Miss Divine here miss Maya miss molski here miss szer here miss Sherman Missi Mr McMillan
here Mr delus here Mr CH here leave okay there is no executive session at this time the agenda me mentions a presentation but that was actually done last week during our uh special word
meeting last week so no presentation today uh we also don't have uh Committee of the whole because I we're just going to talk about everything during the actual buildings and grounds section so we'll move on to section five uh public
comment and so you know the purpose for public comment section is to discuss items listed on the agenda additional more General comments may be made later in the meeting um I think seeing as everyone in this audience has been here before for public comments I think I'll skip the rest of the explanation but if
uh In fairness to all who wish to speak there's a strict three minute time limit per person during public comment uh and Mr PS if you can help me keep time that would be appreciated uh please remember to state your name and address for the record right and so public
comments all right see seeing as there are none uh we will move on to uh item number six buildings uh grounds and finance committee um I will present this so the uh the finance buildings and grounds committee reviews all financial
statements purchase orders and warrants on a monthly basis the committee also reviews and approves all contracts with outside providers service providers and oversees all maintenance Capital Improvement projects districtwide there is only one item on uh this agenda for today for approval and that's 6.02 the
submission of the 2025 2026 budget to New Jersey Department of Education um so I I'll read this and then explain what what it is so motion to authorize submission of a 2025 26 budget to New Jersey Department of Education um be it resolved that the Congress Board of
Education approved 2025 2026 School District budget as follows uh there's a table and basically the budget is the general fund is 42,8 2016, 458 Special Revenue fund is 6,236 ,
328 Debt Service fund is 1,286 163 and the total base budget at that point is uh 50, 338 ,9 49 local tax levy for the general
fund is1 19 milon 864,000 uh $812 um then for the uh local tax ly for Debt Service fund is the exact same amount as the Debt Service fund which is 1,286 th000 and then
$163,000 and so the total uh base budgets the total local tax levy is 21,1 15,9 75 uh so then be it forther resolve to seek approval for the applicable tax levy caps Healthcare adjustment of
$724,999 be it further resolved to use the bank cap as applicable zero dollars there there is no Bank cap use of Bank cap is to maintain current programming that cannot be deferred or incly completed over a long period of time cuts in state aid make use of Bank cap
necessary to maintain programs again there is no Bank cap be it further resolved to withdraw funds from capital reserve in the amount of $50,000 um withdrawal from the maintenance Reserve account for use on required maintenance activities for a
school fac uh facility as reported in the comprehensive maintenance plan pursued to njac 6A 26-205 be it further resolved to withdraw funds from the tuition Reserve in amount of 0 be it further resolved that pursuant
to njac 6A uh colon 23A d7.3 the con education establishes $25,000 as the lotted maximum expenditure for travel for 2024 2025 and 2025 202 six um school years whereas the counil Board of
Education recognizes School staff and board members will incur travel expenses related to and within the scope of the current responsibilities and for travel that promotes the delivery of instruction or furthers the efficient operation of the school district and whereas nj6 a23a
d7.3 uh Seca um requires board members to receive approval of these expenses by a majority of the full voting membership of the board and staff members to receive prior approval of the expenses by the superintendent of schools and the majority of the full voting membership of the board and to date thus far in the
2024 2025 school year the ccil board of education has spent $411 on travel and to advertise s attentive budget in the retrospect in accordance with the form required by the State Department of Education and according to law and be it further resolved that a public hearing
be held at the kwood Board of Education located at Kingswood high school on Monday April 28th 2025 at 6:30 p.m. for the purpose of conducting a public hearing on the budget for 2025 2026 school year so that is the resolution um
to submit the tenative 2025 26 budget to the county uh executive superintendent of schools which is the county representative of the New Jersey Department education for them to uh review and and approve um prior to
the submission of the completed and full um uh budget that uh we will be looking to do hopefully on April 28th uh that um the April regular board meeting where that will also be the the public hearing on the budget so with that being said
I'm seeking approval of item uh 6.02 is there a motion is there a second second okay uh and so at this point questions or comments from board members so I just um was going to ask you to
clarify um I know that there are not many people in the public here right now but just for people that are watching the differences between the special Revenue fund The Debt Service fund and all that just so everybody understands uh so fund 40 is Debt Service that is basically what we've
bonded over the years so let say we had a referendum let's say we had a referendum this past was approved sorry if if we approve that that would be put place in fund for fund 40 potentially or it's where where your debt is it's where bonds are uh so we
still have some bonds that are you know that we're paying off every year so that money is coming from that uh fund 20 is Grants so it's not it's not the operating budget yes it's obviously used for the operating of our school district such through preschool and some other things but it's not technically
considered the general operation of the district fun 10 is what we're talking about in general when we talk about improving this budget that's the part that that's the bulk of it that the that's immed of the budget that's where we function off of okay does that make
sense and And to clarify the the debt services for the 2005 referendum I believe so um I have something so in terms of the um the procedure here going forward so this was the result um this budget
was the result of collaboration between you and and Miss Coleman and burrow people um can you just give me a sense of is the collaboration with the burrow going to be ongoing for the remainder of the time up until the April meeting if you just give us a sense of of what
that's going to look like so yes so per the uh per the partnership uh The Next Step uh which will happen next week is that uh our Chief Financial Officer and our financial team team uh we'll sit down
and and review uh the full details uh of the budget with the buau Chief Financial Officer and their financial team um in order to make sure that the there is Clarity on the direct payment to fill the and close the gap beyond the
$754,000 that was previously promised using Surplus and pilot money and so the original ask uh was uh uh three million uh dollar um and so the due diligence on both parties is to determine is the full
$3 million needed or is it is it less and so they'll go uh through uh analyze the budget um and will only be uh putting forward uh what is required to close that Gap and so that process takes place next week and considering that um this is the
the burough has said that it would collaborate on the full amount of the ask um can we assume that programming Staffing will remain as it is currently no um and so I think I want to be very
clear and so the partnership was to close the budget deficit and to avoid um unnecessary layoffs um it does not mean that programmatic changes will not be taking place schools will be making programmatic changes based on a whole
host of of of things um many of which are going to be driven by student need Student demand um others will be uh driven by long-term planning and so the budget reconciliation process takes place between now and uh April 21st when
we actually sit down with uh the board to actually review uh any potential changes there's there are no uh changes that are uh pressing at the moment um because we want to make sure that the funding is in place so that we know
exactly what we're working with and so the goal of the partnership was to avoid uh crippling and dramatic reductions to program services and personnel and so once that process is complete and we have secured that then we will know how to effectively plan um and in parallel
to that process schools are looking at their programming needs for 25 uh 26 uh and they're going to make adjustments according accordingly uh and so there's a lot of moving parts that will take place over the next three to four weeks um I have a question about um in
here it says that we're going to advertise a tenative budget in the retrospect does that mean that what we received today is going to be or not today but what we received is that going to be public or what does I guess maybe just explain that if not say to
advertise and tentative said tentative budget in the retrospect happens what happens is the this budget tomorrow will be submitted to the county the county superintendent and the business administrator will then ask questions
say yes or no and they'll eventually give the approval that budget then gets given back to us we then have to take that but take the budget which basically is what we submitted there'll be there be an advertisement which will send to the retrospect it will be this this budget does not mean there won't be any
changes and things of that that nature but it will be the budget as submitted to the count and then after then we have our final adoption at that point we can make any changes that we were going to make and that'll be resubmitted to the county for final approval does that make
sense I have another question um but it's more about some of the items in here is that okay to ask at this point um so one of my questions is there is less money in here for some salaries um
again not be reading this correctly um but I thought the idea of partnering with the burrow was to not get rid of Staff members and it looks like we are decreasing some of those proposed amounts in here so when we initially proposed a budget
last week there was obviously significant cuts to Staffing um those cuts were placed back in the deficits could be for multiple reasons we've had changing changing of staffs I don't know without going through each and every line but I can tell you there
could be breakage there could be different things going on even the cuts from this year that were made for this this school Year's budget when we did that last year it was a a generic cut so when we actually hit the affected lines it may have hit differently than it was
actually planned for um so so there might be some of the discrepancies you're seeing but everything that was put everything from last week was put back in to my knowledge so I you know I also want to clarify so I I did ask um miss colen
about this and and one of the reasons is that there are retirements right and so when you have staff that retire uh in almost every single case the replacement staff will be paid at a at a lower right even if they's same uh step because of
say longevity bonus or or so forth so that's one of the things that that we need keep in mind um I think what's really important for us to keep in mind too is that what's happened in this budget is that all of the the cuts that we discussed that the finance bu and grounds committee and that all the board
members got the notes on were added back in right and so the idea is that uh we are I think uh Dr D just talked about we're not we don't have to we're not being forced to make any uh Cuts anymore and so so what we're seeing here is
basically um uh all those cuts being being added back in and so whatever the line items are that we're looking at that is representative of that and I don't know that any of us other than say um Mr Burns or uh or Dr D or Miss Coleman know actually you know how it's
supposed to share out there because it's you know it's not really our our job necessarily just to add if there were any Productions it would be based on what Dr mcdal already said and that would be a decision programmatically that would potentially there's nothing plan at this
time one more question um the budget that is here that has been proposed um I know we can't talk about CA negotiations but what is there the increase of some sort in this budget to cover whatever we
might finalize on so um as I think Dr mcal and Miss Coleman have have said repeatedly the the um raises for the anticipated raises for staff right because it's not just the ca but also the cpsa um are included within the
budget so the the money is there for the an anticipated raises is any allowance um considering that the fact finding process will be beginning uh within a few weeks um I'm assuming that that
process will not be done by the April meeting so what exactly right so what kind of um um contingency or uh you know any kind of you know considering we have to pass the budget before that process is over
um I I guess I just want to know how that would that would wind up panning out consider you know if if there was any kind of a settlement that perhaps would be more than perhaps what we have currently budgeted for the sake of negotiations I I won't answer that specifically but I
would tell you that the same process we would have used last year would have this year uh to budget meaning this year we didn't have a contract so we obviously had to project it into the contract or into the budget uh that same process would work this year as well so I don't I won't go into any details on
that but I think that's a fair answer and now I'll just add which is any single budget right is a is a balance of choices right and so uh if you know if one place if the the
costs in one area increase right then the cost in some area has to decrease and so whatever ends up happening right for example for our transportation it's been it's been going up and I think um that something that we'll be seeing next week is is uh proving a transfer to for
more Transportation money because we have to that those costs keep on increasing on us right and that requires taking money from somewhere else so as with anything if one area cost increases we have to take it from somewhere else so I just have one comment um I
just wanted to reiterate great that I sent an email to some of you this afternoon I'm not going to ask any of those questions publicly but I just wanted to acknowledge make sure you got it and um hopefully I can get some clarification on some of those things but I'm prepared for tonight I I did see the email as of around six o'clock time to be honest uh
I I I were Miss Coleman will respond I knew something the answer top top of my head but I could not answer all those questions can I I'm sorry I was just thinking of about last year so if I recall so last year we we approved the
preliminary budget and um as then as the weeks progressed there had to be many heartbreaking uh layoffs and and riffs as we all remember um when the when we were ready to vote on the final I remember being uh being told that we
were voting on The Staffing for the following year so we weren't voting I'm I'm just making sure I remember this correctly so right so we were voting on The Staffing for the following year not necessarily voting on the process or the choices or anything like that um can you just give
us a sense um are we going to be able to see the budget when it's ready which I know is going to be a process um are we going to be able to see it and be able to have an opportunity to ask line item questions and vote on the budget when it is finished or is it going to be a situation where we're
voting on The Staffing for the following year again because I I just remember being a little bit confused by the process last year and I just wonder if I could just have you know some clarification because I know last year was very crazy so let let me I think address address the the budget process because I
do think that it is a a confusing process uh and and you know that's that's why I sent that that committee email with the process laid out um this what we're doing right here is the kind of the first step in the budget process
which is to submit this tenative back balanced budget to the uh Department of Education Representatives at the county level for them to go through and approve absolutely I was talking about the future yep y now through uh through then that uh that through that approval
process right the school administration is going to uh work to finalize the pieces that and how the budget needs to lay out or any you know programmatic changes that need to happen for for next year uh until we get basically to the point where those changes are done and
then that will be presented to the finance bu and grounds committee uh and then all uh all board members will get those notes about what choices were were made and how um what steps were taken to maintain a balanced budget and to um
appropriately run the schools and Implement whatever programmatic changes that the uh Administration sees uh as beneficial for the students and for the schools um I think our job as as as and I think what's confusing and what's
difficult for board members is to understand what our job is as board members in this process right and our job is to understand those steps being taken right and those decis those decisions uh being made um that is I
think very different than um asking uh you know Miss Coleman or or Mr Burns um every single line item within the budget and I think we have to be careful
there between understanding that our job is to understand the steps that are being taken to to maintain a balanced budget to uh improve academics to make sure the uh the schools are are doing the best job they can versus micromanaging our financial uh
professionals with within within the district and one one of those things is when when for example when Dr madal and and Miss Coleman have said uh all the cuts have been added back in right then
what they've said is is what they're doing our job isn't necessarily to say uh micromag and say uh you know how exactly um you know what number are you putting in what cell and what does this mean it's to say okay that step of
putting all the cuts back in that makes sense to us and and we approving those steps and I think we have to be very careful about not micromanaging the staff at the school uh but making sure that we're we're we're understanding what's happening versus
saying uh this specific method that you're using within the line item to achieve that goal uh you know I don't necessarily understand and or or you should do something different there does that make sense I I think you're misinterpreting what I'm asking so I
don't think that asking questions as a board is micromanaging right so one of the few things that we are commissioned to do is to understand the budget and then vote on it so I just think I was just asking what the process is so that we can understand because if we're being asked to put our name in affirmation for
a budget I think it's reasonable that we should understand what's in the budget I don't think it's micromanaging to ask those questions I mean ask asking questions is really the only thing we could do as board members right so I don't I don't like the term micromanaging I don't think that's fair you know just making sure we understand well and that's that's why the
us what what we need to make sure we understand is the steps being taken to to maintain the the bounce budget and to um uh push forth the programming of the schools right and so what I'm trying to say is when we look at line items and we
you know the the step that is being taken might be distributed across 50 different line items right that's not something that that really is our job to to say dig into because that's the administration of the schools our job is
to understand what steps are being taken right what that that impact is and to and to approve or not approve uh uh the budget at large but then to go in and say Hey you know tell us all the 50
different light items and how they've shifted um uh because of these General steps that we're we're taking that's where I'm getting concerned that we're going to end up basically wasting a lot of uh uh time at the administrative level when they need to be making sure
that that that they have enough time to implement all the steps that are that need to be taken to make sure the schools are are running well so might I ask a point of clarification on April 28th we're going to approve a budget and between now and then we will have
finance committee there will be internal understanding of here's what I need right I may not have two fifth grades I may have two kindergartens I may have this right all of those shifts are going to happen we are going to have Clarity into a sum summation similar to what was submitted here's what's been changed if anything
at all we will see that should there be something that pops out to us we can ask that question just so we understand what the line means right I think it is prudent to ask hey well this looks lower well the lower made a lot of sense when you said hey by the way retirements changed that number just straightforward
we will have that time in the next month to make sure that everyone feels conf understands enough beyond the highle summary in the agenda I think is what I want to make sure I'm clear on like we're going to see more than necessarily the summary here to help inform the vote
on the 28th I think is what we're and and just making sure that I'm yes let let me let me add an additional layer um and so because of the sophistication of the budget um we will not ex be exclusively only talking with a finance
committee um because of the the scope and scale we also will be doing a very similar uh deeper dive with the curriculum committee and a deeper dive with Personnel um not so much policy sorry policy committee um but we'll be doing that with all three of the major
committees um because the budget touches on all three of those and so I think that that level of uh the detail and the clarity that you're looking for will be um the committee meetings that will be coming up and then the uh the preemptive
summaries going into those meetings will provide a degree of clarity that's not present in this in this current summary um and so that that's that's our plan those meetings will be much longer um hour to an hour and a half uh and and they will be forthcoming uh for for for
April committees um so thank you for explaining that because I mean as a new board member I might understand the process but um if I am going to vote on something I'm G to want to an idea of what I'm voting on so um Mr Burns thank
you for answering my questions um I'm not attempting to micromanage anybody um but if I'm voting on something and I don't understand it and it's not clear then I'm going to ask a million questions so I don't want to waste your time Mr Burns I definitely don't want to make waste Mr Miss Coleman's um time
either but if I'm saying if I'm asked to say yes or no I it needs to be you know I need to understand what I'm voting for so thank you for answering my questions earlier thank you Dr for explaining that yeah the process I mean our U my goal is never to micromanage either but it is
helpful to understand especially given you know coming in year one we were in A1 and a half million dollar shortfall and we just voted on a number and then the second year it was kind of the same thing this year we were able to get a lot more details and that was really helpful but given that that's new we I wanted to get clarification on some of
those things um and it it was just a simple um email of hey can I get clarification on this not like what exactly are you doing for this or that or trying to micromanager get specifics just an overall better understanding of what I'm looking at I also think it's important to
understand that the budget you're seeing today is not the budget we had a week ago and the level of detail in the work and the stress from the last week I don't think anyone understands
outside of ba in the state we're also doing unprecedented times um in my career as a teacher ba whatever I've never seen a time like this so what you're seeing today is what we
did in a week uh as Dr mdal said you'll have Finance commune meetings and obviously you'll have a chance to ask more questions and to deeper this budget if changes are made we'll update it but I think it's important to realize that we had to
reverse 3 A5 million dollar worth of cuts uh that was not an easy task just one spre took me a day and a half so I just want I just think that's important to realize that I understand this may feel rushed we felt rushed too uh we we
understand that I think I speak for all of us when I say we very much appreciate all the hard work that you guys have put into this immensely yeah so just want to make sure that everyone has the information that they need and so I think that the way that we need to look at budget we need to look at it in two
Realms there's the technical piece which we leave to the financial professionals and then there's the adaptive piece and I think that a better place for board members to to swim is in the Adaptive piece and that's where um Meredith and
and I um actually turn line items on a spreadsheet into real things real people and so our conversations will in in the coming weeks will not be about a 98 page document it would be about what's
actually happening in schools with prr programming with kids with our staff um and those are um much more more meaningful conversations so that's that's what we're going to be trying to make sure that we do while our the
technicians are doing the the the technical aspect of making the numbers make sense um my responsibility will be to actually uh make those numbers real um we can talk about a line item or we
can talk about 22 people I'd rather talk about 22 people than the line item sorry Steve um yeah and Dr thank you for I think you you explained a lot better than than I did which is that that is I think the level which should be probably the most
meaningful for board members right because we are not technical school Finance experts but to you know but to talk about what the real impact of those line items are rather than the line items themselves I think is is where I think most meaningful for all of us and then
also you know we'll make sure because a lot of these discussions are happening you know during different committees you know we've had have had the the practice of making committee notes for a year or two two years or so now and so we'll make sure that that those are sent out
so everyone has a chance to to to review those and ask questions as well sure and I appreciate that um and my questions were really based on I understand that this is a line item but I want to know what the impact of that line item is going to be behind it you know because I'm not I'm not a numbers person either so
yeah and I think I'll I'll add one more thing which is I I do also appreciate um the engagement of of of the entire board you know I think looking around at different um boards throughout the state I think you you would see a um different level of engagements from the full board
so I do also want to say personally from my perspective I definitely appreciate the engagement from the full board any other questions or comments awesome uh roll call please Mr Burns yes Miss Brown
yes Miss Divine yes Miss Maya yes Miss molski yes Miss Selzer yes Miss z Mr McMillan
yes Mr delus yes and Mr Chu yes motion passes thank you uh moving on then to section seven discussion public participation this is the second uh section for public
comments um this section is for additional more General comments um doesn't have to be on items on the agenda I believe looking around here everyone's been to a board meeting before so I I won't go through the um
the whole comment here but again In fairness to all who wish to speak there is a strict thre minute uh time limit per person during public comment and and if uh Mr Burns could help me uh by keeping that that time I'd appreciate that so please remember to uh state your
name and address for the record okay seeing as there are uh no public comments oh oh here you go all right good evening everybody Mike paluchi um I teach here in the district and I am a resident 357 Park Avenue thank you for the collaborative efforts
of everybody I know that this is a really tough time and I know that um it hasn't been easy across the state and especially here in Collingswood um as uh vice president and representative of the Collingswood Education Association I feel it would just be incumbent upon me to remind
everyone um and I I I do sincerely believe that you are trying um but I think that's with some of the questions we're getting at um earlier from the various board members um I would just please continue to urge you to uh not make staff Cuts as much as possible um
you know keep in mind from our perspective in the district as employees this is really like the third year in a row where we're facing this and we are operating as you guys know on a relative Skeleton Crew in in many of our buildings um and these are the people um
this is the you know the people that teach our kids are the biggest investment that we make you know and um so I think if uh you know just to redouble our efforts I do appreciate again what everyone's doing but just to remind everyone um as a representative of the staff to do everything that we
can uh to make sure that we're not cutting staff members right thanks a lot okay seeing as there are no more public comments uh with that we will move to section8 adjournment is there a
motion to adjourn this meeting and a second second all those in favor all right thank you have a good night for