All right. Uh, at 7 PM on April 28th, 2025, we're going to begin this regular meeting of the Rutherford Board of Education. We're going to ask everyone who can to please stand, face the flag for the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and
to the republic for it stands, one nation, indivisible, with all. I'll ask Mr. Whitford to please take role [Music] Mr. Begoian present. Mrs. Cole present.
Mr. Ki present. Mr. Healey here. Mrs. Jones present. Mr. Mison here. Dr. Rsine here. Mr. Spayberry present. Dr. Elotti here. We have a quorum. The New Jersey Open Public Meetings Act was enacted to ensure the right of the
public to have advanced notice of and to attend the meeting of public bodies at which any business affecting their interest is discussed or acted upon. In accordance with the provisions of this act, the Rutherford Board of Education has caused notice of this meeting to be published by having the date, time, and
place posted on the Bolton uh board outside the Burough Clerk's office, mailed to the Herald, South Bergenite, and the Record newspapers, and filed with the Burough Clerk. Hard copies of the agenda are available in the meeting room and the agenda is posted electronically on Friday before the meeting date on the district's website
at www.rofordschools.org. Subsequent to the meeting, a video of the meeting will be uploaded to the district's website www.rotherfordschools.org. The video link can be found by opening the board of education link and clicking on public meetings and then videos.
Uh so board members in your packets there were two sets of minutes to approve the regular meeting and executive session of April 7th 2025. Are there any questions feedback on those? Seeing none, I'll ask Mr. Woodford to please answer those. Uh and
I am going to turn it over now to Sarah Aayoro, our report of the student representative. Good evening. After returning from spring break today, students are feeling rested and ready for the last part of the school year. Spring sports are in full swing and some of the senior nights
are happening this week. Washington school held their discovery day before break which included various science-based activities. RHS students in AP chemistry as well as those involved in heroes and cool kids volunteered to help out and it was a great day. Many RHS students have signed
up to be poll workers for the upcoming election in June. There was a great turnout for the November election and this time it will be mainly juniors. Those who signed up are training this week. This week also the RHS band and choir is taking their annual trip. This
year they will be going to Washington DC where they will be competing for the superior trophy in the high note competition. The overnight trip also allows students to explore the city and it's always a fun event that the band and choir members look forward to. Both the Spanish and French honor societies
will be having their ceremonies for new inductees and returning members at lunch this Friday. Students will receive certificates for their achievements in their world language classes. Additionally, the National Honor Society induction ceremony for new members will be held on Thursday, May 8th in the
evening when parents will be able to attend. The new members will be honored and officially sworn into the organization. Students in grades 9 and 11 are completing state testing this week and AP exams are beginning next week. Students in AP classes have been preparing for their test the past couple
of weeks and we are excited to feel the accomplishment of having completed them. That's all for tonight. Thank you. Very good. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. It's a lot going on right now. Any questions or comments from other board members? If I could, just a quick
comment. Uh, in the U in the newsletter that went out on Oh, no. No. Okay. After all these years, you finally got your wish. Check out. Um, in the newsletter that
that went out um throughout the district, it highlighted a number of things. One of the things it highlighted were the number of um maybe I should wait. Five. One, two. Nope. Am I good? Yep. I mentioned that in the newsletter that went out highlighted a number of things, but one of the things that
highlighted were the uh number of high school students who get involved with the other uh schools in the district, whether it's Hero and Cool Kids, ReadAcross America Day, Discovery Day at Washington. I mean, that and the interaction of the older students working with our younger students as
role models, I think, is a great a great testament. And a cynic, you know, may say, right, well, you know, they're getting out of class to go and do this or whatever. But the reality um is, you know, you look at the the number of of students who uh volunteered on a day off
from school, right, to work the polls, and Mr. Jones can tell you that's a long day and a lot of work, right? Um and we have a large turnout of students who did the November and they have to go to training. So our I'm I'm very proud of the u sense of community service that
students have. All right. Well, thank you, Sarah. You're welcome to stay for the rest of the meeting. And if you have commitments you need to attend to, we understand that as well. Thank you so much. Thank you. You're going to miss a really exciting
station. Thank you. Hey. Hey. When's the prom, Sarah? When's the prom? Um, Fridays again. Last Friday. Yeah, the last Friday. All right. Uh
so our budget for the 202526 uh school year was given preliminary approval from the board on March 10th. It was subsequently approved by the county office of uh education. And so we are now going to move to a special presentation which is the public hearing
for the 2025 2026 budget. Uh, and I will turn it over to Mr. Whitford and move out of the way. Yep. All right. Thank you and welcome to the 2526 budget presentation. Uh this is the same information that was given to the
board at our uh late February meeting and then at our March 10th preliminary budget approval meeting. Um it went to the county office. Nothing has changed. It was all approved for compliance. So all the figures and numbers and stats that you see tonight are the same numbers that we
uh presented in March. So, just to give a quick review of our budget calendar, uh the budget process, you know, is in in the weeds more so in January, February, March, but it begins months prior to that. Uh in November,
superintendent, business administrator meet with our entire administrative council on budget planning and needs and wants for uh the next year. Uh December, we meet with buildings and grounds. Uh we meet with the finance committee. Uh we meet with again following up with our
administrative council on their budget requests and they send them all to my office. January and February, Mr. Hurley and myself will review all the budgets that were submitted and meet with those board committees again to reinforce what we've been hearing from our uh
administrative council. March 10th, this board uh gave a prelim approval for a preliminary budget that got sent to the county department of education. uh the county really looks at it for compliance, making sure it's meeting all statutes and codes uh that are related
to um all school district budgets. We got it back on March 25th with a clean slate um clean slate approval. Uh I do want to give credit to um Mr. Ryan who is uh does a lot of work with the curriculum aspect of the budget. Uh the
county department of education has a very high standard in Bergen County for their submission and how our budget ties back to our actual curriculum and the state approved curriculum and our board approved curriculum. Um they call it a quote unquote hole-in-one meaning they
you sub submit your budget aligning the your curriculum to the budget itself making references to specific line items and to specific goals that the board and the state are have been putting forth. Um and no kickbacks from from the county
office. Everything was uh was approved first time around which the the county office really strives for. And Mr. Ryan, his first year um I think first year doing incorporating the budget in in his new role. Uh so I just want to give kudos to him on on job well done for
that. And then tonight, April 28th, the public clearing on the budget and the final uh board adoption of the budget. So with our entire budget and every school year, every school district, we really want to make sure that the board goals are reflective in
our budget objectives, right? Some of these things are are what the board goals are designed around and what our district district goals are designed around. Our student achievement and our portrait of a graduate, everything that's entailed in that portion of a graduate. Uh obviously maintaining and building on current uh program
offerings. Uh community outreaches was one of those um board goals at the beginning of the year. Uh a successful REA contract negotiations um which have been going very well so far this year. and again providing a facility
improvements, maintenance and repairs for safe and secure secure uh school buildings. So, first we'll talk about the source of fundings, then we'll talk about how they're spent to show um where that money is going. 89% of our general
operating budget comes from our local tax levy. uh 6% comes from New Jersey state aid and 5% comes from you know miscellaneous revenues from uh other sources if it's from grants if it's from reserve accounts um if it's from um any
other uh revenue sources we might have like bulldog care and things like that to pay for bulldog care expenses. Uh and then lastly we do get federal aid. It is a separate uh fund than our general operating fund. Uh so those that money comes in for a specific purpose and goes
out for a specific purpose. So any federal aid we get is outside of our general operating account. So our general operating revenue which will match our expenses is 57,231,585. The school funding reform act of 2008 uh included a 2% cap on
annual tax levy increases for school districts. uh they do allow for certain allowable adjustments uh if they're applicable from year to year. Uh the board is taking advantage of two of those allowable adjustments this year which include the health benefits premium and a small enrollment
adjustment um above state levels. So here's our dollars and breakdown of our 2% and those allowable adjustments. uh last year or this the current school year, we have a $47.9 million base for our general operating
and uh just over three million in our debt service from previously approved uh referendums and uh and bonds associated with those. So both of those together go into our uh total school tax levy. Uh we've used an allowable adjustment of
311,000 for enrollment, our 2% cap that's statemandated for every school district in the state. And we also have use an allowable adjustment for our health benefits cost of 863,000. The 20-year payment of our bond
for the I'm going to say 2019, but I might be get that wrong the year wrong. For 2019 referendum, uh next year's payment is $66,000 less than the current year payment. So, putting that all into uh account, your net increase is uh a
4.07% increase for a total of 53,51,93 for your local school tax levy. State aid increased 1% from the current year to next year's school budget. Uh again at 3.3 million of this current year we got $33,000 in additional state aid uh for
next school year. The state I want don't want to say reconfigured their formula but they definitely um adjusted it. uh they took a lot of feedback from school districts and school boards um and a number of
groups that work with those parties to try to get it the most sensible calculation for state aid. Uh in the past a lot of school district some school districts were getting cut a lot of money a tremendous percentage of their of their budget year to year uh
and some were increasing a tremendous amount year to year. uh and it really was never known or ne never uh been able to project very well. So they put guard rails on this year um with that recalculation that no school district
can lose more than 3% of their previous year's state aid and they couldn't increase more than 6% of their previous year's state aid. So we landed smack in the middle at a 1% increase for $33,000. Um there was a lot of negative
tone for state aid in the year in the months before they were released in late February. Um so I'm actually very pleased with a positive number uh that popped up to to make sure that we were at least sustaining or growing with the stadium from previous
years. This slide has been used to my understanding many years in the past. Um, and I narrowed it down just to the last 10 or 12 years that um, it really shows that the the orange bar is the general operating budget, how we're only
increasing very slightly throughout the years. That gray line at the top is an state aid as a percentage of our budget. Um, so you can see it's been pretty stagnant as a percentage of our budget around 6% for the past 10 to 12 years. Um, which is great. That means that we
the programs that we're utilizing in the district and the the all the the things that we offer here are known from year to year. We can plan better for them because we have a more sustainable revenue source either
in state aid or in a tax levy. It's not extreme fluctuations that you know you have to make big reductions or big additions depending on your year-to-year finances. Our last piece of revenue is miscellaneous sources. Um we have excess surplus from previous years interest
from our bank accounts. Uh obviously we operate our own before uh and after school program with bulldog care. We make money from that to use that money for those bulldog care expenses for teachers, aids and supplies. Uh we're using money from our maintenance reserve and capital reserve to maintain and
build upon our um facilities and using a little bit of our general fund balance of 200,000 from previous years. This one's the toughest one for at least audience members to see. um is our budget allocation and the the large
categories that um all those funds go toward. Roughly 75 to 80% of all school districts, but definitely for Rutherford of our budget goes to staff salaries and health benefits. Those salaries and health benefits are included in a number
of these categories, but overall 75 to 80% go directly to staff salaries and staff health benefit costs. The darker green on the top right section is regular programs and instruction. So the largest se portion of our budget uh goes directly to our
classrooms and directly to our instruction. The top left green that's specifically employee benefits doesn't include salaries. it's just employee benefits and we've seen extreme increases which I'll talk about on our next slide um in health benefits
premiums over the past 5 years. Uh the brown is buildings and grounds. Um the pink larger section is out of district tuition and related services uh for students um with IEPs. Again, I'll talk about uh a little bit later. Um but they
include administrative technology, board office services, uh our child study team, guidance, athletics, bilingual services, special education in district services. Um so again, it's just a a more of a visual of where that money
is actually going, some of the inflationary pressures that the district has been facing. Um and we're not alone. I I'll obviously talk about how Rutherford is is handling them, but um every school district in the state is really dealing with these same types of pressures. Uh
health insurance premiums have gone up um just over 45% in the past three years. So a tremendous amount of again 75 to 80% of a school district's budget is salaries and benefits. So, a large
increase in one of those categories um takes a big toll on the school district's budget. Out of district tuition services and transportation, if we cannot provide specific services for uh a student, then we might have to find the the proper placement for them at an
out of district uh school. Um those are all students with IEPs or have need additional services than we have here. Uh obviously contractual salaries again that large chunk goes to salaries and benefits. Uh utilities costs um are
going up across the state. Uh I could talk about the school district but also for you as personal um homeowners or renters. Uh PSENG is I think slotted to go up which they've the released 19 to 20% starting in June or July. So you
will see your personal utilities costs. We obviously use a lot of utilities here. So our utilities cost will also be going up. Um and general cost increases, you know, price of eggs goes up, so does the price of uh pens and pencils that the school will purchase as
well. Just to elaborate more on the out of district placements, um students classified as special needs through their IEP or individual education plan. Um it's a specialized program that's not always available in district. We have a number of programs in district to help support these students. Uh but there are
some that ha that need additional services that we're unable to provide. If that's the case, then we make sure that they're in a proper placement um elsewhere. We use a number of resources to try to get that cost to be as low as possible like the South Bergen Joint
Commission, uh other public school districts that might be offering services that they can use. Um and then they will go to a private school for students with disabilities if neither of those um placements are available to
them. Included in our budget was um a withdrawal from our capital reserve account of $1 million. Um those include HVAC replacements and repairs districtwide. Um plumbing and gutter repairs, safety and communications
upgrades, and then the state um has an assessment that they mandate every year, $75,000. Uh our last thing that I'll talk about is some of the things that we always use in our budget and just to help uh spread out some of our long our large purchases
over a long period of time are the use of um leases and it's primarily for equipment and for technology um the Chromebooks that that teachers you or that students use um the interactive panels that you know teachers will portray their presentations on or the
students might be able to use during the classrooms. our telephone system, our file server replacements that we we had just done. Um, our technology infrastructure um was purchased over a lease agreement. Uh computer lab desktops that we'll be purchasing this coming year also be
purchased over a three or five year lease uh agreement. So, some of these things are tools that the district uses to have a large purchase, stretch that over time so it's not a one uh one hit for the budget. Thank
you. Um, as I said at the last meeting, I want to uh thank Mr. Whitford and and everybody who worked in the finance committee, the board, the administration who worked on the budget. It's a it's a long process.
It's a very challenging process as um with the fiscal constraints that we have and the u increases that were noted. I want to uh remind the board and u the public
that the allowance for the healthc care increase is about 90 cents on the dollar. So, we're still several What's the the amount? Probably close to 100,000. Oh, yeah.
Just over 100 about Yeah. over $100,000 that comes into that 2%. Um, so without that allowable increase, we'd be at a $1.1 million approximately uh deficit with another couple hundred thousand that we
still have to come up with. So, we'd be at about 1.3 million. So in order to you know we've used the line over the years of a maintenance budget uh this is actually is a maintenance budget because the rather extraordinary increase in health benefits is being at least
matched 90% of the way with the allowable increase which we have taken every year that it has been available to to the board. um special ed education about seven or eight years ago we created whole bunch
of programs in the district uh preschool 18 to 21 um multiply disabled classes uh throughout K to 12. Uh we were able to bring back about $1.2 million out of tuition expenses. Uh some of that of
course you know there was some additional staffing that had to be hired but still the net was probably close to a million dollars. Um we are nowhere near the amount of tuition uh that we were spending before we did that but we're getting close because tuition increases keep going up and up and up
and going up even at a higher rate than tuition is transportation cost uh as they are going up. So we do try to point families and students to our programs first uh to the jointer second because they are uh a little uh bit more
affordable. uh but you know there are certain issues that we can't manage uh many issues we can't manage in a comprehensive type of school setting and some that the jointure can't manage and uh again our job is to service the needs of our students. So uh those are some
costs that really uh do create a challenge um and uh we are able uh to maintain our programs um we we build upon them to the best of our ability. we can't build upon them maybe to the level we like uh but we're able
to maintain. So once again that's the budget. Miss Jones, are we getting any students from other districts to our bulldog academy? Yeah, not not a large number. Um, one of the things that happened, you know, we were one of the first uh districts, at least
in this neck of the woods that developed uh these stay-at-home programs and um other districts saw the success of it and more of them are doing it as well because if not, you know, if you throw an additional $1.2 million onto our
expenditures, you know, we're we're in this. So, everybody's in the same boat we're in. So first couple of years we were drawing a lot more from the local do school districts. Uh more of those districts now have developed their own programs. Thank you. Questions for Mr. or Mr.
Woodford? So I wanted to echo thanks to the finance committee who I know worked with Mr. Whitford and Mr. early um on during a few meetings to uh have a in-depth understanding of what the budget uh needed to look like for this
year. And thank you to Mr. Hurley and Mr. Woodford for all the internal work you do with all the principles and administrators and supervisors uh to make sure that you're uh planning ahead. Uh, so I know we had an in-depth talk at the last board meeting before this was
sent off and uh, so are there any comments at this point from board members that you'd like to make? Any questions? All right. Uh, so as part of the public hearing, um, we want to be able to allow the public to make any
comments uh, based on the 2526 budget. So, at this time, anyone uh from the public who would like to make comments, you're invited to come up to the microphone podium. If you could just give us your name, address, try to keep your comments to about three minutes. Thank you.
Frank Wilson, 171 Mont Rosa Brotherford. It's been a while since I've been here, but uh first question I have is could we have done a better job? And I asked your counterparts the same thing. You have a budget meeting tonight and the council has a budget meeting tonight.
So you can't be in two places at the same time and you both share the same building. So between the two of you, I would think that one could have done it a different day. You or them? I asked them the same question. I can answer that. I'm not I could answer that if you
uh we have a statutory requirement of when to get this done and we have to look at our board agenda. We have another statutory requirement in terms of hiring uh renewals for the following year and uh it really limits us to the last week of April. Most school districts are in the last week of April
for the budget. I don't know what their requirements are so I can't speak for them. But but this this has been the date, you know, this week this date has been the date we probably used for 50 years and and that's great. But can you convey that to them for the next go around? have a conversation because
their review I think is May 12th or 13th where it's the town can actually talk to them and going over it. If yours the same day again, we're going to have a conflict that I just came from down there. So now I'm over here and I'm sure not many folks are going to want to know that. Yeah, I'll I'll speak. Thank you.
But leading into this, I looked at the last few years budgets and I think the last couple we were up like 8.9 and now we're going up another four and they're up 3.5 times three. So that's 10.5 and you're up. We're up what 12. So between
the two of you, we're up 25% not including the county. When COLA and Social Security only gives you 2%. I and and we have 16% senior citizens in this town. I don't know how much more this rubber band is going to
take before something pops. And I pose the same question on the other end. If we know that we've been trending at 4% and 3.5 every year, you know, going into next year, you're another 4%.
Minimum. What are you doing now to stop that from next year? Because it's going to happen again. You're going to have the same meeting and want to take 2% over the 2%. So, you're going to be the same. You might as well just draft next year's budget right now because it's been the same the last few years. Theirs
has been the same the last few years. And I don't know the new uh administrator, but your predecessor at one meeting said, "Well, we don't have to raise an extra 2%." But we can, so let's do
it. We don't have to go exceed the 2%. But we can, so let's put it in. So he didn't have to raise it 4%. But because he can, they did. You're at a point right now that if you don't have to and you're we've already gone up over 20% in
three years between the two of them, you got to stop somewhere. It has to stop. Okay? I I I don't know how much more folks can take. Like me, I'm not working anymore. I'm on social security. I'm not getting this kind of revenue anymore. And I'm
sure a lot of other folks feel the same way. So just telling you why not have next year's budget meeting if you're going to lay another 4% on everybody. Why why go through all this? Cuz it's been that way the last three years if you if you clock it. So thanks.
Thank you. I just a quick comment you go back without going back and forth. Thanks. Uh we don't know first of all first of all I don't remember Mr. Kelly putting it that way but he may have. Okay. I I go back to the videotape like Warner Wolf used to say. Um I we don't know what next year will
bring allowable increase. Um what I know is that if we didn't take it's not because we can if we didn't do it we would be making $1.7 million worth of cuts which meant we would have been devastating programs across the
district. Uh this community um you know our school districts you know are ranked very high in a lot of these real estate polls. We we were one of 100 districts in the state of New in the country to show growth uh during and after COVID
academic growth. Um I think what the value we bring to the town is is u quantitative and qualitative. But if we had a program that we can't run next year because kids chose not to take the class
and I've received about 30 emails complaining about that. If I had to come here and cut $1.7 million and devastate every nonrequired program that the state requires, I think
we would have a very different crowd here tonight. So, you know what has to stop? What has to stop is 19% healthcare insurance premium rates. What has to stop is 18%
utility increases. You know what has to stop is the inflation that we are living with now for three or four years. We don't have the luxury of going above 2%. We can only go above if we get this allowable increase.
And the 2% cap was established 17 years ago and has not increased for 17 years. I don't know anything that hasn't
increased over the last 17 years. So, I've been saying for a long time if the state would consider looking at 2% from 17 years ago and get more in line with at least
3%. Maybe we'd be able to manage better. So, you know, that's what we're up against. I get it. I understand it. You know, I pay taxes, too. But we we have an obligation to provide a program
to our students and we lobby and we work with the powers that be I do on my level. Matt does on his to say, "Hey, can we get a handle on this? Can we get a handle on state funding?" I mean, we got $30,000
increase from state funding. We're happy about that because we didn't get cut. $30,000, you know, in a $52 million budget. So, you know, maybe the state's got to look about some things about that as well. So, I I don't disagree that a
lot of things have to change, but until they do, we're we're in a bind. Okay. Other comments? Other public comments? Okay. Uh anything from the board? I don't have much to add. Uh from what Mr. Early
said, I can just say that having sat on the finance committee this year and in the past, uh no one on the finance committee believes that uh if you have a 2% uh cap allowance that we should take it just because we have it. Um and so I think that there's a lot of rigorous
conversation that does go on in finance committee. Um and I just want to um echo that piece and hopefully it came through in Mr. Whitford's presentation when the finance committee was meeting, they wanted to make sure that the presentation was thorough and spoke to um all of the reasons why the budget
looks the way it does. Uh all right. Uh so we are going to move on now to the report of the superintendent. Thank you. Uh a brief report as we had, you know, the presentation tonight, but a couple of of things. Uh you remember QAC came to us
uh early April. I guess I forget the date now. I think it was April 7th or whatever it may have been. And one of the monitors was ill, so he is coming uh May 6th. I'll be meeting with him. Uh I've been told it's going to be pretty
much a four to five hour meeting and um then after that we'll be done and then we wait for the for the review. I sent you all a list of activities um concerts, art shows, you know, things like that.
Um, please, you know, if you're planning on going, take a minute to check the school calendar on the website because I, you know, rather than me looking at six different school calendars, I'm working off a spreadsheet that was developed earlier in the year and sometimes if a
date changes or a time changes, they may update their calendar, but they don't update the spreadsheet. So, just double check, you know, um to make sure that what I sent you I I I think we're 100% accurate, but I wouldn't want to swear
to it. Uh a couple of items. Uh well, no, before I get to that, the teacher of the year, I sent that information to you. Um and I do have the names here somewhere if I can find them. But, uh very pleased with the selection and those folks are going to be honored at a
lunchon. I'm sorry I misplaced the names, but um I guess I can do it from memory, but I'm afraid I'm going to Oh, here we go. Thank you. Small print. I got glasses. Um so, John Randazzo from the high school, Con Fenc from Union School, Jovon Ettoski
from Peront, Jennifer Otto from Lincoln, and Amanda D. Roza from Washington. And those uh teachers will be honored with the other winners from around the county at a lunch on May 22nd, I believe. and then at the end of the year uh
retirement and on awards uh dinner that we have that is in your packet as well. If you're interested in attending, please let Donna know by I think it's May 16th or 14th, whatever the date is on there and the date of the dinner is June 5th. uh committee meetings,
curriculum and instruction 6:30 this coming Monday via Google Meet uh personnel at 7 and building grounds at 7:30 uh all um through Google Meet and by the end of the week Thursday or Friday you'll get agendas and uh invites. I mentioned the
newsletter earlier. Um I thought the last one was particularly uh good uh throughout the district and uh they've all been but I thought this one had a lot of different things in it, a lot of different focuses. We have one more digital one coming out and then we have the one burrowwide mailer uh at the end
of the academic year. Uh there'll be a couple of items I may mention when we get to those sections in the agenda. That's it. All right. Thank you. Questions for Mr. Early. All right. Hearing none, we're going to move on to the report of the
president. Uh wanted to echo Mie's sentiments about the end ofear party. Uh it is a lot of fun for those who are able to join. It's on June 5th at the Great Cliff in Monaki at 5:30 p.m. Uh so RSVP by May 16th if you're able to do
that. Uh wanted to just acknowledge it was in our memo all the great uh nominations that the Rutherford High School fall drama Clue, the high school edition received as well as The Lightning Thief. And I think next year is when Mary Poppins uh is able to be
nominated. But it looks like there's a dozen nominations. Uh so congratulations to all the performing arts students. Uh in the next week or so, I'm going to be sending everyone the superintendent evaluation to begin completing. Uh we
send that uh to the state toward the end of June. So we have to uh get that done. Been very excited to always have uh everyone completing that. So uh that'll go out and it'll give you some time to do that. Uh and then we will go over it ourselves. Uh and then we will go over
it with Mr. Harley and we have to do that before the end of June. Uh last thing, graduation is coming. There's a lot of uh upcoming events on the back of Mr. Early's memo. Always appreciate you giving all the uh updates, different
events we can attend. Uh and so just highlighting June 23rd, Rutherford High School graduation. Please mark your calendar if you haven't already to be there. Uh Union Middle School is also uh coming up. That's on June 20th as well.
Um so, uh that's it for my report for now. Questions from board members. All right. Hearing none, then 7:39 p.m. we're going to open the meeting to the public for any items related to the agenda this evening. No. All right. Hearing uh no comments,
we're going to close the meeting at 7:39 p.m. and we'll move on now to new business where there is action to be taken. And we will start off with personnel. Mrs. Cole, good evening. Uh today we have 19 resolutions to be put forward tonight at
the recommendation of the superintendent. Uh number one is to accept the resignation of a clerical assistant for the Bulldog Care Program. Number two is to approve Elaine Bowman as the interim principal for Lincoln School effective May 9th, 2025 through
May 30th, 2025. Numbers three, four, five, six, and seven are all approvals of replacement positions. Number eight is to approve a long-term substitute teacher. Number
nine is to approve a long-term substitute psychologist. Number 10 is to approve the confidential administrative assistant to the business administrator. This is a replacement position. Number 11 is to approve the library assistant at Peron School.
Number 12 is to approve a long-term substitute teacher assistant. 13 to approve four hours um or more time for a lunch monitor at Lincoln School. Number 14 is to approve a transfer. Number 15 is to approve uh
the following teacher provide services at the new teacher orientation as listed. Number 16 is to approve a site director clerical assistant. Number 17 is to approve the following substitute teachers as listed. Number 18 is to approve the
following substitute teacher assistance as listed. And number 19 on the agendum is to approve a guidance counselor at Washington Lincoln and the K center. This is a replacement position. All right. Thank you, Mrs. Cole.
Questions or comments from board members? Mr. Just a comment to welcome Miss Baldwin back. Um, for short period of time, she was a interim superintendent here 2010 to I think mid 2011 somewhere
in that. So, um, she there's a need for a few weeks and she was available. So, I'm happy to have her back. All right, Miss Cole, do you want to move those? I'd like to move motions one through 19 under personnel. All right, do we have a second? All right, Mr.
Spayberry, any last questions or comments? Hearing none, Mr. Woodford, please take. Mr. Bezen, yes. Mrs. Cole, yes. Mr. Ki, yes. on 1 through 12, abstaining on 13, and yes on 14 through
19. Noted. Okay, Mr. Healey. Um, I'm abstaining from item three and yes to uh all the other items. Noted. Thank you, Mrs. Jones. Yes,
Mr. Mone. Yes. Dr. Rine, yes. Mr. Spayberry, yes. Dr. Elotti, yes. Motion carries. All right. Thank you. We will move on now to curriculum and instruction. Mr. Jones, thank you. We have not had a CNI meeting. We're going to have one next week. And tonight,
there are three motions set forth by the superintendent. One, teacher evaluation. Uh, this Charlotte, we've been using that since 2007. We we've never changed from the one that we originally took. Isn't that correct? Were we answered now
or when you're done moving? I'm sorry. Thank you. um two New Jersey principal for professional learning pro process and three home instruction for one student. Now to answer your question I'm sorry in
2000 actually we started this model this became probably around 2012 or 13 where the state mandated a change to the evaluation system and they provided several models that you had to pick from. um the 2007 model of Danielson
which differs a little bit from a more recent model which I think is from about 2014 or 15. Uh but some of the differences we found really were not um um practical for lack of a better word. So that's why we're staying with this with this model and it's one so this is
a annual uh again part of the new evaluation law is that every year for both the teachers and the administrators and supervisors the model that's being used has to be approved by the board. Thank you. All right questions and comments about
those three motions. All right, Mr. Jones, you want to move those? Thank you. I move curriculum instruction uh resolutions one through three. All right. Do I have a second? Mr. Mone, any last questions or comments? Hearing none. Mr. Witford, please take
role. Mr. Poison, yes. Mrs. Cole, yes. Mr. Ki, yes. Mr. Healey, yes. Mrs. Jones, yes. Mr. Mome, yes. Dr. Rine, yes. Mr. Spayberry, yes. Dr. Lotti, yes. Motion carry. All right. Thank you.
We're going to go on now to finance. Mr. Begoian, good evening. Uh, we did not have a finance committee meeting since our last full board meeting tonight. On the agenda, we have five motions to consider. Number one is to approve an extension of an agreement between the NFHS network school broadcasting program
and the board of ed through June of 2020 uh 20 2030. Number two is the routine approval of bills. Number three is the February treasures report. Number four are the February budget line transfers. Number five is to adopt the 2025 2026
budget as presented tonight. And number six is to direct the business administrator to track expenses against the annual travel budget. All right. Thank you. Uh just a question about number one. Did do we have a multi-year agreement already that we're renewing?
We current have a multi-year agreement. That fiveyear expires this year. Um there's no fee to it. It's just our streaming service for athletic events in the high school gym. Okay. Questions or comments from board
members? Is is number six statutoily required after every time the budget is presented? Correct. It's a statutory requirement to to track travel expenses uh and dictate how much we've spent so far on travel expenses and then the board sets a limit for travel expenses
for next year. Because that was just two meetings ago. We did the exact same. Yep. So, two meetings ago was to send it to the county for approval. This one is to fully adopt. All right. Any other questions? Hearing none. Mr. Bezosian,
you want to move this? I'd like to move motions one through six under finance. All right. We have a second. Mr. Healey, any last questions or comments? Hearing none. Mr. Woodford, please take role. Mr. Beosian. Yes. Mrs.
Cole, yes. Mr. Ky, yes. Mr. Healey, yes. Mrs. Jones, yes. Mr. Mone, yes. Dr. Rine, yes. Mr. Spayberry, yes. Dr. Alotti, yes. Motions carry. All right. Uh, next up, policy. Mr. Healey, yes. We did not have a uh
committee meeting since our last board meeting, and there are no resolutions for this evening. All right. Then we will move on to buildings and grounds. Mr. Spayberry. Uh we did not have a grant committee this evening. We'll have one Monday. And there are
no nothing to do. All right. Uh thank you. We'll move on to old business. Is there any old business this evening? I'll start with Mr. Ki and then Mr. Jones. Yeah. Right before the break, I attended the uh link Lincoln, excuse me. I attended the kindergarten center uh
PTA meeting. Uh and it was a great meeting. Uh just really impressed with all the things that the the PTA is doing over there. They're doing an amazing job at you know I what I expected that and it was really really really great to see the amount of involvement and the amount of things that they're involved with. So
it's all awesome Mr. Jones uh the Union School Art Show which was really wonderful and the same night was the popert so I beat it over there you know from one to the other and that was just outstanding and um David Pagosian
played the guitar used to hearing him play the drums I I didn't see your your Charlie was he did he do popert no he did not so those are our musicians on the boards so Anyway, but it was it was wonderful and also uh Alia Jordan's
concert at um uh Perpot and Julia Julia Julia Ireland Julia Begoian was in that also. So they were very very good. I'm always impressed. The kids look so great on the stage. It was really really
nice. Um and that and that's that's all business. All right. Thank you, Mr. really. Uh yeah, something I should report. Last time I did go to the Peron PTA meeting in March, it was and uh they
too reported on all the activities and they actually had a new book fair this year. Uh April 30th is their band concert and my grandson is playing percussion, he told me. So I'll see. All right. Um they're having a sixth grade
social and uh and number of other activities. So and their next meeting is June. Got it through them. All right. Thank you. Other old business. All right. Hearing none, we're going to move on to legislative update.
Anything for us, Mrs. Jones? Yes. Uh Senate Bill 4256 uh on 317. was introduced requires public schools to provide age appropriate information to students in grades 9 through 12 on
United States military and veterans. All right. I kind of thought we did that. All right. Thank you. Uh, we are going to open the meeting to the public at 7:50 p.m. for anything related to or not related to the agenda
this evening. All right, hearing nothing, we are going to close the meeting at 7:50 p.m. Uh, we do have a need for executive session. Two student issues about 5 to 10 minutes. Uh, no action to be taken. Need a motion to go
into executive session. Mr. Spayberry, seconded by Mr. from the zone. All in favor? I All right, we're going into executive session. Thank you.