[0:05] This is the Montague Township Board of Education Meeting, regular action meeting agenda, September 9th, 2026. Call to order at 630, roll call. Mr. Bell, here, evening, Mr. Brisley. Here. Campbell, here. Here. Here. Johnson. Here.

[0:27] here, Ms. Dacos.

[0:29] She's coming in to be a follow-up.

[0:31] I'm going to have to.

[0:32] Small island and OK.

[0:34] Mr. Zernau, I am here.

[0:36] Present.

[0:37] Yeah, Mr. Andreax, CSA, self-like bus owe.

[0:40] Just, of course, see it.

[0:41] And Dana Berry, all present.

[0:42] Just, I'll just call Chris.

[0:48] Oh, I don't know.

[0:48] I put you in.

[0:50] OK.

[0:55] Others present?

[0:57] James Andreax, Michael Busseau, just, of course,

[1:00] see it.

[1:01] And Dana Berry.

[1:02] We salute the flag, please.

[1:16] The

[1:30] mission of the Monarchy Township School District is to provide the best educational

[1:35] experience and opportunities to realize the potential of every child.

[1:39] In accordance with the New Jersey Sunshine Law, a notice of this meeting has been posted

[1:45] on the official bulletin board at the school and advertised in the New Jersey Herald and the

[1:49] Sunday New Jersey Herald.

[1:51] We're going to move executive session and to the end of the meeting and move right through

[1:58] the meeting at this point and we get the CSA report.

[2:02] Good evening.

[2:04] So we had a pre-successful first two weeks here at school.

[2:08] The drop-off and pick-off has been relatively successful as far as keeping traffic off with

[2:14] 206, Mr. D. Mora out there remorning trying to usher parents along and just remind

[2:20] go to parents to please stay in the car, don't get out, drop and go as quick as

[2:25] possible. Back to school night is tomorrow from 6 to 8 p.m.

[2:32] For all of our students

[2:33] that didn't get sports physicals, we are having Dr. Atat at the school tomorrow

[2:39] September 10th, so Dr. Atat will be here, make sure your students have the physical

[2:45] forms with them to give bring to the nurse. September 21st, Zufal Health will be at the

[2:53] school to visit the pre-K for a free dentist visit. And September 25th is school pictures.

[3:00] Order forms will be sent after pictures are taken. So nothing needs to be brought in

[3:05] beforehand.

[3:07] And I think that's all I've pretty much got right now. Thank you.

[3:10] That's the end report.

[3:14] I'll keep this brief.

[3:16] But there's still a touch on finances.

[3:17] A little bit for you.

[3:19] Of course, we know that the budget is, you know,

[3:21] moment in time when the budget is written and things do change.

[3:25] I think the budget is written.

[3:27] First payroll for the second school year went out today.

[3:31] So since all the nights have been quite a bit of time

[3:34] going over the PCR and verifying.

[3:37] I'm making sure everybody's getting paid.

[3:39] They're right amount, especially with the new salary guides

[3:41] and everything. And with the changes, as of right now, we are about $46,000 over budget.

[3:50] That would be if we utilized every sick day that we budgeted before. We used

[3:56] utilized every alternatively that we budgeted before. So there's been a lot of changes,

[4:03] some additional staff coming in, some positions that weren't needed, some positions were needed,

[4:08] so it's constantly in flux.

[4:10] So what you say that we're going to do

[4:12] is constantly maintain a visual looking at that report

[4:16] every payroll and making sure that we are in line with that.

[4:20] We still don't know what healthcare is going to be.

[4:24] We did budget for the 30% increase

[4:26] for the second half of the year.

[4:29] Our hope is one to get out of the state plan.

[4:34] And two, that it comes in less than that

[4:37] which could give us some funds.

[4:39] We've been able to come up with a couple of shared services ventures,

[4:43] neighboring schools, Sanderson and Kennedy.

[4:47] Those are savings a little bit on the transportation.

[4:51] So we might be able to put money back into transportation costs,

[4:55] not go overboard, maintenance on the vehicles and everything.

[4:59] So we will be monitoring and there is a little bit of room.

[5:03] maybe that money can go back into salary lines.

[5:11] Keeping a close track on that as we go.

[5:13] You notice there is a list of transfers in there.

[5:19] Most of them are minimal, but there's a bunch

[5:21] that are substantial.

[5:22] And those are main changes to budget lines

[5:26] that change from March to June.

[5:32] And that's going to happen.

[5:37] We do have that wiggle room that's built in there

[5:39] based on sub two coverage days and the lead replacement days you just have to watch that very closely throughout the year.

[5:58] Of the 46,000 you say we're over budget. How much of that is real dollars and how much of that is projected use of sick time over time?

[6:19] If you remove that, you know, that's not used. If you move out of it, let's say nobody use sick time. What would be the other number there?

[6:34] I can give you a little example of why it would be over a little bit, I mean, just this

[6:39] week we had a new student start who has an IEP from the school where he's coming to

[6:45] us and in his IEP it has, he needs an aid with him.

[6:51] So you know, unfortunately like we have to bring that aid in to be with this child throughout

[6:57] the school day. That literally just happened this week.

[7:01] It's a legal document. There's not much

[7:04] that we can do in these situations. It's unfortunate, but the kid needs the support.

[7:10] Working with those situations and keeping those at

[7:32] full $85,000 out of our maintenance reserve

[7:37] to pay for maintenance from last year. At the end of the year, we were able to put that back into

[7:43] the maintenance reserve. We didn't need any of those extra funds last year. So that's still there,

[7:50] which is a benefit that we have if there is something that you know, catastrophic maintenance-wise,

[7:58] we still have that buffer. Sure.

[8:03] Some other increases, we got $32,000 in the rep grant,

[8:09] which is for rural, small district schools, last year it was $20,000, so that's an extra $12,000

[8:16] more than we budgeted that can be used for general school expenses, students or shoes like that.

[8:25] That'll free up money from other areas that we need to transfer into personnel.

[8:31] And with these transportation, with the stand to stand in Kinitini, I think that should

[8:37] be bringing us in what about 22,000? That's 22,000. The route itself, last year that route cost us about

[8:44] $10,000 doing in-house,

[8:50] $81,000, and then getting $22,000 back from that, so it's causing us less than $60,000 so that's right there $50,000 savings over last year.

[9:02] Some of that, that was what we're hoping to be able to do last year, we couldn't get it to work out.

[9:07] Reworking all the bus routes that we have, we could fill that with a part-time driver.

[9:11] Yeah and I mean yeah and we did even plan to cut off more to the transportation section but we

[9:19] we would have had students walking along River Road for two miles and like that's it's just not

[9:26] that can't happen so we had to you know we had to bring a route back that we didn't plan on having

[9:32] there, you know, but, you know, that had to be done.

[9:39] Keep you updated to where it stands right now.

[9:44] We have other

[9:47] major adjustments.

[9:50] Most everything comes out of the beginning of the year.

[9:57] And transfer now, as

[10:01] we are small,

[10:04] in either way.

[10:05] We have had a couple of students leave.

[10:27] President's report, I have nothing to report at this time.

[10:30] Caitlin's not here with us, so there's no high point report.

[10:34] Do we have any correspondence?

[10:35] All right

[10:44] approval of minutes be it resolved at the recommendation of the superintendent that the Montague Township Board of Education approve the regular meeting minutes and the executive minutes of August 12th, 2026 and a special meeting minutes of August 28th, 2026.

[11:00] Can I get a motion?

[11:02] Any

[11:04] discussion?

[11:07] Roll call.

[11:09] Mr. Belk.

[11:10] Abstain.

[11:32] I'm sorry I thought you did, okay. Sorry. Public Session, public comment is invited on all matters pertaining to the school district. All participants shall be permitted four minutes to speak and she'll state their name, place of residence and group affiliation.

[11:47] If appropriate, the board uses public comment as an opportunity to listen to the citizens' concerns.

[11:54] But please be aware that not all issues brought to a board meeting will be resolved this evening.

[11:59] Can I get a motion to open public comment at 641?

[12:03] Motion, second.

[12:06] All in favor?

[12:08] Aye.

[12:08] Any opposed?

[12:11] Lisa, did you want to?

[12:16] Who has it now?

[12:17] You have it?

[12:17] Okay.

[12:18] I just wanted to say, Kristen, is our PTA president, and she has a check to give to Mr.

[12:30] Andriak for installation of the school sign.

[12:34] It's from the fundraiser that we ran last year.

[12:37] I do want to add that it is, we raised substantially less than the PTA is giving us, but they gave

[12:44] us a check for $1,000.

[12:46] Thank

[12:52] you, Kristen for the check, please thank the PTA for us.

[12:56] Thank you very much, and the PTA does have a wonderful calendar booked out for us for this year.

[13:03] Mike, Kristen, it'd be very busy, so thank you for that too.

[13:10] Mike, Mark, do we have anybody online?

[13:14] Okay.

[13:16] Can I get a motion to close public comment at 643?

[13:19] Motion.

[13:21] Second.

[13:24] Finance and insurance.

[13:26] Oh, I'm sorry. All in favor.

[13:28] Hi.

[13:29] Keep us on this.

[13:30] Okay.

[13:31] Yeah.

[13:31] Michael, is that three people on tonight?

[13:34] Okay.

[13:37] Finance and insurance.

[13:39] Can I get a motion to approve resolutions F1 through F6 as listed below?

[13:44] Motion.

[13:45] Second.

[13:47] I do have some questions on some of those motions.

[13:50] Discussion?

[13:52] So, believe it's F-4, how is that 4,263.78 calculated?

[14:07] Is that...

[14:07] That's roughly 66% of the salary divided

[14:17] by 10 months.

[14:19] Okay, so that's a Sandistons 66% or month?

[14:23] Because was that Montecu's 66% with Sandistons?

[14:27] Yes.

[14:27] Okay, it is we actually other ones that hired her they reached out to the to the county and

[14:35] We planned on only hiring a part-time music teacher this year. We could not find one

[14:39] We had to go full-time in order to get one and this just kind of fell to us and it worked out well

[14:44] So thank you, and thank you, my good and F five

[14:51] If I can if I may ask the same question, how was that calculated?

[14:55] Well, that is based on

[15:00] Okay. So there is an app that the transportation services have for fuel consumption, wear and tear of the bus. We have our insurance on that bus. It's calculated in there. The salary and benefits of the bus driver and the paraprofessional. It's divided by seven students. Okay. And then it's any responsible to one.

[15:28] I don't understand any sense responsible for one of the white students on that matter.

[15:32] And hence that's the reason why San Distance Calculation is exactly the same as Kid of Tennis.

[15:38] Because it has to be per student dividing equally the cost of the route.

[15:44] Okay, good. Thank you, Mike.

[15:45] Any

[15:48] further discussion?

[15:52] Can I get a motion to close comment?

[15:55] Motion.

[15:56] Second.

[15:59] I'm sorry, Ropol.

[16:01] Yes.

[16:02] Bill,

[16:04] yes.

[16:05] Mr. Brasley.

[16:13] Yes, yes

[16:14] Andre before we continue if I could just and I apologize for interrupting

[16:19] It's my understanding that Caitlyn was intending to attend this evening's meeting

[16:24] She's coming into executive. Okay. Good. Okay. Thank you.

[16:32] Okay

[16:35] Okay

[16:36] Thanks Joe

[16:39] Personnel, motion to approve resolutions P1 through P4, list listed below.

[16:44] Can I get a motion?

[16:46] So moved.

[16:47] Second.

[16:50] Any discussion?

[16:53] Old call?

[16:56] Yes.

[16:57] Mr. Risley.

[16:58] Yes.

[16:59] Just a camel.

[16:59] Yes.

[17:00] Mr. Zernel.

[17:00] Yes.

[17:01] Mr. Johnson.

[17:02] Yes.

[17:03] Mr. Zernel.

[17:04] Yes.

[17:04] Motion passes.

[17:07] Administration.

[17:08] Can I get a motion to approve A1 through A8 as listed below?

[17:11] Can I get a motion?

[17:15] Second.

[17:16] Any discussion?

[17:19] I have a question.

[17:21] Do I have to recuse from A5?

[17:27] I've got a question.

[17:28] Why is A1 the acting superintendent?

[17:32] Should be the superintendent.

[17:34] That's right.

[17:36] No big deal.

[17:38] Strike the word.

[17:44] Just, okay.

[17:47] And Chris?

[17:48] I didn't answer my question.

[17:50] We will strike the word acting from A1.

[17:55] Is there any other questions?

[17:56] discussion? With respect to, let's see what's the one this says, A3. A3, I presume that

[18:06] that compensation with either shared services agreement with the regarding the most and

[18:12] so forth, and the other money related compensation. I presume that's consistent with our MEA contract.

[18:21] That actually, a three is an agreement that all the sending districts, sending districts

[18:31] with high point due, it's in case wherever in a position where we don't have a nurse,

[18:36] we would share the nurse, like they would say if we needed a nursing service, like they

[18:41] would send high point, would send somebody down here, if they were without somebody we

[18:45] We would help by sending our nurse up to them, that presumably again would be consistent

[18:51] with whatever the compensation clause of with our MEA contract.

[18:58] Oh, okay, so

[19:13] we've never used it before, but we all do this every year just in case the

[19:19] situation arises where we, it's hard to find a substitute nurse sometimes.

[19:45] Yes.

[19:46] Thank

[19:53] you.

[19:55] Thank you, Chair.

[19:56] Any

[19:58] further discussion?

[20:01] Roll call.

[20:04] Yes.

[20:06] Yes.

[20:07] Yes, but I recuse myself from A5.

[20:13] Johnson.

[20:25] Public session.

[20:27] Public comment is invited on all matters pertaining to the school district and all participants.

[20:32] She'll be permitted four minutes to speak and she'll state their name in place of

[20:36] residents and group affiliation appropriate.

[20:39] The board uses the public comment as an opportunity

[20:41] to listen to citizen concerns,

[20:43] but please be aware not all issues brought

[20:45] to a board meeting will be resolved this evening.

[20:48] Can I get a motion to open public comment at 6.50?

[20:52] Motion.

[20:53] Second.

[20:57] All in favor?

[20:58] Aye.

[20:59] Any opposed?

[21:01] Do we have anybody on?

[21:02] Any hands?

[21:03] Okay.

[21:04] How many do we have?

[21:04] three.

[21:10] Motion to close public comment at 651 and again motion. Motion. All in

[21:19] favor? Aye. Aye. Opposed? Do we have any unfinished business? Any new

[21:26] business?

[21:30] That's what I was just going to say too. I have.

[21:42] They're selling

[21:43] mums and they're also selling discount cards. So if anybody on the board would like

[21:48] those, you're going to go home to all the students as well.

[21:59] Absolutely. And the dairy queen, I use the dairy queen, you've got two Sundays for the price of one.

[22:19] All right.

[22:21] Awesome.

[22:22] Thank you.

[22:23] Also real quick, since we're on PTA business.

[22:28] They're looking for volunteers from staff and parents for the Halloween dance on October 23rd, and if anyone wants to join the PTA, it is $7, and that does help the school.

[22:42] Mendously, the more members we get, there's incentives that the PTA can get for the school by having their membership increase.

[22:54] And all of the sale and stuff that they have gone for moms and discount cards.

[23:01] No, Lisa, can I, I don't have any students or children, but could I join the bill?

[23:06] Yes, you can.

[23:06] Okay.

[23:07] Anyone in town can join the PTA, parents, teachers, and yes, the board, I am a member, obviously.

[23:15] Okay.

[23:15] Thank you very much.

[23:18] Just one more thing that there's in your packet, the annual delegate assembly, second notice.

[23:24] We need to send a delegate and hopefully for somebody to volunteer.

[23:32] That's for school boards, so it is November 21st.

[23:38] You wanted to add a resolution for them to consider that would have to be in by this Friday, but

[23:44] But I believe there's still time to delegate or don't want to delegate to attend.

[23:51] You would have a voting position with school awards on there.

[24:00] Let us know, I

[24:17] wish we would have to be received by this Friday so that I think you would then have to clarify that.

[24:22] Okay.

[24:24] Let us know.

[24:27] We're going to go into executive session.

[24:30] Be resolved that the Montague Township Board of Education recess and proceed to executive session to discuss personnel matter.

[24:37] Actors and legal issues, action may or may not be taken.

[24:41] Can I get a motion to open executive session at 6.54 p.m.?

[24:46] Motion.

[24:52] All in favor?

[24:53] Aye.

[24:54] Any opposed?

[25:39] Okay.

[25:40] Can I get a motion to close executive session?

[25:44] Yes.

[25:44] Second.

[25:46] Okay.

[25:47] The time is 8.50 and can I get a motion to, I can't even see without my glasses.

[25:57] to adjourn.

[25:59] Second.

[26:02] All in favor?

[26:03] Aye.

[26:05] Pardon the adjournment.

[26:06] A50.

[26:06] Next board meeting is October 14th at 6.30 p.m.

Untitled meeting

Transcript