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2025-01-21 Business Meeting

Added Jan 22, 2025 •

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good evening everybody and welcome to the Franklin world of Education regular uh business meeting it's Tuesday January 21st in 20125 the time is 8:05 p.m. and we were in Franklin Avenue Middle School in Franklin Lakes uh please join me to the flag salute to the flag go Miss villis with absent Miss Cardella the Agostino was absent Mr Kim here Mr Richmond is absent miss seravino here Mr spiotti here Mr lawyer Mr Danio here um in accordance to the provisions of the New Jersey uh open public meeting act the fronting legs board of education has caused notice of this meeting to be mailed on or after January 3rd 2024 to the record and the Suburban news setting forth the daytime and place of this meeting permanently posted in the bore hole in the front in Lakes Library filed with the clerk of the borough Franklin Lakes posted on the district website and mail to all persons if any who have requested said noise meetings of the boards are conducted for the purpose of hearing on the business of the schools and therefore are not public meetings but meetings held in public the board welcomes your questions inputs and suggestions through public comment or email um I'll go back and then I'll do um yeah sure okay you want to go that 1 second because I have 1 thing to say uh because of the performance oh okay then then go ahead all right so uh for those joining us tonight uh this is Macy who who handles strengths uh we're using the whole school district walking the students and thank you so thank you so much for having us uh tonight at this meeting we put together a sort of Franklin Lakes Festival for you tonight if you could see it with your hands if you could just leave a wave you have a few 6 I think 4 of them um 7th graders 47 an eighth grader we have 3 eighth graders um we also have 1 fifth grader from High Mountain Road schools Jaden King over here you want to give a wave and 1 fourth grader from Colonial Road School Matthew Wong so together as a little group from the entire District of Franklin Lakes and we just wanted to really share our music with you and thank you for your continued support um when I came to The District in 2023 we had 42 string students throughout the district and we now have 72 string students throughout the district so we have a growing program um we had a generous Flex donation of 12 pillows and 3 bases but when I came we only had 2 or 3 to players we now have 15 children so we have more travel players in the district that have instruments and we're just really excited about what's going on um I also want to just especially highlight the families that are here are so supportive we have of course the elementary students who have been joining us for school and family to rehearse and also our committed um fam students these students come twice a week before school um to rehearse so we do have a larger Orchestra of 25 students and fans and this is our select group thank you for calling the chamber orchestra this year our students participate in Area Youth orchestras like the northern New Jersey Youth Orchestra the friends of Music chamber orchestra this we are increased college program and the B those are going to be performing at the flow Festival um in a week and also um at the teen Arts Festival in Bergen College uh later in the year uh that's the fans group um that's referencing here so we have 1 piece to share with you called padio and just want to thank you again for supporting our program this is really good you yes yeah I think if you want to take pictures parents any parents want to take pictures we can have them line up and yeah Let It Die well I don't know that's amazing uh well that that was amazing so thank you so much for it do you know Stevie Wonder anybody have you ever heard about CV Wonder all right he he said the following right he said or he wrote music is a world within itself with a language we can all we all understand with an equal opportunity for all to sing dance and clap their hands so thank you for you know uh speaking the language of music to us it's ah uh all the feelings and emotions come together and you cherish it that that's what makes that's the flavor of life so thanks again for thank you for performing really appreciate it anybody else like to make a comment no beautiful I will make a comment coming from a very musical family and playing many instruments myself my mom was a had to endure many many concerts stew School concerts but very very pleased to say this was probably the the best that I've heard you guys are very talented kids so you know whatever you guys are doing at home keep it up okay you guys are Beyond par right now excellent if I close my eyes I would never know that I would if I can just finish by saying first of all great job with our program kids amazing parents thank you for supporting them um board meetings can be dry um and tonight was a it's a good 1 right this this will go down as a you know have all the billboard meetings I've ever been at this will probably go on my top 1 um right um it's amazing uh thank you Melissa for like for bringing up the idea and and coming uh you know in a downtime after a holidays it's nice to have a pick me up like this uh we couldn't be more proud of of of you all being our students and and for the parents for supporting them thank you thank you very much good job now you all can go home you don't want to stay for the the dry part so please feel free to go home and thank you very much have dessert some things the entirety spoiled or something tonight you're welcome can we try oh the you know thank you oh that was a good 1 you know that he wanted he wanted he sent me emails after that we do we have a couple it was interesting um let's finish the public process um so um student safety data systems report period 1 this is yes this is me yeah so we're required by the state to report what's uh ssds student safety data system basically there's 3 ports I have to give them the public uh 1 is on HIV 1 is on HIV trainings and 1 is on any restraints so the report that I is going to be districtwide so for the period September 2024 through December 2024 we have a total of 4 alleged hivs that were unfounded and 1 HIV that is confirmed incidents of violence we have 1 that we reported districtwide HIV trainings from the same time period September through December 2024 for total in-person um HIV trainings and with respect with respect to restraints districtwide same time period September to December 2024 there were a 12 uh a total of 12 restraints uh districtwide to report out so they gets reported at board meeting uh it gets reflected in our minutes and it gets submitted to the state of New Jersey in the sto student safety data system anybody have any questions with respect to that any questions on okay your um  up so yeah so um I asked um I asked Miss Meri to to give the board just a very brief idea of how about the school finances work supposed to be a short thing and and and the reason I asked for it is because after 3 years on the board and um and and being on the finance committee and sharing it it there's a lot to to to learn and and uh I feel that in order for us to have to make uh better I guess educated decisions and to have a better vocabulary then it's uh it's a warranted presentation so it's not going to be long um so please uh stay with us right put the challenge no it's not showing up the screen mirror sorry Brian my setting should be a little bit what do you want to share that screen uh good okay we're up if you are then I'm going to yeah and I'll tell you when to go this way okay uh please Mr take it away yeah okay so when I'm going to go over tonight is the um the general fund budget the general fund budget is our general operating budget it for the district's operating budget all the financial transactions that occur expenditures included here would be your regular and special education program instruction costs as well as administrative support costs related to providing the districts the normals erations next slide the next slide shows an overview a grand overview on how the budget is distributed so as you can see 55 56% is on salaries and 20% is on benefit so 76% of the budget is spent on salaries and benefits then we have another 9% that I call custodial maintenance security that is like your buildings and your grounds it's all your utility costs all your custodial people the SRO agreement with the town just taking care of the infrastructure of the buildings then we spend an equal amount on transportation and out of District tuition costs we have children who are placed in out of District settings those are the tuition costs that we have to pay for them accounts for 4% of the budget the transportation is also 4% so for the children who go to add a district placements we have to provide transportation for them and then we also have transportation for students in District for our special education population and for any child who lives more than 2 and a half miles from the school we have to provide transportation for them and then we also have subscription busing so kids who live less than the 2 and a half miles they can pay a fee so that they can get bus to school and the other area which I kind of call other it's more discretionary that's kind of like all your teaching supplies it's more of it's not a fixed cost that's just kind of to me it's a material when you look at 93% of your budget is more fixed costs looks like kind of gives a breakdown so I broke it down between regular instruction and special ed instruction so regular instruction encompasses all your regular education programs from pre-k through 8th grade that includes all your teachers any teaching assistants or textbooks or paper scissors crayons anything you can think of that you lose in uh in the classroom the special education are all the special education cross up classes are broken down into their Continuum so you'll have like your lld your autistic your resource room your preschool disabled also within the special ed you have like related Services because some of the kids require oties pts speech you also have your child study team which really adheres to like your special education special programs those are the programs where you have um basic skills and bilingual so we offer oh this is just the the that's just the um no I I think I put the out of District in there too yeah because that'll includes the out of District tuition cost because that is part of special ed instruction um the special programs are your bilingual and your basic skills so we actually I have 2 bilingual teachers in District and I think it's a 3 basic skills other programs are like your co-curricular so when you have after school programs and you have to pay advisors for that that's considered another program and then Middle School athletics those you know comprise your other programs when we talk about other support services for the school those are your nurses it's your guidance it's your Librarians it's going to be the professional development for your staff that's all considered Support Services because it's not directly in the classroom anything that's directly with the students is in the classroom Administration I think speaks for itself that's your school administrators that's the central off Administration we're all considered part of the administration custodial maintenance security that is your regular repairs of the buildings it's actually the contract that we have with Aramark that we contract out our entire custodial group none of them are from the district from the um director all the way down to all our custodians they're contracted out but also covers um your utility costs so where you have your gas and your uh electric also the insurance for the building that's like your building's insurance is other insurance is are under um benefits also the agreement that we have with the town for the SRO officers that's all considered part of like they considered operations so that's why that's all them together Transportation I explained before we have indiv strict and out of District transportation so for the children who do go to out of District placements there's a transportation cost they have to be bused there and then for the in District transportation again those are the students who live more than 2 and a half miles from the school or if it's a special this child that goes in District and their IEP requires them to have transportation and then also the kids who pay for a subscription busing because they live Less in the 2 and a half miles from school and they want to uh get bus to school benefits includes health benefits which is Major Medical Dental prescription it also includes the board share of Social Security costs because I think you'll know when you get paid you have social security and Medicare withheld from your pay the employer has to pay a portion like their share so there's an employee share that happened and then there's the employer so we have to pick that up there's also for the people who are part of the Public Employee Retirement System the district has to pay the um pension contribution for that that's budgeting here we also have some people who are part of the dcrp which is the defined contribution retirement program that's for individuals who don't qualify for the public employees retirement system or the teachers pension and annuity funds and that's a another um function that's in there anything that has to get paid out upon retirement per the con uh the contract so when people retire from the district if they have unused sick days there's a payout for that that could be uh recorded in benefits and then also tuition reimbursement which is also contractual so according to the teachers contract and even um the administrator's contract I believe the teacher's contract is going up to 70,000 next year Max for tuition reimbursement I believe the principles is 20,000 so that's all encompassed in your benefit area Food Services that's the amount that we have to pay for the children who qualify for free or reduced so that's like the cost of the meals Capital outlay the district funds a piece of The Debt Service so we have to budget that after their when we have to transfer money to The Debt Service fund to help deaf Frey a piece of the cost and then there's also anything if we're purchasing any types of equipment it would get budgeted in capital outlay and interest to the reserves that's that number is a wash because I have to budget the interest that we could earn and I have to just wash it on the expense side so that's kind of so the capital outlay is a Debt Service to the referendum Debt Service and also equipment so if we have to buy any kind of equipment so when you purchase I items for school if the item costs or more it has to be capitalized as equipment so within the general fund itself there's different accounts there's 11 and then there's 12 12 is considered the capital outlay so if if something's equipment then we budgeted out and um the little outlay section of that okay that was all this funded well 82 81% is from tax levy so from the taxpayer we have state aid which is 5 point uh 46% we actually have some districts that send children to us to our special education program so we do charge them to so we take in tuition revenue for our special education programs and then we all also charged tuition for um a preschool program that we have in town subscription blessing that I mentioned before there are some children that don't qualify for the transportation so their parents pay a fee for to have them bus to school miscellaneous is more of interest and calm if we charge for facilities uses people pay to use our facilities you know they rent them like I think there's a soccer association they'll pay to use that so that's a miscellaneous we actually use some withdrawals from reserves to on the budget this year and also um a big chunk came from fund balance and those 2 I'm going to address on the next slide because I'm going to go over the concerns that I we have for um 2526 1 of the biggest concerns we have is contractual salary increases throughout the county everybody I'm actually throughout the state if I'm not mistaken right Greg yes everybody is settling probably anywhere from 3.5% or up according to state law tax levy is capped at 2% our tax levy is about 32 million maybe a little bit more 2% of 32 million only like 660,000 the contractual salary increases is more than the tax levy increase so our salaries over or are over 22 million if you just do simple math and let's just round up the settlement to say 4% because I believe this year it's 3.8 if you take 22 million at 4 4% that's 880,000 the contractual tax levy that we're going to get is only 670 so we have a shortfall already that our tax levy is not covering contractual salary increases we have increasing premiums um in healthcare I actually was on a phone call today with um our benefits representative they were anticipating the health benefits if you're in the traditional plans which is like direct 10 or direct 15 which is still a part of chapter 78 probably about 80% again this past January anyone who was in direct 10 or direct 15 those premiums went up 21% the people who are in chapter 44 which is a different kind of um employee benefit contribution those went up about 6% but they're anticipating maybe 10% for that next year we're not part of the state health benefits for our prescription we're in a private prescription plan so with the prescription plan they're anticipating anywhere between 12 and 15% he's thinking probably more towards the lower end maybe about 11 or 12% so we have to put that in the budget and then the lucky on Dental that we're in an agreement with dental that we don't have to worry about an increase until July of 2026 so we won't have any in increase in our dental costs for next year tuition clause for additional placements keep on increasing that just happens every single year as do Transportation costs I think 1 other time I spoke to even about the transportation cost so sometimes even when children are placed in addition Replacements if we can't get on a route that has other children going to that school sometimes we have to bear the total cost of the route ourselves some of these routes cost 80 to 100,000 dollars just for transporting 1 child and that's the real reality of it and we're not the only District that has to deal with it it's unfortunately it's Statewide but that's another concern and then my final concern is going to go back to where I said rebalance 24/25 is budget with fund balance and reserved from withdrawals that's like a 1-time shot so when you start the new year off where are you making up that Revenue where you took the money from fund balance and the reserves last year so this budget if you recall I think in January where we had to increase the budget by 1.8 million we had to take 1.8 million out of like fund balance and reserves in order to budget it that's in addition to the reserves that were already used in this budget so even when I look at when we talk about 252 and Greg and I have been talking about it before any of these increases came into play we were already like 2.5 million in the hole trying to figure out okay from the reserves and from the appropriations of fund balance we were already starting off behind the April we've been talking we've already met with the administrators to come up with plans but we just wanted to make everybody aware of the situation and any questions on that I hope I can answer I don't have an answer yet thank you very much any questions to Miss Mary yes yeah by the board what's the budget is passed by the board the board when the board approves the final budget in May right that's the uh that's the budget that uh when you're looking at the taxes it comes from the nationality oh right that that's approved but you still have to stay with them the laws so let's just say if you decided we wanted to go out for a separate question because our election is in November we would have to say okay we're allowed to go up to 2% so that we know is a given if we wanted to go beyond the 2% and we didn't have any allowances and I won't know the allowances for like a healthcare adjustment until the budgetary software opens you could always in November put a separate question on the budget to ask the town's people to fund additional expenses but that can't happen then until really January because it would have to be voted on by the public in November to see if they agree to those additional expenses but if you're saying like the the uh there's a preliminary budget in March that we approve to the county and then there's a final budget that it gets approved before May 7th okay once that budget is approved whatever it is then that's uh I don't know we get monthly or no with from the town they actually do they give us monthly yeah so what it is they are obligated to give it to you and when I do it so when we're actually putting the budget together there's a form that's part of the budgetary software called the 4f so what I'm I do is I actually call the town to find out you know what is 1 tax point you know what does that look like for an increase if we're going up this percent and I'm usually in contact with them the whole time so they have an idea of what we're looking at as far as a tax in but after the budget is done and it is signed off by the county and the board approves it that form a4f goes to the town and 6 other different organizations within the state that they have to sign off on it so yes the town as soon as the state the board approved the budget in the town has to adhere to that all right and then yeah yeah that also for the for a school budget we wanted to pass a separate question so anything that goes above the 2% you'd have well the but the 2 like I said the 2% I say for health benefits right I said 20% now because I don't have the budgetary software yet the budget allows you to have a healthcare allowance so then the 2% may not be 2% it could be 2 and a half percent because if I'm allowed to put that Healthcare adjustment in there all the other adjust it's soft the answer is soft the categories in which because of them you allowed to go above the 2% but the simple question is if you're saying okay we data puts in everything that she's supposed to put in and we have our allowances and you still say hey we'd like to go more for what's allowable that has to be put to the residents for as a separate question for a vote and if they vote Yes then you couldn't do probably till January you were you couldn't be able to do it until January but you would be able to basically fund the second half of your school year with those additional funds that threshold correct sure so basically moving Dollars around from other parts that but what happens with that at the end of June 30th when you look at those were like considered excess revenues so that's kind of what goes into your fund balance so that how is fund balance so at June 30th when we're done with the school year and I'll know probably by end of July what happened at the end of this school year I'll be able to have 1 of my closing entries in any of those excess revenues or unexpended Appropriations that's kind of what all goes into your fund balance and that's how we had the money available to appropriate is because we had those excess revenues correct extraordinary 8 is a little tricky because as extraordinary Aid is based on your special education population and depending upon if they're an IND District student or not a District student you can get money from the state if they qualify for certain services so if you send a child to an add a district placement and they go to a public school at a district placement then anything above say 4 3,000 could qualify for Extraordinary Aid If the child goes to a private school anything above the 55,000 there's a little caveat though the private schools have to be approved as a private school from the state of New Jersey you have some of these private schools that they're not approved by the state of New Jersey um some of them require what's called like a Naples agreement which is another type of agreement to get but then you have other schools that don't even have a Naples agreement so for the students who are placed in those situations if you don't have a court order saying that's the place they have to attend those costs may not be eligible for Extraordinary Aid reimbursement the other part with extraordinary Aid is not all of the additional expenses are funded at 100% a lot of times they'll reduce that number down so even last year if you looked at whatever they put in for Extraordinary let's say you were supposed to get 2 and a half million dollars in the state only gave 1.4 and we're noticing that that reimbursement is going down every year so they don't the state doesn't fund it 100% so it's hard to even determine and even this year um Greg and I were talking with the special ed director to say hey if you're going to put somebody in an out of District placement that's not approves like state school if it's not a public school if it's not an approved state school then we need to have that court order so that we can make sure that those expenses can qualify for Extraordinary Aid so it's not it's not the same number every year I can't say for the given and the other problem is stated itself it's been kind the stagnant we're really not getting any increases in state aid so that's another you know problem determined by a formula yes yeah does the governing any discretion they say they're always redoing the formula but sure can have discretion on I don't know what you're going to see for an outgoing governor uh you probably would just see flat okay I would imagine somebody's not going to want to tip the scale on 1 way or another with state aid right we'll look at the inventory election coming up um but the stated formula we actually sent um a comment on the stated formula uh because they're constantly revising or trying to fix or trying to get a fair share um in the past has hurt smaller school districts right that are in wealthier areas um and so we wanted to ensure that we set theory and I discussed and then we talked with our board attorney we wanted to ensure that we we were making a public comment the lights our school district stating that you know if if there is any kind of uh mandate that it be funded uh if there that we fund extraordinary Aid 100 of it um and that State realized that larger aot districts are are able to withstand uh Cuts in Aid more than a smaller School District where that cut would would would be deeper sure right yeah I mean if you're sitting on 150 million dollar budget versus a 32 million budget there's a there's a big difference obviously there's a lot more room uh to absorb things so it it really adversely affects sometimes smaller school districts or medium-sized school districts um so we wanted to make sure we got that point across to uh so that it it didn't do anything to uh what the expectations are for those specific school districts and then just 1 last question since we're doing this that's okay no it's for a reason during just because the special ed component such a enormous percentage of the when we're making those I yes their agreements right if if we're settling it are we allowed to consider the costs or are we supposed to okay the right answer is no it's supposed to be the best placement for the child it's the best placement in child through the child study so uh the child study team inclusive of the parents who are part of the IEP team or child study team are the ones that are supposed to make that decision okay and that decision gets kicked up obviously to the superintendent level where we that recommendation to the board but uh there could have been any kind of like consideration with cost or coercion that might be considered trying to yeah I was just trying to steer it you know like it's a a child study team really Works in isolation um on purpose because it's supposed to be in the best interest of the child okay 1 other thing we like to bring up too is like this is not unique to Franklin Lakes so every district is kind of experienced the same things because with all of the um settlements being in the field of 3.5% and above everyone is capped at the same 2% you know so that is just Statewide the other problem also has to do with the health benefits so you heard me using terms like chapter 78 chapter 44 so when you look at chapter 78 was when everyone had to pay a percentage of the premium on health benefits so it based on your income and based on the type of plan that you were on you would have to pay it could either be 12% 15% 20% or 35% of the health benefit premium what happened was I don't even know how many years ago was I guess through the NJEA people were complaining because you have some people paying 35% of the health print premium right now if you're still on like 1 of those traditional plans I think if you're at 35% it's almost 18,000 a year that they're contributing for health insurance when they created the chapter 44 plan the chapter 44 plan now instead of having them paying a percentage of the premium they only paid a percentage of their salary and it also got capped so anyone regardless of the plan you're on its caps the income at 125,000 so anyone who makes 125,000 the family plan their contribution is now capped at 9 and then if you're on a husband and wife plan it's a little bit less parent and child a little bit less and then single it's less so every year as that premium is going up if you have it that you made 125,000 and you were on family coverage doesn't make any difference you're only paying 9,000 so what happened is now the district is having to pick up more and more and more of the costs when we were on chapter 78 at least the employee was always picking up a piece of that premium premium cuz it was no cap you know you you'll be capped at 35% but it didn't stop like you had to pay 35% of the premium so this is where all the districts are you know feeling it and with Transportation like I said we have routes you know 1 kid could be you know eighty thousand dollars and you're like oh my God that's so much yeah yeah but it but that's that's the reality you know of it because unfortunately if if your child goes to a school let's just say it form and I know there could be other kids going there but if they were the only kid in the area that was going there and we couldn't find another bus to jump on like because kids in the area go in there and we had to contract the bus just for us for our child to go there then we're picking up the full cost of the bus we're part of like consortiums I think it's regional 1 with Mom while that you try to get on them but if there's no 1 from the area going on the bus and they can't you know if they have to create a brand new route then it's our cost right I mean the numbers are crazy but I understand again yeah it's just a business decision and we're not in the busing business so and because well then with busing because I I've done busing for a while too that that leads to a whole other problem because unless you have a garage to fit your bus fix your buses and unless you have a backup driver so if you only have 2 or 3 buses and then you don't have backup drivers and that driver calls out today you still got to get that kid to school so then how are you getting the kid to school so I mean everything has its pluses and minuses and it's just but we're talking about it I mean we're going to we're going to be okay and with those Insurance the insurance programs or the insurance um I guess platforms you were discussing that's state or those individual contracts we entered into where the where the teacher gets to be in this type of planner that type of plan the teacher well depending upon when the teacher was originally higher and what district if they come from another District so someone who's a a brand new teacher they don't have a choice they have to go into the chapter 44 plants they don't have a Choice with that if you were to hire a teacher say he was from another district and that person has 10 years experience and they were able to be in the traditional chapter 78 plans when they come here because we're in the State Health Benefit Plan we have to offer them yep yep because they're able to transfer it now if you were in a if they were in a district say they taught in a different district for 10 years and they were in a private plan nope they have to go into the um the Educators So eventually we'll have everybody on that program the pre my name is much lower like we got the rates I think right now for the um chapter 454 plan the family plan is about 2700 that doesn't include prescription and then I think it's a thousand dollars more on the um chapter 70 I think it's almost 3,700 but I can definitely cost to us monthly no not well then you got to take away their overall overall that's reasonable yeah for per person for a family plan but then if you multiply it by the um 12 months right no I get I pay my yeah I know what I pay yeah you know you pay yeah yeah okay the other 1 was like double that right if it's 35% and it's 18 Grand and some of these people are getting dollars a year in benefits yeah correct yeah mhm yeah so that was like a very quick presentation last a little bit longer but just to to prepare so in uh think about budget hearing is April 29th so we have 3 months to to start like keep our mind into that um I think the important stuff for you to look at the figures and see where the money goes have a have a mindset of um if there's an increase where it is at where is it going and then um keep our eyes on it thank you Mr s for putting informative presentation um so um calendar discussion we'd like to start Mr I don't mind starting yeah so I'm gonna start with uh challenges we have every year with uh a calendar and that is um how late we go to school in June right um so some things are fixed right so we work with our partners and and why cough in Auckland and around Poe Indian Hills to ensure that the major breaks are the same right so uh the break in December the break in February the break in April um all coincide so that way if you have children in both districts Franklin Knights and raffone Hills it's not uh inconvenience for you um 1 of the things that we have that the other District Stone uh Oakland does but woof and rampo Indians is not is uh the burn county has now said that the polling stations for Franklin Lakes where they currently exist um are for elections so we are moving elections to schools now uh I think the 2 schools will be families and Colonial Road but I have to double check that uh 2 out of the 4 um right now I them as uh as days where students are not at session right um but that adds another 2 days to your school district right so you got to remember you know those days have to get tacked on at the the end so we're we've potentially could finish June 26th now for anybody listening this is a draft calendar it has not been voted on a board that and it could change uh many ways before the board adopts it in February or whenever we decide to adopt it right things we may want to consider and also you have to look at a um the obligations that we have for religious holidays that we have as well right but things we might want to consider uh those are 2 that we never really had to have his days off uh the general election in November and the primary election in June um and it's and it's pretty annoying because even to schools he forces the others to 2 schools for 4 schools to show right so um is the 1606 is June 2nd and then but my bet is going to move it to 29 like they did this well right now it's June 2nd and then November 4th obviously is uh the general right for 2025 um sorry I'm sorry is this the lady here that's next to you that's next year this is 2526 the header is wrong just the header is wrong the header is wrong you're you're looking at 2527 so things that we can consider when we're building our calendar to ensure that we're not going to school too late parents don't love when we go to school to like June 26th right um children don't love it either um so you might be looking at the change so there's 2 counters the 1 change 1 to change we change the primary right they change the primary date for this year from whatever June so you have to look at the 2526 and now we're talking about the 2526 calendar separate separate it's a separate now makes sense that's a what's stapled is what we vote on changing yes okay and just for clarity sake the the the 2425 challenge uh calendar is being amended only because the governor switched the primary election date from June 3rd 2025 to June 10th 2025 so just have to switch the day off for students 1 thing I think we should consider and and this is a public discussion you can consider it that if 2 schools are being used for voting that really shuts down for schools um we could consider a a minimum session for students we have school resource officers we can shift polling to an area of a building that's isolated right and how have minimum days for students with school resource officers in those buildings um that would give us a couple days back into our calendar and give us some breathing room um it's something the board can consider right we we we get a community consider uh in my previous School District the 1 of the problems they do that the school was used as a a voting uh uh was used as the primary polling place I had a minimum session for students uh voters came in they were isolated uh and and we were able to run a minimum day without issues right um how does the parking work the transportation the parking Works um for for us the parking would be able to do we have plenty of overflow in our parking lot for people to come in and when you're working a minimum day uh you're busy sessions are usually from like 2 pm and Beyond and you're talking about students that are gone 1215 or 1245 is this the first time we've used the schools promoting first time the schools are being used for voting not that the schools wanted to be used for voting the county said hey you're going to be used for voting how many polling stations did we have yes 2 2 and we'll have 2 now off to now pretty much what happened pretty crowded they they said that the the ambulance Corps and the church they're not big enough to take a large capacity voters this was and therefore now the school is going to there would be in the gyms so that way you can isolate that part of the building off if you wanted to do a minimum session day so basically when when when voting is is usually the the slowest it's it's storing the morning hours right and it picks up in the night hours normally right um tough to do it's tough to tell ya I mean you might come have people come in 6 a.m. vote early and then you might have a low for a little while and then usually people come in but you know that's actually a good point now is the early voting of like a week before the time are the polls going to be open in schools anyways for early voting early voting is going to be like only in white of let's say no early voting is usually their areas that are determined by the counties where you can actually go for early voting the polls are not the day the polls are meant for the day of the election we might wonder at schools we could we could do it for primaries we could do it right because the primary is going to be probably get what 30% of you can easily do a primary half day right we could do that as a test right can can we get from uh the town clerk from Gayle I don't know the Last 5 Years sure they can ask for the Last 5 Years to see what the voter turnout ambulance Corps Church absolutely how many people showed up let's see you know it's you know it's meant to be a discussion right I'm I'm just kind of spitballing ideas out there for to consider that I think that we could easily do this if if you wanted to if not then we have a calendar as is right um we do have some want to go into yes so when was there any questions about about the about the polling anybody want to to put a point as to why this or that you want to think about it more I mean it's not going to be anything but is there any fighting or no meaning what like the offering the county like if we if we can prove that you know we tried to find they pick our polling spots and I think I think we tried try to we forgot it to find I was able to push it off in here here too yeah it was a big year to push it off I was able to push it off for this presidential election so if there's no question I'm going to move on to the next item on the calendar okay so uh 1 of the requests that came in for 2526 uh the the the request came in to ramp home and Indian Hills and it came into Franklin Lakes uh for Diwali to be recognized as a as a day off um we currently recognized when it fits the calendar um we have Russia we have young Kippur we have Eid um and then obviously if you look at our brakes any of the the the Catholic or Christian holidays are are usually consumed up in the brakes right so the December break takes care of Christmas and the April break usually takes care of Good Friday right um but those are usually just lumped up and when you're spring breaks are so if you were to add Diwali to this calendar as it is now um and it was 1 requests it was a student who who attends where I'm going to be in Hills who made the request um that would push us to June 29th right which is difficult when you're looking to to do that I mean I we would like to recognize every holiday that we possibly could the good news is the state of New Jersey does already recognized holidays so with respect to penalty um there are hundreds of holidays that are recognized by the state of New Jersey that are excused absences right so uh that are holy days of obligations for many religions right and if a student were to be the absent on that day we can simply just reconcile and and excuse the absent and if the student was going to be absent or if a group of students were going to be absent uh and we know that they're going to be absent we can simply say okay let's not have tests that day let's not have tests the day after so that we don't have to study on a day that would be you know a holy day of obligation or something that they're celebrating so there are things that we can put in place to do that and there wouldn't be a penalty because of the fact that it's an excused absence to begin with right um adding it adding another additional holiday to calendar poses a challenge because you have to fit in your major breaks um you already are recognizing uh young kapor rashishana need um and you're already now potentially picking up an election day right um so it's it's it's always hard to to approve or deny a request like that but you're really physically have to look at it and wonder you know at some point this school year has to end um and it has to right say the teachers needs a break that's what they say no but by June 30th we have to be done our fiscal year is over you know 180 days have to be done um 1 of the other things that you always have to look at is we know I like building calendars with a little bit of a buffer for for winter so we budget 3 um emergency closing days right let's say I'm I remember 1 winter I used 7 wow so I am not I mean the way the calendar is written I used my 3 and then I had to eliminate Spring Break by 4 days right very popular move that's a very unpopular move right because that's what comes next if you had 2 more then you're a completely limiting spring break and then you're adding 1 to the end of the school year right that year we were actually considering Saturday sessions half days just to make sure School ended before July 1 right so when I look at the end of June and I and I look at ending June 26th I have a buffer of 2 days right when I would like to have a buffer of like 5 things right just in case um so I think those are things we have to consider when we're building a calendar the other thing I think we should consider is this is separate than that but when we don't though use those emergency days where do we take them off from right and in the past we've always fixed a graduation date of things and because we fixed that graduation date it prevented us from taking days off at the end this school year right if you don't fix it graduation date and and you and you are very clear with the community saying hey it's a floating graduation day that will be near the end of the school year that will probably give you the firm date in April you could potentially then take a school year that ends June 26th and if you don't use those emergency days I can end it on June 23rd right and you can kind of take them off the end of the school year that's it's just an option that's out there right instead of tacking them onto a Memorial Day weekend anything like that right or at least you can take 1 of the days off and try to relieve you know being in so late um calendars they're difficult right they're put together it's difficult when you get requests uh for it's difficult cope when you force to use your schools for elections it's difficult when you get requests um and you will continue to get requests I would assume for uh different I would just caution that there's obviously a consequence and the consequences how late we have these students going to school in June um that kind of interrupts what's going on so these are things we have to take into consideration when are we holding on the calendar oh I don't I think we're just discussing I I would feel comfortable if if if we feel good about a calendar I'd like to put it on a February if we don't then I'll push it to March right so any any questions or comments to to Greg about what was the presented I I have a comment you can make some of the people happy all the time in all the people happy so many times I agree well we can't do is make all the people happy all the time and I think you know the community of certain people in the community who sometimes make these requests I know sometimes they fall in disappointment but people have to understand that the school we run on Logistics and when we build a calendar you know it the the school has to function I agree so you know we're not voting on it right now obviously there are a lot of things to take into consideration but what I think it's very important for the public to to know is that we need a certain amount of students each day for that day to actually keep State all right these are laws um so that's why you know when it comes to you know certain holidays we're going to miss a lot of kids and that's a big disruption for school that's why the school has to shut down that day all right so these are not things that you know are taken lightly it's just a matter of of numbers okay right and I think we can lean into the idea it's a recognized holiday you could take it it's excused we'll work with you you won't have to miss a test we do that for for for most things so anything that wouldn't be a recognized holiday is that they often in a calendar doesn't mean that we just uh we just throw it aside and and we don't recognize it you know we're we're very aware of families that will celebrate these days we want to make sure that we're not doing anything that could be a detriment to that child right so tests quizzes anything like that um so yeah I I don't think anybody would not support uh you know uh understanding that that there's a family going to be celebrating something and we're going to do everything within our prior even if school is in session to ensure that there's no uh there's nothing that that that's a negative impact on the child I mean I think we want to be inclusive as possible and recognize cultural diversity as much as we can but I mean we already have a challenging schedule so I mean there's over I don't know probably a hundred really holiday we start recognizing and have a holiday for every single 1 I mean we'll never have someone break so it's I think it's just logistically um especially like Greg was saying we have um the ability to have that observed and not have any NBA excused absence any other comments or questions ask excessive no that's actually okay the issue was a little late in November I like the October um and the reason why I did it that we normally give Halloween as a as a minimum day anyway so it works out where I could do 3 sessions of uh I could do a day session on the 29th and I could do a day and the night session on the 30th and then have the 31st be that kind of teacher give back for a minimum day which works for Halloween bigger minimum day and you just maximize your calendar this year I I probably would have because we we we settled the teachers contract a little bit later if I were to able to build that calendar from the prior year I would have done it in that last week of October yeah because that's about halfway like that's that's right where we're getting about halfway through a market period and that's when I would want them to be I would like them to be there because that market period is going to end in early December I like that late October piece we're about 2 months into the school year it's a perfect time to start talking about student progress right at that point yeah it used to be right at the end of the first marking period which I honestly not a fan of uh I I think it's a it's too late to be talking to parents about like having that kind of a major conference I'd rather that conference addressing concerns be as soon as possible so so that way you still have a significant amount of the the you still have half of more and period left to figure out you know what we want to do to help the child yeah that conversation should happen earlier in my opinion especially when you when you're turning around and having conferences again right December March is too close to each other October March is it's like a good sweet spot to do that any other questions or comments regarding calendar um I have 1 1 comment I think um the elections are really let's say annoyance yes I think I think that to close to to schools that are completely open to be closed yes um but I think that if if there's a way at least to the primaries to give it a shot see how it goes in the primaries with a school open worst case we're not it's not going to work so if we can get a plan to have the um if we can get a plan to have at least uh so for this year since the calendar is already built in 2425 I will leave the primary as a day off and then we'll look to see what we can do for the 2526 calendar yeah I do agree with you I mean listen I think we could do both but if you're not comfortable with the general I I we should seriously consider the primary at the very least right it's going to be 10% I think that's how that would work that the gate is down we would like Gates down locked we have school resource officers that are our school voice officers who could be in those schools while during that time we would run minimum session day so that way students are only in 4 hours um and you know I think effectively we might be able to do something like that I understand the concerns about people coming to vote while students are in session I get all that um but I also think that we could be very um we can we can be very prepared especially with our resource officers and how we isolate off the building in order for that to happen but it's okay I mean it's it's it's a discussion point you know okay so uh thank you now now it's time for public comment on any topic of concern we talked quite a lot so um yeah can I have a motion to open for public comments any oppose so all in favor any oppose okay so um participant my son can identify themselves by full name and address municipality and organization affiliation if applicable if an individual does not disclose said address an organization the board will not recognize uh comments are limited to a duration of 3 minutes all shall be directed to the presiding officer the public comment period is an opportunity for the board to listen to Citizens concern not to and not not to debate issues or enter into a question and answer session or cross examination between the public and the individual members uh the board discourages comments regarding students or employees and will not respond to such comments members of the public should consider their comments in light of legal right and be aware that they are legally responsible and liable for their um so please yes ma'am I like a voice my concerns with some opinions I'm emails about the heat situation sorry um the concern is that it took a long time to kind of get itself a lot of parents have to go to your board members kind of get information and like that should be like kind of like a last stop we've got other things to think about in here but because of this poor communication we have kids now without and they are going to be fixed but it's going to be about a month in time so originally they were in the art room specifically my child's class um and it was going to be for about a month thankfully Miss basak was able to carve out a little Nook get all their desks in a room and you know they have a special spot but my concern is like why is this taking so long to get this you know we've tried to call uh Edwin who we emailed you Edwin has still yet to email me back 3 times so is this like facility breakdown is it a breakdown from you know speaking about these problems like kind of trying to figure out how to fix this and that's why I wanted to mention it to you because I feel like a month in a classroom grown kind of stinks not only for the but for the kids I mean this is like prominent and 1 Night in spring with her classroom so they're going to fix the motor and the heat but then are we on to have your air conditioning ready and they're going to have more probably takes more problems and stuff so it's like where does this end where's the accountability and how do we get this all fixed so that's basically the piece that I wanted to say um I also wanted to we have a contractor that we can call and say hey there's no heat here and be there within 24 hours to fix this because it doesn't seem like we have that or there was a breakdown and nobody because there was a couple of days where these kids were in the classroom and there was nobody and it was chilly in here so I'm guessing it's a pop in this school too but the cold in that classroom and kids have knowing so could you imagine being a teacher having kids on their way to school and you can't even so there's definitely like a breakdown in the lack of communication not only to the parents but I feel like maybe facility Maybe board members that they're not you know no means like really working together and see so there are some ways to fix this problem because I feel like we're going to be having no air conditioning in these 3 classrooms and they're still going to be a problem thank you very much can you repeat your name I'm sorry thank you Mr chair we will address your comments really appreciate you taking the time and bringing it to our attention we know the time and effort and you said in less than 12 hours for an hour so if you don't mind to wait 2 minutes and Mr material will answer all your questions right now uh yeah motion to close uh public comments I don't want to ask anyone else wants oh anyone else wants to speak oh okay please all right myself do quite a few schools all private I do not do public work but I cannot see nothing of an instance in any of the schools that are maintained where he's been at for more than a day or 2 in any let alone a moment so I mean if there's a failure technician is dispatched same day something is identified if it can't be fixed something it's fixed the next day or so yeah and from my knowledge of what I'm hearing from the point of failure on this I mean ultimately yes replacing the entire coil replacing the entire unit would be an ideal semi but there should really licensed technician couldn't get in there with Nazi civilly porch prepare the name I can't get the court thank you very much can you just state your name for the record more so thank you very much for for making those comments really appreciate it you want to answer it real quick yeah and um motion to close public comments all in favor I any oppose okay so public comment is closed there are um when we did a referendum a few years back the referendum was supposed to cover all of the HVAC units all of it right so and the dollar amount that was specked out at the time was the dollar amount that could have covered everything right when we went out to bid those bids came out double which means we had to scale back right no fault of anybody's except for the fact that whatever happened everything came back double right so every in 2020 numbers 2023 numbers were completely different right that's no fault of ours of the school district or anybody this is just in how the bits came in and we went out to read it yes so what the board subcommittee and finance facilities has done is is give us the opportunity to look at those critical units and use we are able to potentially use Capital funds or referendum funds in order to address those critical units um now so we're looking to do that now the this specific units at HMR there was a um a pipe bursts over the brick right pipe burst it was fixed immediately know 1 had any idea that actually the Heating units were working right students come in January 2nd um I was notified late January 2nd was it was it either late January 2nd or early January 3rd um that the units weren't working the heat wasn't working um company came in uh deemed them inoperable right the coils were what shot everything was shot everything was inoperable from the minute that happened uh d necessary and I sent a notification to those parents that's that that's the January 3rd right so it's 1 day the next day once we have everything diagnosed and email goes out a letter goes out from us to all those parents letting them know that they're inoperable and then Mrs that follows up in the teachers follow-up saying that they're going to switch classrooms right so that's like a day and that's done 100% I signed the letter I know I sent it right hold on alright hold on the minute I find out a communication goes out a day I don't think that's a delay in communication that's literally the minute I find out a communication goes out of delay right and this is what's going to happen we bring somebody in we diagnose it Dean of correct me if I'm wrong there's a we have to it's it's different than private right so we have to use people who are the contract Public School contract that they have public State contract they have to come in right it's a little different it's a little bit different they come in uh they got to order the parts they tell us the parts are going to be so many weeks out we look to say what are the other fixes that we can do while they're doing it we put in a purchase order for the parts on and so forth let everybody know with another communication that's going out thankfully we're going to get them fixed into the point where like they're going to replace the coils the units will be fixed heat will be fixed air conditioning will be fixed those units are going to be we know as 2 of those critical units that are on our yeah our list will come off the board right for you actually it's going to be 126 129 and 141 right yeah unfortunately and I would assume this is why you do private work and not public work um it's just delayed when you do public work it sticks right it stinks that we have to wait for a State Contractor to come in there and do this it stinks that sometimes they're delayed and when they can come to us and get the work done it stinks that sometimes it thinks that somebody called The Board of Health and and even if we got the the temperature up to 68 degrees the Board of Health won't let the kids back in the room until we fix the unit right these are all things that are not great thankfully we did have although it's not the same as the classroom I admit we did have other areas in the building with the students could go to while we're addressing those units right we put purchase orders out we asked them to rush it uh we said get in here as soon as you possibly can we have the money ready to go to pay them we have everything ready to go um except for the fact that we have to wait for the parts to come in and for the person to come in and replace those parts right and that's where the delay is coming we anticipate within the next they told us 3 weeks for the parts and their their hands I know but this is what we're being told by them and and unfortunately we're doing it yeah so like we want to I want to get a possible and then also we want to we want to find all those other critical units throughout the district find out what needs to be done get somebody come in diagnose them to tell us whether we need new ones what fixes we need so on and so forth so that way we can get all of them fixed as well and then we start working on you know maintenance contracts making maintenance contracts for other units making sure that those other units are not going to be um you know that that they're going to be maintained so that way we don't have to worry about uh anything like that a coil breaking um and the other thing that stinks on top of it because this just happened we are now like I just uh repoed in  just had a pipe burst um it's 5 degrees and it's it's it's probably been 10 years since we've had over more right probably more I mean I was like a brand new superintendent the first time we had something this cold and I had a major unit uh all the coils broke because of damper was left open right um so this cold compounds everything right uh last year you wouldn't even notice it it was 50 degrees so all January right um there weren't any issues and any issues could could be tampered with easily and next season so cold um so yes 1 thing I will say is I will 100% make sure that when communication needs to come out it needs to come out better right if if it wasn't to The Standard of of what the community felt that needed to be then fine I'll work on a new standard and make sure that we get that communication out for everybody but with respect to like a delay on trying to get things fixed it's not like we're saying to people please don't fix it we're literally calling our companies in they're telling us when they can come in they're telling us when they can get the parts they're telling us when they can fix it and we're like the money's here it's yours for the taking feel free to take it and we follow up we're just like we're part that you got yeah yeah so we don't just leave it like oh it's going to be 3 weeks I constantly have and when following up do they he goes I'll give him a call and see following up to find I will be here within 24 hours we we don't have we don't unfortunately we don't have a maintenance contract in place that's 1 of the things that we said we're going to have to try to try to do I'm really sorry that it's not a back back and forth but I I do want to say 1 and and then um we're going to move on first thanks a bunch for for bringing it up yeah I say to every parent from HMR to talk to me about it I'm going to be there tomorrow in the HMR PPA if anybody wants to to further with us I think the 700 p.m. the main thing that I take from It 2 main things 1 I think we should do better on my on preventive maintenance and what do I mean by that next year I probably would highly recommend it I sent somebody before somebody comes before people come back from winter break somebody should walk the schools and see that the schools are ready for kids to come back um so so that's 1 1 thing that I that I take the other thing that I that I take with that um there's always going to be a gap in expectations and and that's fine we have standards to obey by and unfortunately although there were people in the community that literally said I have a check in my hand and I have a plumber maybe they meant you that can come and fix it at that moment our hands are like annoyingly tied on that so um with that being said we're grateful that we have such a community that steps up and willing to to come and Patch it for us and we're also grateful that we have community that you know holds our feet the fire to make sure that we are doing what is required to and what your tax harder and tax money is is being used for so thanks for that and and we're going to keep on improving and I think we we learned a couple of lessons from it to uh to do better and right now we're working full speeds with the limitation of the of the government I guess to to remediate the situation well said so thank you very much again for staying so long to uh thank you talk to us and you know the only thing I can say is I have no ambition to be a public contractor I'm all about private sector but if there's ever an issue with any Distributors any supplier no issue train carrier so if there's ever anything I can do right here is is I was going to say maybe you can like my emails on the website if you could email me like your information so I had I can send oh you have it okay yeah that would be great I really appreciate that okay perfect no thank you thank you yeah that'll be wonderful thank you really appreciate it okay with that we're going to move to our agenda getting a little late thank you thank you and have a good night so the attached resolutions are being presented as a consent agenda and will therefore voted as 1 motion you can have a motion 1483 to 1522 so move the motion by carolena second by Scott a roll call please Cardella Mr Kim Miss Sarah you know Mr spiotti Mr lawyer yes Mr de yes uh so consent agenda carries with that um we also suspension before I ask you to report uh 1 out of school 1 in school 1 Elementary 1 fans serve out of school means someone we stand for a different School know that's somebody that the suspension was out of school that didn't come to school they weren't allowed oh okay they weren't allowed in school for the day okay any Board of Education comments any board members like to make a comment go yes okay any any board comments anybody want to make any say anything at all any all right I'm going to make some some comments so on on the agenda today we accepted the resignation of Miss Frank who was uh I think with the district for 35 or 37 36 years um so definitely worthwhile recognizing and we will um we recognize it more uh publicly on May or June meeting yes um keep it keep your minds on on the presentation that uh uh Miss Mary presented if you can please email to the entire board so we can uh again have in our head how the budget is being distributed what to prepare we're going to have a couple of meetings until then but that's definitely um considering the last couple of years where things are headed we have to to really have our eyes on it um I assigned committees so I'm just going to put it out for the public to to see a lots on the website I'm not going to read it all just the chairs and the liaison so for curriculum um the chair is a Lisa for finance and Facilities and operation uh the chair is say 1 for our do negotiation chair is Ryan for policy the chair is Scott for special services Lisa and for the adoc technology uh committee is myself a the liaison for uh the Education Foundation sorry for for uh for the um Union both unions is Ryan for the Education Foundation myself or njsba delegates to the um to vote on on uh on the conference twice a year myself and Scott Bergen County School Board Association delegate is Alisa Recreation Rob uh rih district is Scott with the town as myself with fans skate CRS is Ryan AJR myself and Rob and uh was is Karina in C1 so with that our next board meeting is going to be February 11th at 8:00 p.m. a motion to adjourn I just want it on record uh window projects for Woodside HMR and fams are all moved to the summer those projects will happen in the summer so the minute indicate please all right very good um thanks for all the parents who who really pushed us to to make that happen and thank you Greg and and then Mr working with the contractors okay so can I have a motion to adjourn second all in favor any opposed okay 937 John

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