WEBVTT

METADATA
Video-Count: 1
Video-1: youtube.com/watch?v=etlNRY98Q-c

NOTE
MEETING SECTIONS:

Part 1 (Video ID: etlNRY98Q-c):
- 00:00:04: Meeting Start, Pledge, Oath of Office for Barnes
- 00:08:44: Roll Call, Mission Statement, Open Public Meetings Act
- 00:10:44: Preliminary Budget Presentation Introduction by Administration
- 00:11:59: Budget Difficulties, Health Benefits, Balanced Budget Presentation
- 00:13:37: Preliminary Budget Discussion, No Vote Tonight, Questions
- 00:16:27: Statewide School District Deficits, Avoiding Program Cuts
- 00:19:16: State Aid Increase Offset by Charter School Costs
- 00:21:11: State of Emergency, Healthcare Costs Unsustainable
- 00:22:40: Projected 31% Health Benefits Increase, Fixed Cost
- 00:25:04: Preliminary Budget Approval Request, Healthcare Adjustment Option
- 00:27:21: History of New Jersey School Funding, Constitution
- 00:29:04: Robinson vs. Cahill, State Aid Introduction, Income Tax
- 00:30:33: School Funding Reform Act, Weighted Student Funding
- 00:31:54: Adequacy Budget, Local Fair Share Calculation
- 00:33:41: Hold Harmless Aid, Underfunded vs Overfunded Districts
- 00:35:03: S2 Legislation, Funding Formula Changes, Aid Distribution
- 00:36:08: Historical Underfunding, Current Fair Share Shortfall
- 00:38:05: Local Fair Share Calculation, City Contribution Comparison
- 00:40:10: Prior Zero Percent Tax Increases, Taxpayer Guide to Spending
- 00:41:46: Taxpayer Guide to Education, District Spending Comparison
- 00:43:44: Property Taxes Allocation, School District's Efficiency
- 00:45:56: County Vocational School PCTI Funding Concerns
- 00:47:19: Blaming Schools for Property Taxes, Efficiency Emphasized
- 00:48:11: Preliminary Budget Vote Reminder, Transition to Details
- 00:49:17: District Operation Snapshot, Facilities, Transportation, Meals
- 00:50:22: Budget Submission Timeline, Revenue Highlights, Tax Levy
- 00:51:28: Expenditure Side, Balanced Budget, Special Education, Charter Tuition
- 00:52:33: State Aid, Budget Breakdown, General Fund Revenue Sources
- 00:53:41: General Fund Appropriations, Budget Reductions, Benefit Line
- 00:54:31: Status Quo Budget Impact, Salaries, Employee Benefits, Tuition
- 00:55:34: Charter School Tuition Five-Year Trend, Health Benefits
- 00:56:22: Rising Healthcare Costs, Capital Projects, Funding
- 00:57:29: Federal, State Grants, Debt Service, Tax Impact Analysis
- 00:59:02: Balanced Budget at 2%, Foregoing New Positions, Reductions
- 01:00:09: Healthcare Adjustment Option, Tax Levy Increase Potential
- 01:01:20: 6% Tax Increase, Status Quo Budget, Staff and Programs
- 01:02:13: Healthcare Adjustment, Board Consideration, Thank You
- 01:02:30: Questions from Commissioner Bronzia, Special Education, Health
- 01:03:48: Commissioner Canova Questions:  Appropriations, Negotiated Salary
- 01:05:03: Commissioner Canova cont.: Additional Staffing & Auxiliary Programs
- 01:06:23: Commissioner Canova cont.: Middle School Programs and Staffing
- 01:09:25: Commissioner Canova cont.: Rubber Meets Road, Federal Relief?
- 01:11:19: Commissioner Paris, Local Fair Share, Program Impacts?
- 01:14:08: Commissioner Estri Barnes, No Comment
- 01:14:25: Commissioner Ragsdale, Decreases in Budget Confirmed
- 01:15:14: Commissioner Ragsdale cont.: Program Cuts, Meeting Numbers?
- 01:16:16: Commissioner Ragsdale cont.: Impact in Future with Federal Aid?
- 01:18:09: Commissioner Ragsdale cont.: Legislature on insurance
- 01:19:02: Commissioner Ciano, No Cuts to the Children, Fundraising
- 01:20:10: Commissioner Ciano cont.: Renegotiating Vendors?
- 01:22:41: Commissioner Suarez, More Detail 4%, 2% cuts
- 01:23:47: Commissioner Suarez cont.: Parents Already Fundraise
- 01:24:18: Vice President Santiago, Thank You, History of Funding
- 01:25:06: Vice President Santiago cont.: Healthcare Costs?
- 01:26:12: Vice President Santiago cont.: Health Broker Presentation
- 01:28:02: Vice President Santiago cont.: Specific districts cost
- 01:28:18: President Basford, More Information for decreases
- 01:30:16: President Basford cont.: 23% to Charter / 31% Healthcare
- 01:33:00: President Basford cont.: Administration Response
- 01:34:38: President Basford cont.: Request for cuts and cost information
- 01:37:05: Send Questions to Superintendent, Fact Sheet Distribution
- 01:38:26: Move to Open Public Recognition, Public Comment
- 01:40:09: Students Have an Assignment and Motion by Commish
- 01:40:43: Member Comments from Each Commission
- 01:40:43: Member Comments from Commissoners 3 minutes
- 01:40:43: 3-Minute Comments from Board Members, St. Patrick's
- 01:47:34: Move into Executive Session, No Discussion, No Action
- 01:50:11: 10:34 - Executive Session, Another Hour to be Expected
- 01:51:53: 11:12 Returning from Executive, Call to Order
- 01:52:28: Motion to Amend Word
- 01:53:18: Reading of Resolution / Executive Session
- 01:54:40: Motion to Adjourn, Meeting Adjourned


Part: 1

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Welcome to the March 17th Committee of the Hall special meeting of the Clifton Board of Education. Will everybody please rise to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for it

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stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Welcome everyone. I we now have the pleasure of uh the oath of office being administered through our newest member Barnes. Um so

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please everybody just bear with us. We're going to move the flag so we can have it strategically placed and then she'll take the order. You >> like us? Thank you. >> Raise your right hand. >> Hi, Evelyn. Barnes.

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>> I bar >> do solemnly swear or >> affirm >> that I will support the Constitution of the United States >> that I will support the Constitution of the United States >> and the Constitution of the State of New Jersey. >> and the Constitution of the State of New Jersey. >> And I will bear true faith

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>> and I will bear true faith >> and allegiance to the same. >> And allegiance to the same >> and to the governments established >> and to the government established >> in the United States and this state >> to the United States and this state >> under the authority of the people >> under the authority of the people. >> Help me God. I, Evelyn Est. Barnes,

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>> I, Evelyn Est. Barnes, >> do solemnly swear >> do solemnly swear >> that I possess the qualifications >> that I possess the qualifications >> prescribed by law for the office of member of Board of Education >> prescribed by law for the office of the board of Board of Education >> and that I am not disqualified

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>> and that I am not disqualified >> as a voter pursuant >> as a voter pursuant >> to RS194-1 >> to RS194-1 >> nor disqualified due to conviction of a crime disqualified during the conviction of a crime >> or offense listed in NJS18A12-1

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>> or offense listed in NJS18A 12-1 >> and that I will faithfully >> And that I will faithfully >> impartially >> impartially >> and justly perform >> and justly perform >> all the duties of that office >> all the duties of that office >> according to the best of my ability >> according to the best of my ability

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>> CONGRATULATIONS YEAH, I got like the Okay. Do you want me to zoom in? >> Yeah. >> Oh, you weren't able to see. I have to meet you. Come on, baby. restart. Congratulations.

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Are you sure? >> I don't know. >> Straight ahead. My grandfather coming in It's my grandfather. Go behind you. >> Okay. Ready? Jersey.

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>> Look at your head down. >> That's perfect. And just like a little Perfect. >> No, no. Okay,

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>> one, two, and >> that's beautiful. >> And last one, two, and that's beautiful. >> Thank you so much. here. Okay.

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Exactly. Okay, ladies and gentlemen, welcome back. How would you like to be addressed? >> Okay, Mr. Roll call, please, for a full board. >> Mr. Paris

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>> here. >> Mr. Rdale >> here. >> Mr. Siana here. Mr. Suarez >> here. >> Vice President >> here. President >> here. >> Thank you. Mission statement. Uh, Commissioner Razel. The mission of the Clifton School District and an open and reciprocal

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community partnership is to provide all students with the quality of education to develop the skills necessary to become literate lifelong learners who are responsible and productive citizens contributing to democratic society in an ever changing world.

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>> Thank you, Commissioner Exel. Open public meetings act. Vice President Santiago. >> Thank you, President Baser. The New Jersey open public meetings law was enacted to ensure the right to the public and to attend meetings of public bodies

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at which any business affecting the is discussed or acted upon in accordance with the provisions of this act. The Clinton Board of Education has caused notice of this meeting to be publicized by having the date, time, and place thereof posted at the city clerk's office, Clinton Public Library,

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administration building, senior citizen nutrition center, on cable TV, and the local press on the district's website, and mailed to presidents of parenting teacher organizations. This meeting will be tape recorded in accordance with policy 016.

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>> Thank you, Vice President Santiago. Now it is our pleasure to ask administration to do the presentation um for our special committee and meeting of the whole on the preliminary budget. Dr. Roberty, the floor is yours. Thank

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you guys in anybody. >> You're also welcome. You're also free to leave. No pressure. Do I leave it on? Do I change? >> Microphone going to pick us up. Mr. McConey, is this microphone going to

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pick us up? >> Okay. Good evening, President Bas Vice President Santiago, commissioners, members of the public attending the meeting and streaming or watching the broadcast. I'm Mike Jussi, the district's business administrator, and this is the committee of the fall preliminary budget hearing. Tonight, we

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will discuss a discuss the resolution that will be presented to the board on Thursday, March 19th to approve the submission of the 26 27th preliminary budget to the Department of Education. Let me be clear, this is for compliance purposes only with the Department of Ed. Between now and May 7th, the May 7th

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board meeting, the board will be able to make changes to the budget. Real quick, I need to say this is the most difficult budget I have had to develop in the 15 years I've been in. We are presenting a few things tonight. A balanced budget at the 2% tax levy

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which requires significant reductions in programming primarily due to the astronomical increase in health benefits including medical and prescription al and also due to the excessive increase to the charter school budget. During the presentation this evening, we will de demonstrate the significant increases while also presenting alternatives for

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consideration that would maintain all current programming and operations. So, first things first, Dr. Robert will begin your presentation. >> Thank you, Mr. UI. Good evening, commissioners um and members of the one Clifton community. It is an honor to be

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here tonight to present to you the preliminary budget. And first, let me give a warm and congratulatory welcome to our newest board member, Miss Eve Estrich Barnes. It is SO and what an outstanding uh party she

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came out with tonight, which is that's really wonderful because uh it just shows that you have a lot of support and it's nice to see four generations on. And I think that was one of your family members at the window. Ladies and gentlemen, uh

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this is a big night. This is an important one, but this is not the be all end all. Tonight, we're going to discuss the preliminary one. The purpose of the committee of the

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whole is because previously going back four or five years ago, this would be presented at the budget committee and then brought to the full board on Thursday evening and board members were wanted more time.

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You're presenting us with a preliminary budget. We need more time. So, what we decided to do a few years ago was to do a committee of the whole on Tuesday night. What's important to note is that you are not voting on this budget tonight. >> So, you have tonight to ask as many

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questions as you would like and then you have 48 hours to review what we discussed and to come up with more questions on Thursday night if you have. So, don't feel any pressure

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tonight to uh to understand everything, but please feel free to ask as many questions as you would like. As a central administrative team, we are very cognizant of the fact that we are

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the stewards of the taxpayer money. Actually, you, the board of education, are the stewards of the taxpayers money. It's the administration's job to make sure that that money that is allocated is spent efficiently and wisely.

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We have spent countless hours reviewing these numbers, preparing for this budget presentation, especially since last Thursday when we received our state aid numbers. So really from the time we get those

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numbers, everything that we plan before that is really just maybe and then on Thursday, last Thursday, we get our state aid numbers and then we can begin planning. So let's talk about where we're at.

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We are not here. If you have watched the news, opened up a newspaper, people still read newspapers. read something online, you have seen these headlines.

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districts close to us throughout the state of New Jersey facing million dollar deficits, $25 million deficit in a neighboring district, $15 million in another neighboring district, $18

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million school crisis. That's not Clifford. This is also not Clifford. This is taken directly from nj.com just a few days ago. School districts including Hackinack, Montlair, Perth,

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Amboy, East Orange, Jefferson Township, Lakewood, and Tom's River had grappled in the past year or so with deficits ranging from $5 million to hundred million. Because of that, they'd have have to lay off administrators, teachers, nurses. They've had to ax programs, sell

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property, hike taxes, and make other controversial decisions. There are nine districts that are taking desperate measures to keep from going broke. There are seven districts that started this past year with fewer teachers after

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horrific job cuts. And that's even before the dramatic rise of healthcare that we're going to discuss. You've likely seen these headlines. It's a widespread spread crisis and it's forcing many of our neighbors to make

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difficult decisions. We have not been in that position. >> We are not yet in that position. However, some difficult decisions will need to be made. >> So, to be clear, the districts listed here are not listed, but their struggles

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are a warning of what may come. These shortfalls lead to teacher layoffs, program cuts, the programs that we love the most. may lead to

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property sales people leaving town. But we're working hard to avoid any cuts to our state and I will do everything as I said said this before publicly. I will do everything in my power to make sure that we do not

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ever lay off any staff that are effective. So, last Thursday, I can't tell you how many people congratulated me on the good news. You know what the good news was? You got

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$6,293,000 in extra aid for next year. Congratulations. I got a call from a state senator. Congratulations. And an assembly woman. Congratulations.

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And I said, "Thank you, sir, to the senator so much for your support in in helping us achieve this increase. And please don't think I'm looking a gift horse in the mouth." But you have to know this. It is good news because we didn't get

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cut and we didn't get flat. But of that $6.2 million, 3.8 right off the top to the charter schools, we never see that money. And he said, "Really?" And I said, "Yes, perhaps you and I

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could sit down sometime in the near future and discuss this." And he said, "I would love to do that. We have a meeting scheduled next week." What he had an idea of but didn't understand the numbers was the projected

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increase in health benefits. He knows it's a problem throughout the state of New Jersey. what he didn't know was Flip's particular number. So I said, "Sir, thank you very much for advocating for the 6.2 million, but with the charter school money going straight out the door and a projected increase in

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health benefits of $13.5 million, I'm rounding. >> We're starting the year with a deficit of $15 million. That's with a 2% increase. It's not an exaggeration. >> So

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this is what's happening. We have a state of emergency in New Jersey and I would dare say one in Clifton as well. And I don't say those words lightly because the health care costs are unsustainable.

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Some districts are saying premium hikes as high as 32%. Which leads directly to mass layoffs. The increases in state aid simply cannot cover the multi-million dollar explosion

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in insurance costs. So you see headlines like this. Thank you. That was a very important point. So thank you. You see headlines like this. Teachers could lose jobs in New Jersey school district because health benefits jumped

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$3.2 million. $3.2 million in Clifton is a little different than $3.2 million in a smaller district, but it's probably about R13 million. And other headlines, schools in Bergen and Ocean counties report health premium

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hikes up to 32%. Hikes threaten layoffs. Your child's teacher could be cut next. And that's a sensational headline meant to capture somebody's attention, but it caught my attention. Bergen County District may cut staff as healthcare costs rise.

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So, what are we looking at? I want to be very mindful that this is a projection because we won't know our exact cost of health benefits for another two

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weeks maybe a month but this is the projection and it's going to be pretty close. We're looking at an increase of 31%. In the 2526 school year this current

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year, you can see that we budgeted 43 million almost $44 million, which was a $10 million increase from the year before. If you remember last year, I was saying this, but not as strongly. Now, I'm saying it as strongly

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as possible. And next year we're getting another 30% increase, which means we have to budget 57.5 million for health benefits.

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We've seen our costs nearly double in four years. How can this sustain itself? And what is most bothersome is that this is not a problem we created.

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All those headlines in the previous districts about $15 million deficits, some of that was negligence of the administration. Some of that was negligence of their

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boards. But as you'll see throughout the presentation tonight, we have not been better. We've done everything that we can do. We've always done it with less. Always done with less. And now we're facing this fixed cost. Why is it a

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fixed cost? Because we have to provide healthcare benefits. Not an option. It's contractual obligation equal to or better than. So, I want to be very clear about this tonight. Ladies and gentlemen, all we're

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asking you to do is to listen. On Thursday night, all we're asking you to do is pass the preliminary budget and a 2% tax levy increase, which is what the state of New Jersey expects in the funding formula. State of New Jersey

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expects us to go to 2%. It's just part of the formula. However, and that's all we're asking you to do. Thursday night, we're then we'll send it to the county. They check a bunch of boxes and they say you're good to go. But then between Thursday night and May

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7th, Mike, yes, May 7th, we can go up, we can go down, we can do whatever we want with the budget once we've met with county approval. And so because of the skyrocketing health care costs,

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districts have been given an opportunity to make what's called a healthc care adjustment. And it will allow the board to increase the budget an additional 4% which is an additional six almost $6.5 million

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which means 2% plus an additional four. This board can raise taxes. At my last Pay County Superintendent round table, we did a survey and the vast majority of districts in

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Pay County and I would dare say the vast majority of districts in the state are utilizing this healthcare adjustment because they have to. If they don't, they will be devastating cuts. Let me go back and repeat myself because

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it's very important. I'm not asking you to do anything tonight. I listen and ask questions. Thursday night, we're just asking you to pass a preliminary budget at 2%. But over the next 6 to 8 weeks, at every committee meeting, at every board

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meeting and every chance we get, we have to talk about this very seriously about utilizing this healthcare adjustment, which we're not uh which is not something that comes up every year. It's it's it's allowable because of the tremendous increases.

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So, for our newest board member and newer board member and as a refresher for our veterans, I'm a history teacher and I always like to talk about how we got to where we are today. So, give me give me 10 minutes to

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talk to you about what to many is a complicated thing, but really hopefully I can break it down enough so you can understand why we are where we are today. Not just in a quick but as a state. State of New Jersey. The Constitution says

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that we must provide a thorough and efficient education. Simple line of the Constitution. The United States Constitution doesn't say anything about education. United States Constitution doesn't have the word education in it. So therefore, education is left up to each individual

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state. That's why each state does its own thing. So in New Jersey, we are required to provide each student with a thorough and efficient education. And schools are primarily funded through property taxes. I pay property taxes. Many of you pay

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property taxes. I'm not one to to to say to you, you have to raise property taxes because I get we we live in a state where we have the highest property taxes in the nation. Go through the history of what we're

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talking about. >> Just going to zoom in on the cameras. >> So in 1972 there's a famous case Robinson vers that said New Jersey you're not providing the stone efficient education.

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So you have to provide state aid to local districts to make sure every student is getting an equal opportunity. Before 1972, there was no state aid. It was all property taxes. Robinson vahill comes along 1972, the state starts giving aid to each district in addition

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to what they're levying in their property taxes. 1975, the year I was born, which was a good year, New Jersey passed the Public School Education Act, introducing state aid to supplement local taxes. So that law came

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about because of the court case. And where did that money come from? Prior to 1976, ladies and gentlemen, there was no state income tax. Anybody remember that? >> I don't. I'd like to remember a time where there

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was that content and then in 1981 started a series of cases like series. Mark any idea how many advocate you're giving out this aid but you're not doing it right and you're you're not

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you're not following uh the law. you're not making sure that every student has an equal educational opportunity because some districts were getting a lot of money, some weren't and it wasn't fair. So 2008 finally we passed the current formula which is

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called the school funding reform act. In 2008 >> I did it. >> Yes, we did. In 2008 we did and we're still using it today. And despite what you may see from the fake news, and I'll explain that to you later, it's actually

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considered a very fair funding formula because it uses what we call a weighted student funding formula. It's weighted based on the number of students the district has and different categories of students.

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So, for example, you received a certain amount of aid for an elementary education student. For a student in third grade, you receive a certain amount of a student who's in third grade who might have an IEP, you will receive more aid for that. A student who is a multilanguage learner, you might receive

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more aid from this. And so, it's weighted based on how many students you have and the category that those students fit in. and you'll get more aid for a student who is economically disadvantaged because we know it costs more money to educate a student who's economically disadvantaged.

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It's actually a fair thing. And they created the state created what became known as the adequacy budget. And on October 15th of every year, we count up all our students.

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a student is on your role on October 15th, you get aid for that student. If they leave on the 14th, you don't let them. You tell them I got to stay one more day so you can get the money. So when you add up

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the costs of providing the adequate education, when New Jersey says for an elementary student, the baseline is $14,972. That's what a school district should be providing for an elementary uh student between taxes and state aid. When you

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add up the adequacy budget, that total number, that total number, that sum of cost is your adequacy budget, it tells you how much your local district can afford, which is your local fair share.

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So the difference between your local fair share, what your district can afford and what the state gives you, >> excuse me, local fair share and the taxes is what how much the state a gives you. Let me say that again. The difference between

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take the sum of all the costs of the average 11,000 students in Clifton times this amount equals A1. The state calculates how much Clifton, the city of Clifton can raise in taxes and that's your local fair share. And

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the difference between what you can raise in taxes versus what your adequacy budget is what the state gives you a state. That make sense? Make sense? Good idea. Waited. That means no matter where you live,

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every district should be treated s should be treated fairly. Not the same fairly because the money follows the student. But what happened was this law passes in 2008 and they realized that oh man we've been screwing this up for a long time and there's some districts who've been

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getting a lot of money and there's other districts who we should have been giving a lot more money to. So we don't really want to mess with this right now. So, we're going to do something called hold harvest aid. So, if you were one of

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these districts that was getting extra money all these years, we're going to continue to give it to you >> until such time you figure your stuff out. and 2009 gum and all these districts kept getting more money and districts

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like Clifton did and 2010 and 11 and 12 and 13 14 15 came and districts like Tom River that's a blatant example because it's similarly sized to us kept getting more money and Clifton didn't

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so Clifton became what is known as an underfunded district Tom's River an overfunded district and that happened until 2018 when the legislature passed a law known as S2. And S2 said, "Okay, that's it.

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That's enough. We're going to take the funding formula and we're going to fund it." And whatever it is, it is. And we understand that some districts are going to lose money and we understand that some districts are going to gain money. So, you got six years to figure it out. You got six years.

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And that first year, they got more money. And every year for 6 years, we got more aid until last year according to the formula, the state formula was funded to the

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equation that's in the law. And a district that was overfunded lost eight each year. And those are the districts who are crying foul now, saying, "Well, this funding formula is not fair. It was perfectly fair when

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they were getting a lot of money, but it's not fair now because they're losing money. Oh, and by the way, they had six years notice. It wasn't a surprise. Wasn't a shock. And so, this is what it looks like, guys. And for those of you who like pictures, you see the red, the

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red is all the money that we should have gotten and didn't. And I only go back to 2013. I love this slide because somebody always yells out, "Can we get that money back? I didn't even add this year because it it's it'll it would be the same column

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because as of 2024 the formula has us funded. But if you add up just from 2013, state of New Jersey owes us oh about a half a billion dollars. I'll take 10% of that right now.

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And then on the opposite end of the spectrum is um another district similarly sized to us that was overfunded. So you see they got more money more money more money. They had all that whole harmless aid. They're getting 11 almost $12 million a year

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more than they should have received all these years. So they're hiring more teachers. They're hiring more counselors. Their kids are getting everything that they need. But no in Clifton we're getting cheap. And then S2 passes in 2018 and you see their aid starts to

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decrease and they start saying, "Well, this isn't fair. This isn't right." Until this district last year tried to file bankruptcy. But what they didn't do, ladies and gentlemen, is when they knew that they were losing aid, they didn't raise

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taxes. They didn't lay off the extra staff that they had through attrition. When people retired, they shouldn't have been filling those positions. They didn't think ahead. They were told 6 years in advance that they were going to lose money, but they didn't plan ahead.

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Okay, we have been we have been planning ahead. We've been budgeting effectively. We've been doing everything that we could do in our power and this year we get rocked with health insurance. So now here's the other problem and this

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is a major problem for us. It's a major major problem. You take 11,000 students in Clifton, you multiply that by how much the state says it costs to provide a student with an adequate education. And

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that's your budget. Then they tell you how much your city should contribute towards that. And that's your local fair share. And the difference is how much they give us in saving.

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Our local fair share, the state of New Jersey says that the city of Clifton should be raising $198 million in taxes. We are raising with a 2% increase this year, $156 million. That means we are

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$42 million below our fair share. Let me repeat that. We are $42 million below our local fair share. Nobody wants to raise taxes.

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Nobody wants to raise taxes. But what the state keeps saying is that sooner or later, guys, we're not the the the faucet's going to turn off. You got to contribute your share. And why are we here? I know why we're here. And there's

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very good reasons why we're here. We're here because there were several years, and I'm sorry for the small font. There were sever several years where we did a 0% increase in our budget. Going back to 2017, we did less than a

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1%. We did a 1%, we did a 1%, we did a zero, a zero, a zero three years in a row. Then we did a two and then we did a four because we had bank cap when we did almost a four and we did three last year. So for the last few years we've been trying to bring up our fair share.

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But what happened was those those few years a couple years of ones and three years of zeros that compounds and then you can't recoup that. Then there's no getting that back if you don't use the bank cap later on. So the multiple budgets of 0% or below 2% increases are

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why we are below our local fair share. Now there's nothing we can do about that now. I wasn't here in 2017 18 or 201819 but I was here in those years we did zeros and I know why we did zero because we were finally getting the state aid we deserved and we wanted to give the

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taxpayer a break and at the time it was very well intentioned and and the board and those of you who were on the board then very well intentioned. Give the taxpayers a break. We're finally getting the aid we deserve all these years, but now

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it's come back to haunt us. Can't do much about that. Now, we have to be able to control what we have control. What we have control over will be the ability to go to the center. and potentially use the healthcare adjustment.

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Finally, I think it's important to note that I don't just talk about, you know, that we use our money wisely, that this board spends well, that the administration makes good decisions. There's proof. The proof is in the

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pudding. There is a document that anybody who wants can look up online and see the 2025 taxpayer guide to education standard and what it does is it takes every school district all 600 in New Jersey 600 school districts and divides

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them into cohorts of life-siz districts. So you see we are in a cohort of 96 districts with more than 3,500 students. So they take those 96 districts and they compare how do you spend your money versus these

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other 96 districts. The higher the number, the more money you spend. So if you're number one on that list, you spend the most money. If you're 96, you spend the least. Here's some samples

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numbers. Administration. Oh, well superintendent, how does he have three assistant superintendents? I should have six according to this. We should have more administrators. We're 74th out of 96. Oh, and by the way, I only have three

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assistant superintendents cuz we changed two titles per pupil. Guys, this is a very simple number. You take your total budget, you divide it by the amount of students. That number is your per pupil cost. 63rd out of 96. We're not even average in our

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spending. We're below average. Classroom instruction, 65th out of 96. Extracurricular, we boast about our extracurricular. We boast about it because we've got fantastic programs

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because we always do more with less. But 62nd out of 96, we continue to do more with less. It's the Clifton way. We just do it. And that's not fake news. Anybody can look up that information.

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So I don't want to hear that we spend too much on administration. I don't want to hear we spend too much on education. We don't. Because in a cohort of districts that are similar size and demographic, many most of those districts fit a lot more than us.

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And finally, I think it's important to note while we don't have any control over the city stuff, the city portion of municipal taxes, everybody who owns a home in Clifton, you get a tax bill each year. And do they still put a pie chart on there or

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do they just break it down for you? So, what they do is they break down your taxes, your property taxes if you own a home in Clifton, go to state county, go to the mal government, and go to the school district. Ladies and gentlemen, every city town in

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the state of New Jersey, the portion of the pie that goes to the school district, it's always the biggest. It's the biggest because it has the biggest budget. We have the most employees. Because we're doing the most important, educating children.

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So why show this? Why? because it just shows that this board and previous boards have been very effectively budgeting for a number of years because

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as you can see um our part of the pie is an average of 48%. Okay. When you look at the state average

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in Mo it's 52%. So we're below the state average in our portion of how much money we spend our piece of the pie and Pan County. We're lower in Payan County. So yes, we spend more. Our budget is bigger than than a municipal. Our budget

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is bigger than the county. But our piece of the pie compared to the rest of the state and compared to the rest of county is small. Oh, and by the way, there's this monster called PCTI.

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And you see the county, the county taxes are 21%. But very, very little of that goes to our students. We pay approximately $10,000 a year for each student who

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attends Pay County even though the citizens are paying county taxes. And most importantly, ladies and gentlemen, the count Pay County Technical Institute is four times larger than any other county vocational school

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in the entire state. And our county contributes less to the education. The local school districts contribute more. It's the only county where this happens is Pay County. All the other counties are trying to be like

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Pay County. They want the local districts to take on that burden. Well, the county is getting 21% of your tax bill. Where's where's that money going? How many people are going to the county commissioner meetings? I'm not I don't even throw anybody on the bus. I got worried about my kids in Clifton. I'm worried about getting money for my kids

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in Clifton. So people got to start looking elsewhere and stop blaming the schools for their property taxes when we are being as efficient and effective as possible. Let me say that again. And and and for the record, we have no problem with any

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student who goes to PCTI because we believe that a parent has the right to educate and to direct the educational upbringing of their child. We especially like when children go to PCTI to learn a vocational training because we need them. We need plumbers. We need carpenters and welders. We need

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them. But unfortunately, what it has become is not that. It is not a vocational school. It is a magnet school that recruits our most highly talented and motivated students. Oh, and by the way, now they're taking our athletes.

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That's not what it was ever meant to be. Ladies and gentlemen, let me circle back and repeat that tonight, not asking you to vote on anything, asking you to listen, asking you to ask questions uh later, and

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asking you on Thursday night to pass a preliminary budget with a 2% tax, which will allow us to send that to the county for compliance purposes. And then by May 7th,

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we'll be coming to you and you'll all be involved in it with our final budget. And it may still be at 2%. May go down, may go up, but we have to have some real serious difficult conversations over the

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next 6 to 8 weeks about what we're going to do for the future. At this time, I'm going to turn it over to Money Mike to get into a little more details about the money. >> Thank you, Dr. Dr. I always like to start the presentation

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with a snapshot of the school district operation to try and put in perspective of how big of an operation we are here in Board of Education has 25 facilities for being rental properties consisting of 14 elementary schools with

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an elementary annex, three preschools and early learnermies, three middle schools, the largest single campus high school in the state, the administration building, gification garage and stadium. On a daily basis, we transport over 3,500 students in district with 78 buses

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and vans and contract for over a thousand students to be transported out of district through the educational services commission. We serve over 7,000 lunches and,200 breakfastes a day. The district employs over 1,800 full-time employees and has over 11,000 students.

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There are 28 different sports, 54 teams, over 100 coaches, two athletic trainers and a part-timer with over with almost 1,200 student athletes. Also, there are over 160 co-curricular activities and clubs throughout the district.

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The preliminary budget must be submitted to the Department of Education by March 27th. That's next Friday. Therefore, the board will vote on a bud uh the budget resolution on Thursday, March 19th board meeting. After submission of the preliminary budget, it will be approved by the county before April 20th, and the

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public hearing on the final budget will be at the May 7th board meeting. Now, I will go over the main highlights of the budget. On the revenue size, the budget calls for a 2% tax levy increase or $3 million from the current budget year, which is the 26 27

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school year. There was a state aid increase of 6.3 million or 6%. While this may seem like a significant increase in state aid, there was a dramatic increase in the charter school tuition budget line that I'll go further into um later on in the presentation. The budget calls for a withdrawal of

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capital reserve for three projects. Also withdrawal from maintenance reserve of 2.5 million which is a onetime revenue source. And lastly on the revenue side would be extraordinary aid of 3.5 million SNI or the special education Medicaid initiative of 305,000 and

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miscellaneous revenues of 1.25 million which consists of interest facility rentals school fines insurance dividends prior year refunds etc. On the appropriation side or the expenditure side the budget does reduce

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through attrition some programming to maintain a balanced budget at 2%. However, administration will present other alternatives towards the end of the presentation to alleviate the need for any reductions. There are 121 special education out of district placements in private schools and county

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special services and 871 budgeted students at PCTI, which is an increase from 791 students in the current school year. One of the bigger increases in any budget area is the increase in charter school tuition, which is a projected enrollment budget figure that comes

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directly from the department of ed of 3.8 million or 23% from the current year. I will go into a 5-year trend later on. And finally, budgeted salaries and employee health benefits that are contractual through collective bargain.

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To reiterate from Dr. Dr. Roberts, here's a snapshot of our uh state aid increase for the 2627 school year. The district received 6.3 million, but 3.8 million went to the charter schools, leaving only a net of 2.4 million. Our

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district's total balance budget is $317,451,371 which consists of the general fund that contains the operating budget and capital outlay budget, the special revenues which are federal grants and state entitlements the district receives and lastly debt service which includes the recently completed referendum

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project. Here's a quick overview of the general fund revenue sources with a comparison to the current budget. As I stated before, the tax levy has a 2% increase from the current year and would stand at 156

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million. State 6% extraordinary aid is accurately budgeted at 3.5 million. There's a budgeted withdrawal from capital and maintenance reserve for tenative projects. Um, just to note, 55% of the district's total revenues is funded by the tax levy, while 38% is

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funded by state. Here is an overview of the general fund appropriations broken down into major categories of the budget. Without going through every line, the majority of every budget line has decreased depending on the departmental area to balance the budget with only a 2% tax

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levy. Be aware these numbers do show reductions in program. While the regular and special education areas show increases that is due to contractual raises as long along with reductions through attrition. The benefit line shows an increase of 6.5 million only

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because of the reductions to meet the 8% tax increase in regular and special education. That would have been another $6.5 million. >> Thank you. I apologize that that's very important. That's $6.5 million. Why is that number different than the $13

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million I gave you earlier? Because this 2% budget that we're presenting already has cuts already has cuts to bring that number down. So all that red are cuts and the only and and if you

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look at the increases, those increases for the most part are out of our control. >> Thank you. Of course. No, thank you very much. So, as Dr. Robert just said, being a status quo budget from the 25 to 26 school year into the next school year

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would show an increase of $13 million on the benefit line. Also, to put the total budget into perspective, salaries and employee benefits consist of nearly 80% of the total operating budget. Therefore, there is not much room for discretionary spending after you consider all

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tuitions, charter school, transportation, which accounts for another 10 or 15% of the total budget. Now, I'll show a 5-year trend of the charter school tuition followed by health benefits. Here's a 5-year trend of the charter school budget. 26 27

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budget numbers are projections approved by the DOE that the district is required to budget for compliance purposes. The actual enrollment counts are realized during the October 15th ASSA audit or the application for state school year. At that time the budget numbers may

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increase or decrease during the school year. Typically projected enrollment numbers are much higher than the actual enrollment numbers. However, in recent years have the charter schools have maintained high numbers. Over the past five years, the charter school enrollment has had drastic enrollment increases approved by the state with the

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budget increasing from 11.3 million to over 20 million for next year. Next, here's a few trend of the rising cost of health benefits. Um, as you saw from Dr. Robert Josie, in just four years, health benefits have went from

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around 29 million to nearly 58 million. And health insurance costs are bigger than just a collection problem. The capital projects that are planned for 2627 are locally funded projects through the capital reserve fund. They are going to include uh high school roof

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renovation, school 12 roof renovation and CCMS Christopher Columbus Middle School and the high school parking lot expansion project. These projects do not affect the tax levy. The CCMS CHS parking lot expansion would have been where the trailers for the referendum

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were housed. we would receive a credit from the cont from the contractors instead of instead of them replacing the draft area. Then we would plan to expand the parking lots in those areas. Also, if there is unspent money in capital reserve accounts, the funds are reverted back to the capital reserve fund through

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the audit. So, they've never touched the general fund. This could be caused by this coming in lower than anticipated. The projects must be budgeted for at this point in time this part of the budget cycle because even if they have a possibility of being done next year because the district can't just withdraw

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capital reserve in the middle of the year borrowing emergency and getting county approval. Here's an overview of the special revenue budget which is our federal and state grants. These numbers are anticipated budget numbers of 80% less than current year as

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a projection. This already reflects federal reductions that took place in 2526. Historically, we are notified of our grant allocations after school year ends in July or August. Here's an overview of the debt service uh budget for 2627. The district has one

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bond um that is paid for by the local debt service tax levy as well as a contribution from the state because it was a past referendum. And this bond doesn't mature until 4546. To put all that information into a tax impact analysis for the average clip in taxpayer, we take the actual net

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increase the 2627 um budget of 3 million, divide that by the approximate tax point provided by the assessor, then take the average assessed home value of $180,000 to get the annual school tax increase to be $105.95

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or $883 uh $883 monthly. That would be a 2% tax. So this slide shows what the district needs to do to have a balanced budget with a 2% tax levage. We will need to be

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forgoing 11 new positions, four special ed education teachers, six middle school teachers, one security specialist. That would be above and beyond what we our staff currently is in 2526. We would need to reduce that primarily through

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attrition of 37 certificated staff and 12 non-certificated staff. Also cuts through other efficiencies across all departmental areas which would include a 10% reduction in all supply lines reduction in co extracurricular activities which would include field

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trips, assemblies, sports, clubs and other activities. >> Yes, of course. Ladies and gentlemen, those 11 new positions, all 11 are for our new are playing for.

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Let me hold on. Um, and I want to I don't want to cause panic. I know we have staff members here tonight. I know we have staff members that are watching to live stream. We do not plan to cut any staff due to budgetary reasons.

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do not plan to cut any step due to budgetary reasons to get this 2% balanced budget. We're talking about not replacing people who leave or retire. So, what I'm asking you to do is to the best of your ability to not worry. If

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you are an effective staff member and you love kids, do not have to worry about your passion. I think that's just >> second one. >> So having said that, the district has the option to use what's called the

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healthcare adjustment. This does increase the tax levy, but it's a mechanism for districts to alleviate significant increases in health benefits. Cling can increase the tax levy by an additional $6.4 4 million or approximately 4% over the 2% tax levy

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holding 6%. Through an informal poll, we found out that the vast majority of Pay County school districts are utilizing the healthcare adjustment to maintain their operations because of rising healthcare costs. For the average taxpayer, that would be

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a $31784 annually or $2649 monthly. That's a 6% tax increase. With a 6% tax levy increase, we would be able to maintain status quo a status quo budget from 2526 to 2627. Meaning we

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would be using the 2% tax levy along with the 4% healthcare adjustment. This would maintain all existing 2526 staff and programs. This would cover all current projections of healthcare of the healthcare premium increases in medical, dental, and prescription. And finally,

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this does still forego the need for the 11 additional positions outside the 2526 budget. All in all, as Dr. Rotosi stated, we are looking for the board to pass a 2% tax levy increase on Thursday. However, over the next 6 to 8 weeks, we need to heavily consider utilizing the

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healthcare adjustment to raise taxes to 6% to maintain the status quo. As always, it's a great day to be a Mustangs. Thank you. We'll take questions from Thank you. Thank you. >> I'm going to ask that we go around Logan

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style. Everybody go one question and then we'll go around. Uh we're going to start with Commissioner Broncia. >> Thank you, Madam President. Mr. Dr. Ardos, Mr. Thank you for the presentation. Just as you stated in the beginning, we spent countless hours over the past

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couple of months discussing leading up to this moment today. I want to let you know, I want to ask you to let everybody know um the increase in special education when I started on this board was 20%

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around 20%. Now it's up to 24% of our student population. There are significant costs associated with that and also the uh significant claims that we had discussed with our with our broker with our brokers for the health

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benefits and how much overage we are running on those and the significant costs associated with that. Thank you. >> Thank you Commissioner um Bronca. Do you have any questions? All right. Um, so on page 25, it shows

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that um there's a 3.6% increase >> between the regular education and special education. Is this referring to contractual agreements? Is that what that cost? I'm sorry. >> On page 25

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appropriations. Yeah. >> Oh, the power. >> So there we talk about regular education um and special education and there's a mountain of increases. The one is 1.61% the other one is 2.03%. >> Right?

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>> So those two added together are 3.6. 6 4%. So is that due to contractual obligations? >> Yes. Yes. So the more negotiated salary increases for these individuals as 3.6%.

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No. So if we were to hire have the same staff in 2526 going into 2627 that number you're looking at would be above 4%. It's because of the reduction of the staff. >> All right. So that question. So the negotiated the current negotiations

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with the same amount of staff that we currently have means that we be going above 4% increase >> on that% >> and then even with this increase I see we're cutting down on positions So I guess in every case you're pretty

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damaged positions in this budget >> more more so% we're foregoing of the 11 new positions for our middle school. >> Okay. In the middle school I know we talked about how we're phasing in. So we have just six graders now and this year it'll be six and seven. Um how is that

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going to work out with um auxiliary music and arts and and programs like that? Now they're all in one school, so it's easier for teachers to teach those classes. When you put them in two different schools, they have to have a prep period in the middle to be able to travel to those. How are we going to now

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shuffle those things around? We're not hiring for those positions there. In an ideal world, Mr. Most people would think, well, you have two middle schools. You just take some staff from this school and you put them in that school and it works out equally. We know it's not that easy, right? So um

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really the only way to maintain all the existing programs is to hire those additional ley. So what what we're doing and I'll ask Mrs. Mus student to jump in here too because she's heavily involved in this. Um what it means is class size will be bigger. Um students will still

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have the opportunity to have their electives. They will have teachers. Um but they just I think six of those positions were special ed. So you know It's all of these factors together that prevent us from from providing everything that our

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students need and deserve. And we're not even asking for anything extra. We're asking to to keep what we have. And at 6% we can't even keep what we have. But Musl can speak a little more specifically to um the programmatic

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problems or changes. Miss Cruel Edge. >> Yes. The um the core content will be moved from each school. We're taking one team just like we did last year. One team from Woodro, one team from Columbus are going to be teaching language arts, math, science, social studies. Um we're

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able to share some of our um extra teachers, for example, the specials, the cycles, uh music, art, and so forth. because we're now going down in a second year at each of the other two middle schools. That's been a little more

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uneven than than expected because Woodro Wilson houses so much of our self-contained special education population and that population keeps growing exponentially. Um, however, we will be able to take a vis teacher from

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one of the middle schools to move over. And the goal is that once all three grade levels are at the new middle school, then we'll have a more even balance and there won't need to be as much sharing. However, there were still a handful of positions reflected in this

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11 positions listed here that would need to be added between this year and next year. and six of those being special education because we had initially when we planned this we were moving some self-contained

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from Woodro to Maple Valley but the number of students needing self-contained special education services is growing so quickly instead of moving two classes from Woodrow we had to create two new ones this year and those two new are now moving up to

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seventh grade next year so by foregoing these positions it means we'll be looking to tighten our belts in other areas to find the extra positions, not extra to combine some classes in one area to create a position that could

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fill some of these needs that are not just exclusive to Maple Valley. It's really related to the growth in special education. >> And Mr. taken over the only way to reduce class size. There's only one way and that's higher mortgages.

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And from what we see from the taxpayer guide to educational spending, we don't we already spend below that and and maybe kudos to us for for doing that, but there come a time where the

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rubber's got to meet the road and we're there. >> Um my other question was around the health So since that's more of a I guess a national crisis or definitely the state of New Jersey crisis, do you foresee anything happening where they're going

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to give districts some sort of adjustment like they're allowing us to have this adjustment aid of going to the taxpayer for money. Are they going to provide any sort of aid to say here's a relief on health bills since we know they could increase it or are they going to inversely contact the uh health

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companies and say you know somebody comes in for a bandaid we can't charge $1,000. I would be very surprised if the state bails out the local districts because they've already said that they've given a record amount of state aid this year and they did but as you can see what

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happened what they lo is not unique to every district that got additional aid most of that's their healthare cost it really needs to start though there Joe at the state they have to do something about the rising costs because it's

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my president it's not sustainable. Um it would be a miracle if the state bailed us out. If the state said, "Hey, you see your increase of going to 13 million. Here's 13 million." We don't have to worry and we don't have to worry. We get our 11 new positions. We got our health benefits. We got everything. I don't

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foresee that. I haven't heard that. I haven't heard anything. If anybody else has, please jump in. >> Thank you, Mr. Um Commissioner Canova. Commissioner Paris, >> there is nothing currently in the governor's address in the current budget that would indicate there's going to be

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any kind of gap funding for medical. Um, in fact, the state plan, which many schools are on, uh, has even higher increases than we're experiencing. Clinton is a self-insured district. went a few years ago to that and that actually been attenuating some of these

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great increases that we've seen um and just in general for the public I know Dr. you touched on it. This concept of of local fair share, this is an integral part of the calculation for state aid

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provided by uh the state to school districts. Whether or not we take this 2% which is what's allowed, that's calculated in by the state, they are removing that amount of money from their

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aid to us with the assumption that we are providing that locally. So whether we go two because 2% to me is the absolute minimum. We know costs have gone up much greater than 2%. Um so I don't have any issues with the

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preliminary budget at a 2% increase. As far as the the additional 4% to help offset healthcare spending um but it's really actually impacting programs. Can you provide us with uh a list of impact

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the programs uh the staff that this 4% influences? I know you had a slide up there with some generalities, but could you give us some more specifics, especially on some of the programs and things that affect our do today that we won't be able to do

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next year? >> We can Mr. Paris, we we were general in that slide for reasons that we didn't want any particular staff members to panic or worry. Um, but we can be more specific. We gave the general uh areas

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of staff like you saidrition through security through types of positions, but we also it also means a 10% cut in all supplies. It also means a cut in field trips. Right now, the board

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funds field trips. Uh at least the transportation for those field trips for every student. Um that's going to be cut at least in half. That's a that's something right there. I can tell you right now that that's something that will be impacted by field trips, which I think all of us believe is part of a

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child's education. But the short answer is yes, we can be more specific. We just have not done that yet. And we will need we will need a little more time to be more specific. Thank you and thank you both Dr. Robert and Mistie for a very thorough budget presentation. Thank you Harris.

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>> Thank you Commissioner Paris. I'm going to move on to our new member if you feel comfortable commissioner Estric Barnes and making any comments or questions at this time. >> Understandable. Thank you very much Commissioner uh Commissioner Ragsdale.

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>> So first of all thank you Dr. Dozi Jussi. Um earlier we obviously got a very very detailed budget and I went through it page by page and one of the key takeaways and as a commerce just to confirm it. There

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were so many decreases, a lot more than increases. And the only things that really increased like you guys touched on was really the salaries. And a lot of those are probably contractual. Um, I have a bunch of other specific questions that I

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think we can do off off the meeting. Um, but I just want to confirm that at 2% school programs are being cut. Um, and that at 6%, if I understand correctly, um, we're still not meeting exactly what

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we'd like to. >> That's exactly correct, Mr. Razel. At 6% we can maintain current operations and staffing but we cannot provide the additional staff needed for our new middle school at 2% to get that balanced budget. That's

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where you saw those decreases and the increases that you saw were either contractual things or things that are out of our control like healthare cost and charter school. So you're you absolutely nailed it. >> Yeah. And I'm glad Mr. Paris brought this up, but

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the 2% is a minimum to me, especially considering the fact that the state does their calculation based off the assumption that we take that responsible choice to do at least that. Um, and then I think especially people at home should realize I think you said it was half a

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billion dollars that we should have had over the years, but due to the state, we're not working with >> that only since 2013. Go back to 2013. Um I happened to speak to Melvich earlier too. We're not sure of federal

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aid yet. How does that in the future impact this? >> Defer to Mrs. Levage on that. >> So what the dollar amount that was put in there is called the 80% hold harmless. So that is 80% of what we received this year. What we received

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this year already reflects nearly $700,000 of cuts that we were unexpectedly hit with in August because the federal government withheld previous appropriations that were already earmarked for the states. So that

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700,000 reduction already hit us in August long after last year's budget was put to bed and being implemented. Um what we are projecting here is 80% but we don't even know if we're going to get that 80% because what is happening at

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the federal level has been quite unclear. We still have not been given clear detailed information about what to expect because an appropriations budget that clearly states what each district or state would get um has not yet come

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out. Um, and unfortunately given last year's track record and previous years where we would hear in June or July, last year we didn't find out until August. So those numbers that 80% of federal aid that's in there could be even lower because some of the

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preliminary predictions were not even predictions. The big beautiful bill zeroed out many of the titles that we still put funds in. We believe that they are remaining but we just don't know at what level of funding. Uh there were some news stories saying that it will be

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flat, but those are news stories. That's not actual appropriations that are being delivered to the states to then be distributed to the districts. Thank you. And then finally, just legislatively, I know we have a legislative committee. Um I think it'd be beneficial for us to talk to our state representatives. Maybe

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I mean, like you guys said multiple times, this insurance issue is something felt all over the state. And you would think that like the state government maybe could take some kind of action just I mean it's worth the conversation just to see if that can be done. Um and then even legislatively maybe just some

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kind of communication to our congresswoman about the things that we are experiencing due to the federal administration to the department of education at that level. um you know just communicating our our issues and the things that are happening on the ground and affecting our students

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especially the most vulnerable that we all know are impacted by that. Um, so for now, thank you so much. >> Thank you, Commissioner Ragel. Commissioner, >> my favorite time of year, isn't it? It was a thorough presentation. >> Thank you, sir. >> It's a good presentation.

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So, you know what I get out of this? Yes, of course, health insurance is going to for everybody. Not just this district, not just the people working in this district for every homeowner in this town. Public insurance is down. Our electricity bills

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are through the roof, right? Let's increase the taxes 6%. Cuz don't put in front of me that you guys are going to go 2%. I'm above it. I know you're going to go higher than that. We're going to go This is >> no, but this is what we get, right? Cuz

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we do it. So why don't we do uh field trips? We pay for field trips, pay for project graduation. I would love to see that fundraised, saving us money and teaching valuable lessons stewards of the taxpayers money. I I hold that very dear to me. I also

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understand how, you know, costs are rising. Um, I can understand getting behind and I would vote for the, you know, 2%. But I wouldn't vote for anything higher than that. I I couldn't vote for anything higher than that. >> Because you are a reasonable human being, Mr. S. much just sense because of

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every fundraiser that I've done to stock the little pantry to clothe the young house for to get supplies to the school parents that can't buy supplies for the school children that all this stuff

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hurts them very badly and you're going to see a flock of people leaving especially with and I've been saying this since I got elected the rebates coming the rebels coming rebels coming to rebalance here and all your tax is going to go up because of that. Cuz you can't tell me in the last 30 years you

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didn't do your kitchen, you didn't do your bathroom, you didn't put in new windows, you didn't put on a deck, you didn't fix your stairs, there's you didn't do a roof. All that stuff is going to increase the taxes on that. Um, so my question is, are there alternative alternative vendors or renegotiated

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contract terms with current vendors that could eliminate the need for the increases? And have all of the opportunities across the board for cost savings been exhausted? Mr. S, thank you for your thoughtful questions. Um, let me first say that if

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I know you don't have a lot of time because you just got the back of the documentation today, which is why we have this meeting. You'll have time to review the documentation that we sent you previously and you'll see with Mr. May notice, you you will see significant amount of cuts in in everything. Um,

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so is that ju just to get to 2% We're already cutting a significant amount of staff through attrition and programs. And I think it's important to know you brought up some very very good points and I respect the fact that um you're a

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homeowner, you're a taxpayer and you care about the taxes. But just like everybody's electric bills have gone up, so have the school district. Everything that we pay for as a school district has increased. everything, our electric bills, our gas,

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everything. And so I appreciate the fact that you said that you are good with at least a 2% increase. And I want to be very clear that is all we're asking for Thursday and I'm not asking for any more. But this board has to have a serious

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conversation. That's all that's all I ask. And I appreciate your consideration. >> Anything else? Nothing. >> Thank you, Commissioner St. Commissioner um Suarez. >> Thank you, President Bassford. Um just a

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request for more I know Commissioner you are the 4% information if you can also have more details for the 2% what exactly and I know Dr. >> Yeah, just if you to be more specific,

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yes, Mr. as well as we need more time. But just to go from the the 2% where we show you what what the cuts are and the 6% half of that if we're at four, it's it would be half. Um but to be more specific, we just need a little bit more

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time. And in in reality is we don't know how many staff are leaving or retiring. Typically, this is the time of year uh staff are required to give us 60 days notice. So around April 1st, we'll start getting retirements um and and find out

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other people may be leaving for other reasons and then we'll also have a better idea probably April 1, but as soon as we can, we will. >> That's fair. And both of you, thank you so much for that pres. Um and just just to make a comment about field trips, um PTO's already fundraised

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for field trips. You can only pay for one field trip per year with the support of the District of Transportation. So, I just wanted to give perspective of that parents and families um are already doing fundraisers for one field trip a

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year with the support of schools. So, um just imagine that support um was taken away that effort may not be able to schools may not be able to have a field trip. That's all. Thank you. Thank you, Commissioner Sores. Um Vice President

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Santiago. >> Thank you, President Basford. Uh thank you, Mr. seeing Dr. Roberty again like I said for a thorough once again every every year we have um very detailed and particularly you know your explanation

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of the history of the funding is very very important for people to understand. Um you know I echo a lot of the questions that uh you know more more detailed list. Um Commissioner Ragsdale we are going to have our first legislative committee meeting. We certainly will be

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discussing that. Uh sounds like we may need to educate some of our legislators on how charter schools funding works. Um but certainly we'll we'll we'll we'll uh invite people and start having those discussions. One question is in terms of the

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healthcare cost which has affected essentially every district, right? We know that this is um everywhere maybe generally speaking and since it's doubled over the last several years significant increases. What are some of the the issues um what are some of the

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reasons that those health care costs have have risen such a state? It's a excellent question, Mr. Santiago. I don't want to put it all on weight loss drugs, but weight loss drugs are significant increase in our prescription side of it. There are more people having

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more serious procedures. The general health of our district as measured by our experience rate is 100 was it 130 which means for every dollar we pay the

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insurance company they're putting out a$130. So they're in hence the 30% increase. >> Same thing with the stock gap. The stock gap is going up so so much too. >> Um but those who are on the budget committee um when when our health broker

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gave a presentation last week if you if anybody wants to speak more to that those were just some of the reasons but there are other there are other reasons just that that they gave and I can't think of yeah Dr. Robert, the catastrophic the catastrophic claims associated with with

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medical there were multiple there had to be probably about 10 last year where the stop gap insurance had to be utilized. So just the stop gap insurance itself that portion of our self-funded insurance about 20%. I don't know if

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anybody remembers earlier this school year we had some issue with some substitute with Kelly associated with Kelly services. We had visibility on the claims that were coming in and we knew we had to do something drastic. So this is an ongoing process. When you

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take a look at the bud budget presentation today, you just take a look at how insane the the costs are associated with this. So it it's accurate. What they're saying what they're saying in the presentation

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is accurate. And we've already been doing everything we we can. So shout out to the DAS off to administration and it wasn't pretty that that was not pretty when we had to drastically cut Kelly services but we still have to utilize

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them. It's just at significant decrease and unfortunately it decreases morale as well. It it filled a hole for our staff our our exceptional staff to help them out and we do not have that luxury anymore. So there are difficult

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decisions that have been made recently and it's going to have to continue for us. Thank you. >> And then last last question is um in terms of our per pupil cost and the cost of our administrators um uh the ranking that we are within the districts our

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size whether it be 64 or 70 whatever not for now but maybe you can give us a detail too of who specifically are those districts right um just to kind of sort of prepare Apple. Thanks. >> Thank you, Vice President Santiago. Um,

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I have some questions. Um, we have to maintain what we have, but it's going to cost 6%. Which is troubling to me. Looking at the decreases, it's a 3,295,139 decrease

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for maintenance, facilities, operations, grounds, and security. I I don't know what that entails, but I I'd like to hear more about these decreases because the co-curricular athletics um this um the bilingual the student services just

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like Allen, Commissioner Paris had brought up and administration is 1.99%. I'd like to know the details on those because you know the athletics and co-curricular some of our students in this district cling to things like extracurricular

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co-curricular and athletics because it gets them out of situations that they can't face in their own homes or they don't have the opportunity in their homes to get those things. They they get they get opportunities with co-curriculars and the athletics. That's

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what I see. Um, and we can't cut that to our students because they have opportunity. Look at our cheerleading squad, state and and and and national, right? If we cut that, will that affect the cheerleading squad?

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And I'm just pulling that one out of out of out of the group. All of our teams do exceptionally well. But I'm really worried that we need to figure out how we're going to balance this budget. And I'm going to ask my fellow commissioners now that we have a full board that we're going to have to if we have to meet

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extra, we have to put the time in because we did it with the vacancy and we all came together. We all have to roll up our sleeves and put our thinking caps on and how we're going to get past this because we also do uh Commissioner S have to worry about the taxpayer. It's the trinity, the students, the staff and

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the taxpayer that makes the triangle of of of every one of our decisions that each one of us make. So, we have to worry about that. But you're looking at 23.17% of charter school increase. And you guys know how I feel about charter schools. I'm the first one to score because they

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do not they are not held to the same standard as our districts. And they get your taxpayers dollars and do whatever they want with they don't even have to have certified staff. They don't even have to uh do any of the testing and all anything like that. We do. And we we are

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held accountable. The first people that score up are the people that how come the money is so high and this is where we rank. Until you sit in our or um commission Barnes, you just went through your

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onboarding part of it. You really don't know what we do until you hear everything we do from the experts that sit in this building or work in this building. There is so much that it takes to when that bell rings before the bell rings to when the bell rings at the end of the

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day to educate our students. You couldn't pay me enough to be an educator. I I I couldn't do it. I couldn't do what you guys do. It's a tough job and but you give to our children. So, we have to really come together. 31% 31.02%

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in healthc care raises. And I sat on that meeting and I heard some of the things that I don't want to call out because I don't want to embarrass anyone, but most of it's from um prescription drugs um cost of uh generic versus the regular drugs. Um and and this administration is doing everything

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they can to work with the health um uh services um provider to figure out a way to sc you know sharpen out pencil and scratch the pencil and do whatever we need to do. Um, so we are I'm going to

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task our our our board to sit with administration, ask your questions in the next two days. We have a lot of homework. Come with questions on Thursday, but we have to support the budget so we can ship it off to the county so it can be looked at from that

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day forward. That's when we have to get working. Okay? So I'm I'm giving you my my word that you you have access to me and I will do whatever I can to support you and support this group. If we have to do like we did four and four uh with online on learn uh virtual committees we

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can do that and we will be cognizant of everybody's time but I'm asking for your help with this one. This is a lot to ask of the community. Six% >> want to thank the board for your thoughtful questions, comments really obvious that you listen to the

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presentation and that means the world to me. Thank you for listening. Ultimately, what what we what happens is going to be a result of a lot of future decisions that we have to make. But I'm going to put Mr. on the spot.

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>> And when we got our state Thursday and we met Thursday. We met Friday again yesterday. We'll meet again today presentation. Mike, did you share what you said when we sat down yesterday? You said since I've been here, you said what

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year? Could you repeat what you said? Do you remember? >> I said something along the lines of I've been here 16 years. I've gone through a lot of budgets. This is the most difficult budget cycle that I've been through to develop this budget.

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16 years the most difficult budget being and the shame of it is the vast majority of the problem is really beyond any of our control and that's that's because had we not had the increase in health benefits we're getting an

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additional $2 million a good shape we would be in good shape that's why the senator als graduate. He didn't realize the back end, you know. So, thank you, Mr. Sorry, but I thought I think that that's

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important. 16 years ago is a long time. >> So, I think we agree that our legislative committee is going to meet soon and the board is asking you to open your voices and to make them aware of what we're going through. Commissioner Rexel has a comment.

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>> Um, I guess two main things. First, for administration, can you cuz I know this isn't posted. Can you also for that next meeting just have those list of cuts because I think it'll be instrumental when people see the the decreases that have happened so far

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>> for Thursday or for May 7, Mr. >> um you plan on having the information that's been requested? >> Yeah, it wouldn't it would could not be by Thursday night >> but it would be as soon as possible when for sure >> by by the budget vote you will know well

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in advance. Um but early April. >> Um and Mr. SC mentioned this a couple meetings ago because he mentioned the vendor cost a couple meetings ago. I tried to encourage the board to maybe either create a schedule for when we do our RFPs um or just do them every year.

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And I was told that the business that the finance committee does this regularly. So just a little comment on that to set the record straight because I know that was some that was seen as a cost measure. But when I tried to say anything about this, I was told that it happened to the committee and everything's fine. So maybe we can we

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were talking about this in the beginning during reorg and um Commissioner Ragdale brought up a about doing a an RFP committee and then Commissioner Kenova said to do it mid year so this way our

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new board you know any new board members aren't going to get hammered in January and all of a sudden they're thrown they're thrust into this um this this fold. So, um, let's have some chats and let's have some conversation. Um, we can always talk about it and bring it to

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light. We have we have tough we have some tough days ahead of us. I told you in January this is going to be one of the hardest education over here because I was hearing it from people all over the state when I travel in my my little hub of the the county and the state. This is going to be a rough year. And

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I'm not kidding. We have we're looking at I I write notes and I got everything circled because I I have to have visual in front of me and I always take notes but 23.17 in charter and 31 in healthcare. That's almost 50 something% right there. Um I'm

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sorry. Commissioner Est Barnes, did you have your hand up to speak? >> Oh, okay. Commission Commission Regs, I thought you had something. You have to flag me down because it's hard to see. >> Does anyone else have any comments, concerns, questions?

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I'm asking you if between now and Thursday before we actually have to vote on this. Um if we can send them questions to the superintendent or Miss um Mr. Lissy and then you can send out a fact sheet um to the whole board. because we're not allowed to communicate

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via email because it's considered a violation of the public meetings act. But if we all send them what the superintendent can do, compile them and then send them out to us that this was a question by someone, you know, you don't have to recognize who they were and just give us your answer. This way we can all be up to date.

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>> Just want to be clear that if if one of you has a budget question, we're going to answer that and make sure everybody gets that answer um in case they have the same question. So we're all on the same So, so we asked the question, I will put the question and the answer out. We'll

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have that for you as soon as possible. So, if you do have questions, email myself and Mr. Please. >> I still think we should do a fundraiser with sumo suits or my adversaries and everybody else, whoever on the I think I could I me alone, I think I could raise

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the district for a lot of money. I have a lot of them out there, but it's just I'm just putting that out there. I would be willing to put a brace on the bad knee and go for it. I I had to give B a little levity. I apologize, guys, but I'm just I thank I'm thankful to everyone here because I know together we'll make the right

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decision. Um, anyone else? Okay, we're going to move on with the meeting. Um, the next portion of the meeting is open to um open public uh recognition. This portion of the meeting is open to the citizens of Clifton for the purpose of addressing any subject matter pertinent

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to andor in directly related to the operations of the Clifton Public School District. Residents are requested to sign the register provided for the purpose and to state their name, address, and subject matter. Comments are limited to five minutes per person.

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Issues raised by members of the public may or may not be responded to by the board. All comments will be considered and a response will be forthcoming if and when appropriate. The board asked that members of the public be courteous and mindful of the rights of individuals when speaking. Specifically, comments

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regarding students and employees of the board are discouraged and will not be responded to by the board. Students and employees have specific legal rights afforded to them by the laws of New Jersey. The board bears no responsibility, nor will it be liable

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for any comments made by members of the public. Members of the public should consider their comments in light of the legal rights of those affected or identified in the comments and be aware that they are legally responsible and liable for their comments. Would anyone like to address the board? You have 5

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minutes in public. Motion to close. >> Second. >> Two students. I know they have questions. >> Before we close, I just wanted to know I have a couple

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students here and some students who are watching from home and they have an assignment. So, >> okay. So, motion uh by Commissioner Bronziac, second by Commissioner Paris. Roll call. >> Anybody on roll call? Okay. Is there anybody online?

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There's none. Motion to close remote. >> Motion by Commissioner Frontier, second by Commissioner Harris. All right. So, um now, um would you guys like to move forward member comments now before we go into executive session? >> Yes.

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>> Yes, please. We have people still here, which is amazing in itself. So, I'd like to give them a shout out before they bounce. I'm going to put our new member on the on the spot and let you have the floor for the very first time because this is your night. So,

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Commissioner Eve Estred Vaughn, the floor is yours. Three minutes. >> I just want to thank all my family and friends who came out to support me and ultimately district. I would love to thank the board as well. I really am so humbled and honored um and I'm looking forward

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to doing great things for um the city and the community for the students and it's a really good time to join but um again I just really want to thank everybody for the support. >> Thank you Commissioner Estra. I'm going to just keep on moving around the room.

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Uh Commissioner Ragel I'm going to save most of my comments for Thursday regular meeting. Um >> yeah, I'll keep you short. Commissioner Ciano, >> I think I said what I had to say. I'll also say all the rest of my comments with

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>> Commissioner Suarez. Uh, thank you, Commissioner Rexdale. Good idea, but I do want to say welcome aboard Commissioner, uh, Estric Barnes. It's a pleasure to have you and I look forward to working with you this year. But I'll save the rest for Thursday. Good night, everyone. >> Commissioner Bronio. >> Yeah, congrats to uh, fellow commissioner Estric Barnes. look forward

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to working with you. And uh there's never been a better time with Birds in the Fire. I want to give a shout out to everybody in the crowd today, especially these kids over here, the straight up riers. That's an exceptional pedigree. None of them were even crashing out

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tonight and it's already 8:42 p.m. So, shout out to everybody out here. Thank you for your time. God bless America. Have a good night, everybody. >> Thank you, Commissioner Brunak. Uh Commissioner Penobi, you got to follow that. Uh good evening. So first I just want to

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congratulate Miss Barnes on her being a commissioner. Wonderful to see you here with your family. Loving family came out in uh in mass and if you have any questions obviously feel free to reach out to any one of us here.

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Um, and like all my fellow commissioners, I'm I'm just going to say my comments for Thursday like to say happy day everyone. I think after address I think we they all need to go out for meetings. >> Thank you, Commissioner Commissioner

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Paris. >> Thank you. I too would also like to welcome Commissioner Estri Barnes. Welcome. Um, also, and you'll hear this again on Thursday. I remind all of you, our all city band uh concert is coming

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up on March 25th. That's next Wednesday, I believe. >> Um, it features all our elementary school, middle school, and high school musicians, the very best of the best of Clifton. Um, it's a phenomenal show, so it doesn't cost anything. Come on out,

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take a look. Um also wanted to just comment about the musical that uh just we recently experienced. It was absolutely unbelievable in terms of the technicality and the amount of dialogue that had to be learned and sung the

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talent of our students and the ability of our everything from the sets to the uh audiovisisual performance. Kudos uh congratulations. Uh and lastly and I was mentioned a little bit earlier uh congratulations to our cheer team. uh

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who secured both nationals and state for us yet again and do believe we have a dynasty. Thank you. >> Thank you, Commissioner Harris. Vice President Santiago. >> Thank you, President Basford. Uh

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welcome, Commissioner Barnes. We look forward to continuing to do good things and great things with your contributions. Um happy St. Patrick's Day to everyone and um yeah, we'll see you in a couple days. Thanks. >> Uh thank you everyone. Commissioner

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Estric Barnes, congratulations and welcome to the fold. Uh everybody has been welcoming to you. You all have her number. Look her up. Um for the board um go out and have coffee. She's a very lovely uh dinner date. Um um uh

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Commissioner uh Suarez is going to be her um um mentor um that we signed with the backup of uh Commissioner Paris. Um Commissioner Estri Bonds had her quite our quasi onboarding last week. I

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couldn't go. Tony couldn't go. So um Commissioner Paris stepped in. He was around. It was like he pivoted and he um it was a it was you had a good good experience. So thank you for administration. Thank you for a very comprehensive well-d delivered on fire

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oh by the way you are on fire um presentation. I thank you very much. Um um I just want to say happy St. Patrick's Day to my family, my McBride family, my Lang family, you know where you are. My sister, thank you for looking all them up and going back

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generations. Uh Eron go bra. Um it's it's important to your roots to remember your roots and it's really happy St. Patrick say to all see you all Thursday. Uh the superintendent has one announcement. Dr. Robotazi.

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>> Thank you president. Just want to make a correction. Um Mr. Paris mentioned the all city uh band. All city band is tomorrow night. All city orchestra is next Wednesday night. I'm sorry is forthr the

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>> um and all city chorus is April 1st. So, the next three Wednesday nights, we got the band, then all city orchestra, then of course just one fire. Come out to all three. They're amazing. >> Appreciate it. >> Also, with uh everything going on, I

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have to reassign some committees. We'll talk. We do have the fourth slot open so I can maneuver. I have to talk to the new commissioner uh to see where she's comfortable being put. Um I'm thinking policy due to her her uh field of work. budget,

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>> but we'll talk and uh we we um what people what people out there don't know that we meet every week. Tony and myself meet with the superintendent. So, we'll have a chat with everybody. Uh if anybody wants to move around, let me know. We got to repivot. And there's

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always that fourth seat that's available. Anybody can take it. Just got to let the chair know or me know that you want to fill in. and especially now with budget season or the budget questions. If anybody wants to get in, let me know. With that being said, we're going to go into executive session. Um,

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we are going to be about I'm going to say roughly about 2 hours to the media staff in the back room. Do not put that on the the uh that we're in executive s. Just put we're in an executive session because we may be out earlier and I don't want people in the general public say, "Hey, you said 10:00 and you're out

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at 9:00." I don't want to give anybody false. Um, we don't know how long it's going to take. Um action may or may not be taken. It's about a uh action will be taken. It's about a personnel matter or >> attorney >> attorney client privilege. So we're

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confidential and we can't speak about it. Motion to go into executive session. >> Motion. >> Motion by Commissioner Brunac. Second by Commissioner Harris. Roll call. >> Mr. Mr. Mr. Yes.

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>> Yes. >> Yes. 5 minute break for um everybody and then we'll continue your session here. Congratulations again. Good night folks. Are How are you? Um, good evening. This is uh the board

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president. It's 10:34. We're still in executive session. We should be uh extended about another hour or so, probably 11:30. Thank you. Guys, you coming? >> I'll be there next. San

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>> no show. >> Oh, it's right up. I'll put it right. >> Um, good evening. It's 11:12. We're returning from executive session. Mr. Usi Vocal, please. >> Mr. Bronzier >> here. >> Mr. Kenova here. >> Miss Esther Barnes >> here. >> Mr. Paris >> here.

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>> Mr. Ragdale >> here. >> Mr. Siana, >> present. >> Vice President Santiago >> here. >> President Bas here. >> We have a phone. >> Could I have a a motion to amend the word in um executive number one? >> I'll make a motion. >> Okay.

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>> Second. >> Motion by Mr. Iano to amend the uh word um in the resolution seconded by uh Commissioner Prac. Roll call on the amendment. >> Mr. Brun. >> Yes.

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>> Mr. Kova. >> Yes. >> Miss Ernes. >> Yes. >> Yes. Okay. >> Mr. Paris. >> Yes. >> Mr. Risdale. >> Yes. >> Mr. S. >> Yes. >> Vice President Santiago. >> Yes. >> President. Yes. Uh motion to accept the

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uh resolution from exec one with the amendment. >> Motion. >> Uh Commissioner Seattle, second by Commissioner Kenova. Roll call. >> Mr. Runierc. >> Yes. >> Mr. Kenova. >> Yes. >> Miss Esther Barnes. >> Yes. >> Mr. Paris. >> Yes.

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>> Mr. Ragdale? >> Yes. >> Mr. Tiano? >> Yes. >> Vice President Santiago? >> Yes. >> President Baser? >> Yes. Motion to All in favor of a closing? >> No. No. No. No. Sorry, I forgot. We have to have a a reading of a resolution. Sorry. >> Thank you, Madam Chair.

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>> Sorry. >> Resolve that the Clinton Board of Education upon the recommendation of the superintendent hereby approves the settlement agreement regarding employee ID09-225-26 and authorizes superintendent and the board attorney to take the steps that are necessary to effectuate the purposes

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of this resolution and the agreement. >> So, it should say separation agreement. separation agreement. I have no glasses on. I apologize. >> Okay. Motion to accept the se separation agreement. >> Second. >> Motion by Commissioner Brunc. Uh seconded by Commissioner um Paris. Roll

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call. >> Mr. Branzac. >> Yes. >> Mr. Kenova? >> Yes. >> Miss Eric Barnes? >> Yes. >> Mr. Paris? >> Yes. >> Mr. Ragdale? >> Yes. >> Mr. Sienna? >> Yes. >> Vice President Santiago? >> Yes. >> President Baser? >> Yes. >> Motion carries.

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>> Motion. All in favor of journ >> opposed. Good night. 114