Public notice of this meeting pursuant to the Open Public Meetings Act has been given by the Board Secretary on March 10, 2025 in the following manner. Posted notice on the school bulletin board at the administration building transmitted to the Courier Post, Philadelphia Inquirer, and the clerk of Cherry Hill Township. Will everybody please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America. Into the republic for which it stands. One nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
Mr. Sugars, can you please call the roll? Dr. Braddock, Mrs. Scherfain. Here. Dr. Dreisen? Here. Mrs. Gallagher. Here. Mr. Greenbaum. Here. Mr. Mayor? Here. Ms. Palmer? Here. Ms. Stern. Here, Mrs. Winters. Here, thank you. Okay, we only have one major item on our agenda tonight, and that is the budget.
So we're going to go right into our presentations. Mr. Sugars is going to give the presentation on the initial budget submission for 2526. Thank you, Mrs. Winters. So tonight we will be discussing the initial submission budget for 2526.
We're going to start first with a budget breakdown. We're going to take a look at two sections of expenses that we have within our general fund. The budget that we will be approving tonight constitutes the general fund, which is our day-to-day expenses. The Special Revenue Fund, which is all of our grant funding, and also the debt service fund, which pays principal and interest on our debt. So when we look at the general fund, we have two sections within the general fund.
One are distributed costs, and those are directly related to a grade level. That we have within the district. And that includes teacher salaries, supplies, services, things that we need for the classrooms. For the day-to-day educational process. And so that first category here includes regular education, which would be K through 12.
Special education, which would be all of our special education programs, basic skills and bilingual programs, extracurricular and athletics. And that total cost this year is $101,552,396. And that is approximately a little over 4 million less in the 2526 budget than it was in the 2425 budget. And that's a 4.2% reduction there. Can see that the bulk of that reduction is coming out of regular education.
Next, we look at our undistributed costs. And so these are costs that support the educational process. And the different categories that this is broken down to is out of district tuition, which is for students that are sent to out of district placements. Student services and instruction. So this would include guidance offices, nurses offices, the attendance office. Child study team office, professional development, all those kinds of things.
That would be student services and instruction. And then administration, which is defined by the state as principal's office. Superintendent's office, business administrator's office, and technology are all included under the umbrella of administration. And then maintenance to security is the buildings and grounds department and our security offices. Then we have transportation. Self-explanatory and then employee benefits. So you can see here that on this side of the general fund budget that we did have an increase here of about $5.7 million.
Most of that is attributable to employee benefits and transportation. Employee benefits, as we know, we saw a significant increase in our prescription plan this year. We have been running in that plan at a deficit And we knew that we were going to see a pretty significant increase in our prescription costs. We also had an increase in our medical benefits as well. And so for this part of the general fund budget, you can see that it is about $5.7 million more.
In 2526 than it was in 2425. And when you add the educational costs and the support and operational costs. That rounds out funds 11, and you can see overall that's 1.5 million more in 2526 than it was in 2425. It's about a 0.6% increase in costs in those categories. The next part of the budget that we look at is fund 12. Fund 12 is for equipment, construction, transfers from capital reserve, and then we also do a transfer from capital reserve for payment of debt.
And you can see here that overall we have a fairly significant increase, about 1.8 million in that category. 17.3% decrease went from 10.6 million in 2425 to 8.8 million in 2526. And so when we combine fund 11 and fund 12, that rounds out our total general fund budget. And you can see here overall, we have a slight decrease of about $308,000 between 24, 25 and 2526. So the total general fund budget for 2526 256,123,121. It's about a 0.1%.
Decrease from the previous year. So if we want to look at that graphically, we could see here that about 27% of that budget is for regular education. The next largest portion of the budget is employee benefits. After that, we have student services and instruction is 12%. Special education is 10%. Followed by transportation. At 8% maintenance and security at 7%. Percent administration at 6%, and then some of the smaller categories here as well. So that kind of, if you're a graph person.
Kind of rounds out what our general fund budget looks like for 2526. We also look at that from the three major categories of our budget, which are salary benefits and other 75%, approximately 70 to 75% of our budget is salary and benefits. The rest is made up by other and other tends to incorporate a lot of things that are non-negotiable, such as insurance and utilities and those kinds of things.
You can see here that overall, when we compare salaries between 24, 25 and 25, 26, We have a $1.4 million reduction. Our benefits are increasing by 3.2. Million and then other, which is all the other things that aren't salaries and benefits are increasing by 2.3 million. Contribution to Prue School, which is a general fund contribution to the preschool program, is increasing by 279,000. Capital reserve payment of debt stays the same. And then for capital reserve projects, we have a slight decrease. So overall, again, that makes up the slight decrease decrease in the budget of 308,000.
And to look at that graphically you can see here Salaries are about 50%, benefits 21%, other is 26%, and then that's rounded out by capital reserve projects. So if we look at the revenue side of our general fund budget, we can see here that we will see an increase in taxes of about 5.2 million dollars, that's 2.7%. So just going a little bit above our 2% cap. In terms of miscellaneous revenues, that'll stay static. Next, we go on to our state aid category. You can see here that we lost about $4 million in state aid between 425, 25, 26.
We were held harmless to a 3% cut in aid, but we also, if you look down, you can see they're the stabilized aid category. We lost that category of aid as well. So overall, the loss of aid is just about $4 million. And then federal aid is our semi funds. And then fund balance, we increase the amount of fund balance that we're using in the budget. And then Capital Reserve, we have a slight decrease there. So that rounds out the revenue side.
That will make up our general fund budget. And if we look at that graphically, you can see here 79% of our budget is supported by local tax levy. If you add that to miscellaneous revenues and then add fund balance and capital reserve. You can see that the district essentially supports 88% of its budget with the state only supporting 12% of it. So what's new in our budget? We did have a couple of additional positions that were added, an additional math coach at the elementary level.
And then additional interventionists, 2.5 positions at the elementary level and three positions at the middle school. So those were some of the additions that we were able to make. And where were the cuts made? We always start with our non-personnel cuts. We look at equipment, supplies, contracted services, professional development, all things that We take a look at, we prioritize, we review what was budgeted in the previous budget year. Make comparisons if something looks out of line, we do some more investigating.
So we do all of those types of cuts first before we look at personnel. But again, because personal makes up 70 to 75% of our budget, there are times where we need to take a look at personnel. And so when we looked at that side of the budget, we're looking to cut about 19 support positions, most of those through vacancies. Reconfiguration of the middle school model, an administrative position, and then through looking at sectioning at the high school, cutting a few positions there as well.
What do we do on the revenue side? We increase the use of fund balance. We have a spending growth limitation adjustment for health benefits, which we'll talk about. And we also use some of the bank cap, which is going to expire this year if it's not used. That remain from 22, 23. In terms of our capital reserve projects that will be supported by the capital reserve account. Replacement of the turf field and resurfacing of the track at West are turf fields that were put in many years ago are out of warranty. At this point. And so we need to address those fields and then a district-wide fencing replacement that would be just about a million dollars worth of fencing throughout the district.
And then the board has been committing to committing to putting $4 million towards the payment of debt That helps hold the tax levy down on the payment of on principle and interest. And so we will make that contribution as well. So that total is about $6.9 million. If we also now look at the special revenue fund, the special revenue fund is where we account for our state, federal, and local grants. We don't know what those numbers are going to look like right now in terms of federal grants. We are typically instructed to budget at 85% of what we received the year before.
It's not a statement on recent happenings at the federal level. We just don't know what our numbers are at this point. We won't know that till after the budgeting process. So we budgeted 85% of what we received the year before. We know that we won't be receiving any more ESSER funds. Those funds had to be spent by the end of September. So we will not see those funds come back again. And then also our student activity and scholarship fund runs through Fund 20. And so we have an estimate in there of what that looks like. But that's strictly from student funds.
We do have our preschool expansion grant here that is funded by the state. Partially by the state, and that will increase this year from 7.6 million to 11.6 million. So that's about a $4 million increase in the proposed budget for preschool expansion. And then if we look at our debt service fund from the bond referendum, which was approved in 2022, we have. Sold bonds. And so now we have to pay back those bonds and that's a principal and interest payment.
And that is funded by the $4 million contribution that the board makes. Debt service aid that we receive from the state and then tax levy that rounds that out. And then we will see about a $1.4 million increase, and that is due mainly to an increase in the principal payment. And we look at our debt service over the next couple of years and how that will impact the budget, you can see that in 2526, we had an increase. And then those numbers will start to go down starting in 26, 27. So that'll offset some of the some of the debt service impact.
So if we take a look at what this looks like in terms of tax impact, the general fund tax increase, we are limited to that 2% cap and that equals to 3.9 million. It's about $112. On the average assessed home, the average assessed home in Cherry Hill is $227,000. We had a small adjustment for health benefits. It's a spending growth limitation adjustment that is based on whatever the state increases are so I don't typically try to calculate that until we get into the budget software.
That's a small increase of $638,000. We have to use all of our 2% cap and our SGLA before we can use banked cap. And so we will use 638,000 of the SGLA. That is $18.25, about 0.33%. And then we will use $728,310. We have about 1.3 million in banked cap. Banked cap is spending authority. It's not a pot of money.
Allows us to expand our tax levy. And so that will increase $728,000. It's about $20.83 or about 0.37. So overall, the increase in taxes on the general fund is 5.2 million, almost 5.3. It's $151.31 and 2.7%. And then as we factor in the debt service portion. It's $988,000, about $28, 6.49% increase on the debt service portion.
Of the general fund of the tax levy. And when we combine those together. It's about 6.2 million, just under $180 for the average assessed home. 2.97% increase overall between the general fund and debt service. So what happens next is our budget is due tomorrow. So we have submitted to the county office for their review. The county will review and hopefully approve it. We can advertise for our public hearing and then our public hearing will be held on April 29th.
We don't always make changes between the initial submission and the final budget. Sometimes we do. We have the opportunity to do that if something should come up. Last year we did that because we received additional CD. The stabilized aid that we had talked about. And then once we finalize the budget, we hold our public hearing on April 29th. And once the board approves it, then we can move forward planning for the following year.
Okay. Any questions? That was a lot of information. Board members, any questions for Mr. Sugars? Mr. Fain. Between tonight and April 29th, is there limitations to what can be changed to the preliminary budget that you submit? Well, I assume, I mean, there's limitations in terms of how much more you could increase the tax levy that would be limited by what is available to you.
Presumably there would be limitations on, you know, if you wanted to change something else drastically I think there'd have to be if you wanted to change the appropriations for a particular reason, you'd have to have a rationale for why you were doing that. You know, you can't just go in and you have to have a rationale. You have to make sure everything balances. So you'd have to make sure that you have the revenues to support whatever kind of changes that you wanted to make.
If you're making changes to reduce the tax levy, is there limitations on that? There is not limitations on that. Thank you. Other board member questions. Ms. Stern. This one's, I assume, for Dr. Morton probably. So in our last meeting, we had presentations about What are our alternatives? Because it's an important question. Some of these changes that are being proposed are proposed They're significant. They're weighty right they're not
They're not easy decisions. I would say probably the middle school to junior high is probably the biggest one in my mind. If we don't make a change like that. Given the $4 million shortfall we faced this year. And some of the other changes we made like the salary scale or some of the things that we know we're facing. What are other options? Where else can we What are different types of cuts we could make?
Yes, thank you for the question, Ms. Stern. So the transition from middle school model to the junior high school model represents approximately $3.7 million. And savings, which is significant. For cuts of that magnitude, we'd be looking at eliminating all of the support positions that have been brought in over the last several years. Mathematics coaches potentially other curricular supports and positions. We've been looking at increasing class size, cutting administrative positions.
Cutting more coach and support positions, cutting interventionist positions um Taking a look at transportation And everything across the board. There is history. For this magnitude of cuts, based upon where we are Back in 2009, 2010. We faced a similar situation in the district and you know that in many respects we're still recovering from recovering from much of those cuts that happened at that time. So it would be a significant number of cuts across the board to personnel.
And things will look drastically different next year. We don't believe that they will. With what's been proposed. Thank you. Talk about 2009, 2010. I had a child in elementary who had special education and i remember the school psychologist covered two schools. At the time. There was that was across the board, if I recall, that was a change that was made there you know one at one of the things that were cut essentially were positions that were specifically for those types of needs.
And it was a major change that person was added full time to a single school rather than having to cover two schools. In terms of being available to provide for the needs of the kids in special ed classes so That was just one I personally remember from that time frame. But yeah, I mean, I think That's a lot to consider. Class size increase. And if I'm not mistaken i think you refer because you shared with us that in previous presentation you shared that you're talking about elementary class size right Yes, elementary classes. So that would be a very big
Consideration. I mean, none of these are considerations we want to make. But it sounds like what are alternatives? Those are some of them. Thank you for answering that. Mr. Greenbaum. Thank you. So Dr. Morton talked a little bit about where further cuts might be if they were needed. Mr. Sugars, I was wondering if you could talk a little bit about just how much we had to cut to close the gap before we looked to go to our tax levy because i understand it was a pretty big gap we had to close this year
So we… before we even get to that point, there's a certain amount of trimming I had mentioned that we kind of go through and we look at equipment. We look at some, you know, some other things, some of the non Educational areas of the budget. So there are some general trimming and cuts that are made that I would quantify maybe a million and a half or so before we even start to make comparisons between revenues and expenditures. But when we did, we again took a look at where we could cut with vacancies.
And so, as I mentioned, there were some support positions that were cut. Most of those cuts were vacancy positions that were cut. And then we also looked at some of our substitute services. How we could take a look at those in a different way. We cut some of the permanent sub positions from that. There were some counseling services that we cut, a very small piece of that. So we took a look at those kinds of things before we started to look at personnel.
The total cuts that we made with the ones that we really quantified were about 7.2 million. We went a little bit above what we needed to do so that we could reinstate some of those other positions such as the math coach and the interventionist. In that sense, hopefully a reassignment of staff as opposed to cutting staff. So that totaled about 7.2 million. And when you add in probably the trimming and the cuts that we made prior to even making those comparisons of another one and a half million.
You're probably looking at close to $9 million that we cut. To get here so that we could then add in a couple of those positions. The net amount that we really quantified was about six and a half million that we needed to cut in order to make our budget work this year. Okay, thank you very much. Appreciate it. You don't really have any questions i just I kind of just want to reiterate a comment I made at the last meeting. Regarding regarding making sure that as a board and as a district that we you know are focused on budgeting broadly and you know more than just at this time of the year and how important it is as we work on our strategic plan to be linking
Budgeting and operations and linking it with achievement and so that we're making sure that when we're making that it's not rightly or wrongly, decisions happen now, you know, and so I think it's helpful for a board and a community to know that decisions are being made and being discussed Not just at this time, but throughout the year so that it doesn't feel budgetary. Right. And that it's something that we're like being thoughtful about not that I'm saying we're not but that's not what's the word I'm looking for the um the perspective that people are seeing that aren't within our group right because
Some people come to meetings, they watch meetings, but what happens and discussions that happen at committee meetings and other places that maybe people aren't picking up on. I thought the video was very helpful. In explaining what's going on. But I just want to make the comment again that like we really should be focusing as a board and as on budgeting and especially with the strategic plan happening right now like this is the time to really kind of like hammer that home that like the budget and the achievement are like
Inextricably linked. And any budgetary decision we make is achievement and any achievement decision we make is budgetary link. And then as a board, we can decide how we want to create goals around that. And that, as I said last week that you know we're still dealing with a lot of learning loss from COVID. Students are going to be with us for another decade and we really have to focus on making sure that we're like minimizing the gaps closing the gap, hopefully closing every gap that was created, obviously that might not be realistic, but if we can minimize and close the gaps as much as possible.
And that's through like making sure that we have an efficient staff, that we have interventionalists math coaches, basic skills, all that stuff. And so that we can make sure that those students are like well served. So thank you. Thank you. Yes, very well stated. What's the phrase where your treasure is? That's where your heart will be too. I mean, the budget is an expression of what we feel is important. Dr. Morton, can we just segue for a minute? Can you talk about why we're adding a math coach at the elementary level and the interventionists at the elementary level and the middle level.
What gaps are we seeking to fill? We've been talking about adding basic skills teachers at elementary since I joined the board in 2022, probably before that. Yes, absolutely. Ms. Gallagher, very, very well stated. And you're absolutely correct. Our strategic plan and our budget need to be completely synergized and aligned. There are definitely academic needs and academic priorities and what we hope to do is to create an academically focused environment across the board throughout the district. This move to the junior high school model allows us to do that.
It allows us to not only maintain and preserve support positions, but it also allows the children to continue to receive the same academically driven coursework contents and supports as well. We'll be able to add an interventionist basic skills instruction teacher to each one of the middle schools will be able to add interventionist to each of our elementary schools that do not have them. So as we've talked about, multi-tiered systems of supports. What's equally as important is that there are resources that are in place so that when a child sends up a tear and needs a support that we have the resource in terms of personnel to provide the much needed support to the children.
One of the things that I referenced in reference in 2009, 2010 cuts were the massive layoffs of mathematics coaches. And as we've looked at a decade later. We look at our mathematics achievement, we see that is an area of focus for us. And we can draw a straight line to those cuts. You know, to where we are. Adding an additional math coach, holding on to the math coaches that we hired in the last several years. Is an imperative for us. It's something that's critically important And helping our teachers.
Unpack this, you know, Eureka Square curriculum and work with our students to help them to close gaps. You mentioned COVID, you mentioned you know learning loss and things along those lines. We need those experts in our classrooms, in our schools working with our teachers. This plan redistributing our resources allows us to reallocate staff to critical needs areas while still meeting the needs of our children, the academic achievement based needs so Very well stated again, as I said.
Dr. Treisen. Thank you. First, I just want to build on what Ms. Gallagher said and just recognize Dr. Morton, the sugars, and I assume Ms. Barati on the video. That went out to the community today. I thought it was great. In terms of engaging with the community, I just also wanted to call out that for someone who can sometimes struggle to find things. It was with no instruction. You go to the homepage for the district You scroll down and click on discussions with Dr. Morton. And then it's right there to be seen. So easy to be seen. I really appreciate it. I also just wanted to, again, build on Ms. Gallagher and Ms. Sugars, I didn't see it in tonight's presentation, but I just wanted to call out a slide you included in last week's presentation, which relates to strategic plan and its planning for the future.
And on that slide, I don't know if there's anything you'd like to speak to, but just again, something that the board is very much focused on two points. One, that beyond next year, there is no banked cap. After that, there's about 3.4 million of bank cap available for 2627, none after that. And then that 2% tax levy cap cannot cover the annual increase in cost for the district. Moving forward. So I think that's a reality that we're continuing to focus on, you know. Right now we're focused on next year's budget, but that's definitely within our purview as well.
And the other thing I would point out is that we were held harmless this year to a 3% cut, which equated to the $884,000. With the loss of our equalization aid, which was significant, we were supposed to have almost $11 million cut this year. So will that hold harmless be in place moving forward? And if not, then there's going to have to be some very serious discussions about what what structures are in place moving forward to accommodate that loss in aid.
Ms. Palmer. So I have part, part comment, part question, and Mrs. Sugars, what you just said is kind of a nice segue into that. So the most I think unsettling, maybe shocking piece of all of this for me has been that notion That there is no guarantee that the 3% hold harmless cap, whatever you want to call it, will be in place for next year. And what does a potential nine, 10, $11 million loss mean long term. How sustainable is that?
We all know that it's not. We know that we can't just continue to tax our way out of things. So, you know, I know, and as a middle school mom, the proposal to move to the junior school model junior high model was kind of a big thing to wrap my brain around. But what I appreciate is that it is I think fortunately, unfortunately, otherwise, we have to start looking at real sustainable changes, not just, I mean, we could sit here all night and chip away at one-time cuts to get us where we need to be for now, but we need to think longer term than that.
But Dr. Morton, for you You know, I've asked a couple of times, I had concerns that I voiced at the last meeting about potential impact on incoming sixth graders. And I wondered if you could just for the benefit of the community, because I know that there are more people Here and online tonight. Can you talk just a little bit about what the benefits of that junior high model are from an academic standpoint and preparing for high school? And then what your thoughts are on putting some measures in place to make sure that the sixth graders get what they need.
Yes, absolutely. So the benefits of both models, the existing model that we have that we have leads to greater personalization. Support with kids, you know, smaller communities, you take a larger environment and make that into a smaller environment. I had mentioned in the video and I'll mention again. When the district had when the district had a move to transition sixth grade into the middle school setting. In addition to the initiation of the NYP, PYP, international baccalaureate program.
This model was introduced. I was told it's about 25 years. I said. 22 in the video, but about 25 years now at least, that this has been in place. And again, it's this idea that we help our sixth graders to transition into the middle school environment. We will need to continue to help them to transition in. We'll have to be intentional about the creation of a model That may not have an advisory period standalone but provides those opportunities for what comes out of the advisory, the personalization, the social emotional learning supports and things like that.
To be built in to to the schedule. So that work And that expectation exists, it's there already. The new model itself, switching to a junior high school model. Creates more of like a departmental rotation. Students would be, instead of being with a team or smaller amount of students, they'd be with their grade level peers for the most part. There could be positives to that as well in terms of exposure to other children and, you know, meeting, you know, different individuals.
In terms of fiscal responsibility, as I mentioned, we're looking at about $3.7 million in savings. By making this adjustment without affecting the academic what the academic delivery and what children receive So children will receive the same They'll have access to the same exploratories and things along those lines as well. Fiscal responsibility, academically focused environment. Teachers will pick up a fifth academic course.
Greater transition and more of a transitional program as children moved to high school because the high school program itself runs in a similar format and in a similar manner so they'll you know That segue you know will be very good for our eighth grade students. The area of focus for us and the imperative for us will be sixth graders, helping our fifth graders transition in as sixth graders and get acclimated into the environment while still feeling the supports that they've traditionally felt.
Mrs. Surefain. So Ms. Palmer stole one of my questions, but I will elaborate a little bit on that in a second. But the first thing that I wanted to I guess ask kind of point out is this point this notion that we need to start planning for the future. We don't have bank cap after next year and all of that stuff. Is there stuff that we can be doing now so that when we get to budget season and this moment next year, that we're not having the same conversation and for lack of a way of putting it, stressing people out that we're making decisions strictly on budgetary purposes. Is there things that we can start
Working with our teachers, the building administrators, all of the administrators at this building. To pre-plan that we can potentially work into, I know we said we're There's limitations on budgeting, but we still do have a month until we finalize anything. And is there things that we can do in there after tonight before May, that could potentially set us up for next year so that we're not making big decisions that seem strictly just budgetary that they could be more thoughtfully put in
Again, not saying that we didn't thoughtfully plan this out, but just things that we can do now so that we're not faced with potentially cutting $11 million for decisions that we kind of set ourselves up for now. Yeah, I'll take that one. So that's an interesting question. You know, one thing that I can say to Ms. Sugar's credit is that several weeks prior to, at least a month prior to the sharing of state aid numbers. The Sugars was able to give me
To the penny, the amount of money that we would lose in a worst case scenario. So the amount that we lost, that was our worst case scenario. But she had given that information. To myself and to our team. About four weeks prior to. Probably 12 weeks or so prior to the delivery of the state eight numbers we had started budget planning and started sessions amongst our team to you know discuss items potentially that we could take a look at.
At a certain point, once the information is released, we involve others into that conversation as well But in terms of the format of having those discussions, particularly in public. I'm not sure what that looks like just yet. Any discussions about structural changes that will impact personnel will create anxiety throughout the system and will create worry if we're unable to provide substance and details and information. So I think we probably want to discuss what this looks like for us and moving forward and having, you know, discussions about structures that exist. Again, it's just missed Sugar's share three quarters of our budget is comprised of personnel and personnel, you know, for me, these are people
With families and things along those lines. So, you know, this year we looked at positions, but we're believing that we can reallocate the people into other positions so that people don't lose lose their jobs. Sure. And just to clarify, I wasn't necessarily suggesting cutting more personnel but Just being mindful, I feel like for the last, at least the last five years that I can recollect. There's this conversation that happens over and over about Let's hope we get more funding. Let's hope we get more funding. And it's clear that Trenton doesn't care anymore about us than they do anybody else. And I think it's just, I think everybody and I can't imagine the stress that goes into everything that you do, Miss Sugars, because
It's a constant letdown. And I just, I mean, to be frank about it and i and i just feel for the, you know. The decisions that you all had to make and were making tonight are not taken lightly. And the better that we can be realistic about this is the future and it's I think it's proven that it's not going to change. So I'm hoping that through BNF and everything, there can be very intentional conversations about the future, because I think we speak a lot about what ifs, what ifs and At this point, it is if. That's clearly not going to change unfortunately
The other thing that I wanted to point out is the continuation of with with what Ms. Gallagher was saying and saying Just to put this in perspective, the rising sixth graders this year were the children that were in kindergarten In 2019 to 2020. So half of their kindergarten year was virtual. They were placed virtually in the spring of their kindergarten year. So these students will be moving into sixth grade next year. And um I'd like to add to that that I actually was in the sixth grade class that moved to middle school in this district when it was the first sixth grade class.
As much as I do not remember specifics about that process, it was a really long time ago. I do remember that there was a lot of stress behind that. There was a lot of stress from parents, from teachers. I'm assuming administrators at that time too And the one thing that I do remember from that process is Everybody made it very clear that the success of the children, the success of the support of the teachers was first and foremost.
I'm wondering, I've been doing a lot of reflecting from last week and after watching the video that you both put out. And again, thank you for that. I've been doing a lot of reflecting on the what ifs of what that could look like and thinking that these students that are coming into sixth grade for the most part, don't really know what they don't know. So I think it's up to us as a district and Parents, teachers, et cetera, to just show them the positives of what this can look like. I think they've proven resiliency through being able to work on a computer at five and six and I'll tell you that i was absolutely painful to watch. I can't imagine what it was like being the teachers and students going through it.
But that being said, can you use Dr. Morton or whoever, can you speak to some of the processes that you're planning on putting in place to make sure that the transition is as seamless as possible for those that are changing what they're currently going through or that for those that are coming into this brand new experience. Going forward. Yeah, so it would definitely be a new experience for our rising sixth graders. So they will not have, you know, the knowledge of or experience of what currently exists.
At the middle school model. However, but we believe that these relationships with our excellent faculty that we have at the middle school level is critical and it's important. To help to acclimate the students into the environment, to help to familiarize them with the environment. And to make school into a friendly, trusting place. So what that looks like. Is currently… underway. Dr. Birdie.
Middle school principals, again, had, you know, met today they'll be engaging with faculty and staff and to form committees to put together that plan. And to lay out this new schedule and this new model based upon the current reality. For those that have been already in the mix. There'll need to be some type of acclimation as well. To what the new model will be. Our expectation is to minimize the level of change for the student.
And there will be great change for teachers. Teachers will move away from having an advisory period to now having five sections that they're teaching. Moving from smaller teams to smaller teams teams need that will need to be intentionally planned around a PLC calendar or something along those lines. So there'll be changes for our staff. We'll need to work with staff as well. To help them to help them navigate those changes. But again, we want to minimize the impact on students. So in terms of that student who goes to their algebra one class, that will feel the same.
Their English class will feel the same. You know, we want to try to keep that commonalities as much as possible for the children. So. Can you just elaborate a little bit and talk about timeline because this is just the beginning of the conversation around what this transition looks like, not the end of the conversation. I don't want people out there to think that. You know, there isn't going to be further discussion consideration review by the board through the CNI committee So could you just talk about that a little bit?
Yes. So we have an assertive timeline, aggressive timeline, as I told Dr. Birdie, that we've established, but there are a number of checkpoints on the timeline. I don't have it in front of me. Per se, but we are expecting that we'll be able to provide updates at the CNI committee meetings April. May, and then by that june Third, I believe CNI meeting. We'll have a concrete plan mapped out with the schedule ready to go that we're ready to share with the CNI committee share with the community.
And that will turn over and we'll be able to share with the full board as well in the following week. Thank you. I appreciate that. Ms. Stern. Some comments, really mostly at this point. So this is my fifth budget. Right. Fiscal round here. And the first three years of budget, we were getting more and more money every year, right? Because we remember that, Mrs. Sugars? Yeah. You know the s2 law passed in 2018.
And there was a seven year ramp up period Remember those days, right? Seven-year ramp up. We were supposed to be brought to full funding. And then literally two years ago, how much extra Almost $7 million. $7 million extra two years ago. Above and beyond are, you know, and we so we quickly ramped up to essentially full funding Great. Finally, we're here. And full funding, by the way, from the funding formula from 2008. Okay, so I mean, many of us on the board, many people on the board right now, your children are not alive at that time, right?
So… all of a sudden last year, whiplash, right? Pull back 7 million. Dr. Morton, you testify, Mrs. Sugars, I think Mrs. Winters says, I'm trying to remember, I testify. I don't even remember. You were born president last year, Miriam. Been there so many times in these budget hearings. So, you know. Last year, all of a sudden, Dr. Morton, you said we need more predictability. You said that in the Senate. Right, hearing budget hearing, right?
So our committee hearing was so. So, you know, here we are. And last year you said… Oh my gosh, we got to make structural changes. And you did you brought some kind of small, I would say, one-off changes, which we took a look at and was very upsetting to the community and, you know, specifically to a few individual student groups we pulled back those. But there was a large structural change that was made last year. And it was one that had been years in discussion.
But again, not to upset the apple cart, sometimes you hold off on making structural changes. Well, you brought it last year. And it was brought a lot of uncertainty and a lot of concern. And it was a major, it was a transition. And, you know, and what I saw last year was last year Once that was put into place and the decision was made and the budget was passed. Just like that. Lots of pieces that you're talking about, you know, that timeline fell into place wasn't perfect. There were definitely some wobbliness of it but overall the feedback that I've gotten throughout the year is it was a good change. It's made sense.
And it did have a positive budgetary impact, but it also had a positive impact on the students. I look at like that in that in that context. You know, last year, one of my colleagues here asked for fresh ideas. Right. We don't want one-off changes you know at you know five years here at five years I've lived through some budgets with one-off changes. And quite honestly, they're not part of a comprehensive running of a district, in my opinion. We need more comprehensive look.
So the way I see this is, you know. There's a comprehensive look. These are not new ideas, but maybe they weren't expected for right now for prime time but we're in that position. We have to look at how do we prioritize our kids Because they're why we're here. And their education and their success and how do we So our prioritizing and our valuing of our staff. Right. I mean, people… live in Cherry Hill. People moved to cherry hill And love Cherry Hill. A big reason is not just the mall, it's the education.
You know, people, we'd say all the time. So we value our schools And they're an important part of who we are and what we do. So, you know. This budget you know the timeline of it you know it's it's it's it's a lift. It's a big lift and it's weighty, you know, making these decisions, as I said earlier but The way I look at it is There's no way to do the things we've done with the teacher contracts. There's no way to Provide the coaches And provide the supports for those for the kids that we need without looking at a more comprehensive plan. And I think
You know, you brought it, you know, we asked for it, you brought it. It's not easy. Change is definitely not easy. And there are things that will be missed from the middle school model for sure. Sixth grade is a big consideration. Another consideration from my perspective and a bit of benefit of the middle school model is special education. And how are we going to make sure that there's enough colleague interaction and and to support the gen ed kids and the special ed kids. I mean, it's just important that we, you know, we find a way.
The model that I saw last year of quickly moving into place to map this out and get this for last year's structural changes, I have confidence that will help this year. That was the model last year. It will continue on. And, you know, we've got really, really, really great Staff, really great Really, really, really great teachers. I really believe that you know, if we had to do this, we're in the right place with the right people to do it.
Stuff as it may be. I mean, and that's, you know, in all the budget discussions, that's the part that I think is most important to consider. And I just have to note So here, and I listened to the feedback i hear you know some of the comments i mean you know the first position that was cut last year was in the business office. The first or two positions, I believe it was actually. You know, we're doing leaner and leaner work in our administration.
And that's right. I mean, it's right if we can do it. You know. But I very much appreciate you know what what has come out of the business office. Especially given you know Given all that. You know, I don't think i don't think In the world where we were getting an extra $7 million three years ago. And we could add positions and, you know, it was great. It was wonderful But that's not these times. And, you know, it was the law.
This year was the seventh year. It's the law. And yet here we are. So, you know. That's it. Mr. Mayor. So I'll be brief. Is this working this time. All right, there we go. Yeah, we're no longer in the world where we're in the world we're going to see $7 million more from the state in a year. It's a very different world. And frankly. You know, one of the elephants in the room is that public education generally is in many ways under attack.
And that in and of itself is reason to be that much more careful. When we look at budgets. We look at how we can assure that we are right-sized with what our budget priorities are to align with student achievement and you know this is going to mirror a lot of what I said last week. I know that Mrs. Sugar's This was not a surprise. And Dr. Morton mentioned it earlier. That weeks before the numbers came out. Mrs. Sugars was right on it.
The move, the potential move to the junior high model while you know in in many ways concerning and concerning for good reason. Is one that still from what I see and what I've learned. Allows this staff, which is such an amazing staff. To continue to focus on what they always have, which is student achievement. And people and people in relationships and and and inspiration that those relationships can spark in the students. So when they graduate.
Again, with whatever graduation, whatever success means for them, they'll have that opportunity. And in less lean budget years, all of our mics would work. But this is how teams work. So we're no longer in the situation where we can be remotely comfortable with the kind of funding that we've had in the past. And assuming flat funding is is is iffy at best.
As Mrs. Palmer said. You know, we don't know, we can't have confidence that the 3% cap. On potential loss of funds is going to be in place next year. If we were looking at $11 million loss you know How could we have possibly made that up without significant cuts. We couldn't. We're still looking at some significant cuts, but thanks to the work that the administration has put into this with Mrs. Sugar's office We're still in a position to continue to move forward so that the academic achievement which we are seeing in the data and we have seen now year after year.
Moving in the right direction. We'll continue to do that. So while there are lots of things to keep our eyes on and lots of things to be concerned about the one thing I have never worried about and and have gotten that much more confident in since I joined the board. Almost three and a half years ago is that the commitment of our staff, our teachers in particular. To what they do and to what they care about. Is not going to waver.
And while I don't I think I speak for more than just myself in saying it's hard to be happy about a budget like this. I'm confident. And we'll vote yes for it because I know what kind of work has gone into it. And where the achievement with this budget for the future. I want to read a statement that Dr. Braddock sent me. He's unable to attend tonight. So this is from Dr. Braddock with sincerest apologies and regrets, I am unable to attend the meeting of the Cherry Hill Board of Education scheduled for March 18th, 2025.
I have teaching responsibilities that evening that will prevent me from attending. Nevertheless, I wanted to be sure to get my thoughts on the record given the gravity of budget discussion to take place that evening. I am aware that this is only the first discussion of the budget and it will be taken up for a final vote in the future, so I will keep my comments brief. I am grateful to Mrs. Sugars for all her hard work in laying out the challenges and opportunities we have moving forward. As expected, the proposed budget reflects difficulties being felt across the state. Still, I feel that the budget as proposed is optimal for serving our students in the coming year.
I look forward to future discussions about it, but I'd like it right into the record that the proposed budget has my support. Had I not needed to attend my class, my vote for this budget would have been in the informative. Sincerely, Kurt Broddock. Mr. Greenbaum. Thank you. I just wanted to make some brief remarks and they really will be brief. I just wanted to take a moment to acknowledge the hard work that went into meeting this year's budget challenges in a way that aligns with the board's priorities. As I said last week, we always start with trying to minimize impact on the students. We always start with the students. They're our first priority.
The board is looking for structural changes with sustainable long-term savings and some of our budget really does focus on that. We need to start thinking about operating more efficiently Particularly in a time where this level of funding is likely our new normal. And we want to continue our focus on academic supports and achievement. And we see that with reinstating some of the positions with math coaches and interventionists. We have challenges to address.
With achievement and that's how we do it. And I appreciate you carving out something in the budget for that. And then lastly, we need to have more conversations about the budget. Not just at budget time, but year round. I had conversations with all eight other board members in the last week. There weren't a lot of questions, but there were certainly a lot of comments and thoughts. And I think everybody really focused on that. Our strategic plan needs to focus on running leaner, finding more efficiencies. And these budget challenges are something we need to think about year round.
And with that. You know, again, thank you. If you haven't seen the budget video. You can find it on social media, on YouTube, on the district's website. It's really a great explanation of where we are as a district and how we're rising to address those challenges. So I definitely recommend checking that out. With that, thank you.
This is your fame. You know, I have a lot of questions. The equalization aid situation we find ourselves in. Is there anything that us as a board and district can do to change that or is that strictly How does that work? So it's calculated by the state and it's based on district income and Assess valuations in the district. That's compared to a weighted enrollment calculation that the district does. So not the district, the state does. I wish there was something that we could do about it. I don't believe that there is any recourse in that. We last year actually appealed some of the numbers and our appeal was rejected, so I wouldn't anticipate that our appeal would be accepted this year.
One thing they did do. Is they did a three-year average of our assessed valuation and our district income, which I think was the result of a lot of people coming in front of them last year and saying you know you need to You need to try to create some stability instead of having these giant swings. So they did do that this year. But unfortunately, again, as I said today. Or I said on the video, they start with the end in mind. And so that affects the multipliers and the factors that they use when they calculate it.
And there were a significant number of districts that lost equalization aid and we were one of them. So I'm not sure, unfortunately, that there's much that can be done at this point. And would you say it's safe to assume that that's going to be the future as well? I would say that when I look at the calculation. You know they use so they use the equalized valuations from october And they use the district income from three years ago. And so one of the things I noticed last year when we lost the aid
Was that the year of district income that they used was during the pandemic. And so I anticipate that that number will increase each year. And the equalized valuations you know just have skyrocketed in Cherry Hill. And I don't anticipate that that's going to go away overnight. So unfortunately. I don't see… path where things turn around and suddenly we were receiving our equalized aid again. Thank you.
Just a reminder that the assembly budget hearing is next week in Trenton. I anticipate I will be there. I anticipate a lot of other people from Cherry Hill will be too. I mean, to Ms. Sugar's point, I don't think there's anything we can do right now about our equalization aid. But one thing that we can do is talk about the impact of the state funding formula And what it's actually doing to our school districts. If the governor says that he values public education, he needs to show it. And if he's saying he's fully funding, he needs to be fairly funding.
And it's not just Cherry Hill. So I believe there was a 20% drop in the number of districts who received equalization aid this year. We can't be the only ones. We aren't the only ones, but we also are the ones with a huge legacy of underfunding, 20 years of underfunding. Leading to the bond referendum and leading to where we are now, it's not okay. So I don't have any answers. I sure have a lot of questions. And I will be posing them to the Assembly Budget Committee next week, along with, I think, several other members of the community.
And if there's opportunities going forward for us to have input in what a possible new funding formula will look like, I'll certainly take those. So, I mean, I think it's not the best answer to your question, Mr. Fiend, but I think it's really the only option we have right now is just to appeal to them to make it make sense. Any other board members with questions? Comments, thoughts, concerns. Okay, then I'm going to move on to our only public comment period for tonight.
It is public comment on any topic. Public comment is an opportunity for members of the community to comment on matters relevant to the operations of Cherry Hill Public School District or within the authority of the Cherry Hill Board of Education. The board welcomes diverse opinions on relevant matters. Under established federal law governing reasonable restrictions on speech and public forums. Statements which demean individual community members or groups or which are irrelevant to the operations of the school district are repetitious will not be permitted. Community members who would like to present information not relevant to the school district are always welcome to communicate directly to the district superintendent.
Board president and all board members via email or other alternative means. So as by custom, we always start in the room. Anyone who would like to make a public comment tonight, please approach the microphone. State your name and municipality. Jennifer Nadio, Cherry Hill. I was just writing this so i may go a little more, hold on a second. Throughout the year, families have continuously called me And there seems to be an uptick of students struggling in INRS and MTSS.
And they're trying to get evaluations. For IEPs or an IEP or a 504 These students are not in special education yet. And they're struggling, which means they will continue to struggle in general education. With the changes that you are discussing right now and taking away the advisory period and some of the other pieces that you're looking at. What will the students in special education will they, or actually let me rephrase that.
The students who are requesting or their parents are requesting for them to be in special education, if they're struggling that badly. With these budget cuts, are they just going to continue to drop. Because my phone is ringing off the hook. I'm getting emails. At 10, 30, 11 o'clock at night that these families cannot get services or an evaluation or an iep 5.04.
And they're really scared. And we're here, myself, all of my friends who have children in special education. We're here and we're helping them as best as we can. But, you know, there's also the question of are they not able to get these because the budget is the way that it is. So I just ask that we are looking at those kinds of programs that would continue to help our general education students, our special education students to continue to grow.
So thank you very much. Thank you so much for your comments. Going to the line, the first person, it just says iPhone with your hand raised. If that is you, please unmute. Give us your full name and municipality. If you are iPhone, it is your turn. You're still on mute. Okay, we're going to move on to the next caller. Try hanging up and calling back and I will get to you.
The next caller is a phone number ending in 788 is your turn. Please unmute and give us your name and municipality. My name is Jeff Potowitz. I live in Cherry Hill. This is for 8.5, the resolution about early childhood preschool budget. I suggest that you stop it. First, Ms. Sugars, what is our local fair share tax rate? Again, Ms. Sugars, what is our local fair share tax rate? Please vote no on this. The business and facilities meeting Dated March 4th, 2025 can be found in the agenda of last week for fiscal year 2026. That's next year our
Preschool expansion funding will be $6.9 million, down from 7.4, and that explains the reason why. But the aid we were supposed to get was 7.4 million down to 6.9. It's quite possible that the numbers that Ms. Sugars gave you had to do with the fact the Rod Gramp and the state's percentage of that rod grant. Our percentage is 7.6. Theirs will turn out to be about 5. But the aid we should be getting, we will be getting next year is $6.9 million for preschool aid for fiscal year of 2024, we got 3.4 million for fiscal year.
2025, which is this year, we got 6.1 million for approximately 400 students for fiscal year 2026. We're going to get 6.9 million on the amount of students. All right. And that's what we're going to get. $6.9 million. That's for 876 preschool students, according to the lecture that the school district gave to um gave to the parents of the incoming preschool students. January 8th, I believe. So if we have 876 students and 6.9 million, that comes out to about $7,900 per student, which is half of what the state's estimate costs would be from about three years ago. They estimated the cost per sit would be $15.
$1,800. And I believe that's a low ball amount because it doesn't include cost of busing and other costs like construction and renovation and buildings and something like that. And remember, we're paying 7.6 million. That's our portion of that rod grant. That we're getting something off. And that's not counted in that in that state's estimate. Okay, note that our state calculation per pupil without the bond was about 26%. That's without… The bond. So our per pupil state aid for preschool schedule will continue to decrease as time goes on.
All right. And may well be less than $1,800 a student when we get to year 2028 when they start to give us the amount per… Great. Thank you very much for your comments, Dr. Potowitz. Thank you for calling in. We appreciate it. Going back to the room. Did anybody like to approach the microphone and give a public comment?
Laurie Neary Neary, Cherry Hill. I want to say I really appreciate the video and the thoughtful way in which this was presented to the public. As a former board member, I've never seen it presented quite this way. And I think it was very digestible. And I really appreciate that truly. I want to echo my concerns. Around more broadly, not necessarily here local to home but the funding formula. Is we knew it wasn't working before. It's still not working when your home is somehow wealth you can't access.
I cannot emphasize that enough. I have to exit my home to access that wealth, which means I'm not educating my children here. And I know that's not a Cherry Hill problem. That's incredibly frustrating. Would I love to have that wealth? Sure. And I'd love to put it right back to the schools. But it's not real. And we need to have that conversation. So I think looking at these sustainable changes is incredibly important because this isn't going to go away. We're in an environment that is not education friendly. And I don't foresee it becoming so for a very long time.
As a special education parent, I'm absolutely terrified on the daily. You can judge a society by how you treat your most vulnerable. We're not doing very well right now. So I really hope that we continue to ensure that we are doing the best we can to ensure that we're meeting the needs of all our students But especially our special education students I want Cherry Hill to be an example of what this should look like and not what's happening. I also would like to see us take a look at our campus police.
That's a cost we're bearing. But it's not the model out there. In fact, I don't know where else a K through 12 has their own police department. That belongs with the township and I imagine there has to be a tremendous cost savings. By moving it back to where it should be. And where the oversight belongs. Insurance is expensive and I'm not talking about employee benefits. I'm talking about liability coverages here. And I can't imagine what that looks like for us when you have your own armed police department.
So I really please express the need to see what we can do and what does that look like? Is that a sustainable cost save? By a shared service with the township where they provide And have the oversight for the police department. Thank you. Thank you very much. Going to the line, the next person is Harvey Vasquez. Please state your full name and municipality. Thank you. Harvey vessel, Cherry Hill. Good evening to all the distinguished board members. I just want to piggyback on what Ms. Neary was talking about.
I'm hoping that Ms. Lynn Sugar could give us some clarification as to the average assessment values of the home that she had on the video today. Wondering if that assessed value is the same assessed value that is being used by the state. To assess the values of our home because if not, then the presentation that was done today, the video, could be a bit misleading because I know for a fact I have a hard time believing that 227,000 is the assessed value
Of homes in our community and it may be in some cases But I could tell you that most of the homes are going to be double that, if not more. So that particular slide could be a little misleading. Thank you. Thank you very much for calling in. Going back to the room, would anybody like to approach the microphone for a public comment?
Hi, I'm Sari Jocelyn. I'm from Cherry Hill. So I want to look at the investments where we've made and where we've been over the last five years or so. The new student learning standards were issued by the state. That caused us to put in new curriculum. We put in the new curriculum. We've done the training. That's an investment. We've had our chance. At investing in our infrastructure.
That's that bond reformation that we've had. So we're already into that. And my understanding is the maximum is going to peak in a year and then it's going to start to come down a little bit. That's an investment that we have made. Where are we as far as COVID? We've invested in the extended tutoring. We're not out of the woods yet. We're going to have, as was said, that cohort of students is going to continue with us for some time. But we have made investments to deal with that issue, as has every district in this state.
So where do we look at going forward? Well, we've invested now this year. And working on a five-year strategic plan. We've looked at where we're going to be for enrollment. And that's one of the challenges that we have to deal with. But those are investments that we have made. So we've positioned ourselves. Let's look at the outcome that we have. We had a QSAC evaluation.
That was successful. We passed. We did well in our QSAC. We're not looking at doing action plan steps to adjust. But we need to prepare for the next QSAC, which will require us to deal with things like chronic absenteeism. To deal with our science scores. So these are things where we have continued needs and those are things that have to do with our climate our school plans and our academic success.
So I stress with you. That we have positives with our students They are resilient. Sixth grade students are going to be resilient. The seventh and eighth and ninth and on the way forward, they're going to be resilient for the changes that have to come forward. So I would just like to say, yes, I was the last speaker. Talking about that funding formula. And I said, it's got to get thrown out. I advocate that we work toward changing that funding formula going ahead.
So I thank you all for the hard work you're doing. And I see a very positive path forward for our district. Preschool is essential. And we need to stay the course. Thank you. Thank you for your comment. Going back to the line, the next person is a wider bridge. Please unmute and give us your name and municipality. Alana Yaris, Cherry Hill. I heard in the discussion tonight that If the middle school model is not changed to a junior high model, we could have a look in the district for our funding from 2009 to 2010.
I'm just concerned that Next year, if the state aid numbers continue to go the way they've been going. That they're going to cut Cherry Hill again And then we will have an issue and the district will look like the 2009, 2010 school year with cuts. I think it behooves the district to contact the new governor once elected to come see Cherry Hill and the facilities that we have so that they can see what 2009, 2010 funding looked like in terms of Cherry Hill had put in front of it an impossible decision to make about
Passing a bond referendum to cover for the state's cut in our state aid. And I just, I don't want to see that happen again to students in the next generation. To have to suffer through budget cuts and educational issues Again, I think it's beneficial to the district that there is preschool because early learning helps with future learning. And I believe with the addition of preschool, universal preschool as we'll have it will allow for less tutoring in the future.
There are students that will always need the tutoring and need the help, but I think it will be less because of Universal Preschool being added. I'm also helping to coordinate uh a large contingent of Cherry Hill attending the budget hearing on next Tuesday, March 25th. And I hope that Others will meet and carpool to Trenton as well for a large showing at the budget hearing.
Thank you. Thank you for your comment. Going back to the room, is there anyone who would like to make a comment? I neglected to say if there were any students, you should have gone first. I don't see any students on first glance, but there may be. We're all lifelong learners and that's my fault. I apologize. I don't have my usual stuff in front of me. Tonight, because it's not a typical meeting. So if there's any students, you can put an S after your name online or you can approach them. Or anybody else in the room who would like to approach the microphone, it's now your turn.
Anne who are in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. So I'm just a little bit concerned about the middle school model, mainly because the public is already upset. Okay, I know that I've attended CNI. We haven't heard one inkling of this. And unfortunately, I wish we had approached this earlier in our academic curriculum. But be that as it may. The public is upset. I think the sooner that you explain how it's going to affect those children. Particularly those who are in fine arts, okay, taking over that time, particularly the children most involved with special ed that need that time from advisory How is that going to work? And more importantly, how are we going to support our staff
And in order for it to work. I was around for that middle school model change. It does take some transitioning. I must say this about pre-K. It has nothing to do with not liking pre-K. But if our funding dries up, what next? And this is a chatter on Facebook, I'm telling you, you've known me long enough to know I'm not blowing this out of proportion. Okay. But right now the budget stands that you're going to take 7.1% away from regular ed, but we're going to invest 18.4% out of our regular budget.
For pre-K. And I don't know how that's fair. Okay. I don't know. I did Oprah. Doe to find out exactly what the grants cover because I'm very confused out here as a public member You vote on things. I have no idea if it's a grant or if it's something from our regular budget. I am very concerned as you move forward that your grades five through 12 are the most COVID deprived And we still have a long way to go with them. I'm not worried about pre-K people because you'll have them for 12 or 14 years.
Okay, but we need to focus on 5 to 12 as you move forward for academic success. And it's a battle. So I am glad that you were able to add a couple of things, even though it really involves middle and elementary school. I'm going to be honest with you, and I'm not a pessimist. We're in trouble. Period. You're going to have a new governor. I don't care how many fair funding people you send and I, as you know, I go to that meeting too I'm hoping that community members, not just board members, will be speaking next week because we've been told for years we don't care about you.
We care about what the community thinks of their budget. And I think that's critical in a town of this size. Look, I've been doing this for a long time. Okay. Tretin is a mess. The world is a mess right now. We can't fix all of this. And if you want to move forward. And you want to collaboratively, I can't even talk anymore about this because I'm sick of it but then you do have to get cost savings into your budget and as you plan.
Because you're going to run out of money. Thank you. Thank you for your comment. We appreciate it. Going back to the line, the next person is Carolina Bevid. Hi, Carolina Beved, Cherry Hill. I am in 100% agreement with Mrs. Einhorn and Dr. Podowitz about pre-K. I am really not in favor of continuing to spend money on that project when we are losing money for Other important… academic resources that we need for our students who are currently in district.
And I just feel like it's utterly foolish to think that we can depend on the state to fund pre-K when we obviously can't depend on the state. To fund anything. Just wanted to state that. And great video, have gotten feedback already from other people in the community that they appreciated it. So thank you for that. That's it. Thank you for your comment. Going back to the room, who would like to approach the microphone next to make a public comment.
I'm giving wait time. All right. Well, then I'm going to go to the line. And the next person online is Renee Robinson. It's your turn. Please unmute. Give us your name, municipality, and your comment. We can't hear you. Please unmute.
He still can't hear you. Try one more time. Okay, I'm going to go to the next caller, but we'll come right back to you. The next caller, it simply says. Iphone, it's your turn. Please unmute. Give us your name and municipality. Iphone, you are still on mute. Now we can hear you. Go ahead. Thank you. Hello, can you hear me? Hello, it's Rick Short, Cherry Hill.
Unfortunately, this budget does miss one very important thing. It's supposed to be the most important thing, and that is the safety and security of our children It'd be nice if we could hear a little more on the… Last time Ms. Sugars talked about fencing. One of the basic things, and it was in a report in July 2015, from the state of New Jersey is fencing, perimeter fencing. I don't know if you remember the one time we almost lost a student at payne So just basic fencing. How much more money do we need to spend to have just Perimeter fencing, basic fencing, again, recommended the July 2015.
That's almost 10 years ago, folks. And then we move on to the other problems. Ms. Winters, Madam President, Winters, can you ask Mr. Greenbaugh? When we're ever going to do the interior of our schools. You know the weaknesses. I don't understand why we are not finishing off. The interiors of our school. We have the same problems that they had at Parkland.
I just don't get it. What are you waiting for? And then we can move on to architect designs We have two different architects doing our security. One designing it one way and one designed it another way And of course, the one design is horrible Then let's move on to the next point. Pick up and drop off. Where's the report on that? No report? I haven't heard it. It's been over two years. We're going on to two years now.
When that student got seriously, seriously injured. And we still have no pickup and drop off plans. I hope we start putting safety and security first. Because that's what should be first. Thank you. Thank you very much for your comment. Going back to the room, is there anybody who would like to approach the microphone? Seeing nobody, I'm going to go back to the line. The next person is Brandy. Brandy, it's your turn. Please unmute. Give us your name and municipality.
Yes, hi, this is Brandy White from Cherry Hill. I just wanted to kind of echo some of the other sentiments that have been expressed Specifically regarding the budgeting And with preschool, I have a rising sixth grader next year And this year they eliminated their ability to switch classes amongst their Fifth grade teachers, so he's had no practice with that. And now he's going to be going to Middle school with a whole new transitional plan. And he's also special needs. We have a lot of challenges. This makes me very uncomfortable.
And I'm very frustrated to see the state cutting our funds And our solution to fixing it is to continue to fund preschool programs and cut our other existing students and i've got four in the district now that are all going to be Significantly affected And preschool continues to be funded. I don't understand how we can expect to be getting all of the money from the state for preschool if they're not funding our existing schools Not to mention the added expenses of busing.
So at this point, we're cutting middle school students benefits and educational experience in favor of busing preschoolers all over the district. It just doesn't make sense to me. The math doesn't makes sense. I have to imagine significant savings if we were to table preschool. And I think the district at this point has just bitten off more than they can chew And we really need to trim back and focus on those core academics for our K through 12 students. And that's what I would really like to see, particularly, like I said, for all four of my existing children in the district.
Thanks so much. Thank you very much for your comment. Going back to the room, is there anybody who'd like to approach the microphone? Going once, going twice. Speak now or forever hold your peace. All right, seeing nobody in the room, seeing nobody online, I'm going to close our public comment period for this evening.
Seeing nobody to tell me I can't. One of our Paul Green's not here tonight. One of the people who had tried to call in before and couldn't unmute has raised their hand. So I'm going to let that person comment at this point and then I will close public comment. Renee Robinson, I see that you're back. Let's see if you can unmute and give us your comment. It's your turn. Hello, can you hear me? Yes. All right. Yes, we can hear you now. Go ahead and turn.
Hi, everybody. Sorry about that. I dialed in. So I emailed Dr. Martin. And the board today, after I watched the video A big flag was raised for me on the comments about the middle school model. I got a little bit more information and I think I got on this call right when Maybe you guys just finished talking about that. There's going to be a lot more discussion about it, particularly with the sixth graders. I think that's what the end of what you were saying. I couldn't jump on until about 715.
But I want to, for the record, share a little bit of that email just to get it on the record. The incoming class of kids Which my child is included in. They're a unique group in that they were among the COVID kindergartners. They missed a year and a half of core early literacy instruction. And even when they did return, teachers mouse were behind masks. So these kids are already entering middle school at a disadvantage spending those critical years of their education and disruption And the transition to middle school is already a difficult milestone.
And it's compounded with the challenges of the pandemic. The students transitioning are less mature. Than their peers where they're they're Their experience and their loss of critical social skills, emotional stability, academic readiness, these kids went through a huge trauma. And I just really urge us to dig in and look at the structure and support that we need to provide that right now is really provided through us. Advisory. I have a seventh grader and we wouldn't have survived without advisory last year.
It's so important to note the physical environment for these kids has been far from ideal. My child has spent the entire school year in the school under construction. With no access to the APR or playground equipment the whole year. So let's add to that challenge. He's going to go to Rosa and enter a new building that's just about to start undergoing construction. So again, just entering the shaken world. They have endured a lot of instability and disruption.
And they need stability. They need guidance. And I understand that we're going to be talking about it more. And I'm really excited to, I'm glad I heard that before I came on this call because I feel so passionate about removing the support is It's just such a critical period. These are 11 year olds. They are elementary school students. And when Dr. Morton on that call said it's going to be like a mini high school. This should not be happening to those kids. So we've got to recognize that they're 11 year olds And they are not ready for what effectively you're trying to make a high school environment. So please read my email. I know I'm out of time because I say a little bit more.
Thanks. Thank you for calling. I see one more person online. Aaron Creek, it's your turn if you could unmute and give us your public comment. Go ahead and unmute.
Now you are. Go ahead. You are. Unmuted. Am I unmuted now? Okay. All right. Thank you. Hi, Aaron Creek, Cherry Hill. I don't know if I'll be the last comment or not, but I would like to kind of And on a positive note and thank all of you for your work in putting together this budget that is less than ideal. But unfortunately, we live in a less than ideal world. I've been in Cherry Hill for almost 25 years now before I had my kids in Cherry Hill. I taught in Cherry Hill for 12 years. And now I have students at West and Rosa and Russell Knight. We've also been at Kingston.
At Berkeley before it was Malberg, at Carusi. So I've kind of have a experienced all the district and all I think it's important and with all the negativity and things going on in the world to just highlight some of the positive, amazing things that this district is doing. The girls basketball team just won the state championship. I'm sitting in the parking lot outside of West right now picking up my son from his pit orchestra rehearsal where they're getting ready for their musical next week.
I had my kids go watch Mary Poppins at East a few weeks ago. My daughter's in Wizard of Oz at Rosa. And all of these performing arts that are so amazing. And I know that a lot of times people focus on all the things that are wrong with the budget and all the things that are wrong with what the district is doing, but we're doing a lot of things right with a pretty Crappy hand that we've been dealt. So I really appreciate everybody's work with that. And in terms of the middle school, I also have a rising sixth grader So I'm invested in this and I kind of would really want something Mr. Payne said earlier echoed to me. The kids don't know what they don't know.
And they're going to look to us adults, the parents, the teachers, the staff, the administrators. To model for them and support them. And if we can do that, then we're going to be all right and the kids Yes, that particular class dealt with a lot through COVID. But they are resilient and they will continue to be resilient as long as we model both positivity and kindness towards one another adults It's like all in how we model. So I just want to finish by saying thank you to all of the work that you've done. I know it's a thankless job.
And the reality is the world has a lot of challenges it's And we're all doing the best we can. So I just want to end on that note. Thank you. Thank you for calling in from the West parking lot. We appreciate it. I see another caller. It's Laura's iPhone. Laura's iPhone, it's your turn. Please state your name and municipality. Hi, I am calling. First of all, I want to echo that I agree with what oh yeah, I forgot. Sorry. Laura Pendergast Cherry Hill. I wanted to call and echo what Erin just said.
I agree that there's a lot of positive exciting things happen in the district. And also I want to note that We've done a lot of good things under really difficult circumstances. So some things that I appreciate First of all. In the preschool conversation, I think that what gets lost is we're not comparing preschool to no preschool. We're comparing state funded preschool to district funded preschool. In the past, we've always offered preschool. And we used to lose quite a bit of money on it.
Because the tuition that the parents paid just paled in comparison to what um to what it costs. And we are required to give special education to our students with disabilities. So I think that it's like kind of a not, it's not a realistic comparison to compare preschool versus no preschool. We should compare district funded preschool versus state funded preschool. Also, what I like about the new budget, I like that we're focusing on interventionists. I think that's critical.
In terms of the change to advisory. I think advisory is a good model, but I also recognize that it might not be worth $3.7 million. So if that's the level of savings we can get. I think it's reasonable i do think that it's important to think about how we build in those supports in a different way. One way might involve extending the I&E period so that we have more opportunities to offer and more time to offer interventions.
To kids who need it. What I hear from my son who's in sixth grade is that He goes to INE in classes where he needs help, but there's not enough time to do a lot. And if we could make that longer, I think that it would benefit more kids. But overall. From my perspective, and I understand folks don't agree with that. With this necessarily, but I think that the switch switching advisory is reasonable if we find those supports, especially for sixth graders.
In a different way. That's all I've got. Thank you so much for all that you're doing. Thank you for your call. Next person just says iPhone. Iphone, it's your turn. Please give us your name and municipality. Hi, my name is Lila Rosenieri. I'm from Cherry Hill. I would like to say that I think like the change for advisory as a student in middle school I don't think it's really that big of a deal.
A student with a disability, there's other times in the day, like I&E that like you can use. And I'm happy to see like that is a change then other changes that there could be. So yeah, thank you. Thank you so much, Lila. We appreciate your comment and you calling in. And with that, I am going to again close public comment. But for a second time, but I think it was worth it. I think on a night like this, on budget night, I think it's important to get as many public comments in as possible. I know the technology can be challenging when you're calling in online.
So thank you to everybody in the room. Thank you for everybody who called in. We appreciate your comments. We're all taking good notes. And we will proceed through. Budget season. It's not over tonight. Like I said to the board in email, this is a checkpoint and not the finish. So thank you for everybody's participation. We are now moving on to the action agenda portion of the night. There is nothing under CNI tonight, so I'm going to turn it over to Mr. Greenbaum for the BNF agenda. Thank you. Only agenda item of the night i will read through this. The superintendent recommends and I move the following.
8.1, initial submission budget 2025-2026. 8.2, maximum travel expenditure. 8.3, motion to approve use of capital reserve to fund debt service. 8.4, motion to approve use of capital reserve to fund approved projects for the 2526 school year. 8.5, resolution approving early childhood preschool budget, 25, 26. Do I have a second? Mr. Mayor. Are there any questions?
Sorry, Ms. Gallagher. So I think it would be important. So for 8.5, because I asked you a question regarding the the preschool budget that was helpful. And I think that you know, since I didn't understand, it's probably a safe assumption that other people don't understand. So if you could explain the breakdown, that would be helpful. Sure. I can give a quick breakdown. And if you want something a little more detailed, we can certainly defer to Ms. Sugars. Give me just a moment here.
So there was a question. How we got $7.4 million in state aid, but how that turned into 11.6 million for the total preschool budget. So I kind of went through it in my own spreadsheet just to simplify it a little bit. We have our preschool enrollment numbers in district, Head Start and community providers, and they actually total 8,075,835. So it's a little bit more.
However, we had carryover funds from two years ago From the first year we implemented preschool, where we were funded for the full year, but we did not start our preschool expansion program until the second half of the year. And that was roughly $2.3 million worth of carryover funding. What we learned this year is there was a penalty deduction of 25% of those carryover funds. It wasn't something we were aware of. But that came out to 586,000. So that gets deducted from the 8 million that it costs to run the program.
Which brings us down to the 7.4 million, which is the amount we received. From there, we add back in those carryover funds of 2.3 million. And there's a general fund contribution for inclusion students. Those are classified students that get pushed into our gen ed classes of 1.7 million. And that brings us to the total of 11.6. One thing that came up in discussion is the amount it costs for inclusion students. Went up a little bit this year. We're likely classifying more students that's not necessarily a bad thing. It means we're classifying students early. We're providing those supports early and hopefully with those early interventions, they could be mainstreamed sooner or don't need to play catch up when they're finally
Identified several years later. And I will give a shout out to our director of special education who said preschool is the intervention. But anyway, that's how we go from the 7.4 up to 11.6. And what's the allowable usage for that 2.3? So like how will that be allocated within the budget i mean is that Because, I mean, if we had overage you know, is it going to be like 2.3 million dollars of pencils like i don't know. What can you use that money? What can you use that money for is what I'm curious. I'll give a brief remark and then I will turn to my left to Mrs. Sugars. There are a lot of different allowable expenses that are related to the preschool program, but would offset costs in the general
Budget. Our goal is to utilize them in that way or carry them over in a way that can be utilized in the future. But with that, I will put Mr. Sugars on the spot. So it's all just one pot of money. So you can allocate that for whatever is allowable within the preschool program. So it's not slated for a particular purpose. For general ed or for special ed as well? General ed only. General ed, yes. Okay. All right. I hope I did okay with that explanation.
Absolutely. And when Mrs. Gallagher and I spoke over the weekend, I actually sent over my own spreadsheet, which was just a rearranged version of the state's worksheet. That made a little more sense to me. I think made a little more sense walking through. Other questions? All right. Seeing none, Mrs. Sugars, please open the vote. Board members, you may cast your votes.
I'm going to vote no on 8.5. Other than Ms. Gallagher's vote no on item 8.5, we have a unanimous yes vote. Thank you so much. There are no other action items tonight.
Thank you to all the board members and community members who participated. I appreciate, I know it was a big lift to add an extra meeting in the middle of the month, but I think it was worth it for the robust discussion that we had. And I will make a motion to adjourn. Do I have a second? Ms. Palmer, all in favor? Meeting is adjourned.