Thank you so much for coming. We always appreciate seeing you all here. We've met in exec session already and we've saluted the flag. So I am going to read the statement of public notice. This is a regular meeting of the board
of education of Bernard's Township. Notice of the time and place of this meeting was provided and copies of that resolution were forwarded to the official newspapers as designated by the board of education and to the township clerk and a copy of the notice was posted on the bulletin board of the
board of education offices. For those members of the public who cannot attend our meeting in person, a live stream link to the meeting is posted on the district website, [Music] www.bernardsbo.com. We very much welcome input from the
public. There are two times during regular meetings that the public is invited to speak. Hold on one second. Okay. Okay. Um, one time is early in the meeting before the board votes when you may speak about any item that's listed on tonight's agenda. Towards the end of
the meeting, there is another public forum to address any matter of public concern related to the schools. Tonight, there's also a unique public comment period specifically related to the budget. When you approach the microphone, please state your name and
address. Each statement made by a participant shall be limited to three minutes duration. No participant may speak more than once during a given public comment session. The first and second public comment sessions of this meeting will be limited to 30 minutes and the third will be unlimited. In
order to run efficient meetings and to allow maximum opportunity for members of the public to speak, the board reserves the right to set a different time limit for individual comments and the overall time limit for the public comments portion of the agenda. All statements shall be directed to the presiding
officer. No participant may address or question board members individually. No public comments will be accepted before 7 pm or or uh after item 20. Public comment of the agenda ends. Please understand that public comment portions of our agendas are not structured as
question and answer sessions but are offered as opportunities to share your thoughts with the board. The board and administration will respond to public comments to the extent possible. Any board responses to public comments will generally be addressed during board forum or committee reports. However, all
comments are considered and will be investigated and addressed as appropriate. Please be courteous and mindful of the rights of others when speaking. Comments may not be abusive, obscene, threatening, or irrelevant. Please understand that students and employees have specific legal and privacy protections. The board is not
permitted to respond in public to comments about students and employees. Please also understand that the board will not be responsible for the content of comments made by members of the public. Members of the public are cautioned that they are speaking at their own risk and any personally directed statements they make may
subject them to legal liability to the affected individual. If it's necessary for the board to go into exec session at the end of the meeting will provide an estimated length of time for the session and whether any action is anticipated to be taken upon returning to public
session. Can we get a roll call? Miss White. Yes. Here. Dr. Mchune. Yes. Mr. Molinari. Mr. Am. Yes. Miss. Chipac. Miss. Curado. Yes. Mr. Shaw. Yes. Mr. Talbot. Yes. And Mr. Omalanic.
Yes. Okay. Uh, we're now up to our student representative, Joseph. Do you have anything for us? Of course. Good evening, board, and thank you, Miss White. So, as always, I'll kick off with some exciting updates across sports, clubs, academics, and then also
community happenings. So, per usual, our student athletes are thriving and they're balancing their upcoming AP tests and schoolwork with a lot of great success on the field. So, to start us off, baseball is on fire with their 13-3 record and they're seven and three in the Skyland Conference. And they've won
their last eight of their nine games and are currently ranked third in the state group rankings and first in the conference. Boys lacrosse stands at nine and five and they've also won seven of their last eight and are riding a three-game win streak and their only recent loss came in a close one against
number seven state ranked Shauny and they're very hopeful for a strong Somerset County tournament run uh this next week. Girls lacrosse has a five- six record and a winning conference standing and they're are also on a two-game win streak after a dominant 15-3 victory just the other day over
Seville. Softball also sits at a positive winning overall nine and seven record and they are seven and four in conference play and second in their division. Our track and field team is crushing it. Both the boys and girls teams competed at the pen relays and last week's Somerset County
Championships. The boys won the county meet by over 50 points and we outpaced Hillsboro by 60 points which personally that was the highlight um for me and we scored across all different events ranging from pvall javelin to 400 hurdles and this is the boys first ever
three repeat uh so three years in a row of winning the county championship and will now go back to Hillsboro tomorrow to compete for the conference title. Girls golf is 8-2 with their only two losses all season uh coming to undefeated Pingri and they start their
group state tournament play today. Boys golf recently beat out Pingri to win the Skyland Conference tournament and they now hold an 8-3 record. Boys tennis is even overall uh on the season and they're five and three in conference play and they've won three of their last
four matches and they're ranked fourth in the state group rankings. And then our Ridge Athletic Leadership Council is planning a recruiting panel day in June with the help of our athletic director, Mr. Mancino. And I'll have more details on that in our next meeting. Now, moving to the more academic side of our
extracurriculars, Rich Forensics took second in team sweep stakes at the Spartan Invitational last week. And the business club welcomed Jonathan Kib, a Harvard and NYU alum and lawyer, uh, for a guest speaker event on May 2nd. And additionally, our students began AP
testing earlier today and we finished up our off and away pilot and our administration has decided to continue the policy through the year end as the feedback on implementation and its effects has been overwhelmingly positive. Both the students and the parents uh gave us feedback. On another
note, our financial literacy summer course enrollment is now open up until June 6th. In regards to the arts and music, the Boneyard Art Show featuring Ridge ceramics, drawing, and photography is open now through May 29th at the Great Swamp Center. And the opening
reception is this Thursday, um May 8th from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. Our guys night out choir is open to all guys, students, dads, and teachers. And rehearsals run during Mondays at 6:15 p.m. in May and June. And our dance showcase is next
Thursday, May 15th. Our culture day hosted by Ridge Student Gov is May 21st and students and staff are invited to wear traditional clothing and visit different cultural booths and we'll have a lot of different varieties of food. Our NHS induction for the class of 2026
is also this Thursday, May 8th. And finally, we are celebrating teacher appreciation this week and our hello project questions of the week are all centered around teacher appreciation and all that they've done for us in our years. And so that's all for now. And as always, thank you and I look forward to speaking with you again in two weeks
time. Thank you. Thanks so much, Joseph. Um, you're always welcome to stay, but we also know with APs going on, you may want to go home and study. So, thank you. Uh, we are going to come down and sit in the audience for the budget
presentation and then we'll come back up here to have our discussion afterwards. Okay. Well, good evening everyone. Thanks for joining us tonight. So, uh, just to quickly review where we are, uh, on an annual basis, the board of
education, uh, works with the administration and the staff and we put together our budget, our budget for the succeeding school year. Uh, typically we start that process in December. Uh, we come to the board uh, and the public
with a pre preliminary presentation in March. Uh in April, we get approval of our budget with the county office county office uh executive superintendent. Uh and at that point, we get permission to advertise the school budget, which is
typically done in the Burnsville News. You may have noticed it. Uh and then we come to the board and the public again uh for the public hearing on the budget, which is happening here tonight, May 5th. So, our goals for the budget, obviously,
uh, in any school year, what we want to try to do is maintain, uh, as many of our programs and services as possible to achieve our district mission, philosophy, and goals and to also be sensitive to taxes, right? reducing
expenses, leveraging grants, uh budgeting fund balance, uh navigating the state aid, in this case a loss of state aid, and maximizing our miscellaneous revenues and reserve funds.
We start really in the summertime taking a look at capital projects where we're working with building leadership to identify major issues that they would like to see addressed uh in the succeeding budget as I mentioned. Then in December uh we work on our departmental budgets where
administrators are working with their staff to put together their line items. This year in January, um we identified an initial expense to uh revenue gap of over $6 million. So we worked on cuts
throughout the budget to reduce that gap to about $5 million. In February of 2025, when we looked at a 2% tax increase combined with announced state aid reductions and final non salary account expense reductions, we kind of landed on about
$4.4 4 million in our budget gap. So, we talked a little bit back in March about how we were going to close that gap and we'll review that going forward. As I mentioned, in April, the preliminary budget gets submitted to the executive county superintendent of schools for
Somerset County who approves our budget so that we can advertise to the public. So, in order to close that budget gap, we talked about a couple of different things in March. Just to review them, this slide is the same. We wanted to
reduce expenses by about $2.5 million and increase our taxes by about $1.87 million. That represents an additional 1.97% on the levy. And when
you add that to the 2% general cap, you get to a total of 3.97% approximately a 4% increase on taxes. And that may sound familiar because when we met last year, we were in about the same scenario, looking to
close a $4 million budget gap. And again, we sought to raise taxes and reduce expenses in order to land at just under 4% for the current year budget. So, we're starting to see a pattern emerge that I I think uh Mr. Row will be
talking about a little bit later. A pattern that really looks more like uh 4% increases on the levy, not the 2% cap that was initiated back in 2009. Mr. Rolo headquarters up
here. All right. So, um, just a a recap of our primer on on our op our current operating budget and veritably all school budgets in in New Jersey. This is kind of what the pie chart looks like. Salaries um, 59 60%, benefits 16%.
Everything else is the other 24, but it's pretty pretty standard in New Jersey that salaries and benefits comprise between 75 and and 80% of the operating budget. It is the largest. They are the largest two cost centers in in um every New Jersey school budget,
bar none. So, when we started working on the operating budget, um we looked at uh salary costs that we're going to be increasing. Uh we looked at, you know, what the the county average of salaries would be going up about 3 million. We
looked at um the impact of chapter 44, which is the state statute that um to a large part drives our our health benefits cost. And with our uh health insurance brokers projections, we were projecting a 3.9 million increase in
that cost center. Um and then the everything else that's not salary or health benefits. Uh we all know from from inflation that we have um CPI pressures. Um so the DOE's CPI recommendation was
3.57%. And if we just took the everything else and applied inflation to that, we would be looking at 3 million plus 3.9 million plus almost a million uh we would have resulted in a seven uh 7.05 05% operating increase uh which
would have required a levy increase of over 9%. Um at the time I thought that over 9% would be entirely uh un unprecedented. Um but but this year as many districts are feeling the impact of
inflation and chapter 44 and health benefit centers, the um New Jersey Association for School Business Officials conducted a survey, which they don't usually do. They surveyed 176 districts about their school levy increases. And this uh table up here is
is the tally of of where that fell. You'll notice the over 9% column at the top is non zero. And it's not even a one or a two, it's a handful. Um, and we uh, you know, not to give the punch line away, but we've advertised the budget
already. So, we're obviously in the in the most common section, the the three to four range. But what is, uh, very um, you know, eyeopening and and an area of um, concern for us to watch going forward is is what's causing this trend
of of most districts being in the 3 to 4% and above. um and and what's going to be driving those budgets and what what things do we need to to look at. So obviously we didn't want to do a 9%. Um so what we did is um we looked at
reducing our expenditures. Um we we started with the easy place the the non um personnel sections of the budget. We looked at at um supplies services and reduced those as much as we could. Um we trim those a considerable amount 1.3
million out of those areas. Um we uh have to absorb the the the health benefits costs. That is not something we have uh flexibility in. We uh are collective bargaining agreements with with our employees. They're
entitled to that. The benefit levels are defined by state statute. So, uh, even if both labor and management wanted to change those the, um, the factors of those plans that that, uh, drive those costs, they're not allowed to, not until December 31st of
2027. Um, so the 39 had to stay. We have, you know, reductions, um, reductions in staffing to lower that increase to to 568,000 and then the supply reductions. So when we combine all those together,
um the resulting levy was 3.97% um with the resulting operating of of 2.83%. And and that is uh about as low as we were able to go. So um what does the the new
operating budget look like? Well, surprise surprise, it looks about the same in ter terms of the biggest slices. Um, salaries is obviously still the biggest. Benefits is still the second biggest. It's just that benefits has eaten up a little bit of everything else. Um, the unlabeled micro blue wedge
is utilities. I don't know why that that label didn't pop up, but um but th those um these areas comprise almost all of the budget. So the the discretionary stuff which is in orange is a very small percentage of the
budget. Everything else we have very little control over. um transportation. We've exercised all the control that we could last year by by eliminating um uh over um 1.3 million in costs from there
uh on in one cost center and and another 500,000 in another transportation related cost center. That was the triple tiering. Very difficult to do. took many many meetings um and you know re re-igning everyone's routines but we did that and so that was probably the last
major area that we could we could adjust and and kind of influence the the cost on that. So what is this chapter 44 thing uh that I keep referring to the state legislation that drives uh health benefits? Um well, it's the successor to
chapter 78, which was passed uh about 2011. And chapter 78 was a boon for school district budgets. Uh what it did is it shared the burden of healthc care increases between the employees and the local school boards. Um when it was
passed, it phased in over a period of four years. And when you were fully phased in, it it amounted to, you know, approximately an 80 20% split the cost of health care. So as health care went up and went up and up and up, both um
you know, employees hated it and local boards of ed hated it, they could get together at the negotiations table and say, "How do we reign in this cost center?" You know, the the employees would say, "We can't eat insurance. You know, we can't pay afterare with insurance." insurance and boards would say we can't afford to keep offering
this insurance and then you know they could be in alignment and say all right health insurance broker find us a lower cost health insurance change something about the plans make the plans more affordable for both groups right and that's the way things worked under chapter
78 so um in March of uh 2020 although it was signed in into law a little bit later chapter 78 was replaced with chapter 44 and chapter Chapter 44 created some new plans and said that for seven years we're going to leave these
plans unchanged, cannot be negotiated, cannot be changed. The plan designs are to remain set in stone until 2027. Um and then it it made some changes. Uh the most significant change that it made is the employee contribution towards health costs would
be a percentage of salary as opposed to a percentage of the actual cost. So under 78 as the premiums went up the boards and the employees shared it. Um and in chapter 44 as the premiums go up the employees contribution goes up a
little bit but a lot much smaller than the than the board's uh amount goes up. So um that's the world we're living in now. Every new employee who comes to the district since uh July 1st of 2021 has
to go into a chapter 44 plan. They no longer can take the old chapter 78 plans and it's they're more expensive for for school boards here in Bernards and everywhere. What does this look like uh in terms of looking back at at the data
set? Um well, you know, for a long long long time uh we were always able to to use a 2% tax levy and balance our budget. Um, but what that kind of obscured a little bit was it wasn't just the levy that school boards were
balancing their budget with across the the state. They were also balancing their budget with revenue from employee contributions. So as you can see from uh the jumps from 1415, 1516, 1617, 1718,
these are pretty significant contributions that the employees were giving out of their paychecks to help offset some of the increases in operating costs. And when Chapter 44 goes into effect in the middle of this 2021 year, you can see the contributions
stop going up. they go down a little bit and they start to rise again but at a much slower pace than they were when chapter 78 was first adopted. So um and in addition to that there there's one other kind of thing
that um didn't really put this in the spotlight right away. When chapter 44 got implemented, it was during uh COVID and a health claims, a lot of elective procedures and health claims weren't happening for this three-year window.
Nobody wanted to go to ambulatory surgery centers or go to the hospital to get a procedure that was somewhat elective. So, they just didn't happen. So, claims were down all across the industry, private and public, uh in healthcare during that window. Now you have this backlog of people who had been
forgoing maybe a cataract surgery, a hip replacement, etc., etc. Um, now that we're coming out of that or we're out of that for a few years now, all of that kind of deferred medical need is is now getting done and hopefully that's a good thing, right? Hopefully that that's
putting more healthy people out and about. Um, but from a cost perspective, it's also driving claims up significantly. Um so you can see now in the in 22 23 you have these these um
salmon these salmon colored rows into this yellow one where health benefits costs really weren't increasing that much. It was pretty nominal. But if you look from 2223 to what we have in the 25 26 budget it's massive. It's over 6 million. That's across three budget
cycles we've gone up 50% in that cost center. Um, and that is just a combination of claims going up, which again there's there's nothing that can be really done about those and it's what we're paying u for those claims which is
also defined by statute. So both of those forces are are out of our control um until December 31st, 2027. Then we'll you may be able to do something or maybe there'll be a replacement legislation in place. But uh until we get there that
you know the board's hands are are constrained by this legislation. And so I I roll this into the tax levy discussion just to just to show the size of the numbers. You know back in the chapter 78 days the employee
contri contribution when it was 3.9 million in 19 20 in the 1920 school year compared against a 2 uh 2% levy of 1.7 million. you know, it was it was more than double the levy. So, Chapter 78
balanced school budgets, school budgets with breakage and Chapter 78 worked at 2%. Now that Chapter 78 is is not the dominant um health cost governor in force, 2% is is going to be extremely
difficult, if not impossible to do. um the same rambling I've just been doing in graph format. Okay, so this is our our claims costs. Uh the blue line is the claims we are self-insured. So these are the the claims that we pay for
our employees and this is the red line is the contribution. You can see the gap after a brief dip from 2122 again coming out of the COVID years claims went down. people were deferring a lot of um medical procedures starts to rise and
rise and rise and what we have to budget in our operating budget. We have to budget the difference between the blue and the red line. Okay? And so that creates budgetary constraints on other portions of the budget.
So, um, this is just a graph to show how our our population has shifted from chapter 78 to chapter 44 over time. So, when the law first passed, everyone was in chapter 78 and then there was this
new thing where existing employees at the district could decide to go to the chapter 44 plans or stay in their 78 plans. um and it was only new employees to the district who would have to um automatically go into chapter 44. But over time, you know, more and more
people transition from chapter 78 to chapter 44. And so um the impact of chapter 44 gets stronger and stronger each year. We're having an open enrollment right now and we've had a few more go from chapter 78 to um chapter
44. So, um what does that mean for us going forward? Well, um it's very difficult to project um multiple years out with school budgets. So many so many things and so many factors can change yeartoear and
monthtomonth. But just if you're looking big picture and you're doing school budget on a cocktail napkin type thing and you just look at well let's let's look at three potential health benefit increases we could have. Let's look at a scenario where we have a 5% increase in
claims, a 10% increase in claims, and a 15% increase in claims. What would that do for our operating cost? If we had all of those three scenarios, a 5% increase in claims, which would be great if our broker comes to us in January of next
year and tells us it's 5%, I would be very happy with that. But with chapter 44, that's going to be tantamount to uh requiring a 0.89% almost 1% of a levy increase just for that one cost center. Now, we're not looking at salaries or
any other uh increase in utilities, transportation, um anything like that. So, that's that's just 1% there. If we get 10%, which is probably a middle of the road, it's not great, but it's not terrible either. If we had a 10%
increase in claims, you can see for 2627 that would be um about a 1.78% of a levy required um and a little bit more in 2728. Okay. And if we have a not great year in claims, claims continue to be
high and we have a 15% year-over-year increase, well now we're looking at 2.67% 67% levy requirement just to offset the the health benefits ignoring all the other uh cost centers. So looking
forward I think um 4% is the new 2% in terms of school budgets unfortunately. Um and it's not just here it's in probably 139 of the districts of that survey of 176 that had to go well above
2% uh if I had to guess. Um, and it's it's just something that we'll have to start with 4% as the numbers where we expect things to to come in at. Salaries are going up about 3%. We can see health benefits could be anywhere from 1 to 2
and a.5%. And then there's everything else which you know prices haven't gone down on the everything else category. Um, we all know and we'll talk about some of these cost centers, but we'll talk about utilities in particular that'll be going up June 1st.
Okay. Uh enrollment we um not much new here. We but we do um kind of bootstrap the demographic study from our demographer that we we believe we're at a reverse plateau a bottoming out if you will um for the for the next few years.
So we should be pretty stable. um had a small uptick from from the fall till the spring, but but more or less flat. So, um the 2% cap and go above it. How do you do it? Well, there's uh what they
Department of Education allows for adjustments to your 2%. You can go up to the 2% and then you can take adjustments. One of the adjustments that we had to take this year was the healthcare cost adjustment. Um, after droning on about chapter 44, we probably
all know why. Um, you can also use banked cap. Banked cap is um a t taxation levy that the the board of ed did not raise in prior years. You're allowed to roll that forward for up to three budgets. If you don't go to the
full 2% during the COVID years when the feds were printing money and we weren't asking for it, but they were giving us money to spend it on on lots of things. you know, the the board didn't have to go to the 2% so they went to 73% and 0% and that created banked cap that uh now
we're able to take advantage of it and last year will be one more year that we'll be able to take advantage of that from those those esser uh esser years. Um so we have 153,000 in banked cap. We have the healthcare adjustment of 1.7
added to the 2% we end up with 3.97% for this budget. Um and like I said four is the new two. Uh next year when we start to build 2627 we've already started looking at that budget. We still do have some bank
cap available for that year. All right. This is just uh a snapshot of our proposed to our revised um we're we're the the debt expense we'll talk a little bit more later
that's going up pretty significantly. Um and other than that the uh we have about a 3.2 million increase on operating that we talked about the 2.83% that's it that same number in dollar value. Not much exciting here. So,
what's what's driving the operating? What are the big cost areas? Well, unallocated employee de benefits. That's what the state calls that cost center. We've talked about that. It's the 3.9 million. What else in there? Electricity effective June 1. Um, everyone's
electricity, uh, home users too, is going to go up significantly, um, driven by demand. all of the AI, all of the data centers running um kind of round the clock or consuming more and more electricity. So those costs are going
up. Um our initial uh budgetary estimates that we were told by energy consultants was to expect a 20 to 25% um increase. We budgeted for 6% because we had some strategies that that we implemented with our director facilities
to try and be a little more efficient in using um some of our HVAC equipment. Um, so we went, you know, pretty pretty aggressive on that, but even even going aggressive, it's still a significant increase in that in that cost center. Custodial. Um, we have a custodial
contract that we awarded uh to Aramark. They've they've been in the district for a long time doing a pretty good job for us. Uh, in this bid, we went out to bid. We had the bid approved by the office of the state controller. Um, and we had very good competition for the bid. We
had five companies uh bid. Our mark uh won the bid and but that that bid is more expensive. That winning bid, the lowest of the five, is still more expensive than than what we're paying now. Surprise, surprise. The reason it
is is because those outsource providers are also having to pay their staff uh more for their health benefits. So either way, there's there's kind of no escaping this cost center, whether you're in insourced or outsourced. Um but that that results in an increase uh
year-over-year. And then salaries goes up a little bit after we um did did some reductions there as well. Overall, it still goes up a small amount. So those are the big um cost drivers that really tell the story uh for this operating
budget. This is a outer district comparative analysis. Um not much here other than that we um keep a most of our um special needs kids in-house when compared to a lot of our peers. Um and that saves us some money as opposed to
paying for out of district placements. The other uh cost categories what's happening there. There's not there's not a lot uh really to tell. Probably the the most significant one is student transportation was a decrease year-over-year of
851,000. It's a combination of going to triple tiering and also renegotiating some of our um out of district placement transportation routes. Um but other than that the most of the changes are are fairly small across
across the other categories. Okay. Um so what else is happening in the budget? It's not all health benefits. Um there are there is other things happening. Um on on the facility side we are doing the Mount Prospect roof. We have competitively bid
and awarded that project. Um that this summer Mount Prospect will get a uh a brand new roof that is being done with a rod grant. So we will get 40% of the cost of that uh project back from the state which is nice. Um, Cedar, we have
in the budget a Cedar Hill direct install and Oak Street direct install project. These are incentive uh grant programs uh approved by the board of public utilities um that you replace uh qualifying energy efficiency measures
such as boilers, HVAC rooftop units um and you get incentives and you pay anywhere from you know 30 to 40 cents on the dollar uh depending on what type of energy efficiency incentives you're looking to do. So, what's great about these projects is not only um does the
Board of Public Utilities pay for most of the cost, but they also give you more energy efficient equipment, which should help with um the runaway electricity costs that we we had talked about before. Um, so the the um utilities are
currently updating their application process, so we're just waiting for them to finalize that, but we do have a kind of uh pre-assessment of a list of measures in both Oak Street and Cedar Hill that that we expect to qualify. Um, we have district-wide flooring projects,
various classrooms and spaces across uh the the district schools. We're we're going to do another summer of flooring like we did last year. A uh phone system which is um quite long in the tooth and in some places leaves a little bit to be
desired on the reliability fac uh faction, but it was um it's at least a quarter century old. So that's overdue. Um, and we also have in the budget a school bus that we should be able to use for um, athletics and extracurricular
uh, transportation. In the past, we have been or this current year we have been leasing a bus to save money from having to um, quote it quote it out for athletics and that saved us a little bit money a little bit of money but if we if we own the bus we would save even a
little bit more. So, that's um maybe the last thing we can do to try and rein in that transportation cost. And then uh some of the smaller projects is the Mount Prospect uh playground wall, which is in definite need of repair. Um and we have some uh case work in the Liberty
Corner art room that we're going to get done. Okay. Uh debt service uh um budget expense drivers. So also this year um the the board has has had the habit uh of keeping the debt service portion of levy flat and by uh taking money from
capital reserve to keep that even. So that is kind of driven by the debt service schedule the last time the district issued bonds and this year there's a $477,000 transfer from capital reserve uh to fund the debt service. So that is
a form of tax relief that's the equivalent of about a half a percent of levy. Um and this slide is just a year-over-year comparison of the other um revenue areas. You have your local
tax levy, the 3.97 that we talked about. Um the tuition tuition kind of varies depending on on uh subscription busing and and some individuals from public school districts who who pay to attend.
Um and the state aid is less than 3%. And that's that's another significant um challenge that we had and we don't expect that to get any better realistically. Um although the state changes on how they interpret the state aid formula sometimes yeartoear. So,
that's a little bit of a question mark, but we anticipate that uh will probably go down a little bit um a couple of percent each year um because it's it's partially tied to enrollment and we are down in enrollment. Uh it takes a five-year look back at enrollment levels
and some of our highest years have dropped off that five-year look back. So, we expect that to to trend downward a little bit. um capital reserve. I I do get questions from time to time about these reserve accounts that that have, you know, some some millions in there and couldn't we
use those to offset um some of the operating challenges. Um the reserve accounts are are accounts that are set up for specific purposes. They can only the money in there can only be used for um what's statutoily allowed for that
type of recount account. So, the capital reserve account, it can only be used for projects that are on the district's long range facilities plan, which is a a five-year plan of capital uh projects that the district is is hoping to
accomplish. Um, currently there's 31 million worth of projects um on that long range facility plan. So, there's always there's always quite a bit. Um, we do have about 7.6 6 million in rod grants that we've um been been awarded. When we choose to to do those, we'll be
able to get some money back. Um and long-term debt. Um we have uh assuming equivalent debt service aid holds, we'll get about 1.9 million uh in that capital reserve that we'll use to smooth out the debt service portion of
our levy. Um maintenance reserve. maintenance reserve is only allowed to be used for certain maintenance projects. Um, flooring, parking lots, HVAC controls, th those kinds of things, emerent needs. Um, and then the
emergency reserve is restricted for um, you know, excess costs when you're self-insured uh, like we are uh, for health benefits. So, they're they're kind of ring those funds are kind of ring fenced for those specific purposes. So, um, what does it cost the the
typical resident of of Bernard's Township? Um, so looking at at the prelim preliminary assessment data, um, the good news is assessed values have gone up significantly, about 11%. Um, which is nice if you're a homeowner.
Um, so what we need to make our budget work, the 3.9% increase actually results in a lower school tax rate. You know, if you score the math that way. Um, but really what what most people will care about is what's the what's the projected tax
increase on the average residents. We expect that to be $45.97 for the year. Um, different people look at different things. Some people look at the school tax rate and say, "Oh, it's going down." But it doesn't mean your tax bill will go down, just the rate. So we expect an increase
of about 405 bucks. Okay. Uh Mr. Mark Karion, you take us home. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Rolo. So, um, where we left off on March 10th, as we mentioned earlier, was to, uh, close this budget gap. Uh, and one of the
first things, of course, that we did was look at this largest cost center, uh, that Mr. Row was explaining relative to chapter 78, chapter 44. uh and take our market, our business rather, our health insurance business to market with our health insurance broker
to see if there were any options available to us that would would save some money in our budget. And the short answer is unfortunately no. Um so that left us with uh our staffing model. Uh we had already cut everything else that
we could from non-sary accounts. Um, so when we make these decisions, there's a lot going on and and I appreciate that. Um, we're dealing with individuals and their employment, their um their income, and their ability
to maintain that income. And we know that as we build our master schedule and as we work through the scheduling process, um, there may well be changes that occur in the needs that we have. the staff that are necessary for certain
electives or courses or IEPs that um need to be taken care of. And those things are not always completely revealed until we get through the scheduling process that we are working on right now. Uh and that we really aren't able to come to conclusion on
until typically around the end of June before we really feel pretty buttoned up. And even then things do change, right? Um, all of that being said, in consideration of the staff, we do have to let them know if we feel as though in
order to make our budget work, we're not going to be able to bring some staff back. So, that information uh starts to get communicated as early as possible in March and April so that staff have notice and they have the opportunity to
seek employment elsewhere. It doesn't mean that we may not have a need as we finish the scheduling process where we may need to bring someone back. Uh and the staff understand that as we're going through the process to let them know uh
where we feel like there is a more than likely chance that they're not going to be uh able to come back. So um I just want to put that in perspective a little bit because things do change. the initial considerations. Obviously, we're
making the best estimates that we can at the time that we have to give staff notice. So, you may recall that we historically do a class size report in the winter, typically January, February time frame, and that is for this very purpose, so that we get a gauge on where
it is in the current year schedule that we may have some room relative to the number of students enrolled in different courses throughout the district. So um that'll be linked in the presentation if you want to refer back to that when we post this tomorrow. You can see that
class size report. Some highlights just to s so that you can understand a little bit of the guidance there. Um the school district has guidelines for class size uh kindergarten through fifth grade for regular education programs. We're trying
to maintain class sizes K uh two at 22 or less students uh in grades three, four, and five, 25 or less students. We also uh are obviously sensitive to the special needs class sizes. Those don't need any particular board of ed
guidelines because they are very specifically defined by statute. Depending on the type of special education class or special education program, those uh class sizes can vary a little bit. Uh on the
68 grade level, uh for ELA math, world language, we average 21 to 23 students. And in the 912 range for ELA math, social studies, and world language, we average 17 to 22 students. That was a current year snapshot. just highlighting
a few things from that class size report which you're welcome to read in detail. Um staff attrition is obviously also a factor as we're trying to make decisions going forward into the next budget year. Some staff give us notice.
Uh the personnel office requests that staff give us notice about what their plans are for next year. that might create some room depending on retirements or people leaving the district for other reasons that can impact the decisions that we make in terms of reaching out to staff to let
them know uh that we won't be able to have them back or not next year. So staff attrition is a big piece of it. Ultimately when it comes down to it and we have to let individuals know whether or not we're going to be able to bring them back. We have to look at tenure
versus non-tenure. Okay. So, just to explain that briefly, and I mentioned this at the last board of ed meeting, there there are two different um scenarios, but it begins by looking at the certification, right? The New Jersey Department of Education issu
issues teaching certificates. For example, science teacher, math teacher, elementary teacher, right? And if you are making um reductions in your teaching force, you do that in little silos for each teaching certificate. You look at those certificates and you start
by saying, "Are there any folks in the district that have this particular certificate? If I need to reduce in that certificate area, the law says you have to look at non-tenured staff first. You cannot even consider reducing in that
certificate area the tenur staff before first considering the non-tenured staff. You only consider tenured staff if there are no non-tenured staff to consider. Supposing a certificate area has no non-tenured staff and you have to look
at tenured staff, then it works on seniority. Basically, the folks that have been here the least amount of time are at the bottom of the seniority list and they would uh be the first to be reduced. where you have non-tenured staff in the certificate category. Any
non-tenured staff, they may uh have one year of service, two years of service, three years of service. The years of service doesn't factor into the decision for non-tenured staff. That only factors in that's the seniority piece for tenur staff. There's no seniority within the
non-tenured teachers. So if you are making a decision in any particular certificate area and there are several non-tenured teachers holding that certificate, you have to evaluate those non-tenured ste those non-tenured staff. All variables considered in talking to
their supervisors, looking at all strengths and weaknesses and making the best decision that you can for the district. You may be faced with a decision where multiple teachers are wonderful and you just have to make the best decision that you can and that sometimes happens.
Okay, so at the last board of ed meeting, we highlighted very specifically what exactly are these reductions? These reductions were necessary in order to balance the budget for 2526 and the resolution from the meeting
kind of identified where are these positions. Okay, these are the folks that weren't going to be back. Obviously there there are no names but we identify where are the positions where are people working right now that wouldn't be back next year. Now one of the things that's
important to understand is this is where folks were today. It doesn't illustrate what the plan is for next year because you're in the middle of building the master schedule for next year and where people
end up could change. Now, we had a lot of kids here this uh this evening talking about a single position at a single elementary school. That position isn't going away. Okay? The person in the position
can change, but the position is not going away. So, to be clear, this is where the actual changes are planned right now. And I say anticipated changes, right? These are
the anticipated changes for next school year. Doesn't mean 100% sure this ex exactly what it's going to look like in September. We're still working our way through getting this master schedule done and filling out teacher
schedules. Okay? So, it gives you a sense of where we anticipate the change to be happening. And you'll notice it's not necessarily going to be exactly the same. If you go back to the April 21st agenda and try to match up what's going on, well, what's going on is
tenure and seniority. That doesn't make things match up perfectly. And that is a source of confusion which I certainly can understand and I was trying to clarify that for you here. Okay. Tonight, you might notice on the
board agenda that we have many, many, many teacher staff salaries getting approved, but it's not their teaching assignment, where they're going to be teaching, what they're going to be teaching, and which location they're going to be assigned. We still won't
have that finalized. As I said, typically towards June, the end of June, we start to feel very solid on where everyone's going to be. And that is when we come to the board of ed and there will be a resolution that shows where we're asking each teacher to be assigned
and we'll get to that in June. Again, it's subject to change. Things happen. Someone could find their dream job in Hawaii. I know you can't imagine anyone would want to move to Hawaii, but they
might. And if that happens, something could change, right? One little change can have a ripple effect in the way staffing works out as we work on our master schedules. We could have a scenario over the
summer. Something odd happens. We don't know what. 15 first graders all move into a certain part of town and we need a we need another first grade teacher. or we have to reconsider and say, "Well, these second grade classes were really
small in this school. We'll take a teacher from there and move them." We might not want to do that, but if you're paying attention, you understand the financial situation that we're in such that you can see why if we don't have to
bring that staff person in and we can work within our class guidelines, we may make a change like that. Okay. When we did our realignment and cost reductions, we looked across all areas. I think you see
that. Okay. Only in areas where class size perhaps was untouchable were we not able to look for reductions. But of course, we looked to reduce administrators as well. Okay. So, the administrator's
bargaining unit is down two from their 29. And this was the change that we made there. Instead of having three special education supervisors, we'll have two. Instead of having six curriculum supervisors, we'll have five. I detailed exactly where those folks would be
assigned on the April 21st agenda. And again, I provided the link there if you want to review that. So obviously when you have to make $2.5 million of reductions, nobody is
happy. Nobody likes having to have less. We don't volunteer to have less. But sometimes we have to work with a little bit less, right? You might want to have three pieces of cake, but you only get two. Doesn't mean the cake wasn't still
delicious. So, uh, elementary school changes tied to reductions, those are shown here, and we've talked about these, in particular, third grade strings and chorus. And the six day cycle for specials will be
reduced to five. And the two bullets below explain how that's happening. In K3, no Spanish or exploratory, and in grades four and five, no Spanish. At the middle school level, we are
having less ability to do coral instructions. With these reductions, we will have changes to the sixth grade cycle. It did have two art sections. Those will be combined to one.
And in the seventh grade cycle, there was a dance class that won't be there. In the eighth grade, there was a photography elective. and there was a media specialist that won't be replaced. Obviously, we also
have class size changes. When you reduce the number of staff, you're not going to have as many teachers. Class size will be impacted. At the high school level, there won't be the game design and development semester
elective since there are fewer sections of courses. for example, the number of sections of CP chemistry, right? You don't have as many sections. There's less f flexibility to move
around between levels of sections. If you have less sections of CP chemistry versus honors chemistry, there's less ability to move around because you have less empty seats. when you're navigating things like late qualifications and appeals in these level changes, uh that can make it
more challenging to accommodate changes. The same is true with electives. You don't have as many sections of electives, so it's harder to give kids their first choice or their alternate. So, that's a process. Again,
this is underway now. Trying to make sure we can come up with a schedule that works for the students. It might mean they're taking an elective that wasn't something that they preferred. We'll take a careful look at
the age of the student. What year are they in? Would they have the opportunity to take that elective um another year? So, if you're a freshman or a sophomore, you may uh not get that choice until you're a junior or senior or you have another bite at the apple when you make
the request the next year. And obviously, having less sections of any particular class that students are selecting is going to have an impact on class size. Now, when we say an impact on class size, a few two or three more students in a section
depending on the course, it just varies. And of course it's going to vary depending on how many kids want a particular course. Okay. So there there are obviously some impacts but we are not looking to
eliminate world language, eliminate French, eliminate chorus. Okay? You should expect adjustments. I've said this a few times. I could be coming to the board in two weeks saying, "Well, we worked for
another two weeks on the master schedule and we can't make it work without X." We have some trouble spots. Now, it's going to be a challenge when you're dealing with 30 plus staff members to make things work. You have a
lot more flexibility when you're running lots of sections with very very comfortable enrollment. That makes for lots of easy moves all over the place because there's lots of space everywhere, right? Well, you know,
we have to work a little tighter. It makes things a little tighter. It's making it more challenging to get the schedules completed, to get the master schedules finished, to get the kids in classes. We'll get it done, but we have a couple tight spots. Not surprising when you're trying to
work with a lot less staff. And we're trying to navigate those tight tight spots now. If it becomes impossible to come up with a solution, we'll revisit it and and make some other recommendations to the board. Okay,
these are all the things that factor into it. As I mentioned, student enrollment, weird things can happen. IEPs getting finalized throughout the spring or changes being made there. Staff coming or going of their own accord and trying to get all
of their um schedules balanced with the student request. Okay. So, I understand this is um not necessarily the most welcome news, but we are trying to
maintain all of our programs with high quality and still manage with a tax levy that you're not going to look at and be stunned. This is about the same levy that we requested last year. And if you
remember, about the same solution, $4 million shortfall, we split it in half. Half with reductions, half with taxes. That's what we're doing again this year. Thanks for your attention. Okay, I'm going to open our discussion
up here. Um, if you have comments or questions for Mr. Marcarian. Um, Mr. Shaw, would you like to begin? Sure. So, I'll get started. First, I wanted to really thank all the students and parents who came out here tonight.
Obviously, a lot of students here and parents know me because this is my um this is my school that we're talking about for a lot of you. Um so, thank you for being here. Your involvement matters and it's one of the most powerful ways to make a difference in our schools. So,
I really encourage all of you to stay engaged. Your voice helps shape this community. So, thank you. Um, second, I want to apologize in advance for speaking. I'm going to speak a little longer than usual, but I believe it's important to take the time to address some of the recurring questions we've
been hearing from the community. So, one common suggestion we hear is if you have a budget issue, cut administrators. As someone who is administered in my professional life, I understand what the role entails. Our school administrators handle a wide
range of responsibilities. IT curriculum, budgeting, payroll, HR, maintenance, staffing, compliance, supervision, and more. Administrative is a key, a critical part of helping both our students and our teachers succeed. Someone recently asked whether
we've ever done an efficiency audit of our administrative structure like Milbour did several years ago. In fact, Mr. from Marcarian spoke with Milbourne superintendent at the time and their goal was to move toward towards a structure more like ours. Interestingly,
they have since added administrative positions. In contrast, this budget includes a reduction of a little under 10% of our administrative staff. That's not a small cut. We'll continue to evaluate our structure and make reductions whenever possible without
sacrificing quality. Another question we hear often is why do you have seemingly empty buses dropping kids off? It's a valid concern and we are actively monitoring. However, we are constrained by law. If a student lives more than 2 miles from a school, we must provide
transportation even if that student ops opts not to ride the bus every day. The district continues to evaluate transportation efficiency, but further savings are limited without changes in legislation. We we've also heard questions like why' you spend money on something like the
new sign at Whams. So I want to clarify that sign at Whams was a donation. It was not paid for by with tax dollars. We are constantly reviewing spending to avoid waste and we truly are examining the budget with a fine tooth comb.
Someone recently told me that they had read our minute read my minutes and I had to admit I was impressed someone actually read them. But seriously, they were looking into a question about auditing medical claims. Another good example of how deeply we're analyzing
potential cost savings. So, here's what we found. Our insurance company and broker already performs audits, especially for larger claims. Independent audit firms require a fee up front. They do not work on conting contingency. These audits typically use
sampling and cannot extrapolate findings to the entire population. The audits focus on whether charges were coded properly and followed policy. They don't evaluate whether the procedure were necessary. If they discover we were undercharged, we could actually owe more
money as a result of the audit. So, while it was a thoughtful suggestion, the cost benefit of a separate audit is limited, but it's an example of the many rocks we are turning over to find savings. So while so while as a thoughtful suggestion the cost
benefit of a separate audit I'm sorry despite increasing costs we've secured many meaningful savings this year in areas such as prescription rebate negotiations inhouse maintenance work direct install energy programs. And
finally I want to share a personal moment. A few months ago when we were first shown the preliminary budget I asked the administration what's going to keep you up at night. Nick looked at me and said, "The worst part is we're going to lose a lot of great
staff." That stuck with me. It's a reminder that behind every number is a person. And every decision we make affects real lives, our students, our teachers, and our community. We're not where we want to be. And I'm very concerned about the 2728 budget even
more than this one, which I'll speak about more later. But I want everyone to know we're doing everything we can to find solutions that minimize the impact on students, staff, and the town. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Sha. Um, your last um
comment makes me uh have a question for Mr. Mararyian, which is what is your biggest challenge that as you navigate um scheduling and your biggest need for the coming school year?
So, if I had to say right now, we're probably most challenged at getting a middle school music reduction to work. If you if you were if you were to think about that, is
that something that you could say, "Okay, you know what? We're going to put this back into the budget. Um, and we will roll the dice in terms of funding and breakage and retirements and people moving to Hawaii and um, we
can put this back in and we'll make the bring back a music position. I I mean, you know, like I said, we we see things happen every year late in the game. Sometimes things save us a little
bit of money and sometimes things cost a little bit of money. Um, you know, like I said, we we also have been working the last, you know, month or so trying to figure out how all of these pieces um can fit or not fit. I would say that if
we were to take it on faith to to add one position back and and hope that, you know, the next few months don't see um more cost being added and then maybe a little bit of a break just because something happened staffing wise and we
can fund it. That would be the one that I I think I'd like to know now that you know board's okay with that. Um it's a little bit of a risk. Um but I I think we could be okay with it if if the board's supportive. I think it would help us make the schedule get the
schedule to work better to have that middle school music position back. Um would that allow um the chorus to remain third grade? Yeah, that would help us with third grade chorus if we wanted to keep third grade chorus. Um the strings is a totally different conversation and
doesn't really do anything for us there, but you know maybe we could look at something like mini units or um you know a subscription program for something like that if people wanted third grade strings. So if if you want to know the full board's feeling is that something
so that would be great. Um, so can I just ask show of hands or how people feel in terms of um putting back in the position for the um middle school music if you're in favor of
it? Does that give you Does that give you direction? Um, does anybody else have comment questions? Miss Kra? Yeah, I would like to share a couple of thoughts um regarding the district decisions about the budget this year. First of all, I'd
like to thank members of the school community for your support of our teachers and of our schools. Our goal always is to provide the best education we possibly can for our students. And obviously, our staff are the people who make that happen.
Many of you have reached out to us because a decision was made that affects your child and your family directly. Please keep in mind that that is true for every one of the staff members who
are affected this year. We as a board and as a school district are feeling these losses as well, more than a dozen times over. two dozen times over. To say that we don't care about how this affects our
community, nothing could be further from the truth. As a parent, each of us of course views a personnel decision based on how it affects our own particular child. As a board, however, we must make decisions
with the understanding that each and every student in district is our kid. Please keep that in mind. It has been disheartening to hear and see some of the comments from members of our community over these past several
weeks. This board and this administration is one of the most forthright and transparent in the state of New Jersey. There is nothing secret or nefarious about the work this board is doing.
Starting in January, when the district first received information regarding this year's funding, Mr. Mararyian shared information and answered questions in parent meetings, in the weekly SOS Express, during public
comment here, and in response to emails. As he has explained, the district is still working out specifics based on scheduling needs and will be through the summer. There may be a few changes as a result.
These will be communicated when the district is able to do so. I hope that this evening's presentation and forum puts to rest some of the misinformation that is being communicated. Thank you.
Thank you. Anybody else? Dr. McKon. Thank you. Um yeah, I agree with everything that Janice just said. Um it's Having lived through budget cuts a long time ago on the board, it's it's it's very upsetting and sad when we have to cut any programs or
do anything that impacts our students and staff. Um it our our responsibility as board members is to make decisions in the best interest of the students plural like all the students not just our own students or students that are in programs that our students you know were in that we love. For example, my kids
were all went through the music program. So that's near and dear to me. I do support after hearing the scheduling um challenges um to put that position back, but it's not because I prioritize music over art or over math or English or any other um subject. It's because I'm
listening to the facts of what they're trying to struggle with with the master schedule and make it work. Um I just wanted to point out one thing when we were looking at the list of um position reductions. Um you know, like Janice said, we're trying to be as transparent
as possible and Mr. customer knew going into, you know, last year and this year that we had budget situation and is trying to be transparent with the community about what we're facing and get people engaged because this is not going to go away after this year and we need our community to rally together and work together to come up with solutions
and support our district. Um, I don't want to see people pitted against each other. I remember back when we had to make massive um cuts when we lost a ton of state aid and it was like do we it was pitting like the people who wanted all day kindergarten versus the high school parents you know of kids who
wanted didn't want to lose a period and I had kids at both ages and my friends with little kids were focused on the little kids and the people with you know high school kids were focused on them but people start to go fighting against each other and sort of attacking each other and we we really need to work together um one of the things I want to
point out when we were looking at the the positions um that were reduced. Um we always ever since the enrollment started going down have had some positions reduced at the upper grades as the numbers went down and in the elementary school as those numbers went down. Um and it wasn't
significant enough where we had to have the community all upset because usually it was some people would retire um and then maybe we didn't backfill their position. So it didn't it didn't impact in the same way because you didn't have to let staff go. But we have reduced. So when you see all those reductions,
they're not all um going to impact like some of them would have happened anyway because of decreasing numbers in the high school. So we didn't really like gut the academic programs at the high school. We're just having class sizes go up a little bit in subject areas, not drastic. So I just want people to
understand that um that for you know trying to be completely transparent, we're putting all of it out there, but some of those reductions were because of declining enrollment. So I just wanted to point that out. Mike, I just want to say thanks uh for everybody coming. I'm impressed the
elementary kids stayed up so late, too. Um that was impressive because most kids are asleep uh by that time. But I I just want to say that, you know, this is not just a Baskin Ridge problem. This is a problem all across the state. You know, prices are going up for everything. Uh a
lot of districts are in a lot worse place than we are right now. And I think what we're, you know, we're trying to do, uh, you know, I have people coming up to me, you know, I pick up my daughter and things like that and, you know, they really think it's personal. What we're trying to do is make, you
know, we're making difficult decisions off of we're trying to do the most minimal disruption as we can and it's not easy decisions, but unfortunately, this is going to be a problem for, you know, the foreseeable future. And you know, we we do encourage you guys to
come out and speak to us and give us your ideas, but you know, we are trying to be as transparent as possible. So, I'm just going to, you know, reiterate that point because we do listen to you and, you know, these are hard decisions to make, but we're trying to, you know, make the best decisions. Uh, I'm a
teacher, too, and my district's going through the exact same thing, even worse than we are here. So, just realize that, you know, this is not just our district's problem. Unfortunately, this is almost every school across the state right now. Sure. I really don't have anything else
to add. I I think my colleagues really summed it up really well. I did just want to say thank you to everyone for voicing their opinions and their concerns. Like everyone said, we do hear you and we'll continue to hear you and I really do appreciate everyone coming out, taking the time to speak on their passions. You know, I I said at last
meeting that my daughter is in seventh grade and she's impacted by some of these elective cuts. And as a dad, I want her to have her choices, right? But as a board member, we need to do what's best for the entire district, not just our own kids, just not one person's
children child. So, uh it's really tough to make those decisions. It is. But thank you for coming out and supporting the teachers and your your passions. Dave, I just want to end with the one thing that we keep talking about and I want to make sure it's clear to
everyone. Us approving the budget has to be done. It's it's not a question of if. So we're g I think everyone's going to end up approving this budget, but that doesn't mean this is the end decision. Things are going to change between now and next year. And that is still going to happen. So what we decide here with
the budget is going to happen either way, but what happens with all the positions could could still change. It won't change much, but it could definitely could change. Um, you know, it's it's not a place that you want to be. You always always want
to be able to bring more programs, more teachers into a school. So when when you're put in the position where you have to do this, you you have to look at everything in its entirety to try to make reductions that will have the least
impact. Um but what to you might be the least impact might not be the same to somebody else. Um, but to to you it it could be a favorite teacher, it could be a favorite elective, it could be a
favorite afterchool program, but we have to look at everything in the entirety. And there are factors that, you know, are confidential and that we can't share that go into those decisions and
ultimately that is up to the administration to have the final word on that. um doesn't mean it's easy for any of us, but I'm glad that we are able to to bring back a music teacher for William. And I want to assure people because I've heard and I've seen all
sorts of it's like the game of telephone. There never was going to be an elimination of the arts. There never was going to be, you know, we're not going to have a a middle school musical and we're not going to have a high school musical and we're not like that was never the intention. That was never
the plan. That was never what we were looking into, but we were looking into reductions. And there are just some electives that, you know, when you run the requests from students, we're getting smaller and smaller. And it just
is not a financially sound decision to run an elective that only six students have requested. There were days where we could take those things into consideration and now you know if that's a factor that's a no-brainer, right? And sometimes for those six kids who wanted
a particular elective, it's crushing and we understand that. But we've got to look at everything and be like, okay, well, we have 172 kids who want this. Now, what are we going to do? We've got to figure out how many sections. That's a viable elective versus the elective that only a handful of kids have chosen.
It's not though because we were looking to eliminate the arts. Um, does anybody else have any anything else? Okay, then I'm going to open it up to um board com. I'm just going to say
one thing because we do have 30 minutes for budget board comment and then we'll go back onto um the regular agenda and then we will have 30 minutes of public comment. So, I just would say um for a
lot of the kids, if you find that everybody is saying exactly what you feel, what you think, feel free to just clap with them because we want to be able to get as many different opinions,
comments made in the 30 minutes of public comment that are for the budget. And can you just for the kids do do they have to state their address or just their for the children you can just state your name and your grade.
Hi, my name is Amelia Galardi. I am a fifth fourth grader at Cedar Hill. Miss Cody is my art teacher at Cedar Hill. I have known her since I moved here at the end of kindergarten. For my first few weeks in her art class,
I realized how important her style of teaching would be for me. Miss Cody has a way of really seeing and knowing her students. She taught me how to express myself best through all. She gives us the freedom to work the way each of us
need to without making us do everything all at the same time, having to wait for the entire class before moving on to the next step. Miss Cody knows how to teach and how to connect with us. That is hard to find in
schools. Recently, the schools keep changing math curriculums every couple of years. It makes it very hard to learn math when the method keeps changing because this because of this I started having a harder time in school. The art
has been the main reason I find something to look forward to in school. And I have had other art teachers before. But Miss Cody, she connects with her students while making while mixing
in skills and de and in skill development and high achievable standards. She sees art development and exploration and plan which as an elementary student is one of the only ways to be educated in
order to be successful later. If you let go Miss Cody, you are telling all of your students that we are less important than your money, your test scores, and your time. My advice, do the right thing. keep this teacher who has inspires hundreds of
students and who took the time to gain our respect. Thank you for your time. Jen Chuckman, 174 Spencer Road. I'm here today to continue to tell you how much I oppose cutting the third grade string and choir program and uh eliminating the middle school choir teacher. As I stood
before you last week, I stated all the clear, undisputed benefits of music for children. Today, I would like to point out that you were elected to your positions by Basking Ridge community members, most of whom are parents of children in this school system. They elected you because they trusted you would do what was in the best interest of their children. I started a petition
a petition less than a week ago stating that people oppose you eliminating the third grade string program, oppose you eliminating the third grade choir program, and oppose you eliminating the middle school choir teacher at WHAMS. In less than one week, the petition has been signed by 579 people in this
community. There is no doubt based on that petition that the vast majority of people in our community do not support what you are doing with regards to the music programs and do not think that what you are doing is in the best interest of their children. In addition, we failed to see how eliminating these programs will save much money. And we
failed to understand why there was no mention of elimination of any band programs when there are currently two band teachers at the middle school level and two band teachers in the high school level. If you need to cut music programs, the cuts should be equitable. There should be no favoritism. No one department should bear the brunt of
these cuts. I would also ask why it is necessary to have four assistant principles at Ridge and three assistant principles at Whams. Our children should not be losing precious programs such as third grade string programs and choir programs when all music programs could easily be kept by kept by eliminating
one administrator. I assure you there would be widespread support for such matters if it means that we could keep our music programs and our amazing teachers in the classrooms working and motivating our kids on a daily basis. Studying music from a very young age has taught both of my kids discipline, empathy, creativity. They have developed
intense long-term friendships through the music community at school. They have found a sense of belonging. Music has served as an inspiration for them. The music teachers have served as incredible mentors for both of my kids. And most of all, music has served to provide joy and comfort and a sense of balance during times of stress and anxiety. Losing the
third grade string program in elementary school will have a devastating trickle down effect, decreasing the number of students that start learning instruments in elementary school and decreasing the number of students in the orchestra in middle and high school. I can't even imagine how devastating a loss this would be to the student and parent community in our district. losing the
third grade choir program and the entire choir program in middle school since you let go of the only middle school choir teacher and our high school director can't possibly cover the entire middle and high school program would likely lead to the loss of most choir students in high school possibly no musical
capella choirs ensembles etc. Also a horrible loss to this district. We have hundreds of students involved in our music programs in the thought exchange under academic programs. The second most important thought out of 186 was keep the music and arts programs. These
activities are essential to students overall education. The district seems to be completely dis disregarding what is of top importance to our community. We have students in all of our schools in regionals, all state, all eastern. We have kids that go to Manhattan School of Music and Giuliard every single weekend.
This is what makes our district special. It is our arts programs, our music programs. It distinguishes us from all other districts. I would ask you to really consider how incredibly beneficial our tremendous music programs are to our students and the incredible level of talent and participation that we have across the board. Losing any
aspect would be a tremendous loss for the district. Please keep the third grade string program and choir programs exactly as they are. And please rehire the middle school choir director. And I'm so happy to hear that many of you are thinking of doing that. Please consider your responsibility to this
community. Thank you. Thank you, Miss Checkman. Hi, Max Rodriguez, 29 Colts Glenn Lane. Um uh I I want to echo uh some of the remarks that were made earlier, but also just uh express the relief and gratitude that many of us are feeling uh at the
fact that you all are having a conversation about retaining this position at the middle school um for choir and vocal music. Um the current discussion that's uh been had about how to deal with eliminating that position uh has been incredibly alarming to a
number of us um who are alumni of the program and who are currently in the program. uh because uh what looks on the page like uh the reduction of just one position uh will have such sort of significant ripple effects uh across music education in the entire district.
Uh so I just wanted to sort of underscore that. Um the current uh solution being proposed uh would place the uh Ridge High School choir teacher, Mrs. Carol Beetle, um taking over the entire middle school program and everything that comes with, not just the
classes. It would cut the instructional time in half. Um and uh essentially it would diminish uh what the coral program can offer at the high school as well as really significantly reducing what is at the middle school.
Um we're completely aware of the gravity of the budget situation and I don't envy any of you having to make those uh really difficult uh and distressing decisions. Uh but uh the way that uh eliminating this one job will truly
devastate coral music which is an enormous asset of our district across all grade levels um is deeply important for us to highlight for you. So, uh, those were not my prepared remarks. Uh, but I just wanted to thank you for for
thinking about, uh, making this shift and encourage you and implore you, uh, to find a solution to retain this middle school choir teacher. Uh, the, uh, the impacts are incredibly wide reaching uh, for hundreds of students. Thank you very
much. Thank you, Max. and welcome back. [Applause] Um, Timothy Wei, 429 Mount Area Road. Um, my name is Timothy Weey and I'm the Ridge class of 2025 president and a proud section leader at the Ridge uh,
Coral program. I'm here tonight because I care deeply about the future of this program, one that has continuously brought flawless success to our community. I completely understand the logistics and the difficult decision that must be made during times of budgetary strain. However, I urge you to
reconsider the proposed restructuring of the William Ann and Middle School choir conductor position. The plan to split this role among existing district music staff may seem efficient on paper financially, but the long-term consequences for our students and for the rich coral program could be
devastating. Under the current proposal, the middle school choir would meet only once a week for approximately 35 minutes. This is in stark contrast to the consistent instructional time still allocated to orchestra and band. While I fully support all areas of music education, it is deeply concerning that
choir would be the only ensemble reduced to such minimal engagement. You cannot expect true musical literacy or vocal de development from students who rehearse less than 40 minutes a week. Choir, like any other language, requires repetition, emergent, and time. Just as we wouldn't
expect fluency in Spanish from a weekly lesson, we can't expect musical excellence from such limited rehearsal time. What happens in middle school doesn't stay in middle school, it becomes the foundation for everything that follows. The Ridge Coral program, known for its high standards and its ability to shape confident and
expressive young people, relies on this foundation. Without it, the talent pool and skills gained weaken, and the culture of excellence we pride ourselves on begins to fade. This district has always demanded excellence. From our academics to our athletics to our arts, that expectation has made Ridge a place
of distinction. But excellence requires investment. I ask you all to look closely at how our K to2 music staff is currently being utilized and consider reallocating responsibilities in a way in a way that protects the integrity of the coral program. Let's find a way to maintain consistent quality instruction
at the middle school. Preserving this position is not just about one teacher, one program. It's about giving students the opportunity to build confidence and carry on a tradition of musical achievement that benefits our entire community. Thank you for your continued commitment to our students. Thanks,
Timothy. My name is Nathan Schwed, 131 Mountain Road. I'm a graduate of the program and a coral music education major at the College of New Jersey. I'd like to echo Max's um gratitude to you all for the reconsideration of the middle school music program. And currently, I'd like to point out that students at WHAMS get
between 80 and 100 minutes of rehearsal between small group sectionals and full ensemble rehearsals. For comparison, these are the instructional minutes per ensemble received at surrounding middle schools in the state. At Milbour Middle School, 260 minutes with one coral music educator. Timberlane Middle School, 150
to 200 minutes weekly with two coral music educators. Bridge Bridgewater Raridan Middle School with 107 minutes weekly with one coral music educator. Chattam middle school with 108 minutes with one coral music educator and Mount Olive Middle School with 250 minutes with two coral music educators. If the
position at Williams is cut, the contact minutes for the program will be only 40 minutes per week for each choir. Compared to the average of the above listed schools, Bernard Township would offer less than a quarter of the instructional time for choir. This along with the a separate issue of delaying course until the fourth grade will severely impact students abilities to be
successful in the vocal arts. This would also impact programs such as the award-winning rich high school a capella choir which is known throughout the state as a leading example of high school coral level coral excellence. Sorry. Um beyond contact minutes, this type of teaching schedule that requires a vocal music educator to teach
elementary, middle, and high school choir is not a reality in New Jersey school districts. The instances where programs employ vertical teaching, like when the high school director also teaches at the middle school, is when there's a pair of team teachers who come from the high school. There's not a single district of comparable size throughout the entire state that we
could find that has um that has a single coral music director at both the middle and the high school. Furthermore, there's not a single public school that exists anywhere in the state that requires the high school coral director to teach at a middle school and also an elementary school. This plan would put the district that consistently ranks at
the top in arts achievement, espec um at the bottom of the list. If this vital position in the district is cut, we will not only be putting an unprecedented amount of work and positions onto one teacher, but will also single-handedly collapse a program that has been a vital part of the town even since my parents and family members were all students
here. We hope that the board of education, one who we know clearly cares for the success of the many diverse programs within our school systems, can find a way to make changes that will not entirely dismantle the highquality vocal music education for the students in our town, especially at the time when they need it the most. Thank you. Thanks,
Nathan. Welcome back to you, too. [Applause] Hi, my name is Riley Az and I live at 145 Jamestown Road. I graduated from Ridge in 2020. came back to student teach in the choir program in 2023 and worked as a substitute teacher in the
district. I'm currently the choir director at Monroe Township High School. While I could stand here and tell you how much the music program in this district means to me and what they've done for me and my career, what really matters here in this moment are the facts. I want to be explicitly clear about what would happen if the middle
school choir position was lost. As a public school choir director, there is much more that goes into the job than just teaching kids to sing a couple of songs for their twice or thrice yearly concerts. In addition to teaching music, we teach history, language, and math. The cross-curricular learning
opportunities are plentiful. The ability and willingness to teach these things are the makings of a great choir teacher, but they are also simply what is expected of us in 2025. In laying off the only other secondary choir teacher we have, you have cut off the ability of both the high school and
middle school coral programs to do all of the things that are again simply expected. On top of the additional responsibilities that will have to be taken on by existing music teachers, the change in schedule is concerning from an instruction standpoint. Only so much can be done in 40 minutes. One must manage
to take attendance of a large number of students, warm the students up and teach the music. There will no longer be time for these students to learn any essential crosscurricular element of their music. There will be no time to build literacy skills, no time to teach vocal health, no time to teach growing
students about the effects of puberty on the voice, no time to meaningfully fulfill the arts standards set in New Jersey. There will only be time to quickly teach music that will most likely be below the level of what the students are capable of. Bernard's Township will no longer be teaching to create competent and successful
musicians. It will not be teaching to a test whose bar will be forced lower and lo lower lower every single year. Perhaps the most concerning of the decisions being made in the name of saving money. There is an equity issue that is arising. The staffing for other parts of our music program will remain
the same as I feel it should for students to receive a comprehensive music education. However, the ratio of instrumental to coral teachers at the secondary level will be six to one. More specifically, four band teachers to one choir teacher at the secondary level. The way things stand, students in the
band program will have access to their teachers at all times and be able to receive more instruction and opportunities from their teachers. Coral students will be limited to the small amounts of time that their teacher will even be present in the building. While I understand there need to be concessions made to save money and that you're also
open to bringing back the position, the choir program should not be left to disproportionately handle the issue on its own. As licensed music educators, we are all prepared and licensed to teach any and every kind of music from K to 12. I ask that should the position not
be brought back, you consider approaching these changes in a significantly more equitable way instead of the current standing excessively disproportionate proposal. Thank you. Thanks. Hi, Barbara Gary 66 Dryen Road. I'm going to switch from the music program and just overall speak about the budget.
Um I was wondering what all the reserve account balances were and specifically what is the balance in the emergency fund since that can be used to utilize um to offset health care benefits. We didn't get into the situation in the health insurance in one
budget cycle. Most budget so act most budgets are a tool that show actuals from the past few years and the proposed budget for the next two. I believe this is being done but is not being shared with the public. What we do what we see does not give us a clear view of our budget especially when the board member
asks for help to contribute to solutions. The budget friendly version will show one year of actuals but it has not been posted yet for the public. I noticed that the top tier administrators receive bonuses. Typically when companies experience financial hardships
bonuses are cut drastically. Was this considered when the contracts were renegotiated this year? Another question, does the budget account for the retirement payouts? If not, why not? What is our exposure if not adequately accounted for? At the last meeting, an
excellent question. When unanswered, why did not we why did we not offer teachers near retirement packages? In June of 2023, the board advised Mr. Mararyian not to hire for an AP position until possible offseing cuts in administrative
accounts could be scrutinized. Mr. Mararyian said he preferred to fill for the position and revisit it in the next year 202425. The position was filled. Were the administrative accounts ever scrutinized? If not, when? It's financially irresponsible to continue
our hiring for the administration positions without due diligence. We are consistently told that the school population is decreasing except for Cedar Hill and Liberty Corner. However, the students need the students needs are increasing. So increasing class sizes is
not a solution. The board needs to audit the administration side of this district before the next budget cycle. Yes, it was me who required that and we asked that. And regarding Milbour, they did do a reorganization. They did not compare
Bernard Township to the reorganization. It's public knowledge. It's on their presentation. Every other surrounding district but us. I believe the current board's expertise can do this inhouse. We have many teachers on our board. Per the finance minutes on April
23rd, preliminary budget projections for the 2627 budget were discussed, which included an estimated tax levy of over 3% healthc care claims could increase for another $1.4 million. There is a projected overall shortfall
optimistically of 1.9 million, but more likely between 2.9 and 3.9 million depending on the fund balances available in August. However, investing $40,000 to perform a medical claims audit to the ensure that claims are correctly coded
and compliant with plan rules verifying that the district is being built accurately was denied by the committee per the same minutes. It was denied. Excuse me, ma'am. Your time is up. Okay, I'll be back. Thank you, Mrs. Gary.
My name is Kiran Nahari Hardan and I'm in 11th grade and I live on 19 Devon Court. I'm here to express concerns about the elimination of third grade choir and the reduction of the Wham's choir program to just 35 minutes per week. These cuts may seem small, but the impact on students will be significant
and lasting. Music education is not just a luxury. It is essential. Choir builds academic skills, emotional intelligence, discipline, and confidence. It creates a sense of belonging and supports the whole child in ways that traditional academics often can't. I know this
personally as a child. Choir changed my life. It was my outlet, my safe space, the one part of the school day where I could breathe. It helped me manage stress, feel connected, and find joy. I never expected to need choir or for it to become an integral part of my life, but it has and I've built some of my
most cherished memories through this program. There are kids in our schools right now who feel exactly the same way. Cutting choir in third grade removes the opportunity at the moment. Um, children are most ready to benefit from it. Reducing Wham's choir to just 35 minutes per week. That is not enough time to
build skills and community that connects children with one another. It's not only taking away from any student interested in a career in the arts. It is any and all who use choir as an outlet for an expression. It is not enough time to give students the experience they deserve to grow into what they love. For some students, choir is the reason they
come to school. I know often for me it has been. When we reduce or remove access to music, we risk disengaging them entirely. While I understand the logistics required for this budget and that you remain open to reconsidering the RAM's position, I urge you all to continue to consider these priorities,
not just to preserve a program, but to protect a lifeline. Choir matters. Music matters. Our children's well-being and growth matters. Thank you. Thank you very much. Good evening. My name is Emma Vel and I live on 20 Evergreen Place and I'm in
10th grade. I'm here because something important is at risk. Something that shapes lives, empowers students, and strengthens our community. I'm talking about the cutting these teachers from our schools. But let's be clear, this isn't just about budgets or staffing. This is about whether we believe in
creativity, self-expression, and the human connection belonging in education. For many students, the stage is where they find their voice, sometimes literally for the first time. It's where they learn they are more than grades or statistics. They are storytellers, leaders, and creators. The main reason
why I'm here tonight is to stand up and speak for the one and most amazing choir teacher I have right now, Miss Beetle. The cuts you have made to the performing arts will suffer greatly as I call it a home and a family. Take a moment to imagine a school without concerts,
without plays, without movement or music. What kind of education is that? So when we are talking about cutting performing arts teachers, we are not talking about cutting costs. We are talking about forever altering the futures and lives of hundreds of students. These teachers are more
important than any of you could ever measure on a pay scale. Let us become a place where creativity is stifled, passion is sacrificed, and we students are taught that our dreams don't matter. Let us instead be the community that
says art matters, teachers matter, and students matter. Thank you. Thanks, Emma. Good evening. My name is Smithy Mohen. I live at 99 Sunset Lane. I am a proud alumni of the Bernards Township School District and now a parent to two young
children currently enrolled in this district. I'm here tonight to ask you to reconsider the proposed cut to the third grade strings program. I joined the the strings program in third grade at Cedar Hill in 1992 and stayed with it through my 2002 graduation from Ridge. That
decision changed my life. I didn't just learn violin. I learned to focus, to persist, to listen deeply, and to express myself through discipline and hard work. These weren't just musical skills. They were foundational life skills built at exactly the right time when my brain and curiosity were ready
to grow. Research shows ages 3 to n are a critical window for brain development and music supercharges it. A USC study, and I'm happy to share all my sources, found kids who start music early develop faster in speech, reading, and sound processing. Within two years, they're ahead of their peers in reading and have
stronger auditory systems. Third graders in strong music programs consistently outperform outperform others in reading and spelling no matter their background. They learn faster, retain more, and think in more complex pattern-based ways. And it's not just academics. M
students have better attendance, higher graduation rates, lower substance use, and stronger emotional health. Music builds grit, focus, and discipline, things that can't be rushed or gamified. And in a time when kids are increasingly immersed in screens and struggling with shortened attention spans, as we've seen
so clearly in works like The Anxious Generation, which this very district recommends, we need programs like strings now more than ever. Music forces kids to slow down, to focus, to listen, to fail and try again, to feel. It is exactly the kind of grounding that and
meaningful learning we need to protect. If we cut this program, we're not just saving money. We're taking away a rare, crucial chance for a child to discover a passion they didn't know they had. And the later that discovery happens, the less likely it is to stick. That's not just my opinion. It's backed by
neuroscience. I'm also here tonight to ask some questions. What data determines that one extracurricular gets funding while another is eliminated? Why are additional resource provided for band, but the third grade strings program is eliminated? How much money are we
actually saving with eliminating the third grade strings program? And what can the public do to help to ensure that this does not happen? I deeply respect the complexity of budgeting, but cutting a program like this, one that benefits every learner, regardless of background or ability, sends the wrong message
about what we value. I'm not just here as a parent or alum. I'm here because my whole path started with a violin in third grade, right after I moved to this district. This public school music program changed my life. It helped shape the focus, creativity, and drive that led me to become a lawyer, a business
leader, and now a general counsel, and executive at a major company. My daughters are just a couple of years from where I once stood. Please protect the third grade strings and music program at large. Don't close the door before my kids or any of our kids even know it exists. Thank you. Thank you
very much. Hello, my name is Rio Vasantada and I'm a 10th grader. Currently, I'm actually part of the strings program and I urge you that cutting the strings program is the wor like the third grade strings program is the worst thing you can do. Now, most people think that the third
straight strings program doesn't even matter because at that point you're learning music much later in your life. But I will tell you that's one of the biggest misconceptions ever. as a student, a violinist itself, who's 100% self-taught, by eliminating the third
grade strings program would mean that children aren't learning their instruments for an entire year. And that's vital because that's actually what puts Ridge High School, almost first on the map. And we're actually almost top in the state. And that's because with the third grade strings
program, we're able to develop our musical program. So much so that our amazing seniors finally have solo nights with an entire orchestra as an accompaniment. However, reducing the third grade strings program and eliminating uh parts of the orchestra
program would put us back. Not only this, students actually have so much anxiety and stress with AP courses with different like education that they have to take with many high schoolers as a big example. I thought that I would quit
orchestra, but my high school life as an orchestra student in the third grade strings program that has helped me set that foundation has learn has helped me realize that my orchestra program that I'm actually at has almost saved my life by ensuring that I actually meet my
academic performance and this speaks to multiple students as now multiple students would increase their performance in AP exams, increase their performance in academic courses and make Ridge look overall as one of the better schools in the state. Not only this, but
this would increase a better and friendly environment within our community at large. And that's what how our community is really, really good right now. However, decreasing this means cutting this way of avenue of getting music completely and we don't
want this. So to preserve our integrity and who we are emotionally, I urge you to not cut the third grade strings program. Thank you. Thanks. Hello. My name is Maldi Bala Moana Krishnan and I live in 59 Petri Hill
Drive and I'm a 10th grader at Rich High School. In our district, our arts and special education programs not only help our students thrive, but communities themselves. What these budget cuts mean is a loss of opportunity for our
students. And we've spent so much time talking about the music program, but it's important that we talk about the other arts, too. For example, by taking away the dance program from the middle school, students like my sixth grader little sister who are interested in dance will not have an opportunity to
pursue their passions. In a high school with such a full and rich dance team, it is important that we give middle schoolers this opportunity as well. While my little sister does have the option to pursue dance outside of school, many kids don't. While there is
an eighth grade dance cycle, this would only burden the high school teachers by getting rid of the dance teacher at the middle school. And it would also take away many of the dance clubs that have served younger students at the middle school so well. Plus, if there is a chance that we will rebuild many of
these programs in the future if funding does get better, then why are we eliminating entire programs and cycles like the one in seventh grade? It'll be so much harder to rebuild once it's been split apart, and it's harder to get teachers back once they've been fired.
in all grade levels. Eliminating special education teachers would be a severe mistake because of the amazing program which our district prides itself on to help the neurody divergent population. After being in neurody divergent ambassadors club at the high school,
I've gotten to see the hands-on support of so many of these teachers to help these students encourage them to be social with a lot of the other kids in our school. Without a lot of these teachers, our community is no longer as aware and supported of the supportive of
these neurode divergent populations as we are now. This is what our district is known for. This is what our district prides itself on. For those who have benefited from these programs and those who are set to benefit in the future, we urge you not to go through with these
budget cuts and stand for a better future for our students. Thank you. Thank you so much. My name is Arjun Bake and I'm in seventh grader. I'm in seventh grade in my at 20 Carlo Road
basketball. Uh two weeks ago, me and my fellow choir members have found that our teacher or our our teacher for choir would not be coming back next year. Tuning in a large portion of students at at the middle school. This was extremely disappointing. Yes, while the crow program still exists is becoming evident
that maybe some parts of the program from middle school to high school may be jeopardized. When I first entered middle school school, I was scared and I did not know I not know how I'd fit in school. But choir helped me through that and helped me through many tough times
while I was in the middle school es in sixth grade. Well, especially in this year, I feel like I feel like choir is helping a lot of people come out of their come out of their shells and becoming and help them become more part of a of a greater of a greater family in
in Whams. However, with with the lo with the loss of staff in the in the whims choir in the whims choir department as well as but as well as the third the reductions in time to 30 to 35 minutes. I feel like this would greatly
jeopardize how how students will be how students will feel while they're in the middle school. They'll have less social oppos Some people will have less social opportunities as choir is one of their largest outlets to be to choirs are one of their largest outlets to be social in
many ways. It helps them come out of their their extrovert introverted shell and become more in integrated with the whams community. the reduction of the reduction of choir and other choir programs s will will have lasting
effects on the on district and whams for years to come. And I'm and I'm and I'm pleased to hear that the that the board of education is reconsidering the the the um position of the current middle school teacher. And I encourage you to
go ahead with the with with um reinstating the teacher into into her position and this will ensure that the this activity will be safe for years to come. [Applause]
Hello, my name is Aush Bake, a senior at Ridge High School and I live at 20 Carlile Road and I'm Arjun's brother and the bass section leader in the Ridge A Capella Choir. I want to share a bit about what choir means to me as a community and as an activity and re and
restate why the changes my brother has discussed are so distressing for so many people. Choir has been instrumental in shaping me as a person over the last few years. And from the moment I started through now, it's taught me valuable lessons in working with multiple different opinions, leadership skills,
and the joy in coming together with others to create beautiful music. And I'm not alone. Walk into the rich choir room and ask anyone their favorite choir memory and you'd get one of a thousand different responses. Their first time performing a solo in front of an audience at the March show. Having an
elderly lady come up to them after a caroling performance to tell them how much she loved their singing. The challenging but rewarding repertoire that Miss Beetle pushes us to perform to the best of our ability. However, these things, the things that make Ridge Choir special, the very things that keep
students coming back year after year, are all called into question by this proposed change. In the event that Miss Beetle has to work at different schools, she simply won't have the time to pour all of her energy into this program as she does now. My favorite memories in high school are of spending time
caroling in the community. And I'm worried that my brother won't get the same experience. I worry that him and many, many others will miss out on the life skills, passion, and confidence that choir gave me. I love how passionate my brother is. And the middle school program is where
people like Arjun discover their passion for singing, one that lasts for a lifetime. Choir in this town has a storied history that deserves to be honored. So, I urge the board to reconsider this decision and keep the choir thriving.
Thank you very much. Good evening everybody. Um my name is Y Sheth and I live on 40 Caner Drive. Um I'm a member of the eighth grade gold team and I'm speaking here today because I know um for a fact that I do not only speak for myself but all the other students um as you can see there's so
many here. Um when I say that our teachers are not replaceable, our classes are not dispensable and students futures aren't expendable. Um the visual and performing arts program at the elementary schools as well as the middle and high schools are so so so important to everyone and cannot be disassembled.
As a part of the William and Frozen musical, I've made so many lifelong friends and that's what the arts do. They bring people together. Um having these strong programs, especially at such a young age, it's so important to foster creativity, um lifelong friendships, and true passion for the arts. If we remove these classes at an
earlier age, it would be ruining passions for hundreds of students. Also, arts are where people are able to meet and connect with. Some of my best and closest friends I've made are from these programs like Frozen, arts classes, and course classes. Also, teachers are among the best people in the world because they shape minds. They build futures and
they selflessly dedicate themselves to helping others grow. Every lesson they teach, every bit of encouragement they give helps build a stronger, wiser society. And letting go of so many teachers would be devastating, not just for students, but for the community and a future of our world as a whole. Their absence would leave a gap. nothing could
fix. A week ago, I found out that one of my favorite teachers ever, my eighth grade language arts teacher, was planned to be let go. When I found that out, I was utterly devastated. Since day one of 8th grade, she has been a kind, funny, supportive, and especially encouraging teacher, who has done absolutely nothing but look out for the best interest of
her students. Every day, she brings warmth and bright energy into the classroom, and there's can be no replacement for her. The Wham's chorus and dance teachers are also absolutely amazing teachers who have selflessly dedicate themselves to helping students. I love them because they are such kind, sweet, and truly amazing people who are
irreplaceable. Because of them, I look forward to every single Frozen musical and dance lesson, and I cannot imagine anybody else doing such a great job as they did, and replacing them cannot be an option. I would also like to mention after this year's cuts, we will we will still have millions of dollars in debt.
What is going to happen for the next few years? Are we just going to keep letting teachers go? Are we going to keep cutting classes? Are we going to keep destroying more and more people's futures? How can this be acceptable? Will I have any classes, any teachers, any more actual education by the time I'm a senior, by the time I graduate?
We're clearly disregarding the future consequences of these actions because this will only build up to become more and more severe. Also, what about the Wham's musical? If the Wham's course and dance teachers are leaving, how will we be able to have such a great musical as we did the past few years that I've been able to see? If we strip our schools
down to the bare minimum, we are not saving money. We are robbing our future. We are telling our students that they don't deserve a full education and that their passions don't matter and that their potential isn't worth the investment that they deserve. We hope that you can make a decision that the students deserve a proper education, a
good strings program, and it would be horrible, horrible decision to cut classes, teachers, and students learning. Thank you. Thank you. Before you start your comment, I just want to say we're going to close the public comment on budget, but we're going to go right into public um comments on agenda
items so that you guys can just um keep going. But I just wanted to make that clear that so that we'll you know we'll we'll have a com between the two it'll be 60 minutes. So you get to hear all of you. Hello. Whoa. Hello. My name is
Emily Gro. I'm in seventh grade and I have an idea for saving some money. What if you give every teacher an apple a day to make sure that the doctor stays away so healthcare prices go down? Or we could bring back the dinosaurs to teach us. I hear they pay less than humans. But I'm not sure they could teach with
the same enthusiasm that our current dance, choir, theater, and art teachers could. I guess you wouldn't know that seeing how you decided to cut so many of the passionate teachers who are teaching all of the very important and easily lifealtering classes at our school. I know what I just said sounded like a
joke, but this problem really isn't. I know that so many people today and across the past few weeks have come up to this microphone and told you how important the art programs are at the school have been for them to f when it comes to finding confidence, finding the
voice, or simply making friends. But by taking it away, you're diminishing that same support and comfort those children have found for the next children who need the support many arts could give them to figure out who they truly are. That's been said enough already, and I'm sure you were all truly listening. But
if you weren't, listen to this. Anyone can teach math. Anyone can teach science, but not anyone can teach dance. Not anyone can teach music. Not anyone can teach theater. And not anyone can teach painting, sculpting, or digital art. Some aspects of school and
education come from books and tests, while other parts come from hands-on visual learning. And it takes real passion to do that. Dance, music, theater, and art are some of those classes that require teachers who can learn alongside us. Teach alongside us,
not off a script or printed learning plan. They need to be passionate and willing to do all of these things to make sure that students can learn to their best to the best of their ability. Teaching like that doesn't come from a learn from any textbook. That type of
teaching and learning can be found in almost all of the arts teachers you decided to get rid of because to you they aren't important enough to keep. It's not just about the class, it's also about the person teaching the class. Oh, and what about all those
sports you love to brag about? I don't see any of those getting cut. You wouldn't dare to lose something so important that teaches children to push themselves to failure, risk severe injuries, feel like they'll never be good enough. And even as a team, you are an individual, and there will be
constant isolation no matter what. Learning that as a seventh grader doesn't sound that beneficial to a child's education or health. But you know what does sound beneficial to a child's education and health? The sense of belonging. Not being judged for your quirks, feeling accepted for who you
are, always being supported, never being alone, but always working together with one another. Learning that nothing will work if everyone works alone. That does sound nice, right? Well, that's what it's like in art class, dance class, drama club, and choir. That is what so many children are losing due to the
budget cuts. That is the impact you're having on students in all of these schools. Listen to us when we say the arts are important because they really, really, really are. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. Um, good evening. My name is Anna
Leia and I live on five Wong Drive and I'm a seventh grader. I want to share a quick story with you. Last year, I got injured and I couldn't play my regular sport. I was really upset and didn't know how to fill that void. On a whim, I tried out for the school musical. I
ended up getting the role Olaf in Frozen and that turned out to be one of the most incredible and memorable experiences of my life. What made it so special were the teachers and directors who created such an exciting and welcoming environment. They made every
day something to look forward to and helped me discover something new about myself that I didn't even know existed. I understand there are rules and budgets you have to follow, and I know those choices aren't easy. But I hope you you'll remember that there are teachers in our school who truly care about us,
not just about grades or test scores, but about how we feel and grow as people. There are also a few teachers who don't create that same positive and caring environment. Being in their classrooms can sometimes feel overwhelming and stressful. So when you have to make these hard decisions,
please think about the teachers who make school a better, kinder, and happier place. The ones who stay after school to listen, who cheer us on, and who believe in us. Also, for many of us, classes like art, band, orchestra, chorus, and theater are the only times in the school
day where we get to relax, be ourselves, and feel truly happy. If we lose those programs or make them harder to join, school will become a lot more stressful and a lot less fun for students like me who rely on these magical moments. My point is, if you have to let go of
teachers to save money, please do your best to hold on to the ones who make a difference in students lives. Please, please, please don't let the teachers we love so dearly go. Thank you for your time. Thank you very much. [Applause]
Hello members of the board. My name is Reagan Smith. I'm in eighth grade and I only have a small message. I'll be honest. As I have younger siblings growing in the district, I know and understand that they will never get the experience I got or the ones they deserve. I have family and friends with education disabilities and I generally
feel so much heartbreak for them because I hear about how much special education classes and educators are being cut. These kids have a right to be getting an education that can help them learn even more. I have a good chunk of friends who are in the arts, performing arts, and
more. When I learned recently that my old art teacher who had taught me so much is being let go, it broke my heart. She had taught me so much and many others. I have a strong belief that everyone deserves to learn and to teach others because that is where we are as people and as the future. What sense
does it make to throw the education of the future away? And these are people's kids, siblings, and friends futures that you are putting to risk. Even more, that is not fair for the kids, but also our teachers. They've gone to college, gone through so much, and spend many hours on
lessons, money, and more to teach us. The difference between teachers and people are that they spend time, energy, and money to educate us. How fair is it to the people who have worked so hard to teach us and help us only to be let off? I respect your decisions. Thank you.
Good night. Thank you. [Applause] Hello, my name is Jeffrey Hua. I am in the eighth grade at Whams. I would like to thank you all for your consideration tonight. Um, my main concerns are about
the performing arts and physical arts. I would like to begin with the art cycles in sixth grade. By consolidating two cycle classes into one, we are essentially having the amount of time that students get to focus on art. Assuming that the content will remain
the same, this will mean that students will no longer have an essential amount of time to understand the information that's provided to them and utilize them in the class. Let me also extend my concerns to orchestra. By removing the
third grade orchestra, we are removing a year from the students abilities to practice their instruments and to expand their repertoire. Let me also recognize that our inhibitions grow as we get older.
Therefore, students who consider music programs in the third grade may choose to not pursue them in the fourth, fifth, or even further on in their life. Let me finish by stating my concerns about the choir in WAMS. By removing the time that we get for
sectionals, we are essentially giving the students only 40 minutes a week to memorize and to be proficient at the ensemble given to them. Two to four songs usually. Let me be completely clear. 40 minutes is not enough for
students to be successful in choir. Let me end with this. Is it really necessary to make these changes? Changes that will permanently impact students abilities, their passions, and their desire to pursue a musical or
artistic career in the future. Thank you. Thank you very much. Uh good evening. I'm Frank Claus 18 Owens Court. Uh first I want to really say thank you to all the people who have shown up. It's rare that I get to stand in line for this uh moment and to really
encourage everyone to take their voices to Trenton and our governor. All of the schools in New Jersey have this problem. Not all states are having such a severe problem as we are today. So, you guys are taking on something that you may or may not have been the cause of. Um
uh I have a student in Cedar Hill, a student in Whams. Uh the arts programs are fantastic. Um, most of the kids from those schools are going to end up in high school. Most of the kids in the high school are going to go off to college. And I'm trying to figure out how to get my kids into better colleges.
And it is intensely competitive. I'm pretty sure that all of the students have to take ELA every year while they're in school. And we're cutting four ELA positions, two math positions, a social studies position,
and a full language position. Before we put our hands up to say, hey, let's bring back a couple more arts. Um, let's also consider keeping a deep and strong core curriculum. You guys are not just cutting willy-nilly here and there. It is deep everywhere. And the core
education is also very important. And then to my specific uh question, um, uh, Mr. Mararyian, thank you so much for your uh, presentation was very enlightening. um the how you guys are going to have to put together the different teachers to fit the different
uh positions. Um you did a good job of explaining something that I think is very complicated and is going to be very hard to to optimize. Um but you did say something that really caught my attention which you said that no world languages are going to be cut. French is not going to be cut. My rising ninth
grader was told she can only choose from Latin, Spanish, and sign language. I do hope that what you said was true and that she can still take Italian like she wanted to and the kids can still take French. That would be uh wonderful. Thank you. Hi, my name is Peter Bradley. I
live at 122 Washington Avenue. Um I'm here to speak uh primarily as a member of the community. My son went here. I'd like to say thank you all for educating him well. He's doing great. Um, and also for educating these young children because they've all spoken with more
eloquence than I'm about to. Um, I'm here as a member of the community, as I said, as an infantryman in the United States Army X and as a 911 survivor. Um, we uh there's something about choir and chorus that's really important to the
core of what we are as human beings. I've been in it my whole life and everything changes. everything just gets swept away. You have to look forward about two years to figure out what technologies you want to be good at in order to just keep your career going,
right? Um but as much as you look to the things and the the question of how is it changing, what you really need to do is ask yourself how is it not changing? Because it's just as an important question. And uh I guess I had to I thought I was going to
have eight minutes and now I have three. So, let me cut this down real quick. If you think back to the Spartans, sorry about this, but if you think back to the Spartans, right? Everybody thought these guys were just massive, strong dudes, you know, they're just like awesome soldiers. It turns out their king one
day was talking to somebody else and he said, "Yeah, you know what? As individual soldiers, they they're okay. They're pretty good, but it's when they fight as a unit, that's when they become indestructible. They're amazing as a unit." And it might be true that, you
know, these when they were like seven, they started learning how to fight with spears and, you know, shoulders and everything, but they also started learning how to sing at that age. And it was just as important to the Spartans that their soldiers knew how to sing. And the simple reason was that through
choir and chorus, they actually gained confidence and courage in their ranks. It was through chorus that they timed their infantry maneuvers and their attacks. It was through chorus that they actually had the courage if you think
about it to face the ultimate I don't want to say what all that is right now but you know what that is um course needs to be looked at in a different way than it is it doesn't it shouldn't be a side thing you know it shouldn't be this art thing that's out
there it really needs to be seen as a thing that instills something in us that AI cannot and AI is going to take over just about everything else. You know, a lot of the STEM stuff that kids are learning, I'm sorry, but you know, as an
XIT guy, it's not going to be around you, like five years from now, six years from now, it's all going to change. It's going to be gone. But confidence never will be gone. Confidence and courage are things that you need to teach. Thank you. Thank you.
Hello, my name is Mji Kim and I live at 29 Independence Drive. I graduated from Ridge last year and I'm currently a student at the Shepard School of Music at Rice University studying violin performance. I studied vi I started violin at 7 years old and was lucky enough to start orchestra in the third
grade at Mount Prospect under Miss Kovalevski. Being in an orchestra program in my formative years was one of the most important foundational parts of my childhood education. Through it, I learned leadership skills, how to properly communicate, how to work in groups, learned compassion, and how to articulate my thoughts in a helpful,
efficient way, and garnered skills that have followed me not only in my career as a violin performance major, but also who I am as a friend, student, and community member. I found a beautiful, flourishing community and fellow lovers of music and the orchestra program all throughout elementary, middle, and high
school. It served as a pillar for me during a primary and high school experience that felt turbulent and often isolating. Every day I'm reminded of how grateful I am that I started at an early age where I felt freer from academic pressure to fully immerse myself in the musical world and discover my potential
with a steady intrinsic motivation. This motivation instilled in me from an early age is undeniably the reason that I was able to stick with music for so long and pursue it as a career over a decade later. I firmly believe that students deserve this option whether they come to quit later on or realize it is not for
them in the years to come. As someone who has also participated in the mentorship program with Trym during my time at Ridge, I witnessed firsthand how special and eye-opening it is when young students feel free to create music and learn in a safe and supportive environment. Beyond my own perspective,
my friend and alumni Angelina Yang sent an email on behalf of numerous alumni urging to preserve the music programs. This was sent to the superintendent, assistant superintendent, and art supervisor. We ask that you read our stories because these are the stories children to come will experience through
this program. We urge you to keep the arts for the kids. Thank you. Thank you very much. Hello. Good evening. My name is Adeline Su and I am an eighth grader at William Mannon Middle School and I'm firmly believe that what you are doing is very much unnecessary. Although I do
understand the tough decisions that you must make due to the budget constraints and debt, it is imperative to continue our music and arts program as it is what our district is known for. Without the music and arts program, isn't our district like any other? We are lowering our standards when we should in fact be
raising a higher bar to inspire other middle schools and students. I play the cello and have been playing cello for six years now. I was actually thinking about quitting, but remembering the memories I had made in school and outside of school, I decided not to. Fun fact, I moved here in fifth grade for
the music and arts program. I wouldn't be in regionals, all states, NJS, their spring recital, and so much more without the music music educators, music educators from this district. I wouldn't have even tried to achieve more in CH if it weren't for Mr.
McGowan and Mrs. Kooski. From my few years living here, I've realized how much music and art educators care about their jobs and teaching the future. Literally, usually I wouldn't come to meetings like this, but what's happening now is really affecting students and teachers. Just look around. So many students care about these amazing
programs. Even elementary schoolers attended. Just look at all the parents and students in this auditorium. What do you think the people think of our town without creativity? As a previous person mentioned, music and art helps children to focus. But not only that, it's an expression. It's a form of
communication. Introverts, quiet students play cello, play the violin, paint, and sing to express what they feel and believe in. Teachers don't only put in their time and knowledge into their jobs, but they put in their hearts and passion. Please think about the students with talent and
ambition. What you're doing is stripping them of their potential. How is that fair to anyone? So many so so many parents, teachers, and students support this cause. So, please don't strip us of our identities and our quote unquote homes. Thank you.
[Applause] Hi, good evening. Jamie Fury Higgins, 64 Atlas Road. I've been told that the community doesn't understand how the reduction in force process works and how tenure and non-tenure is taken into account. I had
heard that hands were tied and laws and regulations were justifying the decision to let go of the Cedar Hill school art teacher who was not tenured and replace her with another non-tenured art teacher at the middle school. I was curious about these laws and regulations. I
asked many questions the past two weeks. I asked board members who referred me to administration. I asked administration and didn't get a response. I've spoken with superend superintendents and board members in other districts and was told no such law exists. So I called Trenton
the county superintendent's office and I comb through the policies and regulations of this board of education. I have found no such law and regulations. I had been given misinformation in this case and thank you Mr. Marcarian for clarifying this evening that there isn't a law. If these
two teachers are considered the same in terms of tenure and the art position is actually being removed from the middle school and not Cedar Hill, why is Cedar Hill suffering, especially when we're already losing our vice principal? You have said that you're speaking with the
supervisor and doing an internal review. Don't you think you should be listening to the kids, especially those who came here tonight, staying up past their bedtime? These are the people who see her daily and their feedback is much more informative than a supervisor who
only observes her a few times a year. At Cedar Hill, our teachers are not just warm bodies that fill roles. At Cedar Hill, our teachers are our family. I implore you to reconsider and keep Caroline Cody in her role at Cedar Hill.
And although I started asking about this one teacher, this experience has made it clear that the misinformation I was given in this case is probably the tip of the iceberg. I can assure you that the community is well educated and we are not too busy to understand. We're
paying attention and we're watching and we want the transparency that we were promised during the board of education elections. We want answers and we're not going to stop asking questions. Thank you. Thank you.
Hi, Barbara Gary, 66 Dryen Road. Um, guess I'm holding it. Um, I'm going to finish where I left off. Per the finance minutes from April 23rd, primary budget projections for 2627 budget were discussed which included an estimated
tax levy of over 3% healthcare claims which could increase a levy of another 3%. Which could increase healthcare claims could increase for another 1.4 million. There is projected shortfall optimistically of
1.9 but probably between 2.9 and 3.99 million depending on fund balances. So again, we're looking at a large budget issue next year. However, investing $40,000 to perform medical claims audit to ensure that claims are correctly coded and compliant with planned rules
verifying that the district is being built accurately was denied by the committee as per the same minutes. It was decided to be done in-house monthly. Do we have a qualified health care benefits administrator who can audit these claims? Medical billing is
complicated and requires certifications. If yes, how does this person have time in their current responsibilities to add this to them? Does this break HIPPA laws? Considering the forecast of the next budget, it seems that this investment should be considered versus
hoping our in-house administrator can review the monthly claims and identify er errors. The board and administration consistently says, "Let's not do it now. Let's look at it later." Well, later has us laying off tenure teachers who have dedicated their careers to us, not just
inside the classroom. Tenure does not carry into another district. They may have to start over. You are failing our students and the dedicated teachers that you praise often. The board's board's advice to hit all departments is short-sighted based on teacher shortages
in the secondary level. Not considering what a teacher has done for the district, not just inside the classroom, is irresponsible and reckless to our district. Again, not having more not having more administration cuts and losing two tenur high school math teachers shows poor judgment. How will
we find these qualified teachers again? How will we attract a qualified teachers with a track record of those who fire tenure teachers? Lastly, please don't please do not compare us to districts that we would not be compared
to academically. We know that West Orange, East Brunswick, Roxberry, Lakeland, Vernon, and Depford are also having budget issues, but we shouldn't be compared to them if we're not compared to them academically. This may make you feel justified in your decisions, but it does not fix our
budget issues. We will continue to have tax increase, layoff teachers, increase class sizes, and remove classes and programs if you do not find a substantial solution that should include a reorganization of the top heavy administration and non-eing positions in
our district. Thank you. My name is Sil Diwidi. Uh my address is 128 PTOC tribe, BaskinR. Uh today I'm representing Hindu education foundation which is a program of Hindu Sakan. Hindus Savakan uh is
501c3 voluntary nonprofit social educational and cultural organization to honor the teaching community for their exemplary service in educating the students. The first week of May is
considered teacher appreciation week in the United States. To celebrate the special occasion, we organize an annual event called Guru Wandana. Guru in Sanskrit means teacher
or spiritual master or mentor and wandana means salutations. Guru wandana means reverence to the teacher. That is to say it is the expression of love, gratitude and reverence towards the teacher.
Teachers plays a critical role in educating and shaping our children into the future leaders of our country. These kind, patient, hardworking, dedicated and understanding professionals help
mold our children and guide them in positive direction. We entrust our children with teachers during the school year and they pay a vital role in their lives daily. A well-known adage from our culture.
Achara deuha means teacher are next to God. Teacher are rewarded in our tradition. They occupy a highest position and role in the society. Hindu educational foundation is working towards
building the collaboration with teachers and students to enhance the understanding of Hindu culture. On behalf of Hindu Educational Foundation, HSS, I humbly bow and thank all the wonderful teachers around. You are
superheroes. Thank you very much. Thanks. Thank you. Hello, I'm Cole Marshall from 38 Gerard Avenue, Basking Ridge, New Jersey, and I'm a seventh grader at William Annon. I'm gonna keep this short because I spoke at last meeting and I know there are people who want to speak behind me,
but I think that you heard the chance at the beginning of today's meeting and public opinion is pretty clear. I don't know who you think you're representing by passing this budget, but it's clearly not the majority of the students you were elected to serve. In addition, I think it's extremely ironic that you're
laying off so many teachers on teacher appreciation week. Um, and I'm very happy to hear that you're you are reconsidering bringing back the middle school choir teacher. Um, even with her back, I would like to ask for complete transparency on what will happen to the musical program at WHAMS next year. It's
a key stepping stone to the award-winning ridge program and the dance teacher is being laid off. So, I don't know what's going to happen. And also, I want to reiterate concern that some world languages are being cut. I I take Italian currently and I know that
many of my classmates love the class. I would hate to see it eliminated in the high school because it drastically increases diversity in language education. In general, I hope that you will take one or two more months to straighten this budget out and find better solutions. Keeping this budget
plan right as is right now is like giving up. And I don't like to see what the example is that you are showing to every student in our district. I believe each and every one of you has the courage to say no to this plan. Thank
you. Thank you. [Applause] James Vocal 20 evergreen place. Um I wasn't planning on speaking this evening, but I was inspired by the number of students uh who spoke out tonight. Um I'm an educator 32 years um
fifth grade math. And what has struck me about today, I I thank Mrs. White for uh the foresight to uh extend the uh public comment knowing that there uh would have been mutiny had you not done that. So, um I I appreciate that and I'm sure the
students do as well because uh this is also about civics and it was a very important civics lesson that was taught tonight that you do have a voice and your voice needed to be heard and all these students represented themselves extremely well and I'm very proud to be a parent of one of those uh speakers
tonight. Uh one thing as a teacher that we I think are are missing the boat on is the morale of the staff. Um whenever there's budget cuts in my own district is going through uh the same amount of cuts as well. We're letting people go.
Um staff morale ends up dropping significantly because we now have to take on more responsibility. Uh when we let people go, everybody else has to take on more. And that's a very
difficult pill to swallow. And when you're talking about, oh, we'll just increase class sizes. Well, when you're increasing a class size, anywhere between four to eight students makes a tremendous difference. It's a huge impact not only on the teacher, but also
with the students within that class. So, I know that you guys, you have your hands tied. Every district in the state is having budgetary issues. They're letting people go, but as Mr. Mark Kerrion said, this is not just a this year problem. This is going to be a
problem for the foreseeable future. And you can't just increase class sizes because what do you do when you get to the max? Now, I don't know what the maximum class size is in this district, but in ours, it's 27. And after we reach 27, we have to hire another teacher to
be in that room. So, what will this district do when you hit the maximum amount of pupils in a particular class? So, I don't envy you. You have a lot of tough decisions to make. I appreciate the fact that um you are considering
keeping uh the music program intact the way that it is um as my daughter mentioned earlier. So um you know I hope that you guys can come to a reasonable decision um and have the for uh forthright to look forward into the
future and start planning on next year's budget as soon as we're done with this school year because it's not going to get any easier. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Hi, my name is Yulen Pan uh 21 Raleigh Core. I was here like two weeks
ago. I have a bunch of things but I just uh try to uh do some like you know try to give some like a useful comment. Um I don't know if that work but uh have you guys hear about sona solar energy? Maybe
we can build something in the parking lot and we can reduce our energy space like just like when I'm working with talking about the uh the electricity and also for healthc care I don't know I
think you all know like quote you have I don't know I'm so curious about how I don't know u maybe uh there are so many health care company we can compare the price we can crawl we can try our best to do
uh you know reduce the spends and also we'll try our best to reduce and then uh maybe uh fundraising I will be glad I'll buy the ticket to watch Mr. Nick like well do do dance ballet or Mr. Y Mrs.
Why? Maybe you sing or I don't know. Yeah, your voice is beautiful, you know. Yeah, fundraising. We try our best to, you know, reduce our space. Yeah. We are not we just we stay on the same line. We try to do something together. So just I
say finally I want to say one thing. I said that last time. Just leave the budget problem here and give our uh kids the music, art, and beautiful soul.
Thank you. Thank you. Good evening. My name is Christine Jalone. I live at 15 Oakidge Road in Basking Ridge. And I'm just here to um echo what we've heard tonight about the importance of the world language and the
music program in the elementary school. When you work with students in the elementary school, they are making a lot of social emotional connections. We shouldn't be cutting music. We should be adding it at the
prek and kindergarten ages to give them chance to experiment to find their voice. A lot of students that have no voice and can find different ways of expressing themselves. And in the same way with language, we should be starting it
earlier. Are you going to be fluent in a language learning in elementary versus in middle school? Maybe not. But what you are doing is you're making connections with other people. You explore your own heritage. You understand people around you. You begin to ask questions about
other cultures. And our town's very rich in cultures. It's a mistake to cut languages and music in the elementary level. Thank you. Thank you. Is there anyone for public comment? Just want to echo uh into everything
that everyone else said. Uh we moved into this town two years back. Can you just state your name? Sorry. I'm Kushbuya. I live at 64 Bernard Drive. We moved into this uh district, a school district and this um town of Basking Ridge two years back. We compared a lot
of uh places, cities, towns, districts, and we chose this one. This was one of the top one. We still commute one and a half hours from here to New York City three times a week and eventually five times a week and we took all that hurdle because of the goodness and the best
things that we see here in this school district and if they are being taken away then uh yeah I mean my kids are my son is in second grade in Cedar Hill. My daughter is in kindergarten and the way they find inspiration to go to the school and do different things and uh
even at kindergarten level I can see that because they go from u what do we say daycare to a school environment and the coping is very difficult but these art programs like the teacher is Cody I mean I can stay by name that it gives
them joy I mean sometimes she's helping in afterare and when I ask my daughter who is your favorite teacher teacher in the school or in the after she's like yeah she's amazing and she makes me feel very good and happy the way she teaches things. So even at this level the trauma
uh the the emotional burden it all goes away with these art programs and taking them away from them wouldn't be a nice thing and if there's any way to accommodate then yes I just wanted to added a voice to that that would be great kids struggle a lot kids go
through a lot of um what do we say emotional thing my my son is going through a behavioral program and I can vouch for that. It's very difficult for them to handle different emotions. How to handle anger and how to end handle
sadness. The first time he watched a movie of Star Wars and somebody died in the movie and he just couldn't stop crying because it was the first time he saw death. So he he didn't know how to cope up with that. And when they go to
school and when they learn art and music which eases down, how they process these emotions, how to make it reduce their stress is is a huge thing. And if they are not introduced to it, they will not
uh uh uh develop interest in that, right? They will go into sport or they will start with something else but they will not be introduced to this thing and then later on they will be occupied so much with so many other things to do. They will not be able to learn it and they will miss it out and that's why
it's important to start it early and retain it throughout and just just wanted to add it as a parent um who can witness that how important these things can be. it will help us reduce a lot of problems and issues in a longer run and
I really vouch for it. Thank you so much. Thank you. If there are no other public comments, I will close public comment on agenda items. Um, and I just want to say thank you to everybody who took the time to come and speak tonight, especially
the students and especially the alum who uh I know you all have busy lives and it takes a lot um to find the time to come back, but it also tells us how much Ridge meant to you and the district meant to you and it really is appreciated. Um, Mr. Mark, did you want
to address any? So, there was one thing I was going to ask Miss Fox to speak to about the question on world language. Sure. Um the uh world language question has a couple of parts to it. Mostly it is based on
our annual process. Uh uh the way we handle scheduling in the world language program annually. There was you might have noticed from the slide a reduction in the world language department. Half a position at the high school and a half a position at the middle school. Um that resulted in no reduction directly in
programming but in an increase in some of the class sizes and some of the languages. But every year when students in so our program in world language works like this in coming out of fifth grade students select the language they want to take in the middle school. They can choose any language they want to
take of the four that we offer. Um and they stay in that language for the entire three years almost entirely. Going into the high school students have the opportunity to change their language selection if they if they would like to. But each year we have to decide which
level one courses we're going to run based on enrollments. So we aren't always able to run the level one courses in all of the languages we offer. So for next year, the level one courses that we're able to offer are Latin one, Spanish one, and American Sign Language.
So, where you're not able to take Italian one entering high school, it's because there weren't enough students who selected a level that level one course um for it to run or French. That's the other one that's not running. The level one Italian and the level one French are not running because not
enough students selected it. But there are three languages that they could change to should they want to do that. Thank you. Okay, now we're going to get back to the agenda and we're back to you, Mr. Marion, with the superintendence report.
There are two items. Is there anything? Okay. Can I get a motion? I need a second. Brett. Okay. Uh, and roll call. Miss White, yes. Dr. McHune, yes. Mr.
Mean, yes. Miss Curado, yes. Mr. Shaw, yes. Mr. Talbot, yes. And Mr. Alanic, yes. Uh, an approval of minutes. Can I get a motion? Dave Mike. Roll call. Miss White. Yes. Dr. Mun.
Yes. Mr. Am. Yes. Miss Curado, yes. Mr. Shaw, yes. Mr. Talbot, yes. And Mr. Alanic, yes. That brings us up to finance. Um there is a report. Do you want to do your
report first? Sure. Uh so the first item we discussed um the committee discussed was the possibility of conducting a medical claims audit. We've heard a little about that tonight. The goal of the audit is to ensure that claims are properly coded and compliant
with plan rules, verifying that the district is being bu accurately with them. A large accounting firm presented several sampling based audit options. The estimated cost of the audit is approximately 40,000. Given the cost and the lack of guaranteed savings, the
committee does not recommend moving forward at this time, but suggests revisiting the proposal in the future. In the meantime, the administration will work with the broker to review claims monthly and try to verify claims for free. The next item, the committee met
with the district's medical broker, AJ Gallagher, to review the current health plan and consider transitioning from self-insured to a school health insurance fund called the shift. It has about 150 other schools in it or a fully funded insured model. A shift is a
consortium of schools sharing health cost to reduce volatility. The district has been accepted into a shift and if it ch if it chooses to join. While cost projections for the 2526 year are similar between both models, a switch to the shift would require the district to
pay approximately 2 million for incurred but not yet build claims from the current self-insured plan. This would significantly increase next year's budget. Although shift offers more predictable long-term costs, the upfront cost and the long-term comparative
affordability of self- insurance led the committee to recommend staying with the current model for now and revisiting the option in the future. The broker also reviewed components of the district health benefits for dental. No rate increases
for next year. District contribution remains unchanged. Vision continues to be 100% employee paid. Um, and then a benefit administration platform, which is the most exciting of these. The committee recommends adopting a new online platform provided and funded by
the broker, so no cost to the district to streamline open enrollment, reduce paperwork, and enhance user experience for the employees. So hopefully some cost decreases in the future. Next, the committee discussed issues regarding an RFP for naming
rights for the plan new field. Several other diff district RFP resulted were reviewed. The committee agreed it's worthwhile to explore naming right opportunities further. Next item was due to our current need the district is renting a
bus for athletic events at $200 a day a day exceeding 20,000 annually. Mr. Rolo has submitted multiple bids to purchase a bus for approximately 75,000, aiming for a 3 to fouryear return on the investment. No successful bid has been
made yet, but he will continue monitoring the market. Still true. Um, and the last one, which I think is maybe the most important. Um, oh, I'm sorry. No, there's another one. I have to go. The committee re reviewed
results of from the survey. So, I'm going to skip that because you already discussed that one. Um, and then the last item was the we started to look into the preliminary budget for 2627 that we've started to already discuss how this is a real
issue. So, estimating a tax levy increase of 3.09% 9% which includes the expiring bank cap. Assuming a health care scenario with modest increases in claims could result in a possible healthcare adjustment of up to 1.4 million in additional levy depending on
permitted increases derived from state plan increases. projected shortfall optimistically of 1.9 million but likely 2.9 million and 3.9 million depending on fund balance availability to be confirmed in by August. So based on that
shortfall um we have a lot of next steps to do. We're going to look at all possible options. We're exploring exploring things like increased fees, looking at donations, other ways to increase levies and spending cuts. The committee emphasized that current projections are
both preliminary and optimistic. Thank you. Okay. Uh there are six items on the agenda. May I have a motion? Robin and Dave. And a roll call.
Miss White. Yes. Dr. McHune. Yes. Mr. Am. Yes. Miss Curado. Yes. Mr. Shaw, yes. Mr. Talbot, yes. And Mr. Omalak, yes. We're up to personnel. Um, is there a report? Um, I had I could not attend the meeting and Mr. Sai nicely, um,
agreed to take the minutes and do the report. Thank you very much. Yes. So, the committee met on April 16th. The items that I can report on, uh, one item is a proposal at Liberty Corner for a robotics club. This would be uh an attempt to start this club primarily for
fifth grade students, but it would also be open to fourth graders. This is a a pay-to-play club. All expenses related to that program would be paid for uh by parents. And so we are going to assess the viability of this club for next year. Uh let's see other items that I
can report on. This is an update on an item from the the prior meeting, the strength and conditioning fitness center coordinator update. Um that job description was written. Um the stipens were uh worked on and we expect to post
that for the 2425 school year in the upcoming weeks and this uh committee was supportive of that. Uh that's really all I can report on for the agenda. Our next meeting is May 16th. Okay. There are 20 items. May I
have a motion? Brett and Janice and a roll call. Miss White, yes. Dr. McHune, yes. Mr. Amin, yes. Miss Curado, yes. Mr. Shaw, yes. Mr. Talbot, yes. And Mr. Alotic,
yes. We're up to policy. Uh, no report. We're meeting this Thursday. Okay. Uh, that brings us to curriculum. There is no report, but there are two items. May I have a motion, Dave?
Brett and a roll call. Miss White, yes. Dr. Mun, yes. Mr. Amin, yes. Miss Curado, yes. Mr. Shaw, yes. Mr. Talbot, yes. And Mr. Malak, yes. Rep Wellness,
no report for tonight. Next next meeting. Uh, facilities and operations, no report. Okay, that brings us to leison on. Does anybody have a leison on report? Okay, then we are up to public comment on non-aggenda items. If anybody
has anything that they haven't shared yet, please feel free to come down. Okay, I will close public comment. And that brings us to board forum. Is there anything that anybody has not had the opportunity to say yet that you would like to to bring up, Brett? Sure.
I I I think I said a little bit before, too, and everyone is gone now, so they're not going to hear it, but I just want to really give a huge shout out to the kids that were here tonight. They spoke so well and came prepared with really great comments and remarks, and I
I really appreciate that. And uh we're our future is in good hands if these are our future leaders. Anyone else? Okay, I'm going to turn it to Mr. Marian. So, um just briefly wanted to mention
next board meeting um we're going to do a uh review of the draft strategic plan and um a notable part of that would be u some operational things to consider. relative to some of
the ideas that Mr. Shaw reported on uh regarding next year's budget, which we've already started to work on. Um so I hope people that are interested in um working with us to um see what we can do
about ideas for next year's budget, attend that meeting. That would be great. We'll do um a BT Connect probably for maybe an hour or so after we get regular business done. Um, and uh, it is teacher appreciation week. I wanted to mention that. I know
it was mentioned by a member of the public. Um, obviously a a stressful time for all of us with regard to getting next year's budget done, but um, I've always said that the teachers are obviously the core of everything that we
do. Um, and I know that sometimes it's easy easy for them to forget that I was a teacher once, too. Um, and I have not forgotten what it's like to be a teacher. Um, and so regardless of what we have to do to get the budget done, I
just wanted to emphasize that, um, I appreciate them um, endlessly. Uh, and I know that our PTO's are doing all kinds of things for them this week. So, I just wanted to thank them as well for their support in doing some things for the
teachers this week. Thanks. Thank you, Mr. Marcian. Um, it's been a long night. Thank you all for sticking with us and listening to everything. Can I get a motion to adjourn? Mike and Dave. Good
night, everyone.