under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Can you share the Where's my mic? Yeah. >> Okay. I'm sorry everyone. The New Jersey open
public meeting law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice and to attend meetings of public bodies at which at which any business affecting their interest was discussed or acted upon. In accordance with the
provision of the act, the Portland board of education has caused notice of this meeting to be published on February 18, 2026, posted on the district website, www.fobe.com, published in the board's designated
online media outlet newspapers, the record, and the star ledger. um and filed with the clerk of the burough Fort Lee and mailed to all persons, if any, who have requested said notice. Please be advised that this meeting is being
recorded and may be broadcasted on local TV and online at a future date. The open public meeting act allows for participation at board meetings and defines meetings as any gathering whether pictorial or by means of communication equipment which is
attended by or open to all of the members of a public body um held with the intent on the part of the members of the body present to discuss or act as a unit upon the specific public business
of that body. Go for please. >> Miss Buyers Kang. >> Miss Curry >> here. >> Mr. Goslin >> here. >> Miss Cen >> here. >> Mr. Lopez. >> Mr. McTurnan >> here.
>> Miss Perez >> here. >> Miss Rector >> here. >> Miss Morell >> here. The board will be convening to executive session to discuss legal personnel and other confidential matters. The board will be will reconvene into public session at
approximately 7:30. May I have a motion to go into executive? >> Motion second. >> Motion Curry. Second, Richtor. All in favor? >> Any abstensions? Any opposed? We are now an executive.
America and to the republic for it stands one nation indivisibley and justice for all. The New Jersey Open Public Meetings Law was enacted to ensure the right of the
public to have advanced non to attend meetings of public body to out which any business affecting their interest is discussed or acted upon. In accordance with the provision of the act, the portly board of education has caused notice that this meeting be published on
February 18, 2026, posted on the district's website at www.sb.com, sbe.com published in the board's designated online media outlet newspaper the record and the star ledger and filed with the
clerk of the buroughly and mailed to all persons if any who have requested said notice. Please be advised that this meeting is being recorded and may be broadcasted on local TV and online at a future date.
The open public meeting act allows for participation at board meetings and defines meetings as any gathering whether corporal or by means of communication equipment which is attended by or open to all of the members of a public body held with the
intent on part of the members of the body present to discuss or act as a unit upon the specific business public business of that body. Roll call please. Miss Buyers Kang >> here. >> Miss Curry >> here. >> Mr. Gosling
>> here. >> Miss Coten >> here. >> Mr. Lopez >> here. >> Mr. McTurnan >> here. >> Miss Perez >> here. >> Mr. Rector >> here. >> Miss Morell >> here. >> The board convened executive session at 6:32 today to discuss legal personnel
and other confidential matters. Miss Palazo, will you begin your superintendent report? >> Yes. Thank you, President Moral. Good evening everyone. everyone who is here in person and who is listening um online. It's good to have you all. Uh first I would like to introduce Nasha
and Minsan, our two high school students that are here today to tell us what's going on at the high school. >> Good evening everyone. My name is Nasha. I'm a junior. >> My name is Ben Kim and I'm a sophomore at the high school >> and we're here representing the student health. We have some exciting news.
Shrek is coming to Courtley this weekend. The Courtley High School theater department proudly presents Shrek the musical. Join us for a joyful high energy adventure filled with laughter and heart and a powerful reminder that what makes us different is what makes us stronger. The show times
are as follows. Friday, March 27th at 700 p.m. Saturday, March 28th at 1 p.m. and at 7 p.m. And finally, Sunday, March 29th at 3 p.m. I'll be looking to see you guys there. Before the athletic department would like to congratulate
Raina Kim, Junior, and Frankie Desert, senior, with your welldeserved first team all North Jersey recognition in bowling and indoor track. Senior Asel Warda and Frankie Verttoro and John Woolish competed in the indoor
track postseason at the national level and earned spots on these prestigious leaderboards. Good luck to the baseball and softball teams traveling to the Redk experience and representing Lee in Myrtle Beach this week.
Now onto the Hebrew Club. They went on an incredible trip to the Museum of Jewish Heritage and learned about the Danish resistance during the Holocaust. Future teachers of American students went to school 3 and taught important and exciting lessons about women's history month science and adjectives
car performed at Montlair State University on Saturday March 21st at 8:00 p.m. under the default of Dr. Anthony. A friendly reminder that our juniors will take the SAP on Wednesday, April 5th. Students in grades 9, 10, and 12
will have delay opening on the day. and good luck to all of our spring sports teams and athletes in their season openers next week. Thanks so much. That's it from um I would like to report that we have um
four harassment, intimidation and bullying cases. Um three were founded, one was unfounded. And at this time um Mr. Connect and I will prepare to present the 2026 2027 tentative budget.
So, first I would like to say that um tonight as we're presenting the 2026 2027 sensitive budget, it's important to know that this was a collaborative process. Um it was a long process that
took uh several months in collaboration with our district administrators um and also along with our board committees. Uh this budget was put together with great thought. A lot of analysis was done and unfortunately at a
certain point we found ourselves having to make some very very difficult decisions. But ultimately our priority was really to ensure that our students educational experience remained as unchanged as possible. And so that was
the driving force behind our decision-m and so now I will um now hand the baton over to Mr. Render Connect and he will present the financial components of the presentation. >> Next screen please. Thank you Miss Glazo. Just to briefly talk about the
budget development process. Miss Collazo and I rolled out the budget process, budget development process back in November. Uh, and the case in point there is this is the document that just got together within two weeks. So, it's
it was rolled out to the administration in November. It was due back to us just before the December break. Right after the December break, we Miss Collazo and I met with the principles, directors, and supervisors uh more than on one more than one
occasion. Uh we re reviewed the program proposals, staffing needs, and capital requests. And during our deliberations, uh we made adjustments and align align the budget with the district's priorities. uh the district's tenative
budget, but we also met with various committees uh throughout the process as well. So again, just to speak to the fact that we are now in our and Miss Claus and I are feeling it. We're now in our fifth month of dealing with the budget. Next slide, please.
Just to talk about how budgets work. Uh the local tax levy, that's the local general fund tax levy. the the district must adhere to a 2% general fund tax levy cap. Very simple calculation. Whatever the current year's general fund
tax levy is, it's multiplied by 2%. When you do that multiplication, the 2% cap, so the increase from the current year to next year is 1,572,000. Then there's other available statutory adjustments, namely enrollment, health
benefits, and bank cap. As you can see with health benefits, uh, the district was entitled to a $774,000 adjustment. So, all said and done, this evening's tenative budget is a 2%
general fund tax levy increase plus an additional.98 for for a total of 2.98. Uh, and that is namely the 1.5 million plus the $774,000. Next slide, please. Here's
all your sources of revenue. Current year budgeted is 99,611,000. No, excuse me, we wish it was 99,000 99,611,568. And then our uh projected is $104,790. $104,790
and 218. uh just to highlight some of the items on the sources of revenue. Local tax lending as I mentioned earlier is going up 2.98% as you can note on the top line. Uh revenue in lie of taxes is in
relation to payments from the burrow and is associated with the modern uh complex that was built many some years ago. year budgeted fund balance. Just to highlight that every year we do have funds that are left over and it's important to keep
in mind that the board can only maintain a general fund fund balance of two 2%. Anything over 2% is legally required to be returned back to the taxpayers. So that's going back to the taxpayers in
next year's budget. And that's 3,886,000. Just to be very clear with this, for every dollar that's appropriated in budgeted fund balance, the general fund tax levy is reduced. So obviously everything that's appropriated is a
benefit of the local taxpayers. State aid, we saw an increase of uh $246,000 or 4.02%. That one, you know, every year we're always on pins and needles. We don't know what our state aid's going to be. Our budget assumption was that we were
going to see flatlined. So, Miss Clauso and I on that particular day when they handed out state aid, we're very pleased with the fact that we weren't rolled back and we saw a slight increase. We would have loved to have seen another couple million dollars, but we were
pleased that it was above above our assumption. Uh, extraordinary aid is in relation to special education. miscellaneous revenues and interest. And let let me hit the interest line first. Interest is in relation to the
district's capital reserve account, emergency reserve account, and uh a maintenance reserve account. We're legally required for those three funds. Any interest that's earned on those funds must reside in those funds. It
can't go elsewhere. with the miscellaneous revenue. Predominantly, most of that money is interest earned on the district's general fund monies and then there might be refunds from prior years, etc. Those would all go against
miscellaneous revenue. Uh transportation fees, the district currently offers courtesy busing. We're projecting those uh revenues to be $85,000. tuition. We have a prepaid program that generates revenues. We have children
from other districts that are sent to Fort Lee and then we have other uh revenue uh tuition based uh students as well. So that totals a million dollars capital reserve account. We're going to be withdrawing monies from the district
capital reserve account in a matter of $2.9 million. Remember that number because I'm going to talk to you a little bit when we did an appropriation. So I kind of skewed some numbers. Uh debt service aid that's principal ent payments that are associated with your
your most recent referendum and I believe but much of that was associated with building the intermediate school. So again the total uh projected revenues this is $104,790,000. Next slide, please.
That was a 5.2 over increase. Just a historical state aid revenue uh uh line graph line chart. Uh you can see all the years 201011 was when uh unfortunately
all the school districts in the state of New Jersey essentially lost all their state aid. I uh I was a business administrator back then and it was not a fun time to I I I think I want to be the superintendent back here. Any other either I don't want anything to deal
with. But but you could see our trend. Again, you're see you're seeing an upward trend. But again, the problem is when you look at some of the expenses that we're going to talk about, by no means does the state aid increases match what we're dealing with by way of
year-over-year current expense increases. Next slide, please. Again, uh bar chart here. Historical tax levies year-over-year. Uh you can see in the pandemic years 21 22 22 23 23 24 in
that area we were at 2%. Not uncommon. A lot of districts were you know not they weren't fully functional and providing all the services but 2% was a reasonable uh increase and you could sustain that but you can see years where we bumped up to 4.41
4.04% 04% for the current 2526 school year and then next year is 2.98%. Next slide, please. Now, we're going to jump over in the summary of appropriations. We have our current expenses and that's proposed
95,629,537 uh which represents a 2.97% increase. Now remember our revenue side I mentioned about capital outlay you're going to see a significant increase $2,795%. Two $2,951,000 of that is a withdrawal on the revenue
side from the capital reserve. Okay? It has nothing to do with raising general fund tax related monies. It's a withdrawal from I'm going to call it a savings account to fund capital projects. We're going to hit a screen to talk about all the capital projects. Special revenue funds are otherwise
known as flow through funds. Uh and that's state and federal and some local grants. Uh examples IDA basic ESA or federal grants. And then some of your state funding is chapters 192 193
uh nonpublic security textbook and some other uh nonpublic grants as well. debt service. Again, as I mentioned earlier, that's associated with your referendum and the total uh appropriation is 4.2
million and then you're seeing a uh net reduction in the 1968%. So, revenues better match appropriations and appropriations are $104,790
and it's a 5.2% 2% year-over-year interest. Next slide, please. >> I mentioned about the capital reserve account withdraw amount of $2,951,000. Here's the various projects. And if you refer to this evening's board motion
approving the tenative budget, you'll see that those projects are also spoken to in the motion itself. Uh there's quite a few projects at the high school high school stairwell security communications upgrades for ADA compliance $297,000.
Got first and second door bathrooms for ADA compliance $416,500. We got a vestibule upgrade again for ADA compliance in an amount of 119,000. uh first and second floor door and saddle replacement. Again, ADA
compliance, $35,700. Here at the intermediate school, we're going to be installing a new rooftop chiller. And the budget budgetary bid is $1,190,000. And then here at the intermediate school, again, we're doing an HBAC
condensate system repair uh in the amount of $892,500. Ironically, you're going to see on this evening's agenda, we're making awards already for the rooftop chiller uh project and I believe for the condensate
system repairs as well. Uh we were on our name when I say we the board the board and myself uh we met and discussed these projects. We were able the key when it comes to capital projects is to be in front of
everybody else. When I say everybody else, all the other school districts, you want to get out there and bid as early as possible. Everybody wants the projects to start end of June and be done by September 1st. So, we got out there early and we got some very
advantageous bids. You'll see here again one for the children $1,190,000. We're making award this evening that's half that. I can guarantee you if we were here this evening and it was Mayor June, it would be darn close at a
million dollars. Next slide, please. Again, a very simplistic pie chart. Uh salaries 47%, employee benefits 19%. So, you're looking at close to 70% of the budget is associated with contractual
obligations. And then you have all other expenses. uh it's all you know paper clips, pencils, anything that's associated with providing instruction to the children in Fortnite. Next slide please. Another way
to look at the more chart regular programs. You can see the current year uh versus the proposed in orange special education costs. Current year 7,168,000 uh versus 7,368,000 added distance placements tuition.
We're let's talk a little bit as as Miss Claus and I when we met with the board's finance committee and the various board committees we spoke about this it looks as though there's a trend downwards with special ed education out of district tuitions and it's not just special education it'smies
uh vocational schools but we took an offset from one of the federal grants I mentioned earlier in special revenues I did a data set we credited $600,000 against the general fund So I don't want that number to be mis you to be misled
even though it's trending down our expenses aren't necessarily trending downward. Uh administration you can see current year is 6 million 271,000 next year 6,321,000. And again, just to clarify with
administration, that's that's school administration and all the support staff. That's general administration and all the support staff. That's the business office, myself, and all my support staff. That's telephone communications.
That's copy machines. I don't want anybody to walk away and just think that's administrative salaries. There's a whole host of costs that reside in administrative costs. Student transportation current year is 3.7 million proposed for next year is 2.8
million and then the infamous employee benefits which has been a monkey on our back. Uh current year is 8.2 million and the proposed is 19.7 million. Next slide please.
Again another another uh uh look at the fund appropriations for general fund. Uh you can see regular and special education programs, uh transportation, administration, capital outlay,
uh employee benefits, uh but you can see regular and special education programs, uh which also include salaries and then employee benefits. That's that's the lion share of the the proposed uh 267 general fund budget. So, the
total general fund budgets 98,598,271. Next slide, please. All right, let's talk about health benefits a little bit. That's that's that's that's the the girl in the room. Here's a chart of five years. You can
see with 2022 231 13 million $180,000 we're up to current or for proposed 19,717,000. The delta between that first year and the fifth year is almost $6.5 million.
Uh in parentheses, we wanted to note that had the board not migrated this past June 30th uh June January 1st from a state health benefits plan to the Horizon private plan. Health benefits
would have otherwise been $21,79,000. Health benefits folks are out of control. Uh, you can see the year-over-year increases, and I'm going to talk a little bit more, but what I'm going to say is the struggle for us this year is the fact that our maximum
permissible increase is 2.90%. We have a health benefits adjustment for $774,000. We can't go any further than that. All right? We have no more what I call capacity to grow the general fund tax
levy. Next slide, please. All right. Just just we we like Miss Claus and I like to put this up to just to compare ourselves to other uh local school districts. You can see Fort Le and orange. Uh and what we're trying to
tell you is you know what, our costs per pupil certainly aren't out of control and they're uh competitive with many of our surrounding districts. Next slide, please. At this point in time, I'll be more than happy to hand it over to Miss Kazer, our
superintendent. >> Thank you. Uh, so essentially once we completed uh the initial review of our budget, of our proposed budget with the healthc care increases, the 2.98%
cap that Mr. Connect um spoke about, we unfortunately found ourselves facing a $3.9 million budget gap projection for next year. And so our main goal was first to balance the budget and to close that gap, but to do it in the most
responsible way that would lead to the least amount of impact to students. That was the goal, the least amount of impact to students. Understanding that Fort Leah is not unique to this. we know what's happening in other districts
across the state of New Jersey. Um but nonetheless, it is our responsibility to close the gap in the most responsible way. So some of the key factors as they were already mentioned are the health benefit increases, our contractual obligations, those are things we cannot
control. Uh rising operational costs, utilities, insurance, maintenance. Um, and then the limitations on increasing our revenue, the limitation that we had with growing our local tax levy beyond that 2.98%. And then while we did receive an increase in state aid, it was
insufficient to help offset some of these rising costs. So we found ourselves with this $3.9 million budget gap that needed to be addressed. Next slide, please. So before I start to talk about reductions and how we close that gap,
it's really important that I share with you what our priorities were with every single decision that we made. So it was imperative that we maintain our safe and supportive learning environments for our students. If our students aren't safe, they don't feel supported, they're not
going to learn. Um, we felt that it was important, not that we felt, but it was my responsibility on the board's goal to ensure that we maintain our strong instructional programming. Um, it was also important that we maintain our student support services. We do have
students in our district that are legally um entitled to receive support services and we had to ensure that we maintain those and our co-curricular programs particularly because it's those programs that offer our students an opportunity to receive a well-rounded education. And so these as we made
decisions moving forward and we considered the impact to our students, these were the four priorities that we kept at the center of our decision- making process. Next slide, please. So before we even considered staffing reductions, and that was the absolute
last resort that we wanted to go to, um we went back to our budget. Um we met again with our principles, with our directors, our administrators. We literally went line by line again in the budget to identify any other areas in
which we could reduce our operational costs. In doing so, we were able to save another $1.3 million. And we did that um number one in determining that we would create a student re-engagement program.
That program is for students with IEPs that have challenges with coming to school and they some of them are currently in out of district placements. And so it was very important to me and very important to the board that we return those students back to our school where they where they belong where we
should be educating them. And in doing so we were able to save quite a bit of money in out of district placements as well as transportation. We also in meeting with our coordinator of district technology identified some technology person um purchases that we
could postpone. Uh the key to that bill is that we can't postpone them for a long time. Um but you know he assured us that we can get through next year, possibly the year after with um with delaying those purchases. And so that was very helpful. And we also were able
to find additional reductions and other operational and instructional expenses. Some of those expenses included transportation. They included some of our instructional programs where we found redundancies in some of the resources that we were using, professional development um and things
of that nature. So, by looking at those three um our budget, we identified those areas in which we could save an additional $1.3 million. However, we recognize that we still have to run our schools. The lights still have to be on. Our bathrooms need to work. Students
need to be safe. Teachers need materials that they need to teach um so that our students learn. And so, we just couldn't go any further um with those reductions. And so we found ourselves um with a remaining budgetary gap uh to close
which was $2.6 million. I am going to go through the process on how we arrived at decisions regarding staffing. Before I say next slide, I just want to say that that those decisions were very very difficult.
These are colleagues. These are um talented uh educators that are near and dear to us. And in no way um does this reflect their performance. It really came down to doing a deep dive into some
other data points to identify um how we could um balance our budget but again in the most responsible way with the least impact to students. Next slide. So um initially I invited um all of the
principles and directors into a room. We worked together. Um we were faced with going um evaluating all of our staffing in every department. We audited enrollment trends, class size patterns
and program needs. Um we determined reductions where we could first through consolidation of programs and through attrition. So if we had a resignation, if we had a retirement, we asked ourselves, you know, is do we need to um
fill this position for next year or can we move staff around um to cover that position? So in some cases, we were able to do that. Um we also felt that it was important to maintain class sizes at a reasonable um at a reasonable size
because we also didn't want to you know add extra pressure to our teachers with the job that they um had to do and we also needed to make sure that we maintain continuity of program. So we wanted to be sure that we maintain not
just our academic courses but also our arts, our world languages, our gifted and talented um and as well as our intervention program. So that was very important to us. Once we went through um that process that was quite uh long and
and challenging we did arrive that there would be 19 positions um which equates to 3.1% of our staff that would be reduced. Now while these are reductions these reductions will also create movement in
other in other positions. Um but that is the reality that we are facing. Um, and as we go through as we go through this process, please know that it really was a collaborative effort. Um, this is not something that I quote or would ever do
alone behind a closed door. That's just not the right way to do it. So, we made decisions as challenging as they were as they were, we were as thoughtful as we possibly could be. Next slide.
So in light of the information that I just shared, I just wanted to share some data points that grounded our decisions in reducing staffing. So you can see since 2019 to um 2020 to 2526, we have
seen a decline in enrollment. There's actually been a decline in a steady decline in enrollment over the last 10 years. Um this decline reflects about 5% of our we've seen a 5% decline in our student enrollment. And when you think
about that uh your sections the number of sections that you have are very much tied to the number of students that you have um and it's tied to the number of programs that you're running. So with this um decline in enrollment we did take a further look um at our staffing
through this lens. Next slide, please. This um slide reflects our five-year enrollment trend by school. As you can see, six of our seven schools have been experiencing a decline in enrollment year-over-year. At the intermediate
school, while we don't see a decline in enrollment, just know that those students in sixth grade will be transitioning to middle school. And so there will be a bubble of students that will go into the middle school and that will move on um to the high school as students remain in our district.
Next slide please. So unfortunately when we found that our district enrollment um was trending has been trending downward. These enrollment changes did require us to take a closer look at staffing to ensure that our staffing was aligned with our
enrollment. However, all the while keeping in mind doing what's best for our students. So, we wanted to make sure we maintain valued class sizes. We wanted to protect programming. However, it is my goal and the board's goal to
ensure that we are able to maintain a sustainable budget because this is not just about 26 27. This is about 2728 28 29. So we need to ensure that whatever decisions we make right now we will be
able to carry through and will assist us with creating a sustainable budget over time. Next slide please. Um at the elementary level just some information uh staffing is directly connected to the number of class sections. When enrollment changes we
have to consider changing the number of sections whether enrollment goes up or down. um as sections are consolidated, staffing will adjust. So, as I've said, those 19 positions that may also impact other staff members in movement
um within their positions. And as as difficult and uh challenging as this is, it does offer us an opportunity to take a closer look into our programming to question how our programs are run, how we are utilizing our staffing to the
best um you know, how we're maximizing our staffing in order to protect our instructional programs. Next slide, please. Um this is an important slide. Uh it shows in K through six. I'm not picking
on K through six. It's just in grades 7 through 12, it's very difficult to come through to an average class size because in those grade levels, scheduling heavily relies on the levels of classes that students take. We have honors, we
have different math courses. Um, and at the high school, scheduling um is certainly contingent on graduation requirements, electives, what have you. So it's actually a little bit clearer to break out our K through six class sizes.
Our current this is based on average. So there might if you look at the current average class size in K to2 currently the current average class size is 20 to 21. But there are class sizes that are less than 20 students. There are class
sizes that are slightly larger than 21 students. Um, and in grades three through six, the same explanation applies. When we started to take a look at our staffing reductions, we actually found that there was minimal change to our class sizes, a change of maybe 1 to
two students. However, please keep in mind that is the projected average class size. So, it is possible that class sizes with staffing adjustments may still be less than 21 and maybe one or two students more than 22. But I can say
based on our projected enrollment for next year, particularly in grades K through six, our class sizes most likely will not exceed 24 25 students, which are very reasonable class sizes. Next slide, please. And those class sizes actually reflect, I'm sorry, general
education class sizes only. Our special education um class sizes, those have statutory requirements. So that information only applies to our general education population. So with what's ahead and what's in front of us, we've already, as Mr. Connect
stated, we've already exited the state healthcare plan. However, moving forward, we will be exploring other options to save costs with health benefits, but ensuring that our staff maintains similar um benefits moving forward. We will continue to seek
alternative grants of um sources of funding, perhaps through grants. Um, but taking a very close look at our revenue sources and increasing our prek tuition, courtesy transportation, and facilities
usage costs so that as we work towards that, we are building our revenues um that we're bringing in. Uh, however, as we do move forward, it is our goal to continue to support students. They are our first priority to ensure they are
safe to ensure we maintain a rigorous excellent academic program as well as a co-curricular um program supporting our staff, making sure that decisions that we make puts put our staff in the best position to be
able to do their jobs well. uh maintain our already strong schools, but also keeping in mind um making sure we are using taxpayer dollars um responsibly. Uh this presentation is going to be on our website um as of tomorrow morning,
maybe as of tonight because Mr. Rogerio moves quite quickly. Um but if any of you wanted to review it, you are free to do so because it will be on our website. Uh I do want to say given where we are um you know I met with the staff earlier
today and uh it was quite difficult. We value them. Um we we are ensuring that notification is done in an individualized respectful way and as soon as possible. Okay.
Thank you. Thank you, Superintendent Blazo and BA Render Connect for your report. Thank you to the students for their reports. Do we have any committee or anyone from the senior center? And I'd
like to announce that um the senior center will be hosting a senior prom for the seniors, not the high school seniors. At the rec center on June 26th at 4:30 p.m., teen volunteers are alone to help. I'm also the liazison for the zoning board of adjustment. A few weeks
ago, there was a meeting that I attended. Several issues were discussed. Um, none that seemed to be impacting the school district. And if I may, I', as a board member, I've recently um attended the women's leadership conference at the College of New Jersey last week. There
were some really helpful training sessions to make us better board members, especially me as a new. And today I attended a webinar on educational law which covered decisions released uh by the state in December and January over contested ethics charges, HIVs and other matters which I found
very helpful. >> Thank you. Any others? >> I don't have a lot to add to the finance committee before this start the presentation. I just want to reiterate that um if you were here a year ago, we
did not have a stable leadership. And I just want to commend having this within months, we've seen a very very very diligent team working to deliver um difficult budget, but we have stability and we have clarity and I want to
commend our leads for that. I'm a liazison for the portly uh chamber of commerce. They had an event about two weeks ago in the newly renovated portly library that was very well attended, a wonderful event. They also had a woman's networking event this morning that I
heard a great review on. And there's a new event scheduled on April 28th right here. >> Thank you. Any others? Okay. Do any board members have any comment on tonight's agenda?
>> Yes. I have a question on um the busing that's on here. It's there's a new contract. I don't know if this is the same company we've been using or if it's not. I think it's 9F.
Could you tell tell me a little bit about that? Is it going to be all of the students? What's going to change if something is going to change or not? >> Uh nothing is going to change. Uh we do
currently have a relationship with the SPJC South Joint Commission and we're simply re-uping our membership for next year. Perfect. And just for everybody's benefit, South Bergen Joiner is a uh it
it it entails probably 15 or 18 school districts where we collectively go out to bid to our various road routes. Uh and the idea is if we have one or two students, there's other surrounding districts that have students going to schools. So we we it's a cost savings
mechanism, >> but it's the same. So the students who are on the buses now are going to be taking the same buses they have been taking. It's going to be the same thing. It's just it's just a renewal of the contract. Well, South Joint Jersey Commission, they handle all the various
contracts. So there might be circumstance and that could be multiple contracts. So it could be four or five contracts under south urban adjoiner. Uh what I'll say is more than likely the majority of those contracts are renewals, but it could be quite possible that we're going to be refitting around.
So it may or may not be the same. >> I know because I I remember a lot of parents coming and talking about especially the special education students um going out of district and students going out of district. um you
just give them enough update and let them know, you know, what's going to happen to them. When you put your student on a bus, especially a special education student, um it's it can be scary. That's why people are asking about the bus tracking and different forms. So, I was reading the contract a
little bit and I I saw that, you know, special education is is on there as well. So, I wasn't really sure exactly how it was. Um I also want the public to know that this is a board that operates on um committees. So um you know you could see our committees listed on the
website who's on what committees. Most of the decisions that are made and are on these agendas um know all of them are by recommendation of our superintendent but um committees meet in small groups so that we're not um doing anything
illegal. So um some information is not you know not all members have access to all the information that the people on the committee have. So I just want to make people aware of that. Thank you. I just want to point out we have um 100
years of service almost to celebrate in this agenda with three teachers who are retiring while two of them I do not know personally um they add up to almost seven years of service and um Miss Moan
who my my one of my child's teacher um she really had this special sauce socks and we can replicate for I wish we can replicate all throughout all all of our district. You will be sorely missed even
after my kids left the left the school you continue you know share with me your vision of how you want to create a front of the school beautify it so that children feel welcome. You are truly special and our loss of your day to live
a life of of no alarm setting and all the goodness that comes with it. Thank you so much for your service. >> Yes, just a follow up. Uh yes, things are discussed in committees, but I don't believe we have a transportation
committee. So that sounds joint your contract is on. >> No, no, that was No, that one had nothing to do with two separate things. Okay. Um, also the committee reports at any time you do meet are available to the entire board. >> Yes.
Yes. I've seen them information. >> Nothing is done in secret. >> Okay. Are all that all the comments from the board? Okay. So, can I have a motion to open the floor to the public? >> Motion correct. motion
and and coain second. Okay. We will now hear comments from any member of the public um that's here tonight. State your name and address for the record and begin your comments.
Do we have anybody that that would like to come up to the podium? Justin Rivera, 2185 Boy Avenue. I would like to address the tenative budget since it reveals something deeply concerning that being rising costs, a budget deficit, staffing reductions, and
program cuts that affect our students. Now, the letter we had received from our previous week from our superintendent explained the numbers, a modest 4.02% 02% increase from the state that simply doesn't keep up with the exploding cost of healthcare operations and running a
modern school district. But what that letter couldn't fully say, but I can say and what we as a community should acknowledge is that these pressures don't exist in a vacuum. Across the country, federal education support is being slashed by the president and his
administration. And when federal support disappears, the burden doesn't just magically vanish. It merely shifts and lands squarely on states, on towns like Fort Lee, and ultimately on our classrooms. So, let's be brutally honest
about this. When you deliberately cut federal investment in education, we all know exactly what happens next. Fewer teachers, fewer resources, fewer opportunities for our students. These are not abstract policy decisions. These
are real consequences for real kids sitting in real classrooms. And what makes it even more disturbing is that these cuts are not just about budgets. They are about punishment. Punishing states and communities that
vote the right way. Punishing places that refuse to fall in line politically with a president who operates like a mob boss. Public education should never be used as a political weapon. Our children are not bargaining chips in a partisan game. Here in Fort Lee, we pride
ourselves on strong schools, strong teachers, and strong support systems for our students. But when federal leadership deliberately undermines public education, local communities are forced to scramble just to preserve what should already be guaranteed. So when we
talk about staffing reductions or program cuts, we need to understand the bigger picture here. These aren't failures of our of our district leadership. These are downstream consequences of decisions made above our heads. Decisions that prioritize petty
political grudges over the future of American students. And our students deserve better than that. They deserve a federal government that invests in their education, not one that sabotages it out of nothing more than pure unadulterated
spite and cruelty. Because as is typical of our current president and his administration, the cruelty is always most certainly the point. Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Good evening. Um, my name is Howard
Lipoff. I'm uh Oh, my address is 161 Main Street in Lil Falls. I spend most of my time in this building. I'm a teacher on the third floor here, a special ed teacher, and I'm the treasurer of the Fordly Education Association. I have three questions
about budget presentation. Number one is a procedural one. It was said that, and correct me if I'm wrong, the a preliminary budget gets approved tonight. Then it goes to Mr. Fletcher, the county superintendent. Then a few
weeks later, there's a final approval. Now, if there's any changes between the preliminary and the final, does it have to go back to the county superintendent? That's question number one. Number two,
since I'm here all day, I was very concerned with what these things are for the intermediate school. The um condensation of system repair, HVAC, and the rooftop chiller. I I'm a teacher. I
don't understand any of this. Can you explain what that is? I'm hoping that'll fix the air conditioning system, which I can tell you needs uh some improvement. And then uh the last one, I don't know
if you have the answer to this. I was just curious. You showed the chart um the fall and then the rise over the years of state aid. Do you know how much our the district state aid has increased
over um the period from 2011? Thank you very much. I look forward to hearing your responses. Why don't we Why don't we Why don't we >> I can't hear you. >> Yes, >> we're working. >> Can you hear me now?
>> Yes. >> Great. All right. Why don't we start with where we are tonight and take a step forward this evening? the board to be acting and uh approving the tenative 2026 27
budget. Our public budget hearing is scheduled for and it's in the motion. It's going to take place on March, excuse me, May 4th at 7:30 in this very room. Uh once the budget's approved this
evening, we will be making a submission to the executive county superintendent. That'll likely happen tomorrow. Statutoily, it's due to be submitted by Friday. Once we receive approval, the advertised budget will be advertised on
the district's website under legal notices. We will conduct, the board will conduct, you're going to hear another presentation uh similar to this evening on May 4th. If there were any significant changes that may necessitate a change in the
budget, that would be noted at that evening's meeting. that there's an adjustment made. Uh, a side note typically over my dead body, do any changes be made after tonight's approval? And if there was a change and
the board has that option, uh, we would simply have to resubmit the budget subsequent to the vote subject to the executive zero tenants approval. That's question number one. Question number two is in relation to capital projects,
namely the two here at the intermediate school. The one is exactly what you spoke to. You will have air conditioning. Uh that project's slated to start on or about January 1st and
excuse me, July 1st. And if all goes well, we will have air conditioning on or about September 1st. The second project is to condensate drain lines. Unfortunately, when the H&V
units, heating and ventilation units were installed in these classrooms, for whatever unknown reason, the condensate that drips from those units, there was no drain line installed to funnel the condensate. So, it's my understanding
that there's tin foil pans scattered throughout the building catching this kind of sake. That's unacceptable and we're going to fix that this summer as well. And then there was a third question and that was
in relation to >> fallen rise of state aid. >> Fallen rise of state aid. Uh I'll credit Mrs. Miss Claus for putting that uh slide together. I mean, I'd have to go and add that up, but you yourself can do that as well. As Miss Claus said, this
presentation is going to be posted on our website likely later this evening, and we have all the numbers year-over-year from 2010 forward. Thank you. You're welcome. Zara, six questions. Uh thank you for the
presentation. Uh the this building is 67 years old and obviously the air conditioning system shouldn't have failed so far. So are there any uh efforts to recoup that money from the
original installer and uh maybe work uh on the warranty? I have another question which is uh when my kids started first grade about 10 12 years ago uh the cost per student was uh
15k a year and now it's $20,000 per year and uh can you comment what drove this increase? Uh I mean I know you mentioned the healthcare cost as one of the major drivers but what else did
increase since that time? Thank you. So in terms of being able to recoup that money in warranty, it's my understanding we don't have uh warranties on um those uh chillers and your sentiment is spelled at felt at this
table as far as the age of this building and now what we um have to do in order to um improve the air conditioning as well as um address the condensate. uh if we don't do that sooner rather than later as you know the water doesn't have
very many places to go and so in order to sustain um the life of the building that's why we're trying to get these these capital not trying to but we will do this as soon as possible um as far as what drives the increase it's just your
your uh budget and then you take that budget and you divide it by the number of students that you have so as our if you noticed um in the chart where it it identified the historical to the historical uh local tax levy. As that
went up, our tax levy grew and so we were able to spend more um on each student and that's just what leads to all the increased costs over the years. You take that, you divide it by the number of students that you have and you have your people's student cost.
Any other members of the public? >> Good evening. Chances Avenue in Fort Le. Um, I have a question. What federal funding did we lose this year? I wasn't aware that we lost federal funding. And
second question is um the 19 positions that need to be eliminated, does that include in that number the three that are retiring or is that in addition to the three? >> That does not include >> I hope there's other ways to do that. I
hate for people to lose their positions and I know you've worked relentlessly, but if there's any other way to do that. Um, and state funding. I know you mentioned that it was there was a presentation. Unfortunately, I missed that. So, did we lose anything in state
funding this year? >> So, the state aid uh did not decrease it. It had it increased by $246,000. However, what we noticed over the last um four years, so there's no decrease. It's just the the percentage that we're
getting has slowly, you know, has closed. So, but in terms of our state aid and our federal funding, we're still receiving idea federal funds. We're still receiving our ESCA funds um and other and other funding. But in terms of the state aid, that is that's what we
have noticed. >> So, federal funding hasn't decreased. >> Well, not for the current. Now I understand when when you prepare a budget and we look at the both state and local excuse me state and federal funding this is all under fun 20 special
revenues. >> Uh what we do respectively we what we're told to do is look at our current US funding and budget at a 85% >> rate. Okay. Now that 85%
rate based on the current year's awards has been around forever. I don't want to mislead anybody. So, it's going to be more to come. We will find out. Miss Collazo and I I'm going to say probably in June, June, May, June, July, we're
going to find out what our state federal grants are going to be. >> So, as of right now, the passionate speech that was given about that party and this party, right now, we're at the same level that we've been correct. >> Yes. >> Excuse me, ma'am. Um, so we're just kind
of violating the protocol just a little bit. Just ask all your questions, make your statements, and then the administration will respond if possible. >> I understand that. But the the president though as a presiding officer can suspend that if need be and they've been enough to do it.
>> Absolutely. That's what I said. >> This is Are you done? Okay. >> So, can they respond to that last question? >> Yes, possible. >> Okay. >> That was the answer. Okay. Thank you very much.
>> Hi, Stephanie 81 Roadley, New Jersey. Um, I just wanted to talk to you about first of all the comments made disrespecting the other board members who were sitting on this board last year
is offensive. It's offensive to the people that served on this board and and and I am it is unconstitutional to ban free speech. So when a member of your board makes a comment about past
board members who aren't here, it is rude and it is not correct and it is impolite. And I would hope that it's not done to you when you're gone or you when you're gone or anyone else. Whoever served on the board served on the board.
They're no longer on the board. You know, you you you had no policy last year for a year. Is that what you're telling us? That the parents are paying millions. I want to know how we went in the last five years from 60 million to 100 million. And when we give the steps
to the teachers plus a raise. So, this is my understanding. I don't know if I'm correct on this, but when you're a first-time teacher, you get a base salary. Then, when you start going up, you get a steps that are, let's say, you make 6,000 more or 5,000 more. And then
on top of that, they're getting a 3% raise, which is really eight or nine% raise. So, I would like to talk more about that because our budget looks to me like it's 80% teacher salary and medical.
That's what it looks like. Not even 20% to the students. That's shameful. And I don't know how you fix that. If you get less help staff and maybe you hire chap GPT to do some supportive stuff or maybe AI can take those slots
of people that are not physically in a classroom working with the kids. We have also spent a lot of money on curriculum. Curriculum that didn't really do anything for our kids. It wasn't bettering math, bettering English. It it
just seemed like curriculum that you wanted to change just because it was available. Like if you look at some of the books and the pages that are handed out to the kids, they don't make sense. Like the time I showed you the page of the black Scottish guy in Scotland
throwing the baton and I'm like this this isn't even correct culturally in any way. And then we looked and we saw that it was Chinesef funded through San Francisco on the back of the book and Oregon. Like these are not New Jersey
issues and states and textbooks. Like textbooks are a lot of cash and it's a lot of waste of money. I would like a breakdown of that. I don't see that anywhere. The other thing is when you're trying to create unconstitutional bans on free speech in a public board of
education, it has been struck down by the 11th Circuit, the Sixth Circuit, and Massachusetts. Thank you. I would like a response on the salaries and the steps. >> Okay. So, in terms of the s first of all, I just want to clarify the salary portion
of the pie chart is not just teachers. It's every employee in this district. This district has about 598 employees. They are teachers, there are custodians, there are security officers, there are nurses, um par profofessionals. Uh and
then we have our support staff, our social workers, our guidance counselors. Every single employee in this district is that their salaries are reflected in that pie chart. It is not just teachers. Out of the 598 staff members, we have
about 320 roughly teachers. Okay. Um, the way that uh the contract works is that it's it's not that simple where every employee, let's just say it's a 3% raise, every employee is necessarily getting 3% every year. It's 3% of the
entire pot of funding that is allocated and then the way that the the uh matrix is filled out and sometimes that's determined by the union. Sometimes they may say that out of that 3% more of that may go to the to the teachers or the
flea members or flag members that are at the top top of the diet. Some sometimes they may decide that a larger portion may go to our newer teachers. So it's not that every single person gets a 3% raise every single year.
>> I didn't I didn't understand. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Hello, Tom Hunter. Uh before blaming federal politics on the budgetary gap with the school board,
I think it's more important that the school board and the district look internally at their policies, at their own trends, at their own numbers before, you know, blaming anyone else that that this this this gap is something internal that the board has to study. Right? So
my question is based on enrollment. I saw on that on the graph that was up on the on the uh board here that there was a drastic drop in enrollment. Has anyone on the board or in the district reviewed the data behind the
drop in enrollment? Why it's dropped so much? Has there been any study on the data over the last five years, 10 years, 15 years? Is it a steady drop? Is this a cycle? because that to me is is indicative of
something that the district is doing not to keep its students. Are students being sent to private school instead of the Fort Public School System? That's something to uh consider. Thanks. >> Are there any other members of the
public that would like to speak? Seeing no other members, may I have a motion to close the floor to the public? >> Second. >> Motion stop. Second.
Okay. All in favor? I. Any opposed? Any extensions? Moving on to resolutions. Before we move on to resolution, our board attorney
will be reading the walk in of 4B. >> Thank you, Madam President. Uh, item 4B will read as follows. Therefore, be resolved. The Fortle board of education hereby affirms HIV investigation number 304 369_SSN1
02132 026 uh custom ID number S13 findings for the following students and student ID last four numbers 34 56 Thank you. May I have a motion to approve items 1B
to 4B? >> Motion second. >> Second. Roll call, please. >> Miss fire. >> Yes. M Curry.
>> Yes. And um I know >> Mr. Goslin. >> Yes. >> Miss Coten. >> Yes. >> Mr. Lopez. >> Yes. >> Mr. McTurnney. >> Yes. >> Miss Perez. Yes,
>> Miss Whitler. >> Yes, >> Miss Mel. >> Yes. >> May I have a motion to approve items one to three BNG? >> Motion second fire.
Roll >> Miss Fires K. >> Yes. >> Miss Curry. >> Yes. >> Mr. Goslin. >> Yes. Miss Cotang, >> yes. >> Mr. Lopez, >> yes. >> Mr. McTon, >> yes. >> Miss Perez, >> yes. >> Miss Rector,
>> yes. >> Miss Morell, >> yes. May I have a motion to approve item 1 C? >> Motion. >> Motion Perez, second cot.
>> Yes, >> Miss Curry. >> Yes, >> Mr. Goslin. Yes, >> Miss Cotang. >> Yes, >> Mr. Lopez. >> Yes, >> Mr. McTurn. >> Yes, >> Miss Perez. >> Yes, >> Miss Rector. >> Yes, >> Miss Morell.
>> Yes. May I have a motion to approve items 1F to 10F? >> Motion. >> Motion. >> Second. Miss >> fires. >> Yes. Miss Curry, >> yes.
>> Mr. Goslin, >> yes. >> Miss Coten, >> yes. >> Mr. Lopez, >> yes. >> Mr. McTurnon, >> yes. >> Miss Perez, >> yes. >> Miss Rictor, >> yes. >> Miss Morurell, >> yes. May I have a motion to approve
items 20 to 18? >> Motion. >> Motion. Ma, >> second. >> Second. Correct. Roll call, please. >> Respir. >> Yes. I would like to say congratulations to all of the teachers who are retiring. Um
especially to Stacy Worsham from school number one. She's an amazing teacher that's been here for 37 years, affected many students lives. I did not have her as a teacher for my students, but I know she is an incredible human and incredible teacher. Congratulations to
everyone and yes to the vote. >> Miss Curry, >> yes. >> Mr. Goslin, >> yes. >> Miss Coten, >> yes. Mr. Lopez, >> yes. >> Mr. McTurn, >> yes. >> Miss Perez, >> yes. >> Miss Richtor, >> yes.
>> Miss Morurell, >> yes. >> Moving on to new business and old business. Is there any? Okay, that's all business. Is there any old business?
>> Um, not old business, but I just want to share I think um one of the one of the development that has been happening in Burbank County is the expansion of county schools. With the expansion of
county schools, local districts sends additional students which are not captured in the enrollment number. And some of that has to do with that part of development. And the district is still
responsible for 50% of the tuition. So the district still pays these students for going outside the district and this includes Tech, urban community, um, BCA, some of these top schools. It's great.
They skim off the top 10% of our kids. we're left off with the bill and um lowering scores but this is just what student needs they need challenging program and it is what it is but I want to share that this is happening it's
it's expanding and it is at a cost to local district >> any other business new business >> um I just want to congratulate Sean Smith he's going to be our new school security
officer. Welcome. Um, so I just want to formally introduce him and congratulate him. It's good to have you on the team. On behalf of the board, I'm going to make a little statement. Some of it I wrote, some of it I'm just going to say.
Uh this budget cycle was very painfully done. It was with a lot of heart, a lot of stress,
a lot of tears, and I'm sure behind closed doors, a lot of debates. This board in its entirety supports this administration. Um they spent countless hours,
countless hours trying to make our budget uh balance. Uh for that we are forever grateful to them. Um we appreciate everything that they do for us and they have our full commitment
and support. Uh, that being said, I'm going to make one other personal comment. We love when the public comes out. We love when you come up and give your comments.
We may not only disagree, we agree to disagree. Um, please, when you come up, have respect for each one of us. Okay? We give up our time. We don't get a penny for this. The only reward that
we get for this is because we love our community. >> Okay? So, when you come up and you start attacking one of my board members, I take offense to that. So, please, I'm asking all of you. You are always welcome.
I don't have to agree with everything you say. I am very good at agreeing to disagree, but please do not attack us because we do this because we love our community. We love our kids. We love what the teachers have done for our kids
even if they graduated. All we ask in return is to respect us like we respect you. Thank you for all that as well. Yes. and and children are also missed. That being said, are we done? >> Yes.
>> Can I No. >> With that, can I have a motion to adjourn? >> Motion second. >> All in favor? Any opposed?
>> Any abstensions? We're return.