Call the meeting to order the Triton Board of Education. April 27th, 2026, 5:30 p.m. Pledge of 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. >> Roll call please. >> Gerald Truhart >> present. >> Denise Johnson >> present. >> Jean Buouie >> present. >> Addy Daniels Lane >> present. >> Austin Edwards >> present. >> Yolanda Lopez
>> present. Larry Trailer >> present. >> Jeannie Weakland >> present. >> Danelli De Leon present. >> Kamaya Long. >> Oscar Santos. >> We have a quarum. >> All right. Great. New Jersey Sunshine
Law. New Jersey public meetings 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 interest is discussed or acted on. On the rules of this act, the Trenton Board of Education has caused notice of this
meeting by publicizing date, time, and place. Therefore, posted on the district website, the Times, the Star Ledger, and the Trenton Journal. Formal action will take place at this meeting. Our mission statement, all students who graduate with a with the vision for the future,
motivate to learn continually, and prepare to succeed in their choice of college or career. Motion to adopt the agenda. probably moved and seconded. Roll call. >> Gerald Truhart, >> yes. >> Denise Johnson, >> yes.
>> Jean Buouie, >> yes. >> Addie Daniels Lane, >> yes. >> Austin Edwards, >> yes. >> Yolanda Lopez, >> yes. >> Larry Trailer, >> yes. >> Jeannie Week, >> yes. >> Danelli D. Leon, >> yes. >> Motion passed.
>> Superintendent. Good evening everyone and welcome on this spring evening. Um so just wanted a few announcements. Uh New Jersey uh NJSLS testing is happening for the next month. Um we announced this and we share
it out often just so that uh our parents and families know how in how important it is. It's crucial that students are in schools uh taking the assessment. This helps us determine any areas where we they may need support, but also to
extend learning opportunities for students. So, please help us if you're around young people that you know are not getting to school, uh let us know so that we can get them here so that we can get them involved in that process to help uh learning. Also, we had a great
evening um last Tuesday with families and staff members around strategic planning. For those of you who may have heard or you've seen the broadcast or the the flyers come out, uh it's a great opportunity because we're talking about
what we will do in district over the next three to five years. So, it's important to hear your voice in particular parents and students. We'd love for you to join us so we can hear about what you feel should be included in that plan. So, please join us. Our
next meeting, we will still promote. We will continue to promote. Our next meeting is uh May 19th. We're at Trenton Central High School in the cafeteria. Uh please uh hit the link and fill out the form, the questionnaire so that we get
your information and we can add you to the list. But please join us if you want to share and planning the next um goals over the next five years. So today uh we have uh the pleasure of
experiencing the incredible talents of the students of Jefferson Intermediate School. Uh featuring performances by students in grade four through six. This showcase is a testament of the dedication, creativity, and excellence cultivated within the school community.
Under the direction of Miss Marissa Medina, our band will demonstrate their musical skill and collaboration. Our choir led by Mr. Steven Mertian will share the power of student voice through song. The energy and expression of dance
will be brought to life by our sixth grade students under the guidance of Miss Tamaris Moore and Miss Maria Brando. This remarkable work is made possible through the leadership of Dr. Nadia Raman and vice principal Dr. Omea,
whose commitment to fostering arts, innovation, and student excellence continues to shine through shine through in every aspect of the Jefferson community. Please join me in celebrating the students and Jeff students of
Jefferson Intermediate School. Welcome. 1 There we go. Heat. Heat. Good to see you. Thank you, sir. All right. Thank you very much. Very good.
All right, we are going to sing Lift Every Voice. If everybody could please rise. With every voice singing Christ. Sing a song of the darkness.
Sing a song. All of the pres. >> All right. Good job. Thank you. Uhoh. Uhoh. Uhoh. Wait now. There was a time where freedom felt like a distant dream. It was something that people whispered about, but they were
too afraid to say out loud. Hope had to hide in the dark. Even believing in something better could get you killed. >> Standing up was not simple. It meant risking your safety, your family, and even sometimes your life. They told us to stay quiet. They told us that silence was safer than speaking the truth.
They wanted us to lower our eyes and bow our heads. They wanted us to feel small and powerless. They put chains on our hands and feet, but the heaviest chain was to silence our souls. >> But deep inside, something refused to stay silent. There was a fire that could
not get put out. There was a heartbeat that would not slow down. It kept whisper for more. Some people refused to give up their seeds death. Some people refuse to give up. They see that becomes a spirit that led our movement
>> in one stood up. It may be small but it changed everything. And a no stood beside them. And suddenly courage didn't feel lonely at all. >> Because courage spread from heart to heart. When one person rise, others remember they could rise too. >> Every breath we came to find. Every
voice declared that we matter. >> We carry the strength within us. We honor their cards. >> We refuse to stay silent. >> I've been walking With my face turned to the sun,
>> weight on my shoulders, a bullet in my gun. >> Oh, I got eyes in the back of my head >> just in case I run. I do what I can when I while the clouds roll back and the stars
feel the night. That's when I'm going to stand up. Take my people with me. Together we are going to a brand new home. Far across the river. Can you hear
freedom calling? Calling me to answer. Going to keep on keeping on. I can feel it in my bones. Early in the morning before the sun begins to shine,
we're going to start moving towards that separating line. I'm waiting through mighty waters. You know, I got a made up of mind. And I don't mind if I lose any blood on the way to salvation.
And I fight with the strength that I got until I die. So I'm going to stand up. Take my people with me. Together we are going to a brand new home.
Far across the river. Can you hear freedom calling? Calling me to answer. Going to keep on keeping on. And I know
what's around the bed might be hard to face cuz I'm alone and I just might fail. My love knows I try. Sh.
Stand up. Take my people with me. Together we are going to a brand new home. Far across the river. Can you hear freedom calling?
Calling me to answer. Going to keep on keeping on. I'm going to stand up. Take my people with me. Together we are going to a
brand new home. far the river. Do you hear me calling? Calling me to keep on. I'M GOING TO STAND UP. TAKE MY people
with me. Together we are. I hear freedom calling, calling me to end. I got to keep on. I can feel it in my bones. I go
to prepare a place for you. I go to prepare a place for you. I go to prepare a place for you.
I go >> morning Jaguars. Today on the news, we'll be talking to some of the students from Thomas Jefferson Intermedia School about some Africanameans who made strides in their community like Elijah
J. McCoy. He was born in 1844. He was born in Canada. His parents escaped slavery. He was a mechanic engineer. In America, they will not hire
him as an engineer because he was black. He worked on trains as a firefighter. He made a special oil. He invented a better lubricant oil for steam engines. He made
his invention work. People called it the real McCoy. He m he had over 50 license. Now we will be talking to Andre. Today we will be talking about George
Crumb. George Crumb was born in July 15th, 1824. George Crumb died in July 22nd, 1914. Also called George Spec.
He was a cook. He worked in a restaurant. He liked to cook food. He invented potato chips in 1853. >> Today we will be interviewing Javier
Macargo. Who are we talking about today? >> Charles Baylor. >> What did he do? >> He invented the shampoo headrest. What is a shampoo heads? A thing where you go to the barber shop to get your haircut before you get your
haircut. You lay down on the shampoo head brush to get your hair washed. And um you get your haircut. Heat up here. Heat
up here. Hi, we research the top 10 staff >> historically black colleges and universities also known as H.B.CU. Howard University, >> Norfolk State University, >> Morgan State University,
>> Valley State University, Jackson State University, Alabama State University, >> Alabama and um University, >> North Carolina AMT State University, Prayer Review A&M University. We focus
on four important data points. >> Tuition. Tuition is the cost to attend a college. >> Student to faculty ratio. >> The student to faculty ratio shows how many students there are per every one professor.
>> SAT scores. The SAT is a college entry exam. >> Acceptance rate. Acceptance rate is a percentage of students that a college admits out of everyone who applies. >> We researched the H.B.CU to use and put all of our findings into a shared
numbers document. >> Then we studied the data and recorded our observations. >> This is what we learned. We found out the higher the acceptance rate, the lower the SAT score. The lower the acceptance rate, the higher the SAT
score. For example, Florida&M University has the lowest acceptance rate and the high one of the highest SAT scores, >> which means Florida&M is a competitive school. We thought that college is expensive. >> Jackson State University has the lowest
tuition at $13,635 per year. >> We found out that Howard University costs the most to attend at $39,000, >> but you can apply for many different scholarships. Looking at all this data together help
students decide which college might be a best fit. >> Thank you. Uh that was you want to say it? That was fantastic. So the song is still ringing in my head and so it was great to see the art and the students expressing themselves. So thank you so
much Dr. Ramcharan and the team at Jefferson. What an exciting day uh to start this meeting. >> Can I just say something? >> Sure. Yes. um this uh
ex presentation along with the one last month. I think we really have to get these kids down in Atlantic City in October. Whoever >> go about we have to showcase this apply. Yeah. >> Okay. >> You know, >> right,
>> we can do it. She's talking about at the New Jersey school board's conference, many other districts will bring students to uh present and showcase uh and she's suggesting that we take some of ours. So, we will take that into consideration
uh in October. It's late October of every school year uh that we go there. All of us go to participate and we see students from other districts go to share their talents. So, be a great opportunity for Trenton students to attend and participate.
So, next we're going to hear from our student board representatives. So, I'll turn the floor over to you. Good evening, President Truhart, Superintendent Earl, and members of the board. I am Kamaya Long. Um, I am president of TCHS Student Government
Organization, and I'm pleased to be here before you today to give a few announcements regarding Trenton Public Schools. To start, I would like to thank and commend the students of Jefferson Intermediate School for their performance. It is truly refreshing to see younger students participating and
doing things like this. Now, for announcements, I would like to address a few concerns regarding the cell tower being implemented near Trenton Central High School. I as well as other students and staff um believe we weren't notified about what was happening at the school
nor were we asked if there were any concerns as people are worried about their safety and health uh which should always be taken seriously. In fact, one of our representatives from student government, Mai Bellamy, attended the meeting regarding the cell tower after school to raise a few questions of his
own, such as why weren't staff and students notified, where exactly will the cell cell tower be placed? and how safe is this tower uh to medical conditions, cancer, etc. We will be talking to him tomorrow to discuss what he gathered at the meeting. Um on a
higher note, take your child to work day was a success with the children um who attended enjoying their time with their parents. >> Uh good evening members of the board. My name is Oscar Santos. I am the vice president of uh Turn Center High School Student Government Association. I just
wanted to start by saying the new voice performance on f on Friday was terrific. The students did an outstanding job. I also want to share an exciting opportunity coming up. The junior class presents a night in Vegas. This event will feature a red carpet entrance, a
360 photo booth, food, games, and much more. It's a great It's a great way for students to come together, celebrate, and create lasting memories. to help to help sponsor the event and support these students. I'd like to ask if you consider making a donation. Any
contribution will help cover cost and ensure more students can participate. Thank you. >> Can you just repeat what the donations for so that we can record it if we want to donate? >> Sorry. uh is to help sponsor the junior class.
Um we have a semiformal coming up. >> Okay. >> So we we will benefit a lot from if there was any donations. >> All right. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Thank you to our student reps. Great presentation and appreciate you being
here. is important that we have a student voice here in our board meetings uh to share your voices with us so we can take things under consideration and make updates and changes as we uh can do so according to our policies and board regulations. And so we appreciate you being here and look forward to you
coming back each and every board meeting uh to share your thoughts in and any updates from the city of Treton public schools for the students representative. Thank you so much. Uh board, I need to amend the agenda to to move public participation
up before our performances. >> Before our presentations, may I have a motion a first to move it? >> Second. >> First and second. Roll call. >> Cheryl Truhart? >> Yes. >> Denise Johnson?
>> Yes. >> Gene Buoie? >> Yes. >> Addie Daniels Lane? >> Yes. >> Austin Edwards? Yes. >> Yolanda Lopez. >> Yes. >> Larry Trailer. >> Yes. >> Jeannie Waklam. >> Yes. >> Denelli D. Leon. >> Yes.
>> Motion passed. >> Right. We have now have public participation. Laura Emer. Okay. Laura Emer's not here. Monifeha Banks. Harrison. Thank you. Hi, I'm Monifeh Banks
Harrison and I live at 732 Greenwood Avenue in the city of Trenton. I'm a taxpayer, a homeowner, a voter who votes in every election, and a teacher of both AP language and composition and 10th
grade English at Trenton Central High School. My AP students have been studying King Thorough, Brian Stevenson, and Padilla Peralta in an extended unit on justice. And I realize that I can't sit idly by and not say anything while I'm teaching my students to speak up in
the face of injustice. I am concerned about the construction of the 150 ft tower on the property of Trenton Central High School. Moreover, this project has been marshaled through very quickly with very little input from
city residents and Trenton Central High School staff. Today, I along with members of school leadership team met with representatives from RiseUp, the contractor of record, Mr. Mosley and Superintendent Earl, which I'm very thankful that we had the opportunity to have that meeting. However, there remain
questions regarding this project. Um, during Douglas H. Palmer's tenure, I served as the director of housing inspections and assistant to the construction official. In that role, I was responsible for the revision and enforcement of various codes like the
city's housing and zoning code, landlord licensing, etc. I also assisted in the revision of the city's demolition specifications and all hazard mitigation plan which required me to work closely with representatives from both FEMA and the EPA. I mention this because over the
last few weeks I have been very surprised to learn that the aforementioned 150 foot cellular tower was approved by the zoning board to be less than 80 foot from the communication SLC entrance at Trenton Central High School. While most
health guidelines suggest that towers of this magnitude be placed 500 meters from a property, the city zoning code protects property and mandates that the towers be far enough away from the building as it is tall, which would mean
that the structure should be 150 ft away, not 80. The city's zoning board granted the variance to permit the tower to be erected because they were told that if the relocation of the cellular tower, which presently sits at top the soontobe demolished St. Francis
Hospital, does not take place, then the entire area would be without cell service to access 911. I find this hard to believe. When I worked for the city's for the city and worked on the city's allhazard mitigation plan, I learned that it is
important when undertaking a project like this to mitigate health to mitigate hazards in advance. While the potential health hazards seem to be inconclusive at this time and we won't know what they are for a number of years, we do know
that the potential for property damage is great. Which is why the intent of the zoning code is to ensure that the potential for damage to the property and disruption to the school day must be abated by placing it either not on our property or further away from our
building. So that if the tower fails or is is affected by extreme weather patterns, which we've been seeing a lot of lately in the last several years, then the school day and our students will not be affected because every minute matters, right?
As a homeowner who lives only a block away from the school, I am concerned about how the value of my property will be affected by this mammoth structure. I would like to request the opportunity to see if we might be able to explore other possible locations of this tower that
would further that would be further away from our building and not visible from the front of the building to maintain the aesthetic that we sought when we originally designed this building. What concerns me most is ensuring that our
students are safe and that in haste we are not making decisions that can negatively affect us all. Thank you. Thank you, Monifeh. John Forte, school leadership team, Trent Central High School. Good evening, ladies and gentlemen of
the board. Superintendent Earl, thank you for inviting the school leadership team to meet with Mr. Mike Mallaloy of RiseUp Towers today. We really appreciate that opportunity. I just want to second a few things that Monifeh Harrison, my
colleague, had to say. I think she summarized a lot of the issues really well. Um first, just to second um collaboration. I think that we have um some great district initiatives regarding more input from the community and staff members and students. And I
think that this would have been a great opportunity this the construction of this cell phone tower to get more input. um also the um labor management collaboration as part of it is bringing the Trenton Education Association into this process. So my big concern today
from the meeting was regarding safety concerns. Um as Monifeh stated, I think some of the health concerns are inconclusive either way regarding the cell phone tower. But I do think that is the problem is that if the the health concerns are inconclusive, why are we
willing to take a risk with staff and students? Um the one primary example here was we asked about the environmental and health reports that were done by u Mr. Mike Moy with RiseUp Towers and these were asked for I think
last Tuesday at the last meeting we had today we still did not receive them. Uh when asked about them Mr. Mike Mole's response was, "That is not my responsibility to to tell you guys," which was not a great response from a company we're expecting to take um you
know, safety precautions with staff and students. Countries such as Italy and Greece um have banned or restricted cell phone towers near schools. Um and again just more importantly if we don't know um some of the the health and safety
risks because studies on both sides um have kind of outweighed each other. I think that it might not be a good idea to press so press forward so quickly. Which brings me to that to the last point of just I think the project is being pushed forward too quickly without
enough input, without enough time for staff and community and students to buy into the project to look at some of these health and safety and environmental concerns so that we can be as confident as possible about using that money towards our school, which again is only $40,000, right? a drop in
the bucket towards the overall school budget of over 500 million. I believe, correct me if I'm wrong, but I think that again the safety of students and staff and the community should be the primary concern here. Thank you, Mr. Hey.
Hawk. Mr. Hawk, my apologies, Mr. Hawk. Uh good afternoon uh board members. Thank you for having me. Um community, um I'm going to be speaking about the same thing. Um the concerns about the towers
um that's going to be erected on the property of Trent Central High School. So, I just want to speak briefly about uh responsibility and how we make decisions that affect students, employees, and neighborhoods. Many people and I I make a lot of references
to movies because I find many connections in movies. So, if you're familiar with the movie, that's great. So, many people are familiar with the movie a few a few good men. In it, two Marines, Lance Corporal Dawson and Private First Class Downey, are charged
with killing a fellow soldier. They don't deny what they did. Their defense is very simple. They were following orders. The film forces the viewer to confront a difficult question. When does obedience
end and personal responsibility begin? That question is not just cinematic but historical in history. It was faced um during norm trial trials after World War II. Defendants often argued that they were
just following orders. The court rejected it and rejected their defense, ruling that if a moral choice was possible, individuals were responsible for their actions. Authority does not erase conscience. Um, so that principle
matters well beyond military history and it applies in systems built on rules, procedures, and hierarchy, including public education. School districts operate under state guidance, federal regulations, and technical compliance standards. These structures are
necessary, but compliance alone has never been the same as care. Being allowed to do something is not the same as being obligated to proceed without reflection. A current example illustrate illustrates this well. The placement of
this large cell phone tower near our on our property and near homes, right? But mainly on our property of TCHS, federal regulators maintain the proximity to cell towers to um to cell towers is safe under existing exposure
limits. At the same time, many experts and studies recommend additional caution. And this goes back to what both Miss Harrison and Mr. Forte was talking about. Some suggest maintaining a
distance of approximately 300 to 500 meters, roughly 1,300 to 1,600 feet from from large towers um to reduce potential exposure to radiation frequency radiation and many
um many residents prefer buffers around 15500 feet or more citing peace of mind, potential s symptoms such as headaches and long-term concern. concerns uh including property values. The issue is
uncertainty. Science as science continues to evolve. Communities are to are often told that excuse me, communities are often told this meets that standard or this complies with this regulation. But
standards typically represent minimum requirements, not best practices. When decisions affect children, families, employees, and neighborhood trust, the question should not only be what is permitted, but what is prudent.
The Marines and a few good men equated loyalty and unquestionable obedience. The Norberg trial taught us that moral responsibility remains even when even within a rigid system. Today's school
boards like yourselves are faced with own ver your own versions of these decisions. Of course, it's far less dramatic and um but it still has deep consequences, right? So, do we rely on solely do we rely solely on compliance
with you know what they're telling us or do we engage in best judgment? Do we defer responsibility upward or do we take ownership of the impacts of our decisions made that um the impacts our decisions may have on students and
employees and the community. So education is much much more than just instruction. It's about modeling decision- making and values. When students see adults thoughtfully weighing risk, asking hard questions, and prioritizing well-being, they learn
what responsible citizenship looks like. >> You have one minute. >> No problem. The enduring lesson from history and from everyday community experience is simple. Being told something is acceptable does not relieve us from the responsibility to do what
what we think is right. So, I'm going to leave you with this. The bottom line is accountability. Who's going to be accountable when five years, 10 years down the road, we find out that that proximity has impacted our students? Who's going to be held responsible? And
are they going to be held liable for it? And I I don't know if that's going to be the board or the company or whom it may be. So, just something to ponder. Thank you. CE Williams local number 77. >> C Cecil Williams from Labor's local
number 77. >> All right. Good evening members of the board and superintendent. My name is Cecil Williams and I have lived in Trenton for 50 years. I grew up in Trenton and attended school here as a child. Today I'm raising my
family in Trenton and have spent more than 50 years building deep roots in the community. I am also a proud member of Lyuna Local 77 for 27 years of experience in construction industry.
I I'm here tonight not just as a worker but as your neighbor. A career in the trades with local 77 changed my life. It gave me access to quality health,
care, and fair and livable wage, the ability to buy a home and the opportunity to retire with dignity. There is dignity and access success in a union career, but not every employee
creates the same opportunities for Trenton residents. There is unfortunately too much exploitation in the construction industry. Many non-UN employers steal and put workers in danger.
Young people in Trenton deserve opportunities I have had with local 77. It is how kids like me, kid, I'm 60 years old, who are good with their hands can access
careers and build the sort of generational wealth that lifts up Trent. When we work on these projects, we are aren't just labor. We are parents. Those kids sit in these classrooms. We are
folks who sat in these classrooms ourselves. We have a vested interest in the quality of the work. I urge this board to exercise its authority to thoroughly review every bidder and to implement a
project labor agreement that guarantees public work in Trenton is built by local hands for fair wages. Don't settle for the lowest bidder if they are the lowest rule for our community. Thank you. I'm actually
working on the St. Francis project too now. Thank you. Mr. Charles Norwood, Sergio Sanchez, Cardono down a little bit. Oh, shoot. Good evening, board. My name is Sergio
Sanchez. I'm a field representative with the Labour's Local 77. I represent a mass a wide variety of ranges from Middle Sex County to Kate May County. But today we're here to speak about trend. We have a strong base skilled qualified workers who reside in the
city. People who are really and willing willing and ready to go to work. These are individuals who live here, raise their families here, and contribute to the communities. Our position is simple. Local work should benefit local people. When projects in are built in Trenton, especially those supported by public
funding, we believe the economy impact should stay right here in the city. Putting Trenton residents to work means those wages go back to local businesses, local neighbors, and local communities. Overgrowing these this isn't just just jobs. It's
just reinvestment, stability, long-term opportunities for people who call Trenton home. We stand ready to be partners in making this happen. Our goal is to help contact these opportunities with local workforce and ensure that Trenton projects to build are just make
the community stronger. So I ask you guys, we if you guys are willing to take any meetings with us um regarding any future developments, project we're realistically just trying to put local residents in the community work, apprenticeship programs, give people an opportunity to grow in in communities, right? Um could I leave my business card
for anybody or >> I'll take it. >> Okay, you'll take it. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. >> Jason Lee. >> Okay. Jonathan Puebla. Jonathan. Hey, Jonathan. All right. That
ends this uh portion of our board meeting for public participation. Last last last month we we announced the renegotiation of our superintendent's contract. We announced that we would have our public hearing.
Today is that public hearing at the subsequent board meeting. Last board meeting we made that announcement. uh during the process from that time we've uh renegotiated our superintendent's contract and now is the time for public a public hearing on the contract. So this is an opportunity for the community
to to um speak in regards to our superintendent's contract. Mr. Mr. Ro is going to give an update on the superintendent's contract at this time. >> Yeah. So, uh, so last Friday, the board, uh, successfully renegotiated a contract
with a superintendent. Um, and the law requires that before the board is able to take action on that contract that we have a public hearing. So, this is that public hearing. So, for for all you guys participating, Superintendent Earl agreed to a contract where that takes him through 2031. So, the contract will
be amended to run from 2026 to 2031. Um the only relevant changes are the years as I just stated and the starting salary which is $287,000. Um that salary was uh was done by way of comparison with about five or six other
districts similar to ours and the contract was approved by the county superintendent on Friday. Um and again we have to have this public hearing before the board can take action on it. Um, >> are there any questions from the public about the contract? Anybody who wishes
to speak uh about the amendment to the superintendent's contract? >> You got to abstain from the vote. >> Hussein Hawk. Again, I just want to say I think that that's uh awesome because I work closely with Mr. Earl um with the
labor management collaboration and I think that um with his uh presence there I think it's going in the correct direction for our district. So congratulations. >> Anyone else?
Need a motion to approve the amendment to the superintendent's contract. >> So moved. >> Second. Probably moved in a second. Roll call. >> Gerald Truhart. >> Yes. >> Denise Johnson. >> Yes. >> Jean Buoie. >> Yes. >> Addie Daniels Lane. >> Yes.
>> Austin Edwards. >> Yes. >> Yolanda Lopez. >> Yes. >> Larry Trailer. >> Yes. >> Jeannie Week. >> Abstain. >> Danelli De Leon. >> Yes. >> Motion passed. Mr. Superintendent, we now have our
presentations at this time. Sorry. Turn it. >> That work better. >> Okay. Yes. Can you guys see me? Yeah. Just wanted to make sure. Okay. Okay. Good. Good evening, board
president Truhart, board members, superintendent, and the public. We're very excited to be here today to go over our 2627 budget. We feel as though it was a long process, but we achieved our goal, which to ensure that our students
had a thorough and efficient education. Our budget was published in the Trenton Times, the Star Ledger, and on the web page. We also have a copy in the back for everyone to take a look at and you have a copy on the die so you can really look at what goes into the budget, how
many components it is and how we really really have to work hard as Mr. Earl said in our um strategic plan meeting to make sure we hit every component. Our mission statement, which is our guide, was read previously by our board president, so we won't go over that
again. But our district priorities are very important. Student achievement, parent community partnership, engagement, developing the whole child, staff development and well-being, and facilities infrastructure. Now, we know
we are in the process of creating and revising our strategic plan to 2031, I believe. Yeah. But the components will probably be the same, and we're just probably going to just tweak them a little. our budget calendar. This is like I said
a very long process. We started this in October, right? So October of 26, we'll be starting again for 2728. But when you look at that, the budget begins when the budget calendar is prepared because that is our road map
and you should follow everything on that calendar. So we go over that with our operations committee which is chaired by Mr. Jean Buouie. Then we go over it with the leadership and we have a lot of conversations are what are our non-negotiables? What are we looking for
within this budget that we can ensure will give our students what we're trying to give them which is a thorough and efficient education. After we look at that, we look at all of our negotiations. What are our other oblig obligations? What are our fixed costs?
What are our housing health benefits which went up 31%. So after we looked at all of that and we come together with a mock budget, we then look at okay, what's going to be our guidance? What would we roll out to our principles and to our leadership team to ensure that
they give Mr. Earl and I a thorough budget that our principles then can follow and then the principles meet with their leadership team and they should be preparing the budget together. It's not prepared by the business office. I know a lot of guys think that we go into a
little room and prepare budgets. We do not. They are prepared by the schools and central leadership. Then it comes to the principles meeting with the superintendent and leadership to go over their budgets. And that was a great
process this year because the principles really had to know what was included in that budget. They did curricular audits. They did inventory audits. We looked at facilities. So, we really took a look at everything. So, by the time we start preparing our budget and really looking
at how it would go into the state system, we were pretty much there instead of having to go over all of these variances because if you're over 4%, you have to explain why. Now, we're where we are today, which is our public hearing because the county approved the
budget. the county superintendent, the county BA. Now, it's up to you to adopt the budget. Now, I'm sure I went over the budget with you guys in detail. And as you can see, it was a little more difficult than usual because we didn't
know what our amount would be. So, now we know we received $23.9 million, but our charter schools took eight million of that. So that's like what 16 that we received. But we were able to still be able to meet our obligations. When I say
obligations, I mean some of our past and some of our future obligations that we have to come together and have a budget that we think our public, our students and you will be proud and approve that budget. Now this is one half of the
budget process, right? It's planning, preparation and adoption which is today. Then the other half is implementation which after it's approved it will go into our financial system. Next it will be evaluated and monitored by our
accountants along with our principles and then we'll start the process again because if we don't monitor our budgets how will we know where we are, right? It's like if you have a navigation system you don't know where you're going. It's going to take you anywhere. Right? So we have that system and we're
trying to make sure that we keep moving forward because as the money is less and less and less, we have to figure out ways to look at things differently, right? Look at things like a scientist will look at them. Say how we cannot say no to everything. I know I'm the queen
of no, but how we can say yes to some things but still be within compliance. That's the difficult challenge. Our budget priorities, they must reflect our mission statement in our strategic plan. Main is maintain as many existing
programs and services as possible. Continue to provide our academic program that meets the mandates of New Jersey student learning standards. Continue to review revised curricula. I know Joanne the song is happy to see this to ensure alignment with state requirements and
meet all contractual salary and benefit obligations. This is very important. Next is our budget goals. Focus on ensuring every possible dollar is invested in our student diverse needs. That's goal one through five. Empower
staff members to grow through focused professional development, which is goal four. Thoughtful realignment and reallocation of resources. That could be goal one through five. continue focus on security building infrastructure and
continue identifying efficiency improvements which is very important because that's how we will continue that cycle and continue to ensure that we can generate revenue. Miss Mitchell will come up and she will
talk about where does revenue come from and where does revenue go. So if you can come up here. >> Good evening, board president Truhart, board members, superintendent Earl, district staff, and community
stakeholders and parents. It's an honor and a privilege to present today. I'm Sean Mitchell. I'm the assistant business administrator, and it's like I said, an honor and privilege to present along with Miss Howard and Dwayne Mosley this evening. So what we're going to go through here on the next few slides is
to discuss the the revenue and the expenditures and the grants and do an over overall uh breakdown of that. Okay. So the first one here is our state aid comparison. Um from 2526 our current year to what we're projecting for next
year 2627. Overall the state aid increase is 6%. I'm drawing you to the bottom line and then the breakdown is the four different revenue sources. The equalization aid is where most of the in increase was from
about close to the 6% 5.9 21 million from current year 370 million to 391 million. Special education aid increased by 8.8 at 1.5. Transportation aid at 1.4
about 64 close to 65,000. and our security aid increased by about a half a million which resulted in a 6.7 uh% increase overall state aid 6%. Okay, so here this is our general
revenue two-year comparison. So our state aid numbers are in here. We went over that on the previous slide. That's the second or the third column from the bottom. So, if you look overall here, our overall budget for next year is 535
million. A majority of that is our state aid, but we're going to go from top to bottom. We start off with our excess fund balance, which was covered in a few meetings ago with our um our auditor, and that's always what's left over in
excess of our 2% from the previous year. So, in the current year, we're working with an excess fund balance of 15 million. what was left over from our 2425 budget was 26 million and that's what we have to budget for for next year's budget. So that's an 11 million
difference about 74%. So adjustment for prior year incumbrances, you don't see that number yet for 2627 because that's not determined until the end of this year. What that is are all of our incumbrances that don't finish off within that year
that are going to carry into the next year. Those are not liabilities, non- liabilities, but they're incurred for incumbrances in incumbrances for prior year, which means the work hasn't taken place, but the commitment is there. So, a majority of that 33 million are our
facilities projects. So, we will have a number for 26 27, but that won't be determined till the end of this fiscal year. So then we're moving on to our local tax levy, which is what our city, city of Trenton contributes to the district, which is a 2% increase.
Um, this year is 25.7 million. Next year about a half a million dollar increase to 26 million. Our Medicaid reimbursement uh semi that is a number that's given to us from the state when we're building the budget. We're actually informed what that that number
is. So that's why you see that uh it's a drastic difference, but there was a difference in what we were instructed to uh to budget for. So our miscellaneous revenues, $828,000 to a million, that's about $182,000 increase. What's in that
number is primarily our rate um revenue as well as our interest revenue. We are very rigorous at investing what funds that we have and the cash that we have on hand. And that's where you'll see those those numbers in there. Extraordinary aid,
that's our special education aid that we get in excess. So that number is the same um because that budget is actually we're preparing that now. So we're projecting to get at least that amount, but that's to be determined. Okay. So state aid, we already went
through state aid. We got a 6% increase, 23 million. And then our grants, you'll see a a significant reduction. And the reason for that is in our current year, we have carryover in that number, which is the carryover funds from previous years that were unspent. When we're
preparing the budget, we cannot project for carryover funds. Your expectation is that you're spending the funds in the year that you have it, but carryover funds are spent first. They're spent first. So, it's not to say we won't have any, but you cannot project that you
have this current level of uh carryover because you won't. Um, additionally, when we're building the budget, we're actually informed to budget at 75% of the current year um budget allocation because there's no guarantee you're going to get 100% of what you have in
the current year. Okay. So, this pie chart here just gives you a breakdown of what those different revenue sources were that we looked at on the previous page. As you can see, the big piece of the pie is state aid at
79 close to 80%. Um, I'm wearing glasses for a reason. Um, because those other areas are very small and some of the ridges come in. So, if you think about state aid at 79, let's round up and say 80%. Uh, your grants are about 10%.
Um your excess fund balance is at five. Uh your adjustment uh for prior year incumbrances is at zero. Um in comparison, your total total lack tax levy is at 5%. Medicaid reimbursement, it is a percentage, but it's just less
than one. So it's rounding to zero. Okay. Miscellaneous revenue the same and extraordinary aid at 1%. So where does the money go? That's what we get. Now we're going to talk about where we're spending these resources. So again, a two-year comparison for 25 to
26. Our school-based budgets have an increase of 11.6 million. That's always a good sign because you want to make sure your resources aren't spent um in the schools. So that's a 6% increase, 11.6. Our charter schools uh have a significant increase as well. Their
percentage is about 12.4. Um their dollar amount is an increase of $ 8.4 million. um out of state dis I'm saying out of state forgive me that is did not say out of state it says out of district tuition um we're at 31 to 38 uh million that's
about a 6.3 increase there are increases to tuition amounts and you have to budget accordingly um our adult program stayed uh flat at 150,000 our uh central office budget there's a reduction there of 27 million
primarily uh a lot of that is our projects that we talked about prior, the reserve for encumbrances, those projects come into the current year and then they're expended. So that's where a majority of that is. Uh our district-wide there's an increase of 965,000.
What's mostly in the district-wide line are our insuranceances, our property and casualty, our workers comp, our FICA for our non-TPAF um employees. So that's what we have there. Our grants are again what we discussed uh previously is that there's
a $20 million reduction because we do not have carryover budgeted and it's at 75%. Um our contribution to school-based budget that comes from our title one grant. There's um a $3 million difference there and that's because we
have to have the set aides, you know. So if you have to have your set aides, one of the things within the title one budget is you have to pay the state back for any TPAF employee or certificated employees. We have to budget for that.
So that's pretty much where that where that number is coming from. Okay. So total expenses, I'm sorry. So total expenses 553 million this year budgeted for 535 million next year. Okay. And this is the pie chart uh
similar to the revenue chart but just breaking down our expenditures. So here we have schoolbased at 37% charter schools 14%. So that's half of the pie. Schoolb base and charter schools is half. Now you have your out
of district has their pie about 7% your adult pro program is 150,000. It's s not I don't want to say it's not it's significant because it's a number but it's no significance in comparison to this overall budget. You have your central office which is I don't want
people to think it's just central office is getting 30% of this p there's a lot of other things that go into that central office. We're talking about uh B&G um you know everyone in this building our transportation there's a lot that's in that that number there. Then you have districtwide at 3%. Of
course, you have your grants again at 10% and our schoolbased budget at less than 0.01%. Now, we're going to go and break down the grants number, the 53 million. So, currently, um, we're at 74 million for
our grants, 53 million projected for next year. Same difference, 20 million we're projecting because we're only budgeting at 75% of the current and no carryover. And these are just the varying um grants within there. So we have preschool which is very
significant. Um there's 38 million to 37 million. You'll see a decrease of about 1 million. We did have enrollment reductions. Um so that's where we are there. $1 million difference. And then we have a transfer for operating budget for prek. That is our um special
services infusion for our students that attend um those preschool programs. And then we have title one which is another significant b bucket within um our grants uh at 9 million. We have title two at 611 million. Title three, title
four idea is also significant. We um have about 3.6 budgeted for next year. And a majority of our our IDA preschool funding actually also uh supports out of district tuition for special needs. So we have restricted
entitlements at 612. That's our school youthbased services program uh primarily at the high school. We have local grants that we do receive um throughout the year. Uh we have non-public a non-public teacher STEM grant about 20,000 student
activity uh fund at an estimate and then school scholarship fund revenue. Um the SDA there is no allocation there because there has been no commitment yet. So we do not know if we will get that. We may but at this time there's no commitment
for a SDA emergency uh capital um grant. So at this point we're at 53.8 8 million projected for 2627. And thank you. I'm going to uh transfer you over to my colleague, Mr. Mosley.
>> We got that clicker thing. >> Okay. Good evening. Uh my name is Dwayne Mosley. I'm the facilities administrator here for our buildings and grounds department. Uh I've been charged uh and and I too am excited because anytime I get to stand
before you, that means I got a contract for another year. So uh I'd like to have the opportunity to present to you our our facilities planning budget uh for our improvements in our schools. Uh of course the buildings and grounds uh will continue with its efforts on focusing on
our aging infrastructure as well as addressing the deficiencies in our various building systems. So uh over the course of the few last uh I see between five and eight years certainly co when it jumped in it taught us a a major lesson not just with our facilities but
certainly uh dealing with our our building infrastructure our HVAC systems our envelopes on our buildings including our roofs and and our our windows. So uh with that we started planning and doing you know somewhere around four to uh five schools a year and making sure that
we address something related to the building envelope related to HVAC uh and even included in there now you'll see as I go down the list here we we we started addressing the the grounds and uh uh our recreation efforts on the outside of our buildings. So uh next
year we're planning to address roofing systems that are done in Mcnite Schools. Uh these are partial roof replacements that's going to occur. Uh again, we've we've addressed quite a few percentages of of of the roofing systems throughout the district. U somewhere in the 85
percentile. Uh with that, some of our older school, well, I'm not going to say older schools, but now they were the newer schools. Now they're becoming older. Our Kilmer's and our our our Copeland's um those schools are coming up on 20 years old now. So we're a year or two away from those schools next which were used to be our new schools.
So unfortunately, roofing systems that used to be 25 and 30-year warranties back in the day, um you're lucky if you get 20 years out of a roof. So, uh those systems will be something that we'll be looking at in the near future as well. Uh we continue with our efforts in our window replacements. Gregory School,
we're looking to start the replacements of those windows over the course of this summer. And um hopefully we'll be have the the the projects done over the course I mean, excuse me, over uh before September arrives. Uh we've started with interior doors. Uh
this is more so uh addressing the man trap doors that we're looking to do in most of our schools where our parent and communities will be able to come into the front or front foyer of our buildings and not have to go any further where we'll have a pass through window uh where security will be able to
receive uh mail or kids book bags or something might have been left home which allows us uh to not let folks into the building unless it's abs absolutely necessary or more importantly if they have a a meeting with the principal. or or staff member. So, we're we're going to continue with those efforts there. Uh
Rivera and Holland, uh they're receiving new boiler systems in their buildings. We we've moved to a new high efficiency boiler. Um no longer are we going with the the uh steam and the hot water boiler system. So, now with the high efficiency boilers, it allows our maintenance staff, our custodial staff
to have less presence in the building with maintaining our systems. It also allows for longevity with the system itself. uh playgrounds. As I made mentioned too, we we we reshift our focus on our uh exterior of our buildings, not just for the building envelopes, but we also
wanted to address our paving areas, our playground areas, our grass areas, uh with the landscaping uh in addition to the playgrounds around the district. For a long time, we put band-aids on on a lot of our older playground systems. We might have replaced the sliding board.
We might have had to weld some bars together and then sand them back down. uh we're finding now with a lot of the inspections that we we still find ourselves being in a in a failed status as opposed to being able to make it a safe structure. So, we've replaced quite a few and I'm sure as you ride through the city, you've seen some of our our
new playground systems. They're they're pretty awesome. Uh they actually stand out kind of like amusement parks and I see our kids playing on the structure. I get excited. Uh I actually slid down one sliding board one time, but so um and and finally uh the the
demolition and installation of the new HVAC rooftop systems over at the uh PJ Hill School. Um we've been we've been addressing four of them uh four four systems a year throughout the district. However, uh PJ Hill has been a nuisance
child for the last couple years. Unfortunately, it's now an emergency. So, we uh we added it to the list so that over the summer uh we'll be able to go in and replace those systems on that roof. So, that's one of the reasons why that school won't be active for summer program. Uh as you can see, these
efforts for the routine and required maintenance are a total of $9 million. Uh this is not all the projects that we look to forward to carrying out. However, this is predominantly uh the focus for the the buildings and grounds department for the next year. Thank you.
You go. So what is a dollar worth in our district? So if you look at this dollar bill and you see the green portion, that is 55 cents. So classroom instruction is worth 55 cents. So you see that we put
our budget together with our students and our instructional program at the core. Next we have support services which is our child study teams our guidance counselors pair liaons paras that's 18 cents
operational Mr. Mosley and plant services is 15 cents. Our special programs which is grants because as Miss Mitchell stated that went to about 75% that's nine cents. Capital outlay which
is our equipment is $1 is one cents and then our co-curricular instruction. So you see that we're on the right direction when our green portion is 55 cents. So, we was very proud of that. When we put our numbers together, I was
like, "Yes, we're at actually 55 cents." So, I knew Jean would really love this dollar bill because he really want to see where does our money go. And if you look some of that, but I need to say that some of that classroom instruction is charter
schools and out of district students. Even though we don't educate those students, they're included in our budget because our residential students is 17,000 for 3,000 3,600 are charter school students and that's why we give
them 76 million, right? And then out of district is 469 students and they receive an additional like 38,000. So if you look at our half a billion dollar budget and then you take out the components components that are fixed cost then we where we are. So
it's really good though to have us look at what it's worth in our district and see that we are making strides because I believe last year it was worth maybe 30 cents. So it went up tremendously. Our highlights, as Miss Mitchell
discussed, $23.9 million came from state aid, which was 6%. Our tax levy was $514,000, which is 2%. The district generated excess surplus of $26.1 million. So that's really what
took us over because if we would have just had the 23 minus the eight that went to charters that's what 15 16 and our budget have to be built on more than that because of our staffing our obligations the health benefits the rising costs our
rising fixed costs we need to look at all of that when we're trying to put together a budget and then next year uh because Mr. Earl has a pad with all his notes. We're going to see, okay, what are we going to look at next year as our priorities and what things can we reduce? We always say people first,
places, and then things. So, we always try to make sure we keep our people, then we look at places, which is traveling. Maybe we can reduce that and then things. But people is important to us and that's why we don't have the layoff as the other school districts because we strive on that in academic
investments. That was 11.6 6 million which went directly to our schools. Directly to our schools and then technology and facility upgrades. So at this time, this is very important because I tell my staff this all the
time. Our past choices, we need to make them go in another direction. So a school district's budget is more than just numbers. It is a record of a district past decisions and spending plan for the future. So we always try to look at where are we in
the next two years because if we're just planning for this current year then we'll be like some of our surrounding districts. So we're looking two and three years out to ensure that we can continue to have a budget that's balanced for our students. We'll
entertain your questions at this time. The floor is open. >> Yes. So, I um commend you. Um I think that when uh I I wasn't here for the meeting, but I'm sure they went over
um the audit results. Um he made mention of the challenges faced by other districts. And so it's I commend you and the superintendent and team for your decision making that we aren't um in a position where we have the burden that
other districts have to your point because we are looking further out than right now and not investing um temporary money in bodies. And that that goes to your point about people so that we we don't um we don't have the
impact of letting people go because people serve the children that we serve. So I commend you on that and I really like that dollar. Um and and and I think I think for me could you pull that back up because it's really important. Okay.
So when you talk about a half a billion dollars that's a lot of money. And so, um, I I really appreciate, um, your team taking the the opportunity to give this snapshot because, um, a picture is worth
a thousand words and we're spending almost 60 cent of every dollar directly in the classrooms, which is a big big a really really big deal. So, I commend you all. That's I just wanted to make a point. you know, I looked at it so many times I don't have any questions, but I
think that that speaks volumes about what's important to the district. So, thank you. >> Well done. We're really happy to see that a little more than half of the budget is going towards the students. But I did
have a question. Um, if you would please refresh my memory. last year it was way less than that. What had which of these um accounts had most of that money
that this year went back to the students? Well, remember charter schools went up even though we don't educate those students to charter schools and even our students we um look at our curricular um inventory and things that um Miss Sun
who does that budget we say what do you need for the 2627 school year um the superintendent and the schools and they put together what they believe their students need because the budget is built on their unique needs and that's what we build when we're implementing
that. So this year they kind of reallocated and kind of focused a little further with student priorities instead of just you know and I'm not saying field trips are not good at other things but we wanted most of our money to stay in the classroom and that's what
happened here. So the management was a little different also >> of how we managed our schools. >> Okay. So, are you saying that the trips for our kids, they're definitely not included included in classroom instruction?
>> They're under like co-curricular in clubs. >> Where at? >> But we have a lot of trips. See the 38? Yeah. >> Okay. >> I mean, we do have a lot of trips, but not compared to what we have, >> right? And they're good. I'm glad we have those trips. They're really necessary because they do help to
reinforce what's being learned in the classroom. We don't have a problem with that. But my question is which of these you where was because we only had 30 something cents of the dollar going into
the classroom instruction last year. >> Yeah, I think it was about 30. You're right. But when um when gap codes, right, when gap codes change like out of district tuition, they may have been under a support gap code, but now they're under an instructional gap code.
even though we don't educate them. So, we have to go with if gap codes change or anything else change. And so, that's why we'll come up differently. But if you look at what is in there, you'll see regular program, special ed, bilingual, adult program, home instruction, Kelly
services because they provide if our teachers are out, they provide the sub. So, all of those costs are included in classroom instruction. >> Gotcha. Thank you. >> I have a question. Okay. >> Traditionally, city aid has been about
6% and then I noticed this year it's down to five even with our 2%. >> Why is that? >> You I'm sorry. You're saying the city >> city the money we get from the city has traditionally been 6%.
>> Um since for the last maybe 15 or 20 years. >> Well, we've always had the 2% levy, but go forward. Oh, forward. I'm sorry. >> Forward. >> There's Did I Next one. >> This is the first slide. So, where where
am I going? >> The next one. It might have been a pie chart. >> So, you want to go to the pie chart? >> Yeah. >> Yeah, it's at 5%. What What's the difference? If we still did the 2% levy, why are we getting
>> It's the overall when you're doing a pie chart, it's the overall. What is the overall percentage? >> Okay. >> Okay. So, because remember even though we're saying we re get from the local, right? Because we get other funding if they're, you know, utilizing our buildings or things of that nature, but
the city gives us 2% for the tax levy and then it's the other revenue we generate from outside uh vendors using our buildings. >> But what is the reality of the tax levy we're not getting from the city? I think
is my question. like we get 26 million. >> We received 26 million, but as I went over this with all the board members when we went over what the state sends, I believe um they said it was 65 million. Correct me if I'm wrong. Around >> what we should be
>> what we should be receiving, but um we're receiving what they can afford to give us because as I said when they built the funding formula, they didn't reach out to the city and say, "Can you give this amount?" So they built that formula in for them. So they can only
give us what they have, right? So and it's a formula that's municipal overload and they're on that. They're in that formula. So we received 2%. We're thankful for that because it helped close our gap. So that's all I
could say at this time. kind of along that point um in regards to I guess that gap between what we received from the city and you know what the estimated amount would be I've also heard some conversations as to if that
you know city amount did increase right you know getting as close to that 65 million that you know the misconception would be that state aid would be affected by that is is that true or is that not can you just address that because that's out there in the public. >> That's not true. State aid is going to
be 79 80%. We're going to receive that amount because um our district which is former Abbott, we don't have the um luxury as a Hamilton and those districts to have receive 94% from their municipality because like I said, we
have a formula in the city of Trenton that they're on municipal overlook so they don't have to give us. So if they gave us 10% or if they gave us 20%, the state aid would remain the same, right? Because we are a state funded district.
So no, their funding wouldn't go down. Now what our what might go down is the excess surplus, right? Because if they see they're giving us 24 or 25 million and we're generating outside of that 25 26 million, they're going to say, "Well,
if you can generate that kind of funding, you don't need 23 million from the state of New Jersey." So, those are things we need to look at for the upcoming school year. But as far as the city and the state, um, we'll probably never get more than 2%. But prior they
did used to fund a lot of our projects because remember when we were type when we were type one they bonded a lot of our projects which is still on their books. Now we're type two we bond our own projects but we did get that benefit from them in the past. All right.
Appreciate you clarifying that. And just in my mind, it was helpful to when we discussed it, right? Identifying that these are I called them like, you know, separate funnels of funding, right, that don't necessarily interact with each other. >> Uh if you could uh just one more question. Can you go to slide the next
slide? Slide 13. >> Actually, wait, no, I'm sorry. Slide 12. We were just on it. Uh the question I had was in regards to the last line uh the grants contributions to SBB. Um can you walk me
through that again because if I wasn't if I heard you correctly it was something along the lines of payment towards TPA like the retirement system. Is is that what that is? >> Well the SBB the 5,200,000 right that is a blended amount
>> right that's in grants. They allow us to take a certain amount and blend it just like you put everything in a blender where um should I say this out loud where no one will know where we spent that money. If we had it in fund 20 then you can go through and say oh you should
have spent this on x y and z where they can't tell whether we spend that on any type of personnel because if they can't if they do it's going to be 53 point something percent that we have to pay in FICA. might be 55 now in FICA taxes, but
if they're in our local, which is 15, they pay us. So, you don't put people under grants because then we're losing 53 54%. So, that piece is our like safety net for our schools. We know you can get that. We can put that in your budget. You can spend it however you
want. And our auditors just do a formula because they really can't tell where it's being spent. That's why it's very important that we blend that piece. Thank you. And just uh one last piece. Um this is specifically for uh Mr.
Mosley. Uh for any, you know, equipment that you test out, specifically any slides that you go down, just make sure that there are pictures. All right? Because need to accurately record these things. >> Unfortunately, I failed to realize we have cameras at all of our >> It just happened that a principal
brought it to my attention, but it didn't my weight capacity. But no, thank you guys for the amazing work that you do. >> Uh to piggyback on uh Austin's first question about the equalization aid, if
they do restructure the funding for our schools, we would be greatly affected or not. >> Are you asking a question about the equalization aid? Well, the the total
monies that we receive from the state >> well um we don't know they have to fund us according to how many students we have residential students because out of that pot becomes comes charter schools and out of district schools also. So whatever that per pupil amount is now I
believe it's about 15 to 16,000 for elementary student another 1.4% for middle and another 1.15 for high school students. I think that piece will stay the same. The equalization piece, they may take out the other weights that they
give the former Abbott districts. Like if you have um if you have leap students that are at risk, they give you like another 5% and another percentage if you have um the free and reduced lunch. So those
things they may take out because then they're saying we're not like our counterparts which is the Hamiltons and Robinsville. How could that affect us though? >> So, well, it could um that piece it will. It will, but I still think they will give us those weights because in
the code, it states if you're 40% at risk, you get to have like a parent in kindergarten, you know, preschool, you have 21 kids per class, K through third grade. So, they're never going to change that. So, so they would have to fund us then because we would need more teachers
than our counterparts who can have 30 kids in the class. >> Okay. So, if they do restructure the funding formula for the state of New Jersey, then we will not be affected. >> We will be but not as much, >> right? As much. Okay. >> Because they have to fund whatever the code states.
>> Okay. That was it. Thank you. >> Yeah, I did have one question. Um, and it was about um I think when Sean was presenting um and she talked about how we're driving revenue based on investment. What what slide was is that?
I wasn't sure. Yeah, it's like the interest income and stuff. >> Which one? >> Oh, the miscellaneous revenues. Okay. I just wanted to see what that number was. I couldn't recall what that number was. Okay, well done.
>> And that's really small considering that I big pieces in the 26, >> right? Yeah. Yeah, it's pennies. Yeah, it's it's pennies, but I wasn't sure what that number. I didn't think it was up to um I knew it was less than million like last year's number. So, thank you.
That's it. >> Actually, I did have another question. Are we getting our award for accounting this year? >> The certificate of excellence. >> Yes. >> Yes. >> Perfect. Yeah, there were no there were absolutely no findings in the last
audit. Like zero. >> So, job well done, you guys. You really did a good job. >> We're now going to have our graduation report 2425 school year. I got you.
>> Uh, no, I don't. Do I? Which button at face the bottom? Okay. All right. Uh, good evening. Just we have a a report. I wanted to just kind of notify the board that this is a report that's due in August. We realized
during QAC that we had entered all the information but not had the board meeting report. So uh this information was submitted on time to the state uh but we were supposed to share it. So this is graduation data from 24 2025
2425 school year. And what they do now is they require All right. Uh this is submitted at the end of each year. So you'll get this again in August. Uh and so we're going to submit this and then we have to share with the county with the state to let them know that we went through this this
process. But you can see it just is about current 12th grade student data that would have been for August. So it if it we're not talking about this year. I just want to make that clear so that when you look at the data. So this is just talking about pathways that
students use to graduate. Uh if you graduate using NJSLS, we'll talk about the pathways in a minute. Uh and we'll uh and then Mrs. Sun will share our actual data around that that we submitted to the state uh in August or
in July uh to share with uh what we uh have done. So we do a presentation to the board which is this. We clarify areas of need which we're already working on. Uh you get that you get some of this data when we share the GPA
graduation is it GPA report the graduation report uh when Mrs. Sun shares that. So some of this is included but what they did was they actually asked us to share this in this level of details. So you're going to see the
total number of students graduated. Total number of students graduated passing the end of course the NJSLA. Uh the number of students graduated under substitute competency. You can see multiple pathways. You'll see those in a minute. The number of students graduated
under the portfolio appeals process which students can do. And we probably have our largest number of students well we certainly have our num largest number of students who graduate using that pathway. the number of students uh receiving state endorsed high school
diplomas as a result of meeting any alternate requirements for graduation uh as specified in their IEPs. The total number of students denied graduation from 12th grade class. That's an interesting figure because we have to try we're trying to track the students
and that's difficult when someone leaves us. they've gone through the NJSLA, the pathways, potentially the portfolio process and didn't meet success and they disappear. Uh, and so they show up in
our numbers and we have to track them and find them to see if we can get them back. So you'll see numbers and this is not necessarily cohort numbers because you have to take out uh the night the uh twilight program numbers depending on when that stu those students entered and
then uh total number of students denied from the 12th grade class solely because of failure to pass the high school end of course uh NJ uh student learning assessment substitute company test or portfolio appeals process based on
provisions that's in this chapter. So, I wanted to explain what you're seeing. We talk about graduation rates. We talk about graduation often, but the state is requiring that we actually share this information in this format.
So, the class of 2026 graduating assessment requirements. You can see after completing NJSLA the proficiency assessment in grade grade 11 students did not demonstrate proficiency by passing ELA means they did not meet
success. The second pathway is PSAT SAT ACT acupplacer or the third pathway is by submitting through the district student portfolio appeals process. Uh we talked about that a few minutes ago. uh
and the same in math if they don't meet success similar the pathway is PSAT ACT SAT acupplacer and then they can go through the if they don't meet the requirement in any of those they can go through the portfolio appeals process
and the portfolio appeals is several different uh sessions of work around the same work building that competency checking if students know it's different than taking the test where you're timed you have just the days they get to come in and the teachers work with them to
make sure they meet the same requirements. Uh it just allows more time. Um under the Individuals with Student uh Disability Education Act, IDEIDA, all students with disabilities must be included and all general, state, and
districtwide assessments. So all of our students uh who are classified have specific assessments. And as you read through this, the IEPs determine any modifications, any accommodations, and potentially if they'll take the state
test or an alternate assessment. So, as you go through the language here, I won't read it all to you. That's what this is telling us, uh, that students have to meet proficiencies outlined in their IEP. uh pathway one ELA student gradu uh
students must take and demonstrate proficiency in 11th grade on the New Jersey graduation proficiency assessments which includes content aligned to the 10th to grade 10 New Jersey student learning standards NJSLS
in ELA and the algebra NJSLS in algebra uh and in geometry after completing the New Jersey graduation proficiency assessment a student does not demonstrate proficiency see on ELA or math section, the student may retake the
New Jersey graduation proficiency assessment in the summer or the the following summer or fall. So, they have multiple opportunities to take student with disabilities whose IEP states that they are not eligible for the alternate alternate assessments, the dynamic
learning maps must take the NJ uh New Jersey graduation proficiency assessment in grade 11. It's a lot of NJ and a lot of graduation, a lot of NJSLS. So, uh, and you can see the cut cutoff score or the standard score in ELA must be
greater than or equal to 725 and math must be greater than or equal to 725 and uh the pathway is only available pathway two. So if you are you don't meet the requirement and you come to
pathway two we talked about ACT SAT acupplacer in some of those areas this uh outlines the cut cuto off scores in ELA and math or the standard score ACT you can see it 17 and in math 17 and
ACUPPLACER right placer it's greater than five and ELA are greater than 49 in math so the numbers uh We wanted to share with you that's how our students should score if they're going to meet success. If they if they don't in this
pathway then the third pathway as we've stated this is just really outlining the second pathway. Uh and then the portfolio appeals process. uh and maybe Miss Sun when you come up you can outline that a little bit more but
she's going to come up and share some of the data around uh the actual data that we submitted around our students. I know uh Miss Maria Lopez was discussing it with me earlier and I was talking about the cohorts. You have to be careful with
cohorts. They're talking about four-year cohort and students may fit in that. So you may see a large number but maybe all the students don't fit in that cohort. Uh however, we are excited that we get students to graduation. That's the role. That's the goal. And if it shows a
number that's disappointing today, if we can get more back in the summer, this is inclusive of summer students. But it's also important to remember we're going to keep educating until we get them through. And that's the work that we do and that's the work we have to commit to. Um so I appreciate the support.
Let's see. I think we Yes. So I'm going to turn it over to Miss Sun. There's only a few more. >> This is intuitive. Okay, counterintuitive. Good evening everyone. So, I'm going to share with you the submitted data which is just the numbers
um per those indicators that Mr. Earl shared with you in the beginning part of the slide. So, as you just recall, the key point for graduation for the for the um 2024 2025 256 school years are very consistent. One is you have to pass the
GPA. That's the graduation prof uh uh proficiency assessment and that's aligned to the 10th grade um u ELA and math content. Right. The second piece is if you don't pass successfully, you have another chance to take it. Usually our
students, bulk of our students retake the assessment in the fall block. Um if you don't pass that and only if you don't pass that, then you can consider the alternative pathway. So really the pathway that the state really wants to see is the passing of the GPA. But there
are multiple measures that we put in place as Mr. Earl has shared with you. Portfolio process is generally most high schools pathways to take because it allows for tutoring opportunities for teachers to work with students on an individual basis. So having said that
the 2425 school year data has been submitted. It's still embargoed meaning that it's not yet out as a performance report. But when the school districts are required to submit this data in the summer and I believe the new system was called NJ's led and there was some
wonkiness with the new platform that um every district kind of experienced as President Drew can concur. So so um we are are working with the state and just kind of getting through it. But in regards to what we submit, we capture
the most um recent data as much as possible. as school district is evolving, it's moving and it's living. So there is really no one way to capture exact data because come tomorrow you could have more information and more students coming in, right? But there is is a cutoff date. The state requires
districts to submit the data. That's that submission of the data is combined with the asset count. As you recall, October 15th is a big date for every district, right? And then that gets compiled into the conversation with the DOE of accountability and that eventually generates out to performance
report. So every year on or around November December district um personnel are provided with embargoed information which is really not to be shared with anybody. This is something that is required to be shared out with the board right so that we can anticipate what we are going to see at the performance
report. What I'm sharing with you are the indicators that are required by the state. um per QE governed as six indicator 6A. to 6A right so the first information is total number of students graduated we graduated to 881 total
number of students that's inclusive of twilight so TLHS that's sort of like my makeup um because we don't have daylight twilight anymore so so it's sort of like my makeup bear with me um um Twilight school students inclusive of the um Trenton public schools that's TCHS and
CCHS Trenton Central and Capitol City as well as out of district. In terms of our district students who are daytime students, we graduated 802 students that was reported as at the as of at the end of the summer of last school year. Total
of number of students graduated passing the high school end of the year. That's the GPA assessment cut score of 725 that we were talking about in both language arts and math. So in the language arts at at the main campus we have 320 students. Capitol City 23, Twilight Zero
out of district 2. In the area of math 83 and the main campus um capitol city 10 and twilight zero and out of district 1. So what that means is majority of our students are taking alternative pathways to graduate because obviously we're
graduating in 800s and these are in 300. what that means for us in teaching and learning and as district we have to think about how we prepare our students to be ready to be able to be proficient in the DPA assessment. The number of students graduated under the substitute
competency test process. So those are the multiple pathways that we just just reviewed with you. In the language arts in on the main campus it's seven students. Capital city 1, twilight zero and out of district zero. Math 105,
capital city one, and twilight and out of district is zero. So those are your ACUPPLACER, PSATs, SACT assessments. Oops, counterintuitive. Got to remember. Okay. Number of students graduated under the portfolio. So you see majority of
our students are using that portfolio pathway which is perfectly allowable and permissible by the state. Um, ELA the main campus 310, Capitol City 130, Twilight 50 out of District 3 in math 429 in um the main campus from the main
campus rather 142 for Capitol City, 50 for Twilight and out of district 1. Number of students receiving state endorsed high school diplomas as a result of meeting any alternate requirements for graduation as specific to IEP. So those are the students of
special education students who have specificities um aligned outlined for them and their individual education plan. Main campus one capital city 4 twilight 2 out of district 24 was reported to the state. Total number of
students denied a graduation from the 12th grade class. So when we talk about 12th grade those are your cohort of students who are projected to um graduate by the end of 2025 right 2425 school year. So those are your four-year cohorts. Total in the district is
counted for 156. Number of students since denied graduation from 12th grade class solely because of failure to pass high school end of the year course, New Jersey student learning assessment. That's the GPA. Substitute competency tests like
SAT, PSAT, ACUPPLACER, or portfolio appeals process based on provisions of that chapter. It's zero. So what that's telling what's that telling us is because I actually was like what does that how does that make sense? We have 156 and we have zero. That means that all of our students had access to the
three pathways that we just reviewed, right? But for whatever other reasons compounded by. So an example could be excessive attendance or absenteeism, right? It could al also be an example of transferring out of the state or transferring out of the district and not
registering in another school which then works against us. We'll talk a little bit about that. Those are the cases that we have. In fact, when I look at the data, out of 156, we have about upwards of 86 students who have transferred out of our school. I'm sorry, who have
showed excessive absenteeism that contributed to their their inability to be able to graduate on time. Okay. So, next steps. So, as you always hear me talk about data, I give you the news, I give you the facts of what was
submitted, and then we talk about like what are we doing with this information to be honest, I'm looking at this graduation data um not in context of GPA for the first time looking at this sole information in isolation right and I have worked with um department of
technology under Mr. Samuel and Miss Kay who works as the data analyst for the main submission of the graduation portfolio data. So one of the big takeaways is like where is the communication line and how do we kind of align that so that we are proactive
rather than looking at the data and thinking about what do we do next. So being proactive rather than reactive. So couple of things things that I've uh conversed with Mr. Earl and just thinking about and also with the technology team about how can we do this better so that we can have a better idea
and try to reduce as much as we can humanly control and possible to reduce that number of those students who are denied of graduation. Right? So the first thing is documentation of students who are transferring out of Treton public school. So as you know when students transfer out per state code
they have to register in another school. if they don't register in another school and they're in that graduation cohort. So, ninth grade onward, they are still marked as our students. So, our obligation is to make sure that we communicate that specific important
right next steps to the families um the community and the students who are transferring out, right? Unless they're moved out of the country and that's documented, they will always count against us. So, we have a lot of transient population, right? We talk a lot about that. We have a lot of
students who may show to up to school and then just kind of disappear for days or even months. And we don't know. We're calling the families. We're calling the home. We got attendance officers knocking on the door and we still can't get in touch. Those are the families that we're accounting for when we're
talking about 156. 86 kids or 156 minus 86 is what? Sevens who may not be or 86 students. So, so we have to think about how do we set standard operating procedures and expectations and guidelines to better
communicate that piece to the family, but also follow up, right? Um, when I was working in a smaller district, for example, like we would have red alerts happening every time a child transferred out. Nobody could transfer out and leave the building until I ran over there, right? Like no one's leaving until I
know exactly where you're going and they're like, I don't know where I'm going. you have to tell me where you're going so I can call that school and make sure that they are ready to receive you. Right? That's a big piece of that communication not only with the family but also as us as a district to another district to ensure the other piece is
the coding of the students. So students when they register they're assigned a student state ID. That state ID identifies them at the department of education as an individual entity right? So when they take assessments when they do graduation cohorts it kind of follows. It's almost like your
selfidentifiable social security number kind of a thing, right? Sometimes when students leave us with one state ID, districts pick them up, they're assigned another student ID. So that student ID and our end never
gets closed out from the state end, which then works against us. Even though the state and um the state doesn't know and the student wouldn't know, right? And the families don't know. and the new district, if they're not given the right information, they don't know. Again, that speaks to us being able to be in front of it to be
able to communicate with the school districts that are ready to receive or willing are going to be receiving these students according to the data that we have because we can only do so much. We only know what we know when we're shared with um from the families, right? But that communication piece is really
really important. Um that was my second bullet. Okay. Oh, the last piece I just wanted to say is when students are out of state and out of country, there is different coding that needs to be really identified, right? So, we call them T8s. T8s identify the
students who are out of the district and moving out. So, that means that we're telling the state this kid is getting out of our school district and he's not even going to be or she's not going to be in New Jersey. They're going to be out of state, right? Oftentimes that tend to help us in terms of our cause,
right? But oftentimes if we don't know that information, that information is left blank. Again, that counts against the school district. So we have to develop some standard operating procedures to help us identify how we code that and communicate that back out to the state district and school level.
Just looking at standard operating procedures, I keep talking about SOPs, but there's so many moving parts in when we talk about students transferring out, graduating, completing portfolio process. We're talking about central office, school level, we're talking about teachers, we're talking about
summer school, a lot of different programs, credit recovery. So, all of those pieces have to come together. Um, as somebody very wise used to tell, um, tell us in the county office, um, a river has to run its course, right? something has to thread these movements
together and pull them together because what's happening is at the technology end um at the end of the summer when everybody's off in the summer vacation they're now having pulled this information and submitted to the state so somebody has to be that thread right
now I think that's me right so so what does that look like in terms of communication but what does that look like in terms of training and allowing constituents or stakeholders to be fully aware of the background context. Perhaps they're just kind of like working in that single kind of I do this part and I
pass, right? Not really understanding the potential impact that they might have. So that's a big piece for um my reflection at least that I recommended to Mr. Earl in terms of how we bring that together to make sure that everyone is speaking that common language, common
standard um common approach and common procedural. Uh we have questions. Oh, we will have questions. Yes. Yes, we'll have questions. Um, and really basically the last piece is what we're actively working on right now is the scheduling.
So, how are we preparing our students who are currently eighth graders, even seventh graders about to enter that graduation cohort, making sure that their readiness, their grades, their um multiple measures matrix components actually contribute to their success in
the nth grade and onward. uh Miss Linda Wy Simpson who is here this evening who's going to present has been working actively with her counselors and we have been in communication with multiple campuses at the high school. The other piece is really looking at and auditing
graduation ready and graduation required courses while students are in the trajectory of the graduation cohort. Okay, so I'm going to pause because I see Mr. E standing that means I need to stop. Um questions my mic, right? >> Yeah, I keep forgetting. I'm sorry. I
had a big mouth. Um, I guess so. This was very helpful for me because I count graduates every year. If you've seen me, I've got my little thing right because I think it's a big >> I noticed that. >> Yeah. Yeah. I count all the time between all of the schools. So, we're graduating
800 students. I'm going to use that as a round number. That 156 caught me off guard >> because that's a huge process gap. >> Yeah. >> And technically we don't have >> and as it relates to this what I would
describe as process quality, right? So, I don't I I'm really excited um that you're looking at it, but what's going to be more exciting is how you solve that problem because it's um it's a
fundamental or basic problem like it's a you know what I mean? And and so how many students I didn't like the term you use disappear like like students who um you when I was in school because I
remember it happened specifically I was going to another school. So I would have been out of that technically cohort. I had to go to the office of the school that I was attending and then when I got
to the school that I was going to, there was some kind of sink that happened. >> So that you you know I was literally pulled out of one and put in the other and so that doesn't happen like that anymore or is it or is it kind of ambiguous? That's what it sounds like.
>> Yeah, I I think in some cases it does. What we're discovering it it's you know with transient with a transient population and this educational culture like if you come here and you don't understand we're saying hey let us know
let us know and then you take off because you've had a bad experience you may not reach back out and we have to find you and I mean to put it in technical terms our job is to search and find those individuals in the 156 so people will just disappear uh and
sometimes times we hear later they're still in transit, right? So, we don't know where they disappear to and we have lots of people searching. Uh, and the one thing you talked about, we'll solve this because we have it. I mean, we we're doing the work. We just don't do it as well as we'd like. We'd like to be
able to say we know where all 156 are and we can't get them here because they're in these locations. We'll like to be able to do that better going forward. Um because we want to see if if any of them graduated when you're
searching. You can they won't count against you. You can actually remove them in the appeals process because we get the actual names when they send those over and we get to appeal and say no, we know this one, we know that one. So yes, they do disappear.
And then there's one last question and I'm sure one of my colleagues is going to ask this question but but um how do we move that number aggressively move that number um the alternative so reduce the alternative
and drive the GPA number I think that's going to be also critical and things don't happen like overnight so I'm not being unrealistic about it but but what is the gap between those like some students are almost there. This is my
likely thinking some are almost there where they could do the GPA but they miss slightly. >> Yeah. >> So, and so they have to take the alternative route. How do we how do we move those that are just short? I guess that's my I think we're on that journey.
Um, and I think we have to continue to stay focused on high level classroom instruction, providing the support teachers need, professional development and finding those nuances in what we do that can help us shift uh how they learn. And we do that through relevant
curriculum and uh resources and things like that. Uh students, we've always we said students don't learn in this culture the way we learn. And so we have to meet them in that place. And a lot of what we do already, many of our teachers are, you know, we have the project based
learning, but many of our teachers are already connecting students in different ways in classrooms to enhance learning. So that and and the experience about testing when you test and you've never seen that level of question or
engagement in a in a an item, uh, that can trip you too because you're behind. You're going, "Okay, I don't know what they're asking." you may know the content, you just don't know how it's being asked. And so I think for us, we're shifting to create that type that
style and not overesting young people, but creating that style of learning so that you explore more, you go deeper, and then when you see it, it's just a a matter of, oh, I can solve this because I've had this this way to use my brain.
So that's just work that we have to do long term. We'll see small and steady improvement. But we do want to give credit to the students who finish this process. Right? I know that GPA makes us all excited. We get the first level. We
see big numbers. Uh but when kids graduate, we just open the gateway. And to me, it almost doesn't matter how because that's our goal. Our goal is to get them there. And the pathways the state offer those and they are approved.
They're allowed. And we're going to continue to we hope that kids get this on the first try, you know, and that's what you're saying. Can we get it through on the first try? So, we're going to continue to do that work. >> A couple of quick questions and comments really quick. >> First of all, it is my understanding
that that 156 um students are not counting for the students that we have quote unquote lost, the transient population. So that means that we had a total of 1,037
students and out of those 137 students that we had now um for this year 85 of them practically graduated. It's just that the number 85 is bought down if if I'm
understanding correctly >> because all the other students that because um of the students that we have lost >> this is what I was asking earlier. So >> uh those 156 students are not including
>> all our transient students. So if we were to say that we started with 15 57 or 370 137 students out of those 137 students that are actually in school
>> only 15% failed or not or did not graduate. So I just want to make that observation. I know it's not an official thing. However, we have to also let people un make people understand how it is that
our graduation rates are really not as bad as it seems because we have such a huge me uh number of students is that we do not know where they're at. We do not know if they did graduate, which would
count in our favor, or if they didn't graduate, which would count against us if they left the the the, you know, the country. And so I like the idea that I, you know, I think um that we have to be a bit more proactive and trying to find that information, going to the to the
Department of uh Homeland Security, see who has left the country because we can do that somehow. Um, and then requiring that schools, schools, other school districts would
get in touch with the district that that student is coming from so we can know where they're at. It would that's a courtesy thing and and I think maybe we should make it a um a requirement. And the other thing that I wanted to quickly say is that just one more thing this I
want to hold um us all to one comment, one question and then we go we'll circle back. Okay, my real quick. I just want to leave it out if you don't mind. >> Excuse me. >> Can I just, you know, kind of let it all go? >> I want It's really quick. Yeah, >> let it all go. I really want
>> Yes, please. >> I really want to get That's all. >> I'm inspired now. >> Here's the reason is it's because everybody has a lot of questions and we want to get everyone questions answered and opportunity to answer a question because we have limited time. >> AD, you have a question?
Um, not really a question. Come back. Yeah, I'm sorry. Not really a question. Just a just a statement. I think my statement kind of aligns with what Jean was thinking. Like I'm certainly glad that the alternative pathways exist, but I would like to see more students um going by the first pathway and seeing how we can reduce the number of students
that are having to use the ACUPPLACER or SAT or appeals process. Like I said, I'm glad that exists because everyone is not a good test taker. However, I would like to see those numbers move so that there are more um that pass it through the NJSLA or whatever the test is they're taking now. So, that was that was my
thought and comment and I I certainly, you know, I'm aware of losing students, right? I mean, we've done the track down in terms of, you know, going out into the neighborhoods and trying to find the the last address and where they went and all that kind of stuff. So, I know that happens, right? And I think we all know that happens and sometimes it's even worse now because folks leave the
country completely and you cannot go out of country to find them, right? So uh you know it's unfortunate but understood. >> Are there support and align specifics because you saw that 300 ELA but then you saw like
under 100 m. There is definitely a discrepancy. So we're doing some deep dive in those areas. We think that we have all that or that could have some contribution but time will tell but we're definitely on it.
>> Any other questions from other board members? >> I had a question Larry. Um my question was looking at our year-to-year trends when it comes to the appeal process, especially with the um with the um portfolios. Are we seeing that number
rise in each cohort? Um um we have we're seeing on a year-to-year trend more and more students needing to do the portfolio compared to having to take a PSAT or ACT or the u passing the um the standard GPA test. I think what I'm
hearing here is that it's been fairly consistent in the numbers of students. So I mentioned that earlier that we see more students use that process and we don't start with that. We want them to pass the first first one. So uh we are
working to see how we can move more students to passing GPA on the first try. But I think if we looked at the numbers I'm happy to do a backwards. We didn't do that for this particular presentation, but maybe we'll get that information and look at the last five years and see what that looks like to
see what the trend is. So, we can do that for you. >> Great question. >> It was >> so Denise. >> Yeah. So, just to just to clarify, what what school year are we looking at? Is
that that's not this current last year's. So we we would have done this presentation in August for last year. Yeah, that's what I was trying to Yeah. for September 30th. >> Okay. And I and I think um some may have mentioned this before, but I didn't
write it down. What did you mention the type of interventions you all are um planning to use or already starting using for the seventh and eighth graders who four years from now will be >> you know in this you know
>> counted in these numbers. >> Yeah. So, so part of the part of the work that we have started this year is to really assist the counseling department alongside Miss um Wyatt Simpson who's the supervisor of the guidance team. Um the teaching and
learning supervisors are looking at the student um performance so far in terms of their grades, their past NJSLA performance and multiple measures, other factors to identify students who are ready, truly ready for the honors level,
the AP level placement and future dual enrollment um enrollment uh opportunities. So that actually kind of identifies students who are truly ready for those accelerated courses. Thus they will be able to participate and continue
to succeed and then the identification process will also uh reveal students who may be at the cusp and those students will need intervention and appropriate resources as Mr. Earl has shared um to support them and then students who are
not yet there and who may um benefit from what we call tiered interventions. So students who need just a little bit more of a push using various resources. And that's kind of the conversation that we're having districtwide as a result of this proportionality conversation, but
very specifically pertaining to getting our middle school students ready for Tangga and for Tangga students be ready for transitioning to the two campuses. >> All right. So just want to be respectful of of of everyone's time. Um what we want to do is if we have one more
question we want to limit this portion to another five minutes. Here's the reason not that I want to limit the comments and the in the communication but we have another presentation after this one. Uh I want to be respectful of um everyone's time including staff who's here to present. Um so any additional comments after this five minutes if if
it's to okay with the with the board I'd like to take those to uh committee that >> take those uh to to committee. So Jeie you have a question? >> Yeah. Okay. Um >> five minutes please. >> It'll be less than five. >> Well, it's five minutes total total
total conversation. >> Um it said on the third pathway uh students are denied and it goes to the DOE. How does the DOE accept the data? What do they do?
>> I'm sorry. Did you say third pathway? >> The third pathway. >> It's the appeals process. Who at the state? What are they looking at? Is it saying okay you passed or? >> So the portfolio process I believe is a
a group of questions that the ident um that are identified to be equivalent to that of performance report like a >> it's not an outside person looking at it even though it says >> so there is a teacher there are teachers who are assigned to assist with the
portfolio process. So that has opportunity for students to be engaged in that. So as a result when students are scheduled in the campuses they're scheduled for the engagement of portfolio process during their day as part of the classwork
>> right >> and that that information >> are those people ever denied? >> So usually no not in the experience that I've had um in the 10 11 years that I've served in this role. >> Okay. And my next question
>> limited to one question. Sorry. This >> can I just say this this is our working session. So we should be able to >> this is not a working session. This is the actual board meeting. >> This is our board meeting. Our work. >> So I mean it's up to you guys. You guys want to continue the conversation. We can we can let we can
>> open it up and don't have any time. >> Okay. All right. >> Okay. And then on the second level, the number of students that are going to in the portfolio, how many of those
are getting the scores from the PSAT or the ACT versus using the ACUPPLACER that's put out? Because the ACUPPLACER, you can't fail or pass it. So my thing is we're putting kids out on the streets
that don't have the skills >> and that's really my concern. >> Yeah. I I mean >> you're giving 100 ways to not fail. >> So So we're giving what the state allows. >> So So I'm not sure how to interpret that
>> and I'm happy to listen, but help me interpret that so we don't put anyone out on the street to fail. they go through and the portfolio process is a process that's allowed by the state and it's allowed in every district, not just ours. We just happen to have more kids
kids that go through it. >> I I I get that. But my concern is true real literacy skills that that child is able to read at a 12th grade level, not at fourth
grade level. We have to be putting the work in to get them up to the four 12th grade level before they leave us. >> So >> because life's against you, you got to look at AI now. I hope these kids know how to question between what's real and
what's fake because you really got to look at a lot of stuff and you know it's the true literacy level of these kids. We're not we're pushing kids through all the way through. And I I just think we have to stop and make sure
they truly have the skills that they need. You know, that's always been my gripe is, you know, they make a test for everything so you can pass it. So that's all I got to say. Okay, real quick. Um
the what was named as the daylight twilight students are Capitol City students, right? Twilight's the night program and capital city students are what you would consider daylight different. >> So the daylight uh the twilight students
are the adult education students. >> Yes. >> Can we call them that instead of the twilight? It just gave me that the connotation of the daylight twilight high school and I would love for us to just get totally away for that. >> My um I have a quest two questions. Um, do we have
an official pro a procedure for students to drop out from school and are they using that? So, do do we have a dropout rate? One and two, our our district mission is to prepare our students for
their choice of college or career. >> Correct. So going to our small learning centers, I would love to see when we have these um these presentations on the graduation rates, how many graduated from which
small learning center and if they receive their certification for whatever it is that that small learning center is for because it really and you and I've talked about this before and I just wanted to go on record. It really bothers me that we
have small learning centers, uh, communities, I'm sorry, and that our students are not really getting the full benefit of that. So, you know, what can we do? We need to be able to come together and find a way for
our students to meet those requirements for that certification for that small learning community. even if it means maybe extra hours so that when they graduate they can if they choose not to go to college, which we want to go to college, but if they choose not to or
they need to work in order to go to college, that we can give them what they need in a quote unquote career via the certifications that we offer. And so I would like to really see that be a part
of these reports when we talk about graduation. So this report remember this is a state report. So we we can add this separate or add what you're asking separate to this report. This will always present it exactly like you show
it because that's what the state access ask us to present and then share with you then we can add that component if we have that information. Absolutely. Then that's what I'm asking for. And I do understand that this is what officially goes in.
>> But when we receive it, I think that my colleagues here would agree with that because we want to see that our kids have some kind of vocational training or whatever kind of training so that they can leave here and go to work if that
were the case. >> Yeah. Okay. >> Okay. I just have one final question to add. Um so going back to pathway two, we talked um about how well well and the data is just showing that a lot of students are not falling within like the
catchment for pathway too. Um what is our trends for students um taking the PSAT, SAT, ACT? Like um are we pushing that as a you know like within the schools like what what does that look like? >> We pay for all of our students to take
PSSAT and SAT. uh and we do it now during the day right there that we just had SAT testing so so we are using that as a pathway we pay for it so our students don't have to have it have to pay for it and we do it here in district
uh when a lot of districts have their students go other places so we do that during the school day so that students have access to do exactly that plus to use it if it's a good score to get into schools or to get into other program postsecary
every student has access to it. >> Okay. No. Um that's good to know. So um so um what are the what are the challenges that you think that you're seeing on your end that is show that is
causing our students not to pass the GPA test and the SAT scores not being able to match? Well, so I think it's a it's a great question. I don't know you want to hear the answer because a lot of the conversation is about children. So when
we talk about numbers, I want to be clear that we're talking about people, right? And so uh there we talk about all the things you all spend days and hours with me talking about the challenges of
people in district. every single trauma event and every single immigrant event. We talk about immigration and customs officials, immigration officials being in Trenton. We talk about people migrating here. We talk about some of
the trauma. We talk about family connections, how difficult it is to get students engaged because maybe they don't have that foundational support. So, I'm not sure. I could give you a million examples for why our students
arrive. They arrive and then they arrive as they do. We see them that way and we serve them that way. Don't expect something if you don't understand. I've been saying forever and I'm very
emotional about that because I hear comments here. Don't forget where our kids come from, right? We we know this and to stand here as if this didn't make sense. Drop me in any district, show me the demographics and I can tell you how this is going to look because trauma is
not replaced by data. It just happens. And we have to do that work to guide our children to a place where they can be successful, right? We see the reason why. Well, it's because maybe mom or dad left them. It's bec because they didn't read until fifth grade. It's because
they migrated and have two years gap in education. It might be because they're multilingual student and they're learning two languages in a new system in a new country. There could be a million reasons why students don't meet that requirement. That's why the state
gave us the options for our children. So the one thing we shouldn't do is look it in the face and say that's not good enough. And that's your superintendent saying it. It's not good enough that our kids do it because in Princeton when they don't meet the requirement in
Hamilton and all the districts you're comparing us to and everywhere else when they don't meet the requirement, they have pathway one and path pathway two and pathway three. So why not good enough for us? Cuz our kids come in and
they don't bring all of those resources. We are their resource. We are everything that we do, every minute we spend educ every educational hour, the data tells a story. We're talking about people. We're
talking about children. All right, I'm going to get off the mic. I need to move on. And you can do that. Are are there any other questions? >> Okay. Thank you. Thank you, Joanne. Appreciate you. Thank you.
>> Um, yeah, we can we can uh just prepare them for the next one and then we'll wait for the superintendent and then we'll start the next presentation. Yeah, I think it's HIV. Yeah, self assessment grace. Uh,
we can uh you waiting for um who? >> No, you can you can do presentation now. Thank you so much. Linda Watt Simpson. >> Sorry about that. I'm also the anti-bullying coordinator for the district. So tonight I'm going
to talk to you about the 2020425 self- assessment grades that are required by the state. Here we go. Um these grades reflect um the self assessment by the school counselors mostly and their administrators to say how they're doing
as as far as HIV programs in their schools and efforts that they're doing to combat intimidation and bullying. So these are the areas that are measured in the self assessment any programs they have approaches and initiatives for HIV
training for staff and administrators school level prevention efforts investigation procedures reporting processes and school climate supports. We do have the um advantage this year by this year and last year by having the
hipster program which is our reporting um mechanism to record all of HIV cases. So what happens is the anti-bullying specialists at each school along with their administrators review what they've done for the past year and report on it
through the self assessment which is due in June of every year. Um the anti-bullying specialists are trained on the process for that, the guidance, how to complete the forms and the rating process for HIV.
And these are the results. So I've categorized them by level. Um you'll notice the max score is 78. Some of the scores are low but that is attributed to a lot of different factors which I can certainly share with you at another
time. The intermediate results are here. Middle school and high school results and these will all be posted on the district web page after this meeting.
And then at a glance, this is the average score at each level. And our total score for the district was 59. Okay. So with that um I have a few recommendations that we were we've
already started putting in place um better documentation of the HIV efforts. What happens is on a self assessment you have to be able to document what you've done. We haven't done such a great job with that, not knowing exactly how to do that. So, we're putting some things in
place so that they can document that better. The safety team um needs some improvement at each school. Just knowing what the team composition is, what the goals are, and the operation of the safety team. Some safety teams are very strong, some are not as strong because
you have a lot of the same people being on the safety team as the HIV as the, you know, so they're kind of taxed out. um a lot of preventive measures which need to be done. Um we need to involve our parents more. So there needs to be more parent engagement when it comes to HIV.
Of course, more training. Every year we do training throughout the year. And then the expansion of student advocacy and agency. Um the students need to be involved and know what HIV is, how they can prevent it, how they talk about it, how they can help others with HIV. So
for the most part, that's my presentation. If you have any questions, I will take them. >> Any questions? >> Anybody? >> Okay. This is the first This is the first time we've seen this report,
right? It's the very first time. Okay. >> Okay. And again, like I said, it's going to be posted on the web page so that you can review that again. Um but it's due every June for the and be shown for the next year.
>> Okay. >> Thank you. Just one question on my end. >> Sure. >> Um you mentioned ways that we can increase these scores and parent engagement was one of them. Could you elaborate a bit more on uh that recommendation >> for parent engagement? I think parents
don't necessarily know what's involved with HIV when we're reporting it. Um we have a code of conduct in the district. we have, you know, things in place to help prevent things, but they don't necessarily know that. So, when a child comes home and says they were bullied,
it may be bullying, but it may not be bullying. So, there's a there's a big difference between conflict and bullying. When it comes down to bullying, of course, some parts of it is subjective, but we do have um things in place in the district. We have a HIV policy. We have procedures that are
supposed to be followed. We just have to do a better job of capturing that so that everybody knows that. So the parent engagement would be some of those parent workshops that are done uh Denise just left with some of her people, some of just the schools getting the information out to the parents about what HIV is and
what it's not. >> Oh, she is. Oh, there's >> and and not everything is HIV, >> right? You know, it's very hard to get to that level. You know, I think a lot of parents just assume that, you know,
someone calls their kid another name, it's automatically HIV, and it's not. There's a lot of there's a whole process to get to that. Um, now this is a new way of reporting from year to year. >> I'm sorry. >> Is this a new way of reporting? So, we really have
>> this is a self assessment by the schools. So this is >> our reporting mechanism is through hipster program and everything is outlined within that. The parents make the report or the school makes the report and we as a district do not have the right not to investigate. So if
bullying comes up and they're saying it's HIV we have to investigate whether it's founded or not. >> Right. So we have nothing to compare this against last year yet. >> Exactly. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. I think that if I can just I think the goal is to have stu um schools
assess themselves every year. See if their assessment of how they're doing with the um implementation of hipster and streamlining that process. Lots of training by Mr. Ro and different people in here and all of us going to training.
We think that uh schools might score themselves much higher in the future because we they have a few more resources this year than they've had in the past. So the goal is to see these numbers go up because these this is our own self assessment that we have to submit to the state and it it and we
produce we um >> we promote it we present it every year I think and so in here so I think that sometimes like this is the first time Miss Wy Simpson has presented so that's why it feels like the first time but we've presented it before so I think
>> pretty sure yeah it's a requirement all Thank you, Linda Wson. >> Thank you. >> All right, that's that concludes all of our presentations for tonight. >> We have board me comments, committee chairs. I I'll just start off. Um we're
in the process of um our superintendent's evaluation calendar and preparing the calendar for this year's evaluation process as well as our board self-evaluation. And so I'll have more information about that um out to the board. I do have a I
do have a schedule to discuss this tonight with everyone in executive session, but just want to let you know those are the two things that we talked about. Also, uh we have a board president, vice president, and superintendent's bi-weekly conversation. Uh we have two additional um board seats
that we can have on that conversation. Typically, it's a conversation with the superintendent, the board president, and the VP. But we want to open it up to other board members if they want to participate. We have it every other Friday or so um at 8:00 a.m. in the morning. So, if anyone has a question
for the superintendent and wants a one-on-one with the superintendent in a group setting conversation, that will be an opportunity for all of us to uh to get together to have that conversation with him. Uh we had a conversation about opening this up in our in our meeting
just last week myself, Vice President Johnson and Superintendent. And so we want to give everyone the opportunity to participate in those meetings as well. So just let let me know and we'll we'll send you the Zoom link and you'll be able to participate but only have two addition additional board members because four is the max that we can
have. We also also want to uh mention next board meeting. We want to have our group and individual pictures. Uh we've been trying to get that done since the since the storms. Um we haven't had success because we've had some some challenges along the way here, but um we did
scheduled it a couple times and we had to cancel because of storms and school closing, but we're going to try and get it done in May. So be prepared. We'll remind you we'll remind you about it, but be prepared for your individual photo uh and your and our group photo uh
for this year because we want to get that up on the board and then also in on our website. >> Is this the meeting that we approve the teachers contracts for next year? >> Or the one regular board meeting? >> Regular board. >> The regular regular board meeting. Yes,
the regular board meeting. Mhm. >> 15th is the one in the in the morning for the for the No, not that meeting. It'll be the the evening meeting. Yeah. Yeah. Evening meeting. Um and also just on the strategic plan, if you missed the high school, the first one, April 21st.
What a great time we had. Um a lot of staff, a lot of lot of teachers there and um administrators there and some parents. But we need to to get more folks out. We're advertising. We're promoting it. I would encourage all all the board members to promote uh superintendent I as as you walked out we
had a conversation we said we all should bring at least five people so we can bring even if it's two people two people if every board member shows up at the next at the next one which is uh May 19th is that correct May 19th at the high school bring two people with you
and we'll fill the room uh with with what we bring plus the other people who are coming to the meeting I know that um Denise's group is sending out correspond respondents to their parents in terms of that that network. So we hope to have more parents and more more students on
May 19th at the high school and we encourage all the board members to show up at this next meeting. I do have I did get a report from I superintendent and vice president received a report from uh Maryanne Freeman just this past uh week. Haven't had a chance to digest all of that. Once we do we'll get that
information out to the rest of the board. So you'll have that information from the meeting. All the information that was comp compiled, we have that data. We want to get that data out to the board so board has that information prep in preparation for our May 19th strategic planning meeting at Trenton
Central High School. That's all I have. Uh teaching and learning. I know that um who's going to take that is uh you. >> I mean, okay. Thanks, Addie. >> Yes. So, um good afternoon. Um or good evening rather. Um the teaching and
learning committee did in fact u meet on the 21st. I was not able to attend. However, I do have the um notes from that particular meeting which indicated that the um proposals, resolutions and travel um requests were discussed and approved for the board meeting scheduled for tonight. Those proposals and
resolutions included things relative to professional development uh planning for the uh summer as well as community um partnerships. There was an update from um special education department. This is u autism month. April has been
designated as autism awareness. Um there is a Tangga visit to city hall to light up the ceremony to observe autism awareness month. Um the um M school was having a breakfast event with um families with activities.
Um Mott also celebrated sensory day. Um there was participation in the Trenton public schools early childhood uh fair that that took place on the 21st with um the office of early childhood education. Monument in Gregory will have celebrations um to commemorate autism
awareness month in the coming weeks. Um there are a couple of ongoing um concerns relative to um families um building their understanding about out of district placement and also accessibility and availability of resources and services. And so that
primarily is um the summary from the meeting of teaching from the teaching and learning committee. >> Uh the operations committee also met this week. Um, we uh we looked at the bill list $46,556,000 from March 31st through April 15th. Um,
we also discussed uh I think which was really important the withdrawal of funds from the capital reserve in the amount of 12 million 12,950,000 uh to um actually construct the new transportation complex which I think is
a really big deal for us where everything will be centralized. And then uh let's see. Um there was one other note. I don't know if if uh you had the opportunity to really look at
the minutes, but um it was a nice ad for um Jane's team to add the differences. And now I'll to for example um item FF which was revised res resolution to renew the services with Mammoth Ocean
Educational Service Commission. Um the total amount was $6,100 but there was only an increase of $200,000. So I you know when you look at that number you say well what we're spending another 600. No it's just a matter of the difference. So I appreciate that.
And then lastly, um I'd like to acknowledge uh the two donations uh for the folks um who actually sacrifice for our children. So from Bank of America, 75 bikes, 75
helmets, a value of $8,000 for family and community engagement. Shine and inspire food, toiletry items, and non-p perishable food. uh valued at $1,000 for family and community engagement. Women who move Mercer food, toiletry, and
other miscellaneous items valued at $300 for family and community engagement. Wellpoint, 400 reusable bags, uh $400 in value, family and community engagement.
And uh let's see, Miss Tanya Rob, two uh electronic keyboards valued at $800 for Kilmer Intermediate School and Empower Somerset, a donation of $2,000 for Tanga. So, we thank um all
those folks who sacrifice for our children. >> Okay. The facilities committee met on uh April 21st. Um the demolition of the Ziggler building continues. Um the abatement of any environmental concerns
and the power lines being ro relocated. Um this will be the new transportation site and we'll be able to pull all our um uh buses and everything in the same site. So which in result is also going
to free up space at uh buildings and grounds and the ninth grade academy which hopefully once this is done and those buses are away from 9th grade academy we can look at um some form of getting the drop off and pickup traffic
off the streets and making that area safer. You know I think that should really be the priority with that space. Um the ninth grade academy additions, the lighting is being installed. It electrical work is continuing on. Um
during spring break, the HVAC systems, electrical work, and sprinkler pipe piping were all installed. And the contractor is currently excavating the elevator pit for the gym and locker rooms while engineers address the groundwater that they encountered during
digging because of the uh low water table. Um required maintenance projects, we got Franklin School, the HVAC upgrades, districtwide LED lighting upgrades continue. Um
and uh the board of elections has added two additional schools as polling locations and installed a second ballot drop with cameras in place for security. Um and
that's except for discussing YMCA with the city, but nothing really has progressed yet. So, we're still in the limbo and hoping it goes our way. All right. And that's all I have.
>> All right. For HR, uh, keep it short, uh, because we just always have amazing stuff happening here in the district. So uh uh with new hires right I always want to make note uh just looking at the salary guide that we have coming in uh
between you know different uh bilingual teachers, ESL teachers, math teachers, bio teachers, right? We have uh I think starting salary is like $70,000 and I think the max one is topping off at like
$110,000 which every month I just wonder if I need to give up this board position and just start applying to the district, right? you know, there's a lot of great opportunities here um in district and I always make sure people are aware of the
opportunities and uh I do want to take just a moment and highlight uh cuz uh with the retirements, you know, I always talk about how many people um and years they here with the district, but I just want to take a moment and shout out because I have a personal connection.
All right, brother Channon Conway, right, who's retiring with 27 great years with the district. Just want to say thank you for your service uh all these many years. And I hope that tier one treats you real well, brother.
Oh my. But uh as always, nope, I almost turn that off. uh just a great HR report and I hope we can continue the work uh from this month to the next. >> As a as a member of that committee, excuse me, sir, we have a retiree with
51 years that needs to be acknowledged. I think it was uh Larry, right? >> Larry Parker. >> Larry Parker retires 51 years. I did not see it all in said report but absolutely amazing stuff though 100%.
>> Okay. So my report is um very short. So we have >> Oh you need to >> Nope. Nope. It was on the >> It was on there. Okay. >> On the thing. You got it. You got it. Thank Thank you. Uh so you will have before you three regulations um equal employment
opportunity complaint procedures, sexual h harassment regulations for staff and internal controls. Uh these are up for first reading and I want to thank uh Superintendent Earl for standing in the gap last week
running the policy meeting. So I definitely appreciate you. Uh and I just want to say thank you to Dr. Conway who has stepped in and and provided uh leadership and guidance and directing policy. Uh
I would just want to say actually thank you to Superintendent Earl, Dr. Conway, and the Rockstar himself, Mr. Ro down there. you guys um provide a uh you know using your historical knowledge, you help
explain um the um the movement of the policy, the the modifications and and how it works in the district because I I struggle a lot with um you know being so black and white with
policy, but you all share with me how important it is to there's some gray here and and we need to to look at that. So, thank you so much for your leadership and guidance. I greatly appreciate it. >> Okay. So, I'm going to give the phase
report. Um the face committee met on April 22nd. Uh we discussed the food pantry. Um the board food pantry for the month of March we had 220 families which is 732 adults 490 children impacting a
total of 1,222 household members. Um we also discussed the Smith Family Foundation having their next meeting at Grant School May 12th um with a direct discussion with principles to help identify how to maximize community support directly with their schools. Uh
we talked about March Madness attendance contest. It was a great success. Um Harrison Grant MLK were school winners. Um for the parent talk miniseries um there's going to be a focus on developing fostering parent
relationships to strengthen homeschool connections. Um that's going to be uh for the month of April the at Washington school uh 24 parents are engaged. Um there's also going to be um partnership with Catholic Charities on Tuesday, May 5th for the parent connect series art
with a purpose um from 5 to 7 at the board building. Uh we also discussed the 2020 672 2728 school calendars which is in the agenda. Um and we
discussed uh we actually have an increase in kindergarten registrations so far. We have 371 students registered today. Um we also discussed the strategic planning sessions. Please share the word out for that. We definitely want more um community
members to show up and support. Uh we discussed uh we also discussed the back to school extravaganza which is scheduled for Friday, April 28th, 2026. and we discussed the Apple learning cohort opportunity for professional
staff um which uh we have um a decent amount um really great amount signed up already. So that is the um report for the face committee. Thank you. Discussion board discussion and action
on consent agenda. I have a motion to approve. >> Proper move to second. Any questions on it? >> See, no questions. Roll call. >> Joe Truhart. >> Yes. >> Denise Johnson. >> Yes.
>> Jean Buouie. >> Yes. >> Mattie Daniels Lane. >> Yes. >> Austin Edwards. >> Yes. >> Yolanda Lopez. >> Yes. >> Larry Trailer. >> Yes. >> Jeanie Waklam. >> Abstain everything. Grant >> Denelli D Leon.
>> Yes. Motion passed. >> Thank you. Board member comments. Any NJSBA updates? Um Addie? >> Uh yes. >> Okay. >> Okay. So the um board of directors for um New Jersey school boards met on the
uh 27th I believe of um March. Um they're offering new crisis communication service um that's being made available to districts if there is a crisis and then they will kind of guide you through um certain procedures that you can follow and certain ways to handle certain crisis communication. Um
in terms of the public um there's also a free policy um manual update um program available um so we can reach out to them and um in fact I can make use of their services. I know we have a relationship with Strauss Esme, I think, but they also um offer um guidance on the U
policy manuals. Um there's also a number of spring training programs coming up. One was um women's leadership conference uh which believe that took place already, the public relations forum coming up, the school law forum, and also a technology um conference. Also of
note is that the um planning is just about complete for the um New Jersey school board's um workshop for the fall from October the 19th to the 22nd and I think registration um has opened in terms of that and also um noted is that
proposals for that particular workshop have closed. So, I'm not sure if we we were talking about um you know having our children I don't know if that's a separate proposal but for proposals if you wanted to present that particular um portal is closed but the other one for entertainment we're going to research
and see if that's still open um just to see what we can do there. And so basically that was the um meeting that took place. We also had a discussion about um insurance carriers because New Jersey school boards was having some challenges with their insurance carrier as well. So they're talking about different proposals in terms of
different um reaching out to different insurance brokers to uh change their insurance programming. So everybody seems to be having uh challenges with that. So just wanted to share that. So So that's that. >> Denise. Um, I thought I was uh giving
the update on NJSBA and Addie was giving the update for Mercer County uh since she's the VP, but but I thought that was how we decided um when this was added to the agenda. But I will say this um delegate assembly is
scheduled for May 16th. I think >> delegate assembly. So those who wish to uh participate uh it is May 16th at Mercer County Community College. >> Both our delegates will be attending. Correct. >> I I'll be there as the voting.
>> Okay. >> All right. So I basically gave the board of directors and I think I'm the only one that attends the board of directors. So um yeah. So so I'm also of course in the county a county officer but you als everybody attends a county officer one. But I'm the only one that attends the
board of directors. So that's the Yeah. Okay. >> So it's it's in the right order, Dies. >> Okay. >> Is it in the right order? >> Okay. So Mercer County um we uh are having uh a hybrid meeting scheduled for
Thursday, May 14th at 6 o'clock. And this will actually take place at Clark Pocket Middle School in Hamilton. Um there is a virtual option for people that want to attend at 6:45 p.m. And um a few of us will be actually recognized
during um during that county meeting. I think there are four of us at least that I'm aware of. >> Oh, also the um the teacher of the year I believe is from Kilmer. >> Yes. >> Joyce Kilmer. Yes. Yes. Okay. So she is being recognized at that particular um
celebration. I think she'll bring remarks. So um certainly we want to be supportive of her >> and that's the third year in a row that Trenton's gotten the teacher of the year >> Shakita Fenel I think right now and she's special special education teacher at Joyce Kilmer.
>> Yep. Okay. >> Okay. And that's all I have. >> No I have no updates from the legislative policy committee for the school boards. >> Oh okay. Uh you Okay.
Start. batteries. Most of the devices are Oh, >> could they press? So the important for us is how our children are.
good information u throughout the the committee reports. Any new business? >> Wait, excuse me. >> I >> You didn't go to board member comments yet? >> Uh I did. Yeah, did that. See, this is It always gets messed,
>> right? Wait a second. >> Isn't it during the legislative when those guys give their reports? >> She's right. She's right. >> Yeah. Go ahead. Make make a comment. >> Okay. Um I just want to thank people for showing up to strategic planning the
other night. Um having been in the last time we did strategic planning, there were some differences and the major difference was the fact that the parents weren't there. There were a couple community people in that um I thought kind of too hop topheavy
with administration because I think when we started this last time we went out to the communities we went to the schools that were in the communities and the parents came we had over a hundred parents there and um I'm not exactly
sure what routes we did I know it fell heavily on the parent liaison and reaching out to the parents directly the schools and they came. They were offered to bring their kids. They showed up and they showed up to each and everyone. And and I think that's why this last
strategic plan was so strong. And I think we need to go back and not just assume people are looking at our Facebook page because they're not. >> We have to reach people where they are and get them out. And one of the things we had, I know the
state doesn't like us buying food for people, but offering dinner and having child care there for the families. >> The major problem was that it was um >> parent conference. Yes. >> Yeah. So, but in order for it to work,
>> we did have food for everybody for everybody. >> That's what we do. >> I think we need to look at that, too. >> Yeah. >> That's it. >> Okay. I could go next. So, I got I got two acknowledgements. I The first one is
I am so excited that so many of our um teachers and staff want to take part in this Apple school thing with the technology because they were afraid of tech. Think back, they were afraid of technology and now they're engaged and
so that's a big deal. So, kudos to them. And then the uh the second one was oh my god that was one um this was a long night of stuff and
I'm so grateful that we function as committees because the we would be here till 3 in the morning with the volume of stuff that we're able to cover um because we function as committee. So kudos um kudos
to everyone that we're doing it like that because we you know I'm just listening to the to the updates right and they're so deep and they cover you know such a vast um broad topic. So I really appreciate that we're still
functioning like that because it's our option you know how we want to function but I think it's so invaluable that we function by committee. That's it. >> Okay. Um, and if if I might um certainly want to um say congratulations to the um
Jefferson School uh community um for a very well-rounded presentation. They had all the pieces in there, the speaking, the the dancing, the research, the technology. So So certainly a very well well-rounded presentation. So just want to you know for the record say that was
that was a great presentation, right? And that is worthy to um be shared. So hopefully um we'll have an opportunity to get that out to um other school communities. Uh my other comment is relative to the whole cell tower conversation and so um I know that we
approve the lease of the land um for that particular whatever but I you know hearing the concerns of the people I don't know if that's something we can take a second look at or what. So I I don't know exactly where we are in the pro in the process and you know I certainly um you know like apologize for
that but I would like to know you know kind of like where we are and what can we do uh to address whatever concerns that might be arising. So just to throw in right so >> I agree with you Addy on that one. If we could um look go over it again it would
be good. Yes, there there are options the board can take to uh to reconsider that. James, can you >> We got two board members. Any other Does any other board members want to reconsider it?
>> Okay. problem solve problem but I don't looked like so I don't recall that discussion
Yeah, I don't think we had. >> So, anybody anybody else? I got >> do you want to reconsider or reopen that that um discussions and approve of that land lease >> and discuss discuss the task >> in light of the information that Miss
Harrison gave us? I would say yes because she's the one that mostly um >> Okay. So make a vote. >> No, no, wait. He's got to No. Uh James got to explain how we how we go about doing that. >> I'm not sure what we're doing. >> We're talking about we we approved something on the agenda. What? LA was it
last month? >> December. >> Deceas. >> It was December. So, how do we how do we go? >> So, so what are we trying to do? >> We're trying to perhaps reconsider that. >> Okay. So, does reconsider mean telling the vendor to stop working?
>> I don't Okay. >> I mean, we need we need to have that conversation. >> Yes. >> Right. Cuz I think we need to know like where where are we in the process? Right. Is the tower halfway up? I don't know. >> So, they're doing preliminary work. >> Oh, it's good.
I want to say >> city approval approval. >> Zoning board. So that was a conversation about >> your mic. You might >> I'm sorry. So they went and got zoning board approval and we haven't signed we haven't executed a lease yet. Uh that's
the next stage of the process to execute the lease. >> Okay. All right. >> So maybe not approve any leases until our questions are answered. >> So So what exactly are our questions? >> So So is the
>> I got here. >> I will I was going to say I will have some legal questions. So it might be better asked in executive session. >> Well, we can't do it executive session tonight, but we can certainly take it to committee. >> All right. Cool. >> Uh you can have it. Can you call the ad
hoc committee for facilities? Not ad hoc, but can you call a meeting to have a conversation prior to your next board meeting prior to your next committee meeting like probably sometime either either this week or early next week to discuss it? Well, and include the city because they're the ones.
>> Well, we we have to discuss as a board, I would think, first with the general counsel first in discussion and then we can talk about in the committee whether how you want to go about talking to the city and approach this strategically how you want to approach it with other members of the uh community. >> Yeah. So, was there is is there a
timeline for that particular piece? Right. I mean, did the cell tower need to be up by and I'm just making this up by May 30th. Is there a timeline of events that needed to take place and so on and so forth? So the proposal proposed the timeline by which the project would be finished, but I do not
know the impact on sale service in an area if it's not put up by a certain date. I don't know. >> Okay. Okay. And so then my other question is like you know all that land that's being cleared from the um St. Franc well St. Francis whatever they were calling it St. Francis Hospital and
even their parking lot which is just sitting there to the to the left of the on uh Hamilton Avenue. >> Yes. I'm just Why didn't That's free land. It's not necessarily right on top of the school's, you know, not on top of the school. Yeah. >> Uh and it's probably distant from the
community if you sit it on the edge that's closer to where the hospital actually was. Well, almost. So, I I just don't know why it had to be on the the school site when it could have been in their parking lot, right? Somewhere in the parking lot. They had helicopters landing on the top of uh St. Francis.
They had that tower, but now you have a whole parking lot that's not being used. And then the hospital is gone. So if you I I don't know. It just seems like a better spot, but I don't know the technicality and all that kind of stuff. Right. >> That that is a question get an answer to. I can I can go get an answer to that
question. >> Great. >> That's a great question. I can get an answer to that one. I don't know it, but I can get it. >> Okay. >> Also, >> also um we need to make it clear to the public that we have nothing to do with
zoning. So, you know, that's >> the only thing that we can own is if we lease the land to them or not. But the zoning and the the the footage away from and we have no control over that.
>> Yes. >> Is that everything? So, we we know what we're going to do. >> So, we're not going to move forward with the police until we have some further meetings. Okay. I'll I'll inform Yeah. >> So you'll be able to do a committee meeting
>> further meetings with what what are we looking at? Are we looking at the scope as it stands? >> I would imagine. I mean I think in the comm I I had a chance to meet with them today to hear the concerns. So what you
were able to listen to I heard and the uh veter was able to talk about some of the concerns and address some of the questions that I think Steph had. So um I think this is simply if we stop it because uh there
was a bit more information about the urgency to remove it because they're going to tear it down and they need to have it removed. I don't know if he has access to put it up there. So, I think we have to decide when we move away from this because he has a short timeline to
move it. He's going to move because he needs to get have a place to put that. Now, that's not our rush, right? >> I just want to make sure that's out there because he talked about that today that that was um >> yeah, his sense of urgency, the move,
which is not necessarily ours. I mean, it's not not something we have to own. I'm just telling it as it was uh shared today because he's uh they've been informed that uh that's kind of the last phase before they tear everything else
down and so they need to get that moved and so the goal was to try to move that soon. So they started some preliminary work >> well to to move that. >> Exactly. It's the city's deal. And >> a question the $40,000 is that like a monthly
>> Yes. No, it's a annual. >> I'm sorry. >> It's annual. Yearly >> annual yearly. >> So 40. >> So yeah, and if you divide that by and that's the projected amount. I mean we did it and we did a cost analysis
um that they did. So yeah. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. The goal would be to have it um allocated to the student activities accounts and they could use it for students. But that's I mean if
>> Yeah. Yeah. >> I think Yeah. We get the information you need. >> Is everybody Is everybody clear? >> Everybody Everybody good? Are we are we still taking board member comments? >> We we do have >> Yeah, this is we we're actually on new
business, but we have any new business that you want to talk about, we can talk about. >> Okay. Um I just wanted to ask I had a question for Jane earlier for her presentation. Um when it comes to the increase and the
health insurance, the percentages, I wanted to know like what was our increase this year? Um when it comes to health insurance >> it was between 31 and 34%. >> Yes. So it went like up tremendously almost tripled what we were paying prior
and we are out there in the market trying to find other companies but because of our utilization rate and our experience rate it's very hard for someone to want to insure us. >> True. That's the truth. >> Tell the truth.
>> But we've been denied. I want to say that. >> We've been denied many times. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Thank you for that. >> I don't want to say that. >> Yes, we have been. >> Who absorbed those increases? Was it Was
it the district >> instead of the employees? Yeah. pie. >> Okay, >> I'm trying. I'm trying here. >> Huh? >> You have any more? >> Oh, no. I was just going to let the board know that the Trenton literacy
movement is hosting a graduation for 250 students um at Ma Elementary on May 19th. I know we have our, you know, strategic planning meeting, but that's the 4 to 6. So, just want to flag that for everybody. You said >> uh 250 students.
>> Yes. Amen. Not not quite not quite done yet. I do I do have one I do have one for final comment though if everyone's finished. Um uh folks, I I'm not trying to limit your conversation, right? So, I've had
complaints about long meetings. So, I'm just making sure that I'm trying to manage that time um and manage um the expectations and certainly not trying to limit your conversation. I can stay till 12 midnight. We have to on conversation. I'm open to it. I I plan to be here uh
every every board meeting as long as it takes to get things done and have conversation. So, I want to make that clear. I wasn't trying to stop time. I wasn't trying to five minutes on people and stop people from having conversations, but I was just trying to manage the expectation of folks being
respectful of time um people's uh expectations of that. So that's why but I won't do that again. I'll leave it open so folks can have conversation. I've learned that today. Thank you so much.
>> I've learned that. Yes. Yes. Okay. Any other comments? All right. Executive session. Whereas the open public's meeting act permits the exclusion of the public from a meeting under certain circumstances
and any pending or anticipate litigation or contract negotiations. Any matters falling within attorney client privilege to the extent that confidential required to preserve the attorney client relationship. matters captioned tenure charges in the
matter of SB settlement in the matter of EK settlement in the matter of LC now therefore be resolved that an executive session will be held on Octo April 27th 2026 for the statuto truly permissionable purposes indicated in
this resolution be therefore resolved that action may be taken by the board when it reconvenes in open session be it finally resolved that the minutes of executive session With regard to the above subject matter shall be disclosed to the public at a later date and to the
extent to the same is not prejuditial to the interest of the parties involved. No longer adverse to the public interest or does not endanger any individual right to privacy. Can I have a motion to adjourn first? Probably first and second. May I have a roll call vote?
>> Gerald Truhart. >> Yes. >> Denise Johnson. >> Yes. >> Jean Buoie? >> Yes. >> Addy Daniels Lane? >> Yes. >> Austin Edwards? Yes. >> Yolanda Lopez. >> Yes. >> Barry Trailer. >> Yes. >> Jeannie Week. >> Yes. >> Denelli Deleó. >> Yes.
>> Motion pass. Turn.