like to call this meeting of the National Board of Education to order. This is the work session meeting and the only order of business that we have before executive session is going to be swearing in Mrs. Plum.
So, if you don't mind you have to come up and here's your oath. And you're going to insert your name if you want. Am I repeating that for you? Just read. Okay. I, Catherine, do solemnly swear or
affirm that I will support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of New Jersey, and that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same and to the government established in the United States and this state under the order of
the people who help me die. Yeah, it's very simple. That's another good thing. I, Captain Fond, do solemnly swear or affirm that I possess the qualifications prescribed by law for the office of a member of a board of education and that I will faithfully,
impartially, and justly perform all the duties of that office according to the best of my abilities. Congratulations here. Um, but I have you sign it and it's for the one-year unexpired term, which means you hopefully run again in uh in
November. So, um, we are going to go into executive session to discuss confidential, legal, and personnel matters. So, I made a motion. So, moved by Joanne, second,
seconded by Mason. All those in favor? I opposed. Obstain. Motion carries. Like to call this meeting Township Board of Education to order. First, a moment of silence, please.
Thank you. Will every pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all here. Joshua here. Jason Hopkins
here. Catherine here. First let on the issue of public reform. Welcome Catherine who was sworn in earlier this evening. Congratulations. Statement back notes. Notice in this meeting pursuant to the open public meetings act as follows.
Advertising courier post on January 19th, 2025. Posting on school boards and main entrance stores on January 15, 2025. Fingers with the clerk of the township on January 15, 2025. and posting a notice on the district
website.com on January 15, 2025. At this time, I need a motion for the approval of the minutes from the March 17, 2025 executive session, March 18th, 2025 executive session, March 19th, 2025 regular meeting, March 19th, 2025
executive session, March 25th, 2025 executive session meeting, and the April 9th, 2025 special meeting and executive meeting. All of those are in exhibit B on your drives. Moved by Joanne, seconded by Taylor. Are there questions
or comments? You can tell we got a lot with interviews. Okay, seeing no questions, uh, motion is on the floor. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. Opposed,
abstain. Motion carries. Community leaison reports, Riverside High School. Okay, basically the LCO PTO is going to be Mr. I'm not nearly as charismatic as my
wife, so I apologize. Uh, the PTO would like to thank everyone who supported the last night's D and donate at Crawford's. They raised $215. Uh, Mr. Softy has been booked for green and white day and they are working
on treats for field day. The school spirit wear store is still open. You can reach it by the Facebook page or deleno.com for that link. And their next meeting will be May 13th.
All right. Thank you. I know my hot community reports vice recreation township committee as Mr. Bartlett anxiously. Oh, thanks. Mr. Coffman was last night in
PTO. Uh glad I could support it. Our township committee meeting last week, we adopted the budget for this year. Uh main part of the meeting, we gave a presentation about the purchase of the property at Coral Wood Creek Road. The presentation is also on our website at
township.com video for your viewing pleasure. Uh this weekend is spring cleanup. If you have any large debris or other materials, electronics, large plastics, and whatnot that you need to get rid of, we'll have dumpstries at the
public works yard on Saturday between 7:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. And we'll also have a shredder at the municipal building. So, if you have any large amounts of bills already paid and other paperwork that you want to securely dispose of, come up to the municipal
building from 8 a.m. uh to 12:00 p.m. And one other thing this weekend in New Jersey Transit along with the Blanco Township offers management will be conducting training exercise rail bridge. So, if you are out
and about and in the morning and you see a large contingent of emergency vehicles, uh, other work people, don't be alarmed. It's just a training exercise. Uh, for recreation, construction has begun on the new waterfront park on Delaware Avenue over
by the Zer Mansion between Willow and Union. It should be opened at the end of June and will be happy about this as it's been over a decade and a half in the making. Uh, summer camp registration starts tomorrow. Find out more about that on
michaeljas.com. Space is limited, so please sign up as soon as possible. And Memorial Day is coming up, and that means the Memorial Day parade, which we look forward to every year. It will be on Sunday, May 25th, and it will kick off at West Avenue at 1:00 a.m. And the
ceremony to honor the fallen will be at Gateway Park after the parade, and everyone is of course to attend. And finish off the Beling Day ceremonies and events was this past Saturday. All the kids had a good time despite a
torrential downpour at the end of the day to come clean in the mud. That's all I have. Thank you. Thank you. had personal emergencies and unfortunately can't be in attendance tonight and our thoughts are certainly
full of them at this time. Uh because those district level administrators are unfortunately not present tonight. I do want to ensure and the board wants to ensure all of us that all of your questions and concerns that the public may have will be
answered by the end of the week. A Google form is going to be posted on our website that residents can fill out with their name, address, contact information, the concern that they may have to which we're going to ensure that the superintendent or business administrator are able to directly
respond to you. Our assistant business administrator Bill Man is going to do the annual letter presentation to address an elegant learning. though it is obviously with some deep regret
that as part of this year's budget presentation, you're going to see that our district's prek program is not going to be offered for the upcoming school year. This was an incredibly difficult decision I know that our administration made after careful consideration of the
current budget constraints and the resource limitations that the district currently has. We recognize the critical role that early childhood education plays in preparing our youngest learners for long-term success. We share at this point that
many of you have and feel about the pause in this prek program. Please know that this isn't a decision we as a board take away. As we welcome our new superintendent in the coming months, our priorities are
going to be to explore sustainable options for reinstating this program and other programs for our students here within the district. We're committed to engaging in that thoughtful dialogue in order to come up with some
creative problem solving to restore this and again all the other Bible programs here in our community. At this time like to open up the meeting for public comment on agenda items. Public participation in the board of
education meeting is governed by policy 0167 board of education welcomes comments from members of the public. Concerns about the school district should be addressed to the appropriate staff members prior to being brought before the board. Also, please note that the board may be hearing your concerns for the first time and may not be able
to address those concerns during the meeting. An online form for public comment was posted to the website informed me earlier that there were no comments submitted on the online form. Um knowing that the budget presentation obviously is next though are there any
public comments on the agenda right? Whichever I mean you could take his first Phillips 209 Edward Avenue Delanco. Edwood Edgewood. I just want to make sure that we have it right. Um, so just two things real quick. I know one of this one of these items is the agenda.
It's the 2526 school calendar. And then I just had a real quick question about the current calendar that we're in. Normally at this board meeting is when you confirm the um use that we did not use our emergency days and what days we
will adjust the calendar by. But I did not see that on the agenda. So that's for this current school year. And then um the other question was at with the 2526 school year calendar. I have to tell you I went over it like seven
times. There seems to be some errors in it as far as days the staff is here and the days the students are here. Um and my numbers show 186 days for staff and 182 days for students. And that's not
including when when or if we don't use the emergency days. So really at this point I think the student should be going to school for 183 days. Um unless we use or don't use the emergency days. Um, just for an example, December, it
says that it's only December. What day? I Oh, December. For the whole month of December, it says that we go to school for um 15 days, but it's actually 17 days. Um May, it says we're going to school for 21 days when we're actually
going to school for 20 days for both students and staff. Then in June for the TW uh for June of 2026, it's 14 days for staff, 13 days for students. And then there's a question, is the last day for students and staff the 18th or is it the 17th? Um
because it says it's early dismissal days for both, but then it says the 17th is the last day for students and the 18th is the last day for staff. So there's just a couple things that don't seem to be very clear and I would hate to see we get to the end of the year next year. We've only gone to school 179
days instead of 180 days. So, I don't know if you're ready to adopt this calendar. I don't know. I'm telling you, I have counted it. I have I have done the math several times. I would just I would hate to see this come down to the spring next year and we're short a day
or two. So, I don't know if you I just want you to be able to help you. So we have the opportunity since we had this information early since last week the school was off. Yes. And board members noticed things as well. Okay. So
actually those amendments are going to be worked out. Okay. Um when uh Arling gets back. Okay. Okay. Good. I think it might be helpful though. Have you talked to anybody about this yet other than right here? Because it might be helpful to point it out to Miss Kanty or Mr.
Santiago so they can be part of those corrections as well. Okay, just to make sure everybody's on the same beat if that helps. Thank you. Sorry, one small port. So, I've been a uh tax pay reso for
almost eight years. My son, who you've all met, is Ma. It's his first year of preschool and I find out it's going to be his last year of preschool. We get that lovely letter from you guys. Careful consideration. So I guess
he is a taxpayer and my son and the future u explanation as to what careful consideration is. What careful consideration is the budgeting process that's going to be presented to us? Okay, we can only go
and talk about what is presented to us. Okay, I'm going to present this stuff to you, right? So, I live when I go. I pay taxes. I also pay $900 a month as a resident for my son gaining education.
Okay, so that's almost $9,000 at the end of the year to send a child to preschool. There's 11 students. Can anybody give me the answer of what a preschool program costs for this to keep this preschool program open? What does it cost a year
for 11 students? You were told at our last meeting that it was over $100,000. Over $100,000. So 11 students at almost $10,000. Is that that doesn't mean the quote, sir. because of the special
education as well. So I think some of the kids are um under special ed that's part of the difference is so they don't pay they don't have to pay. Okay. So you would think that the school
would have something in place to not take away the most crucial aspect of a child and most important time for a child to be educated and learned. So now we're left with the decision of what do we do? We took a child at the
most crucial time of his life to set, you know, a a system in place and for him to get comfortable and you're now taking not only me but other students and I just I don't fully
understand. You know, I say budget and money and budget and money. I looked up the budget. I looked at what taxpayers in Vanka would pay. Me along with all these people and the rest of the 10,8 plus households of give this school six
7.6 million last year. And every single year for the past four years, the budget gone up minimum $200,000. But yet the enrolled students over the past four years has dropped 12.7%.
So there's 12.7% less students yet the budget went up. Not to mention me along with what's that the overall budget has not gone up. The overall budget has gone down. Operatables lately have gone up but the overall budget has property tax
but the revenue I have the financial I understand. I understand. I understand. But was just brought up to the superintendent. You have to go to the G. I don't know who my superintendent is. Every time I came, I met a different
principal, different superintendent, was told that this school's closing, that school's opening, high school, nothing. A day prior when I came to have him meet his preschool teacher, she left him and got a new one. Nobody knows nothing. I'm telling
you, your financial records that I looked up and had showing you that in the last four years, taxpaying revenue, taxpayers revenue to the school was 7.2, then 7.4, then 7.7, and then 7.8
million, but the whole student amount has dropped 12.6% in the last four years. less students yet you're getting more money and you can't come up with let's say five of those students in my son's class
can't pay that revenue can't actually produce from somewhere else to allow these children to have an education and on top of that as a taxpayer we just passed that budget $2.1 more million coming out of our hard working pockets my wife had to go back to work to pay
for this school you understand that sir sir Please, please watch. I understand your concerns. I thank you for bringing them to us. I understand that the taxpaying tax levy has gone up
from 7.1 million to about 7.4 million that we are proposing at this point. State figures on the other hand, as you should be aware of with your financial figures that you have, have gone down from 3 million to 2.2 million. So the
math doesn't matter to that thing. But I do need to refer this to the superintendent who I can get your contact information and ensure can be in contact with you. So you tell me that doesn't matter. I
understand your federal funding. Okay. But that doesn't affect the preschool program. I'm paying for it. It's because the federal program doesn't fun. Do you know why it doesn't anymore? cuz you got rid of the middle middle school and now there's too many students in this school
for Excuse me. Sir, we need the So, you're telling me my time's up? Sir, we need Okay. I just want to let you know from a professional standpoint, it was going fine until the middle of my conversation about my son's education and what happened with my family and you
sitting there shaking your head. Very unprofessional. I disagree with Thank you. I know. I know you will. Grab your stuff. Is there any other public comment on agenda items 100 million school?
I'm sorry. Which part? So before we leave, do you mind giving me your contact information? Absolutely. Nancy 100 lilac final 100 lilac. Thank you. You're welcome.
I'm a little confused about the process. I have a question. You mentioned you just announced that there wasn't going to be a a prek class. And my question is, has any has there been an effort to have our prek students merge and go to
school in in another district where they have a small prek class so that you have one teacher with more students so that our our students could go to another does Riverside have a program? Yes, there has been. So there have been outreach to other surrounding districts.
Unfortunately, those surrounding districts are either at capacity and on a wait list or those districts cannot risk their particular funding by just letting in somebody else. Right? So they would have to go by a state tuition rate
which is upwards of $15,000 unfortunately. Now, students that have IEPs, they're automatically sent to another district like Beverly or something and paid for the five districts. So, there are laws that allow for students with IEPs, for
example, prek students of IEPs to still be served. Okay. So, the is it IEP? Is that what it is? The students who are paid for with federal funding, is that are they paid for with federal funding? That's paid for the school district.
best thing to have. So in the prek class there are students who are there are students with IEPs and students without students with don't I thought the IEP students were
separate. No it's a conclusion set. So are you saying that Riverside Delan Edward Beverly none of them have space for our students? Yes that is correct in a sense. Now, Beverly would be able to take our students but at a tuition rate again at the state rate because they
can't risk their own prek funding with that the way that Dr. Jacob has said that to myself and also Mason Hopp here who had made a call um because like that one uh father who's here voicing his concerns. Mason is also a father of a
prek student who was affected by this particular um cut. So he took the initiative as well to I don't know just a little. I mean you say they won't take our students because they're going to risk that
federal funding. That is how it was. Yes. Well, did that make any sense to you? If that's what the law is, that's what the law is. Well, I know. But if the law it doesn't if it doesn't seem to make any sense, I think it would be a good idea to get further clarification about
what they mean by risking your federal funding because we're not presidential. It's really hard to hear. I'm so sorry. It's part of the residential requirement. It's not met. Do you have to pay? So, as a parent, not a board member, I
called FEL and asked if my student, you know, if there was any any room. Um, and I was told after the superintendent in Beverly consulted with the their business administrator um that in order
to not risk their funding, they they could take my my uh my child, but I would have to pay the state aid rate, which as Eric noted is almost $16,000. So, it would be about
$1,600 a month um for a tuition paying student like like I would, you know, have. So, that is that's the explanation at least from that one particular district. Doesn't it seem odd that the state would charge $1,600 a month when you could go
to private daycare and not pay $1,500 a month? I mean, unfortunately, that's not something we control. It's It's like what? I mean, this this feels a little weird. We only control that. We only control the tuition rates we pay for our students and other districts and other schools. We don't
control the rate that Riverside charges. We don't control the rate that ECIT charges and those rates continue to climb as well. So, what do you pay a preschool teacher? And that teacher is going to continue to
be employed by the district just in a different level. Okay. So what separates us from prek care is a teacher. And this is something this is something that again like we can take your contact information. We can put it toward the
superintendent and the CSA who should be the ones answering this question. And I hear your concerns. I appreciate your concerns. Okay. We do want to get you the correct answer. Okay. Unfortunately, I don't have the person here.
So, my question to be clear is what separates us from continuing pre the prek and and my question is is that the teacher that No, it's not. It's the budget. It's the cost of the program, right? But that's the teacher. No, it's
not. It's more than just the teacher. So I guess I guess that's what makes a little some confusion in the community when things like this go out and a person who's not familiar with all of the laws of the education
department. It doesn't make sense. I mean if if we're talking about a program and there are 11 children how expensive could it be to do this? Okay. Can I comment? Absolutely. Carolyn, please stand up and state your
address for the record. Uh Carolyn 65. So can I sit? I can't. You can. Um I just want to kind of summarize what I know about prek. Maybe that will help clarify the situation. So prek, if you
have an IEP, you do not have to pay tuition, right? Correct. The the township the school district has budgeted by that mention of that. If you do not have an IEP, you have to pay the tuition rate. Yes, most districts around us get state funding for the prek. It's 100% paid for
by the grant that's available for prek. So then you answer asked the question as to why hasn't been able to apply for that funding. And I believe what Dr. Fitz had said is because we would then have to open our program up to more students and we do not have the availability and capacity for that. So
that's why there's a tuition associated with nonie students. So in order for kids to go to another district, they would have to pay that out of district rate because the other districts are getting fully funded by the state. So therefore they would be out of district
and that tuition would apply there. Fully funded by I should say by some of those state grants in a sense, right? We're committed to working with that with the incoming CSA and I've already even had some discussions with that. Um, prek, as everybody knows, is not
universally required in the state of New Jersey. Its availability does vary by district. In fact, our tuition was lower than what Delan was at the time in addition to other surrounding districts. The state funding supports expansion of prek, but most of the time that stuff
has to come in and be budgeted for from the district from the start the correct way. tuition rates for any non-state funded prek program has to be reflected in an actual pro cost per type uh thing
with the state regulations. But it it's there's we're we're happy we have uh somebody coming in that's going to be willing to look at that and look at some of the other stuff that's within our district. somebody that has some great
ideas for extension and the cost to run the program just just to give an idea. So you have the cost of the salary of the teacher but then you also have onetoone aid with certain students on top of that and you have your your daily your curriculum program that goes into that materials
that are needed. So that all factors in to the to the cost to run the program as well. Is there anything else I missed? You also immediately include transportation. There you go. Transportation and that's kind of what is whacking our budget. So, and this general was speaking as to why the decrease in students, but why is our our
budget increasing? Because our costs are increasing because of special ed costs, because of transportation costs, I'm not putting down special ed. Do not think of that at all. They're absolutely required to get their education, but that cost continues to rise. And that's 30% of uh
our students, I think, now have IEPs, and the state does not fund for special education. So, the way they fund the school district is a is a normal standard tuition rate does not account for any additional cost for IEPs or transportation associated. So that's why
our your budget continues to increase when enrollment goes down. Yes. Right. Thank you. Are there any other comments public comments on agenda items? Seeing none, I'm going to hand microphone over for the budget
presentation. Thank you, Eric. Good evening, everyone. Good evening. I'm Brook and this is Cindy. I work alongside our Minnesota who fortunately, like Eric said, cannot be here tonight. So, I will be
presenting the budget. Dr. K also cannot be here. His message about the budget is that it's extremely tight, funds are limited, and there is no cushion between the expenses of the district and the revenue that is
generated. We have made every attempt to cover school functions for the development of the children, but unfortunately there will be no growth in certain areas due to the budget budgets. So let's take a look at
those expenditures and revenues. Start with our our fund revenues for the 25 26 school year. So if you can see we did a three-year comparison. Um, we have our tax levy at
7,4964. Our tuition expenses are obviously going down because of the elimination of the preschool, but we will be obtaining one student that is giving us state
tuition. Our rent stay after school program. Our miscellaneous revenues are it's mainly our interest from our accounts. We had to include our capital reserve
interest. Our state aid figure of 2,208011. We had surplus that we moved from our fund balance last year for 948505 which we are withdrawing capital reserve funds of
180,000 for a specist abatement. We are in the process of applying for a grant to obtain new boilers but within that grant does not cover the aspes renewable. So
we have to take those funds from travel reserve giving us a total of 10 million 922520. So, we wanted to show um our enrollment figures since state aid is based only on the on roll on roll
enrollment. Um so the comparison from last year we're looking at about 10 students less and from this year to next year you can see students 70 students
went down the most because they aged out. Um we have that one student from the state and for a charter non private special ed a little explanation of how state aid is
formulated. They take the ad adequacy budget which is just a baseline for one student with no additional costs. They look at the local cost share which is based on property values and
the income of the residents in the district. The category aid includes your special ed, extraordinary, special ed, security and transportation. And then the projected weighted enrollment includes students
that are low income and limited English. These figures come from the October 15th count of students. Also included in our revenues are grants. Uh you can see over the last three years
our grant funds have gone down because of the federal grants for emergency relief that were given during CO are no longer in existence. So our 2526 school year will only utilize state grants at
224,000. We can take a look at our expenditures now. Um you know majority of our expenditures are our contractable salaries. You see our instructional special ed
um need of a bilingual teacher. The uh instructional tuition did go down due to those students who aged out. Uh we're our one nurse is retiring.
So that figure has come down our support services are for our behavioral specialists and our director of curriculum we had to
reduce as well. These were some of the restraints that have been our challenge with the budget this year. Um, we also could not include the media specialist. Here we have our admin
salaries, our operation and maintenance salaries which include maintenance and ground security. Uh transportation expenses employee benefits are
increasing by I believe it's 17%. And now we have our capital project of the 180,000 spec statement and the interest in gap. So there's our
10,922 by 20 for expenditures. A little summary just to show you how majority of our budget is salaries, tuition expenses. Tuition has gone up from last year for
Riverside for BCIT. Our insurance expenses are gone up. um our purchase services are outside contact reviews, our student transportation and other employee
benefits. So the next slide just shows that in a nice pie chart where you can see just the grand scheme of 40% of our budget. Oh, maybe this isn't No, I have the
wrong one. There's our chart shows basically. All right. It It's It was a nice description of a big circle, right? like all of expenditures that show 40% as salaries,
30% is our tuition expenses and this is why the budget is is so tight. We're restricted to those. Can you go last? And our tax le I break down. This is the portion of the
budget that's raised in taxes. um kind of speaks for itself. There's our 749604 our debt service. That's our interest and bond payments. This is for our existing
uh projects that this will expire next year. It also includes the interest for the roof referendum and our ratables. That's where that number comes from the county that your uh properties are
assessed at. It went up this year. So that's where our tax rate went down a tad for 100 giving us 1.8211 tax rate. And that's my presentation. If
um you'd like to check the website, the userfriendly budget will be post is posted on there. Again, we will have a public comment form posted by the end of the week if you have specific questions for the superintendent or the
VA. Thank you. Thank you both. For discussion, I need a motion to approve the 2025 2026 budget items A through D. Moved by
Mason, seconded by Joanne. Are there questions or comments? Okay, seeing none, this is a roll call vote for Ericson. Yes. Yes. Joshua Seller. Yes. Jason Hawkins.
Yes. Stone. Catherine. Superintendent report. Dr. Fitz uh is not here today. um the resolutions that he has for
passing items one and two. So I made a motion for resolutions one and two which is approving upon recommendation of the superintendent to accept the submitted CRTC report and the recommendation of the superintendent for the 2526 school
calendar. But obviously we've discussed uh in public comment that numerous board members emailed about changes that do have to be made about that. Um and we hope that that does get passed on to administration in order to have so are
we we're going to table number two. So take do we have to take a number two because uh what we're going to be doing and I was going to announce it under new business is planning a meeting on Monday May 12th in order to be able to uh do
some of the business that we cannot do because of uh the absence of our CSA. So we are going to be adding a meeting on the 12th in addition to meeting that we had on the 13th schedule. All right. So, we need a motion to approve resolutions one and two on the superintendent. We're table
two, right? Yeah, we're in table two. I apologize. Motion to approve resolution. So, moved by Joan, second by. Is there a question or comment on number one? Okay, seeing none, there is a voice
on this. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. I I oppos uh budget and finance motions requested to approve items one through seven in the budget and finance moved by
Mason seconded by Kayla. Are there any questions or comments in the budget and finance section? Okay, seeing none, this is a roll call vote. Eric Masa, yes. Joan, yes. Joshua, yes. Hopkins, yes. Kayla Luga, yes.
Shenica Stone, Catherine, Okay, motion passes. Thank you. Uh, need a motion to approve the approal maintenance activities exhibit O. Moved by Joanne. Second. Seconded by
Josh. Any questions or comments? This is a voice vote. All those in favor, please signify by saying I. I opposed. Motion carries. for the aison reports. Everybody received the uh report from Mason. Mason, you want
anything uh add anything for the public? Uh sure. Yeah, just for um the public if there are any um parents of uh parents or guardians of children that go to uh Riverside. Um at their last board
meeting, they announced their new student information um software, all the the the app online. um the the where will house all of the student information um and I I detailed it um in in my report, but it's very
comprehensive. It's called Encourse Connect. Um like I said, if you're if you're a parent, just be ready to get some information about that um if you haven't already. Thank you. Thank you. And JSBA, BCSBA, you received Nope, you
didn't just real quick. Um, uh, Marissa Sykes was the, um, representative for Deliza Township Schools for the 8th grade, uh, dialogue. That is a countywide presentation where children are asked 25 questions. Um, of all the
there were 31 school districts represented and Marissa did a fabulous job. It's a very humbling experience when you hear children give input on what needs to be improved. So, we agreed that we're taking last year's and this
year's responses and that's going to be forward to one of our committees um when we move forward with establishing them to really look at what the kids are thinking and saying and use that information and data collection as part of our strategic plan. Um it's a huge
month coming up with meetings. Uh the budget, the New Jersey budget is extraordinarily tight. Um already cuts have been announced not just for school systems but like health and human services right across the board. They
started out with a 5% cut and they're keeping to work on that. Um there is uh a push again to look at the funding statistics for special education. So the law right now is for when every school
gets every district, excuse me, gets 15.9% or 8% of your total population for special a for deco specifically that doesn't even touch our needs. So that is one area that's being looked at um to
change the funding because right now we are at 100% of the funding port. Uh so there is advocacy to have that specific population support that. So, uh there's board of directors meetings coming up starting on Friday and moving right on
through with five meetings in May. So, more detail. Thank you. Township committee, Mr. Um that did a great job. Um I did what I had on April 7th. There was a special presentation for the first
African-American police and that was a pretty That's awesome. That tends to be job. Moving on to personnel. A motion is requested for items 1, three, four.
Personnel discuss, three. Moved by Joanne. Second by questions or comments on 134. Okay, seeing none. This is a local. Yes. Yes.
Yes. Hopkins. Yes. Moving on to old business. As we discussed, uh our attorney will be here for the meeting on the 12th to discuss uh some confidential matters that we'll have before
um that are out there as far as contracts. Um is there anything else for business? New business and seeing none open up the meeting for public comment on non-aggenda items. Public participation
board meeting again is covered by policy 0167 board of education welcomes comments from members of the public concerns about the school district should be addressed to appropriate staff members before being brought before the board. Also please note that the board may be hearing your concerns for the
first time. I may not be able to address those concerns during an online form was posted for informing that there were no comments again on that part of the public comment as well. And at this time
for public comment on non-aggenda items anyway. I wonder where you went. I looked straight forward. Didn't see you. removed your seat. I wanted to see better. Um I still love that district. So cars.
So the school district has captured the increase in ratables um the $21 million increase in varables from the warehouses that were built um and some other development. So that's great. So, we're able to spread tax increase among the
larger taxes. But why is the tax rate going down year-over-year? If we need to raise money for a budget shortfall, why would we be lowering the tax rate? Well, we're not lowering the tax rate. In fact, our
percentage change is the highest that it legally can be. So, the fact is is that's all math based upon the county. It's all stuff that we get from the direct. So you're asking for a more detailed
explanation. Well, last year's tax rate was 1.8214. This year for fiscal 26 is 1.8211. A decrease of 03 hundreds of Yes. Thousands. So I know we can do 2%,
right? We can do 3%. two for 2% plus we did, you know, for the um right. Yeah, because we did because we're allowed to do up to a certain percentage for the uh the insurance increases.
So, we were at the max that we were allowed to do. He tells me the increase in readables that hurting you. I don't think that's go down. You see our tax total is higher, right? tax level is over the
top. The rate of those space unfortunately is what does tend to be coming down even though we do receive 21 more 21 million more. Yeah, 2100. So your budget is increasing the total with your death at 352,000
year, right? The budget itself overall I believe has gone down as the report is the total budget from 2324 or excuse me from 2425 was about 11.1 million and I believe the
total budget has gone down uh to about 10.9 if I remember correctly. But your tax levy's going up. But the tax levy is going up the maximum that we're legally allowed to have. All right, that's all. Thank you. Anybody else? I see Matt with
confused spaces. If he wants to stand up, he should bar the presentation that was just up on the screen. It didn't show any increase. in what the residents are getting taxed.
It did. Were we all watching the same thing on the screen? It didn't show. It did. The general funds on the website here. It gets posted on the website after meeting after the full budget. Do you mind putting that uh that one
slide back up? Sure. I think brought it back up. It's on page 12 though if you want to look under the general fund um here that it has uh the 3.13% increase on
the local share on the general fund which is what the tax level I should say it's not 127 85 so we raised $627,000 to account for the 17% increase
in uh insurance in addition to um continued rising expenses, transportation, things along that was on the sidew who passed that kind of major defense that was it was
discussed certainly put it back up there and I just right here when it is on Fortunately I haven't taken so I can't I can move on while that's happening are there any other public comments on non-aggenda
items one more Commissioner the May 12th meeting. Yes. Is that for executive only? No. Um we will have an executive session, but our hope is obviously by that meeting that the county has approved the uh superintendence contract
that we submitted at our last meeting. So we would hope that we would have an action item of approval on that as well. So action may be taken. Hey Phil, do you want to plug me in? Is it Is it a USB or is it HDMI? It's a
USB. You just plug it in. It might work that was a try. I'm not a resident, but um Well, yeah, I think yeah, it doesn't matter as long as you're a state resident. So, Danielio, I live
here. Uh my question is something that when can they expect contracts? Because usually you get them May 13th, but they're not being assessed today. They aren't being assessed today. Our hope is uh either at the May 12th meeting or the May 14th meeting that those are
presented to us and that those contracts get out by that date of the 15th. Um meaning they obviously have to be out by the 15th. So that's why we have a meeting on the 14th, but it's also why I wanted to have a second meeting for business that we need to uh discuss with
the CS. We certainly want to make sure our uh staff knows what they're coming. Let's go a shot. See, is there a way to just show me? It's only general fund
tax because that's what tax what we are allowed to do went up But when it comes down to what the taxpayer is actually see on the bill, the res are not getting tax.
Okay. So the tax residents are not getting a tax increase this year, right? Because of the right. Yes. Because building Yeah, that's what I was asked. Yes. So, we're on the same page. I couldn't tell
you where those came from and any other questions. Um, can you just go back to the I mean, you got it up, so let's make I got you. I got you. Did you um just go back to the slide with the nurse and
that jazz? I I was trying to see it and take a picture of it and zoom in. I tried to find it online. You said you're going to post it after. Yeah, it gets posted afterwards. So, Phil will be on there. Don't worry. Is this the one? This is That is the one. That's the one. Thank you. I can zoom in and I appreciate
that. That's the one she All right. Seeing no other comments, I will close public comment on non-aggenda items. We're going to have a brief fivem minute executive session just to discuss one thing for the meeting on the 12th. It should be no
more honestly than two or three minutes. No more than two or three minutes. Um so and no action will be taken out. So motion to come into executive session just moved by second by
I abstain. Motion carries.