with the open public meetings act of the state of New Jersey Notice of this meeting was sent to the Star Ledger local source the home news tribune the burrow clerk school offices and the district website Roll call please Mark Fernandez
here Lucy Figerito Zenfonte here President Dr Britney Kirkland at the state of New Jersey Notice of this meeting was sent to the Star local source the home
news school offices and Quintella Roll call please Mark Vice President Michael Anne Rean here Great Please stand for the flag salute 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 Okay Public session resolve that the Rosal Park Board of Education meeting hereby
convenes to oh I'm sorry executive session for the discussion of the following topics One personnel two adoption of the 2025 2026 final budget approval and three real property A motion to go into executive session I
make the motion Great Is there a second second Great All in favor we are officially in executive No means to oh I'm sorry executive session for the discussion of the following
topics One personnel two adoption of the 2025 2026 final budget approval and three real property A motion to go into executive session I make the motion Resolve that the Rosal Park Board of
Education will now hereby convene to public session Can I have a motion to go into public session i make the motion Great Is there a second second Great All in favor i
Wonderful Public participation on agenda items only Each member of the public may speak a maximum of three minutes Please state your first and last name for the record Katie McDermott at Rosal Park I didn't actually prepare anything but I just wanted to say thank you again I know I
thanked you guys in a Facebook post for making the budget uh available early this year Um and I just wanted to thank you to your faces because um it is asking for more transparency and for us to get the budget early is something that I have been asking for for I I
don't know like many many many years and the fact that it finally happened um is really awesome and it's a testament to you uh listening to other people and not just myself and I wanted to thank you for that I really appreciate it That's all
Thank you very much Okay seeing no other comments I'm going to close public participation on agenda items only And now we are going to move into the budget review given by Miss Mau Okay Oh it still says preliminary Go
right to the next screen It's fine Sorry about that Um good evening President Dr Kirkland Vice President Reagan esteemed board members Superintendent Goce and members of the Rosal Park community It is my privilege to present
the proposed budget for the 2025 2022 school year this evening This budget has been reviewed and approved by the county business administrator and is scheduled for adoption by the board tonight The advertised budget was made available
to the Rosal Park District website on April 10th along with a Google document for public to submit questions I did receive inquiries from several community members Additionally notice of the budget posting was shared with the
community via Blooms I will briefly display the slides that I had on my preliminary budget any slide that we had on that budget I will just point out maybe if there's some changes in it Um otherwise I'll
continue on to the new slides that I've um arranged for tonight This will be posted on the website tomorrow So my first slide uh speaks of um curriculum initiatives Uh all of these initiatives were available during
my preliminary hearing Uh the only other item I added to the very bottom was beginning next year all elementary schools will follow a unified bell schedule to ensure consistency and promote equity for both staff and
students Special education initiatives This is the same slide that I went over on the last meeting Uh nothing has changed and um it's everything's the same So I won't stay too long on this Um our grants uh the Elementary and
Secondary Education Act it's ESA Um the grant that we budgeted for this year the amount of money was $272,553 We don't know that dollar amount um as of today That is something that comes later on So what we do as a
rule is we take whatever we received last year and 80% of that is what we budget for the current year Hopefully that will change Uh that same applies for the idea grant which is $387,419 Again that is what I budgeted
for We are hopeful for at least that if not more extraordinary aid Um that is something that is um done uh in May and we received the word on that in July Uh what we submit in May will be for the
year that we're closing right now So um that is the only item that comes in after the money has been spent and you know services were provided Uh we're hopeful for something very similar to what we received last
year Um and again the the preschool um this was you know uh something that I just wanted to um the only thing I added to this slide was that we are going to secure a secure um security guard for the pre the the um the prek building Um
and we also hired a relief teacher That is a requirement of the grant Um so we've fulfilled the relief teacher already this year She came in um halfway through the year She makes herself available to um assist the prek teachers
and if necessary sub in if there's a vacancy that we can't fill for the day Buildings and grounds Um we we did pull money from maintenance reserves um for paving the playground around Aldine
These are just some ideas that we have Um bathroom upgrade in Sherman playground update upgrade in Aldine and replacement of a older HVAC equipment Um I just want to point out that that doesn't mean we're going to replace the
entire HVAC equipment There's components of it that are um are aging out and we need to change Um again this is money that um you know we haven't quite established all of the things we're going to do with It's about $520,000 Um but this is just like a a
beginning thought process for us Maintenance projects that um we're going to be working on the floor refinishing and Robert Gordon window repair throughout the district wherever we need it and um painting throughout the district as well Um and just as a by
the way as we all know there's going to be a lot of work over the summer with the ROD grant um finally wrapping that up It's been a couple years in the in the making So that will begin um in July and we will finish before school
opens Um again I I posted this uh during my preliminary budget hearing This is just a visual of how the money is allocated um what percent is allocated of the monies we received for you know where is it coming from that you know the tax levy and special revenue and
reserve and I'm going to break that down a little bit better for you in the next slide okay what I did here is I did a comparison so that you can see where we were last year um local taxes and and we all know that that is the portion of the money that
the taxpayer in the community pay through their tax levy um or at least the educational part of that Um so we're increasing that uh by 0.44% Um state aid that is the money that we get from the state to kind
of bridge the gap between you know what we can get from our tax levy um to assist in providing our services We got 1.16% special revenue um we see an increase in that largely due to the preschool grant
So the increase in that was 6.62% Other sources um the money that you see posted here is um part of that is due to POS's purchase orders that were not fulfilled and carried over until this year um because of the ROD
grants uh we have to um allocate money in advance and that money is carried over until we're completing um the project and and paying that out Uh other sources oh no sorry reserves Um
that's for facult um facility upgrades uh 451,000 for the unit ventilators and 520,000 for the maintenance reserve which is what I spoke about on the previous slide expenditures Um again I had this
slide on the u preliminary presentation It's like it's just nice to see it visually Um I want to point out that the percentages you see on this slide is a percentage of the amount budgeted So it's a little different than the next slide we're going to be looking at shortly Just so you know that's that's
the percentage allocated for those different um categories Um again the revenues So this year um this is a comparison just to show you where we're at from last year Um so the general fund tax levy this year is
$24,185,714 Um and that shows you what the difference is in the percent of change um is 9 2.95% Um we have paid off our debt service this year So next year we have
no debt So we are um there's 100% change in in in actually a very good thing for us Um when you bring that all together um we look at a increase of um only
0.44% for taxes because we've paid off our debt Um expenditure comparisons Um again you know I I will post this You can go over it I won't go line by line Um it just gives you an idea of what we did last year what we're planning to do this
year the difference between the two numbers and the percentage um of change Um there are some places where you might see um a different percentage of change Um there there are reasons for that Um but again um it just gives you a little
bit of a comparison for that um local tax impact Um so the assess the average assessed value of property right now in Rosel Park is $253,379 Um what that means to you as a homeowner is that for your every dollar
um 253k that's um your value of your properties assessed at you will increase your taxes by $34 this year So again it's all based on your assessed value That's good
news Okay And that's all I wanted to just say Um this budget reflects our continued commitment to fiscal responsibility while supporting the educational needs of our students Thank you for your attention and ongoing support of our schools
Thank you Miss Mar for that wonderful budget presentation Uh do any board members have any questions before we move on to the agenda items nope Okay So we are going to move on to the agenda Personnel one staff
appointment Two step correction Three employment contract school business administrator board secretary Four new and non-tenured administrative staff Five hit grant And can I have a motion
to approve the personnel section motion Great Is there a second second Great Can we have roll call please mark Fernandez Yes Zfonte yes
Chris Monroe yes Vice President Rean yes President Dr Kirkland yes Motion passed Great Thank you And so at this time I would like to congratulate and invite our new assistant superintendent of
curriculum instruction Miss Games to come up and introduce herself [Applause] Thank you all so much Um thank you for having me um and for approving me um and having me tonight So
I wanted to just give you all a little bit of a background Um so I am first and foremost born and raised in Florida I am not from New Jersey Um and marrying into the military um brought us up and around
the East Coast I was privileged enough to be able to teach everywhere we've been stationed which was a phenomenal education for me Um teaching everywhere Um so through the military we did end up in New Jersey And my joke is like every
good Floridaian we move and retire in New Jersey right that's what everybody does Um but here we are We have been here since 2011 Um my husband since retired and this is where we have We have been we we love it here Um I have a
daughter who's a senior and graduating this year a son that's a freshman Um so I spent 10 years teaching u moved into being a literacy coach and then the last eight years I have been a curriculum director Um within that time frame I
earned my master's degree and most recently my doctorate in organizational leadership with an emphasis in special education Um during that time I am very proud of some of the accomplishments to be able to focus on RTI and MTSS
um data-driven interventions across the district and being able to specifically collaborate not only um with departments across districts but schools across districts just to be able to ensure a cohesive curriculum
instruction throughout a district to support students Um and something I'm very very proud of actually that just recently happened about two weeks ago um was being awarded a visionary leader uh in Burlington County uh in the in the
area of director So it's an exciting way to end my career in Burlington County I'm very excited to be here and really appreciate it Um my vision for curriculum instruction as I've shared you know with the interview panel is really grounded in a commitment in
ensuring that um students have access to engaging inclusive authentic learning experiences that prepare them for a world when they leave this this building um for whatever that looks like for them whatever avenue they choose to explore
Um and within this district it means working closely with administrators with the board with parents with teachers with students to ensure a cohesive standards aligned uh data-informed uh culturally responsive
uh curriculum that responds to students student needs The heart of that is a commitment to continuous growth ensuring that we use teacher feedback to reflect refine and continuously grow so that we're
continuing to meet the students needs Um one thing that I pride myself on is collaboration at all levels from the top all the ways down to students Um the one of my favorite quotes is if
you want to go fast go alone If you want to go far go together It takes a village The department of curriculum instruction is not a solo entity It it's something that we work together um to be able to go far So I'm very excited to work
alongside with everybody um to continue to grow and to move forward in this district So thank you so much uh for this opportunity and I'm very excited to work here with everybody Thank you very much and welcome
[Applause] again Great Now we are going to move on to business five adoption of the 2025 2026 final budget approval Okay And can I have a motion to
approve the business section motion Is there a second second Great Roll call please Mark Fernandez yes Z Fonte yes Chris Monroe yes Vice President Rean yes
President Dr Kirkland yes Motion passed Great Is there any continuing or new business uh I just want to acknowledge uh I have a little list Aldine schools next uh PTO meeting will be on May 5th Uh Chris can
you tell me what time is it 7 p.m 7 p.m um in the Aldine auditorium Go check out my alma mater And um yeah policy committee will be meeting in May and June to discuss some um policies and um
yeah just a a huge thank you to Miss Mau Um and I'm so glad that we are able to continue uh the relationship here in Rosaro Park that you have had with us for years now And um your commitment to the district is is so appreciated and um
I look forward to many years uh working together Thank you Great Um so at this time we're going to move into public participation E Oh Oh I'm sorry Go ahead
Okay So I just want to address the five board members that are here today because we've had a board member call us out for missing a meeting and that board
member is not here for whatever reason And it just shows the commitment that the five of us have had since the beginning of this school year and the commitment that we continue to have for the residents and the students of Roosevelt
Park That's all I got to say Thank you Um we will now move into public participation Each member of the public may speak a maximum of three minutes Please state your first and last name for the record Seeing none I'm going to close
public participation Okay Um I guess motion for adjournment Can I make one more statement really quickly dr Kirkland Great Um remind me
how I say your last name Gomez Gomez Um Mrs Gomez welcome to the district and um I think our family here is going to find real comfort in having someone who's uh experienced with our special education with um you know making a place uh feel
like home I I spoke to Miss Boyce about um you joining us here and she spoke with such enthusiasm um about partnership and I appreciate that you said that about uh you want to get there fast you want to get there uh together right um it's important that we work together and collaborate and um yeah
just thank you for uh acknowledging authenticity and and uh access and inclusivity It's this is what's going to take us farther than than where we have gone before So thank you for joining the family Yeah thank you as well Miss Gomez Uh as
a board member and a parent of two students that are going to be at least another eight or 10 years in this school district um thank you for your comments They're they're wellreceived Um so there is something that I forgot to mention So for the
vision 2035 committee as most know we are um we have a survey listed on the website for any community members that want to participate on that committee I'm excuse surveys around word more like an application So if you are interested in being on that committee to being a
community representative please visit the website to fill it out We are closing the survey tomorrow and so we just wanted to make one more push for anyone who wants to do it but hasn't had the chance to Okay Can I please have a motion for adjournment motion Was there a second
second Great The next regular schedule board Oh wow All in favor i I'm sorry guys The next schedule board meeting will be on Tuesday May 20th at 6 PM The
board meeting will be held here in Rosell Park High School and we do hope to have the full board With that being said have a wonderful evening