S are we good? This is really fancy. Good evening. I would like to call this meeting to order. May I have a roll call, please? Miss Capiello, Miss Perbanel, Mr. Cohan, here. Mrs. Conte
Maki, Mrs. Furia here. Mr. McDow present. Mrs. Mani here. Mr. Nasta here. Miss Santana. Mrs. Scott Heden. Board member. Miss Mani, will you please
lead us in the flag salute? To the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God. Indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Board member Miss Mani, will you please
read the mission statement? The Township of Union Public Schools mission statement. The mission of the Township of Union Public Schools is to build on the foundations of honesty, excellence, integrity, strong family, and community partnerships. We promote a supportive learning environment where
every student is challenged, inspired, empowered, and respected as diverse learners. Through cultivation of students intellectual curiosity, skills, and knowledge, our students can achieve academically and socially and contribute as responsible and productive citizens
of our global community. Miss please read the public open public meetings act statement. Yes. In accordance with the provision of the New Jersey Open Public Meeting Act, the Township of Union Board of Education has caused notice of this publication to be
by having the date, time, and place thereof published in the Star Ledger and Union County local sources posted in the administrative building of 2369 Mars Avenue, Union, New Jersey, followed with the township clerk and mailed to all persons, if any, who had requested said
notice. The board of education offers members of the public an opportunity to address issues regarding items on the agenda or on any issue. Individuals need to identify themselves by name and address. Public comments will limit to three minutes. Issues raised by members of the public may or may not be
responded to by the board. All comments will be considered and a response will be forthcoming if and when appropriate. The board requests all members of the public to be courteous and mindful of the rights of other individuals when speaking. Comments regarding students and employees of the board will not be
responded to by the board. Madam President, thank you so much, Miss Manise, and Miss The board will now go into executive session to discuss personnel and legal issues and action will be taken. May I have a motion to move into executive session? So move.
Second. Any discussions? The motion has been properly moved by Mr. Cohan and seconded by Miss Mani. Can I have a roll call, please? Miss Capiello. Mr. Cohan. Yes. Uh, Mrs. Faria, yes. Mr. McDow, yes.
Mrs. Beni, yes. Mr. Nasta, yes. Mrs. Scott Heden, yes. Miss Carbonel, yes. Thank you. Good evening everyone. Oh, thank you. Um, may I have a motion
to move back into our public regular meeting? So moved. Any second? Second. The motion has been properly moved by Miss Many and seconded by Mr. Cohan. And I have a roll call, please. Miss
Capiello. Yes. Mr. Cohan, yes. Mrs. Conte Mackey, yes. Mrs. Faria, yes. Mr. McDow, yes. Mrs. Mani, yes. Mr. Nasta, yes. Mrs. Scott Hayden, yes. Miss
Santana, yes. Miss Carbonel, yes. Approval of the minutes. May I have a motion to approve the following minutes? So moved. Second. Second. Roll call, please. Miss Capiello.
Mr. Cohan. Yes. Mrs. Conc Mackey. Yes. Mrs. Faria. Yes. Mr. McDow. Yes. Mrs. Veni. Yes. To March 11th. um both work session and executive sessions March 18th regular executive session Mr.
Aasta Santana. Yes. Miss Carbonel. Yes. Next, we will have our communications that are reflected on operations and personnel agendas. Good evening everyone. I would like to take a moment to thank you all for being here tonight.
As we begin the public comment portion of this meeting, I want to remind everyone that we value your input and appreciate your time and effort in sharing your thoughts and concerns. We ask that all comments be respectful and constructive as we aim to
foster a productive dialogue that benefits our community and the work we are here to do. Each speaker will be given three minutes to address the board. Please remember that while we are eager to hear your perspectives, we are unable to engage in a discussion during
this portion of the meeting. However, your comments will be carefully considered by the board and if necessary followed up on. With this said, I invite the first speaker to approach. Wow. I think everybody heard about Oh,
hello. I'm sorry. Did you fill out a card? I did not. Is there a card? No, no worries. Um, just state your name and your address, please. And then make sure that we get we get a card for you. Okay. Uh, my name is Randy Davenport and
address is 20 Commerce Drive, Sweet 135 Clark. Thank you. Good evening, Mr. Davenport. Good evening. Okay. I wanted to um speak regarding um Michael Hamilton. I believe he was on. I'm not sure if this is the proper time
or what the format is, but if this is the proper time, then I'd like to do that. That's a great question. So, let me just get some guidance and I'll be right back. All right. Thank you, It's not under resolution.
Mr. Davenport, just so that you are aware, the resolution that we were going to vote on tonight um has been pulled. Okay. I'm not sure if you still want to use the three minutes to say something, you certainly have the right to do so. Okay. Well, if there's not going to be a
vote tonight, then I'm fine with that because that's what I was going to request. Okay. Okay. Thank you so much. All right. Thank you. I appreciate it. Thank you. Um, yes.
All right. Now, we will have the superintendence report. Thank you, Madam President. So, uh, we have two more presentations tonight. First, I would like to ask Mr. Shaw, the principal school to come up.
Sure. I will. Great. Thank you. As you know, the displacement from the real Hannah to the various gymnasiums across the district and eventually to Hannah University at Kain University presented us with significant challenges throughout the year. I would like to
take a moment to recognize those that really made this year possible. First, the board of education and the central office team for their commitment to finding an alternative learning location for our students. Your efforts ensured that we could maintain a strong educational environment during this
transition. The Hannah Cwell families and community members, your patience, flexibility, and unwavering support made a tremendous difference in helping our students adjust and succeed this year. The students of Hannah Cwell yet through it all have shown remarkable
adaptability and resilience. And I'm extremely proud of the way they embrace change and continue to thrive despite the circumstances. Most importantly, I want to acknowledge and deeply thank my faculty and staff. Their resilience, patience, and steadfast dedication to our students,
the community and our families never wavered. It's because of their strength and heart that we were able to maintain a sense of normaly and continued learning during this time. Of course, none of this would also be possible without the tireless support of our amazing PTA. They ensure that despite
the chaos, our students experience joy, community, and tradition. through numerous student, family, and staff events and activities. Their efforts help preserve the spirit of Hannah Cowwell when it was needed most. Although I'd prefer to spend time discussing our academic achievements and
vision for the future, tonight's focus is a little different. The slideshow you're about to see captures just a glimpse of the many moments that emphasize growth in ways that go far beyond the academics. Growth in resilience, growth in community, growth in spirit, and pride for our school.
So, these are a couple events that we had throughout the year. The first one was our uh 90s day um where students dressed up as 90s and and students and staff ded dressed up as 90s fourth grade walk-athon fundraiser um which was our first event at uh the
Hannah University. So, they were able to get outside and walk for the first time since we're there and experience the campus environment. Our welcome back teacher snack and treats hosted by the PTA as well as the Scholastic Bookf Fair fundraiser um also hosted by the PTA
were both events at the Real Hannah. We also had the third and fourth grade winter concert at Washington School um which was a successful event. our fall festival, pumpkin patch and petting zoo, um were PTA events as
well, um early in the year, family fun night, um which was our first major event, um after our displacement, I guess we can call it. Um and that was at Union High School, also a PTA event, um where numerous students attended. I think we had a couple
hundred attend um as well as faculty and parents. our field day um which was at uh Rapkin Field early on um as well as the holiday or Halloween sorry parade um which also was hosted with the Union Police Department. Um they were
instrumental in helping the parade be a success. Our holiday teachers breakfast another event hosted by our PTA. Um we also had the hop into spring teachers lunch um of which the PTA has hosted numerous events and these are just a few throughout the year that supported our
staff. our fourth grade basketball game fundraiser at Union High School. Um, of which I think we had two. There's only one up there. We had a third and fourth grade game a couple weeks ago. Um, where I believe the students won both times, which is kind of
embarrassing. Family fun night. Um, lucky to have you dance. Um, which was hosted at Kane University at Liberty at I'm sorry, at the STEM center. Um, which was a fantastic facility. Um, and as you can see, it was a a nice
event. Our family fun night also at the STEM center there at Kane University, uh, which involved karaoke, um, and just general fun night playing different games and and the kids really having a great time with their, uh, with their adults. The Chuck-E-Cheese fundraiser,
everybody was happy but Chucky. Um, so it was an outstanding event until I think he was overrun a little. No road it was in the building. So um our ice cream social um which has been going on every week for the last few weeks where the PTA comes in and
hosts um the ice cream social of which they also branched out to the prek schools um and had an ice cream social at those locations as well with um our staff members that are at the elementary schools with the prek. Um a couple weeks ago uh they went
to Liberty Hall and thank you to the board for assisting us with that. Thank you to King University as well for assisting us. Um, and our second, I'm sorry, first, second, and third grade, um, did an all day field trip on different dates to Liberty Hall. Um, and it was a great event and they had a
great time. And finally, um without um really as it says up there, the resilience, our community, your support, um as well as uh the school spirit, um that that lives large at Hannah, um this year would have
been much more difficult than it was. So, I want to thank you again, uh the board of education, my staff, uh my parents, and most importantly, my students for having a great year. So, thank you. [Applause]
Mr. Sh. Um, board members, colleagues, um, any questions, comments? No. Yeah, I I I do. Um like Madame Vice, um listen, we know that this year was a
very trying year for the Hannah Caldwell family and um we're just so impressed and grateful for the adults coming together and making it a very spe special year for the kids. And I could
tell just in those pictures alone. Um I don't I I don't like Chucky though because I remember Chucky when my son was little. But nonetheless, I know the kids loved him. So, thank you to the PTA as well as the school leadership. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. Madam Vice,
you wanted to say Okay. Madam Vice didn't want to say anything, but just a simple thank you because it's not easy, right? So, we do appreciate all the efforts that it went into, not just from this side, but from that side, from the community as a whole. Um, like you said, our students are resilient. Um we saw a
lot of tears on the first day when we walked through um this new school, the temporary location. So just to see where we were from there to here, where we are now, right? And just being able to be collaborative to build something that was great for our students is just
tremendous. So to you, your team, the PTA, our students, the parents, the community as a whole, thank you. Thank you. Appreciate it. And be before I switch it over, um I just want to say thank you to Mr. Shaw and his leadership as well as the PTA,
Mr. Tera, and her leadership. Uh it wasn't a a normal year. A typical year is hard uh for our principles and our schools, our teachers, everyone. Uh but I like that Mr. Shaw uh highlighted that the resilience and and through this we won't know right now but uh it's going
to be interesting to see what what these children learned through this difficult unfortunate unexpected situation and I do believe you grow through those those kind of experiences. So uh on top of uh the normal educational stuff that we
provide they adapted and did a wonderful job. So thank you Mr. Shaw, thank you Mr. check Sarah for coming together like the board also mentioned. Um next I would like to ask uh Miss Bosard uh the Union High School principal and her team
right and her team to come up. Um she's the next presentation and Miss Bosa, I'll let you introduce everyone and then I'll give you the clicker, the mic and your it's all yours. Which way does it This is the
big button is to go. Okay. I'm gonna stand off to the side. Miss Bowser, I think we're going to have to give you a a a size next time. We have like 50 people here presenting. Good evening everyone. Uh thank you uh
board members and administration Dr. Benquista. Uh we're very happy to be here and uh the audience to speak with you about our wonderful high school. Uh with me is Miss Mononttoya who is our PTA
president. We do a lot together. We text she'll text me all day, all night, whatever the case may be. We have a great relationship. Uh next to her is Mr. Shawn Paterno. He is our junior vice principal. He's not new to the high school. Uh Sean and I uh were vice
principles together way back when and he's now back. Uh Mr. Desmond Stapleton, he is our ninth grade vice principal. Uh Mr. Stapleton graduated from Union High School, so it's nice to have him there. Uh Miss Cheryl Fisk has been with us 15
years and 18 years. Yes. And Mr. Ikurt started off also as one of our chemistry teachers, supervisor, and now he's our 10th grade vice principal. And Miss Fisk is the 12th grade VP. Uh we have a short video to show you
and then we'll get into the talking points. Sound [Music] Ah, [Music] hey. Thank
[Music] you. [Music] [Music] [Music]
Hey, thank you. I'd like to thank uh Miss Mormon, our TV production teacher. She I went to her, I said, "I really need you to put a video together for me." Now, like I I went to see her a few times today and um I said, "I love you so much." She was gracious
enough and uh she did an excellent job uh putting those together. So, just a few things to update you and then the team will uh come and speak. We have a lot of activities coming up towards the end of the school year. May 19th is senior day. Uh the seniors have
inflatables, there's food trucks, lots of fun things for them. They spend it outside. Um senior awards is May 19th. May 29th, our seniors are going to Hershey Park. Uh June 2nd is our their
pool party. June 5th is their senior breakfast. Prom, the big night of the year is June 5th. It's at the Grand Marquee in Oldbridge. uh and graduation is 623. So we have uh currently
2362 2362 students in our high school. Yes, our senior class this year is 622. We have not had a senior class that
large I would say the last 10 years if not more. Um so it's it's significantly high. Um this year our band, orchestra, concert band, swing choir, show choir, and chorus are traveling uh tomorrow. I
believe they leave for their trip. Our JOTC is also traveling to Florida for their trip. They always win. They come back with medals for us. Um we're doing a lot of great things. We just had the junior formal. They were amazing. Saul
was there. It was an amazing event. uh first one in a significant amount of time as well. We haven't had a junior prom in a long time either. Uh the kids were great, dressed really nicely. Uh the teachers who put it together uh outfitted the gymnasium didn't even look
like a gym. Uh they worked really hard on on getting that done. Um so we are a title one building which allows us to offer tutoring to the students after school. That's usually from October to May. We had about 365 students who
participated in tutoring. It does also give us the opportunity to help with credit recovery in the summer should our students uh need that. Mr. Pno is going to touch more upon that and then I will be back. All right. Let's see how this works.
Don't even I don't really need a microphone, but let's see. All right. So, the slides that's up is uh we run a peer tutoring uh for our students. So, we have our um National Honor Society students um they run tutoring in the morning at lunch. Um
this helps our students get a chance to um have their peers we find out sometimes especially through studies peer-on uh instruction they they learn a lot more. So, it sort of helps out especially you know during lunch they're able to bring a lunch in. So it's almost like lunch and work at the same time. Um
that seems to be working out for us. We also use uh varsity tutoring which is offered through the district. So we do use that um to let the students know um that they can go online and uh get tutoring through different um teachers
online which I think is great right because some of our students if they're working after school you know they can't make it to the um the lunch they can't make it up to school they have online honor role. So, this shows you that our tutoring, you know, it seems to be doing pretty well. Um, we obviously have room for growth, which we're going to get
these numbers up higher every year. Um, right now our high honor roll, which is all A's, B's, and one C plus. You can see the numbers there. Um, principal honor roll is straight A's and our regular, I'm sorry, high on roll is all A's and B. Honor roll is all A's, B's,
and one C plus. So, the numbers are there. you going? I'm just going to breeze through these. So, you see these these are our um advanced programs. All right. We have multiple honors courses, multiple AP courses.
Um I've always said I've been working in Union District for 27 years. Um I've always said about this district, the education's here. You have to go get it. Just like everything in life, right? We tell our kids all the time. So, we have 971 students taking the AP
courses. We have 600 AP students taking the AP test this year. All right. So, that's a pretty good number. Um, we'll see what the scores are. I feel like we've um taken a step forward. And what I always say here is we always have a lot of negative
things, but this is I'm going to tell you, we have student going to West Point, committed to West Point. We have a student committed to Bingington University. We have a student committed to George Washington University. Student committed to Auburn University. Miss Mani, this is for
you. We have a student that's going in between possibly Brown or possibly UMass Amherst, right? So, we know UMass Amherst is a and I visited a few weeks ago. So, um so we're doing a lot of good things. Um our classes, you know, are uh
rigorous here. We know that by you know multiple years before this Princeton University comes to us every year they look at our top students because um I'm going to say about 12 years ago I met with the man and he said that we sent one student there they did amazing so
they come back every year right because our courses are rigorous and obviously that student was successful at Princeton so that means that our classes are meeting the requirements that they need. All right. Next, sorry. So, our turn. Uh, we also have
certification programs and courses that lead to college credits. So, we have a cosmetology program, a very successful cosmetology program. And our students at the completion of the cosmetology program can actually earn their certification and licensing and leave
high school with their cosmetology uh license. And similarly, uh, the CAD program at the high school, if they go through all four years of it, CAD 4 allows them to get AutoCAD certification, which puts them up against anybody going into any career with any kind of CAD design program
involved with it. Um, additionally, like Miss Boster was saying earlier, our JRTC program is award-winning every single year, no matter what they do. They're here at six o'clock in the morning. They're there after school every single day. It's a it's a program that that we're proud to
have at Union High School. And if they get if they go into the armed services, they get like higher rank and higher reward for actually participating in the ROC program here at Union High School just based off its accolades. So our ROC program uh has led to
nominations to our US Military Academy at West Point, the Air Force Academy, our Naval Academy, our students who wish to take advantage of the GI Bill for college. ROC um provides our high school graduates with advanced promotion and higher pay um when they enlist in our
active US armed uh services. We also have our tomorrow's teachers program and our tomorrow's teachers program um does um lead to college credits for our students. So our students that are going
on to be educators in the future leave with credits already when they finish the program. I think. Nope, you're fine. That we'll talk. There was supposed to be a slide. Yeah, it's okay. There it's after. It's there. So, we have awards um and some
things to recognize about both of them. So, there are some of our ROC accomplishments up there. And something to highlight about tomorrow's teachers. Actually, today we had our first signing. So, a lot of uh
students that are going on to enter college as athletes, right, do signings and Mr. Joe Daly, who is the tomorrow's teachers, um worked with the NJA and the UTA to have our first ever, he thinks we're the second school in the state to
do it, actually. Um so, fact check him, not me on that one, but um he said we're the second school in the state to do a signing for our future educators. So, we had their families come. Master Pizza sponsored food and JA sponsored food. And we had an event for our students to
do a signing um and commit to becoming a future educator. And several of them mentioned wanting to come back and be teachers in Union. So, we made sure Mr. Ratino wrote some names down um which was a very very exciting day for us. So, it was wonderful. Thank you to everybody
who came today. But, it was a really great event. Yeah, as as Mr. Pno mentioned, there are several schools that our our students have attended. If you want to go back one, sponsor just so our people can see. This is all there are so many that we can't even name them all, but there are so many places that our students have
attended. Yep. All right. So, um we also have students that do um not only fantastic in the classroom, but also athletically. Um so if you see on the screen we have a lot of um award-winning um athletes from
gymnast um soccer if you go to the next play volleyball football we have all conference all county um honor mentioned so um these are leaders not only in the classroom but also on the on the field the court matt so we want to to
highlight that um wrestling we have some state champions over there to the right and winter track um wrestling so these guy guys and girls. They do a absolute uh fantastic job leading our building in
in sports. Um here we have um one of our students, one of our students are going to state for American Legion or ortorial contest. Peter um he's going to um represent us as he goes down to the state. Um we had uh numerous scholarship
winners at our senior award night. Um, we had Damian who's our unsung hero. Um, essentially what that is is um it's a it's a student that just comes today uh to school every day, does the right thing, you know, doesn't need uh a ward
or a title, but just goes around and and essentially has good character and shows, you know, other people how to act throughout the building. So, we want to make sure we acknowledge those people as well. Um, as far as the, uh, Rotary Club, we
have 11 candidates right now that will be, um, you know, possibly going down to states. Um, but six are definitely, so we want to support them as they go, um, in towards that competition. Um, uh, Candace Odel, um, is one of our
scholar athletes for NJSIAA. All right. And same thing with Gabriel. He went down to AC to represent Union. um in the state tournament for wrestling. So we and he did a good job representing Union.
Anything else? And one of the final things we're going to talk about is our possible change, well not possible, the change in schedule for the upcoming school year. Um one of the main reasons that we're doing this is to get the teachers on the same page. We're trying to focus the attention on
the academics, building in common PLC time, and allowing for common assessments, common planning time, allowing the teachers to collaborate more together instead of on their own islands. They're doing a lot. They're really working hard every single day. But if we can get them working together and looking in the same direction,
working in the same direction more than they already are, we're uh we're looking forward to that. And one last thing. So this year we have been uh our admins and teachers went to visit the mill at Milbour High School.
They also went to visit Redbank Regional High School. And from that came ideas to uh institute a bathroom check-in and a check-in every areas that the kids go. So now we have the opportunity. Mr. Paterno set everything up with the help
of Mr. Ikard on the computer end to ensure that every time a student uses the restroom, they scan in and they also scan out. We've called home uh several times for students who are using the
restroom six times in a day, sometimes in a half a day, uh jumping from bathroom to bathroom. So, we're it it's helping us and it's helping the parents, I believe, because if they're not in class, they're missing instructional time. Um, the other thing is we are
working um on increasing, thanks to Mayor Bowser has got us in contact with Ruckers University along with NJIT, they'll also be coming to speak with us at the high school, how we can bridge uh the programs together and help our
students succeed even more. um as college students as preparing as high school students, we're preparing them for that. So, we have a lot planned and hopefully we'll be able to discuss all of that with everyone and thank you very much. Oh, our PTA, Miss Montoya, I'm
sorry. There you go. Thanks. Um what an honor to be here this evening representing Union High School, the students, families, staff members. I am Lori Mononttoya, the PTA president, and I had one personal goal this year to hit 500 members. Being that we have 2,000
students, we were just shy 44 members to reach that goal. So, I invite you to come to our last in-person meeting this Thursday. And then maybe you can become a member, too. I am confident that we will reach that goal next year because, as we know, each of us are very important to develop to the development
and growth of our children. But working with Miss Bosard and the administration team at the high school has been amazing. We received the support needed to achieve many goals such as fundraising for the scholarships to give to our students. So I want to thank you for all that help. Um we did have um
slideshow and we just put together some pictures and it includes diversity because that's what I see when I walk in the hallways of Union High School. I also see love in between them but not just between them but in the community. I also see friendships and not only the
children but the staff and the the parents that are there. Uh Union High School has been very opening to us and um and we also see unity. So there's a lot of things that we do as a PTA. So please join us to be a member and then we can make all these things possible.
Thank you. [Applause] Hi, any questions, comments? No, I do. I do. I I love the presentation. Thank you all so much.
It's beautiful to see you work as a team to create these special moments for the kids. I'm just going to throw this out there as a suggestion. It it would be great to have student ambassadors go to like the middle school or fourth and fifth grade and talk about
all these things and not wait for them to just get to the high school to know that they're accessible or available. Um just some food for thought. Um but I think we got to get kids excited early on so that they're ready to go ninth
grade year. Thank you so much. Thank you. Anyone else? So, I want to thank uh Miss Bosard and her team and uh Latoya uh for uh them collaborating, working together. Um but um again, any year in the high
school, it's it's challenging. So, as you know, uh it's always uh could be something a curveball come any day, but I thank you guys for all working together and all the time and energy you put in and and some of the things that I throw at you last minute. I appreciate it that you uh carry them out and uh for
our our students. So, thank you very much. So, uh next real quick because we are voting on the final budget. Miss uh just has a a couple seconds to just again uh review uh the main points of the budget.
You could either way. Come on down. Come on down. technology. Okay. Good evening. I'm Yolanda Dun, school business administrator of the Township of Union Board of Education. Um I'm here to
recap the fiscal 26 um budget. Um it seems like we're now coming to the end uh as far as the state is concerned for the budget season. Although for us it's
never ending. Um so here we are. Yeah. um showing you the overall budget for the entire fund fund
10 20 30 and 40 that's 186 million 923 489 it's a decrease overall from last year's budget which equates to 70 uh decrease as we know this uh budget season uh the state came kind of hard
down on uh state aid and we were impacted negatively by it uh as a net of 1.7 million despite all of our challenges that we have with all our cost driving
uh factors as far as our contract obligations um repairs uh tuition health care etc. It goes on the list. Uh our total operating budget as you can see is 71
million.7 um the big piece here that was copied right to be sorry. So there's roughly five buckets of revenue which is very very important
obviously that drives everything. uh a budget has to be balanced, revenues have to equal expenses. So the big pie here of 110.4 represents our local and miscellaneous
um revenue that we get from the town township. Included in that number, uh there's been a roller coaster of events as it pertains to uh adjustments. Uh we started off with no real adjustments in
healthc care uh enrollment and bank cap. Uh but since two months ago, we have received 39 mill uh 39,000 in enrollment, 1.3 in healthcare,
and we're uh exhausting our bank cap of 646,000 and some change totaling this 110 from the township. In addition to that, we are using uh 2.7 of our
extraordinary aid, which is basically reimbursement for special ed services like OT, PT, etc. Um that we uh have budgeted for uh SIM this year was cut
drastically. We on average would get 230,000. Um, now we're only receiving 32,000 and that was a big uproar over all the states. Um, our state aid net was loss
of 1.7. Um, categorical no equalization aid alone from last year to this year was a negative 4.7 million loss, but then we gained 2.8 8 in uh special ed
categorical aid. So the net of that was 1.7 and lastly we are using to close the gap fund balance of 2.4 million. Of that 2.4 million 1.5 from last year's audit
is forced into that budget to help and the balance of 991,000 is what we're using out of our fund balance quote unquote savings. I believe there was a couple questions regarding that um a couple of weeks
ago. So this is our essentially all our uh revenue for for our operating. Next we have obviously the various different expenses that equal well
Jerry doesn't look like um so essentially instead of reading them off we know the biggest piece of the pie is salaries and benefits um then you have your supplies and your contracted services
um health benefits and things of that nature uh so we have worked dil diligently ly uh in trying to protect the classroom at all cost. Uh we have put in some measures of cutting various different budget lines. Uh we do have
over 5,000 or so budget lines and I'm not going to bore you with that tonight as this is a recap. Anyone that has any additional questions and would like to see line item, the office is obviously open. Um we met with some folks today
that had some questions and you know we had a onetoone so that they can understand uh the state budget is complex in far as some of the uh formulas that they have in the DOE um portal. Uh but I'll be happy uh to sit
down and and have a honest and good conversation um on some of our expenses. Uh we just need to keep in mind though that moving forward it's very volatile. We don't not sure um the state typically asks us to budget flat but we budget
flat and this year we were hit in various different areas. Um we also got hit in uh prek. Prek's budget is roughly 10.3 million. Um we got hit with a penalty of roughly 330. So we are really
diligently looking at our expenses and really trying to track put in some uh processes to help uh monitor some of the costs and we will continue to do that. Um se you will see there's about seven
different resolutions as it pertains to the budget. those are required from the county. Um professional services that we um have which contains um our engineers, our legal um physicians and doctors,
special ed, certain services. Um so with that being said, I'm just happy that we were able to um come up with uh a budget, balanced budget, but we will continue to look for improvements as uh time progress.
Thank you, Miss Any questions? Comments. Sure. Mr. Uh, Dr. Bren, are we going to offer an opportunity to the public to ask questions or make comments on the budget? Yes, that's what we I'd like to
defer my comments to the public. public. Any questions, comments in regards to the budget presentation? Hello. From 14 through Okay. Virginia Jeff, 236 Brighton Avenue, East Stars, New Jersey. The
agenda does not specifically say where the budget hearing is going to take place right on the agenda. It It doesn't say that. So, and so it's kind of confusing for people to follow, but I I
did have questions, but they were just about other items on the agenda. I do understand about the flat funding. I do understand the hurdles and the challenges that this district has, but this district has the same hurdles and
channels um challenges that all school districts are facing. and some are even worse off than this school district. So, this school district is starting off in a better position than many other school districts.
Well, I also think it's the fiscal responsibility of the district to do what revenue they have in expenditures and adjust it to make sure it's balanced. I would love uh uh I could look at other districts. I would love their their state uh aid that they get. I would tell you right now we would have
a lot of uh smiling faces in the audience. But I have to say uh with Miss uh and and our the leadership we we a lot of thought and and time goes into the decisions we make with that fiscal mindset uh working together. So and if
you see was that 71% is already taken with salaries and benefits. So it's not much else to operate a large district like this. But thank you Miss Thank you. Nicely said Dr. Aquista and and I do agree with you and I want to thank you uh Miss and and your
leadership team. I know that we do a lot with a limited budget. Um although we received Title One, it's not throughout the district unlike other districts and of course there's Abbott funding and other sources of income that other
districts receive that we do not. Um, so I'm very proud of our district and everything that it is able to accomplish on behalf of children, on behalf of the parents, on behalf of the community with the budget that we have considering the
70% goes to personnel salaries and benefits. So, thank you. Thank you. Next up, uh, we Sorry, I still want to make some comments. I was waiting for that to apologize, Mr. So, I uh, as a co-chair with Mr.
McD thank you uh of the fiscal committee. I I just want to make sure that we acknowledge the extraordinary efforts of Miss and Dr. Benquista and their staffs for putting this budget together. The you know, one of the things that was noted at an earlier meeting
uh perhaps not to the full public so I'll make sure that I mention it now. Um the revenue sources from federal the revenue from federal funds is budgeted at a significant reduction this year from what we've currently uh receiving at the advice of the state because we
still don't yet know what's going to happen in those appropriations from the federal government. There have been rumors you we made not you made note of title one. There are rumors that title one may be cut and we will have a deep hole to fill there to meet the needs of
our most challenged families and students if that occurs. Um I think it's really important to reiterate that we had a $4 million reduction in state aid yet the budget only went down $1.3 million. So that means through
efficiencies and and many other strategies, we've been able to maintain um and maybe even expand in some cases some educational opportunities for our students, which is our primary responsibility. Um we also have an extraordinary grant writer who comes up
with unique ways of being able to fund programs to make sure that we can sustain the things that we know are important for kids. And I think it's it's important to hold out hope that when the state budget is finally adopted, there will be some reconsideration. We've received
commitments from our state legislators. And I I heard Assemblywoman Khano just last night make a commitment that she will be continuing to advocate for our district to ensure that some of those funds that were cut are in some way restored when the when the final state
budget is adopted. Thank you, Madam Chair. into that and and I I feel terrible that we missed him. Um but Mayor Bowser was here this evening as well and I do want to give him a shout out for being an advocate for our district along with the
town leadership and um even the library that will be opening soon is a testament to their commitment to the children of this town. So, and it's going to be another resource for our school district, a place where parents could have their kids learn, but also get
information about the schools. There's some things that we'll be putting out in the future of how the schools are going to tap into the library. I just want to again sound district collaboration. Hey, I haven't even been able to share with uh the township. Thank you so much. So,
next up uh as you the public hopefully knows, we have three student Madam President, if I may. Oh, I'm sorry. Thank you. Sorry, I'm trying to be soft. It doesn't work for me. Um, what I did want to say is, uh, from the first time
that I stepped into a board of ed meeting, I had no idea what was going on. And, um, it took to this time in this chair, I know up here I have others that have probably been here longer, Mr. McDall, Miss Nancy Mani, Miss Elsie Ki
Mackey. And I want to say how proud I am of the financial healing that this district has done from the time that I first walked in to to to this moment. It might not have been linear. Um, I'm I might not have always understood
everything that went into it, but I I'm proud of this board, this administration, this district to know that we are headed in the right direction and with fiscal responsibility
for our students. Thank you. Thank you so much, Miss Santana. Yeah, I appreciate that because there is a lot of time and energy with uh sometimes less funds. We still put the focus on our students and teacher sta teaching staff and and this year was a testament because I did let Miss Shannon know I'm
not I don't have to call on any teacher uh or one of her members to to non-renew. So, I'm excited about that. Next up, as uh the board has uh three board liazison this month, uh Alan Mo will come up will come up. I apologize
uh and share some uh highlights uh uh that he put together. Welcome so much Alan and we're very excited to hear your presentation. Alan is one of the seniors at the high school. Okay. Hello everybody. Uh my name is
Alan Nowell. I'm a senior at Union High School and I am one of the three student liations to be able to present to you all events that have been happening around the township of Union. Senior Ayanna Josephhat recently went at the last meeting and I'm honored to be able to be in the same position as her and give you all some information about
what's been going on. So, oh students, did you add the slides? Go back. There you go. So, some upcoming and current dates. NJSLA testing has begun for freshman and juniors. As a senior myself, I do
appreciate the extra hours of sleep this week and it will last until Friday. Meanwhile, sophomores and seniors, like I said, are to come on a delayed schedule. AP testing will commence next Monday and last for about two weeks. And this Thursday will mark decision day for
seniors who decide to come in wearing merchandise of the university college of their choice that they will be attending. I'm trying to go back. Okay. The other the other title just says sports. And we have over 400 student athletes within the district participating in sports such as
baseball, boys baseball, girls softball, co-ed golf, girls flag football, and I believe one or two more. And so for the girls flag football team, they currently have an incredible record of four wins, zero losses, and one tie. The JV boys volleyball team placed third at their
Livingston Invitational Tournament. as a former member of the JV team for two years being the captain. That's the best they've ever placed. So, um you know, I'm very proud of my boys. However, it does leave me wondering, was I the problem? I hope not. The freshman boys volleyball team won the Livingston
Freshman Invitational Tournament, finishing with a record of eight wins and a single loss. This past week, the Union High School softball team defeated Calwell High School 11 to7 and defeated Union Catholic with the same score. This past weekend, qualifying members of our boys and girls track meet competed competed in the Penn State relays held
at the University of Pennsylvania's historic Franklin Field. More on track and field because they have so many accomplishments. They recently participated in two different relays on April 5th and April 19th. For April 5th, senior cable Caleb Duvel placed second in the varsity shot put.
The varsity girls 4 by 100 meter team won gold. The varsity girls 800 meter sprint also won gold. On April 19th, Caleb Dvelson once again placed very highly in the varsity shotput, this time placing third. The novice boys 800 meter sprint won the championship. And varsity
girls, two teams, the 4x 100 meter relay finished in second place, while the 4x200 meter relay team became champions. Lastly, for Union High School boys baseball, the team attended the lemonade stand to support Washington School student Cameron Dudek and sister
of the baseball manager Donovan Resinger. The team is pictured with the Union Police Department who has also attended the lemonade stand. Now for Union High School clubs, as founder and president of two clubs at the high school, I know how important it is for uh these certain clubs to exist
for students to expand their knowledge and pursue their niche interests. So for the Asian Student Alliance Club, they plan to hold a table at the AAPI food and music festival on May 3rd. The law club started and completed Union High School's first mock trial and will soon have an attorney guest speaker present.
Keycl Club assisted in Kane University's Easter egg hunt and held another successful feud distribution. Art Club launched their prom proposal sign sales and continues progress on the school mural. Future doctor's club invited a med student to discuss career advancement opportunities and current
events at Ruckers for the students to learn more about healthcare. And lastly, debate club. They finished the first ever Union High School debate tournament which lasted over five months filled with informative discussions. Team one led by freshman's Shaman Adakoya and Yalba Tahada were victorious. Wow.
Now highlighting the future. Take your kids to work day was recently held where the kids were able to visit the Union Police Department, Union Fire Department, the new theater and studio and schools. They learned lessons on public safety and community service. The annual Black History Month essay contest. The Vauxhall Historical
Society honored winners at Jefferson School recognizing enthusiastic student teams from multiple classrooms with first place awarded to classes taught by Miss Jasmine, Miss Mclamett, and Mrs. Gabriel. The Union Rotary Club honors students for exemplatory citizenship. The Rotary Club of Union honored fourth
graders Michael Moniki and Brian Tropman with the Herb Sing Senior Good Citizenship Student Award for exemplifying kindness, leadership, and values of Rotary's four-way test. Lastly, I would like to highlight some
excellence within our union community. First, senior Gabriel Hargrove, who was me mentioned earlier for wrestling. He recently committed to Stevens to pursue his academic and uh wrestling career. Allison Zezer, who recently went to
tournament and with alongside the CJ Bombells Bombshells cheerleading team, she is now a threetime world champion. Wow. Desmond Ignosen, a former farmer and now just got signed to the best team in the NFL, the Baltimore Ravens.
Raymond Raymond Riley, um, a security guard at one of the middle schools, recently encountered a driver who unfortunately his car was on fire and with no hesitation, he jumped out and he saved whoever was inside. He uh had burns on his hands, but to him, in his
mind, that didn't matter. only saving the individual did. And lastly, Jeremiah Dormez. I'm also in that picture because I won a little bit of money myself, but we're focusing on Jeremiah who alongside the Boys and Girls Club's Keystone won over $11,000 in scholarships for a university
college of his choice, showcasing showcasing his perseverance and switchound in his academic career. And thank you all for your time. Wow. Excellent. And thank you, Allan. Um, uh, I'm looking forward to seeing Allan as he
progresses through his his next phase, uh, in going into college and and seeing, uh, hopefully he'll come back and and share with us, but I'm looking forward, uh, you know, has done a wonderful job this year as one of our students. Dr. Benquista very quickly
comments from the board. So our young guest here tonight also outstanding outstanding job out and uh as Dr. Benquista said we look forward to what you will do in the future and we are glad to proud to have participated
in your education. I just want to say thank you. It was a great job. Your your um your voice, your projection. Excellent. Thank you. Now, Alan, can you tell us a little bit about what you're going to do upon graduation? What you plan to study? I have some
ideas for you, but I I'm not going to uh Yes. I recently committed to Ruckers, New Brunswick, and I will be following a pre-law track, hopefully to become a civil litigation attorney in the future. Nice. [Applause] Well, if that, you know, if you have a
change of heart, I think we can all agree that that was an excellent presentation and you are a natural for broadcasting and anything in journalism. So, kudos to you. And I know tonight I want to give a shout out to Do you want
to give a shout out to your mom and your Yes. significant? Those two right there are my mom and my loving girlfriend Ashley. They support me in all I do. especially my mom. Thank you for everything. Excellent job, Alan. Thank you again. And next up, I would
like to uh Oh, sure. Okay. Yeah. Come on. You guys stand behind. You guys come up. How do we do this? Yeah, if everybody else can move up. Okay, Mr.
Nessa. Mayor Bowser. Mayor, come and part of the record, too. Let's do this. Come on over here, Miss Bowser. Thank you very much. Thank you again. So, uh, Mayor Bowser, you could stay.
I'm going to put you on the hot seat. Um, we're lucky that we to have Miss Mayor Bowser with us tonight. And it was mentioned earlier, um, I think this is on. It was mentioned earlier how much we're collaborating with the township. Uh, you know, Mayor Bowser's 100%
supportive of us. Anytime we need something, he, you know, we started, uh, meeting last year, and I I just love how the high school's tapping into and other people as well. So, uh, Mayor Bowser is going to share a little bit. Madam President, do you want to say anything first? Okay. Well, thank you, Jerry. I
just want to say it's really great to be here today. Um, again, I just want to give you a quick overview of the the library. At long last, our library will be coming up to speed on June the 6th, 7th, and 8th. Uh we have a weekend planned uh where we want the community to come out and and really enjoy
themselves. Uh first on on Friday, we're going to have the opening of the Blackbox Theater with a performance there. Uh it's going to be a black tie event. So, that's how important it is to us. And then on Saturday, we're gonna actually have a parade where the students will actually um walk from the
current well the old library. Well, let let me back up. We're going to walk from the temporary library to the new library holding books showing that display as we walk toward the uh new library. And also, we're going to have some events on Sunday. So, those that's that whole
weekend that we're talking about. So, we're looking to have the community come out and really participate in our weekendl long event. So again, thank you. Thank you. Okay. Thank you, Mayor Bowser. And I I'll be uh setting up a meeting to also see what we could do to
make sure the schools and library are meshing together. Fantastic. Let me just say a few more words about the library itself has a number of besides the the black box, there' be a number of meeting rooms in there. There be a sensory room. We also have, as Sal
would say, he has a projector, uh, filming equipment, what you would call a studio. So, so we'll have a studio there, a podcasting room. So, there's going to be a lot of different activities that we can actually produce at this particular location. So, by all means, come to our opening. It's going
to be a, like I said, a weekend affair. Very important to the township. So, again, uh, thanks again. Thank you so much. And once again, on behalf of the board, Mayor Bowser, we just want to say thank you so much for supporting and
complimenting what we're doing in the district. Thank you so much. So, as I do monthly, I encourage people to go on. It'll be posted the full presentation, but because of time, uh I don't touch on every single thing. So, just make sure
uh you go through it. uh those that are at home, those that are here, there's a lot of information within my uh uh presentation. Next up, I would like to ask uh Mr. Riley, Allan did mention him. I would like to uh have Mr. Riley come up in the board, president, vice
president, if you could come join me. Um when when I heard uh what Mr. Riley um I don't even know if he thought about it. Um I think he just reacted from all of his experience as a police officer and a firefighter. Um where um
and I I probably won't uh if you want to share a little bit of the story, but the one thing I want to say is I read in the paper about this heroic person that was on what what town was it? This was Lakewood. So they they were resembling this person of a a Lakewood first responder. And I'm like that ain't a
Lakewood first responder. That's one of our employees. So, they didn't even know because he had control of the situation, telling people what to do. Uh hope I'm sure you wished other people would have helped instead of filming, but everyone was looking to Rey to to help in this
situation. And that just um to understand the context of that in an emergency situation says a lot. Um and Rey really stood up to to save someone's life. I don't know. That's a tough decision. I think a lot of people keep
driving and Rey I I his wife was your wife was in the car so I don't know what you were going through while you were seeing this but at any point the car could have exploded but Ry had to use uh a uh fire extinguisher to in what was it
a yeti bottle of water so a yeti bottle of water to help create enough space to uh uh to get this person out of the the car that was on fire. So uh I would like to just congratulate if uh president
vice president you want to come and take a picture the rest of the board if you want to get around. I'm more of you. I didn't know you would be here. It was good timing. Yeah. What's that? Yeah, we'll take one and
then his wife will jump in too. two. Okay. Yes. The wife who who is a township employee. So, um, they were coming to work together and I don't know how your heart wasn't
dropping. Congratulations again. Thank you. Thank you for what you're doing. So, we we did have the Apex Award. There's a video you can watch. We highlighted all our Dr. Rodriguez put this together. First time we did it in our district, we highlighted all the
students that on the SLA that got a five. Um, I know a lot of people uh when we say certain things, there's there's a lot of people that are behind the scenes uh doing a lot of stuff to bring this stuff uh a lot of stuff for the first time to our district. Um, so I'm not
going to go through all the highlights, but uh uh the advisory board that meets with me, Baron Advisory Board, we're still going on. we're meeting. Um, the highlights, I know Allan did a lot of them, the but anyone wants to go through and and and look at them if if there's
any other ones that are different. Uh, like I said, we we bring a lot. We have the newsletters going out. Uh the new newsletter w was uh just released as well as there's a faster workshop tonight while we're here at our high school library and uh Senator Cryan it
was integral in bringing that in in the state to help us with with that in our district to make sure people are aware. The FASA um is a much Oh, it's May 7th. I thought it was uh tonight. I'm sorry. But um the FASA is totally different than years
ago. they think the process is getting harder and harder and and a lot of times uh you know it's just a lot to to go through. Um new hires, I know we're starting to highlight our new hires. Uh look at that list. Um so since January,
a lot of different areas, not just um in one one classification. So the district, I think, is doing better than ever on the least amount of openings we have throughout our district. Um, we're going to uh have Dr. Rodriguez present when we have a little more time
further on on instru uh curriculum instruction. The strategic strategic plan night is coming up. Uh 2,000 plus people responded to the uh survey which is awesome to get those numbers. Uh but now's a uh we're going to have two different nights. The first night is uh
coming up May 6th and the second one May 15th. We split them. First night is curricular instruction and then fiscal operations personnel facilities. Please come out and join us. There there was a registration um as part of that HIV as
we'd have to do uh monthly. So for reporting purposes uh between April 8th and April 29th there was five founded. Three from Bernett and two from Kami. Uh some not founded and conclusive. two at Union High School and then affirming the
cases from April March 18th to April 8th where was five two at Kwami, two at Bernette, one at Hannah Caldwell and one inconclusive not founded at Union High School. So thank you very much that uh concludes the presentation. Any
questions or comments? Otherwise uh Madam President that concludes it. Thank you so much Dr. Renaquista. Nice job. Um, and I do want to give a plug to um, Miss Holmes, who has been our social
media handler and I think has been doing an awesome job also keeping the public informed as to some of the things that are taking place in the district. So, Miss Nunes, if you want to look up here, I just want to say I want to say thank you.
Alan, I want to [Applause] Thank you. Now we will have the education student discipline committee chair Miss Mani and Miss Faria to present the resolutions that will be voted on tonight.
Okay. to remind me to read the resolution. The committee chair, Miss Mani, Miss Faria, will make mo the motion on the resolution items. Okay. Good evening everyone. Upon recommendation of the superintendent of schools, the education student discipline committee presents the
following resolutions for the board's consideration. E1 E1 A E2 E6 E7 were all approved at our work session. So tonight we'll approve
E11A which is um the intimidation harassment um determination ex uh E3 accept funds accept funds E4 E5
E8 E9 A E9B E9 C I need a second. Any discussion? Madam, I just want to highlight that two of the ones that we are approving is a total of
$70,000 that we are getting from grant money due to the work of the district. So, in times where it is challenging, I just really want to bring everyone's attention to that. The and it's in two really important areas. One is for computer science to bring more um a computer science program to the high
school and another one is for a project involving climate change which we know we're all being impacted by it as we're all kind of sweating up here. So I just wanted to bring that um to everybody's attention and just say thank you for that. No, that's an excellent point. Thank you, Miss
Faria. Um the motion has been properly moved by Miss Mani and seconded by Miss Faria. Can I have a roll call, please? Miss Capiello? Yes. Miss uh Mr. Cohan? Yes, Mrs. Conte Mackey. Yes, Mrs. Faria. Yes, Mr. McDow. Yes,
Mrs. Mani. Yes, Mr. Nasta. Yes, Mrs. Scott Hedon. Yes, Miss Santana. Yes, Miss Carbonel. Yes. Next, we will have the fiscal and planning committee chairs, Mr. Cohan and Mr. McDow, to present the resolutions
that will be voted on tonight. Thank you, Madam President. Uh in the fiscal agenda tonight, uh they are the standard and customary monthly reports from the treasur and the secretary and the certification of those reports and uh
all of the other pro-former resolutions we have on a monthly basis including uh approval of contracts and per purchases, fundraisers, etc. Of course, resolutions F14 through F-21, as acknowledged earlier in the meeting, are for the
adoption of the fiscal year 2026 budget as was presented by the superintendent, Miss I would like to call attention to resolution F-22 uh because when I reviewed this in the agenda, I had a question and I suspect
that members of the public might as well. You'll note that they are approvals for last year 2024. Uh when I questioned this, it was because we didn't receive the invoices from the vendor until just recently. So they are
obligations of the board. This board has to approve them. Uh but that we're approving them a little late. Okay. And uh F-24 acknowledges the re report of receipt of proposals and approve of con uh approval for construction management
services. I'd like to note if anyone noticed in the in the uh backing materials during Miss Coon's presentation of the budget that for the next fiscal year only 1% of our budget is going to facilities and repairs and
our newest building is Hannah Caldwell School which is 25 years old and as we all know undergoing significant remediation right now. So, uh, we are making preparations to be some be forward-looking and we're going to need
to take a look at our facilities and the the, uh, appointment of Eminem construction as the preconstruction management service will help us to start to take a look at our facilities and to begin to make some preliminary plans about how to respond to the to the needs
that we have. And I'll defer to Mr. McDow for the adoption. Excellent employees bill, Mr. Cohan. Absolutely. Thank you, Mr. Cohan, and thank you, Madam President. Upon the recommendation of the superintendent of schools, the
fiscal and planning committee present the following resolutions for the board's consideration. F1 is the treasurer's report. F2 is the secretar's report. F3 is to certify the treasurers and secretar's report. F4 is to prove appropriations transfers. F5 is to
approve the list of contracts and purchase orders. Uh F4 is to uh approve the district-wide travel and related expenses. Uh F7 was voted on on April uh the 8th and approved. F7A is to prove
districtwide student field trips. F I'm sorry, F7A. Uh F8 is to approve the list of 2024 2025 state contracts and approved vendors. Uh F9A is to prove the list of contracts and purchases for
student activities. Uh F9 B is to prove fundraisers and they're listed there. Uh F9 C is to accept donations. Uh we are receiving from Morgan Cycle uh I think uh four I'm
sorry 500 scooters and 300 helmets. And again, those were were donations from Morgan Cycle and coordinated by the police department. Uh F10 is to approve 2024 2025 out of district student placement list. Uh F11 is to approve
Petty Cash Fund for the uh coming school year. Uh F12 is to approve applications for the 2025 NJSI safety grant of $17,193. F13 is to approve the resolution and agreement the coordinated transportation
of services with the Union County Ed Services Commission. Uh F attorney, those are that's just forformational purposes only. It's not voted on tonight. Those are the legal expenses paid as of March 18th uh for this fiscal
year. And as Mr. uh Cohen stated that earlier resolutions F14 through F-21 and I will not read those are they concern the budget for uh this coming school year and Madam President those are the resolutions
24 oh I'm sorry thank you very much I'm sorry um F22 is to approve transportation contract agreements they're listed there F23 is to approve parent pupil transportation contracts and F-24 is to uh is a report of the receipts of
proposals and approve contract management services and we have received uh it looks like four uh proposals for con construction management services. Madam President, those are the resolutions presented by the fiscal and planning committee. Thank you so much.
Is there a second? Second. Any discussion? I do want to highlight um resolution 9C. Mhm. Um I I think it's absolutely amazing that um Morgan Psycho along with the
Union Police Department is donating 500 scooters and 300 helmets to our children. Um and I know Mr. Nasta, you had you know um some collaboration with this. Um, but I I think this is phenomenal and and it's unheard of in
today's day and age when people are so self-absorbed to have somebody just be so giving it is just commendable. So, thank you to them. And I I I did uh forget to mention that I I think Mr. Nasta worked worked all
that out with the police department for uh securing those uh scooters for kids here. Great job. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Nasta. This motion has been properly moved by Mr. Cohan and seconded by Mr. McDonald. May I have a roll call,
please? Miss Capriello. Mr. Cohan, yes. Mrs. Conte Mackey, yes. Mrs. Furia, yes. Mr. McDow, yes. Mrs. Beni, yes. Mr. Nasta, yes. Mrs. Scott Heden, yes. Miss Santana, yes.
Miss Carbonel, yes. Yes, Madam President. Point of order for the record. Mr. McDall made the motion and I second. I apologize. That's okay. Yes. Yes. It's the hair. It's the hair.
Thank you for the correction, Mr. Khan. Um, next we will have the negotiations committee, M chair, Miss Santana, um, to present the resolutions that will be voted on tonight. Thank you so much. Uh, madame chair, would you like us would you like to give a summary of this or do
you just want me to read uh the the grievance uh negotiations? Just read. Just read. Thank you. Upon recommendation of the superintendent of schools, the grievance negotiation committee presents the following resolutions for the board's consideration. G1 was approved and uh at
April 8th, 2025 work session. So we will move on to G2 which is approve collection bargaining no agreement of UTASA and G3 approve sik bank agreement with UTTA. Thank you so much. Um is there a second?
Second. Any discussion? Yes, Madam President. Sure. I'd like to share with the board and the public uh comments that I made the evening that we reached the agreement with the UTASA that the collective bargaining process is a very
important transaction between this board and our employees and to be able to have completed this round of bargaining with our district leadership is is a critical way for us to acknowledge their contributions and their service to our overall efforts. And I I also addressed
the leadership of that association and and said to them, we need to always remember the importance of the leadership in our schools because the um the goals and objectives established by this board and established by the superintendent are only going to be
achieved if we have strong leadership in every one of our facilities and they can communicate the intent and the the depth of our commitment to those goals. And um I want to make sure that that uh
everyone knows that leaders matter. Thank you. Beautifully said, Mr. McDonald. Just kidding, Mr. Cohan. Um this motion has been properly moved by Miss Antana and seconded by Mr.
Cohan. Can I have a roll call, please? Miss Capiello. Mr. Cohan. Yes. Mrs. Conte Macki. Yes. Mrs. Faria. Yes. Mr. McDowell. Yes. Mrs. Mani. Yes. Mr. Nasta. Yes. Mrs. Scott Hayden. Yes. Miss
Santana. Yes. Miss Carbonel. Yes. And I just want to say for the record, it was Mr. Cohan who spoke very eloquently. Um, next we will have the legal committee chair, Miss Santana. Thank you. And Mr. Yes. Miss Santana to
present the boulder resolutions that will be voted on tonight. Upon recommendation of the superintendent of schools, the legal committee presents the following resolution for the board's consideration. L1, approve settlement agreement in the matter of AO on behalf of KA versus the township of union board
of education in accordance with the non-public information appended to the agenda. Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you. Is there a second? Second. One more time, Mr. McDonald. Any discussion? All right. This motion has
been properly moved by Miss Santana and seconded by Mr. McDow. May I have a roll call, please? Miss Capiello. Mr. Cohan, yes. Mrs. Conte Mackey, yes. Mrs. Faria, yes. Mr. McDow, yes. Mrs.
Beni, yes. Mr. Nasta, yes. Mrs. Scott Heden, yes. Miss Santana, yes. Miss Carbonel, yes. Next, we will have the operations and technology committee chairs, Mr. Nasta and Miss Conte Miy to present the resolutions that will be voted upon
tonight. Madame President, I just wanted to make a quick statement. Um, I wanted to say thank you to Dr. Panester and Miss Boon for um presenting the budget um to us as the community. And it's hard to hear um just amount of money that was
cut from funding, but I really want to stress to the community, to our board members, and to everyone that our buildings are old. Um and as much as we have all of the greatness in our community, thankful um of all of us
coming together and doing our due diligence, we also have to keep in mind that we have an infrastructure that is completely old. Um that we are truly thankful to our facilities, our operations, our operations team for the jobs that they
do going above and beyond keeping our facilities functional so that our teachers and students can have a a a comfortable environment to learn, to educate, to grow. Um, thank you to Senator Cryan, our township, our mayor
advocating on our behalf to get more funding from us because we desperately do need additional funding and support and these times are rough in terms of how the finances are going and our buildings are struggling and we're trying our best to hold them up um, as a
community. So, I encourage all to continue to advocate for funding for our schools, for all of the community, to be a voice for our district because we do need to have improvements done in the operations component and we don't want that to get lost in the source of
everything. Having a building that stands is important. Um, and we hope that we can get some more money and we thankful for the support that we're receiving. And I'll turn it over to my fellow board member That was well
said. Uh upon recommendation of the superintendent of the schools, the operations technology committee presents the following resolutions for the board's consideration. 01 approved security drill bus evacuation reports. O2
approved requests requests from First Baptist Church of Voxhole. 03 approved Township of Union Public Schools Hall of Fame. 04 approved chronic
absenteeism correction action plans on the technology side. Uh T1 approve recycling of equipment and T2 approve advertisement for sale of IT equipment. That is all I have.
Thank you so much. Is there a second? Second discussion. This motion has been properly moved by Mr. Nasta and seconded by Miss Conte Mackey. Can I have a roll call, please? Miss Capiello. Mr. Cohan. Yes. Mrs. Conte Mackey. Yes.
Mrs. Faria? Yes. Mr. McDow? I have to ab abstain from O2. All the others uh 01 through uh the technology. I vote yes. Mrs. Beni, yes. Mr. Nasta, yes. Mrs. Scott Hayden, yes. Miss Santana, yes.
Miss Carbonel, yes. Next, we will have the personnel committee chairs, Miss Scott Hayden and Miss Santana, to present the following resolutions that will be voted upon tonight. Good evening. So, while I don't have an actual report from the personnel committee due to certain legal u matters
that are discussed that I cannot bring forward to the public, um I am going to just offer a personal statement on behalf of the committee and um myself. Um the personnel committee met on April the 8th. Um we are really excited to um hear about the opportunities that was
placed before us where our district leadership visited colleges to find future educators. I'm also excited to hear about the opportunity that our students had to be part of the future teachers of America program. Um I'm a big proponent of if you can't find them,
grow your own. So um and that's across the board. Um so the fact that we have some of our students um who aspire to be uh future educators is very exciting. Um on behalf of the township of union here also um there's no surprise that as we
look for exceptional educators we are always focused on sustaining positive working relationships with our current employees. We will continue to work to fulfill the remaining positions that impact the learning of all of our students. Collectively, we strive for
successful outcomes. These times that we are currently living in right now with all the attacks on public education, calls for collective actions and unification of our community. We look forward to continued partnerships with this community and with the whole
public. Thank you so much. And I turn it over to my co-chair, uh, Chassis Santana. Thank you so much. Thank you, Miss Kah. Thank you so much. Um, Madame Chair, with your permission, may I move this in a block? Sure. Thank you so much. So I will say P1A like Apple was
approved at the April 8th, 2025 work session and we have P6 agenda item removed prior to board meeting um from central office resolution. Other than that I have P1 a like apple one down to
P9. Thank you so much. Is there a second? Oh I'm so sorry. I will hold also on P7 that is to P7 is also to be removed prior to board meeting. So I will
reiterate P1A like Apple was approved at April 8th 2025 work session. P6 removed prior to board meeting and P7. Thank you so much Miss Santana. Is there a second? Second. Any discussion?
This motion has been properly moved by Miss Antana and seconded by Miss Gah Hayden. May I have a roll call, please? Miss Capiello. Mr. Cohan? Yes. Mrs. Conte Mackey? Yes. Mrs. Furia? Yes. Mr. McDow? Yes. Mrs. Beni? Yes. Mr. Nasta.
He's okay. Sorry. Uh, Mrs. Scott Hayden. Yes. Miss Santana. Yes. Miss Carbonel. Yes. Next, we will have the policy committee chair, Miss Mani, to present the following resolutions that will be voted upon tonight. Upon recommendation of the
superintendent of schools, the policy committee presents the follow following policies for the board's consideration. These are final reading and adoption. Policy 5460, high school graduation. Policy 2, uh policy 5512, harassment,
intimidation, or bullying. Policy 35516 use of electronic communication devices. Policy 5710 student grievances. Policy 7441 electronic surveillance in school buildings and on school
grounds. Policy 8500 food services. Policy 9320 cooperation with the law enforcement agencies. And policy regulation 5533 student smoking. Thank you so much, Miss Vani. Is there a
second? Second. Thank you. Any discussion? This sorry, please proceed. So, you know, I just I want to acknowledge that um some of these some of the policy changes as
we we all know on a month-to-month basis are minor because we get recommendations from the consultant that reviews the policy manual for us. But I I'd just like to comment on uh policy
8. Early in my career in teaching at at Union High School, one of my duties was to monitor the student smoking lounge. So, I don't know whether that's an indicator of how old I am or or just how far we've come as a society to ensure
that we think about the health of our students and public health in general to make certain that that smoking is banned in in all public places but most especially in schools. Our policy is very stringent. It ensures that uh
students and their parents know how seriously we take this issue and how how um abhorentt it is for smoking to be taking place in schools and um I wholeheartedly support the adoption of that policy in particular but all of them.
Thank you so much Mr. Con. This motion has been properly moved by Miss Mani and seconded by Miss Pereia. Can I have a roll call, please? Miss Capi, Mr. Cohan, yes. Mrs. Conte Mackey, yes. Mrs. Faria, yes. Mr. McDow, yes.
Mrs. Mani, yes. Mr. Nasta, yes. Mrs. Scott Hayden, yes. Miss Santana, yes. Miss Carbonel, yes. Moving along, we will have the residency committee chair, Miss Beni, present the following non- voting resolutions. Okay. Um, I'd just like to
mention that um that these students were um investigated and when the parents were notified that they voluntarily transferred out of district to their place of residence. So, I'd like to commend our investigators for the hard work. They work all year long, 12 months
a year, investigating um non-residents that are using our schools. So, um this is all for uhformational purposes only. So we have five students removed um voluntarily. So right now we
have eight students removed and 12 students voluntarily. This is just for information. Thank you so much Miss Beni and thank you to you and our colleagues that are working on making
sure that we we do this important work. May I have a motion to approve the bills list? So moved. Is there a second? Second. Any discussions? The motion has been properly moved by
Miss Santana, seconded by Miss Kah Hayden. Can I have a roll call, please? Miss Capiello. Mr. Cohan. Yes. Mrs. Conte Maki? Yes. Mrs. Fa? Yes. Mr. McDow? Yes. Mrs. Mani? Yes. Mr. Nasta? Yes. Mrs. Scott Hayden? Yes. Miss
Santana? Yes. Miss Carbonel? Yes. unfinished business. Madam President, sure. I'd just like to offer some comments. Uh Dr. Benquista reported reported on this uh activity in his report, but the apex awards that
were held earlier in the month were an amazing u ceremony. It was so great to see uh our most accomplished students and their parents celebrating their academic achievement. Um, and it was,
you know, it was not a formal award per se. They each got a certificate of course, an acknowledgement of their achievement on the New Jersey Student Learning Assessments from last year. But I, you know, as Dr. Benista has and many of us have said in the past, it's really, really important for us to
continue to emphasize the many, many positive things that are happening in this school district. Every district is challenged. Every district has students who have uh, needs that we need to address differently. But when we do our jobs well, our students excel and it was just a very
special night. I'd also like to just comment briefly, and I wish I'd remembered to do this while the high school administration was still here, but my wife and I attended the high school production of Into the Woods uh back before the holiday break. And um it
was an excellent production. The student performers were were great. I happen to think that the witch had the best singing voice, but um we really enjoyed ourselves that evening and it's just it's a compliment to all of the students and the staff and parents who support
them to put on such excellent productions. Thank you. Thank you so much. Anyone else if there? Yes. Um I just wanted to mention um last week and then again this week I went to two um activities at the high school. Last week
I went to um the allied health class. I was invited to go and uh Mrs. Zeser's class and they had a presenter from the cleft association and um the students were so engaged and it was amazing to see that they showed a video. It's about
30 minutes. Um, and it was about a family in um, the Philippines and we had many students who enlightened me especially on life in the Philippines and how difficult um, a lot of these uh, surgeries are um, because of the remote
areas that the people are um, are living. Um, but they were just so engaged and and I think the presenter was very very happy with um, uh, the participation with the students. And then today I went to tomorrow's teachers assigning um event which was wonderful.
Um it was there were I think 10 students um they did pictures. Mr. Daly did a great job. Um he did say that this is the second um only the second one in the state um where they have the signing with the um future teachers or tomorrow's teachers. Um and I did speak
to a parent at the end. and you know just congratulated her and she just spoke about our school system. It it was wonderful. She said you know the activities that are offered the academics and she's just thrilled that her her daughter went through this
program and will be attending a university of her choice and hopefully we'll come back to Union to teach in the future. Hey, that will be a win-win. Anyone else? Yes. Thank you so much.
Um, personally, I have a baby in baseball, varsity, and a baby that went to do is it Matilda Jr. at atw Kwami uh this past weekend. It was a great presentation. All of it. I love watching
uh all our boys play. And what I wanted to also now on a uh district level talk about is how great our children are on in all of their extracurricular activities and also uh all the sports
that they do. Why? And I'll tell you the why behind it, right? Because in reality, I don't think my child is going to be the next Jerk Derek Jeter or Aaron Judge. I don't think my child is going to be a great actor. They could be and wonderful for me, but why the team they get out there and and you see their
faces win or lose, right? Cuz Union's not doing so well, guys, in baseball. But I'm out there cheering and just them getting one run or or or in the plate saying something, those faces, they bright up and they represent us so well
out there and I love it. I'm proud. I'm their biggest cheerleader. And continuing and continuing on and on, I want to scream the praises of all of our children. And I would also like to add, I didn't say it when he spoke, Mr. Allen, you are one of the most talented
orators that I have ever heard. I wish that when you go out and you do all of your greatness, just come back and share it with us, my fine friend. Thank you so much. That was nicely said, Miss Santana. You were amazing. I just I want to add um to the
Matilda because I think I want to speak to the students but also to the staff. Um I was fortunate enough to be there all three nights and it was a sold out on Saturday evening and it was second to last scene and the crews coming out already in tears. Um, and then they did
such a nice job honoring all of the staff members who volunteered their time for the play. And you could just really see how well they worked together, the love and family and the closeness that some of them were eighth graders and I think they're starting to realize that they're moving on to that next level.
But even the underassment to just really see our kids work so close together. They put on a wonderful performance. But I we have to say thank you to the staff and to the adviserss who did a wonderful job. like dedicated their weekends, their uh spring break. So, just a thank
you to everyone because it was it was really a great opportunity to see that. Thank you so much. Anyone else? Real quick, Madam President, if I could just just uh real quick because I know Allen mentioned and I would just like to again
it highlights such opportunities we have uh in our district as well as uh what great things happen. So Allan did mention uh Desmond Igmanosza getting signed by the Baltimore Raisins, but the in the same year, the same family, his
brother um Desmond and and uh Davidson won the national championship for college football. Wow. So it's amazing what you know we don't we don't share enough of the accomplishments of our students and this is just in one year
that these two and Sean Pno said it, the opportunities are there. You got to grab them. You got to take them and go with them. I can remember number one seeing these two boys after in June, late June on the football field practicing by themselves with a
couple other people that you know, you you they put in the the the time and energy, but the foundation came from our district. And uh I'm just keep I I I'll keep promoting all the great things our our schools district does and our our students do.
[Applause] Anyone else? Um, unfinished business still. I I just want to thank uh Mr. Clark and the Bernett staff for having us uh recent
not not too long ago um to recognize Mr. Riley um for his courageous act. I know the mayor was there and the town and they recognized him. But in the process, we got an opportunity to walk around and see some of the things that my
colleagues in operations are talking about. Um, we've had some brick and mortar issues at Bernett and um, I just want to give a shout out to the custodians there, maintenance, who have been working incessantly to fix
that auditorium to the standard that we needed. So, I I I do want to give them a shout out. Um, number two, the Apex Awards. You know, we can discuss a lot of things here, fiscal, um, operations, technology, but at the end of the day,
it comes back to student learning and student achievement. And that was such a special night. I think we were all so cheesy to see our little youngsters with tuxedos. Some of them beautiful dresses
nervous trying to keep eye contact and shake our hands. We were just so proud. So Dr. Rodriguez, thank you to you for putting that together and Dr. Vinquista. And I would be remiss, there was another beautiful event that evening, very
touching to the heart. And it was in in the Rotary Club's Kathy Armeno. Um she had an event at Logger for our one of our youngsters who is um dealing with um cancer. Um it was well attended. It was
a pleasure to meet the family and just see their courage and their persistence um with with battling this this disease. So, thank you to Kathy Armeno and her board for putting all that together on
behalf of the student. Now, on to new business. Yes, madame vice um Scott Hayden. So, as we um sit here every month and we look at the board agenda and we see um the student the uh residency um on the agenda and we see
that we constantly are removing students or students are voluntarily leaving on their own. And as Miss Beni was reading um even though it was forformational purposes only, it put me at a pause because I'm the type of person you should give people their flowers while they can still smell them, right? We
have a lot of great employees in this district. Um, but I think I'm going to ask the superintendent if not the next board meeting, but before this year ends, I think we should bring and honor the uh our investigators because let me tell you, when we are in the residency
hearings, Ronnie could attest to and Nancy can attest, um, the packet of information that you get that they have on that particular case is astonishing. It's almost like we have our own private like they really went to school for private investigations, right? And I'm like, okay, so if we have every day and
every moment that these individuals are moving and how they're moving and what kind of car they're driving and when they parked and they went out the house and who went in the house, did the kid leave the house? Did they get on the bus? Did they not get on? It's amazing. And I think even though most people will say, "Oh, they did their job." Let me tell you something. When you're chasing someone and somebody knows because if
they see your car, cuz I he came to my house when I first moved to Union, so I saw him. So I'm pretty sure some of these other parents see them. The times that we're living in, they are not armed. they're not, you know, actually uh uniform police officers. They are they are doing their job, but they're going above and beyond to make sure that
these students are resident of our town and that um we're not getting short changed on that end. So, I think we should bring them forward so that the public can see who they are um maybe not on the TV, maybe in the cuz we don't want them to see them on there. So, maybe not on the televised one, but in
and right in um our work session. So, just that we could say thank you even on a a zoom video. But I just think it's so important that when people are going above and beyond, they're doing their jobs that we say thank you because they have so many other choices, they can do
something else somewhere else. Thank you so much. Anyone else? All right, we'll keep moving it along. Comments from the public. We will begin with Miss
Jillana Muscav. Did I say that? Okay. I'm going tell other. Please say your name. Good evening. My name is Juliana Muscavage. I'm in the 11th grade. I came here a few months ago. Thank you. I came here a few months ago to speak about the cost of AP
exams for students at the high school. For those who are unfamiliar with AP exams, there are tests typically held in May of every year that correlate with the corresponding AP courses. AP courses give students a chance to earn college credits, making them imperative to our
learning. As many of you may know, students were not notified whether the cost of AP exams were covered by the district for the 2024 to 25 school year. Our classes were selected in advance for this and our schedules were already created with no word about payments.
When I came to the board meeting in October, I inquired about the cost of AP exams to students asking the board for information since we expected the payment portals to be posted subsequently after. Once the payment portals were posted, we had only
approximately two weeks to pay the fees, which costed $14 per exam. Some students took multiple exams, making the cost round out to be about $500 on top of fees for SAT tests and other programs,
which are not covered expenses. I am once again asking for information about AP exams for the incoming 2025 to 2026 school year. I want to ensure that students are aware of the cost if there is any to us again this year in order to
be prepared. Students who take AP courses consistently exceed SCA standards, have outstanding GPA, and go above and beyond to challenge ourselves and further our education by studying college level material. The care that we provide to students is critical as it
cultivates a learning environment where students feel that they are appreciated for their efforts and motivated to continue taking AP courses. Thank you. Thank you so much, Juliana. Right. Thank you. I'm sorry. I read that as a V, so I
apologize to you. Very articulate, very impressed, and we've heard you loud and clear. I will say I'm not sure what can be done this year, but I will encourage the education committee chairs along with Dr.
Rodriguez to look into this. Um, but when I hear 600 students at 104 or more per test, um, I have to be honest, I'm not sure what can be done, but I I'm sure that they will look at different options. If not for this year,
definitely for next year. Thank you. Thank you, honey. Thank you for being here. Mr. Andrew Padar. My name is Andrew Patrick. I'm a senior here at Union High School. Um, good evening and welcome. Good evening. Um,
so I just wanted to start off by piggybacking off of what Juliana said. And speaking about AP exams, this is my second year taking AP exams. Last year they covered the cost for all the students which definitely does encourage more students to take the classes because this is free college credits
that can promote uh further learning in the future. However, now that they're not paying for them, it is a financial struggle for some of the students. But as we can see, there is a financial struggle with this district as well with funding. So, it is sort of understandable. Um but I also wanted to highlight some of the achievements in
the district. Um, more and more you can see that students are becoming more active in the school. Um, at our pep rally a few days ago, you can see that the students were very happy and excited to be there. Sports are as big as they ever been. Students are trying their
best to make themselves stand out in the intensive college application process, which is getting harder and harder year over year. Um, myself, I founded my own club. I joined multiple other clubs. I took AP courses, honors courses, and
worked extremely hard to make myself stand out. And I committed to Ruckers. Oh, congratulations. Thank you. Ruckers, New Brunswick. Uh, Newark. Newark. Yeah, I'm a graduate from What are you studying? I'm going for political science, uh, pre-law track.
Um, and I do credit some of that to Union High School as it has helped shape me throughout my four years. It is sad to go, but there is great things out there and I will always look back to Union High School as part of my path to greatness. Thank you. Oh, that's
beautiful. Thank you so much. You just made my night. And my favorite teacher, Mrs. Nunes, of course. Ah, wonderful. Juliana and andrew, thank you so much for representing everything that we're
all about. So, thank you for being here tonight. Um, Miss Jill Hall, good evening. Uh, Jill Hall, 509 Whitewood Road. I just wanted to make a couple of quick points. Um, if any of you were at the high school for, uh, bring your sons and daughters to work
day. I hope you had the opportunity to watch not only the amazing job that our staff did in providing activities for the kids, but I it was such a um eye openening to see the behavior of the high school kids when the littles were around and how they stepped up and
they were so appropriate. Not saying that they're not, but just there was a kindness that was shown because the kids were around. So, kind of, you know, me and my thinking, I'm like, could we do a daycare at the high school and maybe the kids can can all kind of participate in that. I don't know, something something
to think about. Um, something else that wasn't mentioned by the high school administrators, they had so many things to highlight the high school. We also have a travel program. Um, Mrs. Bridges just returned with a group of students from Japan over um, Easter break. Uh,
they spent uh, nine days over in Japan. Uh, I'm taking a group of 12 students to Greece in June. I want to be a students will have the opportunity to travel to Spain and Portugal with Mrs. Brewbaker next spring and then I'm doing a World War II tour of London, Paris, um, Baston
and Belgium and then into Berlin uh, at June of 2026. So, another opportunity that's made available for our students to kind of enhance that learning and give some experiential opportunities for them which I think is worth highlighting. So, um, I wanted to throw that out there. I also wanted to suggest
something, Miss Carbonal, you brought up, um, bringing the high school students into the middle schools. We have a program every year, Mrs. Ahern does it, a seventh and eighth grade orientation that affords the students and their parents the opportunity to kind of see it as a home game to kind of come up and and get their feet on the
ground at the high school and see all the programs um that are available. And one of the most valuable parts of that is a breakout session where um the seventh and eighth graders have the opportunity to sit with high school students to ask those questions that they might not want to ask an adult. Um
but they really want to hear it from the kids themselves. So we we kind of have that going and maybe we could expand it to push into the middle schools as well. Um but I wanted to let you guys know that that happens. Thank you so much for sharing that with us. And I don't think you heard us. There were several of us
that wanted to volunteer to be chaperons for the Greece and Spain trip. I have a very long wait list for chaperons. Sorry, guys. I don't think um and thank you for sharing the the me the the ambassador program, but I I think it has
to start earlier. Just bring push it into fourth and fifth grade. The kids will think that they are rock stars and it will be so cool and just get them excited about high the high school. To my earlier point too, it gives the high school kids a chance to
There you go. Be role models. Thank you. Um, next, Miss Virginia Jeff. Virginia Jeff, 236 Brighton Avenue, East Orange, New Jersey. Uh good good evening to all in attendance. There are concerns
on the agenda regarding F-16, F-17 and item 17 approval of bills and Oprah request on the agenda 11 physical planning committee resolutions. F-16 establishing approve establishing a
maximum dollar amount limit for professional services for $4,661 and 28 $461,000284. A. What are the professional services that the board is legally allowed to engage in? B. Is there a list of the current professional
services that the board has engaged and/or contracted? C. are legal services including in the list of professional services. Two, on F17, approve use of excess surplus fund balance, which um I still was a little
confused about because A, how much of a budget gap is there currently in the 2024 2025 budget which ends June 30th? and B is this to be a carryover to the 2025 2026 budget that begins on July
1st. Um 17 approval of bills on April 25 2025 bills number one Mad Creek LLC A. What type of professional services for public relations were performed? B. Where in the 2024 2025 budget is the
line item for this professional service to contract of public relations? C. What was this voted on and approved by the voters in the past year in the 202425 budget as required for public relations? D. Was this re reviewed and approved by the interim executive union county
superintendent for the 2024 2025 budget to contract for outside public relations services? E. There is a prohib prohibition policy which does not allow any school district to have an outside contract for public relations. Public relations are to be to be conducted only
through the superintendent of schools and not the board of education as that is as the board is regulated to policy matters only and not how the schools are run. The April 2025 bill number 13, the Taylor Law Group LLC
388207. Usually a usually this attorney bill/invoice occurs under F- attorney. B also in the list of bills, all attorney bills invoices are generally separated to have a running account. C. Why has
this been done differently? B. Oprah requests. I have an outstanding opener request from March 14th of this year for the billing records and invoices for Taylor Law Group LLC. SBA Yolanda custodian records is not excuse me for rules. Please make
your final statement. Your time has expired and not including holidays to fulfill an oper request. Deny an oper request. I'm sorry. Um, Miss Jeffrey, excuse me. Thank you. Um, it seems like your time
has expired. I didn't I didn't see a I didn't see a time there. So, can you please just finish then the Okay, because I didn't get a warning or anything. Can you turn it back on? Thank you. No, we're not turning it back on.
Please just finish your sentence. I I I am I'm just saying the rules are that the custodian of records has seven business days, not including holidays, to fulfill an Oprah request. Deny an Oprah request or
request an extension with a defined date. Why is she doing this? These are public records, not private records. So, I will be awaiting a written response to all my concerns. So, um, thank you so
much, Miss Jeff. Um, I'm going to pass it to, um, one of my colleagues who'll be answering some of the financial fiscal questions. And I know that Miss in her presentation earlier, I'm not sure if you were here, did address
other items that you mentioned in terms of the OPER request. Whenever an OPER request is submitted, the needs has personal information and information must be redacted. That takes a little time, but I'm pretty sure that our
district will accommodate that OPA request and get that information to you. The [Music] um the point is there was never a time a defined date to respond. an extension was requested
but no defined date was given to fulfill the request. So we will follow up on that is what I'm saying. So thank you so much. Um I just look forward to you coming here one evening and saying something positive about our town and our district considering that you do not
live here. But um say something positive about your budget. I I am I'm just Okay, Mr. Cohan. On your budget hearing, I did say something about positive. I'm going to have to replay it because I'm looking forward to hearing it. Thank you.
Yes, Mrs. Jeff, in response to your question regarding u resolution F-16, we are required by the Department of Education to break out those professional services and they are an aggregation of all of the costs within various cost centers and they add up to
that that amount of 4.6 million plus dollars. It includes medical services, legal services and other things that must be included in that resolution. Regarding F17, there is no budget deficit in the current year. We have a balance, we adopted a balanced budget a
year ago and we will move through this school year. There are statutory and regulatory requirements that if the business administrator uh believes that we might be in a rears in any account that there be uh transfers made and if we are in any danger of uh being in a
deficit situation then this board would have to act. uh regarding the appropriation of the uh fund balance. These are monies that were available as a as the end of the last fiscal year and held in our surplus and we appropriated
those funds to ensure that we wouldn't have to raise the tax levy any further for the citizens of this community. And uh we we don't yet know whether there are going to be excess funds in the current operating budget. We'll know that when we receive the audit in the fall.
Thank you. The board will now go into executive session to discuss personnel and legal issues and action will be taken. May I have a a motion to move into executive session? Second. Oh, dear Lauren. One person. One person.
Who was the first? I don't know. Jess, it was Miss Santana. Any discussion? This motion has been properly moved by Miss Antenna and seconded by Mr. McDow. Can I have a roll call, please? Miss Capiello,
Miss No, it wasn't. Yes, it was. Close enough. Mr. I thought it was Mr. Cohan. Yes. I second. Mrs. Conte Mackey. Yes. Mrs. Faria. Yes. Mr. McDow. Yes.
Mrs. Beni. Yes. Mr. Nasta. Yes, Mrs. Scott Heeden. Yes, Miss Santana. Yes, Miss Carbonel. Yes. Second. You got five people sitting at the table. Yeah, we have we have quum.
We got six people sitting at the table. I'm not taking any of the food. We're just going to leave it. They can throw it in the garbage. Board meeting. Oh. G. May I have a motion to move back into public regular meetings? Second.
The motion has been properly moved by Miss Pereia, seconded by Miss Antana. Can I have a roll call, please? Miss Capiello. This on um M sorry Mr. Cohan. Yes. Mrs. Conte Mackey. Yes. Mrs. Faria. Yes. Mr.
McDow. Yes. Mrs. Beni. Yes. Mr. Nasta. Yes. Mrs. Scott Hayden. Miss Santana, yes. Miss Carbonel, yes. Motion to adjurnn. Got to vote. Got to vote. We have to vote. The students.
Sorry. I apologize. Are you want to say it? Yeah. Do you want me to read them? I gave her the I gave them to Mrs. some students. So, uh there's going to be a recommendation from the superintendent uh on the following students uh to stay
uh what's the right uh long-term to continue their long-term suspension. Continue or start their long-term suspension. Good. Continue. Yeah. Continue to start or continue their long-term suspension. That's pretty. All right. And the student ID numbers is 291068
3111079 266593 26641 25542 286048 280579 27820290275. So moved.
Second. Thank you. This motion has been properly moved by Miss Santana, seconded by Miss Faria. Can I have a roll call, please? Miss Capio. Mr. Cohan? Yes. Mrs. Conte Macki? Yes. Mrs. Faria? Yes. Mr.
McDow? Yes. Mrs. Beni? Yes. Mr. Nasta? Yes. Mrs. Scott Hayden? Yes. Miss Santana? Yes. Miss Carbonel? Yes. Move to adjurnn. Second. This motion has been properly moved by Mr. Gohan seconded by Miss Antana. Roll
call, please. Miss Capiello. Mr. Cohan. Yes. Mrs. Conte Mackey. Yes. Mrs. Faria. Yes. Mr. McDow. Yes. Miss Beni? Yes. Mr. Nasta? Yes. Mrs. Scott Hayden? No. As always, as always, Miss Santana, yes.
Ms. Carbonel. Yes. Thank you everyone and go get home safe.