially minimally um uh to to to keep our school moving on the right track um in regards to to the teaching positions um and and there's more conversations we'll have as a board once uh we really
talk about finalizing the budget and and where things would go um there's there's two uh programs that we would see here at our school uh and we we have a lot of acronyms in education we love that uh it's hard for us to keep track of but uh the two
acronyms that we're talking about is ICS and ICR ics is in-class support so that would be support teachers for students like Miss Barian's daughter who uh is just receiving that boost that a little extra support to keep her growing uh in
reading or math or or you know whatever the case is that's in-class support uh the other academic support teachers were talking about is in-class resource um that is designed specifically for to include students with IEPs in a general
education setting um the state for that type of programming provides limits so I believe correct me if I'm wrong it's six is it six or eight IEP students in an inclusion setting uh
in Yeah so even more so yeah um Right so so the state what the state does is the state put caps on these programs for the number of students that can be included um rightfully so right
otherwise it would just not be manageable for for one teacher to to to work with that many students um but then what happens is as the state does they say "Well this is really what we want but you can apply for a waiver um to increase those numbers." Um and so that's one of the tough decisions that
we're facing too with these academic support positions will we be able to uh run a thorough and efficient program for our special education students um by having that uh additional ICR in class
resource teacher um or or not um you know when when we talk about students who would go out of district as as they say um you know you're you're easily talking anywhere from 80 to $140,000 per
student um so when we talk about uh the MTSS teachers the ICR teachers the ICS teachers any of those acronyms you want to throw out there um they play an important role in that they help us to keep uh students here with us right with
their uh with their grade level peers um and and really allow us to maximize our funding that way um so that those are just some points on my mind about the the current uh programming the one thing I do want to
talk about as well um is uh Oakland as a community um you know I I've been on the board now since when did we start 2017 2017 um and every step along the way uh Oakland as a community has stepped up
for our school um you know this goes back even prior to that when the receive relationship with Hinella changed and we lost considerable funding funding that couldn't be replaced by state support by tax levy support um we pulled through um
we altered our send and receive relationship with Collinswood to help offset those funding shortfalls and this is outside of this 2% gap um we had a referendum uh just prior to the pandemic um and I was talking to a colleague
earlier today said "I don't know if any districts ever pass a referendum on the first time." Um and I quickly said Oakland did right so so once again uh the community came out uh to support the school to the fullest so you know uh
once we do get to the public comment section um I'd encourage you to share your thoughts on uh those tiers that we're talking about right and and and where you would like to see our our district moving in the years to come um in terms of those two positions you know
Mr coleman and I talked a little bit earlier today um you know we're we're certain as certain as you can be unless there's some kind of dramatic change at the state where those those two positions would be sustainable with this change um so I don't know you know
unless something drastic happens at the state level where things really just go off the rails um or federal or federal funding as well um which we don't know um you know but these positions should be sustainable because that I agree is incredibly important you know we don't
want to hire people train people and then lay them off it's it's not productive um for for for us as a district is not costefficient um and it's not helpful for the teachers here too because they build relationships they rely on those supports the students rely on those supports so we don't want
to have that kind of be on a yo-yo um so yeah that's uh that's all I have to say board members there's there's one more thing i just want to make sure that we're being um we're being clear and so when we talk about um the board's responsibilities to apply for the program um these scenarios are not
decisions these scenarios are uh encapsulating what could you purchase with that that dollar amount and so the board does not um lose the ability and so for I'm just going to throw out a number if the state comes back and says
that the board has a capacity to increase by 600 and the board decides to do 350 the board would then do 350 and then determine how they would like for that funding to be distributed based on what's available and so this is just
kind of giving an example of if these funds were made available what you would be able to purchase with those funds okay so these are flexible yes okay yes just along those lines right if uh if we did not spend everything that we were given the opportunity or the ability to
to spend and the state gives us this 5% on that anticipated amount but we don't spend it they're going to reduce our state aid next year by that amount I would assume so the way that the program works is that
um and so for example if you are if you increase by $100 um the actual levy would wouldn't be a $100 it would be a hundred minus the 5% and so they're they're giving you
the 5% and so the total amount that would actually be coming in and so the actual levy would not be the $100 would be $95 and then the state would pony up the five and as long as you're staying below your your adequacy budget um it's fine and so it's a one-time infusion and
so even if it's you know $500,000 it wouldn't the actual levy wouldn't be $500,000 the levy would be the 475,000 and then the the state would be ponying up for that first year and so
the actual increase would be 475 it wouldn't actually be 500 the numbers that you had given us earlier uh the monthly charges do they anticipate the state's portion yes okay
uh how about this is a wild idea if the state really wanted to help us why wouldn't they just take off the 2% cap great question i know the answer it's an it's an election year and and there is a
lack of political will to to to do right um and so the reality is is that we've been advocating at the at the state level for several years and so when talking with the state agencies and the department of education the legislature um they don't have the appetite uh in
order to make a change of that nature um in an election year and so next year after the campaigns are over and individuals have been installed um it is something that they believe will be on the agenda for further discussion yeah
appetite's a good word that's not the one I would have used but uh and I encourage I encourage everyone to join the New Jersey Fair Funding Collective NJFC that has a ton of information and
is a collective of our regions school districts volunteers community members um to try to advocate for things like you just talked about the other uh point too um showing my age a little bit but back when I was still
teaching in the classroom uh there there was a prior to the 2% caps you would have your budget election every November um and so for us as a board um you know most of us uh might not have been faced with this type of decision um however
going back to uh period of time before the cap this was an annual conversation for boards you what do we need what can we live with what can we live without um and then what's the impact going to be for the community so you know uh that 2% cap kind of kind of took this whole
conversation out of the out of out of the game but uh you know so I commend everybody on the board for really looking deeply and and weighing those questions for a lot of us for the first time as as board members can I say one clarifying thing too on my
prior statement my daughter is currently taught by someone who's been teacher of the year and is beyond phenomenal i gave the example I know I gave the example because I just want to say again how astounded I am by the faculty and staff
at our school and just say again how my position is because I really wanted to give you some real life information but they're doing their job times two so hats off to them and the other piece too just coming back
to Dr mcdow's point um you know tonight the approval is to just apply and we're applying for the whole thing because we're not going to leave money on the table the state will decide how much of that we're even eligible for and then we'll decide where to go from there um
so we do have the flexibility to to to change these plans however um you know all of it's done uh through collaboration with district administration teachers um to find out really what the needs are throughout these hallways every day right so um
while we we do have those options there um as starting points um you know I don't want everyone to think that all right the board is just going to make this call on our own there there's there's a great deal of collaboration with with the teachers with the administration um that goes on uh you
know ongoing but but particularly with what we're facing now to make sure that we are really doing what uh is best for the kids so to piggyback off of what Rich just said and so when we received notice um and so the state um is
um never uh forgiving when it comes to giving you time to make decisions they're always rush rush rush and so they gave us what Bethan two two weeks to do this they gave us two weeks to have um community meetings to fill out a
50,000 page application to go back to our schools and so what we did because in both Oakland and Collingswood we are both um eligible and so we reached out to all of our schools and we asked for our schools to give us a um detailed
list of priorities if additional funds were available and here in Oakland um they gave us uh different tiers and they uh gave us the justification for why those components were important um and so we believe that uh schoolbased staff
are best positioned to make a majority of the decisions because they are boots on the ground and so um it would be my recommendation when we're deliberating that we u utilize that priorities list established by our staff here um to be
the foundation of our discussions any other uh comments or questions from the board all right uh can we uh have a motion to adjourn the uh committee of the whole
can can just ask one more question uh I figure I'm a couple questions short but then I was a little disappointed for a second there but I wouldn't want to disappoint anybody the uh the numbers that we were given for the the $49 per
month for option one does that include or is that in addition to the budget that we've already submitted to the state includes question it includes it okay okay that's it all right motion to close
the committee of the whole so move All right and we are closed for uh for the committee of the whole uh we're going to move on to our first public comment section of the uh evening um to all participants here uh please remember to stand state your name and address
keep your comments to five minutes or less um the purpose uh for this public comment section is to discuss items listed on the agenda which there's only one so I think we know what we want to talk about um more general comments uh
will be made later on in the meeting um for items that are not on the agenda um during our second public comment section um public is reminded that all uh that attempts to resolve all concerns and complaints should first go through the appropriate staff members and administrators so um any public comment
just make sure when you come up to the mic be loud and proud because those folks on YouTube want to be able to hear us good evening my name is Jennifer Moger i live at 145 Kendall Boulevard i'm a of three children in the district um one about to start preschool in September
one who is P at ICS in fifth grade i have one daughter in Collinswood Middle School who's a sixth grader who is P in ICS you don't know you now know I work at the middle school as public knowledge I make
$38,100 for a 12-month position i'm a family of five who loves this community so much I wanted to work in one of the buildings i wanted to build a bridge for Oakland to Collinswood because my sister-in-law and my husband went through the district and they were here until guess before
seventh grade ninth grade whatever the transition was um I want to urge the board to think of your community members that in here who also work other places some of us are penny pinching i don't want to leave my job i
don't want to move but any increase can cause that and I'm not the only one my kids also receive phenomenal services what you said Charice that teacher was the one that pushed my fifth grader to get the services and she's on
grade level so I understand i urge you not just just look at the budget be creative how have you communicated with the burrow how many how does this affect I'm sorry I wasn't going to do this how does this affect residents like
those that are on tax gaps those that for every person in an apartment building or a rental or a tax gap or a business how does that affect me is my $49 if you go all the way up is that more a year because you don't have as
much to pull from i don't know budget i don't understand it i'm just trying to understand because my kids go here thank you hi my name is Connor Rearen i live at 320 Bryant Avenue around the corner um I'll keep it very short but I'd just
like to reference um Dr mcdow you stated that this is a a very attractive place to move to and to live in and this school is uh the bedrock of that and I'd like to voice my fullthroated support of this application and getting as much as
we can um and I'd just like to voice my dissatisfaction with how much the state is contributing as part of this it should be much much more um the fact that you know we're we're looking at hundreds of thousands of taxpayers
dollars up there and just $38,000 from the state is is mindboggling to me um but that's all I've got to say and I'd reiterate my support for the application and the um uh tax increases whatever may come
i'm Jackie Jackie Walters i live at 407 Oaklan Avenue um I just want to first say to the board I appreciate your due diligence and I can see it in your faces that it's not an easy job and I agree with that so being in public education though I will also say that you cannot
diminish the power of a human being that's the place to put money and that's a good decision but mindfully you if you're talking about test scores you need kids exposed to technology because unfortunately the barrier as a state is
on technology so it is a hard decision because we need our kids exposed to it so to say that our kids are using broken computers they're not going to be successful in the test no matter how many people you put in the classroom if they can't type so they're difficult decisions for everybody to make but one
of the things that we all need to know is that you're permanently raising the tax levy it's not one time so that's a big ask so you were elected officials we believe in you we elected you but it's
not a one-time ask you're asking us forever and that is a heavy weight to carry so I encourage you as board members have we looked at everything the person who spoke before of course mentioned creativity have we looked at
how we can raise revenue are we maximizing the people in our buildings to do multiple jobs small districts I work in one many people do multiple jobs so are we outsourcing things that
don't need to be outsourced are we paying for services that we don't need to pay for that we can do inhouse are we raising rents to people are we looking Build programs that we can charge tuition for so you want an
in-class support is that one of the features we want or we want a resource room are we building programs that maybe you have space and it's been a long time since I've been in the building my children are 30 and 27 but can we build a program that you're charging tuition for special ed students to come here so
there's other ways instead of asking us for money which I get it but are we looking at every stone before we ask the taxpayers for more because we've got a lot like we all hear the news and I'm not trying to be political we've got tariffs coming you've got potential
losing your pea money coming we got the loss of federal money are we going to be able to sustain this those are questions i think you got to look at how do we build revenue it's just another avenue to go to but again thank you for your time we appreciate your support and I do
think that Oakland's a great place to live any other comments all right uh we will end our first public comment section of the evening moving on to item four um finance buildings and grounds committee
and we are looking to approve item uh 4.02 which is the approval of or sorry 4.0 was that 4.01 4.01 item 4.01 which is uh the application to the state for our uh funding increase do
we have a motion so moved second any comments or questions from the board hearing none uh on a roll call mr demarco yes mrs love yes mrs marian yes
mrs ratando yes mr schaefer yes mr sts yes mr ty yes all right motion passes moving on to our second public comment section of the evening um this uh public comment section is for topics that might be on
your mind uh remember to please uh stand state your name and address keep your comments to five minutes or less uh public's reminded that attempts to resolve all concerns complaints should first go through the appropriate staff members and administrators any uh additional public
comment all right hearing no okay hearing none hearing none we will close our second uh public comment section um and uh with that uh do we have a motion to adjurnn so move move and second all in favor
i favor all right meeting is adjourned