good evening good evening and welcome to the West Orange Board of Education public board meeting on Monday April 28th i would like to thank all of you here in person and those watching from home for joining us tonight uh Miss Flower I
would like to welcome my fellow board members as well as Mr moore and Miss Flowers and our student liaison uh Miss Flowers would you please take the roll call good evening roll call please dr bryant here mr stevenson here miss Vera
here mr ker here mr rock here notice of meeting the New Jersey open public meetings law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice and to attend the meetings of public bodies at which any business affecting their interest are discussed
or acted upon in accordance with the provisions of the act a written notice was sent from the office of the secretary of the board on January 6 2025 that said notice was sent by regular mail to the West Orange Township Clerk and the editors of the West Orange
Chronicle and by email to the Star Ledger that said notice was posted in the lobby of the administration building of the board of education and posted on the district website please be advised that this meeting is being recorded and may be broadcasted on local TV and the
district's website at a future date please stand for the pledge of allegiance thank you Miss Flowers in consideration of the closed and public meeting of March 17th 2025 and April 2nd 2025 do I have a motion to accept the minutes so move thank you Mr stevenson is there a
second second thank you Mr ker any comments hearing none miss Flowers please take the roll call ryan yes mr stevenson yes miss Vera yes vice President yes president Rock yes thank
you and good evening to our student liaison Nina Davis and Abby Rothstein would you two please share your student leazison report with us hello everyone before we start our report as usual Nina and I wanted to make a few statements on this important night as student liaison we do not have
much influence over what the budget cuts resulted in we are here to voice the student body's concerns and successes to take pride in our education through the faculty and staff we encourage friends and family to speak their minds at board meetings and go around asking people what they feel is necessary to address within our system unfortunately due to
budget cuts we are losing many teachers staff classes and extracurriculars that have been and always will be honored within our school so Nina and I would like to share a message thank you to all the teachers who go above and beyond within and outside our our classrooms the one who made classroom feel like a family and the students feel calm in an
environment that can easily be anything but every teacher has impacted their students in one way or another and will always be respected and honored to all our teachers who were laid off due to the budget cuts our peers and I are incredibly sorry and want you to know that we are grateful for you and everything you have done for us over the
years in the West Orange School District now we will be moving on to some of the successes and exciting things coming up for our student body april is National Bilingual/Multilingual Learner Advocacy Month so we would like to shine a spotlight on the Italian Club which has recently went to its annual spring break
trip to Italy where they visited a school in Florence getting a unique opport opportunity to further their education with once in a-lifetime experiences i went on the trip last year and I can easily say it was the best experience of my life if you'd like to help support the Italian Club to continue shaping our students minds
please come to the Italian night on June 6th i'll be performing alongside my amazing peers and teachers good evening um I just wanted to share a couple more schoolwide highlights and successes on Thursday the West Orange High School boys 800 meter relay team
set a new record at the Penn Relays um this relay team comprising of Sally Negrassi Andrea Costa Life Smith and Cooper Harwood just broke a 8-year school record with a new time of 7 minutes and 51.3 seconds and this team
is now national bound i also wanted to highlight our two students Danny Edgar and Ignasio Romano who recently won honorable mention in the Scholastic Arts and Writing Awards um this is the nation's one of the nation's most prestigious and
long-standing honors for high school students in art if you actually wanted to look at their art pieces they are in the back of the room on my right um additionally on Friday the Family Career Community Leaders of America held their second annual fashion
show comprising of studentmade pieces with student models so if you wanted to look on the board website to see some of their pictures of their pieces they are pretty great and additionally the Future Business Leaders of America won Gold Seal Chapter of Merit at their annual
conference in Atlantic City last month so congratulations to them and also just a reminder to seniors decision day is this Thursday May 1st all seniors please come to school dressed in the merch or attire of the school you will be attending after
graduation and of course none of these amazing accomplishments would mean anything if it weren't for the amazing staff behind them again Abby and I would like to send out our greatest sympathies for all of those who are struggling under these budget cuts and thank you for everything
you do for us as students thank you very much mr moore it's now time for your report would you please share your superintendent's report with us thank you President Rod and good evening everyone let's start this evening by taking the opportunity to
recognize our high school students for their outstanding achievement regarding multilingual advocacy month at this time I ask our world language supervisor Mr felix Plata and our high school principal to please come forward so that we can salute our students together with
the board good evening good evening uh so my name is Felix Plata the Selenom word languages supervisor and I'm sure you know this fine gentleman here Mr guerrero principal of our of our high school so tonight in the spirit of
multilingual appreciation and advocacy month we celebrate not just academic achievement but a profound commitment to global citizenship by our wonderful students spec specifically we are recognizing the accomplishments of two groups of high
school students who embody the values of our language programs which are to develop multilingualism for the purpose of global competence and cultural responsiveness in an increasingly interconnected world the ability to communicate across languages and
cultures is no longer a luxury but a necessity and that necessity goes beyond just developing the ability to communicate or translate in another language which in in and of itself is is valuable learning languages fosters
empathy broadens perspectives and equipss our students to become effective leaders in our ever growing diverse world tonight we honor students who have taken this challenge to heart now with our first honores we recognize
the student leaders of our high school's Latin club and their partnership with the empathy equality entrepreneurship mission organization or team under the guidance of their club adviserss our Spanish teachers uh Miss
Relle Alves and Mr carlos Perez these students have demonstrated remarkable initiative by collaborating with a nonprofit organization TTO in Ecuador their work which began this year and under the guidance of Mr gueredo who
brought this initiative to the high school uh oh I'm sorry uh which began this year and will continue to the next to provide emergency housing and improve living conditions for underserve under served
communities exemplifying global competence in action they are living what the mission and vision is of our world languages program through this partnership and in alignment with the Spanish level 4 curriculum these students are developing crucial
entrepreneurialship skills planning fundraising events and raising awareness of global issues right here in West Orange while developing their second language proficiency their re recent attendance at a team leadership conference has further fueled their
passion and we eagerly anticipate their final team event this year which is a conference on May 21st in Paramis uh and the conference is inviting all districts who are participating in that conference to come and share in in the achievements and the goals and the visions of our
students the initiative not only offers our students the opport opportunity to earn six college credits through the dual enrollment opportunity but more importantly or at least equally important it cultivates compassionate and engaged glo global citizens so for
this we we applaud our team students who are here tonight now with our next group of honores we celebrate 15 graduating seniors who have achieved a wonderful distinction they have earned the New Jersey Department of Education seal of
biiteracy in three languages we had a total of um well to backtrack we had a total this year of 62 graduating seniors who demonstrated proficiency in at least one other language earning them the seal of biiteracy but again these students have
demonstrated their exceptional proficiency in listening speaking reading and writing in English and at and two additional languages the languages that they represent here tonight are Spanish French Haitian Creole Italian Portugu
Portuguese and Americ of the 62 students we have over 12 languages that are being represented by those students with the CEO of Bitery but again tonight we are are honoring um and appreciating these 15 triilingual
students who are are more than just triilingual they are triiliterate this accomplishment represents countless hours of dedication deep respect for linguistic diversity and the commitment to academic excellence these students are not only
proficient in multiple languages they are also better equipped to navigate our our complex world connect with diverse communities and contribute to a more inclusive society they understand that learning the language is important for more than
just being able to communicate or translate the true significance of multilingualism and multiculturalis multiculturalism for that matter is to gain insight empathy and understanding of the perspectives of those cultures and the people who speak those languages
so that we may more effectively navigate our complex world so for those students who've earned tonight the seal of triliteracy we also applaud you so at this time we will call up first our our team leaders so our five
students I we'll call you up and you'll come up to the front here uh we start Alexandra Morales Joshua Joshua Montigu Justin Weinshank Roan Meta and Aishwaria Jacob please
come up to the front thank you and then um do them or the 15 students all to do all all together right because they're all one big multilingual multicultural world right that's our society now our seal of triiteracy
recipients Cathn's Antoine Aliyah Gorea Rosa Jane Desamore Leticia Fet Wily Gonzalez Erica
Jac Katrina J Baptist Marsha Mas S Kimberly Miraentos Nelly Pierre Camille Camille Chavez Trial Rosario
Tiveras Camila Saltos Nathaniel Zmed and Na Zet please come up congratulations we will award you Mr guerrero can put the medallions on on our recipients they all get two
so as they hand out the medallions the students that are receiving the triliteracy medallions they're graduating seniors this year um one point that I don't think I necessarily highlighted are team leaders uh who are who have started that initiative with that show in Ecuador they are they're
underassmen so you have in order to earn the seal of biiteracy you have to be a graduating senior obviously our team leaders we're looking forward to them uh passing the three-hour exam which again assesses reading listening speaking and writing uh so that uh they they will be
when they become seniors hopefully they would uh earn that award as well so thank you i have a few things to read though okay thank you yeah I'm moving first congratulations and thank you to our
students we are very proud of you and we value the hard work you put into it thank you very much at this time I would like to ask the board to be seated into in the audience as we will be introducing our
middle school configuration you guys coming up here where are you guys right here okay let me give uh have some people leaving just going to give them a second okay
everyone if I can have your attention for a moment at this time I'd like to address our community on the changes being made in our district as it relates to middle school configuration it is no secret that our district is
facing a financial deficit but it is also no secret that our district has a history of making well-considered changes when needed for instance 40 years
ago the consolidation of two high schools into one created West Orange High School in 1984 west Orange High School is now Satan Hall Prep and this was Mountain in 1984 we had to come together
to create West Orange High School it has resulted in an outstanding institution that has prepared many generations to successfully contribute to society contribute to society as many
of us may or may not recall Fairmont Elementary School was sold by West Orange School District that's located by Northfield and Gregory it is now Gold Academy
another major decision that impacted our our district years ago in addition our district made significant decisions to create a central 6 school by designating Edison
exclusively for sixth graders with Liberty and Roosevelt educating seventh and eighth graders while they while this may have been suited for the educational environment 20 years ago the current data indicates
that this configuration may no longer be effective and meet the needs of our students academically or the needs of our district fiscally
nearly 17 years ago as the newly appointed principal of West Orange High School I helped introduce the rotating drop schedule and and created one common lunch period providing our students with
more classroom instruction time by moving away from a traditional schedule to a rotating drop we have seen positive results for our high school students and staff now today we talk about creating
three middle schools each serving six seven and eight this will greatly support our efforts to improve academic performance ensure effective vertical alignment and continuity as well as
provide greater opportunity to follow students academic growth and social emotional growth before entering high school as you can see in the news or here
school budgets are being cut across the state and there is a real fiscal deficit statewide calling for profound changes but unlike our neighbors our changes can be implemented
without further bur burdening the taxpayer creating three middle schools is a fiscally advantage is sorry advantageous and will reduce transportation costs which we can funnel back into our
classrooms for students and staff as a side note transportation costs as is very expensive and will increase year after year at a minimum of
3.7% and that's by law our district cannot f financially afford to maintain the status quo we will continue to prioritize our students this administration is leading
with a modern mindset we're brave enough to embrace change and with a willing and will I'm sorry change and with a willingness to take the appropriate steps the 678 middle school model is
sound both academically and fiscally and at this time I'd like to bring out and introduce our assistant superintendent along with our middle school principles our supervisor of special
services and our transportation director to talk about what this would look like and how this will impact our students so if we can Evony good evening good evening to our
um to our board um to our school community to our parents students and families um this evening you will hear from members of our school and district leadership we will share a vision that has been taking shape over time and it
is one that is rooted in educational continuity belonging and academic strength we are speaking about building continuity and academic strength within a six to8 middle school model our move toward this model
reflects a thoughtful plan designed to support students today and for the years to come at its core we believe this model offers students three consistent years with a dedicated team of educators fewer school transitions and stronger
relationships with their peers and with their staff and with their neighborhood community it strengthens our ability to align instruction to identify needs early to provide a stable supportive experience for every learner one model one
community three years of belonging mr moore spoke about the transitions and the changes over time here's a snapshot of our district then and now and just 5 years ago we had one preschool disabled program with one
campus today we have a preschool disabled program with two campuses today we have 10 universal preschools added to our district one district preschool and nine private providers that extend not only in our West Orange community but in our
neighboring communities our enrollment has increased by over 300 students in just five years 21% of our students now receive special education services and as we saw from our uh presentation today our multilingual
learners has nearly doubled from 4 to 7% in just 5 years our growing programs and our populations have outpaced our current model at the heart of this model is a commitment to building stability and
academic strength for our students first our students will experience three full years of stability with consistent teachers support systems a deeper sense of belonging to their school community this model also creates greater academic consistency
curriculum and instruction interventions will be more tightly aligned across grades six through eight providing a more connected learning experience with students starting middle school in grade six and remaining in one middle school for three years we can
achieve early identification sustained intervention support our academic needs from the beginning progress monitor and continue throughout and this support will be over the most critical years in a student's academic career the middle
school career we can also expect to see increases in student performance and in our outcomes we can provide vertical alignment into high school so that our transition from grade 8 into nine
becomes stronger we can help our students trans transition more smoothly and build a more coherent academic journey stronger staff collaboration is an excellent advantage teachers and counselors will work across grades
creating shared strategies cohesive professional development that strengthens and supports all of our students for three consecutive years additionally a 6 to8 model allows for a more flexible and efficient use of our
staffing our resources and ensuring that programs and supports can adapt to student needs more effectively and importantly by reducing the number of school transitions students avoid the repeated disruption of having to reaclimate to new buildings new staff
and new systems in short fewer transitions mean more time for learning more space for growth stronger relationships that support both one model one community three years of belonging this includes strengthening
the continuity of our services for our specialized populations i'd like to introduce Miss Don Ribero our supervisor of special education 6 through 12 to discuss these efforts good evening through the consideration
of the sixth seventh and eighth grade middle school model we are committed to ensure every middle school has the supports needed to service our specialized populations equitably this includes our students within the special services department as well as our multilingual learners all middle schools
will continue to offer the continuum of special education programming our in-class resource and pullout replacement services and language learning disabilities programming as well as multilingual learner supports this is really to ensure that every
building can provide those inclusive and responsive instruction for students within our self-contained settings our programs have been strategically placed at um based sorry on avail uh determining based on available space and staffing as
well as reflecting our current facilities and budget capacity for the 2526 school year the intellectual disabilities and emotional regulation impairments programs will be housed at Liberty Middle School and the autism program at Roosevelt Middle School
additionally students will have the opportunity now to integrate with grade level peers in these sixth through eight grade uh sixth through 8th grade programs it's important to recognize that within the special education programming class sizes will continue to
remain compliant with the special education New Jersey administrative code 6A14 in addition child study team assignments will reflect student enrollment additionally paraprofessional staffing will be in accordance with not
only the special education New Jersey administrative code but also in alignment with student IEPs and as we're thinking about our specialized population um populations we know that those relationships matter from their child study teams to their
supports to the teachers that they're building those relationships with and this includes our middle school principles from orientation nights and building tours to welcome letters and advisory programs their goal is to create a consistent caring experience for every student and welcome every
family we want each child to enter into middle school feeling known valued and ready to learn our families will have multiple opportunities to connect from the summer opening houses to those evening Q&A sessions and our students will engage in all of these areas over
the years um to discuss this further I'm going to introduce each of our principles who will share how they are preparing to welcome our students into their schools for grades 6 through 8 and I'd like to begin by welcoming Mr steve Melendez the principal of Edison Middle
School good evening i would like to thank the board and Mr moore providing us the opportunity to share how we as administrators and teachers plan to make the transition to three sixth seventh and eighth grade middle schools a success for our students and our
families building a strong community is at the heart of our plan strong school communities foster a positive atmosphere for students to feel welcome safe respected and engaged it promotes a culture of kindness and cooperation which is essential for academic and
personal growth when parents and educators engage in community building they set the example for collaboration and success for students by reinforcing the value of teamwork and participation therefore as educators at our respected
schools we p uh we prepare to transition to this model we have brainstorm activities that foster a community building among students families and educators we have planned transition activities that welcome our newest members and foster a sense of belonging within the school and our
classrooms these activities will take place during our orientations in our classrooms and our parent meetings for instance our student ambassadors which we have at all three schools um and these are groups of students who are familiar with our climate and culture will assist us as we welcome and support
our incoming students throughout the school year we also have planned parent engagement meetings that focus on topics such as transition into middle school extracurricular club offerings and helping your child transition to their new environment by utilizing school
resources that assist your child academically and socially we plan on implementing our school spirit theme days across grade levels to help build strong and inclusive school environments during the summer we also will welcome parents to make
appointments to tour the school and ask questions students can familiarize themselves with classrooms and lockers at these meeting when these meetings are conducted many times students come with groups of students so that they get to know each other
overall we believe that by focusing on community building and creating meaningful transition activities our students and families will experience a smooth transition to our new model i was also like to welcome at this point
and explain which schools will be coming to Edison Middle School and at this time the administration and staff of Edison Middle School welcomes Washington Redwood and sections of Kelly to Edison Central 6 Middle School at this time I would like to introduce Mr xavier
Fitzgerald the principal of Liberty Middle School thank you everyone good evening going to steal a catchphrase good better best never let it rest to your good is better and you are your very best if you were a student
at Edison Middle School for the past 17 years you knew that was my catchphrase that I used each and every time you walked into the building because by the time you left Edison our goal was to make sure you were the very best and prepared for that seventh and eighth grade year um when this was brought to
our attention you know uh you know I did have some some questions i did have some understanding of what the next steps were um 17 years ago or 20 years ago when this Central 6 model was proposed I was the guy they hired i was the guy
that for those 17 years watched how the students grow and so when I would have principal lunchons with my sixth grade students they would always ask "Mr fitzgerald what do you like best about Edison?" And I gave them a a little outline what I like best about Edison is
what I dislike probably most about Edison they would always scratch their head and say "What what is that?" It would be that I only had them for one year i never got a chance to see them grow i never got a chance to watch them become the young adults that they become
going from a sixth grade for nine months to a sixth seventh and eighth grader because there's a lot of growth that happens i used to always wonder why Mr hush would say "Well Fitz you know that student that came to me they ain't what they were in the sixth grade but here's where they are in the eighth grade." And for the past three years I've gotten an
opportunity to see that growth i've gotten opportunity to see them go from sixth grade to seventh grade and to eighth grade and so when I look at this model I'm going to say that we're prepared for this we are going to make sure that the back- to-school nights are
informative they are enriched with the ideas that you as a community whether it's Mount Pleasant and I'm going to welcome the Mount Pleasant community i'm going to welcome the Kelly community and such as of St cloud community to our Liberty Lions Pride home i want you to
be under to understand that as we make these moves going in we're going to be as forthcoming but also informative so that way you the community have as much information about our learning environment it is what we're reinventing but we're not renewing we're going to
make sure that when your childrens walk through that door they're going to be taken care of from sixth to 7th to 8th grade when we look at parent tees and coffee clutches that they have on the elementary level we're going to bring those to the sixth seventh and eighth grade model to ensure that each marking
period you're informed about the next steps going from sixth seventh and eighth grade so it's not just for the sixth grade only when we talk about extracurricular activities we're going to make sure that you are informed at our back to school nights that you are informed at our um club fairs that we're
going to have for our students before we have the interest meeting so that way the students can find an interest after school that they can't find say in an academic some students are academic and some students want to be part of our crocheting club some of them want to be a part of our chess club some of them
want to be a part of our environmental so we're going to make sure that they know what's available to them but more importantly we're going to make sure that the community of Mount Pleasant Kelly and sections of St cloud um are aware of those activities that academic
and we're going to make sure that they are prepared as they make their way from sixth seventh and eighth grade Mr guerrero to West Orange High School with that being said I'm going to welcome Mr lionel Hush principal of Roosevelt Middle School and Roosevelt would like to
welcome our Gregory community our Hazel community and sections of our St cloud community to Roosevelt so we're going to begin this journey hosting three student parent orientations in June during those orientations you'll have the opportunity
to meet with administration and some of our teacher leaders you'll be given the opportunity to tour the buildings peek into some of the classrooms and learn of our extracurricular offerings and that's where we'll have some of our question and answer sessions with
administration those three will have one orientation for the sixth grade parents and students alone and then we'll have one for the seventh and eighth grade and we will have one for our multilingual learners uh though our multilingual learners are welcome to attend any of
the orientation the one we have uh specifically organized for them we'll have staff available to communicate in many languages and we'll also add the offerings um will offer assistance and some of the platforms that we utilize in the middle schools uh significantly like
Google classroom powers school and our school messenger we will then because the June and August is a long time to pass us on so we will be hosting open houses the last full week of August where our
students have the opportunities we'll have three days one for the sixth grade one for the seventh and one for the eighth during these three days the students will have the opportunity to yet again tour the building but following their classroom schedules now they'll also have the opportunity to set up decorate their lockers and for many
of our transitioning students this is the first time they actually get the opportunity to use a combination lock so they'll have ample opportunity to practice with that as well so these open houses have traditionally helped reduce angst as they're looking to start a new
school year and transition into a new building as well as prepare for the start of school so these are the opportunities we will have that will be open to all students and their parents to get us all ready to get this ball rolling and at this point in
time I welcome back to the podium Mr mendes makes you want to go back to sixth grade um today so far you've heard about uh the academic benefits for a 6 to8 model uh the sense of belonging the sense of community um Mr moore also made
the direct connection to our budget and to our financial efficiency i'm going to transition to that um portion of this presentation our transportation improvements in the 6 to8 model would
eliminate district-wide busing of all sixth graders to a single site it is an immediate benefit of that model right now all sixth graders are bust across town to Edison this creates longer routes pulling buses from neighborhood
services and causing ripple effects across the district the 6 to8 model eliminates district-wide busing and allows more student to walk students to walk or have shorter neighborhood-based routes while still maintaining those
transportation for hazardous routes the shift will reduce late arrivals and dismissal delays that we are experiencing at our elementary schools that is taking away from our instructional time and that is making more of our school days
um seek greater efficiency it will help us minimize those instructional disruptions it will also free up buses to support our growing preschool transportation needs which have become increasingly complex and expensive as we've expanded
to 10 preschools to two preschool disabled campuses and finally aligning our bell schedules and bus routing through the 6 to8 model will create longer term efficiency it will help us build a transportation system that is more responsive to where act uh students
actually live today to walk us through the impact on routing and transportation savings i'd like to invite our director of transportation Mr gregory Cohen thank you Miss Mendes so in addition to daily operations the 6 to8 model plays an
important role in strengthening our transportation costs right now the district is working to close a 9.1 million budget gap transition in neighborhood-based middle schools is projected to generate approximately 1.5 million in transportation savings over
three years students spend in the middle school these efficiencies come directly from aligning bus routes geographically which reduces the need for long cross town transportation it significantly reduces our reliance on costly bus duty coverage which currently costs the
district a little over 200,000 annually to manage delays of our buses arriving at the elementary schools these savings will allow us to minimize the impact of budget cuts protecting staff and preserving programs to directly support our students in short
the 6 to8 model helps us maintain a structure that is both educationally strong and financially responsible ensuring that resources stay focused where they matter most our students now that we've outlined the broader operation benefits of the 68 model let's
take a closer look at how projected attendance zones are were developed our approach was guided by geographic proximity board approved non-cross streets and hazardous roads balanced enrollment and maintaining neighborhood connections not strictly by elementary
school boundaries the goal is to place students closer to home whenever possible while ensuring equitable access to a full range of middle school opportunities across the district should have told me how to do this um as we plan for the transition to
68 um school model we are continuing to refine the specific feeder patterns from our elementary schools based on current enrollment and geographic considerations we anticipate the students from the following elementary schools will feed into the middle school however this work is ongoing and adjustments may occur as
we continue to review enrollment patterns and operational logistics our goal is to ensure the best possible placement for all students and we're committed to providing updates as this process moves forward the anticipated uh middle school placements are Edison
Washington Redwood and sections of Kelly Liberty Mount Pleasant Kelly and sections of St cloud Roosevelt um Hazel Gregory and sections of St cloud once finalized a full street directory will be published on the district's website
street level boundaries remain subject to change as we complete enrollment balancing and our final reviews with to have Miss Mendes come back up please thank you Mr cohen and we close with our key transition events and our communication timelines as we move
forward to the 6 to8 middle school model we've designed a thoughtful transition plan to support our students families and staff every step of the way in May families will receive two primary communications letters from our district with the name of the school that they
will be attending this should be expected the second week of May our principles will then communicate with our families directly inviting them to parent orientations the third week of May in June we will host orientation nights for all coming sixth seventh and
eighth grade students and families with special orientations for our multilingual learners and families at Roosevelt and Edison at 6:30 p.m and in August each middle school will welcome students and families through bagels and lock events a chance to visit the
building meet staff ease into the transition for the new year and additionally transportation meetings will be held with our parents in August to discuss and review the My Ride K12 app to discuss any transportation related changes and address parent questions translations will be available
at those transportation meetings through every phase our focus remains on creating a welcome supportive experience for every student and family this concludes our 6 to8 middle school model for Edison Liberty and Roosevelt one model one community three years of
belonging thank you we'll take questions from the board thank you uh with the board return to the There is thank you for that presentation Mr mendes um does anybody on the board have questions for Mr mendes at this time
good evening appreciate the presentation Mr mendes uh Superintendent Moore your leadership as we transition into this six-day model uh thank you to all of the staff members principles Mr cohen Mr barrow for your
presentations just one question on uh school populations does this model in any way kind of change or uh impact one school more than the other in terms of you know school populations i know there have
been things around questions around uh school overcrowding and things of that we're talking about expanding footprint in the town with respect to to housing is there still a balance among the schools in terms of u the number of
of students who will attend the school is one school more disproportionately affected by this model than another thank you Mr stevenson i think that's been one of our priorities mr more has charged us with not only finding the efficiencies but also making sure that we find a balanced enrollment across our
schools currently with the roads that we have the routes that we have now we have found that balance we have um approximately and these numbers may change but between 460 in one school 480 in another and five in the other so there's no more than 20 to 40 students which is appropriate given that some
buildings have their own larger footprint right they can house more students thank you any other questions from the board thank you Mr mendes that was good good thank Mr moore
i want to thank uh the presenters tonight we've been working and um I've charged them with quite a challenge in a short period of time and I appreciate the hard work you put in so let me say publicly this is none of this is easy
it is a necessity and I appreciate the hard work you put in and the thoughtfulness you did you did not have a long period of time but it was thoughtful i've worked with you uh for a lock step in this making sure that we're able to accomplish it and I
have to say to you that there were some really innovative thoughts ideas but um I think uh Mr fitzgerald put it best the group of administrators that uh presented tonight and that are working
with our students care very much about our students along with myself but care very much about our students and staff and they are trying to make any changes as seamless as possible and I hope that this community was were a was able to
feel that not just hear it in their presentation but feel it in their presentation because I know that this hasn't been an easy time but they've worked very hard with students in mind and staff in mind and that was always a topic of our discussion whenever we had
to make some hard choices none of these choices are easy none of these choices are what we said hey let's make these changes we want to do it yes we thought about the 678 model for academic purposes but it would have
taken a certain length of time which we thought we would have had but when we were cut by the state so deeply our choices became necessities and I uh appreciate that they took this time they
were able to get this across to you and I felt that they did it the way they did it was empathetic thoughtful and I really appreciate it not just as a superintendent but also as a parent whose children they're in the district i
appreciate what you've done so I wanted to thank you guys all publicly and thank you to the community for listening thank you for trusting in us uh to uh to embark
on on these challenges these are been long days long nights but we have your best interests at heart we have our students best interest at heart and we will continue to do what we have to do and how we have
to do it to keep this district as quality as the as we know it so I just wanted to say thank you to that and to the board um I will conclude my report but I would like to report that throughout the district we've had one
incident of HIV and I concur with the findings presented by the anti-bullying specialist thank you President Rock for the time thank you Mr moore do we have any committee reports from the board anyone around here all right then
I'll move on to my board president's report and I will highlight some of the great things happening at Washington Elementary School as a title one designated school Washington recently hosted family nights for their parents and students the ELA parent night was conducted on April 23rd where students
and parents enjoyed listening to stories and related English language arts activities for the evening of April 24th Washington welcomed the families for a parent math night activities surrounded the topic of math including a fun round of bingo refreshments were served and both events were carefully organized by
our Washington Elementary School teachers on FA Friday April 25th Washington Elementary welcomed State Senator John McKeon who spoke with our students in grades four and five while students came prepared to ask questions of our senator and and last I just like to echo
what Mr moore said thank you to the team that put together the middle school 68 presentation today um Mr moore Mr mendes mentioned this is something we've been contemplating already for a number of reasons um given the budget constraints it seemed like a no-brainer to to move
this up a little bit in order to recognize a significant amount of savings we heard at our last meeting from from the public that we needed to save money wherever we can and this seemed like a win-win where we can both do what's best for the students in sixth seventh and eighth grade throughout the town as well as save a significant amount of money that'll offset some of
the other uh cuts that would otherwise need to be done throughout the budget so again thank you for your work on that i think if we hadn't already been thinking about this it'd be tough to turn this around so quickly and so while it may seem quick to people in the audience this is not something that they just thought about last week they've been
thinking about it and preparing to present it to us we just kind of moved up the timeline a little bit because of current budget constraints so with that uh we will move on to questions from the public on agenda items only any community member who would like to make comments or ask
questions please come to the podium at this time please state your name and home address for the record then begin your comments uh please limit your comments to three minutes uh do we have any members of the public here in the audience tonight who wish to make a public comment short hello everybody my name is Josh
Goldfarb and I'm a lifelong resident of West Orange eighth grade teacher at Roosevelt Middle School and president of the WOEA the pay the public may not be aware but on Friday 36 employees were informed that their positions are being eliminated this year next year they are
teachers case workers nurses and tech integration specialists that is why we are wearing black today it could have been worse i know how hard Mr moore worked to keep this number as low as possible and that's appreciated but the reality is that these are 36 positions that are no longer that will not be
filled these 36 people have dedicated countless hours to helping the students of this district and they are being let go not because of performance but to save money however I have not heard of any positions being cut from upper administration i don't know of any supervisory positions being
cut i haven't heard about a reduction in coaching positions or anything like that all I've heard is that there will be fewer teachers in the classroom that means larger class sizes which will which will result in an increase in discipline issues less individual attention to students and a drop in test scores not to mention a decrease in
morale which I assure you is as low as I've ever seen it i hope the board administration will do something to address that problem cuts are being made that impact teaching and learning but will there be cuts that made that don't impact that maybe cutting the car and phone allowances that some
administrators receive it is a drop in the bucket but it might show a sliver of solidarity with those of us in the trenches this is all happening because supposedly the district is facing eight or I guess nine now million dollar deficit but are we really all we have to
work with so far is the preliminary budget presentation which was lacking a lot of detail let's also remember that this budget is a prediction it does not reflect what has already been spent it rejects what they expect to spend so what explains budgeting for such a huge deficit have expenses skyrocketed has
revenue plummeted perhaps they have increased and decreased respectively but to the tune of eight correction 9 million the only way to know what is happening for sure would be for the public to analyze the line item budget perhaps we need an outside auditor to explain the combined $15 million deficit
we have faced between last year and this year so soon after the March board meeting where the budget was presented we asked for the budget but were denied because it was not approved by the county at that point this denial was in direct violation of the law and with the board's own policy for over a month we
made requests denial upon denial finally this past Thursday afternoon at roughly 3:30 in the afternoon we're informed that the district had reversed its decision and agree that yes the budget is a public document essentially we were right all along all all along and should have been given access to the budget a month
ago that is a month we were wrongly prevented from analyzing the budget for ourselves why the sudden change i can't say for sure but perhaps it was due to my informing the county superintendent of the stonewalling we have been subjected to we were not given a copy but I was able to look at it i could not
make a copy for myself i could not take pictures nor take notes and I was to be accompanied by an employee the whole time I viewed it i spent an hour doing so this past Friday but looking at a 150 page budget on its own isn't very helpful especially when you can't write we are still insisting on receiving a
copy of the full line item far thank you go good evening my name is Julie Brady i'm a social studies teacher here at the high school and I've been working for West Orange School District for 21 years to reiterate we have yet to be presented
with a copy of the full budget so we are still insisting on receiving a copy of that full line item budget and so what does the board have to hide we would never claim that something unourred or nefarious is happening but if that is not the case why the secrecy and
stonewalling why the month of denying access to a public document this lack of transparency leads to an information vacuum which in turn leads to rumors and speculation neither of which are in your favor but we are educators and by nature
we believe in second chances we leave the door open for our students improvement and growth for as long as that door can be left open and as someone recently told me Julie look forward and not back so I'm looking forward
we believe you can improve your efforts and most certainly your communication the question is what you are going to do going forward because the staff the parents the community and most importantly our students the students of West Orange deserve nothing less than
your most dedicated your most honest and your most most forthright efforts thank you uh Deb Cohen i teach at the high school as school employees whether in the classroom or not and whether we are certified or not we are expected to be transparent in our job we are to contact
home and communicate with parents if students are having difficulty we are to submit lesson plans to show what is being taught in our classes we are expected to document anything related to students being late in the halls leaving our classroom or our area we are expected to be able to furnish documentation for IEP meetings and even
our extracurricular activities we are told we must be transparent why then has the board of education not given us the same courtesy why was more information not provided to those on the front lines in the district who support every student in the building leaving us in the dark the past few weeks at the high
school and I assume the other 12 buildings have been full of rumors gossip speculation and so much more the distrust the BOE has made through this budget situation has brought ultimately unnecessary stress and tons of uncertainties we understand that there
are conversations that have to happen behind closed doors but this goes beyond that enough information came to light through avenues that were not the BOE before the preliminary budget and since without details that all it led to is rumors and people asking others what they knew untenured and many tenure
teachers were and still are in a panic and I don't use that term lightly if they will have a job in the fall the preliminary budget presentation was extremely different than in the past going back to 2016 2017 there have been more details given in every preliminary budget for those not aware go to the
budget and finance page of the website and you can see that presentations were as high as 38 slides in 2223 down to 11 this year with a plethora of information before in addition Mr stevenson mentioned at the last meeting that the last two years the district lost $1.7 million however he failed to mention
that the 2223 presentation shows an increase of $9.2 million we were asked for suggestions but have heard nothing at the last meeting we asked for cuts to be looked at outside the classroom did that happen were programs that are not related to the classroom looked at why has there been no update rumors fly
tensions are high and the stress is out of this world even for those like me who are 99.99% sure they're safe every single person in the buildings have been affected we feel for our colleagues we feel for the students we feel for the supervisors and other building administrators who have quite frankly been put through hell as they try to
figure out how to continue to serve our students the best while things are constantly changing i know being a board member or and a superintendent when budgets are tight or quite frankly in crisis as it appears to be this year but without any transparency of what is going on this is quite frankly a mess we
have gotten information from students before it was given to the employees of the district we're finding out that people are gaining knowledge at PTA meetings that have not been conveyed to employees of the district and tonight is the first time that six through eight teachers heard anything related to that model from my
understanding this target is constantly moving this is not how you treat employees but more importantly people we have families and pay property taxes wherever we live and by the way almost 22% in West Orange i'm going to finish as an employee here since the fall of 2000 I'm not only angry but extremely
disappointed in how this budget has been handled do better not with words but with your actions earn our Thank you very much uh good evening my name is Kai and I'm a high school senior tonight I will be speaking on behalf of concerned students parents and community members who are part of United Asian Voices of West
Orange uab cares deeply about the world language program we value the fact that students who are proficient in another language gain essential skills and cultural understanding to thrive in today's diverse society we urge you to preserve the Mandarin program at the
middle schools throughout high school I've had the opportunity to celebrate my Chinese heritage and share through events sponsored by the Chinese club and all the Chinese classes these experiences make me feel seen valued and proud of my identity without Chinese
classes I would have lost an important outlet to express my culture removing middle school Chinese programs would deny future students that same opportunity and weaken the sense of community we built cutting Mandarin without fully explaining her decision and without public input dismisses community
engagement and sends the message that learning Chinese and understanding Chinese American culture are not highly valued have you fully weighed the long-term consequences of that message to West Orange teachers and families especially now as our country faces another title wave of intolerance and
have the West Orange curriculum must be a tool against discrimination students and families need to feel welcomed safe and valued uav urges you to strengthen the world language program as an active step against racism and discrimination
thank you hi my name is Veronica Depali and I'm a ninth grader here at West Orange High School and I'm going to be speaking on behalf of the Chinese program as a person who's been taking Chinese by choice for three years now I have grown a strong connection and much passion for this language over the years I've set
many high goals for myself in this language and all the passion I have for this language was first built in with Chinese classes in my middle school years i would probably not be the person I am today without Chinese in my life and if I did not have it in middle school I probably wouldn't have even taken it in high school that is how much
this language has impacted me and my life as a whole not only is there an emotional connection to this language for me and many other students here at the high school but there is also academic reasons why this language should stay in all the middle schools all the experience I received in Chinese classes in my middle school has heavily
prepared me for Chinese classes in high school i would for sure not being as doing as good as I am in Chinese classes right now if I did not have any Chinese classes in middle school all the classes in the high school in Chinese go much faster and need a lot of
experience to be able to catch up if the students in the middle school are don't have these classes they probably won't be able to be doing as good and then all the students that come to the high school will have to start totally fresh setting all the students back by about two to one whole years if
students have to start fresh then they unfortunately might never be able to achieve the high standards in this school in their school years as Chinese is a very unique language that needs much experience in time to perfect but how can we expect students to achieve if we are taking away a part of their muchneeded Chinese education if we
really care about all the Chinese students and their outcome with Chinese don't take away the Chinese program in the middle schools if you know what's best for the students thank you thank you Kai and Veronica that's a very power speech uh good evening my name is
Yajin Lei i am a resident at 54 Cresmont Road and I also a Chinese teacher at the high school in 2007 Western started its first Chinese classes in Liberty Roosevelt and High School since then the program has grown
to include five teachers and 14 classes from level one to AP Chinese over the last 18 years with the community support the Chinese teachers and the administrators have worked very hard to build and expand the program we
connected with a partner school from China and conducted many meaningful cultural and academic exchanges we promoted the Chinese and Asian cultures in our community for a better understanding of a culture that is very
difficult uh different from ours this also has given our AsianAmerican students and families a sense of acceptance and belonging 18 years ago Chinese was an important and somewhat hip language to have but today Chinese
language learning is not only important it is on the top of the list of languages that are deemed by the federal government to be crucial to our national security economic prosperity and foreign policies china
boasts the world's second largest economy and the second largest internet chinese has Chinese has become so crucial on a global stage that skilled speakers are now in high demand cutting
Chinese at the middle school will lead to phasing out the entire Chinese program in a few years it means that future generations will not have the opportunity to learn and utilize this crucial language it will sabotage the
many opportunities afforded to our students in order to pursue success the cutting of Chinese program also tells the community that the Asian languages and cultures are not sufficiently valued and not worthy to
learn please find alternative ways to mend the budget mess than cutting middle school Chinese thank you hi hi good evening i'm Jane Girtner MC Chznney Court West Orange um good evening to the board of ed and
superintendent more administrators and fellow community members um as a former chair of the West Orange Human Relations Commission I had worked with Dr david S and the Unity Club here at West Orange High School on programs to enhance diversity acceptance and inclusion i am
concerned about the budget and I ask that no cuts be made to the West Orange way programs i am concerned about harassment intimidation and bullying i'm here to urge the board of ed to continue the work of West Orange way continue to be more transparent in in their work and
plans to involve parents and community in this particular moment in our country we need to counter the speech that divides our communities in West Orange we have the capacity to build on to build on collective action to
ensure that students teachers staff and parents are respected but we need to give them tools to build the beloved community we understand that students learn by example and the examples coming from our leaders do not reflect the values of many people in West Orange i
want to ask the board of ed and school administration to keep moving forcefully in an anti-racist direction we want to encourage the school district to work closely with parents in these efforts it's great to learn how to combat microaggressions and give our parents
and students the tools to combat hate speech but we want more programs and resources for parents and community members the time to build on these foundations is is now you've started them it's great we want them continued we want to be proactive in creating an inclusive environment let's not react
when something occurs um and I'm asking also to know how many HIV reports whether accepted or not are based on race and if it's possible to obtain that data i will be in touch with Mr moore's office thank you
hello i don't really need a mic my name is Lisa Rodino i've been employed as a special education teacher in Wasarn since 2003 i'm here before you again but instead of advocating for one child I'm advocating for approximately 430 at Washington i taught at Gregory until I
voluntarily transferred to Washington in 2019 washington is where I've been able to thrive as an educator it's where I pursued a master's degree i got my ESL certificate and leadership training i'm speaking tonight on behalf of the entire school community first and foremost
where did all the millions of dollars go will there be a forensics accounting As an employee of this district every minute of my time is scrutinized and accounted for my schedule is reviewed by my principal and my supervisors so now
you're telling me that we scrutinize minutes in this district but not dollars millions of dollars there are unique needs at Washington our school is home to the most vulnerable students in our school district on a multitude of metrics our community relies on us and this board of education to make
decisions that will safeguard their well-being and their academic futures the K to3 years lay the groundwork for future learning emphasizing skills like phmic awareness vocabulary development and early reading abilities our ESL our English language learners need those
years for successful language acquisition your suggested cuts will target students during the most vulnerable learning school years why how can we justify cutting sections and maxing out class sizes at a newly designated Title One school just 12 months ago you allocated Title One
monies to support our school with resources and a new supervisor but your proposed cuts will diminish any academic gains we made and ensure non-equitable education for the children at Washington compared to their peers at other schools in light of our current political climate we can't even
guarantee that we're going to have a Department of Education let alone Title One funds what happens to the learning environment at Washington and the other title one schools if we lose that funding how we're waiting on the Trump administration to make that decision you should be safeguarding the learning environment at your title one schools
and not proposing cuts that will likely cement the learning challenges and lo learning loss for our students that they will never recover from our families worry about enough they don't need to worry about overcrowded classrooms and limited school resources i'm speaking
for them i'm speaking for my parents that don't speak English i'm speaking for my parents that don't have means to get here tonight and even worse I'm speaking for my parents that are afraid to be here because of their immigration status i am saying that their future the
future of the students at Washington School are in all of your hands do not jeopardize their academic futures there are hundreds of students at stake and with 17 seconds my only concern about the reconfiguration is that Edison will become the fourth title one school in
this district you're going to funnel twothirds of the student population at Edison will be kids from title one schools where is the equity in that and how will those students recover thank you uh hi i'm Maryanne Porus for Mountain
Way South um I'm a 35y year resident of West Orange um a retired uh New Jersey educator in linguistics and literature and an advocate for many many years of the West Orange school system i have a question
why tamper with success and of course I'm referring to the Mandarin Chinese program uh I have been introduced to it and uh I have been amazed uh by it for many years um it's come to my attention
that the chi Chinese program in the middle school may be eliminated i want to urge the superintendent and members of the board of education to uh not go through with this plan i hope it is not a uh a a done deal uh without making the
case of offering you know why we should be studying an an Asian language i'd like to say that the program as a taxpayer in this community the program keeps us competitive with other school districts our neighboring school
districts and I think that that's pretty important and it helps our students prepare for the reality of the world that they will soon be entering why limit our languages and aren't there distinct
benefits in the world that we're living in right now our geopolitical situation our global world of studying a major Asian language and the rigor of studying such a program it is so necessary that
we keep our middle school program intact because it is a feeder program to the high school uh program starting a language in middle school paves the way towards fluency and cross-cultural understanding without this our high school Chinese uh Chinese Mandarin
program may be in jeopardy let's not tamper with success thank you hi my name is Emily Peas i'm a parent of a kindergartener and a second grader at Gregory Elementary School yes we have a
long education journey ahead of us in this district and I first wanted to just thank all of you for your service i know you're going to hear some frustration in my voice tonight but I also know you're serving our community and you have the best interest of our students at heart i stand alongside my neighbors from the Gregory School Civic Advocacy Group it's
a new group we formed in the last few days because of our immense frustration over the 1 million budget gap we're honestly bewildered with how we've even reached this point so much so that we already have over 55 members in the last few days and growing there are signup sheets around the room what we'll be
passing around if you'd like to join our group ever since the budget shortfalls were presented at the March 17th board meeting we have been pouring over the publicly available data to understand why the district is in crisis how red flags weren't raised before March and exactly what is being cut and where
these cuts are how they're being chosen you'll hear my neighbors urge you to protect the core K through2 instruction and keep class sizes low i agree with all of that but tonight I want to focus my comments on transparency and communication first I couldn't attend the March 17th meeting in person but I
watched the recording closely and I struggled to follow the details presented at that budget presentation i had to zoom in on the budget presentation video to even follow the data that was presented because the slides weren't even posted online until after I raised my questions even then the figures didn't reconcile i shared my
detailed questions with Mr moore and Miss Flowers but I was told the numbers were only for discussion and they were already changing so my questions weren't even addressed we still haven't seen the full proposal that was sent to the county we asked the district to commit to publishing clear itemized data about
what is planned to be cut from the schools and why we hoped we would get more detail tonight i actually loved the presentation about the schools but I did not get any information about the numbers what is really being saved out of this effort we really need that detail before
the May 5th presentation and vote second Mr mr moore's letter to the district on the 31st stated that the budget shortfall was due to a reduction in state aid that explains only $1 million of an 11 million shortfall we need details on the
remaining $10 million the reasons given on the 17th were loosely outlined as teacher salary increases insurance and healthcare cost increases but wouldn't those costs be part of pre-negotiated contracts and therefore foreseeable by this board if those costs were foreseeable why wasn't the community
warned sooner than March we deserved more detailed explanation on how we got here and how the imp situation can be improved in the future finally as you see here tonight our group is ready to help we will take our advocacy to the state legislators to candidates for governor everywhere we can but we are
looking for more involvement and changes at the board level too we we urge the board to create a standing community budget advisory council of parents teachers students and residents to provide fresh eyes and ensure transparency every budget cycle going
forward we all want the same outcome stable finances and strong schools please give us the information so that we can have a seat at the table to get there thank you hi everybody my name is Jill Harris i live at Nine Ardmore Road and I've been
a resident of West Orange for 12 years um I'm currently have a daughter in kindergarten at Gregory uh as a parent and taxpayer I'm deeply concerned about the budget budget crisis an 11 million deficit does not
happen overnight and I have so many questions questions that I share with so many people in this room um I do have for tonight kind of one statement one call to action and one question for the board first I strongly support as Emily was mentioning at the tail end of her
her comments there the creation of an advisory board for you guys uh for our superintendent business administration and the board when you guys are making important decisions like the ones we're currently facing we would like to have a
voice in that parents staff of the schools principals students we need to be able to have some line of sight to what's going on and give input you know these are the people that can make a difference in your budget and we need to be included in the conversation as for my question uh or
perhaps questions um what avenues at this point in time exist to secure additional funding for the district whether that be from the town or the state or other sources are there any options because as part of the proposed
budget cuts schools are losing teachers which apparently they already have started i did not know that until tonight um however last year alone 315 students entered the district in part due to the new housing developments and
315 students are enough to comfortably and I'm going to use comfortably here because of class size as well uh comfortably fill an elementary school on their own how can we justify laying off teachers at a time when they are already desperately needed and that need is only
expected to grow as more of these developments are brought to West Orange thank you for your time good evening members of the board and superintendent Moore my name is Cara Pitcherelli and I reside at 16 WTover Terrace i am speaking tonight as a
concerned parent of one soon to be two students in the district my son attends Gregory Elementary School and my daughter will start in our preschool program this coming fall like many other years tonight I am here with the Gregory School Civic Advocacy Group which we formed in an attempt to bring together community members to better understand
the current budget crisis and to advocate for the students of this district i have three urgent questions that demand clear and honest answers first how exactly will each school be affected by these staff cuts we've been told positions are being eliminated but there has been no breakdown by school no
public explanation of how student learning will be protected why has this information not been made available second how does the district plan to maintain equitable educational experiences across all elementary schools when cuts will likely deepen existing inequalities what specific
strategies are in place to prevent certain schools from being disproportionately harmed and third before proposing cuts to classroom teachers and staff did the district fully explore reductions to administrative and central office positions
what evidence can you provide to show that every possible step was taken to protect direct student services first it is deeply concerning that there has been almost no transparent communication with the school staff who will be directly impacted why weren't teachers counselors
specialists meaningfully consulted during this process not a survey not a one-time question they are part of the decision why were their voices left out of decisions that will directly affect them and their students lives this
process has lacked the transparency and collaboration our community expects and deserves i urge you to provide direct detailed answers not just broad statements and to immediately create a real feedback process with the educators on the front lines our students families
and staff deserve better thank you good evening board members superintendent and community my name is Shiong Jang i have been living in the six assets port for uh of West Orange for more than 17 years i respectfully
urging you to reconsider the decision of eliminate the Chinese program at the middle school all students deserve support especially those with the ambition to stand on a global stage across east and west
student who d who dream big deserves stronger and earlier support even starting from elementary school cutting the middle school Chinese program is unfair and risks crushing the spirit we
should be lifting west Orange should be a district that raises students higher not limits their possibilities our neighborhood districts shows a different path as you know Montlair Verona and South Orange
Maplewood all have their Chinese program since elementary school our neighborhood town um Livingston have since sixth grade right so West Orange's recent ranking declines remind us we must
reflect innovate and grow otherwise there will be more intelligent families with gift and talented kids move out the district i'm one of the few live still stay in West Lunch in my district that's
one of the problem it's easier to drop a pro a program than to build one but true leadership solves challenges critical mongio Township preserved their
Chinese program after hearing from their community i was involved and so can we west Orange we are nothing less when I walked in I heard an administrator saying uh we are brave
enough to embrace the change yes we are brave but not with a shortcut but with vision visionary district choose growth not retreat our vision must be bold and
global our mission must be to open doors and not close them our solution must be creative not shortcut cutting the Chinese program when I look at the board on in
the front says one model but one model one model without Chinese one community without Asian culture that's half you're missing half the globe of the east what kind of one community you talk about it
building continuity the high school program can grow without root what kind academic strengths administrators give me hope thank you hello my name is Jacqueline Hendy i
live at 6 Beverly Road um I'm just here to support our amazing teachers i've had um four of my son's teachers actually came up and spoke reminding me how proud I am of them how eloquently they spoke and how proud I am of West Orange schools i sell real estate for a living
i buy and sell homes to people who want to come to West Orange and one of the things that come that one of the questions that come from families or how are the schools and they look at the data they look at the numbers and I've always loudly and proudly been able to counter that our wonderful programs the
diversity of our programs the diversity of our staff the opportunities that we offer kids no matter what economic background they come from and that the numbers are just a small part of the picture so now we're here facing cuts to these very precious programs cuts to our
amazing teachers and there that's just unacceptable there has to be another way i don't envy your position i know that you're up against some difficult decisions and we are a community in crisis and I'm going to argue we are a nation in crisis and that we are going
to be seeing more cuts coming down from the federal level that will affect the state and inevitably us as a community so making a cuts to teachers seems like it should be the absolute last most step that can and I also want to say somebody
mentioned it too west Orange is 1,000 units short of affordable housing and we keep getting these I'm going to say it stupid developments that offer 15 10 20 and chip chip chip chip chip away so that means that we're not going to be just getting a thousand new houses we're
probably going to be getting something more like 10 before we even make our obligations so in the face of this crisis we need to be future projecting we need to be looking at what's coming down the pike and planning accordingly and I can't see in any scenario where
cutting teachers makes any kind of sense and we in the community have our teachers back and if you communicate with us and let us know what's happening I can guarantee you that there are going to be many many more like me who are going to be telling you please please do
not cut our teachers we need them they are essential i'm so proud of them i'm so proud of the education my son is getting please please please protect the integrity of the education you're offering our kids thank you so much hello good evening my name is Patty
Richardson i am an eighth grade ELA teacher at Liberty Middle School and I am here to speak on behalf of of course myself but as a middle school teacher I thought it was important that you heard from a middle school
teacher so what I'm going to do is I'm just going to speak from my heart because that's what I do best i have to tell you I stood here last board meeting and I spoke and that presentation we were
FTEES full-time employees i'm much more than just a full-time employee i have a name I have an identity and I work really hard at my job as do all of the amazing teachers in
this district today's presentation where were the teachers we talked about what would be best for students informing the parents but what about
us we are the ones who are in the trenches we are the ones who are doing the hard work why don't we have a voice we love I said this last meeting we love your
children we love them as if they were our own and not to even be considered to have a voice in this decision-making process is hurtful and quite frankly
tragic we have the hardest job on this earth i've said this I don't know how many times i do not envy your position i don't I don't envy the administrator's
position and I have to tell you this past Friday was horrible people we love being let go people who were months away from getting tenure let go who have given their
time their their love everything to this community being let go the education process is the most important process in a school community we need to keep that intact
and I need to say to you two young ladies thank you because out of everything you were by far the most compassionate in the words that you said to us your teachers and we thank you for that and it does not go
unnoticed so thank you very much thank you for your time good evening uh Andrew Lambertson 15 Florence Place this is my second year teaching special education uh right here at West Orange High School for social studies
and my oldest will be in kindergarten next year at Gregory coming from New York City we never had to worry about budget concerns teaching but class size was always an issue in my two years at West Orange this has now happened twice
i want to thank all of the parents and the students for their support organizing with current and future Gregory parents allows us to grow as a community your support gets us all on the same page i don't want to see my
daughter learn to read in a class of 26 or more students in kindergarten just like I don't want to have to teach 30 high school students in one class or upwards of 15 in a language learning disability class if that's the case it's
no really anything different from where I was coming in Brooklyn it leads to students falling through the cracks and eventually resenting school it leads to teacher exhaustion we want to be the district that people strive towards or do we want
to push out our best teachers and students by budget incompetence two years ago this happened at Montlair a $5.5 million budget shortfall later the board kept keeping everyone in the dark and when the dust cleared 31
teachers and 34 paras lost their jobs and more than 400 high school students walked out in protest students and parents I am not advocating for that but if you do take my US history class then you'll know the importance of civil disobedience two of my wonderful
co-workers in social studies just lost their jobs here one of which is my co-teer who you will be hearing from in a little bit i'm going to miss my co-workers dearly but what you cannot put a budget on is how many of our students will not get to say hi to them
in the hallways next year they won't be advised by them at the Roappa Social Studies Honors Society if this is not fixed it'll keep happening and we'll lose out on funding and parents will send their kids elsewhere thank you good evening my name is Emily Desenna i
reside at 66 Mitchell Street and I am a mother to a disabled child in our West Orange School District my child has been a student in the district for four years at Betty Malina Early Learning Center Washington and Gregory Elementary Schools i'm here to speak today about
the importance of fully funding special services also known as special education in the budget for this upcoming school year any budget cuts to special education will have an inequitable and disproportionate effect on the disabled student body in a time in history where
within the last 100 days the federal government has defunded and stripped away protections for our disabled children that are guaranteed to them by the ADA acts which includes section 504
and the IDA i am asking that our local officials continue to do the right and legal thing by fully funding special education and not cutting any funds for the upstanding school year in the long run not fulfilling an
IEP or a 504 plan cost the districts and increased costs in litigation and out of district tuition but I'd also love to share my child's story as an example an informal case of how successfully funding and hence implementing a student's IEP can save
the district money in the long run my child started in the most restrict restrictive classroom in the disabled preschool program at Betty Malena not speaking in two-word sentences not following a one-step direction and was behind in many milestones they needed a
one-on-one pair of professional in order to attend to tasks to navigate the classroom safely under the expert instruction and care of the teachers the OTS the PTS the speech therapists the pair of professionals the principal and the administrators they were able to
move into a contained classroom and now this year he is in an inclusion class at Gregory Elementary School without the need of a pair of professional i acknowledge not all student trajectories will look like this even with the exact same supports but all students are worthy of dignity and
respect despite their disabilities a student's worth is not defined by their intellectual ability or what they can produce each student in our district deserves equity keep the special education department funded i work as a controller and I have found it
impossible and incredibly difficult to find any way to give you any recommendation for next year's budget because there's no information we need the proposed budget cuts to be presented to us in the same detail or more just like the annual budget that you put online the only
thing I can think to suggest is for is to look at capital improvements is the only line item about the moment that would be appropriate to cut like an adjusted plan to remediate issues like the HVAC electrical or HVAC installation by adding an additional two or three years to the timeline as we work out the
balance of our budget thank you for your time uh good evening my name is William Dano i live at 84 Cobain Terrace and I am also part of the uh Gregory committee here tonight and I just want to say the high schoolers are incredibly impressive and I hope this school district remains
as impressive it is today for my children who are just starting their learning education now at Gregory i'm going to propose tonight a radical idea that we need to start imagining a better future for West Orange not planning for worst case scenarios i know how much
time and effort you as the board have been putting in to address this budget and I recognize that much of what's happening rising costs reduced aid is outside of your direct control but this year's plan feels like a band-aid and not a solution you don't have to watch much news today to know that there's a
growing consensus across the country the systems we have are not working and for some people that means tearing them down for others it means reimagining what they could be and doing the hard work to build something better either way change is coming and that change won't come
from trying to salvage an old system it will come from daring to ask "What kind of school district do we want to become?" and not just shuffling middle schools then we take concrete steps together to build toward it like Margaret me said never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed
citizens can change the world indeed it's the only thing that ever has and as the gentleman behind me right here says to cause a little bit of good trouble that starts with real That starts with real collaboration and I urge you to publish clear bulleted
explainers on what's being cut why and what options were considered and then to create a citizen advisory board that's not just symbolic but actively engaged in future budget concerns we want to help the parents of this community want to help we just need to be empowered to
do so i can't imagine any of you joined the board of education for the power or the praise i believe you did it because you care deeply for our children and they are the ones least empowered to speak for themselves parents are stretched thin but we will show up if
you give us something meaningful to show up for the budget outlook next year is unfortunately not any better the Department of Education as we know it may not even exist in its current form a year from now should we be preparing to
ask for exemptions for tax exemptions should we be building a long range advocacy plan the reality is this west Orange is in a fiscal pre pressure cooker we are not rich enough to self-fund and not poor enough to qualify for the support that we need from the
state but for the next few years we have to get anticipatory not reactive and the focus on building a school system that we want to become let's start that work together thank you hello everyone my name is uh Nathaniel Nardini but you can just call
me Nate for short i am a freshman here at West Orange High and I've been enjoying it very much however I'm very disappointed to hear that Mandarin is getting cut out of middle schools school after all is about preparing us young adults for the professional world this means interacting with others from
various cultures which includes China cutting this program from middle school were certainly only diminishes cause this is why I'm here today to bring notice to a petition that I have started with around 713 signatures last time I checked this just shows how much this
resonates within the community i have been taking Mandarin ever since the middle school level and has greatly helped me to understand at least part of the Eastern world it exposed me to many wonders of the culture the language itself to the food to even calligraphy all these moments from making my best
friend Alex to playing ping pong against my fellow peers has greatly made this class a truly irreplaceable experience one that cannot be replicated by a simple language learning app taking Chinese is so much more than learning a language is about learning a culture one of the biggest in the world in fact I
myself have taken Dualingo accumulating nearly a year streak and has never been as indepth into the actual meaning behind characters and surrounding culture as the actual class additionally from a statistical standpoint China's economy is one of the fastest growing economies in the world and it is
imperative that we have workers in the future that'll be able to clearly and authentically communicate and work together with them by removing this from the middle school level it makes it more difficult for this to happen chinese after all is the only non-romance language the district has to offer meaning that it takes a longer time to
become more proficient by removing Chinese in middle school it remove essential time that students would need to learn and progress in the development of that language in closing please reconsider your decision to cut Chinese to the middle school level to allow the next generation the same opportunities
that I had good evening my name is Jason Faul and I am a junior in West Orange High School i'm here to talk about the issues of um cutting the middle school programs of Chinese Manoran class i've been in Chinese program in West Orange School
District for about six years starting from six to to now as a Chinese student I want to speak from my heart today about why Chinese should not be cut from our curriculum language is more than just words its culture identity and connection and when we talk about
Chinese we're talking about the language spoken over by over 1.3 billion people more than any other language in the world mandarin Chinese isn't just a foreign language it's a global language it's one of the six official languages of the United Nations and it plays a
major role in international businesses politics and culture china has the second largest economy in the world and whether we like it or not our future leaders scientists and entrepreneurs will need to communicate and collaborate
across cultures learning Chinese open doors to opportunities to understanding and to the future cutting Chinese from the curriculum sends the wrong messages it tells students that some languages and cultures are less valuable than others for those of us with Chinese
heritage it feels like it's erasing a part of who we are for others it means losing the chance to build bridges with one of the oldest and richest civilizations in the world i know Chinese is challenging but it's also very rewarding it teaches
patience discipline and a whole new way of seeing the world i've seen classmates grow in confidence and cultural awareness just from taking Chinese for one or two years we need more global citizens not fewer and cutting Chinese does the opposite it closes minds
instead of opening them chinese programs here also give opportunities for students to share the creativity talents and skills through dances and singing and performances at the Lunar New Year Gala which is hosted every year by the Chinese program cutting Chinese will give our students less of a chance to
show their talents and prevent memories from being made so I ask let's not take a step backward let's keep Chinese in our schools not just for students like me but for the future we all share thank you good evening good evening everyone i'm Nicole Ing a senior here at West Orange
High School i'm also the president of the Chinese Club and Chinese Honor Society and secretary of the Asian Culture Club as a leader in multiple programs for Asian representation I am here with the full support of my family and fellow students as a spokesperson to
address the budget cuts concerning the Chinese language program i've taken Chinese every single year it was available in the school district even opting to take Chinese over AP computer science last year when the two classes conflicted this bears acknowledgement because I will be majoring in computer
science in college it might be surprising to you that even though I look Chinese and my last name is Ing my family does not speak Mandarin my father's side speaks a dialect that's closer to Cantonese uh my mother's my mother's side speaks Korean but at home
we only speak English all the Mandarin I know was learned from the West Orange public school's Chinese program just last week eight fellow West Orange students and I arrived home from an 8-day trip in China now the experience itself was unforgettable and amazing to say the least from of course the food to
the museums that held thousands of years of history I had so much fun on that trip my camera roll speaks for itself but the most important aspect most impressive aspect about the trip was the challenge it posed to my Chinese comprehension skills and how it wasn't
really a challenge at all during the trip given the way I look most people dealt most people I dealt with from airport security to even a Chinese girl on the plane assumed I was a native Chinese citizen and treated me with uh treated me as such by communicating in
Chinese with me and yet I was able to respond and hold a genuine conversation with them i followed security's orders i switched seats with that Chinese girl because she wanted to sit next to her friend on the flight this was all made possible through the rigor of the Chinese curriculum so to imagine a world
where there was no Chinese language taught in our district at the middle school level it's quite distressing to me for these seven years even through the hard times like 5 years ago when we were forced into a lockdown because of CO 19 because of the origin of the virus
the number of hate crimes against Asians and Asian-Americans skyrocketed i a middle schooler at the time was even told to go back to where I came from by one of my peers during lunch and yet I continued to study the language because it was a way to show my pride for my
heritage yes I'm Chinese and I'm proud of where I come from that was the message I wanted to spread by taking Chinese despite the discrimination I and many other Asian-Americans faced throughout those tough years which sadly it is still ongoing and thus I assert
the removal of the Chinese language from our school district is equivalent to the erasure of Asian representation on in our society considering Chinese is the only non-romance language offered in our district and also the only one that's being debated about this is to deeply concern to me in every single Asian in
our town so as a soon-to-be graduate of West Orange High I implore you to think about the lasting consequences this decision will have not only on the future generations education but the message it holds for Asian-Americans and our West Orange community that holds diversity in such high regard thank you
for your time and consideration hi my name is Zad Malik i am a sophomore at West High School as a person taking Chinese and a Chinese person myself I believe that Chinese shouldn't be cut in the middle schools it was I found out that Chinese was being taught in our
school district i've always wanted to take it and like that's what I did and I'm doing right now it's all of my experiences taking Chinese are valuable and I wouldn't want any of it to go to waste because I feel seen taking this language i love this language this culture i love the classroom environment
most of all I love if we get rid of Chinese in the middle schools there wouldn't be any students who would want to take in high school and like while students taking French Spanish and Italian would be would continue learning their language Chinese students would start at square
one completely fresh and new they would be less fluent in a language and a language than their friends would were setting them back by two years of learn of language learning and if I was in these students shoes that were completely learning a new
language in high school I would feel like I'm not learning learning as fast as other people I would feel like it wouldn't be worth learning and I wouldn't feel I would probably end up dropping the class because I just wouldn't feel like I'm worth it so think about all the all the Chinese all the
students taking Chinese in middle schools now and people like me that want to take Chinese in the future like I did that's why we need to keep this language in the middle schools thank you good evening everyone my name is Sam Lewis and I'm a senior here at West
Orange i understand that the budget deficits are devastating but I am an APC Chinese student and vice president of the Chinese Honor Society and I urge you to reconsider cutting Chinese at the middle school level i have taken Chinese for the past seven years and this program has undoubtedly changed my life and my outlook on the world while many
schools offer romance languages being able to learn an Eastern language like Chinese has allowed me to broaden my horizons and fully realize my love for languages this program inspired me to major in linguistics in college where I will hopefully be exposed to an even ver larger variety of languages like many people have already stated the lack of
transparency surrounding the budget means that none of us know exactly what's being cut cut it in Chinese in the middle schools sets a dangerous precedent that could lead to the extermination of this program in its entirety which would be devastating to all of the students who benefit from it chinese as I'm sure you can imagine is a very difficult language to learn without
the benefits of those early years of Chinese education the program and its students have no way to work towards fluency at the higher levels like I said I'm currently in AP Chinese and I cannot imagine learning this curriculum without the foundations built by my middle school Chinese education as we heard from Mr pada April is National
Multilingual Learner Advocacy Month it seems hypocritical to highlight the importance of multilingual education while simultaneously shrinking the Chinese program besides just language the cultural knowledge I have gained from this program is unrivaled as Nicole mentioned eight of my classmates and I got to visit China over spring break
this trip was by far the most memorable experience I've had throughout my high school career career and I would hate to see future students not have the same opportunity to have those experiences so much of language learning is about being exposed to different cultures and I've learned more about Chinese culture and history and in this program and on this
trip including meeting kids in two different schools in China than I ever would have otherwise i could list off a hundred reasons why you shouldn't cut Chinese but instead I will just ask a question do you want to convey the message that Chinese language and culture are not important to this district that my classmates and future
generations of Western students should only learn Western romance languages these may not be your intentions but they will certainly be the results i would hate to see the school that I've given so much to and love so much disappoint me in such a profound way i hope you reconsider thank you for your time
uh good evening uh Superintendent Moore and members of the board my name is Andrew Chin i am also a senior in the graduating class of 2025 uh like many of uh others you've heard from tonight I am also here to advocate for the uh to prevent uh Chinese uh the mil the
Chinese program at the middle schools from being cut this choice will essentially end uh the Chinese program here in our school district it is not realistic to expect any student to choose Chinese at the high school while having no exposure at the middle school level our district prides itself on its
diversity yet here we are becoming the only non-romance language second most spoken language in the entire world it's a great shame we can no longer offer such a unique and geographically different language to our student body i take great pride in my Chinese her to the programs here when I was in
kindergarten my mom rolled me inside Chinese classes which can't express how much I despised so for much of my elementary school years I failed to understand or grasp the importance of my ch of my identity as a Chinese person it wasn't until sixth grade and looking very forward to this that I would enjoy a
foreign language class it was in Lua or Miss Luen's Chinese class that I began to appreciate the Chinese language and culture from there I became more involved uh more and more involved in my heritage now as an AP Chinese student I can even understand the conversation between my mother and my grandmother something that was inconceivable to me
many years ago now one does not have to uh be Chinese to learn Mandarin and appreciate the culture of a civilization over 5,000 years i understand that learning Chinese as an English speaker is quite a challenge if it was easy you would not be learning in fact many studies have shown
that learning Chinese improves cognitive abilities and enhances memory and can be very applicable to many other subjects this is in addition to gaining a competitive edge in a growing international job market especially in technology and business where high Chinese is highly valued we are a diverse community and we should always
strive to be as inclusive as possible continuing to offer Chinese as a foreign language in addition to three romance languages is one way to accomplish this perhaps we can save it by uh having fewer but larger classes although when not desired is a possibility but having
a choice is better than no choice i am flooring the board tonight to seriously reconsider the consequences of this proposal while being mindful of the benefits of keeping keeping it before voting tonight thank you for your time i want to say kudos to all the students that have gotten up tonight i know
that's not easy so congratulations that's that's great guys hello and good evening members of the board Superintendent Moore educators and fellow community members my name is Shauna Seals and I am a taxpaying resident of West Orange and I reside at
12 Gilbert Place i have two children that attend Gregory Elementary School i am also happily serving as the current PTA president for Gregory School although I have attended board of education meetings in the past I've never had such compassion and determination to speak out show up and
voice myself than I do tonight i want to take a moment to speak on an issue that deeply concerns our elementary school communities specifically the absence of an assistant principal due to our current and frankly past budget constraints i am asking tonight that we
don't overlook the human limits in our school especially those of our principles our principal Miss Mika Hewitt is a steadfast leader for our school she is not only an administrator she is a mentor an excellent problem solver she works cohesively with our PTA
executive board and other parents to provide top-notch events fundraisers and fun programs that give back to our entire school community these programs would not happen without her unwavering support all of that being said no one no matter how dedicated they are can do it
all alone but she excels in her efforts some questions I have for you tonight are does central office meet with elementary school principles and act as a liaison for their needs how many support staff members do the middle schools have in relation to
the elementary schools what about administrative assistants school counselors child study teams in addition to the assistant principles that they already have on the middle school level
managing an entire school overseeing staff handling student issues maintaining safety supporting academics and building relationships with families requires more than one person considering the current demands of all of our elementary school principles we
cannot forget the impact of the proposed budget cuts and its toll it will take on their lives as this does not just affect administrative functions they impact every layer of our school's success i respectively ask that in your deliberations you consider not just
their numbers but the people behind them the leaders who make a measurable difference in the dayto-day lives of our students and teachers for without we risk burnout missed opportunities for engagement and slower responses to the
everyday issues that can make a big difference in our school culture i urge you as you navigate these hard budget decisions to prioritize leadership support where it's needed most our school our students and our staff
deserve a team not just one person trying to carry the weight of it all thank you for your time and consideration good evening my name is John Kelly i live at Fort Gilbert Place and uh as of last Friday I was a tenure track social studies teacher here at
West Orange High School the Jesuits taught me that the most important thing a person can do is use whatever talents they have to make their local community a better place this simple lesson is something that I have tried to live by so in 2022 when an opening when I was teaching in Newark
and saw an opening here at the high school I leapt at the opportunity to imsh myself deeper into my own local community in the interest of time I'll simply say that teaching at West Orange High School has been the great joy of my professional life the colleagues who quickly became friends the students who
keep me on my toes day in and day out will forever be sources of joy and I'll hold them always with deep appreciation and fondness thus it is a bruising sadness that my position here has been terminated i will not waste time bemoning my personal station but I want
the public record to forever reflect my appreciation for the educators in this room and throughout this district i'd like to address the board now as a taxpayer in the district there is no problem in a child's life that will be made better by
cutting education funds we say that we are for the students and this community will not forget that we say this yet the actions of this board work against this principle this board repeatedly makes claims of protecting the taxpayer and easing the burden on
the taxpayer respectfully the plight of the tax of the individual taxpayer should not be the overriding concern of this board to that end claiming to defend the concerns of the taxpayers while slashing the services for their children is a cynical attempt to veil
the indefensible in respectability a plan that raises taxes while taking a blowtorrch to public education cannot sustain while I will no longer be a member of this learning community I want the board to know that I will continue to stand with my union brothers and
sisters as they fight for a fair contract that honors their daily work again I want to express my gratitude for the work that the educators of this district take so seriously and perform with such grace good evening uh my name is James Stucky
um I live at 549 Mount Pleasant i have two daughters one in Edison and one in Mount Pleasant and I just have a few questions um you spoke about specific current data that suggests that the Central 6 model isn't working i'm curious what is that
specific data that suggests it is it is that financially or academically the proposed cuts seem more financially and politically targeted with our students being an afterthought and without sufficient oversight i moved to West Orange a year ago because of the diversity and the
strength of the schools i'm concerned that we're needed lead needlessly attacking a perceived outside culture because of federal leadership let's remember that community and communication start with the same base word let's work together i urge you to reconsider your cuts to the mandarin
program and increase communication to the community thank you good evening my name is Bonnie Goodman i am a West Orange resident parent of three children who are West Orange graduates and a par professional at Washington School for 25 years and as Mr
moore has described me on occasion I am a fierce when necessary and tonight I intend to be exactly that this past Friday Senator John McKeon visited Washington School to speak with our fourth and fifth grade students on the workings of our
government our fourth grade non-tenured social studies teacher who is one of the victims of the budget cuts worked with their students to prepare their questions the two students filed into our gym index cards in hand waiting for the press conference to begin senator
McKon was wonderful darting to every student who raised their hand with a question he was so impressed with our students that he extended the invitation to spend the day with him in Trenton acting as their tour guide and treating them to lunch an exciting prospect for
any student but especially at a title one school where families struggle to live daytoday sadly Mr mayo informed Senator McKeon it was not possible the board due to our budget crisis put a stop to all school trips senator McKeon's face
changed from a smile to a frown in an instant this instance only documents one of the many losses now projected by the budget crisis in West Orange and for our Washington school population the crisis leaves an even greater impact than the
loss of a field trip here at Washington there is the loss of a class at almost every grade level has the board ever looked at their own policies board policy 6220 states under budget preparation priorities that there be quote staffing
adequate to sustain the current instructional program as a title one school the New Jersey Administrative Code 6A13-3.1 imposes explicit restrictions on class size grade K through three 21
students and grades four through 5 23 students for student and staff su success it is vital that these limits are adhered to the district and its employees have legal and financial responsibilities to comply with the law the reduction of both staffing and
classes at Washington a title one school fully promoted by Miss Mendez as a boon for these children last year is now out of compliance as a budget crisis loomed was no one looking at the bigger picture and its impact on our students which as
board policy states the students are the its first priority when preparing the budget i suggest the board take a long hard look at both the administration and the financial planning to discover how the district arrived at this 11 million
deficit i'd also suggest that we find a way out of this very big hole that we're in where the children are the least affected especially those at a title one school i strongly recommend that the board initiate a forensic accounting of its books thank
you all right before I start I just want to give a hand to all the students in the room here and Nate you still owe me a book report my name is Jay Wack my West Orange address for the past 30 years half my life is Roosevelt Middle School so yes
that means I've been around the block oh it was a very different time 30 years ago there were just two middle schools and they were both 678 with just two middle schools we had a system that helped divide the town it was something we all had to contend with then in 2005
Edison became a Central 6 Roosevelt a 78 and the new school Liberty was a 78 as well that helped a lot to resolve the problem that divided the town and everything seemed a lot more fair it seemed that way because it was i've
spent the last 20 years teaching at a 78 school in that time there was never any discussion about how much better it was when we were 678 that's because 678 isn't better than 78 when it comes to the kids learning the schools were both
678 solely to make to make room for our elementary schools the point here is that this unpopular plan to reconfigure the buildings doesn't have to do with the kids learning or about test scores going up and I assure you if it costs less money to bust kids to our present
configuration than to a new one there'd be no talk about this at all bottom line pun reconfiguring the schools only has to do with money it doesn't have to do with improving the education of our kids because it doesn't improve their educational life any any way and it
doesn't improve things for the teachers as well you know what also doesn't improve things for the teachers having less of them what that does what that does mean however is larger class sizes larger class sizes mean more classroom management problems
which means that every ch every child has their education compromised i thought everyone's goal was to make public schools better here's another bit of wisdom from old man wet my first year I was the baseball coach my second year I wasn't why was that
middle school sports have been cut because in 1996 our budget didn't pass your plan to cut sports in the middle schools is going to save a lot of money but it's also going to create some serious problems if there isn't someplace else for these kids to go back
in 1996 week nights we had 200 kids at in a West Orange park after school with nothing to do how does that sound to you maybe we should ask the residents who live by the park or our friends in the police department last month I sent you a solution to this problem with another
dozen suggestions that would save money and keep the cuts outside the classroom but I have no idea if these ideas were ever considered my speech last month was all about how the children come first this speech well it isn't very different many of you in front in in front of me have a
an a background in education you've all been around the block please remember those that failed to learn from history are doomed to repeat it all I'm saying is let's learn from the past and make the future brighter for the children of West Orange thank
you adam Kramer 20 Moran Road West Orange New Jersey um I'm here to offer some solutions to our fiscal and educational problems some of which will be popular some of which will be wildly
unpopular my first fiscal suggestion is sell 179 Eagle Rock Avenue buy a bunch of double wides bark all the administrators on the field in front of Redwood it would save a fortune and it would remind everybody that all the administrators are less important than
the children that they'll be watching going by their windows that's the first suggestion second is we should avoid layoffs i love our teachers they're good people but they've been lied to they've been told that they
can have salaries that are disparently higher than other districts and a health care plan that's more expensive than others without economic consequences i'm sorry that's not true part of the solution to keeping 20 staff members may be that you have to give up on being in
the plan you're in now and accept the state plan it's the economics it's sad i don't like to see it but it may have to be part of the solution the other thing is we really need to save language programs we need to expand them there should be other
languages besides Mandarin world language is important in this uh in this day and age it should be expanded not cut also parents we need to preserve the extracurricular activities and the strong academic programs and staff and
part of that solution is you may have to make some sacrifices on busing some of you who live very close to school may have to walk some of you who enjoy an extra special taxpayer finance part thing called afterchool busing for
extracurriculum may have to make other arrangements i think this is doable i think we can have great schools and I think we can be fair to the taxpayer but we have to be creative and not cut from the classroom and cut programs that matter thank you
hi my name is Molly Eisen i'm a teacher at I'm said anything yet i'm a teacher at Edison West Orange resident and future West Orange parent as well and I want to talk about the word thoughtful so I'm a
language arts teacher and every once in a while with my students we stop and talk about a word and quite recently the word was thoughtful now if any of you have spent time with sixth graders sometimes we need a reminder of what that word means so I had asked my kids
you know what does thoughtful mean to you and we got you know don't shove each other's stuff in each other's lockers watch where we're going don't try to fit 20 people into the bathroom at once and I said okay yes that's true but really
what does it mean and one of my students said it's about caring about one another it's about making decisions and not just thinking about yourself or what's easy and I feel like that's really important to remind everyone tonight you know the teachers at Edison Middle
School are devastated to be losing our Central 6 school we have something very special there and we're very nervous about what's coming we know our fantastic administrator is going to get us through it but we're incredibly disheartened that everything seems to be
last minute it doesn't sound very thoughtful at all we're also very disappointed by your lack of transparency with the budget people are worried about their jobs people don't know what's coming next year we're worried about our students the way you've been acting is not thoughtful at
all you may say it is but actions speak louder than words and what kind of message are you sending to the community and to our students we teach them to be thoughtful it's really disappointing when those in charge don't act like it lisa Tuzo a lifelong member of this
community a proud teacher at Liberty and Roosevelt Middle School and a witness to all the changes that Hayden outlined in the presentation i wasn't going to get up to speak however the presentation discussed a
smooth transition from a central 6 and 78 school to a 67 and 8 school due to the lack of budget transparency i'm not so sure the West Orange Education Association Middle School Committee reached out to administration to share
our concerns and ask if we could help in any way we were told no thank you we are dedicated professionals who want to do what's best for our students how can we when teachers have not been asked
for their input for their part participation in the process our students deserve better and this does not help our morale which has been the lowest it has been in many many years
thank you good evening members of the board superintendent and my fellow community members my name is Makita and I'm a proud West Orange parent of two kids enrolled in the district a member of the Gregory School PTA board where I serve as membership chair and an active
participant in our communities community as a Girl Scout troop leader in my professional work I focus on the critical intersections between housing education and equity and specifically how the health of one system impacts outcomes across the others thinking about outcomes and related indicators is
not theoretical for me it's my daily work and deeply informs my concerns tonight i see this current budget issue not just as a school district challenge but as an interconnected issue with long-term rippling effects for the entire town of West Orange for our
families our economic development our sense of community and collaborative stakeholders our district faces a significant challenge 9.1 or 11 million um not clear which number we're working with but of a budget deficit and I am
standing here because I am deeply concerned about how we will maintain the integrity of our district and ensure that our children's education remains rigorous equitable and future ready with that I respectfully raise several important questions how can we continue to build real transparency into this
process and truly partner together it is far more productive and frankly more feasible for our energy as parents advocates teachers and community members to be directed towards supporting our district and our children's education rather than feeling like we are constantly fighting the board i
understand that this budget crisis did not begin with your tenure as superintendent and is a result of a larger of a larger system failure so I ask how can you intentionally integrate integrate the parent population into this process not just to inform us but
to empower us so that we can advocate on behalf of our schools and children we are here because we care and we want to be mobilized and not sidelined we also recognize that this is not an isolated issue school districts across the country are grappling with postcoid
funding gaps as federal relief dollars dry up further feeling the impacts of an about face of the federal support of public schools now more than ever we need to shore up our local school our local government needs to shore up our
schools that said how have we crowdsourced solutions what conversations have been open not just internally but externally to be in informed and learn from others even more critically what is the district's long-term strategy to prevent this kind of crisis from repeating itself next
year and beyond and when I speak of crisis I'm not only speaking about the budget shortfall i'm speaking about I'm speaking equally about the crisis of miscommunication that has eroded trust finally I want to offer that I know this is not a new idea that the board should
consider forming a citizen advocacy committee dedicated to this budget issue and broader fiscal planning a well ststructured advocac advisory committee could serve as a bridge between the board and community helping to brainstorm communitybacked alternatives and ensuring ongoing transparency
transparency is not just an expectation I hold i have one more sentence transparency is not just an expectation I hold for the board of education it is the standard I believe should exist across our town government and within every structure that serves our families
from town hall to our PTAs thank you my name is Safi Nagasi i'm a senior at West Orange High School i shook your hands myself and I have a few comments to make i can only tell you about what I know about tonight so I'm going to tell you about how and why you have made me
very afraid with these new announcements from the board my classmates are in the audience today they can testify that for every AP calculus VC there was an honor Spanish or for every AP physics music theory
there was an orchestra or a chess these programs opportunities for me to grow into myself they made me who I am and these opportunities comprise academic excellence recognize it what these opportunities are for each
student vary and I can't tell you what it takes for one student to become the best version of themselves what is inessential at the end of the day i know we're struggling as a community as a nation who is going to
pay the cost of that struggle is it going to be our children is it going to be the people who are on the front lines to protect those children what are you as the board telling us that you're prepared to sacrifice i'm happy that I was the
first to break some kind of record for Western am I going to be the last i'm here you told me that you had pride in me and my accomplishments and I would
like to be proud of this town and what we can do moving forward i ask you these difficult questions today not because they're short answers but because I believe you are capable and willing to try and solve them for our sake i'm not asking for anything
special whatever you plan to do moving forward good luck not going to lie it's kind of hard to follow up with that um so good evening board members Superintendent Moore and members of the
West Orange community i mean I've been here last time uh my name is Anna Sonamu and I reside at 66 Cherry Street i am a current West Orange par professional and first I want to acknowledge the work
that has gone into confronting the challenges for us balancing the budget gap while preserving student services is no easy task we believe I believe we share all a common goal um to make
decisions that are both fiscally responsible and truly student centered and by the way my class was the first Central 6 class and I think we turned out all right so um I know you'd like that um as we move
forward however we must ensure that transparency accountability and community engagement are at the heart of every decision that you make fisc fiscal responsibility isn't just about cutting cost it's about making informed honest decisions that do not compromise the
quality of education our students deserve the community deserves clarity how are savings projections calculated what are the risk if those assumptions don't hold and what safeguards will protect our students if services are
affected equally important isn't is understanding what we are cutting and at what long-term cost for example cutting the Mandarin language program for me is a mistake mandarin is the most spoken language in the world
critical for business for technology and for diplomacy eliminating this program limits our students global competitiveness and future opportunities a student- centered district would protect programs such as Mandarin that give our students an edge
in the 21st century we must also demand accountability for real outcomes and not just intentions if these changes led to larger CL class sizes or a few fewer course offerings or a greater strain on staff the board I
feel the board must act must act quickly to address the consequences and not wait until the damage is done the taxpayers and families of West Orange have always supported our schools and with their time votes and trust now that trust must
be earned especially during these tough times transparency accountability and partnership are not optional they are essential for a successful school system our students are watching let's show them what
leadership is and what it means to have that honesty that courage that respect in every voice in every community also I want to give two shout outs to Mr hush for being the best vice principal when I was at Roosevelt and also shout out to
Miss U from from Roosevelt and Liberty the times that I have subbed for her I was always impressed by how much her students appreciated the Mandarin culture and the language thank you all right this is intimidating um so
hi my name is Kelly i have two daughters in the West Orange School District an eighth grader at Liberty and a fourth grader at Mount Pleasant um I was actually not planning on speaking today i came to gather some information and then take the findings home but seeing
all of these students who are still here sitting through an hours long meeting after sitting in the same school for seven hours of their day to vocalize the impact that this Mandarin program has had on them has you know given me the
incentive to speak up um so obviously today I'm here to advocate for the continued offering of the Mandarin language classes within our district um every student and former student has had that teacher who has
made some sort of forever impact in their lives um for the last three years my older daughter has had the absolute pleasure of having Mr mcguran be that teacher for her she started Mandarin in sixth grade and
she and her friends have just developed this passion for the language and the culture mr mcgarin has fostered a culture of learning and curiosity and inclusion and just this hunger to know more to do more and to immerse themselves in this language and in the culture he's gotten them excited about
their future at the high school and beyond with the opportunities that they would face in the Mandarin program um you know and he's just given them this pass passion sorry for the the language and learning about everything he's a teacher who's impacting their lives and it's all through the Mandarin
program that started in sixth grade they were excited to take this through high school and beyond into AP and now they're facing the reality that this may not happen the future of AP is certainly not happening as of right now and this is also something that we are learning
from our children instead of from the board which is also a concern um but you know I would implore you to to try and look for cuts that do not impact the students so significantly i mean there are dozens of students here vocalizing
how important and how vital this is in their in their high school career um most of these students have spoken up already about the societal impact of having Mandarin be an offering in the future you know I I will let that all
speak for itself um but I would like to highlight some of the opportunities and offerings for the Mandarin program that students can take advantage of that maybe are not available for some of the romance languages which are offered everywhere right so there's that discernment to start the government
offers various scholarships and programs aimed at high school students and graduates including the National Security Language Initiative for youth NSLIY to provide scholarships for students to study Mandarin and immersive environments uh and there's also the Critical Language Scholarship the CLS to
offer funding for undergraduate and graduate students to learn about Mandarin abroad uh there are also programs for post-graduate and career placement opportunities within the government and in contracted positions um I'm out of time so I think I've
gotten my points across but I implore you to please consider something that is not so impactful on our kids i'm Julie i have children at Roosevelt and at Gregory i would first like to thank the students who are here today and who spoke earlier their
passion is impressive and as someone who works in the STEM field I cannot overstate the value of East Asian language and culture in the business and STEM world we've heard tonight that the new
middle school model was both developed over time but also rushed and it's concerning on on both ends if it was being developed over time why is it being dropped on the community and in particular the students and teachers who
are losing their jobs barely six months out just two years ago the virtues of the central sixth model were extolled upon all parents in the district with graduating fifth graders what has actually changed
academically educationally in the last two years maybe there is something but it has not been explained to the community and it sounds like not necessarily to the educators in the room either looking specifically at who's going to be impacted in the classrooms
first of all teachers losing their jobs we have not heard anything about the impact on class size through the remodeled middle schools let alone also elementary schools and let's talk about specifically the rising eighth graders these are the children who are in seventh grade who just switched from
elementary school to Central 6th Edison to Roosevelt and Liberty thinking they are acclimating and going to be there for 2 years now a segment of those students are going to be re reshuffled and even the students who are staying within the Roosevelt and Liberty schools
are still going to have their world turned upside down and let's think about who these children are they were in second third fourth grade during the height of the pandemic these children have endured more upheaval in their educational lives before high school
than many of us have in our entire educational journeys and in particular on that point many steps taken by previous boards and previous administrations were done very hastily during the pandemic which these
children are still suffering the consequences of academically social emotional learning all of the core things that happened in elementary school that they missed out on which is not the fault of the current board but I've not heard anyone mention this issue
and take into account the actual student hobby population who's being affected lastly it's been said before there's 9 or million dollar 9 or 11 million deficit here this entire remodeling and reimagination that's being thrown
together is saving a million dollars and you're firing people i I think a there's been a law said on this tonight but I hope that more consideration is given and more more communication is provided my name is Larry Winrob i live at 76
Cobain Terrace i have a son in ninth grade uh and another son uh in private school in sixth grade um and I want to say that I'm I'm saddened by this entire
uh situation here it really really unfortunately and I know all of you are here to serve our students and our community but this really feels like a failure of leadership this money didn't disappear overnight um this had to have been seen
coming for some time um the state aid reduction is only a million dollars there's another eight n 10 million dollars that we're missing um and
so where is the communication to get the community to partner with whatever we need to do to keep the schools where they are uh and to really know that the values of West
Orange and our high quality education can be maintained um this is a time where everyone is outraged and you know an hour ago I was sitting there feeling outraged and and I still am but we're much better off if we can work
through these kinds of things as a community together the Gregory group is here it's a great fantastic uh group and and partnership but here we're hearing about this
transition from the central 6th to a 67th eighth model you know before we first heard about it as a community 28 days ago famously zombie outbreaks take longer than that to develop i emailed each of you after the letter
from superintendent um and I didn't get a response but Edison was a fantastic and wonderful and beautiful journey for my son when he started middle school um particular I I want to
call out Miss Eisen who was a godsend for him um but also knowing that he was in a place where you know they were all in sixth grade and the teachers were in a tight team that could that knew all his
challenges throughout and they met regularly and you can't replicate that if teachers are teaching across grades in a sixth seventh eth environment and I was so thankful that he had that experience And I mean it seems like this is
done uh and in 28 days there's no opportunity for me to share that story and feel like it can have an impact for you and I'm really saddened by that and so I really would like to see how we can all work together as a community together to solve these problems they
won't solve themselves and things here time has expired so you know I I really just want to offer that and hope we can have that Good evening Superintendent Moore board members and uh members of the FE fellow community um my name is Julia Yang and
I've been a proud uh West Orange resident for 12 years i have two children at Redwood Elementary a kindergartener and a fourth grader the mentoring program along with celebrations like the Chinese New Year gala um at West Orange High School has
given my children a strong sense of belonging um even though the Asian population in West Orange remains relatively small West Orange has a special place in our hearts because um diff different from neighboring towns
where the Chinese New Year gala is mostly celebrated by um residents of Chinese descent in West Orange it's celebrated by everyone regardless of your cultural background thanks to the hardworking um teachers and students at our strong
mentoring program this is beautiful but we're taking it away um mentoring is the most spoken language in the world but it is also extremely hard to master without early exposure eliminating the program at the middle school level would deeply
impact families like mine forcing us to seek alternative alternatives or even consider leaving West Orange as well as families unlike mine because this decision would further diminish the Asian population in our community
leaving the current students um of non-Chinese descent without any native speakers to engage with please preserve this vital program to the benefit of all our students and the futures of our diverse community if a
world a world language program must be cut I urge the district to com to commit to forming a committee of parents teachers students and community members to ensure any final decision is fair and transparent thank you
good evening all i am Oshana George i live at 45 terrace i have two kids presently in the district a junior and a seventh grader at Liberty Middle School i'm kindly asking that courts in Chinese in
the middle school should not be considered i was born and raised in Sierra Leon in West Africa my school was an all Catholic girl school french was compulsory and we also had arts and sports just like West Orange with my
French from school I was able to translate for my family when we went to live in a foreign country due to unrest in my country my younger daughter unlike her siblings who have been able to do French has chosen to do Chinese and
wants to be able to communicate in Chinese as she wants to be able to stand as she calls it shoulderto-shoulder with all the fashion designers west Orange do not kill this young girl's dream concerning special education please give
our children the help they need give them the opportunity and see them thrive my son has been able to thrive because of the support he has received over the years and he has um been able to enter
into different programs in the West Orange School District please do not cut the special education program i'm grateful to the PAR professionals and the special education program please I'm
appealing again do not cut the Chinese program and please do not consider touching the special needs program thank you hi Danielle Carr live at 27 Silver Spring Road i am a parent at Gregory
Elementary i'm also a member of the PTA as well as a Girl Scout troop leader for both kids at Gregory and Redwood i have the unique opportunity to see inside these schools and work with teachers and administrators in many ways and I love the support that my daughter has
received and the community that we are building and I'm beyond impressed with the students that I've heard tonight showcasing really truly the power of our schools and while I understand you have all been in a difficult situation I am saddened both as a parent and a taxpayer
that this lack of transparency and partnership around the budget process and reconciliation of the deficit this could have been an opportunity to bring the community together to find a better way forward one that does not sacrifice our children and their education
we are still recovering from the disruption to our education caused by COVID 19 as reflected in both our test scores as well as student outcomes across the nation and here in West Orange we are facing an complete educational crisis our teachers who bore
so much during the pandemic and had so much on their shoulders deserved to be consulted throughout this process yet it seems our voices have not even been largely they're largely absent from these critical discussions i moved to West Orange a few years ago and
previously lived in another suburb suburban district where the board of education approached budget challenges quite differently there the board of ed shared lineby-line budgets on a bi-weekly basis held open community forums with detailed presentations
brought in multiple people throughout the administration um with and engaged taxpayers parents and teachers collaboratively even amid discussions of drastic measures like closing a school and cutting preschool programs financial re realities were
addressed headon but with transparency respect and a true partnership with the community in contrast decisions here affecting thousands of families have been made largely behind closed doors eroding trust at a time when trust is desperately needed it's also
disappointing that despite so many thoughtful questions and speakers at tonight's meeting past meetings as well as via email we have yet to hear any direct responses from the board members therefore we respectfully ask that you move forward with building actual
transparency and trust with this community develop and partner with a citizen advisory committee like the citizen advocacy group mentioned earlier by my fellow parents and prioritizing future forward thinking over temporary
short-term solutions we're here we care deeply and we want to make a difference just let us thank you mera Franowitz 28 Ridge View Avenue cutting teachers due to a budget deficit has significant implications for
students and our West Orange education system while it can offer shortterm budget relief it does nothing for the larger systemic issues it leads to larger class sizes which will impact student outcomes and teacher morale larger class sizes make it harder for
teachers to provide individualized attention potentially hindering student learning and development it strains classroom management which is the first and foremost need of any class that hopes to provide student growth and this is further complicated by the fact that
our elementary schools have only one administrator even though some of our schools such as Gregory have student populations similar to that of our middle schools furthermore it negatively impacts teacher morale and leads to experienced teachers leaving the
profession further straining resources new teachers require extensive mentorship and training which is fair we all need a chance to learn and grow to become great teachers but who will they learn from when all the experienced teachers leave for greener pastures yes
fewer teachers will reduce the cost of the district and salaries but the actual cost to the district is far greater than what is saved speaking of which we have been sent a survey to help seek additional funding opportunities something desperately
needed federal state private donations a survey was sent to the community and to staff members but we have yet to see anything of it i'm wondering I am asking for you to show us the compiled data that I am sure has been done education
is all about data i'd like to see what you've taken into consideration as well as which of the suggestions are being implemented this is a community of highly intelligent people as which you all know as you are a part of if we have full transparency to a problem while we
may not know all the intricacies of the educational system budgeting we do understand how to save money and how to seek alternative revenue sources when full transparency is given problem solving can happen we have a community
back here willing to work for you cutting teachers should be a last resort and as we haven't seen any of the considerations you've made it certainly appears sadly that it was instead a first choice alex Harris 67 Bernett Terrace um
I have well two children at Gregory uh second grade kindergarten and I have a 10-month-old who I hope will be at Gregory and I have to say it was so it was a tease to see these amazing kids
get up here and have this amazing presentation about this language program that my kids might never be able to be a part of um and I just want to say Mr moore specifically to you I am someone who's
called your office quite a bit and I told you once that I am a fierce tiger and I can either be a tiger against you or a friend and I'm here as a friend to you and to the board i don't want to be against you i want to be for you and I
want to advocate for this parent group that we're talking about here in this community we have people who are titans of industry who are incredibly smart not to take away from any of your accomplishments but we are in the midst
of a really really messy situation for education i'm a strategist at Google we have people here who represent all different industries i think it is time for us to put our heads together and think about ways that we can really put
our students first when I hear Thank you when I hear that the the middle school teachers didn't even know about this plan until today that really worries me so I at what I do for work is change
management i would love to help put my two cents and my hat in for change management and offer budget leadership and all the things that I do at work every day and I'm sure that people could bring their expertise to
bear i think that instead of kind of pushing us away and keeping us in the dark bring us in allow us to be part of the story and solution and the teachers as well this is the time and I'm really really begging y'all to just put egos
aside this is the time that you really need to turn to your community where we have people here who are leaders and who've been doing this for a long time please this is the time that we need to lean on each other
seriously let's not fight each other let's come together because I really want my children to be in this community for a long time and the thing that I've said to you Mr more is I want to give my time and talents to this community i want to pour my time and talents into this community i don't want to
move don't make me be against you let me be for you okay all right i don't want to be against you all right hi uh Kevin Brady i live on 60 Wellington Avenue and I'm a Hazel Edison
Roosevelt parent and soon to be a high school parent um I wasn't going to comment tonight uh but frankly I'm pretty upset i'm upset that we had little to no information i'm upset that our board of education doesn't ask more of the community to avoid these
cuts um the community has a lot of great and smart people i heard a controller speak up before the person who just spoke before me um there's a lot of talented people in town that have spoken tonight and there's many more who probably couldn't speak or didn't want
to speak or maybe they just didn't want to stand up and speak but there's a lot of people in town that can offer input um I'm upset that the members of the community complain about paying taxes constantly um I think a lot of those same people then complain about
cuts that are being made um those cuts are often the result of an expectation from our elected officials that that's what people will want to cut taxes or keep taxes level um so I honestly don't
always blame the elected officials for taking that approach because it's what's loud and audible on Facebook on town council meetings board of ed meetings so um I think a lot of people here tonight probably also assume that there's a lot
of waste that could easily be identified and cut or they think that there's positions that aren't needed it's not uncommon for people to discuss imaginary spending cuts that don't exist um I'm disappointed that our community frequently opposes new revenue um for
the broader community um or things that would spread the tax base across more people in town i'm disappointed that the town's children um will be let down by by these cuts especially the kids who experienced inadequate education in 2020
2021 and 2022 and now will suffer more um I have three kids in the West Orange public schools they've had mostly a fantastic experience with some bumps along the way um for some of them but with great administrators and great teachers they made it past those and are
thriving now um my oldest will be entering ninth my second and eighth and my youngest would have been going to Edison but now won't um that's hugely disappointing to me i don't have any ideas to propose right now at least partly because they had little information coming into this but I
implore people to wake up and stop cutting our services for our future frankly I think it's lazy leadership and as harsh as that might sound cuts we make today will only cost us in so many ways for years to come school senior in high school uh my
English is bad uh my name is Soler i have the a girl in third grade in Washington school and the one senior in the high school i have a I know have a
um I have a questions and I need the answers the first one is why the information is limited why are the no option and the
most affected are the teacher and the student [Music] why this generation they not have the same opportunity have the student graduate
this year you talk about equality and integration but where the Edison whether you make the Edison you lost the
bow and the last question is how many are used the this table lost the show thank you good evening board i'm Bill Rutherford um know each of you with the exception
of our newest board member fairly well um want to speak as the proud parent of three daughters in the school district uh two of whom have already graduated my first was um part of the special needs
community uh my oldest daughter she had an IEP her entire career here and because of the work that was done in that department in particular um that young lady got a scholarship to college and graduated with
arms and is now beginning her teaching career uh my second child is studying abroad this semester again both publicly educated right here in West Orange uh and she has uh visited seven countries just this year alone uh those
opportunities were created by an outstanding education they got here in the West Orange district and some of the cuts that you are considering um while they will not affect those two they will affect their younger sister who is now
uh at Liberty uh so I want to uh just echo a couple of things and share a few thoughts with you in the minute and 50 seconds I have left uh first please do everything you can not to cut anything in special needs um I believe uh quite a
while ago the special uh needs um uh component of our educational system was expanded and when that expansion happened we found ourselves saving over a million dollars a year because we were able to bring back students that were being educated out of district and
educate them here uh so if we want to make uh this budget uh work we can do it in a couple of ways not just by cutting staff but by also uh cutting some of our expenses uh to that um extent I'd also like us to uh consider uh working with
the municipal um government on a townwide solar project that had been prep proposed mr more superintendent and outstanding leadership from your team um were supportive of that project that would have saved hundreds of thousands of dollars per year in electrical
expenses and provided uh a significant cash upfront uh which can help um uh plug some of the hole uh in addition to that look at your top contracts um we have not yet been able to uh get our garbage contract which is the largest
contract we have in town uh coincided with the school board uh but that could save millions of dollars over the course of the life of that contract uh so please explore all of those things uh before you start cutting teachers um I
heard a few things said tonight that I wanted to echo and uh one of them is that teacher morale uh according to the teachers that spoke here tonight is at an all-time low uh this seems to be a cultural thing in West Orange uh to force those on the front lines to do
more with less uh while many that are at the top of the org chart are rewarded for their sacrifice um thank you Mr reser your time is expired thank you Mr rock um you and I worked on a project together that could have brought million
a million dollars into the district as well those kinds of things need to be leaned into uh and also that forensic audit when you can't explain where the money went somebody's got to uh from a third party perspective present that to everyone thank you hey good evening um yeah Darren here six
Dartmouth Road okay uh yeah so Darren is here Six Dart Road first and foremost you know like I said um Mr moore I know you well uh I know a lot of these parents here that came to speak tonight a lot of their kids are in public school
or preschool but I have the privilege of getting to know this gentleman here this gentleman here and that gentleman on the end there right and I get to know they work i also get to know Mr guerrero because of how I move around the town um the last time I was here I spoke about
nobody being cut and you know this was the thing where I knew this where was this where it was headed to uh the other part to that is this when it comes to making a sacrifice sometimes the biggest leader need to
take that sacrifice first before you start taking off the pieces off the chess board right so if you're willing to do that or show you're willing to do something before you cut everyone else then it could bring how can I say this it can give the assistance where the
other people morale will feel good about what's going on you got these teachers in which I know a lot of them personally they put in a lot of work and for them to come to this point where now they got to wake up tomorrow to think about not having employment or where they going to
go right money don't just disappear overnight it doesn't fall on this board it falls on the fact that this has been going on for years over years and as I said before when I stood up here you have people in this town who are more than willing people are willing to fly
in from wherever they got to come to work from if you need their help they will assist and the fact that we did not do that as a group I'm not putting on you i'm putting on all of us we did not do it as a group that is something that we really need to consider and I would
urge you before you make another move to reach out to the town and speak to the people in this town to see what could be done superintendent Moore and board uh Terresa Nigro Hazel Avenue School you don't often hear from Hazel but we are
the little engine that could that's what I think of when I think of Hazel we are a throwback to the days where kids would walk to school when we talk about cuts this is rinse lather repeat for Hazel we are constantly cut and we have the most
needy population i would think that we are the most unique school because we are all over we're everywhere on the spectrum we have ELLL learners we have special education we also have a very senior tenur staff which I'm very
grateful for so we watch these kids grow and we see generations i have seen kids and actually one spoke today she was my first Hazel student she came up here and said "Miss Nagra I did this because of you i see your bravery when you speak
up." So I want to talk about equity between among the seven elementary schools because we are a small school no more than 400 but we are very much overlooked and I'm speaking for my parents and most importantly my kids my
students how is it that we keep getting cut and we are title one and have been title one for the longest time so before all the cuts and listen I feel like you're an active audience and some of you your stories they resonate but
here's the story we have been cut so many times I feel like it's a loaf of bread it's cut cut cut year after year we lose a third grade section then we lose a fourth grade section then it starts all over again we are bursting at
the seams we have a transient population we have students that will leave for a year and come back so they register October November we're getting another one tomorrow okay so we are exploding and we work like all the teachers work but we
are like that additional caretaker so now we're going to get another cut how many cuts is Hazel getting and we're a title one school respect and honor the quaintness the beauty of this small community school where we are seeing families we
are seeing generations as I told you one of my students is now employed in the district so can you treat us like that little little engine that does every year every year we come back your tenur staff is bringing in the new teachers
and we are helping them along the way so I am respectfully asking you to differentiate you need to look at each building and you need to understand we have Redwood we have some schools they have more sections than us and they have 17 kids 16 kids in a classroom how is
that acceptable i'm sorry i'm not trying to be fresh because I do have a lot of respect for you but I am speaking the truth and when someone speaks the truth look nothing on my phone i wasn't going to stand up i have to stop myself from getting up every time I come thank you
ma'am don't stand up don't stand up last time I was here I drove from Madison New Jersey thank you ma'am okay remember have respect for your Title One schools and the people that work extra hard tony Edstein 50 Davy Drive i'm in my 18th year teaching in the high school
firstly what is the justification for violating the law and the board's own policy by refusing to release the budget to the public and to the WOA and what is the justification for denying a valid OPER request to release the budget those actions do not engender confidence in the district's leadership
and commitment to transparency secondly we know that the district is receiving a million dollars less from the state but as others have noted tonight what accounts for the other 6 8 or $10 million in the budget deficit is there other revenue that was expected that will not be forthcoming we
haven't heard about it we've heard the explanation that increased costs are to blame but we haven't been told about anything that has risen dramatically compared to previous years in creating the budget shouldn't the business administrator be able to forecast rising expenses based on past trends which expenses were
unforeseen finally don't cut Chinese at the beginning of tonight's meeting we heard the world language supervisor highlighting the importance of learning foreign languages he cited global competence cultural competence global
citizenship fostering employment broad broadening perspectives the plan to cut Chinese is antithetical to those values thank you hello everyone my name is Adrina Watson
on uh Richhurst Richhurst Road i am a parent of four students in the West Orange schools and I'm going to dedicate the first part of um of my comment to read something that another parent wrote so this is on behalf of Shannon
Roni who lives on Kirk Street and she says "I agree with all those who spoke before me i am a Washington parent washington is a title one school and we have the highest percentage of lowincome families the highest percentage of non-English-speaking families and the
highest percentage of nonp prek attendees in the West Orange district so far four teachers have been cut from Washington from kindergarten first second and third grades two of those teachers are my children's
teachers uh and this these cuts mean that next year second grade will have two sections meaning that 27 second graders will be in each class how big can a class get now I would like to make a comment
about the harassment intimidation and bullying um agenda item my daughter I believe was bullied earlier this year her hair was ripped out of her head she was scratched by a student who went onto her bus from another bus she lives in a
different part of town and it struck a nerve with me when I heard that just one uh incident of harassment intimidation or bullying was um was on the agenda and um and I wanted to know if there could
be more transparency into the HIV reports because I received a letter that said my daughter wasn't a victim of harassment intimidation and bullying and I didn't understand how that could be the case i would like to know what the
criteria is it was insinuated that my daughter started the fight by the principal and um I would just like to I'd like to know more i'd like to understand more about how you guys arrive at those numbers that's all I have to say thank
you good evening Michaela Bennett Old Indian Road so I just have a few questions and comments where may I find a copy of the proposed
budget how did we get to an 11 million deficit how did you reduce it to $9 million and can you do more of that can everyone who makes in excess of $100,000 in this district voluntarily
agree to reduce their salaries by 5% can anyone who makes in excess of $200,000 figure out how to give back no how many administrators were given notice what got us
here you're slashing the Chinese program why show the data why not Italian i don't know if Lee Lao Shore is still here but Leela Shore had taught our son Chinese for three years here and that
was after three years of Chinese prior to the high school but she also taught our son one of the most important non-academic lessons of his educational life teachers matter i've been imagining how she's
feeling right now surely if you'll cut the Chinese program in the middle schools it'll only be a matter of time when that may precipitate it being removed from the curriculum entirely that's a mistake i have absolutely no doubt that
our son's Chinese resonated with decision makers at the Ivy League school he will be attending in the fall show your work provide your reasons and your rationale if you want the community the
teachers to buy in you have to engage them figure out ways to engage your communities those who you lead and those who entrusted you to do so our town and our schools are intrinsically
interdependent our property values depend on these schools resist the urge to suggest that it's a reduction in state aid or property tax increases i will share I am now going to
pay probably 6,000 more in taxes annually and I'll offer this suggestion increase the cap increase the cap there's a reason why the governor is permitting you to go
up to 9% i'm not suggesting go up to 9% but increase the cap it's simple thank you all right uh thank you all for for those comments um we appreciate all of your feedback and we'll take that into
consideration as the the administration finishes preparation for the budget for for the next meeting um just a couple comments then I'll pass it uh I think some other board members may want to say something and then Mr moore may respond to a few questions uh one of the big questions people ask is how did we get here you know money doesn't disappear
overnight uh but in this case and in every case across school districts in New Jersey that's exactly what happens so I mean I don't I don't want people laughing because they don't believe it but you look around the state and you got two different types of districts the lucky ones who are gaining state funding and they're having a great time the
other half of the state is going through this exact process where they've lost millions of dollars against their projected increases in costs and they're trying to find out how to how to close that gap our revenue comes from three places so you've heard two different numbers today 11 million 9 million i
think we mentioned 8 million at a previous budget meeting the net difference between that is the the tax levy that we've raised about 70% of our funds come from a local tax levy and at our original preliminary budget meeting we were going back and forth and looking at the options of a 0% increase or
budgeting to cap so that the largest raise that we could do under state law right now which is about two 2% plus change because of some bank cap we had from the previous year so we have made the one choice we can to raise revenue now the governor has made an exception for some school districts to raise that
above that cap that does not apply to us because we already raise our uh local fair share the second bucket of money comes from the federal government some people have mentioned that the Department of Ed may not be here that long you know some people have mentioned that they don't know what's going to happen to Title One funding you know we
essentially it's flat right now but who knows what's going to happen in the future so our costs go up the costs assoc associated with paying for teachers and supplies and things at title one schools continue to increase the funds from the federal government have been flat in some cases we've lost
esser funding which has helped us in previous years but that's money that's not there and then comes the state funding that brings it about 20% or so $30 million and some people have said it only went down a million dollars that's not that bad but if inflation in school costs when you look at the school
funding formula the state estimates that cost their base cost for education across the board has gone up between 6 and 7% that means if you want to keep everything that we did last year and do it again next year you have to take our budget from last year and increase that by
7% now our state funding has gone down 3% a million dollars we also didn't get the 7% increase of inflation so really we haven't lost a million we've lost three million net and that's part of the money that we were hoping and expecting to get because a week before our last
meeting the budget was presented by the governor and he said he was fully funding the formula he said he had fixed the formula so that people will get more money what he didn't mention was he changed the way that they calculated the local fair share so our local fair share went up and our money went down they pulled the rug out from under us and in
the matter of a week we had to put together a preliminary budget and say here's what this looks like it's going to take us some time to figure that out there there's no way to close that gap of 7% cost increases in some cases it's higher in some cases it's lower but
that's roughly the average with those numbers that's just the cold hard facts and again when you look across this state we are not unique in being in this situation we didn't fall asleep at the wheel and just wake up one morning and realize there's no money that is the
state of education in New Jersey and until the state changes its policies to fully fund our schools to possibly change the law that caps how much we can raise tax revenue this is the situation that we're going to be dealt with so some years we get state funding and
we've had a few good years in the last few years but the people I know some that have been here for a long time you remember 10 years ago when we did not get state funding and West Orange had a tight budget for a long time now it helped that inflation at that point was 1 or 2% so you can make do with not
having a lot of money but the last few years of inflation being out of control that inflation continuing combine that with a 2% tax cap combine that with a reduction in state aid and that is the unfortunate situation that we find ourselves in so none of us made a
decision to cut funding for this district none of us takes any joy in deciding what to keep or what to let go none of us is targeting anything in particular and we've heard from a lot of different school communities about things that they care about and we care
about all of them but the fact that everyone is here to talk about different things shows that we have spread this around as much as we can there is no one place that we can go to to find a magic solution that would allow us to spare everyone else i wish there was i wish there was money wish there was an easy
solution but this is the hard place that we're in and so I again I thank you all for coming out i thank you for your comments and I'll pass it to Did you want to say anything we'll come to you
okay so um I'm a little you know I'm a little disappointed uh unfortunately so many people who spoke were unable to stay until the end to hear what Mr rock said because maybe we should have said that up front because as complicated as
this h hang on hang on as complicated as it is he I think he laid it out very well um I won't go into the numbers but I will tell you that so I didn't interrupt you when you
spoke right if you want to come talk to me come up but just I was respectful to you please show me the same courtesy okay so what I was going to say is exactly what I was going to say which is this is a mess everybody hates it we get
emails we see people in Shop right the the people with one program say cut the other program one another program they all want to cut football i I don't know what that's about but everybody wants to cut another program and I totally get that but we're all here we're all here
doing the best we can with not enough dollars so you know we can talk about how we're going to do it or this one should have said that or that one should have said that but I have confidence in our superintendent a lot of you came to
us when we were doing the search saying we must have Mr moore here this is why okay and this is why he got the position to do this job it's not easy i I support him very much we all do uh and I just want to point out that nobody here has
more of uh more at stake than somebody else does uh we're all whether we agree disagree on cuts no cut we're all in this together we all love this town we all want to make sure our kids get the best education we can afford and we all
want to do it without going broke and that's not some oh let's not go broke when I was running for board of vet a couple years ago every day when I walked up and down the hills in the rain houses with dogs whatever it was every
day I met somebody who was moving out because they couldn't afford it that's the reality so yeah it's horrible i I I hate this my you know but this is where it is we have to most of
the most of our budget comes from salary and pension we got hit by you know I'm not going to go into what Mr rock said again but that's where we are so as it gets closer to the finish line I would just urge everyone not to turn on each
other and to just understand we're all doing our best here thank you thank you Miss Beer anything yes first of all thank you to the parents who came
today it was really hard to read all the emails that we received from the community and the support that they are expressing in the emails uh but as well I want we all appreciate the kind of work
the teachers do teachers administrators we are working we are here to support Mr moore in order to make the best decision i know West is a wonderful school district and we prove
with so many different areas we have the student who got 1,800 in the SAT score we have Mr plata with all the 15 or more students who has the seal of by literacy this is an accomplishment that without
the teachers we cannot do that you know we are supporting Mr moore in order to make the best decision it's sad but you know we we are supporting him in this we have a lot information that we have in
here i was taking notes in order to see and find out what how we can do it but you know definitely my respect and you know I'm so proud to be sitting here helping all of you the parents the
students i'm a grandmother and I have three kids in the school system so you know we try to look for the best that we can and you know I'm really happy to hear Mr melendez Mr hush and Mr of his
general how do you you know the the energy that you have all the you know the preparation that you are having in order to receive the kids and you know I'm so proud of the lady who was here speaking Spanish and you know trying to
get involved and find out the solutions there are so many things that you know this town is very valuable and you know I'm diversity inclusion everything is here but we need to work unfortunately you
know the budget is less money but we are here to support Mr and more in order to be the best make the best decisions for the 25 26 school year
thank you Miss Beer anything from uh Dr brian so again thank you to um folks for speaking up um I really wish we saw more of you more often um everyone sort of shows up in a
crisis but we're here once a month on Monday night um and it would just be great to to hear these voices and hear folks more regularly not just sort of in this moment where we've got to make a difficult decision um here to give all
my gratitude to Hayden and his team that have done phenomenal work to put together things in a very difficult situation um I have to say that this is the second time that we've kind of set through that I have as a new board
member have set through a long sort of testimony space and um it's difficult to hear things that I know are not true and it's you know someone even mentioned like there's rumors and they're not always in your favor and so you know I
just challenge us all to the point that was just made to like not turn on each other and to actually just kind asked the question very clearly like is this happening um because I think last time we sat through a long thing and I was like is that even true like have we have
we actually said that or made a decision about that like did I miss it um and I I think that keeps us all on the same team you know I send two kids to school every morning one that leaves the house at 6:42 and one that leaves at
8:03 and they come home happy and they come home confident and they come home proud of the work they do because of the teachers that they have and the leaders that work with them each day and that daytoday kind of gets lost in moments like this right we forget that those
micro moments are often more powerful and in aggregate really are our kids experience and so again to echo what Robert shared and what um Rock shared for the third time that's the third time you did those numbers i think we had it
at two other board meetings where you ran down that for us um really do appreciate you all and appreciate you all for being here tonight thank you Mr stevenson thank you President Rock thank you to my board
colleagues for their comments uh I just want to suffix President Rock's points and and just drill down very quickly on a couple of things uh and inject some truthism to the dialogue tonight uh we are in
a downward trend of state aid and that the upward staircase has stopped and now we are on a downward trajectory that is not likely to correct itself anytime soon
so the reality is the budget is bad this year and it is likely to get worse next year without any demonstrable change from lawmakers in Trenton uh Governor
Murphy did the citizens of West Orange the West Orange public schools a favor by capping the amount of state aid that a district could lose this year so we lost 3% of the $34 million in state aid that we received last year so our loss
in state aid was capped at $1 million this year had the governor not imposed that 3% cap on state aid we would be talking about much more significant significant cuts than what are being proposed and that are being undertaken
that's just the reality of it uh and I think that the community is likely not aware of that and I think that needs to be said so between 2020 and 2023 we received an increase of state
aid of $4 million $7 million and $5 million respectively that is an average of $5.3 million in state aid we've lost $1
million in this year and we lost 750 $750,000 last year so now where we had in the last in the previous three years an average increase of state aid of 5.3 million we now have a decrease over the
last two years of $850,000 to put Mr rock's 7% figure in perspective uh when you talk about a budget that is let's just throw out a figure of $150 million 7% of $150 million is somewhere
around $8 million which means that year-over-year we have a structural deficit so even before state aid begins we start the year approximately $8 million in the hole i am confident that everyone that spoke today and even those
that are watching can do that basic arithmetic that when you start $8 million in the hole and then when you were on an upward trajectory of averaging $5 million a year and then that $5 million a
year stops and then it is reduced by nearly a million dollars that you will be in the hole one of the speakers spoke about the changing numbers which unfortunately due to the superintendent
um what I believe I speak for myself not including my colleagues here his very transparent way of of dealing with his administrators and staff when the budget uh when the numbers came from the governor being very transparent that he would look at every possible scenario
and it was mentioned in the last meeting that he considered a zero tax increase to the citizens of West Orange and also a maximum tax increase of 2% which because we had bank cap meaning money we
had not previously used was 2.3% but that got exaggerated to suggest that uh we were looking at $1 million and 8.5 and that the the school districts people couldn't count it was all preposterous the reality is is that
this board has a responsibility one to its primary constituencies which is its students and its families to ensure that it builds a school district uh that is commensurate with the expectations of the community to be able to provide kids with an education really that should be
second to none um and it has a responsibility to the taxpayers of West Orange to make sure that the resources that are provided are sufficiently and adequately utilized in a correct manner so it's not crazy to contemplate that we
would consider what the budget impacts would be if we didn't raise taxes at all or raise taxes at some level between zero and 2.3% that's just the responsible thing to do uh I've this is now my fourth year on this board and
although it may be the case in some communities it certainly has been the case in this community it just becomes a given that we raise the taxes on people every year we're going to go to the cap every year 2% and if that be the case given that Mr rock's point that we have these year-over-year structural deficits
if we're forced to do that then that's what we've done uh because we know that these costs are out of line given inflation and we know these costs are structural one of the speakers said that
uh have we contemplated asking staff people who make over $100,000 a year to take a 5% uh I think it was a 5% reduction in
salary or administrators who make over $200,000 to make a 5% reduction in salary but I I don't think that ask has been been uh been made um and I won't judge the merits of the of the
suggestion uh what I will say to one of the other speakers point if that were the case in this community that would probably be greater than 50% of the people that work for the school district including those that teach in our classrooms uh given public reports of the median
salaries of teachers and administrators who work for the district so if that's a worthwhile contemplation given number given the number of people who spoke last year last month about help that can be afforded the district maybe that is a worthwhile contemplation it's not a contemplation that I think this board
has considered given the hard work that um the staff does uh but I will say that staff cuts and and I speak as the as the chair of the board's policy committee so almost every aspect of the
work that the board does somehow another touch touches the work that I do as the policy chair uh whether it's a curriculum instruction whether it's transportation whether it's uh high school graduation somehow or another some monocum of it touches me but staff
cuts have to be reasonably considered and undertaken because the truth is the absolute unbiased unabashed truth is that salaries and benefits account for
75% of the West school budget you cannot have a real and reasonable conversation about balancing a budget in the face of the downward trajectory of state aid without contemplating the
biggest line item in your budget could have been said last year because this is not the first year we we've encountered this issue of budget challenges our state aid was cut last year uh I applaud Mr moore in his
efforts last year uh not to undergo the inevitability of what he's undertaken this year likely could have endured some of these same staff cuts that are being proposed this year and finalized this
year last year but he and his staff the same staff that's being criticized um speciously in my opinion the same staff cuts that are being undertaken this year likely in some opinions could have been undertaken
last year and Mr mo's staff worked very hard to avoid those staff cuts so it's unfortunate to hear some of the accusation to hear in your window in the street uh I won't comment on the transparency process
uh the slides don't look any different this year than they've looked in the la last four years that that I've been here people will say "Well 38 slides versus versus 16 slides maybe they got more efficient." I don't know the the the hard buckets of numbers are no different
in this year's slides than they have been in the previous slides uh the demands for greater transparency certainly welcome who who who who would who would say that you shouldn't have greater transparency that's just the reality of it i also want to remind those who are assembled
here uh not those just that work here but also those that live here that everybody up here lives here so everybody up here equally is impacted uh as a community we're impacted by the the change in the 67A school model uh we're
impacted by the 2.3% tax levy um many of us have similar to another speaker have had increases in the tax bill over the last year uh and again to
really finalize and crystallize the point given the changing landscape of the community this is not a one-year challenge likely we will have a new governor next year who may have a completely different philosophy who may
not honor the uh cap that Governor Murphy put in uh we may be facing significant uh budget shortfalls for the foreseeable future and I can't tell you as a as a parent of two kids in the district or as
a currently as a board member how we will approach that if it comes in the future what I can say as someone who observes it is that Mr moore and his team continue to operate with the same integrity uh that I have seen them
operate since he's been superintendent they continue to operate with the same integrity and the same veracity by which many of you who criticized him tonight but yet celebrated him in the past uh he has not changed uh his staff has not changed with respect to how they
approach these numbers so it's disappointing to hear that but the reality is is that these are real numbers uh it is unfortunate to hear uh the stories of of of disappointment i was moved by the by the
teacher who lives here and unfortunately by his disclosure says that he received notice of of of his layoff uh that's hard to hear it doesn't change the reality of the numbers doesn't change the reality
of us needing to call Trenton doesn't change the reality that our $5.3 million of average state aid that we were getting in the last four years in the last two years has
become a reduction of 850,000 and is likely to become more in the future so with that said again I appreciate the work of my colleagues appreciate the work of the superintendent and his team uh and hope that things change in
Trenton uh for the betterment and the sustainability of the work that we all do in the district thank you thank you Mr stevenson mr moore May I I think that uh the board spoke to the
uh fiscal uh reality that we face but let me speak a little bit to uh to the community to the teachers and those that are out i did I just want to remind people and I
think you heard it we had a short turnaround um with the budget and we received um you know we received some as you heard from Brian news that we were cut with our I believe it's called
uh you called it equals thank you equalization aid that's correct i'm sorry right now I'm a little emotional i couldn't remember that i'm sorry about that equalization equalization aid i did open up a survey
where you can write down so we can read your suggestions as a community that was done we definitely opened it up i'm not saying that transparency couldn't be improved better or face to face but we
ask for written suggestions and when we say things like teachers weren't consulted at all we received written suggestions from the union which we opened up with Josh and I hope Josh would confirm
that i did exactly and I spoke with him to get your suggestions as teachers because that doesn't change my care and my commitment to you as I when I was in your ranks or I'm here i want to make
sure we turn every stone before we let anyone go some of these changes yes are collateral to keeping and preserving
some staff members we're we are working towards that before we want to cut anyone yes you will hear and see and it's still really move moving as we sit here today
where we made all our cuts and you're going to see it's a v variety of areas and programs but you will also see we let go a lot less teachers than we would have
had to before without making some of these adjustments and movements and cuts we've always prioritized the students and the teachers that doesn't change but we did open up to hear to get
written feedback from the community we did open up to get written feedback from the teachers we received them some of that feedback we did take and we will get it together and show you
as we uh introduce it into the budget but all of it cannot be done donations are wonderful but they might be oneoffs i'm trying to find sustainable ways to keep our staff
functioning with us so movements configurations transportation cuts they're sustainable funds my background is child study i believe in special education we are funding it yes there
even though there are cuts there we're making sure and funded for our students we understand the importance of that title one schools I started at Washington i don't forget that i don't want to take from
anyone but reality and I'm probably I don't want to get criticized for this but we have to pay bills we have to make payroll there's no one that's going to say "Freeze my salary don't worry about it." Because guess what the reality is
teachers administrators all of those that work with our children and my children go to the district as well cannot afford to now take a uh fro freeze of salary a decrease in salary
and then go out and buy eggs or buy food when that raises in prices and gas so I h we have to balance the budget we have to keep our organization
functioning i don't I believe and I just want to address this our Mandarin program is quite important i believe that I would love to keep that in our middle schools even when I heard today in the elementary it's a great idea i don't disagree with that but it's not
the only language that was going to be or may be I shouldn't say gonna be let's say maybe cut from the middle schools no one is more important than the other they're all
important and by no means do we feel that one group of people are less than others because we make a cut that has a fiscal comp a fiscal consequence every
decision that's made in a district has a dollar behind it that's the reality whether you want to believe that not believe that because no one's coming and showing up for 6 hours to teach our wonderful children without paying
them that's the reality and we need to make sure we can do that i didn't want to simplify this conversation like that but when you're balancing budgets or industries are cutting jobs as Google does or anyone
else it's because they're cutting payroll they're cutting salaries people say cut capital projects i'm going to tell you cap I'm going to tell you something to that we have been we've delayed on fixing our buildings
but when our kids are going to school and there's leaks through the ceiling or the windows are broken that costs money to fix no one here wants to make these
decisions i did this is my second year being a superintendent believe me I loved what I was doing before i I didn't walk in here saying this is what I want to do but I love the district and I want to
continue I want to continue functioning with the same quality we have but I do I will tell you reality the reality is that I've learned the hard way cuz I tried last year to
save as many people as I can and I'm trying again this year there is a fiscal component to managing the district that's very real i'm sorry if that came off a lot harsher than I'm usually with the public but I
think that we really have to understand that these decisions aren't made out of just being callous or lazy and it's not easy hearing people say "Well you're doing a middle school things by the way i want to address that and you didn't involve teachers but I
will reach out and I will ask the the principles because I asked them can you formulate committees talk to your teachers let's take a look at that and I believe they did ask some teachers but not I'm not trying to cause conflict but there was something there that we
needed to discuss I guess with the union to make make that matter but it's not that we don't want your input we wanted it so I don't re when people are saying these things that's not true and that I won't
do and when people are saying you never even let us give feedback yes I did and I'm telling you I gave you chance ample chance to give quality feedback one that's written not one that's stated at a mic that we clap and may not remember when we leave but one that you can write
down and we can see we just have to be real with each other on what this is this isn't a romantic drama this is real i need dollars to equal jobs and if we can do that we can keep
and keep everything right where it is no one's taking pay freezes no one's going to say "Don't pay me i'll still come." It's just not reality and I'm sorry but that's as real as it gets we have to balance a
budget it's not pretty it's not something that I'm going to volunteer to do but we have to make some tough decisions and everyone can give me a suggestion don't cut this cut that don't cut this cut that none of it will be
right none of it will be right because the moment I cut one thing someone else said "Well why'd you cut it to there?" Or I cut from one school they'll claim other schools have that i get it i get
it but walk away from here understanding that every we prioritize the students we prioritize keeping our staff intact but we have to make responsible decisions and sometimes we have to
change as a district in order to realize in order for us to re realize the funds we need in order to keep our teachers and our staff because that's the engines is the teachers and the staff teaching our kids and maybe in areas that are not
studentf facing like transportation no offense Greg like transportation we can realize funds to sustain jobs not for just this year but for years as we keep moving because it has to be
sustainable and I just and for my parents that say "Hey don't worry lift the tax levy tax uses some more i'm the superintendent of everybody not just those that can afford that but I also
have friends on the other side of that that have said "Hey you you raising this anymore cuz I'm not going to be able to stay this is going to be tough." Yes the town just got a a tax assessment i'm one of the people whose taxes went up but the town just got a
tax assessment some of our very good families in here have in their taxes went up considerably between six to $3,000 and then on top of it I'm already raising the taxes 2.3
i have to balance this but I also think that I have to be responsible to all parties that make up our school district not just hearing from the teachers or hearing from the parents and the parents that can and the parents that
cannot so there will be no perfect answer to balancing the budget but we are working on preserving our programs as many as we can for our students we will take a second look
believe me at the world languages we do believe in Mandarin i think even today I stopped Felix in the hallway and said "What do we what can we do with this can we look at it?" because I wanted to know what can we do and and balancing this budget in this
short quick in this period of time is moving and evolving all the time making decisions on where we can cut and where we can't cut sometimes we're like let's do this one and then we think of that and then we say no maybe this one and no
maybe that so none of that is an easy move or an easy decision but none of it is made with malice or none of it is made lazy and none of it is made without with without contemplation we are doing
that we have asked for for uh suggestions we have invited our teachers on committees to take a look at what we're talking about and I want that understood because I don't want a misconception of what we're
doing up here and what this leadership's about but this is a tough moment it's unprecedented west Orange did not go through this big of cuts this large I should say cuts excuse me we've been through slight we've been
through similar but not as large as this but we are walking our way through it we will walk our way through it and we hope that you will you may not agree with everything but we hope that you will see that our efforts are genuine
and integrityfilled they're not guesswork and they're not just callous please understand that thank you thank you Mr moore all right next we will move on to our
resolutions uh may I have a motion to approve the personnel items A1 through A5 so moved thank you Mr stevenson is there a second second thank you uh Mr if I want to congratulate the following retirees terresa Bonagora a fifth grade teacher at Gregory Elementary for her 24
years of service azie Diaz a health and phys health and physical driver's education teacher at West Orange High School for his 30 years of service joyce Melvin a special ed teacher at Kelly Elementary for her 25 years of service and Diane Seni a special ed teacher at Washington Elementary for her 26 years
of service thank you all for your service to the West Orange students and our school community and welcome to the club where every day is Saturday uh is there any other discussion on personnel all right seeing none Miss Flowers please take the roll call dr bryant yes
mr stevenson yes miss Vera yes vice President yes president Rock yes thank you right next may I have a motion to approve the curriculum and instruction items B1 through B4 so moved thank you Mr stevenson is there a second second
thank you Mr ifer is there any discussion seeing none Miss Flowers please take the roll call dr bryant yes mr stevenson yes miss Vera yes vice President If yes president Rock yes thank you right next
may I have a motion to approve the finance items C special services item A 1 and business office items B 1 through 10 motion thank you Dr bryant is there a second second thank you Miss Vera uh any discussion seeing none miss Flowers
please take the roll call dr bryant yes mr stevenson yes miss Vera yes vice President yes president Rock yes thank you all right next may I have a motion to approve reports item D1 through two motion thank you Dr bryant is there a
second second thank you Mr if any discussion hearing none Miss Flowers please take the roll call dr bryant yes mr stevenson yes miss Vera yes vice President yes president Rock yes thank you all right thank you very much for
that and next up we have final petitions and hearings of citizens for any agenda or non-aggenda item that you wish to discuss you will have three minutes to speak please approach the podium at this time and appreciate that it is 10:34 p.m uh you have three minutes i am not taking three minutes i promise because I
think they'll kill me in the back too the one thing I just want to say is if you look at those presentations on the website from 2223 backwards the preliminary budgets had worst case scenario 40 teachers 10 custodians
whatever the numbers are what programs were being looked at we've seen none of that that's the problem yes we did give feedback i filled out that survey josh got my feedback but there's been nothing since then no user friendly budget on the website yet which I realize can't be
there because it's not finalized till next week all we're asking for is information forget being included in decisions i'm not even worried about that what the hell's going on because we have no idea other than a bunch of numbers from last week so that's what we
mean by transparency thank you good evening tz Roro i live on Hutton Avenue good news so I'm not going to talk about the budget it's not about the budget um so every I I missed the earlier part of the presentation i understand that Edison now is going to
678 is my understanding um so with every challenge I think there's an opportunity and what I'm presenting today is this is something I've been thinking a lot about i heard one of our board of education members say one of her child goes for the bus at 6:42 a.m in the morning um so high school start time later start time
right so if we're going to look as a district look at the busing program now because of this change with Edison um I highly encourage you to consider that i know there is pros and cons on not um you know uh what do you call it um
sporting activities with other districts um with every change there's a push back i recognize that but I do think we have a unique opportunity now because I I assume we're going to be looking at that anyways um I have a seventh grader uh when he was in Edison um I think it was 7:15 bus time and at some point when we
instituted the app there was a 20 minute change that was a world of a difference for him right so some of the uh research shows that a later start time for high school and ideally for middle school too reduces anxiety depression suicide
ideiation more kids are likely to eat breakfast with their families um those high school students who drive have less accidents um and bullying right and and many more there's a lot more research that supports it so I just encourage you to make that part of the plan um I also
want to say thank you for all that you do i know that it's not hard to hear all all of um the emotions today i appreciate everyone coming out um I I've said it before you couldn't pay me enough to do what you all do even though I know that you're you're volunteers so uh we're we're faced with tough
decisions but I just want to say I see y'all thank you it couldn't have been me so good night kramer um I looked at the slides you had a total revenue on your slides of 204
million and change if I'm not mistaken you listed enrollment at 6,800 and change uh that's close to 30K per student um that's more money than just
about any district anywhere per student uh I think we can do a lot with that funds quite frankly as Miss Flowers will point out when this budget is actually audited and all the numbers are thrown in that top line of
204 probably going to be much higher when the audited budget comes out in the January after the 2000 in January or February of 2007 so I don't think you really have a revenue problem i think you have to
creatively use what money you have better and I think although we love our teachers and our unionized employees there's unsustainable increased in salary there's unsustainable increase in health care
costs and we love our employees but we have to communicate with them that they're just not economically sustainable to keep things the way they are and it's tough to say and I don't like saying it cuz I like our teachers
and everybody wants to be paid more but the numbers just won't work out to enable that to happen thanks right thank you all very much our next board meeting will be held at 5:30 p.m on May 5th 2025 this meeting will be
held in the West Orange High School Library Media Center we will not be going into executive session after the close of this meeting there will be no further business discussed and no additional action will be taken uh may I have a motion to adjurnn motion thank you for that second oh thank you uh all
in favor thank you all for joining us tonight our meeting is now adjourned we wish you a good night