Okay, we're going to resume the public meeting and we have more presentations. The next presentation, Dr. Dennis Mol Rooney will present the new courses for the 2526 school year. >> Okay. Hello everyone.
Um we have um nine new courses that we're going to introduce next year and uh you know we'll see after tallies you know what what uh pans out and how uh popular they they become. But um I'll run through all nine of them right now. Um so you know we have a a process for
adding new courses. Um teachers administrators can submit a new course uh form to us. Um we do that in the fall and early October. Those proposals are reviewed by the supervisors, um, building principles and and myself. Um,
we look at the population of students that the course would serve. We look at, uh, the impact it would have on staffing. We'll look at any potential expenses that a course may generate. Um, the how popular we think it would be among students, and we even consider the
impact it may have in other courses. Uh sometimes we'll you'll add a new course and it will kind of really impact another course that was that was similar. Um those are things that we take into consideration. Uh once we decide on the ones we want to bring to the board, we do that uh via TLC and last month those were approved by the
board of education. Uh our first course that we're going to um offer next year is medical terminology. This is a course for juniors and seniors. It is a semester course and this is uh offered through uh with through Ruckers University for a dual enrollment opportunity. I have to
uh give a um shout out to Rachel Villanova, our science supervisor who's been trying for years to get her foot in the door with Ruckers University regarding dual enrollment. So many of our students go there and this is a really nice opportunity for them. This provides students with the foundation
for building a medical vocabulary, word structure, definitions, use of terms. it will um um shadow the uh curriculum that Ruckers offers and it students will earn credit by passing the equivalency exam uh that Ruckers would offer. So,
we're excited for this be the first year we're running it and um we anticipate to be very popular. Next course is AP Physics 1. This is another junior senior course. It's a fullear class. It is dual a dual enrollment class through uh NJIT.
This course covers the fundamental principles of physics with an emphasis on problem solving. Um heavy integration of math principles including pre-calculus and advanced problem solving. And this course prepares students for the AP physics one exam and lays the groundwork for AP physics C as
well which would be a successive course that they would take. Next course AP business with personal finance. Again a junior senior course full year. This course explores business disciplines of entrepreneurship, marketing, finance, and accounting and
management through use of real world case studies and projects. This is part of the College Board's U AP Kickstarter program designed to accelerate students towards in demand careers. It does not count as a state requirement for personal finance. Though personal
finance is a prerec for this class. Uh as you know our students have a couple avenues to fulfill that requirement um in-house uh over the summer or through AP economics. Our next course is AP cyber security. This is a junior senior course fullyear course covers a broad
introduction to the field of cyber security covering topics such as common threats managing risk vulnerabilities detection measure measures etc. and is also part of that college board AP kickstart program to design uh designed to accelerate students towards in demand
careers which is kind of a new a new program that the college board has put together. Next is statistics. This is an offshoot again we look at student need. We've always only run AP stats and this um we found there was was the best fit for everyone and there were
some students who wanted to take statistics but maybe not at the AP level. So we're we're going to offer this and see how it goes. >> [snorts] >> As I said the non-AP level of uh AP stats introduces students to the concepts of collecting, analyzing, drawing conclusions from data.
Next course is math applications with financial algebra. As we said, we we look at student need, right? Um and and sometimes courses are born of opportunities that pop up with the AP and sometimes we're we we're looking at a situation for a year or two and we realize we need to do something differently. Algebra 2 is is a tough
course for a lot of students at the high school level. um a math applications with financial algebra fills all the state requirements for algebra that algebra 2 does but at a at a a much more studentfriendly level. So it's a nice option for students who maybe um aren't the strongest in math
and and need to fulfill that graduation requirement. If a student wants to take algebra 2 that'll be available for them as seniors. So that's not off the table for them. Um, we're waiting to see, we're very confident this will fulfill the NCAA clearing house for any anyone who wants to participate in college
athletics. Um, and other schools run similar courses, but we're waiting for a final verdict on that. But it'll be a nice option for students to to kind of check that graduation requirement off the list and then kind of free them up for senior year so they're not repeating algebra 2 or having to take it over the summer. Next course is
healthcare organizations and interprofessional practice. This course was um kind of paired up with um medical terminology which was the dual enrollment through Ruckers. So we're excited to offer this. Um this course provides an orientation to health care including career systems and insurance
models emphasizing critical thinking, ethical reasoning, uh communication as both a provider and a consumer. And um fullear course again we anticipate this be popular. It'll be kind of streamlined to our STEM pathways program and I think a lot of uh students will benefit from
this. Next class is intro to fashion design. This one really was born of student interest which is is kind of a fun option. Uh course introduce students to the create June uh 9 to 12 open any students as a semester course. Introduces students to the creative and technical aspects of fa the fashion
industry including design conceptualization trend research and the history of fashion. students will be having hand-on hands-on opportunity and uh opportunities uh through their computer uh via graphic design and we're really interested to see how this how this one uh fleshes out and and what the
tallies look like for this for this course. And our last one is Tomorrow's Teachers. We're very excited about this one, but at the same time, we're really curious to see how it turns out because we currently run Target Teach and we were one of the first districts in in the state of New Jersey to offer a Target Teach opportunity. Target Teach
is a different animal. It's um it's taught by teachers who are service adviserss. Uh they go to their placements throughout the course of the year every every week and uh that by the end of the year they're teaching courses and they're spending full days observing classes. Tomorrow's teachers is a little more um pedagogical and that the first
half of the year they're meeting uh with a teacher um at a full class um looking at um you know pedigogy, classroom management um different assessment strategies. second half of year they'd be in the classroom and this is a dual enrollment course through Rowan
University. So, um we met with uh target teach cohorts on both sides of town to to gauge their interest. They definitely were interested. I think we're going to we're going to offer it. We're going to see what it looks like and and we don't want it to to vulture target teach. So, there are kids who if they're all in and
we can get a handful of kids who want this, they can have a really robust experience as a future teacher and we're excited for this possibility. The last slide covers just our upcoming dates. And I'm going to move over there because I'm getting old and I can't see like I used to. Um, so the scheduling
scheduling counters underway. We start really early. We want to um um make sure we know all of our sections and if it then impacts our staffing. We want to get that to ear done early in the year for two reasons. Um we want to hire new teachers and get out ahead of the curve with that. I know Mr. Ricker enjoys that
part of it. And we want to give our building amends the time to start that master schedule as soon as possible. So we have eighth grade parent night on the 27th and 29th at the par at par hills and par high. We invite all the eighth graders and their parents to come and learn about the scheduling process and uh the courses that we offer. On the
28th both middle schools will visit the their respective high schools. Teachers enter recommendations from the 2nd to the 9th and from the 10th to the 18th the parent portal is open for uh student requests uh and sign off that goes into Genesis. We take all those student requests. They become tallies which
determines how many sections we run of courses. Um courses that um I'm sorry I skipped ahead. If anyone who didn't get in that parent portal, and it happens, right? Um for whatever reason, counselors will meet with those students and and about a two and a half, three week window to make sure we get accurate
course requests for them. And then March 12th, sections are tallied. A week later, uh staffing is based off of those sections and we're on our way. So, we'll see how these new courses uh pan out. But we're we're excited about them and I know that the teachers who recommended them are and the supervisors as well. So
any questions from the board? >> Yes. >> I have a quick question about >> tomorrow's teachers. >> Sorry, >> it's okay. >> I've never been accused of speaking softly, but um for tomorrow's teachers, if the students um get involved with
that, what grades can they go to? Elementary, middle, high, or just >> We would put them whatever wherever they're interested. >> Yes. And that we've even talked about even even diversifying target teacher a little more to give some uh someone a market period at elementary and then a market period at middle school to give
them different experiences with teachers. >> So it's what they request >> of course. >> Wouldn't it be cool to like move them around if it's you know >> give them like a almost like medical rounds for like >> you know let them know experience elementary, middle, high and >> yeah I think we're we're really open to
anything. we've been um more and more creative with Target Teach, >> right? >> And uh yeah, I mean it's it's it's a question of uh um like in in-depth experience where you're really working with the teacher, getting to know the kids or kind of just getting a feel for it. So, but we be we're open to whatever
they kind of want to do. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Yes, my pleasure. Yes. Um, so I know over time we've been making progress in bringing back some of our students that have gone to the Mars County Vocational School and looking at some of the courses that we're including here like the medical terminology and the other
other medicalbased course. Is that a consideration for you also as you're looking at courses to bring in? >> We that's in the back of our mind. I mean the truth of the matter is they all came back. I don't know where we we put them all but we want to we want to keep you know we'd love to keep our students who we've had from you know K through
eight. Um I know um there are plus pluses and minuses to to every program. Uh the medical terminology course is really our foot in the door in this arena and one thing that we'd love to do is is pair with a hospital and and get kids experience in hospitals. So, you
know, we're looking at that as well to make it more enriched. >> That's great. Thank you. >> Thank you so much. >> And now we have Dr. Chase and Dr. Mchugh for the budget update. We're saving the best for last.
>> There's no way you're taking over the choir, kids. Sorry. While they're getting ready, I just want to acknowledge um the town c uh town council Member McGrath in the audience. Thank you very much. And our board member elect, Mr. Shaw, is here as well. Thank
you. That's the suspense technique. >> Dennis. >> Dennis. When this happens, everyone in the audience has to send us good vibes. >> Helps like positive energy. She was here
to person >> [clears throat] >> There's other ones in there where there's people She was took it. song and dance. Maybe >> this is what
I mean committee and >> well we'll keep going and then when you guys are done. >> All [snorts] right. So we'll just keep moving a little on on our business and then once the presentation is up they can interrupt us. So is there any correspondence to come before the board?
>> Uh there is two. Um it was in your packet. We received a legal notice from the township of Precipany about um 39 Pit Road and asking for an assessment there. And then 540 Val Road. Again, a
legal notice from Parcipany Troy Hills. So, one of them they actually already had the hearing. The other one is not until uh the 39 pit road is not until January, but it doesn't directly affect our our properties at all. >> Okay. Thank you. >> All right. Um, thank you for getting
that together. So, tonight this presentation is about context, not necessarily any conclusions that have been drawn. It is uh the first in a series of presentations that either I or Dr. McHugh will be doing to help educate the community about the budget for the
2627 school year. Um we are entering we have a unique financial landscape that we are in right now not just in Paripony but across the state. Uh you've probably seen some of this in the news. Uh so before we talk about things like choices
or tradeoffs or budget priorities, it's important to understand the pressures that already exist as we embark on this budget development process. Uh again, these pressures are shaped, they're not discretionary, have anything to do with discretionary decisions. They are shaped
by mandates and requirements. And I wanted to uh give some space just specifically to talk about budgets right here. So we're not getting into the revenues or the expenses at this point. We're just talking about the pressure pressures that are kind of pushing us into uh this budget cycle. So, let me
just first explain and define what what I mean by budget pressure. So, a budget pressure is a required cost increase that occurs regardless of any local decision-m that is taking place. Again, these pressures are driven by mandates uh by contracts and also by student
needs. So when they grow faster than revenue uh they cons they they constrain the rest of the budget. So it's important for all of us to understand these uh so that people have uh there's transparency around this process and a clear understanding because what happens in the absence of information is people
speculate. It's it's human nature to do that. So as part of we we want people to be informed. So thank you to everyone who is here. Uh we want people to be informed so that they clearly understand what's happening in this budget cycle. So with uh that definition of budget pressures defined uh tonight I'm going
to do three things. First I'm going to going to outline the budget pressures that uh three in fact that we are facing. Then I'll explain what those pressures mean in in practical terms for the district and then I will share our plan to keep the community a breast of this information as we move forward in
the budget. So first we over we you know it always goes to the students. uh our product here in the school district is the educational experience we provide to this over 7,000 students we serve. So when you serve 7,000 students you have a lot of diversity. There's a continuum of
needs that each of our students uh bring to the table and um you know again with that many students you you know there are different strengths, there are different backgrounds, there are different needs that our students will have. Um our student population is it's
a beautiful thing. We have a lot of diversity here in Paripony and with that though we also bring diversity for the education diversity to the table for educational needs both academically linguistically socially and emotionally. Uh meeting those needs of our students
is not optional. It's something we have to do and it's in fact our mission and that mission is what directly shapes our budget. Sorry that so the first part up here speaks about academic needs. So, as I said, we serve students with a wide
variety of linguistic backgrounds. Some students have different cultural backgrounds. Some students have different backgrounds in terms of how much schooling experience they bring if they join the district. Uh, many students require targeted academic supports, uh, language supports. In fact, I'm not sure if you're aware of
this, but we employ 14 uh, teachers, full-time teachers who instruct our students who are acquiring English as a first language. Uh we have a lot of specialized staff uh with regard to those those folks who help meet the needs of our special education students and all of these supports that we have
in our budget are essential for these students success and in meeting their needs and they're built into the core operating budget that we're going to be presenting in April. We're also see the second thing I wanted to bring to people's attention is the same thing that a significant issue we're seeing not only here in Paripany
but across the nation and even globally that behavioral and mental health needs of our students are increasing. We're seeing uh trends um a lot of data comes up to me with regard to some of the risk assessments we have to send our stu students out to. We approve HIPS at
every board meeting which is a result of uh decisions students make in the behavioral realm. So as a result of all of these increasing behavioral and mental health needs, we have had to expand services in far in terms of counseling uh social emotional supports
and also behavioral interventions. So not only are these supports foundational to ensuring a safe and smooth classroom environment for our students, but students will not be able to re retain information or learn if they're not regulated and they're not
doing well. So these are foundational needs that we have to meet. As I've mentioned previously in board meetings, we have uh students who are how who are educated in house through our robust special education programs. But we have some students whose needs are more significant and who have to attend
places that specialize in those specific needs and those we refer to as out of district placement. uh these services are mandated by law and currently we have uh 57 students who are placed out of district because their needs can't be made met in district and I want to be
extremely transparent here in saying that when we developed the budget for the upcoming year we are looking at the students who we currently have on our roster and projecting the costs that are going to be taking shape for the upcoming year. However, any child um at any point in time can move in with an
IEP from another from another uh district that is clearly outlines the need for an out of district placement. And we don't know what that's going to be like for the upcoming year. Uh Dr. McHugh and I work very closely with Dr. Jaganti downstairs and I could tell you that we've had a handful of students
this year who we did not anticipate having to send out of district placement and um they were not budgeted for. These are unanticipated expenses. So, uh, again, these placements are necessary students, but they carry significant and unavoidable costs.
So, just going back to this a little bit, what this means for the budget is um these students are going to drive staffing, they're going to drive programs, they're going to drive transportation and services costs. And again, they're not discretionary enhancements. These are not things that we're choosing to do. These are stu
these are things that we legally are required to do. Otherwise, the district would face a lot of lawsuits which um would be in violation of uh meeting the needs of our students with disabilities. Another pressure we have is just the funding uh around how districts acquire
revenue. We are operating on a 2% tax levy cap that's mandated in the state. And this slide here just shows like a five-year comparison between um inflation which we know has been going you know specifically has peaked um and
is higher than the 2% tax levy cap. So you could see that this is a structural problem. This is not at all a mismanagement of funds or an overexpendure of funds. This is something that Parcipony along with many other school districts in the state of New Jersey are walking into and it's a
significant budget pressure and in this community where we have increased enrollment and we have some situations where we are getting students into the district who are not coming with the per pupil amount that normally comes to fund schools. This deficit is significant and
this pressure is one of the hardest things that we're facing. Just going back to the 2% cap, I also want to explain because this is also a common misunderstanding because people tend to calculate this as it's going to be 2% over the whole budget. It's not 2%
over the whole budget. The 2% increase in tax levy is actually only a 1.7% increase in the total budget. So when people are misinformed and they do mathematics, they might equate to an amount that's not actually the reality. So I wanted to put this slide up there to really help clarify that
misconception. A third pressure we're facing is much like we're all seeing in our household that costs are going up. Um they're outpacing revenue and this is a fundamental problem that we are facing. Revenue growth is capped at 2% but the
cost growth is not. So over the time the gap compounds and again it creates a structural situation. So to make this concrete, the next couple of slides are going to give you some dollar amounts and some trends uh to illustrate this this happening. So if you look at this
slide here, you see that we're looking at two rising costs that are outpacing revenue. Uh both utility costs and transportation costs. And we can look at utility costs over the past three years. And which actually this graph shows that over the past three years, utility
costs, and remember we operate 16 buildings. Utility costs have increased by more than $170,000. Um, these are unavailable costs. Our schools have to be lit. Our schools have to be heated. Um, we are not actually able legally able to
operate our schools if we don't have appropriate utilities operating. And on the right, you see a graph related to transportation. Uh, we do a lot of uh transportation of our students. Um, it's actually amazing that we're able to do it on a daily basis. It's an operation
that is is is like mass transit. Um, and there's a lot of money that we are spending in this area. And if you look at this graph, it shows that over the past two years, the costs for transportation have increased by over a million dollars. That is a significant
amount of money. And that's due to myriad factors. Um, that doesn't mean we're doing unnecessary routes. That means that fuel costs are going up. The labor of the drivers to drive the busing um are going up. Uh there's also a lot of mandated services. As I said, when we
send these students out of district placement, we have to we the district is required for transporting those students. And those costs can be anywhere from 20 to $35,000. Um and we move a lot of students around here in the district. We move a lot of students to vote. We move a lot of
students to out of district placement. We move a lot of students to other schools at our sites as part of the votech program. So these costs are not something that we can control. Uh they are a fixed cost. They're non-discretionary and they're necessary. I put these two slides up too because
this these are two areas that people may not be aware of, but as the um unfortunately many teachers are not there's not we don't have the pipeline for teachers like we did historically. there is a teacher shortage, not just here in the state of New Jersey, but a nationwide
teacher shortage. And it's becoming more competitive. Um, which is a good thing for our teachers because quite honestly, when you look at what teachers have been required to do over the past 10 years, it has become a more difficult job. Um, and as such, teachers when they negotiate their their contracts, because
remember, we operate with a collective bargaining union agreement because we have five labor unions here in the district. This information comes from New Jersey school boards that is just showing the trend in the folks who responded to the survey that when the contracts are settling, they are
settling at at above 3%. Which again 3% is much higher than the 1.7% of the budget that is a 2% tax cap levy. So um you know here we need to remain competitive to attract the fine educators that do the work. Some of the
work that you observed here tonight and some of the work that Dr. M Rooney shared we have to we have to remain competitive because we want great teachers here for our students. So that's that's one area that people are not always aware of and another area that I wanted to bring to everyone's
attention is something that again people just don't consider. Um but as unfortunately as cyber security attacks continue to happen uh we in the district house a lot of data both on our students and on our staff and we are required to
protect that information rightfully so. There have been several districts in New Jersey that have had cyber attacks unfortunately and these folks have a have a strong business model. They will take our data and they will give it back if we give them the money. Um right now the the trend is they're not even taking
our data. they're threatening our data unless we give them the money. So, um, we've had to spend a significant amount over the past three years on putting in infrastructure to protect our data here in house. And this is not necessarily a
thing we're choosing to do because many of the insurance companies are requiring um in order to give you an insurance policy, they are requiring and mandating that we have that school districts have certain provisions in their district to protect the data. It's much like if you
buy a car and you're going to get some car insurance that some some folks may require that you have automatic locks or an alarm system on your car before they give you a rate. This is another thing that's happening um in our district too. So I I just I thought that was really
interesting because these are two variables that people many people in the community are not aware of and they're significant cost drivers. Uh another another area which is a causing a significant
structural budget uh gap is healthcare insurance uh which many people are seeing nationwide. I mean it's it's it's being debated. Um so right now uh our our we operate under something called chapter 44 and it's an employee healthcare contribution rate that's uh
fixed by statute. It's not something we could necessarily negotiate and it's how much the public school employees that we employ here in the district are required to pay towards their health insurance. This is a formula that replaced something previously that was called chapter 78. Um and these are all uh
chapter 78 actually was a plan where staff members would contribute a portion of the actual plan. Chapter 44 now they're contributing a portion of their salary. And so as the plans rise and the salaries do not rise to the same extent that the plans are rising, we're again
seeing a deficit gap happening over time. Uh this is not something that we can negotiate. This is something in statute that we're required and it c this pressure built into the budget um is not anything that's discretionary. It's it's not a decision that we can
choose to do or not to do. Uh I wanted to just show you some figures around healthc care projections because I believe it was yesterday uh we got some pretty damaging news here for the district. Uh we met with our financial
um our insurance brokers. Uh these are the folks that we hire to shop around. I know there was a question at the LA at one of the previous board meetings. Do we hire people to shop around for plans? Yes, of course. Of course we do. We have a huge population, a huge staff. They came back and they told us a figure for
the budget in 2627 that our health care costs are going up significantly. So you can see here the medical plan is going up 25.2%. Notice that's well north of the 2% tax levy. Um, prescription drugs, as Dr.
McHugh mentioned at a previous board member, prescription drugs, as a result of a large push of that is from the GLP1s, they're going up 69 a.5%. And our dental plans are two a little over 2% and vision plans are staying steady. But
when you look at these percentages and you equate that to money, what you're seeing is in 2526, our health care costs were a little over $30 million. An increase of 29.9% equates to over $9 million. So when we
roll over the budget next year, we're already looking to have to increase put in $9 million. And we're not getting $9 million of revenue in to offset this cost, which is significant. And this is just only one small rising cost.
Remember I spoke in the previous slides about utilities and transportation and salaries. So all of these are um really putting a lot of pressure on this budget which we're in the midst of developing right now. So I say this because I I
want to be again transparent so that the community understands a few things about what these pressures mean. First, I cannot emphasize enough that this has nothing to do with mismanagement or overspending. This is this core issue of this budget and all
the budgets in the school in the state of New Jersey is a core issue which is structural. I just want to say that again. This is a core issue that is structural. We have less revenue coming in and it's not balancing with the fixed expenditures
that we have to pay out legally mandated and for the best interest of our students. This gap alone uh with the healthc care pushes us well over uh budget before any kind of single discretionary decision is made about programming for our students, enhancing
uh uh resources we use. Um, so they're not add-ons, they're not enhancements, they're necessary to keep the lights on, and it's causing us some real challenges in this budget. Um, last year,
the school district was in a similar situation, not to the extent that we're going to be in this year because the healthcare increase was not as significant. And I just want to remind everyone that the district has been Parcipony has been very uh diligent in managing a
budget that has been providing students with a lot of services that other districts have had to charge for or have had to make some concessions for this year. Last year as part of the balance the budget balancing they made the decision to not partipony I wasn't
here the decision was made to wave class size to not hire folks to rather have teachers who are retiring not be replaced there was also um I've heard and I've heard a lot about this from the community uh mass study halls was something that was uh created so that we
didn't have to uh have the the the cost of substitutes and I know people aren't happy about this but I could tell you that many Many many districts have already been doing this going years back. But when you don't have enough money to balance the budget, these are the trade-offs that you have to make. Um
so looking into 2627, unfortunately reductions are going to be necessary and it's a grim situation and I wanted to be transparent about that because there are going to be people who have a lot of opinions, rightfully so. This is their community.
a lot of opinions about things we keep and what this is going to require for balancing the budget is something that I'm referring to as tradeoffs. If you want to maintain a reasonable class size in grade two and and reasonable is, you know, when you're teaching literacy and
numeracy, which is a foundational skill, you can't have large class sizes. But if you want to preserve that, then you might have to trade off another program or you might have to trade off asking the community to contribute a portion of an activity fee, which which many
districts have been doing for many, many years. And when you compare our activity fee, it's significantly lower than many other school districts that are some are even in the hundreds of dollars. So these are the difficult decisions that are going to have to be made, which is why there is a concerted effort amongst
this board and me and Dr. Mchugh to really be transparent about this uh because it's going to be a difficult budget. So what does this mean for the next couple months? Again, I'm I'm not a I'm not diving into expenditures right now. We're not going to go into the weeds on
revenue. Those presentations will come when we get a little bit more information about what it looks like for the 2627 school year. But uh one of the things that I've done as I said previously is we have a budget website that now has a lot of information about school funding. Uh this presentation
will be up there. There's also a frequent there's also a place where our community members can submit questions uh via a Google form. When those are submitted they will be quickly responded to and then those answers will be put on a frequently asked question page of the website. We again we want our
communities to have the opportunity to understand this budget. Uh there will be ongoing work through the board of education finance committee uh to really help weigh these decisions against uh the mission and the vision of the school district and uh additional communication
will be coming out from me to the community because the goal is we have our wonderful audience members who gave of your time to come here and hear this. Some people will watch this tomorrow night when it's posted, but some people will need the information pushed to them. So, we will also
push it to them. So, it's going to [clears throat] be a concerted effort. There will also be more presentations like this at board meetings. Dr. McHugh is going to be doing a presentation on uh expenses, sorry, [clears throat]
expenses and revenues. Thank you, Dr. Q. At the next board meetings. Um and then the board will adopt the budget in April. >> So [clears throat] again, there's going to be a lot of information that's going to go out to the community, a lot of resources that
are available because as I said, we are in the budget process right now and it's going to be difficult. So I wanted to put this out there. Um there's going to be time for public comment where you can ask your questions. But before I go, I want to point you to where the budget website is located.
If you go to our website under district, you will see right there. It's the second line, budget, um there are a lot of key tabs right there. So, anybody who would like to find information out about the budget development process can go here and find it. And if you can't, if there's information that you don't see
up there that you want answered, again, there will be a Google form where you could submit your question, which will easily be answered on the frequently asked questions page. Um, and that's that's what I have to share right now. specific about budget pressures. I'm I'm
sorry this news isn't more positive. I could tell you in speaking to other superintendents throughout the state because I'm part of an organization. This is a presentation that many of us are going to have to be given because we're all in this situation together. So, um again, we'll take comments during
the public portion and I'll be happy to answer them. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. Chase. All right, on along on our uh program, we have unfinished business. Is there unfinished business to come
before the board? Okay, I do have something because we for the past few months have been talking about the um pilot negotiations with our town during this unfinished business. So, I just wanted to catch everybody up
um obviously we had our meeting on December 15th on Monday. Um specifically about that and that is I'm sure out on video at this point and uh there was a township meeting on 1216 which resulted
in the council passing another residential pilot with over a thousand units. They are estimating 151 students from that development. However, the affordable housing uh plan for phase 4
included at least four other residential developments. The township did not provide an estimated number of students from those additional developments. Uh their estimation of 151 from that one development was based on the recorders
statewide framework. The our district demographers report is based on parcipany data and that demographers report shows.3 students per unit in paripony is historically what we see.
Um, as there no information available yet on the breakout of units for any of these developments, uh, like onebedroom, threebedroom, um, [clears throat] all we can use is, you know, the demographers report and our historical data, which would mean
over 315 new students just from that one pilot development, not any of the others. I also wanted to address um, comments that were made by the mayor and the council president at Tuesday's meeting. They were both very adamant that the board of ed refused several
offers, including land, a school, capital projects, and money. Those offers never came before the board. Every offer actually made by the township has been mentioned at our public meetings. The first offer was in
May of 2025 and was a pilot generated $10,000 per student offer. The only other offer was received late Monday this week, which was the same type of offer with additional restrictions and did not
guarantee any money. the board would be glad to consider additional offers the township would like to actually make to the board and not just proclaim at their meetings. I'm glad the mayor mentioned that the board
um you know hopefully would be open to continued discussions and I'm actually hopeful that those discussions will be serious and beneficial to the district and the township residents. Um and obviously finally as you could see from the presentation, this budget
presentation, the district has financial challenges in addition to new students, uh whether from pilots or residential developments. And the district and the board have been working on those challenges of increased enrollment for several years. Obviously, some of those
things are already in place and you know, we're going to continue to work on those challenges. Um and I think that is our unfinished business if any unless anybody else has anything else. So we will move to committee reports. Uh Mr. Rehea, can we
start at your end of the table? >> Sure. Uh the communications committee met on December 9th attending were myself, Mrs. Delfe, Mr. Barios, Mrs. Kogan, Dr. Chase, and Mrs. Benos.
Uh among the things that were discussed were Dr. Chase's focus article which was sent out at that time. Uh we discussed the 202627 budget communication plan the roadmap which some of it Dr. Chase discussed in
uh in her presentation and uh just conveying information to the public about the budget process and the challenges that we are facing and also um referencing the budget website and
theformational page titled understanding how participy funds our schools was reviewed and then a concept called boards which are concise easily digestible budget updates. and that was discussed as well. Uh we discussed the
pilot information that we had at that time. We didn't have an agreement at that point but uh we did discuss uh some options regarding uh pilots. We were waiting for information from the mayor basically an additional proposal which
had not been received at that point in time. Any questions? >> Thank you. Um I didn't have a question but I just had a comment. Um there was some minutes from May 2024 that I had forwarded to Dr. Chase and the communications committee um with a bunch
of ideas. I think some one of the I think the board bites was mentioned actually on that and um I wanted to say thank you to Brian Satch for including a lot of the um information in that particular minutes um from 2024 and I
look forward to having Brian in some 2026 meetings from time to time um with some more ideas and I just wanted to mention that. Thank you. >> Miss Aren, do you have a committee report for tonight? >> I have a couple.
Um, thank you. Uh, building and grounds met tonight. Uh, present were myself, Dr. Wright, Mrs. Kogan, Dr. McHugh, Dr. Chase, and Mrs. Benos. Uh, we discussed the PHS transformer on December 16th. A transformer at the PHS school had
malfunctioned. Uh, the emergency repairs were completed on December 17th, 2025, and facility manager William Crane should be commended for his dedication and crisis management skills. this issue could have been taking much longer to resolve without his involvement. And uh
there are also some um uh plans for spring 2026 for some permanent repairs at this time. Uh we did discuss a number of HVAC repairs. Uh the district does have a large number of HVAC needs that will be addressed um in the coming months. Uh C CMS has a sign on Route 46
that was property the property was designated for the sign was owned by the state of New Jersey and have a New Jersey state treasury department sign on it and that sign um is going to be continue to be discussed um as in the coming months. Uh we do have a number of
2025 26 projects. Uh all of Mount Taber projects were closed out. Uh Littleton projects are nearing completion. PHS serving serving line is also closed out and the PAS lab is also closed out and it's worth noting that all of those were either near completion or closed out
within budget. Uh the 2026 27 projects there was also another handout that um we discussed in our building and grounds committee that will be shared um at the appropriate time. We have a draft of those facility improvements to share. In addition to that, we have some facility
staffing uh weekend building coverage and bus snow removal. We do not have Saturday staffing in each of these buildings. Therefore, if an organization requested the use of the facility, they'll be charged to bring in a custodian. And this includes district and PTA activities. That is our minutes
for building and grounds. If anybody has any questions and if not, I will move right along to transportation. Find it. >> Can I come back to that one? I got it. Um, and I think that was it from me.
Okay, I'll come back. >> Mrs. Mayor, >> hi. Uh, human resources labor relations met on December 16th. Present were myself, Mrs. Abraham, Dr. Wright, Mr. Ricker, Dr. Chase, and Mrs. Benos. Um,
we discussed the following issue topics. Uh, confidential personnel items. Um, Mr. Ricker talked about the MSGP scores and certification. Uh the the New Jersey Department of Education has released the scores which result in median student
growth percentile metrics for teachers. [gasps and laughter] Overall, just get to the chase. Uh teacher summitive scores are in the effective to highly effective ranges established by the New Jersey Department of Education. Um we also discussed local
32 salary updates. The local 32 MOA and guides were approved October 1st, 2025 and retro salaries for 2425 and 2526 salaries will be placed on the December 18th bulletin which is today
for approval. And that's the report. We have any questions for Mrs. Mayor? Okay, Mr. Berios. Thank you, Madam President. Uh policy met on December 9th um in attendance
were myself, Miss Delave, uh President Kogan, Superintendent Chase, Mrs. Benos, and I'm a little confused. >> Mr. Ry, you weren't at that meeting. The knife, Miss Chappelle was there, right? >> Yes. >> Okay. And Mr. Chappelle.
Um so we uh we reviewed the following uh we listed on your uh on the minutes are the all the policies we reviewed uh management
um that's sorry it's policy 8454 we reviewed it the other policies policy and regulations 2530 policy 2535 regulation 2535 and polic policy rag 9130. Uh we
reviewed it but they have been submitted for attorney review so they will not be uh voted on for the first round tonight. That is my report. >> Any questions for Mr. Beers? Mr. Abraham. >> Um I just had a quick question on 8454.
Um is that a that's a brand new policy, right? That it said revised and reviewed, but I wasn't sure if it was because it doesn't have an adopted date. I just assume that it was brand new. >> Double check. >> I think it is. I don't think it's been
an official policy. >> Yeah, that okay. Um I was just wondering if we could take a look at Rididgewood's policy. I thought that that was a good one. And I was just trying to compare um existing policies in other districts
because I figured this one was brand new um just for future discussion about you know how to go about this because it's an unsavory [cough] >> right the the current policy matches the procedures that the district has been following
>> right we confirmed yes that's we did confirm that um I can definitely if if you could either submit that or highlight the items which you would like us to double check. I don't think that'd be a problem. >> Um, thank you. Just just so you're
aware, uh, I revised this policy in uh, the two former districts that I worked in before and in part of this uh, policy development. Corey, who is our supervisor, actually consulted many other policies, too. So, we can certainly do that, but that's already
been done. >> Oh, okay. So, I mean, at this point in time, we can go forward with the first and then still >> do do the check on it and get back you know but anyway that's my report. >> Thank you
>> Dr. Wright. Uh yes I have um two committee reports and a liazison report. Uh so my first uh committee report is from the teaching and learning committee meeting on November 17th attended by myself uh Dr. Chase, Dr. Muluni, um Miss
Mayor, Miss Kogan, and Mr. Devito. Um, we reviewed uh several books that will be uh part of the authors of New Jersey course. This has been a really kind of interesting pathway to populate this uh this course. Uh I've enjoyed realizing
that both of those I've read are from New Jersey. So I'm like, oh well them too. Look at Yeah, Jersey. Um so that's been appreciate all the hard work there. Um uh Dr. Marooni also took us through uh the
uh ways that the administrative team has been doing kind of a book group around the anxious generation which is a very widely read text um addressing the ways that technology in particular are addressing today's teens and what the use of uh social media is replacing and
what the outcomes are and how the district might consider uh moving on this information in the future. Uh there was a quick update on that the administration had been discussing ways that uh recent uh
Supreme Court ruling in Makmoon D. Taylor might address uh uh that we were already in compliance specific like broad compliance with what the outcome of that will be. Um and then also we reviewed the new courses that were part of Dr. Marie's uh presentation tonight.
That is it for November 17th. We also met um on December 15th earlier this week. This was a short meeting um just to review the high school and middle school courses of study. Uh excuse me. Um [snorts] uh we made uh there have
been a number of updates to them. Um, we know that this is kind of both substantively large work and then because it's such a large document, it's also somewhat tedious work to go through and make sure that all the table of contents are connected correctly, that it is clearly presentable to students
and families so that as our families are making decisions about how their children will be progressing through their academic career, they're able to do so effectively and clearly. Um, and I really appreciated all the hard work that went into both of those. And I
think the courses of study that we offer both our middle school and high school students are really um, impressive and I admire the work of teachers uh, and the curriculum administrators significantly there. That's it for teaching and learning. I also attended uh, in my role
as liaison to the special education parent advisory committee CPAC uh, a uh, webinar on understanding IEPs. This was Tuesday of this week. It was led um by Dr. Jagante and then uh Carrie Corbett
and Andrea Kornberg who are both LDTC's in the district. LDTC stands for learning disability teacher consultant TC. [laughter] Um and uh so understanding IEPs, the IEP
is the individualized education plan. Um which is the core document for special education. Uh and uh this is in many ways a bird's eye view kind of saying what is this document, how parents might engage with it as well as walking through some of the processes um which
are uh laid out in federal law by and large. And so taking through these steps uh and particularly at specific dates, you know, 45 days for this, 60 days for that, um is all about uh compliance and
our district is really good about meeting those compliance goals. Um other parts of the presentation were really about familiarizing parents and making sure that parents feel be able to feel prepared and confident. It can be
very uh challenging as a parent to walk into a room with, you know, maybe seven, maybe 10, maybe more uh educational professionals when things aren't necessarily going great with your kid. And so I think these kinds of
presentations are really valuable um to make the IEP process more collaborative and more productive for everyone. So I appreciated that uh presentation uh significantly. And I emailed earlier today the uh presentation like when I
say earlier today I mean an hour ago perhaps uh to Joanie who I believe will uh upload the slides to uh for the board's review. >> Thank you. Are there any questions for Dr. Reich? >> All right, Mrs. Abraham, did you find your
>> I did. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Benos. Um transportation met on November 19th present where myself, Mr. Varios, Miss Delave, Miss Kogan, uh Dr. McHugh, uh Miss Pisa, and Miss Benos. The key discussion points, uh we the committee reviewed the traffic and safety report
and noted that the current mileage from policy 86000 will be added. The committee further recommends that the hazardous route grid continued to serve as a relevant and effective resource in determining hazardous route identification within the neighborhoods of Paripany, Troy Hills. Um, in as far
as elementary school, the pupil's uh shall be deemed to reside from the schoolhouse if the walking distance from home to school is greater than two miles. For middle school is also the same, greater than 2 miles. And for high school, it's greater than 2.5 miles. The district report of transported resident
students or DRTS is an annual report required by the New Jersey Department of Education. The report documents all resident students who are transported by the district including regular special education and non-public stu school students who are eligible for district provided transportation. Our district
snapshot was completed and provided on 10:15 2025. We reported approximately 4,500 students. We have a 5-year plan for transportation that are we are gathering and analyzing transportation data to inform a comprehensive five-year plan that ensures safe, efficient, and
cost-effective student transportation services. uh [snorts] drivers for student transportation pursuant to PL 20224C81 establishes updated requirements for individuals who drive students for school related purposes [clears throat] even if they are not traditional school bus drivers. It set it sets rules for
background checks, training and vehicle standards to ensure student safety for any transportation arranged by the district. In short, the law is intended to fill gaps in places that rely on non-traditional drivers and Paripan transportation does not have those gaps. Uh crossing guards are hired by the
precipit. They currently have 30 crossing guards who assist in safely crossing our students. Um as far as definitions of sub uh subscription busing and courtesy busing, uh we just wanted to point out that district boards of education may provide for transportation of students who reside less than remote less than
remote from their school of attendance with their local policies and at their own expense. And that's considered to be courtesy busing and subscription. Subscription busing, which is not offered in Prescipany, is an optional parent paid transportation service that a school district may offer to students who do not qualify for free
transportation under state mileage laws. And that was my report. Thank you. >> Uh, and one of the other things we discussed as part of that was Parcipony school buses are filled like our students use the bus. A lot of districts um
can oversubscribe their buses because their students do not go on the bus, but Parcipony has a very wellattended bus population. So, um Miss Dr. Wright, do you have a question? >> Uh I did. Um Miss Abram, I just wanted to confirm. So there are the um distance
limitations which is set by the state and then there also are hazard uh locations where uh that the transport team looks at if it's not safe for students to walk even if they might be in the district. Correct. And I just wanted to um note my understanding is
that the developments at Park 1515 and two and three campus drive all require busing because they are considered hazardous locations in relationship to their schools. Is that correct? >> Yes.
>> Yes. >> Thank you. >> All right. Are there any leazison reports, Mrs. Mayor? >> I have a leazison report. um about the Morris County Association leadership meeting that was on November 15th. Um
there is a free updated policy manual that's available. There will be policy alerts starting in January. Um they talked about a crisis management form management form that is low fee and it's brought by Laura Bishop who was one of
our contributors to our students at the end of the year. um personnel and administrators. There's an HR hotline. Questions regarding seniority, Donaldson, there's it's not legal vice advice. Like every time we go to one of these things and there's a
lawyer running it, he'll say you this is not your legal advice. You have to talk to your attorney. Um there is an interactive governance one governance one through four. It's got an AI component. Her name is Carla. Carla, you
can't just walk away from that online anymore. You can't just push the button and just walk away for the governance. You have to sit there because Carla will be chatting with you. That will be rolled out uh January and February. For governance one, there is
the program to get mentor with new board members. Okay. Uh Carla is on the website. I'm not going to read the three goals because you can read them yourself. Um, they talked about all districts in the county should draft what what you want
legislators to focus on, uh, problem areas, changes, and then reach out to your legislators and say, "This is what we want you to lobby for." January legislative session, it gives you what it's going to be addressing. Um, Ray
Penny talked about his civility starts with us program, uh, disagreement without respect. It's a civility project. The whole thing is communications without getting hostile basically. Um he would like all do all
schools to um res make a resolution for districts to promote that. Um we are the first school board in the nation to have our own AI chat box. And uh speaking of AI, um that last county meeting that we
mo a lot of us were in attendance was I thought phenomenal. It was just an incredible it talked about AI. Barry Haynes, you know, he led it and you know, he's very knowledgeable about all that and I found it the most fascinating
county meeting that I've ever been to. I mean, it was all virtual because of the weather, but um it thought it was really worthwhile. So, that's my report about the uh leadership meeting. >> Mrs. Abraham. >> Yes. >> Sorry, I have a lot today. Um I just
wanted to echo Miss Mayor's um topic about the Morris County meeting. Um the the session that we sat in on was called Empowering Education, Community Voices for Enhanced AI Learning. Like she said, it was very insightful, very engaging.
Um I do encourage everyone to try to make our county meetings. uh there's a tremendous amount of learning that happens there and we get to mingle and enjoy our time with um fellow board members. The next meeting is February 4th, 2026 which will be virtual and the
topic will be creating a positive school culture. Uh there was one or two other things that I wanted to mention. Um one was that in our we get a bunch of emails as school board members and one of them is called daily clips. uh we get them pretty much every single day and I I
wanted to I saw one on December 11th that I thought was really interesting. It was called what parents want most from schools, clear, honest communication. And I just wanted to take some time to highlight that because I think um we want to make sure that our parents are satisfied with communication
we get from they get from the district. um everything from uh whether uh just test scores uh STEM focused non-academic programs, extracurricular activities, mental health supports, um explanations of data, which you know I think we're
going to be we have been and we're going to continue to be successfully communicating. But I did want to point this out because this was um a report that was released on December 9th by greatschools.org and I just thought that it was a article worth highlighting. The other thing that
I wanted to mention was that I had also attended the delegate assembly. Um on November 22nd, the New Jersey school boards held its uh delegate assembly in Mercer County College in West Windsor. Uh there was quite a lot of people that
attended. Uh I attended virtually uh interim NJSBA president uh Karen Cordelino was leading it during that time. We had several resolutions that were debated and two new officers were elected. So, I just wanted to note that our new NJSBA president is Michael
Jacobs and we have a new president, a vice president for legislation and resolutions, Bernardet Delisandro. Um, couple of the resolutions that we discussed that were kind of went on for a little bit, uh, was the Delan Board of
Education had actually proposed new policy and then pulled it back, but then it ended up being discussed about whether the NJSBA supports a limitation on the period of time for which a board members and charter school trustes criminal history could be reviewed and that it supported language that would
consider the nature of the crime committed before a board member or charter school trustee could be permanently disqualified from service. That was a rather robust discussion. Um resolution number two was brought up by Clifton. Uh they proposed new policy language to support the belief that universal free school meals should be
available to all preK through 12 students in New Jersey. That was also a very robust conversation because um people on both sides um have a lot to say about it. And also there's some discussion about whether we should be looking at existing social programs
before we um go on start another program. But uh that resolution was approved. The first resolution was postponed inde indefinitely. There was also another resolution about um STEM education and how it was going to be integrated in preK through 12 curricula for all New [clears throat] Jersey
students. So, I just wanted to mention that and I just wanted to tell you that that was a very um it it was really wonderful to attend this assembly and I really hope to do that again and I encourage everyone else to as well. Thank you. Oh, and one more thing. I'm
sorry. Sorry. Um I just wanted to point out that um there was a gentleman named John T. Green who used to be a bus driver for Paripony. He had passed away this week and his daughter Kelly Dolio had posted about her dad and I just wanted to make a note that he used to be
a bus driver for Parcany and he had passed this week. >> Thank you. >> That is really it. >> Yes, >> Mr. >> Yeah. Hi. Um I attended the Mars County meeting as well and before that I attended the three Rs which was offered
to uh board members and specifically new board members. Um it just highlighted everything we did in governance one which was kind of nice just a kind of a wrap-up. Uh the three Rs and roles and responsibilities. Um it's just a good reminder that board members are you know volunteers of the community here to
serve um the township. We don't ask for much in return um and just remain ethical. So I just it was a nice refresher. Um I also attended the PHS fall drama um in early December. Um really fun. It was a nice I've never heard of the play. was up the down
staircase. Um I attribute it kind of like a play on um the movie Dangerous Minds but a little scaled down. So if you've seen something like that, it's so it's nice to see the students do that. Um and the musicals are coming up and I just based on the talent that we saw today um I think our drama music
department do a phenomenal job and it's important just to keep keep that in mind with everything. So >> thank you. uh my only uh I did attend the delegate uh meeting as well as I am the voting delegate. Um and just a reminder that
that assembly discusses what the New Jersey school board should advocate for, not what actually gets passed so that we're just debating what we think anybody should advocate for. Um the school board's legislative committee also met um the ne the following
Saturday. Uh the notes and agenda are in your board packet. There was proposed bill 3915 regarding pilot sharing and it was discussed during that meeting. It seems like and that's at the state level um that it will have momentum going into
the school year. The legislator who was there said the main concern was that they want to make sure they understand how sharing pilot money affects the state funding. They obviously don't want to double count any funds. Um although they were, you know, positive uh even
though they knew mi municipalities would oppose, you know, that legislation. And another key note was that the governor vetoed the extended audit deadline dates. So it looks like those will remain the same. Um, and that was my only liazison report. So, I think we're
done with that section. >> I just have one comment. >> Go ahead. >> So, um, just back to the point Mrs. Mrs. Mayor mentioned about, um, advocating, just a reminder that we had posted and circulated how not only the the board has been advocating for our interests,
but how our parents can also be advocating. So, that still stands. That information is still out there. So, if you want to reach out to our legislature, there's example letters out there that you can submit to stand up for some of these issues that we've highlighted tonight.
Okay, we are up to approval of the minutes for regular and executive minutes of November 13, 2025 and executive and regular special meeting minutes of December 15, 2025. Can I have a motion for these minutes, please?
>> Uh, Mrs. Delabe in a second. Dr. Right. Roll call, please. >> Mrs. Abraham, >> yes. >> Mrs. Abraham, >> yes. [laughter] >> Mr. Barios, >> yes. >> Mrs. Delfe, >> yes.
>> Uh, Mrs. Mayor, >> yes. >> Mr. Rya, >> yes. >> Dr. Wright, >> yes. >> Mrs. Chappelle, >> yes. >> Mrs. Kogan, um, >> I'm abstaining on the regular and executive minutes of November 13th and yes to the special meeting on December 15th.
Now we're up to the superintendent's bulletin number eight. Dr. Chase. >> Thank you, Miss Kogan. Um, over the past month, we experienced two power outages in the district. One at Brook Lawn and this past week over at Paripony Hills.
So, I'm going to have to bring a calendar to the board because we're going to have to make some adjustments after the new year to account for that lost days. Um, but I just wanted to [laughter] bring to your attention uh an employee here in the district who has gone above and beyond in the situation.
That's Mr. Bill Crane. Uh, he's in charge of our buildings and grounds. And um, Mr. Crane was here not only on a Sunday with his team uh, getting our ready for school when we had that snowstorm, but he was here until 11 o'clock at night. Uh the gen the trans
the transformer at the high school had to be dug up and moved and switched out and then wires and [cough] and uh Mr. Crane was really doing everything above and beyond to make us uh get ready for school. And because of his work, he uh we were only able we only had to miss
one day and it's a huge huge feat to get a transformer and an inspection and then JCPNL to come out within one day. So, uh, he really called in all his contacts and I just wanted to recognize him for all [clears throat] that he did. I also wanted to just let everybody
know, you got a sample of how talented our st of our students are and I've also been in the schools uh, today. I was over at Rockaway uh, Rocka Rockaway um, and I saw another concert there. Our students are talented and I want to also thank the the staff that put together
all those performances because it's it's not easy to get a a group of third graders together to but I've heard my uh fair share of hot cross buns. [laughter] Um so it's been enjoyable. I want to thank everybody. And then finally uh Mr.
Rehea, I just want to thank you. Uh I've only had the opportunity to work with you for a short time, but in that time I I seen many examples. you really care for this community and for the school system and for the students and the staff and and I've seen a glimpse of
that and so I want to thank you for your service. >> Thank you. >> Really appreciate that. Uh please keep in touch and uh we wish you all the best. >> Thank you. [applause] >> And then um I just want to wish everybody a wonderful restful holiday
break. Uh it's going to be great to to to be off and restore ourselves and to give our schools a deep cleaning being that we're in the midst of flu season. Um and then finally tonight for your approval, we have superintendent bullet items 1 through 51 and addendum items
52-67 and reads. That's my report. Are there any questions or comments on the superintendent's bulletin and the secretary's report? Dr. McHugh. >> Okay. The uh business items are items 44
through 51. I just wanted to note that item number 50. I received a few questions on it's the decommission of some solar panels. Um this is a cost savings uh act. They are at end of life and if we do not end the program now, we will have to remove them ourselves and
that could be a costly item. It's it's a shame that we're going to remove solar panels with electric prices going up, but they are they are not functioning near capacity. So that's number one. And number two, you mentioned the audit. Our audit is done. It is submitted both the federal and the state. Um, so we are
good to go. >> Okay. Are there any questions on the secretar's report? >> All right. Uh, there was no new business submitted. Um, but as Dr. Chase said, this is Mr. Reya's last meeting. So, I
also wanted to say thank you very much for your service. Um, we all know, you know, how much effort and intention this takes and you really took the time to make sure that you learned about the district and you thought through how you could best help
the district and you know, I definitely appreciate that. Um, and the district has something to give you, but if anybody else would like to say anything, um, I will go up and get it. Uh, do you want we can start at this side. Go ahead, Mr. Barriio. >> Uh, yeah. I just wanted to uh take this
opportunity to thank uh thank Jack. Um we've been through a lot in a couple of years. Um and uh you know I will I will be honest with you uh for all of us uh that uh you
know spent nights and weekends and fighting the fight trying to do the right thing. I you're one of the few dependable ones I could I could really depend on. So, and and you're just a whiz with numbers. So,
I want to thank you for that. So, thank you. And and I expect to see you back here soon. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Uh yes, I just want to say thank you, Jack, for your service. And I have really appreciated working with you and getting to know you. And I've been
particularly struck by your genuine curiosity about both the world and the workings of the board and your open-mindedness um to really consider the complexity of issues and come down in an independent
way uh to the best of your judgment. I've really appreciated that across your work. So, thank you so much. Good luck >> again. See you back around. Although I think uh if you run in the fall, you're running against me. So, >> [clears throat and laughter] >> Uh yeah, Jack, I've only been on the
board for, you know, a short time and worked on a few committees with you. Um and I was just very much struck by um what you brought to the table with your numbers and the communication specifically. I was really appreciative of you. It seemed like you were spearheading, at least from my perspective, taking the lead in trying
to get information out there to the public, which is extremely important and difficult to do. We asked people to come to meetings. Um this was a big one. We were hoping we'd get a lot of people. Um, but I appreciate all of your efforts. It was really, really, really nice getting to know you. Hopefully, hopefully be back and in November if I
run again, too. I feel like [laughter] >> Jack, I want to thank you as as well for your service. Um, you always had very thoughtprovoking questions and you made everybody kind of look at it another way, an issue. So, I wish you well and I hope to see you back here.
>> Thank you. Hope to be back. Well, Jack, you already know I wrote something for you. Um, so you'll definitely be missed, but I am expecting that within a year, you'll be back alongside our other two as well. Um, it has been really great serving with you
for the past three years. Um, you've shown a commitment to this board and our community as a parent, colleague, and a friend. And I've had the chance to sit in on many meetings with you. You always come very prepared, very thoughtful, very kind towards a lot of different opinions. Um, we've had a lot of
conversations over the years and you know, you've always listened and offered very helpful advice or opinions. Um, and you're always willing to help newer board members. Um, your expertise and many subjects will really, really be missed. I really appreciate all you've done for this board and I really hope
you get some time to relax with your family um, for a while and then we'll hope to see you back here very soon. >> Thank you. >> Um, I think he'll be busy in between now and then. we've got a lot of other things on the other side to be helping with. Um but uh allow me to say um Jack,
we joined at the same time, you know, as new members. Uh you've been an incredible partner in this effort. I've learned a lot from you. I've really enjoyed your openness, your collaboration, your insights. Um, one of the things that st or the thing that stands out to me most is that you care
about this district and the children and the staff that we have and everything you've done has been done with the best interest of them in mind. Um, the um my favorite thing about you is our work on policy. Um, I think that we really dug into things.
>> We did great together >> and we really you are a great you were a great partner in that room. um and every every opportunity we had to bring out the best in each other and in the board overall. So, thank you so much and I do too. I really do hope that you're back.
>> Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. >> All right, we are moving ahead to the hearing of the public. At this time, if there is anyone who would like to address the board, please come up, sign
your name and address in the book at the lectern and state your name for the record and please address the chair. Each person will have three minutes to speak to the board. It would be helpful if you would like to address the board to please come up now and sign in so you are ready when the first speaker is
finished. As a reminder, we are video recording this meeting. If you are a student who wishes to speak, we ask that you do not provide your home address, but rather give only the name of your town in which you live. If you are a parent wishing to discuss a specific matter pertaining to your child during
this portion of the meeting, you may request that the board temporarily suspend the video recording. Alternatively, please consider speaking privately about the matter to the superintendent after the meeting. Speakers should refrain from using specific student or staff names in their comments and are referred to bylaw 168
for further information regarding videotaping of our meetings. And just as a reminder, we take all of the public comment and then if we can respond, we will respond or we'll make arrangements to make sure you get the answers.
[snorts] >> Hello, my name is Laura Haberman, 34 Lord Sterling Drive. Um, I'm a parent of a sixth grader at Central Central Middle School and a ninth grader at Precipany High School. I'm here tonight to talk about the current policy of not hiring substitute teachers to cover teacher
absent absences at the middle school and high school level and instead having mass study halls. I understand that this is a cost-saving measure and can appreciate that the impacts on the day-to-day student learning from this [clears throat] can be minimal compared to other cuts that could have been made.
I understand that teachers are entitled as well to sick time and time off and I fully support them using that time as needed. Um, if you're not familiar with what a mass study hall looks like, as I was not until this year, um, I want to
touch on that. At Central, students are sent to the cafeteria to do work assigned by by their teacher, which while loud, they have tables, classes can be split up, they take attendance. It's according to my daughter not terrible and very social.
At PHS, however, students are sent to the auditorium where they are called up by class for attendance and told to find a seat and do their assigned work. In my in my child's experience, this is often easier said than done. As the auditorium is not really set up for working,
they're seated in tiny imu immovable auditorium chairs with no tabletops, often needing their Chromebooks and a binder or a notebook to complete their assignments. So, they're crunched in and not able to work efficiently. Add to that there are five or more classes
being in the room at the same time. It can get quite loud. Other than checking in with a teacher or administrator for attendance, they have no interaction with an adult. And while a substitute might just read sub plans and set set students off to work, there's at least an adult contact for them to have during
class. Now that my children have experienced teacher absences a few times this year, I want to better understand how this model is to be sustained. Which brings me to my two questions. If teachers are out for multiple days, is there a plan to directly check in on students or have a sub after a certain
number of days? Excuse me. While it's important for them um for students to build independence, I think they also need structure and direction from adults while in school. Um additionally, if we're not hiring
substitutes as a long-term plan, is there a plan to make the working environment better, particularly at the high school level? It's hard to get work done when you're stuck in a loud, uncomfortable environment. Add to that, there are many days where students have multiple teachers absent and they're in
the auditorium for half the day, twothirds of the day, and it can be a long day where they're not accomplishing a lot, and then they come home with extra homework because they couldn't get their work done in school. So, thank you. Thank you.
>> Good evening, everyone. Uh, my name is Chris Vanis, 20 Wood Haven Road. Um, I'm going to be very brief. I was here last month. Um, I'm going to keep coming to these meetings, but once I, like I said before, I want to be fully transparent. I want you guys to share the budget with us. I understand you went over this
agenda and the important needs, 30% increase in health care cost. Um, I like to see the budget ahead of time. Let's be fully transparent with the community here. I have two beautiful children, uh, four and seven years old. So, I'm going to be here for a long time. Um, the other thing I want to mention, Allison,
I know you went to the council meeting. They mentioned that they're offering, uh, free land from the developers. Um, then you're telling us no. If it's in writing and they're sending you these emails or they're sending you a proposal, sh be fully transparent with
the community because at the end of the day, we can talk back and forth like a seessaw, but let's see everything in black and white and be fully transparent to see is it the council side, is it the board of ed side, be transparent with us so that we can really see what is going on so that we can support you guys um at
the end of the day because we're here for for the community. Um so that's really at the end of the day, it's being fully transparent with us. so we can all um make this community better. Thank you so much for your time. [clears throat] >> Hello everyone. My name is Andre Rristitch. I'm at 25 Lord Sterling
Drive. I also was at the meeting last month. Um met you guys. So thank you again for your time and service. I do have questions. So looking at the budget from last year, it was about $180 million. You mentioned before there's 7,000 students about 25 $26,000 per
student. How does that compare to other districts? How does our expense, our breakdown compare to other districts? I think that's very important for the community to know. So, we see what how are we spending versus others. I mean, cuz just having one budget in front of us, we are not in this industry. We do
not know how this is compared to everyone else. You mentioned before the student toteer ratio. Um, it's capless now. Yet, you know, there's a state mandate where students have to learn Spanish, for instance. In Troy Hills, my son gets 30 minutes for, I think, one
day a week per quarter per year. He doesn't know what Ola Koas means. How what's the breakdown of the 14 students, sorry, 14 teachers plus staff in the ESL division? Is it two students to one
teacher? What is it? Because I want my son to know Spanish. It's the second most maybe the most spoken language in the world. It's important. Um I'd like to know, you know, you talk about operating costs over 16 buildings. How come we're not consolidating? My friend, my neighbor Chris had mentioned that. Um
you talk about rising cyber security costs. Well, how are we determining we're getting a good deal? I know we have brokers for certain programs like the medical. Do we have brokers for cyber security? And what plans are we doing for
fundraisers to help out with certain needs or lack of deficits? Are we going out there buying gift cards to Shopright and then raffling them off to people? Um are we going out to the large corporations where that have budgets for local community support and engagement?
I'm just curious with what's being done in that front. And uh yeah, thank you. Good evening, Tony Fisano. I have no students here. I'm just a concerned citizen. Uh Jack and I have had many conver coffee conversations at 7-Eleven.
Uh questions are uh I'm being asked to come back to the DOT under title 49. So be aware of what's going on. There are approximately what we found out with the American Trucking Association, 26,000 illegal CDLs have been issued in this
state. So be concerned. You can look up the individual under carrier safety rating. You can look up the country, the company under carrier safety rating. As far as maintenance costs with fuel, fuels come down. The only thing I would
suggest that you use start using and have been using treated fuel. This way, your buses will start and you get into more pre-trips and post- trips of your equipment. Uh, as far as upgrades, uh, working with AI with construction, I helped, uh, Joe,
uh, excuse me, Mike Kramer and Joe Senzera. We are having a problem in this state with workman's comp. If we turn around and offer between the school district and the construction company workman's comp like we did with Philadelphia, we put 70 seniors to work
at $70,000 a year with free health instant healthcare cost. My other question to relieve is updating on the construction systems. All I'm seeing is actually existing systems going back in and no new technology.
Some of our air conditioning systems should be put in with HVAC that are uh like EG4s, Mr. Cool that are heat pumps and consume almost oneird of the power and provide compared to aac of 7,000 go
to 12,000 BTUs. The other thing is pre-construction. If you're going to go into construction costs, I watched the Littleton school for seven how many years being constructed? For your information, pre-construction costs, I'm think you're all aware of the Mario Cole bridge took
six months. If you want to see AI involved, uh I don't know how many people have seen World of Worlds, the spaceship, well, there are three machines that turn around or in in existence right now.
They call spiders. They build 15,000 square foot homes, six in the night each machine. Your your classrooms can be delivered on tractor trailers pre-constructed and up in days, not years. If there's any other questions, Judy has
my number. Uh, also be careful on your hours of service. Title 49. All hours count. If people have outside businesses or are working part-time jobs, their hours have to be included. Example, if they get phone calls in their business
past 8 o'clock at night and and go for even a half hour, they are out of service by six in the morning until 6 in the morning. So, make sure your electronic logs that if they're doing dual jobs, they're filing it. Otherwise, they're following
they're filing false federal records and you'll be able. >> Thank you. >> Hi, good evening. My name is Jill Elely. I live at 38 Lord Sterling. Um I'm a Precipany High School graduate. Um just moved back here a year and a half ago to
bring my son to this school district because this was the best place to grow up. Um and I have a couple of concerns. I understand with the budget and where we're at, but some things that I'm seeing now that we're in middle school that are really upsetting um as someone
who grew up here. Um the the study hall situation is now I have a boy so it's not okay. Um it's completely disruptive. Uh we also last week were in there for four out of eight periods um with
multiple teachers out. I understand it's winter, it's flu season, but we then went home and had five hours of homework because it's everything that has to be completed from the class plus the homework assignments. Um, so while this might be a solution for us to save
budget, um, it's not really conducive, especially with sixth graders in the middle school who have not really gotten study skills. Um, that's a key thing, especially our sixth graders, our co babies, kindergarten. I lived in a city. Um, we didn't go back into school until
second grade. So, we missed all of first grade. Second grade was hybrid. So, learning those essential skills in kindergarten, first grade, second grade were hard for this this group of kids. Um, and then having them trying to learn
study skills through a laptop, which is crazy, and then put in new math that parents like me don't understand the seven different types of ladder systems and whatever that I have to help him with his homework and show all of them
for us to get credit. um this the multiple study hall situation for sixth grade specifically is not working out for us. Um another thing that I just wanted to bring up is um after school busing uh when I went to school here we had a 3:15 and a 515 late bus. I
understand transportation is an issue. However, if you're a working parent that doesn't get to work from home, your kid can't do the things after school um if there's no way for them to get home. It also goes with athletics. My son was fortunate to make the basketball team.
One of 26th graders that was selected. Uh 75 kids. We have 16 kids on the team. We don't have a JV program. That's an issue. But then add on if I wasn't fortunate to be working from home. He could have made the team and not even be able to play because there's no way for
him to get home after school um being in sports. So these are just a couple things that as someone who grew up here loved it so much that I came back. Um, it's really disheartening for students that can't have those opportunities to play after school sports because we
don't have JV teams, that don't get them all the way through high school. They give up because they don't get selected because there's only 15 slots on a team. Um, it's a real issue. Um, so >> thank you for my time's up. Thank you so much.
>> Good evening. My name is Davos Sha. Um, first of all, thank you Dr. Shayes for still staying with us after the numbers last night. And uh, Jack, um, thank you. Um, it's difficult. Uh, I think this is my third
month in a row, but first full week of meetings, attending conferences, volunteer time, personal time, family time. It's not easy. And uh the best we can give you is thank you. I think it's
a selfless job. We all know know it. Um and um it's an understatement how much work everyone on the board probably sacrifices with their family after hours. Some of us had calls until 8:30. Some of us went to meetings until 10:00
already. Um so thank you. We know it's hard and I'm sure we'll see you again uh with Nicole as well. Thank you and of course Dr. Wright. Um with that said, um a couple of questions uh from the funding resources
perspective. Can we get the actual numbers for the tax levy NJ State and other sources? I think last year we were about 187 million in total. I I don't know what's the projected number this year. So if we can get that number two
um from [clears throat] maybe understand the drivers from 23 to 24 but what were the real transportation drivers uh from 24 to 25 because you know our gas prices are almost the same uh is it just salary that increased by
uh that much because it's seems like about 30% increase or so uh in uh from one year to the second um third uh question. I know when we had past meetings um last
year we had healthc care increase by 15%. I think we were anticipating okay maybe this year 15% because uh the state board you know the state medical education didn't increase last year but they increased 30% this year. So for us
to see 30%. So from last year plus this year it's extraordinary in my opinion. Um not sure what else we can do. Can do we have the option to go back to state? Will that be cheaper? But I'm sure uh you're already looking at it but just a question from
their perspective. Thank you. >> Hi Heidi man 15 Clark please. Um I was here six months ago and again I teach at a district around the corner. We do not have these same substitute issues and I'm just don't get I keep hearing it's everywhere and we are the talk of the
county. Everyone comes up to you and goes, "Oh, you're precipy. Oh, you're the ones that have no subs." So, we're saying it's everybody, but we are the only ones that have done that. So, that's my first thing. My second thing is not as expensive, but calendar. Can we look at our calendar? We have more random days off than anyone. And I love
calendars. I was looking at four different districts today because I was looking at who was going back January 2nd. Nobody gets all of these days off. I know we had a huge Jewish population when I went here. I don't think we do anymore. We still get those holidays. We're getting off a day in March for um
teacher meetings. That's great, but we have then the two days later we're off again. It is so choppy and it's hard to get anything done. So, I know a lot of your calendars are done for two years, but it's something we really need to look back in is can you kind of have your teacher meetings more at the
beginning and not randomly in March and then two days later off again because I was looking at it the other day because I was upset about a different spring break than my child again. But anyway, it's it's just constant. One day off a month, two days off, they're never in school. And then of course we had three days off with my kids this month which
is nothing we could have helped but and also are we making up those days on Martin Luther King Day is my other question because according to the calendar we should but I'm just trying to figure out if we are because I have a Brookoner and a Hills kid so I'm just trying to get my kids and myself ready for that one. Thank you.
>> All right. I don't see anybody else. So, we'll close the hearing of the public. Um, Dr. Chase, would you like to address anything now? >> Uh, sure. There were several questions. I may not get to them all. Um, so if you if I I don't answer them uh and they're
budget related, please go to the budget website and submit them in the Google form there. But I'm I'm going to try my best here. Um the mass study halls, there was a question if there's a if a teacher's absent for a repeated number of days, do we then hire a substitute?
Uh we do after two to two two to three days. That's what I was informed. You're saying no. Okay. >> This week. >> Okay. So, one of the challenges that happens to with substitutes um is sometimes we're not able to actually secure a sub. uh we contract out for our
substitutes and sometimes people are not available because just like our workforce that is subject to the flu the folks that we contract with I think they're effective school solutions um they too have staff members who may be feeling ill but that's been our that's been our protocol um I can I could look
into that to see what happened but I would I would uh assume at this point it's because they didn't have anybody they could give to us also my understanding I wasn't here last year but my understanding too is that last year we were also having a difficult time sub uh securing substitutes. So there were many cases where we've had to
do mass study halls back then. Um but again I understand it's not an ideal situation. I will convey uh your comments to the building principal about uh how it's being uh managed in the auditorium, but it really comes down to a space issue. Uh but again, thank you
for bringing that up. Um somebody mentioned wanting to see the budget beforehand. Uh so just so if you're not aware and I'm going to actually highlight this on the budget website, you can see our budget uh for if you go to the department section of
the website and you look on the business department, you could see something called a userfriendly budget. Every school district in New Jersey is required to post a userfriendly budget. So that's where you can look at comparison rates. Uh but when you're talking about per pupil expenditure, that's definitely some information I want to get out to the community. Right
now I'm kind of curating all of that. there isn't like one large file. I have to kind of play with it. So, that will be information that we will put up on um the website, but just for my preliminary look at that, we are probably in the middle, but of where we're paying there.
There are districts that are higher than us and districts that are lower than us. Um there was another question about brokers for cyber security. Um, I know that just in my conversations with
the department heads for the budget, uh, a lot of things are shopped around. Um, I don't know specifically if we're using a broker for that, but that I will I will be asking the tech team, but I could tell you that, um, whenever any kind of purchase is made, it's not just something that's made. It's not an
arbitrary decision. The tech folks in the county primarily are very, they communicate a lot, um, and they're always trying to find deals. But um I will bring that to their attention to see and then uh come back. You could you can reach out to me if you want to get that specific answer. I don't know that
right now. Um do you know >> Oh, Dr. McHugh knows. >> So we're we're a member of of SAFE school alliance insurance fund which provides our cyber insurance. It is a co-op. Um they market, they they shop
around and then we are put together with you know 100 other school districts to get the lowest price possible. >> Okay. I thought he I was thought he was talking more about the products that we buy for protection but um we can get clarification after after the meeting. Uh there was also a question about
fundraisers. Uh do we how do we I know our PTA our PTAs do a lot of fundraisers. Our ed foundations do a lot of fundraisers. Um you know tapping out into the local community. There's a lot of industries around here. It's definitely something we can explore. my
experience with doing that because I came from a district where we had a large number of pharmaceutical industries around us. Uh there was a movement in these companies to not necessarily give money but rather to do service. >> Uh I don't know if that's that's the case. I guess it's it it sells better.
So the those idea that these people are so that these companies are willing to give money um it's it's kind of changed. It was in the spirit of service. So we nonetheless we can look through that. Um, thank you to the gentleman who had all of the information about construction.
Um, you know, we definitely would love to hear more from from you about all of that. So, we will be in touch if you could give your name. I can't have dialogue back and forth, but I could talk to you after the meeting. Um, there was uh one question about uh just
one comment made about the mathematics being uh difficult to to navigate. Um, having come from the curriculum realm, this is something that I've heard a lot from parents. I know uh our we have supervisors of mathematics, I know a lot of materials put out there to help parents, help our students, but I
encourage anybody who is working with their child at home. If it's getting to a situation where it's getting frustrating and the child is um experiencing difficulty, uh the best person to reach out to is that child's teacher. uh so I just wanted to say that
because mathematics has always has for the last 10 15 years of my career I've been helping uh the the move in mathematics is towards a conceptual understanding of mathematics not in the way that we learned algorithms so that's why we're having trouble with it um
the real drivers for transportation I' I'd have to look that up Dval so but we are going to be doing I asked Dr. McHugh uh in one of the following presentations we do is to really take a deeper dive into our revenue and our increases, but you could also submit that on the budget
website and we can answer that because I'm sure the community, some other people have some questions about that. Thank you for the input on the calendar. I was not here when the calendar was developed. I've developed numerous calendars in my career. I could tell you it's it's always a challenging uh thing
to develop because there's a lot of people who want certain days off and I know the board deliberated it and one of the things that the board did which I think is fantastic is the development of a two-year calendar which really gives people um the opportunity to see two years in advance but nonetheless I'm
sure when we we can have continued conversations I think that goes through the TLC committee >> calendar committee >> oh there's a calendar there's a calendar committee um I didn't know [clears throat] that. Um, and are we making up the two days? Uh,
so I said during my superintendence report, we we have to adjust a calendar. Right now, um, we're looking at possibly a professional development day, bringing students in for that day. That's something I'm going to recommend to the
board in in January. So, um, as soon as we can get that passed, that information will be out. If you want to talk afterwards, I'm I'm here to talk because I can't have dialogue back and forth. I that's all I have right now. If I missed anything, you know, my my email is on the website.
You could always email. I'm happy to get back to you. But thank you for coming and asking all these questions because it shows that you're committed and I appreciate that. >> Thank you. I did want to add that we will share the budget as soon as we have it. But even from the presentation that we had about the um new courses, the
classes aren't decided until the end of March. So the teachers aren't, you know, the teachers aren't decided. So it's not that we don't want to share the budget, but there are so many moving pieces that don't get decided until later in the year that there isn't a budget until
later in the year. Um, and then for those of you who had questions, especially about like comparing to other districts, if you could put on the website like which numbers you'd like to be compared because even the userfriendly budget has like 50 lines on
it. So, you know, to try to compare all of those would probably just be a little overwhelming. So, you know, we'd be glad to put things up on the website for people to see, but we'd really like to put the information that you want to see up there. Um, and then the only other thing I wanted to say is we've been
talking about the 2% tax levy and knowing that that's our cap. And I just wanted everybody in the public to realize that we recognize that that is a tax increase automatically and that we do not take that lightly and [laughter] we do not just
just assume like if we could do a budget with no tax increase. I'm sure that would be the first choice of the a lot of people on this board. So, I just wanted to recognize that we I wanted people to know that we do recognize that
that is already a tax increase on the residents. Um, and to again, thank you for your input and you know, hopefully people will use the FAQ. We really would look forward to some ideas that we could look into and
and you know, dive deeper in and see if it would be helpful. you know, we absolutely welcome that. Um, okay. So, now we are at the roll call vote for superintendent bulletin number eight,
item 1 through 51 with addendum items 52 through 67 and readins. May I have a motion for the vote, Mrs. Mayor? And a second, Dr. Wright. Uh, roll call, please.
>> Mrs. Mrs. Abraham, >> yes. >> Mr. Barios, >> yes. >> Mrs. Delave, >> yes. >> Mrs. Mayor, >> yes. >> Mr. Rehea, >> yes. >> Dr. Wright, >> yes. >> Mrs. Chappelle, >> yes. >> Mrs. Kogan, >> yes. >> And there being no further business, I
need a motion to adjourn the meeting. Dr. Wright and a second. Mr. Reya. All in favor? >> Meeting adjourned. Have