WEBVTT

METADATA
Video-Count: 1
Video-1: youtube.com/watch?v=dDgu4OMpI-I

NOTE
MEETING SECTIONS:

Part 1 (Video ID: dDgu4OMpI-I):
- 00:12:08: Administrative Adjustments: G10 Withdrawal and G15 Addition
- 00:15:01: Pledge of Allegiance and Open Public Meeting Law
- 00:15:58: Roll Call and Public Comment on Agenda Items
- 00:16:29: Student Representative's Report: School Activities and Achievements
- 00:20:34: Committee Reports: Facilities and Finance Updates
- 00:29:45: Budget Presentation: Enrollment Growth and District Goals
- 00:41:27: Budget Presentation: Revenue, Expenditure, Challenges, Taxes
- 00:53:13: Board Discussion and Approval of Resolutions
- 00:57:40: Public Comment Period and Meeting Adjournment


Part: 1

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It'll mean G, not F. >> Uh, no, it's just me today. >> It's G10. >> What do you want? >> So, we're administratively >> I can sit down there. >> We're administratively withdrawing.

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We're administratively withdrawing G10 but then adding G15. >> And then at the end when I say G1 to G15 which reads as >> they're both doing >> G1 through G9 then G11 through G15.

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>> Do you want me to do that one? >> No, >> I can. Where are you moving? >> Just right there. Sen's got a cool. >> Let me just >> What am I saying? Administ. >> I'm writing it for you.

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We're removing G101. >> That's the word. They >> wrote it all out. >> G10. We are adding G5. And then when we go to do the vote, you're going to say um I now get a

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motion for G1 through G9 and then G11 through G15. >> All right. So do this here. read that then can I >> but then when we get to the roll that's >> okay if I do it

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>> then you have another copy of the agenda >> oh yeah sure of course >> playing solo tonight >> well thank you for coming back you know I have to change.

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>> There's no F. There's no taking that off. No, G10. I keep saying F. Okay. >> All right. You good? We good? All right. Please stand for the flag.

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>> I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. The New Jersey open public meeting law was enacted to ensure the right of the

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public to have advanced notice of and to attend the meeting of public bodies at which any business affecting the interests is discussed or acted upon. In accordance with the provisions of this act, the Cedar Grove Board of Education has caused notice of this meeting to be advertised by having the date, time, and

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place thereof posted on bulletin boards in the district, published, and/or transmitted to the Verona Cedar Grove Times newspaper, tap into online news, filed with the township clerk, and posted on the district website. Do I have a roll call, please? >> Mr. Alban,

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>> here. >> Mr. Marzullo, >> here. >> Mr. Pick, >> here. Miss Keegan >> here. >> Miss Dora >> here. Good evening everybody. >> Good evening. >> At this time I open this portion of the meeting to public comment agenda items

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only. Seeing that there is no one here to speak on that behalf. I move to close that portion of the meeting and we will move on to committee reports and we will start with our student representative

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tonight. Look at these things. Hi. So, Victoria and Maggie couldn't be here with me today because they're at lacrosse, but I want to start with North End. So, they had a really fun spring break and re right after the last board

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meeting on March 25th, Dr. Maloo shared lots of ideas and activities with teachers and helped with the math um instruction. And Northn also celebrated pajama day. And over there you could see kindergarten and the big brother big

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sister activity that they had. Um, the FSA also sponsored the readathon and thanks to the community, they raised over $12,000 and students logged over 42,000 minutes of reading, which is

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crazy. And the FSA also sponsored the Saturday PK. And later in the day, you could see this fun painting activity that the third and fourth graders did. Now, on to the middle school. Um, over here you could see the winners of the

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pickle ball tournament, Justin Haggedorn and Mason Kent. That's really fun. I would like to do that here. And over here you could see the fifth grade band, choir, and orchestra um showcasing in the chamber night performance. And the M

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the MMS March students of the month are Ken Don O'don, Nora Petus, Miles Andreola, Amelia Wang and Leora Moador Mogadiri, Vincent Aliv Oliva, Vincent

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Boyce, and Miriam Abushar. The MMS also welcomed Adam is a door from Path to Rhythm for a drumming program. And the m the MMS FSA made this all possible which is really amazing. And the sixth graders also learned about

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drumming and the West African culture and listening and working together as a group which was very fun. Now in the high school here you can see AP Lang working together to Oh, I did this last year. It was so fun. you they um our

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teacher cut up parts of a New Yorker article and we had to piece together the order that they were in and it was really tricky because you'd think some parts went before the others but it was just a really fun activity and helped us with logic and line of reasoning and

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then um students also had a trip to TCJ um mostly juniors and seniors were allowed to go on this trip and they had a guided campus tour where they could see the campus and hear from students. students. Um, and they also had academic exploration where they could research

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different majors and paths that they could take in college. And a huge thanks goes out to Mr. Sweeney and Miss M for organizing this trip. Also, big congratulations to all the competitors for making states in our

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first year ever as a HOSA chapter. So, that's Schlope Patel on the left, Chris Patel, Va Patel, and Sam Rousell. Thank you guys. so much. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. Nicely done. Thank you. >> Busy month.

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>> Yes. >> All righty. Okay. All right. So, um, busy. >> Have a good night. Have a good night. >> Couple of weeks with committees. Thank you again. So, we have a bunch of committee reports.

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Um, facilities. You want to start, Mr. Marzulo? >> On uh Monday, April 13th, I I attended a facilities committee meeting with Dr. Tanamian, Miss Baltto, and John Bannon. Uh, first on north and south end uh rod

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grant updates. the power installation is completed. Uh the work that was scheduled over spring break cannot be completed because the temperatures were too cold still. Uh therefore, the work will resume uh once the buildings are vacant again during the summertime. Uh

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North End experienced a roof leak with the uh one of the rooftops. Uh this unit was recently replaced through the RAW grant and still remains under warranty. Once the electrical work is finalized, the air condition will be operational in both gyms north end and south end. Uh

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unfortunately, Southoun also experienced a roof leak uh causing damage to the gym floors. The uh repairs have been completed by the responsible contractor at the middle school. Uh unfortunately, we had five temporary uh heating units

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that are beyond repair. uh temporary units installed to keep the rooms uh temporary units were installed to keep the rooms warm. In addition, we have four cooling units already defective with parts no longer available and repairs are um rather expensive for

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those that can be repaired. Uh this results in a total of nine malfunctioning units impacting the heating and cooling which brings us to a more important uh subject. This underscores the critical importance of the infrastructure uh improvements outlined in uh what we will be

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presenting in question one of the referendum. The cre uh key priorities include necessary roof repairs and HVAC upgrades to ensure the schools can operate safely and reliably with the state covering 40% of the cost and the

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uh remaining 60% on the taxpayers. So that's why it's imperative that we get that to pass. Otherwise, if we experience any uh unexpected uh repairs, uh the cost of the emergency repairs will be 100% on the uh taxpayer. Uh at

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the high school, uh the punch list for the baseball field has been completed. The pitchers mount has been raised. The dugouts were restored. Top soil was applied to the needed areas. Uh this completes a project uh with our vendor and we had a

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very nice ribbon cutting ceremony that afternoon on Monday the 13th which was attended by some of our board members and staff. Um and that's pretty much the facilities. I >> I just have a clarification question on the heating units. >> The five that were malfunctioning, those

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were the original units and then temporaries were placed in there. >> Placed in there were placed in there too so we can have heat in the room. Okay. Okay. I misunderstood that. Okay, that makes sense. And I did attend I was one of the board members that attended the

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um ribbon cutting ceremony along with uh Paul Paul and Paul. And what a fabulous job. I I just can't stop talking about it. The fields are looks beautiful. Um everybody did such an amazing job with that. So kudos to everyone who was

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involved. I think our students are really appreciative and really love being out on that. >> It's nice on, you know, the off hours to see so many kids out utilizing the field. >> That's what you want >> beyond just the baseball team. So, >> yeah, >> thank you to everyone involved in that.

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That was really fun. >> Although I did not throw a strike >> on the opening pitch. It was high was my riser. So, okay. Uh Mr. Pollock and I attended a ton of committee meetings this week. Um so you want to start and

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I'll just jump in. >> Sure. Thank you Stoa. Um on Friday, April 17th, Mora and I were able to um condense three meetings into one sitting basically. Uh the f with doc Dr. T and

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and Mr. BTO. And the first is finance. And that that's a um one where the information tonight is is truly going to be presented in Dr. P's presentation of the budget as we did have a lengthy discussion on some of the u the reasons

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the budget is where it is and how it's going to be presented this evening. These have been ongoing discussions for many months. And I would like to commend >> absolutely miss and also Dr. T on preparing this budget. They've done a great job on especially in comparison if

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you have done any reading where other districts are in regards to this it's it's a very um very conservative approach to the budget. Um we also discussed u the possibility of a an annual registration process for aid and loo

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students which I think is a very important uh piece where students that are receiving aid and loo for transportation through sanctioned private schools will just do an annual registration to ensure that they're attending where we anticipate they will

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be attending. Um, we had a very uh uh lengthy discussion and one that was brought to our attention as a as it manifested itself through budget concerns and constraints about uh facility use rentals and and as

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a result it will then run in conjunction with our policy which we will have to update and continue to use. Um, it it really came to light with the amount of overtime that was being uh presented as a result of activities

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in our gymnasiums and using our buildings at certain times when custodians weren't on their scheduled duty. And we're looking at that. We're trying to work with that. And uh as as you as you might imagine, that's a cumbersome task uh without hurting any

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of our existing community programs, but at the same time, any people that are in for profit and LLC's and and businesses um should have be responsible for paying custodian fees and any other supervision or security fees that that that come

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along with that. And there'll be further discussions and and work along those lines. Um also the uh was explained to us that we now um through mandate qualify for a breakfast plan. Um and

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that breakfast plan will be presented in all of our schools. The mandate I believe is two schools. Cheryl, >> correct? >> Right. We do have it in the high school. So um one other uh one other school will be added to that and they there will be more information forthcoming on how that

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program will work in each of the schools going forward through next year but it is a mandated program in two of the schools something that we have to have uh moving on to our personnel agenda. Almost everything that we discussed with

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personnel is really attributed to the time of the year you're in. Looking at staff for next year, focusing on vacancies that we have that are up coming, excuse me, due to retirements, due to people and um we we were reviewing those areas

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and and doing so with Dr. T. Uh we also were able to talk about um how those current vacancies have really assisted with the budget, having some retirements, getting some breakage and

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again the administrative team has done an excellent job with that. But almost everything that we dealt with in person now will be handled through the agenda this evening. And the uh final one was uh referendum and again

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that will be discussed further. Um we did talk about you know our our referendum slideshow the the May community newsletter that will go out focusing on the referendum also our community engagement strategy

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that Dr. will be rolling out pursuing very shortly and um how we are going to address this very important vote in September and once again I can't re re-emphasize and reiterate the the point

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that that Mr. Marzula made that you could see by the facilities report how we are in dire need of having some of these infrastructure issues resolved as as we move through the years but as a result Dora everything else

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should be on the agenda as >> yes that is correct >> yep any questions from the remaining board members on that I know it was a lot of information >> long meeting >> push out. No.

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Okay. Uh, is there any committee meetings or anything that I missed? >> No. No. Okay. Okay. Tonight we have a board presentation

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from Dr. T. It's all yours. >> Okay. Madam President, thank you very much. And good evening, Cedar Grove School Community. Our annual budget presentation this evening will be led by both myself and our new BA, Miss BTO, who I want to acknowledge and thank for

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her leadership these past few months to really get us to a balanced strategic budget. And if I could also just acknowledge the entire leadership team across our district, has really been engaged in a thoughtful planning process to build this budget uh over the last several months. And also, if I may, just

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to acknowledge our board and board members for their engagement uh these past several months and support in building us to a balanced budget for this evening. Be before I jump into details about the budget, I do want to start with an overall comparison of our

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enrollment from exactly a year ago. So, this first slide was taken from last year's presentation. And I want to just uh refer you to the bottom right hand corner that 15477 number. And then I'm going to go to the next slide. And if you look at that same

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total, you can see 1597. That's a growth in one year of 50 students across all grade levels. Um the demand for our schools remains high in our community. We're excited to welcome this increased enrollment. However, we do need to plan strategically and

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smartly for it. Um on top of this growth uh our current kindergarten registration is well outpacing kindergarten registration of previous years. Presently we are projecting a overall kindergarten enrollment of 160 to 165

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students across both north end and south end. That projection is already requiring and dictating that we commit to opening a seventh kindergarten section that will open in South End. Uh now, as you may know, North End, we already are full where all of our

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specials and services are on a cart or in a media center. This will push South End closer to the situation. We haven't finalized the plan for the additional classroom space yet, but my goal is to have that plan finalized by the May board meeting and then to begin to

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communicate to the community uh about what this will look like for us in the fall. Again, we could not be more excited about the increase in our enrollment trends. Uh but the need for space is very significant. And I just want to remind you again, our 5-year

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birth rate projections suggest that by 2028 2029, our enrollment will again increase by close to 50 students. This next slide, uh, before we talk about our budget, we really want to be reflecting on what is the purpose of our

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budget. What are our overall district goals? So, I've reported on this throughout the last couple of years. We've remained the same themes in our three goals. student growth and achievement, communication and public relations, and then facilities, finance and security. However, the details of

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the goals have evolved over the past two years. And I'm pleased to share with you this evening um some highlevel updates about progress we've made. Uh each goal comes with an action plan. And then on the far right column you can see a highlight whether it's green, yellow or

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red to indicate whether or not a goal has been achieved, whether a goal is in progress or maybe a goal needs to be reconsidered. So I just want to acknowledge on this first page this has been a standing item these action items for the last two years. It's the very significant

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commitment to rebranding our entire math program K all the way up through geometry with Envision Math 2.0 new resources. I cannot say enough about how seriously our teachers have taken the implementation of these new initiatives focusing on the professional development

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to support them and we've just seen so much transformation and instructional practices in the area of math across all of our schools that is just truly inspiring. So I do want to acknowledge and thank all of our teachers and school leaders for leading uh that initiative

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these past two years. Next, I wanted to highlight on this slide, if you look at the bottom left corner, there was a commitment we made at the start of this school year to launch a committee to investigate new ELA curricular resources at the elementary level. I'm very proud to say that committee was quite

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successful. And on tonight's agenda is the investment in some new K2 curricular resources, amplified to be more specific. And I'm also proud to say our school our leadership team our our school leaders central office leaders are already in the works to ensure that

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our elementary teachers receive some professional development about these new materials in June before we go away for the summer. So I just wanted to highlight the success of that uh of that focus area. Next uh you'll see here the value of launching AI professional development

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something we're continue to doing going forward and then also continue to do our deep data analysis uh this slide uh NGSLA data analysis comparing us to other like districts that analysis has been complete but more time is needed to really u go through that to understand

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what the trends are that can inform our practice and that's something that we'll be doing in the coming months. The next slide focuses on our link data, something we're going to continue a commitment to into the next school year, something that is valued in this in this budget presentation as well. Um, and I'm

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pleased to say all of these initiatives on this slide here have been implemented with Fidelity. The next slide starts to focus more in our communication and public relations. Over the past two years, we made great progress with a new website, a new mobile app, and the community

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newsletter. We are close to sending out our our new community newsletter over the next couple weeks. The focus article in that newsletter will be on our referendum projects. And then after that, we'll also have other information to share with the community about our referendum planning.

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And then next, the next slide, the middle box there focuses on a commitment that we made at the start of this school year about hosting community forums. And I want to just reassure the community, these community forums to educate our community about our referendum projects are still very much in the works. The

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only reason they haven't been initiated just yet is because of the 15 referendum projects, there is still one project that we're awaiting approval on. We cannot move forward with significant community engagement until we know the actual costs of that last project. I

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don't want to start community engagement in April with one number and then in May have to adjust that number which could lead to understandably confusion. So we're working diligently to get that final approval. And then behind the scenes, you should know promotional materials, website, other materials to

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support the um building of resources to share with the community are already underway. Um so we believe we can really hit the ground running uh early to middle of May through the rest of this school year. whatever is needed out over the summer. And then we are still targeting September 15th for our

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referendum vote. This next slide here, um there's one exciting initiative that we haven't spoken too much about, but I'm pleased to report is on track. We are rebranding and rewriting some curriculum for new cycle classes at the middle school. In particular, it'll be a whole new

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business cycle that goes from 5th through 8th grade. So, that's something that is in the works. Um and again we continue to talk about training um our school-based teams related to reunification planning that also remains in the works and on track.

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And then I'm going to come to my last slide before I hand it over to Miss Paltto. So this one slide is a really significant um overview if you would of how we built a strategic budget where

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we're still making investments in our schools but at the same time right sizing uh certain areas across all of our schools. Um to set the stage, when we first began to build the budget for the 2627 school year, we had to begin

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with a projected 35% increase in health benefits. That is the single most significant challenge to this budget and developing strategies to overcome that to bas basically fund that within a responsible revenue structure. We began

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the building of this budget with a $2.5 million gap. And so we had to think of strategies to reduce that gap to become a balanced budget. Some of those strategies are highlighted here. There's a reduction in one position at the high school. We're uh we are projecting about

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a 20% reduction in co-curricular activities in terms of what activities are funded at both the high school and the middle school. Those specifics of that have not yet been finalized, but our school leaders are hard at work determining the right and best way to do that.

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One of the other very significant uh strategies here um is the move uh through attrition mostly that part-time power professional positions will be introduced into our community. The reality, the harsh reality um right now

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of these health benefits increases that are this significant is that it makes the full-time power position that much more costly in our budget. Now it does not mean for one minute we do not value our power professionals for who they are and what they do every day but we have

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to face the harsh reality of these financial situation and introducing a part-time power position over time is going to be key at the same time there are other power positions that are academic positions that we do need to move to part-time officially in

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September I will be meeting at both north end and south end uh both tomorrow morning and Thursday morning to speak directly to our power professional communities in both of those schools and we'll remain available to any power professionals these next couple months to just reassure them about what the

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next steps are uh so that we're prepared to open schools safely and appropriately in September. There are other strategies that are highlighted here. Uh we are going to be looking at a reduction overtime. Um, and we are going to introduce into our community, which I think has become more

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common in other communities, something called an annual activity fee. So, for grades 5 through 12, uh, for we're going to, uh, ask parents to pay an overall activities fee at the rate of $75 for a middle school student, excuse me, and

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$125 for a high school student. And we will cap that at two students per household. So, those are some of the key right sizing strategies, but I do want to highlight we're still making an investment in our future. I've already mentioned the new ELA curricular resources. We're planning to open an alt

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ed program here at the high school. We're bringing in a new inclusion partner, an all-in and we're going to continue both our math professional development next year. It'll be restructured because it has been such an effective partnership these past two years. We'll restructure it so it

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continues to bring value. And we do have plans to launch accelerated ELA classes in grades seven and eight while also bringing in professional development for our new ELA curricular resources next year as well. So overall, um it was and has been a

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very challenging budget. I believe we've uh been successful creating a strategic budget. It's not without difficult decisions uh that we will continue to talk about going forward um the remainder of this school year. Uh, and so with that, um, Cheryl, I'm gonna turn it over to you. Okay, there you go. You

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want to hold or >> I'll hold it. >> I'll do this for >> Okay, thank you. >> Um, good evening. Um, I'd first like to start with what our budget preparation timeline is in the district. So from December through February, all of the

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principles and supervisors um and as well as a few finance committee meetings um we prepare the first draft of the budget in February through March, especially once we received our state aid on March 10th. We then continued with our finance

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committee meetings and meet with our administrators to create the final first draft which was then presented at the March 24th board meeting and was approved by the board of education and then submitted to the county office on March 27th. On April 14th, um the school

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district received approval from the executive county superintendent on the 2026 budget and tonight is our annual public budget hearing. On the next slide, you will see all of the revenues that are included in the 202627

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budget. Um, 82% of our revenue in the district comes from the general fund tax levy. Um, this year the general fund tax levy is made up of our base of a 2% increase, which is the 33.6

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million on the first line. Um due to the rise in health care cost projected at 35% the state did allow a health care tax levy adjustment in the amount of 894,000 roughly. And due to the increase in our enrollment the state also is allowing an

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adjustment of $286,832 for a total general fund tax levy of $34,812,795. Um, the district receives 6.8% of its revenue from the state of New Jersey as its categorical formula state aid. This includes transportation aid, special

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education aid, and security aid. Um, this for 2026-27, we are looking at receiving 2,922,197. The next category of revenue is maintenance reserve. Maintenance reserve is hel funds held in a reserve for

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routine cleaning and maintenance in the district. The amount for next year is $326,048. The next revenue is capital reserve. These are again funds held in a reserve but for capital projects or purchase of equipment. The amount budgeted for next

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year is $96,019. Then we have budgeted fund balance. budgeted fund balance per our audit report that was received in December is $417,376. Something new for this year is unemployment reserve. Um the district

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had an unemployment reserve from deposits being made by the board of education due to bills that um were going to be coming in from the COVID times and all of those have been received. So there is a remaining balance of $196,267

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that can be used as a revenue for this budget. Pilot funds um these have be received for a couple of years now um from the town and that is $1.2 million. Tuition, we have a few special education students from out of district and as

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well as we have some regular education preschool parent tuition. The miscellaneous revenue this year of 599,000 is made up of interest transportation paid by parents. There is money being um

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there was money that was reported in our audit from the payroll agency fund that is due back to the general fund. So that can help support for next year our general operating expenditures. If we go to the next slide, we then have

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what is now our grants. Um, so with our grants, our first category is federal grants. So there's title one, title 2a, title 4, and a title one we are primarily using to invest in professional development for teachers as

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well as title 2a. Title four, we have a support contract for our students and for IDA that helps support special education students, tuition and related services. Um, and when it comes to state

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funding, there is the non-public chapter 192 193. These are specific state funds that we are the flowthrough agency that then gets paid to the registered non-public schools for Cedar Grove. And that's our total special revenue fund in

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the amount of $576,300. We next have our debt service fund. The debt service fund represents um bonds that were issued from prior referendums and I believe there's still three that are open. So the first source of revenue to pay the bonds is tax levy

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in the amount of $1,549,416 from state aid. We are receiving debt service aid in the amount of $396,767. And then there was debt service fund balance per our audit. That is from a capital project that was finished and

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you are required by law to return that back to the taxpayer. And that amount is $337,430. Overall, the debt service fund is 2,283,613. So, our total budget is $43,694,322. Um, if we then go to the next slide,

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this just shows in pie chart form the percentage of where all of our revenues represent. And so again, you can see for Cedar Grove School District, the tax levy is 82.5% of the revenue.

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We next want to talk about our expenditures in the district and how our revenues are allocated. So for instructional programs, instructional programs are representing 13 million62,000 roughly. And what's included in there is

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all regular education from grades preK through grade 12, our basic skills program, our ESL program, co-curricular activities and athletics. So this covers also textbooks and classroom supplies in those areas as well. Our special

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education costs are roughly $7.9 million. And this covers our in district special education programs as well as our out of district tuition students, any related and extraordinary services and the child study team,

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employee benefits, which is roughly 9.9 million of the budget. This includes our social security contributions, our workers comp, tuition reimbursement, and our health benefits, which include medical, dental, and prescription.

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Then we have support services which represents $6.2 million. These are our attendance services. This is our school nurses, our guidance counselors, administrative offices, central office as well as in the schools, our technology department and all student

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transportation in and out of district. Our final category is for operation and maintenance our facilities of our schools and that is roughly $3.7 million. And that covers all of our custodial services, our grounds upkeep,

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our security, and any capital outlay in this budget. Next slide. And again, you will see then just by pie chart form that we have tried to keep it, you know, you can see our um administrative is on the lower end and

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then our instructional programs and employee benefits take up most of our pie chart. So again, this just sums up where are all of our revenues and then how are they spent. So as you can see, instructional programs has our highest

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category of expending and then special education represents again special education instruction. So more than half of our dollars are spent on instructional programs directly to students. So, as we go back to our budget

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challenges, um, as the superintendent has already said, our prescription and medical benefits being projected at a 35% increase, um, really made it difficult to, you know, to create a balanced

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budget. We again had a $2.5 million shortfall mainly because of health benefits. State aid, even though you did see an increase on that revenue slide of roughly 36,000, but that actually equivalates to every student in Cedar

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Grove is only $20 per student. Rising costs, as we all are experiencing at home, our utility bills, the cost to buy anything has gone up. We also are experiencing that in the schools. So our due to inflation and our contractual uh

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obligations of prices skyrocketing also made it hard to create a balanced budget. So what do we do moving forward? Um one of the things that we are planning for and to try to be proactive about it is

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we do have bank cap of roughly $354,000. Um, and what that means is when we go to build the 2027-28 budget, we already have that additional amount to be able to add to our tax base

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for any type of high escalating costs. On the next slide is just the 10-year tax year impact um increase history. So for 2026 2027, the general fund tax increase is 4.5%. Overall

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due to the fact that in debt service there was fund balance left from a project that was completed and we are returning you have to return those funds to the taxpayer the overall tax increase is 3.2%. And again here is a breakdown of the tax

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levy. So as you can see our base of 2% was the 33.6 6 million. The healthc care adjustment added another 894,000 and the enrollment adjustment added another 286 for a total increase of

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roughly $1.5 million in tax levy for the general fund. Overall, a house valued at $478,700 would see an annual increase of $282 or a monthly increase of $23.50. 50. Um,

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and this is my first year doing the budget in Cedar Grove. And I just like to thank all the board members, Dr. T, as well as all the administrators, um, and staff that we worked with to build the budget. It was difficult, but we had, but we made it through it, and we

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created a really conservative budget that also plans for the future and keeps instruction as the priority. >> So, thank you. >> Great job. >> Good job. Thank you.

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>> Okay, that was a lot. >> I think I'm coming, but um any questions? >> We're done. >> No, may I just say something very quick? >> Yes, you absolutely. >> I want to thank you guys. I know you guys signed a lot of meetings to put these numbers together. Um you know, if

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you look around the county and the state, you know, we're we're in a good position. you know, you hear these stories out there and I think we're, you know, we're very efficient. Uh, you saw the cuts, but we also had additions, too. So, we're not just taking away, we're adding programs and stuff to it. So, I think you guys, uh, work very

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diligently on it, and I I just want to say thank you for putting the time and effort, and I think the community should, too. >> Yes. >> Appreciate it. Thank you. >> Okay. All right. Let's move to move some

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business. All right, we're on page three. Under the business administrator's report, I would like to administratively withdraw G10 and add G15,

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which reads as, "Be it resolved that the board of education hereby approves the settlement agreement and release at no cost to the board in the matter known as Brahma Construction Corporation verse Cedar

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Grove Board of Education docket number ESX. XL8133-17, including claims asserted in that matter by and against Brahma Construction Corporation, Robert E. Donahghue Jr., Lilage Corporation, Environmental

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Climate Control Incorporate, and Ahira Consultants LLC. And be it further resolved that the board president and the board business administrator are authorized and directed to execute the settlement agreement and release on behalf of the board.

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>> Can I have a motion for G1 through G9 and then G11 through G15, please? >> So move. >> Second. >> Any discussion? >> Roll call, please. >> Mr. Aband, >> yes. >> Mr. Nazula.

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>> Yes. >> Mr. Pallet, >> yes. >> Miss Kean, >> yes. >> Miss Dora, >> yes. >> Approved. >> Thank you. >> Under superintendent's report under general administration, can I please have a motion for H1 through H5?

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>> So move. >> Second. >> Second. >> Any discussion? >> Roll call, please. >> Mr. Alban, >> yes. Mr. >> Marulla, >> yes. Mr. P. >> Yes. >> Miss Keegan.

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>> Yes. But abstain from H2D. >> H2. >> So noted. Miss Dora. >> Yes. >> A motion passes. >> Thank you. Under human resources. Can I have a

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motion for I1 through I7? >> So move. >> Second. Any discussion? Roll call, please. >> Mr. Aldan, >> yes. >> Mr. Marzulo, >> yes. >> Mr. Powell,

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>> yes. >> Miss Keegan, >> yes. >> Miss Dora, >> yes. >> Approved. >> Thank you. Under curriculum and instruction. Is there a motion for J1 through J3?

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So move. Second. Any discussion roll >> Mr. Alban? >> Yes. >> Mr. Marzulla? >> Yes. >> Mr. Pallet? >> Yes. >> Miss Keegan?

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>> Yes. >> Miss Dora? >> Yes. >> Approved. >> Thank you. And under special services, a motion for K1 and K2. >> So moved. Second.

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>> Any discussion? >> Roll call, please. >> Mr. Alban, >> yes. >> Mr. Marzula, >> yes. >> Mr. Pallet, >> yes. >> Miss Fegan, >> yes. >> Yes. >> Approved. >> Thank you. This time, I open the meeting to public comment on any school related

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items. Seeing there's nobody here to speak, I move to close that portion of the meeting. Announcement of future meetings. Our next meeting will be >> it should be May 5th. >> May it is May 5th. >> Oh,

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>> May 5th. Um at the high school and then again on June 23rd. Uh 6:30 would if executive is necessary and 7:30 for regular time. Um at this time I move to adjourn the meeting. All in favor? I

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>> meeting adjourned. Thank you very wonderful evening everyone. Good night. >> Thank you. Good night.