Good evening everyone. >> April 27th, 2026. It is Pasc Valley Regional High School District Board of Education regular meeting. It is now 7:31 and we are going to begin. Um,
first order of business and call to order and roll call by >> Miss >> here. Miss Guzman, Mrs. Long >> here, >> Miss Keller >> here,
>> Mrs. Martin pres. >> Okay, moving on to our flag salute and pledge of allegiance. I ask for everyone to stand and to the republic for it stands one nation under God indivisibley and justice for all.
>> Public announcement by the presiding officer. Adequate notice of this meeting has been provided by mailing copies of said notice to the record, filing copies of said notice with the municipal clerks of Hillsdale, Montdale, Riverdale, and Lake and publishing said notice in the
record on July 2nd, 2025. At this time, I'd like to um read a motion to enter into executive session. May I have a motion, please? We're going to be entering You're perfect.
Okay, we're going to go ahead and resume um and move on to routine matters. um which is our monthly reports. Okay, which is we're going to start with the board president report. Um okay, we
are headed into spring. We are in spring I should say. Lots of celebratory occasions that have commenced including the National Honor Society inductions, um spring pep rally, senior fashion show. We're looking to forward to many other joyous events.
Um, the legislature has heard Governor Charles's proposed fiscal year 2027 budget. And on Wednesday, April 15, 2026, Assembly Budget Committee held its hearing on Governor Charles proposed fiscal year 2027 budget for the
Department of Education. Um, Department of Education Commissioner Lily Locks stated that the funding formula should be more predictable and transparent and the current state funding formula, while having served its purpose, has become outdated.
As the first set of the legislaturator's two fiscal year 2027 Department of Education budget hearings are scheduled, the second one's scheduled for May 12th. And the governor Charles proposed a
record 12.4 billion in formula formula formula school aid for the coming July to June fiscal year. The final state budget is slated for June 30th 2026 and that concludes the board president
report. Um next is the interim superintendent report of Derek Phillips. >> Thank you. Um, we met about two weeks ago, so my report's probably a little bit shorter because it's in a short time span. Uh, but at that April 13th meeting, we heard numerous public
comments regarding uh the board of education's exploration of potentially outsourcing custodial services. I want to give the public an overview of that process so everyone's aware of it. Um, first of all, uh, when we notify the association, that's a 90day
notification. And during that those 90 days, the district is not allowed to solicit any proposals. So, we're not working on anything at this time because we're in that 90day period. Uh once that expires, um the district then can uh
advertise uh an R RFP uh request for proposals and solicit proposals and that would be about a 30-day period. uh after that period then we will have official proposals that we that will need to be reviewed and I would estimate about 20
more days uh to review and possibly place a resolution on the board agenda if there's going to be one because of those time frames um you're going to find out the board is not going to have any updates on this situation until we're able to get more information and
um so uh please be patient as um there's very defined uh time frames that we have to follow. Uh tonight uh well today actually this afternoon, Pascat Hills hosted its first unified track meet which was a terrific
event. We had um competitors from five other districts at the meet and I want to thank all our students and the staff who made that day possible. Our students who were competing uh really enjoyed the event. It was a perfect day to be out there and running around the track and jumping in the sand pit. uh and for our
first unified meet. It was quite a success. Um Passac Valley and and Pasak Hills uh recently held their National Honor Society inductions and congratulations to the 67 students from Hills and the 70 students from Valley who were inducted into the National
Honor Society. Tonight, Cynthia Kirk, our business administrator, will be presenting our uh 2026 2027 final budget. Um, as everyone is aware that developing this budget budget was quite a challenge. I want to
thank the entire administrative team for their input and collaboration and creating a balanced budget. I especially want to thank Cindy for her time, effort, and persistence um, which were essential during this process. Next week is teacher appreciation week.
So, let me be the first to say thank you for making a difference in our students lives. And I encourage everyone to reach out to a teacher next week who's had um if they've had a positive impact on them or on their child and to say thank you. And our next board meeting will be on
May 18th. >> Thank you, Mr. Moving on to committee reports. Governance personnel committee um by Miss Martin. Hello. Uh we met on April at 64. Uh we spoke
about personnel. We had some updates and staff 2000 updates regarding the staff 2026 27 renewals. We also talked about coaching positions and working to create and maintain equitable athletics program for female and male athletes as well as
between Hills and Valley. Uh we talked to governance about our three continuing goals. the superintending search um assessing district facilities and academic and co-curricular needs and to continue to support and enhance our sec our postsecary educational paths. Um
other uh topics discussed were the hill cell tower uh the elections at PB and its impact on the school closing due to the middle school not being available and the superintendent evaluation in conjunction with the B self evaluation.
Uh next meeting will be scheduled for the nearest future probably early to mid May. Uh anyone? >> Yes. Okay. Next, uh the sick bank committee met on April 21st at 6:45 via Google Meet. The current request was
reviewed and approved. We discussed the need to look into creating a checklist to assist with the process moving forward. No additional meeting is needed or scheduled at this time. Great. Thank you, Miss Martin. Um, moving on to the Hills Valley
Coalition Seminar and my Miss. So, thank you to Hills Valley Coalition, specifically Jennifer Charo, Jennifer Zimmerman, and Mr. Waters. It was really a great educational experience, especially for me. I had no idea um the
dangers of social media. I just thought they were going to talk about, oh yeah, scroll too much, but no. Um, this that meeting was held Pascat Hills Auditorium, April 8th. The presentation was two and a half hours long. There was 150 attendees including administration,
parents, high schoolers, and middle schoolers. And there's four parts. The first part was they showed two separate documentary clips called Your Attention Please. That first one is called Your Attention Please. It investigates the addictive
nature of unregulated technology and its impact on mental health and social connection and behavior. The second clip is called Can't Look Away and the subtitle is Can't Look Away: The Case Against Social Media: Exposing How Social Media Algorithms Exploit and Harm
Children Causing Addiction and Severe Mental Health Issues. Um there were four moms who were there to share how their child had suffered their teenagers suffered cyber bullying, sex tortion, and they took their own lives.
So students um don't often admit the cyber bullying because they don't want their phones to be taken away or don't want to be a snitch. But the key message for those students is um to not send when they're requesting some nudes or something. Don't send the nudes. Be
extortion is when they take these a random person will reach out and ask for these inappropriate photos and you send it and you don't even know that it's um a professional criminal trying to do this. Um the second part was that we
need to note that Pac Valley and Pac Hills have school advisory councils counselors Jennifer Zimmerman at Hills and Margaret Ma um at Valley for anti-bullying
um and their request is they often hear about the stories months later so they're hoping the students will be encouraged to come to them sooner for help. The third which I've really um learned a lot. The police came
and especially the detective Dan Kristen at Rivervale who deals with this this is his assignment um sex tortion and dealing with um the cell phone issues. He's he's seen that this is evil and he
res said this phrase over and over again. Bad news never gets better with time. And when he's saying bad never gets better with time. He's really focusing when they have extortion and they have your nudes and they say we want 500, it gets up to a thousand, then
it just increases. It just doesn't get better. It doesn't go away. That I had no idea. Um, and he stressed that for the people, the criminals who are professionally doing this and targeting the cell
phones, it's a contact sport for them. They just want as many contacts So, um you might think that it's somebody who you know because they have a friend a friend, but it's it's not. They're just they're really good at it and it's
not a real um friend. Um so, their immediate the police will say this, the immediate next steps. Um oh, and how they contact you is they see when you're graduating because you put that on your thumbnail. They see where you're going to go to college. So
they're like, "Oh, you go to Pacific Valley. Oh, and you're going to be going to this college." And then they appear that way and they they sound like they're your friend and your ally. And it's it's so sinister. So the police say immediate steps is if
you're threatened, don't pay. Do not send any more photos and don't handle it alone. Stop all contact immediately. Take a screenshot of them and then talk to a trusted adult and you can go to the the police will help you.
Um, this is a incredible statistic. The New Jersey law enforcement receives 20,000 reports of suspected exploitation annually. Um, and the last part, a lot of the parents shared how they
have fears about this and they want to be able to get on top of it, get ahead of it. Um there's a Supreme Court verdict on KGM and Meta and Meta and Google had to pay.
So the the police officers um who shared this from Mont Vale and Woodlook Lake and Murder Veil, they say to block that person, report them to the platform and then find your trusted adult. And um the speakers, the four moms who
lost their children, their advice for the is to watch what your child is watching. See what they see. Have no cell phones during meals or when they sleep to give them some disconnection and get their passwords to whatever they
have. So they that you have you as a parent have access to what they have. And um there's a group parents can join parent rise and that their slogan is parents arising to fix a broken system.
Thank you for that report. Moving on to minutes. Resolve the Pasc Valley Regional High School District Board of Education at the recommendation of the interim superintendent approve the following Pic Valley Regional High School District Board of Education
minutes. Can I have a motion, please? >> Miss Alone. >> Yes. >> Miss Goodman. Yes. Mrs. W. Yes. >> Merrs. Martin. >> Yes. >> Mr. Mrs. Varese. >> Yes.
>> Mr. Weaver. >> Yes. >> Miss Steph. >> Yes. >> Moving on to our presentations. We have two this evening. Um first is evaluations. We have the pleasure of
having um Melissa Del Roso here um from the New Jersey School Boards Association. >> Okay. So, first of all, first time here, so um thank you for having me. I am your service representative for New Jersey School Board Association and um for
those of you that may not use New Jersey School Board Association very much. Um you're all members and you have I handed out a few handouts from personite as well as my business card. So as board members you should feel free to reach out to me if you have any questions, if you have any questions on governance or
anything schoolboard related. Um if you're not sure of something, whatever it is, you should feel free to reach out to me at any time. We do not need to go through your administration or through your board president. Any conversation we have can remain between us unless we it's going further that there's others
involved etc. Um so you should feel comfortable getting a call. The other thing is there's a lot of information that you need to know being a board member even if you've been doing it for a while. You were obviously most likely did not go to school for governance or parliamentary procedure or any of those
types of things. Um whereas your administration is obviously trained in what they're doing. So it is a big role. Um take advantage of as much training as you can but also the website has a ton of information. If you need information or you want training or you need any
direction that's why I recommend you give me make me the first phone call. Don't you know obviously you don't make a lot of money doing this. Let's be honest. It's a volunteer role and there's no paycheck at the end of the week. So, the amount of time that you already give to this role, um, please
feel free to reach out to me if I can help you get your information quicker or um, you know, a little easier. That's what I do and I'm happy to do it. And, uh, before we even get started so I don't forget towards the end, I just want to thank you for everything you do. My background is I was a board member
for nine years in Japan. I understand what you do. I sat in your seat. I know it's a tough job and I know especially this time of year, it's a very difficult time. Um, so if you ever need anything, just reach out to me. So, tonight we're going to talk about the CSA evaluation and then we're going to do a quick
overview of the board self-evaluation. I encourage you to ask questions throughout. Don't wait till the end. If there's something you have a question on, feel free. I'm going to go through it as quickly as possible. Slow me down if it's going too fast. And um, I guess let's get started.
So, we, by the way, you will not be using the superintendent evaluation tool that New Jersey School Board Association uses. I don't know if you've used that in the past and if you're familiar with it, but because you have an interim superintendent, it's a little less um
tedious to do a summary evaluation in that way, which is perfectly fine and acceptable. And we'll talk about what is required in a CSA evaluation. Okay? But you do not even if even if you didn't have an interim superintendent, you are not required to use the New Jersey School Board Association tool. That is a
tool that was created in connection with the superintendent association. It was a combined process. Um there is talk of possibly changing it again, but again not relevant for tonight because you're not going to be using that process. However, um we're going to talk about
the legal guidelines, the evaluation process, and the tools we probably skip through. Um, evaluation of the chief school administrator is the board's needs of oversight and appraisal of effective management of the school district. As you are aware, your role is to oversee
the district, right? Not run the district. That is what your superintendent is for. And the superintendent reports to the board. It is a partnership, but at the end of the day, that is the one role that you will evaluate. It is also the one um staff
member that you will hire should that happen which apparently it probably will be in the near future. Okay. So the legal guidelines are required by it is required by statute that you review your superintendent and
there are a few guidelines with that. Okay. So that is a very important role that you have and it is required. So by statute you have to do it once a year. You must do it in writing. the board and the superintendent must meet to discuss it and we're going to go through that process and the evaluation is based on
goals and objectives of the district. Right? So, it's really important that you understand that. That is what you're basing your review on. Not that you don't like the color shirt they wear or you know certain behaviors or things like that. The overall what you're doing is you're reviewing your superintendent
based on how the district is being run. Okay? And there's goals and objectives involved in all that as well. Um, okay. So, we're going to go through everything in more detail. The other thing that you do, QAC, everybody familiar with QAC? So, part of QAC,
right, is you need to get all those points. You want to get as many points as you can for free. It's like a game. So, um part of the QAC requirements under the um governance section will be that you must have a policy, right, to evaluate your
superintendent and that you must completed by the deadline of July 1st. So that is something um that's really important because you don't want to give up the points right that you can get for doing it. Um again is this the use of the MJSBA
evaluation tool required? No, it is not. This just goes into how the how it was uh developed which I mentioned um before using or before even doing the evaluation. Uh there's a few things in school boards that you need to do. These
should be done even though you're not using just so you know the census data within and yours is probably outdated but just a heads up that's why it's still in here. It lists in the New Jersey schoolboard census data it's who your president is and all that stuff from after your reorganization.
Okay. Um the other thing that you need to do is identify conflicted board members. So a board member is conflicted and cannot participate in CSA evaluation if they have a um if a relative that
works in the district. Okay. So conflicts in around ethics and all that are very complicated. Um it's like you know your second cousin twice removed may be a problem when you go to do negotiation um to be involved in negotiations with
your teachers associations and stuff like that. is pretty simple when it comes to the CSA evaluation. If you have a uh family member within the district uh that that reports obviously up through the right through the staff
wherever if you have a family member whoever is above them you are not allowed to be involved with evaluating or in negotiations in that situation as well. if you're not sure if somebody falls into that category and it could be it
could be a part-time coach. Just as a heads up, like sometimes we don't realize what that involves. If you have any questions or you're not sure, speak to your board attorney if you want to reach out to me as well. I'm going to always refer you back to the board attorney at the end of the day because they're the ones that are going to give you the best advice and recommendation
on that issue. Um, but you are responsible for recognizing if you have an issue. So, that's the point. You want to make sure that you take care of it beforehand, not after. And then the last thing is the calendar. So you will be hearing from the
president on that because um we discussed that earlier today. So the evaluation process begins with the district goal settings and action plans. Okay? So you set your district goals. Your superintendent does that with you and they pretty much lead that
uh process usually, but it is in combination with your board because you're deciding where the district is going and what you want to see happen in the district. It's usually anywhere from three to five goals. That is what you will be evaluating your superintendent on down the road. But that's how the evaluation process works. Um then you
should be getting regular updates, usually quarterly on how those district goals are going. If you are not at this point, just plan for it going forward because you don't want surprises and there's no sense in setting goals if you're not going to be on top of them, right? If you're not seeing where they're going, what's the sense? If you
wait till the end to see whether or not they were accomplished or not, it's a little late. Um, so after as you move forward to where we are now, you would have a superintendent evaluation pre-conference. That's the last time that your superintendent is updating you on your on the progress on those goals
and objectives. Um then the superintendent completes the self evaluation of how he he has done on his goals and objectives and then it goes to the to the board and the board will review that. The board reviews that in
executive session you have sent out a right notice and you have a conversation and you come up collaboratively with your review. It's important that you understand the review is the majority opinion. Okay? and the majority opinion.
The reason for that is because you govern as a board, you don't govern as individuals, right? So, it is usually the voice of the majority that is heard because you're almost looking at it as one voice. Um, so that's just something to consider. It does not mean any
dissenting opinions are not heard. As we move forward, you will end up having a summary conference with your superintendent where you will sit down again executive session and your superintendent's breast. Okay. Um
everybody know what a rice notice is. You don't go to rice notes, right? Um so what in that during that summary um session conference you will have the opportunity that if you are the
dissenting opinion to speak during that time frame and vocalize what your opinion is okay so it doesn't your voice does not go unheard and at the end of all this really important because I get this a lot this year right um you must
save a copy okay, of the final CSA evaluation. So, I'm going to recommend that the superintendent keeps his copy. And for the board president, usually the best thing to do is have it um have your
attorney retain a file. If for any reason over time you switch attorneys, they give you that file back and it goes to the next attorney. And the reason for that is your superintendent is obviously the top of the house. So you want this confidential personnel document and because of that you don't want it in a
place where other personnel would have access to it personnel that has access to other confidential information. But it's really important that you both keep a copy. We the reason for that by the way is we do not save them. So even if you were using the tool we we wipe it every year
because it is a personnel thing. So we don't keep that data or information. And then I wipe all my emails. So if I sent you emails, if we've configured it, which is the typical way we would do that, those all get deleted as well within a year. So I it is not able to be reproduced.
Um so the pre-evaluation conference um would be just if you haven't done so to have a conversation with your superintendent on where you are on those goals. Um district goals assessment. We're going to see a lot of the same information. So, I'm going to whiz
through some of this stuff so that we're not reiterating um over and over again. So, again, that's going through the goals, the compilation, majority opinion, annual annual performance for everything I just told you where it'll be the majority opinion. The sententic
opinion will have the opportunity to speak during your conference. Again, do it in every direction in every color. Um, saying pretty much the same thing. important to point out again only non-conlicted board members can participate in this process
most of what I've covered here um the key thing is the date completed by July 1st okay that means everything is done and by the way your superintendent does have the opportunity if they don't agree with what the evaluation shows they have the ability to add commentary
as well um and then both the president and the superintendent sign off on So they do have that opportunity. Who keeps a copy? Because that's really important. Way ahead of myself here. Um so considerations. This isn't a once a
year event. It's really important that if you're setting goals, if you're going to take the time to set the goals that you really keep on top of them and see how they are um moving forward. I also have to mention it is extremely important that you understand that goals can be fluid. Um all we have to do is
say co to understand that, right? So, I'm sure the year that the goals were created during the year of COVID, they completely went off the rails based on what happened. So, there are there are outside environmental factors, etc. that can completely change things up. Funding
can change things up. So, just be aware of that. It's okay to amend and adjust your goals. It doesn't mean it's okay to do that just because you can't reach them, right? So, it's um it's a process that the board needs to do with the superintendent if it's appropriate.
Um, so everything else, develop a system to retain the evidence, review the performance over a full year. One other thing for board members, if there's anybody new, if you join the board on January 1st, you will be reviewing the
superintendent from January 1st to the time that you finish the review. You, even if you've been to every single meeting for the last two years, that is not what you are um evaluating on. you are evaluating as your role on the board. So there may be things that you
haven't seen in you know and that's okay not to have an opinion or not to have to say that you haven't been able to see that type of whatever it is that's going on with it. If you don't know something it's okay. Um so now we're going to talk quickly about the board self evaluation. Have
you historically done a board self evaluations? >> Okay. Do you know when the last time you did one? Okay. So, um in speaking to Deborah, it is something that you're going to do this year. Hopefully, everybody agrees
and steps in and does it. The more people that do it, um the better the the evaluation is, right? It is it is important for a board to do this because one going to bring a lot of things to light but more importantly if you expect
to have your staff right evaluated and you're evaluating your superintendent it's only appropriate that you also evaluate your part in the overall process right of moving the district forward and doing the things that need to happen. It'll also send you in the direction for your own board goals
because board goals and district goals are not the same. District goals are done about the district with the assistance of the superintendent. Word goals are really more about how you're going to govern better and where your focus is on that. So that does is something that tends to come out of your
board self-evaluation. Um so it provides self-reflection. Uh it again you'll set a time frame and hopefully all the board members will participate. But if all the board members do not participate, we can
still, as long as the majority has participated, move ahead. Just know that's an opportunity as a board member that you lose out on by not taking the time to complete it. Um, it is not it is not required by statute like the CSA evaluation is, but it is really good practice.
>> Is there a form for this? >> It's going to be the same way. We're going to do it right through um the school board evaluation tool and um I will set you up for that. If you have board goals from last year that you want to put in there, you would it's a newer feature of school boards. It's been a couple years. You would put those in and
you'd be able to evaluate on how you did against your board goals and then you would also evaluate on just your general governance on the tenants in the within within that. Okay, we'll get into that a little bit more. Um and again overall it improves the governance and management and like I said the results develop the
goals and you'll be surprised at at what you learn from it and also if you do it regularly it's even better because we have charts within there so it shows your improvement over time and understanding it's the improvement of the board. The board changes so it can go either way depending on your
composition of your board and how seasoned your board members are. Um and again complete it annually. We can do it on the same time frame that you do your superintendent evaluation. I would focus on your superintendent
evaluation first and then follow up right after that and then again over the summer or leading into the summer would be a good time to create your board goals and off of that we I would come back. I would give you the review of what your evaluation showed. We'll talk
about the challenges. will talk about your strengths and then it it's a pretty easy process that your goals will kind of fall out from that. >> I have another question. >> Yes. >> Um where where is that maintained? Is that just within us? Do we hold on to that or is it also go to school board?
So you do it through school board and it's the same as the CSA evaluation where I would compile the report and send it back to you. The board will see that everybody will see it. Um, that is not something that we need to destroy so that we can retain and I can retain a
copy and probably will. The reason for that is you are not staff. This is not a personnel item, right? I will caution you and I'll probably say it again as we get closer. Remember that you're evaluating yourself as board members as as governance um body. A lot of times
board members like to go into mentioning certain usually administration because it's who you're working maybe your VA, maybe your superintendent. Sometimes it's positive, sometimes it's not. But even when it's positive, we need to redact it. And we redact it because it's
not a tool for evaluating staff. So I always caution you since you're all paying attention, try not to mention names. Try not to even don't say the superintendent did a fantastic job this year by doing blah blah blah blah blah. We have to redact it. Even though it's
positive, it's still a value to value to So, um, try not to do that, okay? There are other ways to say what you want to say in in in your comments. And by the way, comments are really important part of the process. You have to put comments in every section to move forward. If
it's getting repetitive and you can't think of a comment, you want to move on. Just put a dot, a space, an X, something to hold your spot and you can go to the next session because sometimes it really does feel repetitive and or sometimes you just can't think of the words. You can always go back to it before you submit it or you can leave it as blank.
But the more comments gets a little bit more to the root of of how you're doing and what we're looking at to um to move forward and to build on. >> I just ask a quick question. >> Would this make sense for this to be something that we kind of look at at the retreat or is this going to be something
>> I would recommend that you do it before the retreat and we review it at the retreat? >> Yeah. Right. because that that's how it will play out and that would be a great opportunity to do it >> and I do when we did them I do find that they are very repetitive
>> doing the process of the evaluation >> evaluations is that something that we can look at in advance to try to >> yeah we can get it open I will um talk to Deborah about setting it up and getting it open and giving you as much time as you need to go through it but but you can go on to New Jersey school I
believe you can see it um you might be able to see a PDF of it, but if you go onto the homepage and you log in and you go into there's um like six boxes as you scroll down to the center and it'll say CSA evaluation will say board self-evaluation. Go into the they may be
the same box. Either way, go into it and you'll see a bunch of tutorials, webinars, uh frequently asked questions and probably a PDF of it as well. If not, I might be able to get that for you. So, I will look at that. >> Yeah, >> it's fixed. So, like boards across for
the state are all doing the same and they're just going to embed our personal goals into >> Yes, you could create your own. There are boards that might actually there are boards that actually pay outside consultants to come in to do that. I think that's a little crazy but it does because you this is part of your dues.
You know I like to say it's for free but in reality by by statute in case you don't know everybody must pay their New Jersey schoolboard Association dues. It is a I guess a semi-state agency and the point is to we do your mandatory training. We do all those kind of things. So that's why I tell you as your
FSR take full advantage of us. Use everything you can to take get from us. Um because it's something you pay for, right? And there are a ton of things that we can offer. I was not aware of when I was on my board. um the amount of things that that training wise and just
healthwise we have all sorts of stuff but we can cover that too with the retreat and I go into more detail of the options if you don't know what's out there. Um so the board completes it annually um two components are the board goals
and standards um determines priorities in six areas of board governance. I will compile the results, deliver the summary and review the findings to the board and then I don't know what happened to my here, but recommend completion timelines based on your schedules, what's going to be. So, we'll talk about that and we'll
create a schedule. We'll give you plenty of time to get in there and do that. Um, especially if you haven't done it in a while, it won't be as repetitive for you. So, take the time and try to go through it. My favorite part is there's one section generally you're overviewing how the board is doing as a whole and
then there's a section where you review yourself and spoiler alert that is always the highest rated because every single board member is the best board member. So I always love seeing that. It's fun. Um all right so this is going to show you what it looks like. I'm going to go through this pretty quick.
Um you're going to identify your district and I'll show you how to do that. you're going to put your goals in. Um, this goes through the directions, the ratings, descriptions, exemplary, proficient area for growth, unsatisfactory, not observed. The same
thing goes into play there, too. If you haven't seen it, you it hasn't been something that you've done as a board, it's okay. It's okay to put not observed. Or if you're a new board member and haven't, you know, you're halfway through or something like that, that's also fine. Um, again, the the update the information in
the census needs to be updated. I'll make sure that that's fine. Um, so the board president is going to log in. You're going to put your goals in there. You're going to be the one that starts it doing that. Um, and then basically you're going to, you'll see how this is, it's really
simple. Uh, the board goal. Uh, these are example ones, right? The board will complete the superintendent evaluation by July 1. Did you achieve it satis satisfactory progress or little or no progress? It's pretty simple to do. Um and then you're going to evaluate the
board's overall performance and six standards which are there. Vision, mission goals, policy, accountability for student achievement, governance team relationships and accountability, resource management, oversight, and community leadership. This is why it's um such a great opportunity because
you're going to see where you're weak. And I'm going to advise you to to focus a lot more this year on your financial understanding. It's one of the things I'm telling all my boards, let's do a training on financial because if you haven't gone off the cliff this year,
you're probably going off the cliff next year because all of the boards are getting hammered with um you know, between the funding obviously 2% cap and 30% health increases is not sustainable. So, it's going to be important as board members that you really understand. I
mean, I'll be the first one to say when I was a board member, we had a fantastic DA and a fantastic superintendent. It was easy you know, we had our regular increases. We were pretty pretty consistent. And it was easy to be like, "Oh, yeah, everything's going good. Everything's going good." It's not like that anymore. You really need to know
how just because you need to be informed as a board member and you need to be able to speak to it to some degree. You can always refer your questions back to your staff. That's what they're for and that's what they're trained for. But as board members, you do need to be aware
and be able to, you know, it's it's tough choices and it's a it's a big responsibility of the board to understand those things. Okay. Um, so then this is what it looks like when you go into each standard. Um, you go through this and you're going to make evaluations. You're going to add
comments at the end. Um, reflected questions. These are also very helpful in figuring out the goals. When you get to that, give it some and pull it. Um, at the end you'll be able to get the
final report. Like I said, I will put it together. You'll have access to it as well. As board members, you're able to go in and see where everybody is and how everybody's tracking if they're doing it. So, you can kind of keep track of each other as well and then you'll get the compilation report. And like I said, at the end there's a chart and that's
new and it's helpful over time. Um, if you don't have much history, it's not that helpful. So, it's good to keep doing it on a regular basis. So you can compare from year to year. This is what the the page looks like. So to your point, that's the board self frequently asked questions. Board self-ealuation
does have a PDF, so you can go right in there and look at it. Um, and then there's a webinar, but you don't need that because I'm here tonight, so don't worry about that. Um, remember you're you are evaluating only the board, your board team's performance and efficacy, not the district and not the staff. Really
important. And that's it. Any more questions? >> Fantastic. Thank you so much. Thank you and thanks for having me tonight and thank you for everything you do. Seriously, I know there's not a lot of people wanting enough to say thank you to the board usually. I understand that,
but what you do is very important and uh we appreciate it. >> Thank you. I just calendar um September 19th. >> Okay. Um moving on to our next presentation. It is our budget presentation by Cynthia Ker, our
business administrator and board secretary. That's right. Good evening everyone. Can everyone hear me? Today I'm presenting the 2026 2027 proposed budget. The board will vote on
the proposed budget later this First, I want to talk a little bit about our budget process. Budget development is a yearround process. We begin out with administrators in August and September. The administrators spend most of the
fall preparing their budget requests with their supervisors and department input. In December and January, the superintendent and I can file all that information and prepare the tentative budget.
Um, a great deal of drafting takes place and the next step is for us to present that information to our finance committee. We meet with the finance committee several times over the next few months during the winter to review
the drafts, provide um provide the um any issues that are arising such as healthcare increases and any other things that could affect our budget. And we welcome the finance committee's input on any of our budgeting matters.
On March 16th, I presented the tenative budget to the board. The board approved that tentative budget and sent the budget to the county later that week for review and approval. The county approved our budget on April
15th, which brings us to tonight's budget hearing where the board will vote to approve the final budget. During our budget development process, we prioritize initiatives that support our district vision and mission statement. Both are shown on the screen.
You can also find our mission statement and vision on our district website. Next, I want to highlight some district achievements from throughout this current school year supported by our budget priorities. We have AP scholars in the district, 85
in total. We also have national merit recognition, 16 commended students, three semi-finalists, and we had one student in the district who qualified for a spot at the Regeneron International Science and Engineering Fair.
Our board of education does recognize student and staff achievements throughout the year. Links to our most recent student recognitions in December and April are linked within the presentation. So, feel free to take a look at our student accomplishments.
We've also um we're proud to have a Bergen County teacher of the year in the district. Um if you click on the link in the presentation, you can find out more information about that. Our budget initiatives are to provide the
necessary funding for academic and co-curricular programs, staffing, and capital improvements. Curricular proposals included in this budget are a new advanced placement microeconomics course, implementation of
new required state curriculum standards, supplemental programs for multi- language learners, and professional development for advanced placement and other programs. In addition, we're able to budget to add clubs, our probationary clubs at both
high schools. We did have some probationary clubs running during the current year, which were requested that were continued into the following school year, and we have been able to budget for those probationary clubs. Um, we will also
be purchasing a school bus this year and this will be to help transport students in a more cost effective manner. staffing for the 2026 2027 school year. To expand our special education support and meet special education requirements,
we will be adding two part-time par professional positions. We are also reducing positions to cut costs. These positions are two instructional staff member positions and
six support staff. Capital projects. We've included a major project in this budget. It's the replacement of the lecture hall rooftop unit at Pasc Valley High School. The project is budgeted at $1.6 million and
we are funding this through a withdrawal from our capital reserve. This project has been deemed necessary by the buildings and grounds director and team, the administrative team. Some other projects we're including in the upcoming budget at Pasc Hills. We
are um putting netting on the lacrosse field. We are also adding new softball netting and we are replacing the gym lobby doors. At Pasc Valley High School, we are having a new protective back stop for
baseball install. We're adding new athletic mats in the team room, weight room, and gym hallways. and we are replacing one airdale unit in one of our classrooms. So, next we'll talk about revenue. Our total revenue budget for the 2627 year
is just over 72.7 million. 86% of our budget is generated from the local tax levy. This includes our debt service payment include so including debt service and the general tax levy. It's $62 million.7
approximately of our current budget. Federal and state aid account for 5% of our revenue. The district did receive a 6% increase in state aid over last year's allocation. Our total state aid allocation is
3,64,664. We're also budgeting 266,000 of extraordinary aid and $316,000 of nonpublic aid allocation as part of our revenue. We also receive federal aid. Total
federal aid is budgeted at $370,000. These are including EA funds and ESA funding. We're also using fund balance in our budget this year. Fund balance is
budgeted at $2.6 million and this represents a prior year surplus from 2425 school year which we are allowed to utilize in the 2627 budget year. About 1% of our district revenue is
generated from tuition. This is where other districts pay to and their students to attend our special education programs. Lastly, miscellaneous revenue represents about 1% of our budget. Miscellaneous revenue is made up of mostly interest
from our bank accounts, fees from our internship program, facility use fees, and subscription busing. Now, we'll move on to budget appropriations. This is how our revenue is allocated for budgeted costs.
So this this chart shows the different categories of expenditures for our district. We have instructional regular programs, employee benefits, support services, operations and maintenance, tuition, special education instruction,
administrative support, transportation, athletics, co-curricular activities, capital outlay, debt service, federal and state grant allocations, and interest deposit to our reserve accounts.
This chart shows that more than 27% of our budget is allocated to regular instruction. 17% of our budget is allocated to employee benefits. Support services including nursing guidance, child study team, and
extraordinary services for special education students make up 11.6% of our budget. Operations and maintenance. These are all the costs associated with operating and maintaining facilities is about 10%
of our budget. Transportation, tuition, special education, and administrative costs run between five and 7% individually for each category as a part of our budget.
debt service, capital outlay, athletics, federal and state grant allocations, co-curricular activities and interests make up much smaller percentages of our budget. On this slide, we regroup the budgeted
expenditures so you can um see the main focus here is salary and benefits. If you can look at this chart, you'll see that almost $49 million, more than 67% of our total budget are allocated to
salaries and benefits. Moving on to our tax levy, the general fund tax levy for the 2627 school year is 60,631,424. This is a 5.3% increase over last year.
The district is allowed to go above the 2% tax levy cap due to the usage of the allowable healthcare adjustment. That amount is 1,897,377. While there are other rising costs affecting our district, such as in
operations and maintenance increases in athletic and curricular fee increases. Rising health care costs are the district's biggest financial challenge. In this slide, you can see the increased
trend since the 2022 2023 school year. In 2223, our actual expenditures for health and dental benefits was just over $5 million. In the 2324 year, that amount rose to
$5.7 million. In 2425 school year last year, that increased to $6.3 million. This year's projected health and dental benefits expenditure is over $8 million
for our district. Our proposed budget for 2627 is over $10 million as healthcare and dental costs are expected to increase again. Frequently asked question. Why is there
a difference among the sending districts in the amount of taxes needed to support our regional budget? The formula for tax sharing among the sending districts is strictly governed by New Jersey education law. The board
of education has no taxing authority. The tax formula is based on taxable property wealth and student enrollment. A calculation is performed each year by the state to arrive at a municipality's tax levy. This is known as percent
share. So overall we have a 5.11% increase in taxes which includes debt service. You can see that Hillsdale has 23.042% share and just over 14.4 million in tax
levy. In Montdale the percent share is 28.068% and over 17.6 6 million of tax levy. Riverdale has a 26.14% share and almost 16.4 million of tax
levy. And in Wood Cliff Lake with 22.743% share, they have a tax levy of 14,262,000 approximately. Next is our tax impact calculation for each municipality based on the average
assessed home in Hillsdale. The average assessed home is $477981,000. The estimated annual increase is $236.73 and the increase per month equates to $19.73. In Montville, the average assessed home
is 5 51,726 with an estimated annual increase of $412.90 for an increase per month of $3441. In Riverag home at $600,000
has an estimated annual increase of $2340 or an increase per month equating to $19.53. Woodcliff with an average assessed home of $1,10,400
has an estimated annual decrease of $58.30 or a decrease per month equating to $42.36. In each of the next four slides, I show an 8-year tax impact history so you can have an idea of how the um percent share
and tax impact varies on a year-over-year basis. First, we have Hillsdale. That was Montdale, Riverdale, and Wood Cliff Lake. Does the board have any questions? >> Thank you very much. Thank you. You're
welcome. You're welcome. Um at this time um we are going to move on to article 8 comments from the public. Citizens are invited to make comments regarding agenda items. You are limited to three minutes according to the Pasc Valley Regional High School
District Board of Education policy number 0167. Persons wishing to speak must be recognized, rise, sign in, state their name, town of residence in which agenda item they are referencing.
Press the button. We each have three minutes. Yes. >> Hi, my name is Maya Tani and I'm from Hillsdale. So, I went past Valley. Um, and towards the start of the meeting, you mentioned the issue regarding the um custodial staff in our district. And
this also has to do obviously with the budget that we just looked at. So I just have a few words to say regarding that. Um first I want to thank you for the opportunity to have my voice heard. Um it means a lot as a student, especially a very involved one to be able to speak on behalf of the student body and share
what many of us feel. And I think it's also really important for you guys as adults to hear our perspectives as well. So I'm a senior at Pasc Valley and over the past four years I spent more time in the building than not. Um I'm involved in many clubs and I have many leadership
roles in the school and I'm heavily involved in the theater arts program. So I have gotten to know both the daytime and nighttime custodial staff very very well. Um I know many of them by name and I have personal relationships with a ton of them and so do many of my friends. Um
so I just want to talk a little bit about them and their role in our community. So, one example is a custodian who has consistently stopped me to chat about what is going on in the performing arts program and rooted for me in all of my auditions. Um, just this year, she got me through the nerves of
my final audition week just with her warmth, kindness, and care just by chatting with and being there for me. Um, even just earlier today during the school day, I spoke with another one in the hallway and showed her a video clip of my most recent performance because she wanted to see it. So, my point in
saying all of this is that our has an extremely strong reput reputation for being very connected and we often refer to ourselves as a family. Um, and I can't think of anyone who exemplifies this better than our custodians each and every day through their hard work and
genuine love for all the students and the staff. Though their work may seem to be primarily behind the scenes, it's actually very prominent and definitely never goes unnoticed by me and many others that I know. I know another custodian who has worked in the building for 19 years, which is longer than I've
been alive, had both of her kids go through PB, and her care about this school and its students is incomparable. The same goes for all of these people. And I'm even standing here speaking as someone who's graduating this year because I care about my community very
deeply and I know that these people are truly at the heart of it. They are irreplaceable. And not only is having random new people come in every day uncomfortable, unsafe, and impersonal, but I am certain that they will not maintain our school building with the
same quality and love that our current custodians do. This is their home. They are very much a part of this family just as much as any student or any teacher or any administrator, and they take care of our home in a way that no one else could. Thank you.
Okay. Hello. Good evening. Um, I would like to speak on the same topic. My name is Karen Novice and I'm also a senior at Pasc Valley and this is my first board of ed meeting. Um, I wish I could say I was properly prepared to come here tonight. Uh, but many of you are parents
or know procrastination on a personal level. Um, but even though I haven't really prepared much, I do want to say I've never been so passionate to speak on a topic such as this one. Um, including their roles in our community. Um, I wish to be a teacher. It's what
I've like the thing I've been most confident in my future by far. And my entire high school career has been filled with so many mentors and teachers that are there to help me and help guide me in my what I want for my future mostly as a first generation person
going to college in my family. And one thing I keep getting advised on from like my mentor teacher in the early childhood um program we have at Pasc Valley to the internship teacher I was assigned this year was to really keep the custodial staff close to my heart in
my class. They help from to support to hanging up our flags over and over again like we saw in the preschool. Um, and they also just help there be there in a helping hand whenever we need them. I have lived in Riverbell my entire academic career and we know these people
personally from Miss Susie when my mom needed help translating things in Robridge Elementary School to the people now that I speak with in the hallway or in the lunch line or trying to fit in between the parking spots at PV. Um, And I won't stay stand here and say that I
understand the health care or the buses or the business side or those really big numbers that I saw on the screen, but I do want to say that as a whole, I haven't figured out much of my life. But I know that in a school community, these people are so important to everyone. Um,
and to a lot of people, the situation just really seems really ridiculous to us. And it seems like this budget cut is trying to go and target people who maybe you didn't think we really bad an eye for. And in reality, I want you to see that these blue outs that we have in schools where we all wear blue in
support or online messages or emails that you've been getting or showing up here on a school night when I'm supposed to be studying for my APs. Um, I hope you rethink your position on this budget and realize our appreciation for these people who have been here for generations and for most or more than
our lives. And I just want to say that um I hope you being here and me and Maya being here as like a demonstration of the things we've learned at Pasc Valley and in our district. Just like you said, your vision for our district is to build
people that are career ready. And even though I'm shaking being up here, it's something that I've learned to stand up and advocate for myself and for the people I care about. And that includes everyone there. We don't want this. The teachers you want to thank this in the beginning of meeting don't want this. And the administration we work with
don't want this either. >> Thank you so much. Hello, my name is Anthony Jadilla. I live in Woodcliff Lake. I'm also a teacher at Kasak Valley. I'm here to express my support for the custodians. Uh, as a teacher and a coach for 13 years, uh, they are always the ones that
are here to help me and my team and my class whenever we need something with the 6 a.m. bus for fixing things in the science wing and get our labs done and the late night buses when everyone's gone except for them to let us back in the building. They are the ones that keep everything running behind the scenes. I've only ever worked at EV, but
the people who work with us are very special. Many of our kids know them by name and they do more than than just serving lunch and help setting up our community events. They provide a sense of security and comfort at our plays, musicals, assemblies, and our home games. I just urge the board to find another way to balance our budget that
doesn't involve privatization of our staff. They care about us and we care about them. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Nicole Ortiz. I'm a healthcare resident and one of the secretaries in the main office at Peing. In light of the recent announcement
regarding the custodial prioritization, I'm here tonight to present a collection of 268 thank you cards written by our students to the custodial team. While the custodians have a meaningful impact on the staff each day, their presence is especially important to our students
across the board. They are familiar faces, trusted adults, and an essential part of this school community. I hope that you read these letters, you see that they are more than just expressions of gratitude for their hard work. They reflect the sense of safety, comfort, and security that our custodians provide
to the students every single day. Thank you. Hi, good evening. Is this a speaker here? Okay. I'm Lauren Ban. I'm a longtime hiller resident and a member of Pek Valley secretary uh for over nine
years now and the vice president of the Pacific Valley Regional Sport Staff Association. I'm here tonight to express my concern and frankly sadness over the board's serious consideration of privatizing our pursuit of staff. This is an abstract for me. These are not just my colleagues. These are my
friends. These are people I see every day, people I trust who have shown up for this district and the community year after year. And we're talking about putting them out of their jobs, taking away their health benefits. How they keep this is how they keep a roof over their heads and how they keep their sense of dignity. And you know
what they did for us this week? The staff, the the staff treated us at PV to a breakfast. And not just a breakfast, but a whole spread. We all walked in, faculty and staff on Thursday morning to bagels and muffins and cupcakes and fresh coffee and at least
five different kinds of cream cheese. They decorated the entire mail room and left us with a huge thank you note. They were thanking us. They were thanking us for our support, for our appreciation, and quite frankly, all the love that they've been receiving from staff and
faculty and students once the word got out. This is who they are. They take care of us and the students and the building. It's not the same without them. And a private contractor will not care like this. I understand budgets matter and I understand that decisions
you have to be made. This decision carries a great human cost and it'll be paid by the people who have done nothing but serve the district. When you look at those numbers, I'm asking you to please see the faces behind them. To remember that these are members of our own
community. My friends, please think carefully about this decision, what it really means and who it impacts. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Nam Tuani and I'm a resident of Hillsdale, New Jersey. That was my daughter Maya who just
spoke. So I'm a little nervous because she's an excellent speaker and I'm not. Um I just happened to Google. Everybody knows what community means. When you ask someone community, everybody talks about community, but I actually Googled it to see what the exact definition is from
Google. A community is a group of people connected by shared characteristics, interests, values, or location, often providing a sense of belonging and mutual support. It acts as a social unit defined by commonalities such as a
neighborhood, a place, a professional field, interest, or cultural identity. That's what Google says a community is. This is our community. Our custodians are an integral part of this community.
My I have many concerns about the privatization of these custodians. My main concern is safety. I have a daughter who's been in the theater program for four years. She stays many nights till 1000 p.m. in the building.
She is there with her friends. The hallways are quiet. They're often lonely, but there's one room full of kids practicing and rehearsing to put on shows. I am never ever concerned or fearful for her safety or the safety of
the other children that are in that building because the night staff, which are our family and the custodians that work there, I know are there protecting them. That is a key key factor in the safety of these children. These people
are a key factor in that outsourcing and contracting is something that is done by corporations all the time. But outsourcing and contracting in a community that is working together to
build a future for our children is not something that should be done here. It's rarely reliable. It's never consistent in quality and there are many times it leads to additional costs. Who does the background checks on these
hires? Who does the ongoing due diligence on the work that's being done? These buildings are not new that our kids are in day after day. They need ongoing maintenance. Are we considering timing of fixing simple issues being
considered um and the inconvenience it would cause our students and the families? This is our community. This is our extended family. These are our people. I urge you to reconsider and understand the
seriousness of making this decision. Thank you for your time. HI EVERYONE. I'm Moren Sutton. I'm a Mail res. I'm going to start by saying this is a disgrace and honestly an embarrassment to our community. The custodians aren't
just the people that clean our schools. They're support staff that help protect our children each and every day. They're the ones that know what's going on before anyone else. They look out for our children, children's well-being in every sense of the way. They are those people we trust being in the building
with our kids, ensuring additional security. I do not want a random company in our schools with our children just to cut costs. Is this the only solution that we could come up with? Cutting custodial staff. I know these are a lot of there are a lot of very smart people making these
suggestions and I'm shocked that this has been presented and now being seriously considered. How could this be at the top of the list? Have the well-being of the custodians and their families been considered? Did the person that proposed this even know these people whose lives will be affected by
this? Or think of how it will affect our children and our teachers and our support staff. This isn't Microsoft, Oracle, or big pharma. This is our school and our safe space for our children. >> Separately from the custodians, has the research been done on what this will do
to the cleanliness of our schools and the need for custodians throughout the day to keep our schools clean and safe? I know that other big towns, other towns in Bergen County have made similar cuts and they're suffer suffering with mice infested filthy schools.
>> I don't know if everyone else knows that, but this is a disgrace honestly. I mean >> this is Montail and I mean our towns are wealthy towns like this should not be happening. It shouldn't even be considered and honestly I don't know who proposed it but it's it's very it's very
sad speaking for myself which I didn't realize if I could pay higher taxes I would to save that careers because I would not but I don't think apparently you can't cut you can't add any more taxes to us but I would pay anyway. Thank you for giving me the opportunity
to speak. I hope my comments are considered when making your final decision. I think uh I spoke to you guys last time, let you know about my feelings. I just want to take a moment and thank custodians for putting this all together and the ones that are going to be putting this
back to normal. agree. You guys have a tough position on the air and I see things that are going on and you brought some things to my attention and if I ask a question here, I'm not asking I'm not expecting you to answer this, but I'm just for thought, right? I think that it's about time that
us as school districts around here uh we take a look and we encourage the state. I was glad to see that they were doing something with the funding formula and acknowledging that there's something there. Uh quick looking up things. It looks like we're at like a net loss of 2
over uh2 billion dollars a year with the taxes that we send out compared to what we get back in the district. I'm sure some of that stuff will be great. I think sometimes burn county is taken advantage of because we're considered like so wealthy, but we are people. I mean, these are our residents here. You
know, we're not all millionaires. We don't all have million-dollar homes. You know what I mean? But I think that we should take a look and maybe as a board maybe coales something with public to get signatures and maybe just get the state to hear our side too that maybe we need to keep some of you know a little
bit I don't know where all the money goes but two two billion two billion dollars is a lot of money right so I just wanted to put something out here the Montdale DPW for eight years we got rid of the Montdale PBW when we merged with Riverville um I don't know if there
was a a cost saving with that you know I I think maybe we could reach out to town and ask him that at least when we went to Riverville They were a known entity. We know the workers that were in Riverale. They were good people. All right, they're in our town. They've been vetted. So, at least we had that. And the other thing is that they did give
the option, all right, for the workers here to maybe join that force. And I I just want to I hope that you guys reach out personally to each one of these custodians, all right, and not just take it from the word of one person talking to you. Maybe they're willing if you're going to do the apples to apples
comparison about other companies coming in. Maybe they're willing to work with you. cut some costs. All right. So maybe they can keep their jobs. I'm sure you got guys that are close to retirement. Maybe they're willing to do something to get to that one, two years and maybe with attrition instead of just firing people. Um I have a lot of respect for
these custodians and the teachers in the school. I have two, you know, soon to be two kids graduating from here. All right. I love this town. All right. I love this school district and I know that you guys have a tough job. But I'm asking maybe let's work together. Let's try to push some of this off for a year.
Let's get to the state and Hey, you know what? Time out. Fix what you're, you know, fix the the the our school budgets, right? Let let us keep some of that money. You know, $2 million is a lot to have uh a loss. And also like the the medical, you know, we have that fatal funnel. I mean, this this is like
a big problem that we have. These things need to be addressed because what's next? We have more residents coming in here. We're going to have thousands of apartments built here. If we can't handle this now, what are we going to do then? Right? How are we going to fun all this stuff then? And I don't want to lose sport programs. I I don't want to lose the theater. I don't want to lose
all these things that make this place special. But if we don't do something and if we don't ask the state to kind of get a little bit real with us, these things are going to be next on Chopper Bar. So, please work with these ladies and gentlemen and you know, maybe maybe talk to them and ask what they're
willing to do too before we just go. >> Thank you. Hello, my name is Paul Hilden. I'm the pres president of the PBR SSA. I'm from Palisades Park. I'm here to talk to you tonight. Thanks for giving me the opportunity to speak to you. Um,
first, let me amplify Superintendent Phil's point. This is a process. It's a long process. It doesn't need to get too high or too low on this process. I don't believe any decisions have been made and we've got some time. Um so let's stay the course.
Um one thing I noted uh as as president of this association um I spent some time in the files and I'm obligated to work within the decisions and the situations of the presidents
that have come before me. I don't like all those decisions. And in fact, when going through the folder, sometimes I' I've scratched my head as to how exactly a a a prior person got to the decision they did. And we actually live with some of those decisions that
in hindsight aren't great decisions. I think the board might be in a similar position, right? You have to live with decisions that have come before you um and navigate those. And we also have the external factor of the uh imploding
economy. Um all that is to say that I don't think that we have enemies in this room. Um I don't think as I think Mr. Weaver said in the last meeting, we
shouldn't end up with people yelling at each other in a room. We're better than that. um where people with different ideas on how to reach a common goal that we all think is important. It's not a time to be separated.
It's a time to come together. I understand we're looking for solutions and u to that end uh from some internal polling that was done outside the situation earlier in the year um to the crowd sourcing over
the last two weeks we've identified two aggregates of issue two headings if you will and there really aren't any others the other The outliers are outliers. They're they're not meaningful. Um, and these are uncomfortable. You don't
want to hear what I'm about to say. The first the first uh issue, the first aggregate cluster is um the feeling uh the perception that the org chart is too heavy at the top and too light at the
bottom. And that is of course decisions that have come over decades or you know at least a decade. Um too many chefs, not enough cooks. The second category is less homogenized,
but um I could characterize it along the lines of the Esop fable grasshopper and the ant, which might be said as the failure failure to secure resources during abundance leads to hardship during periods of scarcity. We are definitely
in a period of scarcity. We have enjoyed periods of abundance. Um, so I think there's going to be some tension there and that's the tension that we're all here to resolve. >> I'm sorry you been past the three minute mark. I'm going to ask that you >> Okay, >> move on.
>> I have 30 seconds and >> 10. >> Okay. Um, those of you growing up in the 70s might have heard the saying, we had to bomb the village to save it. All right, that's paradoxical. It doesn't make sense. We can't save the village by bombing it. We can't save the community
by ridding it ridding it of its critical attributes. THESE CUSTODIANS are there any other comments from the public? Okay, seeing as there are no other comments from the public, we move on to
article 9, National Teacher Appreciation Week. Whereas the week of May 3rd, 2026 has been designated as National Teacher Appreciation Week. And now therefore be it resolve that the Pasc Valley Regional High School District Board of Education
recognizes all faculty members from Pasc Hills High School, Pasc Valley High School, Park Academy program, the Milestone program in region 2 for their outstanding efforts and for their dedication to the student.
I ask you make your way out, can you please um be quiet and we're still in session? Thank you so much. Moving on to policy. There are two consent agenda items.
Can I have a motion, please? Excuse me. I have a motion, please. >> Any discussion? Miss >> Keller. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Martin. >> Yes. >> Mrs.
Education. There are two consent agenda items. Any discussion? Roll, please. >> Mrs. Mrs. Martin, >> yes. >> Mrs.
resources. There are 21 consent agenda items. We have a motion, please. >> Any discussion? Miss >> GMA. >> Yes. >> Mrs. M. Keller.
>> Yes. >> Mrs. Martin. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Yes, >> Miss Stephan. >> Yes. Moving on to finance, there are 16 uh consent agenda items.
Um I have a motion. >> Any discussion? >> Just want to say thank you once again to for all your hard work on this. We have a mot Excuse me. Roll call, please. >> Miss, yes. >> Miss Gman, >> yes.
>> Mrs. Swell, >> yes. >> Mrs. Martin, yes. >> Mrs. Mins, yes. >> Any old business? >> Um, but we went to see the play on
Thursday and It was so outstanding. I had to bring my entire family back on Saturday. Um, and my husband doesn't even like musicals by the talent. Um, so I wanted to commend the performance all around
directors, actors, actresses, and all of the other wonderful students who pulled that together. Thank you for sharing that. Unfortunately, I >> was there Thursday night. I had some old guy behind me laughing the whole time.
Take it easy. >> Old guy sitting behind. I got you. >> My 81year-old mother-in-law was like beside herself with the songs singing them. So, um, just wanted to share that it was really, really wonder. Maya did an amazing job as the lead. Just
amazing. >> Awesome. And I took my mom that first night. She could not believe she was at high school. She's like, "That is better. So, kudos. Love hearing that. Um, any other old business?
>> I just would like to say that in light of what everyone came up to say, we as a board, we really, really, really do appreciate every person who works for this district. And I hope everyone understands that for us, this is not
about where you are on the quote unquote to at all whatsoever. Uh we see each and every single person in this district and each and every single person matters to us on the board. Unfortunately, we are faced
with this $2 million increase that doesn't look like we're going to be able to do anything about it until 2028. So I just don't want anyone to think that we are making this decision or thinking about it because there's no decision
made. This is just a the board has to do their due diligence to make sure we turn over every stone because if we don't then we're not doing our job as a board. So in order to do our job we're looking at this course of action but it's not
anything that any one of us looks at and Because again, we do know that there are faces and lives and loved ones behind these decisions. We we absolutely understand that and not one of us ever
says, "Well, that's not something to consider because we're just not those kind of people." So, like I said last time, if that is what eventually ends up happening, we are not looking just leave
people in the lurch. So, our goal is to make sure that our custodians would get taken care of first and foremost. Again, there's no decisions made, but we just know that if this is something that we're looking at, we care about our
custodians and we want to make sure that they also are taken care of. So, I just wanted to say that I think I think it's wonderful that there's so many people here come to support their fellow co-workers and I think that just shows the the
I'll take anyone's word the community in our district. I think it's >> to add to that too that all these children who sometimes kind of get wrapped up in, you know, their 17-year-old lives took the time out to
write these books. So, I do as you're saying that thank you for doing that. Yeah, I think you all echo the same. Anyone else? Any new business? Okay. Comments from the public. Citizens
are invited to make comments limited to three minutes. According to Pasc Valley Regional High School District Board of Education policy number 0167, persons wishing to speak must upon being recognized, rise, sign in, state their name and town of residence.
>> Any other comments from the public at this time? >> I don't feel like getting all the way to the microphone. Sorry for going over on the last one. >> It's okay. Um, so appreciate it. um appreciate everyone's time tonight um and your
support of us and for the district and our community. Um and we are um can I have a motion to adjurnn?