Members of Livingston’s Board of Education continued discussions of the 2024-25 academic calendar and 2023-24 budget during its Tuesday, April 18, meeting.
The calendar is viewable on the Livingston Public Schools website. Superintendent Matthew Block revised February’s dates after opposition from parents and Board members alike. It was not voted on during Tuesday’s meeting.
“We are still working on [the calendar],” Block said. “We’re feeling the crunch.”
The initial draft included a weeklong break as well as a week of half days for parent-teacher conferences at the elementary level. Those conferences will now take place on January 28, 30, and 31, 2024.
According to Block, parents who contacted the Board have been encouraged to reach out to their principal and set up a conference with their child’s teacher.
“We’re going to continue to adjust and see what works for teachers, what works for parents, and what’s the most productive way to do our elementary conferences,” he said.
He said families will be given a survey at the end of the year to offer conference feedback.
“I would be supportive of including days for two conference periods,” Board vice president Pam Chirls said. “If you get feedback that tells us that we shouldn’t have those two periods of time for conferences, we could make a change, but I would support having a calendar that would include them.”
Block said that the administration “can do that,” and emphasized that the proposed calendar includes a late finish to the school year, which he says may be adjusted if possible. A newversionoftheacademic calendar will be sent to the Board for review.
“We’re taking another look at it administratively to provide the Board with, potentially, some other options,” Block said.
Budget
The Board sent next year’s tentative budget for county approval on March 20. It received approval from Essex County’s Department of Education office on April 18.
Hours prior to Tuesday evening’s meeting, the Board held an open forum to hear responses and questions about the budget from the public. No members of the public attended.
The Board has only received one email through its designated budget email address, [email protected]. The email came from a resident confirming that the Board is up to date on enrollment numbers.
The Board also submitted grant applications for boiler replacements at the following schools: Mount Pleasant Middle, Hillside Elementary, Harrison Elementary, Livingston High; and partial roof replacements at Burnet Hill Elementary and Heritage Middle Schools.
These funds will not affect the 2023-24 budget, but will instead be built into the following academic year’s budget. After Board member Parul Khemka noted that the boilers will be repaired next year, and then is anticipated to be replaced during the subsequent year, Block explained that the repairs are needed for next year “to get it up and running.”
The cost for modular classrooms has increased $200,000, according to interim business administrator Dora Zeno. She says that some of the costs may be absorbed internally by the district’s manager of building and grounds, Jamie Peretti.
“It doesn’t harm anything or really impact the budget one way or another,” she said. “I can’t sit here and guarantee you that no price increase will come down the road. But the updated estimate from the architect gives us some sort of comfort as to where we will stand.”
“In this particular instance, the modulars are coming to a state contract vendor, so they can’t change their numbers.”
An updated, detailed modular unit proposal will be presented to the Board next week.
The Board will be voting on the budget at next week’s meeting, Tuesday, April 25. It will be accepting public comments on the budget that night, which is the final opportunity for budget changes.
Public Comment
Eliot Vishnevsky asked the Board to consider installing metal detectors inside the schools after a weapon was found outside Livingston High School last month.
Block told Vishnevsky: “We have regular safety discussions, we had a forum just last month with people who are in charge of safety from around town and around the district. And we consider all options in terms of keeping our schools as safe as possible.”
Executive Session
The Livingston Board of Education met in a closed executive session at 6 p.m. and reportedly discussed a student matter, personnel and negotiations. The public workshop/voting meeting began at 7:30 p.m.
