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Can't hear anything in here. >> Yeah. >> Mr. Smagalia Mr. Fischer >> here. Mr. Krauss >> here. >> Miss Nichols, Miss Pellet,

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Miss Pac >> here, >> Dr. Ross >> here, >> Miss Varela >> here, >> Mr. Zimmerman >> here. >> We have a quorum >> here. It's legal and matters.

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>> So moved. >> Second. >> All favor. Our mic This Thank you. It's recommended that session. We're gonna do a roll call on one turn to open session.

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Sorry. I think >> we've started. So, if you could just >> I know. I'm sorry. >> Okay. What's up with the mics? Is this better? No. >> That's >> Yeah. >> Hello. >> Is that better? Can you hear now?

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>> Okay. >> Mr. Fisherman >> here. >> Mr. Krauss >> here. >> Miss Nichols >> here. >> Miss Plet >> here. Miss Pac >> here. >> Dr. Ross >> here. >> Miss Varela >> here.

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>> Mr. Zimmerman >> here. >> Mr. Smaglia >> here. >> Mr. Mendes >> present. I'm >> here. And we have Lauren. >> Thank you. Mr. SL, can you lead us in the pledge of allegiance?

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>> Oh, please. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America to the stands nation indivisible and justice for all.

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>> Thank you. And the reading of the meeting notice, Mr. The New Jersey Open Public Meetings Law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice of and to attend the meetings of public bodies at which any business affecting the interests discussed or acted upon. In

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accordance to the provisions of the act, Vernon Township Board of Education has caused notice this meeting be published and adequate notice has been provided and notice this meeting has been properly posted in accordance with New Jersey Open Public Meetball. Um, just a quick note, our next public meeting will be held Thursday, August 27th.

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Thank you, Mr. Slam. Uh, item seven, approval of minutes. These are the minutes of the closed public session meeting from June 18. The minutes of the public session meeting from June 18, the minutes of the public session meeting from June 22. Please be mindful of the need to abstain if your name is on here.

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Uh, can I get a motion to approve items 7 A through C? >> Thank you, Stephanie. Second. >> Second. >> Thank you, Carrie. Any questions or comments about the minutes?

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Seeing none, we'll do a roll call vote. >> Mr. Krauss, >> yes. >> Miss Nichols, >> yes. >> Miss Pallet, >> yes. >> Miss Pac, >> abstain. >> Thank you, Dr. Ross. >> Yes. Abstain where noted.

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>> Thank you, Miss Hearella. >> Yes. >> Mr. Zimmerman. >> Mr. Smaggley. Yes, >> Mr. Fischer. >> I motion carries. >> Thank you. Item eight, president's report. Good evening, everyone. Before

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we begin tonight's agenda, I'd like to thank everyone for accommodating our venue change, which was due to facilities work taking place at Lansbury Hollow, our usual location for meetings. We didn't have a lot of notice about the change, but we were able to meet the required time window for advertising it. And we did also put notices up at

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Lounsbury Hollow so that anyone who didn't hear about it would be able to find us here. I'd also like to quickly address two items that have generated some attention recently. The district's long-term facilities needs and the superintendent's recommended administrative organizational structure

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for the 2026 2027 school year. The first concerns how the district should address critical infrastructure needs across our schools. Oh boy, you still can't hear me. Is that better? Oh wow, now I feel like I'm yelling. >> Okay, so the first uh item uh discusses

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how the district should address critical infrastructure needs across our schools. Over many years, our buildings have reached a point where many major systems, including the roofs, the HVAC equipment, fire alarm, and public address systems, security infrastructure, and restroom facilities,

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have reached or exceeded their expected service lives. These are not new issues. They represent the accumulated effects of aging facilities and years of deferred capital investment. They have been discussed, examined, and presented before this board in public as well as

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in committee many times. The question before the board tonight is not whether these needs exist, but the most responsible way to fund them. Tonight, the board will discuss two potential paths. One would place a referendum before the voters to authorize borrowing

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for these projects. The other would direct the administration to pursue financing through the New Jersey Improvement Authority process. Our discussion this evening is intended to help the board determine which path best serves the district and the taxpayers while ensuring that our students and

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staffs have safe functional learning environments. Tonight we will also discuss the superintendent's recommended organizational structure for the district. A a proposal that is budget neutral. It recommends eliminating certain existing positions, creating new

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positions designed to better align with the district's operational needs, transferring affected staff into those new roles were appropriate, and updating job descriptions to reflect those responsibilities. The recommendation is based on the superintendent's assessment of how best to organize district

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leadership and operations. It is important oops, sorry, microphone thing is hard for me. It is important to note that any discussion concerning specific personnel must only take place in executive session and cannot be shared in public.

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We can only speak generally about the organizational chart. Each of these decisions will be given careful, thoughtful consideration tonight. Every member of this board takes seriously our responsibilities to ask questions, evaluate information presented, and make decisions based on the long-term best

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interest of our students, our staff, our taxpayers, and our community. Whether you ultimately agree or disagree with the board's decision, we appreciate your attendance tonight and your participation. I hope the conversation provides a fuller understanding of the issues before us and the reasoning

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behind whatever actions the board ultimately takes. Thank you all for being here and for your continued interest in the Vernon Township School District. Item nine is public comment. We are going to read the public comment notice. My brother is going to read it. You can

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use the mic. >> During the course of the public meeting of the Vernon Board of Education, the public is offered opportunity to address the board on agenda items and any issues regarding the school district. The board reminds us individuals who take this opportunity that they must identify themselves by name and section of town

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and limit their comments to agenda items and or issues that directly relate to the operation of the school district. Issues that are raised by members of the public may or may not be responded to by the board or administration at the time of the meeting or at any time. All comments will be considered and response be forthcoming if and when appropriate.

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The board the board requests that members of the public keep their comments only of five minutes. Be courteous, respectful, and mindful of the rates of other individuals when speaking. Specifically, comments regarding students, employees of the board of education should be thoroughly considered by the speaker and may or may not be responded to by the board or

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administration. Please be advised that students employees have rights of confidentiality and other protections under the law. Student names should never be used. Board bears no responsibility nor will be liable for any comments made by the public during the public portion of a board meeting. Members of the public should consider their comments and write in light of the

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legal rights of those affected or identified in their comments and be aware that they are personally legally responsible with potential liability for the comments that they make to the board. Hey, do we have any members of the public would like to comment online? We're going to alternate. By the way, our policy now is to alternate. You have

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five minutes to speak and um we start with someone in the audience and then we move to online and back and forth. >> I think so. >> Oh, and please state your name and uh yes, thank you. Edwards, Tyler Litz,

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long time residents since 1985. Boy, if things have changed. Okay, I'm going to address I'll do by page. Page five onee. If everybody could look at that off the board, please, I appreciate that. It talks about adding

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an assistant superintendent personnel. I don't understand. And two years ago, approximately two years ago, we wanted to institute some cost saving things to to help our town and the taxpayers. And we decided it's important

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to have an HR personnel person um in our miss and do away with the sister assistant supervisor. So now we're going back to $215,000 for our president if I'm not mistaken. approximately 215,000 for our president

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superintendent and 175,000 now is being spoke of or maybe 176,000 for a um assistant superintendent. So my question is are you going to do away with the HR position then?

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>> This is not I'm sorry maybe I should have mentioned this is not a question and answer. This is your opportunity to speak. We may or may not answer or address comments later but not during public has bleeding towns people of burner are bleeding. We don't have all

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these funds that you're talking about. I almost fell off my chair when I read when when I read the other one. All right, so let's look at uh page 11 number eight. Page 11, number eight. Boy, it would be so kind

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now. Now, is that usually the way it is um about the candidates and the superintendent pretty much um running the show as to who might be available for appointment or is that a consideration that the whole board does

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uh once maybe a suggestion is made or does the superintendent have sole responsibility of picking and chooses? I'm asking because I don't know. I really don't know. So, I'm I'm sincere in my question.

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So, I know you're not going to answer it, but that's something to ponder. Uh, let's see. Page 14, A1. Okay. Have to do with findings. All right. This one, and I hope you go over this in its

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entirety because it seems like if you're going to present one or the other. So from what I understand and you can correct me if I'm right or wrong qualify for the CIA program, we are

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backing with another town on this. So right away I'm a little suspect about that. Um I know Vernon last year was talking about everything for the students. We need to increase tax for students. A year before that it was all

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about the buildings. We have increased this for the buildings and buildings. Is it never ever going to stop? I mean, I know there's maintenance that has to be done, but you're talking about $70 billion bond for 20 years.

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How much is that going to cost the average taxpayer? I would like to know because ultimately, I don't care if I'm a senior, not a senior. I'm looking at the future of our town. We want young people to still come here and want to bring their kids. You're you're pricing

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you're pricing them out. It's like who who who gave out the Kool-Aid, you know? I I I really don't understand. It's very very upsetting. I've been to school board meetings before. Other towns are cutting tremendously and we just keep on

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piling on piling on. We have to do this. We have to do that. Hey, I would love to car. Guess what? Can't afford it. So, I have to live within my means. And I know I'm telling you people, we have to live within our means. I mean, there was a

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time and point I think you had wanted um some had wanted a um a swimming pool and we thought about it and said, you know what, you couldn't afford it. What you want and what is necessary and what we could afford. Three different topics.

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And I don't know where the all this is coming from, but I personally I'm so upset about this that I'm sincerely thinking about moving the hell out of Bernie. And I don't know like I think I'm a good participant in town. I try to do my best. I do a lot of community

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service things, but this type of thing last minute during the summer 70 million I'm saying million people people online million. Okay, you you got to think about this hard because you should put it on referendum. That's what I'm

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saying. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. Do we have anyone online? >> No. >> Okay. Anyone else in public? Can you can approach the microphone and just sign your name and please state your name as well.

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Yeah, we can't. >> Anything on the agenda? Yes. and spoke with you and I just want to caution you that no one I don't think a lot of people can hear you so if you can get really you have to get really close to the mic it's

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very uncomfortable but yeah >> a little bit we starting out and um burn it out to equipment which we can use

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that and take care of so from here we decide and um there um we equipment

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also but the behavior and what we going to be doing is twofold space where the uh teacher for 31 years before

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he retired and also the FC coach and he took the um robotics championship five times in 13 years. with that. So, we're very thankful for generating equipment to and we really appreciate

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that. Redonate equipment. So, we're very open that too. I haven't changed any question. >> Oh, >> okay. Thank you. I think I got the gist

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of that, but it was hard to to hear you. Um, but I understand it's about equipment that you're hoping that we can redonate and we will look into that and get back to you. >> Can't answer him now. I'm not going to publicize. If you if you stick around a little bit, we might be able to address

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your comments after the session's over. >> Okay. Thank you. >> All right. Still nobody online. >> All right. Do we have anyone else in public, please? >> Hello, I'm Bill Higgins. former board

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member for six years and current Vernon council president. I'm here with the mayor and another council person over there. They're here on their own, but we told them before and the purpose being here is to address some of the things that uh Edwards just mentioned. And I

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see that they there is a vote for Gastro for the new position of of assistant superintendent. And so I reiterate the same thing with K said there's no need to have an HR director when the assistant superintendent

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will be paid 176,000. He's almost at that point right now. So it's not a lot of extra money but it's duplicating what the system superintendent should do which is HR functions. So in reality if you want to do the right thing you cut the HR. That's number one. Number two,

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there's such a thing in business and even in public work that if you put your reputation on the line and you want to do something and put your reputation on like Benny did along with all the stock three years ago, they were the curriculum directors who stood in front

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of the board, stood in front of the public, brought in the new math program, gave their guarantee it would work. It was a total failure. It was a project that came from Portugal. It wasn't even totally uh changed to English and the

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net result for three years in a row. Our match scores on Paul Grave fell following that program. There has to be some accountability that be director and video. I know you do a good job on other things. You have to take responsibility for that. But that happened in public

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and you see it every day in the newspaper. For example, crack repair, they changed their their marketing philosophy and the CEO who did that just got fired and you saw one light. They changed their marketing that person got fired. Happened every day because they put their reputation online. Here we

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promote people rather than saying that you did a bad job and something paid for that. Possible some places you get fired for doing things like that. Now the important thing I listed probably in the 48 years I lived here in

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just Florida the top 10 items that took place in town because they were changing. They they changed the town a lot. I'll read them quickly. The playboy club action park ski area population growth. We built three additional schools. We had a scare here where we

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were sending radar from West Orange and it was scattered in Glenidge and Montlair and houses were built on it and they wanted to send it up here to the farms and spread it out. Well, this town came together and we stopped them from doing it and it was a big deal and that

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led to some people's political order because they love the charge at which is a change of government. We've had a problem with sewers and water and the infrastructure of the town. That's a major project which we're always working on. The Highlands Act

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which forbid future building inversion. It changed everything. We went from 27,000 population down to around 24,000. No new homes were able to be built because we're the water supply feeding the cities, Jersey City and rest. So

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that's changed everything in Vernon. the way we operate the farmers that we're going to sell to the developers and then we had a drop drop in population and schools were 5,500 to now we're down to 3,000 the other n number nine was the

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increased spending on the board of ed just so I left the board 2019 your budget was like 68 million now you're 10 million more with less students it's it's just terrible management now the number 10 is a potential for a $70

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million bond. A $70 million bond. I listened to your meeting and and last month. I heard your comments and I heard that yeah, there was a bond refer referendum defeated 25 years ago and you

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feel it'll be defeated again if you go that way. So here on the agenda, you have two things. One is a bomb referendum and two is to go with this critical infrastructure program that was developed by the state of New Jersey and have both. So I know that it will fail.

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I hope it fails. I'm speaking as a resident and also from the town council that it would take the average person who's paying taxes in this town and my calculation and we're going to hear from Mr. Slam later because he promised to give us his answer. It's going to add

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$600 a year to the average taxpayer every year for 20 years. You're talking about $16,000 added to the average taxpayer. Outrageous. So, what should happen after public is done speaking? Somebody on

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this board should recommend to table this motion. Somebody should second it. And this thing cannot be >> Thank you, Mr. Higgins. Your time is up. And the last >> Thank you, Mr. Higgins. Your time is up. I'm sorry, Mr. Higgins. Mr. Higgins. Mr.

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Higgins. Mr. Higgins, your time is up. Yes, you can. You can't you can't you can have five minutes, but he can't have your five minutes. That's not how this works. Each person gets five minutes. You can he can stay he can stay and speak at the next public comment meeting

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uh session uh and speak for another Thank you. Do we have any more members of the public who would like to speak? >> Do we have any on Zoom? >> Nobody on Zoom. Okay. All right. Uh, thank you.

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>> Item 10, the superintendence report. Mendes. So, we're pleased to announce our district artist of the month for July. Our Vernon Township High School student artwork is being displayed at the board office and at the municipal building. Uh also we have attached in our enrollment

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report attachment S1 uh and we have our harassment intimidation and bullying report for June um 2026 which is attachment S2. Uh July has been a very productive month across the district. Our facilities teams have been preparing

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our schools for September. Students have remained actively engaged through a variety of summer learning opportunities and our district departments have continued the important work of planning for a successful opening of the 2627 school year. Uh our extended school year

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program ran from July 5th to July 29th. Um we had 110 students preschool through age 21 participated in our ESY program at Walnut Ridge. We had 15 classrooms. students received individualized instruction aligned to their IEP goals

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related services. And for older students, community- based instruction focused on vocational communication and independent living skills. I just wanted to take um a moment to thank our teachers, our aids, our therapists, our transportation department and support staff because they uh certainly were

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most instrumental in making our program a success. We also this summer had our 21st century learn uh community learning center program. Glen Meadow continues to host its federally funded program for incoming grades 6 to 8 providing academic enrichment, team building

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activities and a lot of community field trips. So um we just wanted to thank our staff there, our families who u brought their students in to continue in receiving uh summer program services. Uh this year we also had a K to8 summer

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tutoring program. Uh we had I think less than a week to apply. Uh thank you to Mr. Gag Gagastro and our team who applied for the high impact tutoring grant. We received 80% of we would nor of what we would normally receive in our grant throughout the year. We serviced 31 students every week. Uh we were

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targeting K to8 reading and math instruction based on our end of the year I Ready data and ongoing teacher assessment. Our students are receiving personalized teacherled instruction with post assessments, individ individualized reports um for our families and our

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classroom teachers are going to be uh receiving those this fall. Our high school summer credit retrieval uh designed to keep students on track for graduation. This program allows high school schoolers to make up miss course credits over the summer. uh this critical academic safety net. It

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prevents our students from um retention and ensures that they are able to make up their credits and remain aligned with the projected graduation timelines. We continue with our curriculum coherence. Our work uh is continuing this summer. Our teachers are actively engaged in

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writing our ELA curriculum in grades K through 8 and in math grades 4 through 8 and algebra 1. Uh and we are looking forward for implementation of our new curriculum beginning in September. Our business office is working to close out

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our 2526 financials uh our 2526 audit and they're continuing the setup of the 2627 fiscal year. Our human resources continues staffing for the upcoming school year while coordinating teacher orientation. They're finalizing administrator evaluations and they're

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preparing for the 26 27 evaluation cycle. Um and our professional development is underway. We're planning for the year. Uh we will uh have our professional development plan from September through the end of the year uh

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planned out. Uh our curriculum coherence work and PD will be on August 6th. We have new teacher orientation on August 25th to 26th. And on August 27th, our staff is going to participate in our summer learning academy, which will feature collaborative sessions focused

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on tier one instruction, effective assessment practices, dynamic student grouping, instructional discourse, educational technology, and student engagement. We're very excited about all of the work that's taking place in the summer. I know that the thought is that we are in session during the school year only, but our students and our staff are

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actively learning over the summer, engaged um so that we can continue to um progress toward our outcomes. Uh in September, we are preparing for the opening of our schools. Uh principles are finalizing their schedules back to school communications for our families.

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Content area directors are preparing our instructional resources. professional learning plans, transportation staff are completing our bus routes and our custodial staff uh and facilities teams are ensuring each building is ready to welcome our students and staff. So

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together all of these efforts are really positioning the district for a smooth and successful start to the 26 27th school year. Uh and we're certainly excited uh about coming back to school in September. I know it's only July 30th, but it'll be here before we know it. Uh that concludes my superintendent

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report. I will have additional comments as we approach agenda items. >> Oh, I did want to ask it. Uh, could we answer the gentleman's question about the uh the robot the uh equipment? >> Uh, yes. So, that is related to equipment that had been donated in the

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past by Thor Labs. Um, the district is no longer utilizing that equipment and that equipment is on uh for approval tonight to be donated. We received a letter from Thor Labs asking us to redirect those donations since they're no longer in use to the Sussex County uh

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maker space. So that is a resolution on tonight uh to be voted upon. >> I see. Okay. Thank you. >> All right. Um so reports, discussions. Oh, are we on item 11

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board policies? So who's doing that? Is that still >> Charles? because he didn't have a meeting. So, I wasn't sure who >> we had uh >> we did >> we had off policy, right? Ready? Okay. >> Yes. >> Uh so, we had a policy meeting

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>> emergency. We had a we had a a policy meeting unscheduled, but we had it this past Monday uh the 27th at 11:00 to 11:45. We did it uh via Zoom. We discussed a few new policies and the

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reason why we had this session was because uh there's a couple pol there's two policies in particular one reg well one regulation one policy and this is 5516 um both the regulation policy has to do with students using internet enabled

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devices. If you look at the uh the uh policy, it has the definitions in there. And if you if you look at the policy 5516, you can see that the def definitions of what we're talking about as far as internet and enabled devices

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are in there. And we also have a regulation that goes along with it. So there's a couple choices that I would like people just to make sure you you you view. Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't say who was on at the meeting, but Allison >> sir, could the audience please um quiet a little bit? We're trying It's hard to

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hear in here and we're really trying to hear him. >> Oh, okay. Can you get closer to your mic maybe? I don't know. It's It seems like the mics are very problem. >> So, we had Alice, uh Carolyn, Evony, um

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Brian, myself, Vinnie, and we also had Nick join us on that meeting. I'm sorry, I just forgot to mention that before. Uh the internet enabled devices are what kids can use uh in inside the inside school on school at school. The state

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has changed their view on this and it's bell to bell and we're enforcing that policy. So children will not be able to use their devices in school from the beginning of school to the end of school. Um there's a couple choices on that policy as a group. We feel we're

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recommending that we permit the students to use the devices on buses or before school or or after school. We can use the devices before school or after the school, but during the school day, they will not be able permitted to use the devices at all. There's two

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other policies on there 8 8660 8662 have to do with u transportation of students to the first one is to from school related events and the second one is to and from school. The second one is a new policy and this is to make sure

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everyone's in line with that they're following the laws and uh state laws for bringing children to school and and they understand the the the uh regulations and what we we require for someone to bring school uh to use their vehicles to

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bring stu our students back and forth. Um and also the second one also is for school vehicles that do not require the a CDL. All right. Uh, with that, if we pass that, we are going to be abolishing policy

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2363 for students use of privatelyowned technology since that is now going to be covered in 5516. We are recommending that you um approve them as written. Uh and we also

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recommended that the uh second uh second reading for the for the ones we discussed last time um go forward. >> Okay. And that concludes I'm sorry. >> Are we okay? So um can I get a motion uh

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to approve items 11 A1 through A4? >> So moved. >> Thank you. A second please. I'll second. >> John questions or comments? >> I have one. Um, so with the bellto bell, uh, how does that change with the what

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was our previous practice just so we can inform the public and what is the current? >> Well, actually, >> what changes? >> Yeah. So, for us, I think we changed this about two years ago, I believe. >> Uh, we do not allow we don't allow children to use devices in school. There

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are some exceptions. I believe in the high school in Glenn Meadow where they were allowed to use it during lunches. Um this is now a state law. They're catching up with us and they're saying that devices should not be be used in school at all. This has to do with um um

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studies showing that it's not helping the children at all to use these devices. So we're trying to push for a better a better uh environment for the kids to learn and do better in. >> Right. So, we we had that policy in place, but we allowed use during lunch,

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but now it's going to be from the start bell to the end bell. No devices. >> No devices. Okay. >> Correct. >> Thank you. >> I have a question. >> Yes. >> What's the consequence? >> Oh, >> they have to join the policy committee and No.

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>> No. The consequences are still uh those are code of conduct. So they would be um determined by the administration and at the u each school I believe right has their own uh book code of conduct. So it would be code of conduct.

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>> All right. Any other questions? >> Dr. Russ. Yeah, I'm just really grateful that we were ahead of the curve on this because schools are really scrambling right now to figure this out and we had a committee that was devoted to this and we put a lot of thought into it with

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community involvement and teacher involvement, even student involvement. So, um I think we are in a really strong place for that. Brian, your question is a good one. The devil's in the details with the enforcement of this. Um we talked a lot about that on the committee a couple years ago. The

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I'm probably speaking out of term because it was a couple years ago, but there was, you know, consistent enforcement of that and and everyone was really aware that that was what was most important that that everyone understand exactly what happens if you have your phone out and what those consequences

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are. And my um understanding is that it's been successful by and large. So, I think we're in a good spot. >> Yeah. If I could just say something, Jen, I know this you were you were one of the people heading this last time, but I think for overall the and uh it's

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been a success taking the school the kids have been more engaged. Uh we've had better results and u less problems. So I I think this is just the next step. The state's catching up with us now and uh and I think we'll have a better going

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forward. We'll have better uh results from the children's children. >> Yeah, it's a nice change. Okay. Any other questions or comments? Right. Can we get a roll call vote? >> Miss Nichols? >> Yes.

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>> Miss Pallet? >> Yes. >> Miss Pac? >> Yes. >> Dr. Ross? >> Yes. >> Miss Varela? >> Yes. >> Mr. Zimmerman. >> Mr. Simaglia. >> Yes. >> Mr. Fischer. I >> Mr. Krauss. >> Yes.

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>> Motion carries. B personnel. >> Yes. Uh so uh section B personnel uh will be a series of recommendations that I'm making to the board to approve the 202627 uh Vernon Board of Education organizational chart which is attachment

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P1. 1A is the abolishment and the following positions and job descriptions and the creation of the corresponding new positions in relationship to the organizational chart which is attachment P1A. 1B is the appointment of uh the and

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transfer of the incumbent staff member to each of the created positions in relationship to the organizational chart and that is in attachment P1B. Um 1 C is the approval of the job descriptions that are listed effective

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8126 and the director of human resources effective 9126 that is in attachment P1C. 1D is the recommendation for title corrections which is attachment P1D and

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1E is the recommendation for the employment contract for Vincent Gagliastro assistant superintendent for the 2627 school year in attachment P1E. Um and uh there's been certain discussion certainly around this. So,

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I'd just like to uh provide uh just a context for what we're thinking about when we uh do an organizational chart, when we reorganize. And I think the most accurate way to describe what happens with an organizational chart, it's really an alignment or a realignment of

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work of authority and accountability uh versus just a series of title changes. Uh when I came into the district, one of my primary roles was to assess um our uh current structure both um in curriculum and instruction and programs and and all

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of those things, but also with our staff. What are the lanes? What are the roles of responsibility? What are the scopes of responsibility? Is everybody um in their area of expertise? Is everyone seated in their area of certification?

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um and is it uh responsible both for uh student care and support and fiscal care. Uh so here uh I am recommending a series of operational structure changes. Uh you will see that these related

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agenda actions are abolishing and creating positions, transferring employees, uh uh a host of changes to job descriptions that align to the actual role and responsibility um and personnel and governance actions

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that are required to implement that structure. Uh what is my assessment? I think over time we see that the responsibilities either expanded, shifted or accumulated under positions that no longer fully reflect the nature

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and the scope of the work in some of our our roles and responsibilities. Uh what I'm recommending is a structure that creates clearer ownership of major district functions. I'm recommending a structure that assigns district work to district-wide

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roles, that places instructional supervision with leaders who have the appropriate content, expertise, and certification, and that organizes student support services as a coordinated system. So,

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there are several substantive changes um that will illustrate that purpose. I will go through a few of them. Um, first, the structure strengthens our district-wide instructional leadership. The assistant superintendent position

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reflects responsibilities that extend beyond curriculum and instruction. So, the prior role was a director of curriculum and instruction. This one includes coordination across departments. The assistant superintendent role is an administrator

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supervision role and support. It is responsible for evaluation not only of staff but of principles and directors compliance, student services, implementation of district priorities.

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At the same time, we have dedicated leadership in math and science and in ELA, ESL and world languages. My intention here is to create clearer accountability for curriculum coherence, for teacher support, for intervention,

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for assessment, and very specific student outcomes. This is particularly important since these are foundational and state-ested areas. So we have a state tested area in ELA and we don't have supervision over

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ELA or coherence or implementation of um our curriculum in a coherent way across our grade spans preK through 12. Second, the structure is coordinating student support services. So I just

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spoke about district support services in our assistant superintendent position and now I'm talking about student support services under the director of school counseling testing and multi-tered systems of support counseling student assistance academic

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intervention testing MTSS all of these roles had previously been distributed across multiple offer uh offices and what we see there then is the need for coh adherence for a focus

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on student support specifically for identifying student needs. We have a need to coordinate interventions to monitor the progress to rebuild multi-tered systems that had been diminished due to prior budget reductions. And we need to strengthen

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our general education interventions as an important part of how we're going to address our high special education u classification rate. uh we cannot deny services and we don't want to. What we need to do then is we

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need to ensure students are receiving appropriate documented support before referrals are ultimately served in a setting that's best suited to their needs. This organizational chart is not about titles. It's not about adding to the budget. This is neutral budget

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neutral. We did not increase our budget. We did not add to the budget. In fact, we saved over $14,000. And the way we did that was by converting positions. We looked at positions that we thought we could convert in order to create these

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positions. For example, in order to get the director of ELA, we used to have last year two ELA coaches. Do we need ELA coaches? Absolutely. We need coaches in the classroom working

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and supporting our teachers. We also need someone to oversee the implementation and ensure that we have coherence and that our program needs are met, that our teachers are supported, and that our students are actively working toward meeting outcomes. So, we

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had to make a decision. Do we stay with two ELA coaches and have no accountability in structures for leadership or do I convert one into an ELA director? And that was my decision. I decided on having one coach. I

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converted one into the director for a savings of $5,538. Similarly, we have no one overseeing ELA. again a tested area ESL 28% of our student population is growing right and

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world languages a program that is suffering by all accounts in our district we had a resignation so we were able to I'm sorry I'm talking about the same position twice our school counseling position we had a resignation so we were able to convert that

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resignation into a director of school counseling. Now, that one was a positive. It was plus $23,000, but one of our staff, our hires, waved their uh medical benefits for a savings

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of $50,000. And we were able to move 30% of the salary into our preschool grant, again, for a savings to the district of over $14,000. We are not adding new positions. We are

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not adding an assistant superintendent position. We are abolishing a director of curriculum and instruction and converting that position into the assistant superintendent role to be able to have max usage of that role.

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It is different from the role of an HR director. An HR director manages day-to-day personnel operations. They focus on certification, hiring, removal, supports,

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um, affirmative action, all of the items that are related to day-to-day personnel operations. An assistant superintendent on the other hand, they are thinking about uh operational governance,

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curriculum, instruction, our grants, our statewide reporting, our student assessments. Uh they are managing those areas, two very distinct functions. With that said, we did not add positions. We did not add to the budget.

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We were able to find a savings by converting these positions. We too agree that we have to be very mindful of what we're asking of our taxpayers and what we're inserting into our budgets and we're being very careful that when we're

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making decisions around organization, staffing, and responsibilities that we are thinking about our students. We're thinking about supporting our staff. We're thinking about our expected and anticipated outcomes. and we're doing that in a fiscally responsible way.

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Another area is realignment. Mckin Vento for example, which supports our homeless students. Uh residency, for example, which thinks about who lives in the district and should they be attending our schools was under the

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director of curriculum. It is now moving to our director of safety and security where it belongs. So now we are realigning that position and it will be a director of security and residency. HIV responsibilities

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were under our director of security and that is appropriate for safety but it is shortsighted when it thinks about the idea of supporting students. if our focus is HIV and bringing our HIV down

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and making sure that our uh students are supported, that they're getting counseling, that they're getting assistance, that they're understanding what kindness and love and respect is and how we treat one another, then we need to do that through our school counseling department, not through our

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security department. Nursing services are moving from the superintendent to special services. that's where they belong. Our special education leadership is being appropriated preK5

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and 612 so that um our director and assistant director can provide more focused oversight across those grades. Our instructional leadership, we're creating clear lanes for our instructional leadership. Instead of everybody observing everything because

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we have so many observations to get done, we are aligning certification content area expertise. Our math and science director will observe math and science. Our ELA, ESL, world language director will observe ELA, ESL and world

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language and so forth. This is the way that we can adequately support our staff, provide them meaningful feedback and observations that will move the needle on our expected student outcomes. When it comes to observing our

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administrators, we have principles and directors. We have fantastic school leadership and district level leadership who also deserve support, professional development, extended opportunities for growth and learning and to be observed

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by more than one person because when it is left to one person then we can inadvertently or advertently introduce bias. I cannot be legally according to Achieve New Jersey the only one who evaluates our principles and our

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directors. We need to have multiple persons who are responsible and aligned to our code and therefore the need for our assistant superintendent role. These changes reflect one consistent organizational principle and that is

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that each function should sit with the role best positioned to carry it based on expertise based on certification authority and working relationships. And therefore, um, today, tonight, I'm

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presenting the 2627 organizational chart with all of the aforementioned, uh, reorganizational recommendations. Uh, the correct structure then for us is to first abolish the prior position

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and then create the corresponding position relating to that chart. and that is what the board sees in attachment P1A. The second would be to transfer

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and appoint our current incumbent staff outside of the abolished role into the newly created position in attachment P1B. Accordingly, we rewrote and revised all job

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descriptions to reflect the new scope of work to align to content area expertise to capture the scope of responsibility and to report to the new reporting structure. We have two title corrections for

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administrative assistants who have to support those roles. Um, and then we have our contract for our assistant superintendent recommendation. Are there any questions? I >> think you covered it pretty well, but

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anyone have any questions? >> Thank you for all that information. >> Don't do don't we have to um accept it first? Like >> I can't hear. >> Don't Don't we have before we do questions? Don't are we going to vote on this? So, don't we have to >> I I think she still has a whole other

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section. Okay. Right. Before we vote. >> Okay. >> I do have a question though or a comment. Um, so I think you covered my first question was impact to the to the budget. I'm very glad that you guys were able to not impact the budget at all.

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That's that's that's what we put you guys in charge for. We asked for it many times and and you're doing a good job at that. Um the the other part was the was role alignment and so we're not changing names. You actually and and I this you

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guys were very transparent I believe and I I like how we have it all outlined here. Um, I was here, I don't remember if I actually voted on it, but I was here during a discussion about abolishing the assistant superintendent a few years ago. And at my at that time,

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my biggest concern was the superintendent was an HR manager, which the boss should not be the HR manager at all. There it's a conflict there. So, having an HR manager, I always thought was was a good thing. And now we have

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both. And if you look at what with the way it's it's aligned in the job descriptions, it really makes sense. And this is what, you know, business does this all the time. We realign to make things make sense. Put things where they belong. You can't you can't function the same way over and over again if it's not

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working. Let's fix it. So I'm I'm very glad with that. My only question I guess left that you didn't answer was does this align with our strategic plan that put >> Absolutely. Uh I think it clearly aligns and it's birthed out of our strategic plan. We are uh looking for and

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listening to the priorities. Uh our first strategic plan goal is curriculum coherence K uh 12 and we started with the K8 ELA alignment and we are moving forward with the recommendation for that

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director of ELA to now implement professional development support the staff and set some goals. Um we also uh have our um goal around student support services. I believe that's goal four. I don't want to misnumber them, but I

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believe that's goal four. With student support, uh we said that we really needed to think about the multi-tered systems of support for our students. Prior to classification, we identified that through the strategic plan as a priority. This year all of the schools

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created established a VTSS team. We call it VTSS for the Vernon way, right? Vernon Township uh tier systems of support. They created their teams. They've identified ways to um support the students and now we're moving that

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into school counseling where that belongs to marry those two roles together. Additionally, uh, in these recommendations, we have our director of school counseling who comes to us with a background in MTSS and our newly hired

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uh, assistant director of special services who comes to us with a background in MTSS. One for special education and one for general education. This is a beautiful construct because now both of them will partner and we will work for serv towards serving all

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of our students equitably all of our students. Somebody said the other day, oh maybe I shouldn't say that. Okay, so equitably right general ed and special ed, not treating any of them differently. They will be able to partner to do that. Um so I think we are

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perfectly aligned with our strategic plan goals. Uh and our fifth strategic plan plan goal is fiscal stewardship and responsibility which we're hearing a lot about tonight. And we were able to do that again without adding to the budget

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by converting positions by making some hard choices. We did have to give up some things to get these things but I do believe that these are the priorities and if we sit in our priorities then we can expect some greater outcomes. >> Thank you.

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I think it's important to note that um this is a law in one agenda but all of these pieces were part of a puzzle that's being worked on was being worked on over months and months and this is the fruition of that and a lot of this is not news to some of us because of

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curriculum uh curriculum uh committee work and work that took place in committees and also conversations about personnel which are executive privilege uh executive meeting uh conversations. So what you're seeing is, you know, not one month's worth of uh decision making

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and and work. It's it's the culmination of many months of careful planning and figuring out how to do this in a budget neutral way that worked for our staff and for the future of our schools. So it's a lot of work that our team has put in on this. And I commend you on it

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because it was a difficult puzzle to to put together. So, and thank you to our team because you know we don't do anything in an eye here. We have a a great team in our BA in our uh administrative team uh who really came

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together in our HR director to uh take a look a hard look and help us make some hard choices. Right now we should go through this before making cuts all the other towns around us.

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But three four years ago when I was on the board cutting everything and the same people come telling us why you cutting buses why you cutting this why you cutting that. So when we cut them, we cut

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we cut leadership spots, support staff, buses, teachers, ICT classes. That's what I can remember off the top of my head. You don't think all those cuts reflected in the scores in the following years. You just don't understand

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education. You know, you need the support to bring it up. So now the new leadership are rearranging things like said to me slam to restructure everything being more financially um

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fruitful but certainly in better shape than we were. You know we were a very dark time years ago. We cut things and I do felt like Madison said we probably cut too much but we had to do it to survive. There's also districts around the state

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now that are 20 million in the whole, 10 million in the hole that are bankrupt. You know, I don't know if school district bankrupt. They're in bad shape, much worse than we are. Hometown that people know, they never be naturally ended up. While we've had trouble time,

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we certainly never be to that. Thank >> you. All right. Now, you need to rest. All right. Uh section two, resignation, retirements and terminations. I'm recommending the following non-certificated staff resignations and

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retirements be approved in the table uh in letter A. In letter B are certificated staff resignations and retirements. In section three, there are appointments. Um letter A in attachment P2 are certificated staff. Attachment P3

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are non-certificated staff. Attachment C, our substitute rates for the 2627 school year. In letter D, our part-time aid changes of assignments. In letter E is extended school program, which runs

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Monday through Fridays, commences July 6th through the 29th for a total of 18 days. In letter F, we have our high impact tutoring summer supplemental grant program recommendations. In letter G, I'm seeking the approval

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for the appointments of our SCM trainers. In um section four, compensation and adjustments. Attachment P4 represents the freshman academy orientation and planning.

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In letter B, it is the summer 2026 curriculum work. In letter C, it is the recommendation for staff for our kindergarten readiness screening work. In letter D, it is the 2627 curriculum

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writing projects. In letter E, substitute teacher secretaries to be inactivated and no longer accepting perdm assignment 2626 full year. That is attachment P5. Letter F, stipened appointments in

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attachment P6. Letter G, staff for summer CST meetings at the rate of $40 per meeting. In section five, letter A, leaves of absence for certificated staff. In letter B, leaves of absence

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for non-certificated staff. Number six is the approval for individuals as district volunteers. In number seven, certified teachers for bedside tutoring. In number eight,

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this was mentioned in a question. Um, what this does, it's an annual approval for the superintendent. We have a board meeting once a month and sometimes we are seeking to hire an employee. That is

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the superintendent's role. I am the one who hires staff um and I am the single employee of the board. So to answer the question, does the superintendent have the authority to make the recommendations to hire the

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staff? The answer is yes. This says that if we're in between board meetings and we want to hire someone that I'm able to extend them a letter of intent. And that's so if someone is interviewing in multiple districts and

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we really want to make sure that they come to us that we're able to offer them that letter of intent. It also allows me to um let's say we have a staff member and we have an emergency and they need to be um hired right away for a replacement or something like that that

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they can start right away and that I don't have to wait until the board meeting for them to start to serve our students. >> It still needs to be ratified by the board. >> It still needs to be ratified by the board. >> At a later date. Yes. >> Okay. Uh number nine is the mentoring

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plan for the district in attachment P7. Number 10, we have a policy in our district that allows our staff members to bring their children into the district as student at no cost for grades 1 through 12 when

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space is available. And this is a uh student of a staff member. Uh number 11 is our central office personnel for the 2627 school year uh in attachment P8.

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>> Thank you. Can I get a motion to approve items 11 uh C1 through C11? >> So moved. >> Thank you, John. Questions or comments? Ryan, >> just a quick question on the um

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um are these substitute teachers like the big difference in rates? Is that just experience or the type of class they're teaching or something? Recipe. So like you have one that's $150 a day

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and one's $250 a day. >> Uh one is a nurse. >> Okay. So, all right. I was just curious >> difference. The nurse teachers and >> Oh, I see. >> Nurse teachers names. >> Is that what those lexes are? >> Yes. >> That's where you sit next to me.

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>> That's correct. Any other questions or comments? >> I have a question. Letter F. There is We have a coordinator and a and a tutor. They both have uh not to exceed.

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It is not a combined not to. If not, it's per physician not to >> correct. >> Anyone else? >> Miss Pelllet, >> yes. >> Miss Pac, >> yes. >> Dr. Ross, >> yes.

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>> Miss Varela, >> yes. >> Mr. Zimmerman, >> yes. >> Mr. Smeagglia, >> yes. >> Mr. Fischer. >> Hi, >> Mr. Krauss. >> Yes. >> Miss Nichols. >> Yes. >> Motion carries. >> Thank you.

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>> Item D, curriculum and instruction. >> Um, our committee was on a little hiatus for July, but Mr. Mendes uh provided a comprehensive update um to the committee on key items, a lot of which you covered

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in your superintendence report. um a lot of progressing toward our strategic plan goals in terms of curriculum alignment um and appropriate positions in the org chart to support those initiatives

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um tutoring to support uh all the different levels of intervention for our students. Um, so I extended to the committee that we would any questions that we had I would forward along to the administration as we await our August

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meeting. >> Thank you. >> Number one is the approval for travel in attachment C1. Number two, uh, student teacher assignments. Number three is the literacy studio for

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professional development which is title one funded in attachment C2. Number four is um the approval of law enforcement against drug programs. That's the lead program for the 2627 school year which will um provide

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instruction for our grades 5 to seven students five and seven students by the Vernon Township Police Department. Thank you. Can I get a motion to approve items 11 D1 through D4? >> Second. >> Second.

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>> Questions or comments? >> Number four. Uh, is there a cost to this or is this the police department is providing this? >> Yes, the police department provides this >> as a service. Yes. Thank you. Anyone

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else? Can we move to a roll call vote? >> Miss Pac, >> yes. >> Dr. Ross, >> yes. >> Miss Varela, >> yes. >> Mr. Zimmerman, >> yes. >> Mr. Saglia, >> yes.

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>> Mr. Fischer, >> hi. >> Mr. Krauss, >> yes. >> Miss Nichols, >> yes. >> Miss Pellet, >> yes. >> Motion carries. Section E reports. We have our HIV report that was reviewed at the June

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18th meeting in attachment R1. Our random drug testing and school safety report for June 2026 in attachment R2. Number three, it is the uh student

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safety data system report. Um, I'm going to read this one. In accordance with public law 2001, chapter 299, amending section 1 of the public law 1982, chapter 163, the school district's 2526

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student safety data system report is attached. the board and the administration will entertain questions and comments on matters uh that relate to SSDs uh as that is a part of this board agenda item for a public hearing.

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Um the above law does require that annually the superintendent will share the student safety data system report uh with the board and that the report will be publicly shared each school year forformational purposes as acts of

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violence and vandalism occur. They are electronically submitted to the state department of education. The department of education generates a confirmation report with the result being the final district report as listed in this public meeting agenda. And so then this information as well as the attacks

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report that the board has um serves as an assurance that tonight's public hearing will be conducted to fulfill the district's legal obligation to present school violence and vandalism information to the public and to conduct a public hearing on the attached report. It is recommended that the board accept

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the SSDs report for the 2526 school year and that said report be included as part of the permanent minutes of this meeting. And so before we ask if there are any questions on that report in the board notes there is um information that

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was provided to the report. Um and I just want to kind of go over some of those categories. It captures two categories of data for each school and the district as a whole. The first category is incidents. incidents includes violence, vandalism,

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weapons, substance offenses, restraint and seclusion, HIV allegations and confirmations, and any other incident leading to a student's removal from class or school. The second category is HIV trainings and programs. And that's where our staff is trained. Our student

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or family program is aimed at preventing harassment, intimidation, and bullying and support school climate. Uh this SSDs 2526 report covers incidents, trainings, and programs from January 1st through June 30th with a

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county submission deadline of August 10th. And so we will submit uh upon the board's approval of this report on August 10th. uh consistent with the district's practice in prior years. The board's action is a motion to accept the report as presented and to authorize our

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um the administration to submit the report with the accompanying resolution. So what were our district-wide patterns? The district logged 316 incidents across all buildings this period. Most were categorized as other incident leading to

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removal. What this means is behavioral matters such as classroom disruption, vaping, disrespectful conduct. A smaller share was formally categorized as HIV alleged or HIV confirmed. We have reviewed each of those with the board

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every month. And so this is the summary of those reports. These are not new or additional. The district also logged 45 restraint and seclusion incidents. All were coded by as physical restraint. None were

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separately flagged as a reportable SSDS incident, showing these were routine documented behavioral interventions rather than events requiring further review. The district and its schools completed 55 HIV trainings and 83 HIV prevention

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programs this period. programming clustered around themes that map directly to the incident patterns that I just named such as anti-bullying and HIV prevention, social emotional learning and school climate, mental health and

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wellness, digital citizenship and online safety, diversity, inclusion and respect. When we think about our year-to-year comparison, this is this year's report. How does that compare to last year? Since last year, our district-wide

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incidents fell from 727 in 202425 to 316 this year. This is a decrease of roughly 57% with every school contributing to the

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decline or holding flat. I just want to take the time to say congratulations to our staff who are diligently working in this area to realize these types of outcomes. One is too many. So, we will continue to

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work toward that end. However, decreasing by 57% districtwide is certainly something that we can say we're moving in a very strong and healthy direction. Our district-wide restraint and seclusion fell from 68 to

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45 and this is a decrease of 34%. Our district-wide HIV trainings rose from 44 to 55 and programs rose from 66 to 83. Both increases of roughly 25%.

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We can continue to do better. It is consistent with continued investment and prevention alongside the drop in incidents. That concludes my report on SSDs and at this time we can take any questions from the board or for the from

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the public. >> Shouldn't we do the motion? A motion to approve 11 E1 through E3. Charlie second. Second Sarah Matt's

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comments. Okay, >> his numbers are great. Um why? And we can Yeah, keep that going. It's impressive. >> Um yeah, I didn't hear any I didn't hear

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baby. of programs. So, I don't know if we could find out what we're doing there because that was mentioned as a incident, but it wasn't addressed as a program >> and we can assign that to our new director of school counseling. >> Oh, excellent. >> All right, Charlie.

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>> The programs is is that um if you were if the was a confirmed HIV, is that a program you went to or is this programs that they do? It's through counseling, counseling, therapy services, all of those. >> Okay. >> Kindness week, spirit week

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>> because you guys also did preventative. >> Correct. All of our preventative measures. Absolutely. That's what the programs. >> Any more questions or comments? >> Just want to confirm give it another chance for the public too on this specific section too.

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>> Um yeah. Can we do we have any comments from anyone here in the public or anyone online or any questions about this safety? >> Okay. Okay. So, moving to a roll call vote. >> Dr. Ross. >> Yes.

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>> Miss Sarella. >> Yes. >> Mr. Zimmerman. >> Yes. >> Mr. Saglia. >> Yes. Mr. Fischer. >> Hi. Mr. Krauss, >> yes. >> Miss Nichols, >> yes. >> Miss Pellet,

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>> yes. >> Miss Pac, >> yes. >> Motion carries. >> Item F, finance. Mr. Crouch, you're off with your committee report. >> Okay. I really have a meeting for say

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reports of the seriousness of the decision we're going to make tonight. to vote on either capital improvement um the improvement authority or referendum here tonight is they asked for a sideby-side comparison of the two

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financing optimum that has and just so that the public understand Jen said earlier it's not a fact that uh whether we need this done we have to have it done um we have roof

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replacement, fire alarm, emergency lighting and communication system upgrades, HVAC and ventilation improvements, enhanced building security, high school window replacement, APA accessibility and sanitary improvements. This process has

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been going on for over a year long-term facilities report back in December. So, we're at the point where we have to decide the plans. We already sent uh the paperwork or pro working on the paper going to the state that the state can finance us or give us back some uh debt

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service aid up to 40%. Oh, there we go. Thank you. All right. Um typically that's approximately 34% that they'll pay towards the bond as we go along. So, I just want to go through the two financing options. And there's a preliminary financial

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comparison between doing a referendum or an improvement authority set. All right. The total bond proceeds are $70 million off of this comparison. It may be up to 74 million. We're not sure how much money it's going to be just yet. Um the

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bond principal amount was 70 million for a referendum or 6369 63,690,000 structured with an estim an estimated $7 million premium and I'll explain that a little while later. Um all-in borrowing

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rate would be 3.7% for referendum, 3.92% for the improvement authority. um estimated issuance costs were 175,000 for referendum, 400,000 for the improvement authority. But then we have to take into account election and

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communication costs of about $100,000 for referendum that would not apply to an improvement authority. Um the improvement authority would have an annual trustee fee of $5,000. So all told total principle and interest for referendum would cost us 100

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million759775 and option B the improvement authority would cost 102 million464500 over the 20-year bond with the interest. Okay. So now let's do the key decision considerations. I'm just going to read

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through it here. Um either way, we're going to direct the administration tonight to pursue one of the two options. All right. Um if we chose referendum, um they will prepare referendum documents, identify an authorized election date, and develop a

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public information process. If we do improvement authority, they'll seek Sussex County's informal support, and begin the improvement authority and local finance board approval processes. We we have to go through all of these other um uh place. Yeah. Entities. Thank

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you. To to get their approval in order to do that. All right. So, following the PEC approvals, which we're thinking around November, correct? Yeah. That we should be getting them. That's from the state. Um the board would formally authorize the referendum, which would

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place the proposal before the voters on a state authorized election date. Bonds may be issued only with voter approval. That's if we choose referendum. If we choose the improvement authority, um the board county and improvement authority take the required formal action.

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Financing also requires local finance board approval but not vote approval. All right. So they have a timing issue here tied to state approvals and authorized election dates. An unsuccessful referendum may delay the program another 12 months. Uh we'll talk

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about that a little bit in a minute. All right. and is the improvement authority is not tied to any election dates but the schedule depends on state approvals and coordination with improvement authority county and local finance um the primary risk if if the voter re

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voters could reject um the referendum I have it over here where I have that just give me a second all right so here's some risks I'm going to tell you if it's a failed referendum if the March 2027 vote failed the Next vote would need to be either in

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September, November, or December 2027. The delay plus differences on when the bidding process could start, referendum versus improvement authority, would likely result in a delay of somewhere between 6 months and a year. And that would result in an architect estimated 3

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to 5% increase in construction cost. So that would cost us another 2.1 million to3.5 million. It's estimated based on current ratables that this would have an impact of approximately 9 to$15 a year more on the average assessed home

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expenditures on professionals. So, like I said, we had to put up $100,000 for all the processing that we're doing to get ready for this would be sunk. The cost if an improvement authority is pursued after a failed vote. That means if a second vote is pursued, these costs would be a sunk cost as well. And it

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would also have to reuse those $100,000 again. Okay? And as a note, the difference in cost between a referendum and an improvement authority routes approximately 1.7 million would equate to an estimated tax impact of approximately $7 more a year on the

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average assessed home. Okay, we're almost there. Okay, so estimated cost for a referendum, the lower estimated borrowing rate, issuance cost, and total principle and interest assuming approval on the first vote on the improvement

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authority. a higher borrowing rate and issuing costs. Also requires an annual trustee fit. Here's the thing, the bonding capacity. So if we choose referendum and it passes, it counts against the district statutory bonding capacity.

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Uh if we choose improvement authority, it does not count against the statutory bonding capacity, although it remains a long-term district obligation. And here's a potential cost escalation. If the referendum is unsuccessful, the subsequent bond sale would include additional election and professional

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costs and projected 5% increase in construction costs. Like I just explained, um, if the improvement authority knows unsuccessful redundum delay related escalation costs remain subject to actual project timing and market conditions. So there you go.

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We're going to then decide which one tonight. Thank you. Um, I know you have an item for uh approval of buildings and grounds. Glenn also is supposed to discuss it. Which way do you want to go first? >> I'm supposed to talk about the uh classes.

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>> I'll just say yeah, I'll go first. Uh just so it's just anformational item uh and it's the sharing the use of bones of grounds. Uh so attachment one. So just informationational. >> Thank you. >> Okay. Just to explain how this process takes place, we have two resolutions in

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the finance section. um to direct the administration on which route to take. Uh as John just explained um the county improvement authority or through a referendum. Those are alternatives and they fund the same projects. Only one resolution can move

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forward tonight. So the way we're going to handle that is we will introduce the first resolution when we open up the discussion rather than discuss the resolutions individually. We will discuss both options together. Uh then we will vote on the first resolution. If

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it passes, I will ask for a motion to postpone indefinitely the second resolution since it would conflict with the first resolution. If it fails, I will ask for a motion for the second resolution and we will then vote on it. So that's the process. Uh and I guess we

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are ready to do that. Do we need to read the resolution aloud? Do that. >> I can read it aloud. >> Yeah, I guess so. Um recommendation A is resolution directing the administration to pursue approvals required to finance projects

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through a county improvement authority. Whereas the board binds it as best interest of the district to complete a number of capital improvement projects now therefore be resolved by the burn township board of education as follows. One, the board hereby directs superintendent and business administrator to pursue all applicable approvals required to finance the

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projects identified um above uh through a county improvement authority in le of pursu public referendum. Uh item two, the board hereby authorizes the superintendent and the district administration to take all appropriate steps necessary to evacuate this resolution, including but not limited to contacting the relevant county

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improvement authority to begin the approval process, providing all information, documentation reasonably requested by the county improvement authority, and coordinating with the board's bond council, financial adviser, architect, and other professionals that's necessary to obtain the required. Three, the board and the board president and board secretary are hereby

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authorized to execute such documents necessary to effectuate the terms of this resolution. >> Thank you. I need a motion to approve uh finance resolution 11F3A. >> So moved.

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>> Have a second. >> Second. >> Okay. As discussed before, we can discuss both uh resolutions at this time. Uh who would like to start? Mr. Fisher. >> Okay. So, I want to make a motion.

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>> Sorry, one sec. >> No, I was just wondering. >> Oh, yes. >> In case you have additional questions. Yes, >> they will be available to answer questions. I'm sorry, Mr. Fisher. I want

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to make sure we're not having technical difficulties before you start. >> Okay. So I want to make a motion to table both of these resolutions. >> We procedural point though we are in the middle of a motion now. I don't think you can >> we already >> when you're in a motion can you make a

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motion? >> He can he can make a motion to lay it on the table after the resolution has been moved. >> Okay. >> But he would he would need a first a second and it would need to pass by a majority of those. So

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>> all right. So let me get my reasoning. Uh reasoning is I I don't think I asked earlier this afternoon which law we're going to be using and I was told it would be 18A 7G 5B which I asked to

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have a copy presented to everybody here. So, the way I'm reading this law and the way that uh I understand New Jersey law, if we were to use 18A 7G5B,

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we would still have to do a referendum, right? And the law that oversees all of this is 18A24-12, which is the the law that says any proposal adopted by resolution by the

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board of education needs approval by the legally qualified votes of the district. So that's the law that oversees everything else. Any other law that would set aside that provision that it needs approval by the legally qualified voters

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of the district would have to specifically state that it doesn't need approval by the voters. And an example would be NJSA7G-15.1A, which is a very similar law to the one

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that we have here, but in 15.1A, you would actually not get the 34% funding from the state. That law, if you read it, specifically says that

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you do not need to put a referendum before the voters. If you look at this language, nowhere does it say you do not need to put a referendum before the voters. My opinion is this law means that even if we to say we're going to do

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this, we still have to do a referendum. So, I want to ask that we table both of these u resolutions until we can get further legal clarification as to whether or not we know what we're doing.

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>> So, we do need a a motion and a second to have this >> have a conversation about it. >> We also do have our bond council joining us virtually, >> right? And yes, >> so I made a motion >> and I'll second. >> Sorry. >> And I'll second. >> Your second. Okay. So, now vote on the

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motion uh to table this question. >> No, now we >> Oh, questions or comments? I'm sorry. Yes. And we should hear from our bond council because that is the question the legality right of this um do we have anybody who wants to Mr. Tony

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Salman you've been um put up the panel so he can speak? >> Yes. Good evening everyone. Oh, >> he's muted for the air one. Can you hear me? Hello. >> He's comes right up there.

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>> Yeah. >> Try talking now. >> Hello. Can you hear me? >> Yes. >> Yes. >> Thank you. >> Hey, good evening everyone. >> Good evening. So, up until 2024, in order for a school district to issue long-term debt, a school district needed

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to go in front of the voters for a referendum. Um, after 2024, um there were two options presented to whereby a school district does not need to go to a referendum to have bonds

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authorized. Uh the two situations are where a municipality agrees to pledge pilot revenue towards the payment of debt and the other is whereby a school district can ground lease its property to an improvement authority. An

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improvement authority can issue bonds um and then the improvement authority bonds finance the project. That project then gets leased to the county and the county subleasases it to the school district. Uh the real groundbreaking

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aspects of that legislation was that normally a lease the payments are within a school district's tax levy cap. This law specifically um maintains that a school district's lease payments are not

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within its cap. It also allows the school district to receive debt service aid on a lease on the bonds that were issued by the improvement authority. So, for all intents and purposes, even though it's secured through a series of leases, it is um basically like a bond

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issue. You can get debt service aid and it's outside the board's cap. Since the law has been put in place in 2024, four school districts in the state of New Jersey have taken advantage of this, received the approval of the local

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finance board, um and been authorized to finance these projects. Uh the first one was done in Cumberland County. Uh there were uh two done in P County and one has been done in Camden County. Um so it is

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a legally authorized procedure. Um it has been approved by the local finance board in Trenton. Um and it does accomplish the same thing as a referendum except for it doesn't require a referendum vote. >> Thank you.

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Does anyone have any questions? >> It doesn't address which law we use. >> So I think it is and I apologize. I just came out of another meeting so I'm in my car and I don't have my statute book but I think it is in uh 18A 7G and I think

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it's in uh 5B. Um but I could be wrong off the top of my head. >> Right. And 5B is the one that doesn't specifically say you can bypass the voters. 15.1.A.

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15.1A is the one that says you can bypass the voters. >> Yeah. And that's the one where, if my memory serves me correct, and I apologize. Um, that's the one where the >> 15.1A is the one where you need the

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pilot agreement, >> right? You know, it might be it might be in section five and not and uh >> I think it's the old law that was amended. >> It could be in 5A. And I apologize. I just don't have the book in front of in

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my car. Um, >> five 5A 5A was the one that made you stick to the 2% cap. That was amended to 5B, which is the one that allows you to go over the 2% cap, but 5B is the one that

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deals with pilots and specifically states that you're allowed to bypass the voters. The one that we're saying that we're using here is is I'm sorry, 15.1A is the one that deals with pilots, right? And we're dealing with 5B, which

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doesn't state that you're allowed to bypass the voters. 15.1.A is the one that says you can bypass the voters. >> I might be wrong, but I thought we were dealing with 18A 7G. >> What? This one right here. 5B. 7G 5B. >> 18 A 7G 5B.

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>> Right. And it does not say anywhere in there that you're allowed to bypass the votives. So just to so everyone's aware, so this did change a couple years ago. Um I have been to several purchasing classes on this. Um and the big change

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of this law is that by going through an improvement authority, there isn't a vote. So >> that's the pilot. >> Uh no different. this the full purpose of this 18A 7G5B

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was to be able to get this uh funding without >> why doesn't it say >> uh there's a provision >> I can show you a law that specifically says it that's the same thing >> four like four districts have already done it and and we have >> do we know that they use 1518 or do we

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know that it wasn't illegal what they did but four districts law Make sure there's >> no district no district has issued bonds under 15.1A yet. The first one was just approved a couple months ago, but bonds have not been issued as of yet.

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>> That's the pilot one you're saying? >> That's the pilot one. Correct. >> So, they have issued under you're saying 18A 7G5B. We have examples of four districts that have in fact >> correct. Yeah. and the the >> and the wording of it, the fact that it

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doesn't literally say the word referendum in it does is that material here? I mean, I thought that was the whole purpose of it. I thought Mr. Slam was correct in in in the uh purpose of the law. >> Mr. Slam is correct. That is the purpose

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of the law is to have the improvement because before that law happened uh improvement authorities were allowed to issue bonds for school districts but they needed a referendum first. So there would be no reason to have that law because historically uh there were

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certain districts that would issue bonds uh through an improvement authority after a successful referendum. uh because there was certain situations where it made more sense. They would save money um where a school district had a lower um rating than an county

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improvement authority. So they would they would actually um they would actually save money by going through an county improvement authority. >> Okay. Thank you, Charlie. I just want to understand what what

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you're proposing because you're you're you want to stop put the table the whole the whole vote here because it's not the law that you think but if we went back to the original proposal is it it doesn't state a law in

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there at all and the intent of the proposal is to follow the law. Right? We're not supposed to not follow the law. So if the intent is to follow the law to procure this uh the monies the funding would that still be valid even

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though we were given if if Brian is correct we are given the wrong statute >> yeah this is true we're directing the administration to pursue this path but it's not going to be able to pursue a path that is not legally viable. So um

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that's true. That's a good point. I think we need to have our council examine this further. >> As far as I know, there's there's no appellet decision clarifying whether or not

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the the lack of the the statement that you can specifically bypass the voters means that you are allowed to bypass the voters. >> Our council has Go ahead. Yeah, our council actually provided these resolutions >> that are on tonight. Yeah. >> Our and also like I'll bet

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>> Mr. Salman is also >> my objection. >> No, but I don't think before just now >> recess and call him right now if you really feel that's necessary but I >> I don't know that it's necessary because

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um you know we have we have legal expertise here. We have >> conflicted legal advice but >> I don't hear any conflicted as far as I know your law degree is still pending right so we have le >> is he getting paid >> does that am I getting paid

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>> is that remove his credentials >> no but that makes him conflicted our board attorney also gets paid as a point of reference >> generally do get paid and who are you going to consult who did not get paid would give you an opinion and not be paid

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>> our board attorney gets paid need to look out for our interest. Our our bond attorney is getting paid to work on bonds, right? If there's no bond, there's no pay. >> No, no. I am I'm your attorney, so it would be unethical for me to give you

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improper advice. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Um and our attorney, our regular attorney has also uh presented this as a viable legal pathway for us on We've had many, many conversations with him. we

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presented uh last month about this uh you know a robust uh presentation was made it you know >> so vote on vote on my motion and then let's discuss the other motion >> it has legal precedent you know so I I just I don't see a

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>> it doesn't have legal precedent it hasn't been argued in the appellet court >> four districts have already gone through the process that's >> without challenge right and they've also gone through the process after having a

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defeated referendum. >> No, that's not accurate. Um, no. Um, Upper Deerfield did not have a referendum. Um, Brook Lawn in Camden County did not have

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a referendum. >> We should. >> Okay. Yeah, I guess you know you we have a motion on the table and tech technically uh we we need to see it through, right? So, let's uh let's go ahead and vote on it. >> Can you say can you state it again?

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>> Yeah, clear on what the motion is. >> Uh this the motion uh there was a motion on the table and then a second motion was made to lay the current motion back on the table. Essentially, that motion means that this motion will be table for

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for the night. >> So, we'd be voting on whether we're going to actually vote on the original motion >> to table the on the vote on the motion that Brian made whether to table it. So, if you vote yes, you want to table it. If you vote >> I want to table if you vote yes, you

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want to table the >> the larger >> larger things that will you vote no, then you're willing to vote. >> You want to proceed to vote as planned. >> Yeah. So, exactly except that the detail um that it would also allow us to

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actually discuss the original motion. >> So, if you vote no, then we discuss the original motion >> and we have a chance you have a you have a chance to vote on that motion. >> Okay. >> Yes. >> Is everyone clear? >> Okay. >> Uh yep. Uh Miss Varello.

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>> Oh, now hold on a minute. >> So, I'll just I'll say sorry. I know a lot's happened. >> Yeah. So a a a yes means the original motion will be tabled. The original motion is to direct the administration to pursue approvals for an improvement

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authority route. So uh essentially right now a no would be to move forward to vote on that original motion discuss it. A yes would be to table that original motion and not vote to direct us to look at an improvement authority rules.

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>> So yes is table. >> Yes. Yes is table. No is not table. >> I'm going to vote yes. >> Uh Mr. Zimmer, >> no. >> Uh Mr. Smaglia, >> no. >> Mr. Fischer,

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>> yes. >> Mr. Krauss, >> no. >> Miss Nichols, >> no. >> Miss Ballot, >> no. >> Miss Pac, >> no. >> Dr. Ross, >> no. >> Um motion does not carry. Uh so we still have a motion on the table. That motion

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uh was the one that I originally read. I'll just read the title just to um remind everyone. Uh so is a resolution directing the administration to pursue approvals required to finance projects through a county improvement authority. Uh and at this point you had open discussions. We can go back to

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discussions now that the motion delay that motion on table has been voted upon. >> Thank you, Mr. Slam. Questions or comments on the motion on the table? >> Ryan. Okay, as a conservative Republican, I

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have to listen to the nonsense every day that President Trump and Republicans are trying to steal democracy. But then when it comes down to actually doing things that steal democracy, that always originates with the Democrats.

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This law is a case in point. So, seven five of the seven sponsors of this bill were well, all seven were Democrats. Five of the seven sponsors represented Abbott districts. So the immediate

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question you have to ask yourself because Abbott or SDA districts are actually excluded from this law, you have to ask yourself, why would Abbott Democrats be sponsoring a bill that makes it easier for suburban districts

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to borrow money and and do so at the expense of taking the vote away from the taxpayers? So, you know, I immediately asked myself, did the did the legislators for the most

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corrupt districts in the most corrupt state in the nation suddenly decide that they wanted to share money with their suburban friends? Did they suddenly decide that their 98% share of the the

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or 95% share of the state construction funds was just too much and they wanted to start giving money back? Or is there something fundamentally wrong with what's going on here? And I'm going to say there's something fundamentally

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wrong with going on with what's going on here. Anytime you take choice away from voters, there's something fundamentally wrong. That is the very definition of stealing democracy. All right? This is a

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system that's been in place for decades, if not a century or more, where when a school wants to borrow money, you go to the taxpayers and you ask them, "Is this okay?" Personally, I feel this is a huge amount

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of money, right? I think it was Bill who mentioned earlier about the the swimming pool. If you talk to people about the referendum that took place 25 years ago, they'll all mention that swimming pool as being

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the the sticking point why that referendum didn't get through. You ask me, you put a referendum up before the public and you're going to invite discussion with the public. The public is going to be able to say

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70 million may be too much, but we're willing to do 50 million. We're willing to do the roofs. We're willing to do the security, but you know what? The bathrooms can wait. I mean, it's something that the public should be able to disrupt. us sitting here and saying,

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"Well, the referendum's not going to pass. We as board members are basically saying to the people who elected us, we don't trust you. We don't think you guys know what you're doing, and we're not going to give you the chance to

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>> and I I just think it's wrong. It's it's nothing else but wrong." >> Um, >> okay. Now, if everybody wants to speak, okay, ready? >> Well, It's a non-political board, but I'm not allowed to say what I want.

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>> No, no, no. >> Yeah. >> What party is direct? Okay. The motion is about the referendum, not about stuff that's happening in Washington and all these other places. That's just the fact. It's about the motion that was put

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on the table. Okay. pool was brought up. The pool was a luxury man 25 years ago. I bet you somebody went back and did all the financial thoughts of it. He probably would have made this money in the long run. All the busing back and forth to get the city titty in the

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middle of the night. The township could have used it. There would been a lot of that was 25 years ago. Democracy is electing people to represent them. We were all elected by we got we all got elected. That's what

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democracy is. When was the last time Congress or Trump or any other Republican if you want to talk about it as the people say what should we do? I understand where lands law has been changed use the laws that were given to

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us. That's what this is about the subject of whether we want to vote this budget because we know if it goes to referendum gets defeated defeated tonight it's going to cost that much more money tomorrow. back me up. That's an absolute unless you cut things that

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maybe aren't worth you bring out the bathroom. You get that strategic planning thing. Literally, I was on the table referendum. Three fathers had no problem with the referendum. And ironically, one of them said, "But you

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better fix the so all the people out there." No. You don't believe you? No. Think it's worthwhile. Yes. That's our job. That's what we're told to do. I dislike the town. They're in charge of the town.

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I program their world. We may not like it because they don't share with us, whatever. That's fine. But that's not our job to go there and tell them what to do, you know. So, it's for us in the district. The purpose of what members

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are supposed to be. I do want to say that um before I get to you guys, the purpose of a board member is not simply to represent public opinion. Your legal duty is to uh operate in the best interest of the school district and its students. Um

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that means making decisions based on the educational welfare of kids, of safety. You know, it's not about just doing what you think uh the people want. That's assuming you even know what the voters want because we cannot sit down. It's just not feasible for us to sit with

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every single voter and explain this in the detail that they would need to make a decision and for us to get a true opinion. We would get what we would get would be most likely a knee-jerk reaction to the amount of money. But let me let you guys speak. Stephanie,

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>> I I understand and I do support doing all these things for the kids and their >> Get close to the mic. I'm sorry. I want people to be able to hear you. >> I'm not saying that I don't want this work done. I'm just struggling with not letting the voters the public vote.

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That's my That's where I'm stuck. I I It's such a huge amount of money and I feel like we've increased our taxes what two times already that since I've been here and that's what I'm struggling with. So it

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and it's it's not that I don't want to support all of you and do the right thing. I'm just having trouble with not including the public. >> With you in a perfect world, I believe a referendum would be the way to go. I

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wanted to do a referendum um you know originally, but the feasibility of getting the message out in the cont get delivering it in the way that would expl explain to everybody what it took this board years to accept that our, you

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know, how many investigations guys, finance committee people, how many did we have on these roofs and looking at pictures of, you know, decrepit uh equipment and and approving little patches so that we can fix it for a few months until it breaks again. Like, you

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know, it took a long time for us to accept the reality that we have to do this. And we kept talking about we're going to have to do a referendum. We're going to have to do a referendum. But all of us know it's it's highly, you know, even the former board member who came here uh said it's highly unlikely it will pass. And that's what, you know,

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that's the challenge we're up against. We could spend six months uh, you know, selling the heart out of it and it could still fail. And then where are we? We're going to have to get this stuff done. We're going to have to do it anyway like John said. Then then we'll have heard

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from the voters, no. and we'll have to do it despite that. That's that's not going to be a very good decision. So, that's my So, I assume anyway, um Charlie, you want I think Sarah, you want to speak to something else?

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Um so so Brian I just wanted to say I didn't not for the last u proposal um because I think it's very important that we lean forward with 91 and that's why I I didn't want to tip the table and I

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think we need to go forward with this. We need to make a decision tonight. I am 100% behind the money. I I believe in an administration administrative inventing I they have done nothing but try to get

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make money where we know can't make money. I remember switching bank accounts or or talking to the bank just to get a higher interest rate so we can get more funds in this and and the district. We we put out for bid for our

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cell to get more funds in the district. So we're looking at every they're looking to me they're looking at every avenue which we find to find money. So I or what they propose I don't think it's wrong. We we our our schools are old. I

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I and I said this a couple of times to other people is I when I first came to this district I went to rolling hills. I was so impressed. I came to the city and I was like there's carpet on the floor. This is amazing. It's amazing. I I never

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saw that in the school. I still see the same citizen. Our our buildings are deteriorating. We can't go forward. Yes. You know, maybe you don't need to fix bathroom, but ADA American Disability Actually should be

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dictating us that we can't fit wheelchairs in there. I mean, we've seen pictures where you can't even open the door practically. We have put patch on top of patch on top of patch. Right. I I I think you're you're absolutely right. What we voted in for was to make

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decisions for the district. For myself, John, I have to say, and I think this is hard for all of us. We have to think about what we want, what what we think is the right thing to do. Um I think we do need to pass something tonight, but

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for me, I do believe this this is there's certain things the board does, right? But you still have to go to the stockholders when you ask for the law. If we're going to change a lot of stuff, we need to do and this is a big big ask of our taxpayers.

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I I and I and I I respect everyone's decision what you choose tonight because we all have it in our heart to do what's right for the district and what for right for our community and for our future, our children. If we go to referendum, I am on the line and I think

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everyone should vote for it. People asked me when I was getting my petition signed or how I felt. I said yes, I believe in the referendum. If you don't feel that's wrong, then you know, don't sign my partition. But that's where we need to go. We can't can't just use the

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same budget we had 20 years ago thinking that it's going to fulfill what we need today. It's just impossible. $70 million I think a number was thrown out there today and I and I think we're 67 is our budget right or right >> 78 >> 78 so it would take a whole year of

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closing the school and not doing anything it would be co all over again just to make everything up to date so we can actually continue learn you can't have a school without a roof you you know if we can stay here until

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it just floods down on somebody and god forbid that hurts a kid just because we're afraid to go forward. But we need to do that. We need to make a choice. And I for those who want to do the the alternative way, I'm sorry. I I just

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can't figure I I think it is still right that we put this in the hands of the taxayer. Um I'm a taxpayer here. I can't afford more money to pay. Um we're all going through tough times. Food's going up, gas going up, everything's going up. It's hard for us to pay for it, but this

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is a necessary need. But I think I I I'm put in charge to make decisions, but I think this is a little bit higher than the decisions that I was asked to make. So I I my choice is not to go for this. Um but I think you all have to make it

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your decision at all. And I just hope we all vote for something tonight because we know it's needed. I do want to ask you if we do the if you were to succeed and we did the referendum and it failed, what would you do the next time if what would you do about the uh you know the

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aging roofs and the outdated alarms and the fire systems that don't work? What what what's your plan? >> So my plan I that's that's I referred back to uh Mr. Slam and Mrs. the Mendes to uh come up with a new plan. But no, I

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mean honestly it's it would be it's hard. I don't know what you could cut honestly and and I would feel like a fool that we that I didn't vote the other way. I would feel good that I made my decoice my choice because I feel in my heart that is the correct choice to do is put it in the people's choice. But

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what do you do? You what are we gonna do? Close the school? Is that what we're gonna have to you know because we can go probably another five years without any problems? I I don't know the roofs but roofs have limits right >> but the fact of the matter we don't know

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right so we don't do something but we do know that they are going to fail eventually right so what we do at that point when we don't have that 78 million I don't know we all move I I we go to sper or something I I don't know what to

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do but Jen I I'm I'm hoping that the people in this community the people that I live with know what's right for the community and this is the right choice is to spend this money for the community and I hope they know that and I hope they look at not just the number of what

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we're actually doing we're actually making the communities thrive and go further so >> I'm not looking that it's going to fail so >> okay Sarah >> so correct me if I'm wrong on this projects need to be done they will be

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done if the bond referendum fails, we are then spending more money to do projects that need to be done regardless. We are then just delaying that cost, right? So going to a bond referendum, the projects are going to

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get done regardless. We're then just spending more money to do the same thing, right? >> Going to you're you're using Okay. Um, it depend. I mean, if if we went to referendum and it failed. >> Yes, it would be cheaper,

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>> right? I'm sorry. I meant if it failed. >> Is that that your question? >> Yeah. So, if the referendum failed, we would then be extending our timeline. We would be spending more money. >> It costs us more money and we just delay the inevitable.

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So u some information share related to that. Um so um one of the things that came up earlier I think in public comment was what would the uh estimated tax impact be on the average assessed home? Uh so the estimated tax impact

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based off of today's ratables on the average home which is uh around $320,700 be around $275 a year. Um it was also noted I believe earlier u and Mr. Krauss is uh reporting out of some of the discussions that have happened in

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finance and bookings and grounds um that uh yes uh up up front it is about $1.7 million more expensive to go the improvement route. Uh so that equates to about an extra $7 a year but that's already included in that 275 estimate.

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Um so essentially if it passed the first time around it it would be cheaper by $1.7 million. if it failed, you would have the sum cost of the election and uh professional fees that would have to be uh assuming they went to another refer have to uh pave it again. Um and then

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the uh bigger risk I think is probably the um increase in cost for construction uh for a 6 to 12 month delay uh which based off of architect estimate would be somewhere between 3 to 5%. But again, no one had no one can see

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what will happen, right? So these are some of the risks. >> Yeah. I'm sorry. Go ahead. >> Yeah. I just like to say I agree with you, Charlie, on all of that, but what what what it says to me is I don't think we can wait. I think we're at a critical mass right now. If we had a catastrophic

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failure next week of a roof, what are we to do with the kids? Like you said, where are we going to send the kids? Where does it go? All right. And we have to abandon a building. So, I I don't think if if we went to referendum and it failed again, that's another year plus a

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lot more money like we talked about before and $100,000 that we just threw away with the costs that we've already been spending. And if a catastrophic failure happens with that, then I don't know what we're going to do. I don't I don't think we can afford to wait. I think it's a ticking time bomb and we have to do it

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as soon as possible. >> I just want to say I really appreciate what Charlie's saying. I think you're speaking from the heart when you say that there's you you hate the thought of a failed referendum because you know that would be the wrong thing for our community and for our schools, but you

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so value uh the community's right to vote, each individual's right to vote that you're at an impass and you have to stick with that value. And I think Brian that that's the root of your in as well. you you you you

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said at the beginning of when you were talking that that's what democracy is and I think that this I always say this is like one of those issues reasonable people could disagree on and they just come up all the time but you're not wrong and I share that value

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and I think that's what makes this decision so difficult and I think that each of I I think all of us kind of feel that way and then we're all trying to weigh how we think it's going to play out and what's going to be best for our community. And I just

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want to say on to my part for voting yes, I would say that I also take very seriously the voters faith in me to make decisions that when I vote for people, I I I'm in some sense outsourcing. I even said to John, well,

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what did the committee say? Can you tell me what the committee would advise? Because the committee has spent more time with this than I have. they've had access to more information and the experts they've had all this time to weigh it and to think about it and I we

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can't all you know the entire town can't have access to all that information can't have the bandwidth to make that kind of decision and so one of the things we do is vote for people that we trust to take the matter really seriously and then to make the best

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decision that they possibly can and so I take that really seriously too that I don't want put that back into the voters to the sort of whims of you know what what kind of misinformation or information starts

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to cloud people's ability to vote in their best interests for something um and for the town's best interest and the schools and I I take that really seriously too. So, when we have a decision like this, I feel like that's what I'm weighing and trying to to decide.

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>> That was great summary of what I've been wrestling with for the last one, Brian. >> All right. So, let me just start by saying I have a child in these schools. All right. So, I have an interest in seeing

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that these schools are as wellmaintained as possible. And my son is going to be here for another four years. So, it's not like he's on his way out the door anytime soon. All right. I want to add also that I sat here in a board meeting

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15 months ago and used that exact same analogy about putting patch on top of patch on top of patch. Right? So, I made the point 15 months ago that we needed to do something big to fix our schools.

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But the word that I've used repeatedly over those same 15 months is referendum, right? And and that's the word that we as a board have been using when we refer

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to this. All right. I keep hearing about if the referendum fails, if the referendum fails, I I can't I I just can't get it out of my mind that when we sit here and talk about

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having to to do this this way because the referendum might fail, we're not only exhibiting a lack of confidence in the voters and in the taxpayers of this town to be able to make an informed decision, I mean, Jed,

452
03:45:27.040 --> 03:45:43.120
you keep saying we can't get out there and inform everybody to make the critical decision they need to make, but yes, we do need to do that. That's our job. And saying we can't do that exhibits a lack of confidence in ourselves as a board,

453
03:45:43.120 --> 03:46:00.000
>> right? >> That's not our job. Actually, our job is not PR. That's not our job. Our job is to >> if it comes to a referendum, our job is >> it our job if you read your oath is is to provide a good safe uh academically

454
03:46:00.000 --> 03:46:15.439
you know those are our jobs that nothing in there says to go out to voters and explain anything that that is not there's absolutely not in New Jersey when there's a referendum do vote do boards go out and explain to voters >> won't do it if you have if you were trying to

455
03:46:15.439 --> 03:46:31.840
>> so you can't do it is a lack confidence in ourselves >> to say that it's our job is is not accurate is what I'm saying. And I don't think it's a lack of confidence in ourselves. I think it's a recognition of the monumental task that that represents in this world right now. I mean, there's

456
03:46:31.840 --> 03:46:47.279
so much information coming at people. People are so busy. People are working, you know, jobs. They're taking care of their kids. They're they're not always available. And what they're doing, you know, is what I did when I was a parent and very busy. I'm still very busy. What

457
03:46:47.279 --> 03:47:03.680
am I saying? But, you know, you read social media and you're going to get just a snippet and it's going to, you know, it it we have we would not only have to get out there as best we can, we'd have to somehow figure out how to get everyone everyone affected, which would be every voter in in uh Vernon to

458
03:47:03.680 --> 03:47:19.520
come and listen to us with this complicated story. It's not just, you know, 70 million. It's a complicated story of of infrastructure that has been decaying for uh decades while boards decided not to take care of it. previous boards like the you know a person who

459
03:47:19.520 --> 03:47:34.960
was here earlier chose to prioritize other things like uh saving money or for taxpayers. So now we are in we this board is in the uncomfortable position of having to do something really difficult and unpopular because other people didn't do the job well and the

460
03:47:34.960 --> 03:47:51.439
job is to take care of the schools you know including the students we're going to take >> that's the job and the way to do the job is what we're arguing about right now. Um, and you're saying get out there and sell a referendum. That's a monumental undertaking. That's costly, time

461
03:47:51.439 --> 03:48:08.239
consuming. Our administrators would have to sell it. We want them in our buildings running our schools doing the best for our students. We don't like and then, you know, and then you're assuming that that will work. you could put in uh all these districts, I don't have the numbers, but lots of them put out, you know, they got huge efforts out on the

462
03:48:08.239 --> 03:48:24.160
street uh marketing the referendums and they failed because, you know, it's a difficult thing to to tell people you're going to have to pay more money and uh and what for, right? And and to tell them you're going to get a new roof. I already have a roof. I I didn't want to put a new roof on my house cuz, you know, what do you get for that? You have

463
03:48:24.160 --> 03:48:40.160
a house and then you still have a house. It's it's not pretty. It's not sexy. It's not, you know, fun. So, it's a tough cell. Make no mistake about it. It's a tough cell. And you know that. And Mr. Higgins, who was here earlier, said it. He said it won't pass. >> He said it won't pass.

464
03:48:40.160 --> 03:48:56.720
>> Yeah, he did. I'm not the only one saying it's going to be a tough task. >> See it passing. >> Well, um >> I think it's a gamble. >> I think it's a gamble you don't want to take. That's >> And we have options. I mean, there is another law that we're allowed to use and that's what I'm that's what we have

465
03:48:56.720 --> 03:49:13.279
to decide tonight. We we have options, you know, and if the option is to gamble on a referendum and then fa if it passes, great. But if it fails, we got another year and lots more money. It's a gamble that and again I think it's a ticking time. Something is going to

466
03:49:13.279 --> 03:49:28.160
catastrophically fail along the way soon here. I think you're paying a premium time. We'll still be paying all these patches. >> I mean, you keep talking about the extra money that a failed referendum will cause. So, you're basically saying,

467
03:49:28.160 --> 03:49:43.760
"Well, I'll just pay that money now to avoid the gamble." >> No, because it's going to be more costs in construction costs, $3.5 million upwards of that. Besides more money for every everything goes up, prices of things go up. So, another year from now,

468
03:49:43.760 --> 03:50:01.359
they're talking about like much more money. >> In reality, how soon would >> any project begin? Are we going to wait 3 months, 6 months? I mean >> um so all of us is dependent on approvals >> right?

469
03:50:01.359 --> 03:50:18.239
>> Uh but if for example if bonds were sold um in the spring uh there is a slight advantage with an improvement authority versus um a vote because you could hypothetically start going to bid for things because if you have the approvals

470
03:50:18.239 --> 03:50:39.120
lined up, you know you're going to go to bond, you know it's already on its way, you could start the process a little sooner. So, there's a chance you could, based off of speaking with architects, get some projects out and uh the summer of 2027. >> It's tough. >> The options piece that you mentioned,

471
03:50:39.120 --> 03:50:55.920
John, is a critical thing for me. It's like if we didn't have that, we would advocate for the referendum. We would support that. If we do have it and I choose not to take advantage of it, then I'm making a choice to not secure

472
03:50:55.920 --> 03:51:11.120
the schools the way I know they need to be on the board. I have that option available to me and if I don't take advantage of it, then I'm making the choice to gamble that to to leave that up to chance. And that's also something

473
03:51:11.120 --> 03:51:28.720
I'm not comfortable with. Ray, >> two points is Mike. >> If we had the referendum and it failed, there's two things I'd like to bring attention. Why d no doubt the nine of us are committed to the buildings, but nine

474
03:51:28.720 --> 03:51:44.720
of us won't be here in three years. Every year there's an election. Some people come, some people go. We don't know who those people are, whether they're going to be as committed to the construction. Two, with the increased cost, we're not counting in all the repairs we're going to keep making for

475
03:51:44.720 --> 03:52:01.279
three years because we don't know what they are yet. Things fail. I'm not going to say every meeting, but a lot of meetings we have to. So, that another cost. And as they get older, they're more likely to break more. We've had to do fire alarms, which we weren't expecting to do, roof patches, multiple

476
03:52:01.279 --> 03:52:17.760
things. Those are other creases that we don't know. Well, that will just keep coming. And even if they're not catastrophic, they're still going to add up in the end. But that's another cost that we really can't predict right now, but will certainly almost certainly happen. So,

477
03:52:17.760 --> 03:52:35.199
>> can I just interject one thing really quick? >> Um, so, so I was able just to give, you know, peace of mind for the legal aspect. I was able to pull up the statute on my phone. And the reason why the statute pertaining to the pilots

478
03:52:35.199 --> 03:52:50.960
says that there's no referendum required is because that statute requires the board to issue the school bonds. Under the improvement authority law, the school district is not issuing bonds. You're just entering into a lease. And that's why there's no reference and

479
03:52:50.960 --> 03:53:07.040
that's why it's silent on the referendum because you guys are not issuing the bonds. It's the improvement authorities issuing the bonds. You're just entering it into a lease and the law allows you to enter into a lease to pay back the bonds. So that's why there's that difference in the two laws. >> Thank you.

480
03:53:07.040 --> 03:53:22.560
>> I think the the question about that though is that we still have the obligation. >> Yeah. I mean that's there's no there's no obligation if no legal obligation if you use the improvement authority to finance. It's you know but it's up to you guys as you guys are having the

481
03:53:22.560 --> 03:53:37.199
discussion of which way to proceed. But there it is perfectly legal to proceed without a referendum if you finance through the improvement authority. But it's up to your discretion as the board how you guys want it. >> The payments are binding. Right. >> The payments are binding. Correct.

482
03:53:37.199 --> 03:53:53.120
>> Right. And if we were to default on a payment, then the state would step in and take the payment that of our school aid. Is that right? >> Uh I assume so. Correct. Just for a point of clarity, um we are

483
03:53:53.120 --> 03:54:09.920
voting to uh pursue this path. This is not going to then we will we will have to vote again once it's cleared once it's approved by the next for the next uh step. Right. So so we will have to actually vote to uh take on this step down the road.

484
03:54:09.920 --> 03:54:25.840
>> So so that's a good point. So there would if you guys decide to go down this path, there will be other subsequent approvals that will need to be made. Additionally, uh the county improvement author uh a county improvement authority and the county would also need to take

485
03:54:25.840 --> 03:54:42.479
steps to affirmatively approve. So, you know, this is a resolution, you know, uh for the board to decide to go down this route. Uh but there's no guarantee that we'll even be able to finance the project this way. Uh because we need the other parties to agree as well.

486
03:54:42.479 --> 03:55:01.199
>> So, let me ask a question then. Which is the more straightforward process? Well, if if the other parties uh agree, this would be the most the more straightforward process. Um >> because the other one is obviously

487
03:55:01.199 --> 03:55:18.560
subject to the v will of the voters, >> right? But this has more moving parts. >> Um this has to be approved by three governing bodies. >> But there's no actual uh cost involved in those governing bodies approving it

488
03:55:18.560 --> 03:55:34.160
>> their cost for their professionals and such gets wrapped into the cost of the financing uh which Ray laid out in the beginning. >> So we so uh if they don't approve it then it it's a well it's it's a zero

489
03:55:34.160 --> 03:55:50.000
cost for us if they don't actually approve it then >> correct. >> Okay. So >> but we have to start all over again. >> We're not out anything but we're >> except the Yes. Except the time which is which is what we're saying is the risk of >> it's not going to be it's not going to

490
03:55:50.000 --> 03:56:06.319
be six months of time. It's going to be I don't know what did you say? How long is it usually before you get an answer from the uh authorities? It's usually month, two months. >> Yeah, I would I would say probably within the next couple weeks >> weeks. talking about weeks versus six

491
03:56:06.319 --> 03:56:24.880
months. >> Hypothetically, if we don't get that approval, obviously it would be up to the board, but then the pivot would be to a referendum. That's the direction the board directed us, right? But we would need to seek that approval

492
03:56:24.880 --> 03:56:41.080
from the county first before we know if it's even viable. >> So, do we do we have more questions on this or do we want to move to a vote? I mean, I feel like we're repeating ourselves a bit. I I could I could read you all this notes that I wrote, but it's

493
03:56:41.600 --> 03:56:57.600
>> all right. Um Okay. So, uh let's move to local. >> Mr. Zin, >> just to be clarified, this is for the authority. >> This is this is to move to direct the

494
03:56:57.600 --> 03:57:14.880
administration to pursue the improvement authority pathway. >> Yes. Mr. Simaglia, >> no. >> Mr. Fischer, >> no. >> Mr. Krauss, >> yes. >> Miss Nichols,

495
03:57:14.880 --> 03:57:32.800
>> yes. >> Miss Pallet, >> yes. >> Miss PEC, >> yes. >> Dr. Ross, >> yes. >> Miss Varello, >> yes. >> Motion carries. >> Thank you everyone. That was a very good

496
03:57:32.800 --> 03:57:50.000
discussion and I appreciate all of the uh preparation that went into this >> was democracy in action. >> It was. >> So um Mr. Slam, could you just go over our next steps um for the board just for clarity? So tonight um well we still

497
03:57:50.000 --> 03:58:06.880
have the second one to we still have to make a motion on the second one or is a second one already? >> Yeah. No, I I'm sorry. I have that here. Um, so if it passes, uh, I need to make a motion to, so I'm I move to postpone indefinitely,

498
03:58:06.880 --> 03:58:23.760
uh, resolution 3B. And I get a second. >> Second. >> Do we have any questions or comments on that? >> Did you make the motion? >> I did. Okay.

499
03:58:23.760 --> 03:58:41.840
>> We're voting to to table it. Not just to check something. Am I able to ask? >> Uh, I would ask for it. >> Okay. I'm sorry. I go back. Can I get a motion postpone finance resolution 3B and >> Yeah, I'm so moved.

500
03:58:41.840 --> 03:58:56.880
>> Second. >> Second. >> Second, >> Charlie. >> Thank you. >> Second. >> Yes. Any questions or comments? >> We need to do a roll call. >> Uh, yes. I'll call on that.

501
03:58:56.880 --> 03:59:12.479
>> Mr. Smanglia, >> yes. Mr. Fischer, >> what are we voting on? >> U since the f um first motion passed, uh the second motion is being tabled uh since it was an eitheror um setup >> voting on table.

502
03:59:12.479 --> 03:59:28.880
>> Nay. >> Um Mr. Krauss, >> yes. >> Miss Nichols, >> yes. >> Miss Pallet, >> yes. >> Miss Pac, >> yes. >> Dr. Ross, >> yes. Miss Aarella, Mr. Zimmerman,

503
03:59:28.880 --> 03:59:46.399
>> he's not here. >> Sorry. Motion carries. >> Can we just uh receive um perhaps what are the next steps? The administration will now pursue this uh financing option. We still have to secure

504
03:59:46.399 --> 04:00:03.279
approvals. So, if we could just uh perhaps share with the board specifically, this is what the board can expect over the next few weeks. What are we doing? Um so that way we know when we come back, we're reporting out and in

505
04:00:03.279 --> 04:00:18.560
November we'd potentially be taking uh another vote. So, can you walk us through what are the next steps? >> Uh yes. Uh so uh we are formally seeking um this is gonna sound funny. We are

506
04:00:18.560 --> 04:00:34.640
formally going to request um Sussex Countyy's formal support. So essentially what we're doing is we're reaching out to Sussex County and asking them if they will support this. >> There be a reason they wouldn't. >> Um it's their decision. They're not

507
04:00:34.640 --> 04:00:50.319
financially um liable for any of this. They're essentially acting um my understanding is almost like a tenant. Um I don't know Tony if you want to jump in and add a little extra detail to that. >> Sure. The they just basically the law

508
04:00:50.319 --> 04:01:06.000
requires that they are acting as a pass through entity to be a partner to the lease to secure the lease payments. Um, so really they have no financial exposure um because they're only obligated to repay the debt based on receiving

509
04:01:06.000 --> 04:01:21.840
payment from the school district. Um, so it's really but the law allows this financing but does not require the county to to participate. Um, so now we have to go to the county and ask for uh their cooperation and assistance to be a

510
04:01:21.840 --> 04:01:38.640
partner in this project. >> Who's after the county? Uh so we also would need approval from the uh since our county doesn't have an improvement authority we would need approval from the uh authority from another county um and

511
04:01:38.640 --> 04:01:54.239
then also approval from the local New Jersey local finance board. >> Now there are two improvement authorities uh one of which we've been in discussion with just so that we can clarify misinformation that's out there. So can we talk about those two improvement authorities? Who have we

512
04:01:54.239 --> 04:02:11.600
been in discussion with? >> Uh, yep. It's uh believe it's uh Payic and Cumberland uh improvement authorities uh both have expressed interest >> and we've been discussing with Cumberland. >> Uh yes, Cumberland uh uh has they both

513
04:02:11.600 --> 04:02:29.040
expressed interest, but they responded quicker, right? So, you could read into them more or less, right? Uh and I think we have Mr. uh Morris on. Uh I don't know if we could uh unmute Mr. Morris if he wants to uh add a little bit information uh on that process.

514
04:02:29.040 --> 04:02:45.680
>> Uh sure. Thank you all. Um no I think I think you covered it. I mean we we reached out to both just to um see if there's you know just hypothetically if there would be any interest at all. Um and as uh Mr. Slam mentioned uh Cumberland was not only

515
04:02:45.680 --> 04:03:00.479
responded quicker but just um we had more in-depth discussions with them. it sounded like they were um very interested. Um but um you know nothing is official, nothing is formal. It's all been informal discussion. So we'd have

516
04:03:00.479 --> 04:03:17.520
to make a formal request um from either or or both. >> Uh and part of the process um you'll remember I think it was I think I have in my one of my notes here uh back in I think it was

517
04:03:17.520 --> 04:03:34.399
it was in May. back in May. Uh we uh there is an approval for the architect to submit the project submissions. Uh so those are uh basically at completion now. Uh they're at the point now where we are going to sign and submit those. Um so when those get submitted, they

518
04:03:34.399 --> 04:03:51.439
will go to the state. Uh the state will review them and essentially um and this is a similar process for both uh you know either a perma authority or a referendum. Uh they will review the projects. Um, and I think I have uh I don't I can't see from this far away,

519
04:03:51.439 --> 04:04:11.040
but I I know our our architect is on >> Yeah, we have Pete and Carrie up there. I don't know if one of them wants to fill in a little bit about that. >> Certainly. Right. Um, right now you have before you um

520
04:04:11.040 --> 04:04:27.840
applications to the state department of ed. Uh the applications will be reviewed um by the department and in so doing they will then compute the amount of eligible costs and

521
04:04:27.840 --> 04:04:44.960
eligible aid that then gets to a letter to the board and that will define the amount of aid that the board would receive over the lifetime of the bond. As Mr. Solommani said previously um it's

522
04:04:44.960 --> 04:05:03.279
40% but it's 85% of 40% so it's about 34%. Um so in reality when you get those letters back after the state review they would approve it and ask you then if you accept the aid percentage amount. You

523
04:05:03.279 --> 04:05:18.720
then would pass a resolution saying that yes you accept the aid. send it back to Trenton and then that would lock in V8 and that process uh takes a few months. We're we're hoping uh you have the

524
04:05:18.720 --> 04:05:36.239
applications now uh once they're signed return to us. We'll upload them to Trenton the review process will begin hopefully just a few months and uh we'll be back with you to talk about the aid percentages and the amount of aid. So that means

525
04:05:36.239 --> 04:05:53.279
40% of the referendum uh would be financed by the state. 60% of the referendum would come from the local share. >> It's not a referendum >> of the uh the cost of the projects. >> Uh uh so

526
04:05:53.279 --> 04:06:09.680
>> you think we should stop using that word? >> Fair enough, Mr. Bridget. >> Um my apologies, sir. So once we get those letters back, hopefully uh sometime in the fall, uh then we would have the locked in uh

527
04:06:09.680 --> 04:06:27.040
amounts for the state aid portion. Um and that is when we would be able to take farther action and seek more formal um commitments uh from the uh count Sussex County and the improvement authority, the other county improvement authority. Am I wrong

528
04:06:27.040 --> 04:06:42.000
in saying that if we do this there's a you said there was a chance we wouldn't get funding from the state? >> Uh no we would be eligible for the funding uh either way. So when the bonds

529
04:06:42.000 --> 04:06:58.720
are uh sold it ends up being fund 40 which is debt service. Um and then um we would also get debt service aid from the state each year. >> Is it 40 or 34? Uh so the law says 40 but they funded it at 85% which means

530
04:06:58.720 --> 04:07:20.720
it's about 34% actual. >> So so Ray or somebody on the Zoom if if we get Sussex to approve it and let's say we go with Cumberland and they say no they pull out the last minute we're

531
04:07:20.720 --> 04:07:37.040
done. Do we have to vote again to go to Masonic or do you just continue the process with the PY? Um >> we would then just go to PY. Um and then uh you know from there we'd have to see what happens. Uh but there would be more

532
04:07:37.040 --> 04:07:54.080
formal action once we have uh and either way there will be more formal action when we receive the PEC letters which is the commitment from the state for the state portion of the funding. Could could they could they say we'll f we'll fund this but we won't fund the full amount you know could they because

533
04:07:54.080 --> 04:08:10.960
cumblan say we'll only go up to 50. >> Um Tony I don't know if you've seen uh anything like that happen up until this point. >> Yeah I mean they they technically could I mean they have the discretion to you know up until they take affirmative

534
04:08:10.960 --> 04:08:34.399
legal action. um you know they could say hey we only want to fund a portion of it or we want to fund all of it but um my assumption will be if they want to be part of the project they'll be part of >> this is Adam are we done with this

535
04:08:34.399 --> 04:08:51.760
subject >> sorry >> I want to make a motion if we're done with the subject >> anybody else have to talk to I'd like to make a motion to go to item view on page 20 to redonate the equipment to this

536
04:08:51.760 --> 04:09:07.120
>> so he can sit here for another hour. Yes. Would you like me to? >> I'm allowed to do that. >> Reading through the the next set of recommendations. >> Okay. Yeah. I mean, can we uh are we all caught up on our voting, right? We're just chatting. >> This is just next steps.

537
04:09:07.120 --> 04:09:22.720
>> So, that's in our section which he can do very quickly, right? I will I will summarize >> greatly >> and uh thank you for staying with us. >> Yes, we're up to your thing now. >> Yeah, >> I can't hear. >> We're up to we're at your item now on

538
04:09:22.720 --> 04:09:38.000
the agenda. So, >> uh so the remaining part of finance is >> you'll be fine. >> Uh so we have our reports under item C and D. We have our uh transportation for the month of July under item E. uh turn

539
04:09:38.000 --> 04:09:54.239
in renewal for item F. For item G is the 2627 ESA grant application. So it's approval of that for that. Item H, uh we have approval for the agreement with Skylands Urgent Care for mandatory school drug testing. Uh item I is for

540
04:09:54.239 --> 04:10:10.560
the approval for toilet room waiverss uh for uh preK and kindergarten. Uh item J is approval for dual use for the uh noted rooms. Item K is uh recommendation uh to approve Wins Goldman and Spitzer

541
04:10:10.560 --> 04:10:26.560
as bond council. Uh we have letter L uh which is the approval to uh let me go to bid um receive bids, unseal bids, etc. Um we have letter M which is approval for the application for Perkins. We have

542
04:10:26.560 --> 04:10:44.080
letter N which is approval for uh power school Navian subscription. We have letter O which is the approval of the proposal from Northeast roof maintenance to replace the maintenance garage roof. Uh letter P which is related is the uh withdrawal from capital reserve to

543
04:10:44.080 --> 04:11:01.199
replace that roof. Uh letter Q is uh the renewal of Strauss SMA Associates policy alert and support system contact. Item R is approval of a donation from the Walnut Ridge SCA in amount of $1,715 to the purchases board. Uh thank you very much for that donation. We we

544
04:11:01.199 --> 04:11:17.600
appreciate that. Uh letter S uh is approval professional services agreement with STAR pediatric for private nursing service. Letter T is approval for professional service agreement with AP occupational therapy LLC. Letter U is this is there we go we made it. Upon recommendation of the superintendent

545
04:11:17.600 --> 04:11:31.600
schools, approval by the board of education to approve the transfer of the previously donated Leon Leath and Bridgeport milling machine equipment from Thor Labs to the Vern Township High School to be redonated to the Sussex County Maker Space.

546
04:11:31.600 --> 04:11:50.239
I read the whole one for that one. >> Uh, letter V is approval to join the state county cooperative pricing system. Letter W is the amendment to the previously passed resolution for Masio. Mashios, which I believe was off by about a thousandth of a cent. And that's everything.

547
04:11:50.239 --> 04:12:07.199
>> Okay. Can I get a motion to approve items F3C through F3W? >> Second. >> Second. >> Questions or comments? >> I have one comment. >> I just want to look at letter O. And just

548
04:12:07.199 --> 04:12:24.160
making our point here that it's just a a garage roof replacement at Lounbury Hollow School in the amount of $229,000. That's just a small roof and and it from I just want to point that out that these things are going to be happening and

549
04:12:24.160 --> 04:12:42.399
they're going to start happening to the rest of our buildings. >> Anyone else? Charlie. So I this is a question about the donations since because I thought we can't donate since we can't give out

550
04:12:42.399 --> 04:12:58.800
equipment to other people. We always have to uh dispose of it through selling or through a disposal company. I know we didn't pay for this. So does that make it different because they were donated? So, because we received this as a donation,

551
04:12:58.800 --> 04:13:15.920
um I spoke with David about to make sure since we received this as a donation, we're able to essentially be directed by the original donor if we're no longer using the items to then transfer those items to uh another company or organization, in this case, Sussex

552
04:13:15.920 --> 04:13:32.720
County Maker Space. Uh so with that being said, we have a letter uh from Thor Labs directing us to please transfer the donated equipment to Sussex County Maker Space since we're no longer utilizing the equipment. >> This is not taxpayer funded, right? Correct. >> And then I just had a question about

553
04:13:32.720 --> 04:13:51.359
Power School. So what are we what are we doing with Power School Navian >> because my my concern with Power School is they had a huge cyber attack. Yeah. >> Few years ago. What have they done to protect them? I don't know if there's

554
04:13:51.359 --> 04:14:10.040
anybody else out there. I mean, but I do have a concern using system that they didn't seem, you know, company that didn't seem to clean up their act or help their clients as much.

555
04:14:12.479 --> 04:14:27.840
>> I don't have a response for that. Um that is our current um student information system. Uh this is for Naviance in particular. >> Okay. >> Um but certainly it's an item we can bring to the technology committee if there are concerns and we can work them

556
04:14:27.840 --> 04:14:43.279
through the committee. >> Yeah, it was a big reach. We should probably check it. But it is a useful >> I I do again this is a while ago but I do recall at the time I believe I asked if it affected the software we're

557
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utilizing and the answer at the time was no. >> Um so >> really because >> both of my kids got noticed their information was breached. Yes >> for power. Yeah, not public. >> Oh, okay. I stand corrected then.

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>> There are competitor products to not be out there. >> Oh, that's that's true. I just don't know how, you know, good. >> Let someone know they're wrong. >> All right. Well, we'll look into that. Thank you, Charlie. Um, any else?

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>> I have a question. Can I ask you a question about the bills list? >> Independence constructors. $60,460 plus two smaller amounts. Is that for work they're doing on one of our

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buildings? >> So, we had the oil tank fail at uh Rolling Hills. Um I think it was a couple it was a few board meetings ago. Uh but essentially the oil tank failed the test. Uh I believe the tank's somewhere between 25 to 30 years old. Uh so what we did, that's what that's

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specifically related to. It's for removing the tank and us renting a tank in the meantime as we're waiting for the natural gas to come down the road. Um, but what we did to time that and the reason why we're renting the tank rather than replacing the tank is we know natural gas is finally making its way to us where we uh change those uh burners

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over to dual fuel. Um, so that way we'll just rent the tank. Then once the natural gas is here, we'll hook up the natural gas and we'll be good to go. We'll no longer have a tank in the ground and one of our one of our tanks will be out. uh we're going to start having those same issues with our other tanks because they're all 25 to 30 years

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old and it's starting to get to the point where um it's going to be difficult to have insurance companies cover those tanks, right? So, it is something that's coming down the road. Uh and the natural gas is literally coming down the road. So, it's we'll have to find the funds to remove those

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tanks and it can get pretty pricey. >> Thank you. >> All right. Uh, so that wraps up questions and comments. Can we get a roll call? >> Mr. Fischer. >> Hi, >> Mr. Krauss.

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>> Uh, yes. Except I need to abstain from letter C, F1A, check number 98117. I think Brian has to do that as well. >> That too. >> He does. or abstain from what?

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>> From the check number 98116. >> Abstain when noted. >> Thank you. >> Sorry, I scrolled up. I got to scroll back down now. >> Miss Nichols. Yes, >> Miss Pallet. >> Yes, >> Miss Pekk.

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>> Yes, >> Dr. Ross. >> Yes, >> Miss Sakarella. >> Yes, >> Mr. Zimmerman. >> Yes, >> Mr. Smagley. >> No to letter N. Yes to everyone. Everything else.

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>> All right, you're good. Thank you for coming. Thank you for your patience. All right. Number four, special services >> scrolling. Uh we have letter A, uh which is

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recommendation by superintendent of schools to approve approve the below out of district placements. And we have letter B which is approval uh recommendation to approve the service agreement with J&B therapy. Uh that's attachment SS S1. >> Thank you. Thank you. Can I get a motion

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for items F4 through F4B? >> So move. >> Second. Thank you. Questions or comments? >> Seeing none, we'll do roll call. >> Mr. Krauss, >> yes.

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>> Miss Nichols, >> yes. >> Miss Pallet. Miss Pek, >> yes. >> Dr. Ross, >> yes. >> Miss Aarella, >> yes. >> Mr. Zimmerman, >> yes. >> Mr. Smeaggley, >> yes. >> Mr. Fischer. >> I. >> Motion carries.

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>> Thank you. Item 12, public comment. Um, do we have any members of the public who'd like to comment here online? >> All right. Uh, item uh 13, open board member forum. Do we have any board members who would like

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to prolong tonight's meeting with a comment? Of course you would. Chair. I just uh so if we looked at the special services that this we have children going to the school for deaf. >> I can't hear you. >> Are you deaf? >> This is what actually what I'm bringing

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up. I want to bring up. So there's a school for deaf for for one or two students, >> right? Um not that I don't think I think they we need to send them there because I think they get special specialized training, but do we do um sign language American Sign Language in the schools? I

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mean, have we thought about that? because we do have a lot of kids that can't speak or >> communicate and we're trying to get away from technology to right so I mean this is something we can maybe look at >> yes I think our new director of oral

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languages can certainly explore that answer yes that's certainly something we can >> thank you okay anything else from anyone all right item 14 Adjournment. Can I get a motion to adjurnn?

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>> So moved. >> Second. >> Um, all in favor? I >> I >> thank you everyone.