Good evening everybody. Welcome to our board of education meeting and be called to order. The meeting is being held in compliance with the open public meetings act is open to the media and public effective March 1st 2026. All legal notices and board meeting dates shall
only be posted on the district website in conformity of the state code. Formal action may be taken local. >> Miss Cassidy >> here, >> Mrs. Fury. Mr. Los >> here. >> Mrs. Mener, Mr. Pieros,
Mrs. Mr. R >> here. >> Mrs. Ryan, >> Mr. Depinto >> here. here to the flag of the United States of America stands nation.
The next item on the agenda is the resignation of the board member. Michelle Menser has sent the board notice that she will be resigning from the board effective July 17th. And this
motion is to accept her resignation. Any comments or discussion? All right. Can I I'll do a motion. Can I second? >> Second. Second. Miss Cassie >> reluctantly. Yes.
>> Mr. Lopes. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Rad. >> Yes. >> Miss Deinto. >> Yes. >> Men. >> Yes. >> I do want to make one comment. Michelle, I don't know if you're watching. We're going to miss you. We wish you luck in the next Good evening everyone. Happy summer. Um
it's great to to see you all tonight. I wanted to provide the board and the public with just an overview of district enrollment as we prepare for the 26 27th school year. um and to review some of our staffing structures as well along
with an update on the number of students that um have been redistricted over the past five years and even currently this year. Uh so much of my presentation has been a repeat yeartoear with updated numbers. So there are some areas of the presentation I'll go through a little
quickly. Uh though other areas where I'll stop and I'll talk a little bit more in detail about some of the trends that we're seeing. Um so I'll first start with our school configuration. We have two preK through three schools, Three Bridges and White House. Um both
now uh previously Three Bridges School was the only prek building, but now both White House and uh Three Bridges have uh preK students. All students come here to Holland Brook for grades four, five, and then over to the middle school for grades six, seven, and eight. Our
enrollment grades K through grade 8 are in our K8 configuration, but we also partner with private providers for preschool. And many of our students, I would say almost 200 of them are preschool students, 200 are housed at
White House Prep, Stan Learning Center, Berry Patch or Global Pioneer. So when we talk about total enrollment, we're talking about four in district facilities, school buildings, as well as four private preschool partners as well.
Our K8 enrollment history shows uh a picture uh that's I think statewide and even nationwide when it comes to enrollment. Uh one that talks about enrollment being quite a bit higher about 10 between 10 and 15 years ago. And we've seen through our enrollment
trends without preschool that uh we've dropped a couple hundred students. We've seen the largest drop off of students in recent years over at the middle school. However, conver and this is a uh data points that are provided to the board when we plan
for the budget presentation uh each March. Conversely, our prek enrollment, if we just look at um prek students, if we add them in prek students, uh we project we
from the 2223 school year where we began our universal prek program to now 26 27. We've seen a dramatic increase in the number of preschool students that we can service here at Remington Township. Uh so from 25 kids to two almost 250
students, you know, four and five year olds. Again, this is through not only our industry facilities uh but as well as our private preschool providers. When the board of ed met in March to make projections for the budget, we
anticipated 1,380 students uh K8 enrollment with about 240 preschool students enrolled in the district for a total of 1,620. Um, at the bottom of this slide, I I've placed our projected student enrollment
that we projected in March compared to what actually happens in September. So, I'm not going to review every number with you, but if you take a look at the 2526 projections, it was um 1366
was our projected and 1394 was our actual kindergarten students. Um this tells us that we're pretty good at projecting our enrollment. Uh we're within 20 30 students of our our projections. Actually right now we're covering about
five students from 1380 to 1385. So when we do our enrollment forecast, even without a demographers report, the district is pretty good at aligning our budgetary and fiscal resources with our enrollment. um enrollment ends up a little bit
higher in September than when we but you look back in March. Uh but our alignment is pretty good and we're able to to allocate resources as well as staffing through the budget process in March every year uh to make sure that we have appropriate staffing for the students that come in each September.
But let's look at the end of the year. So these are the May enrollment reports uh that the board approves and uh monthly uh at each board meeting. So if you look at the end of the school year in 2025, preK through 8 we were 1579
um in at the end of 2026 preK through 8 we were 1,636 largely due to the fact that we opened two additional preschool classes between 25 and 26. Um but also you'll even see the total K8 enrollment while we were
projecting around 1350 we're ending up at the end of the school year with about 1,400 students. So over the course of the year we're seeing students move in as well. I think that that I don't know if 25 and 26 I can make this statement
but I'm certainly looking in 27 26 27 um with the new housing development in the three bridges area the DS property being developed we may see a little bit of increase of all student population over the course of the school year as they fill um those buildings.
Um which brings me to housing developments. Perfect segue. Um the DS property, the one on the right hand side of the slide, is currently um under development um in the three bridges area. It is a total of 80 um units 100%
affordable. Um 15 one bed, 45 bed, and 23 bed. We will likely see some level of enrollment over the course of the year this year. um that looks like they anticipate completion um maybe late
fall, early winter, but because of those 23bedroom units, that's where families mostly move. Um now the building has begun. Once that's complete, we'll start to see some children enter the three
bridges school as well as RNS. Um the It's right there. Got it. >> It's not That's not my um I I'm just curious where is Three Bridges School on this map? Is it that red?
>> No. Um it's down I think it's cut off the map. It's down a little bit further. >> Okay. I was just curious how close it was. >> Um I I'm not I clocked it. I'm not sure if it's walkable or not. And here's thin region that's being developed. Here's Aluna Pizza
>> and then the Three Bridges Railroad Yard. >> Oh, >> you go across the railroad school >> here and then the school is up here. So, here's Route 202, here's Railroad Avenue, here's Main Street, and the school is up this way. >> I was just wondering how much discussion
we can have with the township about looking at walking routes and making sure that the builders are responsible for ensuring, you know, safe access. um for the people that are moving there. I just noticed with central that there's
they put in all of this building and their kids walking down Walter Ferran on a snowy day practically in the street and it just I'm I'm ashamed that we have not addressed you know these needs as we're designing these facilities and looking at the township and I don't know how much influence you have on that but
my request is that >> we can look into it. I I don't know if there's any I don't know once this is developed. I don't know if there's I know there's a connection to the railroad app which is right here. Here's Gro Strike here. Um whether or not we're able to do any kind of like walking path
here that leads up to Three Bridges School. The other thing is there's no sidewalks I don't think on main street bridges as well. So that may be something we have to look into. >> Thank you. >> Yep. Um, with the housing developments that we've seen in our township, we've been
uh keeping an eye on redistricting as well and our enrollment, particularly balancing enrollment between White House School. You may recall uh we've had a five-year phase in approach. That five-year phase in plan is now complete. We started
actually way back in the 2021 school year with a soft launch where we offered families the ability to move over from White House to Three Bridges if they chose for kindergarten or because maybe a younger sibling was going to be coming up. And then the 21-22 school year was
the first year of implementation where newly enrolled kindergarten students or newly registered first, second or third graders uh in the redistricted area went to three bridges as opposed to White House. All in all um now that we are
complete uh we see this year new kindergarteners here's our kindergarten enrollment at White House in Three Bridges. 14 students were impacted in the redistricting region. Uh so that meant 14 fewer students at White House School and 14 more students at Creek
Bridges School balancing the numbers at 72 and 74 as opposed to numbers that may have looked like 86 and 60. Uh so and there were also no other newly enrolled students in grades one through three in the redistric region.
Overall, now that we've completed this 5-year phase and approach, we have successfully transitioned 71 states over from White House to Three Bridges. If we didn't do if we did redistricting, which we did, we have enrollment that's balanced at
299 and 311, which is the difference of 12 students. And we not done redistricting. And I don't want to say all of these 71 students are accounted for because those 22 23 kindergarteners uh are now going into fourth grade. But
if you look at K through three with um 71 students minus the 12, we would have had enrollment K through 3 248 to 360 creating some imbalance between White House. This allows us to allocate staffing
resources, curricular resources to students and keep comparable programming between the two K through three buildings. >> We've had Yeah. >> Yeah. No, no, please. >> Would that also help keep classroom sizes down?
>> I think so. I mean, certainly if you look at 360 students, would we likely have more third grade teachers at White House than three bridges? Yes. But does that mean that maybe class size at White House could be closer to 21, 22, 23
potentially based off of available space? Um, but it does help keep based off of capacity of the buildings, usable resources and space. I think that this helps keep passes down and it keeps programming comparable between the two buildings as well. Transportation
routes, think about everything that we have to operate. All of it makes it much more equal. Uh we've added to our website um district map um recognizing that we did redistricting u Matt I think I'm going to give Matt credit. I say it every year
but now he's here to hear it. Um Matt developed a great online uh searchable feature uh that we have linked to our website. The red section of Readington Township is White House School. The blue section is three Bridges School. If you go to that search feature on our
website, you type in your address, it'll ping your house and you're either in the blue region or the red region and it's very clear where your child would attend rates K through. I will make mention too that this map is also used to help delineate the two sides of town for our preschool program.
With the four preschool providers, we're fortunate enough to have preschool at the White House side of town through White House School, White House Prep, as well as Golden Pioneer. On the Free Bridges side of town, we have Free Bridges School, Berry Patch, and Stan Working Center. So, it creates a nice
divide and pretty reasonable transportation routes for our preschool students as well. The staffing impact for 26 27. So, we look at enrollment in order to plan for the school year. We know, and we've
talked about this, that there were quite a few budget pressures over the course of the school year. planning budget. We know that they were higher than typical health benefit premium increases, much higher than typical liability insurance premiums and increases in pension
contributions. It was a real challenge for the administration to meet our budget goals um given the fact that health benefit increases were double digits as well as general liability and pension contributions. In response, we offered
our employees the ability to provide us early notification of separation to better adjust and align our staffing for the upcoming school year. And the savings is approximately $1.1 million. Uh in addition, this is what staffing
ended up um looking like for the 2627 school year. Going from about 300 going from 330 employees to a projected 318 employees. By by doing this, the district still
maintains small class sizes, all academic programs, expanded special education programs, no cost to parents for sports, clubs, activities, as well as transportation for all students. So,
I'm very proud of the work that the board and the district did in this area. Um, it was a an ability for us to do some cost savings. We did not have to do a reduction in force of any of our employees and we still maintained all of our academic and co-curricular programs.
So I am very hopeful and I firmly believe that your average student and average parent will have no idea that a reduction in $1.1 million and all staff members even occurred. So this was a point of pride for us.
Uh and that concludes my presentation about um staffing and enrollment. Are there any questions from the board? >> I just want to recognize all the hard work. I think I mentioned it at the last board meeting, but between the administration and finance uh committee
and Jason's team, like really there's so much that went into making that happen. And I really I I hope the public can see it because there's always a lot of questions about how we'll spend money and how responsible we are. And I think you proved it and I want to thank you
for all of your other questions. The second item on my superintendent report tonight was just a recognition of Michelle Menser who's going to be departing uh the board. So I just wanted to read a statement. She's not here tonight, but we have a certificate that
I will mail to her uh this evening. We express our gratitude and bid we're able to farewell to Michelle Mener who has served the board for over three and a half years. Michelle was sworn in for the first time in January of 2023 and served the board through 2025 when she
ran for reelection. Michelle was elected to a second term that started in January 2026. She faithfully served the board as a member of the finance committee and later as finance chair where she championed our financial stewardship. In her time on the board, she was also
appointed to the policy and communications committee along with the negotiations committee. Recently, she worked with the negotiations team to successfully develop a revised agreement with the RTA. Michelle consistently distinguished herself as an engaged participant in in
board matters by asking questions and making suggestions that ensured the board was focused on the best interests of students and staff. As a resident since 2018, Michelle also dedicated service to the community as an HSA volunteer for many years, further demonstrating her commitment to our
students and our schools. On behalf of the board and the administration, we extend our most sincere thanks to Michelle for her contributions and wish her the absolute best in her future professional and personal endeavors. So, thank you. And that's it.
[applause] [cheering] Thank you, Dr. Hart. Our next item is our first public session is for any item action item that is on the agenda. We'll have three minutes to speak if you wish to speak. If you do, please come up,
state your name and town or from. And we will have three minutes to speak on items on the agenda. Hi, uh, Katherine Duca, Reington, District 6. Um, I actually had three specific questions, uh, regarding items on the agenda tonight. I don't know if
they can be answered. Um the first is in regard to uh item 3.08 um regarding the idea funds for the uh 2627 school year. I was just wondering as a first question how that amount
compares to previous years questions. >> Sure. Uh so that's question number one. Um question number two that I had and this is in relation to um your superintendence report um as well as item 4.04 on the agenda. Apologies that
this has been discussed. I don't recall it um in recent meetings. But um one of the things that I have noticed is there have been a lot of um elimination of special education programs at three bridges uh to the White House. I saw that um the slide tonight with the uh
redistricting had a tiny little kind of print on the bottom uh regarding self-contained special education programs. So I was just wondering if there can be some clarification uh regarding that. Um and if the uh if both schools essentially still have equivalent special education offerings
in that sense. And uh the last question I have um and I know that we're holding these to the end. I'm just getting them out there. um was if uh um Miss Spencer had given uh any indication in her letter of resignation um what was the impetance for resignation?
>> That's all. Thank you. >> Any other comments? So we have policy to answer certain questions and not based on it. So I'll the last question is it's up to Miss Mener to decide if she would want to disclose it. So we're not going to
disclose any partial information from her. So it's really at the we want to disclose and she's not here. The other two items I will defer to Dr. Hard if he wants to answer. >> Mr. Luca, I'll give you more solid numbers, but let me start with IDA
funds, which is agenda item 3.08. I'm looking in um I'm looking back specifically the grant funding has increased approximately 5% since last year. Um I'm going to compare that. I
can if I if it's okay I'll email you. Let me do a little research and I can give you the exact comparison from last year to this year, but it just might take me a minute to get into a previous agenda to take a look at the exact number, but it's an increase of about 5%. Um 4.04 04. Um, the board takes
action to place special education programs in appropriate settings throughout the district. Self-contained special ed programs, excuse me. Uh, currently in district, we have autism programs, learning and language
disabilities programs, and our life skills program as well up at uh the middle school. All of which are what we consider to be self-contained specialed programs. Um, and again, if you have any other questions, I can I can follow up with an email. Currently, there are two
LLD programs. Well, currently this past year, there were two LLD learning and language disabilities programs at Three Bridges School and one at White House School. So they were two, which meant that if you were a learning and language disabled student, a self-contained special ed student, you needed to
transition from preschool then to like a kindergarten LLD program at Three Bridges and then over to White House School and then up to Holland Brook. And it was too many transitions. In order for us to create an efficient use of our LLD uh program, our staff and
our behaviorists, we looked at our LLD enrollment and we decided to combine the program under one roof over at White House School. Similarly, there were special ed programs, both autism and an ERRI program. One was
at autism was at White House School, erri was at three bridges school. These programs had students that had very similar um needs and profiles. So we took those two classes, looked at the students and developed IEPs to put them in one
program uh the autism program over at Free Bridges School. So basically what we did this year is we looked at our programs and we looked at our student needs and to best align our special ed programs with our student needs. We streamlined programs to add staffing
resources and to add curricular resources and place them under one roof to reduce the number of transitions students had to experience in their prek through three years. May >> I ask a follow? >> Yeah, it's okay. Yeah, go ahead.
>> Um does that mean then that Were the majority of redistricted students uh special education students to align them to whatever program? >> No. Okay. >> No, there wasn't. So, the special education moves of the self-contained class classrooms had no bearing on
redistricting and redistricting had no bearing on the other. This was about program efficiency and what was best, aligning student needs with the best program. >> You're welcome. Thank you. >> Yeah, you're welcome. All right, the next item is correspondence.
We received one email and as usual that is with the board secretary on file. Now we're going to move into board action. The first item is the approval administrative reports. We have items 101 through 104.
Can I have a motion followed by a second? >> Second. Okay. Any discussion? Mrs. Cassidy, >> yes. >> Mr. Oops. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Rad. >> Yes. >> Mr. Dependa, >> yes. >> Mr. Tri,
>> yes. >> Okay. Next item is approval of minutes. We have items 2012. Can I have a motion followed by a second? >> Second. >> Any discussion?
>> This is Cassby. >> Yes. Mr. Lopes. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Rad. >> Yes. >> Mr. Binto. >> Yes. >> Mr. Rizzo. >> Yes. >> Our next item is finance and facilities. There will not be a committee report. We are actually meeting on Monday for a
finance meeting. So, we'll have one at our next board meeting. We have 12 items 301 through 312. Can I have a motion followed by a second? Motion. >> Any discussion?
>> I just have a question. when when do you decide the the new chair of finance movement? >> Um I was going to talk about it later but basically I was going to for one we had to fill up the position which I think was going to discuss a little
later on the process of that and >> what >> in the immediate future for Monday's meeting. I was told to um for them I was I'll probably take a little term share and then we'll wait to see what happens and then I was also going to see if anyone wants to change from one of the
current positions to finance. So we're tired of being on personnel want finance. I don't know. I want to I will probably give the current board me I'm gonna ask the current board members if they want to move and if no one does I'll just put the new person on the finance.
Anything else? Anyone else? Mr. >> M. Cassie. >> Yes. >> Mr. Lo. >> Yes. >> Mr. R. >> Yes. >> M. >> Yes. >> Mr. Rosa. >> Yes. >> Okay. Our next item is education
technology. We do have committee report. But before we get to that, we have seven items. 401 through 407. I have a motion followed by a second. Motion call. Yes. Education technology committee met
on June 23 meeting. Uh first topic is special education determination report for the fiscal year 2024. District meets overall requirements with 22 out of 30 points possible. Disappropriate
disapproment representation eight of eight points meeting racial equity standards child find compliance is six of six points meeting evaluation timelines GL participation rate is two two of four
possible points over 1% threshold despite meeting the state criteria [snorts] the least restrictive environmental LR is one of four points Students are spending less than 80% of time with gen at peers.
Non-compliance correction one points didn't address previous years of uh GLM issues. District percentile rank is 39.9 total. It's typical across the state. No district scoring above the 50th
percentile. plan to improve the LRE through inclusion opportunities and code teaching models for future schedules will create more inclusion opportunities at the elementary level
to the reading portfolio program evaluation. Dr. part you decide with the committee members have concerns regarding current access. A staff member with children in the district mentioned that communication was less with the middle schoolers
school teachers versus the the elementary school board member discussed the following issues. Parent access issues required cle versus familiar Genesis portal. inconsistent teacher communication about the program and
students able to opt the parents out without their parents knowledge. Some action items were add a yes or no question to the genesis of first page forms asking parents to want reading access and results would be available for
October at tech meeting review. Uh three is a new teacher orientation schedule. Uh it's a 4-day program August uh 17th through the 20th. Day one is a welcome district mission technology
training evaluation system and benefits. Day two includes curriculum overviews, special education processes, student support systems. Day three is the instructional practice demos
and policy training. Preschool completes here also. Day four, lesson planning, classroom management, individual princip principal and meetings and has features based on feedback uh from the past year's individual
building principal meetings added per new hire requests, curriculum demonstration lessons by coaches and separate specialist specialists for non-eing staff sessions. NJSA has been completed at three bridges
partition participation rate was 94%. Four ops from six third six third graders four out of the 61 third graders excuse me middle school participation rate was 93
to 94%. Last year it was at 95%. Or last year and this year it was 95%. higher at that rates during makeup testing periods. No state followup or consequences for the one to 2% variance. The goal is to
have 95% or more participation related to the NJSLA. The school performance report was also reviewed. ELA growth plus three points math growth plus 12 points from prior year. Chronic
acid absentee is a decrease in the positive trend. English English proficiency proficiency progress plus 10% for multilingual blers. Some subgroups exceed standards others
not yet met target. The New Jersey school performance reports are updated on new jersey.gov/education.5CL assessment implementation. First year baseline established across K to3 grades four to five data fall universal screening spring
reassessment for individual student oh I'm sorry identified students 71 to 100% of re reassessed students show growth to cultivation independent stages participation rates vary implementation
may be adjusted for year two successful identifi ified successfully identify students needing tier two and three behavioral supports. A board member asked about the five comp competencies. The competencies are self-awareness,
self-management, social awareness, responsible decision making and relationship skill. Uh bullet point six quarterly technology report. Um whiteboards upgrades are so far 37 have been installed. out of the
hund will be completed by August. Mori switches to increase bandwidth and resolve performance issues and outages. Pot lines will be decommit decommission. These are older phone lines which will reduce costs. Summer network upgrades
increased bandwidth at White House and three bridges. Chromebook refresh. All Chromebooks in grades six and seven will be refreshed for the next school year. Current planning for intercom paging systems upgrade for next summer.
District has a MSISAC partnership, a cyber security membership at no cost purchased by the NJC and is available to public sector agencies. The next meeting will be Thursday,
August 6th, which was then uh moved to August 17th due to coordinating conflict. review of Genesis reading log survey results in October. That concludes my >> any comments discussion.
I I just wanted >> I noticed item 4.07 um with the Eagle Scout volunteer and I want to thank Hale for contributions and I'm hoping we can put it on our green committee agenda as another activity that we're doing. So I want to thank him
for coming back to the school and giving back again. >> Anyone else? >> Miss Cassidy. >> Yes. >> Mr. Lopes. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Rad. >> Yes. >> Yes. >> Mr. Rosie. >> Yes.
>> Next item is personnel. We have items 501 through 509. Can I have a motion followed by a second? >> Okay, we do have some committee reports. And since Justine is not here and I have a copy, I'll read them.
Have one from June 12th and another one from July 13th. So, I'll just read them in that order. All right. So, I'll start on June 12th. The reason we're doing two appointment is because last time we had a BOE meeting and even had a chance to read the committee report. It wasn't finalized by the time the meeting came.
So on June 12th, it was attended by Justina, Pamela, Helen, and Beth. And for administration, it was talked to Hart and Jason. First item is staffing updates for 2627 committee discuss staff and updates for
the 2627 school year. Kindly review the staffing document that shared along with the agenda. The next item is employee count projection report. For 2526, the staff was 330. Um for 2627, the staff was 318.
A net loss of 12 positions. Job description revisions four's preschool power professional had a new description. The transportation supervisor updated to include snow removal responsibility. Transportation mechanic updated to
include snow removal responsibility and a nurse private duty nurse, new job description added for nurses who do not hold the school nurse certification andor work with specific students. Maybe discuss two personnel matters.
I'm not going to talk about next items or agenda that happened in the past. All right. So July 13th, the meeting was attended by Justina, Pamela, Ellen, and Beth from the board and as well as Dr. Hart and Jason. First item was staffing
updates for 2627. The committee discussed staff and updates for 2627 school year, while a few positions remain open, most are related to long-term leave coverage. RMS and Holland Brook School are fully
staffed. TBS has several openings including the clerical aid, a pre-K teacher, and a kindergarten teacher. White House School has one opening for a pre-K teacher. Stanton Ridge School has one remaining open opening and transportation that is one opening for
bus aid. The district also continues to work on filling short-term leave positions. There's years of service thank yous. We discuss gifts and check out thank you staff and their four years of service. Enrollment and resist redistricting and
review enrollment projections. The district has continued to monitor all levels as we are receiving registrations. Dr. Hart mentioned specifically keeping an eye on TBS and White House to ensure we keep class sizes small. There's a presentation for
July B8, which we just had, and staff assignments. The committee also discussed staff and budget updates by offering an early retirement incentive. The district secured 1.1 million savings across 12 positions demonstrating a financially a fiscally responsible
approach to staff and well-maintaining and high educational services. There's a board retreat in August. NJSBA was proposed to lead it. Dr. Hart recommending utilizing NJSBA to facilitate this year's board retreat
instead of Judith Wilson which had led the retreat in previous years. rationale is that the NJSBA has already worked with the board in developing goals and ride community by assisting with goal set in September. The board self-evaluation will be discussed during
the retreat. Committee agreed with Dr. Hart's recommendations to have NJSBA facilitate this year's retreat. The board reviewed an organizational chart and no changes were made. Um there's new RTAA leadership. Dr. heart
informed the board that the leadership of the RTAA has appointed a new president and vice president. You notice this marks the first leadership transition transition in many years. John Zim Moss has been appointed president and Sarah Pouch as vice president. A personal matter was
discussed and settled. And on the agenda we have new hires, years of service, thank yous, and other typical agenda items. Our next meeting is August 10th at 6 p.m. that any comments or discussion.
>> Miss Cassie, >> yes. >> Mr. Lopes, >> yes. >> M. >> Yes. >> Pento. >> Yes. >> Mr. >> Yes. >> All right. For policy and communication, we have one item 61. Can I have a motion
followed by a second? Okay. Any discussion? >> Mrs. Cassidy. >> Yes. >> Mr. Lobes. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Rad. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Pinto. >> Yes. >> Mr. Rosa. >> Yes. >> All right. Our next item is on finished
business. Um, I know Jason, do you want to discuss the convention? >> Um, there's no real update on the convention. Um, but if you do not plan on attending, simply let me know. Um, the deadline is still a month and a half away. So, there's plenty of time. The
agenda and more information on the workshops probably will not be out for at least the middle of the month. So once that comes out, we'll email everyone so that way people potentially attending can look at the workshop to decide what night. >> Thank you. Just a brief update for everybody. I've
got good news and bad news about the convention proposal. You know that we submitted a proposal for our referendum um strategy to be presented at school boards. Unfortunately, that proposal was not accepted to be presented at school
boards. The good news is though, Lori, our communications consultant, and I also submitted a proposal related to the key communicators group and the success we had. That was accepted. So, I don't know why one proposal over the other,
but we'll be we will be represented as school boards presenting. It just won't be the the referendum proposal, but um you know, I'll be there and I'll be presenting. So, if anybody goes, keep an eye out for that particular conference session. That's good news.
>> Yeah. >> Anything else? >> Board self evaluation and board retreat. That's coming up. Was it August meeting? >> August 18th. >> August 18. >> Um I had spoken to school boards, had her reserve the date. I'll I'll talk to
the school boards rep in a little bit of detail about the format. Um, I'll send it over to you and to Ellen just to review if there's anything we want schoolboards to hit in our retreat. And I I assume the self-evaluation will be part of it. Um, uh, likely and then
maybe just some governance work, but I'll let you know. Proceed with that. >> Speaking of self-evaluation, I had sent out the link a few weeks ago. So, if you haven't done it, just go in and make sure. I'll have Kathy go in and pull the data once everyone does. and I'll probably have her go I'll ask her to
give me a status update as well so we see how many people are asking and then we have a board vacancy process and I believe Jason want to
use your email that's quick um so uh with Michelle um vacating her position uh we collaboratively all took a look at uh the timeline to fill the vacancy. So, by
statute, we have to do it in 65 days, but the the timeline looks like this that we we've discussed. Uh Michelle's resignation is effective July 17th. Uh the public posting for the vacancy will be on July 20th, which will be Monday. [clears throat]
The submission deadline August 7th. Um we've accepted Michelle's resol uh resignation tonight. interviews. We're planning for the August 18th board meeting. That that'll be a little bit of a longer meeting. We'll start the meeting at five. See how many candidates
are interested in how many will interview. We'll do interviews first followed by the retreat followed by our regular business meeting. So, still plan to attend to five. Just know that the meeting might be a little bit longer. uh after
um the candidates's interview, we'll discuss. We will select the candidate and vote on them that evening uh August 18th. The candidate will then be informed and then sworn in on the September 8th board of ed meeting. So
that's typical runs in line with the process that we used when Carolyn departed. Um and it is well within the 65day timeline. >> Thank you. Any comments or discussion of questions, concerns? Just make sure
you're available August 18th. >> Yeah, we'll then just remember the meeting will start at 5 interviews first, then retreat, then regular business. And I will the only other thing Jason and I typically do is provide the board with an update on summer projects. So, we'll have that
presentation, mostly photos for you, which I think would be a nice thing to see, even if it's just walking through some of the photos of all of the referendum work and some of the things that we've done over the summer. >> Our last our next item is our open to the public forum. It's for any item on
or off the agenda. Similar to before, you'll have three minutes. If you wish to speak, please come up, state your name and time you're from and my name is Kathy Charak and I live in Readington 18 years and my children have attended all the public schools here. I
want to talk tonight about the first amendment and about the comment made by a member of this very board. It's too bad he's not here today. In a tap into article published December 26, 2025, board member Richard Pieros was quoted
discussing this board's approach to book removals. He said, and I'm quoting him directly, I think you I think you would tend to say that having safety for our children and what they read is more important than being afraid of
litigation. So there was there has to be a time where you stand up for what you think is right and not let our goals and objectives be dictated by attorneys, litigators, and first amendment people.
You just do it and let the chips fall where they may. I want to sit with the phrase for a moment, the first amendment people. Because I am one of those, so is everybody in this room tonight.
So is every parent, student, taxpayer that this board represents. The First Amendment isn't a special interest group standing in the way of this board's goals. It is the foundation of this entire country. And yes, this
school district stands on. It protects the right to speak, the right to learn, and the right to read. The biographer Robert Carroll, who spent his career studying how power actually works, once
wrote that power doesn't always corrupt as much as it reveals. I think about that line when I hear a quote from Mr. Pieros. A seat on this board is a position of real power over what our children are allowed to read and learn.
And how someone uses that power says a lot about them. Do they wield it carefully or do they treat legal concerns, civil and civil rights like inconveniences to brush aside? Either way, it reveals something about the
values underneath. When we talk about safety, I'd ask the board to consider what that word really is doing here. Because removing books doesn't make children safer. It makes them less prepared for a world of ideas
that this board doesn't get to preapprove. And then protecting children becomes the justification for decisions that consistently align with one political or ideological viewpoint. It's worth asking
who's actually being protected, the kids or the agenda that's using them as cover. And when the response to legal and constitutional concern is let the chips fall where they may, understand what that reveals. It reveals a willingness
to risk this district's resources and credibility. not to protect the children, but to avoid being told, "No, I'm here tonight because I have exactly the same right to stand in this room and speak as anybody else on this board." The right doesn't come from a seat that
you hold. I comes from being a citizen of this country. So, I will say it plainly, I'm a first amendment person. I'll keep showing up here and I keep asking the questions over and over whether you like it or not. And to the public that is watching also,
>> I just ask you to finish up and Excuse me. >> Could you please finish up? >> Yes. The book I just want to reveal to the public that the book that is being censored right now, it's called The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stewaski Chopski.
>> Anyone else want to speak? Hi, I'm Alan from Bington Township, 20-year resident. Uh, yeah, that's that's an interesting book she brought up. Um, you know, first amendment gives us something that
is very important. Diversity of experience. If we go down just a singular path of experience in our lives, we're not going to experience everything
that we need to know to grow and mature. Children are not as sophisticated as adults. They cannot process all the problems they're faced with and that they will be faced with as adults
as part of the learning experience. they need to understand a diversity of situations that they may have to live in. Now, uh from a mental health standpoint,
the biggest uh behavioral the biggest influencer on adverse behaviors is stressors. situations that children do not know how to deal with and they are being stressed
and they don't know how to address things and they act out and it's not acting out and not acting out intentionally. They just have exceeded their ability to cope. So the necessity of having books in our
libraries that allow them to expand and understand the situations that they are confronted with will help them to bring it to the surface and perhaps bring it to u
qualified people that they can discuss. If we believe we lived in a a perfect world and it was only one situation in one life direction, we wouldn't need this diversity of
understanding and thus I believe that our libraries should be diverse and that to reduce this experience of understanding
can create harm. More harm than can be realized than not having the um experience is
available to them. So I suggest that we keep our options open and we don't really need county to be the bad book for New
Jersey. Thank you. [applause] Thank you. Anyone else have comments? Uh Katherine Duca again uh Remington District 6. Um something that strikes me uh whenever I listen to the school board meetings is we almost seem to be living
in two different realities. Um there is the world where I am seeing phenomenal initiatives being put forth to students and students um and educators really working together for something that's really wonderful and is a core strength
of what our community is and the other side is what I am seeing among the board members at the meetings that I attend and observe. um which suggests to me that these successes are despite the
dysfunction of this board not because of them. Um something that really strikes me is that the board is one unit or ideally it should be. Um decisions come together. Everybody is supposed to be
inputting their ideas and coming to a consensus. I'm not really seeing any good discussion. Um, at the prior meeting, there were some really valid points made regarding the nomination to the um, uh, book challenge review committee. Um,
there was no discussion that went on at least in a public forum regarding those concerns that were brought up. That's one example. But so often I am seeing steamroll of a majority against a minority. And that's not how a
board should function. Like this is one unit working to set the policy for the district and it's not just one voice overriding all others. So my hope is um with the loss of Miss Mener and I clearly don't know the circumstances,
but I'm sad to see that. Um there were really engaging questions that were brought up. Um, and I really hope that the board takes this opportunity to evaluate the direction that it's going in because we don't want to be an embarrassment. We don't want to be that
board who is doing things despite. We should be working collaboratively. Thank you. >> Anyone else? Um, there were no direct questions, so we're gonna >> I have I haven't answered Mr. Luca's earlier question. I got the numbers
>> Mr. Luca, for the 2526 school year, IDA basic was 46,710. IDEA preschool was 14,878. >> I'm so sorry. >> [laughter] >> I I can email you if you want me to.
Okay, I can do that. I'll give you I'll give you I have the numbers for you, but I'll email you. >> Okay. >> Okay. >> Y [clears throat] >> Okay. So, I'm close public session. Our next item is a session. It's a motion to adopt the following resolution. resolved to adjourn to
executive session in accordance with the sunshine law to discuss HIV and legal matters for approximately 60 minutes at which time the board expects the return of public section where action may be taken. Matters discussed will be made
public if and when circumstances requiring confidentiality no longer exist. However, it is not known when such circumstances will exist. I will move. Do want to get a second. >> Second vote. >> Miss Cast,
>> yes. >> Mr. Lopes, >> yes. >> Mrs. Rod, >> yes. >> Vinto, >> yes. Mr. >> Yes. >> Thank you for attending this evening.