Pleasantville Public Schools Board Meeting April 28, 2026

Good evening everyone. Today is Tuesday,
April the 28th, 2026
special board meeting.
May we please stand for the flag salute
and a moment of silence.
I pledge allegiance to the flag of the
United States of America and to the
republic for which it stands, one nation
under God, indivisible, with liberty and
justice for all.
This is to advise those present at this
April 28th, 2026 special board meeting
of the board of education of the city of
Pleasantville in the county of Atlantic
that notice was given on April 22nd,
2026 of this special board meeting as
required by the provisions of chapter
231 of the laws of 1975.
Notice thereof has been posted on the
district's website under the legal
notices section, posted in the
administration building, and forwarded
to the city clerk of the city of
Pleasantville within the time required
by said act. Roll call, Miss
Roll call, Miss White.
Miss Aikens? Here.
Miss Harris? Here.
Miss Morgan?
Mr. Rodriguez? Present.
Miss Sanchez? Present.
Miss Waters?
Miss Silver? Here.
Miss Rowell?
>> Present.
I just want to let you know the
the attorney is on their way. They got
stuck up into traffic, so they should be
here momentarily.
Next, 1.5,
public comments,
agenda items only. First, we have Mrs.
Joanne Famularo.
Good evening, board.
Good evening.
I'd like to speak to you about the
budget.
Cuz there were a couple things I was
uncertain about, and this is to the
superintendent.
First of all, did you just get handed a
budget handout tonight, or did you have
it before you came to this meeting
tonight?
You got it last night.
Miss Famularo, if you can direct it to
me, I can answer that, please.
>> Did you just get a budget handout?
>> We did Last week, we had got
a handout that was sent over.
>> During the meeting? Yeah. Right. Well,
I don't think I'm the most brilliant
person, but I can read and comprehend,
but I cannot read and comprehend
during a meeting and be expected to vote
properly and intelligently
when something is handed out minutes
before you're supposed to vote on it.
So, that was the first bad step.
The second thing I want to ask is,
>> [clears throat]
>> you mentioned about 40 people
losing their jobs either through
attrition
or
just getting rid of. Is that Are those
40 people
inclusive
of the $3 million deficit that you have?
This is for the superintendent, but
she's writing something.
Did you hear what I asked?
Do you want to answer, Dr. Martinez?
Well, we don't have a deficit.
Well, you're $3 million short, correct?
What would you like to call it?
Well, no, we're not $3 million short.
The budget is balanced.
Is there going to be an increase to the
Pleasantville residents' taxes? Right,
through the health care tax adjustment.
>> Because you don't have enough money.
>> Right, cuz the
>> That's called a deficit.
No matter what you would like to say,
that's a deficit.
When you go to buy something for $20 and
you only have 15, you have a deficit of
$5. So, you can spin that all you want,
but you have a deficit. What I am asking
is the Are the 40 people
that are either looking to retire
or be riffed,
the Are they taking When that happens,
is that going to take the place of the
deficit that you have?
Or are those both going to happen
together? You're going to have 40 people
riffed
or retired and a deficit? Well, it's not
a deficit cuz the budget's balanced, but
we need the $40 which we're Not the 40,
we need the $3 which we are permitted to
utilize if we do not have enough
revenue.
Okay, let me say this again.
You have 40 people that you need
to either retire We'll just say 40 You
need 40 people to retire.
But you also
need more money in your budget.
>> Right.
>> So, by those 40 people retiring,
does that alleviate the need for more
money in your budget?
Well, no, those people
>> Okay, you said no. Okay.
So,
>> [clears throat]
>> do you Have you spoken to the city of
Pleasantville?
>> Thank you, Miss Famularo.
>> No, I have more time because No, you're
And I had to repeat my question because
the superintendent
>> I'm Okay.
>> I'm going to give you a minute.
Okay.
The reason why is because people may be
listening, and if they're listening,
they decide to come, they're going to
say, "Well, you did this and you did
that. You didn't do it fairly." I can
give you a minute.
>> board members on, and you never asked
them a question
of, [clears throat] "Do you have a
financial background? Do you know
anything about budgeting?" No, they were
all like Gandhi. No, we're all going to
sit around and get along. The most
important thing you have is a budget,
and if you can't read it and understand
it and not and
that the superintendent and the BA don't
even acknowledge you,
then you got nothing, and that's why we
have a school district that is in the
bottom 10%. Chair, point of order. I
will not have a an audience member
belittle board members up here and tell
us we don't understand the budget.
>> from you who doesn't even live here.
I live here, Joanne. Thank you. Don't
spread rumors.
Don't spread rumors.
Not today. Not today.
Next, we have Pastor Jerome Page.
Good evening.
213 Pleasant Avenue.
I just like to add something to
this board meeting.
Yes, my name is Jerome Page. Yes, I am a
pastor.
But I'm also a taxpayer.
I own a home for over 42 years.
What you are proposing tonight
is an increase in our tax levy.
And as a board as a taxpayer,
who Joanne is a taxpayer, also,
um
to the new board member,
we have a right to say whatever we want
to say. As board members, you take an
oath,
and the oath is to a a follow all rules
and regulations in the law of New
Jersey.
Board members,
there is
board
uh
policy
right now
at your hand at your fingertips.
It explains the It explains the routine
of what putting together a budget do,
you know, how that happens.
I didn't hear anything about the
building principals,
the the teachers union.
All them play a role in putting together
the budget.
All of you board members don't have to
set up a meeting to see the
superintendent to talk about the budget.
No, the president sets up a meeting that
all board members are present and the
superintendent gives out whatever she
wants to give out, which she did last
week.
It's just too late.
You got time to put this together.
And what Joeline is saying from $10
million every year
for the the tax levy, now it's $13
million.
So, she's saying last year your budget
was 120 $126 million, this year is $123
million. So, we got a decline.
You want to get rid of 40 positions.
Why?
If you if your budget is balanced,
then why are you getting rid of people?
We need every staff that you have.
Why? Because we are part of a team that
educate our kids. Kids are not just
educated in the classroom.
It's in the whole building. It's in the
outside in the playroom, playgrounds.
It's everywhere.
Board members, please
look at your policy. Your policy
dictates how everything is run. If
there's no policy to a problem, you got
to create one.
God bless.
Thank you, Mr. Page.
Okay.
Yeah.
Next 1.6, um
president's
um comments. I just wanted to remind the
board that um this Saturday the JR JROTC
they'll be having their banquet. The
JROTC will be having their banquet this
Saturday
um from 5:00 to What is it? 9:00.
>> It's from from 5:00 to 9:00. So, if
you're not doing anything, it would um
we would really love that you support
them.
Okay.
Next.
Next uh
3.1.
May I have um
3.1 to 3.4. I guess this is part of the
budget, correct? Yeah, you do personnel
and that's skipped over. What was it? Is
this part of the budget or
Oh, this is I'm sorry, say what? Two.
I'm on my personnel. Madam President,
can we go into the executive session and
then come out and do everything
afterwards? Uh yeah. Okay. Um
What are we What are we talking about in
executive session?
What are we talking about?
>> This.
The budget.
Oh, you can't talk about it in the
executive session.
>> Oh, we can't? Okay.
>> No, you got to talk about it out here.
Yeah, you got to speak up. You have to
talk about it in the
>> a question.
Um we received the email
from the Mr. Bumpus about the
preliminary budget and it stated in the
email that if we approve this tonight,
we could still make changes. Correct.
>> want to make sure that's correct.
Correct. It's only a preliminary. Dr.
Martinez, can you please weigh in here?
Yes.
It's a preliminary submission and if I
may uh President Rowell, if I
um
Can you click? Start clicking.
If I may. Yes. Okay.
There's a flag up there. I'm sorry, Mr.
Um can you please respectfully move that
flag?
Something is wrong. You sound muffled.
Click.
So,
um at the last meeting we went over some
of slides. So, let's go over them
quickly. I'll tell you when to stop.
Right number of students budget.
Keep going.
Appropriations budget, yeah. Keep going.
And these we talked about major cost
drivers. Hold hold it right there. Go
back. Yes, and we talked about the
the budget impact and what you'll notice
first is that we've been able to reduce
the approximately
40 staff members to now 32. Keep going.
And the response to um the budget impact
of the fiscal cliff
uh in most recent days including today,
um
the administration was able to do even
more work
um to really help um
improve the balance of this budget.
And so,
in the budget, we know that
uh there is a preschool reduction that
is directed by the New Jersey State
Department of Education and therefore
um
in response to this reduction, it was a
great opportunity to restructure the
school program. Thus, the district will
no longer um require need to have the
three classrooms at the high school for
preschool. So,
uh this allows for a restructuring of
preschool programs in the elementary
schools, but it also allows us to
um
in working with the county special
education department uh most recently
today as well, we were able to take of
the three classes in the high school and
work to return at least 18 out of
district high school students with
special education needs. Now, what along
with
um
looking at the transportation and the
tuition costs, these changes
bringing back 18 students out of
district helped to really offset the
budget because we were able to save
approximately $1,315,000 in tuition
and transportation services by the
return of 18 out of district high school
students. But in included in that $1
million approximately $1 million
is the previous recommendation that uh
courtesy bussing for preschool
um
be
reduced if you would or eliminated and
that the the eight drivers and the eight
aids that are um
they'll be rerouted to out of district
routes for displaced students.
Now, what you need to know is that a
cost of a displaced students can be
anywhere between 60 to 70,000.
So, if you add up uh the number of
routes which are eight, eight routes,
right?
>> For preschool
and
everything that comes with those routes
plus the return of 18 out of district
high school students, we were able to
offset the budget with the recovered in
tuition and transportation services thus
the 40 reduction turned into 32.
And so, I also include Well, I'm sorry.
Would you please go on? Um in your
packet, you also have um
a response to
the Pleasantville District K to 12
grades curriculum. There was a question
about
There was a question about the
curriculum and programs. And so,
uh we've put together a timeline of the
year that the curriculum material was
purchased and whether it's present or
not. And so, you'll see that in yellow,
blue, purple, and green
um
the programs that are listed are those
that have been board approved and are
used uh currently in the district and
are um supported by this budget.
If you go on, Chris.
The next page um keeping in mind that
this budget was student centered and is
student centered, what you'll see is
that the middle school courses that are
identified are required by the state for
all of the core subjects including
English, math, science, social studies,
and world language. And what you'll see
is that
the administration has done is to ensure
that world language is
um
not only addresses the large percent of
the Spanish speaking students that are
uh that attend Pleasantville with
Spanish 1 2 3 for non-Spanish speakers
in the middle grades, but it also
provides Spanish heritage for 1 2 and 3
preparing students to go to the high
school and begin uh world languages at a
um higher level. But one of the things
that is new and I'm very proud of in
this budget is that for the very first
time in the middle school, we've added
world language French 1 uh for uh
students that are interested in taking
French at the middle school and we've
also added French 1 heritage uh for the
2% and growing Creole Haitian students
that uh attend the district and the
middle school. Uh in addition, the dual
language Spanish program that is an
instructional program is absorbed in the
budget. Uh Mr. uh Becker, if you go on,
you have the high school course
programs, all of which are required by
the New Jersey Department of Education,
you'll see that the required courses are
listed, and in world language, where
there was a deficit before in terms of
of opportunities for students to learn
French, we've included Spanish one and
two for non-Spanish speakers, but for a
student that
enter the high school with a higher
level of proficiency speaking Spanish,
the district now can offer Spanish
advanced placement Spanish heritage two,
three, and four, which really supports
the biliteracy seal that has been
really increased in the district in the
last 3 years, and we're very proud to
say that in world languages in the high
school, we've also added French one and
two for students
who are interested in expanding learning
French, in addition to French one
heritage for students that enter the
high school already speaking French, and
benefit from French heritage courses. Go
on, Mr. Becker.
We've also added and showed that the
following courses
in the curriculum programs are offered
in math, science, English, social
studies, and you'll note that for
financial literacy, which falls under
math, we know that a math teacher is
needed, and that is also in the budget.
Um
If you go on, Mr. Becker.
In the middle school, we have
assured that the visual performing arts
curriculum program is offered in the
middle school. Those are the courses
that will be offered, and those courses
support and scaffold right into the high
school program. These are the programs
that will be offered at the high school.
The yellow, blue, green, and purple
colors mean that those are career tech
education state approved programs, which
we increased from two to four, and will
be are scheduled to be offered next
year. And lastly, answered an answer to
a question about the athletic programs.
The following athletic programs are
supported by this budget. All sports
programs in the high school and middle
school for the fall, winter, and sports
are supported with this budget. So,
these were some of the answers that
or responses to some of the questions
that these I heard at the last meeting.
Also for the board, if you look in your
folders, you'll have a bit of history
of funding and list of
personnel and the allocations of those
personnel.
Additionally,
you'll have another piece of paper that
will list the
additional personnel and the history
of the allocations of those personnel
along with the type of funding that was
used for the allocation of personnel.
What you'll notice is that the ESSER
funds supported
various
high number of staff positions that
after 3 years, years 2021, 2022, and
2023
were absorbed in the operating budget,
and at this time, because those
positions were allocated through the
ESSER funds,
however,
they
may not be supported by the operating
funds, as you'll notice. Additionally,
you'll see that what I've added for the
board is some documents from the New
Jersey School Boards Association
of the settlement contracts covering the
25-26 school year, list of districts and
positions for certificated and
non-certificated
staff members, giving the board members
an idea of the cost of
of um
personnel allocations in terms of
contractual obligations. Lastly, you'll
see a document that provides the board
the student enrollment, which I shared
before.
From 2017 to current, which shows a
decrease in student enrollment. And so,
with that type of information, I hope
there is more clarity in
how decisions
Excuse me, decisions
in the best interest of providing a good
education program for students in
Pleasantville were made
for this budget.
Thank you.
Thank you, Mr.
I just
Does anybody have
Do you have any questions?
You heard Miss Harris.
Um
Lord.
My question is to um
to Miss White. I emailed you yesterday,
and I asked you for a list.
Specifically, because when you're
throwing a bunch of numbers and
like this, I just wanted I want to see
exactly what we're cutting.
Exactly. It's not not
This is covered under operating, this is
covered
This is just too much for you to say,
"Okay, I need you to approve me a
budget."
Cuz then we're going back at square and
I get it, superintendent, you're a
little upset. I seen you take a deep
breath. I understand it's numbers, it's
tricky.
No, I'm not upset, Miss Harris. I'm
sorry. I think you're misreading my
face. Okay. So, what I asked for was
specific
itemized the 40 positions down 32, and
then the itemized of the sports, not
what's covered. I want to see what's
being taken away from our district.
So, if I may, before Miss White
responds, I forgot to mention that the
list of
positions by department and names that
are impacted by the reductions will be
forthcoming to the Board of Education as
per the New Jersey Department of
Education timeline. So, you will have
that information.
However, due to
employees needing to be riced, we are
unable to have conversations about the
positions, particularly because some of
them are singular, therefore
could be identifiable.
So, that's all I wanted to say. So, so I
I can't know because they could be
identifiable?
Or I have to wait until they
I'm just saying on the record, I can't
you can't expect
someone to just
vote on what you give them. Like this is
This is
How can I say it without
I don't know.
>> Take a deep breath.
This is like
You're giving me a bunch
of papers, they all look the same. So,
eventually your brain is going to be on
overload.
I just want basic
itemized itemized material on what it
is, so that I can see what our district
and our children are going to lose worth
what they still have.
And I don't think it should have to wait
until Monday or
Friday or next month, cuz I know you
have it.
So If you already wrote down the number,
you have the itemized. Mhm. With that
being said,
Miss Harris, you Are you done? I don't
want to cut you off.
>> Yeah. So, with that being said, have
these people been riced already?
So What? Put that scenario then. So, if
you know they need to be riced, why
weren't they riced? So, we can discuss
it tonight.
But
So, let me for clarity's sake um
what we've done is identified the number
in departments. It is a department of
what we call talent and development or
HR that determines the person. So, the
person then is notified
through the Department of HR, through
the correct process, and that process
continues. That way, I will report to
the board the department names and names
of employee prior to that as regulation.
I could barely hear the I I understand,
but I'm confused, because I actually do
do budgets for a living. I've been doing
them for 17 years.
So if you know what needs to be cut, you
know the need of what needs to be cut,
why are we waiting for HR to say what
needs to be cut if you guys are
balancing the budget? It's not that they
say what needs to be cut. They determine
because of contractual obligations and
the
order of in terms of who is who by
contract needs to be reduced
by order of seniority.
So, that is determined That's not
determined by me. That's determined by
HR. Okay.
I couldn't barely hear your answer. It
might
It might be my answer to the question
that I'm about to ask. Can you repeat
what you
>> of reduction numerically
happens in the budget. But the
determination of who
right, is reduced is determined by
contractual responsibilities that
include possible um
um
What I order of seniority.
And so,
that happens in the Department of Town
Development or HR.
That doesn't happen in my office.
Okay, my question is did we ever
did we ever hire someone for HR?
I know someone's work working in working
in
that capacity, but are they um certified
to work in HR that can actually um
do what you're saying that they should
be doing?
Okay, am I I know Elise asked something
pertaining to the rising. I didn't
hear it too much, but my question was
my question is
when it comes to the reduction
and you said that we didn't get the
names of them
of the positions
because the people have to be raced. So,
I kind of agree with Elise when y'all
made this budget up
well, when y'all presented the budget to
us the first time last week that should
have been enough time to have the
positions
and the people raced.
Is
and May is that the time frame that
they're supposed to
be
notified if they're going to be still
having any positions? So, that's like
Thursday is the 1st.
So,
that was more than enough time for us to
have that information.
And we went from 40 people or positions
to 32, so it saved eight. Is no more
that can be saved besides eight people?
Eight positions?
Okay.
Okay, so that's that's moving along.
That's moving along. It's getting
somewhere a little bit. And my next
question is um even though I'm in
transportation
for our pre-K
y'all taking out of the budget for the
tiny children to have transportation
back and forth to school?
For our pre-K, our tiny children.
Y'all are removing their transportation
for them to get to school?
So, transportation for the pre-K
students is courtesy bussing. And what's
important to understand is that with the
elimination of the three classrooms,
preschool classrooms at the high school
>> Mhm. it returns the students back to
their neighborhood schools.
And so,
in Pleasantville
elementary students most of them walk to
school.
So, that's why keeping in mind the
practice and what happens then it it
could be would be a reasonable
deduction.
Okay, it sounds okay until the weather
changes for those that's walking to
school, especially our little tiny
people with parents. So, that was just a
little concern, but a question.
Thank you for answering it.
Um
I just would like
um Ms. White and I guess if Dr.
Martinez, cuz we have a couple of
taxpayers here. I believe
Joanne came and stood up as a taxpayer
and
uh Mr. Page stood up as a taxpayer and
he was saying how the taxes would would
be raised.
Can you please um let them know the
reason why you had to go into the
healthcare part once again, so they can
understand?
Please.
The district has never used a healthcare
adjustment because we didn't need to use
the healthcare adjustment, but because
we needed additional funding to balance
the budget, cuz if not, it would have
been additional cuts. We had to go into
the healthcare adjustment, which is
allowable by law. We're permitted to
raise the tax levy 2% minimum and then
the healthcare adjustment as well.
Which was 2.4 million.
And the total of the tax increase is 2.6
million total to come to the 13 million.
Also, explain to them why you had to go
into that, so that
the taxes are raised. Just explain it to
them why you had to go into that.
Explain to them why you had to go into
that, so they'll get an understanding of
why we we're not doing it cuz we want
to.
Just explain to them
>> rising cost. The healthcare cost
increased $5 million. Our charter school
costs are increasing. Our utilities our
our salaries. We've been raising the tax
minimum 2%. Our salaries is 3%, 4%. So,
we're not keeping up with the salaries.
We can't sustain it unless we increase
the taxes. That's our only, you know,
option cuz our revenue and state aid is
97 million. 13 million of that come
Well, 97 million is state aid. 13
million now will be the tax levy and
then 4.6 million comes from
federal grants and then we have 7.4
million remaining from surplus from last
year.
But you know, as that surplus decreases,
we'll have less
you know, funding and revenue unless,
you know, we continue to get increases
in state aid. This year we got 3 million
in state aid, but you know, some
districts don't get state aid, so we're
fortunate that we're getting the
increases in state aid. But as the costs
rise, we're constantly
are
in the I mean, the budget is constantly
going to be in the rear because as the
state
I'm sorry.
Mhm.
The state, you know, increases state aid
only but so much. So, the difference has
to be made up some way.
Okay, you brought up the most important
words is you have contractual
obligations that are increasing the
budget every year.
Have you sat down with
the members and I don't see any people
from the PEA here. You would think that
if we had 40 people that were going to
get riffed at some point that there
would be some kind of representation
from the union. And I I know there's a
vice president, but she's got other
people on top of her that should be able
to speak to this.
Have you reached out to them?
Because I live here. I paid property
taxes in two places. Mr. Page pays
property taxes. A lot of you paid
property taxes and a lot of people
watching this paid property taxes.
This is going to be an ongoing concern
every year
until you nip this in the bud.
We cannot afford increases
of 2 and 1/2, 3, 3 and 1/2, and 4%
increases. Because as it is now, the
people of Pleasantville contribute 11%
of the 126
to the budget.
The majority comes from
the state at 78%
and the other 11 or 12, if you want to,
comes from the county and the federal
government.
We're not used to paying a lot, nor can
we afford a lot because we are the
second highest taxed municipality in
Atlantic County.
And with this budget we'll probably be,
yay, number one.
Now, my question is
if you were able to go from 39 to 32
you have a big empty lot over on Decatur
Avenue that you're planning a brand new
school that's going to, and I read it
online
accommodate 650 students.
That is basically 55 more employees.
What is that going to do to next year's
tax increase? Do we look down the line
to see what happens
year the next year? Because you guys
took COVID money
>> [snorts]
>> every year until this year and are now
surprised that you're no longer COVID
money after COVID has been done for 3
years. Yet you continued, and I think
the superintendent spoke on it, that you
continued to
employ people based on getting COVID
money.
If you guys were in business, you would
be closed up within a week.
Cuz you don't know how to actually look
5 minutes down the road and you're
always got your hand out. Maybe we
should come here next week with cakes
and cookies and cupcakes because what
you guys need is a bake sale.
Cuz we cannot afford to do business with
the Pleasantville School District
when you can't even graduate
75%
of your students cuz you graduate 74%
and you're coming to the city of
Pleasantville with your hand out.
How about when we start demanding that
you educate our kids?
And that you give us something to work
with so our kids have a reason to stay
in Pleasantville and not to flee
Pleasantville.
Cuz you're not doing your job if you
only
Cuz the state average is over 90%. We're
20% below the the state average in
graduation.
We're 20% below the average. Excuse me.
I'm speaking. When I went to school, you
were given the full attention.
I expect the same courtesy.
You put in your resignation.
You said that you were going to
eliminate some of these jobs
by attrition.
We have a county superintendent.
We could save $200,000
plus benefits by not hiring a
superintendent.
That would go towards helping the
budget.
What are we going to do in the future?
Because you guys come you know
the business administrator and the
superintendent always look kind of like
a deer in a headlight when you talk
about deficits.
That's just because you've been given
money hand over fist
with no
parameters put on it. And now when
you're losing money, you're shocked.
You're amazed.
You might not have to give out names of
people who are losing their jobs.
But if you still are down to 32
and you've done some attrition,
why don't we know that there's 10
teachers that we're going to lose and
six bus drivers? You don't have to give
us names. Give us positions cuz you
already know the positions. If you've
given us a budget,
you know the positions.
So tell everybody.
Don't hold it back. Don't make it a
surprise. And why is Mr. Bumpus saying
vote on it and you can still make
changes?
What is that about?
Cuz you can't do anything. You can't
vote and make changes and then say,
"Here's the budget." and go to
Pleasantville City Hall and say, "Here's
the budget, but we're still working on
it."
It doesn't work.
So you better be a little bit more
forthcoming
with your answers
and not think that everybody is just
going to say, "Yeah, go ahead. Go for
it." Thank you, Miss um Famularo.
Before you began, Mr. Page, let me
respond a couple ways, President Rowell.
Yes.
>> Number one,
um professionally we are listening to
you. We uh and respond accordingly. Let
me make some corrections. The
Pleasantville High School has 87.6%
I believe of the uh graduation rate. Uh
So while there is much to do, uh there
certainly has been improvement and I I
simply want to correct the record. The
other thing is that in the last 3 years,
the board has in hand the positions that
uh historically were funded and I will
say that
um
we have worked very diligently in the
last 3 years to not inflate this budget,
but in fact to make sure that we flatten
it as much as we could um
in spite of this fiscal cliff. Uh we
have responded and we will respond to
the board uh providing the uh
appropriate information that is required
regarding any kind of personnel
reduction as per regulations.
Go ahead, Mr. Page. Testing, one, two.
Miss White. Yes.
>> want to go back to
you said about the health care or the
health care uh
contributions. Yes. Yes. Um is this the
first time you've done that for the tax
levy? Yes, this is the first time we
actually used the health care
adjustment. Okay. So when you hired the
new superintendent, she came in the
super new super superintendent came in,
she started getting rid of some
positions, very top positions. And the
problem is if you're going to get rid of
positions, you get rid of them.
But when you keep them because you can't
prove why you
downgrade them, you know, you can't
prove that, you then have to add some
other people in. You changed principals,
but kept principals outside of being
principals.
Now, Morgan can say this and even Reese.
We've done that before and the state
says that classification is not legal.
It's not there.
But we keep doing it.
So there's a lot of money if you examine
the budget this year
that was done
and see where all the money, you know,
you're you're you're [clears throat] not
hiring custodians full-time, you're
hiring them part-time. Why? Because
you're going to save on the
health insurance.
>> Health insurance. Okay. And we
understand that, but you have a
contract.
And in the contract, it allows a certain
amount of full-time custodians.
Okay?
When you get ready to negotiate now, and
I said this before, Miss White,
when you get ready to negotiate,
negotiate with your non-union [singing]
personnel first.
Because you then establish what that
wage scale is going to be. If you start
with the men with the union, they
negotiate hard.
And they're going to keep you up to two,
three, four percent. But if you come
down, you negotiate to the non-union
personnel, you don't have to even
negotiate with them. You just say,
"Listen, 1% here, 1 1.5% there, 1 and 2%
there." Now, when you go to
negotiations,
I'm a union guy, but the union has to
understand that
that wage scale stuff is going to have
to change.
All right? So, Miss White,
this is the first time you're using the
tax levy
for this enormous bill.
Could you not balance the budget
by
doing something else to make sure that
that that
line item doesn't come over to the tax
levy?
If we've been doing it for Our tax
levy's been 9 million. The The highest
been is 10 million.
In one Mr. Page, I want her to answer
that question for you. I know this is
not the regular typical how we have
meetings, but Miss Famularo came up and
she was concerned as a resident paying
taxes about it going up. So I I would
rather you two also. So I would think it
not robbery, you know, two guys to have
a a couple little input out of the
ordinary, but this is not how we do it,
but can you please answer Mr. Page's
question that he just said about that we
find some other No, no, no. You said
about what would you do if you
um
didn't have to use the tax levy.
Yes. Well, then we would have had to do
more reductions because 70% of the
budget is salary. So that's where the
bulk of the money is at, the salaries. I
mean, taking instructional supplies and,
you know, facilities and things like
that, that's not a lot of funding. Like
most of the funding is in salaries and
benefits. So that's why
it winds up being staffing.
But like I said, if you downgrade
uh assistant assistant uh
superintendent, uh
the curriculum director, um you
downgraded all these people, got rid of
some of them, but um it's like that's
money.
That's money you still got to pay.
You know, so
I I would say
for the superintendent of the county,
County Mr. Bumpus, he should be here
today.
He sits on the ACIT board. He goes to
their meetings. He should come here.
And you need to address him. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Page.
Okay. Next.
Uh
Miss did you still want to do executive
session?
Okay. Yeah. Uh may I have a motion to go
into executive session?
Motion. Motion by Miss Aikens. May I
have a second?
Second. Second by Mrs. Harris. Any
questions? No questions. Roll call, Miss
White.
Miss Aikens. Yes.
Miss Harris. Yes.
Miss Morgan. Yes.
Mr. Rodriguez. Yes.
Miss Sanchez. Yes.
Miss Waters. Yes.
Miss Silver. Yes.
Mr. Rowell. Yes.
Motion carried.
>> Mhm.
>> Hello. Testing. May I have a motion to
come out of executive session, please?
Motion Motion by Mrs. Sanchez. May I
have a second? Second. Second by Mrs.
Morgan.
Questions?
Roll call, Ms. White.
Ms. Aikens?
Yes. Ms. Harris? Yes.
Ms. Morgan? Yes.
Mr. Rodriguez? Yes.
Ms. Sanchez?
>> Yes.
Ms. Waters?
Ms. Silver? Yes.
Ms. Rowell?
Yes.
Motion carries.
Next, may I have a motion for
3.1 to 3.4? Motion. Motion by Mrs.
Sanchez. May I have a second?
Second. Second by Mr. Marino.
Any questions?
No questions? Roll call, Ms. White.
Ms. Aikens?
Ms. Harris?
No.
Ms. Morgan? No.
Mr. Rodriguez? Yes.
Ms. Sanchez?
>> No.
Ms. Silver? Yes.
Ms. Rowell? Yes.
Motion fails. Okay. Next,
um
4.4, public comments.
Ms. Joanne Fenimore Row.
Oh, I'm sorry.
Ms. Joanne Fenimore Row.
We couldn't really hear what the vote
was back there, and we couldn't hear if
it passed or failed. It failed. Okay.
Um so, the budget did not go through?
No. Correct.
Um
so, the one thing that
the BA did bring up was um the cost of
health care.
And we know the cost of health care is
skyrocketing all over.
But, where's the superintendent?
She went home.
Huh? She went home.
Okay. Go ahead, Ms. Fenimore Row.
So,
did anybody speak to the union? Did you
bring in any of the union
representatives in when you were making
this preliminary budget, when you knew
that health care was a huge part of the
increase? Did you bring them to the
table?
No, we did not. Okay. So, you never
asked them to make a concession?
You never asked them to be more
conscious in next year's raises, because
we're going to be right back here. And I
can tell you, I will be right here at
this microphone next year.
You can rest assured of that. That won't
be a deficit.
I will be here.
Unfortunately, we have 21,000 people in
the city of Pleasantville,
and I'm the only one out here. Mr. Page
left. He stayed. He tried to do what he
could do.
But, we have to make the school district
now accountable for their actions.
And by saying to us,
"39 people, we're going to try to do
through attrition."
Without giving any We don't want names.
I've been down this road. I've forgotten
more than but what most people on this
board will ever know about school
boards. I don't want names. I want to
know positions. If you're getting rid of
10 teachers, tell us we're getting rid
of 10 teachers.
Or 20 support staff. Tell us something.
We don't need names. We need positions.
They just They have done it, in almost
every school district in the county so
far. Cuz we know Northfield did theirs
last night. They had four teachers that
are going to be riffed.
We don't know how many.
It's a very, very
important question that needs to be
asked. And nobody has given me an answer
to what you're going to do
in the next year, because you always
have to be looking down the road. You
can't just look at the immediate future.
What are you going to do with this new
school that's coming online?
You're You're getting rid of courtesy
bussing for the for the preschool.
But, you have three schools now within
seven blocks of each other.
You're going to close down North Main
Street, and the only school that's going
to be open from Cali- California Avenue
to Washington Avenue is going to be
Leeds Avenue.
And you're going to need more employees.
So, we're going to be right back here
next year.
Thank you, Ms. Fenimore Row.
>> gives us an answer.
Thank you, Ms. Fenimore Row.
And and also
>> in property taxes, I get 3 minutes.
Thank you, Ms. Fenimore Row.
May I have a motion I want to close
public comments, right? Um
uh next, 4.5, board comments.
Mr. Marino?
Thank you for your comments today.
Um
we're going to keep working for the
school district, for the students, for
the faculty, for the staff, for the
educators. You are for- foremost in my
mind and the board's mind. So, thank
you.
Ms. Waters?
Ms. Sanchez?
Thanks to everyone who comes out and
continues to support. Thanks to Ms.
Fenimore who continuously comes out and
holds us accountable and makes sure
we're on our Ps and Qs and doing things
or attempting to do things the correct
way.
Um
we hear your cries. We're trying to fix
it.
We're trying to come together and be one
and do it what's right for this
district. Um it's an uphill battle, but
we'll keep we'll keep fighting. Thank
you.
Thank you, Ms. Sanchez.
Ms. Aikens?
Want to thank everyone for coming out.
Want to thank everyone for watching.
Thank everyone for voicing your
concerns. Please continue to voice your
concerns. We are listening, and we're
trying to move forward. Um
and you know, if you guys have
suggestions, please feel free, because
at this point, we need suggestions to
help uh
you know, move forward.
Thank you.
Thank you, Ms. Aikens. Ms. Harris? Ms.
Harris? Madam President, Ms. Harris,
before you go, can I say something? Can
I go Go ahead.
>> go first. Go ahead, Ms. Harris. So, my
board comment tonight will be I want to
make a motion to put the superintendent
on administrative leave
and effective immediately, and that all
contact with the
district will go through the board
solicitor.
Second.
Y'all have to run it, cuz I can't.
All right. Ms. Silver? You may Dale,
roll call.
Ms. Waters, you seconded.
>> Mhm.
Ms. Aikens? Yes.
Ms. Harris? Yes.
Ms. Morgan? Yes.
Mr. Rodriguez? No.
Ms. Sanchez? Yes.
Ms. Waters? Yes.
Ms. Silver? No.
Ms. Rowell? Abstain.
Motion carries.
Next, Ms.
um
You had something Please, yes, Ms.
Sanchez. Okay. With with with the
enlightenment of
um
the superintendent con- continuously
disrespecting us and getting up and just
walking out of the meeting,
um I make a motion that
we do an interim superintendent, Felicia
Hyman Medley. Second.
Effective immediately.
Is this immediately?
>> Immediately. All right. Go ahead. Um
Roll call, Dale. Ms.
You motioned.
Waters, you seconded.
>> Waters seconded.
Ms. Aikens? Yes.
Ms. Harris? Yes.
Ms. Morgan?
Yes.
Mr. Rodriguez?
Abstain.
Ms. Sanchez? Yes.
Ms. Waters?
>> Yes.
Ms. Silver? I have to abstain.
Ms. Rowell? Abstain.
Motion carries.
>> [cheering]
>> Congratulations, Dr. Felicia Hyman
Medley, if you're here.
Uh Ms. Morgan?
Good evening. I want to thank everyone
that's online
watching as well as in the audience
watching.
We're trying so hard with this budget.
As y'all noticed that we keep voting the
budget down because we feel as though
that there's some areas that can be
looked at
and
save some of these positions that's put
up here. I know everyone
may not be able to keep their jobs, but
we're hoping that no one lose their
jobs. Let me say that. As well as when
it comes to the transportation for our
children.
To just think about our little children,
our babies not having transportation to
catch the school bus. A lot of our
little
pre-K children, they look forward to
getting on the school bus. That's one of
the things. Sometimes some of them don't
want to ride with mom, some of them want
to get on the school bus with everybody
else. So, to pull that experience from
them as well as the distance for those
little legs and feet to walk to school
for those parents that don't have
vehicles, I feel as though is a problem.
I could see if it came down to if we had
to pull and it turned out to be maybe
the high school children, some of them
may have to walk that live closer
however go, but not for our little tiny
babies. It's so
I'm really not happy with that decision
and I am on um the chairperson of
transportation, so I'm really not happy
when it comes to that with the little
children
as well as a couple other things in our
budget which um
I see that some things was added for the
French and
Spanish for the non-speaking Spanish um
students which that's what I always
wanted for our children to learn
Spanish. So, therefore when they go out
in our work world that they can be
considered
bilingual and be able to get the same
type of jobs that some of our
other people that knows both languages.
I just feel as though if we have other
ethnicities that come in and have to
learn English in order to
to live around and you know
correspond back and forth. I feel as
though that our students should be able
to have another language as well and I
don't I personally think it should be
optional. I think it should be um
demanding like it is demanding on them
to learn English. I think it's supposed
to be fair and even all around the
board, especially when sending out in
the workforce
and sending them to schools for them to
be bilingual.
So, I'm happy that that's on there, but
I still haven't seen anything pertaining
to
the act um the activities that was on
the previous budget that was supposed to
be taken away
and some of the sports that was supposed
to be taken away. So, I didn't see
anything any change in
that area. I might have missed something
cuz there's a whole bunch of papers up
here and I don't even know what they go
to.
So, um moving forward
there's a lot that has been going on
behind the scenes that have us making
decisions that we're making
and some of us
don't want to
really make those decisions.
But one thing I can assure everyone,
nothing that's been Excuse me, my watch
is going off. Nothing that's being no
decision that was made this evening is
personal.
None of it's personal. All of it is for
our district
and our staff and our children and to
move forward instead of us being at a
standstill fighting over this budget or
going backwards and their future. So, I
just wanted to make it known that
nothing was made personal. I don't want
no one to think that this is a personal
matter. It's not. It's just that we kept
trying and kept trying and kept trying
and to see that we still have people
that may lose their jobs and some people
that may be in positions that shouldn't
be in positions that we couldn't sit
back no longer.
So, um thank you Ms. Joanne Famularo for
coming out and always speaking
on the microphone questioning us and
bringing your data with you.
And Mr. Page to always come and give us
lectures.
So, um please everyone
come to the microphone whether it's 3
minutes, 2 minutes, 1 minute.
Come speak because a lot of things we
don't know until sometimes we hear at
the microphone. Thank y'all and y'all
have a good evening.
Ms. Silver, thank you uh
Ms. Morgan.
>> for coming out tonight. Let's continue
to move the district forward. Thank you
and have a good night.
Thank you, Ms. Silver.
I just want to thank everyone for coming
out. Um just wanted to remind the board
members again the JROTC
is having their um banquet on this
Saturday in the cafeteria. It's going to
be from 5 to 9. So, if the board members
can make it, um give um Ms. White a call
so she they can uh put you on
um make sure that you're coming to make
room for you guys. So, with that um
we're going to adjourn this meeting.
Board President
One last thing, I want to make a motion
to do committee as a whole and that we
can hold meetings on Tuesdays before the
board meeting.
Um
Tell the clerk. Dale.
Trying to get some clarity on that.
Yeah, cuz there's a motion on the floor.
Yeah, well I'm trying to get some
clarity first.
Okay.
We're getting clarity to see if we can
um do a board as a whole. Yes.
Mhm.
Wouldn't that be on the board though?
Wouldn't the board make that decision or
is it a legal thing?
Board President picks the committees for
the board members
and then they normally she normally is
supposed to pick.
But I don't think that comes to a vote
cuz that's in our policy. I don't think
you can put a motion on the floor for
that.
Okay.
Cuz that's already in our policies like
either that's I set it up.
I said I don't think that that's in it's
in our policies. The president normally
picks the committees or if I'm going to
do it as a whole. So, I don't think you
can put a motion on the floor to do
that.
We can We can discuss it, but not today.
We can get together and discuss it, but
not tonight. But we can get together and
discuss it. It Okay.
Wait a minute, she's finding out the
lawyer is trying to find out if we can
put the motion on the floor. Right. So,
we just want to hold out.
Yeah, cuz what's the policy? What Can
you bring the policy up for that?
And if that's our policy, we have the
ability to revise our policy and I'm on
policy. You have the revise revise it
through the committee. Right.
>> Yeah, just go through your commit
through the policy committee and you
have your three readings. Right. And
Silver is the chairperson of policy.
I don't know.
Yeah.
Okay.
You
Are you pulling back your motion until
Tuesday?
Yeah.
Are you
Right. I'll and I can have Ms. White
send you guys a copy of the policy.
And then if need be you want to revise
it, then you can revise it through um
through policy since we're doing
everything right.
>> Can I ask her what made her want to do
um board as a whole?
Go ahead.
What made you want to do board as a
whole instead of us having committees?
So, this way all board gets the
information and it's not
little bit here, little bit there.
Everyone is in the same room. We all get
the same information. So, there's no
miscommunication or misunderstanding.
But see as more as um she was saying
that if the person that's the
chairperson of the committee is there
taking their notes and they're sending
it
>> doesn't get done. I hear what you're
saying, but it don't get done. I didn't
send the last note because I didn't have
my um iPad working, but I asked Dr.
Martinez
to send the notes for me. But I send my
notes and I give people a time frame to
get back to me. So, therefore if there's
something in the notes that happened in
the committee that they want to add on
to or ask me any questions before it hit
the agenda, I give everybody a time
frame to call me
email me. So, therefore I can address
their concerns because sometimes they
may know something or have opinion
that passes the committee. So, I give
everybody the opportunity to contact me.
So, therefore I can either bring it back
to committee or answer the questions.
So, I do send my committee notes.
Can that we come back and revisit this?
Well, we already did the
We already did the motion, right? We
sent it.
Why do we have to come back if he said
we can do it?
Because our policy states something
else. Is there Is there an emergency
that you know that Yes, just call the
roll. Just do the roll call. Okay. It's
already on the floor. No problem. Okay.
Ms. Atkins Yes. Ms. Atkins, you did the
motion. Who second?
Ms. Atkins Yes.
Ms. Harris
Yes.
Ms. Morgan
Mr. Rodriguez Abstain.
He said it's abstain.
Ms. Sanchez Yes.
Ms. Waters
Ms. Silver I would say yes.
Ms. Rowell Yes.
Motion carries.
So, we just have to work out
the policy and
also when we want to do it. I know some
people are available on Tuesdays. You
know what I'm saying?
So
We just have to work out
to make sure our policies line up. So,
we're in compliance cuz we just don't
want to throw motions on the floor
because we feel we can. So, we want to
make sure we're in order so we don't get
in no trouble. Okay. Okay. And then we
can work out the logistics of how we
want to come together to make the
committee the committee as a whole if
that is the way everything turns out.
Okay. out to be a committee as a whole,
then that would be like an additional
board meeting. Correct. And then with
the additional board meeting, the public
would get a chance to hear what's going
on inside the committees.
So, it's no different than us keep
having special board meetings so to do
it, but that's what's going to happen if
we don't. Right. Okay. And that also
makes it longer. So, just be ready to
Just be ready to stay.
Ms.
May I have a motion to adjourn? Motion
by Mrs.
Sanchez, second Second by Mrs. Morgan.
Any questions? No questions. All in
favor?
Opposed? No.
Good night.