This is the November 20th meeting of the board of education of Branchburg. Please be advised that this and all meetings of the board are open to the public and media consistent with the open public meetings act and that advanced notice required therein has been provided. This is a meeting of the board of education of Branchburg at which formal action may
be taken. The the public will have an opportunity to be heard as shown on the agenda and please stand for the pledge of allegiance. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it stands. One nation under God,
indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. And can I have a roll call, please? [cough] [clears throat] Mr. Hollandbeck, Miss Joyce, Mr. Krishna Murdy, here. Mr. Mater, here. Miss Shaw, Miss Smith here, Mr. Tuma
here, Miss Desai here, Mr. Carpetier here, and at this time I'd like to hand it over to Dr. Burton for her superintendent report. Okay, we're going to start we're going to start this evening with a presentation.
Uh at Whiten Elementary School, second graders recently completed an inspiring culminating uh fundraising activity that really beautifully showcased their learning in social studies. So tonight we have second grade team leader and teacher, Mrs. Katie O'Shea, uh who will
be sharing a brief overview of this work and highlighting the meaningful experiences our students and staff engaged in to support our larger community. And I'd actually uh have you focus on the screen and I invite M. So
Hi, I'm Katie. I'm a second grade teacher at at Whiten and um in our second grade social studies unit on active citizenship, we learned how to be an active citizen and we also learned how to take a stand in your community.
And we wanted at the end of the unit come up with ways that we could give back to our community. So, as I was researching different organizations, I came across Home of Somerset County. Home of Somerset County is a nonprofit organization that provides shelter,
housing, and support services for homeless families in San County. And after two weeks, we well so many generous families, students, staff
members donated so many basic care care items that the organization needed like shampoo, diapers, toothbrushes, toothpaste. And after we got everything collected, I sorted my kids into groups and I had them sort all of the items
into different categories. And so we were able to incorporate math into the project as well because not only did the kids sort all of the objects, but they also counted and tallied and added everything up. So as you could see on the screen, we collected so many items
for a total of 477 items. After everything was counted and sorted, we created a video sharing our total amounts and I dropped everything off at the organization and the faces of the
workers were so priceless. They were just really appreciative and thankful for everything that we did for them. So, I want to say thank you to all the families and staff members that donated. Um, this was a really great way for our
school community to come together to make an impact on the larger community and we are looking forward to finding additional ways that we can support communities in the future. Thank you. Thank you.
[applause] So again, as part of every uh board meeting, again, we um like to be able to have as part of the presentations uh both information and later this evening when the auditor uh comes, we will have a report of the district audit. Um but
we also like to have a celebration. So Miss Oay, thank you so very much for again having the opportunity to come and celebrate, you know, the many the many ways in which our our students, our staff give back to our community. So, thanks again. So, on November 11th um was Veterans Day
and there were activities in our schools to acknowledge this special day uh for our heroes. To all who have served, we extend our heartfelt thanks for their courage sacrifices that they've made for our country's freedom. On Veterans Day and every day, we honor your unwavering
commitment to protecting our nation. In preparation for the 250th celebration of our nation, we are planning to address celebrations around Flag Day on June 14th. So, more to come on that. Do want to mention that last week after a very long evening, we were able to
come to a tenative agreement with our uh Branch Township Education Association. I want to thank uh give a special thanks to the members of our negotiating team uh Mr. Carpenter, uh Mr. Tuma, uh and Mr. Chris Nury
uh and the members of BTA btea uh Mrs. Childers and her team and all the work as well as to come to a settlement. Special thanks to our own Miss Vorhees uh Mrs. Nay Yard and Mrs. Machado and our attorney uh who worked again with
all the information to support the negotiations process. We now look forward to having salary guides and a ratified contract that the board can then look to come to approve at an upcoming meeting. So, thanks again. Um, and uh thanks again to uh BTEA.
Uh a wrestling update. Uh we're currently awaiting the final delivery of new wrestling mats uh for the program this year planned for. Actually, we have it scheduled for tomorrow evening uh to ensure we did not delay the tryyouts. uh give provide opportunities for team
building and give time with our value. We actually have a new coach. Uh we had moved forward with using alternate mats. Uh we certainly appreciate everyone's patience and look forward to having that new set of mats uh for next week. On the agenda this evening is the contract and
I want to just acknowledge uh the summer junior pioneers uh who will be partnering with the district to provide the mats for our middle school team. So thank you very much uh Somerville pioneers. Also on the agenda this evening, uh the board will be accepting a number of donations including lunch boxes for
Whiten students from the Megan Rose Bradley Foundation, a piano from Brian Gordick, a performance and materials for our music class from the Branchburg PTO. So thanks very much for all those generous donations. Uh I want to um with regard to new board
members want to sending out a congratulations to our newly elected board members Michael Blousein, Jeffrey Cbury and an incumbent member Fuja Desai. Uh the election results have been certified and we look forward to meeting with the new board members in the coming weeks for an introduction to their role
on the board uh in preparation for the January reord meeting. And some final thoughts, our Thanksgiving thankfulness collection. Our community truly has gone above and beyond with their generosity through the Branchburg PTO's uh initiative,
Thanksgiving thoughtfulness. The PTO helped to provide food gift cards to help purchase Thanksgiving food items to local families in need this Thanksgiving season. And just a final note, just again wanted to send my thanks to all of our families and our staff for being so generous in this during this giving
season. I want to wish everyone a healthy and happy Thanksgiving as you gather with families and friends uh later next week. We do indeed have much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving season. And that concludes my report. Thank you very much.
We will move on to public comment on agenda items only. The board of education recognizes the value of public comment on educational issues and school matters of community interest. In support of this position, the law establishes a period of public comment at every board meeting. Individuals wishing to speak must state their name
in place of residence. Comments are limited to three minutes per person for a total of 30 minutes. An individual may speak a second time after all others who wish to speak on the topic have been heard. So, anybody who wishes to speak on an agenda item can now approach the
podium. How you doing, sir? Good evening. I'm Mark Savage. I'm Branchford resident. Have been for the last 30 years. Um both of my both of my children, my twins are either graduated as seniors in Somerville High School now, but both
went through the title of Branchburg school system. Um I'm here in my position as the president of the Branchburg Basketball Association. And I just wanted to brief. I have a statement. Just want to read. Um thank you for the opportunity. I'm here on behalf of the Branchburg Basketball
Association. Last week, we received a draft invoice for new facility usage fees, fees we have never been charged in the past. I want to note that we already pay approximately $10,000 each year for weekend custodial costs, which we fully understand and have always covered. The
BBA, like many other youth sports program in the town, is entirely volunteerrun nonprofit and serves our brand. Our program houses about we about 300 [clears throat] children that all go to the branchburg schools as well as about 75 volunteers that are parents and
students that are in the program. No coach, board member or volunteer receives a single dollar. Our sole mission is to give our kids safe, structured, healthy activities after school. Activities that ultimately support the district by keeping kids active, engaged, and connected to our schools. The new weekly facility fees
being proposed are unnecessary and would increase cost for families. Custodians are already in the building during those weekday hours performing normal end of day routines and the impact of our gym use during those times has never been shown to create additional measurable costs for the district.
This is also an issue of fairness. Many families budget carefully for these programs. BBA season has already begun and parents have already paid. Imposing new unplanned fees mid-season would be unfair and confusing. Any major change to facility fees should take effective
after the current sports season conclude never retroactively. Most importantly, volunteer youth organizations like the BBA strengthen our community. They provide supervised recreation, reduce the demand for district-run programs, and help build positive experience for students in
branch. Charging new fees on these programs creates a barrier to participation without creating meaningful financial benefit to the industry. For all these reasons, I respectfully urge the board to set the facility fee for all volunteer nonprofit youth organizations that serve branch children at zero for
weekday usage. Thank you for your time and consideration. Thank you, Mr. Savage. Thank you, Mr. Savage. like to um thank you for the and have the opportunity to speak with you further on that. Appreciate that.
Okay. Thank you, sir. Anybody else? Going to close public comment on agenda items. I'm going to move on to governance. I don't have much of a report outside of the fact that Kathleen Helawa, who we have hired to help us
with our superintendent search, has started that process. I'm sure that some of you have either met with her or seen uh the survey that she put out to the community kind of asking um what you value and the next superintendent. So, just be on the lookout for that stuff. We also have some voting items. We have
one approval of minutes and two approval of HIPB investigative report. Can I have a motion to move those items? Motion. Second. Um any questions, comments? Can I have a roll call, please? Mr. Krishna Mie. Oh, for what? Sorry one and two. Yes.
Governance. Um, abstain on one and yes on two. Mr. Mater, abstain on one. Yes on two. Miss Smith. Yes. Mr. Tuma. Yes.
Mr. Sai. Um, I'm staying on one and two. Mr. Carpetier. Yes. Um, that brings up policy. Mr. side. Do you have a report? I do not have a report. We will be meeting December 11th, but we are approving [clears throat] for first and
second reading the following policies that we've gone over in the last board meeting as well. Cool. Um, okay. So, we have some voting items. We have one, policy and regulation second reading. Two, policy and regulations first reading. Can I have a
motion to move those? Motion. Second. Mr. Sai and Miss Smith. Any questions or comments regarding those? No. Okay. Can I have a roll call, please? Mr. Krishna Murdy. Yes. Mr. Mater. Yes. Miss Smith?
Yes. Mr. Tuma? Yes. Mr. Desai? Yes. Mr. Carpenters? Yes. Next up is curriculum and instruction. Mr. Halenbeck is not here. We have not met since the last meeting. We have a bunch of voting items. We have
one, conferences and travel. Two, approval of field experience. Three, approval of service agreement. Four, approval of 2526 school field trips. Five, approval of revision of service agreements. And six, approval of acceptance of out of district student.
Can I have a motion to move those? Motion second. Mr. Sai, Miss Smith, any questions or concerns about any of those? I'm sorry. You went you read through one through six. One through six. My apologies.
Mr. Krishna Murdy. Yes. Mr. Mater. Yes. Miss Smith. Yes. Mr. Tuma. Yes. Mr. Sai. Yes. Mr. Carpadier. Yes. Uh, next up is personnel. Miss Joyce is also on here. We have not met just because of the date of the contract
negotiation. We had to cancel a couple meetings. We have some voting items. We have one, approval of extra duty pay. Two, approval of RTI coordinators coordinators. Three, approval of recision of personnel. Four, approval of substitutes. Five, approval of
personnel. Six, approval of revision of personnel. Seven, approval of revision of leave. Eight, approval of revision of school club. Nine, approval of revision of title four club. 10, approval of school clubs. 11, approval of ed camp presenters.
12, approval of teacher academy. 12, approval of 2526 athletic stipens. 14, approval of suspension without pay. 15, approval of athletic volunteer, 16, approval of new staff orientation hours, and 17, approval of resignations. Can I
have a motion to move those items? Motion second. Any questions or concerns? I have a comment. Yeah. Just want to acknowledge in item 11, uh, approval of ed camp presenters and approval of teacher academy. Again,
these are our staff who have um ed camp is happening uh January 2nd have come forward that they want to be able to share a variety of different workshops and items of interest to our staff as part of the ed camp. Again, opportunity
just a um many different topics of of would be interest to staff across the district as well as teacher academy. These are again our staff willing to share of their professional expertise, book studies, multiple make and takes. So again, this is our staff. Um kudos to
them in terms of providing for their colleagues professional development by sharing their own professionalism and again just wanting to acknowledge this is a great showing of staff, you [clears throat] know, giving back to the their colleagues and professionally
growing their colleagues. So just want to say and acknowledge and recognize them. Thank you for that. Anybody else? Can I have a roll call, please? Mr. Krishna Mury? Yes. Mr. Mater? Yes. Miss Smith? Yes. Mr. Tuma? Yes.
Mr. Sai? Yes. Mr. Carpetier? [clears throat] Yes. Next up is finance and facilities. Mr. Tuma, do you have a report? Uh, we haven't met, but I'm going to give a brief report. Sure. Um, like to thank the donations that we received. Uh, Macken Road Bradley
Foundation donated lunch boxes. Um, Mr. Gornick donated a piano. That's really great. And the Branchburg [clears throat] PTO is funding materials and instruments for our new intro guitar class, which is great for the students. I think any
music education that we can provide is fantastic. Um, let's see. We're buying some new kitchen equipment, which I'm sure is long overdue. Uh we sold some solar renewable energy credits. So people who aren't familiar with that, we have solar panels on the
roofs of our schools. They generate power. We're allowed to sell energy credits back to the power companies. So we're making a little bit of money there. Uh we're paying for a demographic study to to kind of help us better understand the effect of the new housing on our schools.
And there were no findings on our budget report. Thank you very much. Thank you, sir. Anybody else? Or sorry, uh I lost my track of thought. Can I have a motion to move those items?
Motion. Second. Any questions or comments? I just want to echo your the PTO has just been fantastic lately. So, I just want to thank them again for everything that they're doing. Um I know I've been on the board for a while. It seems like the relationship is at an all-time high
from just my short time here. So, um, just want to thank the PTO for everything. Anybody else? Can I have a roll call, please? Mr. Christian Mury, yes. Mr. Mater, yes. Miss Smith, yes. Mr. Tuma, yes. Mr. Sai, yes.
Mr. Carpenter, yes. Um, next up is public comment on any item. So, anyone who wishes to talk about anything at this time, please step up to the microphone. Hi everyone. My name is Randy Lee Childers. I am the president of the Branchburg Township Education
Association. Is this on? I can't hear myself. Okay. Um sorry. I'm also the lead the lead negotiator for um the PTA's negotiations team. And I wanted to just take a moment to also thank the board's negotiations team and the board office staff for the time and effort
dedicated to the negotiations process. it can be lengthy and intense and um we appreciate doing this together. Um the BTA is excited to have reached tenative agreement and are practively working with NJA to create salary guides for grant approval and we look forward to completing the process and um again just
want to say thank you. Thank you too. I appreciate everything you do. Anybody else? [clears throat] I'm going to close public comment and move on to board leaison reports. Um, Somerville liaison is not here. PTO, Mr.
Mater, do you have anything? No report. Cool. Usually the PTO comes and they outdo you anyway, but [laughter] told somebody would be here. So, you got a report. [laughter] Uh, Somerset County Ed Services, we have not had a meeting. Um, New Jersey New
Jersey school boards. Yeah, I just wanted to comment. I attended the meeting on Monday and they had an award given to the Manville school district on a program that they um worked together with Duke Farms and they came up with some curriculum that
Duke Farms now has above and beyond what they had prior I believe. Um but Duke Farms is looking to partner with other school districts. So I just thought it might be something that we would want to explore and possibly do some more with them. So maybe we can put you in touch with Miss Landisburg at some point. Yep.
Okay. Awesome. Um, thank you. Charlie, anything from the township? Uh, I watched their meeting last Monday. Nothing of importance to the board. Okay. Thank you. BEF. Yes. Uh, so in the theme of Thanksgiving, they're uh
rolling out this kind or they've rolled out kind ofathon. Um, so this kind of theme isn't just pledgebased. It's about inspiring students to complete three acts of kindness and make a difference. every act counts and we want every student and class to participate. So, so far they've raised about $3,000 and
that's not even counting the middle school. So, they're still continuing to go to go with that. Um, second item is blankets. They're selling blankets. It's time to perfect time to snuggle up in spirit with exclusive BF blankets. Um, the options come with um blankets with a
theme for each branch school and some high school as well. So you get you get a choice of that plus a home sweet branchburg option. I don't know who came up with that. [laughter] The last thing is the uh Hummingbird Grinch event. The annual Hummingbird Grinch event. Uh Wednesday, December
10th. It's 5 to 6:00 p.m. and 6 to 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. So it's a lot of fun and activities for the kids. And uh Charlie, they need a Grinch. So if [laughter] you're volunteering, Mr. Was that a bridge event? Bridge. Bridge. Did you say bridge event?
Grinch. Grinch. Grinch. Sorry. Yeah, the Grinch. [laughter] Sorry. Grinch stole Christmas. That's all. Thank you. Maybe they'll play bridge though at the [laughter] Anything else? That's it. Good. Uh CPAG, I have no report. Um I guess can I have a motion to adjourn the
meeting? No. Oh, it hold. Oh, sorry. I forgot about the auditor. [laughter] It is not her. It's her. Yeah, it is not her. That's the youngest [clears throat] auditor I've ever seen. Uh the auditor has not arrived so I
suspect she will present. This is our PTO liaison if you want to get up and I don't know if you have anything to share. How do we do? You do? Yep. Time to shine. [laughter] Got it. Okay. Um
good evening. The PTO would like to thank uh all of the parents who joined us last week for our first general meeting of the year. The turnout, enthusiasm, and thoughtful feedback was greatly appreciated. We would also like
to thank Mrs. Landisburg and Miss Schoberg for taking the time to speak with our families and discuss many meaningful topics. Mrs. Landisburg provided a helpful overview of district priorities and shared great guiding
questions that parents can ask students when they come home from school. We got a lot of feedback, but that was a a hit. Miss Schober highlighted the many ways we are celebrating our students, including the white and allstar recognition, the golden spatula lunch
table, and the red carpet express for best behavior. Uh we look forward to hosting another general meeting later this year. Secondly, we are full underway with our Thanksgiving thoughtfulness.
Um this effort provides helps provide support through donations for a Thanksgiving meal to families in need in our community. This year, the PTO is organizing gift card donations from B uh Branchburg families so that families in
need can purchase what they need for their holiday meal. We are currently approximately at 80% of our goal and we still welcome and need additional support to reach that 100%. We sent out
that link again in our newsletter. We are truly thankful to be part of such a generous and caring community. Third item, Scholastic Book Fair. We kick that off this week um at Branchburg Central Middle School from so November
17th to the 21st. Families can support the fair by contributing to their child's ewallet or by shopping online through um through the link that we provided. Proceeds help support our schools and encourage a love for reading.
The PTO would also like to mention we sent out in our newsletter about Whiten Library volunteers that is up and running. Parents can sign up to be present during their child's library time uh to support the librarian and
help foster a love of books. Um and that again that link is um available from nove November through January. We also have a link that we sent out for white and lunchroom volunteers. Um that's also in our newsletter. I'm
getting there. [laughter] PTO has been very very busy. Uh we also have some local fundraisers uh through restaurants. Um our next one is at Panera on December 12th. So, right over there, that's Panera and Raritin um
from 4 PM to 8:00 PM and through our newsletter, we shared how um diners can go and a portion of their proceeds will go right um to helping with the PTO. Um last uh second to last, holiday happiness. The PTO will once again um
support the holiday happiness program and our goal is to provide gift cards uh for students in need during this holiday season. and we are always grateful in advance for the generosity and support of our Branchburg families. And finally,
last thing, um very important, we have our me and mind dance. Uh that date has been uh registered and shared with the community. That will be Friday, January 23rd um from at 5:30 from 5:30 to 7:30
at uh Whiten School. and that's going to be open to our second and third graders. So, thank you so much. A special thank you to the board for everything that you do and Dr. Burton, thank you so much for all of your help for the PTO. And we have an avid future [laughter]
student that really wanted to see what this was all about. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. See, Bob, you got to bring kids with you next time, too. [laughter] Really? you're you got no shot.
She's so good, too. And uh another our final presentation this evening is uh on an annual basis um the district is audited and this evening we have um Kathy Mantel uh and associate uh to be with us this evening to share
an overview of the district audit. Uh I do want to just acknowledge that we had a which she'll talk about a clean audit. Uh and just a thank you to Miss Vorhees and her staff uh for a clean audit. Kathy, we will Miss Mantel will turn it over to you.
Very nice to see you. We work together in um so I just wanted to say that I am retiring from the firm. I think I mentioned it last year and the air parent is Brian Co. and he's been working in the background for several
years and overseeing the audit with me. So I feel very comfortable that he will be well and I have been telling everybody that I will be in the background um helping and supporting them for a little while until they feel very comfortable. So, I want to thank
Stephanie and her staff for working together with us so well. They really put forth a lot of effort. There's so much that's needed for the audit and uh I feel like a royal passing for everything, but she was very very kind with her staff um helping us to get
everything that we needed. So, I'll let Brian do a little talking and then uh I'll interject a little bit here and there. So, you want to take it out? This is just for the recording, right? Yeah. Make sure it's turned on.
It's a good, right? Okay. There we go. [clears throat] [snorts] All right. Well, I'm I'm Brian Co, uh, from Nisvacia, um, one of the managers on your account. Thank you for having us here today. I'm going to start with going over your general fund fund
balance. So, general fund fund balance went from 15.2 2 million to 15.6 million, an increase of $399,579,000. Uh capital reserve and maintenance reserve remain rather consistent uh decreasing 234,000
and increasing 276. There's more detail on that on the next page. Uh tuition reserve turned over. So what we had planned in 2024, the 885,000 was used in 2425 and we established 1.1 million this year to be used in the 2627 year. We
also set aside current year excess surplus of 1.5 million to be used in the 2627 year. Got to interject there because I know Stephanie had a question today. So each year you utilize the second previous year's tuition reserve and you set one
up in the current year for the next second subsequent year. And so at the end of the year you have 1.1 reserve for 2526 the year that you're in and 1.1 that was just set up as of June of 25
for the 2627 year. and we went over that in terms of it's for a sending receiving relationship and it can't exceed 10% of the contractual amount. So, it's very good that you're able to establish that reserve year to year because you're not
really sure what adjustments will come down two years later and then your encumbrances decrease by 1.1 million. Encumbrances are similar to accounts payables, but they have not been received yet. So they're items that the funds have been encumbered or set
aside for but not been received. And then your unassigned fund balance decreased by $289,000. That is the 2% of your total approp expenditures plus some adjustments to X8 and non-public transportation. And that's the maximum that the state will
allow you to have in your unassigned balance. So say that the reduction was due to the add-ons that you had. You always, you know, start with the 2%. So if you anticipated a little bit of extraordinary aid um it could be a
little bit lower. So it's nothing of any concern. So that's the breakdown of the 399579. You can see right below that we break it down further and see how it affected your overall uh let's say net position or your change in
fund balance. So excess of revenues from local. So, those are revenues that you received that you did not budget for. 849,000 from local. From state, you got 542,000. And from federal, there was a small deficit of $15,000. That's always the
semi Medicaid funds that the state forces you to budget a certain number for. Then, we never expect you to get that much. Hopefully, they're changing that formula soon, but maybe not. So then that's a plus your unexpended appropriations of uh 6.77
million there are then offset by your budget withdrawals. Sorry, those total 8.1 million. Those are then offset by your budget withdrawals and your withdrawals from your reserves. So you had 8.1 million in pluses this year, but
then you had another 7.6 6 million in minuses that you anticipated to use. So those are funds that you had reserved previously and then used in your budget this year to come to a net change of 399,000 plus.
And I will just add that um you know those things are planned. So anything over 2% is allowed to be put into capital maintenance reserve. I have said for years before they established those accounts that it's always good to put money in those reserves because um
you're you're under a 2% spending cap with very few exceptions. So when you have something that is a capital I don't want to say emergency, but an unknown capital or maintenance item, you're going to have those funds available in
order to um take care of it. And then one of my um biggest concerns when we're looking at a district is to see how much fund balance you're using. And so you're keeping that level at 1.5 million. I'm showing you the other withdraw uh
withdrawals that you did during the year that Brian was talking about that brought your all your positives down, but they're all planned and calculated. So the 1.3 million for capital reserve and then um tuition reserves and um
there was no maintenance reserve use in these years but just to put it in perspective always looking at that. Now I will say that the fund balance of 1.5 it's semantics. So when we did it we set it up as excess surplus that you'll use
in 2627. In previous years you had already budgeted it as an item. So it was just appropriated for the subsequent year. It's the same $1.5 million. It just came from a different calculation.
So then you can see there's some small breakdowns your capital maintenance emergency and tuition reserves just showing what goes in goes out to deposit by board resolution is usually offset by budgeted withdrawal that happened at the beginning of the year or withdrawal by
board resolution to end at your June 30th 2025 balances. And we also included some notes there about how much of those reserves were anticipated in the 2526 year. So really as of July 1st 2025 those balances have already been reduced
and then like we said the 1.1 is reduced and then that tuition reserve is again reab reestablished for 2526. What I didn't put on here as Brian was looking through it I'm like $1.5 million of incumbrances were moved to the
capital projects fund. So, in conversation with Stephanie, um those SDA projects generally take more than one year and the state was telling every school district to budget them in capital outlay and you had to prove demonstrate that you had local funds to
support it. So, what happens is they're not going to get finished in a year's time. So, we typically move them over to the capital projects fund. So, we did that during the year. So 1.5 million was used of local funds
and a million48 are the SDA funds that are coming in for those projects. Let me just double check my sheet here. And it's the roof replacement at the middle school
and the boilers and hot water heaters at the middle school. And Whiten, it was all three of those. Yeah, I'm buming through. Yep. And then the boiler and hot water heaters at Whiten. So those three projects, we like
to get them set up for you so that, you know, you can begin, you know, your architectural fees or whatever you need to do to move those projects along. I'm going to briefly talk about your food service fund. So you had a good year in food service fund. Total net
position increased by $25,000. And you can see the breakdown. Operating revenues did decrease by $40,000 and your non-operating revenue decreased. Expenses remained pretty consistent and your interest interest income went down a little bit. Interest
on capital assets increased 50 sorry investment in capital assets increased 57,000 and unrestricted net position decreased 32,000 and those two net out to that 25,000 there. I want to point out to the auditors that this evening the board purchased
additional 31,6 $17741 in equipment. Oh, perfect. [laughter] Because on my next note, [snorts] we just want to let you know that there's a calculation that the state makes us do that's basically your
three months average expenditures supposed to be your maximum amount of adjusted cash that you have in the food service fund. So that we had a a note in here that said you have a little bit too much cash per that calculation. We weren't concerned about it because there was a plan to use it and that plan has
now been executed. So there you go. So through the pandemic all the reimbursements, federal and state subsidy reimbursements were great and then everyone had a large balance and then it was very restrictive as to what it could be used for. So we've had
conversations about how it can be used. Stephanie's like just tell me what I need to do and we will take care of it. So, um, it's great, you know, very responsive to whatever the rules are, whatever you have to do to get where you need to be. So, awesome. And I hope
whatever you're purchasing for the cafeteria is great. Dishwasher and ice machine. Perfect. All right. So, in the last page there, we just have a little breakdown of your long-term liabilities. The serial bonds
payable are down to 9.5 million. uh unamvertised bond issuance premium which is involved with your serial bonds payable um that's 993,000. Your net pension liability went up slightly to 4.9 million. That is the amount that the state assigned to the
employees in your district for PERS. You do not have to pay that amount. You pay your annual bill like normal. This $4.9 million is not really your liability. the state just requires you to put it on your district-wide financial statements.
And then compensated absences, uh, $569,000 there. We did have to change the way that that is calculated, uh, per Gazby 101, but it's, uh, that is not going to be paid out in one year. That's paid out as people retire. So, you're never going
to have to pay one year 568,000. that's just paid out through the general fund through the normal budget slowly as people retire. Okay. And then we just like to remind you that why the process is so long and
why we're so um in your face is because we're not only doing a financial statement audit, but we're doing compliance procedures as it relates to NJ do regulation uh DOE regulations and also federal and state single audit. So
the district had a federal single audit during the pandemic. We didn't expect it la last year and you had a federal signal audit. We didn't expect it this year and you had a federal single audit. And then there's just one caveat this year. The feds shut down federal B
compliance supplement for 2025 hasn't been released. So we are at bay. We are going to release the district's audit by December 5th to comply with the state deadline. But we have to remove the part that talks about compliance procedures
for federal grants. And so that'll come at a later date and um the Fed said that it could be anytime between January and March. So just wanted to inform you, but we just got word at 5:00 yesterday
afternoon that state DOE wanted the reports filed by December 5th and so they will be. talk about how many. Yes. So, we have two manage so we have no formal recommendations as was mentioned earlier. Thank you. Uh thank
you for all the hard work that you do and putting up with us. We know that the auditors are everybody's favorite people and you really like setting your normal days activities aside to do stuff for us. So, we really appreciate how much help you've been and and how patient you've been with us. Thank you.
And very responsive to anything that you know we come up with, talk about. We try to interact with our clients and know what's going on so that we can help you advise you as you're going along so we don't end up in any real situation.
So we had two management suggestions and we included this for all of our districts this year. It's about Gazsby 103 and 104. So these are changes to the audit of the next coming year. So the uh MDNA is going to be modified slightly next year. um we'll go over that with
the district with with Stephanie and as the change comes out um and what's going to be required in that reporting and then also the disclosure of certain capital assets throughout the report is going to be modified but it's it's just going to change mostly the disclosures and not the financial statements
especially not the uh budgetary financial statements that you use for your budgeting and fund balance purposes. Okay. Anybody have any questions for us? Congratulations on your
retirement. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. And I just want to say that um it's been such a pleasure to work with the board for the board and with the um people in Branchburg. And so I thank you for that opportunity and I feel very
confident that Brian will be um an asset to the audit. Thank you. Thank you. Do you want to offer? No. I think so. Yeah. Thank you. [laughter] Anybody else have anything else?
Can I have a motion to adjourn the meeting? Motion. All in favor? I Thank you. Congratulations. Thank you. Thank you, Kathy. Nice job. Thank you.
Bye, Brian. Take care. I'm hold the wrestling coach. How are you? Nice to meet you.