Good evening. Um, welcome to the May Board of Education meeting. Chad, would you like to open us up with our meeting opening notice announcement, please? The New Jersey open public's meeting law was enacted to ensure the rights of the public to have advanced notice of and to attend the meetings of public bodies at
which any business affecting their interests is discussed or acted upon. In accordance with the provisions of this act, the Sparta Board of Education has caused notice of the time and place of this meeting to be published in the New Jersey Herald. The store ledger to happen to Sparta and notice of this meeting has been posted on the Sparta
Township School District website. Thank you so much. And just to confirm, the meeting is called to order at 6 PM. Uh may we please have a roll call here? Here. Here here.
Here. Present. Thank you so much. If everyone can join us for the pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice
for all. We will begin by convening into close session. Whereas section 8 of the open public meetings act, chapter 231, public law 1975 provides for the exclusion of the public firm meeting in certain circumstances. And whereas the Sparta Township Board of Education is of the
opinion that such circumstances exist to discuss legal matters which are exempt from public participation pursuant to New Jersey Public Law 1975, chapter 231, Open Public Meetings Act. Therefore, be it resolved that the Sparta Township Board of Education shall enter executive
session on May 1st at Thank you, 6:02 p.m. The board will reconvene in public session at the conclusion of the executive session. Uh we estimate about an hour. The information discussed during executive session will be disclosed to the public as soon as it is determined by the board
that the information is no longer confidential. Roll call, please. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Yes.
Thank you. Good evening. Resolve that the board of education closes executive session and enters back into the public portion of the meeting at 7:04 p.m. May we have a roll call, please? Dr. Hinkle. Dr. Martinez,
present. Miss Mcichael here. Miss Saraphino here. Miss Williams present. Mr. Wood here. And Miss Gagen present. Warm confirmed. Thank you. We're now moving on to item 4.1. It'll be our district budget presentation presented by our
superintendent Dr. Beck and our business administrator Barbara Decker. Just making sure we're set up here. Okay. Okay. Good evening. This is the 2526 budget presentation. So, uh, what
you're going to see this evening is really going to be, uh, almost an identical repeat of what we presented, uh, the last time for board approval before we send it off to the county. So, now that the county approved it, we are going to represent it as part of the process. Um, put the numbers back out
there for you folks and then allow time for this is uh, there will be a public hearing portion tonight. Um once this if and when the budget is approved this evening uh then it becomes finalized at which point we have 48 hours to post the userfriendly budget on our website and
it becomes official that this will be our 2526 budget. Uh for those following at home this is now or should be posted on the website. So it is accessible on the website. So apologize if this is a repeat of last time. It'll be a refresher for
most just going back through the budget process. What we do here in our school district is we operate when we are creating a budget on zerobased budgeting. Um it is our belief that that is the most uh efficient and thorough way to budget instead of just rolling
things over from one budget year to another. Uh we look to start at zero and build from what is actually needed. And we do that by going uh back into the buildings and working with our administrative team, working with the budget secretaries who have firsthand knowledge of what is being purchased and
uh where our money is going. Um reviewing the process and working with the finance committee. Uh this is a monthsl long process and I gave uh great credit last time. I'll give great credit again. Barbara came in uh rather late in the process, much later than she would have preferred when it comes to a
budgeting process and we were able to turn this around uh rather quickly. So very impressive uh on that front. So we're going to throw a lot of numbers at you folks tonight and uh a lot of people that might be following from home or or in the audience might be
thinking these numbers uh what does this actually mean for me? So I always like to start with the first numbers. what does this actually mean for you and what does this mean for the average uh household? So, the general tax fund impact, there will be a 2% tax levy uh
in this year's budget or next year's budget. And what that means is for Sparta Township, the average home assessment is $372,200. And that has not changed now for a couple of years. Um, what that means on the average assessed home, the 2% tax levy means
that the taxes will increase 2% or $17,589 for the year or $14.66 per month for the grand total of taxes to be raised being uh 68,567,62. That is what the 2% total tax
levy uh will be for next year. and I'll let Barbara dive into the numbers. Thank you. Okay, this slide is just showing us another um example or another way of presenting how we came up at that $175
thou $17589 increase. We are um comparing 25 and 24 tax information that we obtained from the tax office at the uh municipality and it compares the ratables. If you look across the 25 row,
uh the ratables are shown and they are uh 3 bill73,32500. The tax levy is that 2% increase on the current fiscal year 25 uh tax levy. That increase comes to 68,567602. When you divide the ratables
into the tax levy, you come up with the tax rate. And the tax rate in this case is 0.022310593. You take that tax rate and multiply it by the assessed value of 3722 for the average assessed home and you come up with
$8,34 uh for taxes for the school board to support that uh full 68,567602 tax levy. 24 is shown below it. You can see that from the ratable values there is actually a $4.9 million
decrease which does sound like a significant amount of money but based on the ratables in the township that's actually less than 210 of 1% it's.16 so it is a small decrease but it's still a large number when you see 4.9 tax levy increase at 1
million34463 represents 2% and then go all the way across to the estimated taxes and you're looking at the $17589 increase from about the current fiscal year to the proposed fiscal year. Okay, here's our tax levy from the
current year 25. That's 67223139. 2% increase at 1.3 million basically. And um then a total tax levy for fiscal year 26 at 68,567602. And that tax levy represents 87% of the revenue for the school
district, which is certainly significant. Yeah, this slide just so just shows the history over the past uh 10 years of what our tax levy increase has been. Uh you can see the typical tax tax increase
is 2%. That is what is uh allowable by law without going out to vote and without going into bank cap which we had to do two years ago in the uh fiscal year 24 budget. So this slide just gives you an idea of what our taxes have been over the past 10 years.
Okay, bank cap, as Dr. Beck had just mentioned, that's a result of when we uh put information into the state DOE system, it's calculated automatically and typically most districts that are are are eligible for bank cap, it's a result of either an enrollment adjustment or a healthcare adjustment.
In fiscal year 25, the current year that we are in, there was a $393,594 that was generated from bank cap and that was a combination of both enrollment and healthcare adjustments. Fiscal year 26, this uh what we're proposing is
96624 and that is just a result from healthcare um adjustment, nothing to do with enrollment. So combined we have 1,354 218 uh left in bank cap. You have three years to use bank cap from when it's created or generated. And when you use
bank cap, it actually increases your tax levy. It's not a neutral, not neutral funds. It's funds that you were eligible to use in the year they were generated. You may have chose not to use them as we are not using them in fiscal year 26. Wasn't used in 25 either, but you would
have a tax impact when and if they are used. Okay. State aid. This is just representing uh the current year 25 and where we got R and 26. You see an increase of $242,896. That was a nice surprise for the district. We were not anticipating
that. Always hopeful, but you never know, especially with all the um the cuts in state aid across many school districts. That's a 3.8% increase in state aid. And that's about an 8 and a half% of the overall revenue for the district. It's almost not It's about 8
and a half%. So here's a summary of our revenue. I always like to talk about the revenue first. We need to figure out how much money we have to spend before we figure out, you know, what programs and how we're going to utilize that money. So the revenue summary right here, we've already talked about the local tax levy
and we've talked about the state aid. That fund balance of 1,263503. That's a combination of excess surplus from prior years. It's um from 24, fiscal year 24 that rolls forward to fiscal year 26 by way of the audit. And
then it's also um another part or another piece of that is from uh another portion of surplus that we're allowed on the 2% of our purchases. So it's a little complex but together that comes to 1.263503 for fund balance. Other local sources that's interest that we'll earn
off of various checking accounts that we have as well as facility use revenue. And then the semi projection for fiscal year 26 is $3,528. SEMI is the special education uh Medicaid initiative. That's a program
where districts are allowed to go back and recoup some of the expenses that are medically necessary for our students with um individual education plans or IEPs. And some of those uh expenses that we can recoup might be uh speech, PT,
OT, um evaluations, counseling services, nursing services. There are services and pro uh that are provided to students that are medically necessary whether they're in school or not and any kind of special transportation needs that that child may need as well. Extraordinary
aid is 618,320 and that's just um the cost that we're able to go back at the end of the year this time of year in May. we are uh permitted to put an application into the state of New Jersey for the extra costs for educating our students with um
special needs and it's over 40,000 in district to cost the cost to educate that child or $55,000 when they're in a private setting. And then we have withdrawal from reserve funds. We'll talk about that in a minute. It's a million uh $1,355 and that's from two different
reserve accounts. That total is 78,487,880 for our anticipated revenue for fiscal year 26. This is just a pie chart of those same numbers you just saw. And if you look at the 87% tax levy and 9% state aid, I rounded it up to 9%. Um, you're
looking at 96% of your revenue for the district comes between state aid and tax levy. Cap reserve comes in at 1% maintenance reserve. that fund balance is about 2% and then the miscellaneous revenue at one. So here's a revenue comparison and
this is where we really like to try to make sure we're looking at applesto apples comparison. We take the fiscal year 25 and the proposed fiscal year 26 um different various types of revenue that the district has and we make sure that we remove anything that's not the
same and that would be the reserve accounts are not here. So when you look at the difference between 25 adjusted numbers and 26 proposed numbers, you're looking at a 1,985,384 increase, which is 2.6%. Okay, that's just comparing apples
to apples. Like I said, there's no reserves in there because that skews the numbers. So try to remember that number. I'll remind you when we get over to the revenues or to the appropriation side. It has to tie in. And that's how you know that we're able to spend the same on both sides.
So, another source of revenue that the district has is um up until this point we've only talked about the general fund, which is our everyday operating account. This is special revenue. Special revenue is also known as fund 20. And it's typically grant money. It's grant money from either the federal or the state government. These two grants
right here, ESA and IDA. A lot of acronyms in education. Um it's the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, titles one, two, and four. and IDA, Individuals with um disability education act for basic. So the titles one, two,
and four, they're both federal grants. Titles one, two, and four um help students out. They support student programs, student services, professional development, and the culture and climate overall of the school district. So we budget them at 80% all of the grants, 80% of what you got this year. That's
what the uh DOE recommends except title one. This year, we were actually told to budget at 70%. And then the basic portion of IDEIDA that 673,000 is used to defay the costs of out um at district uh tuition. So total revenue for special
revenue of federal grants is $771,454. Another type of special revenue we receive, which is fairly new to the district, is preschool education aid. That's from the state. So this is uh state education, not uh not federal. and we're receiving 3.4 million, just
over 3.4 million uh for fiscal year 26. And the district has to put in a portion of the funds to support that program as well. And that's to help support the special education students that are in that population. District's contribution is
382704. So preschool aid total is 3,795,330. The prior slide which was the federal funds is 771454. Our total special revenue which is our fund 20 um portion of the full budget is
4,566784. Okay. Then we have another source of revenue that is uh also called reserve funds. And this year we're using reserve funds to um pay the lease payments on the EIP. EIP is our energy saving improvement plan that we went through a few years ago and we have to
it's um a payback over 15 years. Your funded money to make capital improvements to make your district run more efficiently and then the payback uh this year for that portion of the lease payment is 575561 and there were IT upgrades as
well and those IT upgrades were 28,534. So the withdrawal from capital reserve which is like a savings account is anticipated to be 604095 and the required maintenance is um we have a maintenance account or maintenance reserve account which again is just like a savings account and
that's 396260 we have in the budget included to make a withdrawal as well and that will help us facilitate any uh required maintenance projects that we have to make during the school year. It's important to realize that both of those withdrawals are tax neutral. there's no tax impact on the tax levy
because they are sitting I'm going to call them savings accounts or reserve accounts. So when we pull that money out that has no impact to the uh tax levy at all. So a closer look at those reserve accounts. The capital reserve um it's outlined very specifically by the DOE
what those uses of funds can be for. Capital projects are just as they sound large projects that you would complete throughout the district. We had 1.6 million basically on March 1st. We're anticipating a withdrawal of about 477,000 and that should leave us with
about 1.1 million or just over at the end of the year. Maintenance reserve again May fir or excuse me March 1st we had 861,000 roughly we plan on pulling out about 396,000 and that should leave us about 465,000. Okay, now we get to the
appropriations we talked about so far um revenue and what we have available. Now, we'll switch gears and we'll say, okay, what kind of programs do we need? What do we need to support in that budget? How can we I don't want to say spend, but what's the best way to allocate those funds to educate our students? So, there's a comparison between 25 and 26
here for the two years. Instruction is your general edge, special education, uh ESL intervention, and also um gifted and talented. So, that's all of your education in one uh one piece right there. And then we have our support
services. is our support services are um your social workers, your um social work office, I should say, the nurse. It is also uh one-to-one services and your speech PT and OT, your child study team, uh the library, professional
development, curriculum office, and um that basically comes in at almost no change for fiscal year 25 to 26. Athletics and co-curricular sees a slight increase. out a district tuition is not only for our special education students, but it is also for our uh
charter school kids, the children that decide to go to charter school and also for your vocational Sussex County vocational administration. There's a few layers of administration in there. That would be your general administration, which is a superintendent's office, the school level administration at every
building, um the business office, as well as it is part of that as well. The part of um IT that's considered administration operation encompasses uh required maintenance for building and grounds uh building the grounds themselves custodial needs and also uh
security is is lumped into that category as well. Transportation is self-explanatory. And then we get to benefits. Benefits encompasses a lot. It's not most people will just think your um prescription, your dental, and your medical expense. They're all in there. Of course, you've got your
one-time employer PERS payment, which is uh every year the district is required as an employer to make a contribution to the PERS uh to the PERS pension system for our employees, excuse me, that are a members of that. We also have workman's
comp in there. um the sick day payout for uh teachers at the end of the year, tuition reimbursement is in there and any other contractual uh requirements that are paid out to our employees as well as uh benefits people that opt out
their waiver payments. So, there's a lot of different things in that benefit line. Capital outlay is uh basically our projects or any purchases that we're making for assets that are over $2,000. So that looks like, excuse me, basically
a 3% increase on this slide, but like I said, this includes capital outlay. So we're not really exactly comparing those apples to apples. On this slide, I pulled out the um reserves. Every year when we do our adjusted budget in uh or start our whole
budget process with the DOE, the DOE requires that the districts report their fiscal year, current fiscal year 25 with excuse me, February 1 balances. And our February 1st balances are adjusted. That's the 76
million182041 that was on the prior slide. I took out the reserves from both 25 and 26. And we also have to carry over those prior year incumbrances. And by that is what I mean. Um the prior year incumbrances are things that were
not paid off at uh the end of the year last year June 30th that we had to carry over and pay in the current fiscal year. And for us that was a pretty large number 557900. When we remove Thank you. When we remove um those things that are different and not the same not parallel
in each of the two years, we come up with 75,502141 for this year currently and then a 77487525 for the projected 26 year and there we are back again at that 1,985 384 which is important. And I always
like to point out that on the revenue side, we saw it could go up that 1,985 384 and we tie in on the other side so you understand that it was the same on both sides because numbers have to equal. So that's a 2% increase. Even though our tax levy is only at 2%, we're
looking at a 2.6% increase. Thank you. Okay, here's a pie chart that represents those appropriations. Instruction is 42%. You've got benefits at 17, tuition and support services is 15, your
co-curricular is two, capital outlay is only one, administration six, and operations and transportation is combined together for 17%. So it just gives you a little bit of a visual of the same numbers we looked at on the prior slide. And then just to reiterate again,
we went over this before last time, but uh some highlights that are included in this budget, uh technology highlights, we have um heard requests for and uh rightfully so. The movement to iPads in Alpine Elementary School for multiple reasons. So we have begun the process of
switching from Chromebooks to iPads over there. It'll be a phase in process. So there are 250 iPads included in this budget for Alpine Elementary School. And as always, the 550 Chromebooks for the rising sixth grade and ninth grade students and Prometheian boards uh in
multiple buildings as well. Also included uh beyond your regular expenditures would be a a new piano for Helen Morgan School, computer replacement for the sewer plant, which we've spoken about before as you heard in uh in operations minutes, and uh the new switch over to accounting and
personnel software for next year, getting away from our current systems 3000 software. And when Miss Decker was talking about uh the banked cap and how there could be enrollment adjustments, you can see where some of that was coming from. You can see that our enrollment over the
past couple of years has been increasing, which is a good thing because that helps us with um our state aid. It's part of the state aid equation. Uh but it's a double-edged sword because also that now with our increased enrollment uh means less room in our buildings which we are trying to
address uh through the referendum. Okay, this slide just shows a summary of uh the budget calculations. The C per pupil costs again 25 is based on adjusted um adjusted balances as of February 1st and fiscal year 26 comes in
at 21501. That's assuming every penny of the budget is spent, which you know they're not really accurate numbers. It's much better when you look in the audit and you see the accurate um actual numbers from fiscal year 24 after this audit is done. Fiscal year 25 administrative costs were well within uh
the limits on administrative limits and our legal costs have been trending down which is nice to see. Those are the most popular that people look at. That's why we included these three. You want to do this one? Yeah, sure. And then this is just the resolution you see on this evening's
agenda which is identical to the resolution that you saw on the previous presentation except that included preliminary or proposed language and this is actually just the final that is the only revision that you see between the two resolutions from the last time to this time. But this is the official
resolution to approve the budget this evening. Thank you. And we will move on to the hearing portion. You want to stay up here. What's that? Thank you so much. Oh, okay. So, moving on to 4.2, the public participation for our budget hearing. Um, we invite the
members of the public to come up and speak regarding the budget at this time. Please state your name and address for the record. Each participant shall receive three minutes to speak. Comments during this public participation must pertain to the budget. Hello. Do I have to say my name and
address? I'm Dana Galino, 26 Valley View Trail. Um, first I want to thank this board uh for keeping the increase at the 2% once again as promised. Um, I spend a lot of time speaking to Spartans every year um
about 2024 when the board unnecessarily raised taxes close to 6% and how we needed a board that is not only focused on education but also on fiscal responsibility and uh and that both of those things can be true at the same
time. And once again, you've done it. So, thank you. We appreciate it. Um, the first thing I want to talk about with the budget is the outofd district spending. I saw that the number is roughly 2.6 million for next year. And um I don't know what the
11.3% pertain to. Could you just uh clear that up for me? Was that what what is that 11.3% that um that was on that one chart? Miss Galina will respond, have Barbara respond at the end. A lot of my questions are more like a
conversation because they lead to other ones. But for this one, you can you can respond after. I just want to respect your time. That's the only element of it. So yeah, if if it makes more sense, if you have three minutes of speech, and please pause the time if you have three minutes of something to say. I just want to make sure it's not taking away from what Do we only have three minutes at
the budget hearing? Unfortunately, it does say that. Yep. Shall receive three minutes to speak. the so district um as we said comparing 25 I can't hear you the out of district for 25 to 26 you're comparing and there was an increase of
11.3% y was the increase okay that's what I just wanted to clear up and that could it's a combination not just at well it's at a district um special education tuition as well as three pots yes I got it okay so uh with the per pupil cost of around
215 that comes out to about 120 students that for whatever reason we don't have in the district and I understand that. Um but I just wanted to ask if um and this is not something that you could answer tonight. I don't think you can but um is anything that anything in the
works to address that number um to bring that down? Um maybe the referendum or maybe looking at why kids are going from middle to charter or from high school to tech. um just to bring some of those
kids back I think would be great and if we could maybe get just even a portion of them um that would that would be beneficial to our budget. Um so that was just uh one thing that we just could maybe think about. Um, the second question I had, which I guess if it's
not a conversation, um, a couple of years ago, I believe we went to a self-funded benefits plan, which we were a little nervous, it might be risky, and I just wanted to know if we were able to stay in Target and if that had worked for us and if we had decided to stay with
self-funded. Um and then the last thing was that I wanted to know what our total um expenses for year 2425 for legal worth to date and then uh what the
budgeted amount for legal next year was. Okay. So that's it. Oh, perfect. Thank you. Thank you so much. And just a reminder, we do have two other public uh comment portions. So if at any point someone isn't able to get everything that they
need out, we still have more time allotted. Um I won't speak the only item that I can speak to is that I think this board shares concerns regarding out of district placements. Uh and it is something that we as uh in partnership with the administration have been certainly considering. So I can assure
you that that's on our on our radar as well. Very valid. And I would just make one comment on the increase. uh the issue that you raise is a valid issue and and Miss Gagnon just commented on the actual issue. uh the when you see the the rise in costs, it's not just a
rise in uh the amount of students going out, but actually our charter school, the charter school tuition per pupil has actually increased significantly, which would lead you to believe that it's not the number of there is a a number of students that are going out of district, but the increase has also contributed to
the actual rise in tuition from charter school. Just just number wise, I was told that charter school just takes the per pupil amount 215 more than that. No, there have been uh over the past couple of years have been some rise in uh special education
costs through the charter school as well. Okay. So, I must have been thinking about but your point is still taken on the the students leaving the district. I just wanted to share on a positive note on the curriculum agenda for tonight. Um the district is opening an emotional regulation impairment class
at the high school. So there are different things in place to try to expand programming and continue to serve, you know, the diverse needs of students. Regarding the health insurance, um we are moving as of uh July 1st, we're going back to a it's actually a shift um
a school health insurance fund. the self-insured policy has really turned out to be very expensive and not cost-effective and uh we are moving back uh it was not better for us to go to a private fund. We're going to uh with a bunch of school districts, many school
districts banned together. It's just like we have our general liability insurance and we're looking we're in the process of moving everyone right now for a July one start date. Perfect. That's what we want to and I will get I will get you the um
legal information you requested. Okay. Anyone else for public comment for the budget hearing? Seeing none, a motion to close, please. Thank you, Emily. Second. Second. Thank you, Rocky. All in favor? Any oppose or
abstensions? Great. May I now have a mo motion to move items 4.3 through 4.4 which are our district budget for the 2526 school year as well as the travel and related expense reimbursement for 2526 as well.
Thank you, Rebecca. Second. Second. Thank you, Emily. Um any discussion? Okay, seeing none, may we have a roll call, please? Dr. Hankle. Dr. Martinez, yes. Miss Mcichael, yes. Miss Saraphino, yes.
Miss Williams, yes. Mr. Wood, yes. And Miss Gagnum, yes. Motion carries. And thank you. Thank you, especially for all your hard work. We really appreciate it. Uh moving on to item 5.1, we have district recognition. We have anything tonight?
No, we don't. Uh we've already covered our presentations for the evening. So let's move on to our student representative monthly report. Today as May 1st was decision day for the senior class, so everybody was able to represent where where they
will be heading after graduation. There was a walk-athon during extended room home room this Monday that went well. There was music playing and it was a good light-hearted extended home room period. And then this week is autism acceptance week and choose to include week.
Um spring sports are going on. They're uh going very well right now. Um the senior class is almost done planning a field trip for after the senior walk and a day trip to Six Flags possibly. Um AP tests begin next week and run for about two weeks. Junior and senior prom will
be on May 22nd or 29th. Um, and the freshman class is planning a bowling night for early June. Excellent. Thank you so much. Uh, may I have a motion to approve the minutes, please, as listed? Thank you, Rocky. Second.
Thank you, Rebecca. All in favor? Any opposed or absent? Okay, moving on to our superintendence monthly report, please. Yes. Thank you. a little shorter this evening because of the small time between board meetings including a spring break. Uh but to acknowledge as I
do every month the uh retirements that are on this evening's agenda. First we have Ruth Anne Goyther the teacher assistant uh classroom for Sparta Middle School. She has served our district for 23 [Applause]
years. Mary Hildebrand, another teacher assistant. this one at Alpine Elementary School. She has served our district for 21 years. And Dennis Romano from our maintenance department, specifically HVAC. Uh he has served our district for 14
years. Congratulations and best wishes to all of our retirees. A huge congratulations to Junior Jenna Flake on her nomination for outstanding solo performance digital submission at the Paper Mill Playhouse Rising Star Awards for her beautiful performance of
Somewhere That's Green as Audrey in Little Shop of Horrors. This marks the first ever nomination for Sparta at the Rising Star Awards. An incredible milestone modeled after Broadway's Tony Awards. The Paper Mill Playhouse Rising Star Awards were established in 1996 to
recognize and celebrate excellence in New Jersey high school musical theater. This prestigious statewide program has inspired similar initiatives across the country thanks to the support and guidance of Paper Mill Playhouse. There were over 100 schools that entered in the competition. So, congratulations to
[Applause] her. An update on the referendum. Much progress is being made on the referendum communications front. We have a standing weekly meeting with our communications team and that took place today. Laura Bishop Communications will be on our
school campuses tomorrow to begin taking pictures of our facilities and possibly some students with media clearance. LBC is also building the website which we are aiming to launch by the end of the month, a referendum specific website. I'd like to wish the best of luck to our
middle school and high school robotics teams who will be competing in the VEX World Championships next week. And two shoutouts. First, today is National Principal Day. So, uh, thank you for all of our hard work for all of our principles and all of our
administrators for that matter. And next week is teacher appreciation week. And every week is teacher appreciation week, but uh, specifically next week. So, uh, thank you to all of our teachers for all of their hard work. [Applause]
Thank you so much. Uh, moving on to the president's report. So, picking up from where I left off in April, I'd like to wish the Sparta Archery team, including our Helen Morgan Middle School and High School archers, the very best of luck as they embark to Kentucky next week to compete in the national tournament. We
look forward to reporting your success at the next meeting and trust you will continue to make our district proud through your participation and commitment to the program. I'd also like to recognize an email I received this morning from a Sparta alumni. A former student who now attends James Madison
University reached out privately to share a college assignment she has been working on. Her class entitled critical questions in education prompted her to research an issue that impacts K to2 public education. She chose to write about career development and shared some very interesting insights and
perspective in terms of how our district district can explore Sparta students uh prep preparing Sparta students for their future careers. Um as I mentioned in my reply to her, I plan to raise these ideas as a discussion item for our next curriculum committee meeting so we can continue to equip our students with the
best opportunities available to them. I know Miss Rossi is passionate about this so I'm looking forward to that. Uh but really I just wanted to highlight how awesome it is that we have Sparta students who are still involved in our processes uh oftentimes long after they left our halls. So I think it really speaks volumes and helps us to
prioritize items uh that we might not necessarily be considering and it offers us that perspective that we definitely appreciate. So thank you for that correspondence. Um lastly, I'd like to touch on our recent NJSBA board certification training while Mr. Wood will be providing the updates tonight.
Uh we did attend our first board retreat and training session with our NJSBA field service representative Kelly Mitchell in April. In this process, we completed our board self-evaluation which highlighted our strengths and areas of growth as a team. A collective
area of concern that was raised involved board member confidentiality and the related role of the local media. Policy 9400 entitled media relations explicitly states that the superintendent or designate shall be the chief communications representative of our school district. So while board members
are free to act on their own behalf as private citizens, the policy does assert that any staff member should be quote cognizant of their obligation to protect the privacy and confidentiality of students and school operations in accordance with federal and state laws end quote. This obviously includes
personnel matters which are confidential. While I hold our constitutional rights, including our First Amendment rights, in the highest regard, I would like to publicly remind our board members that an oath was taken to uphold our code of ethics and remind members of the press, especially present
or otherwise, that any and all inquiries should be directed to our superintendent just as delineated in policy. Uh, thank you. And moving on, we have our Oprah will pass. We have our HI report. May I have a motion to approve the HI report, please?
Thank you, Emily. Second. Second. Thank you, Rocky. Uh, discussion. Seeing none, may we have a roll call, please. Dr. Hankle, yes. Dr. Martinez, yes. Miss Mcichael, yes. Miss Saraphino, yes. Miss Williams, yes.
Mr. Wood, yes. And Miss Gagnet, yes. Motion carries. Thank you. Uh, moving on. Anything from communications committee this time? Okay, great. uh our delegate and liaison reports if anyone has anything they'd like to report out from recent meetings. I would love to
start out strong. Um so just a quick update from the curriculum committee. We are very excited to share that planning is underway for this summer's extending learning pro extended learning program ELP. A coordinator has been approved and outreach to parents has already started. The program is shaping up to be a great
way to support students with intervention plans and especially help uh prevent summer learning loss which can be a big struggle for students. Also, I wanted to give a quick shout out to Mr. Dresenzi, who will be running the new uh legal studies and law club as part of high school. We're all looking forward to see how that gets off the
ground. Um, that's all I have for curriculum. Now, just another quick shout out to the Sparta Education Foundation. Um, I don't have anything too new, but to keep you all informed, the inaugural pickle ball tournament is taking place on Friday, May 30th from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. at the Sparta Athletic
Club. There's going to be teams of two and tickets are going to be $30 per person. If anyone is interested in signing up, please check out their event on Facebook and you can find them by name at the Sparta Education Foundation. Um, and by supporting their events, you're supporting our schools and our administrators. So, always try to do
your best. And last but not least, and to just to add on to what Caitlyn said, in terms of our uh strategic planning process, last Thursday we had the board training led by Kelly Mitchell from the NGSBA. Uh, and I'm not sure how much uh how many of you have met her from the public, but she is excellent. And so the next time you can make a board training, try to make it because she's one to see.
Um we had a really meaningful dialogue um and we made some solid progress as a board, especially as growing together as a board. I also wanted to acknowledge that Dr. Beck, Miss Rossi, and even our um BA, Miss Decker, was there and they did not have to join us. This was their first day of spring break, but they decided to do a board of ed event for
all reasons. Um, I couldn't tell you, but that kind of commitment from our administration really stands out and shows me uh how aligned we are in working together um toward bird certification and staying on track with our goals. Um, so it was just really exciting to see. Thank you. Thank you so much. If I'm not mistaken,
I think it was 2.5 hours or something like that out of 16. Yeah. So, Kelly Kelly gave us the it's going to be an hour to 90 minutes and then we stayed for two and a half hours and had to cut it off a little early because we could have kept going. Yep. Um, but that's never a bad thing to be honest with you. Yeah. And just to add a little bit, I was going to say this for the good of
the order, but it's more for the board than it is for the public, but I have been in contact with Kelly and a potential next day for our next board training may be um and I'll send an email as well, June 26, the Thursday, which does kind of, you know, creep into the summer, but um just wanted to throw that date out there a little early. We have a major time, so I'll keep you
posted. Thank you so much. Anyone else for delegate or leaison reports? We had a quick turnaround, so there's not much. Okay, moving on to public comment number one. Public comments are invited on matters pertaining only to action items at this time. Please state the action
item number as well as your name, municipality, and group affiliation if appropriate for the record. Each participant will receive three minutes to speak. Once you have had your allotted three minutes to speak, you will not be permitted to speak again until public comment number two. All statements should be directed to me as
the presiding officer. The board or administration may or may not respond to any questions or comments after the conclusion of public participation. Okay, seeing no one, may I have a motion to close public comment number one, please? Thank you, Chad.
Second. Thank you, Emily. All in favor? Okay. Any oppose? Any abstensions? Okay, moving on. We have personnel and policy. Forgive me for not writing them out ahead. Uh motion to move items or yes motion to move items
16 bear with me. Thank you through 26 you said. Perfect. 16.1 through 16.26. Thank you Emily. Second. Thank you Rebecca. Discussion. Um since Kurt isn't here and he is our chair to report out. The only
thing I'd like to highlight uh first of all I want to thank all of the uh the board princip or excuse me the principles who were able to make uh the process for us at the last committee meeting very streamlined and efficient. We always appreciate that. Uh tonight we will see two policies and regulations on
the agenda. These are regarding our library resource materials and otherwise and also public complaints and grievances. Uh, on a personal note, I just want to say I am extremely proud of this board, our committee for working together to make this happen in collaboration with the ideas committee and our media specialists. I think the
progress really shows for itself. Um, super super proud of the work we've done here. I appreciate Mark's input as well. Uh, and I think the final product product is something that we can all be proud of and look forward to. So, thank you all for that and thank you to the committee. Um, and with that, anyone
else for discussion? Can I add something? Yes, please. Um, I just want to say that our last personnel uh meeting was great. It was like I'm going to reiterate Caitlyn said, it was great to hear from all the principles. Um, and one thing that really stood out to me is that the principles came in and talked about the members that were up for
tenure and just had endless positive things to say about our faculty and our staff, not just in the classroom, but outside the classroom and how much they really give back to the community. Um, and it was just a really positive experience and it's great to see his enthusiasm. Um, and congratulations to
those receiving tenure today. Here. Here. Thank you. Uh, with that, we have a motion, we have a second, we have discussion. May we have a roll call, please? Dr. Martinez, I have a no vote on 16.6. Uh, Dr. Lazar for the high school
principal, I'm a no. Rest, yes. Miss Mcichael, yes to everything. No to 16.25. Miss Saraphino, yes. Miss Williams, yes. Mr. Wood, yes. Miss Gagnon, yes. Motions carry. Thank you so much. Uh, moving on
to curriculum, instruction, and special services. May I please have a motion to move items 17.1 through 17.7. Thank you, Chad. Second. Thank you, Rebecca. Discussion. And I'm just realizing I hit on this discussion a
little early, but um that's okay. It was a really short meeting. It was very productive. Um, and I always appreciate these kind of meetings because it kind of turns into, okay, it's a super quick turnaround. We don't have too too much to talk about. Um, so it almost gives us the floor to Miss Rossy, which is a little dangerous because she has all the info. So, um, it's always nice to poke
her brain a little bit and, um, and see how we can improve as a committee. Dangerous in the best way possible, of course. Okay, great. Uh, any other p anyone one else, excuse me, for discussion? Okay, may we have a roll call, please? Dr. Hankle. Yes. On
September 24th, Dr. Martinez, yes. Miss Mcichael, yes. Miss Saraphino, yes. Miss Williams, yes. Mr. Wood, yes. And Miss Gagnon, yes. Motions carry. Thank you so much. Moving
on to finance. May I have a motion to move items 18.1 through 18.7, please? Motion. Thank you, Rocky. Second. Who? 186. Oh, excuse me. Okay, we did have to Oh,
yeah. Excuse us for one moment. 18.6 So um 18.6 will res read resolve that the board of education approves an individual to be designated by the superintendent and ratified by the board of education at its next regular
regularly scheduled meeting to serve as the school physician from May 1st 2025 through June 30th 2025. Thank you so much. So, may I have a motion to approve those items, including the amended
18.6. Thank you, Emily. Second. Second. Thank you, Rocky. Discussion. Anything to report? Yeah. Uh, it was a a quick turnaround. Uh, just a couple of things I want to highlight. Um, I have not been told, but I believe our tree has been removed. it
was supposed to remove last week. So, it's done. That's good. No more tree. Um the other thing is I believe for September all the buildings will be having food uh breakfast and lunch. Um and that's to make sure that everybody
can get a meal if they need it. Um and um that's pretty much it. Those are the things I wanted to highlight. Thank you. And just to add to that, I really want to highlight uh just as Rocky did once more, I'm very very proud of the fact that we were able to
unanimously agree that offering breakfast in all buildings was a great move for our district and I especially want to thank Miss Decker for making that possible because I know there was a quick turnaround with that to make it happen. Um so your work with Mashios to ensure that that's starting up for us in September. We encourage obviously the
public to make sure that you are taking advantage of breakfast now being offered in all buildings. So, thank you and great work there to the the committee. Thank you. With that, may we have a roll call, please? Dr. Hinkle. Dr. Martinez, yes. Miss Mcichel, yes. Miss Saraphino, yes.
Miss Williams, yes. Mr. Wood, yes. And Miss Gagnum, yes. Motion's carried. Thank you. Moving on to operations. May I please have a motion to move items 19.1 through 19.2, it looks like. Yep,
19.2. Thank you, Rebecca. Second. Thank you, Emily. Discussion. Rocky. None. Seeing none. Anything for operations? We're okay. Okay, great. Thank you so much. Uh, with that, no discussion, let's move on to a roll call, please. Dr. Hankle, yes. Dr.
Martinez, yes. Miss Mcichael, yes. Miss Saraphino, yes. Miss Williams, yes. Mr. Wood, yes. and Miss Gagnon. Yes. Motion carry. Thank you so much. Moving on to old business. Anyone have anything for old
business they wish to discuss? Okay, seeing none, anyone for new business? Nothing. Okay, moving on to public comment number two. The board uses the second public comment period to invite comments on all matters pertaining to the school district. Please state your name, municipality, and group affiliation if appropriate for
the record. Each participant will receive three minutes to speak. Once you have had your allotted three minutes to speak, you will not be permitted to speak again. All statements should be directed to me as the presiding officer. The border administration may or may not respond to any questions or comments
after the conclusion of the public participation. Good evening. My name is Angela Deluchia and I am the very proud president of the Sussex County Education Association and Sparta Education Association. I know it's been a little while since we've seen each other, but as we gather
tonight, it's hard to believe how quickly this year is flying by. It's only been a few short weeks since our last meeting. The end of the school year is already in sight. There's an unmistakable energy in the air. Spring assessments are underway. Concerts and
awards season is in full swing. Our athletics teams are performing at very high levels. And we're just weeks away from prom and graduation. It's a vibrant and meaningful time in our schools filled with milestones that students,
families, and staff anticipate and celebrate. And as we do each month, the SEA is proud to share just a few highlights that reflect the dedication, collaboration, and passion alive in our district. Each moment, while seemingly small, contributes to the larger story
of our schools, where educators, students, and families work handinand to create something truly special. One such moment was Take Your Child to Work Day, a heartwarming opportunity for educators to share their professional world with their own children. It was a beautiful
blend of family and vocation, and a reminder of the pride our staff takes in the work they do every day. Watching the next generation step into our classrooms, even just for a day, reaffirmed our purpose to inspire, to nurture, and to lead. We also want to
highlight an exceptional example of community partnership. SEA educators, educators from kindergarten through 8th grade collaborated with the Sparta Independent to feature student writing and artwork in the annual children's publication. This project not only
celebrated our students voices and creativity, but also exemplified the power of local collaboration in supporting literacy, expression, and pride in our community. In the spirit of this collaboration and recognition, we also take a moment to acknowledge Mayday
celebrated today, May 1st. This day honors the contributions of workers and underscores the importance of fair labor practices. It's a time to reflect on the struggles and achievements of the labor movement and to emphasize the values of dignity, equity, and respect in every
workplace, including our schools. Recognizing Mayday reminds us that the work educators do each day is part of a broader legacy, one rooted in justice, opportunity, and unwavering commitment to others. As always, SEA members remain
grounded in our shared mission to provide highquality instruction, meaningful support, and equitable access to resources for every student. We do this work with integrity, pride, and partnership with the board, our
administration, and the families who trust us with their children's education. Looking ahead, let's continue to move forward together, seeking opportunities, embracing innovation, and building schools where every student can
thrive. Thank you. Well timed. Anyone else? Okay. May I have a motion to close public comment number two? Thank you, Michelle. Second. Thank you, Rebecca. All in favor? Okay. Any oppose? Any abstensions? All right. for
the good of the order. Anyone have anything they'd like to share? Okay. And we will not be reconvening in close session. So, may I have a motion to adjurnn, please? Thank you, Rocky. Second. Thank you, Emily. All in favor
or I'll go do a roll call. Sorry. Discussion. Yeah. All in favor? Why not? All in favor? I. Any oppose? Any extensions? Great. Thank you. Have a great night, everyone.