welcome to a board welcome to the meeting of board of education for March 18th 2025 I call this to order please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one
nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all welcome to a meeting of the Board of Education of the burrow of Wan please be advised that this and all meetings of the board are open to the public and media consistent with the open Public's
meeting Act chapter 231 laws of 1975 and that the advanced notice required therein has been provided this is a regular meeting of the Board of Education of the burrow of Wang at which formal action may be taken this meeting is being live streamed on the district
website where a recording of the meeting will also be posted the public will have an opportunity to be heard as shown on the agenda at points in the meeting provided for the public to address the board recording or photographing other than for private person personal use requires the consent of parents and
Guardians whose children may be included in the image have a roll call please yes Mrs Amadeo here here Mrs Harvey
here Mr craft here Mrs Maddox here Mrs Santos here Mrs jet is absent Mr Gonzalez is absent Mr fr is absent Mrs agaro
here thank you as before I'm going to change the order of the agenda a little bit and move the executive session down until after comments from the public on agenda
items move forward with our presentations uh Dr Glazer and Mrs Bishop Johnson with the 2025 2026 tenative budget I hope you're all very excited [Music]
anticipation then decide what you want to do that [Music] okay all right so we're facing the what are we facing the camera I'm going to turn out a
little hello so good evening welcome Ken Bishop Johnson our business administrator if you haven't met her really Glazer superintendent so tonight Karen and I stand before you me in the district a
year and a half Karen just over a year um can't believe that we're already presenting our second budget to the community um last year we stood pretty much right here um and with the support of the board we committed to
transparency and A New Perspective on the reality of the financial and fiscal situation of the district um the budget we are currently working in current budget um was just a start towards
building a financial Foundation that that we are hoping will be sustainable as you know the district has been in crisis mode um after many years of strict monetary controls um and not
taking advantage of the available tax revenues that are necessary to address the rising costs of running the district um we received a lot of federal and state grants as a result of the pandemic
private donations um we used bond interest from the referendum to fill gaps none of that is available so last year um our recommendation which seemed like a really big increase all at once right
didn't have to be that way we know um the idea would be over time to spread the increase over several years we did foreshadow um last year that we would still have to recommend above a 2% % cap
um this year in anticipation but we saved Bank cap to um make sure that we were able to do that this year um again we have a lot of unknowns right we have um a
gubernatorial election that's coming up we have some unknowns with Federal funding we had some state aid cut so again what you're about to see t tonight takes all of that into consideration we budgeted our federal funding at between
50 and 70% at the advice of the State Department of Education um we received a 3% cut in our state a net cut overall um that's reflected in this budget so you know I
think we always think it's just us we are not alone wat Chong Is Not Alone um with the situation almost almost every District if you're following along in the county and overall um is facing the need of using their waivers and their
cap many of our neighboring districts are also cutting staff um what you're going to see tonight reflects the fact that we were not able to include um many of the requests that we had in this
budget we remained costc conscious we um were very creative in every aspect of operations and so far I am proud to tell you we are not cutting staff here in Watchung b um what we're presenting tonight though is still
our continued effort to stabilize the budget in the district finances we finally I feel like we're finally getting ready to turn our attention towards enhancing the educational environment for our students and the feedback that we've been getting
during our um 3 to five year strategic planning process is also reflected in what you're going to see and hear tonight um the Erin second thank you so these slides you see every year but we want to
make sure that everybody has the um same understanding right um the budget process what you're seeing is the financial expression if you will of the district schools and our vision right
Karen does a really good job Translating that into dollars and that is um what makes that basis of the budget process our vision Aron Vision thanks our vision um we talk about a lot right especially in
the past months during the strategic planning process again we're taking those conversations into consideration as part of our decision making but it also is informing our long-term goal setting we need to be able to look not
just at this here but what we're trying to accomplish going forward um and again you'll see that reflected in tonight's presentation Erin I should have used that clicker should have done the clicker um so this
budget flow process comes to us courtesy of the New Jersey school boards Association um you can see we start out with the input of teachers principles our other members of the leadership team Karen and I come together the board our Community
Partners which you'll hear from um later and we start that process of requests what do we need what are we thinking where did we last year budget that we didn't need or didn't budget enough or
too much all of those conver conv ation start we are only at the second phase in this um process tonight you're at the um obviously the tenative approval um this is the first budget approval it is what
we are recommending you will see um just from that Community standpoint right after approval tonight um budget goes to the county superintendent for approval we are in the community mark March 27th
we'll be doing a similar presentation to tonight at the burough council meeting um for the council members and the community we continue to meet with the board committees all the way through Spring Break um and then we would be recommending the final budget that board
adoption on April 24th at our next um Board of Education meeting the Aaron thanks the board has a huge role in our budget process you can see
um where they're involved in setting priorities our goals for this year we do have district and board goals they um work with our um budget calendar for the year you'll see that a little bit later in the presentation and obviously
they're on the front lines of helping us to communicate with the community and then the oversight right of those budget dollars I have to say thank you thank you to the board for spending hours um reviewing our recommendations sometimes
till 9 or 10:00 at night asking questions getting clarification again we still have time to refine this um before the final budget but tonight um I think Karen and I are hoping that we are going
to be able to show you um not just this process and the board's role but how the community has really um come together this time in a very thoughtful and purposeful process this is what you're about to see our best effort to um stabilize the
finances of the district but also to prioritize um that Improvement of and enhancement of curriculum instruction and assessment that I think that we all um have set as our priorities um
Aaron again the budget timeline this is is um a requirement under qac and compliance we follow um our timeline each year this budget calendar is developed um we begin in the fall you
can see as early as October with facility walkthroughs we start working with our budget spreadsheets to all of our leadership team um reviewing everything with the um Association
building that expense side of the budget so we're ready in February um and also in February is when the governor actually makes his um state aid announcement so that's when we're able to start developing the revenue side
which you're seeing um tonight both sides expenses and revenues Aon can you thank you um after the April 24th public hearing the userfriendly budget gets posted to the
district website and then we move forward with our next phase which is the staff reappointment um that happens May 8th and staff reappointment is the only thing on that agenda we still have our regular board meeting in
May all right I think I okay there you go it's that okay so um this is basically we how we collect the data for the expenditures or how you know I do and with others help
um salary projections are a major part of the budget so that's really important to do um early on but this year we are in negotiations so this year the salaries are really TBD we have to wait and see um what they're going to be so
that's that is one um unknown this year but the employee benefits by meeting with the Brokers the vendors you know um going through all the different worksheets that they send me I can estimate and I am told how much to estimate in some cases for health care
for um pension you know that type of thing they tell me how much I have to estimate tuition are out a district placements we estimate about how many uh kids will be going out next year um working with uh special services
we we try to be conservative but we have an idea and we do get the tuition rates ahead of time from The ated District Schools transportation same thing we have the added District transportation on this and esy transportation we also have regular
Transportation regular Transportation goes up by the um CPI Consumer Price Index every year so that's hopefully fairly stable our building maintenance we know we always know what projects are coming up we keep a running list of what
has to be done every year and what we see that needs to be done we have all of our annual operating costs so utilities this year um are are difficult because we're being told to estimate you know 15% on electric and gas you know over
you're probably seeing that at home too um it's you know hopefully things will change but in property insurance also up all of that everything is up uh enrollment projections we look to see what we think we'll get for students next year our debt service is the
referendum and the amount that's due and then we work with leadership and all our teams and we build you know the budget requests that's that um Aaron could you switch the to do you can only do you okay okay so
um in our on our expenditure side you know my role and the business office we're always watching to see the to find to look for the best prices we have purchase orders we follow all the rules we'll check with multiple vendors you
know if we think you know we can get a better price somewhere else we do so we are always checking we get quotes for everything we'll get multiple quotes you know we're we're very careful um the objectives of this budget is to support the teaching and learning
in accordance with the vision and continue to maintain the restored fundamental positions and programs that were previously cut last year we put back quite a few we want to continue on that path we also would like to continue
to grow and develop programs and operations to prioritize the Improvement and enhancement of curriculum instruction and assessment we want to maintain our current class sizes we want to manage this budget efficiently and seek to reduce expenditures wherever
possible and we want to generate surface um Surplus and build reserves for the future maintenance and capital okay yeah Aron can you switch he did oh he did decisions okay he did oh wor
right I guess it's because it's two two spots um key decisions maintaining the current class size maintaining maintain and expand Staffing levels within the budget maintain the current level of programming for transportation clubs and
sports continue and expand professional learning and collaboration initiatives prioritize curriculum instruction and assessment to improve academic outcomes and strategic stabilization of operations in addition to Staffing
support services and purchase Services we're always looking thinking out for the future looking to see where we are now and trying to make Intelligent Decisions into the future okay
that's okay okay there you go okay so according to statute the board can increase School tax Levy by up to 2% every year we also are allowed to use
allowable adjustments as determined by enrollment increases Health Care increases and any banked Capital this year we have no enrollment adjustment to use so the 2% tax increase from last
year's Levy is 287,213 adjustment this year of 278,00 this year so we actually are given you know some help to to pay for it to pay for the expense okay oops all right this is where I want
to be right all right this screen is hard to see um I can you know we can we can print out a couple copies yeah there it's hard to see um so last year if any of you remember I was talking about our
per pupil spend last year and you can see that we were spending the year before 18,9 24 per student you know and that's a a calcul that's done and this comes out from the Department of Community Affairs every year they
update so we've been striving to make some improvements and that's one of the things we had said last year we could raising the taxes would give us more money per pupil we were successful because you'll see Aaron just go a
little bit to the right yeah right there so the preliminary budget of the Year this is the year before because they're always a little bit behind behind you know when they put out their data but we had gotten up to 19245 per pupil and then last year which
you is not going to show on their website right now we have raised it to 21691 and that was a that came from We were finishing the grants but mostly the additional taxes so that really does put
us in line it's it's a little bit hard to look at this and and think that well we're at 21 and that would put us you know down into some of the other you know schools but this is also now two-year-old data because we're we're
now projecting two years out right so this is next year's budget so with this current budget my hope is that we get closer to about 24,000 per student and that will put us Aron if you go back to the left that should put us right in
line with some other districts of our size in in our neighborhood here you know with a similar similar ratables and whatnot so um that's what we're kind of striving for right now yep and and there's some nearby
counties you know on there which are be hard to see um but you know lill mum you know some communities that are small like L Hill but close by and the presentation will be up on the district site um after tonight even maybe tonight
if Aaron is not too sleepy so you'll be able to see it better right yeah it's hard to see and we can't really zoom in okay so that's that's all I have to say about this but every year the interesting thing is it does get updated
you know the DCA will put it out you can we'll see but I'll be doing that anyway so I will show you there Aaron there you there you go okay so the current TX Levy right now the Year we're in is that number that
you're seeing the 14, 37443 as I said we have no enrollment adjustment this year the 2% increase adds 287,000 483 to our balance the healthcare adjustment that I just mentioned is
27871 n and this year we're requesting to use Bank cap of 250,000 may remember that last year we had about 1.3 million and we used half of it we left the other half for this year but we're going to just use a
quarter this year leaving that final quarter next year after that if this District continues to use the adjustments it's given health care or enrollment depending on you know what happens that year and always budgeting
at the cap we wouldn't have any more Bank out and that's how you know that would be the best way to stay stable use what we're given and no more in love us if we can if we used all the bank cap then the the maximum our budget would be
this year would be 15 million 447 um but we're not we're GNA we're requesting 15 million1 19345 hey Karen what happens if we don't use the bank like at all if we don't use the bank cap it goes back to the state
you don't get back as in the town you don't you don't get that back so that's not really and and really Bank cap is is almost a savings account but it lasts three years and it rolls it'll Roll But as the three years as
it's rolling off it's gone and it gets returned so it's not returned to the taxpayers which is um probably something that not everybody knows else we have okay so here's just another screen showing kind of the same thing our local tax
levy now would be 3.68% above the 2% and that's 15,1 19345 we take in other revenues 365 663 so that's um
tuition uh Bank interest fees that we may charge for use of the facilities technology fees we have our opening balance from 2024 of a million 224 847 and that's our state aid number
1,286 213 that is a decrease of close to $40,000 I did budget extraordinary Aid this year for of $300,000 that's a that's um Aid that's given to us uh every year variable we we don't know the number until August but that's a
conservative estimate we have special Revenue grants in fund 20 of 28677 and debt Services Year from the referendum is a m128 369 so the total of
the entire revenue and likewise expenses is 19 milion 74114 El to say about that it okay so the next screen
here is there a pie chart that it looks like it's blank in the presentation that's pie chart was maybe just not showing up the disappearing pie chart
you have one on your computer you could email to Aon Aon it's on our you don't okay you could just show it like say anything never reference so
I I can tell you so so our biggest our biggest um of course it's so small our biggest uh piece of the pie is regular instruction programs and that is
um I can't even really read this but it's this big piece yeah do can you make that yes I can oh that would be great because there's no way can even though I mean I I do there you go can you read
that that's much better okay so6 and5 million is regular instruction program our Administration costs are a million 177 a transp transportation is a million
210 plant operation is a million 547 employee benefits is 3,858 and special education 3,863 so the percentages are 36% is the regular budget Administration is 6%
transportation is 7% plant building 8% benefits are 21% and special education is also 21% that's how that breaks down so what was the biggest the biggest is the instructional programs what does
that incl 36% so doeses it include that that's including all the teachers the all the um you know everything to do with instructing your children so everything about um PD uh nursing any type of
support that the students receive is instructional anything general education when public comment now now we have to shrink it now there you go oh well I could see it anyway so um here's the significant
increases that imp the budget as I mentioned salaries are were too be to be deep you know because we not really sure what they're going to be um we have anticipated and adjusted positions of 255,000 as uh Dr Glazer mentioned we had
request for new staff we were able to include three and a half staff um our health benefits major driver at you know close to 300,000 increasing this year we have the textbook adoption with professional
learning and curriculum development of 219,000 our transportation Consumer Price Index going up 44,000 our facilities uh we have U boiler maintenance contracts that we want to put in place this year and any
other maintenance we may have listed including a gym floor this year so that's 124,000 and contracted power professionals at 137,000 so those are the big drivers of of the re you know the expenses and
therefore the need for Revenue this year me yes good so you're so as um Karen explained the budget we submit has to balance right to make sure that happens
you could see mostly um there are a lot of moving parts so we had as an example uh requests for 12 positions it wasn't realistic we can't do that um we tried
all manner of things to um try and accomplish all the things we want to do and still grow as a district right we looked at adding six periods or um the possibility of a reduction in force in one area to boost up another
area this takes a tremendous amount of time it includes not just obviously Karen and I we've talked about our leadership team Nicole and Denise are here tonight Karen kid could not be you've got Aaron in the booth Ricky could not be here um but all of those
people you have no idea the amount of brainstorming ideas spinning that we do to get to this place I will also tell you that our association um meets with us regularly they also provide that input we get
ideas from other districts from the Board of Education and I cannot tell you how grateful I am for that kind of out of the-box thinking for Innovative suggestions because in the end even though we're not able to add all the
people or all of the opportunities we want to we are recommending a budget that prioritizes our expectations right effective teaching practices supportive leadership improve student results the
maintenance of our operations those are the things um that we did not um compromise on um once again this year again as Karen said we are not advocating using all of our bank cap we want to continue the initiatives um that
we've put in place continue to grow moving forward I am hopeful that this is um how we're going going to sustainably advance our goals regardless of all of the current unknowns all of all of those current unknowns um
so the supervisor of instruction let's talk about that recommendation I think that there is maybe some misunderstanding we um have a very small leadership team the people that you see here and the other people all wear about
20 hats right besides being the director of our special services running our after school program also our Hib specialist our multilanguage learner person our idea Grant what else I know
there's like 20 other things just shout them out don't be embarrassed look at now you're embarrassed to say don't be embarrassed now and the same Denise has um our early childhood General Ed prek what there's curriculum I won't get them all so you
have to say them oh no all right so look at her email at the bottom it lists them and same caring kid to gifted and talented affirmative action all so everybody's
doing to much and because there is not um anybody else to observe our staff and evaluate I get to do that to and there isn't anybody to work on our federal grants or do the reports or to have
those conversations we do that too so this supervisor of instruction will yes work with our leadership team on curriculum on assessment and data on instructional practices on um
observation and evaluation all of the things that you would expect but in addition reason why it's construction globally some of the things in the business office related to Brands some of these other hats that they'll get
their own hats I guess we'll have to make new hats um but that is what that position is it is um somebody with a specialized certificate to be able to do that work it does not add to our
administrative expenses in the budget um and that's important the next um position that we are recommending a World Language teacher right now we have um our ESL staff our um Spanish staff
split between buildings we have a disproportionate number of students taking Spanish here at the middle school we really need to be able to do a program review not just World Language but also um our multilanguage learner
program we are fortunate that we have staff that are certified in in several areas so that we'll be able to do that program review and to be able to enhance our not just our offerings but our
programs um halftime basic skills to restore you've heard for a couple years that person who was that position was put back in a classroom to help maintain those class sizes um we have not been able to restore that as a full-time
position we have had people certificated with reading Specialists or through our pursuit of Excellence program or moving other teachers with a period to do um Flex programs to provide additional
support in English um language arts and math it hasn't been consistent we thought about continuing that this year um and saving some money in the budget but again looking forward right our hope is to have this restored fulltime if we
didn't do at least halime this year I don't see us being fulltime right you might be half time next year so um we did the best we could this year restoring a halftime um and growing right expanding our program just along
with that with um construction last summer we weren't able to do any of our summer programs with pursuit of Excellence those programs will return this summer at both Bayberry and Valley View um which gives us yet another um
move forward and Mrs kid was actually at the Youth Services Commission meeting earlier because we were waiting to see what grant funding we have to support that I didn't get a report back I don't know if you did all right so possibly
good news there too um and the last position we are recommending is a point4 custodian we currently have a person who is6 and it has become very apparent it's not enough right we have something almost
every night right if you look at the calendar we have regionalization on Monday and negotiations on Tuesday and strategic plan on Wednesday and that and these two people full-time people here are setting up the chairs and taking down the chairs and when we do the
talent show setting up and taking it down we really needed to to make that part-time person whole with that point four of that position um so those recommendations right that's part of our
increases to the budget um additionally obviously we talked about last year that's what we were saving that bank tap for our K to 8 math textbook adoption curriculum alignment and development and professional learning our K to4 Ela
resources again curriculum alignment development and professional learning the Staffing piece as you saw on Karen Slide [Music] 212,000 the um the curriculum and professional development curriculum
writing that piece 219,000 um and again that totals 431,000 350 that we are recommending um when you look at oops I
think I went too far Erin can you go to the next slide thank you just is the recap right your 2% tax levy 287 483 we still needed 528,000 Healthcare waiver we are
requesting the 250,000 Bank cap still leaving us 257 in Bank cap next year and this is what has us balancing on the revenue side yes all right so I'm going to make
this bigger so you can see it here there you go so this is the so this is the school year tax impact um school year runs from July 1st to June 30th so it cuts the
year so what I'm showing you is the the top two rows are without the debt service and the bottom two rows is with The Debt Service the first thing you want to note is that the ratables in the town increase significantly this year by
almost 1889 $189 million and the home value which is a few uh columns down the home values increased by $8,302 last year they increased about $50
52,000 this year they've increased by an additional $80,000 for the average home home so what this is showing and we might just look at with Debt Service that the increase in the tax that we're
requesting from just the school is annual $410 or $411 on an average home so if you have an average home of $936,000 which is just recently assessed and
including the referendum debt debt your taxes are 6,000 or the school piece $ 6,368 that's an increase of $411 from last year it's $34 a month it's $115 a day but it is an increase
the way you can find out what your home will be a set you know the tax for your home whatever your home is assessed that is you multiply that by 0.0044 and you'll get your increase so if your home is worth $400,000 it's
$175 and if it's worth a million it's $438 so you can use that that uh formula there and and find out your taxes from the school district only and on the school year and on the school
year so this does you know this is important to us because this is how our fiscal year is on your calendar year it's a little different Aaron Could you um yeah there you go so under calendar year I didn't put the um formula but this would be January of 2025 to
December of 2025 we're already in the middle of you know that year so it cuts the year so that's just another way of looking at it and then therefore the increase with Debt Service would be 554 and that's The Debt Service piece um you
can kind of tell there that it is up a little bit next year from last last year last year we had more Debt Service Aid this year we don't but I can see next year The Debt Service is lower so I you know it's 30 years um and that's the way
you know the bond was drawn up so you can see that so that that that's the amount that we are requesting really the 411 on our budget you know the the screen before
okay and that again that's also going to be on the website so you can print that out if you want to do some math our um final budget hearing is on April 24th and we do thank you for supporting education of our children feel free to
contact me if you have any questions there's my email uh you know just send in send anything and I can um can look up the answer and get it to you okay and thank you all for coming and listening and for our staff for coming and
listening um very much appreciated um we have Council you can't see them but we have council president Eid here community members we it really makes a difference all of your voices and involvement make a difference so thank you truly for being Dr Glazer I just
wanted to ask you um you talked about how the new supervisor position would be working with the leadership team can you also describe how they will be working with the instructional staff and how that trickles down to the students
absolutely thank you like I said um we talked about um what the goals are right with this budget what are oops what are those three um if you will big ideas of
what it is that we're trying to do right effective teaching practices supportive leadership improve student results so by providing supervisor as one example um by providing a supervisor that can
work with um content that can oversee the professional learning not just in the district but um initiatives to grow right those effective teaching practices to help people with content um I I would
like to think that our team here in Watchung burrow all of us um are coaches right we're going in to provide feedback we're modeling all of our observations when I talk about observations those are opportunities for professional learning
those are opportunities to provide feedback again to improve those instructional practices when we can have a dedicated person who is um able to work with our leadership team on what
those priorities are right this year say language arts and math I'm going to call you out cu you're here Denise sorry I know this this why you're so tired though um you know not only is Denise miss pner the day-to-day operations right everything that's happening in her
school she's also coordinating with our Consultants to work with staff on unpacking the standards around math doing that scope and sequence aligning that curriculum to make sure that then whatever
resources right that we're piloting and May decide to adopt make sense for the grade level for helping us meet those um or exceed grade level expectations and skills she's doing that on top of her
current work she is trying to identify those resources on top of what is happening she is observing as the primary Observer her staff and doing that feedback on top of what's Happening
having that additional person to be able to look at right look specifically at that con the curriculum instruction and assessment to look specifically at those teaching strategies those resources
those grade level progression of skills to be able to coach and model to make recommendations right to have another set of eyes in the classroom and I don't mean that as evaluative I mean that as
another set of eyes to support in the classroom and that does require um the supervisory certificate at a minimum all of those things together allow us to do what we say we
want to do right move the um practices help our staff have that deeper content knowledge more strategies in their toolkit more opportunities to be able to take risks try new things use those new
Resources with efficacy right have confidence in that supporting our leadership team I think is pretty obvious they don't also have to be gifted and talented and multi- language learner experts anymore they don't have
to um be the data experts or do all of the reporting for the grants on top of again those day-to-day operations that in a nutshell leads to those improved student results when we are
able to provide right best practices instruction when we're able to provide professional learning feedback coaching modeling an opportunity for our principles to be able to be supportive as instructional leaders and not just as
building managers that's the best I can say um it makes a difference when we have somebody that can um take over say the multi can't even get the words up multilingual help coordinate the
professional learning with Nicole for special ed for all of that it frees up our current leadership team and me to be able to do more direct work with our staff and that obviously improves
student outcomes other board questions thank you very much Dr Glazer and Mrs Bishop Johnson thank you TR sorry I'm stealing the pen use the I was afraid I was going to
close the oh you're good I'm not a okay so we're going to be we're triing putting the enrollment back on the agenda let me get yeah give you a minute I have Dr Glazer read out current
enrollment so um these numbers are comparing March 13th last week with March 13th a year ago what you'll see here is grade byg grade um at Bayberry and Valley View as well as our totals
and our number our current numbers of um out of District students our total enrollment last year on March 13 was 675 students um our total enrollment on March 13th last week
672 students we we don't have a lot of movement up and down um but this is our current thank you uhhuh like I said we're going to move executive session um just out of respect for everyone in the audience and so we'll move on to
superintendent remarks with the district update principal's report and the business administrator's report why you start with um principal's report I don't know nicoa you reporting to no I didn't know if Karen G who Karen gave stuff to
all right good evening Denise spner principal of Bayberry um kind have a short report uh the PTO book fair was held February 27th and 28th at Bayberry it was a huge success and students really enjoyed their new books bberry
celebrated read Across America March 3rd through March 7th we had a variety of guest readers visit the classrooms parents administrators authors and our council president Mrs Eid to wrap up the the week students participated in an
entertaining and motivating assembly with author Joe McGee thank you to miss Gail our librarian for planning this event and also thank you to the PTO for their financial support during the week of March 10th staff at both schools
deepened their understanding of Hindu culture with an informative presentation by the Hindu Education Foundation during faculty meetings meanwhile students in grade 3 through 8 took part in a vibrant
Hindu poster exhibition exploring a range of cultural topics such as yoga holidays festivals sciences and traditions all with the support of dedicated volunteers wung Hill's ninth grade ambassadors visited with small groups of
eighth graders on Thursday March 27th students discussed the transition from middle school to high school including the increased expectations the theme for March Mountaineer Monday is dedicated to women's History Month emphasizing the importance of trust and
the cultivation of relationships 10 Valley View students participated in the young women in stem conference on March 13th at Princeton University on March 14th also known as Pi Day Valley View students and staff celebrated the
mathematical constant the fun included P Trivia videos songs SS memorization challenges and even pie ice cube refreshments and that is it thank you thank you you we're gonna start to
coordinate my PowerPoints with your notes so we can see it while we're talking we'll try that next month um Karen any additional business office information no additional was all about the budget all about the budget that's
it all about the budget all right nothing else oh no there's always more um Aaron could you go to that PowerPoint so we started off um since our last board meeting the buau of Mayor can see our coach sharp um with our uh
basketball team there um being honored at the council meeting um we then that like I said that started off our time in between since the board meeting you can just go yeah um we then had the mo
exciting after Valley View's talent show the PTO sponsored the Bayberry talent show here at Valley View and I have to say I put in as many pictures as I can because I know everybody tells me that they're looking for their kid at home I
tried there were so many amazing acts I I can't even tell you there's Miss vickner with a bunch of kids it was wonderful the students did an amazing job um I I will say thank you to the PTO I hope that it exceeded your
expectations as well but I also have to again thank our staff um you'll see uh Mrs lamming um who was the MC for the evening I think we had the most of the third grade team up there some of them
um we had uh most of the team out supporting the students and you can't really ask for better than that that that is you know our hope for outcome you asked about how we improve student outcomes it's that willingness of staff to come support their students to see
them outside of the classroom to really um support their interests too a you can keep going then we were lucky enough to have our second round of strategic planning that was um the session devoted
to visioning we had a number of community members board members and in our second session we also had students um our student participants were amazing you can see they actually even presented out for the gallery walk which you can't
ask for better than that and then beyond that um even after this meeting they requested a meeting with leadership me um their adviser for their uh eighth grade Club Miss kid we had lunch with them later that week and the students
presented their own set of goal areas and action items which so impressive I I just loved that um and so those will be incorporated in um to our next strategic planning session which will be March 20 6
Wednesday March 26 I had to think about that right in this room 7 o'clock um and you will um be seeing a lot more information about that that's the one where we actually do the goal setting together um we had our wonderful women
of Watchung event at the um the art center this is our former board member Gail um being honored um councilwoman um Sonia ABI Habib who I think is the third year she's put this
together wonderful night thrilled to be able to honor Gail and the other three um women of watang now we get to our read Across America there you are councilwoman Eid you did an amazing job she was in um a lot of classrooms I think you saw some old teacher friends
from when your son was in school the students really love talking to you just about you know believe it or not the burrow they talked about the playgrounds they talked about a lot um so it was wonderful and thank you for um participating we had teachers make those
super cute t-shirts love those so I wanted to make sure you got to see the teacher t-shirts um this is um our librarian uh Miss Gail and our author visitor U Mr McGee at one of the sessions again and
the PTO um uh brought the author visit and made sure copies of all the books of all Mr McGee's books were added to our Bayberry Library uh and this is one of the faculty sessions with the Hindu
Education Association they came um and did a I thought a really masterful job of talking about all different aspects of Hindu culture um this was spurred by hly which was from Friday um started
Friday and um I have had the blessing and privilege of celebrating holy and playing holy um not just in India and Nepal but to visit there you are see that was part of their presentation um but to be able to study that culture in
a number of countries so it was really meaningful to get to the school this is at Bayberry um and see they had stations set up around different aspects of culture um yoga the the different symbols uh there was a gentleman it was
part probably my favorite thing um talking about the history of math and the architecture in jaipore that literally shares all of the constellations the you can figure out the distance to the Sun it was I just
loved it there he is um and then we did the the next day here in the APR at Valley each of the social studies teachers cycled through they had uh more posters more things they were here all day with valy view but it was really a
wonderful um opportunity um we are hoping to be able to play hly next year um in the township to be able to um work with our Community Partners maybe as a fundraiser selling all of the um
different colors and um having a community celebration you don't need to keep going back to me thanks much appreciated thanks um but it was it was
lovely to be able to do that just um a few reminders we do have the next regionalization meeting um next week and there will be a community um Town Hall April 10th in person at the high school look for a flyer to come um we have our
Transportation registration um form out public the deadline for that is March 27th if you have not pre-registered for transportation for the fall or opted out please do so um again our third
strategic plan meeting will be March 26 to do our goal setting um we have our presentation of the budget at the burough council meeting March 27th schools are closed for students on
Monday March 31st in honor of Eid um our staff that celebrates are excused but otherwise that is a professional learning day for all staff um on that Monday um we'll share more at the next meeting we have um again our Consultants
coming in our insurance company um doing um staff staff directed nutrition centers with smoothies and coffee it should be a really wonderful day for everybody especially with um spring break coming I know hang in there hang
in there we're almost there um schools are closed for students and teachers for spring recess April 14th to 17th um when we come back again the final budget presentation April 24th thank you Dr
Glazer okay moving on to committee reports uh Mrs Harvey could you give the report for the curriculum committee sure oh it's working now uh I was it was funny I was just taking stuff out because Julie said some stuff so I'm not
going to repeat it just to save time for everybody sorry no no it's good uh we met on Wednesday March 13th the meeting was from uh 400 p.m. to 6:20 for some of us it was virtual those in attendance
were Dr Glazer Karen Bishop Johnson uh Jen Aguilera myself Fatima Santos Jessica Maddox Denise vickner Karen kid Nicole detota um some most of us were there
between 4 and 527 um but Mrs Santos and uh Miss Maddox were there until 6:20 to go I'll skip to the end of our meeting they went over the budget development with Dr Glazer
and uh Karen Bishop Johnson so they were there a little bit longer the rest of us had already gone through it um so we did discuss some new business so for the extended school year program Mr TOA informed uh the committee
that the program will be in watching this year from June 30th to July 31st from 8:00 am to 12:00 pm parents will be notified at the beginning of April if their child is recommended to participate in it and the preschool will
also be included this year then we went over the pursuit of Excellence Valley View times uh for the summer that is um Valley View times and dates are going to be the same as um the extend extended school year program and Bayberry times
will be 900 a.m. to 1: p.m. students will be invited based on needs of ela and math Valley View usually has themes for students to focus on uh so that it's more engaging and um the incoming fifth graders and eighth grade uh students who
are also entering high school will be invited to attend just in case uh there's any way we can help any um uh eighth graders going into ninth grade in case they need any additional help before they start high school bayy will also begin inviting students to
participate over the summer based on individual needs for Ela and math then we went over professional learning uh so for March 31st I'm going to skip some of the stuff that uh Dr Glazer already said
um but we did have the IDE consultant provide professional um learning specifics for ESL or MLL however parents want to remember it I just usually put ESL because that's usually whatever
everybody knows but it is called MLL now um they provided recommendations on how to move forward with our program and principle um kid inform the committee that the consultant shared strategy similar to creating an IEP for those
students there will be ongoing professional development for teachers Mr TOA felt that Frontline the software used for managing the IEPs would help this process but stress that the teacher training is necessary this type of plan plan for the ESL MLL students can be
placed under the response to intervention uh part of Frontline then we went over the amle conference this is a middle school National Conference that will help our staff learn more about block scheduling
student motivation and even more um The Outdoor Learning staff is going to attend a conference to receive additional training on how to utilize our new Outdoor Learning space um the parent meeting which is the
Hib slj justjoking there's going to be a parent education session on what a Hib is and how quote just joking is not is inappropriate for school um and it should be scheduled in about April or
May then we did a follow up on the referendum the field and Outdoor Learning comment a thought exchange survey will be going out uh to all to contribute to the process and we're on schedule for summer construction strategic plan um our
second strategic plan meeting was held on March 3rd to identify Focus areas and action items this was attended by 25% staff 25% student and 50% community members um Dr Glazer did go over that
the students wanted to have a lunch and learn um as a followup and they did um it sounded as if the leadership team was very impressed by it they came up with three goals for the Strategic plan Student Learning Community engagement
and communication and some of their action items under these goals were digital suggestion box a student advisory panel and more uh curriculum update and resource adoption timeline bbery continues to pilot materials and
Ela is being narrowed down and will be uh completed before the end of the school year Valley View is still looking at math programs the math program chosen will include new textbooks workbooks and online student support um we did go over the Hindu
education but Dr Glazer went way into depth beyond what I have written here so I think everybody kind of got that already and that was about it thanks thanks Mrs Harvey I'll go ahead and give the administration Finance report um the
Administration finance committee met on Tuesday March 11th at 5:00 p.m. till 9:00 p.m. and this meeting was in person committee members in attendance were Muhammad F Manuel Gonzalez Dory Harvey and myself in the administration we had Dr glaz Glazer Mrs Karen Bishop Johnson
and Ricky Boyd committee also discussed transportation and the registration that forms that went out to the parents to register for busing for next year um we discussed the referendum projects incl um the field and Outdoor Learning Commons uh and the community meeting
results and the current project timeline we also discussed the Strategic plan uh we went over agenda items including the employee professional development pay application package change orders payments of bills transfers and financial reports uh the
Somerset County ESC for coordinated special education transportation and the disposal of old furniture file cabinets tables chairs and two old compressors as well as approval for a professional service um in the business office there
is a payroll position vacancy in the business office effective April 9th and we were also adding a physical therapist to the approved providers list and then we went over the budget so this was basically a budget meeting all
right uh Mrs Amadeo could you give the report for the policy committee the policy committee met virtually on Wednesday March 12th um from 5:34 p.m. until 7:10 p.m. in attendance where myself um Jen agero
Dory Harvey uh and Manny Gonzalez attended as alternates and administration uh Dr Glazer and Miss pinky Neilson were also in attendance um several topics were deferred until next month when the regular committee attendees could reconvene um uh so there would be some
consistency in the ongoing discussion um on the agenda tonight night for a second reading regulation 7510 use of school facilities we receive no further feedback so that will be up for a final vote um and some new policies that we reviewed bylaw
0164 conduct of board meetings this bylaw spells out the agenda order for public meetings um the committee agreed to move all executive sessions to after the public comments at the request of the board president uh this bylaw will be updated and moved to a first reading
tonight bylaw 0167 the committee discussed adjusting the language proceeding public comments to limit individuals speaking to 5 minutes noting that individual will be asked not to repeat points in a single statement and to wait until all other parties have spoken before standing up again um uh
language will be added at the end of the statement reminding the public to State their full name and sign in at the door for recordkeeping um uh we also discussed who should respond to public comments how and when this language will be Rewritten and reviewed in the next committee meeting for a first reading
regulation uh 2419 school threat assessment teams and regulation 84201 active shooter these are both mandatory regulations Dr Glazer noted that the related policies were adopted
read adopted last year um the committee was comfortable with the wording and asked about aspects of training and communication with the authorities the administration will review and compare this language with the most recent adopted policies to ensure consistency and then send both regulations for a
first reading in April with any necessary updates new business policy 2440 summer programs Dr Glazer explained the need to provide additional support to small groups of students who are in danger of failing the grade at Valley View these students will be offered
summer programming through our pursuit of Excellence program the committee agreed to review and update this policy to allow admittance for these students on case-by case basis uh policy 8 8601 student supervision after after
school dismissal um the committee discussed the liability and safety concerns related to releasing Bayberry students to minors um under 18 years of years old the committee agreed to review the programs in Genesis uh Community pass and parent pickup to ensure that
all language is consistent across all of these programs uh stating that a designated escort must be an adult aged 18 or older the committee also agreed to authorize a separate permission to release form allowing a legal guardian to approve others for pickup um the
legal ease needs to be reviewed to ensure it is consistent with the policy and provides the appropriate liability waivers following this the committee will update policy 8601 the related permission form and student handbooks thank you Mrs
Amad um I'll give the report for the negotiations committee uh the negotiations negot negotiations committee met with the Union on March 5th and will'll be meeting with them again on March 25th uh onto board liaison reports um
Mrs Maddox could you give uh the legislation do you have a report for the legislation I do so on December 31st 2024 Governor Murphy signed a law to law a 5151 s-
3957 which allow public bodies to continue using newspapers for required Public Notices and legal advertisements until March 1st 2025 um and I'm reading this um because this gives a little bit more detail because there's an updated version of
this the new law permits any newspapers used by public body as the official newspaper from January 1st 2024 to December 31st 2021 this still still met the definition of a newspaper under the law regardless
of physical or digital format of the newspaper publication from January 1st 2025 to March 1st 2025 the publication could be print or electronic format this temporary fix applies to all Public
Notices including but not limited to meeting notices solicitations of bids and public publication of ordinances ordinances the update is s- 41 1 36- A-
5343 was signed into law on Friday February 28th and this is an extension of what the previous um previous uh law was signed into and this updates it a newly signed law extends the expiration
of the law up until June 30th 2025 thank you do you have a report for the summer County Educational Services upates okay uh Mrs Amadeo do you have a report from the Somerset County School boards
Association no updates okay and I'm the liaison for the school boards Association um just a reminder that everybody uh complete their mandatory training governance 2 is running a session on March 27th governance three is running a session on April 1st and
governance 4 is running a session on April 3rd there's also an AI conference on June 6th um there is a fee associated with this conference it's $119 but if anyone was interested um just let me know and we can discuss it with the
business administrator uh no update for the regionalization committee and Dr Glazer do you have an update for the Morris Union juncture commission finally yes I after months of not meeting we had two meetings since the last board meeting on
uh Fe February 26 um they honored their teachers and support Persons Of The Year as well as um having the honor of having one of the New Jersey Department of Education exemplary educators of the year so that
was fun to watch we also um had their budget presentation um their upcoming budget presentation it was you know such a different look than ours it was really interesting um then they had five
students present um on um social emotional learning and topics they had been working on right it was each of them you know one talked about following directions one about problem solving and anger and feelings it was wonderful and
it was tied to March 3D's um National seal day it was really nice you I feel like I never get to see kids ever enough and then the March 13th board meeting um also had a presentation that I learned a
lot from that I shared with u Missota that will share notes they um did a presentation on their collaborative behavioral consultative I hope I got all of that out model um for behaviorists
and how they work together and do the training um because there are so few certified people available and such strong needs um they also um shared an invitation to all districts for their um
Tech day kind of like Techo it's going to be happening on our professional learning day March 31st there'll be 18 vendors you can come and go stay as long as you want and um our technology committee um through Aaron was invited
to be able to participate thank you moving on to community engagement is there anyone here from the PTO anyone from W go ahead good evening Angelo mey from
Watchung Educational Foundation first of all I want to thank you it was a great presentation on the budget and thank you for all you do we have a couple of grants that we've approved and we're happy to provide grants for 11 guitars
that are going to be used the middle school and for the fifth grade a math manipulatives Grant it's going to help with fractions and decimals for that teacher and some new library books for bberry so we're looking forward to that
and one other thing that just had been brought to my attention is the shop right the they're opening a new shop right in Watchung and I've connected with their Community Development person and they're looking forward to partnering with us and the PTO to
provide some Community Support so very excited to see what that brings me too that's great thank you that's it thank you thank you anyone from cpeg okay move on then to comments from the
public on agenda items we welcome input from the public there are two times during the meeting when the public is invited to speak the first opportunity to comment on agenda items only is now the second opportunity for public comment is towards the end of the
meeting total time allotted for public comment is 30 minutes before you make your comment please state your name and Municipality of residence in the event it appears the public comment portion of the meeting May exceed 30 minutes the presiding officer May limit each
statement made by a participant to 3 minutes duration our public forums are not SCH are not structured as a question and answer session but rather are offered as opportunity to share input with the board in instances where the board feels
a response is needed the presiding officer or superintendent will address the comment New Jersey statutes do not permit the board to discuss Personnel or hiring in public session names of students should not be used members of the public should consider their
comments in light of legal rights of those affected and identified in their comments and be aware that they are personally legally responsible with potential liability for comments that they make to the board the board shall not be held liable for comments made by members of the
public so what I'll do is I'll have people come up we'll let everybody speak and then if we have a response we'll do it after and just please please make sure that you sign in so if we're trying to follow up with you after we know who to contact and actually it's not at the door it's at the podium it's actually at
the podium to sign in oh is there one there too that's the attendance and that's if you're speaking oh if you're speaking we can list it properly in the minutes sio watchong uh I just have a question about
the budget the bank cap part of it in particular um whatever uh M or Dr or ever but so you had mentioned I just I don't know if my math isn't
mathing that last year we had you guys had stated that there was about 1.3 million in banked cap oh my God rolls um in available banked whatever it's called Bank cap yeah um and that we used about
half of it last year we're using a quarter of it this year and then still hopefully we have a not hopefully we have another quarter of it um does that mean that we did end up losing some of that back to the state because that would only really add up to a million not
1.3 um because it's the three-year window like so did some of it because we're not using we didn't use it all at once did some of it actually end up being rolled back to the state we'll move through all the comments and then we'll answer again so do you have any do you have anything
else to add no okay all right anyone else okay okay so that concludes public comments but now we can do you have a response or would you like to get back to them no uh I'm just looking for the exact number from last year but we did
not lose any so we started out with a million and maybe I I don't have the whole do you have it um I was just looking to see if I could find it quickly but we used last year 810 so I don't you know it wasn't
actually probably half it was and we left ourselves 57,000 and we're using 250 leaving 257 so it's right around there but I can't remember the whole 1 million3 okay yes we didn't lose it though we didn't lose
it thank you Mrs Bishop Johnson so that will move us into executive session now whereas the open public meetings Act njsa 10 colon 4-11 permits the Board of Education to meet in Clos session to discuss certain matters now therefore it
be resolved the Board of Education adjourns to close session to discuss a matter rendered confidential by federal or state law student matters and pending or anticipated litigation or contract negotiation and or matters of attorney
client privilege further resolve the minutes of this closed session be made public when the need for confidenti confidentiality no longer exists an action may be taken I have someone move that we go into and a second second any
discussion all in favor say I I I all right adourn to Executive [Music] session e e e e
e e e e e e e e e e
e e e e e e e e all right welcome back ready to move on to action items we
have to move back in or no we did it in did it did in executive session move the move back in I don't do we need to move back into regular session we usually do it in
there we adjourn from session okay Mr craft do you move items under administrator I would love to I move items uh A1 approve minutes of previous meeting two affirm the
superintendent hi reports three accept Bayberry and Valley View School security drill reports we have a second second any discussion I just wanted to say I watched the meeting so I'll be able to vote for the
first one oh thank you uh roll call okay when you're ready yes I'm sorry okay Mrs Amadeo yes Mr Gonzalez yes Mrs Harvey yes Mrs
Maddox yes Mrs Santos yes yes Mr craft yes Mrs igaro yes motion passes Mrs Santos can you move items under personel um items number one approve
appointment number two accept resignation number two approve graduate stship sh three number three approve revised leaves of absence four approve extracurricular positions five approve revised extracurricular
positions thank you second any discussion um I just have a question what was the uh first one I don't know what that is what exactly is that approve appointment appointment
yeah home instru home instruction oh so if a child is um out for 10 days or more broken leg sick whatever it's our responsibility to provide um 10 hours of home instruction
per week while they're out okay all right so and our teachers are paid to do got it okay any further discussion roll call please Mrs Amadeo
yes Mrs Harvey yes Mr craft yes Mrs Maddox yes Mr Gonzalez yes Mrs Santos yes Mrs agaro yes motion passes thank
you Mrs Harvey can you move op uh items under operations Finance please sure I move one approve payment of bills two approve transfer of funds 2024 2025 three accept Financial reports
four adoption of the tenative budget for the 2526 school year five adjustment for health care costs [Music] $278,700 7 authorized travel and related expense
reimbursement for the 2526 school year eight authorize the sale of surplus obsolete equ equipment nine approved payment application for Bayberry and Valley View HVAC upgrades 10 approved change order for Bayberry and Valley
View HVAC upgrades 11 approved Consulting Services 12 approve SCC Transportation agreement 13 approve grants from wung Education
Foundation which is greatly appreciated 14 approve updated special service providers lists 15 approve professional development SL School business and related expenses
second any discussion yes my stroke got a little tight any discussion just want to say that I'm excited to support this tentative budget I think it's really clear and sensible and putting money
towards enhancing education I'm happy about that I second that I I look forward to eventually getting the basic skills teacher full-time yeah okay ready for a roll call whenever
you are Mrs Bishop Johnson Mrs Amadeo yes Mr Gonzalez yes m Mr craft yes Mrs Maddox yes Mrs Harvey yes Mrs Santos yes
Mrs AG Arrow yes motion passes thank you Mrs Santos can you move items under curriculum please I'll move approve additional field trip location for the 2024 2025 school year second any
discussion okay when you're ready call okay Mr Gonzalez yes Mrs Harvey yes Mrs Santos yes Mr craft yes Mrs Maddox yes Mrs Amadeo yes
Mrs AG Aro yes motion passes great Mrs Amadeo could you move items under policy please I move items a first reading that's um policy well bylaw 0164 conduct of board meetings and
B second reading regulation 7510 use of school facilities second any discussion okay roll call please Mr craft yes Mrs Maddox yes Mr
Gonzales yes Mrs Amadeo yes Mrs Harvey yes Mrs Mrs sanos yes and Mrs agero yes motion passes all right I have a walk-on resolution so this is a resolution
authorizing withdrawal of charges with the school ethics commission whereas the board being responsible for protecting and maintaining the Integrity of its operations was made aware of alleged actions and statements made by then board member Anthony ingracia and a
petition filed by Mr ingracia with the commissioner of Education that potentially jeopardized the operations of the board and whereas the school ethics Act was enacted to quote ensure and preserve public confidence in the Integrity of elected and appointed
school board members and school administrators end quote njac 6A col 28-11 and whereas the school ethics act further provides that board members must support and protect School Personnel in
the proper performance of their duties and that board members are prohibited from taking quote private action that may compromise the board end quote njsa 18a colon 12- 24.1 and whereas the board took the
alleged conduct and its obligations seriously which it hoped to have addressed in the appropriate Forum to allow the board to focus on the district's business while maintaining the confidence of its employees and the public and whereas on April 25th
2024 the board empowered and directed the board president to file an appropriate complaint with the school ethics commission with regard to alleged violations of the school ethics act Andor code of ethics for school board members with the assistance of the
board's special Council and whereas said action was filed with the school ethics Commission on July 18th 2024 and whereas the board has since determined that upon advice of council
it is in its best interest to withdraw its support for the pending action and be it resolved that the board directs and empowers the board president to withdraw this action with the school ethics commission
second any discussion roll call please please Mrs Amadeo yes Mr Gonzalez obain Mrs Harvey yes Mr craft yes Mrs
Maddox yes Mrs Santos yes Mrs agar yes right motion passes all right moving on to board business we did trial the enrollment numbers being on the agenda does anyone
have any strong feelings about keeping them there or removing them I want to keep them on because I'm the one who wrote the email yes you are it's easy to it's not like an issue
it's easy easy to do all right uh any other board business no okay we have comments from the public but there's no public here so can I get a motion to adjourn so moved
second any discussion all in favor say I I I meeting adjourned e