as required by law seeing the board would meet in close session at 7 p.m in the Pitman High School Media Center the president shall entertain any objections with supporting reasons to the content of this meeting on the grounds that it violates the Open Public Meeting Act seeing none good evening and welcome to tonight's board of education meeting
please join me in a moment of silence thank you please join me in salute to 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
justice for all mr miles Mrs bolton here Mrs farrell Mr gman Mrs higgby Iono here Mrs miller here Mrs papalardo
Mrs po here we have a quorum 6 thank you all right it's going to take it to our first presentation yes so we're going to announce our Governor's Educators of the Year awards we're going to start with we're going to start with uh our
Memorial School winners so I'm going to invite Miss Kirstston Miller up to present our winners and we're gonna I'm going to present them with certificates as well i wish it was the youngest is first but I know it's just the ele Okay
so thank you all for coming it's great to see everybody here come on up [Applause] Linda uh Mrs praom has been a teacher
for 20 years after one year in private school she began working in Pitman public schools for the last 19 years she has taught at law school for 13 years in both kindergarten and fourth grade and one year teaching uh at Kindle and saved
the best for last as her five years teaching kindergarten at Memorial School so after she shared her stats with me because I wanted to make sure I had them right I said to her "Wow you really got around." And she said "I've been everywhere." Um so one of the best
things that I've seen since being uh here with Linda is when her former students come back they come to read and perform and all those things they flock to her immediately and love to share all of their stories and updates um here's a
bit of what her nomination letter shared linda is incredibly dedicated to her students and classroom she arrives at school early but also stays beyond contracted hours to organize plan set up clean up etc in uh the classroom and
often when I'm there at 5:30 and I hear the copier running I come out and I say "Why are you still here?" Not to shock though because she is she's always there um she's always very flexible and understanding uh another wrote that Linda always has a smile on her face as
and is willing to help out her colleagues she is kind and caring to her students and their families um as her principal I know Linda is fun and she's always up for a challenge and most recently she participated in our mass
reader and dressed as an inflatable pink unicorn um she lifts her colleagues up and has such wonderful positivity she contributes so much to her students and community in Pitman and enjoys having her kids attend our school as well so
congratulations thank you for being and our educator of the year is Mrs shannon Mitten not does not enjoy the spotlight she'd rather be sitting on the carpet in circle time in preschool but I told her if she did not come I'd be very upset um
so she's appeasing me uh Mrs mitten is in her third year as a preschool instructional coach in the Pitman public schools uh she was a preschool teacher in Camelin public schools for nine years where she taught as part of the preschool expansion aid flagship program
it's where our uh PA essentially uh derived from is uh all the urban areas in New Jersey when interviewing for uh Pitman it was very clear that she would be the educator that we needed to help navigate the most successful preschool
program that Memorial could have moving from a teacher to a coach for someone who loves to be in the classroom is always challenging but Shannon has managed to craft the position in such a way that she spends more time in the classroom than not um here is a bit of
what her nomination letter shared mrs mitten is always running up and down the hallways helping any educator or student who may need help she is incredible knowledge and has added to the preschool program another said Mrs mitten's knowledge of preschool and the creative
curriculum is extensive she travels around each classroom working with children as well as the teachers the parents trust and appreciate her and her guidance um as her principal I think one of the things that I'm most proud about
that Shannon has brought to us is our uh parents of partners program parents as partners where she invites parents to come in learn about what are the best ways to do things with your preschoolers they go into the classrooms together um I think we've done it about nine times
this year and they they always are so happy um that they get to play of part in their students school day i know that we can rely on Shannon for support in the building she goes everywhere that's needed without hes hesitation she embodies all of our goal
as a team she lives in town with her family and also plays a big role in the community we are very lucky to have her next up is Miss uh Mr morris is presenting for PES i
didn't see him so I was looking for him mr morris thanks for being here the middle grades the intermediate school essentially uh thank you to uh the board for providing uh all of us this platform to recognize excellence in our classrooms
uh on behalf of Mrs mason and myself it's my honor to introduce Miss Jillian Young as Pitman Elementary School's teacher it has been a few years but I can say with some confidence that Mrs miss Pal began her Pitman journey as an
instructional aid in third grade at Wall School before many years at Kindle and now it's my pleasure to work closely with her in our new elementary configuration mrs young is a educational trailblazer who deserves to be
recognized beyond the general education classroom she leads committees initiates STEM programs and for years was part of a co-e duo supporting countless students and leading our enrich and currently leading our enrichment program serving
third and fourth grade students she has a natural talent for teaching all students uh building on existing strengths and showing patient patience and resiliency when developing emerging skills
she is extremely organized driven data oriented techsavvy and exhibits a level of professionalism that's hard to come by through the years Miss Young has developed uh written and revised curriculum guides in multiple subject
areas and has served as a content area leader working to support teachers K through 12 in the areas of math and science mrs young excels in many areas but building positive relationships with students and families and fostering a
love of learning cannot be overlooked beyond the classroom Mrs young has cultivated a wonderful rapport with our school community parents fellow staff members community members and other stakeholders we believe these qualities
in addition to the instructional leadership earn the respect and admiration of colleagues and our community making her more than worthy of this honor mrs young's dedication to her students craft sense of community and
kindness are a powerful combination that consistently makes wherever you find her in Pitman Elementary School a great place to be the two third grade teachers described her as excellent and a winner and you
know what they were back then and are still correct thank you for all you do for our students and our elementary community you make us all very proud up we'll have Dr lombardo to present our uh and Miss Stewart to
present our junior and senior high school uh staff member to you good evening it is with Pitman pride that Miss Stewart and I introduce this year's teacher of the year for the junior senior high school Mrs stephanie
Mrs colum is truly a dedicated individual who brings an enthusiasm of educational intelligence humor and dedication into every lesson known for her ability ability to inspire engage and make even the most challenging
literature come to life Mrs column has created a learning environment where students not only grow academically but they are also supported and encouraged in every single lesson whether staying late to help a student or sparking a deep conversation about literature Mrs
colum's commitment to her students is unwavering through her tireless work and infectious enthusiasm Mrs colum fosters a love of learning that will stay with students long after they leave her classroom we would like to thank her family her
husband Gary who's over there videotaping and her sons Dne and Reed being here tonight because as much as she loves teaching and her students in her classroom there's no more massive love than she has for her family which
is how likes to do so tonight we would like to thank her for being the amazing teacher that she is and recognize her as the teacher of the year i would like to thank the board of education for giving us this opportunity but most importantly I would like to thank our outstanding
educator for what truly teaching embodies and that is compassion love of students and a drive to just continue to learn thank you Mrs po next it's my honor and my pleasure to introduce our ESP of the year i'm going
to ask that Mr mcafee McAfee Mafle please come forward we want to recognize Mr mcafee who consistently embodies the very definition of compassion and commitment qualities that have made him not only an exceptional school counselor but also a
very trusted guide and unwavering support to countless students when you have a school counselor that students know that they can go to in any situation that's the most important piece of a school mr mcafee is that person mr mcafee is
someone who goes above and beyond always prioritizing the well-being and success of every individual in the student he does that by fostering an environment of empathy and care through tireless devotion he has created a safe space for all students to
grow thrive and overcome obstacles making a profound impact on both their academic journeys and their lives as a whole with an unwavering commitment to his students mr mcafee exemplifi exemplifies what it means to be a true
champion for the next generation and for that we thank him at this time we're going to ask all of um the teachers and staff members that were recognized to come up we'd like to take some pictures we're also going to take probably about a 10-minute recess um to take some pictures and so
we can congratulate all the winners all right so if you guys can all come up in front of our Yeah it's not 12:00 photo he did i want to come back here this is
all we'll talk a little bit later about trying to lobby and president's uh legislative adv advocacy efforts to to secing Sometimes that happens but last year you
had a tenative budget that was presented uh probably around this time i think a couple weeks later there were there was something called stabilization aid that's there is that's not available this year but that's one of the things that was presented after it and so the budget gets amended and then submitted
for final review uh by May 7th or April 30th somewhere around that May uh so this is the tenative budget that we're going to present tonight and just so you're aware 88 numbers i think you probably saw my last letter after the last board meeting came out end of
February we have essentially two and a half weeks to put this together so it's funny i I joke with some teachers like "Listen you won't see me for a couple weeks while we're trying to build this um I'll emerge from my my cave after after uh we we strike a a budget." So it's it's it's been a busy season for uh
myself Mr miles the entire administrative team the board um and so it's it's a collective effort um so our goals where where are these priorities we want to continue to offer the highest quality services and programs to our students uh we there's obviously we're
we're running a a p it's a personnel heavy heavy endeavor we don't we don't produce a product we we we provide a service to students um not not to say it's some transactional thing but it's it's it's a it's a it's probably the most worthwhile endeavor we can do as as
really a society so obviously rising health care salary salary tuition costs uh we want to be fiscally responsible and that's again these things guide us keeping local tax levy as low as possible while continuing to uh really investigate ways to more efficiently operate the district i talked about uh
our advocacy efforts our uh I have a currently a superintendent county group's leading the charge uh I want to thank Miss Miller she actually came and spoke to the superintendents and all the county DAs we're trying to kind of form a coalition to write a letter
potentially to the senator uh to uh senators to policy makers decision makers really kind of we think the power of numbers we really have reason to believe now that we saw state aid numbers that uh we're we're in the same boat as a lot of our other district uh districts around us so it's something we
really are investigating right now um a couple highlights here we our goal was to preserve all programs um implement zerobased budgeting so really from the ground up what is the most necessary item obviously our personnel and then go from there what items can we uh can we
make sure that you know aren't aren't hit that we absolutely need to operate um we added an additional preschool classroom if you recall we moved the central office from Memorial School to Wall School over the summer um and we want to add an uh to add services now we
want to add an additional classroom uh Miss Miller has probably talked about this before but that would help us serve our entire universe did I get that that term right um our entire preschool universe and that's that's a goal of ours right now um many many many school districts across the state you know Washington Township is renting out
currently running out Kindle that's part part part of their idea is to serve the entire university um purchase a new math program in addition admissions 2.0 in grades K to five Mr calabiano has worked with the teachers team of teachers to implement that um PD on all that as well
but that's an ongoing cost uh we need to address maintenance needs our 2425 maintenance allocation was 170 we kind of beef that up this year to 230 um so we could you saw you saw this was painted first order of business painting
the uh the media center cafeteria um and so really kind of to dig down on a lot of those things that we need to do a lot of that is safety and security as well which we want to certainly prioritize um we want to maximize food services funds to offset the general fund uh that's
something that's that that Mr miles has been creative with uh we we are at the moment again really as a a zerobased budgeting effort is to pause the purchase of student Chromebooks for one year um you know that's that's one area that we'd rather we'd rather focus on u
uh really great instruction and obviously it's it's a team effort with teachers but um we want we want to be careful with our use of tech I think uh some educators in here have heard of something called the SAM model it's really a
it's substitution augmentation modification redefinition it's it's ede but the idea is that we can't just be using technology to use technology has to serve a purpose and we really want to kind of privilege that and so one of the ways we you know we we said we could we
could probably push this off for a year and save in other areas um this is a lot of the the the technical stuff i'm going to turn it over to Mr miles to talk about some of the the higher level uh math and and Thank you thanks Dr preston all right so I just wanted to um briefly
just touch on this last point uh this is something that we have our eye on uh when I came here last year Mr chrisman actually briefly spoke about this but we are relying less on reserves and fund balance to essentially close the budget
so when we say we're we're closing the budget our revenues and our expenditures have to equal so unlike the federal government we need a balanced budget so the way to balance the budget for some districts is to bring in reserve funds which is essentially like a savings
account that can be good at times but it's not a recurring revenue so we want to be very mindful of that so for 2425 we brought maintenance reserve funds in 170 you can go to the max of the
expenditure so what we allocated for maintenance items we matched with our maintenance reserve to bring in so if you look at 2526 we're allocating 230 but we're only bringing in 100,000 which is good because we're
absorbing $130,000 of that cost in the rest of our budget within our budget which is which is positive a fund balance is essentially like a savings account we really have our eye on that uh last year I should say current year the one we're
living in now this budget uh 1.2 2 million was brought into balance and uh for next year's proposed budget it's less than that it's about $400,000 less at$8.44 which is actually a good thing
um one thing that really helped us and I just want to say this to the board is the zerobased budgeting we did that for essentially all of our lines there's over 400 expenditure lines so when you look at a line what what's not zerobased budgeting is to say "Oh this line this
expenditure line had $200,000 last year let's just add 2% to it and make it you know 204,000." Well how do you know you need 204,000 maybe you need 300,000 maybe you only need 100,000 maybe you need 50 so you start from the ground up
as Dr preston said and really see what are our expenditures and it was really a great way for us us to get to know the budget that helped us with this budget because we're able to close the gap in a responsible way all right I'll go very briefly through this
but I just think this is in this is instructive and helpful to see where we've been with managing spending we don't have a lot of flexibility with our revenues we're told by the state what we're getting which has not always been good news and then we have restrictions
on the local tax levy and like we mentioned we want to be very mindful of increasing that um so what we can do though is manage our spending so if we look here at this first column 2223 a budget for a school district is
usually for the most part this is simplified but divided up into three categories the general fund which is basically our operating budget this top line is the meat and potatoes of what we do every day our teaching our learning buying books buying Chromebooks paying
teachers that's the top line generally special that just is our grants so this was in 2223 a lot of ARC esser funds uh American Rescue Plan funds also pea pre
preschool expansion aid is considered a grant so that's in that 2 million figure and then our debt service fund our third fund is what we pay every year to pay down bonds um the referendum from I think 2009 so as you can see I I'll
breeze through this this is where we were in 22 23 the next year you can see we're having to manage the spending even though the grants and debt service funds are pretty pretty constant you can see grants went up this has to do with some
remaining ARP esser funds that we spent at the tail end of last year but these kind of are are pretty consistent and you can see from our general fund that it went down uh almost 2 million the current year that we're in
we're pretty consistent in our operating budget our general fund 23.6 23.9 now where are we next year what's the proposed amount the proposed amount
is that last column and for the board I believe that's page eight of your agenda it would actually be the top column which shows the three funds and what the total amounts are and then the the amount raised in the local tax le so one
thing I want to show you here is we believe we've been very um very responsible in the way we've constructed the budget as you can see the difference between those last two the current year and this this
proposed year is about 745,000 so we're going down now something to say this is a little misleading because in the current budget for this year there's a lot of money from capital reserve that was brought in for the HVAC project at the junior
senior high and for different projects we've done about 700,000 worth so if you remove that the actual operating figures are pretty consistent but using zerobased budgeting helped us keep things pretty consistent and really
allocate funds where we thought it needed to be we still have some play in the joints you know with any any budget we talked about this you you cut the fat but you can't cut into the muscle we don't believe we cut into the muscle but we try to trim all the fat and that
helped us actually bring that total number down um any questions on that from the board i know that I'm just uh posing this right now but any questions any comments we'll just we'll we'll we'll
bring the plane in for a landing here so the tax levy impact what what we're looking at for this is we have assessed value that's not actual value that's not market value um the average assessed home in Pitman is approximately
239,000 and then we have the uh varying amounts there and then the impact would be about proposed impact would be a little shy of $100 for the year or about $8 a month that's what we're looking at with the with the increase to the local tax levy
we did have the availability to increase it further because of rising health costs and we didn't take all that allowance because out of respect for the taxpayers we wanted to keep it as low as we can and really trim everything we could in a responsible way so that's an
overview of the budget if there's any questions from the board feel free to ask but we want to give you kind of some ideas of what you're approving uh tonight is there any discussion i think we we feel well prepared to hear
it so I think we're good yeah overall overall super you know positive we're happy again minimizing impacts to to staffing and um to programs and so you know we feel we feel fortunate we we we're trying to balance that message of
you know being being grateful uh that we received increased funding but still kind of uh pressing for more um to to kind of be restored to pre you know pre-S2 dollars um is still is still really a guiding goal of ours so thank
you great good thank you all right that's going to bring us to our first public comment um the first public comment is on agenda items only the 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 and 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 and not a dialogue between the board and the public you will have three minutes to speak and it is your opportunity to comment or ask questions 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 stand at the podium located to my left and speak clearly into the microphone okay seeing none Mr miles do we have any correspondence there's no correspondence
okay thank you it's going to take us to our approval of meeting minutes 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 reading dispens with may I have a second second all in favor i have to abain yes I do too
okay oh that's right yes extension POT and HBO it's noted and any objections all right right seeing none it's going to take us to our president's report okay
so on um February 27th we had uh county leaders from the NJSBA were invited to Attorney General's Plton's um address of various educational groups throughout the state it was a Zoom call i was able to attend as a county leader and they um
conversations were the broad policy shifts it was really in response to things that they believe could be happening at the federal level and what that could do for the state u at the state level and what they would potential actions they would take and so they kind of discussed the broad policy shifts uh DI immigration and funding the
meeting was very surface level it wasn't um super specific it really reiterated what the state's position is on some of those topics and what their course of action would be so it it didn't drill down into the realm of policy uh making topics for our interest but I did think
it was helpful to hear and I appre appreciative the NJSBA had seats at the table and provided us with the opportunity to join um on the 28th we had the second meeting with um the county representation it was just superintendents and business administrators i want to thank uh Mr mr
miles Dr preston and Mr calviano because it was super helpful and Mrs sigionota was also able to attend that day um so that we could discuss the funding formula in greater detail they had their 2026 fiscal year 2026 numbers at that point and so I just want to provide some
details for both the board who's probably already heard this and some of the members of the public um so this year the governor's budget address for direct K through2 aid they allocated $12 billion in direct aid to public schools in the state of New Jersey and we
received guidance from the NJ DOE that no in the four categories of aid that they specified there would be no greater reduction than 3% or no greater increase than 3% so that's some of what caused the fiscal year 26 to run very
differently what our concern is is that by statute the formula is codified and it explains how that's how the formula has to work itself out but by them putting a 3% cap which is not permitted really by statute but a decision that they've made it has essentially kind of
um disguised some of the alarming numbers that we saw in this year's formula when it played out the way that it should so one of those examples that we talk a lot about is being a self-funded district one of the largest areas of aid um that we previously received was something called
equalization aid and that again for members of the public is supposed to be the state portion of the bill so to speak so after they calculate what it costs to provide a thorough and efficient education and what is a fair amount for us to raise local taxes they're supposed to cover that difference that equalization aid so
previously in fiscal year 25 so just one year ago there was 191 districts in the state of New Jersey who received zero dollars in equalization aid and in one year had had the formula run as intended we'd be up to 306 districts so that'd be 306 districts that received no aid in
what is the largest aid bucket that they had previously received and specific to Gloucester County we went from one self-funded district to five now we didn't in actuality because of that 3% cap but the fear is and kind of swirling around those conversations at you know
in you hear in the Assembly and Senate is that if we're not mindful of that it could very much be our reality the next year and we know that that's driven up by our local fair share or what the state allocates or what the state assumes our responsibility as local property owners are to pay for our local
schools and the number that we we've talked a lot about is that multiplier that they use that's the number that makes it impossible for districts to guess what their state aid will look like because that changes from year to year so since the induction of SFRA which is the funding formula law the
multiplier for home value that they multiply our home value against has gone up 61% so they've really put their thumb on the scale so to speak and increased the the weight that has in how they determine how much they're going to pay by 61% and then the district income has
gone up by 35% so those are really alarming numbers if you look at how the formula was originated why we're seeing this large growth in what they assume local property tax owners should be paying comparative to the state portion and in one year so just from fiscal year 25 we saw an 18 to 19% in each of those
categories increase so nearly you know 20% that they've increased the local fair share calculations for area districts and that's what's driving down their portion of the bill so in Gloucester County um had the formula run as required we would have lost $16
million in equalization that's substantial when you look at the size of our county and the district so that's you know one of the items that we've kind of had on our radar um as concern because by capping it at 3% and districts not feeling that full impact
the fear is that they'll kind of rest on their laurels and they'll stop coming out in you know hundreds to budget hearings and really keeping an eye on what changes are being made from the legislative side and not advocate appropriately and then change could get put through that could solidify these
and bake them in consistently to the formula in a way we can't escape so I I really I I really want folks not to be comfortable with the fact that it was capped this year and recognize that we still have a tremendous amount of work to do in terms of advocating for
suburban districts so that you know we're now approaching 50% of the state where the bulk of your schools are being funded by local property taxes and the language in the SFRA was intended to um decrease the property tax burden and create transparency and predictability
and it's frankly done the exact opposite for nearly 50% of us so that's all kind of some of the big topics um another item is the special education calculations so this year in fiscal year 26 previously the state provided you a flat percentage so they said "This is
the number of students that we think you're going to have and 15.9% of them are classified regardless of what your actual special education classification rate is." And then they they utilized that number to say how much aid you would receive this year they used our actual classification rate so from one
year to the next we were missing $67,000 in special education aid that we didn't receive last year for identified and classified pupils that were receiving services in our district and if we extrapolate that out over the entire lifetime of the SFRA we're talking you know clo approaching tens of
millions of a$10 million deficit essentially that the state has kept on their side and then districts that underclassify students were was they were receiving the aid as if they were all on the books so you're talking millions of dollars in some scenarios
each year um of aid going to districts that you know weren't receiving it so this year now that they ran the formula to the actual classified rate it increased that line item for the state 29.5% so you know we understand that they were doing it for a variety of reasons one of
which was cost savings to them but it was refreshing to see that this is a particular item that we as a board have advocated for repeatedly at the legislative level that it was in fact reflected in this year's state aid they also flatfunded extraordinary aid that's the um special education costs for out
of district and indistrictments that are in excess of certain values we get pennies on the dollar by flat funding it it's just going to be further decreased we're going to get even fewer pennies because we know that those costs have gone up and so we are not going to reimburse us at a greater rate with that
flat funding so that's another item of concern that we have um in terms of our legislative advocacy god bless the decrease debt service aid this is an item we talked about that's another item the state does not fully fund it should be 40 40% um they in fact only funded at 34% it's at
a cost of nearly a million dollars to Bitman taxpayers um by the state not fully funding that aid and finally the uh the other item of note was the NJ4S that's the statewide student support network they shifted their funding source previously it was think I think
it was $42 million last year it was all DOE funded this year it was $7 million from the DOE and $36 million from cannabis so that was a source of where they drove that funding in to help support this budget i have just a couple more i know this is a long one sorry um
I should break it up from the budget right so the next item I want to talk about is the legislative committee meeting um that was on Saturday hosted by the NJSBA we had Assemblyman Cody Miller from LD4 he attended our funding formula meeting back in January uh he was previously he served previously on a
school board so he's well verssed in some of the concerns action in Gloucester County um that our districts face some of the things that he indicated that he was supportive of in the legislative committee meeting for the MSBA was infrastructure support um one of my follow-up questions for him was was that something that he
anticipated because he spoke to it on the not the debt service relief aid side but the grant side but we asked him you know were you supportive of that for both what are SDA districts or what are formerly called Abbott districts um which we are not or regular operating districts which is what we are and he
indicated that it wasn't something he had really kind of fully fleshed out but that he did feel like he understood having been a board member in what was a Rod district um what their needs were so they still have a lottery in um Williamstown which is the district that
he represented for their um preschool and he understood that they needed quite a bit more space to be able to meet those needs so he saw those those issues you also acknowledged that topic that revaluation reassessment parody issue that I've talked a lot about where we know that some municipalities haven't
been reassessed or revalued in 40 plus years and in their not properties I'm sorry but entire municipalities um so he spoke to why that is an issue for the funding formula and he also spoke about the 16 and 17 year olds that are being permitted to vote in certain areas
within um the state of New Jersey the NJSBA is not in favor of that bill to allow 16 and 17 year olds to vote in schoolboard elections their philosophy is what's good for the goose is good for the gander and if our assembly and senate and governor feel so passionately about providing that opportunity to
youth they should do so in their own elections as well um and I thought that was spot on on personal the next item up um they covered some of the pending legislation and I'll get through these really quickly um cell phone usage in schools which we know has kind of been
swirling around that's one of the pending legislative items a common app for all jobs um taking the enrollment tiers for the teacher retirement currently if you take off more than two years you lose your tier if you came into the pension system at a tier one or
tier two um you would lose your ability to stay at that tier they want to lengthen that so that people have the opportunity to meet their family's needs or you know whatever their reason is for kind of stepping out of the profession and return without the loss of that tier so that's another pending item of
legislation and then um the one that we kind of have our eye most closely on is Senator Gopal is continuing his efforts for school funding reform he had a number of items um they did remove the tax cap flexibility issue which would allow districts to raise their taxes in
excess of 2% because Per the assembly minute I don't feel like it's uh a secret it uh the entire assembly is up for election this year and there isn't a large appetite throughout the state for increased property taxes and no one really wants to stand on that hill so they eliminated that um which I think is
advantageous to us in our position as a board who kind of agree um establish a special education funding formula uh review task force a reduction in adjustment aid caps at 2% of your operating budget that's kind of another item and they you know they had a
laundry list of other items tier based special education model funding like all those things that we've kind of discussed they did sign into law the petition so for the individuals that are for re-election this year um increasing the number of scooters that you'll need for the ballot to 25 and um the only
other two items that I kind of want to put on the board's radar and invite any discussion on is I have an email that I'm drafting to our representatives at LD3 senator Berselli has been a great advocate for us but um kind of in in advance of budget season as we call it
at the local level we want to make sure that we're all on the same page so if anybody has any concerns that I continue to represent out that I'm speaking on behalf of the entire board as usual please flag me down and let me know or speak up i'm happy to amend that and then the only other last item that I
want to read into record is that on 35 we held our committee meetings in advance of the budget presentations to share our respective committee priorities our funding our facilities and finance finance and facilities i was like nope I got it wrong i said the wrong one first committee met at 3:30 and we discussed the referendum projects
funds and process as well as the tax levy impact at 4:30 our curriculum instruction committee met and those topics were the primary focus and at 5:30 our communication and policy committee met um where they focused on the budgeting decisions and what roles that could have on any policies um in an
effort to make sure that our communication is continues to be transparent with the community so that was a long one i apologize and I will turn it over to Dr preston for super yeah of course um yeah I certainly want to thank u Miss Miller she thanked us for having her in we did we did nothing
but kind of hold the setting um Dr lombardo Miss Stewart allowed us to use this media center uh two Fridays ago um it was excellent we've had great feedback um it was actually every other district superintendent and VA came to
me and Rob Mr mr miles and said "Would your board president be willing to give us a little little primer on on the the the the state aid funding for?" I said "Sure if I I could ask her." And and she she said "Sure enough." So it's been a really good uh kind of coalition of
people um I'm actually meeting this Friday with my superintendent round table uh to try to uh continue working on our draft letter to uh LD to legislators um certainly encourage you to uh we're presenting at hearings next week certainly encourage you to write uh
your your local LD3 leaders they've been very receptive to that um we actually invited for ReadAcross America i want to thank a lot of people mr mayor was there um I know I know several other um you know council people came and read to uh to our our students some assembly people
came some commissioners came um and it was really good i was able to have some conversations with them and uh you know they're receptive to it you know their uh you know our plight and you just showing them around the building i think was huge so thanks to the principles as well for uh g giving that setting
um some other things I just want to alert you to we had uh QAC in the building today that's uh that's quality single accountability continuum it's the state um they come in do an audit and make sure we're doing everything uh good they were here for a number of hours probably four or five hours um so yeah
it was it was it was an intensive one um so there's new leadership at the county level and so they they come in and uh they uh observe us in five different domains governance fiscal curriculum instru um personnel and operations and so um Mr
miles uh Mr calabiano Mr morris uh in the back uh he's were all involved principles teachers union representatives were involved we try to involve as many people as we can in in that process it's really they've really shifted the focus of that it used to be
this kind of um scary process now it's more of a support process hey here's here's where you need to be let's be honest with ourselves about where we need to grow and so we feel pretty confident about uh we didn't get feedback yet but uh we'll report that out when we get it to the board um
uh I just wanted to thank the board for um allowing me to assisting coach the golf team it's been a lot of fun i've only gotten out I I I pro promised Coach Gangoff that I'd get out like two or three days a week so I'm only on the range i don't go out on the course but I'm out there and I'm having a great
time showing showing a lot of the students there was a couple students here earlier tonight that that are on the team and yeah I got I shot a 51 today and I'm getting better and and and really it's it's just it's fascinating to see them grow and there's a a huge turnout i know Miss Bolton's uh uh son
is one of the top golfers and um you know It's just that I mean there's there's hordes of people i actually talked to another teacher that there's more students interested um and Miss Donnelly wants to I haven't even met with her yet but uh wants to get together and actually start a separate
clinic um at uh a couple area uh golfing locations so I said you know golf is a lifelong sport i think it's the best sport um no offense to the soccer people in here and the tennis people but it's it's the only one you play lifelong so um that's been great and so thank you
for allowing me to do that um certainly my team you know obviously I I I you know sometimes I have to scoot out of meetings hey I got to get on onto the course it's been great um I want to congratulate students with um I see a couple students back there i see the our Masters director back there Mr gman i
wanted to congratulate him on the Masters uh per successful Masters performance uh Thursday and Friday i was at the Thursday showing it was spectacular madagascar Jr had a lot of fun um audience was getting involved and uh you know it's it was just kind of like a it was almost like a you know
participatory event you know people started clapping and singing so had a great time with that uh I really did um I never I never acted in those but I was always in like the pit orchestra and so I I always have a it's near and dear to my heart there um I I do want to if I
can I know we haven't approved her yet or do you want to get to that first i I do want to introduce pro one of our one of our hires here who's in the room tonight absolutely um so I did I did want to take the time during my report to um read uh so you see an announcement
item um where are we a big announcement um we are Yeah I have item 18 under uh curriculum instruction uh Miss Kristen Stewart
would like to introduce her as the newly created position of Junior Senior High School so if you could stand we could give you a round of applause this was perhaps the easiest decision of my career as an administrator to um promote Miss Stewart to this role uh I mean that in earnest
um I want to read what I wrote to the to the faculty uh this morning i I always like to prime the faculty beforehand they're our they're our heart and soul of the district really and and they provide the service that I was talking to about so I'd like them to be in the know first when possible sometimes I
forget and I get yelled at no I don't i don't uh Miss Stewart's dedication to Pitman students and her passion for education have been inspiring she's not only an exceptional educator at heart but also a leader who consistently demonstrates grace integrity and thoughtfulness in every decision she
makes her ability to navigate challenges with poise and diplomacy is a testament to her unwavering commitment to our school community as Miss Stewart steps into this new role I will work closely with her to ensure a smooth transition looking ahead to the 2526 school year we are also planning to introduce new
positions to complement her leadership and address key areas like athletics and guidance among others these roles will help fill the voids left by Dr lombardo who's also here in the audience tonight um who is retiring and Mr shivers who's who has announced his plans to step down at the end of June um and I want to take
this opportunity to thank both of them as well but um really just just just I I did ask Miss Stewart to share uh at the next public comment um just uh you know a little bit about her background and you know obviously a lot of you know her uh better than you know me really and
and I again this was a no-brainer and I want to thank you for really stepping up to the plate and taking on this challenge um of this new role if if I can we have Mrs stewart speak now is that okay is that all right Mr stewart if we say yes to you guys to approve it first
you think why don't you approve it now okay well how about if I walk on that motion all right i'd like to walk on item number 18 under curriculum and instruction second grossman mr miles will you please call yes
mrs bolton yes mrs farrell yes mr grossman yes mrs higgbyono yes mrs poe yes mrs miller yes motion carried thank you i heard something very simple i didn't know you wanted me to share no no you don't have to i didn't know what you
were going to share so share as little as much as you want okay i'm just going to keep it simple because I'm just excited it's emotional you know it's our district's been through a whole lot and I'm this opportunity i I have an app on my phone I use every night um and last
night it gives you a quote so when you open it it comes up and last night's quote was "The greatest communication is in our daily actions rather than what we say." I am grateful to have been a part of our pit community over the last 10
years and I'm excited that my actions have opened the door to this new opportunity i accept this position with excitement about all we can build and accomplish optimism for the bright future ahead and a sense of purpose to make the Pitman Junior Senior High
School experience the best it can be for our whole school community um for me when I think about the future of my career the only place for me is with the kids and here you know I'm out on the lawn today playing football um I can't help myself
and um you know there's just things that go on in Pivan that don't go on in other places like I was trying to think of different things that would never happen anywhere else the kids emailed me one of the students emailed me um on Christmas day and was like "Did you get the sneaker you
wanted?" So like those kinds of things you know to be able to run around and hang out with them is where I'm meant to be so I just want to take a minute to thank um Dr preston and the board for entrusting me with this new position um we have a saying in my family where we
do not wish away time it's like a big thing that we always say um but I'm pretty excited for July 1 so so am I thank you so much with a spirit week centered around
reading first graders read books facts over the morning announcements they had a buildingwide DEA time and a chance to bring in their favorite stuffies to read to memorial had so many guest readers too the PHS football and cheer team several local legislators and wrapped up
with Miss Pitman the culmination to their week was a mass reader assembly like the Mass Singer Show staff in blowup costumes read parts of Oh the Places You'll Go and guessed who the readers were it was a super fun activity students participate in a readathon sponsored by the HSA their top reading
class was Mrs bell's kindergarten with 9,540 minutes read and our top reader was Ben Patterson with 3,197 minutes read everyone who participated did an outstanding job looking toward the 2526 school year preschool registration has wrapped up
and families have been notified of their next year's placements and kindergarten registration for students has begun at PES Miss Mason writes that there are a lot of exciting things happening at PES their fifth and sixth grade maskers perform Madagascar Jr and it was a huge
success there's a packed house both nights of the show some upcoming events they have to share is that HSA is sponsoring a bingo event Friday April 4th in the PES cafeteria spring class and individual pictures are taken right around the corner on April 3rd zoo on
Wheels assembly for grades two through four is scheduled for April 9th and they're currently partnering with the Pitman Manor and holding a book drive through Book Smiles a book donation bin outside of the PES main entrance over at the junior senior high school spring sports have started up scrimmages have
started this week and games will start next week good luck to our softball baseball track boys tennis and golf teams sad Club is utilizing the month of March to bring awareness to suicide prevention posters can be seen around the school encou encouraging students to know that they are not alone there is
help and there is hope on Monday March 24th we kick off academic spirit week students and staff are encouraged to dress up for college shirt day future professions day math versus athlete dress like a teacher and academic bull shirt day students will be able to participate in events such as Quiz Out
the Academic Bowl and cheer on the senior boys as we see who will win the title of Mr pitman 2025 mr pitman will take place on Friday March 28th at 700 p.m and tickets will be $5 for students and $10 for adults at the door at Pitman we are all about showing appreciation
for our teachers on Thursday March 27th student council is hosting their annual staff appreciation dinner and we cannot wait to see everyone there the National Honor Society has had fundraisers selling Gertude Hulk chocolate and has partnered with Brood Awakening with a special sheet drink where a portion of the proceeds will be
utilized to help remodel the junior senior high school teachers lounge steam students are able to utilize their knowledge they are gaining through their courses to help create games for the staff dinner and work towards the remodel of the teachers lounge thank you all right that's going to take us to
finance and facilities i will turn it over to our chair Mr gman the Finance and Facilities Committee met on March the 12th 2025 at 3:30 p.m in attendance were committee members Rebecca Hayiono and April Miller as well as Superintendent Robert Preston and
business administrator Robert Miles the committee discussed the agenda items most of which are routine payment of bills and regulatory reporting responsibilities few highlights panther club rates will not be raised for 2526 school year the district is entering a new lease for copers that will save us
$300 a month the district is required to issue an RFP for food services this year the board will be approving the resolution to allow the sale of bonds to fund the referendum projects the committee discussed moving forward with the renovation to create the new central office at Wall School this is needed but
will also make it much easier to market the majority of the building to potential renters with that I move to adopt items 1 through 26 as written i have a second any discussion mr right mrs bolton yes mrs farrell mr
gman yes mrs hiono yes mrs poe yes mrs miller yes motion carries thank you instruction i will chairwoman i was not the curriculum and instruction
committee met on March 12th 2025 at 4:30 and the meeting lasted a little less than an hour um in attendance were Dr preston Mr ciano Mrs miller Mrs we discussed some of the items on the agenda tonight number six is
educational consultant Citrus will hold a presentation to our junior and senior class on the topic of becoming great leaders and decision makers at no cost to our district uh number seven is the approval of our
202526 school calendar um I would just say make a note of with tonight's approval number nine i know we talked about this last month um so this is the announcement that Memorial School next year will change from the start
time of 8:45 will now move to 9:00 or 9:00 a.m i should say um we continue to discuss our discussion on class rank and if we need to make changes um to level the playing field for all students and that conversation will continue probably
um so with that I will make a motion to approve items 2 through 24 can you amend that 2 through 17 and then 19 i was going to say that okay 2 through 17 and then 19 through 24
have a second second any discussion okay see Mr mrs bolton yes mrs farrell yes mr grossman i have to abstain on number 23 and yes to the rest all right abstension
noted number 23 mrs higgby Iono i have to abstain on item 21 and yes to the rest all right abstension item 21 mrs pope yes mrs miller um I abstain from item
number three and yes to the rest right item number three abstension and motion carried thank you oh absolutely i apologize it's okay no got it i just want to acknowledge several other new hires too um I know he
hates when I do this but Mr joe Joyce behind the scenes over there he's uh now official um he had been working part-time and has really on the job training was tremendous and uh so we've made him a full-time tech he's also stepping up in the absence of Miss Ror
who's on a leave our district communications coordinator i know um I should acknowledge too Rebecca and Aubrey do they do an excellent job with our social media stuff i'm not great at social media so I' I've surrounded myself by great social media people and uh Mr joyce has been helping out with
that too and interfacing with uh Aubrey and and Becca and it's it's just been it's been great and I can't thank you guys enough uh Mr chris Paul uh he's here in the building tonight he's uh our uh he's gonna be one of our night custodians we're not quite sure of where he's gonna be placed yet but he's also a
great addition local lo local Pitman resident um just just a tremendous worker and we're we're so thankful to bring him on and we had a nice long talk with Mr paul not the not the NBA player not the NBA player yeah I know it's like a little disappointed not to see Chris
Paul walk in but um and then lastly uh Jerry Moore he's uh he's our new maintenance worker uh Mr moore is not here tonight but um it brings a tremendous wealth of experience he was he was actually a longtime facilities director in Yus uh why WA Hickin I
always get those two confused but he was in Wah Hicken as a facilities director for a long time for 30 years that's up near Amler PA it's a big school district he oversaw a staff of I want to say 65 uh which included supervisors and maintenance workers so but he's you know as humble as they come um you know you
know he's he wants to pitch in but he you know he'll he'll lend that expertise and we need that as we talked about maintenance really kind of uh you know putting an emphasis on on buildings and grounds i think that's so important particularly when we're trying to attract people to our district um even non-resident tuition so um really really
thankful that we found Mr moore and so nice job on that Mr miles as well all right very good all right communication and policy i will turn it over to our chairwoman Miss Diana okay the communication and policy committee met on March 12th at 5:30 the meeting
was attended by Mrs papalardo Mrs farrell Dr preston Mr cultiano Mr miles and myself the policies that were discussed and approved for a first reading last month are on the agenda to be adopted this month and over the last
two meetings the committee discussed the need to have an AI plan that will set out the purposes in which AI can be used appropriately in the school setting by our teachers and students um Mr kubiano has put in a lot of work and drafted a
thorough plan for the district as well as a separate document to provide additional guidance to staff he also drafted a revision to the academic integr integrity policy to include a restriction on students using AI
complete assignments in violation of the AI plan these items are on the agenda tonight for a first reading so with that I move to adopt items one and two as written may I have a second second
all right Mr miles please call roll mrs bolton yes mrs farrell yes mr gman yes mrs higgby Iono yes mrs po yes mrs miller yes motion carries that's going to bring us to our second
public comment in order to be recognized to speak please come stand at the podium located to my left state your name municipality of residence and group affiliation if applicable and limit your comments to three minutes sorry I'm a little slower dr debbie Shler a resident here at
Pitman 321 Edson Avenue um just wanted to again speak congratulations to the massacres folks i really appreciate um the commitment to the arts here in Pitman to that point um one of the agenda items is the appointment of Sarah Mikl as the assistant director for the
musical and the play at the junior senior high school um earlier actually last week there was an incident that took place um at the practice and I'm here to just kind of publicly comment as a parent as an educator um my concern and my disappointment from the district
as a whole with the lack of communication to the parents um the students who are here tonight are a small representation of our uh espians our our artists our musicians our our performers in this district um they have
had one heck of a year in terms of roller coasters uh with change and eb and flow and I'm not here to debate one way or the other i'm not here to pick a side um but what we do owe our students is communication what we do owe our students is a place where they can feel
that they are heard where they are seen and where they feel safe and in this moment I don't believe all of our students do feel seen heard respected definitely not being communicated with the parents and I'll speak for myself but perhaps some of my student um my colleagues would agree as parents of the
district you don't have to tell us every single thing totally respect that i sit in a position of leadership and education i know that that is not a thing that can always happen however the lack of literally anything to me as a stu as a parent as a taxpayer um is
really unacceptable i expect more from our really awesome district i know that we care about our students i would like to see more of that um we've approved to um appoint Sarah Mickel as the assistant director i really hope we have a play or a musical to actually see that through and in this moment I'm not sure if
that's true we've had three days of a pause of rehearsals for an indefinite amount of time these students are in limbo they don't know what's happening they've dedicated their time their energy heard nothing please please do better by our students please respect
them they are our leaders they are our future they deserve better from us thank you would anyone else like to participate in public comment gordy 418 Grand View Avenue uh I don't think it's appropriate to talk about a
educator without a rice notice and somebody should know that as an administrator but I just want to put that out there second Dr lombardo is retiring so I want to give kudos to her i've been a resident here for 29 years
uh she cares about the kids genuinely cares congratulate Mrs stewart i mean the two of them responsibility i have been in there for good things i've been in their offices for bad things with my older boys uh
just leave it at that u but sometimes uh as Mrs stewart knew and as Dr lombardo knew you have to take responsibility for your actions and you know I want to thank both of them congratulate one
congratulate the other she will enjoy it uh and that's it thank you anyone else like to participate in public comment okay seeing none we will move over to old business is there any old business
any new business okay I will entertain a motion to adjurnn i have a second bolton all in favor i the next board of education meeting is scheduled for Wednesday April
30th that reflects the spring break in the interim so if everyone just wants to make a note we're a little later in the month and it will be at