on television may be excused. Please rise for the pledge of allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands one nation indivisible with liberty and justice for
all. Amen. Thank you. Thank you. As usual, um, if you would like to address the board during one of the open public comment sections, there are cards in the corner. You can fill one out, pass it to Mrs. Chilla, and she'll send it down to me. Thank you. I
already have one. Um, I wanted to start tonight off with a little update to the public from me personally. Um, I want to apologize to some of the board members who I have, I don't think publicly, but maybe privately or inadvertently accused
of leaking information to the Pitman lady and other people. Um, I now know that was never board members doing that. Um, it was a much worse situation that actually involved multiple people in sort of a coordinated effort. So, I want
to apologize for expressing frustration with that um and with other board members over the past couple months. It's actually been really um refreshing to work with a lot of people here and many of us just, you know, for the sake of the public have had that whole like
fresh start, let's have a fresh start conversation and we've been communicating and working together really well despite the fact that the of the beginning of the year. So, um, our board is very much healing and committed to the kids and having a retreat in
July. And I just wanted the public to know that. Um, and I ask that the public please, you know, consider that and what we're trying to work on and support us and support the unity of us. Um, and consider the source when you're reading
posts or messages about people who are sometimes just chronically online and really might not have the insights and the facts about what really is going on um, between all of us. We had a quite a few of us had a great time at end of year events. I know Mrs. Hartung's going
to report out on some of that in a little while, but I wanted to give that little start off in a positive way. Um, letting you guys know some of that some of that that's been going on behind the scenes. Yes. Are you going to address uh the issue
along those same lines in terms of the board and our knowledge of of the cra crafting of the budget and who who actually wrote the budget? Well, that the budget was a recommendation um from the superintendent's office, the
administration, and we have been working with it since March, but we did not make it. I think that's what you're referring to because a lot of people think, why did you do this? Why did you do that? We're we were presented with a budget, and everyone who's up here has been working to try and um deal with that
budget since March. The reason why I bring it up is because it it's been been said to me and I and I've seen it I've seen it on uh the internet that we actually created the budget because we don't have the superintendent and that's not true. We were working with the with the budget
that was presented to us. Absolutely. Yes, that's correct. Just to clarify that for who whoever posted that wherever they may have posted it. Anyone else have anything they need to say? Okay. Um, we don't have any presentation. Do we have any items for
discussion? Yes. Office be good ideas. We've gone through a lot of negative stuff, but have some positivity that we would uh recognize some of the people at the end of the year like the
uh um prom the the prom queen, the uh uh Mr. Washington Township and u you know any of those senior individuals. And I was told that by Nette that she was going to contact Rey, the principal of the high school, to see if that was possible. So I don't I didn't get an
answer on that. I don't know. I don't know where we are with that. It's at the end of the year, obviously, and the seniors are gone. I thought it would be a good idea for this meeting. Graduation was beautiful and our seniors are heading out. They're they're doing their thing right now. As far as
recognizing kids, I'm always about recognizing kids. Um, one of the things that we had talked about at the board level is using the summer months to really work together and maybe refrain from public um presentations
but certainly and we've done this in the past we have asked students to come back and you know September comes if we want to do if we want to move away from the decision to have presentations in the summer if we want to invite people back that's fine with May of students if we can do that we have July and August
meetings to do that. So certainly I would be happy to Did you Did you contact the building principal? Yes. Was he have talked about your specific request was about Mr. Washington Township, right? Yes. So that's something that What was the results of Well, there there's no there's no real
results. It's just about our students available to come back to do those things if that's what we decide to do. Well, I thought it would be nice for this time this this right something positive and end of year. Anyone else have a come? You can. Yes. I
even heard it down. Oh, good. Indulge me a little. I never speak. So, the 202425 school year has come to an end and I had the privilege of attending multiple senior year activities. The first event was on June 12th which Julie and I
attended the Balorat. This event was filled with amazing guest speakers as well as performers and I don't know what that word is by our extremely talented seniors. The second event was on June 16th which Julie and I
attended the senior award night. Senior award night was the first chance for our seniors to wear their gowns proudly. The class of 2025 collected a total of $361,150 by multiple memorial awards, community scholarship, PTO awards, and the
Washington Township Public School Awards. The final senior year event for our 2025 class was the 60th annual graduation on June 17th. This year, myself, Julie, Carol, and Elaine had the
privilege to witness 529 graduates walk across the stage proudly. The many speakers gave us all something to think about. Our saludatoran, Noah Elliot, reminded us to live in the moment. Our valictorian, Delaney
Schwarz, had us thinking, "What do you want to be? Who do you want to be?" Our acting superintendent, Annette Miller, encouraged everyone to get ready to make an impact, and each story is unique. The end of the night held a message that was
intended for everyone everywhere. From our executive principal, Raymond Anderson. Put your phone down. Talk to someone. Congratulations, class of 2025. Thanks, Linda. A note about the senior awards, just for parents. um if you've
never if you don't have a child getting an award or scholarship, you probably don't attend this event. So, um if it's it is something I think great for parents to go to because you see how many scholarships are offered and what
they're offered for. Um they're so specific, you know, like I looked at certain scholarships and I'm like, "Oh, I my daughter should have applied for that." was like going to a community college to major in accounting or you know it was so specific and most people don't apply for scholarships. So um just
like from a parent perspective if you that's video we recorded that right Kevin? Yes. Okay. So just to parents out there it's long it's a long meeting because we give a lot of scholarships but if you watch that you'll see there's a list posted on wtps.org too. There's a list. Okay. Yeah. I mean that stuff
especially in this financial day and age um every single scholarship helps. I can speak personally about that and we give a lot of scholarships and Mr. Anderson did a great job. I and and also Mrs. Miller like you guys did such a great job with all these events. You're like
an MC Ray when like it's not even like I'm like he's not even looking at the paper. So all of the events were really nice for the students and we had great weather. It was just those are the things that are important I think to to mention when you know we have a lot of
upset about things going on. We were just talking in the other room and um it was all inspiring to sit back and watch. So, my son graduated from township, but we were inside and I thought, "Oh, it's so nice. It's so intimate and small, but
to be on that stage and look out and see 529 kids in caps and gowns, it was almost brought a tear to your eye." Like, if you've never been to one or watch the video like these kids, they were It was inspiring. It really was. And to see
them all walk across the stage and my my heart melts because like Mr. Anderson and Mr. Severice. It felt like they had a connection with almost every kid. Every kid that walked out. Like Mr. Anderson had a handshake with one kid. Mr. Severise had a full-blown
conversation with one kid. Like it's you don't realize how special these people are until you experience them outside of their element. Actually, I'm the most unempathetic person in the world. And I actually filled up to cry watching Mr.
Anderson and James Connor do whatever handshake they've done on a daily basis. It was it was crazy. Um I said to Ray, "Every single kid looked me in the eye and shook my hand." Like I I don't know what you if you told them to make sure they do that, but every single kid said like, "Thank you." I said, "Well,
congratulations on behalf of the board of education." They'd be like, "Thank you so much." And I thought, I only shook half their hands. And every single one of them had the the banners and stuff. It was really It was a great class. They were a good class. They were good. Okay. Um, I wanted to mention too
Yeah. All right. Um, the I've been going to some of the New Jersey school boards events in the summer. I don't work Well, I do work in the summer. I teach online, but I have availability to go to these events. I went to the summit for president uh
board presidents yesterday up up in Manville um which was great and I got a lot of good information there and and good perspective God bless you from other board presidents in other districts. So there were hundreds of us there and then they split us into groups of 12 to do small group instruction
which actually the way they did it I thought would be a good format for our retreat. So I'll send you guys that in an email. Um but it was just nice to talk to people from other districts about what's going on. Um, and I also went to the AI conference. I think I sent you guys that information. And I'm going to meet with Lori Banloo,
our field service rep, about just because everyone works and has different schedules, especially in the summer. But just putting together for us some of the handouts and materials that they give like printed, you know, not like go to the New Jersey School Wars website and look at it, but just something printed
that you can have at meetings. This this is an example of just one thing. um basic parliamentary procedure. It's just I'll pass it around. I asked for her to send me 10 of these it and you know we did exercises thank you Ari on it and this is great to have in a meeting. So
um I just encourage people to go on and go log in to your account if you want to go to anything. All you have to do is just say Lori can you sign me up for this? That's what she does it. She pays for it. They pay your mileage if you're free. You know you really should do it. Um, one of the goals that we have, I
hope we have, um, or that we approve is getting, um, training, more training through New Jersey school boards. Okay. Any other discussion items? Okay. Uh, Mr. Dillio, do you have a report for us? Okay, I think it worked. Thank you. Um,
so thank you, um, Miss Kazmple, Miss Hartong for talking about, um, graduation and all the events that led up to graduation. Um, in addition to, uh, Mr. Anderson and Mrs. Miller, all the wonderful teachers and families and parents that contributed to that event.
It was um, it was fantastic. So, thank you for celebrating that. Um, I wanted to talk about a couple things that are happening relatively soon. Um, one is in the town. Our Fourth of July celebration. The parade is going to begin um at 6:30 p.m. Fireworks going to
begin at 9:00. Um, there's still time to participate. This is run through the town. So, if you're um if your organization is interested in participating, please reach out to Lisa Collins at l Collins at W at town twwp.w washington.nj. us. Um, and then there's
going to be food vendors and novelty items that will be in the 910 parking lot that evening. Also, our WTEF, which is our Washington Township Educational Foundation, is sponsoring um the 28th annual golf classic, which is going to be held on Saturday, August 9th, 2025 at
the White Oaks Country Club in Newfield. Um, it begins roughly around 10:30 and ends around 5 with dinner and an awards ceremony. There are prizes for each hole and um we're looking for volunteers not only to contribute to uh basket auctions
but also to contribute to sponsoring a hole or being um another type of sponsor. Um if you're interested in supporting us in any way, please reach out to uh my department's secretary Heather Sullivan
at hsullivan wtps.org. And um finally, as far as an end of the year recognition that I would like to give, I'd like to give a a shout out to Mr. Lindstead for his help this year with um the inaugural season of the We
Are Township Leadership Podcast. For those of you who don't know, that was u published every two weeks and it's on YouTube and Spotify. Um just a couple of things. It was a collaborative effort with Mr. Lindstad and Mr. Pina uh for publishing it across the district
website, Spotify, YouTube, uh my LinkedIn account. Uh we initiated the project with key uh leaders each of whom were nominated three exceptional students. So we recognized 15 teachers this year along with 45 students and uh
some of the teachers that were recognized were Dr. Mselli, Officer Hamilton, Miss Mason, Miss Jackson, Mr. Spencer, Miss Fraction Mills, and Mr. Shatsman of the high school, Miss Egazy, Miss Kerfoot, Mr. Cabrera of Bunker Hill, Mr. Cwley, Miss Hock of Chestnut
Ridge, Mr. Jeb Wobney, Miss Matusa Aroga, and Mr. Zakowski of Orchard Valley. And each of them picked three individuals. Um, and they talked about what it means to be a leadership leader in in not only our town, but uh, moving forward. And it ranged from students
grades 8 through 12. I encourage they're about it's about 25 to 35 minutes long each episode. I encourage you if you haven't viewed any please go back and look at it and see some of our exceptional people to echo what Mr. Ross was talking about. Not necessarily we don't necessarily need a board meeting to recognize them but you could see the
great things that they're doing. Um so I would appreciate you guys looking at that. Thank you. And that's that's my report. Miss Kazmple. Thank you. Can I have a motion to approve the minutes for April and May 2025? So moved. I'm sorry. Back it up. Can I'm
sorry. Can I have a motion to approve correspondence items one, two, and three? So moved. Thank you. Second. All in favor? I. Okay. Now I need a motion to approve the minutes. April and May 2025. So moved. Second.
All in favor? Any items of old business? Yeah, I have one. Scott. Yep. Um, I would like to make a motion to bring Dr. H, Dr. Hibs back off of leave to
return as superintendent. Is there a second? Carol second. Any discussion? No discussion. Okay, seeing none, roll call, please. Oh, go ahead. some of the new things that have come to light and
um I just think it's time and you know thankfully Annette you know has stepped up and we don't have the same financial burden but I think uh time to bring him back. Okay, any other discussion? Roll call. Mrs. Baker, no.
Mrs. Bloom, abstain. Mrs. Clancy, she's absent. Miss Chilla, yes. Mrs. Hartung, abstain. Mr. Liberty, yes. Mr. Serrano, no. Mr.
Ross, no. Miss Kazmpo, abstain. Uh, motion failed. Other items of old business. Connie, did you say you had something? Okay. Have a couple things follow up. Uh, back
in February, I had a question uh on the agenda, a field trip to Indiana for the cost and I asked about uh how many students were going to be going and I just want to let you know on 429 uh I received an email from Mrs. Miller
and that no one is going and to the festival and the item was removed. It was pulled. So, I just want to kind of tie that up. Uh I have I have a couple questions on updates where we might be with it for Mrs. Miller. Uh, I had
brought up the idea of looking into the National Junior Honor Society for middle schools and I'm just wondering any update on that. No, not yet. We are um we did talk about bringing that to committee though with
Mrs. Garber. Okay. Another update. I had talked about the fact that counselors, we approved counselors to work in the summer and uh parents have said in the past that and part of the job in the summer is to be available to your
counsel or to someone that has a question about the guidance program and uh since we have websites for all our schools, I asked if we could consider having the counselor schedule what days they're going to be in the building so
parents if they wanted to talk to the counselor they would know when they're going to be there. I wonder if we have any update on that. Counselor's art. Um no I do not have an update on their specific schedules to be posted on their website. Is there is
there a time frame that maybe some decision would be made? Sure. Uh when Miss Gormaldi returns I can definitely have a conversation with her. Okay. Thank you. Also, um just real quick, Connie, Annette did mention that to me she had that on her list and that she
was looking into the the actual website update overall. Uh so that's not We don't have information on that yet tonight, but um but that did come up. Yeah, I I wasn't looking into a lot of work. It just whoever does the the school, the principal who does the website, Connie Baker, will be in on
July, blah blah blah, August. Simple. Takes five minutes. Okay. Thank you. Uh, another update. Um, we we approved a former employee who would be working in another district during the summer to do summer work for
$50 an hour. And we talked about that when these kinds of things come up that we're going to get a a kind of a a ballpark figure of what it means. Is it a 100 hours? Is it 20 hours? And I think Mrs. Miller, you said you were going to let us know that. Any any update on
that? So the update is I've used no hours so far and as far as the anticipated costs I don't think it will be a lot because we are um that the goal was to transition. So, our exiting um employee we want to
have available because we have specific student matters that we want to be sure that there's a transition piece for our staff who are still here. Um because obviously special ed continues on in the summer months for ESY. As far as the amount of money, um I anticipate I do
not have a do not exceed. Um the item did carry, but I can certainly bring a do not an anticipated approximat um at the next board meeting. Yeah, thank you. That I think that's what we were talking about. Thank you very much. I I think I had on that on the list for committee too, Annette. Okay. Uh I also
like to make a motion. You want to make two motions? The first motion uh involves um a policy that um appears outdated. It's a policy outdated uh policy 0176
regarding our solicitor and negotiator. Um when the Bush law firm came on board, uh our our solicitor did the negotiations. Uh Ari, you can correct me if I'm wrong. There's no legal thing that you have to be separated between
the solicitor and the negotiator. It's up to the board. Uh three years ago, we didn't do that. We had one solicitor and the solicitor did the negotiations. So I'm I'm I'm making a motion that in policy 0176
Roman numeral 3 number one we strike out number one. Do you want to read that or do you want me to read that? Oh, I don't have it up here. Do you want to read it? It said it states the board will hire an attorney to represent its interest in all collective negotiation agreements with
the associations due to the board solicitor's role in advocating for the board and individual school district employees in various circumstances i.e. student discipline hearings special education litigation. The board solicitor shall not serve as the attorney representing the board in
collective bargaining. So is there a second for her motion and then we can have discussion? Second. Ralph second. Okay. discussion. Yeah, I have something. Yeah, I think we've discussed this before. Um, my
request, I think several meetings ago, was that we bounce this off conflict council because I don't think it would be appropriate to ask Ari to weigh in on a policy that would directly affect him. But I think the decision back then was no, that we didn't, you know, it the
board's decision collectively was not to go to that. But I do think before we make a change like that, we should check with a, you know, you say it appears to be outdated, but there's nothing from Strauss Esme that would suggest that. I just think would be in our best interest to check with an attorney that's not
conflict conflicted on that point before we abolish it or before we amend it. Sorry. I mean, you know what we're going to strike is it says due to the board solicitor's role in advocating for the board and the
individual school district employees in various circumstances regarding litigation and so on and so forth. I just don't know if it's outdated in terms of having a conflict of interest. I think we talked about this in executive. Um, you know, the fact
that when Bush Law came in, you ignored the policy and didn't follow it doesn't mean that it's not appropriate to have the policy and it's not a matter of having a different law firm. I think what we were saying is to having two different people do the role. So, I
mean, the board can vote as they wish. I just don't think it's to say that it's potentially outdated. I don't think there's anything outdated about having a possible conflict of interest which is stated here. My um I did reach out to to Peg Mi about
this just to see why this was a policy. She mentioned to me that um at one point in time it was the same attorney that did both and because someone re thought or sorry it was two different people and because someone thought oh that's the
board attorney they like assaulted that person in public verbally and it was not the right person. So that's kind of the history of this. Um, that being said, when I was on the board before and we worked with Kart and Scat, we always had, you know, Joe Bley was our solicitor and Rob Mucelli was our
negotiator. I like Aaron and I like Ari for both. I mean, my I think to like address everyone's concerns, we could leave it and run it by a conflict attorney to see if the language permits
us to have Aaron and Ari. Or we could just take this out and just say I I'm not in favor of paying an attorney to tell us how to write a policy. That's that's just like a I just think it's under our purview to change it. But you know, I want to talk to Ari about I would be have no problem. I
mean, I like you Ari, but if Aaron was here, it's really six in one and half a dozen in the other. You know what I'm saying? When I when I say outdated, we we had no issue with with Ari being the solicitor and negotiator three years ago. We don't have an issue now. Okay.
I was on board that I don't know why that I mean listen I just I just listen we we tend to to to talk about things and we never come to any kind of decision. We're going to talk about it in committee. I'm just putting it out there. Let's vote on it one way or
another and and and and be done with it. Can I make another point? Sorry. I comment to your point, Julie, about I mean, it is on our purview to make policy, but even when we make other policy adjustments, we bounce many of those policy adjustments off of the
existing board attorney because they can have legal ramifications. Um, you know, there there was the one about safety and certain things that were in there that we asked his opinion on. I think probably ask his opinion on policies every other meeting at some
point. So the cost of asking that type of question to the conflict council I can't imagine is more than $100, right? It's not not going to take them more than an hour, but could save us from potential litigation further down the road. So that's my only point. I I think it it would be prudent to get a quick
read from the conflict council on that. We can do that. Any other discussion? I just want to make sure everyone's like if you're voting, you're ready to vote. You know, you know what you're voting on. I'm not really sure how we're voting then if we're getting a conflict council. So her
motion is the motion on the floor is to strike number one completely. Carol made the point that the first sentence in that is actually okay. Is that what you were saying Carol? The board will hire an attorney to represent its interest in all collective negotiations. Like that's fine. It's the rest of it that should be
strict stricken that Conniey's suggesting to strike. So the motion you're voting on is to strike that yes or no. Um, if you vote no to strike it, then if that's the way the that's the way the vote goes, I would send it to the conflict council or Annette would
somebody would send it to the conflict council to tell us if that wording is okay. What it says is in caps, board solicitor shall not serve as the attorney. So like whoever sits here is the board solicitor. Like in other words, I'm conflicted on
negotiation. So, I will like never see Ari again if he's negotiating. Do you know what I mean? I have no reason to talk to the negotiator, but the board solicitor is the one that sits here, the one that I would call about stuff. We would we would call about all our questions that we have and
things like that. So, I think the language is probably okay and it's what we used with KART. So, if the motion fails, if the motion fails, we'll send this to Subsy, the other attorney, and just ensure that that is the case. And if it's not, you can bring it up again
to strike it again. Yeah. I just I just have a question. I think Ari can answer it. Legally, does a board have to have two separate people? I don't really want to get too involved in this because it concerns me, but the the short answer to your question is
legally no. Okay. Because my experience that I've had, there have been solicitors that were the negotiator most in most cases. I'd like to call the question. voting voting on many districts don't even have a lawyer at their meeting too.
We have the luxury of that but some don't. Okay. Call the question which yes vote is supposed to yeah yes is a strike. Strike it out. Yes. Right. Am I right? I think the first sentence should stay. It says the
board will hire an attorney to represent its interest in all collective negotiations agreements with the associations. Like we need that right. We have to have a negotiator. So yes vote strikes that part out. Yes vote
strikes the rest of it. A no vote leaves it as is and then we have to make an arrangement with Bush Law Group to split it up to split them to split them. Is everyone clear on that or do you need
more time? So, if we vote yes, you can have the same person for both. Correct? No. If you vote yes, then you're voting to strike it out. Just real quick, Julie, is there a reason is there Sorry. Is there a reason why we can't put this in policy to have like I
mean, I'm just curious if we could just It's obviously it's a fruitful discussion. I mean, if everyone votes no, it's going into I think it should it should go into a committee anyway, policy committee. Yeah. To talk about Well, we don't always do that. I'd like to call a question.
Not really. So, go ahead. I I just have one other suggestion that I could look into based on what you said, what the feedback from Peg Mayan if it's if it could be that we added that part to the policy because of
a personal experience we had. So we could go back to Strauss Esme and look at their template policy and find out you know through their resources if if you know that was in fact something that we added that can be removed we wouldn't have to send it to anybody else. I might
be okay with that. In other words, what you're saying is if the SMA says that you don't need two people in that like if we added that because of whatever that situation is that I'm willing to with withdraw right now my motion and
that we do exactly that. It's everybody okay with that? Okay. And I wasn't suggesting to withdraw. I was just saying that is something that it makes knowing that history that that it makes sense because we do have them uh and they guide us with our policies and
let's see what their boilerplate policy is. I'm fine with that. I'm going withdraw it. Um I want to make a second motion. I I I mentioned this when I when I voted for the budget and I
know there's been a lot of discussion about this. The concern is about um employees that have 20 or more support staff employees that have 20 or more years experience to be able to get their
benefits back and their time back for those individuals. Um am I allowed to say how many there are or no? Um, I don't know. I'm not naming names. I was just going to give total. Okay. Okay. I can I can even mention the
cost. Okay. Don't say their positions. Okay. No. No. But I can mention the number and the cost. Okay. I'll mention the number at this point. Nine. We're talking about nine employees. So, I'd like to make a motion. I'd like to make a motion that the admin
that that we asked the administration now that the budget has been approved and things, you know, are kind of balancing out that the administration go back to the
budget and look at the budget and see if um we're able to support these nine employees with benefits. and their time back
uh for those that are 20 years and above service. Want me to shorten that somehow? No, I understand what you're saying and we did get an email about that too and my understanding is the net is looking into it. I'm already on it. Yes. Yeah. I don't think a motion's necessarily
appropriate for that. If you asked Annette to look into something and she's looking into it, I I assume you're going to get that information. I think a motion might be appropriate at a later time, but not now. Now, when do what kind of time frame we are you are we
looking at? When did their benefits end? I'm sorry. What was that? When do their benefits end? I'm asking August 31st. Correct. Are you talking about the the people who you were just referencing in terms of 20 years or more? Is that who you're
talking about? Well, my my understanding I asked the question unless I heard it wrong that all of our employees have benefits until the 31st of August because the way that money is deducted is on a yearly basis. I don't think so. So, you want it resolved before then?
Uh, yes. We were told the 30th, but I thought it was I have the ability to I I'm already looking into this and I just need I need some time. There are some steps that have we have to follow in order to make this happen because we're working with
an approved budget. Am am I correct that our employees have who lost their jobs have benefits until the 31st of August? I don't I think it really depends on a higher date. I I don't have this answer. I do believe it depends for the specific
people you're talking about have been here quite a while and so I believe they would um but I I don't want to misspeak our HR director is not here um but I will tell you that we will definitely um and and we have spoken about this we are
definitely moving as fast as we can in terms of having others help us in this process. I I spoke to the county today about this. So, um, yeah, we just need a little bit of time. But as far as benefits, the the best answer to that question is and and I've guided other
employees to do this, they have to reach out to our benefits coordinator. I I would I would not want to misspeak and have somebody not have benefits and think they do. Well, when someone's when someone signs a contract, isn't it to
June 30th? Okay. Okay. So, if it goes to June 30th, I would imagine that's when their benefits stop. It depends on how the how each month they contribute 12 over 12 months. I I don't want to misspeak because it's too too important of a topic. Yeah, we should we should know
that though. I think we um I'd like to get this information in an email from Sean because it has to do I believe with people starting I will after after the meeting I will be more than happy to have him do that and I and I send confidential memos to the board weekly. So, and I have it on my list for the
retreat, too. That that doesn't give the people who are losing them any understanding of whether they end the 30th or the of June or 30th of August. Well, I thought HR spoke with everyone. Yeah, they they're motioning that it was taken care of. They're all aware. HR met
with people individually is what we were told. They have them until August. Okay. She can't say that. She can't go back and forth, but it depends. like people did people didn't just get like rift and with no information about like and no meeting in HR is what I was told that
happened again the best answer to the question is and I know many many employees have done this because I have spoken to HR throughout the day every day and they are assuring me that people are reaching out to get the right answers but I do I
do not want to misspeak publicly and give people a date that is not accurate Okay, they should have they should continue to reach out to the No, they they have Ralph. They have to reach out to HR. They have to. Any other anything else for old business? Thank you. Going
once, going twice. Can I get a motion open to the public? Motion. Second. Who's seconding that? Second. All in favor? Dan Fox. Hi. Uh, Dan Fox, uh, Washington
Township. My wife's a teacher in the district. I'm a school business administrator. Dan, can you I don't know if that mic's Yeah, you have to be like very close to it. Okay. I I'm a school business administrator. My wife's a teacher in the district. I was the
assistant BA here 30 years ago. Um, so I I noticed on the agenda that you're hiring pre preschool powers at 5 and 3/4 hours. Um, we have my district has had
the grant for about eight years now. And over the the time we've learned a lot of things that work and a lot of things that don't work. Um, preschool is a different animal. It is so different than anything else. you're
you're doing. Three-year-olds have a tendency just to follow the kid that's in front of them. Um I have serious concerns about the safety issues about not having a par for the full day. Um
we you know you've if you're putting the kids on the bus, the three-year-old will follow that kid right onto the wrong bus. if you have a a substitute bus driver who isn't checking and doesn't know the kids well. I mean, there's just a lot of potential for problems. And um
it's a grant. There's money in the grant. I I assume there's that for the preschool. So, what I'm asking is that could you look at um splitting or just carving out an
exception for preschool paras uh because I really think that they need to be there the full day. You're you're talking about you've got a classroom of 15 kids, one teacher, one parro, which I think is crazy in that uh just having
two people and then for for I think it's a half hour a day um you're only going to have the teacher. Um so I have big concerns and if it's grant money anyway um maybe something can be done to carve
that out. Um, second thing, it wasn't on my list, but I noticed that Mrs. Baker in this meeting and a prior meeting made a motion, never rescended it, and nothing
was ever finished with her motion. Um, so it should be called for a second unless she rescends it. Okay. Thank you. Can everybody hear me? I could I could talk about the preschool question if you wanted that. Yeah, Gretchen. Sure. Sure.
So, the um the preschool it's not a grant, it's aid, it's state aid. So, it's preschool education aid. Our preschool day is shorter. So, they do have full-time coverage with an assistant. So, they are there for arrival and dismissal for the full-time. So, it's a full day. It meets the
requirements of a full day of school, but it's not like an elementary school hours of day. So, our our assistants are covered. Um, I think you asked there was another question you asked and I didn't write it down. I apologize about the pres. Oh, so yeah. So, we're
only allowed to have one par as per the grant guidelines. They won't allow us to have another. Um, it'll get it won't get approved. So, I'm only allowed to use the funding for one certified teacher and one par classroom. I'm allowed relief teachers particularly uh for
relieving you know the other par for the teacher for having a prep and or the par for having a prep like or or a lunch I should say. Um I'm allowed to have a relief teacher if kids don't have a bathroom in the line of sight. I get I
have to explain that a lot as to why, you know, because they have to walk kids to the bathroom because the classroom assistant can't necessarily take all the kids to the bathroom down the hall. So, we're allowed that, but I have to minimize that number and explain each one why. And sometimes they come back
and say the ratio is too high. Um, so I do ask, you know, for more for coverage, especially for the for the laboratories, but in terms of the day, they're fully covered because our day is shorter. Thank you. And Connie, did you you rescended both those motion? I know you
definitely I know you loudly said you rescended the first one, but the second one Well, I rescended the first one and I got kind of dismissed on the second, but you're taking care of it. So, um I guess the rescended Okay. I thought you said I as as long as it's being done.
Yeah. And we're going to try to get it before they lose their benefits. Right. Okay. Mrs. Watson skipping you. Okay. At the mic. At the mic. Yeah. So we can hear you. [Music]
We have We have full day kindergarten. Yes. Okay. And preschool. We have full day prek now. Is it open to all students now? Um I'll I'll wait until you're done all your comments. Um but equity not I
noticed in your there's a lot of letters of discipline. So what's going on with that and can you answer that? Yes. Just give me all your questions and then we'll answer them all at one time. Okay. I would like to know the ratio on
the discipline matters because if I say something here and some of you like will giggle and laugh that's a behavior that's happening inside of the school. Younger people are unable to understand rich some rich kids who are 10enters can
understand shaming like you see how long my hair is and I wear a cap. A young child who's very well educated will say you're hair shaming. You understand? Or body shaming. Do anybody understand that?
Kids don't understand that. So when you laugh like I say something and you laugh at it, that's a form of ignorance. And I'm intentionally using adults because if you can see yourself in doing
something that is ignorant, then how are you doing it with children? Do you understand that? So the top percentage would say that's body shaming or hair shaming because you want someone to look exactly like you. Let's do the
Italian joke. Russian president said when Russia step their foot on any land it becomes Russia. Correct. In my Italian joke I said in the Italian joke the first thing never let a vicious
man on your land because if you do he will steal your land. then he will destroy Titan jokes 300 any a dominant men mass incarceration inequality and education to me is the
equivalent of attacking a dominant males AfricanAmerican males who you find is a threat you attack them I hope you laugh at them every time you laugh we call it playing it off that's an urban vernacular if you notice I change how I
talk sometime I talk like hello how are you Okay. And other times I say you're neither one is all of it's American English. In business you have to talk a certain way. But to get you to understand that if you are not training
certain kids with the right knowledge in education and you could have stopped that a long time ago. You had the ability to put a safeguard in place in this community so that no child is left
behind in their education because of any reason, their color, their sex, any of that, but you chose not to. And right now, if you look at the billboards everywhere, little Johnny
can't read and write. Little Becky can't read. Marcus can't read and write. I got in trouble here because I said my children couldn't do the math that I could do. Engineering. Someone called the FBI
because I said my son had to do advanced math. If you go to the trillionites of Pennsylvania and he came to the board, he would say, "I'm telling the truth. He's not going to hire you $150 if you do not have an advanced education in
science or math. He's going to look at you and live. I'm not going to hire you. You can't get to it if you don't get preschool, kindergarten, first grade, second grade, third grade. You can't get it. And so when you stifle the education
of someone and then you blame everybody, everybody, it's because in place the way you treated me is how you could be treating some of those children and they not understanding it. You can't body shame
me. You can't hair shame me. You can laugh at everything I say. I'm here making sure that you do so that you see yourself because it's hard to see people who are really racist cuz they often hide.
And then some people they get caught up in if I speak out then they're all ganging junk. So the people who are really truly good, god-fearing, they don't want to say anything because they're afraid that if I say something, then they'll gang on me. Poor little
lady. I I don't know who it was she was saying. They were attacking her and her children and every I felt sorry. They have blew up my car, my house, and everything else called the FBI. You can't imagine the evils that they have done because I was speaking up against
inequality. A rich white guy trillionaire in Pennsylvania would say I'm telling the truth. Mrs. Hire, I want to answer your questions. Um, good. First of all, we have prek. We got it a few years ago
and each year you get more grant money to um have more students join. So, it's been a lottery, but next year I think is going to be the first year where we hit the universal number. I don't want to misspeak. Yeah. Not. Okay.
They're going red. Okay. So, the universe is double our first grade. So, that number is always in flux. However, we have to get 90% of that of that first doubled first grade. Um, we still have some more hopefully providers to acquire
as well as however the people that are applying for our lottery, we are running through our weight list. Why don't you just tell say how many prek students we have this year and how many sites so we'll be serving 630 students this year that includes locations at Head Start
and six provider sites right and all those kids then can move into our full free it's free prek is full day it's free kindergarten is full day it's free right um and then your question about the letters of discipline I can't speak to one thing I will assure you is that
as an officer of this board um equity and equality for all of the students is definitely enforced. And I I don't want to speak for everyone on the board, but I think I can that there's not one person here that would um disagree with the fact that any student
that's making disparaging comments about someone's appearance or any sort of discriminary um conversation should be have a discipline for that or a hip for that. You understand that it is deeper than that. Well, I I do understand that, but your time is up and I want to see if
Mrs. Miller wants to respond or can say anything about the discipline. They're they're pretty um average numbers from what we normally see. I mean, listen, we're having a lot of behavioral problems in our schools. It's not all related to bullying. Um and this is something that we're working very hard,
the district's working hard to address, and every district, I think, is working hard. We're not talking about bullying. We're talking about something of people. Take it take another card if you want and come back up the second time. Mrs. Watson. Thank you. Okay. Sherry Hy. Hello. I'm Sheri Hyle and I work at
Whitman School. So, first I would like to say thank you for giving me my job back. Um, it was a really stressful several weeks and I just really appreciate the opportunity to be able to come back. Sadly, a lot of my co-workers are not as lucky because their hours
were cut and they lost their benefits and they are already seeking employment elsewhere and we are going to lose some very good people. So, that is a shame and I hope it something some miracle happens and they can come back with me cuz that would be awful if they don't.
Um, I have a question. So, I have a uh upcoming senior and I have to schedule a senior portraits and I don't know how to schedule them because I don't know with all the cuts what his senior year is going to look like. So, I guess my first
question is are clubs cut? Are sports club cut? Is it paytoplay? I know that was discussed a lot. Uh the co-curriculars like what what is his senior year going to look like? That's my first question because he's very uh
involved in different things. Um my second question is uh this past year I had the opportunity to be with my fifth graders who I adore greatly and I'm very concerned because they're going to be moving into middle school. And usually in the past I believe we went we took um
a bus over to the middle school and they got a chance to walk around so they have some comfort going into a brand new school. Um that didn't happen this year. Uh, so my question is, are they going to do some sort of transition camp for those fifth graders going to the six
because I know there's a lot of anxiety that's happening currently. Um, and like is the locker move in day that. So I guess they're my questions. Thank you. Thank you. Regarding the activities at the high school, um, nothing is changing
at the high school. So, I'm not sure the connection to the senior photos, but if your son like or your child plays basketball, you can take a picture with the basketball. He gets on the team, I guess. Um, and then the fifth grader moving up transition. So, that that um actually went away several years ago. I don't
know the age difference between your children. It went a day when we it went away when we lost the half days that were attributed to that. We used to go over during the half days. Now, they the middle schools have done things in the summer um events to acclimate kids to the new government. They still do the locker move in though day, right? And
there's not a two-day transition for the sixth graders. I thought there was that that went away since my son was I'm deferring to Mr. Dillian for recent knowledge. Sorry. As of last year, we had a two-day uh
orientation where sixth graders came in. Uh they met for the first time with their uh sending schools or their uh sister schools rather. And then um sometime during that summer we had locker move in night where kids came and decorated the inside of their lockers.
Um as far as I know those things are still in place at this moment. Thanks Mike. Hannah Morazz. The school board's recent actions show little regard for the students. Loved and respected educators are being discarded like they're disposable.
Educators who've built strong and meaningful connections are being being switched to different schools without explanation. A well-loved janitor who brought positivity throughout the school is being switched to the night shift. Why is it because you needed to? Or is it because we are so in debt that you're
using him as a scapegoat, hoping he retires so the board doesn't have to take responsibility? Instead of cutting and switching educators, we should stop distributing money to unnecessary things. Why should the children pay because HIPS can't count? Why are we cutting interventionists? Staff who work
directly with students who struggle academically or have learning disabilities is one of the most damaging decisions you could make. These educators provide much neededed support to children with learning disabilities or lower IQs. What do you gain by removing them? A couple dollars to the budget. At what cost? These aren't just
jobs. They are the difference on whether a child gives up or pushes through. Removing interventionist displays you giving up on the children in expense to save your own job. You are essentially telling students they don't matter enough to be helped. And if you're comfortable enough to send that message, then there's a deeper
problem than a budget deficit. How about we start re-evaluating the poor financial decisions made by the board? Every time there's an issue, you should discuss how this affects the children. But most of you don't ask yourself these critical questions. All you do is think about what is the easiest thing to do. Why don't you cut
positions that were newly created such as dean of students, technology coordinators, or elementary supervisors? I advise you to start considering the kids because if you don't, not only will the children be harmed, but also the very image and agend agenda you care so much about. Based on your actions, your decisions are not about what's best for
the kids, but what's easier for the board. Start rethinking why you join the school board because at this point, it's not about the budget, it's about control. Thank you, Hannah. Um, I think to just like kind of address in general what you were saying, as you heard from Mrs. pile
like not every people come back, people move around. Uh sometimes people have to get moved to save their job. So if something's cut in one school, they have to go to another school for a little, you know, for a year or for a while so that they still have a job. So that's one of the things that that could be
affecting some of the things you're seeing. And also the summer's not over. That's when a lot of things get, you know, reallocated, I guess you could say. And so it's not totally over yet. um in terms of where people are going to land. So, but thank you for your
comments. I really appreciate them. Barbara Dada. So, I sent this uh email out to everybody about two weeks ago. Uh Julie, you were the only one and Patricia responded. Um, Carol, um, Connie, I want to thank you
for bringing out the transparency here. As usual, you're the only one who comes out and tells everybody what's going on because we never hear it from anybody. So, I wrote uh to express my deep concern and disappointment regarding the current condition of our school
district. What we are witnessing is not just dysfunction. It has become a public embarrassment. I am formally calling for a comp comprehensive sorry I can't read my own writing uh comprehensive independent audit conducted by an external accounting firm with no
affiliation to Gloucester Camden or any surrounding counties. This audit should be should span at least the 10 at least the past 10 years to ensure full transparency and accountability. My longstanding opposition to Mr. Hibbs is
rooted in deep concerns from his previous leadership roles in Marboro. And two weeks ago, I had just found out that he was also dismissed from Mount Holly. I think you should all take this into consideration as to why he was dismissed. His presence continues to con
contribute to division, low morale, and deeply troubling culture, particularly affecting those who serve students with special needs. Now he is pursuing legal action while simultaneously collecting a salary. Yet the public is expected to fund the cost of his lawsuit. This is
really unacceptable. If any board member has filed lawsuits against another, those costs should not be borne by taxpayers. These legal battles should be resolved personally or withdrawn immediately. They do not serve our students or our community. In my
opinion, Hibs mr. Hib's contract should be bought out and he should resign immediately. Our district cannot afford to remain entangled in these costly and demoralizing lawsuits. Reportedly maybe about six more or less lawsuits from
people on this board. Furthermore, we must direct our budget scrutiny toward administrative ex excess, not toward teachers and staff who support our students every day. Multiple principles unnecessary support staff. Vague budget lines such as miscellaneous or line
items represent irresponsible use of public funds. At the same time, basic repairs like leaking roofs go unressed while non-essential beautifification process projects continue. Who authorized this spending and why when so many critical issues remain unresolved?
Plus, I understand that maybe a gym was um uh done, re reven re re venerated, whatever. And uh maybe a new gym was put in. Um that money was spent towards that. So, I'd like to bring that to your
attention. Um that's a rumor. I don't know if it's true or not about a new gym. As a senior citizen, I am personally impacted by the recent 7% property tax increase, a heavy burden for those of us on fixed in incomes. It is devastating to know that while federal taxes are being reduced, our
local leadership continues to increase ours without accountability. I was also disturbed by reports of disrespectful disrespectful treatment directed to Mr. McGee by some board members. Hostility and infighting have no place in public service. The
community expects collaboration, not conflict. The media tension brought upon our district by these behaviors and by Mr. Hibbs is particular reflects arrogance and disregard disregard for the public trust. If any board member is
prioritizing personal gain or per political agendas over our children's ed education, they should resign. In fact, it may be time to consider a complete restructuring of the board. Lastly, I would like to comment on the lack of professional dress within our schools.
While spirit days can be light-hearted, routine appearances of jeans, sweatuits, and even pajamas send the wrong message. We must evaluate our standards, fostering a culture of professionalism, pride, and excellence. In conclusion, I
urge this board to take these concerns seriously. All the above. I am not alone in my feelings. Many in our comm community share my frustration. We demand accountability, transparency, and a renewed commitment to our children's
future. Thank you. Thank you, Mrs. Dada. Um, I wrote down everything that you mentioned and I wanted to Oh, about the um the lawsuits. So, thank you for the opportunity to explain. So when someone
So the school ethics commission um is not uh an organization that would discipline per se like an employee or even a board member like nothing can really happen. They they just evaluate what they're sent. It's not like they do
um it's not a lawsuit. So whatever gets sent to them as a complaint they look at that and they respond to that. And so when a complaint is made against a board member between and among board members from the public to the board that is referred to our insurance and the
deductible is $5,000. So it's not a lawsuit but there is a legal cost to that. So I just wanted to clarify. Thank you. Uh Mrs. Klene. I didn't hear any other questions but I wrote it all. I wrote it down.
Good evening everyone. I just have two questions. One would be on the line items and the other one is going to be in reference to HIPS. So my question concerning the line items. When we have a line item on a budget, let's say it
says equipment and you approve that line item and let's say it's approved for $2 million. Do you know what you're going to buy specifically
for each line item? Because if you don't know, anybody can put something in that line item. I'm going to give you an example. So, I've been told, the gym that Barbara referred to, it's a
weight gym. It's not a gym that we think. It's a weight gym. And the weight gym cost a million dollars. And not all of you on the board knew about this weight gym, but because it said equipment,
maybe it was put in that budget and that on that line. How can that be? You cannot approve lines, people, and not know specifically what it is going to be spent on. You
can't do it. It's wrong. So, anybody can come up with anything and say, "This applies to furniture. Let's buy so and so and stick it on that line." Unacceptable. It can't be done. You need to know specifically what are you spending that money for? Number one.
That was my question. Does everybody know specifically every line that you approved what the money is going for? First question. Second question. I read a lot. I don't even live in the state of New Jersey any longer, but I read a lot.
I see you on um YouTubetubes. I watch your meetings. And I was told based on what I've read that Hibbs is suing the school district. If he is suing the school district, why
are you keep coming in every meeting and saying, "Let's bring him back." That is a conflict of interest. I would never want someone working in my school district that's suing me.
I don't understand this. I'm confused. Every time you meet, every time I watch you on YouTube, you make it a motion. Let's bring him back. No. And if he's suing the school district,
who's paying for his legal fees? Are we paying for his legal fees? Now, some of you would say, "Oh, she doesn't live in the district." You get federal money and I'm federal. I can ask any question that I choose to because you get my money. Does everybody
understand that? You get federal funding. I give to the federal government and I have every right to ask you a question. What are you doing with my money? Are you paying for his legal fees? That's the question. Thank you.
[Applause] at all. We can't talk about the um the superintendent at all. We're not paying his legal fees. Um he has his own attorney. And in terms of the line item budget, I mean, I would say this year at least, I wasn't on the
board those other years. We did, you know, we got down to like granular level. I don't know about the previous years, but did you want to say something? I just wanted to say so the process that we normally follow is for
each line item if we have a detailed budget. So every dollar that makes up a specific line item, there's specific items that you know departments specifically for equipment will get quotes for. So there there are specific
details to every line item. Now during the year, that's not to say um you know you budget for a piece of equipment, don't end up getting it or maybe a new need arises and you know something changes, but every school district uses
a set chart of accounts with specific descriptions. So you have to make sure whatever you're purchasing, you know, fits the category. Um, and then as far as um the only thing that I'll mention about the um the other projects you
brought up about the gyms, if you go back to um our budget uh public hearing presentation from the 23 is this the 23 I think it was the 2324 budget. Um which was in April of 2023. We received um
close to a million dollars in supplemental stabilization aid. that was just like a one shot of money and it was actually if I'm not mistaken we didn't know about it until after we did our tenative budget. So we had to work on a plan to spend this money knowing it wasn't
going to recur. So there is we had multiple uh meetings about this but if you go back to that presentation there is a specific slide that has details of the different projects um that were budgeted for that Julie. Yes. Yes. Can I can I can I just
comment um what what what I noticed that going back to that presentation and that wait room that was put in. I remember that and you correct me if I'm wrong Mrs. Recctor that that million
close to million dollars was for one and done things. In other words, it was for things that we could do but not that we continue. Like in other words, you wouldn't h you can't hire a teacher because you're going to have to pay for them every year, but it was like a
oneandone kind of thing. So yes, that was the recommendation at the time cuz again, it was just it wasn't recurring. So it it's not like when we do the tax levy incentive and that money is added to our tax base. It was just we were getting a million
dollars, but then the following year our total state aid would either go back to what it was without that or you know right whatever the formula is. Yeah. And um I know I know at the time and I'm only one board member. I wanted to go to
that meeting and somehow or other it was approved at a board meeting then it got changed. But something that always concerned me, you're right, our budget was crafted and then we got that million dollars. And what I never could really
understand, and I'm just speaking for myself as a board member, I'm not speaking for the board. We had bleachers in our budget. And very easily we could have taken those bleachers out of that our crafted budget and put it with the
one and done. Okay? because that the bleachers were one and done. So, also too, I I want to I want to comment my own personal again speaking as a board member with the line items. Um, you know, just so everybody knows,
you're on the board for three years and you just scratched the surface of understanding things. The budget is an enormous thing to understand and you know Mrs. Wctor works very very hard at it. Tries to give us as much information as
possible but to speak to Mrs. Klein's comment about the line items. I know for myself as a board member, I don't know all those line items and what kind of and I and I wish
I did be and I and I'm telling you it it's hard to scratch at it to get all all the particulars. The one thing that I know that happened last year was that there was a line item for furniture in every building of a
classroom. part of what a project of the dream team was to to the tune of about 360 or $380,000. I know as a board member, had I known that was in the budget, I would have said, "Wait a minute, that's a great
idea, but we don't have any money. People are losing their jobs. We got to put that on hold." Now, just so you know, we have a curriculum cycle. And in the curriculum cycle when you're in math or or or English there may be furniture a
component to that. Remember now this was a project that wasn't part of the curriculum cycle. So that's that's that's number one. So I didn't know that. I remember another time where some people shared with me about a consultant sitting down and talking with
secretaries about what they do. And they she spent days in our district. And when I inquired about it, well, it didn't go over a threshold in the line item to let the board know that it was even happening. It was all all up on the up and up. I vote I voted for the budget.
There's a bunch of line items. There's things that could come out of those line items that I got to tell you, I don't know every line item and what everything's that's involved. But when I do hear things that come to my attention, I bring it forward. I I bring it forward and ask what what is
happening. Many times in the past and things change, the board was told when certain things were going to be happening or certain money was going to be spent. It seems that if it's in the budget and it's in the line item and I voted for it, I really don't have to
know that it's happening because it's none of my business at at that point. I voted for it. I don't know if that answers your question, Mrs. Klein, but I I I definitely have to say for myself, I don't speak for everybody else. They they may know a lot more than me, I
don't know everything that's being spent in those line items. But I do I do want to make a a point that we do more and get and I know Mrs. Mrs. um Bloom has mentioned this. We
need to start right now talking about this budget. And I'm glad that Mrs. Gazemple is having a a board retreat. That must happen. We must be we be talking about the budget every every every board meeting.
Thank you. Um can I just say something? Can I say something real quick about this? Yeah. Um, I think I got a letter about the line item budget and I wanted to make it clear that in my opinion when we do a retreat every year, we should
all sit down as a group and do the line item budget. That was not done last year. That was not done this year. And I hope and pray there's some there's at least six of us that should be on the board next year. We are not doing what we should do. We don't sit down at a
retreat as a board and go over the line item budget as a group. That didn't happen and it needs to happen for next year. So the line the line item budget was available at all the committee meetings and the detailed budget was emailed out
well in advance. So if you feel like you didn't have enough time to review it, you do have a copy so you can review every single item and we could talk about that at retreats or she's saying she's saying as a full board. I think she meant as a full you did a great job.
And I'm not criticizing. I'm just saying as a whole group just like things in this budget, small groups. I like A, you like B. I can't convince you to go for A unless I meet with all of you and you have B. We just don't have enough back
and forth. It's not your fault, right? But we need to have a retreat every year. Yeah. And the line item budget just like for the, you know, so the public knows just the general fund only all the details is over 150 pages. So, you know, you guys have it and like if
you want to target um certain certain areas at different committee meetings or different, you know, points throughout the year, that's what we could be doing. Yeah. I mean, things are changing. I think it sounds like this year we got way more information than you did last
year. For sure. Um, Nicole Lenudi. Well, thank be that's been beaten to death, but I just think it's also important to keep in mind what's the role of a board member, right? We don't run the district, right? We are here to ensure the district is run well. Our big
biggest job is to hire a superintendent to make policy and that's pretty much it, right? We we don't run the district. That's that's I mean that's in the ethics. If we try to administer the district, we actually are they're committing an ethics violation. So that's just keep in context what the
role of a board member is. Um well, the budget is the board's budget, I think, is why you might be hearing some murmur. It's the board's budget and we um we it's not an ethics violation to to talk about the budget. I think that
No, his his point is about administering the school district, I think, which a board member can't administer the school district. The budget is the board's budget. I I don't know if the two points got conflated when you said it, but that's the that's the answer.
So much arguing. Um, in I just wanted to make a comment in regards to Scott making a motion about bringing Hibs back. It's I think she had asked why he keeps doing that and I think it's because Scott
knows that he was unlawfully put on leave. Um at this point it's not well did they not invoke the doctor necessity unlawfully. Um so back into my that's about to be my point. So
lawfully whether you like him don't like him it doesn't matter. The question comes that we had no it doesn't matter. The question is now was it done legally? Was it done lawfully? Was it done ethically? It could have been him. It could have been her. It could have been
anybody. The question is, was it done legally and ethically? And now we are approving the law firm that allowed it to happen unlawfully by approving a law firm that allowed unlawful things to happen. Isn't that unethically done in
itself? Could this happen in other situations where the attorney should have stepped in and said, "No, we can't invoke a doctrine of necessity. This isn't allowed right now." What other type of situations could this happen in? Whether it's lawful or legal, I should
say, to have the same attorney do both jobs. As Miss Baker had said, it might be legal. Is it right at this point? We do have a lot of lawsuits. It costs us a lot of money. We don't have the money. We have people losing their jobs. So whether it's legal or not, is it the
right decision? And can we start to move into making lawful and ethical decisions that aren't going to cost us more money that we don't have. Um I wish there was another board member that can explain that. um along with the
bleachers. Um with the way things are going right now again legally and ethically and lawsuits, we don't have that money. We need to start preventing I was really happy to hear that Julie said that everybody was starting to work together. Hopefully that will eliminate
some of that money. Um, another issue or question that I have is a couple years ago at a board meeting I had asked if there was any
in the sites of hiring in district BCBAS and RBTs and Dr. Hib said that that was the plan. He said that in a meeting. Is that still the plan? Every year you're approving Denovi for millions of dollars. Connie had said something to
Miss Miller about is there a cap on somebody working in the summer exceeds something. Is there a cap on how much we're paying Denovi every year for services? It is well known through insurance companies,
through parents that he is known for billing for hours that he doesn't provide. Another letter from Brett Denovi himself just went out to all employees stating that there is another fraud case against them for billing for
hours they didn't provide. Does anybody have the job of combing through his hours line by line to know if we actually got those hours? And they're only consult hours. Denovi from what I'm told from admin and Denovi staff they
don't provide therapy hours. They provide consult. They're getting paid $55 an hour, $75 an hour, $116 an hour for consult. Our staff doesn't get paid that. They get paid $15 an hour. Can we
look into bringing on staff BCBAS and RBTs that we are not paying $3.5 million a year to? It's not needed. There's been so many It was 3.5. I asked last year. That number came directly from you that
we paid 3.5 million last year. I actually re went back to a board meeting that it was said and that Dr. Hib said that it was um on the table to bring to phase them out. I wanted to make sure I wasn't misquing anything. So, I did go back and rewatch that. Um there's been
multiple staff members. Has anybody went to assistants or teachers and asked what Denovi does in the buildings? specifically elementary school, middle school. There's actually two people in this room right now that have attested to me at least that they do absolutely
nothing, that they've had problems with them, that they don't do their job, and they're getting paid hundred something dollars an hour. It's I wish more people would speak up. And actually somebody the other day an assistant in an elementary school has
multiple run-ins and complaints over this staff member o over denovi staff. I would really like before you approve them to maybe go to staff and ask if it's necessary to spend that much hourly wage on them and not our own staff.
Thank you Jim Arpino. Good evening. Uh, Mr. Livere, you just said that it's the board's job to make sure the schools are run correctly. That that's in the preview. We you're doing a horrible job. Just to let you know. I know you guys are working
towards some, but over the last few years during your term, it's not all been sunshine and rainbows, obviously. Um, I just want to bring up something. um board members not paying their property taxes. This really bothers me because you're a
public official voting every meeting to spend tax dollars and it's really concerning that you can go on a township website which is public and see that board members are behind multiple quarters on their property taxes.
It's I don't think I have an issue if it was your water bill, you don't want to take a shower, that's fine. your cell phone bill, whatever, but you're a public official not paying your property taxes. This is a severe issue. If you're not going to pay your taxes, then abstain on
voting on bills to spend the tax money, please. That's all I have. Thank you. Um, thank you, Angela Teruso. Good evening. I just wanted to clarify something. So, thank you so much for
your concern over over the people that lost their benefits. Um, I just want to clear up. So, when we got notification that 59 of our people would be losing their benefits, I did send an email out to those people and just told them to connect with Miss with the HR
specialist. She was um she's our benefit specialist. She's excellent. Um, and she took the time with everybody. you sent letters. It It is dependent. It doesn't matter how many years you're here. It's dependent on when you hired. Everybody has different hire dates. So, there is no one answer for, you know, I might
have my benefits expire June 30th. Somebody else might have July 30th. Somebody else might have August 30th. So, she made it they I had them reach out to her and she was phenomenal in getting back to them, making sure they knew. And then some people had their benefits extended. you were able to
extend them um for a little bit over the summer for however long you weren't covered. If you were covered till the end of August, you were okay. If you were not, they were able to extend them before they got Cobra notifications. So, I do appreciate you asking about that and your concern over it. So, we did reach out to them and they are aware of
that and they've all been contacted now. So, thank you. Thank you, Terry Shakar. Good evening, Miss Baker. I heard you say that, you know, as a board member in your three-year term, you can sort of
barely scratch the surface of understanding the budget and how the impact the district. Um, on the agenda this evening under negotiations is a I guess it's a resolution to um approve a
five-year contract. Um, since the purview of a board member is typically a three-year term, does do you or any other board members have concern with um approving contracts that experience address your comments to me? Sure. Sorry. Thank you. It's okay. Um, if there or any other board members if they
have any concerns with approving a five-year contract which is outside the term of any single board member. Thanks. Thank you. Does anyone want to respond to No, that's something I don't think we can respond. No, that that was something
that obviously would be an executive session discussion, but so they can't respond right now. Randy Ford, I have two more cards, too. I have Hannah and I think it says Mrs. Watson, but for the second for the second session,
uh Randy Ford, I just had three quick questions. Um on this million-doll gym, I heard all the back and forth, but I still don't know that I know what this actually is. Is it like a a gym, like a
gymnasium, a wait room that we received a million dollars? Where did the million dollars come from? Is it tax? Is it grant? Is it fundraising? etc. So, just there's like 10 minutes of conversation about it, but I still don't know where it was in the budget, when it was
approved, how old it was. So, if there's any more clarity you can provide, that would be awesome. Uh, just some of the increases in the professional services. uh health legal benefits denovi just want to know is are all of those line
items and the increases whether it's 15 9 12% I think was in the agenda are all of those budgeted in the budget that was approved um that's the second question and then the third and final question is
P1 the memo of understanding my only question would be from a transparency perspective and I I don't know how long this memo of understanding is, but can you provide prior to voting on it what the proposed memo is or immediately
after it's voted on if it's approved? Uh either read it in its entirety or somebody give a really specific summary of what we're talking about because I know a huge portion of the budget is salary and benefits. So I'm assuming
that this is going to have, you know, an impact, right? So just I can operate tomorrow or tonight. I won't get it until August. I just if you can, you know, give some level of specificity as to what's being approved so we all know
in the public tonight, that would be great. So thank you very much. Okay. Um, let's just clear up the gym because I don't want people talk saying we have a million-dollar gym. We do not. Um I wasn't on the board when that million dollars came to the board, so I'll let Jannine address that. But what they're
talking about is the Pride Pavilion, Randy. I don't know if you've seen that. Like when you go to the football field on the right, it used to be um our facilities like garage and now it's called the Pride Pavilion. And they put weights in there, they painted it, they
took they they changed the walls and stuff. I think it was the number I heard was was a rumor was like $100,000, but I don't really know. I'll let Janine refer to that, like address it. Um, but that's what they're talking about. The Pride Pavilion. It instead of it being a
facilities garage, it's now a workout gym for football for the football kids. Um, professional services increases. I'm not sure what you're referring to, unless you mean the the flat commission. The commission on the insurance, it's 1.5%. Yeah. Can you address that? Sorry, I
think we have a couple of things on the agenda, but the um we we just have to approve the the rates, the insurance rates for next year. They are in the budget because we do get that information ahead of time. And then the P1 he I think you said
memo, but I think you mean the MOA. You mean the MOA? Yeah, remember. Yeah. Go ahead. Yeah, Randy. Until once it's approved or ratified by the board, if it is ratified by the board, you're obviously entitled to a copy of it through OPER as you know. I mean, if the board wants to read it aloud after, that would be up to the board. Um, but until
it's approved, it's not something that's publicly disclosable. Thank you. Can I have a motion to close to the public? Oh, the gym. Do we know how much the gym, the Pride Pavilion? I'm referring back to the presentation that I was
talking about that was in the 2324 budget. Um, so it was we received $996,000. It was additional state aid. So it was just state aid that came um for one year, one year only. Um, and we had
various projects in there. Like I said, it was a whole slide in our presentation, but we replaced sound systems. We did um painting, we did outside improvements, mostly where we were having issues with overgrown trees and blocked walkways and things like
that. Um, we had the stadium pavilion which Julie was just referencing moving that also consisted of moving the maintenance department out to an area of the school that was a little safer so we don't have vehicles um going back and
forth. There was also some new equipment in the adaptive gym that we use in the 910 um side of the high school. there was some um improvements in the elementary schools um and I think that's it. But like I
said, there's a slide with with all the budgeted amounts for that year. Thank you. Can I have a motion to close to the public? Second. All in favor? Okay. Motion to approve items one
through four under report of the superintendent. So moved. Second. Thank you. Um that's an I'm having a brain fart. Roll call. Roll call, please.
Mrs. Hardong. Yes. Mr. Liberty. Yes. Mr. Serrano. Yes. Mr. Ross. Yes. Mrs. Baker. Yes. Mrs. Bloom.
Yes. Miss Chilla. Yes. Miss Kazemple. Yes. Yes. Motion carried. Right. Okay. Um motion to approve. And I know we probably have discussion on this, but motion to approve for second reading item number one under policy, which is
the AI policy. Motion. Second. Any discussion? I forgot to do discussion. I forgot to do discussion on the superintendent items. It's okay. Did we have discuss? Go ahead, Carol. A quick question on the policy. Do we have a regulation that goes with this?
Is there a strame regulation that accompanies this or no? Mr. Dilio regulation is still being developed after this policy. Um, we're still working throughout that through over the summer uh because we want to also go to the AI summit and get the
latest and greatest information. Okay. Thank you. Yeah. Uh, thank you for getting back to me on my question about the training aspects of it. That was my concern. and we have a policy saying we train people and we're looking to train them. So, I'm glad to hear that that's being developed. So, thanks for getting back to me. Also, did you all get that
presentation I sent you from East Brunswick Schools for their AI? I forwarded I went to um which one was that? Oh, the AI summit that they had at Mercer County College and our own Kathy Krnowski was there and I talked to her about it. I mentioned it at the last
meeting and I forwarded her presentation. I realize I did not actually send it to you to all of your administrators. So, I'll share that. But they did, the guy's name is Herb Pazudo. He did an immense amount of community work before they wrote that and implemented that. They use AI, they
provide AI tools in their district. They they prohibit it in elementary school, but they are teaching students how to use it, and they have very specific um like thorough implementation. I'm actually voting no on this tonight, just not for any other reason other than
I just feel like there's a lot more that needs to go into a policy about AI use than we have here. So, um, please look at that presentation. I would love to even have him come in and consult. He does do that. So, um, just wanted to mention that if you didn't get that in
your inbox and you want it well, okay, any other discussion? Seeing none, roll call. Mr. of Liberty. Yes. Mr. Serrano. Yes.
Mr. Ross. Yes. Mrs. Baker. Yes. Mrs. Bloom. Yes. Mrs. Chilla? No. Mrs. Harton? No. Miss Kazmple? No. Did that pass? It did pass. Okay. Motion
carries. Thank you. Under human resources. Um, oh, excuse me. Under student activities and communication, uh, can I have a motion to approve items one and two, homeless charter and foster students for May and June? So moved. Second. Any
discussion? Seeing none, roll call. Mr. Serrano? Yes. Mr. Ross? Yes. Mrs. Baker? Yes. Mrs. Bloom? Yes. Mrs. Chill? Yes, Miss
Hartong. Yes, Mr. Li Liberty. Yes, Miss Kazmple. Yes. Motion carries. Now, under human resources, motion to approve items 1 through 35. Motion. Ralph. Motion. Can I get a second? Second. Second. Carol. Second.
Any discussion? I'd like to make a comment. Yes, Mr. Baker. Uh, under number one, position changes. Um, I just want to make a comment that, uh, for myself as a board member,
uh, I did not see that document until the board agenda came out on Friday night. The reason why I say that is because as a board member, basically, we're told there's going to be x amount of people that are going to
lose their job or get risk or going to be non-renewed. So, when I saw this, Sorry. It was after tell you the story on Sunday right before school was going to close. My granddaughter's writing her
thank you and a little gift she has for her teachers. And I'm reading her card to her uh gifted and talented teacher in the elements and she's saying good luck in fifth grade. I hope you like it. I said m what's this about? Oh, she's not
coming back. she's gone to her. So, I want to thank Gretchen Gerber. I raised some questions about the elements program. The fact, and let me give you some history on this,
probably back around 2014, we went from one gifted and talented teacher in every school to one gifted and talented teacher for every two schools. I can't talk back. Oh, okay. Sorry.
Okay. So, all right. Let me let me tell you what I'm going to do on this one. Um Okay. All right. I also notice on number eight and number 25. I just kind of
noticed this recently. It appears that there's someone that resigned is also listed for a co-curricular position for $2,800. So I I think somehow we ought to correct that. We shouldn't be voting on that
tonight. I'm not sure, but Okay. Under co-curricular, these employees should be discussing executive exception. Oh, okay. Well, well, what do we do at this point? Just don't vote. Don't vote. And
I mean, I don't have there's nothing I can discuss right now. Okay. Anything else, Connie? No. Uh, roll call. Mr. Ross. Yes. Mrs. Baker.
Okay. Under number one, I'm going to vote no from not im uh not eliminating the elementary gifted and talented teacher. I'm going to abstain on number eight
and I'm going to abstain on number 25. Yes to the rest. Mrs. Bloom. Yes, Miss Clancy. Oh, sorry, Miss Chilla. I am going to abstain on number 16 because
I'm conflicted on the WTEA. So, I think I have to abstain from the entire thing. So, I'll just abstain on number 16 and yes to the rest. Mrs. Harong got her resation and she's also getting I am going to abstain on number 16.
And I'm going to do uh no on number eight. Yes. Okay. Mr. Li Liberty. Yes. Mr. Serrano. Yes. Miss Kazmple. Yes.
Did everything carry there? Yep. Yes. Okay. Um, can I have a motion to approve items one through 74 under finance? Ralph second. Scott, any discussion?
Yeah, Scott. uh on 26 and 27 which is the solicitor and the negotiation services. Um
I'm going to vote yes to that with the understanding that we're going to for the time being get a different solicitor and a different negotiator until we amend the policy. Yes. Related to the policy discussion earlier, we have a plan for that. Okay. Just wanted to confirm that. Yes. Thank
you. Also, you guys, I'm sorry. It number 28 was deleted. I just saw I don't know what that was, but to amend my motion. It's 1- 27 and 29 through 74. Sorry about that. Any other comments? Um, just on number 26 and 27 and number
49, I'll be voting no. Uh, 26 and 27, I'm voting no um because we don't have a policy ironed out yet and firm. So, I feel that I can't vote on 26 and 27 because I feel like we're still up in the air with our own policy and I think that would be conflicting for me to vote
on that in my in my opinion. Okay. Anyone else? Roll call. Mrs. Baker. Yes, Mrs. Bloom. No 49.
No on 49. Yes. On everything else. Miss Chilla. No to no to 26, 27, and 49. And yes to the rest. Mrs. Hardong.
No to 26, 27, 49, and yes to everything else. Mr. Liberty, yes. Mr. Serrano, yes. Mr. Ross, yes. Miss Kazmpo, no to 49.
Yes to the rest. Everything passed. Ralph said yes. Okay. Um, under special education items one through five. Can I have a motion to approve items one through five? Motion. Second.
Second. Any discussion? Seeing none, roll call. Okay. Miss Bloom. Yes. Miss Miss Chilla. Yes. Mrs. Hartung.
Yes. Mr. Li Liberty. Yes. Mr. Serrano. Yes, Mr. Ross. Yes, Mrs. Baker. Yes, Miss Kazmple. Yes. Thank you. Under negotiations, motion to
approve item number one. Motion. Second. Carol. Second. Any discussion? Yeah. Uh, first I got something that Elaine asked me to read. So, uh, so this I'm reading this in behalf
of Elaine Clancy. Uh she says, "I apologize that I could not be here tonight due to personal reasons, although I have always valued our support staff, especially our classroom aids who are underpaid. However, this MOA should not be approved
as it is a long-term contract. It's not fiduc being fiduciary responsible with the issue of less and less coming from the state. We already are asking the residents of Washington Township for over a 7% tax increase this year, putting the burden on our taxpayers. We
already know how this budget has affected our school community and resulted in cuts at all levels of employees. I implore implore the board to vote no on this MOA and renegotiate with renegotiated contract with the whole board having input. That was from
Elaine. Um I also have my own comments like Go ahead. Yeah. Um, so I have to be careful what I say here because it's not a ratified document. But first, I just want to say I do appreciate all the hard work of all
the support staff in the district. I mean, um, your hard work makes this district run. Uh, I do have concerns about this contract. Um, again, I can't bring specifics, but one, I'm concerned about the length of time um, obligating
future boards and somewhat tying their hands. uh and also the financial aspects of it um of concerns over that. Yeah. One thing I have to ask Ari if I can bring up here. Does anyone else have comments? I just
have one comment that we were looking at rehiring a lot of our support staff. I couldn't believe that we had one hireer who had been here since 2003 and the amount of money that persons
making this year if it stays as it is is $17.54. Now they've been here since 2003. Their longevity is about $600. I know that some people don't like the five-year contract,
but with everything else that's going on, you have to realize that the amount that was actually budgeted for the support staff this year, if it had stayed like it was, the support staff, specifically our assistants, would be getting pennies.
Based on this, I'm going to have a leap of faith and I'm going to vote yes when when we vote on it. Um, I'll make a quick comment. So, I think I've asked for this for the past year and I've said it publicly a lot.
Um, I asked for data because I wanted to make sure that whatever was negotiated would actually be cons commensurate with the market. So, that's what I asked for. um I didn't get that information in terms of market
data to ensure that and I'm going to be very careful with my words to ensure that one of the groups um that frequently comes to the podium rightfully so and talks about not being at market and being underpaid
which I couldn't agree more. Um I'm not convinced that this actually does that. So I'm voting no for very different reasons because I feel like the way it was constructed
that it should have been just constructed differently to ensure that those group that group of people uh was brought up to market the market data that I wasn't provided and I've asked several times to be provided and I was
not given any information about it at all and this was asked several times. So if it ex if it existed if it existed I don't have it and I asked for it. So I just want to let you know that's the
reason why um I do think that the group um and I think you know who I'm talking about absolutely needs to be brought up to the market. But I don't have that information of where that market is. And when I look at this and I analyze it
I personally don't believe that that does that. That's my own opinion. I don't. So, I just want to let you know the reason why I'm voting no is probably different maybe than others that are, but that's my reason why I wasn't given the information. I asked for it. I didn't get it. So, I just want to let
you know reason why. I'm not devaluing what you do cuz it's actually quite the opposite. So, I just want to let you know the reason why. I have one more comment. Yes. So my other concern just is that we haven't received information back from
the state about the extraordinary aid package. Um and because of that I I think we should table this until we have that information back. The tax levy you the tax levy. Yeah. Is there so it's a comment. Can I make a
motion to do that? Well, we already we already have a motion in a second, Ari, to We're in discussion. Can am I able to make a motion to table it though while it's there's a motion on the floor, Scott? I think at this point we have to
finish it. I think you could tech. So I think you can make the motion to tab it. Um just tap it when he votes. What's that? Well, no. Obviously, for one, that's
Yeah. Give me one second. My little book from NJSBA. Also, I want to make um I need to correct item 49 did not pass, which was Brett Denovian Associates. Um and I don't I think that
is well I don't know that that's claps but go ahead Annette. So the board certified behavior analysts are within that item. So, as we open up, ESY, I have zero behavior services. So,
I just want the board to be aware. Um, beyond that, without putting the district in any kind of jeopardy, that is exceptionally concerning in terms of compliance. What? Wait, I want to know. Okay. Are we
able to give them a month-to-month contract rather than for a year? So, you're saying we don't have anyone to cover his kids or his classes? So, I and I shared this in a confidential memo to the board. The
items that come under special education are related to um specific students in the district. So we use we use agency services to support the services we provide within our own
staff. Um and that is in many different areas. Behavior services included could be health services, nursing services, OT things that supplement what we already have. Um some of those agencies are exclusive. They're they're specialized
in what they do. In this particular case, yes, that agency is all of the behavior services that we have in the district. So those those youngsters youngsters aren't being serviced then this summer. Can
after we I got I got a question. Yeah. After we vote, after we finish what the motion that we're finished with, can someone or myself make a motion to recast number 49 under Yes. finance and facilities? Okay.
Thanks, Steve. Okay. Anyone else? Yes. Go ahead. I received confirmation that I can make a motion to table this matter. Um like to table it until we get that information back from the state. So, so then right now we're voting on to table.
I need a second. I would need a second. Oh, okay. Does he have a second? What if he doesn't get a second? Okay. Then we then that doesn't go anywhere. So, we're voting on the item that the main So, we're voting on the original motion,
which is to approve the ratification of the MOA. Roll call. Mrs. Chill. No. Mrs. Hartong. Abstain. Mr. Le Liberty. No.
Mr. Serrano. Yes. Mr. Ross. Yes. Mrs. Baker. Yes. Mrs. Bloom. Yes. Miss Kazmple. Yes. One, two, three, four, five.
Okay. Steve, do you want to make a motion to revisit number 49 under finance? That motion carried, by the way. Congratulations. I'd like to make a motion to recast the vote for financing facilities N number
49 and let me get more specific here. Resolution for Brett and Novian Associates LLC. Second. Okay. Any discussion? Yes. Yes. I think we have to have discussion. Absolutely. Um does this
have to be a whole year contract? Yes. The professional service contracts are for a year. Can there be a cap on the amount of money paid to this vendor? Because I think I mean I I'll just speak for myself. I voted no just because of
the the overall expense. I I trust that Annette I I I'm going to vote yes now because I can see your frustration and I and I trust your decisions, but I just think this is kind of um maybe something that we definitely need to talk about in
terms of cutting back significantly with this vendor going forward. But I don't but I'm a yes. I'll be a yes. Any other discussion? Go ahead. Okay. Roll call. Hold. Hold on
a second. If we approve it now, can we talk about moving forward empowering our own aids and training our own aids and making them
being able to become our denobi? So, our own assistants are trained. We have an incredible amount of assistance in this district. The um agency provides boardcertified behavior analysts to the
district. There are supportive program supportive people within that agency. Um we have scaled back incred an incredible amount of money this year. Um so I can tell you yes, the answer is yes. We can
absolutely look in terms of fading what we use the agency for. There's zero doubt in my mind that we need board certified behavior analysts in this district. Can we bring in board like can we in we can we can we can explore all
of that. Okay. But we have students walking through the door, right? Yeah. Well, that's what I'm saying. If we approve it now, would that be something that you're open to? Yeah, we we always train our own assistants and they they're just doing different jobs is the
best way to say it. I mean, I'm just because we used to have behavioralists. Yes, we used to have behavioral specialists, BCAAs. We used to one woman who was super nice. Yes, I have it on the list for the retreat and I'm moving it up in the priority list
for the retreat. Mill, I don't have a problem approving 49 because that's what we need for right now, but I I want to be able to have a conversation of providing our own people. And yeah, I agree. I want to support
that. That's important to me. But I also hope that we can look into getting our own BCABs. I think that that's important to the district. But I'll vote yes, too. Okay. Any other discussion?
Roll call. Mr. Ross, yes. Mrs. Baker, yes. Miss Chilla, no. Mrs. Bloom. Yes. Mrs. Hartung. Yes.
Mr. Li Liberty. Yes. Mr. Serrano. Yes. Miss Kazmpo. Yes. Motion carries. Can any items of new business?
I think we have enough business. Okay. Can I have a motion to open to the public? Motion. Second. Second. All in favor? I. Okay. Um Lou Randazzo. Good evening. My name is Lou Randazzo.
I'm a field representative from the New Jersey Education Association. Uh first to the board as a body, thank you for ratifying the agreement between the support staff and the district. We appreciate it. It's very disappointing though to have uh people vote no to be very honest, right? um just in light of
everything the district has gone through and the number of cuts that the staff had to uh bear and the way that in which it was done right that we heard not just me say it at the last meeting but countless staff that they waited someone even tonight uh weeks to find out what their fate would be if they would be
brought back and the number of resignations on the agenda. One of them says a verbal resignation because your employees have lost faith in the district. I go back to the agenda 30 something one of the resignations because uh someone that was uh an experienced teacher that was told hey
you're not you know you're not renewed like everybody uh went elsewhere and wasn't required to give the district a notice and you have verbal resignation that's what your employees think of you as a body just not the board but as the district and that's where you are and I
think voting no on the uh agreement you know it's though it's your right to do so it's very disappointing to the staff to hear that and that's the state of your schools. Um, in terms of special services, uh, WTA, the president's right here. I'm sitting with him and on behalf of, uh, them, we
would love to support and represent formerly the BCBA. So, if you want to give us voluntary recognition at the expiration of this Denovi deal, we'll be happy to bring them into our bargaining unit. The same goes for uh, the assistance or whatever you want to call them that Denovi provides. I
respectfully disagree. They do a different job. Think they're doing our bargaining unit work. And now that the contract is ratified by both of the parties, if you are paying our folks for the RBT uh certification, the coursework and all which is in the agreement, uh then we the support staff will be happy
to do that part of the work as well. So we'll be happy to accept voluntary recognition for any of those uh job categories for each of the two associations. I believe that's it. Thank you. Thank you, Sean Lindsay.
Uh, I just got a couple comments. Um, I'm going to be the I'm going to be the devil's advocate here. What happens if that stabilization aid doesn't get approved? What are you going to do? Contracts ratified, but now if we're gambling with this now, it's up to the state to decide if we get it or not. So, if we don't get
it, how you going to look these people in the eye and tell them something else has to happen if we don't get it? You just you're you're gambling right now. Granted, everybody likes to have a gamble gambling, you know, thing like, "Hey, I think I can get it. I think I can win." What if we don't? You're going to stand there and look at these people
in the eye and say, "Oh, sorry. We didn't get the money. You're screwed." Well, there you go. Um, another point I want to make is that, um, everybody's like, "Oh, let the pass go. Let the pass go." Well, here's the problem. People keep bringing up the past, so I'm going to bring it up now. Can we please stop
talking about the bleachers? Stop talking about the rocks. Stop talking about these one time and and somebody actually asked me to explain this, so I'm going to try the best I can. I was a former board member. I was here when some of these things got approved. Understand when this money came in, it was explained to me very detailed by
Mrs. Wctor. This was a one-time cash infusion. This was not something that was an ongoing recurring theme every year that we could put into the budget. When this money was allocated, we could only do projects. We could not hire staff. You can only do one thing with this, which was projects. So, what are
we going to do? We're going to hire you for a year and then guess what? You don't have a job next year because that money is no longer in the budget. It was a one-time infusion. So, anybody who's still confused about that, that's the simplest terms that I can explain is that you had money come in one time. You
can only use it for projects. You could not use it for staff. So, that's the rectification on that if I said that right. Whatever. Anyway, that's what that was used for. Last comment I'm going to make is um is there a legal reason, maybe I I don't know if you're going to answer it or not, but I want to
ask it. Is there a legal reason why our superintendent that we are paying to stay at home why he is not allowed to do his job? I just want to know. I saw I sat up here and watched that man sit in that chair and the recognition and the admiration
that man receive from so many people in this audience should speak volumes about how much this man really tried to change this district for the better. Regardless of what you think about him as a person, I could care less. Please don't disrespect me. I let the other people talk. Don't disrespect me by talking over you. Please.
So here's my question. You don't let him come back and then you try to throw a second superintendent under at $200,000 when we didn't have the money for it. So, what was the goal there? Uh, I forgot. That's right. You cut out the director of counseling and you cut out the B&G supervisor. Was that the way to make the money for that
supervisor or for that superintendent to come in? Anybody want to answer that? Probably not because you won't. Um, bottom line is this. We don't have a captain at at the ship. No offense to you, Miss Miller. You have so many hats. I don't know how you're doing it. I commend you for stepping up and doing it. you shouldn't have to. We have a
paid superintendent who is sitting at home doing nothing and we're paying him to sit on his butt and do nothing when he should be up there handling the district as he should. But no, there are personal feelings about, oh, I don't like the guy. I don't like the way he did this. I
don't like the way he speaks. I don't like his beard. Who gives two rats what? The man is here to do a job. We hired him to do a job. I don't care if you like him. I don't care if you hate him. What he was doing for this district was trying to move it forward and get it
better. Some people don't want to see it. Maybe you're blind. But when you sit up at that deis, you shouldn't care what people think. It's about your actions. And that man was trying to do actions that were doing improvements in this school district. You might not have liked everything he
did. I didn't. But the majority of what he was trying to do was trying to make this district better. And rather than all this personal stuff, just hire the man back. We're paying him. Why is he not working? If this was a private sector, yeah, I'd love to see somebody
try to pull this in the private sector. He'd be going out faster than crap through a goose. So, please bring the superintendent back that we hired to do his job. Thank you. Um, I think you you mentioned stabilization aid, but I think you meant
we have stabilization aid. I think you meant the county um the the tax levy. Uh Mr. Serrano. Yeah. I just I want to speak to my motion. No, no, no, no. I want to speak to my motion. So,
I put those specific positions on the floor because I thought that they could be absorbed by administrators who have exorbitant salaries already and I thought that that work could be absorbed. So part of the reason I did that was because
we gave some money to the health aids and if we would have had the ability to cut all four positions we would have been able to give excuse me just had some water. We would we would have been able to give more money to either aids or some of the teachers that were being
cut. So there's a difference in priority with where we think the money should go. So, I respect everyone's opinion who wants to allocate money toward the top. I prefer to allocate it toward the bottom because without those people, there are no leaders. So, we're asking,
again, I say this and I I say it often and I'm I'm kind of beating a dead horse here, but we can't ask the taxpayer to do more. We're we're asking them to give more and they're getting less services in return. We're asking the support staff to do more with less. We're asking
the teachers to do more with less. We're asking some of the frontline supervision to do more with less. I think it's right to ask the central administration to do more with less. That's my personal opinion. That's why those motions were put on the floor. So there's your
explanation. Um, also wanted to, I didn't say this at the beginning of the meeting, but I wanted to clarify too with public comment, and this isn't in response to any particular person, but um, the microphone is not the place to talk
about specific people or disparage people and things like that. I'm not saying you did that, Sean, but I was talking, Mr. Harong. I did not I forgot to say that in the beginning. That said, I'm not allowed to stop someone who's doing that. I just want everyone to know that because when people get up and say
things, I'll say to Ari, "Can I can I stop?" And I'm not allowed to. So, it's an individual's decision what they say. I I think it's probably best to stay away from personal attacks. Um, but that said, I can't stop someone who makes the
decision as an adult to do that, sadly. Heather Wickcraft. Hi, Heather. Hi, Heather Whitcraft. I don't even Am I talking into it? Okay. I can't get closer. That's weird. Yeah, you're down. All right.
All right. So somebody um had asked me to ask this um somebody that had been non-renewed but they had good performance and good sumitative um they're effective in their positions.
Um but then there are open positions on the same I guess level that they were like and just another teacher position. Um, but when they were non-renewed, these
positions were not offered to them. And they were kind of wondering like were there anybody that was there anybody that was non-renewed offered any of the open positions that are listed online before opening them to the public?
Um, and one thing I didn't put on my card, but it was after you guys were talking about um, Denovi and everything else. There are other services that offer besides being able to train people in
house. Um, while you're going through that, Crest does offer that service. And I know Crest is contracted with Washington Township. They have BCBAS. I don't know if they cost more or less, but um and as far as market value, there
is a neighboring district that starts their powers off at 26,000 when there's people that were here for 22 years only making 22,000 and all those contracts are they're I know that contract's available online,
you know, but that was all. Thanks. um regarding every um per person is has a specific situation. So I I can't answer I don't think anyone up here could really answer what your first question you had. Um but I would encourage that
person to reach out to their supervisor to ask that question and apply for the jobs that are they have to reapply for jobs. Um, Hannah Hannah Morazz. I just want to say that we are focusing on the wrong thing here. Why are we
arguing over Hibbs and his leave? And what we should be focusing on on is the children. That is why you are all here for. The definition of a school is an institution for education ch for education for children. Maybe this will remind you of what you are here for. How dare some of you sit up there and argue
with board members. This isn't reality TV. My grandmother, Eileen Abbott, would be rolling in her grave. How dare you converse in a building named after her while going against everything she stood for. Maybe most discussions here are about the budget because it's a serious problem that needs to be solved. I have come to board meetings and times and
times again all I hear is arguing. Is this really the example you want to set for the children? There's only one board member I see who listens to what I'm saying. That should never be the case. Thank you, Hannah. Mrs. Watson,
some children. Can you can you get closer? Yes. Lottery. lottery is for preschool. Correct. Right now, right now it's a lottery, but in a couple once we get more funding and spaces, we have to have
actual sites to put the students. So, they give you time where you have to do a lottery because you can't um place all the kids and then over time you get to what's called your universal number and then the lottery goes away and everybody just gets it. Okay. But the problem is
is you're picking and choosing and technic guess but a lottery is like me getting a lottery to hit the million dollars. Some children are going to get lost in that. And that's not what a public education is about. It's not a
gamble. It is direct. and all of the children in this district and hopefully the state and possibly the world can get at least the opportunity to get a good start so that they can
improve. And you're arguing about all these things, but you're not getting it. Discipline is an issue because if you place a kid out, they're no longer learning. And from that list, that's a lot of children not learning.
Now, I don't know. know I don't have the exact numbers but it should start in preschool. It shouldn't be a lottery because a lot of people in Washington Township are millionaires. So for some some of the people here are
millionaires and yes they are trust me but a lot of people are what I call hardworking class people and they were what I call house rich but technically they're not
financially rich but because they have a house in Washington Township that's what make them really rich and so and then you have other people who are struggling every day to put food on the table. And their hopes is that you will make sure
that from preschool to high school, their kids can compete in a real competitional society. Like I said, to get into certain corporations,
you have to have an advanced degree in math and science. Just Blackstone, right? He won't even look at you unless you have a degree, advanced degrees. And you can't get to
that level if you can't even get preschool. You can't even get kindergarten, first grade, second, third, fourth, fifth, all the way up. Once you fall behind, you're all the way behind. I had great teachers. I was academically talented.
And I'm telling you, some of those trillionite men in Pennsylvania will say, "An education is everything." Today on these Facebook pages, they say, "No, you don't need an education to become a millionaire." That's true for some
people, but most people have to work hard. They had to study hard. The reason why they are in this district is because their parents came here so that they can have a quality education. What is wrong with that? Why are you arguing over
certain things when you should be arguing about? We need to involve all the kids in. And it was a young little guy. He was talking about playing golf. He understands if you play golf now, you're socializing
with certain people who can get you the opportunity to become successful in the career that you choose. And so I don't know why you're taking away some of their programs because they do need it. Many of them doesn't even require a lot of money. And
we're wasting a lot of money on things we really don't even need. But we do need an education for all the children. All of them. Not just some. Especially the poor children and African-American children who for many reasons are
getting way left behind. And you have billboards all over stating that they can't even do the math that at my grade level 30, 40 years ago, they can't even compete with what I learned back then.
And it has been trending for generations. Some of these kids, you may be passing, but they're not learning and they're not receiving what they need to compete in the real world. That's it.
Thank you, Randy Ford. Uh just three I guess two questions and a recommendation. Um the first question or ask is around the MOA. it has been voted on. I know I can oper it if
there's a way that someone can explain high level or in as specific as possible what was voted on so we can understand the the costs and where everything's going. Again, if I open it, I'm not going to have it anytime soon. So,
that's just my first renewed question. Um, the second question is I think at one of the meetings you extended or hired conflict counsel through 6:30 and you're probably not going to have another meeting until
after 6:30. So, just curious as to what happens with that council. Does his uh contract expire? Does it go monthtomonth? I I don't know. So, that's my question. And then just um move for
from a recommendation and I'll sort of point this to Miss Kazmple, but it's really about other board members. I feel like some on this board get dangerously close to talking about personnel when they shouldn't. So when
you do this retreat, I would ask that maybe you have a refresher. Um, I have the my son uh is taught by the woman that Miss Baker referred to earlier. So, she's awesome and it's a shame that
Elements got cut and it's great though that she'll be able to stay within the district. Um, again, you let it go a little too long before cutting it back. So, maybe proactively that way you're protecting the personnel and the people.
So, then maybe Mr. Mazo when he gets to the microphone or other people can say, "Hey, you know, members, teachers, support staff, they're proud to be in this district." So, it's just a concern. I know it's not the biggest concern. Um, but there are laws and there's rules
that protect personnel and I think we should just, you know, make it a point to put that at the forefront. So, thank you. Could may I just election? Yeah. Could you could you talk a little bit about elements? Elements is not cut. We made a reduction in one of the teachers. So the
the program is still going to run. It's still going to look exactly the same. We just were able to work our schedules creatively to be able to service our students differently. So for the conflict council, the it's a it's a point, you know, that that that
runs through June 30th. Um, Steve, the last thing that you mentioned was when you updated us was that everything was going to be done by the 30th. So, um, I don't know. I don't know. Um, if I
wish I wish I could explain why it was so delayed. So, I recall ever saying that, but Oh, sorry. I the interviews were going to be done. I thought the investigation is ongoing. I can't no I can't discuss anything you shouldn't go
any further than that. Um the concern was I I I think that the conflict council's contract expires on June 30th. Is that accurate? So he could continue to do work. The board will have to retroactively approve it at a later date obviously. Um that's something Steve you
and I could talk about that uh later. Could we just vote as a board to extend it one month so that we'll have another meeting? You know, that'll carry us through to the July meeting. Again, there'd have to be a contract that you guys approved, though. Um, I'd have to look I I don't even know what the
contract says to be honest. I'm taking your word that it says it expires June 30th. Uh, was it for a period of How long was it for? Do any of you know offhand? Yeah, I'd have to take a look at that to be better able to speak on it. Um, in terms of the MOA, I mean, the the
version that I it needs to be opraed, but at the same time, it needs to be explained. So, when what you're going to see when you opra it is anything that's initialed by all the parties is the change. Um, but it's so much information. I don't know how we could
read it and explain all of that right now. Um, so James Msadi. All right. Got that. Am I eating the microphone enough? All right. Good evening. Thank you, uh, James Msadi. Uh, two questions for the board. Uh, and
then I have a couple comments. Um, at the May 20th meeting that was cancelled. Uh, Dr. Banlow from uh school board association was supposed to come to talk about board goals. I haven't seen that come back up on any future agenda items yet. So I was just curious if that's
been rescheduled when it's going to be rescheduled for. We're already going into July. So it seems very late to be starting that process, but um I was looking back. It looks like we haven't had board goals since the 23 24 school year. So um would just be very interested to kind of get an update for
that. Uh the other one was um Miss Baker at least mentioned something about Friday night getting the agenda. Uh since I've been paying attention, this is the largest agenda I've come across. There were 102 attachments and 747 pages. So we've heard from other members
of the public about the board needing to be informed. I just am curious, what is the timeline that you guys actually started to receive the 747 pages of the items that you all voted on tonight in order to be able to have enough time to review all of that? Cuz that seems
pretty heavy to me. And you guys are volunteers. Many of you have jobs outside of this. So, uh I just don't know like how do we control what's getting onto the budget to make sure it's manageable for everybody to make informed decisions. So, I'd love for some insight there. um hearing about the
the board retreat. Uh a couple of items uh for me as well I'd love some thought or uh you know hearing you guys discuss further about uh is a way to track um old business items that get brought up and are unresolved. uh they don't
necessarily like when they're new items, they don't there's like not a way to track those and so like individual board members or members of the public are kind of left to have their own notes to bring things back up and to be like hey was anything ever done. So if there was a way to track that maybe make it even
publicly available status updates ticketing system there's a lot of ways to go about that but I'd be very interested uh to kind of hear more about that. Uh, the other one was, um, tracking unanswered questions from the public. Uh, Miss Gazemple, I really appreciate your efforts to take notes
and try your best to answer everything that comes up. I've talked before about you and your rapid fire questions sometimes that you get, but there are still some things that do get missed. So, a way to, you know, try to keep track of those questions and then even if it's questions that you guys, like
sometimes you guys don't have the answers, right? So, it's not that you're intentionally ignoring the questions that are getting asked, but it's, hey, we don't have that information. Um, but the public would still like answers on those. So, being able to keep tabs on, you know, hey, we were asked this
question. we had a followup that we needed to, you know, do the research, get the information, make it available, uh, again during old business or, you know, if there's a way to like publish an update of like, hey, here's the questions that were asked, here's, you know, references to resources or however
we can kind of fill in the gaps to make sure we get those, that would be uh, I think awesome for, you know, the public and those questions that aren't able to be answered at the the meeting. Uh the other one was you know we've you guys throughout this budget process have received a lot of feedback from the
public we'll say right um so again from what I've understood there used to be a point in time where the public would actually vote on the budget so again also for the board retreat like I don't know if that's a topic that can be discussed as well because I'm I'm at
least hearing from some members of the public over the past several months that they might actually appreciate being more involved or having a say in the budget and that would take some of the pressure off of the board uh you know holding that entire responsibility. So I don't know the pros and cons of that but
uh again just maybe a food for thought or again an opportunity to clarify why the board feels one way is better than the other. So those are my thoughts and comments. Thank you. Um so the goal setting um New Jersey school boards had a webinar about goal
setting. So because it kept getting cancelled that was sent out to all the board members if they wanted to join the webinar. Also um Lori Banlow had taken what we had compiled already. All of us had submitted ideas and she put it into suggested board goals and that was
distributed via email with the board. Um and it's a retreat topic obviously. Um Lori I'm trying to get Lori to come to the retreat. Um agendas. So what you see in the agenda we've already discussed in committee. So and then at the work
session. So things will be discussed in committee. Um we report out at the work session. We talk about at the work session. So all of these things and this this is sort of a long agenda. It's going to get longer. Wait until you see August. There's a lot on August. That's a huge one especially with personnel. Um
this tends to be a big one for finance. So we see these things in committee. We discuss them. the attachments, all of that. And our committees again are budget and finance, student activities and communication and um instructional affairs. So, and those things are
discussed and looked at in detail that week of committee. Then the following week for work session in between those two weeks, we all can access those things on board docs and we do we talk about them, we look at them and then they're on the agenda here. So, this might seem like a lot, but we've been
working with it for 3 weeks. Um, unanswered questions. I I do try and keep track of that that type of thing um and bring it back. Some things get put into committee whether I say let's put that into committee or not, it ends up going into committee and sometimes very
often the superintendent reaches out to the person that asked the question maybe. So, I don't know how I would track like, you know, if someone gets up and asks a question about a particular issue and someone else in the audience was interested in the answer and that person gets a phone call. Um, so all I
would say to that is if there's something that's asked and you really want a followup to it, just follow up with an email and we'll get back to you with that as well. Um, and I I need
the fourth one. Oh, the public voting on the budget. That was the other thing. That's something um that the community would vote to do to move the date of that. So that's not even our decision. I don't know how that would become a ballot item actually though. Um
okay. Yeah, it would have to be put on the ballot and everyone would vote to make that change that date. That was everything. Nicole Lenudi Page six of the June bill list was 100,0001
1479 96366 denovi in June. Um and that was pretty distraught over um what could happen over ESY when these kids show up without BCBAS. Um who do you think does that
now? Um, there was at no point in time and this this I I feel like I saw red when this happened. Um, I haven't seen Annette look that distraught over Denovi not being here in a really long time. It was visible that
somebody even said, "I can see how it's affecting Annette." Where was that response when our guys got cut 15 minutes? How come you didn't care that much about our kids not having AIDS 15 minutes a day? You of all people, Miss Miller, should know the importance of
that 15 minutes. Where was that same level of this emotional distraught? What are we going to do? Nobody showed that about what we're going to do without them. What are we going to do? You're worried about behaviorists over ESY who stand there
and do nothing. I had two people text me tonight that are in this room and three from at home saying, "Thank you so much for speaking. I'm an assistant and when I have a behavior, Denovi stands in that room and does nothing. Does nothing. Some two people in this room said it.
Get up and say it. They still build for $116 an hour. And then on top of it, there's an elementary school student who they build for the rest of the day. And that child doesn't even have a behavior plan. And this district tells our people that they're not allowed to tell their parents.
Our assistants are being duct taped to talk to parents. Our teachers are not allowed to say certain things to parents and we're worried about what we're going to do without a BCBA. We have wonderful assistants that handle it every single day. You have a problem getting staff
for ESY. Denov's getting paid 5575 and $116 an hour. I can bet it that if you offered that to our own staff, they would step up. We would never be short for ESY. They're undervalued. They're underpaid. And they can do that job.
When a child is freaking out, who do you think does that job? Our assistants. And now, who's going to do it without 15 minutes a day? But you can pay Denovia $116 to stand there for thatund 15 minutes. You also just approved over $52,000
in assistant football coaches. Not only did they get approved for $7,500 almost each, another $3,000 on top of that for half of them for weight room coaches. You just said that the new weight room was only for football students. So why do we pay them the
assistance another $3,000 to be weight room coaches? All in all, from what I understood today, there's about 27 kids that never play a second in that football game. But we have we just approved nine assistant coaches. If you just cut the team to the kids that don't
get to play anyway, which is hard for the kids, it's hard for the parents. We have to dress them. Parents don't pay for their uniforms. We supply their pads, their uniforms, the buses. They don't even get to play. How much money are we spending on those
kids that aren't playing a sport and paying these assistant coaches $10,000 each for weight room? If it's just 60,000, that's three of their benefits a year. What What are we doing?
We're also on the agenda. We're paying $400 and $100 an hour for Apple counseling services. What What specifically is that for? We have counselors. We just got rid of a director of counseling. What are we paying $100 an hour to for another counseling service?
Maybe I just don't understand and I'm asking what it's for. Um, there's also a whole page on what we pay to Gloucester County Special Services. I don't know what this is for and I would like to understand that it says occupational and physical therapy
617 per DM speech language therapy 617 per DM. We're paying $2,200 for assistive technology assessment. Why are we paying somebody else for that? And then my own child got an
assessment this year and the device we got for her wasn't even the best one. I found one online from the same company. I was never even offered that. And they said they had to go by the assessment. Really? Why don't you go by the people that work with her every day and her mother? There's a whole page that we pay Gloucester County Special Services 600,
700, 800 per DM, 22.44 per assessment, 1632 per assessment. Why are we not paying this to our in-house staff? Thank you. We actually um use Gloucester County Special Services
specialized staff. We have staff who have credentiing that requires specific roles from people who are approved to do those roles. Um, so for example, I can't go to um our sub agency for someone who
does occupational therapy. So if somebody goes out on a maternity or if there's, you know, a long-term illness, you have to have people approved in the event that they can provide those services. So I I I also wanted to say that um I've been in the district a long
time and I have always valued the assistance in this district. um when I was a special education teacher 22 years principal another seven so in a building many years I have been um a strong advocate to to ensure that there there's
training we can always do better um but there has never been a moment in my career where I have not felt passion for our assistance in terms of emotional response um I can't necessarily speak to emotion
because everybody Everybody reacts to different things in different ways. The reaction that perhaps the public saw this evening was board certified behavior analysts do do a different job than an assistant. And the board certified behavior
analysts um are are key in terms of the development and execution of the behavior plan in terms of guiding staff. So when we have students with IEPs, it is my job when I'm not the assistant or
the acting superintendent, when I'm the assistant superintendent of special education, I have to make sure that we are compliant. Um I just was unsure if the board understood the implications of not having that service. That being said, the board has spoken this evening.
We're always looking to do better. We're always looking at agencies that we use and in terms of pairing down cost. Absolutely. But I really do want to go on record as saying because many of the people sitting in the back of the room know me. Um Angela and I have worked
very closely over the the years since I've taken this position and I would never want any assistant in this district to think that I don't value the the work that they do. They they work very hard and they are essential. They are not a luxury. they are essential to
the programs and the students that we have. So, I just wanted to go on record of saying that because I believe you deserve better than that. So, I wanted to make sure for the few people who are here and those who are watching um we are a community. Our special learners
need us to work together and sometimes I do have to reach out to agencies because we have ESS who can't provide those services. Same thing happens with nursing services. They don't provide me nursing. I have to have a a different league of people to do that in district.
So that's it. Just wanted to clarify some some of the um the questions. Thank you. Can I can I add one thing? So I I would just say a lot of people don't get to see what happens behind closed doors and I know Annette, you worked very hard behind those closed doors and you did
show emotion behind those closed doors and you worked very hard to try to save as many people in positions as possible and that was a lot of work on your part. So, I just want to you don't always get to see that, but I just wanted to acknowledge that you did did do that. Thank you.
Thank you, Jerry Tarashi. I hear your cell phone chime in my nightmares, Jerry. I just wanted to let you know. Is it going off? No, but normally it is. I hear it. Sounds like windchime. I had one thing I wanted to discuss, but with everybody coming up
and making reference to different uh issues, I jotted down some notes and I I apologize in advance. First and foremost, let me talk about the wait room, the uh pavilion. It's not just for football. It's for all
Lori corrected me. I'm sorry. Lori corrected me. it's for all sports, but the the impression we're getting is that it's just for football. That's not true. So, for people to come up and make those kinds of allegations without knowing the
real truth is unfair. Um likewise, in regard to the money that came in that ended up going toward that Pride Pavilion, that didn't have to go to the Pride Pavilion. That was a decision that was
made by the administration that was in place at the time. You could have prioritized it anywhere. This was a necessity because of the number of young people who wanted to avail themselves of the weight room facilities that we already have. And
then we were overwhelmed. I mean it was like over a hundred kids and the room was not big enough to sustain that. That's what brought about that pride pavilion. So let's clear that up right away. In regard to the uh MOA for the
support staff, five years and people were concerned about the fiveyear the length of it. That's a safety factor for both the board as well as our members. It's a safety factor because as Carol you put it, you don't know where the
market's going. You don't know where it is now. You don't know where it's going to be three years from now. It might go up. it might go down. So, locking these people in now gives you the safety net of knowing where in fact that market's going to be.
And you don't know where the market's going to be, but you know the contracts there. So, that's a safety net for them so that it eliminates the the potential threat of privatization because they're under contract.
It gives them a little bit more security and it really gives you the knowledge in advance to know that one's out of the way. I'm not sure where the other negotiations stand in regard to the supervisors, the administrators, the
obviously the WTA, but all of these happen to come up simultaneously. You don't want that moving forward. Again, in regard to the behavioral specialists, Denovia or whomever, we did have behavioral specialists in this district.
We had two of them. And immedi almost immediately when they uh applied for admission into the WTA, NJA, one by one, they were let go. I'm not quite sure why. It's not for me
to determine why, but if they were replaced with what we have now, the cost, I don't think, ends up being equal. Lastly, when it's all said and done, the district is in trouble,
but it's not without the possibility of being saved. We, the members of the WTA, the WTSSPA are willing to work with the district, working with work with the board to do
whatever we can to correct what's going on here, but we need to be informed. We need that communication. We're willing to sit down with the board anytime you want. Is the board allowed to talk to us? there's an
answer that needs to be addressed. Thank you. Thank you, Jerry. If I could just clarify, um Mr. Tarashi, I just want to clarify. Um I did not say that I didn't know where
the market was going. I just wanted to make sure that I didn't get the information as to where the market was. And in terms of negotiating salaries, um I've never been a part of like 20 plus years of doing anything with negotiations that if the market
happens to trend down for any reason, you cannot lower someone's salary. You can only increase it if it goes up. I mean, so I never alluded that I
that the market was trending. I didn't know where it was trending. I don't think we can really do that. And if anything, if we're really looking at education, special education populations, I don't think we're trending down anytime soon. So, so, so let me just finish. What I said
was is that I did not get the market data that I asked for for a year and I asked several times in public. I wanted the market data and I did not get that. So, I just want to be clear. Thank you.
Thank you, uh, Angela Teruso. So, just to clarify what you're asking about, when you asked that question, I stood at this podium and said NJA had access to all of that for free. Nobody came to us. Nobody asked us for any information. Nobody gave it to us.
That's the information we use when we negotiate. We use the market value. So, that being said, let me thank those of you that respected us enough and valued us enough to vote yes on this contract.
Thank you. For those of you who did not, let me just say, you can ask all your questions that you want to ask. You'll see it if you haven't already seen it. This contract fixes the assistance issue. It fixes it.
It will help us to get more assistance here because I stood at this podium also while you hired people at the fifth step of what I make after 17 years of working here. The fifth step, you hired multiple people. Now, a few of them did not last.
I can tell you that because I'm sure when they got into those classrooms and saw what they were dealing with, they thought, why am I going to do this? But when I asked why you hired people at that top step, the answer was we can't get anybody beneath that. So guess what?
That was the starting point. You gave us the starting point. And not for anything. This is probably the fourth contract that I've negotiated on this side of the table cuz I also was on that side of the table. We've gotten pennies on the dollar. And I know it's not always about the assistance, but this
contract had to be about that because otherwise you would have no one here. And these kids need to be in their home district. This is where they belong. It's where they deserve to be. And in order to do that, you have to respect the people who work with them. And that
means paying them more. This MOA, contrary to what everybody wants to think it is, does that. And so they're going to see numbers. Whatever you whatever you want to see on it, you're you're going to interpret that the way you want to interpret it. It fixes a problem we had. It's I think you'll not
have a problem finding people to come in on that step one. Okay? And it makes the people who are already here feel appreciated. Now, the biggest slap in the face with that was to take their benefits away because now that fixed nothing. So you took away benefits with
one hand and you gave us this raise with the other hand. So unless if you want to talk about market value, give us the benefits back and with that raise, yeah, then you got market value. But other than that, you don't. These people work their butts off every day. And in the in
the midst of all of this that for the last two years has been so stressful, you know, and I know Annette knows that. I know we all know that. Everybody was so stressed. Not once did anybody say to me, "We need to go on strike." Now, I know we can't, but not once did somebody
say, "I'm not showing up for work tomorrow." If they did it, they didn't tell us they were doing it. But I have to tell you, people came to work. They came to work every day in tears some days, but they came to work every day. They took care of the kids that they needed to take care of. They always do.
So, this was about, you know, you want to talk about a 5-year contract, and Mrs. Clancy was a disappointment. She came off that deis two meetings ago in tears to me crying to me how much she appreciated the assistance and then to implore the entire board to vote no. Oh
my god that is the biggest slap in the face I have ever gotten. Believe me that that will not be forgotten for a very long time. Believe me. So I just want to say thank you to those of you who voted to approve this contract. We appreciate
it. I know we feel as though you appreciate us by doing that. So, thank you. Thanks, Anch. Also, um we we have more contracts to settle. So, it's not like this is going to this conversation is going to continue as Jerry and you know
this has been the topic of conversation, but we still have to do the teachers, the principles, the supervisors as well. So, um, it's a lot of money that we have to spend. Um, I am happy that the assistants all got a significant raise. I was very, that's why I voted voted yes. Okay. Motion to close. I don't have
any other cards. Is Jackie Tiger Williams here? I always lose her card. Okay. Um, motion to close to the public. Moved. I can make that joke because she was my daughter's our daughter's teacher. Um, can I get a second? Second.
All in favor? Okay. Okay. Can I have a motion to adjurnn? Second. All in favor? All right. Thank you.