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Video-1: youtube.com/watch?v=FyB-RUJkWOE

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I have a second >> all in favor. >> We have no executive session this evening. So notice of this regular meeting of the Pittman Board of Education was posted at Bur Hall. Copy there delivered to all Pitman schools to be posted and posted on the district's website. Further

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notice was posted and filed as required by law. The board would meet in close session at 6:30 p.m. in Pitman High School Media Center. President will entertain any objections with supporting reasons to the contract of this meeting on the grounds that it violates the open public meeting act. Okay, seeing none, good evening and welcome to this evening's board of education meeting.

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Please join me in a moment of silence. [snorts] >> Thank you. Please join me in the flag. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and

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justice for all. >> Mr. Stratby, please call roll. >> Mrs. Bolton, >> here. >> Mrs. Farrell here. >> Mr. Gman, >> present. >> Mrs. Higgbyono >> here. >> Mrs. Miller >> here. >> Mrs. Papalardo >> here. >> Mrs. P >> here. >> We have quorum. >> Thank you. This is going to bring us to

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our first public comment. Pitman Public School Board recognizes the value of public comment on educational issues and the importance of allowing members of the public to express themselves on school matters of community interest. This is the first of two public comments we will have tonight. The first public hearing is on agenda items only. This is a public comment, not a dialogue between the board and the public. You will have

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three minutes to speak. In accordance with board policy number 0167, we ask that you state your name, municipality of residence, and group affiliation if applicable. to be recognized to speak, please come stand to the podium located to my right and speak clearly into the microphone. >> Pardon? >> Sure. Is as long as it's on an agenda

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item, this is the public comment that is for agenda item. >> Second one at the end for that. >> Okay. >> Correct. So a G. So if you so if you're speaking on behalf of something on the agenda this evening, this is for that. And then um if it's something kind of more general, that'll be at our second public comment. Got >> Thank you.

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>> Okay. Okay, seeing none, Mr. Datus, is there any correspondence? >> No. >> I will now move to accept a motion for the minutes of the Pitman Board of Education. As held on the dates listed below are approved as printed and read dispensed with. May I have a second? >> Second. Papala.

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>> All in favor? >> I. >> Any objections? Any abstensions? >> Okay, seeing none, that is going to take us to this evening's president's report. It is um a bit of a longer one since we didn't have student recognition rec recognition. I did put some of the

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things that we do on an annual basis into this one. Um mostly regarding the funding formula. I did want to check has everyone completed their governance for all of us who >> although I will say I was actually looking the other day on my transcript and it's not listed on there. So I was

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going to >> see I think I did it twice because I literally was doing I'm like I did this I already >> been there done that. >> Yeah. And it wasn't on my transcript. So I've done it. Can you guys email Lori Blow and make aware of that? Our fuel service rep. >> How about anyone else? >> What year are you in?

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>> It's four years. First, fourth. >> My second. >> Yeah, Rebecca, we're good. >> I think we're Yeah, I think you two. This is the year you're excused. >> So, you're excused for two years and then >> the first year of every new term, you have to do it as well. >> W, but I'll double check. >> So, you guys are good and you're good.

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You did yours back. But I don't my whole comfort because it's we answer questions through AI, >> right? >> What? >> Yeah. >> Oh, they had Carla the AI bot. >> So like >> we just had to reflect on that. You were very pardon.

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>> Yeah. Well, they kept responding back like I kept having to do that. So I saved my whole conversation. I >> Okay. >> I feel like there was a glitch in what where I was doing it. So >> Okay. >> Mr. Stratus, do you mind checking because you have to enroll the transcript? >> Yeah. Well, not just the transcripts,

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but your confirmations of enrolling everyone in it. >> Okay. >> Just so we make sure that we're our eyes are dotted and te >> um >> so I want to give our countywide meeting dates. Uh we have October 1st which will

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be on school funding. It'll be hosted by Camden County School. It will not be led by me. I'm not sure who's leading it at this point. Um 121 we're going to have a student rep meeting. This is a Glouester County only meeting. This will also be hosted at a school. The NS SBA is moving

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away from hosting the monthly or the um regular scheduled county meetings at Adelfias and rather moving all of them but for one at to schools. Um so I'll be interested to hear the feedback on that. So the 12 one will be hosted in an area school as well and our student one of

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our student reps will be invited. It'll probably be somewhat similar to the eighth grade dialogue. It's really about trying to understand student voice. Um, I worked with our vice president for the county, Mrs. Julie Kazmple, in outlining some questions for student reps to answer in advance so that we can kind of

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pass the microphone and represent all of the respective districts that send someone. 223, February 23rd is going to be our fully virtual. March 16th is Gluster Countyy's 8th grade dialogue and May 4th will be the um the teacher of the year back at Adelfi.

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>> Can you go back? What was the one for March? I'm sorry. >> Sure. March 16th is 8th grade dialogue. >> Thank you. Um, [sighs and gasps] I want to thank Mrs. Bolton for her continued efforts as the facilities chair with the ongoing referendum work. Uh, I know it's a huge priority for the entire board, but Mrs.

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Bolton is definitely leading the way in ensuring that we're being good stewards of tax dollars throughout the referendum project. And, um, she is included in the weekly uh, meetings with our project manager, Mr. Draatis, um, Dr. Preston, Mr. Mars

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and >> our construction manager Larry Hayden as well. >> Great. >> Okay, great. And we want to thank the burrow for their ongoing support to that process as well. Um, obviously this is a lot of moving pieces and it requires kind of all hands on deck and we're

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trying to make sure that the work gets completed in a timely manner and with as much um due diligence as we can provide at a board level. All right. So, I just wanted to loop the board into some of the school funding conversations that

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I've been having outside of my capacity um within Pitman. On July 23rd, the New Jersey Department of Education hosted a leadership um group meeting. It had NJA leadership, their executive leadership, their government relations team, and

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some of their and individual from policy. It had somebody from uh two individuals from NJ ASBO. There was also folks from the administrative and supervisory union and the New Jersey schoolboard association in attendance with Dr. Locks, our commissioner of

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education and another a number of other department of education employees that are discussing what is a learning series. So the bulletin for this the press release went out earlier today. I was really excited to have the opportunity to attend. Obviously, funding formula total overhaul, but modernization has

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been a focal point of our board of education and what we've advocated for. So, to see it start to kind of gain some momentum was really exciting. And to see some of the information that they're hoping to share [cough] out at the state level was really great. So, I have another meeting there tomorrow and um uh

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of a meeting I believe next week as well to kind of share out. So, I also wanted to share out to the board and we're going to get through it really quick. It won't be as lengthy as we usually do on our funding formula presentation. I was joking earlier we missed this year so I didn't do it this winter and I was I know there was like a lot of requests for it. [laughter]

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So, uh we're going to share out some of that information. This is actually a presentation that I did over the weekend in New Brunswick with the New Jersey um PTA. So, it's going to be from a whole county perspective, but I'm going to pop up here to Mr. Joyce's laptop so we can share

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that out. tried to include pertinent details for fitment. I'm just gonna turn it since I did rejig it. >> That's that's all right. >> So, we're going to stick through a lot

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of the stuff that was really for the um what their unique circumstances are in their districts because we know across the 600 districts in the state of New Jersey, the funding levels look very different. and they that districts are facing both some different challenges and perhaps a pitman but also share some

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commonalities in what the structural deficits are within their district budgets. So we talked about who helps plan a budget which we know as board of education members. It's the board of education in partnership with the school board I mean with the uh business administrator and the superintendent. We

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try to share out what we believe the community priorities are to those individuals and they help deliver a budget that is fiscally sound. and we talked about the timeline of what that looks like, which the board is obviously very familiar with. How do we know the money is carefully managed? We're all audited. That's information that we were

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pointing NJPTA members to the um NJ DOE's website. You can always review past audits for all school districts. It's available as well as a number of other tools. The NJ the NJ DOE is actually in the midst of recreating the dashboard that we look at. It was previously called the taxpayers guide to

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spending. and they're trying to create a dashboard that perhaps has what they believe to be more useful information to the average citizen when they're evaluating where their tax dollars go within a school district. So we talked about the four budget constraints that the NJDOE has identified that are consistent across the state and those

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were personnel and benefits, transportation, special education and facilities costs. So these are the four areas that when we look at the educational adequacy report that was used as part of the white papers to develop the SFRA which was uh created that's the funding formula that was created in 2008 we these were some of the areas that

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were identified but aren't perhaps accurately reflected in the funding formula and how it's actually allocating funds to each of the respective districts. So we're going to kind of just briefly go over them because I think as schoolboard members we're very familiar with those challenges but I think it's also important to kind of

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highlight. So one of the items for um this particular topic was personnel and we looked at what the average salary in the state of New Jersey was for teachers and we saw it was about a 30% increase whereas to get a degree at Ruckers the tuition has gone up 55%. And if you go to RCSJ and we look at the tuition

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differential from when the SFR was enacted in 2010 to 2026 we looked at a per credit example and we see about 100 or we see about an 82% increase in the tuition at RCSJ. So for teachers to to receive those degrees to earn those degrees this is the cost increase that

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they would face in order to do so and we can extrapolate that out when we look at highly qualified teachers with master's degrees particularly at the secondary level and administrators and all the various certifications that are required to fulfill the the very nuance roles

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within the department of education. We then bumped down to benefit increases. We saw a one-year increase of 17% as a state with retirees exceeding 36%. And this is 155% increase from the induction of SFRA in terms of benefit costs for area districts. So, and that's the the

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district premium cost that we're looking at. So, that is again a calculation that is not playing out when they're allocating funds and how they're calculating your per pupil spending. The next item was special education. So, we wanted to talk a little bit about the increase in the highly specialized

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programs. So in the state of New Jersey, there is the National Association of Special Education of Private Special Education Centers. There's 205 facilities, 94 of which are located in New Jersey. So on one hand, New Jersey has this incredible special education

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programming offered in private and public settings. But we also with those highly specialized programs have a lower rate of students that are included in the general education classroom. So 44% of special education students in the state of New Jersey are served 80% of the time in a general education setting.

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So those students that receive special education services are not always being served in a general education setting. And in a densely populated state like New Jersey and one that has historically operated with these private and public special education schools, it's it's difficult to navigate those

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conversations because we obviously as a team both as school districts and parents and students have a voice in what their best educational plan is. And so we talked a lot about what those funding challenges are. We talked about the increased personnel and u medical both medical services and increased

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personnel that are needed to deliver special education services. We talked about the complexity of 504 and IEP documentation and what has changed since the induction of SFRA, which again enacted in in 2008. We start to see it come into play in fiscal year 2010. And we talked about the increased litigation

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and legal consequences to how special education is delivered as our attorney can attest to. We talked about transportation costs. So fuel and >> yes, >> before you move on from special education, do you find that the census based model is a challenge to securing?

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So we have not had a census based model for two years in the funding formula. For the last two years they've actually allocated your equalization your adequacy budget which that's where that number comes into play based on the actual population that's identified. Where it's a bigger issue is the actual rate that we are giving back an extraordinary aid. And then another

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potential challenge is the federal spending which is semi in the state of New Jersey which is special education Medicaid initiative. So we go on to discuss that a little further in the slide and I I'll be happy to kind of flag it when we get to it but we haven't used the census base in two years. That's not been codified though. So that's something to be mindful of that

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when we're talking about reform we that we want to see that um kind of carry forward. So we talked about the transportation costs and we have in 2010 diesel was 299 a gallon. It's 5.85 while I was driving up to this presentation. We talked about

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the increased personnel. Um electric buses run 350,000 plus. We talked about personnel and benefits and increased hourly wages for transportation. We also discussed the highly specialized routes. um in a densely populated state, special education routes that often exceed six figures for single pupil transportation.

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And then we discussed McKenna Vento, which is a federal regulation that requires school districts transport students to their district that they resided in prior to experiencing homelessness. This is a federally mandated program. The state receives about $2.4 million. It's allocated on a

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three-year basis on a subawward schedule based on region. So to to put it in layman's terms, pennies on the dollar, particularly when you're looking at contracts that can exceed exceed $150,000 for one student. So this is a federal requirement. And of course, I think we're all, you know, parents and

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community members. We want to see kids have the the educational placement they had before they experienced something as disruptive as homelessness. But we also have to be realistic about the cost. We also talked about the increased courtesy busing in districts in the state of New Jersey because of the dense population

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and geographic barriers in how we have safe routes to school. And then we talked about non-public aid inlen which is the cost of transporting students to non-public placements. the state of New Jersey, we are required to either offer families a check or make transportation

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arrangements for their children to go to their special education placements in private schools or their private school for general education purposes as well as uh provide those highly specialized routes for populations depending upon their needs. So one district for example has a $300 million budget. $150 million

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of that budget is allocated to their special education out of district placements in private religious schools and transportation to those private religious schools. So that's $150 million of their $300 million budget. And that's an increasing challenge across the state.

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>> We don't name the districts, we just say we speak very generalized. We talked about facility needs, something that our district is all too familiar with with aging infrastructure and population density. We talked about student changing needs, school construction costs, another area we're very familiar with. SBA districts stand for school

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development authority. Those are districts that we formerly referred to as Abbott districts. There's 31 in the state. That is a a concept that has not been revisited since the original legal ruling. We are a regular operating district or a rod district. We're eligible for debt service relief. So, we do receive some state funding. a

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referendum projects were all picked by the board of education to ensure maximum state aid back on the projects that were identified. Whereas you can go out for referendum for projects that there is no debt reser relief and therefore the local community would have the entire brunt of that that um that facility

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need. Then we talked about how state how the school districts in New Jersey are funded. About 6% of New Jersey school funding comes from federal resources. The state provides 12 and almost 12.5 million dollars in funding. This is for K through2 districts and local property

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owners are reaching almost 19 billion I believe I said million billion dollars in funding. So the induction of SFRA was um the the language in the bill was to help alleviate property tax

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um stress upon communities but as we can attest to that has not been the outcome. Federal funding includes things such as title one, special education grants, and free and reduced lunch. The state also covers about an additional 15% of students that do not qualify under the federal standard. State aid funding,

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there's formula funding, categorical aid, there's, like we talked about, debt service relief, and grants. Finally, there's local funding, which is property taxes. So, these are the types of aid categories that we have in the state of New Jersey. The largest of which is equalization aid. This has been the area that Pitman has been most impacted by.

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So that's why we're going to kind of focus on this for a great deal of our time. Previously, so in fiscal year 25, there were no uh municipalities in Gloucester County that were not eligible for equalization aid. The following fiscal year, in one fiscal year, five

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municipalities became independently wealthy enough in one fiscal year for the state to say that they were no longer eligible for any equalization aid in one single calendar year. So this is definitely an area that um has probably been most focused on when you talk about

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some of the formula challenges and I think it's what probably is most talked about at the state level as well. So how do you get equalization aid? So the way that it works is there's an adequacy budget. The state constitution says that every student in the state of New Jersey is entitled to what is called a thorough

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and efficient education. And they use what's called the educational adequacy report to determine what that costs. So for fiscal year 27 it was $15,58 per pupil and that's for your base pupil amount and we're going to get into that a little as well. So that's how much

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they believe it costs for for that particular child to have an education. Your local fair share is what they believe you could reasonably raise in property taxes and the equalization aid is what's left. So they calculate your adequacy budget is this is where the numbers get real wild as somebody who

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had to really pay attention to algebra. Uh, and then it's going to get into your local fair share, also a very interesting formula, and it's going to yield the equalization [clears throat] equalization. So, that's going to bring us to our adequacy budget. So, first, how do they get that first number? As we mentioned, this is the amount the state believes you're

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required to have to constitutionally provide to provide the constitutionally mandated thorough and efficient education. SFRA, that law in 2018, calculates it this way. So, they're going to use your actual per pupil enrollments in different categories to determine the weight of each of those

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pupils and then determine what the fiscal dollar amount is that's associated with that weight. So, this is the adequacy budget calculation and in a breakdown. So, when we get our state aid notices, this is the information that is kind of across all of the sections and how they determine what our adequacy

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budget is. We're actually, because this is from a slideshow that I did over the weekend, we're not using Pitman's numbers in the adequacy budget calculation, but we're going to get a feel for how they utilize it. So, here's how they figure out how much each pupil costs to educate. For a base pupil

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amount, so a K through five student, that's a full day kindergarten through fifth grade student, they're allocated at one. And for a sixth grade student, sixth to eighth grade student, we know that it costs a little more to educate them. they begin to require um specialized certifications and lab materials and just some other resources.

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So the state allocates an additional 04 for all the students we have in that bucket so to speak. 9th through 12th is weighted at 1.5 and vot schools receive an even an additional weight over that. So then we have a couple of other areas that the state allocates additional resources for. So the first category is

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at risk. So students who rightfully qualify for free and reduced lunch at the federal level, not that additional 15% that the state provides for receive an additional weight. So for every student enrolled in your school district that is deemed at risk, which the qualification is free and reduced lunch status, they receive this additional

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weight added to that previous base amount. And then the second category for this is what's called was called limited English proficiency. We now call it multi- language learner, but the state aid notifications still contain LEAP. So students with limited English proficiency for whom English is not their primary language. We know that

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there's additional cost to provide an education to those students. So this is the additional weight that's applied to students that are ling limited English proficiency only. And finally in the last category we have limited English profic proficiency and at risk. And so those are students that um face both.

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This is what a state notification looks like. This is one of anywhere from seven to 25 pages depending on your um district's needs. So, if we can just take a look right over here, we're going to see the historic enrollment trends for this particular district over the

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last six years. The state's going to add those up and they're going to take the first three and the last three and they're going to average them and then they're going to divide them together by the third route and determine what they believe your growth rate calculation is. So, they're trying to predict enrollment trends. So, districts that had historically been losing students then

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would out of the gate have students um taken off of the count. And the challenge for suburban districts is there was uh an immense decline in enrollment during COVID. So we're seeing that play out. So in our for our example, we don't receive state aid for students that we actively have enrolled because our enrollment numbers have

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increased over and above what they were during COVID because we're still seeing a negative growth rate calculation that is not reflective of our actual population that we're serving, which is inherently problematic. And there was language initially contained within the statute that said you had the ability to challenge it, but it wasn't codified. So

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we don't have the ability to legally challenge it without extending expending a lot of legal source resources that we're just not willing to pay for. So we just can't can't justify. The next item that you're going to come up to is here's your base enrollment. So in this district you can see the projected

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enrollment and this is again against the growth rate calculation the weight that the students are eligible for and what those weights then do to create the projected enrollment down here. So these are this number is going to be higher than the actual student population that is enrolled in their school because of the additional weights based on grades. This is going to be those at risk

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categories and they're going to figure out what those weights are and then we're going to add them all up and we're going to create a base amount so that we understand with the weighted calculations what our enrollment is. So here is how that plays out when we look at how it's um accounted for in your adequacy budget

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calculation. Next thing I want to bring your attention to is if you see up here, this is the 15,000 over here. The $15,58 per pupil. It's going to be multiplied against what's called the GCA, the geographic cost adjustment. So there's we used to think that there was one per county or one per kind of a broad

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region. There's actually, I believe, nearly a hundred different geographic cost adjustments and they fluctuate throughout the state and it hasn't been revisited in quite a number of years, which is interesting. So out of the gate, if a district that is at a one for geographic cost adjustment gets the in

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fact full $15,58 for their base pupil, we we the state takes off a discount out out of the gate for us. So we're losing almost 3% of what it costs to educate a student student because the assumption is it costs less in our market. And then you continue to calculate that out by

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the various per pupil amounts. So kind of touching upon your question earlier, this is where you see the special education population. as it pertains to um the adequacy budget spending. So $24,02 per pupil is the number that was used in fiscal year 27. Again, this

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varies every year. And then in this year and last year, we actually used a per pupial calculation and then we multiply it by 2/3, not we personally, obviously the state multiplies it by twothirds and gains what they believe the amount of money it would cost to educate. So in this scenario they're saying that special education population would cost

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about $17 million to for approximately 1100 students and that's what they believe is the additional amount of money that this district that has $142 million budget would need to meet the special education needs of the students that they are are actively serving. >> Yes.

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>> So just to be clear it it's waited in favor of declaring kids with special education or >> it is waiting in it waited in favor. So, prior to the SFRA, the problem was, let me rephrase, the the fear was, and this is just the language that's contained within the white pages, that districts

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would overidentify students. And then in turn, they would receive additional funding for overidentifying students that perhaps didn't have needs. So, they said you're just getting a flat rate. This is the percentage. We think 16.7%, for example, is the number of special education students that the average district has. Pitman has always

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overidentified the number of students. So for years we weren't receiving funding at the per pupil rate in our adequacy budget for students. We said we know they have special needs. We're going to serve them because that's the right thing to do and and we just don't get the state aboard. We're just going to figure it out. And then on the flip

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side of that, we have districts that have received in excess of millions of dollars for populations that are not in fact reflected in their enrollment counts because they used a flat consent uh census base percentage. But for the last two years, they've used your actual calculations in the city notifications.

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And then we're going to come down here to projected speech enrollment, and those are for students that only receive speech services, and they're going to be $1,465. And that's just for those students right there. So again, that's how they figure out the math on what your total adequacy budget is. How much does it cost to provide a thorough and efficient

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education to your actual population that you're serving in your school district? I know it's really tiring and everyone's so excited. I picked the August meeting for this. Next, we're going to figure out how they figure out your local fair share. So, we have the first part of the formula, local fair share. Local fair share is calculated by the state in in a

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manner in which they try to determine what your district's actual wealth is and they look at two factors. They look at what the actual value of the homes in your municipality are. And they look at what the district income is in your municipality. They used, and I'm going to use the word used, the equalization

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valuation that's on a state table from two years ago um in this year's state aid notice. So that would be the number of where they get it. It's published every year. You can go the I think third Wednesday in June and sit at the state assessor's office if you'd like to dispute them with it on what the total

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is, but we know in Gloucester County, we are the only county that has a countywide assessment program that operates the way that it does. So we are held to the highest level of fidelity as it pertains to real values. And we know that there are municipalities that are singledigit realto assessed value. So as

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low as 9% because they have not been reassessed in 40 plus years. And so there's likely pockets of wealth that are being unidentified despite their equalization valuations being certified by the state. But this is the situation we have. So these are the values that are used and the secondary issue is

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aggregate district income. That's used off of tax returns from four years prior. The trick is for the last two years they've actually used a rolling average of three years in this particular category. So while the the kind of uh base understanding as to where they're getting the numbers are

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coming from, the hope was that you would not see these huge gains in equalization valuations, you know, home prices skyrocketing and it impacting districts. In reality, it's kind of a screen because it's really not going to be what the the the problem is here.

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The problem is the multiplier. So the way that it works is they take your overall home value of your community. Say for example, Pitman is $786 million or what the properties in our community are worth. Oh, and as an added caveat, pilot agreements are not reflected in this. So in municipalities that have

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large pilot agreements, the value of those are not included in this. And that largely shields that wealth from being taxed because school districts are unable to tax pilot agreement properties. So p so municipalities where there's a lot of pilot agreements um they have huge pockets and communities

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that aren't paying perhaps their local fair share. This is what's called the multiplier. This is the number that changes every single year and this is the number that they increase the weight of your property value or your income to increase your local fair share. So this

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is why in five years Pitman's local fair share went up 50%. So the state said in five years we were suddenly our economic circumstances had changed to the extent that we could afford a 50% increase and what our local community raised in property tax dollars and in turn and so

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this is the multiplier real quick for district income as well. So you can see that one has not increased as much as home value but has increased as well and you can see some really large one-year jumps too. So this was fiscal year 25 to fiscal year 26 and that's why we really felt it last year. Over the last two

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years, there's been guard rails on the amount of increases and decreases of three and six percent in an effort to slow the trajectory of loss across the state. But we can look at equalization aid by county and see that, you know, it is different across the state and how much they are receiving. And we can look

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at enrollment across the state. You can see charter schools are pulled out at 64,000 because the money gets passed through school districts. So, for example, we have a charter school district, not in our county, but that students can attend, and we're required to send all of the state and uh categorical aid and property taxes to

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that charter school to pay that tuition. And then this is an example of what New Jersey school property taxes look like by county. And we talked about the average county, the average um property taxes, and this is just your school portion, is about $5,600. And we looked

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at what that looked like across the state. The highest in the state is exceeding $16,000. It is in Mountain Lake, New Jersey. But we can also see there's a huge disparity in what school funding looks like in terms of each county and what they're raising. So we can look at Kate May down there and the

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average house in Kate May, the school portion of their taxes is $1,700. So that's how much the average homeowner in Kate May is paying, again, averely assessed home is paying towards their school taxes. And what this has done is it's decreased equalization aid from the

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state to the schools. And you can see that Bergen I believe Bergen County exceeds 8,000 and they're the highest. And we so there's a number of schools in certain counties that are what are called self-funded but don't receive equalization aid. This is a breakdown across the county and we just inserted this one today of the school property

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tax growth. We're talking about since 2010 what the average municipality has been um deemed required to allocate in terms of local resources towards school districts. And we can see that this perhaps was not quite the property tax relief the bill was designed to do. Some

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additional types of state aid are special education extraordinary aid. Special education extraordinary aid is supposed to cover the thresholds above and beyond certain tuition rates. So if we have a student going to a private special education placement for $150,000, it's supposed to cover 75% of

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the threshold, which is $55,000. Mr. Datus, does that sound right for the special education out of district private placement? So in reality, that's been flat funded for a number of years at $420 million. So we receive pennies on the dollar. So this year, um, if we look at about 2% of

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our students, they represent about 12% of our budget and we receive less than 10% of those costs back from the state. So about $286,000 in extraordinary special education aid and it was a decrease of about 7% reimbursement from last year to this year. Transportation aid, security aid,

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school choice aid. We left some of the other ones off. Military impact aid some other areas and aren't as relevant to um our particular challenges, grants, death service relief, and others. Here's some federal sources of uh of funding. We talked about all of those as well. The

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one of particular interest um special education Medicaid initiative which we call semi in the state of New Jersey is how we take the funds that are allocated to students that receive special education services and are on IEPs as part of the IDEA original language of the federal bill and those who are also Medicaid eligible. And one of the things

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that um I'm very interested in is exploring the discrepancies of what that looks like across various states. We know that there are states that appear to get a much higher rate. Much like the wealth equalizing formula of our school funding formula, the federal government operates similarly. So states they

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believe are um less successful economically receive a higher rate of Medicaid reimbursement compared to New Jersey. And the language that our legislature provides as to Medicaid initiative refunds is also um different

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across uh AC and how it's allocated comparative to other states. So this was the presentation we did for the NJPATA. Does the board have any questions? I know that this is their fourth or fifth year of hearing a very similar presentation,

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but um I do think it's really important. I know that there's always a lot of chatter of people wanting to understand why um property the burden on property taxpayers has only increased and so I think it's important to understand the root of that and this is the way that we best do so. So

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>> invite superintendence group to come >> to come present >> been it's been a year >> it has been I think it has been a year since we've presented to the superintendent but >> April can you send that to us? >> I can absolutely I will send that out. >> Any questions for members of the public? We don't usually open it up, but

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>> if anybody has any questions, I'm happy to answer them. >> Yeah. >> Nope. >> Are we able to post that on the website? >> We're not able to post it yet because I just forwarded to Zoe. Okay. >> So, >> yeah. Yeah. >> I um am not sure what we're going to use. >> Yeah. Yeah, that's fine. >> So, all right. All right. Very good. And Joe, this is yours. So, I'll leave it

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and see if I can navigate this. >> We'll see. It's always It's always a crapshoot. All right. So, that's the end of my very exciting report >> and I will turn it over to Dr. Yeah. Well, thank you, Miss Miller, for your

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advocacy. Um, it's been an education for me the last two years just learning about the formula and um, thank you for presenting for to the superintendent and BAS and I know you're, you know, continue to be a resource there with with that. It's it's very difficult to sift through that stuff. It's it's that

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that one sheet that one sheet where uh, you show the adequacy counts. It's actually like 15 pages of that calculation. And so, it's really really difficult to dig into. You have to have an actuarial brain. Um I know Mr. Stratus is kind of nerds out with it as

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well, but it's a beautiful mind. >> It's a beautiful mind. Exactly. Uh but um you know I I think uh I think it's you know being on the four of these efforts is huge. Um because uh you know we want to be fairly funded.

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>> We do. And I do want to just reiterate before I do turn it over. I think that the board and the administration has worked really well to prioritize the areas of the budget that we know we've needed additional support like hiring a BCBA this year and I appreciate the administration's ongoing support when we've approached legislators about

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additional funding sources. Dr. Preston and I met earlier this year with LD3 in an attempt to >> to try to identify some additional funds and I as a board we'll still probably go out in a committee level but some further discussions about potentially drafting some model legislation to to request additional funding for some

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special education initiatives that would help help us provide uh a a broader um spectrum of services so that general education placements are >> Yeah. And just just one point on that, the BCBA actually we we hired her in

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June. Um and so it was it was after the school year and so there wasn't I don't think there's anybody out at that meeting. I did put it in my superintendent brief, but she has started uh she actually um agreed to come on early. Um she worked with our ESY program. She came in and did some consulting. DCBAs are just big because

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they can they're they're so instrumental because they can conduct FBAs. She's working at the beginning of the year with our uh director of curriculum, director of um special services to start training par professionals to be RBT, which is uh um oh my goodness, I'm uh

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I'm drawing a blank on the the acronym um RBT >> registered behavioral registered behavioral technicians. >> Yes. >> Where they can actually uh provide support to um students uh with with those needs. Um and so and and ultimately we want to bring students that are out of district back into our

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district and uh provide programs and services for them. So uh certainly thank thank the board for their support on that in last year's budget. That was huge. >> Um as far as other things percolating uh back to school nights, uh September these are on the calendar, but I I had a placeholder here from last year for the

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superintendent report. Our back to school nights are September 15th for the junior senior high school, the 19th, uh the 17th at PES, um and the 24th at Memorial. So, more more information information on that will follow. Um I do want to uh provide a couple updates on

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our referendum projects. I'm sure you've if you've driven past pees at any any recent times, you you'll see quite a bit of work going on out there. Uh work's moving very well. Uh we were a as of our last meeting, Miss Miller mentioned that we have weekly construction meetings.

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Myself, Mr. Draatus, I know sometimes Mr. Celtiana sits on them. Um Sarah, thank you for being a part of that. We're 42% complete on those projects as of last Thursday. Um and on on track to finish on time with the HVAC project.

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Most of the project uh wraps up by late August. The boiler wraps up uh substantial completion by October. Um, so really excited about that. Uh, have a little more comfortable environment at uh, PEES. Uh, crews have been busy. Duck works going on throughout the building. Electrical work is done on all floors

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and they're moving into the auditorium and second floor right now. Uh, you'll recall that in um, late June, early July, uh, we had an asbestous issue that came up. I put a separate blast out to the community about that. Uh, certainly anytime that word comes about, you want to be very transparent with the public.

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And as soon as we uh as soon as we got wind of that, we wanted to put that out. Uh that was right around the 4th of July, I think that weekend. Um that was handled very quickly. Uh immediately uh worked well with the burrow. Appreciate their efforts in helping us with that. The area was tested, cleared by the

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state. Um and access was restored in 11 days um with no impact uh well with I say with no impact on the overall schedule. Obviously, it's it's uh you know, they're a little bit more constrained now, but um we're we're we're trying to increase efforts with our contractors and our construction

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manager to uh um you know, obviously write that ship. Uh we're coordinating closely with the contractor so our custodial staff can get in and do the usual deep cleaning, deep summer cleaning before students return. And um obviously we have September 8th marked on our calendars. It's a big day. Um all

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the bathrooms have been demoed and roughed in and are awaiting plumbing right in step with the rest of the work. Uh we're keeping a close eye on this piece to make sure it's uh full and ready uh by the time students return. Actually, we just had a construction manager, Rob Dinan. I should let you know, Sarah, because I know you're on that meeting. Rob Dyn from Greyhawk went

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in to look at it just to say, "Hey, how are we doing on that?" And uh uh he he said the same thing we said when we looked at it, that it looks like it's it, you know, we're really really on track. So, positive things right now. Obviously, um uh we'll keep you informed on those things and uh as our

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construction meetings progress. So it's it's really >> Thursday afternoon by day to make sure >> it's day by day and there's a lot of work tomorrow >> in a short amount of time. Um I want to uh I guess I can do this when we get closer. I just want to uh thank Mr.

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Calabiano for his efforts. You'll see him on here. He's he's our assistant superintendent, but he's act he's acting as our acting athletic director as well right now. >> Um I get to see it firsthand. It's uh it's pretty intense to do both both jobs. uh doing a great job. I appreciate

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your efforts on that. I know it's a lot a lot of scheduling. I know you're you're count Tri County meetings and kind of looking at you double take, you know. Yeah. >> Uh but um we have a [clears throat] athletics intern as well working with us. His name's uh Jim Gooding. Uh he's been working with Mr. Katabiano to help

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us uh keep everything on track athletics wise. Um so it's uh exciting there. Uh couple people here tonight that were that are are being hired as well. I I I want to acknowledge uh Mr. Kevin Taco um is our new facilities director. Thank

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you. I know I know uh [applause] excited to meet you. Uh Mr. Taco comes to us from Pensro where he has uh almost four years of facilities manage management experience. >> I was the facility manager there for Yeah. Almost four years.

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>> Almost four years. >> Four years December. >> That's right. Um prior to that, he worked in Mount Laurel. actually uh uh was a lead custodian at Harrington Middle School. Did I say that right, Mr. Calabiano? >> Yeah. Um and actually Mr. Calabiano had a had a chance to work with him. I man

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that was what 2018 to 2022. So that's >> Yeah. Um and so obviously we we're excited to have you on board. In the interim you'll see on here we have two uh stellar [snorts] mechanics. uh Jeff Flood who's been with the district I think close to 40 years and Jerry Moore

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uh who's new to the district but not new to facilities management um I know he's met with Mr. Taco he was the he was formerly I I want to say for almost two decades the um facilities director for whisten which is a huge district in Pennsylvania so he has a lot of experience and is excited to kind of uh

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work alongside and and very much happy to be a first mate first and second mate to Mr. taco because it's it is a big job. So, uh welcome aboard. Um also in this central office role, she's not here tonight. Adriana Price is going to be our new fiscal specialist. She um comes

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to us from Westford. She uh uh that is a a grant funded position through the pres preschool expansion aid grant. Uh we're excited about that. I know Mr. Draatus is uh that's a that's a huge effort. That's over a $3 million budget alone for preschool. And so a huge huge load to manage in conjunction with the the

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preschool principal. And so Miss Miss Price will be helping manage that out of our central office. Um and obviously at Memorial um when it when it when it calls for it. And then Missy uh Missy Jones is here as well tonight. So welcome. Uh Missy Jones will also be in our business office as our payroll and

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benefit specialist. Um I know Mr. Datus is excited about that. Uh meeting payroll is is a is the bane of uh many of BAS. Um [snorts] that's that's a nerve-wracking the 15th and 30th are nerve-wracking dates. Um, so we wanted to welcome everybody aboard. Um, that

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concludes my report. >> Very good. Thank you so much. All right, it's going to take us to finance and facilities and I will turn it over to our chairwoman, Mrs. Bolton. >> All right. All right. The finance and facility committee met on July 29th at 3:30 in attendance were Dr. Preston, Mr.

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Draatus, Mrs. Miller, Mrs. Pot, and myself. Um, the discussion started with our items one through six. As usual, their regular bills being paid. Uh the closing out of books for June. Seven and eight are the approval of our corrective

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action plan and carrying that plan out. Nine is moving um of bond interest into our general fund. 11 and 12 are accepting grant money. Uh, title 1A is down about 36% this year and

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title two is down um 15, but the rest were about the same as last year. So, I hear Mr. Calpiano had to make that work. >> Uh, number 19 is a job description for a treasurer position. We just want to let everybody know this

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is not a new full-time position that we are adding to the budget. As you see, it's tight as is. So, uh, instead this will be a small stipen paid to either a retired or current BA that will kind of do it on the side to improve audit

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compliance, segregation of duties, and monthly cash reconciliation. >> Sarah, that's 21 now. >> Oh, that changed. Where did I have it in there as a different thing? >> Oh, 19. All right. >> To get me back on track. Okay.

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Um and then that also those are correct, right? Also looking um at number 33 and 45 in the um curriculum instruction area, there is a change in title that removes

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account specialists which will essentially then be handled by the treasurer. >> So it's going to be >> so 35 now >> 35. Sorry. Let me see if I can >> I just looked at it and I was like, wait, what numbers are right now?

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>> 48. >> Okay, >> 35 and 48. >> All right, there we go. >> So, 35 and 48. So, just changing some descriptions to more uh be a little more descriptive of what the actual duties are and flipping some things around.

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um this will be budget neutral or in fact a slight savings. So that's always good. We always like um an extra set of you know eyes looking at the books to make sure things are going well and reassures that we are running as

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efficiently as possible. So with that, what number am I up to now? Um, I will make a motion to approve items 1 through 21 as written.

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>> I have a second. >> Second. Any discussion? >> Seeing none. Uh, Mr. Draz, please call the vote. Okay. >> Mrs. Bolton? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Frell? >> Yes. >> Mr. Gman? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Hayano? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Papalardo? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Pope? >> Yes.

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>> Mrs. Miller? Yes. >> Motion passes. >> Thank you. Curriculum instruction. That'll take us to Mrs. Sigota or chairwoman. >> Mr. Miller, before we get started, Mr. Kspiano has has an amendment to read uh just publicly announced before the motion comes on the board. So, at this

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>> appreciate it. Yeah, I'd like to walk on a change to 55. Um received an email today. Uh Miss Schwank will not be able to um be a co-sistent coach for us. Um, so the request is to make Linda Leech the assistant coach and get the full

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stipen and Carrie Schwank to become a volunteer assistant coach for the soccer team. >> Got it. Okay. >> Sorry for all that chaos. Seemed like a bigger deal than it was, but I just want to make sure we get it right. >> No. Yeah. Make sure we get it right. Okay. >> All right. So, I will turn it over to

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our chairwoman. I don't um Mr. Mr. Long, I don't need further action on that. Right. But okay. >> No, you just got to announce this. So that now becomes the agenda. That's the amendment to the agenda. So once it's moved, it's moved in the format that Mr. Kpiano said. So just make the motion as amended.

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>> Got it. Very good. I'll turn it over to chair one miss. >> Uh the curriculum and instruction committee met on July 29th. In attendance were Mrs. Miller, Mr. Gman, Dr. Preston, and myself. [clears throat] Before I get into the committee

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business, I just want to note that at the September meeting, we will be adopting a resolution naming the new track in memory of Bobc, a longtime track coach and teacher at PHS. We'll

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hear more about Mr. X's uh contributions next month, but we're hoping to see some of Bob's former colleagues and students here to recognize him and greet his family because they're going to come out. >> That's good. So most of the agenda items are

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customary just things required to prepare for the upcoming school year. The committee discussed the referendum projects at PES which have already been addressed by Dr. Preston. We also discussed the multiple new hires on the agenda. We're approving a new facilities

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director, some help for the business office as well as multiple additions to the teaching faculty. Uh we're also discussed altering how we structure the auditorium manager position from a yearly stipen to payment

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per event which will allow just more flexibility in that position without adding any cost to the district. And finally, we discussed our significant enrollment increase for the upcoming school year. >> All right. >> Partly due to students returning to

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Pitman from private schools and the many, many tuition applications we're receiving. >> So, with that, I move to adopt items 1 to 66 as amended. May >> I have a second? >> Flawless execution.

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>> Second. >> Okay. Any discussion? I should just add it's uh to that to the enrollment that's that's July only. It's us July is usually a lighter month for us too enrollment wise. Um and about just about half of those enrollments are students

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returning from um uh private schools. So >> great a place to um as part of discussion just wanted to also thank Mr. Pauliano for stepping into the ad role. I don't know how many hats we can have him wear. I'm like mentally picturing everyone, but I know

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very appreciative and welcoming our new facilities manager on board and our new business office staff member on board. We really appreciate you guys joining us. So, welcome and um and I just want to thank uh Coach Schwank for her service, her stepping into a volunteer role is really wonderful and she's been

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a huge asset to our program. >> Any further discussion? >> Okay, seeing none, Mr. Dradus, please call the vote. >> Mrs. Bolton, >> yes. Mrs. Frell. >> Uh, yes. Move to one through four. I have to abstain from number five. And

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yes, the six through 66. >> On five. >> Okay. Mr. Gman. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Higono. >> I have to abstain from 59 and 65, but yes to all the others.

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>> Okay. Mrs. Papalardo. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Pope. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Miller. >> I abstain from number two. Yes to the rest. >> Okay, motion carries. >> Thank you. All right, that's going to take us to our communication and policy. I will turn it over to our committee chairwoman, Mrs. Ferrell. The

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communication and policy committee met on July 29th at 5:30. In attendance were Mrs. Papalardo, Dr. Preston, and myself. Tonight's agenda includes the first reading of several policies that are being either revised or abolished. This is the time of year that this typically

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happens. Um, key changes to note is policy 5516, which is the cell phone use. Uh, students will no longer be permitted to use cell phones during lunch. I know they're probably not going to be happy, but it is what it is. Um, the current consequence structure for

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having a cell phone out will remain in place as it has been effective already. Um, policy 3270, which is professional responsibilities. This revision is establishes clear parameters around meeting attendance, email response times

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and related professional expectations. Um in response to demand across all grade levels, we are also developing our first staff handbook. Um policy 5430 which is class rank. This revision now includes a bonus

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calculation for students enrolled in ourmies. And while not on tonight's agenda, we also discussed policy 2365, which is the use of AI. Um, our internal policy for student AI use was updated last year. However, we plan to make further

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revisions based on emerging guidance from Strauss SME. Um, so with that, I move to adopt one as written. >> May I have a second? >> Second. Any discussion? >> Just want just want to add I see the two

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students two fell in the front. It's a the cell phone is a law. >> We have an enact policy. Just for clarity sake, it's it's the new New Jersey law. It's a ban. Every school has to enact it. The only thing we have leeway on is in the policy is what essentially what consequences are

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administered to students that are that have it. I don't know if you want to say anything else. >> Before and after school, like if you're at a sporting event, we have that authority to allow it, which we are, but we don't have authority to allow it during lunch, which is what we did last year. So, we do want to apologize to our is up front. It's not our decision.

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>> They won't be here for lunch anyway. >> We don't all >> Some of us are mean moms. >> I'm like to each other. >> They have to talk to each other. >> Look across that table. >> They'll talk to each other about how they're not allowed to. [laughter] >> Just kidding. They're in my

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>> All right. Any further discussion? >> Okay. Seeing none, Mr. Stratus, please call the vote. >> Mrs. Bolton. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Pharaoh. Yes, >> Mr. Gman. >> Yes, >> Mrs. Higaniano. >> Yes, >> Mrs. Dardo. >> Yes, >> Mrs. Co. >> Yes, >> Mrs. Miller. >> Yes,

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>> right. Is there any old business? >> Any new business? >> Okay. Oh, I skipped right over public hearing. This is second. I was like, that doesn't look right. This is second public public comment. In order to participate in public comment, please state your name, municipality of residence, and group affiliation if applicable, and limit your comments to

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three minutes. Please come stand at the podium located to my right to be eligible to speak. that podium right there. Yeah. It's just so folks at home can hear you as well. >> Okay. >> Uh my name is Renee McCrady. I live in Pitman and um I don't have a group affiliation,

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but uh full disclosure, I have submitted to run for school board as a candidate. Um, just this is not part of my prepared remarks, but I want to say that I really appreciate Mrs. Miller's presentation on the school funding and regarding the

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special education. It sounds great in theory, but having two daughters that have just graduated in 2024 and 2026 from Pitman High School in application, that was not my experience. Um, regarding my prepared remarks,

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good evening members of the board, administration, and members of the community. My name is Renee McCrady. I am here tonight as a resident, parent, and concerned member of this community. I am addressing matters involving student privacy, educational records,

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transparency, and compliance with applicable requirements under the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, and New Jersey Student Records Regulations. A public school district operates on a foundation of trust. Families must have

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confidence that st sensitive student information is maintained appropriately, that educational records are handled in accordance with legal requirements, and that concerns involving student privacy are addressed through proper administration pro administrative processes. Following concerns involving

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confidential student information and educational records, I submitted records requests to the district seeking documentation relevant to these matters, including special education related records. Those requests were submitted after my daughter's graduation in an effort to protect her educational

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experience while she remained a student. On June 24th, 2026, I submitted rec requests for records. After not receiving a response, I contacted the superintendent directly on July 28th, 2026. On July 29th, 2026, the district

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finally acknowledged the requests and provided a partial response. At this time, I remain concerned that not all requested records have been provided. I am concerned about whether appropriate safeguards are in place to protect personally identifiable student

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information and whether internal communications involving student matters are being handled consistently with legal privacy requirements. To these ends, I respectfully request that board administration ensure that all outstanding educational records

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requests are addressed fully in accordance with applicable legal requirements. The precedent has been well established for releasing records to parents. Uh review internal procedures governing access to and disclosure of confidential

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student information. ensure that appropriate safeguards, training, and accountability measures are maintained to protect student privacy. I'm not asking this board to make findings during public comment. I'm asking for appropriate review, transparency, and a commitment to protecting the privacy and

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dignity of every student and family in this district. Thank you for your time and your service to the students and families of Pitman. Renee McCra. I will say that this is in regards to a known incident where I submitted an email to a

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teacher, a guidance counselor, and a special education team member regarding my daughter. That that information was then later within three months said to me by a private third-party person uh that has no children and is

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unemployed by the district. I have a copy of the um let me get the acronym right. >> Yeah, sure. I'll be wrapping up shortly. Um so the my next step will be to file

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my written complaint with the uh family policy complaint office in Washington DC with the department of education which I'm willing within my right to do and I will provide copies of my statement to everyone. All right. Thank you.

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>> Good evening, Dr. Preston, members of the board of education, and members of the community. My name is Sarah Deadova and my husband Brad and I are parents of an upcoming kindergartener here at Memorial School. I'm here tonight because I believe Panther Club is one of the most valuable programs our district offers, but it has reached a point where

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the demand far exceeds its capacity. Our daughter Sophia has attended Panther Club since she started in the Pimpman School District in 2024. We have relied on the program for full-time afterchool care during the school year and throughout the summer. As two full-time working parents, Panther Club has allowed us to continue our careers while

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knowing our daughter is in a safe, familiar, and nurturing environment. This year, however, despite submitting our registration shortly after learning it had opened, we were placed on the wait list. Through conversations with Just Ror, I had learned that Memorial alone received 54 registrations within

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the first 48 hours. That tells me that this is a much bigger problem than much bigger than one family's disappointment. It demonstrates that there are many families in our district who depend on this program. I want to thank Jess Ror and Principal Miller for taking the time to respond to my concerns. They have been transparent and compassionate

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throughout this process. It is clear to me that this is not a Panther Club staff issue. It is a capacity issue. As the district continues to grow, including the expansion of our preschool program, more families will need before and after school care. Panther Club is no longer simply an extracurricular program is an

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essential service that enables parents to work while ensuring their children are cared for in a safe and enriching environment. Tonight, I respectfully ask the board to begin exploring ways to expand Panther Club. There are several possibilities that may be worth considering, including hiring additional

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staff, utilizing additional school spaces such as the library, cafeteria, gym, or other available classrooms after school, evaluating flexible enrollment options for families who only need care a few days each week, or considering a modest tuition increase if it would help support additional staffing and expand

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access. Another important first step could be surveying families across the district to better understand the current and future demand for before and after school care, allowing the district to make informed decisions and proactively plan for growth rather than reacting to it each year. I also believe Panther Club is an investment in the

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future of our district. Families choose communities not only for the quality of their schools, but also for the support systems that allow them to thrive. Reliable before and after school care helps attract and retain young families here in Pitman. As we work to grow our district and encourage families to remain in our schools, expanding Panther

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Club should be viewed as part of that long-term strategy. My goal tonight is not simply to advocate for my own daughter. My hope is that no family in Pitman has to wonder each summer whether they would have reliable child care when school begins. I'm not asking for special treatment. I'm asking the board to recognize that Panther Club has

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become an essential service for many families and to begin planning for the future so the program can grow alongside our district. If the district decides to explore expansion, I would be grateful for the opportunity to help. Whether through a committee, parent advisory group, community survey, or any other

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effort, I know there are many other parents who would gladly volunteer their time and ideas to support this important program. Thank you for your time, your service to our district, and for considering this important issue. Hi, my name is Laura Lillian and I live in Pitman and I'm another mom of a

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preschooler going into kindergarten. Um, first I also want to thank you all for your time and effort. It's clear the amount of work you put into our school district is just essential and I really appreciate that. Um, so thank you for your time and I'm also a full-time

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mental health therapist and a previous school social worker. most of my career has been in schools. Um I'm here also because Panther Club is an essential program to my family. Um this past summer, in addition to also during the school year, um was the second time that

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I've been weight listed as well um for these essential services. Um Dr. Dr. Preston, you may remember that I had emailed you as well. Um, this year I submitted my application less than two weeks from the date that it was sent out

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and I was weight listed and also Jess and all the staff has been very communicative and transparent as well. Um, there are not many issues that really affect me and um, my family within Pitman Public Schools. My husband and I are extremely happy and and love living here and we really love the

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school system. Um, Panther Club enrollment, however, is something that impacts us regularly. Often I feel it's a race to get the applications in before all the slots fill up. And to be honest, this is a hard task for me given my husband and I work full-time. I think

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most Pitman parents would agree that due to Panther Club's limited spaces, this is often a very stressful process. And many parents, most often moms, already have their plates overly full. Just a few weeks ago, I was on vacation, a family vacation in Maine. And the day uh

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where I should have been relaxing on the beach, I immediately had to take significant amount of time to complete the fall application. And that was thanks to a network of moms that we had all agreed to text each other when the applications came out so we wouldn't be weight listed. Um

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I am sure that many parents would be willing, including us, to increase the cost of Panther Club in order to be able to have more children attend. Another issue that often comes up is when there are half days, for example, the week of parent teacher conferences. If you are unable in the middle of your workday to

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stop and send that calendar in um within hours of it being sent out, you will not get a slot for those half days. Um and think about if it would be feasible in the middle of your workday to to stop and submit that calendar. Um, one of my good friends shared that she submitted her calendar on the same day right after

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her workday and her son who regularly attends Panther Club did not get into any of the half days. We never get into the half days because I can't submit it within that same day. Um, there are families that sign up for Panther Club just for these half days, leaving less spots for the regularly attending

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students. I have a few requests for you to consider. one um putting Panther Club on a future board agenda meeting where we can let parents know ahead of time that we're going to be talking about this because I know a lot of our um fellow moms and parents that we know um

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would like to speak on the issue. Um number two, send out a survey to understand the limitations of Panther Club and the needs of the community. Uh and number three, hire more Panther Club staff on the front end. Um thinking out of the box about logistics to accommodate for more children. Thank you

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so much for your time. Are there any other members of the public that would like to appreciate public comment? Okay. Seeing none, any old business, new business? So, we stay in order. Okay. I will entertain a motion to adjurnn.

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>> So moved. Have >> I have a second? >> Mrs. All in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? Our next regular board of education meeting will be held on September 16th, 2026 at 6:30 PM for executive session and open to the public at 7