Good evening. All right. Call to order. Pursuant to the New Jersey Open Public Meetings Act, NJSA 104 through10, adequate notice of this meeting has been provided by advertising such notice in the Home News Tribune, the Asbury Park Press, the
board office, the schools, and in cable vision channel 118, Verizon Fios channel 24, and by filing such notice with the township clerk. This meeting was scheduled for Tuesday, August 12th, 2025, and the board will take formal action on payments of bills and other
agenda items. Mr. Right now, the Old Bridge Township Board of Education acknowledges that the law of the state establishes that members of the public, including members of the board, have the right to record public board meetings using audio or video recording devices, provide that the act of recording does not interfere with the
business of this public board meeting. Therefore, the board makes it known that any such recording is to be considered the private recording of the individual and in no manner represents the official record of this board. The board therefore takes no responsibility for such private recording and completely
disavows any future use. Roll call, please. Dunn is absent. Francisco here. Giardano here. Jodri Mazone here. Sed here. Solowski here. Benitason is absent today. And Dantino
present. We have a quorum. Thank you. Can we all please stand for the pledge? I pledge allegiance. Thank you. Next week we will have um a moment of silence. Uh we will have minutes to approve next week.
I'm working on them. Oh. Um, can we have a volunteer to read the code of ethics next month? I'll do it. Christina, thank you. All right. Um, I believe we will not have a student rep um next week, but we
will have uh recognition. Any discussion on the recognition next week? Okay. Um, superintendence report. Um, I did want to let the community know that Dr. Bragan has been in district several
days um during this past month. He's getting to know the administration and the principles. Um, and he will continue to do that until his starting date on September 1st. The search report, I did talk a little bit with the
search committee. Of course, now my notes part on my phone disappeared. There it is. Um, and I will have a more in-depth report from them for next week, but they did want us to let the public know that there are 29 applicants so far in the system. They have started vetting
some of those with a few strong leaders already within the mix. For the community Zoom, I was asked by some community members if there's a like a pre-registration or a link. Um, the link is just one link. There's no pre-registration required and their program allows at least 500 people on
the meeting at a time. So they don't anticipate any issue because they haven't been like maxed out before. So on the um the date that's on the website for the community Zoom that's open for all. Okay. And we'll have a more in-depth report next week.
Any correspondence for today? None to be read. Okay. I do want to share with um the board and the public. Sorry. Um, I did send an email today to
the town council business administrator and the town council president. Um, I wanted to take a moment to see if we can set up a follow-up meeting for our last on our last working together meeting for community affairs. Our last meeting with
Mr. Sedadino was in April and we had some great conversations with vision visions of way we can unite. I would like to follow up on that with our interim superintendent Dr. Briggen. Can you please provide a few dates that would work for everyone to continue this project? So, just to update the public
that that email was sent. Special committee reports. Okay. I just wanted to share some dates with the public. They will be going on the website soon. Um, I'm just going across the
spreadsheet, so I apologize if the dates are out of order. Um the SEPTA meeting will be September 18th. The special education committee meeting will be October 7th. There will be a policy curriculum and policy but it's really for a policy
matter next Tuesday before the board meeting and then a full curriculum and policy meet and technology meeting on September 30th. The food and operations committee will be meeting October 16th. Uh the strategic planning, finance and
shared services meeting will happen on October 15th and by then we should have the reports from the the architects. Thank you. Um on our review of the buildings as well as the
demography coming in to the um the town for our schools. And then um so those are the ones that are on the calendar for September and October. The other thing I wanted to add to the
special committee reports um because I think it goes under our finance um is we've I know I have so I'm going to make the assumption that some other board members have been getting questions about the town tax bill. So, I
wanted to share a little bit with the public. Um, a few key starting points. The town fiscal year is January through December. The school fiscal year is July through June. So, that makes things a little bit harder when they go to coordinate. Um, the town has the legal
ability to do an estimated thirdarter taxes up to 5% because full budget numbers from all the components, the school, the county open space, the library, the county tax, and the municipal tax numbers might not be in place in time to do the estimated third
quarter taxes. This year, the town chose to do a lower percentage increase for the third quarter. As a result, the difference in the increase and what was built for your third quarter is added to the fourth quarter. So your third quarter was a very low estimate and what it should have been and the difference
between that and what it was is added to what your fourth quarter was. The total of the paid the t your taxes for all four quarters adds up to the correct amount of the total tax bill increase of 9.92% from across the town. It was just not
divided into four equal payments which would have been helpful for h families and households to budget easier. A high fourth quarter due rate before the winter holiday season is winter holiday season start is a hard pill to swallow. Yes, the school is the
biggest percentage of your taxes at 60%. My opinion is it's also one of the biggest components of a home value. No one is picking a home because your garbage pickup is or is not included. It went up 13%. The county is 17% of your taxes and went up 6.5. Your municipal is
16% and went up 1.58. Fire is 4% of your taxes and went up 3.04. Library is 2% and went up 10.7 10.20 I can't talk today. 10.20%. And the county open space is 1% of your
taxes and went up 11.11%. We were upfront about our budget conversation and our needs. Many of us went to Trenton and contacted state decision makers. We had conversations with the public. No one rolled out the red carpet and popped champagne for the need to raise taxes, but the majority of
the ver voices heard by many of us was in support of what we need to do to save school district as we know it. So, I wanted to answer some of those questions for the public of why your fourth quarter taxes were so big because I know I got some emails. I don't know if my fellow board members did.
I have a quick question. Go ahead. The taxes that were just that we just got that was from last year's tax increase. So, am I So the way that the district's fiscal year works, the increase that we went,
so the 2526 budget covers quarter 3 and quarter 4 of 2025 and then uh quarter 1 and quarter 2 of 2026. So we're a deferred year. So we're kind of broke broken up. So that's why when you see our impact numbers, it kind of gets
offset a little bit by the fiscal, you know, your township. So talking to the township and something we're working on already for 2627 budget because the year hasn't started yet and I'm working on it already um is when those tax numbers come out breaking up quarterly so that
you guys can see as as taxpayers the quarterly estimated payments. So that's something that I'm working on those calculations with obviously when we get closer to the 2627 budget. Um but essentially the increases is is July to September
that's quarter three and then also October to December that's quarter 4. So that is the you know all the tax levy that we went up including the tax levy incentivity from this year that we just approved. Correct. Okay. Any other discussion on any of the
committee information? All right. So hearing of the residents on any agenda item. Okay. Seeing none, I will move on. We have nothing in policy at this time um for curriculum and professional developments item one through three. Any
conversation or discussion? Okay. Finance. Can I have a motion for items one through five? Miss on a motion. Joe, do you second? Okay. Any discussion? Roll call, please.
Slade, yes. Solowski, yes. Bankot is absent. Dun is absent. Francisco, yes. Gerardano, yes. Jodri, yes. Mone, yes. Dan Tuno, yes. Resolutions one through five for finance passes.
Any discussion on items 6 through 18? 19. Okay. Athletics. Any discussion on items one and two. Okay. Can I have a motion for non-certificated personnel office item one? George, we'll move it. J second.
Any discussion? Roll call, please. Thank you. Tasting and done are absent. We'll go to Francisco. Yes. Gerardano, yes. Jori, yes. Mone, yes. Slade, yes. Solici,
yes. Dan Tuno, yes. Resolution one for non-certificated personnel office passes. Okay. Any discussion on item two? Non-certificated personnel operational. There's nothing. Non-certificated
personnel items 1 through three. Five one through five. I'm sorry. Um any Can I have a motion, please? Motion. Francisco will second. Okay. Any discussion?
Okay. Are any of the paras here today? Okay. Well, we want to welcome the the new Paris coming on. Um roll call, please. Francisco, yes. Jerano, yes. Jodri, yes. Mazone,
yes. Slade, yes. Solowski, yes. Venitas and Dunn are absent. And Dantuno, yes. Motion uh resolutions one through five for non-certificated personnel. Other carries. Any discussions on items six and seven.
Okay. Certificated personnel items 1 through 8. Can I have a motion, please? Jerdan will motion certificated personnel items 1 through eight. Madam President, thank you. Uh a second. Miss will second.
Uh do we have any of our new staff coming in? We we do have to make an administrative uh correction. We're on uh number eight. I resolution number eight. We're going to administratively remove letter A. Okay. Employee Jose Natal. We're just going to
administratively remove that. Okay. Can we invite our new certificated personnel up on stage to We should vote on them first. Well, we have to vote. We have to hire actually hire them first. We want to welcome them first. All right. Any discussion before we vote?
All right. Can we vote to hire these awesome people? Roll call, please. Gerardano, yes. Jo, absolutely. Yes. And welcome, Mone. This is your last chance to walk away. But yes.
What was that? That was the weirdest moment. What sed? Yes. Solicowski, yes. We're in rare firm today. Thank you, Tason and Dun are absent. Francisco, yes. And Dantino, yes.
Resolutions one through eight personnel carries. Now, we're going to invite our newly hired staff to come up on stage. Uh, we'll take a group photo and then if you could, as you come up, let us know who you are so that we can honor you your name. Come on up.
What's your name? Adam, where you going? Adam, high school. The high school. Julia Davis. Julia going to Cooper. Carolina. Carolina is going to high school. Alexa's going to Samberg. Lauren Johnson.
Lauren's going for elementary instrumental. Elaine's going to Cooper. Robin's going to Shirace. Joyce is going to Vorhees and Serena. Serena, where you going? The high school. Okay, cool. Guys, come on in. Take one big group photo. They don't
want us in the photo. It's all about you guys. Congratulations, folks. have a great year. Welcome to Old Bridge. All right. So, any conversations on item 9 through
29? Any discussion on 9 through 29? Okay, moving on. Non-certificated transportation item one. Can I have a motion, please? Slater move second. Any conversation?
Roll call, please. Joji, yes. Mazzone, yes. Slade, yes. Solicowski, yes. Venitation and Dunn are absent. Francisco, yes. Jerano, yes. Dan Tuno, yes. Resolution one for non-certificate
personnel transportation passes. Any conversation or discussion on item 2 through 7? Okay. Any conversation on transportation item one? Okay. Can I have a motion for supplies,
equipment, and services items 1 through 4? Motion. Francisco will second. Okay. Any conversation? Roll call, please. Said, yes. Solicowski,
yes. Benitas and Dun are absent. Francisco, yes. Giardano, yes. Joe Green, yes. Mazzone, yes. Dan Tuno, yes. Resolutions one through four for supplies, equipment, and services passes.
Any discussion on item number five? Okay. Any discussion or conversation on miscellaneous items 1 through six? No. Okay. Any board secretary and board business? None to report. Okay. Hearing of the
residents on any school district issue. The is the binder there? Uh I think I believe Hi. Um, Brook Richards Patterson. I just had a uh question. Have we heard anything from the state
regarding that levy application? That was it. Thank you. Any other? I'll take any other. So, we'll do all conversations first and then we'll answer. Anyone else? All right, we're gonna
close the hearing of the residents. Mr. Rido, so we did hear back from the state. Um there was correspondence throughout uh July, August um from the state. We did ultimately get approval of all 23 million um well 22 plus the one.
That letter that we got from the state is currently online on our website. It's under the budget section. I think it's finance and budget. It's just a little one-page letter essentially approves the approval of the $23 million in total um
expenditures that were increased. So, there's not much into it. We're we haven't heard any other information from that. Um but that is the way we're operating our budget um based on that 23 million as it was presented. But to give credit where it was due,
they did make Mr. Wedell jump through a few hoops with very few I think he got an email at three and it was due what by five any dotted eyes and crossed tees. So on behalf of the board and the public, I would like to thank Mr. Widell for his dedication and hard work on our budget because we know the state did not
make it easy. So thank you. Does any board member have any old business to discuss? Any new business? Okay. Oh, I have something. The coming into
the um complex the Did you notice the road was paved by the by the grade nine center and now we can see the yellow line going in. That was awesome. No, it's because at night it's hard to see the yellow line when you go out. So, I think that's great that now it's paved. It's where our budget dollars are going
and repairing. to that point. If anyone was on Sandberg's campus, Wisdom Way was closed in that direction towards Tyan Road today. So, we are paving outside Wisdom Way um outside the stadium. So, um that was an area that was heavily
needed. You know, hate to to have to pay um using our some of our funds to to do these projects, but um the outcome was nice. They looked nice. We got a lot of compliments so far from the vendor. So, yeah. Did we get any funds from the city on that one? We did not. No, no,
no. That was that was us. I had two things for new business. Um, first, uh, Dave Cadino's has his last few days within district, so I wanted to, um, wish him a great last few days,
uh, with bridge and to thank him again for his dedication and hard work. The other one, I wanted to take a moment to discuss the town council's budget presentation slides that have been shared around town. The town clerk on behalf of the town council did inquire about a joint meeting between the school board and the town council to discuss
the budget but the date was not one of equal convenience and the latest shared was that they would reach out to continue again in the future. My comment here I would have stated at that meeting or I would have gone to their town council meeting but both our meeting and their meetings are tonight. The slide
pre presentation I saw was titled today's date council meeting presentation. So, I don't know if any changes have been made since I viewed a copy at the end of July from a community member. I could not find a link to the presentation on the town website, no matter where I looked. And I doesn't mean it's not there. I just couldn't
find it in the 10 minutes that I spent looking this afternoon. I've been vocal in my desire to have the town council and the school board work together as the fact that we represent the same community. I am disappointed by the separation inspired by the presentation. Everywhere that the presentation the school is
mentioned, it is in bold font. Every piece of the pie went up due to increasing costs and desire to maintain resources and programs. And to bold, the school boards points fingers and furthers the idea of not working together. Again, the school board did
not raise taxes taxes easily. We were given numbers and information from the state, increased expenses from our insurance companies and utility suppliers, and we're not spending tax dollars on company cars and increased paychecks for the board members. We are maintaining and improving our educational opportunities for our
students, as we swore an oath to do upon becoming board members. We didn't hide from our district financial needs. We had budget presentations available on our website, and we asked the public for input. A few board members have requested that this meeting be scheduled after the election to remove the insertion of politics from either side
to ensure fair, productive, and open dialogue as no formal action or change to the budget can or would be done at that meeting. There was no agenda of what the joint meeting would consider consists of to cover and all of our budget information has be shared and is
always available on our website. So, I was just surprised. Um, like I said, you know, the school was just always bolded. Everyone went up as I stated in the tax presentation earlier. So, are we the biggest piece of the pie? We are. Did we
go up the most percentage? We did, but everybody went up. And to just point fingers at it's all the school board's fault, I find that offensive on behalf of the work this board did um to get to those numbers and the hard decisions this board made to keep the programs
that makes Oldbridge Oldbridge. So, those are my two points. Anyone else have anything further to say? Uh, no. Thank you. I think that the school board taxes are always 60% no matter what. No matter what they go up, they're always 60% of our total of our
total taxes. So, if there's no further comment, um, can I have a motion to go into executive session? Miss motion second. Okay. Uh, I want to wish everyone enjoy the last few uh weeks of summer. We'll
see you next week. It's not over yet. It's not. We have a great time. So, um, and we'll see everyone next week. Thank you. All in favor for Exec. I All right. I Thank you. Good night, everyone. Congratulations.
Congratulations to all the new hirees. We'll see you soon. That's big.