ation regular meeting is called to order at 7:00 p.m since Chad is not present yet I will read the meeting notice announcement the New Jersey Open Public Meetings Law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice of and to attend the meetings of
public bodies at which any business affecting their interest 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 pub published in the New
Jersey Herald the Star Ledger tap into Sparta.net net and notice of the meeting has been posted on the Sparta Township School District website [Applause] barbara if we can have a roll call please
miss Collier here dr hinkle here dr martinez here miss Mcichael here mr morris here miss Saraphino miss Williams here mr wood here and Miss Gagnen present quum confirmed thank you
and if we can all rise for the pledgece to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible liberty and justice for all so we will be convening into close
session at the end of the meeting um contrary to the agenda so moving on to presentations we will start with our seal of biiteracy student recognition uh which will be presented by Dr andrew Buchanan the supervisor of social studies world languages and ESL thank
you so much good evening um members of the board of education uh Dr beck Mrs rossi uh esteemed colleagues and uh honored guests tonight we celebrate a remarkable achievement uh the awarding of the seal
of bi literacy to Sparta High School uh outstanding students this recognition highlights their dedication their hard work and the mastery of multiple languages setting them apart as exceptional individuals what's even more
impressive this year is the significant increase in the number of students qualifying for this prestigious honor a testament to the commitment of our students the unwavering support of their families and the dedication of our teachers i'm going to read out the names
now if students uh who are being recognized are in attendance with their families if you could stand uh with your loved ones when your name is read out we can clap in celebration uh when uh when your name is read out otherwise for the sake of time I'll read out the names uh
first and we can have a big celebration and photographs uh uh outside at the end of uh the reading of the names so if you're here please stand when you see your name mahan Chinta for French
julia Depasqual for French lauren Elrott for French shannon Lloyd French ethan Luis Song French mckenzie [Applause] Mon
congratulations Giana Ramiier meline Rafino in French for those of our seniors last year who graduated but still passed uh Kylie Clink Lean Curion Aiden Olerte and Lillian Grasp in
German alana Brown Spanish jc Castro Spanish [Applause] congratulations Kyle Enderley Spanish
congratulations Jazelle Faria congratulations yahed Fer Spanish Isabella Futura in Spanish joshua Garces
Spanish tobias Gomez Spanish tyler Harms [Applause] Spanish as an additional uh point to make Tyler is this year's validictorian
so many [Applause] congratulations kiara Hines Spanish michaela Lap in Spanish thomas Lieird
Spanish praise Ojo congratulations Aalina Pñena Spanish Sylvia now I'm probably you're all looking at me thinking he's going to mess this one up but I've been practicing it's um
Yeah thank you maybe our Polish contingent at the back might uh help me with my pronunciation brayley Rodriguez in Spanish evangelene Terturo Spanish
congratulations zara Zaman Spanish Paula Aldaz Pako in Spanish megan Kessa Rupani Spanish clara Deong Spanish you might notice the little AP
with the acorn uh symbol for the last uh couple of students and with Clara's uh it means that she also passed the uh AP uh uh Spanish exam so essentially she now has a double AP pass in Spanish
which is wonderful because the um the uh seal of biiteracy is equivalent to an a pass at the AP level so it's also a very unusual thing for juniors to be able to get to that level so quickly so it shows an awful
lot of uh hard work dedication and commitment to to get that so well [Applause] done also uh Lanessa Maro in
Spanish gavin Cornass was one of our graduates last year also in Spanish russian William Ascin Elena Fasano in Russian julianne Hanzus also Russian rowan Mand Mandel
Russian rowan is also uh our saludiatoran so you can see there his u little blurb about thanking his uh teachers particularly Mr hood uh for the experience throughout his time at uh the
high school in Polish daniel [Applause] Grabowski in Polish anthony [Applause]
Tomacheski David Trella Polish congratulations Matthew Trella Polish congratulations we come to uh the point now for uh a special mention that uh a recognition to these
students uh who've earned not just one but two different seals of uh biiteracy which is an extraordinary accomplishment that reflects both their exceptional linguistic skills and dedication in mastering multiple languages additionally we're proudly celebrating
two of our multilingual learners who have achieved this distinction demonstrating remarkable perseverance and determination as I said earlier a pass is equivalent to uh getting an AP uh pass which is not an
easy uh thing to do so Mary Garcia in Spanish one of our multilingual learners diego Torres also in Spanish one of our multilingual learners in German and Spanish anna
Mesovich if you've had the uh the joy and the pleasure of hearing Anna sing you'll realize that she's got a beautiful voice which makes uh hiding behind her at the German market my claim to fame in German and Spanish maria
congratulations in German and Russian julian Lasnik [Applause] Morahan in French and Spanish andreseno Pelli congratulations and French and Spanish
Nicholas [Applause] Vasquez to those students whose names I've just recognized congratulations uh on your commitment to language
learning and cultural understanding your achievement not only showcases your proficiency but also your ability to build connections across cultures and communities to our parents thank you so much for your
encouragement your support which have been instrumental in your children's success the benefits of earning the seal as you can see extend beyond rec the recognition of this achievement there are material benefits for your children as they consider their next steps at
college and at university please feel free to reach out to me for a list of colleges and universities that award credit for the seal of biiteracy i'm more than happy to provide that list with you so that you can get a sense of whether or not
colleges will provide credit for these uh passes and save uh maybe time and money uh when your child gets to university to our teachers these are our world language department teachers K through
12 my thanks as always to you for your passion your dedication and the playing of such a vital role in guiding our students to this achievement as we celebrate tonight let us remember the power of education in
shaping the future and inspiring global citizenship speaking another language opens the door to new adventures allowing you to connect with people explore different cultures more deeply and experience the world in a more authentic and meaningful way you may
have noticed and I apologize for going relatively quickly through the slides but you may have noticed that many of the students mention in their responses that one of the driving forces for their desire to go forward with their language
learning is a desire to speak with family members in other countries or who are here uh but speak a different language and it's a wonderful way to connect the generations so um an extra sense of of desire and commitment to be
able to maintain that connection with your with your family members congratulations once again to all of you the recipients of the cilab literacy may you continue to follow your dreams with the determination and
passion thank you very much thank you yes yep yeah we're going to take a brief fivem minute recess so everyone can reconvene may I have a motion please thank you Kurt second second thank you all in favor
perfect good so we are back in session and we will be moving on to our next presentation the tentative budget presentation uh which will be led by Dr matthew Beck our superintendent and Miss Barbara
Decker our business administrator [Applause] good evening yeah I think that that window's open all right so tonight is our annual presentation of the proposed budget so just to go through the process
here as a reminder um for the folks watching at home and for the board of ed uh tonight we we present the proposed budget and the process is uh there's a resolution on the agenda this evening to pass the proposed budget and when that
happens uh Miss Decker passes that along to the county department of education who then reviews the budget and make sure that uh all the numbers line up and that we are within the regulations and everything like that and then they give it back to to us um on the at the May 1st board of ed meeting Miss Decker and
I will present the final budget that evening will be uh we'll go through the numbers again if there's any revisions there is time to revise between now and then if there's any revisions they will be reflected in the presentation and also in that evening's
resolution and uh there's also a hearing that evening a public hearing for the budget so there is time for public comment a hearing actually uh just for the budget itself and that would be that would be on May 1st so tonight is the proposed preliminary sometimes it's called uh tentative sometimes it's
called depends what year it is for the department of education and what they want to call it uh but that's what tonight is so you might hear us say proposed tentative uh or preliminary tonight they are all uh interchangeable so forgive the adjectives
uh just going through the budget process the budget process this year was no different than it's been in the past in that we start with a zerobased budget when we start talking to the administrative team um and the building teams about what they need in their
buildings the idea is that you start at zero and tell us what you need and then we build the budget um sometimes in some districts that bud budgets are just rolled over they look at what they spent last year um and that doesn't always work and that's not always efficient because uh sometimes there's things in
the budget that are unnecessary so we try in as many line items as we can to to go zerobased and and to build on uh what we need and to defend what we need in that budget uh it's a long process uh and Miss Decker actually hit that process uh had to hit the ground running
because when she started in January that's actually about two months behind where she would like to be to start the budget typically in the fall uh she would start the budget and have some time uh so she lost about two months on the front end of the budget so um we
engage the administrative team we engage the budget secretaries who know the the spending of the buildings inside and out we talk to administrators building administrators supervisors buildings and grounds what do we need in our budget what is changing are there any large things is there anything we can remove
from the budget um we review the process we review we go over the budget multiple times um and we also engage of course we engage the finance committee um and uh we'll talk about what goes into the budget obviously throughout this presentation um I'm happy to say this
evening when we present this budget that this budget contains um no reduction in programs and no reduction in certified staff this is how I usually like to start out the budget presentation because we're going to go through a lot of numbers miss Decker is going to go through a lot of numbers and give you a lot of information this evening and a
lot of people watching from home or people in the audience or the board of ed they just what does this mean for me what do all these numbers mean for for my taxes and uh that's why I'd like to start off the presentation the average assessed home uh is
$372,200 which has not changed in two years uh so that average assessment has been the same for the past two years um the 2% tax levy that we will talk about this evening means a $175.89 raise in taxes for the average
assessed household which boils down to $14.66 per month uh and by the way if anybody is watching at home this presentation should be up on the website for you to follow along at home and I will turn it over to Miss Decker
to go through some numbers thank you okay this slide really is just backing up what we just saw the impact on the average homeowner and the average assessed uh home so this compares information provided by the township assessor and it shows 25 and 24 ratables
and then you're looking at a decrease in the ratables in the township of 4,941,300 which sounds like a lot of money but when you actually figure that out it's less than like 2/10en of a percent so because your ratables are in
the billions okay um tax levy that we're looking to raise for fiscal year 25 is 68,567602 there's a 2% increase from fiscal year 24 and you divide those ratables into the tax levy to get the
tax rate so the tax rate for fiscal year 25 you could say if you move the decimal place over two places it's like $223 if you move it over for fiscal year 24 you're looking at about 218 the assessed value as we just discussed has not changed in two years which is quite remarkable actually
3722 you take that tax rate times the assessed value and you come up with $8,34 for fisc or for 25 and compared to 24s is $8,12811 that's an increase for homeowners of
$175.89 and that's on an assessed value home okay so when we talk about the revenues we always like to talk about them first figure out what it is that we can actually spend we took fiscal year 25's tax levy of
67,223 or $223,000 excuse me $139 put a 2% increase on that which is what the district is allowed to do uh considering what the DOE allows us that's 1.3 million so our tax levy of 68,567,62 represents 87% of all of the
revenue for the district for the general fund little bit of tax levy history going back you want to say anything uh we're looking you know at 2% basically the last two years 24 was an anomaly at 5.82% otherwise we've been quite
consistent back to uh 2015 at 2% with just a few few years where it actually exceeded that 2% and just to go back uh 2% is what the tax levy is allowed to be without going out to the voters uh but if you recall
back in 24 when we presented the budget obviously that's above 2% how are we allowed to do that you are allowed based on enrollment and based on other circumstances you are allowed to dip into what is called banked cap um to make adjustments to your tax levy if
need be and you can do that without going out to vote um so we're not doing that this year um but we just like to show you what is in our banked cap so this is available in our banked cap for future years in case the 2% tax levy uh
doesn't get us where we need to be that these funds are available and they expire every three years um so this is what's uh inbanked cap and is allowed to be added to the 2% tax levy uh if needed but we are not using that for this uh
for the fiscal year 26 budget okay state aid also increased we had about a 3.8% increase which was a nice surprise a pleasant surprise from 24 to 25 we're seeing $242,896 additional in state aid so when we look at our tax revenue
summary of all of the revenues combined for the general fund and what we can actually spend we went over the tax levy we went over the state aid fund balance is calculated it's based on fiscal year 24 surplus which was about 800,000 and then the remaining part of that
1,263503 came from the excess on the uh 2% which is all I know probably not familiar talk but it's from the audit and a result of the audit so 1,263503 is our fund balance other local sources um includes the interest that we earn on all of the various bank accounts
as well as facility used revenues semi is uh the special education Medicaid and initiative program and that has $3,528 that the purpose of that program is to recover um any portion of health related expenses for our students with
IEPs that are medically necessary for those students whether they were home or in school they need those services and those services might be counseling they could be speech PT and OT a nurse any specialized transportation or even uh evaluation so there's a number of things
that fall under that category of semi extraordinary aid is another area pertaining to special education students if they have extremely high cost to educate those children at the end of the year basically in May we'll have a extraordinary aid application that our
special services director will submit into the state of New Jersey and we'll learn later on what type of um revenue we can get back or reimbursement for those excessive costs and then the withdrawal from the reserve accounts we have two different reserve accounts we have a maintenance reserve and a capital reserve we'll go into more detail of
them in a minute but we are um looking to withdraw about 1,355,000 altogether that gives us a general fund budget or anticipated revenues for the general fund of 78,487,880 here's a pie chart just representing all of those various types of revenues and if you look between
state aid and the tax levy you're looking at 96% of your revenue just coming from the taxpayers and the state aid portion so here's where we compare revenues i always like to make a nice applesto apples comparison so what you're not seeing on this screen is
those reserve withdrawals so we're comparing just straight revenues to straight revenues so we can get a clear picture how we're trending from 25 to 26 the tax levy increase we already saw was about 1.3 million increase state aid is increasing at uh just under
243,000 the fund balance went down slightly at almost $6,500 extraordinary aid is budgeted a little bit higher at with an increase of $218,000 the semi actually went down those numbers are given to us by the DOE and that's a decrease of 7
27,382 and our miscellaneous revenues went up about 213,000 all told when we look at fiscal year 26 revenues compared to fiscal year 25 revenues that's an additional 1,985,384 so that's really good for the district very good and we'll that number
keep that in mind it's a 2% 2.6% increase when we get to the appropriation side I like to come back to that same number to make sure that we're agreeing on both the appropriation side and the revenue so there's also another type of revenue out there it's called special revenue we'll call it fund 20 as well
and in this slide we're showing just the federal grants that are available to the school district and it's the um elementary and secondary education act titles one two and four titles one and four are budgeted at 80% of what we have this fiscal year title two is budgeted
at 70% and that's per DOE recommendation from the county office title one we're supporting um students and programs title two is professional developments basically for our staff members and title four we're doing culture and climate the idea basic is the second
type of entitlement we get at a federal level and the basic um aotment is entitlement is actually 80% again of this year's um entitlement and that's $673,010 and that helps defay the cost of our out of district tuition so we're
looking at $771,454 at the federal grant level or grant entitlements also at special revenue is at the state level we have our preschool education program pea and the state we're on
target to get 3,412,626 that's much larger than our current year aotment or entitlement and that is due to the program growing we right now have eight classes um in district and one out of district provider or I should say outside
provider in the fall next year when we open up we're supposed to have 15 sections and that would be our eight here still seven at outside providers so we're supposed to continue to hit our unifers target through the DOE so we've got 3.4 million the district also has to
push in a portion of um our district funds to cover that's a general education pea is a general education preschool program and it also has some uh special education students in it as well and the district's portion to contribute because we get special education uh categorical aid is about
382,000 so all told for preschool we're looking at $3,795,330 most of that coming from the state small portion coming from the district so if you take the uh prior slide that had the federal entitlements of 771,000 add them
together our special revenue fund comes in at just over $4.5 million we also have reserve funds there's two types of reverse re excuse me there's two types of uh reserve funds that we have we have capital reserve and maintenance reserve capital reserve is
where we typically deposit money at the end of the year depending on how well or the year went and we're able to use that in the future for um capital projects and maintenance reserve can be withdrawn at any time by resolution of the board and to help pay or defay the costs of
any maintenance reserve uh required reserve expenses that we might incur so we're covering with uh capital reserve the EIP annual payment the EIP is the um energy savings improvement plan that we went through a few years ago and we're able to make a lot of improvements to
save energy and this is the payback of the lease payment and then the IT upgrades was an infrastructure upgrade of about 28,000 so you see that capital reserve anticipated um expenditure would be 604095 and the required maintenance in the event that we need that to withdraw
is at just under 400,000 so cap reserve as of March 1st we had just over $1.6 million in it and we're anticipating taking out about $477 that should leave us with about a 1.1 million
balance maintenance reserve as of March 1st had 861,000 in it roughly withdrawal of just under 400,000 should leave us with about 465,000 okay now we look at the appropriations we know what kind of revenue we had we're going to start talking about appropriations we compare
the current year fiscal year 25 to 26 and see how we're trending the DOE when we put all of our 2025 expenditures and uh I should say appropriations into the software we're required to put in all of those balances as adjusted as of February 1st so that means they're not
the same as the original uh budget that was approved prior by the board also included in that 2425 is the prior year incumbrances and by that is what I mean just like at December 31st when we turn over to March or January 1st as a new year you don't have all
your bills paid well we didn't have all our bills paid June 30th so July 1st when we rolled over um the total of 557,900 came with us that we had to pay in 96 so they're in that 2425 total that's why I'm going to say it's not really apples to apples yet we'll clear
that up so we look at the first line is instruction and we see an increase of 3.9% instruction encompasses all instruction in the district general education special education as well as English English as a second language gifted and talented
and our intervention all instruction 3.9% support services encompasses a lot of different areas of the school district and again that's all student instruction basically related as well you're looking at attendance health services the nurs's office um speech PT
and OT one-to-one services for our students uh guidance as well as child study team or CST the library media resource center is in there professional development curriculum is in there and um improvement instruction so there's a
number of different programs within those support services that also support children in educational learning and that saw hardly even a decrease at all athletics and co-curricular looking at 2.7% increase out of district tuition is up 11.3% and that includes not only our
special education students that are out of district our charter kids that are out of district and those high school students attending uh Sussex Tech as well so all out of district tuition administration there's four different components in administration you've got your general administration which is your superintendent's office you've got
building level administration your vice principles principles and everything that encompasses in those offices central office which is the business office and all of the staff in there and as last one is administrative technology and that's your technology coordinators
so the administrative administration line is seeing about a 5% decrease operations include all of building and grounds which is your uh maintenance custodial and your grounds as well as um security is in there as well and a 5%
decrease in operations transportation saw about a 1% decrease benefits is an 8% increase and benefits is what much more than just medical benefits we're talking about the employer side of um FICA and Medicare is in there for employer payroll taxes the workman's
comp is in there as well um we're also required as an employer to make a once a year annual payment to PERS pers is the public employee retirement system and that requires employers with um staff members in the program to make an annual
payment and all of our full-time aids that are non-certificated staff are in that PERS program so that's well over a million dollars every year that's uh build by the state the DOE and we also have um the sick day payout for our employees is in there and a lot of other
um fringe benefits that's contractual as well in there so it really encompasses much more than just your health prescription and medical benefits and the last one is capital outlay and cap capital outlay can uh you see a large increase there it's due to
that uh it's due to the EIP and the lease payment being charged there as opposed to different areas of the budget and again we have capital projects in there it would be in there as well as any um fixed assets meaning any kind of purchases we make that are over $2,000
in the budget have to go in capital outlay so we're looking at 76,18241 for fiscal year 25 and 78,48780 for fiscal year 26 so just pay attention to those two totals you're seeing a 3% increase they're going to
carry over to the next slide and now we're going to pull out what we don't want to see so we can compare apples to apples and bring it back to the same amount on the revenue side so this is a summary of the appropriations same totals we just saw for fiscal year 25 and 26 we're backing out those reserves because they change every year they're
not the usual and the common occurrences and we're also taking out those prior year incumbrances so when you net those two out for fiscal year 25 you're at 75,502141 and 26 comes in at 77487525 and the difference between
those two is our increase in appropriations 1,985 384 which is the same number we saw on the revenue screen so we know we tie in on both sides 2.6% increase um here's a pie chart to help you understand a little bit better if you look at instruction at
42% and support services and tuition at 15 that's 59% of your budget and that's really the bulk of everything that's going in to educate our students so 59% got benefits in all the other areas as well highlights
and a couple of highlights in the budget for next year uh the technology purchases we are looking at purchasing another 250 iPads for Alpine Elementary School and our typical 550 Chromebooks for the up for the rising sixth graders
and 9th graders and also four Prometheian boards uh across those buildings um typically in the past you would see that these purchases might have been in the budget but they might have been in there as lease purchases uh Miss Decker was able to um get these purchases in there as straight purchases
so that we are not bound in the future for lease purchase and paying off these items uh for multiple years a piano of course at Helen Morgan School um computer replacement at our Alpine sewer plant the Alpine sewer
plant uh computer system that runs the sewer plant is uh becoming antiquated and it is on its last leg so we uh make sure that we have that in our budget as well and accounting and personnel software um for the business office that uh Miss Decker inherited the current
system which she was not a great fan of uh many people were not and we're going to uh switch that accounting and personnel software to a new product uh for next year and uh we included this in last year's presentation just to show the enrollment trend in our district um
these are the ASSA numbers these are the October 15th numbers numbers uh the official numbers that get submitted to the state you can see what they are and uh there is a continued upward trend in our enrollment in our district our district is continuing to grow which is
uh which is good and then these are the budgetary costs when you compare the per pupil cost um those are not the actuals just yet um and the fiscal year one is the projected one the fiscal year 2026 one is the projected one so you're just
comparing the uh per pupil cost along with the administrative costs and along with the legal cost comparing the uh comparing next year and the year that we're living in and then this is the resolution that is on this evening's agenda with all the
detail that is required by the NJ DOE with all of the language and of the numbers that Miss Decker uh just went over in great detail uh that's the resolution that you see on this evening's agenda and if I could just one more time just commend and compliment
Miss Decker for um coming in like I said two months behind typically in the budget process rolling up her sleeves um and getting right after uh an $80 million budget in uh really in about two months time which is uh unbelievable so uh Ms decker uh great job and a great
job with the uh with the admin team as well and and and of course the board of education helping us along the way okay moving on to our student representatives report to begin um the KJS United team which is the high school hockey team composed of students from Kennelon
Jefferson and Sparta won states on Monday at Credential Center spring sports began on Monday the chemistry Olympiad club just had their test this week deca went to their state competition in Atlantic City this past week and 12 students qualified for the national con competition which will be
in Orlando Florida this April and then the high school spring musical which is Little Shops of Horrors will have their shows this weekend on Friday Saturday and Sunday thank you so much may I have a motion to approve the minutes please
motion thank you Lauren second thank you Kurt all in favor any opposed okay moving on to our superintendent report thank you the superintendent report is a little shorter this evening a shorter time between board meetings
and really I should have just allowed Miss Burn to do my superintendence report because I will repeat multiple things that uh that she said uh great things obviously but first congratulations again to all of our seal of biiteracy recipients and thank you to all of our world language teachers who
have brought out the best in these students i'd like to acknowledge the lone retirement on this evening's agenda that would be Miss Lisa Kaplan science teacher at Sparta Middle School and Miss Kaplan has served our district for 23
[Applause] years i will reiterate a promotion for the musical which Miss Burn already did and I'm sure Miss Deluch will do again uh just a promotional reminder that the Sparta High School Musical will be performed this weekend with Friday and Saturday shows at 7 p.m and the Sunday
show at 2 p.m this year's musical is Little Shop of Horrors which had its uh preview tonight the Senior Citizen show this evening uh before this board meeting um and I am looking forward to attending with my family tomorrow evening the hockey team congratulations to the Sparta High School ice hockey
team who won the public school co-op state championship on Monday evening at the Credential Center it was an amazing run and an unforgettable experience for our ice hockey players both winning that championship and doing so at the Credential Center where the professional team plays where the Devils play
and this one is hot off the press as I just learned this afternoon via email from the National Interscolastic Athletic Administrators Association they announced that Mr steve Stoner has been recognized by the NIAA as a certified athletic
administrator this is this to earnest distinction mr stoner has demonstrated the highest level of knowledge and expertise in the field of intercolastic athletic administration the voluntary certification process included a thorough evaluation of the candidates's educational background
experience and professional contributions as well as a rigorous comprehensive written examination mr stoner is one of the elite group of intercolastic athletic administrators nationwide to attend this level of professionalism so congratulations to Mr
stoner and lastly this week our spring athletes kicked off their season and I would like to wish them all the best of luck uh the athletes and our coaches as well thank you so much uh board president's monthly report i just would like to thank Barbara for allowing each of us to
uh come in and pick your brain on the budget we had a lot of time to pour through a lot of line items we really appreciate it i think most if not all of us attended or were able to contact you to to discuss any questions so while we might not have questions at the microphone we certainly had quite a few in your office so thank you for doing
that um and also to segue to the HIB report uh before I move on and request a motion to approve the Hib report I'd also like to thank Rocky uh for advocating for a more comprehensive approach to the board approval process for our HIP reports i'd also like to thank our administration for very
quickly implementing those requests for summary reports in greater detail uh beyond bolstered compliance I think it's going to help us recognize and address trends that we're noticing in the district as a board and of course work collaboratively to find solutions along the way so that said may I have a motion
to approve the HIP report thank you Kurt second second thank you Rocky and discussion no roll call please barbara miss Collier yes dr hinkle yes dr
martinez yes miss Mcichael yes mr morris yes miss Williams yes mr wood yes and Miss Gagnen yes motion carries thank you moving on to delegate and liaison reports does anyone have anything they'd like to
Um we had our first town council board of ed leaison meeting uh last week week before um the one thing the town's working on there are several trails that go through the town they're going to they're in the process of extending them cleaning them up making them more usable
for the community they're also going to make new trails and one of the trails they want to do is connecting the middle school to the high school so that's in the beginning processes there's another piece of land in there that's owned by a private company so still in the talks but that's just the one thing we're in
the process of working with thank you Kurt anyone else to jump in um I was able to attend the Sussex County Educational Services Commission meeting and like us they recently had their budget meeting but fortunately we were not plagued with the technical difficulties they had and it made me
grateful for our uh support and IT team uh that we have every meeting which is really nice and were very consistent uh they also discussed how their curriculum is going virtual and how some of the companies are making them buy the inerson books anyway which I think we recently touched in curriculum so I thought that that was pretty funny how pretty full circle that was um
additionally they mentioned how they do not consider new students unless a public school is already involved with the family which I appreciated for the role they play with special education students um they also described how you need an architect to do things even like a parking lot which I wasn't particularly aware of but I thought was
interesting and another reminder is that uh if we ever need a substitute for a field trip in terms of nurses uh we can always call the Sussex ESC but I'm I know our admin is aware of that um and also in terms of the Sparta or this the Student Education Foundation i have some exciting upcoming events to report um to
start off there is an event on Saturday March 22nd please look at their Facebook page to find some more information out and a new exciting event is their inaugural pickle ball tournament on Friday May 30th from 6:00 to 9:00 pm uh it's going to be at the Sparta Athletic Club and there will be teams of two it's going to be $30 per person and if
anyone's ever interested in signing up for a Sparta Education or Student Education Foundation sorry I'm getting it confused now sparta or Student I think it's Sparta Education Foundation um I check their Facebook page and you can always search them by name with Facebook it's super easy to find things um just by typing it in with keywords
and you can always check out their events and keep in mind that all of their events do support Sparta schools and Sparta teachers and allow Sparta teachers to excel and even a recent teacher I had Mr skognilio is using and continuing to use the foundation to do more and more work in the schools so
always be aware um and yeah try to attend when you can thank you anyone else so I have a few updates uh from ideas while ideas did not meet this month given the quick time frame since
our last meeting the personnel and policy committee has received the proposed revisions to policies 2530 and 9130 i'd like to thank our district media specialists for the quick turnaround and for drafting these proposed revisions which we will be reviewing during our next committee
meeting if all goes well which I'm hopeful for I anticipate that we will see these items added to our next month's meeting agenda for a first reading uh to NJSBA first and foremost I'd like to thank the newer board members who are leaning into their NJSBA training
opportunities not only do the NJSBA's webinars and training sessions offer credit to board members but these events really help us excel in our roles so kudos to everyone who is taking advantage of these services including new board member weekend um again these
are all included in our NJSBA membership so we we should take advantage of these opportunities um also on a county level Sparta will be hosting the NJSBA and Sussex County's annual unsung heroes event this month where students across Sussex County will be recognized
for their comm contributions to their communities we're all looking forward to that and lastly since Emily is not present uh regarding the Garden State Coalition of Schools uh I was able to attend virtually the Zoom event that was
offered by uh Garden State and uh they actually hosted Attorney General Plattkin so the Zoom event during the Zoom event he discussed the effects of the latest executive orders and even the dear colleague letter that was recently circulated i found the session to be incredibly informative and on a very
personal note I just want to say that it really reinforced my belief that Sparta is and will remain compliant with state law and ensure that all Sparta students their all of their rights are upheld and that's it for delegate and liaison reports oh go ahead one more thing I
forgot to add in sorry my notes were a little shifted um we also had another I think we had see I I'm looking at my notes in my notebook and I feel like we're doing so much climate and culture work that I'm getting my my dates confused um but I I believe we had two meetings for climate and culture um and one we had in the media center the Sparta High School media center and I it
was a really excellent informative meeting i really appreciated learning about everything that's in place and when you are working with people and it's behind an email and you hear about teams in a school it's very impersonal and it's not face to face and you you know the work is happening but you're kind of unsure about the results and when you have everybody in a meeting
sharing the results and you're seeing the faces behind the teams you can really see the work that's being done and I feel very confident about the infrastructure that we have moving forward despite the fact that our St elizabeth partnership is ending thank you so much for not letting us forget that one because that was very important i was also able to attend C3
and thank you to Miss Rossy for spearheading that um also Miss Barker we were really impressed with what we're seeing i feel like especially having the opportunity to attend and see how many members of our buildings are totally allin on making sure that our climate and our culture are well reflected in
our district and at their optimal levels it was really inspiring uh not just as a board member but as a parent so thank you so much for that and moving on if no one else has anything we will move on to public comments 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 allotted your 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 the public participation okay motion to close thanks Kurt all in
favor or excuse me second thank you Michelle all in favor any oppose great motion to move personnel and policy items 15.1 through 15.23 thank you Kurt second
discussion uh not much to discuss with the quick turnaround there was nothing status quo here here welcome roll call please miss Collier yes dr hinkle dr martinez yes miss Mcichael yes mr
morris miss Williams yes mr wood yes and Miss Gagman yes motions carry thank you so much motion to move curriculum instruction and special services items 16.1 through 16.5 motion thank you Chad
second sec thank you Michelle discussion to touch a little bit about the committee work this month uh we touched a little bit about the guest speaker policy and um just mainly about alignment with our current practices and that guest speakers will now require secondary
approval um and Miss Ross I'd love to touch uh I'd love for you to touch on some more of the aspects in curricular resources but I really particularly appreciated the conversation we had about consistency when using Google Classroom especially when it comes to parents using Google Classroom it can be a little inconsistent especially when you jump from grade level or building
level and we kind of are we're we're starting to discuss about um or we're starting to discuss the idea of implementing some either requirements or some dos and don'ts and kind of streamlining it but also not limiting teachers to what they can and can't do um more just so that it's more consistent especially for parents
thanks Chad yeah so we talked a little bit just piggybacking off of that about um looking at some kind of guidelines that allowed for like balancing teacher autonomy with some level of consistency we're working with some partner staff members to kind of get a sense of how they're using it specifically for resources that's definitely an area
where like when you're looking to find things to refer back to having some consistency there is is definitely helpful so we'll do more work with that and there'll be some guidelines that we can lean into next year um as we continue forward we also talked about um textbooks and resources areas that maybe
we could find savings in um this year during the budget we analyzed all the different tools we use we cut back and streamlined our technology resources quite a bit last year um and even more so this year um that's one thing in our technology plan is really looking for a balance between that technology delivery
and kind of um you know authentic resources that are in your hands and and not virtual or online um and so actually when we went through that technology plan and we got some feedback from high school students that was something that they provided to us that that is a balance that they're seeing in a return
from COVID they appreciate the ability to take notes or use or options even some prefer using um the opportunity to to use let's say a Google doc to take notes versus their notebook and those things are being provided um we talked about things like math workbooks for example that was a question like is
there potential savings there but we have a agreement with the vendor which ends um in the next not uh not next year but the following and so we'll we're looking at different resources um and collaborating with different schools to just see what people are doing in terms of you know products programs resources
and tools that we're using and I think that sums up our conversation there thank you so much um roll call please miss Collier yes dr hinkle Dr martinez yes miss Mcichael yes mr morris yes miss
Williams yes mr wood yes and Miss Gagnon yes motions carry thank you moving on to finance may I have a motion to um move item 17.1 through 17.7 motion thank you Rocky second second thank you
Rebecca discussion thank you uh it's a short time between meetings but a lot of stuff is happening uh bus inspections are going to happen March 18th and March 27th
um the a technology has been proposed to put on the buses called transportant which will allow the district to monitor buses uh real time in case there is an issue which will also allow parents to know when buses are arriving and leaving
the reported bus stops uh all winter sports would manage using district buses which is a cost savings for the district any bus route that is still contracted will be increased at 3.57 which is CPI for this year um and
the committee has agreed to allow for a six-hour donation of district buses for the annual junior women's club of Sparta event at district giving back to the community following uh buildings and grounds uh as
mentioned earlier the Alpine su the alpine sewer is currently not working to uh manually it's working manually not through the computer uh we've asked for a second quote and further have uh asked
Miss Decker if we can purchase it before the second or before this use this current budget and not wait for June since uh seems like something important uh the district was notified by a neighbor at Helen Morgan that there's a
dead tree uh buildings and grounds is currently looking on how we can or how they can remove that tree and we're keeping our fingers crossed that JCPNL owns up to it and actually covers the cost which would be roughly about uh
$9,000 uh the oil tank sensor was changed which caused it to be out of sync with the software so we need to update the um the oil tank monitoring system another computer that has to be done as
soon as possible uh that's at state contract of roughly 13,000 um and that needs to be done immediately so that we don't run foul of the uh department of environment um and uh so that yeah we
did that uh budget tax levy which we just saw uh we also uh asked Dr beck to uh ask his administrators to get the list of end of life repairs needed in the
district so that we can start looking at what's um needed to get repaired and not be surprised by it um and the inventory of buses would be reviewed with the intent of purchasing a new bus which you noticed in the budget as well um going
to the Verizon subject we were informed of not specific hardware but what was intended for roughly $1,000 a month rent the committee felt that it was not worth the thousand dollars a month and we have
asked uh Miss Decker to notify Verizon that the district is not interested um we have add the we've also allowed for three additional purchases for the district school bus at 120k a new cargo van at roughly 54,000 and a new ride-on
leaf blower at 12,000 uh you saw the budget which was [Music] reviewed um and the the last thing of interest is that we did approve the purchase of CDK CDK
accounting software so Miss Decker could have a couple of more hours in her day playing with old software that's it thank you so much Rocky and um before we move on I just want to mention for the discussion uh if anyone has anything they'd like to weigh in on particularly
I know Verizon was a rather contentious topic in meetings prior uh it would not be appropriate during old business because by that point it would essentially be out of order if I'm not mistaken so it would be most appropriate to discuss that now if anyone has anything they'd like to weigh in
on okay seeing nothing the only thing I want to add to that point Rocky already expressed um we were informed uh by Miss Decker that ver of Verizon specific intentions uh regarding four antennas which would be hidden on the auditorium uh nothing to penetrate the building
however when we learned or confirmed that it was only $1,000 a month that was going to be proposed to us uh which was up in the air up until this point as well as the meter that would be needed to gauge energy usage we agreed I would say unanimously and quickly that it was
not worth pursuing so just an update there while we did not receive the official list of equipment uh that is the result of that so moving on if anyone has anything else okay seeing nothing we'll have a roll call miss
Collier yes dr hinkle dr martinez sorry yes miss Mcichael yes mr morris Miss Williams yes mr wood yes and Miss Gagnon yes motions carry thank you so much moving on to operations um I
don't see anything but moving right to a roll call you see that there why is that yeah I'm not sure is there anything for operations nothing okay so no need to vote moving on to 19 we'll move right along uh old business anyone have anything for old business they wish
to discuss okay moving on to new business anyone have anything great 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 board or administration may or may not respond to any questions or comments after the conclusion of the public participation hello thank you for excusing my tardiness i was at the preview of the spring musical raced
right on over we had over 250 people in the house it was very good very quiet but you know anyway good evening my name is Angela Deluja and I am the very proud president of the Sussex County Education Association and Sparta Education Association
as we enter the vibrant spring season we take a moment to celebrate the incredible efforts of the hard-working and dedicated educators of Sparta Township Public Schools our educators are the heart of the community and their unwavering commitment to shaping the minds of our future leaders is truly
inspiring spring sports have begun and our athletes are ready to showcase their talents thanks to the guidance and support of their coaches it's a reminder of how our educators whether on the field in the classroom or beyond foster teamwork discipline and determination in
every student with whom they encounter we also have exciting news from our our school community our robotics teams are excelling pushing the boundaries of innovation and technology the high school DECA students are gearing up for an incredible opportunity in Orlando
ready to represent our school with pride and dedication and at Helen Morgan School we are embracing the power of community by building connections and a lifelong love of reading through one book one school and the family favorite spaghetti dinner in addition to these achievements
our educators and the board of education are working collaboratively to earn um to ensure our policies remained aligned with the ever evolving needs of our students together the librarians and the board are revising policies 2530 and 9130 reinforcing our commitment to
maintaining a supportive and thriving educational environment at the core of it all is the deep support we offer each other the members of the Sparta Education Association are not only invested in the success of our students but also in the
well-being and growth of the community together we work towards the common goal of making Sparta Township public schools a place where every student and educator can thrive as we celebrate women's history month we also recognize the impactful
contributions of women in our community dr gianuzi just served on as a panel speaker for the youth summit women in leadership sponsored by the Special Olympics organization her involvement is a testament to the leadership resilience and inspiration women bring to our
schools and beyond we are incredibly grateful for the continued support from our current board of education their partnership is invaluable and it streng strengthens the foundation of our schools thank you to all of our educators staff and community members for your dedication we are all stronger
together thank you hi Jenny Derek staff into Sparta uh thank you for the budget presentation i don't yet see it online i'm sure it'll be uploaded um Barbara I just had a couple quick questions if I may and maybe I can reach
out to you directly but most the the one that really stood out um preschool we're going to be adding six sections outside so we have 8 plus one this year 8 plus 7 next year um how does
that get us up to representing all of the preschool students do we have some is this going to give everybody a seat do you know so we continue to work every year towards the universe and grow each year and that's our anticipation for the current year but we haven't reached the
entire universe yet it takes a number of years to get there sure I would imagine and then um is the expectation that kinderg I'm sorry preschool aid will continue indefinitely the state has made a commitment to that okay they right now it's in the budget i've heard recently
yes it's in the budget and it's they're considering and speaking about putting it into actual law so like a statute but right now yes it's in the budget it's a little scary not to have it in law absolutely okay um the technology on the buses is there a place I can find out about what that
is or should I just reach out to you um Rocky um discussed it in their committee program i will uh I can email I can reach out to you directly i would just like to clarify that's only in a discussion phase at this time oh okay i'm sorry i thought it was being implemented my misunderstanding
um and then just a quick request for an update on a couple of initiatives in the district um where are how are we doing with our uh dip for for um
absenteeism chron chronic absenteeism um do we have an update on the referendum and how do we have an update on how the cell phone policy is being embraced and any impact that that may be having on our schools
i'll wait till you close it anyone else okay seeing no one motion to close thank you Kurt second thank you Becca rebecca excuse me all in favor okay any opposed the chronic absenteeism uh action plan
is still being implemented at each at each uh building level uh we won't know the actual statistics from until we get them from the department of education but uh we are continuing to monitor it and to adjust it and in fact the admin team submitted me uh submitted to me um a couple revisions that they were doing
to their practices at the last admin meeting uh the referendum not many changes from last month um we last month as you know we contracted with the uh with a public relations firm um I reached out to that firm the following day they're going to reach back out to
me very soon and come out to the district they want to tour the buildings they want to get an idea of Sparta and our buildings and uh those are the initial steps and uh next month we are looking to start the board meeting at 6:00 p.m so that we can go into executive session and hopefully appoint
a construction manager and the cell phone policy uh still going strong uh by all accounts from from teacher feedback from admin feedback is that uh and from student feedback i'm sorry um it it is is going strong and it is uh very it is achieving
the goals that we wanted it to achieve i would just add to that while we can't you know in education you can't isolate one measure there's lots of things going on at one time but we had our um we do screenings you know uh academic performance screenings like in the middle at the beginning middle and end
of the year so our winter data team meeting we started to look at all kinds of different um aggregations of data and compilations that we were collecting and uh specifically at the high school level right now there is substantial increases in student performance and student growth in both ELA and math so while
it's hard to say it's specific to one thing I think what's definitely clear is that um cell phones are a non-academic barrier and when we responded to them um we do see not only um from you know observation students interacting talking
to one another socializing engaging um but we definitely see growth in performance so it's good stuff and one other thing to add to that we do have an ad hoc referendum committee in the works and they're going to be partnering up with that PR firm to make sure that we're doing our part as well
to get the word out uh but I would say within the next month or two there's going to be quite a barrage of information so you're welcome uh anyone or excuse me motion to close we did excuse me for the good of the order anyone i just wanted to congratulate the naming
of our 2025 um validictorian Tyler Harms that was here tonight and saludiatoran Rowan Mandel who wasn't here tonight but I saw him in the presentation as well but um excited for our top 10 dinner tradition it's great that we could continue that
while still uh looking to remove class rank to best um to best serve all of our graduates with their college admissions but very proud of this graduating class and um wish them the best of luck as they complete their senior year and go on to
do their AP exams and it's a busy season for them but it's exciting to see um truly what Dr lazera said in his post the best of the best and we have much to celebrate um and I'm looking forward to attending also the unsung heroes event that Caitlyn mentioned um I think it's
really a great thing for Sparta to be hosting because it does show our commitment to every student every day so we can look at certainly the highest academic performers but I also can take a look at um and I appreciate the the finance committee and Miss Decker the
hours that we spent together it was really nice to be able to go and line by line together and to be able to say that we've looked at every line of the budget and it also gives such a great understanding of just everything that goes into it in the commitment to our students so we see that in the dollars
but we also see that in the just robust programs that we're looking at for everyone from um our gifted and talented to those who need more support so um thank you everyone for your efforts well said Lauren and just to add to that Tyler Harms is actually Rebecca and I's
unofficial coach for our women's softball league so I'm extremely biased and I won't get into too much detail but he is a phenomenal human being um in in many ways so kudos to him as you mentioned uh also I have tickets tomorrow night my family and I for the little Shop of Horrors it's our annual
tradition that we absolutely can't wait for very excited for opening night um and I too would like to commend uh Barbara for managing to keep us within that 2% cap in a very important year when we're looking at a referendum on the precipice as we keep saying uh or on
the horizon rather as we keep saying it was really important to a lot of us here to make sure that we were as conservative as we possibly could be when it comes to our fiscal responsibility uh and I'm proud of the work you've done i'm proud of the work we've all done to uh review that and we appreciate you as Dr beck said
especially on that quick turnaround so thank you so much for your efforts and with that anyone else for go to the order bear with me one moment okay uh we will now convene into close session whereas section 8 of the open public meetings act chapter 231
public law 1975 provides for the exclusion of the public from a meeting in certain circumstances and whereas the Sparta Township Board of Education is of the opinion that such circumstances exist to discuss personnel matters and attorney client privilege matters uh
which is which are exempt from public participation pursuant to New Jersey Public Law 1975 chapter 231 open public meetings act now be it resolved that the Sparta Township Board of Education shall enter executive session at uh 8:18 8:18
p.m the board will reconvene in is 8:19 8:19 the board will reconvene in public session at the conclusion of the executive portion uh excuse me with me of executive session 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 uh no action will be taken when we return uh let's have a motion please thank you Rebecca second thank you Kurt all in favor any opposed thank you