States of America and to the repic for it stands one nation God indivisible withy and New Jersey open public meetings law is enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice and to attend the meetings of public bodies
which any business affecting their interests is discussed or acted upon in accordance with the provisions of the act for the board of education has caused notice of this meeting to be published on January 10th 2025 and posted on the district website at w wwf.com published in the board's
designated online media Outlet newspaper the record and the Star Ledger filed with the clerk of B for Lee and mail to all persons if any who have request and said notice please be advised 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 remote participation at board meetings and defines meeting is in gathering whether Caporal or by means of communication equipment which is attended by or to all of the members of the public body held with the intents on the part of the members of the body present discuss or act as a unit upon
the specific public business of that body roll call please miss Byers Kang miss kbat here miss Curry here Mr Knight miss kotang here Mr Lopez M Morel
here Mr Rino here M RoR here the board will be convening to Executive session to discuss legal personnel and other confidential matters the board will reconvene into public session at approximately 7:30 p.m. I have a motion to go into executive session motion
second motion Morel second Rino all in favor any opposed the flag of the United States of America and to the repu for which it stands one nation under God indivisible
with liberty and justice for all the New Jersey open public meetings law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice and to attend the meetings of public bodies in which any business affecting their interest is discussed or acted upon in accordance with the provisions of the act the forly board of education has
calleded notice of this meeting to be published on January 10th 2025 and posted on the district website at www.foe.com published in the board designated online media Outlet newspaper the record and the Star Ledger filed with the cler of the burough and Fort Le
and mail to all persons if any who have requested said notice please be advised 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 remote participation at board meetings it defines meeting as any Gathering whether tutorial 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 the part of the members of the body present to discuss or act as a unit upon the specific public business of that body will fall please Miss spus K M
P here M Curry here Mr n here M kotang here Mr Lopez Morel here Mr Rino here m r here the board convened
executive session at 6:30 P.M to discuss legal personnel and other confidential matters Dr Prav will you begin by sharing the superintendent report good evening thank you evening we are happy to announce of the 140 students 11 and 12 graders who tested the New Jersey seal of bi
literacy 100 management students ear the passor school demonstrating their dedication to multilingualism and Global citiz this year 53 seniors have been reported in NJ smart will receive the award about 66 juniors are already on
track to qualify next year additionally more students may become eligible with the passive score on the AP language this spring last year only eight students earned the seal showcasing their incredible growth in program so thank you to all the teachers and all the
administrators now just introduce our high school studentsa Jan hello everyone my name is CH and I serve as the current co- vice president of for high school student council hi my name is and I'm Co Treasure of student
council and we would like to report on current status of FR high spring Sports routs and practices have begun today today all 11 grade students started the njpa testing will continue to 11 grade students will
continue to direct stud in 9 and will have a opening complete this computer all will a delayed opening class schedu High School just visited Leona high school for our
semiannual competition on February 24th in our were victorious in 23 of the 36 matches played seniors Aaron Oak k Kim and Joshua K were all undefeated on February 22nd and 23r
Alexa alone performed with the alled V in2 [Music] award inol this award ceremony took place at ber Community College
on congratulations to freshman yna Kudo for being selected to the first team all count girls wrestling she is the first female wrestler in the history of for Le High School to receive this AC which is absolutely amazing conratulations to
sore R Kim for being selected to the first team all count girls rolling team also congratulations to the senior Dan and Junior Jen on being selected second team of all lastly the Fly High School
theater program proudly presents the new R the show will open on March 21st at 7 p.m. the additional performances on March 22nd at 2 p.m. and 8:00 p.m. the final performance will be on March 23rd at 3 p.m. we invite you to come out to
show your support we are very proud ofle high school and we will keep doing so thank you thank you thank you this meeting we do announce we have three hivs and all three F now i' would like to ince Michael Sim our business
administrator who will present our 25 2025 [Music] good evening um my name is Mike assignments I'm business administrator here in Fort Le it's honor and privilege to serve as a school business administrator as well
as a board secretary um what we're going to do tonight is go through tenative budget presentation reason why it's tentative it requires the state to approve the budget and we will have the public budget hearing officially on May 5th
2025 um if you could um this this is also a presentation we're going to celebrate some of our academic achievements and if you could also um hold all your questions to the end so maybe there's people have the same question and we can just answer that
once very appreciated okay so first I here we have our board members thank you for your service and dedication as Trustees for the community and all that you do um we have the agenda here which is District overview the budget process the
budget and the tax okay start with the overview again okay it's okay i' G to move one slide I hit the arrow button it's not working I could Advance the slides for
you it's not space button arrow button it's not working on the I'll just say next slide make it easier to move along next slide please just our mission statement um
poly is place to be obviously you'll see there we have a awesome mission statement that we want to Global learner Global skills and we wanted and we're based in a strong Community it's just a place debat next
slide please um the instruction Vision Dr Kravitz and uh Miss Baker provid us with exceptional vision for the instruction um and they do a great job and you'll see here it's uh a combination of
different instruction uh intellectual social emotional needs and other practices for our students next slide please we have a lot to be proud of here in for 99% of our students um graduate
91 pursue a higher degree also just this past year in 2024 um we have the blue ribbon for school number three blue ribbon award National ribbon award next slide please here's here's the history of our
enrollment as you can see we are at about 4,8 students in October of 2024 that is how we were funded for this this year state aid and you can see the history
there uh going back to uh 2014 where we had 3787 students and you see it's going roll up and down next slide please okay and next slide after that so
what is the budget right is the next thing next slide all right thank you um a budget is a fiscal plan it incorporates all the needs which is your revenues your state
aid local taxes grants um it includes all of our expenditures our teachers our materials for the classroom uh facilities uh maintenance Transportation student services um includes all these things um
who's in charge doing this it's team effort we're going to go that to the next slide but um the budget is thank you next slide please so we started with uh a budget build then each of the department
and each of the um schools presented their budgets um after that we had a review process um with with a superintendent and administrative here at central office then we got our state aid and
then we met with um the Board of Ed which is the finance committee I would like to thank first the um principal supervisors directors who contributed to this budget it's a team effort they went through their schools or their departments and submitted what they
needed for this 25 26 school year um then we had the Committees meet the finance committee we met two times as a finance committee and reviewed the budget and went over various uh things that were affecting the budget for this
year um now we're at today which is March 10th we are going to be uh passing the preliminary budget the county has a review process from March 19th to the early part of April then we advertise
once the the the state approves the budget um and the final budget approval uh will be on May 5th at the public budget heing next slide please all right get into the budget now
all right next slide please some of the highlight of our budget we had to do a medical adjustment um for our medical cost for 1,543 181 state aid was only increased by
5.2% um this budget does not include in 202056 a capital reserve withdrawal or any other Reserve withdrawals it's a straight straight straight state aid and straight straight tax levy um the long range facility plan is what we are
waiting for once we have a long range facility plan it is complete we plan to enact those capital reserve funds um into action uh smartly and also with some strategy based upon the priorities of of the long range facilities plan
what a long range facilities plan is as everybody's aware it is a plan that takes all of our facilities and accounts for everything in all of our buildings from the roof down to the windows down to the floors everything and it will
tell us what we need to prioritize and what we need to do next slide please total budget for general fund is 92 m970
31 the total for the and the general fund makes up all of our current year expenses which is your tax levy state aid from revenue side from the appropriation side it's pretty much every school-based budget as well as
central office including maintenance and benefits and other things like that we'll get into that in a second when we get into the appropriation side uh fund 20 is your special Revenue also known as grants um your fund 40 which is Debt
Service makes a four 4,683 7 $76 these are pre um these were referendums that were approved prior there was three of them so this is what these three the three referendums that
the that Fort Le has approved are in this as prior Debt Service um and that is separate from the general fund um for this purpose and then the total budget and you can see all this in your agenda by the way on 9 f for a
total of 9,666 568 okay so you refer back to your agenda for that next slide please State a state a this year we got a total of 6,398 180 as you can see it's been going
up we had a little dip there in 1011 but since then it was stabilized and and now it is rising a little bit each year for a total of 5.2% this year next slide please this slide here is a breakdown of
all of our Revenue funds and the total increase is 2.93% next slide please here's the pie this is why I kind of skipped it it's easier for the eye easier for all of us to kind of understand how our revenues are made up
Let the tax makes up 85% with state aid making up 8% tuition making up 2% uh budgeted fund balance making up 3% and then you have miscellaneous Revenue
interest and transportation fees at a little less than a little less than 1% or 1% and you'll see that there in the chart and that makes up our revenues for the 2526 budget totaling 92 million
$97,300 po plan is 2.71% forecasted and for the for the Educators plan it's 5.08% for the RX plan is at 18.5% increase that has been confirmed that's
what the private um private medical carrier also electrical costs are forecasted to go up 177% starting in June currently they're up 3% since January and our current year budget is
is paying that now the current increase and last thing is the workers comp insurance rate is going to go up to 24% and remember our state a only went up 5.2%
okay all right so here's our Appropriations um you'll see the current expenses at at the 92 million you'll see Zero for the capital special revenue and your debt service totaling
the same amount we just discussed in the revenue because your revenues have to equal your Appropriations at 9,666 568 so we balance um next slide
please next slide is a comparison of programs from the current year which is in a grayish purplish color to the orange color in 2526 so you can see um that the bottom line
I'll try to use this laser pointer hold on I'm sorry let's go to the bottom line you see the employee benefits there you see the difference from the 18 million that's forecasted in 2526 to 16 a. half million that is in
2425 and then next slide please right thank you here is your um Appropriations so 51% of our budget is for regular and special ed programs support our students um then you have your employee benefits support our
employees at 20% Then transportation makes up about 4% of our budget tuition makes up 7% student support makes up 3% um Capital Outlet makes up less than
1% % that is made up of actually a buyer Debt Service payment through the SDA and every year they give us an assessment um so we just put 1% it's actually less than that but um just to even out the pie chart buildings and grounds is 8%
and extracurricular activities is 1% of our budget next slide please okay we talking about the taxx impact so we talked about the total tax ofy um now we're going to see the impact
that it takes place for the for our taxpayers here in Fort next slide please so here you see a bar graph this shows the tax increase that was approved every year from 1314 to the current year
proposed of 2526 last year's tax levy increase was 4.41% this year we are proposing at 4.04% the average across all the years including the 25 26 year is
3% since third since uh 1314 next slide please here's the tax impact so we did contact the town as well as doing a Google search we are still waiting for
the updated average assessed value so you see there $479,000 and now it's uh I'm sorry 478,000 now it's $479 711 was a very slight increase um if we do get the exact numbers we
will change it for the public budget hearing so on the average assess home $479,990 per household and then if you look at the calculation for the including The Debt Service um using the same average
assessed home of of 400 9,711 you'll see an average assessment of $225.4 next slide please so what does that mean in terms of every day it's annually $225.4 that's
$18.83 a month that's 62 a day that's going to be what the tax increase would be with that average assess the that and you see there on the left column uh of this slide of all of the um tax amounts for your budget tax levy
so the budget tax levy for the general fund is going to be 78,3 3,952 you see all the net increases there as well for a total net increase of 3,516 5
3,51 2016, 555 for a total net increase next slide please so we are looking forward in ahead at all times we are confident and facing challenges and we're determined
and striving for excellence in the business office as well as in fortly public schools next slide please I just want to thank everybody um here on this slide and thank you all for your time from Dr pravit to Miss Baker
to myself to my assistant VA uh as well as to Gina Reseda our director of Human Resources thank you so much and the last SL this be our website
I think next slide please there you go does anybody have any questions can you go to the SL the breakdown of Revenue funds sure that is yeah
um your refering to pie chart or the actual resue no this one okay so J should fund it's the break down of the revenue funds before [Music] theart Revenue it says State eight
Revenue but down Revenue funds it's the it's the chart the chart yeah yeah up a few few more please right there okay
[Music] I apologize by Canon lat um we tried to the same information as last year and put that back screen I think he's trying to make it larger so on line
item three three yes the Surplus that $2.7 million this year the current year that's the balance that we access from previous year correct and we're projecting 3.9 for the following year for the current year we budget gu is
that sort of like our cushion that we leave every year we try to leave a little cushion in case they is an emergency need why do we have a why do we have a 5% buff is that a common practice well there's two things that take place
you'll see going back to 2324 the 24 25 across 25 26 that there's the history here of using excess Surplus going back probably further I have the data but not with me here at
the podium I can share it with you going back further where they it's always been the case that they've always they've always done that here and the intention is just if there's a rainy day we have this yes so for example State the state
decid to P the rug under us because there's no promise next year we get 6 million I mean the year after like that number can not be count up so clear excess Surplus is based upon the ending of the audit year
2324 so the other thing was is the P for meeting the the the auditor gave the the um announcement of the Surplus 3 million then the 929 the 929
496000 is what they calculate in state software that we have to for but my question is is the thinking that there are certain line items on this budget that are not incurring for example our tax leavey
if that's fairly stable correct but our state aid may not be stable correct the extraordinary Aid is that stable extraordinary Aid can Will fluctuate up and down and we are very cautious and
with with that number um it in 23 2223 B Le got over $2.1 million approximately and it's has gone down
since then so we use the same number that we received in the 24 25 year just to be conservative because we it's a separate State application that is due in the
spring to this and it's based upon your special education cost and there's no guarantee that they're going to give you historically has there ever been an in in where the state a extra ordinary a
is taken from us because that's 10% of our budget that's pretty big to not have commitment on um typically the state will always F that um this at 20 so so there are times with so understanding that timing with budgets
and so our budget is completed by May and then the state budget is finalized in July 1 so that's why you here sometimes from the state legislature several years ago with the former Governor they were balancing the budget they couldn't bounce it and there was a close there was a shutdown that happens
where they will they can come back and change the state aid then you have to adjust your budget but for the purposes of the statute we must complete our budget by the first of May so there are there have been instances that happens and is that the purpose of your Surplus
Surplus is a is a is a numerical dial that's determined by your auditor and then they tell you how much you have to kick back in you can only carry X number of dollars every year in your Surplus so they'll determine the same way that we determine this extra money because when we do a budget which is what this is it
it's projecting how much we will need for next year if there's over that's why at the end of every year you'll see any extra money that we physically know will be deposited traditionally in a capital reserve account there are three or four accounts that you put that money in
that's what be a need a board agenda item to say we reserves the right for the business administrator to put X number of dollars in the maximum allow for the capital reserve and that's what they'll do then the auditor comes in the fall and audits all of the books for that previous year and then determines
there might be extra funds available based on calculations of bond debt based on uh you know calculations of healthare cost anything like that once that number is complete then they create the audit which was presented at the last meeting
so usually around December and January you know what your fund balance unrestricted fund balance is so how do we determine how who determines what gets allocated into Capital fund versus general fund so that the capital reserve
fund is allocated at the end of the year based on what our c what we actually see as a surplus we will not know our unrestricted fund balance until after the audit is completed which will be by this year it's completed in March right
so so we have 2.9 Million that is now allocated into general fund why why isn't that allocated into Capital General you could but we didn't know that number until after they audit so you there's a number that's put into capital reserve and then after the audit
is done they determine that [Music] just like deter that number you put Reserve you miss the deadline the deadline for capital reserve that fiscal year so June 30th
2024 so in on June 30th of 2025 coming right we can we can within reason project some number right now what our balance will be for the end of this school year that number will be we put into a
resolution very close to it of how much we go into TR Reserve now comes the beginning of the next fiscal year the audit comes and here's your extra money that we recognize could be things where your your summer projects will be coming under debt under fost all of those other
things those other items that once audited and by the way same way you have tuition you might be projecting to pay a school district for students and you projected to pay them 20 5,000 you get your end of year cost to you pay the 20 that's $55,000 that's when you get your
unrestricted fund house what did we set aside for balance last year I don't remember the number at the end of June you the end of June was approximately $4 million was had it I have the Capal Reserve information question just how much we
put in million so 4 million 4 million was added and then we have another 2.6 here for the general fund this year in this current area 2.6 that were that was determined in the so it's like next year we're determining now the order last
week 3.9 has to be used has to be used in the upcoming school year but you're not allowed to carry tremendous Surplus in any category understood understood but there I just want to set make sure I understand that this number here is how we come up right so so a lot of the
surpluses for schools came about during Co because as the expenses were dro dropping significantly busing and employees and things like that that's when school start to carry this Surplus money and the state is getting back and forth kept selling all the districts start to use your money can't carry that
money just pass off may be aware just before we move on from that was our Surplus actually the 4 million that we did transfer into Capital Reser plus what we're using for our general budget It's a combination of
what was left over so take the 4 million as as extra for this school year for that 2425 school year and then whatever else they determined once the audit was complete what was ENT right so it's the 4 million that we actually transferred
we were conservative plus the 2.697 correct and that was money that we had allocated in our last budget but we didn't spend correct but we have to allocate just to be clear so when we craft that budget we
make projections based on historical number of students that would need to be out of District placements based on you know when you do negotiations things that and be aware of one thing the long range facility we talked about in the PowerPoint that sets the maximum amount that you can have in your capital
reserve so by updating our long range facility plan I'm sure the number is going to be greater than our current long range facility plan so that will give us more levity to put more more money into the cital reserve account you have a bigger number of
availability which line item on this list do we ex it's tied to Federal funding and that we may may uncertainty over um that would be toward if you're
on the same slide I'm TR of count one two three four yeah would be would be it would be the ISA Ida and State and State entitlements so that's 2 million
12,661 isn't semi Federal also yes yes semi was reduced tremendously um the esss have all expired at this point fedal yes most of the SS expired in September it was a four or five cycle
whatever they're all expired yeah what theal what for the for the grants federal grants it would be 2,
12,661 plus the semi um at the $133,300 and semi is the federal reimbursement program based upon um I APS and and did VAR different thanks
yeah so from line the line items from after tuition those are all prefense funds that we have to apply it to specific use correct well after you see the after you get through the the 2
mil2 12,661 you'll see The Debt Service a that we did get from the state for Debt Service before $1,724 plus the debt surface tax levy and the tax Lev is made up of the difference of your total liability minus
the The Debt Service Aid so then you have 4,272 502 that is going to go towards your debt service Levy that was determined by the three prior referendums I just want to yeah so the question that I have is
any any Revenue um after tuition cannot be spent on General pner I just want to be clear about that they they're specifically reserved for capital for
maintenance emergency correct correct yes just want to look at it that way yes okay but but the idea we charge salaries of teachers against our idea Grant don't we yes but use idea for regular program
yes spefic I we just um I just speciic program specific program I just the amendment for it um for the district the majority of our funds will be spent on tuition for our students and the Isis some set of sides that we do have
Federal set of sides but the majority of our funds for the Ida basic and preschool are all going to be spent on tuition for our students or for the 3K it's known as early intervention which is they encourage with the prepay
funds PA you have other questions are you done yeah um I'm just curious the interest that's shown on that is that interest on our bank account we're making a million dollars a year correct that's what we mentioned you in some districts they use that money to
support staff knowing that you and en be could you just speak a little bit um at the committee level there were uh there was a discussion on the uh
subscription busing yes initially we did not have it in here at all that was going to go away um and then I think the committee said do the 5050 could you share those numbers so that people know like yes so the current subscription bus
right now we transport approximately 240 students um we have over 4,000 students in our district um the bus routes have fun colors like te hot pink you know whatever that may be
um they go to various locations within uh town to a set school um currently parents are paying $100 for the year um and if you are a free or reduced student
we do not we are not allowed to charge free or reduced student so they don't have to pay um our expenses for the current year 2425 is $275,000 so at the finance committee
level which was last week we were discussing increasing the funds that the parent has to contribute and at the Comm level they discussed $600 per
year um to for the subscription busing we will hold on the 240 available seats and we will keep the same routes in this and pretty much the same structure that we have right now it's just the only difference now is
instead of collecting about $177,000 in Revenue the the district will collect approximately 2,000 but nothing nothing changes other than the $500 difference from 600 to the 100 we're currently
charging and that is in the budget and also since historically every year we do something with our capital reserve um you know we just the buildings have needs and I understand we're doing a long range plan um once
that comes out and is approved how difficult will it be for us to because this gets approved at the county level you said right and so let's say we decide we're gonna do the bathrooms at the high school so I hope comes back
very high on this long range plan um are we able to do it in this calendar year if we don't put it in now there's a process you can do and you can insert money in the year that you're in um with
the county it's it's a it's a process that we would have to follow step by step to do but be aware also that in 2324 which is pretty current budget year the year that it just was audited there was no Capital funds used which is kind
of interesting um so there was no Capital fund used in the year 23 24 that was just audited um every other year back to 20145 here historically in Fort Lee they
have used Capital funds but in 2324 there wasn't your chart for 2324 audited we did a capital reserve withdrawal of over $4 million every year we have been continually improving our build the main
that's maintenance no no maintenance was Zero capital reserve was 4 million that's not order in 23 zero that was a carry that was a Carri project the actual okay but we spent in
that year audited $4 million on capital projects and I just if when we get the plan yes you know I mean I wish we had something in here now uh we we we all know things that need to get done um I just want to make sure that next month
whenever we finally approve the long range facilities plan that we can quickly decide okay this is the highest need let's get it done we're gonna you know we try to do these things in the summer when students are in school and so I don't I mean me personally I don't
want to lose a summer um and doing some work when I looked at the budget software there was 8 million that the district used in 2223 so if Project's not complete it carries over to the next year you look
at didn't get done what happened was it was supply chain issues before you came and we were in the middle of projects and we couldn't get things that we needed so we had did pay out in the 22 23 24 years we actually paid out in
connection with capital projects $4 million yes that was approved the year or four so that's your question you can do it's a different project yes the capital reserve projects normally put in the budget then you would start July 1 if you don't put it into your budget and
request from the county exceptions to to take that money out then you do it so to answer your question yes you could so May 1st June 15th you could say to the county we'd like to do these type of projects we'd like to have the money from the capital reserve they would have to do speci yes okay and is that kind of
what our thinking is this year our main thinking is to get a plan you know the district is required by to have faity hav 10 years 15 years that list and as Micha said that list lists every item so you will we will see and we know
what's happening there are a lot of issues that need to be addressed and that will give us what is actually out out of compliance and What needs to get addressed and what the ages for everything um and that helps us determine in the future how much we been put in capital reserve as you said I
don't know where the bathrooms would be because there are probably we know of some other pressing issues regarding that and I think the reason why we did this conversation about Capital reserves is we have been doing things without looking at what really needs to get done so you know we put in air conditioning
which is great and it's wonderful but we have some electrical issues some of the buildings that need to be addressed that are just as important and which on should we do so for us to make that priority list be able to present it going back to the Strategic plan these are the topics these are the projects that we should get um you know we'd love
to redo our Auditorium we'd love to redo a lot of things but so should we build fix the roof or clean up the classrooms first we need to fix the roof and then start with everything else and we needed a plan and if you're not familiar with the uh long range facility plan out
there Engineers come in AR Architects come in they do a full-blown of everything Windows Doors roofs electrical systems heating and air condition heating and air conditioning even the ones we currently have what their lifespan is and then everything is
projected with the current cost in today's dollars so you will have a priority that's saying high priority your electrical panel here needs to be replaced low priority air conditioning at the at the middle school because it's coming in next month or at three months that's your lowest everything will be
out it's available people can see it and know what needs to get done and what the cost potential is anything else it is 9 half on your agenda for approval thank you thank you Mr s and thank you CH for
helping bu administrator I do have one other thing for the agenda the agenda actually an administrative change for the adust administrative change for the agenda 5 P
removal of number xx4 and 6p removal of xx4 um do we have any committee reports negations met on thurs March um the Education Association and
for ATT and administration this is really just discuss the ground and meet and GRE and to schedule upcoming meetings which we schedu four over the next several weeks
so more information as it's available any other committee reports right do we have board members with questions or comments on tonight's agenda or any other topic okay we have a motion to open the floor
to the public motion second motion second hurry all in favor any opposed or extensions we will hear first for members of the public physically located here tonight then we will take questions and comments from those participating remotely participants are limited to
three minutes in which to make their statement for remote participants please select the raised hand button Mr rerro will recognize each Community member in the order of raised hands please unmute your microphone then state your name and home address for the record and begin your comments do we have members in
public here this evening speak um I question you had theat online there was a link I Tred to you go on that link on the website that was the live
the live yeah yeah I tried to get on it I could video tap I believe the minutes and the handouts that we all received the PDF uh slideshows and stuff will be put on yeah the minutes and the and the and
the handouts will be posted online okay thank you but may something I'm sure I know that the special parents Advisory Group so our next meet is going to be on March 19th okay to Wednesday it's going to be on
Zoom at 700 p.m. um we are very EXC side we have a a great presenter um those you here probably know her name is Rich Hy she is the teacher at The Fortress which is the 18th to 21 year old program those
you don't know my my sorry my young adult is a student at that program so I'm a very very excited to uh to have her um we have a um pth agenda we have a welome production overview of the meeting and the agenda
we have intruction from the CPAC leadership behind our president um have so G an overview of the program we also have a video that was U actually
ribbon cutting and that was filmed by Linda from for today so that parents know about that also want to make sure that any parents Guardians that have a high school student okay that is a
senior that has an I very very important please come to this meeting it's on zoom and learn about the program I've been very honest with you I've said this many times as very PE about program was not sure about the program but I did one I
say Rec really really you know you guys see it's really really great program and I know I've been being up that the you to get this he you know do presentation really want to let parents know about this program you lot parents say we want
to go to out District but you know they say keep them in house you know we have a program and you know we need to be about the program we also have information about leadership elections um coming up we have something full PG which is like
actually have parent parent Prov ideas and concerns and we have open form um also we want people to realize that also we do have a website which is s p a g.com question
osar remember please again it's on Zoom it's 7 p.m. okay it's 19 again you come and and hear about the the 18 program thank you thank
you good evening uh my name is Keith golin 2185 L Mo Avenue um I'm not going to last three minutes Jason but I still want to be played off with the Oscars music um just a couple things I know Andrew covered all the CPAC stuff but we
want to remind parents and guardians of students in District with IEPs and 504s you're welcome to come to these meetings and in April we're going to actually do the nominations for the leadership positions and Leadership positions on June 1st so we would love to see as many
people there we've seen well over a 100 new faces this year um we'd love to get us all in one meeting so that would be amazing so please show up next week as Andrew mentioned and um also in April for the nominations um this doesn't
really have much to do with school but um I know a lot of us know or about the families who are affected or people who were affected by the fire in Leonia and there was a fundraiser recently um but there's another fundraiser so I'm going to plug it because it's my firehouse uh
so it's Firehouse company one on Main Street excuse me Firehouse company one on Main Street um Saturday starting at 6:30 p.m. um you can buy tickets for 50 bucks at the door and there's going to be karaoke and all sorts of stuff going on there
and all you can eat corn beef and cabbage um so please join us and uh all the proceeds are going to all the people affected uh by that terrible tragedy and Fire Leonia uh so that's it thank you oh wait not
it uh you mentioned you might have an update on bus tracking sooner and then later so we're gonna ask about that every thank you and no update fine we are a lot of different things and we this morning sorry this afternoon
I know Mr Simons and I were talking about itday so how we put it into our bids what we're doing we are on no music anyone else in person Wish U so I want to speak about the B so
one of my biggest concern is that the English used in the books is not calibrated for the language Mastery of the kids for the grade they are at ex this is a test from first grade my birthday is sort of open question because I was born I thought on
September 1 1938 and I S of celebate to the extent that the Greek culture allows for celebration for your birthday recorded interview from former mayor of San Francisco so there's a couple of question questions here and I wanted to
debate if this is oral history versus daily life as the person doesn't know when he was born and doesn't have a name but U more than that I wanted to ask why is it California on the test why are not testing them on anything Jersey so with
that in mind I spent time going to the book and going from start to finish the only mention of anything Jersey related is at the very end on the M the that's the only time they mention
jur other than that you have California geography you have California landmark yeah they do have SE Liberty but California landmarks you have again the Golden Gate
they even have in technology the high speed that they want to build this is Japan still and then going forward immigration they have engan island island it's not Del Island which we
share and towards the end even the community leaders and activist they're you know California people they don't have anything Jersey Rel like this much so it's like a page and that's not the only person that they mention and I want
you to contrast that with the say the footnote that they have in about George Washington this is the footnote that they have about George Washington it's like president first first leader of the army you know that's it versus like a
full page for whatever person in California that this so with that in mind you're proposing like a 4% increase taxes can you send a bill to California because it seems like you guys are teaching not anything JY
related and the other thing that I wanted to ask on the book itself how come a person from Toronto makes New Jersey curriculum so that's about my question I can share the test I can you know I'm going to take
pictures going forward with stuff like this and I'm going to bring it up periodically and we can have further conversations thank you standards in the content area that needs to be address the books that we use in the district are based on resources so the resources match match
state standard and the so it's a combination again is written by school distri the resources we purch and standards are given to us by state of New Jersey and follow all the B of the state and use curriculum that as
resources that are approved by the state of New Jersey thank Stephanie C Tom Hunter Road fortly New Jersey I want to talk about the meeting that you guys had that is a public meeting and has been consistently online every single year so that needs
to be up and running online um and I look forward to that being put on to online I'm not sure what the workaround you're trying to do is but it's a little shady number two is
curriculum issue base this was the math that the kids used to do where they learned how to do actual subtraction and Mathematics um the math that they have now is insufficient tonight we've heard three times about trying to make our
children Global Citizens seal Learners and so this is what I wanted to say uh the over emphasis that this district has placed on social emotional learning has left the children lacking core academic subjects like math reading Science
school has limited time and resources and is dedicating significant portions of our curriculum to social emotional regulation and social skills with a reduced emphasis on intellectual rigor and factual knowledge this potentially leaves
students less prepared for higher education and competitive Fields as you know most of the high schoolers who stay in the school are having a lot of difficulty from the children that I've talked to the ones who are excelling are the ones who are actually testing out or
in um different AP classes or are sent to Bergen schools or different areas again seal is subjective ideolog uh and ideological in its basis uh it promotes teaching values like empathy
Equity conflict of resolution and a lot of people worry that the program Inver pushes specific cultural and political agendas on children um and the one size of fits all approach doesn't necessarily work for children that have autism and for those
with different cultural backgrounds FAL learning and activities irrelevant confusing counterproductive um there's a potential for overreach withal learning which involves discussions about feelings family Dynamics personal challenges
which blurs the boundaries between education and therapy placing teachers in roles they are not trained for they are not counsel and encourages um and encroaches upon parental Authority you have consistently said you want Global Citizens you want
seal I say I want American citizens and I want children that know about their American history in a history book in a reading book uh it just seems everything we're doing in District is a push sort of on Dei and I think it's going to have
serious ramifications like um Amy brought up in what we're going to be able to have financially in the coming years for our school so potentially we should focus more on education of Academia and less onal and
go back to when you know we were doing far better in many areas but I definitely would like an answer on getting the upload of the video for the people to see this was a
public meeting it was listed as a public meeting all the other public meetings were uploaded so I would like to hear about that you finish man um so pursuing to the open public meetings
act um my legal interpretation of saying as well as applicable board policies um all meetings are advertised in accordance with the ACT which that meeting was a retreat as a board they all been up online ma'am that's why I ask you you finished ma yeah are you
finished your time is okay thank you they're online so I'm trying to answer your question this is not a back and forth I'm trying to answer your question that's what we gave you the courtesy and the opportunity to fulfill your entire time um but you're reading something there did you pre-write this man I'm looking right at you so no you're
reading a paper I'm actually looking at you okay so I'd like to know from your own words not you keep interruped me though so as president vior responded to the prior gentleman who spoke as I'm responding to your question looking
right at you pursuant to the open public meetings act as well as applicable board policy all meetings of the Board of Education are advertised in accordance with the law a retreat is a board meeting there is no requirement in the law or board
policy to post the video of a recorded meeting online so while a meeting may be streamed there is no legal requirement or policy requirement to post a copy of said video online as the president RoR indicated previously minutes of that
meeting can and will be made available to the public um when they are ready thank you so why are you not putting it online is the question you can next speaker okay so you're hiding it from public there's nothing being hid we have a we have a long long
standing practice in our district of putting all of our public meetings on on the website we we've had prior Retreats they were recorded just they've never been on never who who made the I like questions
who made the decision that this particular public meeting was not going to be posted because it's unorthodox for us to we put up and and if weren't going to post it why did we pay people so one who made the decision because the
because the practice in this district is to post them okay so who made the decision two what was the basis of the decision why are we deviating from what we always do and if you didn't have an
intention to put it up online why did we have our staff on a Saturday and pay them extra to show up to tape it if your if your if your position is oh well we we don't we don't put tapes of of Retreats why did we have staff there and
pay them so so those are my three questions okay Mrs Co since we're in public comment what I would suggest is that those questions one be taken under advisement by the administration in consultation with the board president respon during new business I'll ask resp
my suggestion would be whether it's now or during the business is that be taken under advisement and that a response be given at later date once there is time to review all of the questions that you asked my response to the member of the public who spoke because she questioned and or insinuated or alleged that there
was a violation of Law and my response to that I did I said Shady said you said Shady Shady suggest an insinuation as something was done illegally or unethically and my response that nothing was done illegally or unethically thank yeah I'd like to say something
please um what do we and I'm sorry I'm I'm sick your voice for one second we're in public comment we can bring this up in new business okay okay sounds perfect thanks does anyone else here wish to
speak no okay Mr rero Howard lipof you've been promoted to panelist please unmute your microphone and feel free to share your video please state your name and address for the record you have three minutes
hello thank you um and thank Mr Stein Mets for a very interesting report I do have a question about his report that puzzled me um not once but twice Mr steinetz mentioned that the
state aid increase was only a certain number it was 5.2% increase and I would like him to comment on why he used the word only I thought this was good news that was being increased over
5% um was he expecting more I know we always would like more but um if Mr steinet could address that I would appreciate it what's that that's my only question I I would say in state a always
want more M and only meaning if you look at the chart that's in the PowerPoint there years you see big climb well over 5.2% that we have gotten from the
state it's in the bar graph chart um and you'll see that in the power so that's why I said thank you Michelle Perez you've been promoted to panelists please
unmute your microphone and feel free to share your video please state your name and address for the record you have three minutes okay hello hi everyone uh I don't have a question I have a statement um first thank you for the summary
detail of the budget um as I I can't wait to actually see the final one because it went a little fast for me I'm not a budget person but uh seems like we're pretty healthy and uh I'm glad we're well funding our students and our teachers and all the things that they need I'm going to make a little pitch
because we're talking about budgets and the friends of the Fort Lee Library have a scholarship for High School seniors who volunteer at the library so should any parent of a current High School senior have a student that's been volunteering at the fortly public library for at least 50 hours there's a
$500 scholarship ship Up application is available on the flpl friends.org website until April 7th and that was it and thank you everyone have a good evening Sophia mihalakis you've been promoted to
panelist please unmute your microphone and feel free to share your video please state your name and address for the record you have three minutes hi Sophia mahak 6 Horizon Road I had a question regarding um whether's there's any plans for resoning for school
one um the student capacity there is 200 more than School two 200 more than school three and 200 more than School 4 um our school one has no space for all the extra programs we lost half of our library for
another program and our teachers have between 23 and 25 kids per class that's a lot compared to the other classes uh in the other schools so my question is um resoning
for all the highrises that are going up question are there any other questions in no thank you very much for your question uh that is one of the questions we will address you know the board has taken up the fantastic idea we're going to do a
strategic plan that along with our long range facilities plan those are the two things that should be our guiding pillars for the next 5 to 10 years um and that will address your concern that has been discussed um but when we do a strategic plan includes all stakeholders so I ask everyone to participate there
will be surveys that will be sent out we choose the select the company that will do it with us um we' V toie two we had one more to go and one of those concerns is yes you are correct that school ones are crowed in comparison to the other school dist other schools in our district but we
have to look at all of that the same we look at programming but yes we recognize that a very big school and it is our oldest school actually so those are two things that are concerned yes it's on our list
and discuss that thank you there are no more raised hands I have a motion the flo the public motion motion Morel second Rino all in favor any opposed or extenstions okay may I have a motion to
approve items one B through 3B motion motion Mor secondo call please yes M Curry yes Mr Knight yes M Kang yes M Morel yes Mr Rino yes M
Richford yes may have a motion to approve items one C through 3C motion second motion morale second Quang roll call please M yes M Curry yes Mr n
yes M goang yes yes M Morel yes Mr Rina yes M rard yes may have a motion to approve items 1 F through 10f moot second motion Curry second roll call please M colbath yes M
Curry yes Mr Knight yes M K yes M Morell yes Mr Rino yes M RoR yes and thank you to our donors on 6f thank you may have a motion to approve
items 1 p through 14p with 5p and 6p as amended by Dr pris motion motion morale second Curry call please miss Co yes and a big thank you
to Mrs Kamar who's going to be sorely missed um 19 years in the district and Mrs for I me two years no M yes Mr
night Frozen th up Mr night yeah he's Frozen I'm gonna go back M kot yes Mr M Morel yes Mr Rino
yeah M RoR yes Mr Knight try it again yes okay um any old business all right new business Paula and Casey I know you had things to say so [Music]
free is there anything I can help you with hello can you hear me yeah we can hear you a little PA are you letting me talk first or you going to go first she she great sorry I'm a little under the weather so I apologize I mean I I'd like
to say something about this this Retreat that occurred um you know I missed it because I was sick um I'd like to see it um I see no reason for it not to be released to the public to be honest and I and I I hate to think that this is the
case but everything points to the fact that we're hiding something why are we not releasing this what was said or done that we are ashamed of if there is nothing that we are ashamed of then I will be making a motion to release the
video to the public thank you question who who told anyone that it wasn't being released because well I'm asking is it gonna be released well I got an email yesterday from Mr Knight asking why people wanted to know why it wasn't up yet but it was
a weekend and people don't work on the weekend that's why you just said it's not going to be released I have an email trail from you president RoR which I'm happy to share with the public happy to share the email it's okay no no I'd like to finish I'd like to finish please if
it's if it's quite all right with you uh president RoR I'd be happy to to share the emails that you sent me telling me that you have no obligation to release the video it's not required by law to post the video because you told me I understand it's not required by law but
it's it right or not the right things to do is to release the video whether or not it's required by law you asked on a Sunday why it wasn't and said you wanted to watch when can we expect to see it Victor excuse me when can we expect to see it when can we expect to see the
video president RoR Department posts the video that's not my my job I don't dictate to them when to do their job but it will be posted though just to be clear I never said it wasn't I said by law to post it awesome thank you very much president Victor I mean look don't
want to beat a dead horse typically by the time I get home tonight the video is usually posted I want to go back and so the practice is literally after a meeting is done and look I've got carbon copied on emails this weekend if it's G to be
posted let's let's just Mo on it will it be posted I never said it wasn't I I don't want to I just want to know that it will be that's all but you're assuming that I said it would not be posted the tenor the tenor of the email that I was copied on was that it was not going to be posted if we misread it then
there was some ambiguity the bottom line is this people have asked for it they I think it's a wonderful thing you hear Matt Lee and you you you learn a lot about board operations I I agree I don't understand you know what if if it was a
Sunday thing now it's Monday night at at almost 9 o' and it's still not up so taking everything together it does not look like there is if everyone's okay with their shoes off and feet curled up underneath them
while they're shoving food in their mouth then it will be posted tonight okay I mean really Amy you're okay with being posted tonight yeah have a sear go ahead I think the horse is dead yeah I would say so okay stop picking it
now um on the busing track busing uh two comments I understand that um we're sending out bits to incorporate the asks for tracking um what about the current buses that we ply runs will we also be adding
tracking on those buses as well because those not part of the bits they on our bus so so we're looking at how so we have a we have a program that does transfinder does I know been hearing it for about two years now well it's a year we got it a year so to be fair we got it
a year ago first part of it was to determine the mileage right so that we have the reports that everybody has received regarding what rout we should be running what we don't have so that's the first part the second part of of the bids um so some of the some of the routes we're
trying to work out some of the details with it it's not an easy thing um so for next year one of the things we have talked about in the budget is trying to decapsulate all of our District busing into an Outsource bid which would
possibly save us the money which would include the tracking so if you're asking right now for from now until June I don't know if we have the the capacity to get that all up and running um it would be great if we don't have to blow a second bir they
handle busing traic so not this June but hopefully by next scho year oh by September we that we our plans to fully Implement tracking on the buses for September that's our go second bus related issue um I you know I am supportive of
um a buying a hearing to the guidance if we don't lift more than two miles that we students paper busing but the jump from 100 to 500 is quite 600 quite significant especially if you have
multiple kids in within um from I guess from fifth grade to e8th grade um so I do want to keep you know at request for consideration for some sort of sibling discount especially if the family has kids need to use
busing it is fice significant for that so that's the second so just a respond we're well aware it I know been discuss it again I remind everybody that that those routes cost us $275,000 um and we took in $188,000 of
that so the district is spending $260,000 roughly wait on those 240 kids yes yeah so that and it's not required and more importantly I think when we look at again the global programs what we want to do and as we talk about more
programming what we do enhance Renovations that's it so we can have busing but 250,000 would rather the bathrooms so we have an X number of dollars and that's it we can only increase our our budget by 2% plus whatever w we get for
4% last year because of the waiver right the waiver of healthare because we project and and the state allows us to do that but even on that 4% so $275,000 we are doing things that are not required to do so we have to balance
that with what we do incrementally so you know when we realized we're only getting 18,000 in finance committee met discuss you know there there were suggestions for higher numbers then we brought it back down so what we thought would be affordable for a lot of families I think we did discuss some kind of I don't know if we did discuss
the discounts don't remember if we did we did not discuss sibling discounts there was a higher prent was discussed and the committee agreed to $600 per student so yeah I'm just going to leave it at that you know please take that
into account for family with multiple children them some relief um so the third thing I wanted to um share with the community the fortly police will be giving a presentation at the high school this Friday on the Civil
Ser servant examination that test is only given once a year and that test is only given until end of or register you can only register until end of March after that we have to wait a whole year for that window to open again for
students um who are interested in law enforcement I do want to strongly encourage parents to talk to them our community be folks from our community to serve each other um especially among minority communities I know that um we
have many minority members who go our bilingual um but I do want to encourage students in the district to attend that presentation and get a free period out of your your day that's anyone else have new business
yeah I want to say something okay I just want to make it clear to everybody I want to set the rec shade okay we have not had a board retreat for over six years that's first all okay you
don't believe me check it out we haven't had one since president H Sila was here that's number one we have never ever check it out take board retrieve ever
ever so nothing has ever been posted for a board retrieve you want to doubt me you're saying I'm lying by all means but I'm telling you we never have before I'm not saying we didn't do it this time I'm saying we've never done it before in the past that's all I'm saying whether it
goes on or not I could care less I'm just saying it's never happened before so when you say or when people say youve done it every year that's not true because we have anyone else okay motion to adjourn motion to Second motion Rino second
Morel all in favor I any oppos