##VIDEO ID:NG51QSt7RLs## I pledge alleg to the flag of the United States of America to the one nation indivisible andice for all okay and we're going to start right off with presentations preschool expansion yeah so there's there's so much to be proud of in Washington Township uh right away it was very clear how much we had to be proud when I came here to learn about our preschool program which has just and keeps growing exponentially so first off let's give a round of applause for all our staff that came tonight we're uh we're very excited to to give the board some incredible news and to celebrate some amazing amazing accomplishments so we have principal Christina Cox and director Gretchen Gerber and all of our prek wonderful staff it is off to you good evening members of the Board of Education Administration staff and Community it's truly an honor to present to you this evening and highlight the successes of our preschool program including its recent achievement a prestigious four-star rating from grow New Jersey kids before I begin I'd like to take a moment to recognize Christina Cox the principal of grand lock ter ear cha Center Melissa McMahon our early childhood supervisor and our incredible preschool staff I particularly want to mention Kimberly Longfellow our first preschool instructional coach who was instrumental throughout this entire process the dedication and tireless efforts of our entire preschool team made this recognition possible and their commitment to Excellence is what drives the success of our program last year we proudly applied for the recognition for grenlock Terrace Early Childhood Center this application occurred prior to our expansion to Kindle and prior to our Partnerships with local providers so this evening Christina Cox will provide more details about the significance of grow New Jersey kids rating and what it means for our program following that I will highlight how our expansion efforts have allowed our beloved grenlock gardeners to open New Garden Patches at various locations spreading opportunities for early learning across our community at this time I'd like to introduce Christina Cox to provide further insight into this exceptional accomplishment thank you good evening everyone I am so excited to be able to talk about our fourstar rating for grow NJ kids so you might be asking what does that mean so so a fourstar rating uh for Washington Township grenlock means that we have a quality education program in early childhood and best practice um to put it into more perspective for you we are the first Public School District in Camden County and Gloucester County to ever receive a fourstar rating so that's in itself very exciting so how do you earn a fourstar rating uh in many ways it's similar to qac in that there's various categories with different points um as you can see the categories are uh providing a safe healthy learning environment curriculum and learning environment family and Community engagement Workforce professional development and training staff credentials and administration and management within each of those categories are about six to 10 categories within that that you have to document and upload different document ation pieces just to get the process even started so once all of that is uploaded uh there's a second piece which entails uh an interview with state representatives to review data and student profiles uh Kim and I sat on I guess a couple three-hour meetings uh reviewing student data and profiles uh a review of all professional development and family Outreach initiatives with the doe three hour classroom observations of eight randomly selected special education and general education classrooms these are people that work uh for the state they show up they just select randomly the teacher that they're going to observe for 3 hours that day um and they use something called The Early Childhood environmental rating scale which we call the eers uh and then you determine your goals you look at what we need to do to get better and you continue to develop those goals so what's next now that we have this reading well of course we're going to celebrate we're doing that today but we're also doing that on Thursday the state is coming on the 19th to honor grenlock with a banner and we're having something called a star day Grady T was holding up our star uh sign to show and then every three years we'll be allowed to reapply for this um the amount of stars that you can receive are five a very little amount of districts have that but of course next time that will be our goal to be the first uh School in South Jersey with a five so uh thank you I know grin is going to go over some more parts of our preschool program thank you Christina so um this is an opportunity just to talk a little bit about our program and rather than and you have to hear me the whole time i' just like to show you um when you go to grenlock Terrace's page uh Christina Bata is going to be my Vanna White she's going to take us to The District web page right that links right from grenlock and it is all about our preschool program um on the preschool program our homepage includes all the different types of ways that you can see pictures photos information uh and includes our mission our beliefs um and all the schools that we right now are working have students attending um we have our registration link which is going to be coming up in January uh and we also will be doing our Lottery our first lottery in February if we move on to curriculum it talks a little bit more so if you're curious about the curriculum we use we use creative curriculum for preschool uh we use it for both our threes and fours there's an overview a scope of the curriculum and then also there is um the interest areas of the learning environment that we set up in our classrooms also Al talks about our assessment which is teaching strategies gold it's very uh cumbersome to use um but we get great data from it it's really a great way for us to assess how our students are growing um from there we include a biography of all of our teachers uh we have photos of our teachers they write something from every site um on each of these locations that we have um our students attending and then from there we have a great resources page so this page all includes the family resources you have videos for parents to watch a family handbook uh we have our workshops that we've had um nurses information there's videos to attend but Christina if you could take us back up to the handbook and I just want to show you the the Magnificent work that really uh was started by Melissa McMahon and then continues uh with Kristen Egan as the cpis this resource includes everything that a parent would need to know um if you flip through those pages you'll see just an introduction to PR school um you know what it's about and the contact information of the various sites our district Mission uh vision and Mission uh continuing on with our district goals and then talking about what happens with attendance in preschool and Transitions and our team our calendar all great information for um and this team is important and I'll talk about them later but these are our our preschool instructional coaches our cpis our social worker our counselors and our preschool instructional coaches all funded through pea uh if you continue um there's definitely information about the curriculum again um we talk more about the environment developmentally appropriate practices and then what a daily routine looks like in our preschool a sample schedule although you know it varies uh slightly based on when students eat um units of study and if we move on we find just a little bit more about our assessment teaching strategies gold so this is a great resource talking a lot about health and safety guidelines um we talk about just the early childhood which we talked about the the rating scale the eer support services that we offer and how we use the uh preschool intervention uh pyramid model so we have purs we'll call them the preschool intervention referral Specialists team members and we have two in our district at this time at the time of the rating we had we had one um so we're moving on to our child study team School counsel all information that parents have accessible to them so thank you Christina if you could bring me back to the slideshow so that is all available to all parents and the community right from grenlock web page uh and includes all of our programs at every single location so some highlights I'm going to turn over to Christina you got it okay the final thing I'd like to talk about is some things that grenlock and Kindle have um just to highlight some things in our preschool program uh one thing that I'm extremely proud of is uh at grenlock we have uh community- based instruction uh for our high school students so twice a month our students from the autism program and the MD program come to grenlock and essentially work uh we have different jobs some are working in the main office working with our custodian Bobby working in the library with Mary Kate working in each different uh different settings uh sometimes children are assigned uh to outside time sometimes they're working on reading a story to students they stay about two hours and it is probably one of the highlights of my uh month just being there with the kids uh seeing how beneficial it is for all of the students and some of them were my former students so to see how big they are Now is really cool so another thing that we have going on this year is we partnered with Bunker Hill uh art teacher Mr marrow and he is going to be creating an art installation for grenlock uh right in our main entrance to highlight um our program and our expansion and since many of the students now uh have attended grenlock they have this Nostalgia there so they want to give back to our school and so he has created something really special uh each School in the whole district is going to be highlighted in this art installation by their mascot um so it's something that when that comes we will definitely be showcasing he's really passionate about it and really excited to share his work when it's time with his students uh some new additions we have at grenlock that were're paid for through pea we received or not received but we installed a bike path um this is for gross motor for our three and four-year-olds they're learning to ride a tricycle uh helping them with that gross motor Movement we have a bike path out out front we created two sensory rooms this year one at Kindle and one at grlw Great space for the children to go if they need it and we created an indoor playground this year um we have gross motor we have guidelines uh that we need to follow and this is another great space that the kids can can essentially play in but also work on those gross motor skills and then one thing I do want to highlight if we still are going to keep Tik Tock in the United States is our Tik Tock um if you get a chance to see gr loocks well preschool Tik Tock I think you would love it we uh reach out to different families now the generation of parents in preschool are Tik Tok families so we have a huge following on Tik Tok we have 3,000 views at Plus on all of our things we're viral sometimes we have fun everybody in preschool does what these crazy things are that we ask them to do and be silly and have inflatable races and it's just not only great for the parents to see the students to see but the school culture and then the final thing I want to share is another thing that's very special to me is uh last year Joanne Henry and I wrote a grant through NJ peep that's New Jersey preschool inclusion education project that's a partnership with uh Montclair State University also a partnership with the NJ doe and the office of special education we partnered with them to expand inclusion opportunities in our early childhood Le uh level we're in year two each year uh we develop goals on how to increase inclusive opportunities uh one of those things we do each month is we created an SP team it's called a school-based leadership team we meet each month we talk about our goals what we can do to expand even further we have free PD because of this grant that we received and it's awesome so I wanted to make sure everyone knew I could I could talk about that for a whole another presentation but I did want to share that and here's just some quick pictures this is our indoor play area that was just installed it's installed into the ground these uh play pieces and then this is the bike path for the students so our current pea classrooms this year so this year we had a big expansion uh we were able to lease uh the building over at Kindle so we have gr loock Terrace Kindle and we have a classroom at the high school so we have 420 seats and that includes any inclusive students and through Head Start little Achievers Kinder Care Cadence and Tutor Time we have another 135 students attending at those sites so for the 555 students that we have that committed with the providers uh in the spring that finally committed uh we are excited about having that class of three and four-year-olds move through our district for next year or before I should say since our rating um or even since we have um decided to grow and moved into this year our enrollment size has allowed us and also pea has provided the funds to support um an increase in our preschool instructional coaches our preschool Interventional referral Specialists our social workers and we now have a dedicated community and parent involvement specialist um I see some of them in the audience so our instructional Cod U coaches are Kim Longfellow and Nicole white our Pur team is Jonathan gerwald and Jenna Driscoll we have a counselor Lauren Kupa we have our social worker Kelly Amato and our cpis which is community parent involvement specialist Kristen Egan and without those funds um we would not be as successful uh and so many students are benefiting from having these positions and the wonderful thing is they are a funded mandate so that's one time in the state where we could say they're required and they're providing the funds for us we are refining and expanding our kindergarten transition team uh we really are moving up through a K3 approach in vertical articulation we actually have people from the county coming to see and visit our schools and how well we're doing with our Circle time and our Center areas in kindergarten because we've been transitioning those teams uh to see what we're doing in preschool and bringing some of those great practices into our primary classrooms we're also providing more inclusive opportunities as Christina had mentioned and the most important thing is is we want everybody regardless of what location to feel a part of Washington Township so we communicate to All Families about all of our events whether they're at little Achievers whether they're at Kindle whether at the classroom at the high school we want them to know that they are Washington Township students so for next year our plans for 2526 are we are going to open up 435 seats in District which is adding one more in District classroom because of our inclusion efforts so we're reducing a self-contained room including more students in with gened population and that's allowing us to have one more seat with providers we have more contracts um that are pending so we are hoping to open another two to to a total of 225 seats which is an increase of 105 seats serving 660 students yeah thank you so our goal is to reach our universe and what the what preschool determines your universe or the doe determines your Universe to be is 90% of your first grade class well that number changes from year to year so it's kind of like a little bit of a moving Target so right now it's approximately 965 students if every provider stays contracted with us for next year and we get the additional classrooms that uh and relationships that we for forged we will have 73% of our universe met which is incredible and finally I just want to walk you a little bit down memory lane so we started our application in 2122 and in that year we opened seven rooms and we did that by moving kindergarten back very quickly into our home schools um but we prepared in advance knowing that we might be able to make application we didn't work with head start our first year but we had an agreement for the following year which was helpful because in 2 23 we opened up 14 rooms so we went from 7 to 14 and we doubled just in one year uh where we had 13 rooms at grenlock and one room at Head Start and from there the expansion continued we went to 19 rooms we had more rooms at grenlock we did have a provider that was going to be with us which is why we had two rooms at the high school that provider rescinded when the state contracts came out so we found a home for them we didn't want to offer a seat to somebody that we couldn't um do so we made we made that work and we also expanded at Head Start in this current year we're at 37 classrooms um spoke already about Kindle the high school Head Start and all of our providers and for next year we're looking at 44 classrooms of three and four year olds so that's quite amazing to have 15 rooms of grenlock 13 at Kindle one at the high school two rooms at Head Start and 13 rooms at our providers really have to give a shout out at this point to Melissa McMahon because she drives around town with me all summer while we bang on preschool doors trying to get people to partner with us so thank you so I really have to take a moment to thank the folks that are here because without the teachers and the staff of grand loock Kindle and any provider location uh the folks at Head Start start everybody that makes preschool tick we would not have received this award we would not be seeing the growth and gains of our students and we would not be seeing these smiling faces that are learning and growing exponentially and that we hope will become such better um prepared for they'll be much better prepared for the future ahead of them and for um the shining stars that they will lead through their life so thank you so much for your time tonight I appreciate all of you I appreciate your support I appreciate the board support and from the initial support when we first launched this so that we could grow this program into what it is today thank you everybody here here prek related could you stand please prek everybody preschool stand up just give me hand good job everybody tell them yeah you got you got may I say something that was my home for many years and actually that's a model school for the entire District it always has been it is now they not only look at the whole child they look at the whole family if you ever want to learn what educ ation should look like I ask you to go visit grandl Terrace and Kindle thank [Applause] you I guess there you go taking a picture in the back okay go back there it's okay okay Mo moving moving on moving on um discussion items any discussion items School community relations nothing correspondence um I have a motion to approve the letters of discipline and correspondence under correspondence is listed so moveed have a second Carol yeah all in favor opposed okay all right approval of the minutes ask for a motion to approve the minutes from October 15th and November 12th 2024 with an amendment um Bo do you want to read the amendment no no no I can't read the I can't read the amend just as amended in executive session all right as amended in an executive session so moved second okay discussion all in favor I post roll call no roll call no roll call no roll oh okay sorry no yes confused old business there any old business I have old business go ahead um at Dr Hibbs uh at the last meeting I had raised a question and you said you would you would give me the answer offline do you have a problem with me indicating what you gave or or not no okay so I asked the question when the principal is absent for a long period of time and the Dena students who were uh newly hired to uh in a new position they they they took the place of the teacher in charge because we have we don't have teachers in charge we only have at at the Early Childhood Center because there's no DEA students there so I asked the question who then would would be in charge when the Dena students is not in the school and uh the response I got correct me if if I'm wrong if I'm missing anything that you said the district tries their best to put in um assistant principles supervisors or principles are are you reading my response I'm not I'm not if you want to read it you can read it I mean I think that's the fair thing to okay I didn't know this is coming guys it's going to take me a second to find it okay so my my exact response was we always do our best to cover absences supervisors Deans or other administrators if you have a specific question please raise it in writing have a pleasant day Eric so uh we don't we don't have Vice principles here I try to make this short and sweet so it becomes problematic when you have upwards of 500 children in a building one adult just sometimes is not enough so our supervisors pitch in but um they all have a home base but they share buildings as well and then we also have three deans of students for six buildings so you know when when things happen we do our very best to cover um you know gret want to take a sec and talk about what that philosophy is and Gretchen's first line for this sure so um um what typically does happen is and this is true even when we had teachers in charge because they could be absent um we would always call The Other Sister school so that's our first line of defense is call The Other Sister school we leave that administrator to come over and help with the situation um they will also call me if they can't get a hold of anybody so then I you know will find and and assign someone over there but you are correct our first line of defense uh right now is our def our our Deans then we move to and supervisors uh and then we you know basically if there's a situation that needs to be addressed uh we lean on uh our sister schools and people to come over from over there if the dean from the other building can't get there basically you're saying basically you're saying it's not a teacher it's an administrator or a DEA students thank you any other old business I have a question I think the public is confused about our timing that for work sessions it starts at 7:30 but for these regular sessions we seem to be doing it at 7 and I'm not sure that that helps with Clarity for us or for the public could we think about maybe if we're going to do it at 7:30 do it for every meeting during the month I think you could use that time in executive session okay so all the not my call but that's my all the uh regular me will start at 7:30 you have to read advertise make sure yeah make sure you yeah I I think we don't really start it until 7:30 anyway so yeah okay I support that yeah we don't seem to get done what we have to get done in the hour so starting at 7:30 I think it's good because I today I think the public had to wait about 20 minutes yeah okay student board member C you have anything to report nothing to report okay all right open to the public on agenda items I don't have any yellow cards here agenda items no open to motion open to the public so move second all in favor I closed right this Nicole Nicole I don't know if this has anything to do with the agenda I'm sure we could find something to tailor it to um first anybody that is leaving the board I just want to thank you for your service um I know you guys have been through the ringer um takes a lot to do this for volunteer so thank you for your service um it seems to be that there's a lot of things going on in the district and especially in special ed that many people don't understand and aren't aware of the realistic situations that families are enduring um unless you understand things and no you don't know we were all at the board meeting just like last week when they said we were all listening to the prior meeting um if things aren't happening in front of your eyes and you don't know it is probably best to keep your mouth shut and not call parents Liars in front of thousand people watching um personally I was offended and I was offended that nobody up here stop that from happening um I'm not alone in being offended and I'm not alone in feeling attacked and I'm not alone in feeling that we have less trust in the district than we've ever had at this point um telling parents of special ed students that their feelings and their experiences are false if you don't know what is happening is horrendous there's already enough parents that feel that nobody in this District cares what's happening with their children and it's more important to protect themselves than our kids is that accurate I don't know but perception seems to be reality a group of Staff members can discount parents' feelings and more more important actual experiences is disgraceful the parents that have had this magical experience here in this district with their child is a minority they're few and far in between unfortunately and quite honestly the rest of us just want what those children and parents have I don't just mean in the classroom I mean as a whole the respect the truth great experiences the amount of families that have to fight tooth in nail for their children for a very long per period of time is sad we've been called the problem parents and that statement has come right out of a district admin's mouth until you are a parent that knows please don't pretend that you do it also seems that there's an illusion of clouds and Rainbows in this special education department for anybody that thinks there's no problems did you know that a few years back a parent was told in the district that the district wasn't raising wasting resources because their child's incapable of learning anyway did you know that a child was told that they cannot participate in an activity that all the other kids do because they cannot do the same things the other kids do did you know that a child was told that they can't participate in an activity because the person in charge didn't have time to deal with that these are just some of the things that parents are told that I'm sure that many of you here and many of you listening have no idea that are happening and we're not aware of and if you did and you still feel the same way way then shame on you parents do not make these things up they are not false there would be no purpose in making up false accusations or false statements people that have parents with parents and people that have kids of special needs do not need more problems in their lives especially not with the people who spend eight hours a day with their child I personally have been told Sophia can't do this Sophia can't do that she can't do what these kids can do those words came out of District staff member's mouth right to my face she can't do what these other kids do let's go sit her in another room by yourself it's happened things have been said to more than one competent and wonderful staff members that are just there to do her job and help her do the things she can do and staff members who don't know her tell these other staff members the things she can't do and when told she can do these things they tell her to go sit in a room by herself so no I'm not making up false accusations she has done many things and successfully and with so much joy and that's what we want our kids to be able to do during the last board meeting I had 47 text messages Facebook messages from parents I know parents I don't know District staff special ed parents gened parents support staff and a bunch of people that I've never met before all with a wide mix of feeling completely appalled and embarrassed at what was said against special ed parents I have a few messages to share because respectfully the reason why I have so much to say is because other parents don't feel comfortable coming here to speak I've been a trusted person for parents and staff to come to about issues they don't know what they don't know and I won't throw them under the bus some parents get too emotional and staff members fear retaliation because unfortunately in this District it runs rampant thank you Nicole okay see no uh no other yellow cards uh motion to uh close to the public yep motion to close quick Nicole you're Nicole um when the what over I did get in the car and I was like I did hesitate and you know what no matter how a parent feels it's how a parent feels and no one should feel that way so I apologize for not saying something agenda items line is this on an agenda item I don't know this um first time on so I just need a question answer now my knowledge why don't you come up here yeah might just let her know at this point hi to my knowledge that you're cutting funding for a special ed like for their books or you know in the elementary schools I have no I have yeah I have question yeah I have is there any more questions or is that that's the question I I don't know specifically what you're talking about um like say the uh Bells Whitman all the elementary schools the special ed teachers um they are not getting funding for books for these children I have no I have no idea what you're talking about I'm happy to look into a concern that's brought to me but oh I yes yes if you could look into I would appreciate it yeah maybe hang out for a second maybe you can give me a little more Direction on it all right okay thank you okay okay motion to close to the public so mooved second all in favor allos okay report of the superintendent a motion to approve uh items number one to five second discussion local Mrs Baker yes Miss Bloom yes M Chella yes Mr Mayo yes Mr Li Liberty yes Mr Lindsay yes Mr Serrano yes Mr aino yes Mr Ross Yes structural Affairs we have nothing at this time policy motion to approve uh item 1 to three so move second discussion roll call good roll I thought she was Miss Bloom yes Miss Chilla yes Mr Mayo yes Mr Li Liberty yes Mr Lindsay yes Mr Serrano yes Mr Arpino yes Mrs Baker yes Mr Ross Yes student activities communication motion uh and a second for items number one to five some move second discussion roll call Mrs chill yes Mr Mayo yes Mr Li Liberty yes Mr Lindsay yes Mr Rono yes Mr arino yes Mrs Baker yes Mrs Bloom yes Mr Ross Yes Human Resources motion and a second for items number 1 to 21 so move second discussion roll call Miss de Mayo yes Mr Li Liberty yes Mr Lindsay yes Mr [Music] Sano a few give me one second uh for M2 no to UPC code GUI hyphen 0022 first initial K last initial C yes to the rest for M2 for M6 no for M8 no yes to the rest Mr Arpino uh for M2 I am no to initials keec yes to the rest M6 I am a no M8 I am a no and yes to the rest Mrs Baker um number two I am a no to initials k EC yes to the rest no to number six no to number eight and yes to the rest Mrs Bloom I'm voting no to some things because of my concerns about the budget and that would be for M2 keec no yes to the rest M number six no M number 8 no and yes to the rest Mrs CH yes Mr Ross uh no to uh M2 employee EK Eck no to number six no to number eight yes to the rest um you said no to M2 K EC M2 e EC employ c k KC I'm sorry okay and then notice no to six no to eight okay failed all three failed okay take mik for a sec um I just want to so just so you know what what ended up happening here was is that we had a vote and some things did not pass so board members we now do not have adequate coverage for buildings and grounds during the day so you're all you're all prized to that um we are most likely going to have uh a resignation of an employee that we did not value that is going to cause utter turmoil in our district um and then we also did not value a third employee who has been working tirelessly to ensure that we were successful in special education all of which were against my recommendation uh and you will have there's going to be consequences for the district uh none of which were asked of me in any way shape or form before a vote can I com yeah go ahead um I I don't think voting no on spending money is not valuing employees we just voted to give Administration um which you recommended and we did uh raises we have budget issues we're told constantly we have budget issues we in times of budget crisis we need to become a a little more advantageous of with the employees we had and we can't come up here while we can say we cut money My worry is that we're going to vote to spend money here in December but then come May we're going to be circling the wagons where we're going to have to cut staff again or we're going to go through what we did so to while I know you may want you know you recommended this and as superintendent you over right to want that but as board members we represent the taxpayers and we have just went through a budget crisis and I do not want to give these people raises or stiens now and then turn around and leave it to the next board to make the hard decision to make Cuts in other places to yeah totally respect that Mr Arpino um you know and I don't recall the the overall number but the moves that I laid out were going to save the board over $200,000 while allowing us to be operational it is and and you don't have to take my advice you didn't but when I tell you as a superintendent who's been a superintendent in for a lot of years in in big districts one person to run buildings and grounds for 12 buildings does not work just does not work um you know and and and I I respect everyone's right to an opinion I just you know I I'm just I'm voicing my concerns you know one of my job is one of my jobs to make sure that we run and and get better I don't know how we're supposed to get better if we can't if we can't operate effectively so what what we did here and if you want to take that one off the table we're not operating effectively so so and I I don't want to I can't talk about individual employees but you know right now you're you're now uncovered you're uncovered on buildings and grounds you're uncovered in special education um so listen that was just a that was that there's there's just it's a powerful it's a powerful statement but it's also going to have a powerful impact that's all I say I said my pece I going comment on that too uh it doesn't preclude the supervisor that we have now moving his hours hold on hold on you can't can't talk about a current employee and their work hours Etc okay uh let's see how can I word this uh can we be creative and move hours around for someone to cover day and and then night yeah I mean if if we're talking about it General when you change the entire scope of someone's job and and make it be totally different I think that's that's a that's a conversation I look I I I laid out my I think I laid out my arguments well and I thought that the moves that I that I make that I recommend I think make sense um clearly it they they didn't resonate with you that's listen that's your prerogative but you know now telling someone that I'm just mandatorily switching hours after you know after that I don't even really have words to that well they're not they're not locked into a supervisor of that type of person is not locked into 8 to4 that person could also come in later and stay later and which which he should be doing in my opinion hold on hold on just to confirm you can't talk about specific people I don't know that you are I'm just making sure that we're not yeah I don't know how to answer that without I don't know how to answer that without answer spe specifically but there total lack of yep can I couple comments U I just think we have to be careful not to be Penny wise and pound foolish right I think uh Dr I appreciate you you're taking effort you're being creative right we asked you to get creative we asked you to save money and you did that and some of the ways you present it is hey I'm cutting these roles and I'm going to have these duties taken by other folks and I'm going to have to stien those folks cuz we're you know as as Provisions get vacated we're taking that position out and you're presenting a plan that's saving us hundreds of thousands of dollars and to get that hundreds of thousands of dollars savings we're giving a little bit of money to people that are taking on in my opinion maybe extraordinary workloads to take up that slack and the way you get out of a budget crisis is being creative right if you're going to save 5,000 here 5,000 there we are going to create another budget crisis being something bad is going to happen and it's going to cost us hundreds of thousands of dollars if not more so I appreciate the efforts that you took thank you sir um thank you sir I wish I could find it I can't roll call on that did we I'm sorry all right um finance and Facilities uh items number 1 to8 and items uh 10 10 to 19 second discussion I just have a quick question on for 29,95 2.75 uh Green Team Furniture another like a little over 2200 and then 47 9054 for 6 to8 Green Team Furniture can we just uh what is that I mean it's Furniture it's furniture that replaced old dilapidated furniture and classrooms uh across the district okay is this the one that we just pass did we just passed a resolution for State B preference or is the same one that connected last meeting I'm not I'm not sure the answer I thought I mean this is or a Cooperative we passed that uh uh resolution for Cooperative purchaseing that uh Furniture was covered under I just want to know if that's covered under this are they related so I'm not sure okay this is like 48 pages so if you tell me like which ones I could I could look but I might have to get back to you but that's fine in general uh when we pass resolutions for Cooperative purchasing it's to be a part of the group and take advantage of of any kind of Cooperative purchasing they offer okay thanks go um just to follow up was all this new furniture replacing the old furniture was that part of some type of initiative last year where teachers were on a on a on a Comm yeah and then they submitted um and what was the cost of one classroom was yeah I don't I don't have that on me it wasn't it wasn't 20,000 was it I don't have it on me if you don't give me the opportunity to do that unfair um anybody would like to see the classrooms too I I think you should come see kids are super excited uh it's reinvigorated learning in a lot of those classrooms they um the furniture in Township dates back probably decades and decades and decades a lot of it's falling apart and it needs to transfer to the 22nd century um did every every school get that I know there was a understanding of a teacher representative from each school did every school get a new classroom yeah I'm going to I I feel like this I say this a lot when you don't give me the heads up on these types of questions I that's that's F you you let me know yeah I'm happy next time's fine no problem I can follow that up yeah no problem thank you yeah before before you move I just want to just clarify one thing um and then I'll I promise I'll be quiet um the plan that the plan that I put forth would have saved in this year uh alone over $275,000 uh and it would have actually eliminated positions and and realigned us to actually move forward into the future uh with better coverage I just want to make sure I I clar IFI that there was a huge savings this year um so it was basically a $337,000 savings with a $61,500 offset all in for $275,000 so just want to make sure I couldn't find it because I wasn't I didn't know that was coming other discussion just want to say Janine thanks for getting back to me on uh number one on the board secretary report just know how to clarify that meaning of that on there so I appreciate that thank you another question to um we have a lot of transfers I'm just wondering why we we have so many transfers so again budget transf if you give me the heads up I can look into each individual one because every time a budget transfer is requested you know a detailed description has to take place I can say generally in the beginning of of the year the first couple months there's usually a lot of transfers because if you think about when we put the budget together we have staff in certain places then sometimes people move to different buildings um so in the beginning of the year when we're getting salar set up and budgets there are transfers that are requested okay but I I if you give me specific ones I I can always answer that right the um you I I just wondered about this too I know that there must be a threshold right of what because you can't you can't have the board vote on everything because you you wouldn't be able to run the district you know when you have a lot a lot of things going on like for instance in restorative practice we we approve some people for restorative practice to get paid we don't we don't know how much how much time they're putting in or how often do we do we actually see the payment somewhere what they got at some point or is or is that information just just done automatically once you approve a name they if they get money they just get money and we don't know anything about it um so if you look at each agend each agenda item is worded in a way that um you know it triggers payroll and HR to kind of control it so if somebody's approved for additional time at a certain rate which is usually a contractual rate some sometimes it'll say up to a certain amount or um you know and then we have various people in the different departments tracking it to make sure we don't go over that um and and the budget account is usually approved so by looking at a budget account you're not necessarily going to see every single person because most budgets account have a have a regular staff that's charged their every pay right oh yeah sure but but but an example of this specific to what your says ex not toal right okay so there's like there's like like a limit now now I I noticed that just using that same exam example there were Bell's teachers that got approved I don't recall other teachers getting approved from other schools so this does the teacher have to be approved I don't know what you're referring to but to the extent those belts teachers are easily identifiable that's obviously not I don't know if know that was the only school that was listed what what I'm saying is there I'm asking in that account does all the schools have people that are functioning in that capacity and do we have to approve everybody that gets paid out of that account not that we have to know what they get paid because you can't do that all the time but do do we have to know which which employees would be um getting payment out of that account do we have to approve the employee that's I'm just trying to understand the budget so every person on that agenda item is listed there are representative of all six schools some names are there to sub in case that person can't do that session all six schools are representative U they have they cannot exceed a total of 34 hours per school as per the agend agenda item um as for the budget okay okay another discussion so any anybody getting paid is going to come out of that account that's okay but they're approved correct okay thank you roll call Mr Liberty yes Mr Lindsay yes Mr Sano yes Mr artino uh yes to all abstain from M Baker yes Mrs Bloom yes Mrs chillo yes Mr de Mayo yes Mr Ross Yes special education nothing at this time negotiations nothing at this time new business any new business I was wondering if um we used to have the library Representatives here and I think if they stopped coming because of we only did agenda items and they didn't want to sit here for the whole meeting but could we every month or every few months put them on the agenda so that we can hear what programs they're having at the library because I think that that's something that the public likes to hear too what they're actually doing at our library in the town can we do that it's your meeting yeah Library that's what you want that's what we'll do library we we can't force the public library represent to come you can certainly ask them to come I don't yeah I think it was just maybe like an invitation quarterly or something to say hey you want to come up upate yeah okay I have something wrong your business Connie um yeah I just have a question for Dr hibs um my family was was was you know getting ready for the holidays I wanted to get the correct spelling of some of the teachers uh where my granddaughter goes our website went to the website and there's no listing of the staff in that building now I'm just wondering is that I know we change we Chang platforms is it just that we haven't implemented it yet are we are we not sharing information about the staff that are there you you know you couldn't find any names of people that are working in a particular school and is is that and we always were able to but we did switch so I'm just wondering is that something that's on the back burner to try to correct down the road I I was yeah I was letting you finish uh yeah so when we transition uh staff members names will will go back up for sure oh do you have a timeline on that or no I think the is to have a soft transition after the new year right Mr distilla y okay thank you of course uh I got something I have something on their new business if you don't mind this this email was given to me a few days ago and unfortunately I wasn't here last week to promote it so I'm going to do it now um I'm a leaon with Bunker Hill Middle School and there was a teacher and please don't hate me if I put you your name um Brenda pow benu benit um she apparently applied for a proposal for a um they're going to call it's called Rock the bike um it's a stationary bike that's designed to generate green energy as well as um helping children with autism and MD uh programs and unfortunately I didn't look into too much into it because I had other personal matters to attend to but basically I wanted to give her a shout out because she actually got approved um from this program to have a bike that's being built as we speak and will be delivered to Bunker Hill and under her email uh if you don't mind give me a few minutes to read it um basically saying the possible results from having access to this bike are amazing and endless the students would benefit from a multitude of benefits including healthy inclusion of physical exercises mindfulness athletic healthy escapes regulated behaviors maintained Focus academic growth as well as green energy awareness and productivity for all the electricity to charge their own devices would be free um our non-readers would be able to ride and listen to books read to them powered by their own pedaling the electricity created and captured will immediately create things that they can feel good about and will be in their own control with every pedal push this immediate feedback is so imperative for our newest generation Our mind's growth and regulation should be our main priority um and then it says with your funding we will be able to make all of the above happen the bike offers physical experience exercise and mind health and well this green energy wrapped all into one the design and proper use of this bike would help show and train our students to see experience and create green energy in a way they only read about and some of our students cannot read riding this bike as a Bunker Hill Bulldog will Empower our students to feel fit to embrace their own strengths powers and abilities to grow and create change right before their eyes and I'm happy to report that as of the last email like I said she did get approved for it and the bike is on its way to Bunker Hill so again thank you very much for reaching out for that program and I really hope it helps out the [Applause] school anything else I got one thing um we got a few people who's this is their last meeting I don't know if they're sad happy I see some Smiles but uh I just wanted to to Stacy to Sea and Jim you know we appreciate everything you guys did for the board here and all the hard work and um you know thank you for your service and hopefully we continue to see you guys showing up and in the community thank you guys very much for your support me world uh sorry I got one more piece if if everybody can indulge me for a few more minutes um just a little just a little thing that I wrote and put together for the last day here please excuse me for the momentary laps here um good evening board members and members of the public I have served this board for 2 years and have been involved in multiple actions votes arguments and resolutions my first year was definitely an eye opener we had begun earning the public trust had great communication from the president and things seemed to be moving in the right direction however this year that all went down to the tubes public trust gone the president who communicates with all board members non-existent I have watched this board argue over Petty things Grand standed executive session undermine the superintendent drag people in the mud no one in this board is qualified to do what Dr HS has attempted to do we voted for him in the purpose of writing this ship he has been met with disdain and negativity since day one even before he stepped in office people had it out for him no support has led us to the position we are in he knows what needs to be done it's infu infuriating that we have members that undermine him and think they are above him news flash you're not we don't have to like one another but we must work together this fractured board has not supported rather obstructed him from his duties it is incredible that he remained steadfast to bring this District up from where we are through all this he continues to push forward the amount of disrespect lack of morals and downright nastiness shown by members is sickening but rather than act like mature adults they stomp their feet in wine what an example we are setting for the kids and the administration that look to us for guidance I will say this Dr Hibbs you were fighting uphill in mud before now you'll be fighting uphill in wet concrete and it's setting fast rather than focusing on the kids and the district you are being rammed with so much unnecessary crap from board members that you can't do your job that is scary in and of itself my question is why this district is in Dire Straits I do commend the administration and you for your tireless work I will eagerly await the next year with what must happen or could happen they will blame you again just because it is the easy thing to do no constructive ideas no solution speak and just blame you in closing I have an honor to represent the public to the best of my abilities I thank you for the support in this position My Hope Is that this board can come together as a whole and do what we were elected to do give the kids the best environment to learn and to use the resources we have to best serve the school Community thank you thank you Sean business see none um I have a motion to open to the public second roll call no roll call a roll call sorry okay Hannah that Hannah Hannah yeah hear Hanah Hann here no okay okay so I heard earlier after like oh okay so earlier when you guys were voting I heard about like voting to take away teachers like to voting like to cut stuff and I noticed um Arpino over there he said that we're giving bonuses to people so why are we giving bonuses to people and then cutting others is what I heard from him I didn't hear that but we absolutely did not cut anybody at this meeting okay I heard like cutting like fundraising and I also know from last year that we were in debt and that we were not giving funds to the library to buy more books but then we're giving people bonuses and I just want to know like where your priorities lie because it should be to the students and not to certain people on teachers So yeah thank you great uh Terry Shaker okay thank you I don't want to butcher you good evening everybody I'll Echo fellow the other board members and Nicole thanks everyone who's exiting I appreciate that this is very difficult and not an easy task I want to remind everyone that the solution is in this room these are the engaged members of our community our friends and family and neighbors we're solving for each other's kids and I appreciate that everyone feels really passionately about it but I don't know anything about running a school district but I know a lot about running a successful team and if you're not rowing in the same direction you're not getting anywhere and unfortunately when you're dealing with kids they're going through the system they're not slowing down my midst said she felt really sad that the kindergarteners and first graders at Birches didn't get to have Miss history as their computer teacher and that's something I've brought up before about not having as much technology um in the classroom as we've had in previous years and again I recognize that there are really tough decisions facing this board and this town but we have to start supporting one another and you can't build trust by continually minding and focusing on small insignificant problems when we're bleeding out so I would encourage the board to remember that the people who are showing up these are the people that are going to push the district forward and even if we're disagreeing we have to remember that we're feeling passionately because we are trying to get to the same goal so please just remember that when you're feeling defensive that we very much disagree on how to get there perhaps and I think there's a respectful way to do that but if we are going to work as a team we have to empower our leaders and unfortunately I don't see that happening we haven't given an opportunity to our leaders and Dr Hibbs to to try out his options if we continue to undermine every choice and every recommendation there's no way to succeed so I would encourage you as you move forward in the next year to please consider seeing how it goes I don't believe there are Bad actors and you know maybe that's naive but that's what I think so thank you again for the exiting members and um Miss Bloom as a board member of the library uh happy to come and share all the great things in the programs I'll let the public know that tomorrow is our board meeting at the adult uh meeting room and if you haven't signed up Santa will also be there at 6:00 and we've been encouraged to dress festively so um they tend to be a little more joyful than these meeting so uh please feel free to come out and I'll be happy to share all the great programs we're doing there thanks everybody you know thanks a lot you really kind of that what I was thinking like with what I voted down today um I think people were just hearing oh so and so got raises so and so got raises but the big picture was we saved $270,000 so now moving forward when there's a deficit if there are 270,000 those are jobs and programs that may be lost because we didn't do the smart thing now so we have to look big picture I think that's what's not always happening um if I could just comment real quick so I I do want to update Terry when I saw you walk up it like sparked my memory in terms of um making sure that I followed up with the community so I put forth a little while ago about having a community lay aison group and I was working with Pat together that we were going to spearhead that I just want to update you with where we are in the process so I did meet with Mr destio to get some feedback to make sure that we were going in the right direction um because there's a new board coming on and there were some I'm going to call them hiccups with the other community group that we put together there was also some feedback that from staff that talked about having representation and all of that combined it was more wise to wait until the new board came on to figure out what those parameters would look like I did get your interest and I appreciate so much I couldn't disagree with your comments at the podium today I just didn't want you to think that we forgot about it it was more of just how can we be inclusive in having everybody but then you can't really have everybody so it was just waiting until the new board came on to see how we could be inclusive and make sure that mission was carried so I just want to follow up with you to make sure I didn't all right thanks Nicole um going into a new year with a new board there's a lot that has to be fixed we have a long way to go uh I feel like I'm turning into crazy Ron special ed Edition um but I do feel like that some sort of retaliation will come my way at some point for keeping speaking out however I am one for the greater good um and I feel like there's a lot of families and staff that really need things to be fixed um I wanted to read a few of the concerns that um to the board and everyone watching uh and put it on public record because I feel like there's a lot of things that the board aren't even aware of that happens um so some statements from parents and staff advocating for our kids is turned into an allout War it the District staff feels that parents are wrong about their child and spreading false information who is going to advocate for our kids I would assume not them because they don't any ADV advocacy is needed and all is good in the world in their world the ones who do not walk in ours there has been no trust in Washington Township School District for as far back as I can remember even at the time I was an employee many moons ago How can any current parent possibly have trust at this point forward after watching last night's board meeting who will advocate for these children it seems that they're only advocating for themselves number two parents have had a hard enough time sending their kids to school as it is and now it just shows that you have an entire building of people that think parents are liars how comfortable is that going to make parents feel about sending their kids to school when I need help with my child who do I go to now admin has always been the issue Oz behind the curtain as it has always been like orders directly from the top and this isn't an assumption this has been said by a multitude of Staff members over the years who are trying to advocate for these kids and who are trying to do right by these children but now they have often been silenced as it has been as is now as it has been displayed by what appeared to be a full building staff offering a standing ovation to a teacher accusing parents of being false accusations who do we now turn to I cannot fathom that any parent at this time would feel at ease talking to their child's education staff without fear of judgment and then if they can't go to admin who do we go to although my child is no longer in the school district I have empathy for all of these parents it was always bad but between that the school board it now seems that it's worse than ever and we have nobody to turn to down to the teachers and support staff turning on parents this is terrible they accomplished exactly what they wanted disrespect to parents disrespect to parents' concerns have a few parents who have been spoiled by the districts get up and talk have teachers think you were against them and wanted to cause a bigger wedge with parents who want to speak up and scare other parents into talking well played one speaker was an administrator even though he's a specialed parent himself how can he possibly speak to the fact that a test to other parents being Liars speaking on on behalf of anything that blurs the line could possibly be swayed into thinking what he says as gospel as an admin he shouldn't have been allowed to speak in this manner no wonder why these teachers and Aid thinks that parents are the ones making up stories two parents that spoke on an outstanding experience of their children it was wonderful to hear that these children are able to enjoy all of these activities and extracurriculars but what I can't help be overshadowed by is that the thought about well what about us parents that don't work at Bunker Hill or in the school district why don't we have the same privilege that these CH parents have working in the building I have personally known parents that have had that have been support staff in this District that have had to leave their jobs due to having to fight for their child but I guess if you are part of the crew as a teacher admin your child gets that type of experience when Mr marrow was done speaking Dr Hibbs you said good job there are so many teachers and support staff in this District that have the fear of God instilled in us to not speak up for what we feel is right as a child the fear of being changed jobs changed schools or changed assignments the fear of losing a job but yet it's okay for a teacher to speak up on behalf of other teachers I would hope that Dr hibs made it a point to make it known how unprofessional and how condescending that was I hope and urge that parents still stand their ground and start to speak up for themselves but trust me I know firsthand why many do not and it is shameful and this is the nature of our school district good for the staff at Bunker who has no fear in speaking up for themselves however it is unjust that they don't really know what they are actually speaking on I will never discount in other parents feelings because they have to come from somewhere what is worse is that parents feel this way and just so the board knows out of my own words um there was two District staff members that contacted me this week I don't even know them they don't know each other um as I made as I had said previously there was unaccounted for bruises on my child's arm October 8th that I'm still getting the answer of I don't know um apparently allegedly two staff members this week contacted me seek me out to tell me that admin has been telling staff members that there was a conclusive report from the state that stated that those bruises happened at home over the weekend I have the letter it does not conclude that it concludes that it was inconclusive Because unless it happens on camera no one speaks I don't I don't wonder why now that that staff thought what they did that we were lying to say that I am pretty pissed that admin took it upon themselves to make their own false statement against a report that never happened from the state needs to be fixed Raymond was hold on hold on one second just on just just a quick clarification number one I want everyone to hear this from me um retaliation is not something that is in in our vocabulary if that happens here then as the chief School administrator I will deal with that we do not retaliate against people against children we all need to be held to a very high standard of ethical Behavior Uh that's that's a I've never been around you know I can't talk about specific incidents um but I I struggle with the accusation of our admin and if there's any evidence you have of that I would love to see it because I I just can't believe that people would have would have said something so heinous so if you have anything that's evidence please meet with me I'll be happy to to take that and and and and launch that investigation fully hi Raymond hello um so my name is Ry um I am a proud alumni from the school district and I'm very proud of it always um but as seeing from our board meeting from last a couple days ago or when it was um I was was really appalled by it and I felt like there was a lot of disrespect between the public and the board and I was unbelieved by it all and I am hoping that we can work on our etiquette and ethics as a community here on here in this room but also as a board because that should have never happened in the first place Point playing period and with seeing what things are and what we're seeing in happening and seeing through a special education lens as someone who went into District inp education and everything else I'm very very hurt and disres and seeing that happened today and just seeing with funding and all that other stuff sure it's fine it's whatever but it's also they put in a lot of work and time and effort into what they do so give them a little bit more respect realistically and I am disappointed in the board for doing that and as someone who actually founded the own disability Student Union at our University close by we're advocating for change because I have not learned that skill until I was in community college or in college doing those things so I can't wait to see more parents do those advocacy stuff but also work with other former alumni or whoever else that wants to make change around here to do that so I'm willing to step up if that's the case and work with these parents to do that because this is not how we treat our parents unfortunately and as someone who cares you'll be seeing me hopefully a lot more so I'm just putting that out there Julie cmle thanks Raymond and stop growing cuz you're like grow more now stop do for a very long time well done hi thank you to um Jim and Shawn and Stacy for your service hope you get your your plaque tonight or whatever they're doing now um I want to respond to Sean's comments a little bit just on behalf of the teachers cuz I don't feel like that that they're talked about enough here in a positive manner um things were going great and I and you can pinpoint the change back to one thing and that was all none of it had anything to do with the people up here from my observation um it had to do with the the unions having votes of no confidence and then that going completely un addressed so not having I mean I know that we've heard like oh that happens all the time that happens in a lot of places that has never happened here ever I don't know if people have been told that it has that has never happened in Washington Township and when you have so many people begging for you to listen to them um and and you know that has to be addressed and it wasn't addressed and so I think that that really um was a major turning point I also want to mention that when I went to the pie meet the candidates event there was a teacher there who I actually went to high school with and when we were in high school this was the most happy go-lucky person you would ever meet like he was just just a very likable guy and he teaches for us now and I've seen him over the years um and talk to him and he enjoys it here very much and feels like loyal to Washington Township and he was crying at that event um because he's so overwhelmed with all of the changes that have come down on the teaching staff over the past you know year and a half or whatever it's been when they've had new software to deal with and all of that stuff it's extremely stressful and to see someone like that I felt like that I really took that with me it was really emblematic of the way that they're feeling um and the support staff as well I mean both those unions to come together and do that like I said that's your causation right there for why you have this divide I think people are very upset there was a young woman here who um didn't seem affiliated with anybody sometimes you have people up here that seem like they've been given the things that they're saying and she asked a really valid question and she was kind of gaslighted because you know she's like why are people losing their jobs and other people are getting bonuses and that is happening you know um at the last meeting there were $100,000 in raises to non-unit staff that went out I think everyone deserves a raise but when you're looking at things like contractual costs and those are not contractual costs they probably should had a moratorium on their raises for a year or two cuz that's a lot of money so you know chastising the people that you work for Dr Hibbs is not the way to go you work for these these people up here and I think that there are some people that you really feel like listen listen listen listen that's never going to happen until respect is shown to the people that you're working with and for can't get anything done in a district like this I don't care if you're trying to you know put new start and end times to the to the work day whatever you're trying to do you have to go to the union and you have to talk to them first you can't just freeze out hundreds actually couple thousand people um and their expertise it's just I mean as a teacher as a member of njaa as well to be perfectly honest that is very um disconcerting and if that were happening at my job I'd be very upset so just wanted to make that point that I don't think it's the personal I really don't think that the people up here don't I don't think they dislike each other to be honest if if you were outside this room and you were hanging out at OTS or something you probably would get along but it's it's that you know I stand for teachers I stand for blind support of this the chief School administrator that's just not going to ever be that's never going to work you're never going to have consensus so I just wanted to make that point do H I wasn't sure if I should ask now or wait till later so I decided to ask now to make it you know fun three questions I know I only have two on the card but I promise I I have three first question my sister called me the other day just you know randomly chitchat and I hear her and her son arguing in the background I'm like what are you arguing about her sixth grader is learning in school how to fill out a fast form why why does a sixth grader need to know how to fill out a fast for form my 19-year-old cannot fill out a fast for form why is he learning to fill out a fast perform instead of learning a language that he might actually use one day I mean will he have to fill out a fast perform one day maybe will somebody be able to help him do it one day uh-huh does my my 12-year-old nephew need to know how to fill out a fast perform right now no no he doesn't but he does need to learn how to say hello in a different language to talk to other people to communicate with the outside world of Washington Township so that's my my first question why are sixth graders filling out fasta forms instead of learning a second language simple question my next question involves the what was I going to say my next question involves why is our specialed department supervisor at the high school not mentioning names but his name on the paper why he's being told no he's not going to get extra money for the extra hours and extra work he's putting in driving himself tires tirelessly and his poor clerical assistant who happens to be my sister is only working 3.75 hours when there's usually two of them but now there's only one but that's besides the point he's putting in the extra work well here's the deal if you don't want to pay him to put in the extra work then why isn't the admin for special education stepping in and helping why is the admin sitting I mean and I'm sure the admin for special education's really nice but why is the admin sitting behind their desk while he's busting and you don't want to pay him for it that seems kind of jacked up to me and I had a third question darn it I felt like it was a good one too huh I will I'll think of it tonight while I'm lay no and bad I can't remember what it is no cuz I didn't write it down oh I know I remember how come there this is a stupid question and I said from the beginning if I don't know something I'm going to ask a stupid question so ask a stupid question get a stupid answer I might get a stupid answer why is do why do we have someone working at the performance art center making 78,000 a year and I got to be honest I've never seen the person working in the box office like does he does that person actually come to work every day or are we paying someone $78,000 to say they come to work every day because if that's the case I would really like the job at the Performing Art Center that's it Tom balero I mean I can I can try to answer Pam I'm guessing the sixth grade is a new course correct okay y absolutely yeah well it's a we can't go back and forth so if you can maybe give me a little more Direction on that um I'm not I'm not allowed to talk about Personnel um but we don't have people here that I know of that get paid to stay home um this will be a simple one it'll just be about what's going on today um a little alarming in the beginning when you know I'll tell you I've dealt with boards a lot I've never had a board stop me from running the hospital I was at you know you I'll make it akin to you know when when your leader is telling you that they will be uncovered that's scary um so it was scary enough when you started there then when you explain the full picture you know you're talking about budget concerns and I know you weren't here when Mr Arpino when we approved the last budget but we raised taxes above the cap without fixing the problem that was a huge mistake but if we're concerned about the budget and we should be do you've turn you just all turned down $270,000 of savings okay because he would have made cuts by challenging people to stretch that's what I did all the time as a CFO we had to be creative we had to do more with less so I would move some money around save it over here and pay a little bit of that of that over here so Mr Ross if if you could I want to make sure everybody understood that and make sure so if you could please pull the everybody that voted no do they understand that they were saying no to a net $270,000 in savings cuz today that's still on the books so I want if you could please make you know ask that question CU I don't it wasn't clear early on when when Dr Hibbs was speaking so I don't know if everybody knew that because that's what you turn down you turn down savings you spend a little to save a lot even Standalone it was a hard thing you know you want to save money in a budget but that what he brought up even was less than onethird of 1% of our entire budget that's not where you solve your problem by not letting him run the district the way he needs to uh it's a dangerous thing for you to get that low you guys need to be up here you need to be looking I guess with the last budget we we had six to7 million that's what you need to be focused on high but when he brings something to run a school district to cover grounds you can't be without that trust me I've seen it I've seen cuts to where you try and create problems and it creates bigger problems uh so I would definitely ask you know but Miss Ross if you could please ask every body to to make sure they understood what they were saying no to because you turn down free money that the superintendent offered um additionally and just not that this means anything because it's terrible when you get votes of no confidence but I believe it's happened at least four times in this District I've lived here my whole life this is not the only time um but if you want to bring that up you also have to bring up nothing was ever done with the letter about all the board misconduct so you got to talk about both if you want to talk about it you got to talk about both that has never been talked about either so um you again let's keep it fair let's keep it even I hope we have a great year next year thank you everybody for you know the last time you'll be sitting up here uh Stacy you've been through it with you know I hope I was always fair with you you know you you didn't like me in the beginning I I was tough but I was always fair I was always honest I was always in the best interest of the kids and I think you know you and I have had some discussions and you've seen that so um you've been through it and uh you deserve to lose your chair so um Good Luck same thing to you Sean and Mr Arpino as well see no more yellow cards motion to uh Mr Ross can you please ask that question I don't I actually have a question Mr Ross how would someone from the public seem to know more about what we just voted on than to ask us questions is about cost savings because um while I wasn't uh the CFO of a hospital system um I dealt with a lot of budgets and I could tell you that while it's very important that you deal with the thousand feet view up top with the big numbers I always Akin government budgeting to go and grocery shopping when you add the eggs the milk the lunch meet they all add up to get to that big number and I still have to question how a member of the public can get up here and almost know more about what we voted on than we do as board members there doesn't need to be answer what specific What specifically I just feel like what did he specifically say that I feel like that he how would he know that we're saving money or we're not voting for cost savings because all encompassing we are voting for cost savings we could spend money every meeting but it's come going to come to fruition at budget time it just happened last year so to get up here and you know from the public and look Mr balsar is a very smart man he has a right to get up here and question things but again by making decisions as officials that are put up here with the taxpayers money that's our job and it's going to come to fruition in this budget season so to to make accusations that we're not supporting the superintendent is just categorically false Dr hibs has been at this a long time I'm sure he's been in situations where boards voted against it I'm sure you've been in that situation sir I know I have in my career but to come up to the podium and act like the boards against the superintendent we're exercising our rights as representatives of the public that's our job you don't have to agree with nobody has to agree with we do Dr hibs doesn't ask it but to to put this on that we're not supporting uh the leader that that's a false statement can I uh before anybody else jumps in I'd like to clarify something the only reason that Mr baldasaro can speak on what he just said is because Dr Hibbs explained that after the no vote what happened that's how he knew the information that he just all he did was revize what Dr hibb said very clearly I mean and it was clear you can go back in the minutes and watch it if You' like and I'll just I'll just say this I I don't like the assumption yeah that you're trying it seems like you're trying to assume something of Mr baldasaro and quite frankly when he spec specifically said what he was doing the money for all he did was reiterate it and that's that's what it was it's not like he had I'm making a statement as a public official that's all and I just want I but I'm clarifying why he said how he said it that's what I'm clarifying Dr Hib said it he just reiterated all right um the board has uh is going to have motion to go into back close public Mo motion to close to the public so moved second second all in favor I oppos okay um I have a motion to go into executive session so moved no action no action will be taken second uh no do we have a few minutes I got to go to the bathroom sure resolved that pursuing to Section 8 of the open public meeting act the public shall be excluded from that portion of the meeting involving the discussion of personnel legal client privilege e e