In compliance with the opening public meetings act, public law 1975, chapter 231, notice of this meeting has been properly advertised in the daily record in the suburban trends. Its agenda has been posted at the appropriate locations and a copy has been filed with PCON
Township Clerk. Mr. Gibbs, if you could uh call the role. >> Mr. Bloomer, >> here. Mr. Serissi is absent. Mrs. Espazito >> here. >> Mr. Gitton is absent. Mrs. Ikeo >> here. >> Mr. Mcweeny >> here.
>> Mr. Pompeo >> here. >> Mr. Senic is absent. Mrs. Shenton >> here. >> We have a quorum. >> Thank you, Mr. Gibbs. Um, like to say the flag >> salute. United States of America to the republic
for which it stands. One nation under God. Indivisible, liberty, justice for all. >> Okay, Mr. Senk is not here today. He is um coaching a playoff game, a very intense playoff game for our PBS. Um so
we wish them luck. We hope that they win and move on to the next stages. Um so I just have a brief report. Good evening everyone. On behalf of the board of education, I hope our Pquanic teachers, staff, and families enjoyed the long weekend and had an opportunity to rest
and recharge. As tomorrow we celebrate Veterans Day, we'd like to take a moment to recognize and thank all the veterans who have served our country. Your courage, dedication, and sacrifice have protected the freedoms we enjoy every day. We are
deeply grateful for your service. It is with great sadness that we acknowledge the passing of Ms. Ellen Italiano who served as a math teacher at Puquanic Valley Middle School for many years. Miss Italiano was a dedicated educator who cared deeply about her students and
their success. Our thoughts and prayers are with her family, friends, and colleagues during this difficult time. We would also like to extend our heartfelt congratulations to the Picquonic Township High School Marching Band, the best band in the land. This
past Saturday, they performed at they performed nationals at Metife Stadium, placing fourth overall with their highest score of the season, an outstanding 93.1. What an incredible accomplishment. Congratulations to all our talented
students, director, and parents who support the program. Finally, this evening, we have the pleasure of recognizing several of our staff members who are receiving tenure. Congratulations to each of you on reaching this important milestone. We appreciate your hard work, dedication,
and ongoing commitment to our students and schools. We wish you continued success in our careers here in Puquanic in your in your careers here in Puquanic. Dr. Pores. >> All right. Thank you, Mrs. Espazito. I'm going to pass it over to our student
representatives. >> Good evening, everyone. So glad to see you all again today. the second marking period began. Congratulations to the marching band who took second in the state competition on November 1st and fourth in the national competition this past weekend. They had their highest
score of the season with a 93.15. It was a great season for them. Thank you to Mr. Striker, his team, and the Amps for their hard work as well. Congratulations to girls soccer who are conference champions. Congratulations to Chase Salvino who placed seventh at the cross
country state sectional meet. Volleyball had its senior night last week. Thank you for all your hard work these past four years. Boys and girls soccer competed in the state tournament last weekend. The boys had a tough loss one to nothing game to Waldwick while the girls moved on with a three to nothing
win over Saddlebrook. The girls will be playing on Wednesday at Waldwick in the semi-finals at 5:00 p. Habitat for Humanity is doing a fall food drive to help the Pquanic food pantry from November 11th through the 25th. Students and staff can bring donations to their period 1 classes.
Lists are posted around the school and in Mr. Hazer's newsletters. National Honor Society Nightmare Before Christmas fundraiser that welcomed middle school students last week. There were crafts, snacks, and even a movie theater popcorn maker. The school counseling department is
starting ninth ninth grade meetings this week. Grade nine students will be meeting with their counselor individually to do a first market period reflection as well as set goals for the second market period. And PTHs is competing in is completing their NJSLA
NJGPA field test this week on Wednesday and Thursday in ELA and math. PV start their test today and will finish on Wednesday. Emily will finish the rest. Good evening. The studentr run production of the children's musical Annie Jr. will be performed November 1st
here in the auditorium at 7:00 p.m. The students will also be visiting the other schools in the district to perform during the day. Come out to support the casting crew. Thank you to Mrs. Nappa and Mrs. Barbosza for their assistance. Congratulations to Claire Badami, a
sophomore at PTHS who was selected for the All State Choir. The choir sang this past Friday night at the NJA convention in Atlantic City. PTHs would like to extend their gratitude to all those who have served our country as we would like
to honor honor veterans veterans day tomorrow. We would especially like to thank Mr. Murick, Mr. Rich Navs Navski, and Mr. land for their service in the US Army. We would invite everyone to visit our PTHs alumni veteran wall as we
recognize all of our alumni who are veterans. PV and SJG will be holding their annual Veterans Day recognition tomorrow as well. PTHs is doing a monthly reflection on gratitude for the month of November. Mr.
Dr. Hazler is posing questions to think about on each morning announcement related to gratitude. Today's question was, "What do you what do I want to say thank you for, even if I don't say it out loud." If any board members would
like to share, please feel free. Expressing gratitude is very important. Thank you for your time and have a great night. >> As always, very well presented. Um I'm just going to do a quick memory check. Um back to our last meeting which was October about two weeks ago and do you
remember um we had a conversation about the delivery of the voiceovers for the promo video and there was one speaker who apparently reached a level of eloquence so moving that people were moved to tears. Um do you remember which
administrator was credited as such? Was it was Mr. Hazler? No. No, it was not. So, I I just wanted to just just confirm that. So, um, excellent. Well, very very well presented. Appreciate it. And I like the idea of the gratitude reflections as
well because I think that that's especially with Thanksgiving coming up, which is the greatest day in the calendar, but it's such an important concept and I think it's really important. So, very nicely done. All right. Thank you all. All right. Before we move on to the um this tenure
recognitions, I do have a few items for my report. Um, first congratulations from the election to Mrs. Espazito, Mr. Mcweeny, and Mr. Mahalik on their resounding victory um in the respport election. Um, they will be appointed or in two cases reappointed at the uh
January reorganization meeting. So, congratulations there. We survived Halloween. Next, uh we had an HSA president's meeting on Monday, November 3rd. I enjoy meeting with this group. It's a great way to get a sense of the pulse of what's going on in the greater community. And I've noticed there's a
lot of collaboration across the schools on finding ways to to best focus on fundraising. Ultimately, it helps all the kids in our district. Um, and it's great because they're a really nice group as well. Um, as the student representatives reported, we have started NJSLA field testing. As you
know, um, the state has been kind enough to push out a new platform and format for the state testing that will take place this year. Um, a lot of credit goes to our principles as well as Mr. Shay and Miss Vans for their incredible patience and hard work and preparation
on this. We started at PV today. Um, tomorrow is a blackout day because it's Veterans Day and then we'll continue and look to get every every school done before the end of the week. Uh, tomorrow is Veterans Day and we do have two wonderful se or two schools having wonderful ceremonies. PV has one at
10:00 a.m. We're going to move that one indoors. Um, based on the anticipated windchill, we were concerned that students were not gonna be able to play their instruments because their fingers would be frozen. So, we're going to pivot indoors for that one. SJ will have concerts at 1:45 and 7:00. And I can
speak from um attending both both events that they're wonderful, very student centered, and really a great way to share our appreciation for our veterans. Glad too that the student representatives pointed out the veterans wall is open year round. Something if you get a chance to check it out, um, it's open during the day as well. is
really just a a beautiful testament to community as well as um people who we honor who are our veterans. Elementary school conferences are going to begin Wednesday afternoon and then continue Thursday afternoon into the night. Um we will have early dismissals at the elementary schools only on Thursday as
well as on Friday. And I hope that these sessions go well. And just a reminder that though the conferences themselves are fairly brief, the communication lines are open year round and we encourage staff and families to maintain that very important component that really helps to serve students very well
in their learning experiences. We have a meeting coming up on Thursday of next week. Actually, no this week, sorry, it's the 13th on the preschool and sensory playground. Um, we received an updated bid on the um the playground equipment as well as the surface. Went
up about $4,000, but that's that's pretty manageable. Um, I'm really excited about is we're making a lot of progress with our grant applications. We have two volunteers who are working on that. One is a district parent. Um, another is just somebody from William Patterson who got involved through two of his friends and has been they've both
been tremendous resources. Um, our town manager, Mr. Brewer will also be at this meeting as the Green Acres grant that we're looking to get most of the funding for the project um through that process has to actually go through the township. So, um town council recently passed
something supporting the project. Um we've filled out the paperwork and Mr. Brewer has been a really great resource for this and it's been moving very very quickly which I'm excited about and we'll keep you posted. Um my goal is to have the playground opened up in time for um the opening of school in
September. And really the the vision for this is that we will have playground equipment that accommodates not only our our youngest students who are ages three and four. Most playground equipment is designed for students ages 5 through 12, but we'll also have um playground equipment and a gathering place for for
families for students with various special needs um including sensory needs as well as um special physical needs. And we'd like it really to become a place um outside school hours where where families can congregate and spend time together and uh celebrate and
watching their kids have an opportunity to play and communicate and enjoy one another's company. Our AI committee has a meeting on Thursday, November 20th. I'm excited to get this one back up off the ground. Actually, one of our students got my ear today about a proposed um AI class um
that could be offered as an elective at the school. So, I'm excited about this that a lot of the a lot of the work for this is actually coming up from our students who are recommending things to us and I want to make sure that our students and staff are well prepared because you can push out all the great technology that you want but if people
aren't adequately prepared to use it um it becomes largely a waste. So excited to keep progress moving on that. Um, also like to echo what Miss Espazito said, just to share our condolences on the passing of Ellen Italiano, um, who was a longtime math teacher at PV. Um,
our condolences to the family. Um, and then, um, as a transition, it's a tough one to make, but, um, tonight we are going to celebrate people who are earning tenure. And notice I didn't say that we're giving them tenure because it's not something that's given. It is something that is earned. It's earned
through your performance. And the people who are being recognized tonight were hired during a very difficult time in schools in New Jersey. Uh we were still in the throws of the pandemic response and trying to not only accommodate students learning needs, but social
emotional needs and so much more. So um I'm not trying to make it sound like you guys are survivors, but um very impressed with the quality of your work. Um it's not tenure is not earned until you've been working in a place for four years in a day. Um and I'm excited about the roll call of excellence that we will
celebrate tonight. So in a moment um I will have um the three principles who are here tonight read off the names of the individuals from their school schools will be recognized. There are no speeches for this. Um you get that for retirement for being here for 25 years. So stick around for 21 more years and
you'll get a speech. But um we we do have certificates and we'll look to get a picture with all of our um all of our staff members earning 10 here up up front. be a nice thing to put on the website as well. So, um, with that, we will make the transition. I believe our first, uh, principal will be Mr.
Sabowski. You join me. >> Good evening and thank you, Dr. Porson, the board of education for recognizing our staff members this evening. Uh, we'll start with Pquanic Valley School and science teacher Tracy Battelli.
Uh, next is although she is already uh tenured as an English teacher, uh, she'll now be tenured as a special education teacher. Christine Dphano Perez, school counselor. Jenny Jacobs. and social studies teacher Colin McBride
like to introduce Mr. Hazler. Once again, I'd like to echo those same sentiments. Um, I'm incredibly grateful for our three staff members who are earning tenure at PTHS and for the great things they do uh for our students and for our community. So up first is uh Susan Blanchard, fizzed teacher and
coach at PTHS NPV, special education teacher Michael Floric. He was unable to be here this evening, but Michael Florick and computer science teacher Barbara Frolic. I'll introduce Mr. Riner, principal of SJG.
Good evening. Congratulations everyone. Uh I absolutely agree that tenure is definitely earned and all these people have done a fantastic job for all the students at uh in Puquanic. So, we'll start off with uh our teacher who's here, uh Miss Siu Kim, ESL teacher.
>> And we also have Samantha Strub who was unable to join us tonight. Thank you, sir. Congratulations again. Panthers on three. One, two, three. There was the Panthers. Panthers on three. One, two, one, two, three. There
we go. All right. Excellent. >> Congratulations, everybody. Thank you. Thank you. >> Congratulations. each other. >> Thank you not only to those who attended but also those who earned it as well as our principles for presenting each of their staff members. And that concludes
the superintendent report. >> Thank you Dr. Pores. Uh Mr. Gibbs, do you have a report? >> Yes. Good evening. On tonight's port agenda, there is a motion for the approval of the submission of the New Jersey Quality Single Accountability Continuum, also known as QAC, which is
the Direct Performance Review or DPR. The DPR will be submitted on Tuesday, November 11th, in accordance with state guidelines. On October 29th, Dr. Poris, Mr. Anderson, and I met with Mr. Muffett, the Morris County Business Administrator to review what is happening with the existing board
office, and the plans for the new board office. On November 5th, the board office received a letter from the executive county superintendent with a recommendation to dispose of the board office property in accordance with the contract with the post office. On nove
October 30th and October 31st, the board office received two over requests, one for staff information, the other for insurance policy information of which were honored in accordance on October 31st in accordance with state guidelines. Finally, the FFA discussion
portion of tonight's board meeting will encompass an update on the 2025 2026 budget, development of the 2627 budget, update on the new board office, an update on the sale of the the board office property, and um snowplowing
services. And finally, I'd like to introduce tonight to have uh Miss Mantel, Mr. Co from the CPAs from the Sevachia LLP who will give a presentation on the school the school's 2024 2025 financial audit.
>> Good evening and thanks for having us here. Uh I think you've seen Brian and I before and I just wanted to announce that I am retiring and I won't be back here next year, but Pquanic School District has been very near and dear to my heart. So I wanted to thank you for
the opportunity that I've had over time and leaving um Brian behind to um take care of the district and I know that he will. So, with that, um, we'll talk about the financial results of the June
30th, uh, 25 audit. And you were going to start with that, right, Brian? >> Good evening. Thank you for having us today. Um, so we're going over the draft of the audit report. So, the current audit is not complete because we're
waiting on the federal compliance supplement. it we're we will meet the December 5th deadline, but it's going to be a slightly I'm going to say modified report, but it's not a modified opinion. The report's going to be missing the federal compliance supplements because they have not been released yet. We're going to release it with the state
compliance supplements and then once that information is released, we'll issue a smaller a couple page report that includes the federal compliance supplement. And I was just told today by absolute surprise that the DOE is
considering something and we're not sure what. So what Brian just told you may or may not come to fruition because when we're doing the audits, we never know what's going to happen tomorrow. So what may happen is they may delay the
deadline, which is not what any of us want to see. We want to get the audits filed. So, we'll wait and see, but we'll keep Gordon informed as to how that progresses, but we're only a few weeks out from the deadline. So, um, typical that we would get the
information at the last minute, but we're prepared. We were prepared to release it by December 5th. U, we'll see what happens. >> Okay. So, these financials that we're going to go over and in the summary in front of you, the numbers are not going to change. Just some of the paragraphs
in the report would be what was be changing. Okay. So, I'm going to start with general fund. So, general fund started the year uh June 30th, 2024, sorry, ended June 30th, 2024 with $17.5 million. We ended June 30th, 2025 with
$15.77 million. So, that's $1.7 million decrease. So, the biggest changes were capital reserve that decreased by 1.18 million. that was due to a budgeted withdrawal which is offset by some excess that was
transferred back and interest. Um maintenance reserve decreased by 67,000 that also had budgeted withdrawals but then that was offset by um excess returned. uh current year excess surplus decreased by 591,000
and the prior year excess surplus was a decrease of 326,000 and then extraordinary aid actually increased by 174,000 and your 2% unassigned went up by 47,000 or so. So that all compiles up to the $
1.7 million decrease. So what makes up the 1.7 uh is the variations within the income statement itself. So you have unrealized or revenues that came in in excess of the budgeted amounts for local of 595,000
state of 597,000 and then federal which was $20,000 deficit for that's the the semi the state dictates what amount you budget for that but you usually are pretty much always never get as much as they tell you you're going to get but we see that everywhere.
So then unexpended appropriations were almost $4 million, but we did use budgeted fund balance of $4.3 million. So we expect some of those appropriations to not be used during the year to help off to meet that uh sorry
budget of fund balance for the succeeding years. And then a couple of other items, the budget withdrawal cap reserve and maintenance reserve, which I mentioned, encumbrances, and some other small changes add up to the $1.7 million decrease in overall fund balance.
>> So if you take away the um withdrawals from the capital maintenance reserves, in essence, you were able to um have unexpended appropriations and excess revenue to support what you utilized in the 25 budget. So going into
next year, um at the bottom of the first page, we show that the district used $4.1 million plus another $229,000 which was 4.3 million in 2425. For 2526, the budget contemplates 3.7
million plus the 293 or 4 million. So I like seeing that reduction. And then in 2627 calculating the 2% and what you had above that um left you with 3,182 to put forward to 2027. And I asked Brian that
he would let me make these comments on this end because of the 80 almost 90 school districts that we audit and I audit 17 of them myself. It's the same that costs are going up. I mean we went
through the pandemic. we came out, who would have known that you would see record levels of inflation. Um, contracts are being settled well above 2%. I was talking to some other school districts today. They're currently in this year of their contractual
agreements paying 3.4, 3.5. So, it's just cautionary that every measure should be taken to make sure that the district is replenishing that fund balance that's being used in each budget. and it's definitely going to make it challenging. We've heard the
word in the last probably six weeks of what the um health insurance rates were going to be and it's staggering, but um when the budget is prepared, there is um a section for anything above the 2% that the district
can raise. I know it's not popular or something that you want to do to raise taxes, but in this climate, if you're not keeping pace with um the expendit expenses that you have, you're going to end up having a very very difficult
time. So, with that, I will turn this over to Brian. Okay. So, then there's just a little chart there about capital reserve and maintenance reserve. It just goes into detail about some of the items I mentioned already. Uh, one additional note there is that portions of those
reserves have already been uh, restricted for use in your current year, the 2526 school year. So, the budget withdrawal of cap reserve is 3 million and a little less than a million for the maintenance reserves. So, the 630 25
numbers that we're telling you actually chunks of those have already been used to support the current year's budget. uh fund 30 capital projects fund closed out completely this year. This is the first time in quite a while that we were able to fully close out the fund as of
June 30th. Really happy about that. It makes our numbers nice and neat. Um those SDA projects were finally received last October, I want to say. Um which is great. Those were open for a while, but they're those are done and we're really happy. And now we're going to start some
new ones, maybe. Um, food service fund, food service saw a decrease in net position of $16,000. Uh, the year before that, 2024, it was a decrease of $20,000. Our current there's a small deficit in unrestricted net
position at 2025 of $37,000. That is offset by the investment in capital assets for a total net position of $20,000. We want to keep an eye on that. Currently, the district contributes about $75,000 from general fund to the food service fund. I think it was maybe 50,000 the year before. Um,
so it's it looks like that might have to keep trending in that direction of additional contributions from the general fund. Uh, since you don't participate um and that that money will help be able to keep the food service fund running.
And then we're proud to announce that we have no recommendations in the audit this year. We'd like to thank Gordon for his wonderful job and his wonderful team too. Uh Jackie and Loretta and the rest of the team do such a wonderful job and it's really nice to come visit you in Pquanic there. Uh it's it's nice to see
everyone and and spend the week or two and uh go through the books and everyone is so appreciative of the work that you all do and it's really great to work with you all and it's nice to see smiling faces when we come visit because a lot of places aren't happy to see their auditors. Um but we really do like
working at Pquonic and working with everyone and we appreciate the effort that they put forth. So, in all of my years as being an auditor, um, I always said, "Don't fear the auditor." But the thing with that is we work together. So, we always say,
"Don't be afraid to tell us what went wrong. We're going to work with you and help you devise a plan to make it go better." And, um, they've really taken it to heart. I mean, all the clients that we have, they are really wonderful clients. And they don't want the easy
way out. they want to be the best version of themselves. And so with that, that brings me a lot of joy and a lot of pride in my career to say that it's just been an absolute pleasure working with all the people in quant because they've all had that same mindset. You know, if
we're not doing something the best we can do it practically speaking, right? Everything has to um be worth the um effort. um you know, you get really great results. So, thank you again. If you have any questions, we'd be happy to
answer them. >> All right, great. Well, thank you for having us. Of course, we're here all year long. If you have any questions, feel free to reach out. Gordon can get in contact with us, not just during audit time, but the whole year long. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thanksgiving and a wonderful Christmas.
and we'll be in touch about how quickly we can issue the audit. >> Congratulations on retirement. >> Thank you. >> That's amazing. >> I'd like to uh thank Miss Pentel and Mr. Co and their team for doing a great job on each school's audit and it's really
appreciated and you guys are very thorough which I really appreciate. I'd also like to thank the board office team especially Miss Basero, Mrs. Fuentes, Mrs. Reese and Mrs. Kickio for doing a g a great job in helping to make the school audit successful. Yeah, thank
you. >> Thank you so much. >> Good night. Thank you. Thank you to u Mr. Gibbs and his team and Dr. Cortez for um making that so easy.
Uh okay. So we have um open to the public comments agenda items only. There's nobody here but I will read the statement anyway. Members of the public may speak for speak once for a maximum period of 5 minutes by the clock during
the portion of the meeting. The public may speak on any agenda item during their five minutes. I have nobody here. I'm gonna close that. No. >> Okay. >> So, we're going to go into our approval
of action items. Um, Mrs. Shentton, can you move PMC, please? >> Absolutely. I'd like to move PMC 87-26 through PMC 89-26. >> Second.
Any questions or discussion? Okay. Mr. Gibbs, if you could call the RO. >> Mr. Bloomer, >> yes. >> Mr. Sesi is absent. Mr. Giddon's absent. Miss Ao, >> yes. >> Mr. Mcweeny, >> yes. >> Mr. Pompeo, >> yes. >> Miss Chanton, >> yes.
>> Mrs. Espazito, >> yes. >> And Mr. Senic is absent. The motion carries. >> Thank you. I'd like to move um CIS. I'd like to move CIS- 48-26 through CIS 50-26.
>> Second. >> Any questions or discussion? >> Okay, roll call. Mr. Gibbs, please. >> Mr. Bloomer, >> yes. >> Mr. Sesi is absent. Mr. Gitton's absent. Miss Ao, >> yes. >> Mr. Msoney, >> yes. >> Mr. Pompeo,
>> yes. >> Mrs. Shanton, >> yes. >> Mrs. Estazito, >> yes. >> And Mr. % absent. The motion carries. >> Thank you. Mr. Bloomer, can you uh move FFA? >> Like to make a motion to move FFA 69-26
through FFA71-26. [Music] >> Second. >> Second. >> Any questions or discussion? >> Okay. Uh Mr. Gibbs. >> Mr. Bloomer. >> Yes. Mesi is absent. Mr. Gitton's absent. Mrs. Ao, >> yes. >> Mr. Mcweeny,
>> yes. >> Mr. Pompeo, >> yes. >> Mrs. Chanton, >> yes. >> Mrs. Espazito, >> yes. >> And Mr. Senic is absent. Motion carries. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Now, we'll go into our workshop discussion items. So up first we have
PMC staffing update SGO and PDV process for staff and administrators. >> Yep. You know I'll take the lead on this one. Uh first one um in terms of staffing update appreciate we just approved the leave replacement for our
prek program. Very excited about that. I had a wonderful interview with our lead candidate. I think she's going to be a great addition to our program. I know she's really excited to be a part of it. Um some of these positions are quite difficult to fill. So when you find somebody who's not only qualified but
also enthusiastic, it's particularly exciting. Same applies also we u we have a guidance counselor for Hillview um who's also serving as a lead replacement who is participating in the onboarding process from the board office today. So uh good progress there. And then just
one other item of great interest is that we are moving into the final round for the high school choir um interviews and we're very impressed with the candidate pool that we have there. Um we're very strategic in how we posted it in terms of making sure that we listed um a
salary guide um that was salary guide possibilities that were um open to people who have experience as we would like somebody with experience to be able to fill the role. So quite pleased with the candidate pool there and we're also very happy with the lead replacement we
currently currently have in place. Um I popped into the room the other day and I was able to hear um some absolutely gorgeous singing as students um shared with me a portion of what they're doing with Silent Night and it really sounded tremendous. So uh excited for the
progress there. Any questions about staffing? And then second one, um this is just something that's somewhat of a boilerplate item year to year, but it's important to note that the SGO um process for um for tenure staff members
changed for this year. Um staff members who are tenur do not have to submit SGOs. They can recycle the scores that they have from the previous year. What changed for this year is this is also applicable to tenured administrators. Um they just had to meet a deadline in
which to let either Mrs. advance Cole or me know that they were they were going to submit this year. Um if if there was silence we understood that they were not submitting anything new and um all of our non-tenur still had to submit and what we worked with them was to focus on
measurable student learning outcomes. Um really we're very focused on growth which is something I know Mrs. Vansol has spoken about quite a bit in her data analysis um and rightfully so. It's incredibly important. Um, and we really want to make sure that the the SJO goals
as well as what's in the PDPs, which is professional development plans, that and SGO is student growth objectives. Um, but that they're also connected to the district goals, which are in turn connected to strategic goals. We don't want all these different planning
processes and goal statements to exist in isolation. They really need to to overlap and align. So we feel it's much better that the data that the teachers are focusing on collecting that's going to reflect student learning is connected to what we're doing in our district
goals. So um it was a smooth process. we had everybody done um in advance of the end of October um state requirement um which is particularly important in a QAC year but um went went well and then we'll have check-ins um as we get into
the new calendar year um and then review the outcomes in the spring. So successful process. Any questions on either the student growth objectives or the professional development plans? All right, that concludes any discussion
items that I have for PMC. >> Thank you. Um, curriculum instruction and special services upcoming NJSLS content area revisions focus grant update um in regard to universal
screening K to3. Okay. So, just to let you know, um, the state has to well, they revise their New Jersey student learning standards every 5 years on a cycle. So, in the state has
um their monthly meetings every Wednesday in case anybody's interested in some very exciting, you know, programming. Um so upcoming in November which was on the 5th um they started the process for readopting career readiness
standards and science standards um looking for a spring adoption and in December they will be doing computer science and design thinking world languages visual performing arts and preschool which are all really big
content areas. So um that they're looking at the December there's um public comment if you go onto the state board website onto the agenda there's you can access the link to the public comment if you want to comment on any of the upcoming
changes to these standards. Um any questions on that? >> Well I don't know exactly all the changes yet they have to post the computer science world language visual and performing arts. I would rather just say perhaps we shouldn't do such large
ones altogether the same year. That would be my recommendation. Anything else? And the focus grant just a quick update. Um so with the focus grant, this is for our early literacy universal screener.
The mandate this year that um all K to3 students need to be screened. As we've mentioned before, we were already ahead of the curve on that. Um but on our half PD day on October 21st, we had training for all of our K to3 teachers plus
special ed plus our uh CST members plus counselors. We did a really large training um at Hillview with our vendor. Um she was excellent. Um and uh they went over how to analyze the data that
they took from the Dibbles data and started work on how they can inform instruction based on the data. They're coming back on December 9th for another 2-hour training with the same staff and then again in February on February 3rd for another two-hour training. So I just
want to give you an update on uh that is progressing well. Awesome. Thank you. >> I want to add if I may, one item I just found out about this afternoon um that
the process is moving quicker than I had um thought. Um I had had a conversation last week with the superintendent from Mars County Vote regarding the Sharetime Academy. Um there had been discussion at their level of um taking the sharetime
academy that we currently host and moving it to the new facility that's been constructed at the county college of Mars um that just opened up for this year. And um I'm quite disappointed in this. Um when I was looking through their agenda from October, it wasn't
listed. They did have something in there about um going into exact, but the minutes didn't reflect that any decision had been made. But I understand there's going to be communication this week um letting students know that the current juniors will continue in the program um but they will not be sending a new
cohort to us. Um this is actually consistent with what is in our agreement. The agreement is going to expire at the end of the school year. Um we we had expected it was going to be renewed. It's been an incredibly successful program. So I am to say the
least quite disappointed um that our partners at the county ro v ro v ro v ro v ro v ro v ro v ro v ro v ro v rotational school are choosing this direction. Um as far as I understand the program at county college mars will have a clinical shadowing experience with an adjacent hospital which is something
that we do offer. Um I've already started some conversations about whether we can offer our program out to some of our neighbors see if they would be interested. We will continue with our full-time program that's currently available to Quuanic students and Lincoln Park students and u begin to
determine if other districts would like to take advantage of the opportunities that are available to the students in our program. But I wanted to make sure that I put this out there before any announcements come from uh VOTE regarding this um as it's a rather significant matter. Any questions about
that? >> Thank you. >> Um Dr. support us. Um I think it was mentioned previously, do we know what the um could you go say again how many students are part of the shared time and do we know what the monetary impact will be?
>> Uh I I don't have the exact number um at my fingertips of the number of students we have right now. But um ultimately we the juniors would be staying for their senior year. Um the position that I have there, it's in the contract as well, but to me it would be terribly unfair to tell those students or you're gonna have three different high schools over the
course of four years. Um but I can I can get the numbers for what we currently have for enrolled seniors as well as for enrolled juniors. I'll just focus on the share time because there will be no change to our our full-time academy which is for >> as I said our kids as well as Lincoln
Park. We have gotten a few tuition paying students in our full-time program as well, which I'd like to open that up more because I know um I know the districts that have that have sent students to our program have been quite pleased with the outcomes, particularly
the families. I've had I've had some of my neighbors in Lincoln Park speak about great experiences their kids are having in college as a consequence of the learning that they were a part of in this school. Um and I get this is this is the business of things. There there are some concerns from districts pretty
far out west in Mars County about the cost of transporting students to Puquanic. To me though, it's the cost of doing business. We also send students tomies that are further west in Mars County and we do it because it's in the best interest of the students. We don't have a dance program, so we transport
them to Mars Nullles as an example. Um but um I I will get those numbers for you and I I'll share those obviously with the whole board. >> Okay. >> I can tell you >> or I'll have Any take care of it right now. Um there are 79 sharetime students that are with us between junior and
senior year and we have 40 juniors. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Any other questions or discussion? Okay. FFA. >> The update on the 2025 2026 budget. The mid-year budget is almost complete with the necessary changes in accordance with
chapter 44 health insurance changes and staff position control changes in accordance with the new salary guide and the changes in staffing. The health insurance changes currently reflect an $883,000 increase due to the 32% increase in
premiums and the number of staff members making the change to the state health insurance plan. The changes in salaries reflect a $538,000 increase due to the increase in salaries above the estimated 3% and movement on the salary guide. The adjustments will
be made for the December 15th board approval. Any questions? I'm just going to put it out there too um that I appreciate not only the work that Ms. Mantel has done through the years but also her choice of of word to describe the increase in the health
insurance. The the 32% is something that we we learned about the changes in midepptember and if you recall we presented on the initial budget in March and had it approved in April. So the this is a budget that had
to be submitted in a timely manner and I feel like this is yet again the rules changing well after the game has already started. So we have to find a way to find this money for the last 6 months of the operating budget. Um I think it's a
terrible way to do business. I understand that there are there are concerns and logistics well beyond my control, but just the the enormous frustration of putting work into preparation and then being told that one of your most significant budget drivers
is going up at an exorbitant level is incredibly difficult and incredibly frustrating. >> Any questions? >> No. the development of the 2026-27 budget. The 2026 20227 budget process
has started with the distribution of the department budget worksheets that will be going out this week. In accordance with the budget calendar, January 13th is a deadline for all administrators to submit their budgets. Any questions? Update on the new board office. The
architects have submitted a request to the state for the purchase of 494 Newark Pumpton Turnpike. To date, we have not received a response from the state and anticipated. It is anticipated that the school district may go before the town council on December 4th, 2025 to have the zoning and variance applications
approved. If approved, the school district is looking to close in the building in January 2026. Any questions? Update on the sale of the board office property. The post office is not willing to modify their appraisal and the post office wants to go for a third appraisal
in order to get the final determination. Mr. Carter also suggested that we provide um a new provide the new appraisal with two appraisals and have already been with the two appraisals that have already been done. Obviously, it was up to the board committee and decision to release that information as
the post office is okay with the board office board office's decision. Either way, I've requested him to provide me with three names as well as the cost of each appraisal for the board approval. To date, he's only re sent me one appro appraisal for $5,000.
Any questions? >> Snow plowing services. >> Oh, wait. Uh, >> I'm sorry. >> Sorry. So, what what happens if we can't come to an agreement on the appraisal? it well it can go to arbitration but um
hopefully it won't go that route. >> Yeah, the the contract does lay out specifically that if the if we can't agree on the on the two appraisals, you do have to go for a third. >> Just need to have three possible I guess vendors that we can use to
provide that and then we'll choose whichever we want to go with. Um the process has been quite slow. >> Is there a timeline that they have to provide the three vendors by? >> No. Well, we were supposed to be done by
February 1st. So, you know, the federal government is working at their pace. So, any other questions? No. Nope. >> Snow plowing services. Since we will be down one driver for snow plowing, I've
asked Mr. Brewer, the town's business administrator, for some assistance from the DPW for snow removal. And he stated that he doesn't have any anyone available uh on a permanent basis, but he could possibly help us from time to time. So, we'll be working around that issues obviously when the snow flies.
Yeah. Any questions on that? And this is uh this is something I'll just I'll point out that this actually impacts the decisions that I make for whether we have delayed openings um or or closures for for snow. So um I did
discuss somewhat informally early this morning, Mr. Gibbs, a few other possibilities we can look into, but we need to be able to clear the snow. Um so having a being short staffed right now um in early November we manage it but looking ahead to what we're facing December through March knowing that
we're in North Jersey it it's a concern. So, um, we'll have to get creative in our in our solution finding, which we've already discussed a few options, but, um, I don't want to get kids too excited because I know that they probably love the idea of having to call
or having to change our tolerances for calling for, um, delayed openings and or snow days. But, um, it it adds one more wrinkle into an already complicated situation. Any other question?
>> If it came down to it, are we allowed to hire a third party? >> Yeah, we can. We're looking into that also. Yep. >> Any other questions? >> No. >> Thank you.
>> Thank you, Mr. Gibbs. Uh, let's see. What do we have next? Policy. Policy 5460, high school graduation regulation 5516R,
Mr. Mweeny or Dr. Cortez. Yeah. So, so these ones have been have been up before and I just want to put it out there. We we we should act on them. Um, first reading coming up. We we had tabled the high school graduation and Amry can actually speak to this better than better than I. she actually is more
familiar with the state board of education but um we just have to approve there's there are a few other changes within it but the greatest thing is approving the number of minimum credits required we had tabled it because of um conversations from a state board of
education meeting and Amry can you just speak to that real quickly >> so uh at the October um state board of ed meeting they approved the um uh new standards and assessment um they
adopted it so it was finalized then and in the new standards and assessment law um at Jexics they have outlined some adjustments in the language for the high school graduation. Um they adjusted
the science language in particular. So as opposed to having three lab courses, they've changed it to evidence-based science courses um which shall include physical science, life science, earth and space science and engineering
design. So there have been some updates to the language there. Um the I didn't see there's 120 credits um in terms of the but we do higher we do more credits than that. um they have the
financial aid requirement for graduation. Um they have some new language regarding alternate assessments. It's now the AA-S assessment for students with significant disabilities um for the graduation. So
there's some changes in the language. It's 110page document. So I've read through it once, but I need to go back through it again and pull out all the details that might matter. Um but to me the biggest change um was the science
piece and then they also um are allowing for flexibility on granting credit for experient experiential based learning. So that's some new language that's in there. And they um also identified the
state or the tests that students can take if they do not pass the NJGPA. So they said, you know, the PSAT, the SAT, and U, one in particular is the ASVAB is now part of the portfolio appeals process. So there's language in there surrounding those things. Um, but again,
at the October board meeting agenda, if you'd like to read the 110page document, um, I can provide cliff notes because I'll be going through it. Um, but that's where most of that came from. We might bring that document to the AI
committee and see if uh we can get distilled down to a two-page summary. Um yeah, and as far as anything else that's in um policy 5460, um I I put a document in backup, but I mean we we pay the costs for the seal of bioliteracy assessment, which is that's an easy one.
Um everything we have in place should should remain in place. We're adding the FAFSA requirement, which though it's not in the existing policy, it's something we're already doing in practice because it's it's a requirement and it supports our kids. So, um, nothing really significant there. It's just I wanted to
point out that we did table it with the understanding that something was going to be changing from the state um that ultimately really did not nothing substantial which is um a refrain that's going to be repeated for regulation 5516 which is I think Strauss did a good job
on it but we were anticipating there was going to be more legislation coming from the state. We got guidance from the state, but um fairly vague statements that to me kind of smacked of theories of common sense. Um and then we we got the the grant opportunity, which was to
enforce a bell-to-bell ban on phones in grades 6 through 12, which I didn't feel like um we were ready to make that shift um despite the dangling of the $4,700. But um as far as where we are there, there will be, as far as I can tell, no
additional legislation, no firm stance from the state that you will follow this directive. Um I I feel like there mo is going to be to provide local control, and I'm I'm more than fine with that. So, um we'll we'll we'll finalize
language for for the regulation, submit it for the committee's approval, and get this one approved quite soon as well. I would imagine that the timing for that once we get it approved, we would implement it for the new new school year. >> Yeah. Yeah. Um definitely after my my
mini diet tribe about changing the rules after the game has already started. I would look like quite the hypocrite. So yeah, I agree. Um we'll put put it in place for um 2627 and pretty much everything we'll have will just reinforce what we have in um in our
handbooks anyway. So I don't anticipate any dramatic shifts. >> Okay. Y >> can I just say one thing on the FASA? Um just in terms just since we're saying this and it's public um the they did
specify for the graduating classes of 25 26 and 27 either the FASA or the New Jersey alternative financial aid application or there's an exemption if they read through particular documents. So, just so you know, it's a couple
choices there versus one. And it has been specified for those three graduating classes versus forever. And u one other item too that wasn't in the um original Strauss for policy 0177 uh professional services. Um something
that we have as a district that's not in the Strauss language is a specific timeline um for um doing RFPs for for different vendors. This is for professional services. We have it in there to keep language of every 3 years of having a timeline. So
it's already in there. It'll remain in there um unless I'm directed otherwise. But just want to let you know that that's one that wasn't in the the Strauss packet that was shared with you, but we realize it's in our existing language for um 0177, which is up for
first reading or second reading. Awesome. Any questions or comments? Discussion. Okay. So, I'd like to open comments to the public again.
However, we don't have anybody here, so I'm going to open and close them. Any board members unfinished business? Any board member new business? Okay. Any board member announcements? I have a couple. Um, so in reply first
of all to Emily's um, gratitude challenge, I actually had something I was already going to talk about, so it fits in perfectly. Um, as always, I'm grateful for my family and my health, but today I'm especially thankful for Mr. Sheay. Um, who made my eighth
grader's day. Uh, she was frustrated with the tech issue last week and I suggested she email him for help. She came home today beaming so excited because not only did he solve her problem, but he also sent her a very very nice email. Um, and so I he
probably doesn't realize it, but his small act of kindness truly meant a lot to both of us. So, special thanks to him from the Shonen household today. Um, unrelated, uh, but as a board member, I'm also always very happy to serve our
community and listen to your concerns. But I do ask that you please don't stop at my house and knock on my door. Uh the best way to share concerns or feedback is by attending a board of ed me meeting and or emailing the board directly. So I just wanted to put the reminder out
there again. Thank you. Anybody else? Okay, we do have consideration to go into the into executive session. Um, we will adjourn from executive session. Do I have a motion to go into exec?
>> Second. >> All in favor? >> Thank you.