there's something but it's fine good evening it's Monday April 7th 2025 at 6:40 p.m this meeting is being livereamed and recorded for storage and viewing on the district's YouTube channel i am Maplewood Township
Committee Member Deborah Angel filling in for the mayor's uh column and Mayor Adams and I'm joined by my colleagues for this meeting thank you for joining us please note that adequate notice of this meeting has been provided in the following manner that written notice was sent from the office of the secretary of
the board at 11:37 a.m on April 3rd 2025 that said notice was sent via email to Maplewood and South Orange Township clerks and the editors of the news record Star Ledger Tap into Soma and the Village Green may I have a roll call please
good evening everybody uh Deputy Mayor Malia Herman here committee member Deborah Angel here trustee Bobby Brown here trustee Jen Greenberg here
trustee Olivia Lewis Chang here board President Ni Nubia Dval Wilson here and board member Bill Gford here thank you all in attendance please rise for the pledge of 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 and now I think I turn it over to you Superintendent Bing you do you do thank
you we're going to do a short presentation uh let's pull up Steve let's pull up the uh preliminary budget i think everybody's seen it it's a nauseium at this point but I want just Yes i want to hit on a
particular slide [Music] [Music] [Music] you're scaring me [Music] thank you
Lyanna can we go to the uh second uh one two third to last slide the uh 2526 bond issuance [Music] there you go so we've been uh facilitating our budget
town halls for last month or so and in addition to community conversations we have uh two more I believe before spring break Thursday evening and then Friday at 100 p.m uh we've been been getting pretty
good attendance averaging about anywhere from 50 to 100 folks so we appreciate everybody taking time out of their schedule i did want to call attention to one of the slides that is of particular importance for our meeting tonight and that's our bond issuance and where we
currently stand in regards to bond issuance uh as you can see on this slide uh 2014 currently all going up all the way to 2024 um which means these bonds are currently still being paid they are not
off the table as of yet um which is one of the things we took into consideration as we were developing this budget i think one of the messages we have been given along the way is
uh one uh there was a great opportunity for myself our BA and our assistant BA being so new to the district to really take a zerobased approach to what we were doing so we were able to do that for the 2020 24-25 budget as well as the
development of the 25 and 26 budget um at this point we can and will balance the budget for the 2526 school year um without any reductions in force uh the
messaging we've been given is we're looking way past 2526 so we're currently looking at 26 27 27 28 28 29 um we all have seen the headlines and we see what's happening in districts around us whether it's uh you know West Orange
Montlair uh you name it uh there are massive cuts going on going across the state as well as buildings being closed as well as programs being cut transportation being reduced um so we kind of wanted to get a little ahead of this uh we started early uh reframing
the 2425 budget going right into the 2526 now on our end we approve our budget on April 24th as noted I believe we can uh and will present a balanced budget to our board and that it will be approved uh but the more work we do and
the the more analysis we do our our concern is not only will 25 and 26 be a tight year it will get tighter moving forward if if we're looking at projections and if things stay the same as they are if we're looking at inflation if we're looking at increased costs which we've been occurring whether
that's uh energy health and benefits however you look at it with a 2% cap um and the current funding formula that does not benefit South Orange Mapwood School District and we've done some advocating in regards to that along with last time we were down there 85 other
districts were down there advocating um and the hope is that this formula will be changed within the next few years which will have a major impact on what we're doing uh but currently we're just projecting on what this what the state of things are uh and assuming they will
remain pretty much the same over the next 3 to four years uh and that does not look good for our budget as I assuming it not look very good for uh the municipality budgets as well so uh one of the things we we did look at as noted was the history of of the
bonds that we we've taken out uh and where we are in regards to payment um I think we came to the collective decision that uh we would not be requesting any bonds uh for the this upcoming school year i think we're we
have stabilized our budget we've made some cuts uh we really prioritize those reductions and cuts in regards to it them not impacting students not being in the classroom and I think we've done a good job at that we've also balanced uh
the need for keeping our buildings [Music] um in a condition that are that that that uh respects our students and our families so we did not drastically cut our our maintenance or facilities budget uh we're still putting monies into
making sure these buildings are up and ready for students and treat students with the respect that they need to be treated with uh we are currently working on our 5-year long-range facility plan and you'll see some of that uh when I pull up uh a list we we developed for future projects possibility of future
projects um we are currently finishing the discovery stages of our long range facility plan which involved interviewing students including uh CHS student council MMS student council uh South
Orange School District student council interviewing teachers surveying teachers surveying parents our parent and community survey closed today i think we're at about 450 500 responses on that uh interviewing principles interviewing senior leadership team um we've also had
our architects do individual walkthroughs of our buildings and just note what they felt needed to be uh worked on based upon uh their projects across the state uh we've come up with a pretty comprehensive list we've also looked at our old long range silly plan
of what was not done shifted that those items over so uh the board will be presented with the list of items over the next month and we need to make some decisions on our end of what we want to prioritize and then the uh next step will be bringing that to the public and
town halls and really getting their input on what we uh are proposing uh to move forward with in the 5-year plan uh once we get that feedback we'll make some adjustments and then come out with the final product and have a nice game plan for the next five years
so for us Keith you can pull up the other uh the Excel slide sheet [Music]
oh I this one no no no the uh our our um recommendations moving forward no everybody has a copy of the Yeah yeah keith I just sent you the email
so we collectively looked at our long-range facility plans uh and this year's budget as we uh developed this particular list i'm looking at the sheet that has category in in uh column one then location then project description and then cost um so one of the things we
are looking at for next year which I I think is a pretty valid reason for not requesting any any assistance for 2526 uh we're looking at EIP which are energy uh bonds uh through the state so uh we're starting leg work on that process
which I believe both towns have done in their own way maybe not gone through the whole process but have done a little leg work on it um we're going to start that process right after uh we approve our budget so that will be in May uh and
really it's about a four to five month process of working with the state and getting an energy audit done for the district and then really just like the long range facility plan deleting what we need to do and what our best savings
are through EIP um we're really any money that we're bonding out usually comes back within less than 10 years from the from the savings that's the beauty of of an energy savings um plan so that's something we've all agreed to undertake
uh and we'll as noted we'll start that work after our budget uh review in April um so if you take a look at our list um top of that list you will see Richer Field uh we've had these discussions I believe all of your faces have been virtually I we've virtually discussed
the need for fields um across this town both towns we're looking at various options um in addition to Ritzer because we we'll need to the need just keeps growing uh but I believe this was brought uh to uh the board's attention
in 2024 uh at a cost of $5 million school auditoriums uh so currently we are working uh using our budget on Columbia High School's
auditorium we are putting in new rigging at a cost Keith new rigging about 1.5 estimated about 1.5 um we're also a little concerned about the tariffs right now because we're hearing from the vendor uh that that might be an issue uh
we have some of the equipment here but not all of it it is a lot of steel um so we're in a wait and see mode on that we're hoping to keep the timeline hoping to be done by May June and that's just for the rigging uh summer we're looking
to then upgrade uh electric um which could be another whole monster as you know uh through this current construction project and capital project any wall that we've touched in Columbia High School usually ended up needing a
best abatement so uh for electric again I think we're looking in the range of about 1 million or a little more Keith for the electric upgrade we have that in our budget uh and that's something we're we're working to complete because that is our most
used stage across the district by far our next two most utilized stages are Maplewood Middle School and South Orange Middle School both in the same state as our Columbia High School um stage uh so rigging would need to be
done there and also electric we're looking at a little less cost for that project i would say in total around 2 million for for both of those um now that is not including seating flooring we're we we
were we're just doing stage at CHS um so we put the 4 million in for school auditoriums which would be MMS and uh SOM hopefully also including the seating in both of those auditoriums um as the
years move on we also have to upgrade our other auditoriums across the district that that is not here this really encompasses your middle Maplewood Middle School uh and your South Orange Middle School uh buses as you all know
um we are currently vendor based for our bus services um about a nine we're predicting about a $9.8 million transportation cost next year uh we're about a little under 10 million this year what we have been looking at is uh
when we go out and pay for field trips pay for athletics um those short trips we're expending quite a bit of money with our private partners so what we were thinking of is bringing anywhere from two to three
buses back inhouse um at this point and in all honesty it depends on the economy um we're really looking at diesel um right now electric are too expensive so for us the purchase of the buses which
would be around 500 each we also have to upgrade the lifts so our current lifts cannot hold electric buses uh and electric buses also uh need coverage so we would have to build some sort of coverage we currently do not have that as well electric electric are about half
diesel is about half that price a little less yeah uh we're interested in electric trust me we've talked about it so if we see grants out there uh I just wanted to make sure to put that out there that encompasses more than just purchasing the bus we'd have to upgrade our lifts get some coverage build a building
things of that nature um fencing concrete and landscaping is throughout the district you're looking at uh $800,000 a lot of that is cement we need a lot of cement work and sidewalk work around our schools plain
and simple um Underh Hill Complex uh we've been talking about if you've been down to the track you you have noted that it is I would definitely say utilized to the fact that it may be even overutilized uh we're currently
analyzing the life time of the turf uh which you know we believe will be significantly less than what we were originally told just due to the usage um so on our end uh we're putting some safeguards in place working with some community members around that including
uh putting in a senior citizen walking program uh at at um Underh Hill but if you've seen the track it's it's in pretty poor shape so we're looking to just recode that track and upgrade our track it is also used by Satan Hall it
is used by our athletic teams um so the track receives a lot of usage um lockers uh for our secondary schools which be your two middle schools and high school yes that number is correct my jaw also dropped when I saw the price
of lockers yes so you're you're talking about a a total need to uh re put in all new lockers across our secondary schools at this point uh at a cost of around $2 million uh door alarms our facilities do
not have any security door alarms so what I mean by that is if any student pushes open a door there is no loud alarm that goes off like you'll see in most buildings uh around the county and we have many many doors uh in our buildings especially our high schools and middle
schools uh so that is a project that is on the safety side of the house that we're looking Stan used but no alarms no um security entrance vestibules
currently uh Columbia High School and Maplewood Middle School do not have safety vestibules uh and if you've been around our buildings uh a lot of our last capital project went towards building those vestibules vestibules in our other buildings uh and they've
become pretty common practice in every school district around the country uh unfortunately you know two of our largest buildings do not do not have them uh parking garage so this is actually
tied in to fielding fields as well um so if you take a look at down Parker Avenue for us you have the student lot you have a teacher lot um if we're thinking out of the box
uh it's very feasible to put a three-story parking garage on our student lot which we would open up to the towns uh we would just keep the bottom for our students and staff and open up the rest uh for our citizens taking them the teacher lot and
possibly looking at that as athletic field um we've been working on that one for a while um so you know that's something we've been you know we've been on multiple conversations in that field especially with the mayors so that's what we have
come up with you're looking at about a $12 million investment just for the garage um and then we're also looking at uh security cameras and upgrading our security cameras we have security cameras many of them are very old uh so
we're looking to upgrade those uh security cameras and also put in some biometric readers uh throughout the buildings again another common safety protocol that's been done in many buildings uh across the state and uh across the country you'll also see on
that list just a breakdown of the costs in regards by school uh and also by field and that is the presentation for tonight i will take any questions that you may have again we were not asking for any bond or assistance going into
2526 we've put a lot of work i compliment the board uh I compliment our our staff in regards to the work and hours that have gone into really looking at two budgets and getting us to a place uh where we are but we've been using the message the messaging of a fiscal cliff
coming our way over the next few years so you know we we just want to be honest with our community and really uh work with them around um budget items for us that we're going to see as issues moving forward we've been using uh the town
hall and community conversation model we're now transitioning that uh into uh getting community action committees together uh we've had our first run this year through a budget action committee budget advisory committee that's gone very well we've we've met three or four
times we have our last meeting coming up their input around the budget which been around 39 people uh has been wonderful we're actually at the point of even extending them for another year uh because the work has been so really deep and and great uh but we're thinking of
using that model community conversation town hall and then community advisory group around specific issues throughout our budget that we're going to see as hard to sustain moving forward if if the state funding formula stays the same and if everything stays status quo um so
that's the work we're doing on on our end and as noted obviously transportation our special services um there are some areas that we need to get the community involved in and we've started that work through town halls uh but we need to get a little more nitty-gritty into the work by using
advisory committees as well questions about the list presented any questions for my colleagues up here i have a question about the current um the buses currently i understand what we
want to do um what would be where are we now with um let's say uh fall 2025 we do not have buses in this budget uh so we're looking at that uh possibly for
26 27 um we're projecting a We don't have buses but we don't have um um external um uh events or Yeah we don't have any vendors right now that are
so our vendor our our transportation is completely vendor based understood uh our goal over the next couple years would be bringing a few buses inhouse looking at our numbers that would reduce
our cost at a you give us a pretty decent savings with the amount of athletics the the amount of field trips and things of that nature that that we that we do in this district so we'll see a good good a decent amount of savings there um going full-fledged I I don't think
would benefit us moving forward i think more of a hybrid model of keeping some private and then doing that the uh transportation I noted in house would be more beneficial it would but if we don't have that for the fall we have no we
have no vendor relationships that we're going to use oh yeah we're all set that's what I Oh no no it's all in our budget already that stays That's status quo obviously having it inhouse would benefit us tremendously would save us some money okay but that will stay status quo if not cutting anything that was my question can I ask a follow-up
question on transportation i've heard you talking about um moving to this hub system um and maybe cutting that line so do you want to talk a little bit about that or have Sure so we're ex we're again we're at discovery stages we've met had about two meetings around this we're just looking at ways to be a
little more fiscally sound around our transportation and that also that includes a wide variety of things including working uh doing a better job in all honesty from our special services side of a house we have a new assistant superintendent working on that um a lot
of our out of district busing is quite expensive often the busing is more expensive than the tuition um but you're also looking at uh at a district tuition that can go up to $200,000 per student so for us working on our in-house uh
protocol and process to improve our customer service to our parents to offer more uh of a continuum of services we're hoping we'll lower the amount of out of district tuition thus transportation um that we need to supply which would lower our transportation costs um right
now uh currently you know we call it a doortodoor service it's technically we don't go to everybody's door but we every other block or every two blocks we're we're stopping uh a hub service just really focuses around larger stops uh where
kids would congregate on our end we're currently doing working the data around around hubs that would be half a mile from a student's address um a mile and 1.25 miles we're doing
that comparative data right now so uh we'll be presenting that uh at committee probably next month uh so if we see some benefit in that then we'll go farther in in investigating what that may look at may look like but right now we've been
doing the discovery work we have a certain draft model drawn up but we're really drawing them up for different categories of you know.5 away from address 75 one mile 1.25 and seeing what those cost benefits would be there may
be no cost benefits we we we've done the 1.25 25 work already um which looks at a reduction of about onethird of our buses so now we're doing the remainder of those uh distances to see what the savings would be there so we're still in the discovery stage in
regards to the hubs so that wouldn't be for this school year it' be for next school year um we'll have data within two weeks um you know for us we we like at least a year's runway yeah um so unless something really drastically
happens um where we get more bad news from the federal government or state currently our our budget is balanced status quo what we have been running um but we're trying to get a year ahead of everything and making sure people are part of that instead of just throwing
things out there a few months in advance we've heard that hasn't been too successful do the rumor i I'm just curious about the cost of the flag polls i mean it just kind of stands out 40,000 50,000,000 i said the same am I missing something
so it's I asked the same question it's it's also including the landscaping so it's pouring the cement it's I had the same question when I saw the $50,000 as well so or President Wilson you did you have something yeah I just wanted to follow up on the
transportation question well one add comment and then also a question of something I just thought of now but you know when it comes to to transportation like Mr bing said we we are very sensitive to the needs of our students and the board is very sensitive to that and
um I think it's very important to continue to try to support the 1.25 m 1.25 mile mark for transportation that was what the border school estimate gave us and um we know that that's an expectation to continue if we have a hub
model then having a very short walk from my perspective would be the best decision versus a longer walk um because we know that what will end up happening is parents are going to be driving driving that longer one or 1.25 and then it's a moot point well I might
as well just keep driving and take them to school um and we've heard from our community members for the past couple of years that not everyone can drive their kids it can be a huge hardship and um so I I do want to say that while we're having these conversations and I appreciate that our superintendent is
doing what he knows the board loves is looking all the data uh we're very data hungry uh with this board um and allowing them to do the analysis um because look at the end of the day we understand that the future of this district and many school districts is bleak we're we're we don't have uh big
reserves anymore and we realize that we we all will have to come together to to figure out how to move forward in a way that we can maintain services to our students while also being fiscally responsible um personally I I I prefer that any hub model would happen in a
future year and and maybe even it's looking at the higher grades looking at a high school or middle school and piloting something first versus impacting our our younger students um and so yeah I mean we look forward to seeing the data that is brought um to us from from the from the district but I
did want to reiterate that we know how important it is especially with our integration plan to to to continue our efforts of that 1.25 mile mark i think the idea of shared services as well obviously is something we have to really look deeply into
between all entities up here as we move forward as well um the other thing I was wondering about was um we have three buses on this list but I wonder if there is a long-term plan we can look at for continuing to buy back buses because at
the end of the day having our own fleet is more ideal than having to deal with a vendor we have a lot of vendors in our district i know we're we're evaluating looking at all of our contracts um maybe it's a lofty goal uh that isn't possible anytime soon but I personally would love
to see and I and I think even FFT chair over here um uh Gford would love to see us having more and more buses that we can call our own over time because it will save us money and we don't have to sacrifice so much of our of our students ability to get to school um by
outsourcing and spending so much money call on to call on Deputy Mayor Herman next i just want to mention I really appreciate the forecasting and the thinking ahead and the year um runway even for all of these things because I think that that's very refreshing to hear from our superintendent so thank
you Deputy Mayor oh yes you took the words right out of my mouth oh I was going to say that I was just press the Yep yep that's it okay all right well you took the words out of my mouth i was going to say that I appreciate this meeting and I really appreciate the transparency i think you've done a
really good job at keeping everyone informed and uh allowing uh parents and others to be participants in this process so I really commend you for that um now I want to ask about the timeline for Ritzer um as we all know this was in
the last long range facilities plan and it was the one thing that was was not did not get to and so um you know as you know the current situation right now with baseball and softball is just not equitable for our female athletes and so
um that's that's a problem and I I would hope that this would be a high priority for the district and so I so I'd like to know um you know what the timeline is what the thinking is on this when we might be able to you know um address this because our girls have been waiting
a long time so Ritzer and our auditoriums and I don't want to speak for the board but my assumption is that's what's going to top the list as we move forward over the next month u because th those have been part of our conversations since I've been here those have been given the
priority so um I think within I'm going to say once this budget is done you're talking April 24th May June I think in June we'll have a pretty good timeline of where we want to move uh in regards to richer and then also the the middle school auditoriums and are you going to
need to go to bond for those i just want to be clear for richer yes so then that would be something we might um discuss later this year correct okay and then my second question was about um Underh Hill um you mentioned a senior
citizens walking path u my seniors in Maplewood are very interested in this if you could share some more details so we're working with uh Fred one of our community members um so Ritzer has had
no close open hours 247 currently we have security guards as well as uh custodial workers there 24/7 7 days a week um for for a costly amount
um we have been upgrading thanks to Mr bonds and Mr val our our card reading system throughout the district for safety purposes um our plan is to put that same card reading service at our uh rich under Hillfield uh and then offer
uh that project to our seniors where seniors could come use the card go in walk the track leave the track uh we do want to put new hours in which would be around 6:30 to 900 p.m um open I'm sorry 6:00 to 9:00 p.m open from 6:00 to 8 to
all public members closed from 8 to 3 used utilized by our schools and then open from 3:00 to 9:00 for our public however those closed hours during the day we want to open it up for seniors so that's where the card system would come in so during that 8 am to 3 pm seniors
would still be able to access the track do their walking uh and get their exercise in simply by using a a card read system do you have a timeline on that yeah we've just got the quote for the system uh so once this budget is approved um we can actually be we'll be
putting that system in keith what are you looking at about 3 months about 3 months anything from Mr brown yeah another follow-up question about Under Hill specifically i see the the
uh you you addressed it by also talking about all the usage and I I hearing that Satan Hall uses it knowing that Satan Hall and um most of our colleges and universities are structured in a way that's very favorable from a tax standpoint for
themselves um but it seems like there would be an opportunity i don't know if we've even thought about it for some sort of public private opport like I don't know if they get grants if there's some allocation in their athletic department but it sounds like they use Underh Hill and maybe as we are thinking and trying to be ahead of the challenges
that we know are coming maybe that would be an opportunity for some sort of allocation of some sort so our understanding because we dove into the fiscal history of Underh Hill uh they were one of our fiscal partners when we
upgraded uh Underh Hill about five years the new press box the uh uh turf about five years they donated uh I don't have the exact money amount but they did contribute to it and we signed an MOA in
regards to their usage just of the track not of the field um we're also going with a more permit a permitbased system for the field uh because what we're finding is many private businesses are being run off that field uh with very
large equipment which is tearing up the turf um we've had individuals shovel on the try to shovel snow off it tearing up the turf um so for how old it is and how it looks it's not in the greatest of
shape due to just um you know lack of monitoring and a lack of guard rails so we're just putting some more guardrails in in regards to the turf usage uh you'll see signs that say this field is currently under permit use moving forward we're going electronic with that system so people could actually see uh
when the field is being permitted and to who um and then we're hoping that with this system of of card usage uh it'll be a lot easier for our seniors to utilize the track and a lot safer for our our schools i've been part of a couple confront confrontations in my short time
here if you talk to our PTO's and our principal over at Clinton as well as our director of safety there has been many instances of confrontations at that field um in regards to asking folks to leave or um so we're just we're trying
to increase the safety while not uh diminishing access to community members which a lot of that usage is with our seniors who like to use the track so we're trying to come to a nice compromise i would mention also I believe is your mic on so make sure your mic off I guess oh okay um I believe the
Ark of New Jersey also uses it for um Special Olympics for the disabled community yes yes no it's it's it's well used um Underh Hill needs a little work if you if you if you're looking at it especially our baseball fields on the
other side of the house um but that track is definitely a priority right now cuz if you walk on it you you'll see many cracks it just it needs a a really good recoding and I think we could sustain the life of the turf longer if we put these guardrails in place i think
we'll be in a better place we've invested a lot of money in video security uh at Underh Hill um so I think the card reader would make the best next sense and we're really talking next fiscal cycle which would be for us July
1st so right now there's the same access as people has have always had we've have have our guards there and our custodial uh so we're really not looking to transition until our new fiscal year the other thing I wanted to mention was I'm happy that you're still putting
money into the maintenance line because I think history has shown that taking money out of that line is why we're in some of the positions we're in with our facilities so I appreciate that um I have a question about the fencing concrete landscaping you just mentioned how it's a lot of concrete in Maplewood
we just passed our storm water utility fund so I've learned a lot about storm water management and I'm just curious if you're looking at more sustainable alternatives like imperous grounds or something beyond concrete to make it better so that's one of the reasons why we put that on the list to get better input from uh both our municipalities to
see if there are options to this uh cost um so we are open to any suggestions or recommendations uh obviously you you you guys do a lot more work around this area than we do um so yeah we're definitely open to those conversations we have a whole credit
manual in Maplewood that kind of lines out some examples of things that you can do to lower the tax impact as well so that might be a good place to start um we can send that to you so you can see it i also circled the flag pole on this list so I
um anything else from anyone in South Orange any questions and we're we're trying to get also the our grassroots uh organizations involved with our ESIP or energy bonding uh we had a meeting this morning with a couple of our organizations on in both both
municipalities um we're looking at sustainable New Jersey as well uh and working with these groups around certifying our schools as a district we can't get certified but our schools can uh and I think that would then really transition well into an EIP and working on solar panels and things of that
nature to lower energy costs uh districtwide there's the electrified Soma group is that who you're meeting with one of the groups Mr mccoy this morning yep yep uh and I would do a disservice if I didn't shout out the individual that has been pushing us to
move in this direction i don't see him here so I Oh yes he is there he is mr bill Gford who's been pushing this since I've been on board and we're very grateful for that direction and you know I I think even um it's a great opportunity to bring the district into
the 21st century and it's really going to save the district money um in the long run but even beyond that um you know the process of uh sustainability uh sustainable New Jersey it brings community members and students to really
be a part of this energy audit and reimagining you know what we can do with the school with renewable energy and I think you know it's going to be great it's going to motivate you know the future engineers and um you know I was just going to comment on for us as many
of you know we have a plan of bringing back some career in technical education over the next five years many of those careers are in the energy field those are your newest CT pathways you see popping up over the last 5 years of the state so that would also tie into curriculum instruction as we move
forward that's a great leadin because I was going to ask on this list you had the project bike tech and the Cisco learning lab which really were quite interesting to me when I was reading this so so this would be for the future it's just on your list of priority rank we would consider that our C something non-
capital wish list so our project bike tech out of Colorado is is really a first step or a toe into the water for kids that may be interested in engineering career uh literally is setting up bike stations at our high school and kids learn how to repair
bikes for the community while better understanding STEM concepts and hopefully that will ignite something in them to say hey maybe engineering isn't is something I want to go or maybe automotive or maybe um so again and also the Cisco learning lamb obviously uh
students are coming out of high school making 85 to 125 Cisco certified individuals you know we've been um visiting labs around the area but it's quite an investment to start off with for us we would probably dibble uh
double dip with Cisco and also esports we're bringing back esports um so uh for those you don't know colleges are now affording many dollars to uh esport scholarships um so we're starting esports this spring very small using
Nintendo Switches um and then we'll slowly uh grow that over the next 5 years into another career in technical education pathway whether that's uh game design whether that's uh uh computer development whatever that may look like it will also tie into career and
technical education pathways so kids are not only graduating with a diploma they're either graduating with an industry certification they're graduating with college credits they're graduating with work-based learning you know for us and we've had this discussion as a board a high school
diploma is a low bar you know we want our kids to be positioned when they leave high school uh to to have something other than just the high school diploma uh and we believe there's many opportunities out there that we can tap especially amongst our community members and both municipalities
i also appreciate you doing the participatory budgeting with these action comm community action groups that you're talking about to really workshop the budget and the spending because we have such a engaged community as I'm sure you've seen since you've been here and a lot of people have a lot of thoughts and I like that you're involving them yeah I mean our next step
in regards to that process is really starting to involve our students with a true participary budgeting project that's when we may all lot anywhere from uh 2500 to $5,000 to students and students come up with their own usage of that money uh and then they pitch it to
their peers shark tank kind of pitch uh and then the final three are voted on and that's where the money goes to we've done various projects on that in other districts whether it's water filters students invent water filters for the water fountains or playgrounds or or various other projects but it gets the
kids civically involved and for us that's an area that uh not only the students need some work on but our community as well so we're working with some of our leaders and faith leaders around what civics may look like amongst our community members
and also our students mr brown um last followup question on the auditoriums just to hear you talk about u some of the uh esports and the tech um improvements that we want to make that particular line item though was just for
the stages that that doesn't include so this includes the seating the seating the for the middle schools yeah so this 4 million because we're looking at what are you looking at Keith around 1.5 for the stages uh so 1.5 for each stage and
then we're hoping to squeeze in upgraded seating in both of them as well um if you've gone to any of our recent shows you will note the seating isn't the best uh talk about my back problem that would take all all
night but uh we've had was Seth Bon where we up that was the last school that we upgraded the stages we never did the seating uh so really we've only been working on the stage itself really the rigging and the lighting but if you've gone to our auditoriums especially those that are used a lot the seating needs a
lot of work um and for us as I as I noted previously um we're launching a freshman academy next year uh and then out of that we expect to launch moreies over the next five years and one of those is going to be an arts academy obviously for our towns uh and those
auditoriums will be the gem uh for that academy so it's something that especially CHS is is a priority right now and that's in our budget i just wanted to um go back to the um the the two
security elements the vestibules and the door alarms and I just wanted to um point out I know this isn't like a sexy topic but I think it's really important and I would really like to see it highly prioritized yep um you know because obviously keeping all of our kids safe while they're learning and also for
their mental health to feel that they are safe while they're learning is really important yeah i mean again thank you to this board uh you know our current capital project that will be wrapping up hopefully by September included a lot of vestibules up
upgrading of security systems um so really our next step for us and in this budget uh we are instituting a uh school visitor management system similar to what the YMCA has uh individuals come in with a license goes through a system uh
we have them uh uh digitally read uh we could automatically tell if there's any issues um and we're also looking at a digital hall pass system for our larger schools such as um the middle schools and the high schools so on our end we're working on that uh we're also working on
that concept of investing and then within 3 to 5 years making that money back also not only in special services uh by uh we have a child a new child study team in the budget which we hope again will reduce our out of district placements um we're also looking at
bringing back uh some security personnel inhouse um which uh will reduce some of our costs current costs with private vendors i have is it on topic to security i was going to ask that security only one um
with the security gate at South Mountain uh my kids went to South Mountain i'm trying to think of where is there a security gate now we've been installing and we have two installed so far stanley uh Clinton and then we're working on
those are the gates that just shut the parking lots off um because in a couple of our schools were experiencing some major issues security issues with whether it's cars parked overnight whether it's older students or even students that are no longer in our system so where would that one be in
South Mountain jason playground back school background oh okay if you've noticed at the high school here especially the front entrance we've we hope you haven't noticed because
that's the point of it we put concrete planters in front because originally you literally could just drive right through the front doors uh they were highly accessible uh to a vehicle so one of the things we did look at I mean our first my first month here is auto access to
our schools uh and then uh we've been Stan's been wonderful we've been going down his list and working with both police departments uh around the safety of our of our students and what that's going to look like not only next year but three to five years out um because
that's one of our top priorities as noted nobody learns if they don't feel safe physically and mentally president yeah I just wanted to make a suggestion which is I think uh we should have a upcoming security town hall you've done them in the past
traditionally they were in September but matters what month it is but I think to your point um Mr bing that there have been a lot of upgrades especially with the completion of all the of all the elementary schools it uh there could be an info gap for community members and parents on what all those upgrades are
that we have come a long way with security and um and so I think having another town hall I mean it could be one of the themes of an upcoming one right maybe in the summer i just know traditionally we've done them in September just because it's the start of school
miss Greenberg I just have one more question about the garage and wanted to know the idea of the garage um I wanted to know if that price of 12 million includes going down below
ground so that's just above that's a three to four level above ground parking structure wow you can make them pretty now though in California they've made them all like I'm looking at the price and I'm thinking it because it needed to go down
and it doesn't and so Wow yep okay thank you can I can I ask a question can I ask a question about um if if the student parking lot becomes if the dream is to make it into a a field athletic
field what happens to Chzawick because Chzawick is over there so we've had this discussion multiple times and tried to look at different ways of possibly using it's just too much of a flood zone for us no matter and we've talked to our
architect around this meaning what are some alternative ways to maybe add to Jesuits which make it less of a flood zone but even from our experts there's nothing out there that would stop the flooding right yeah that was our first look
Jesuit's field it's just not feasible um that's why we started looking at those two lots and we've also a couple we've had discussions with a few people here in regards to even using uh you know the Manhattan model or Union City model in New Jersey which is if any if any of the
towns are building a large structure we put fielding on top of that structure um that's what Union City has all their fields are on top of their high school uh same with Manhattan many of their fields are on top of large buildings residential buildings that are turfed and have netting and that's where kids
play so yeah we're thinking about as much out of the box as possible there's just not a lot of space oh sorry sorry i was asking about parking garage is that what you're asking about yeah I was just going to ask how how much how big like how big of a field could you put in this lot we
haven't we're not there as of yet so uh we're not even in the discovery stages yet that we haven't so we don't even know what kind of what sport it might be yeah or like what kind of field okay and we've and we've had multiple people from whether it's tennis courts whether it's like the out of the box yeah so we still have to do the measurements so it's a
it's a it's a large space um it would have to go hand in hand again with some sort of parking structure we have multiple cars in that area for our students and staff um that we would need to put be right next to the greenway yes and does that 12act does that $12
million include infrastructure for electric vehicles like charging and stuff or is it just regular parking spots that's just regular and this to be as dead honest as possible this is doing internet research talking to a couple of our former architects around what costs
were two three years ago uh for a for a garage two three years ago yeah and that's also a concern aren't the parking lots also in the flood zone or no like would it uh Yes so we've had some flooding very little uh in the very rear
of that lot but we haven't had what the field gets not even close so we could put some parameters in there that would keep it safe from flooding but no amount of parameters or or could would help no I know that for the field i was just thinking cuz the the development that's there the West Parker had talking to our
director uh we had one incident where the reservoir went over slightly and it really only flooded the back of the system the rest of it where we actually plan on putting a field we'd be pretty safe with that and the parking garage would be measures in for the flooding
too correct any other question here on the DAS i just want to know is is one side larger than the other or they exact same no so which one is larger the teachers lot teacher lot much larger yeah student lot is rather small that's where the
greenway is um teacher lot is is significantly larger no other questions from anyone up here and I think this is the time for the hearing for the public speaks correct correct just state your name and you have how
many minutes do you give here three three three minutes to speak we trust you hi my name is Jessica Miller um I over the past couple meetings I've heard many statements that seem to conflate flood risk with wetlands or flood hazard
areas area status but I would like to point out that the state and local MS4 storm water rules apply regardless they dictate that the runoff may not exceed its pre-existing condition because it requires under drains New Jersey D
considers artificial turf to be impervious these storm water requirements were strengthened in July of 23 and require that new imperous surfaces be built with storm water retention systems and are not and are not allowed to simply tie into the local
storm water pipes like the plan that has been presented did any new development greater than one acre is defined as a major development and triggers MS4 requirements that recognize the stress to the municipal storm water system i am
here to ask this body to commit to following all regulations laws and best practices any plan for new artificial turf must show concern for the surrounding area and be complete with a storm water retention system a tree protection plan a lighting plan and
green infrastructure i asked the district and its architects to be prepared to present to Maplewood Planning Board and to invite the South Orange Planning professionals to weigh in regardless of feelings about artificial turf i would hope that we can all agree that the impact of the local
area should be minimized and that it that increase of field usage should not come at the expense of a flooded high school or flooded homes i asked this community to demand that if artificial turf is to be added that it be built responsibly studies show that
communities that maintain and improve their storm water systems realize improved property values as a stakeholder district parent and neighborhood of Ritzer and neighbor of Ritzerfield I ask the district for transparency and cooperation before
unveiling a plan and requesting funding from the board of school estimates please take the time to meet with us the Columbia High School gym flooded in December of 23 many neighbors across Valley lost their cars to flooding
during Ida this area is already prone to flooding columbia High School and the surrounding parking lots already create heat islands and have vast impervious coverage adding artificial turf will exasperate both heat and flooding we are
your neighbors do right by us thank you thank you no one online all right then uh I think that's it right do I need to get a motion to adjurnn do I need to do that here i mean it's worthless whatever's on doesn't say
it just says adjourn so I call us ajourned thank you so much