Dr. Permentor >> here. >> Miss Laia, Mrs. Avery >> here, >> Mrs. Hermanel >> here, >> Mrs. Hank >> here, >> Mr. Dace >> here, >> Dr. Vasher Blau >> here, >> and Mr. Gentiel >> here. If everyone could rise for the
flag salute led this evening by Mr. It is. I'm asking for a moment of silence in memory of Mrs. Kathy Dumbrossski, a retired Arthur Ran classroom assistant. Kathy was a valued retired classroom
assistant at the Arthur Ran Elementary School who dedicated more than 25 years to our school community. We extend our heartfelt thoughts and our deepest condolences to Kathy's friends,
her family, and to all who had the privilege of knowing her. Thank you everyone for that moment of respect. The next item on the agenda are the uh minutes for the February 9, 2026 regular meeting. If I could have a motion and a
second to approve those minutes. >> So move. Second. >> All in favor? >> I. >> Any opposed? Any abstensions? >> Abstain. >> Thank you. Minutes are approved.
Moving on to item three, presentations. Um, the representative of the GTMS student council, uh, Mr. Marma, is not here today. this uh board meeting is conflicting with the eighth grade conversation out in Mullica. Uh and
Anthony is representing the uh the district there, so he is not here this evening. >> Just say one thing. [clears throat] >> This is the first year I've missed that many years. It was such a great thing to go to and see these eighth graders talking about their school district and
asking questions about the other districts. It was a great It is a great event and hopefully next year the state gives us our money before so we'd have to reschedule our meeting. Okay, good evening. So, we're going to start with our first presentation. We have two presentations tonight. The
first presentation is a update on Arthuran Elementary School. The second presentation will be our um public budget presentation. Um so this update is uh since our last meeting um and since the first incident that occurred
on January 26th. So this is going to be focused primarily these new slides are going to talk about the second incident uh and fire that occurred at Arthur Ran approximately February the 22nd into the 23rd I'll say um and kind of some of the
next steps. So I'm going to go through a few uh slides to highlight some of the things that have occurred uh recently. some of the other information I may move a little quicker because it's it's a little repetitive from last month, but that's because all the things are already in place in terms of our
relocation plan um and the different services that are are currently in effect for our Arthur Rand students and staff. Um so I will highlight a few changes that have occurred, but there haven't been many there. Um so this really focuses on that evening of February 23rd. Um again, similar to our
last incident, this occurred a little after midnight or so. Um, our facilities manager again was notified. Fire alarms were were in um in effect and obviously went off notifying the service to then notify Mr. Rosetti. Mr. Rosetti
obviously responded uh in addition to notifying me um that there was, you know, another incident at the Arthur Ran Elementary School. Um just like last time, fire department emergency services were on the scene um
very quickly. um responding um the way they normally do. Uh and a variety of different um firehouses had responded again as well. Um the initial fire was found um and then from there they were inspecting the front of the building and
like they normally would do inspect the entire building uh to provide clearance to turn the building back over to us. Uh and ultimately during that time uh when they were clearing the building in the front hallway they had in it was an indication that another fire had just
started. So then that was a second fire and as they were extinguishing that and they thought everything was under control they had checked a room across the hallway and there was a third fire that was indicated at that time. Um as you can imagine um and I know I see a lot of head shaking and that's how we
feel. Um, this is extremely out of the ordinary. Um, and ultimately with Mr. Rosetti's help while on the scene that evening, um, all the power was cut off to the building and especially for that front hallway, um, the power was cut off
to all of those new HVAC units that were in that front hallway at that time. And I'll get into a little bit more about that. Um, again, because of their rapid response, again, out of the ordinary all of this has been, um, if it wasn't for the, um, local fire department and their
professionalism and how quickly they responded, I can tell you that, um, things could be much worse than they currently are. Um, in terms of building assessment, uh, similar to the first incident, as you can imagine, I think that, uh, everybody can truly
understand, uh, if you remember the things that we discussed last time, this truly was a reset, right? So, this is like starting from scratch. Um, obviously very frustrating, um, for not just our students, but our parents, our staff, um, and obviously on our end as
well. Um, but I'll walk you through some of these things that are are continuing to go on. So those rooms um that were impacted with the actual fires um did sustain uh obvious fire damage uh in certain areas but also water damage and
significant smoke and soot damage because of the fact that there were three different fires that needed to be extinguished. That then led to um that smoke and in turn soot spreading through the building. Um and there are certain things that we have to put into effect
when that occurs. Uh so you can see that we immediately again notified our joint insurance fund and our adjuster that we were currently working with um from the initial fire. We are part of the joint insurance fund. Um so we continue to make sure that they were immediately
notified of this incident. We then also continue to work with Hillman Consulting. And Hillilman Consulting, if you remember from the last time, is again an outside agency or vendor that will actually go and do swab testing and also air quality control. They're the
ones that really drive all of the work and the remediation that has to take place. So Helman Consultant is not just providing that information to the district, but they're also providing that information to All Risk. And all risk is the company doing the remediation and I'll call it the rebuild
as well. And I'll I'll give you some ideas of what that looks like in a minute. They immediately had to take a look at the the damage that that occurred because of these um additional three fires. So really they had to go and do swab testing and air quality
control. That was the very first step to kind of get a determination on how far did it spread. Now, this time, um, we met with the fire chief and fire marshall actually on February 24th. Um, even though power was turned off, um, the night of that incident, I can tell
you that we had professionals there on site while we were walking the building with the fire chief and fire marshall and we basically put into effect what you would call like a lock and tag. So, if you're familiar with a electrical box, a panel box, um all those units,
those new units in the front hallway, they're not just powered off at the source. Um meaning that the actual HVAC unit is powered off at the source, they're also powered off at the circuit breaker, but the circuit breaker is what you call locked and tagged, meaning there is actually a physical lock on it.
Nobody can even accidentally turn on that circuit breaker at this time. And that's for that whole front hallway to make sure that this building continues to remain safe while we figure out what we have going on here. Um here's another
update uh in terms of air quality and what we were talking about with remediation. So air quality results from the second fire. I don't think anybody's going to be surprised when I tell you obviously the results were not favorable, right? So swabbing air quality. It wasn't last time, if you
recall, it was probably about 80% of the building that was impacted, the first fire. This time it was the entire building. Every every inch of that building was impacted. Meaning all the remediation work that began has to be
redone. Okay. In addition to the six or so classrooms in the far back part of the building, there were also signs of um basically unfavorable results, I'll say, for either smoke andor swabbing, meaning that the smoke carrying soot got
that far to the back of the building um because of this incident. Modular trailers because they're not connected and there's no HVAC connecting them at all, they're separate, so they weren't impacted at all. And then of course the remediation plan. It's full
cleaning and remediation at this time. It's 100% of the building as I mentioned and it really does involve cleaning every single surface. Like anything you can think of has to be cleaned. I tried to put a picture in here just so you can
see a little bit of of the work that's going on. I know it's a little small and maybe the lighting isn't helping, but just to give you an idea in this picture there's scaffolding in here. So you can see some scaffolding in the back and there's scaffolding right here. There
are people standing on those scaffolds, right? So the things that have to be removed in a building when a when smoke damage occurs, anything that would be considered paper, cardboard, anything that can't be cleaned, that's a hard
surface, has to be removed. It can't be saved. So in here, if you look up, if if this was the the uh room that was impacted, every ceiling tile would have to be removed. You cannot clean a ceiling tile. Okay? So ultimately, the
entire building ceiling tiles are removed. The reason why I'm showing this picture is because all risk has employees that are basically trained in cleaning every surface area within the building. So they are up on scaffolding cleaning the roof above where the
ceiling tile would be. Every ceiling grid, those metal grids, they're wiping every single ceiling grid. They're wiping everything above where the ceiling would be. You know, oftent times up in the ceilings there's wires, pipes, things like that. They're wiping every
wire, wiping every pipe. And mainly because all of the soot has to be removed because what Hillman does is they are going to come in after these rooms are cleaned and after a room gets done basically all risk will take a seal and they seal the room and basically
that room is sealed and no one can go in. That way there's no crosscontamination. And Hillman Consulting will then come in and they will re-swab that room and they'll do air quality as well. And that's how we start getting parts of the building to become then favorable because they're
going to go and swab those areas. They're going to do air quality tests in those areas before we can even consider having a conversation around any staff or students being able to access that space. Okay? And that's the process here. But just keep in mind, we were
making good progress a month into this prior to these three additional fires and it started all over again. Okay, so [clears throat] that's kind of where we are with that piece of the puzzle, let's say. Um, another thing in this
picture, which is was nothing I I'll be honest, I didn't even think about it until we started having conversations about a building and what's in a building that can be cleaned and can't be cleaned. If you see in this picture, if you notice in the front there's a whiteboard and next to the whiteboard
you see those looks like big round like things on the wall. There were bulletin boards there one time. When you think about a bulletin board is cork. It can't be cleaned. So even from ceiling
tiles to any cork bulletin board, they all have to be removed and then replaced. So I just want you to understand the scope of work that is happening and how much like meticulous detail there is in terms of making sure
that the remediation is taking place correctly. Um because if it can't be cleaned, it has to be removed and then replaced. All right. To give you an idea of just like last time we we showed you room uh eight was incident one.
You can see adjacent to that room. Room 11 is where the initial fire occurred as they were clearing that end of the hallway and then went down to the other end. Room one is where they extinguished the next fire followed by room two while
they thought the building was clear at that point and then of course um had to extinguish that. That entire front hallway like I mentioned is completely shut down right now. Uh there is no access. The entire building doesn't have public access
other than All Risk. But even employees from Hillman or All Risk and so on don't have access to that front hallway and mainly because there is an ongoing active investigation into uh these units. Um and that is why that that area
is secured. So, I'm going to move a little quicker here because our plan that we put in place, we feel has been a a uh productive plan. Uh it's met our needs. By no means is it perfect. I'll be the first to admit that. I mean, when you
have to relocate close to 700 students, nothing is going to be perfect. Um but I can tell you that with the staff that we have and our parents and our students who who certainly are resilient, um this plan has been working well for us. right now and we're going to continue to
maintain that plan and we've only made some minor adjustments right now. Um, and trust me when I tell you um, you know, we're lucky that we have Pomona and we're lucky that we were able to utilize Pomona because this could look a lot different and could have been much harder than it currently is. I know
again none of this is perfect, but I have to give a lot of credit to uh our administration, our staff, our parents, and our students for being able to um you know, make this this work for right now, being in three different homes, I'll say uh for the time being. So, you
can see the only thing that we did differently uh once we had the second fire was we realized Pomona is tight to begin with. Uh so we made a change to have two fourth grade sections move over to GTMS. Um so we are able to adjust
slightly to give a little bit more room uh to our staff and students at Pomona. And that communication went out not just to the entire Arthur Rand school community, but then more specifically to those uh two home rooms that were impacted. And those two rooms were uh
Mayhew and and Wild DeMarco's rooms. So they were the two sections that actually moved over here to GTMS. Again, all of this stayed intact. The only change was the fact that those two home rooms end up now being over here. Again, do we
love the idea of splitting up the four sections of fourth grade? No, of course not. But in reality, we recognize that there was a need. Um there wasn't a great learning environment in that downstairs multi-purpose room of Pomona. So, we wanted to make the transition
because to us at this point, every day that we're potentially not having students, you know, learn um would be a, you know, further challenge down the road. Same thing for afternoon transportation. That that transition happened as well.
And then same thing for the parent drop off times and pickup times as we discussed before. And then of course we made sure that the students that were moving over to GTMS, we swapped out their ID tags again from a safety perspective to make sure that
now that they were coming over here, we had each of the buildings colorcoded and we wanted to make sure that the students had those colors as well. Obviously, daily services and support continues uh just like we discussed previously.
And then of course child care services, same thing. So obviously a little bit easier even um students that might be in fourth grade in those two sections, they would just remain here rather than having for to come from Pomona to here in the afternoon or the morning.
We still have our online backpack. Matter of fact, this presentation will be downloaded after tonight. We're going to send it out to our Arthuran family so everybody has it uh as well as the staff. But then also we'll load it into the online backpack. anything, any letter, any communication that has gone
out, especially since the first fire, we continue to remind families that that online backpack through the Arthur Ran Elementary School web page is critical, so you have access to the information um at your fingertips.
The calendar also with staff feedback had been adjusted. We knew that Arthur ran had lost three days and in the state of New Jersey like we talked about before 180 days of school is mandatory. Um so unfortunately no one um in Trenton
is I mean they care that there was a fire don't get me wrong but they're not going to wave that um requirement unfortunately. So we made some adjustments to the calendar. Um, one of those days was already made up by us actually giving up that March 16th
professional development day. Um, and ultimately um, making some adjustments in the calendar. April um, 9th and 10th during spring break are the other two makeup days um, for our Arthur Ran students and staff. That gives everybody a level playing field at that point and
Arthur Ran will be caught up and let's say level with the rest of the district and ultimately the this particular calendar is on for board approval tonight because of those two other snow days. We also had to adjust the end of
the year. So this calendar is actually um going to be approved tonight and then it will also be sent out to our families because of those two snow days in February. Okay. and they have uh early dismissal days at the end of the year. But Arthur ran once you get past spring break, you're you're following the rest
of the calendar like everybody else. You have to pay attention to all the other codes and colors that might be in here for for all of you. And then most importantly, you know, I had this slide last time, but I can tell you that that there's there's no amount of thanks that I can I can stand here
and share um because this truly has been a concerted effort. Um, you know, we're we're not out of the woods yet. I'm not going to sit here and sugarcoat that. We still have a long ways to go. Um, I've talked every time I' I've given updates and anytime I send something home, I'm
I'm pretty open and transparent. Anybody that asks me like, "Hey, what do you what do you think, Steve? I I don't have a time frame." That's why I tell everybody, I don't have a time frame. And a reason why I will not commit to a time frame is because I've been through projects, let alone, you know,
situations like this that I know that I am not going to overpromise and underdel by any stretch of the imagination because there's so many things that are out of the district's control with this situation um that I can't stand here and say that, oh, I think this is maybe when
we're going to have access or I think this is when something might happen. I I just can't do that. Um so unfortunately we're going to continue to monitor the situation. We're continuing to work with all the parties that are involved and ultimately we want to stay the course.
And what I tell everybody just continue to focus on the jobs that we we're doing whether in Pomona, whether in GTMS, whether in Roland, continue to support one another, not just as a school district, but as a community. And trust
me, if if I've seen anything with this community, we can pull pull off anything. I mean, we pull off some some pretty amazing things in a very very short amount of time that uh I can tell you that even my administrative team was questioning um some of the decision-
making in terms of like pulling off how quick we were going to transition. Um they're great and some of them are here tonight and and they're great at keeping me in check, too, because sometimes I get too aggressive. But ultimately, I can tell you within three days to be able to pull together a plan to be able
to transition kids after that initial fire happened is is nothing short of remarkable. And that's not just because of of our staff. That's because of the community as a whole. Um and and I can't thank everybody enough from the board of
education to township officials to fire uh marshall to our fire chief to our firefighters to our police. I mean, everybody has come together. Uh, and and one of the greatest resources through all of this has been our FSA who continues to to try to pull together um,
you know, some, you know, great events and things for our staff, trying to, you know, get donations or things that might be needed. Um, I know our GTA is is always trying to put a smile on people's faces, you know, even if it's just with a breakfast or um, you know, some
snacks, you know, during during uh, a particular day of the week. So, uh, kudos to everybody who's been been really pulling together for for everything to make this um, you know, continue to happen for our staff. So, that completes this update. Again, we'll be sending this out to uh our families
and our staff tomorrow, this presentation. And obviously uh that concludes this presentation. So, >> do any members of the board have any questions for Mr. Santelli? >> I would just like to comment that uh implicit in all the comments made the
last board meeting with regard to the reaction to the uh January fire, implicit in the comments were could this community get any more resilient? And we have learned that indeed it can. And and I on behalf of the board of education, I want to echo the compliments that Mr.
Santilly played to paid to our parents, to our children, uh to the emergency responders, and I don't know that it was mentioned, but the evening that this fire occurred was the blizzard. So, we had our emergency folks out there in that weather responding to this crisis.
So again, uh, Galloway Township is an obviously a incredibly resilient place and on behalf of the board of education, we thank all of our community members for the response and the uh, and the support. And again, thank you, Mr. Santilly, for all the incredible work
you uh, and your team has done throughout this crisis. Thank you. Next presentation is uh with regard to the 2026 2027 budget. All right. So, we're going to switch gears and and this is our fiscal 27 uh
budget presentation for the uh public and board of education. So, um both myself and Mrs. Nixon, our school business administrator, will be co-presenting uh this presentation. She's put a lot of hard work, her and her team, uh into this uh budget's never
an easy time of the year. It's been compounded, I think, by our previous topic uh amongst other things that we deal with on a daily basis. But first and foremost, a huge thanks uh to our board of education, our business office staff, um our central administrators,
direction uh directors, and also our building principles and assistant principles. Um I can tell you that that we start budget, and you'll see the timelines here. We don't just start budget, you know, a couple weeks ago. We we start budget way back in the fall. Um because it's an ongoing process that we
have to continue to monitor, keep an eye on. We're always trying to find efficiencies as a team um but also making sure that we don't sacrifice uh the education that we're providing for our students here in Goway Township. So again, a huge thank you as we get ready
to uh get into this presentation. Uh one of the things we always start with uh in a lot of our presentations is just remembering who we are as a district, making sure we do it a little little, you know, checkin in terms of our core values and our mission. I'm not going to sit here and read this, but you see our
core values on every single thing that comes out as part of our logo and it's who we really are as a district. Uh that work was done years ago. Uh we continue to really uh hone in on on those core values in addition to our mission uh
here in Goway Township. So, Mrs. Nixon, why don't you talk a little bit about the timeline? >> Thank you. So as you can see here our preparation and planning timeline um we start with budget discussions um with
our administrative team. Um they then um start preparing department and uh building based budgets that they submit to the business office and superintendent's office. We review um and meet multiple times throughout this
process. We had a preliminary budget presentation at the February 9th board meeting. Um the governor's budget address was on March 10th this year. Um it was a two-eek delay due to a a new governor um taking office, which is standard. Um we had our state aid
released on March 12th. We then had additional budget and preparation meetings um March 13th, the 16th, and again on the 17th. Um we had a finance and facilities committee meeting with the board on March 19th and then we're presenting tonight um to vote and submit
on our preliminary budget funds of the budget. So our general fund which is fund 10 is our operating budget. That is all of your expenses to operate the school district such as salaries, transportation costs, health insurance, um instructional supplies,
non-instructional supplies. When you look at the next bucket of fund 20, that is your special grants. Those are restricted funds such as federal grants, um, idea federal funding, um, for special education, um, or title 2
funding, which is federal and that's for professional development only. Um, we also have our preschool, which is fund 20, and that is preschool education funds that we get through the state that can only be used for preschool education. Our fund 30 is our capital
projects such as um facility projects and fund 40 is our debt service which is if we had any debt as a district um it would be our bond payments. Um we do not have any current debt as a district.
Here you can see our proposed budget. Um this is our general budget that I just mentioned. Our revenues are created through tax levy and state aid. Um very minimal is other revenues. Um those are
things such as miscellaneous revenue. Um tuition um in regards to McKenna Vento students. Um but as you can see 52% for a tax levy and our state aid makes up 41%. And then to balance that budget, we
have our expenses and benefits and salaries are about 80% of our cost. Um, next is transportation, then student services and supplies and tuition. These are our general fund accounts. Um,
I just talked about a few of them. We have our tuition. Those are the various tuition costs. um charter McKenna Vento um all of these are required mandates that we have to pay through the operating fund. We have our student
services are specialed student services instructional cost um professional costs facilities transportation and salaries and benefits. >> I'm just going to highlight a couple things real quick. All right. Um, so
some of the things that you're going to hear us talk about tonight, um, health insurance, just like last month, it's been a big impact, not just for our district, but, um, really all districts, uh, in the state of New Jersey right now. Health insurance is something that
um has has really created a burden for uh, for us this year. Um, and uh, so you'll hear a little bit more about that. The other thing that is um I I'd like to I hate to say unfunded mandates, but it's kind of a term that's sometimes thrown around in the state of New Jersey
with school districts. But one of the things I will say that's another challenge is um Mckin Vento right now. And we do everything in our power to support our Mckenn Vento students um and their families. Um but it's what I would consider like an unfunded mandate. And
what I mean by that is that oftentimes what ends up happening is is that we can never project out for the uh amount of Mckin Vento students we may get and ultimately if they are coming from another district sometimes very far away
we then have to provide special transportation to support the students um because we do want to make sure that they have that educational stability. So this isn't about the fact that we want to support the students. It's just about the fact that this is basically an
unfunded mandate because we can never project out. The reason why I'm sharing that is because I did an analysis of where we are with our Mckin Vento students and I can tell you it's probably one of the highest population of Mckin Vento students I have seen definitely in my time here in Goway
Township. But I can tell you in conversations with other superintendents uh as well as other administrators and other surrounding districts as a pre-k to 8 district, we have more McKin Vento students in our district than some of our larger counterparts that are prek to
12 districts. Okay? So I just want you to think about that for a second. That is an impact on our budget and it's also an unforeseen impact. The reason why I share that is because that's also part of this equation today when you start thinking about the things
we can control and can't control. Okay? In addition to the fact that it's also a sign of the times to be honest with you, right? We all see what's happening with inflation. We see what's happening now if you go and fill up your tank for gas, right? These are all things that impact
our Mckin Vento families. Again, it's not about them per se, but it's about the fact that it does impact us as a school district and our operating budget. Okay. Um, fund 20, as I talked about, is restricted funds. So, it's our local
student activity accounts, our any local small grants such as ed foundation grants, our preschool non-public which is a pass through um for us where the money comes into us but it's for them to spend and um it only them. And then we
have our federal um ESSA and IDA. I will point out that our federal grants, we were told this year to anticipate a reduction of at least 25% which is about $560,000 for our fiscal year 27 budget. Um and we
don't even know those allocations until May or June each year. I'd also point out that the 500 a lot of times people think of a of basically a fund 20 is well that's kind of federal money. It's like free money. We get to do what we want with it. That $560,000
reduction though. That's not just like money that we can't do without. Those are things that would go into um a lot of our our our title services. It may allow for professional development. all those types of things we then have to
project out and plan for. So, it's not like, oh, we just don't need that federal money. Um, it's going to impact how we operate and the things we can do to support not just our students, but more importantly our staff, right? Because I look at professional
development as growth for our staff. And I look at professional development similar to I would, you know, when you go to a doctor, I think we probably all ask, you know, those questions and want to make sure that you're putting yourself in the hands of somebody that knows what they're doing. And if they haven't been trained and been caught up
to speed on things for years and years and years, I don't know if I'm going to go in the operating room with them, right? The same goes for our staff. And this impacts even the opportunities we can provide to them through basically professional development funds that may
be cut. for fund 40. This is a summary showing um the last time that we had debt as a district was in the 23 24 school year. This was a very small amount of debt that we had for the solar panels that are on the GTMS roof. Um so as you can
see we have not had any debt as a district. Um although there's it's a positive thing normally when you think of no debt. Um, however, as a school district, I will point out that our facilities continue to get older and older, and most districts have debt that
they maintain because it allows you to maintain your buildings. Um, so by having debt, you are able to go out for um, a bond and you're able to have the state share the cost with you through the bond to
have facilities projects completed such as a new roof, a new chiller. Um, if you familiar with GTMS, you know that we had to replace the chiller and cooling tower here um, last year. So what thankfully we had capital reserve funds to do so
because that did cost over a million dollars. However, when you think of projects such as a roof here that would estimate a cost of $5 million that is not something that we have in capital reserve. Um so that's where the challenge lies. Plus, when you think of
spending the money for those projects, it is more beneficial to be able to go out, have a bond, and have the state cover 40% of that approved uh project such as a roof. So, it's something to think about for the future um as we
continue our annual uh facilities and finance meetings and budget discussions and things of that nature. >> So, I always I always usually put Mrs. Nixon on the spot and I say so debt service having no debt service is a
great thing until we have to do big projects right >> correct >> so from our lens this is great on paper but in it's bad in practicality so when we have to do a roof here at GTMS and we
have to do other major upgrades that could be very expensive like boilers and HVAC units and all these different things of your home, right? You try to project out jobs maybe you want to do in your own home. These buildings are no different. We want them to last for a
century, right? And they can as long as we can maintain them. From our lens, having no debt, unfortunately, becomes a challenge, right? So, I just want everyone to recognize that because again, other surrounding districts that
have debt oftent times will go out for a referendum. Those conversations usually to me are pretty simple. If a taxpayer is paying, let's just say $20 a year towards that bond. Well, let's just replace the $20 a year because we're
going to be able to get a new bond for the next 20 years or 30 years or whatever it might be, and we're going to be able to do millions upon millions of dollars of renovations and upgrades that are needed. All right? They're needed. They're not wants, they're needs, right?
we would never be asking for turf, right? We we would just be looking to upgrade our facilities. And unfortunately, we as a district don't have the ability to do that. So, we have to be very cognizant about our surplus. We have to be very cognizant about how
much money we have in a capital reserve because if that boiler goes all of a sudden, we have to have the ability to replace it. And we don't have the ability to do that right now through let's say a bond referendum without going to the taxpayer with what I
consider new money because the last big payment because this 177 that thousand that fell off that's that's peanuts. That's not going to get us a new roof. But when millions fell off, which would have been actually the payment years ago
on this school, unfortunately, that would have been the best time to replace that because it would have been the same money. Oh, you're used to paying $20 a year, let's say. We're just going to replace that $20 a year and look how much we're going to get over the next however many years. So that is
a challenge for us and I want to make sure that we keep that part of our conversation because unfortunately when we have conversations in finance and facilities these are things that come up with capital reserve monies. So here we have a table showing you our
fiscal year state aid for 26 versus 27. So we were very happy to see that we have an increase in state aid uh for this upcoming school year and budget. Um these are the categories of state aid um equalization aid, special ed aid,
security and transportation. Um we went from 29.2 million to 30.9 million which was an increase of about 1.7 million. When we look at our budget, it what the state calculates is something called an adequacy budget as well as local fair
share. So when they're determining the state aid that I just shared with you, the first item that I mentioned was equalization aid. So you can see in the table on the right hand side our proposed 2627 general fund tax levy plus
the equalization aid and that determines our adequacy budget. Your adequacy budget is what the state determines as the cost to adequately operate the school district based on our area, our enrollment and our needs. So they they
project our adequacy budget for 2627 to be 62.9 million. Um what you the next number is the budget that we are proposing to submit and then the negative amount of about 3.5 million is
the amount that we our proposed budget is below the expected local levy levy. So that means that the state looks at our budget as it's being submitted and says we we think that your local tax
levy could be increased an additional 3.5 million in addition to what we are presenting and proposing tonight and that you would still just have an at adequacy budget. So that is what they determine as your local fair share for
your municipality. So, local fair share adequacy. Um, there's obviously driving forces, what I'll call a formula, um, behind all of this. Um, but really, I think the the big takeaway here is is pretty simple
that we are running and operating a extremely efficient school district. I just want to be clear that according to the state, our total budget should be $3.5 million higher than what it
actually is. So, we are operating extremely efficiently. This next slide shows you our fiscical year 27 revenue increases and then our fiscical year 27 expenditure increases. So on the left
hand side you can see the 1.7 million in state aid increase. And then to break down the tax levy cap we have we know that we're allowed to increase the tax levy by 2%. And that 2% of the levy is 764,000.
Other allowances that allow us to go above 2% are a healthcare cost adjustment and we'll talk about the health care cost. Um you can see on the right hand side the increase is 17% or
2.2 million. Last year that increase was 1.1 million. So you can see the significance of the increase of the health care costs for from one year to the next when we look at this budget. So that increase in benefits for example of
2.2 2 million. When you look at the tax levy cap of 2% and 760,000, you can see how you're not able to balance a budget that way. So, what the state does is they allow a health care
cost adjustment and they calculate that for us. So, based on the state, they're saying we're allowed to increase above 2% by an additional 2.2 million. We also have available bank cap of 394,000.
That is from prior the last prior two years not utilizing all of the healthcare cost adjustment. But when you think of that and look at the difference, you can see just how significant fiscal year 27 health care costs are for the state to even allow
calculation of 2.2 million. So, our total levy available to us tonight is $3.36 million. However, what we are recommending and what we have presented as a balanced budget is the 2% plus $1
million of that additional adjustment available for a total of 1.76 million. So, that how does that affect a home assessed $200,000? It is an increase of $61.79
a year or $5.15 per month. I'll go back to in expenditure increases. So we have our salaries and benefits as I showed on that chart which account for 80% of the budget and you
can see those increases account for $33 million. We also have transportation as the other major item um which is an increase at CPI of 3.58% that comes out from the state which is equivalent to 215,000.
Um utilities has been on here the last two years because that has really increased and had h has had an impact on the budget as well um as well as your home. So I know you're familiar. Um so that increases about a 100,000. And then for student services and special
education costs, we have an increase of 750,000 um on that side as well. So, as you can see, if you add up all the major items of increases, we're over we're at about $4.4 million in increases.
And then on the revenue side, we're re recommending a $1.7 million in increase um to help offset the increase in expenses. And and as we mentioned when we first started the the biggest impact here you know collective bargaining is
one thing that's salaries that's just the increase there but more importantly the health benefits I mean it jumps off the page right last year 9% increase we were actually I was falling off my chair with a 9% increase last year at over a million dollars initially I have to I
have to give credit where credit's due as well Mrs. Nixon and her office continuing to work with our Brener, our vendor, Brown and Brown, for um really just trying to hone in on our health uh healthc care coverage and having conversations with them over and over
and over again like she like you she has plenty to do every day, trust me. And she is going back to them, negotiating, having conversations. And we initially started at 27%. 27%.
Because of her work and her team's work, we're down to 17%. And in essence, that was savings of over another million dollars right there. But we're still almost double what we were last year. And student services and special education is is another um increase that
we see. And and that's due to a variety of different factors. is due to first preschool expansion. I can tell you right now, we want to get kids in a seat. I want to get to a full universe. We want to continue to expand. I think it's the best thing that we can do. But
what that comes with is also us identifying students even earlier and then having to basically provide programs that are to help support students with special needs for instance. Um so those are things that are happening. Um, and ultimately
recognizing other needs of our students and trying to get creative with our new director and our new supervisor in place, recognizing that guess what? There probably is value into having an ERRI program again at the early childhood level. Why? Because it allows
us to keep also some students in district to best support them here rather than sending them out of district. So those are all things that are parts of this equation. there's some additions in order to try to make programmatic decisions to help us
continue to grow uh in the future. >> So, this breaks down our increases um our state aid 1.7 million, our expenditures on that previous slide of 4.3 million. So, we still had a deficit of 2.6 million.
As we work through the process, um what we determined is that we were recommending a tax levy increase of 2% plus partial health care cost adjustment of the 1.7 million. And then our new adjusted deficit would be 872,000
um that we work through as an administrative team to work to find efficiencies to then balance the budget um on both sides. and and a lot of that work every year when we see this number of adjusted deficit that's that's also showing that our administrative team and
our staff we're also doing our work because I've been charged with operating an efficient district. I've also tried to make sure that I'm doing everything I can to not just provide a program that is meeting the needs of our students and all of our students but also being
fiscally responsible to taxpayers. So when you see $872,000 here, that's on us. We're going to identify efficiencies, whether it's through different schedule changes, whether we're looking at projected enrollment, which we do every other
month practically all year long. We're projecting enrollment out. And there's not too many other school districts that do that. And we do that because we want to be able to identify efficiencies. Why? Again, because I have a responsibility to taxpayers. and we want
to do our part. So, we're figuring out how to address this 100 872,000 and that's the work that we've already done behind the scenes as well. The other thing that we're going to mention, and we just put this up here as a reminder for last year, it's hard to
see, but last year, not in the March presentation, but in the May budget hearing. Okay. In between that time, between March and May, the state came out with a one-time basically incentive. And this one-time
incentive was for a variety of different school districts, and we were one. And it kind of goes back to the adequacy conversation. And what this basically says, and I'll just point out the line that says maximum additional expenditure request.
Galloway and I'll say the state of New Jersey had this incentive and I I always say they they basically dangled that carrot in front of us and that carrot was if you want to you can go to your board and you can basically levy this isn't
free money this would have gone to the taxpayers you can levy $7.5 million when we had that conversation with the board and the finance committee There were two things really really one
that I'll focus on but the primary reason why we didn't do that not just because we're trying to be fiscally responsible but more important from an ethical standpoint as superintendent I turned to the finance committee and the board and I
said ethically we were charged with balancing a budget in March of last year we submitted that budget to the county. We did our job. And did I love every decision we had to make to get there?
No, I don't love every decision we had to make to get there. But we did our job. So there is no way that I was going to make a recommendation to this board of education last year to use a penny of that money to go back out to the taxpayers and say, "Oh, by the way, fake
news is actually going to be more money on your tax levy because they just gave us this incentive because we did what we needed to do." And I want to be clear that not every district in this surrounding area did that, but we did
because again, I want to pro put put a program in place that meets our kids' needs, but I also want to be fiscally responsible. So, with that, we have our recommendation, and as Mrs. Nixon has stated, it's a tax levy at 2%. is the
partial healthc care adjustment of a million dollars. It's a total of 1.764. And really what that means, as she mentioned before, it's a 3.69 tax increase and approximately $5.15 a
month. That goes for your average $200,000 assessed home. Okay, that is the recommendation for tonight. And for the board of education, this is what the resolution would read. the remaining budget timeline. You can
see here just a couple more dates. Uh obviously, uh Mrs. Nixon after this evening and after our vote, she still has work to do. This has to be submitted to the county office for review by March 27th. In March and April, it gets reviewed and then approved. And then our
regular public hearing is then on May 4th. and that will happen again here in public with the board of education at our regular meeting. So, first and foremost, Mrs. Nixon, thank you to you and your team because
um like I said earlier, this is this has certainly been a challenging year for a variety of reasons. Um, and ultimately, uh, the work that she and her team puts into this, I don't think I don't think there's enough time in in one person's day to be able to quantify how much work
a business administrator and her team has to do to prepare a budget like this. In addition to our team and our administrative team, many of whom are here tonight, um, who worked, and trust me, they know the deal. I throw them in a room and I say, "We're figuring this out and nobody's leaving until it's
done, right? Because we just get it done and that's what we do." But it's it's a lot of hard work and time and energy that goes into that. And I also want to thank the board for their support for the continued conversations whether in finance and other meetings that we have committee meetings to make sure that
everybody has a true understanding of what we're trying to present in order to have a balanced budget. So thank you. >> Thank you. Uh Mrs. Nixon and Mr. Santilly. Do any board members have any question for the uh for the team? All
right. Uh, hearing none, I again want to thank you guys for the exceptional amount of work you've done to get us to this point. Uh, it was uh to to describe it as a herculean task understates the amount of work and the things that you've done. Thank you so much.
We are now moving to the part of the meeting which is public comment for agenda items only. By that I mean that over the next about 10 agenda items the board is going to be asked to vote on various items. This is a time for the public to comment on
those items so the board can hear what the public has to say about those items. Later in the meeting there will be time for general public comment. The board values and welcomes comments and opinions from residents. This meeting now will be open to public comments, three minutes per person for
agenda items only. Public comments on non-aggenda items will be available at the end of the meeting. If your questions pertain to litigation, student or personnel matters, please see the superintendent after the meeting as the board is unable to discuss these matters in public. Depending on the nature and
complexity of your questions, the board secretary may ask for your contact information so that someone can get back to you with a response. As a reminder, this is a public meeting and all comments should be appropriate for a public setting and made in a respectful
manner. Please come to the podium, state your full name and address and sign in. Is there any public comment at this point? Seeing none, we'll move on to the next item on the agenda, which is the budget submission.
Then item 5.1 is the submission of the 2026 2027 school budget to the county office. If I could have a motion and a second to approve that submission. >> So moved.
>> Any discussion by any members of the board? Roll call, please. >> Mrs. Chester, >> yes. >> Dr. Permener, >> yes. >> Mrs. Avery, >> yes. >> Mrs. Hermanale, >> yes. >> Mrs. Hank, >> yes. >> Mr. Dace,
>> yes. >> Vice President Basher Blau, >> and President Gentiel, >> yes. Moving on to the superintendent's report. >> So, at this time, we have our attorney's report from Miss Halke Elkco. >> Good [clears throat] evening everyone.
Since the last time we were here, I've had the opportunity to work with the district on contractual matters, lots of construction matters, um, employment matters, and student matters. Thank you. >> All right. Item 6.2, 2. Our student enrollment report, out of district
suspension report, and harassment, intimidation, and bullying report areformational items for the board and are attached within. Uh, no votes needed. >> Thank you. Item number seven, curriculum and instruction. >> So, at this time, we'd be looking to
move items 7.1 through 7.3 as listed and attached. >> Could I have a motion to approve 7.1 through 7.3 inclusive and a second? >> So, move. Any discussion by any members of the board? Hearing none, can I have a roll call,
please? >> Mrs. Chester, >> yes. >> Dr. Permener, >> yes. >> Mrs. Avery, >> yes. >> Mrs. Hermanel, >> yes. >> Mrs. Hank, >> yes. >> Mr. Dase, >> yes. >> Vice President Basher Blau, >> yes. >> And President Gentiel,
>> yes. Moving on to finance and facilities. I understand there was a finance and facility committee meeting. Mr. days. You have anything uh by way of report to the board? >> Not really. We discussed the budget and everything. We discussed the facilities, excuse [clears throat] me, especially Arthur Ran and given updates on
everything. So, no questions, no problems. >> Okay. Thank you. Did any anybody have any questions for Mr. Days? Hearing none, we'll move on to the substantive items. >> Thank you. Items 8.2 through 8.24 24 are
up for your approval. >> Could I have a motion and a second to approve finance and and facilities items 8.2 through 8.24 inclusive? >> So move second. >> Any comment from any members of the board?
>> I have a comment or a question actually. Um can uh Mr. Santilly, can you explain the child care program? Is there a change for next year's childare? the after school before. >> So you're you're talking about the RFP.
>> Um see 8.10. >> Yes. >> So yes. So ultimately the uh RFP is awarding uh a um basically proposal that was submitted um for right at school for
the child care service. Uh ultimately right now we function uh with an enterprise fund and um you know that enterprise fund has done very well. We've done great with our before and afterare program as well as our summer camp. Um, one of the things that we plan on doing uh because within the
enterprise fund uh ultimately the money within the enterprise fund the revenue that's generated can only be used for child care for instance. >> So this gives the district an opportunity. One of the things that I often will say during a budget presentation is that as a school district, unlike a township or other
entities, we don't have the ability to generate revenue. Um, and that holds true. However, this particular opportunity allows for us to generate revenue. So, part of the proposal in the RFP allowed for um a variety of vendors
to submit um with their proposals for the district to be able to see u what they had to offer. But more importantly, it's going to become a new revenue source because it's not going to be an enterprise fund. >> Okay? >> Any revenue that comes in, the district
will be able to use. >> So the people that work at the child care program currently, they would have to apply to like you understand what I'm saying? >> Yep. So, one of the things within a couple contingencies uh within this RFP,
uh one of the contingencies within the RFP was that our staff that currently work before care, after care, summer camp, and so on have the right of first refusal. So that would mean that anybody that chooses to continue to support uh
that program would have the ability to apply for uh their position with right at school if they are awarded this and ultimately they'd have the opportunity to continue working in the same capacity. The only difference is that they wouldn't be working for the school district. They'd be working for this
vendor. Okay. >> Um so that was a contingency. The second contingency that I think is important to note is the fact that we partner with Rucker's child care network and that was [clears throat] excuse me that was another contingency that was in the proposal for the RFP and ultimately
families that qualify for the child care network oftent times have um their before care afterare or summer camp paid for through that subsidy. Uh so that had to be also part of it. uh a variety of different vendors that submitted. This
particular vendor I know has other options um in terms of their pricing structure. So for instance um I'm going to try to remember a few. I believe there's a military discount at 10% for families. I believe there is a um
employee discount. So if you're an employee of the school district, I believe it's a 50% discount now. Uh which we were not able to offer uh that steep of a discount before. Um, so there's a variety of different things uh like that that are built into a proposal like this. >> Thank you.
>> You're welcome. >> Any other comment by board members? >> Hearing none. Can I have roll call, please? >> Mrs. Chester, >> yes. >> Dr. Permener, >> yes. >> Mrs. Avery, >> yes. >> Mrs. Hermanale, >> yes. >> Mrs. Hank,
>> yes. >> Mr. D, >> yes. >> Vice President Blouse, >> yes. and President Gentiel. >> Yes. Moving on to item number nine, personnel. >> All right. So, item 9.1 is retirements is a resolution to accept with regret
the letter of intent to retire from the Goway Township Public School. Uh for the following staff members, their dedication and years of service are certainly appreciated. First, we have Elfie Elling Reeds Road part-time classroom assistant with eight years in
the district. We have Patricia Gorman, district employee data specialist and technical assistant with 22 years in the district. And Nicole Naylor, GTMS, special education teacher with 25 years in the district. We thank you all for
your years of service. >> Thank you. Can I have a motion and a second to approve item 9.2? >> So move. >> Any comments from the board? Hearing none. Can I have a roll call, please? >> Mrs. Chester,
>> yes. >> Dr. Permentor, >> yes. >> Mrs. Avery, >> yes. >> Mrs. Hermanau, >> yes. >> Mrs. Hank, >> yes. >> Mr. Dace, >> yes. With regret. >> Vice President Basher Blau, >> yes. >> And President Gentiel, >> yes.
>> Yes. Thank you. >> At this at this time, we'd like to move items 9.3 through 9.9 as listed and attached. I have a motion and a second to uh move uh 9.9 to 9.3 to 9.9. Thank you.
>> So move second. >> Any comment from the board? Hearing none. Can I have a roll call, please? >> Mrs. Chester, >> yes. >> Dr. Permentor, >> yes. >> Mrs. Avery, >> yes. >> Mrs. Herman, >> yes. >> Mrs. Hank, >> yes.
>> Mr. D, >> yes. >> Vice President Basher Blau, >> yes. and President Gentiel. >> Yes. >> At this time, I'd like to give a warm welcome to Adam Dembrosia. I think Adam is here. Why don't you give a wave? Congratulations. He's going to be
filling in uh for a leave position. So, thank you very much for your service. Congrats. Moving on to uh section 10 policy. Uh was there a policy committee uh meeting this month? Um yes, we met on March 19th for about
an hour to review and discuss both new policies and revised policies on the agenda. Um there are two revised policies that only require one reading. Um and additionally, there are two new policies that the committee reviewed and discussed that are being presented to the board of education for first
reading. Um these new policies don't have any new language um bold um or any old language that's stried out um that's being removed because they're new. Okay. Thank you. Can I have a motion to approve policy
items for first reading 10.5 through 10.6? >> So move >> 10.2 through um 10.2 through 10.3. >> I'm going to withdraw that and a motion for 10.2 through 10.3.
>> I'll make a motion again. >> Second. >> Any comments? Hearing none. Can I have a roll call, please? >> Mrs. Chester, >> yes. >> Dr. Prime, >> yes. >> Mrs. Avery,
>> yes. >> Mrs. Hermanale, >> yes. >> Mrs. Hank, >> yes. >> Mr. Dace, >> yes. >> Vice President Basher Blau, >> yes. >> And President Gentiel, >> yes. And now, can I have a motion to approve policy items for first reading
10.5 and 10.6? So move >> any comments hearing none. Can I have roll call, please? >> Mrs. Chester, >> yes. >> Doc, >> Dr. Permentor, >> yes. >> Mrs. Avery,
>> yes. >> Mrs. Hermanel, >> I abstain only because I didn't have a chance to read it. Thank you. >> Mrs. Hank, >> yes. >> Mr. Dace, >> yes. >> Vice President Basher Blau, >> yes. and President Gentiel. >> Yes.
>> Yes. Moving on to old business. >> At this time, we'd like to approve items 11.1 and 11.2 as listed and attached. >> Can I have a motion and second to approve uh old business items 11.1 through 11.2? >> So move.
>> Second. >> Any comment? Hearing none. Can I have a roll call, please? >> Mrs. Chester, >> yes. >> Dr. Permener, >> yes. >> Mrs. Avery, >> yes. Mrs. Hermanau, >> yes. >> Mrs. Hank, >> yes. >> Mr. Dace,
>> yes. >> Vice President Basher Blau, >> yes. >> And President Gentiel, >> yes. Moving on to item 12, new business. >> At this time, we'd like to approve item 12.1. >> I have a motion and second to approve news business item 12.1.
>> So move. >> Second. >> Any comment? Hearing none. Can I have a roll call, please? Mrs. Chester, >> yes. >> Dr. Permentor, >> yes. >> Mrs. Avery, >> yes. >> Mrs. Hermanale,
>> yes. >> Mrs. Hank, >> yes. >> Mr. Dace, >> yes. >> Vice President Basher Blau, >> yes. >> And President Gentiel, >> yes. >> Moving on to item number 13, board informationational items. >> So, we have our revised board calendar
is attached in 13.1 and some special events in 13.2. We certainly encourage the board and our public to join us. We have a variety of different events happening um from multicultural nights to steam nights that remain um a bunch of spring concerts coming up uh in
addition to the um education foundation people of the year and retirement reception on May 1st. Um, however, the one that's right in front of us this week and a big one is March Madness, our community basketball game with Goway
Township verse the Goway Township Police Department. Now, I think we have to remind everybody that we hung in there last year and we only lost by one point right down to the wire at the buzzer. So, we're looking for redemption this year. Um, and it's going to be at
Absagami High School. So, we want to thank them for accommodating. Uh because of our large crowd that we received last year, uh we are going to be uh having that take place at the Absigami High School Gymnasium. >> Thank you.
The next section of the meeting is public comment. The board values and welcomes comments. I'm sorry. >> Excuse me. I have a comment. >> Sorry. >> On the revised board calendar, >> you got it. >> Do the schools send out revised calendars to every parent? Are these
physically sent out or is it emailed? >> Are you talking about the revised calendar of the board meetings or the district calendar? >> The district calendar. >> The district calendar. Yes, we email that out.
What if parents don't get the email when you first send the calendar out? Isn't it a hard copy? >> The first calendar of the year is a hard copy. >> No, I think it's uh also emailed out, text, email, it's on the web page. Um so
it's in a variety of different places. Um if anyone needs a hard copy, we'd be more than happy to give them one. Um but we do send it out. Usually, we'll even send a call that says for them to check their email. Um, which would obviously prompt them to to reach out should they
need one. But we don't typically run copies for every student to bring home. I asked because of the change in the date from March the 16th when that was originally scheduled as the inservice day and then it was
changed for a makeup day. I think that it should have been a hard copy sent out just because it was so close in time. Anybody have anything else? Okay, moving on to public comment. The board values and welcomes comments and
opinions from residents. Committee now will be open to public comments. Three minutes per person. If your questions pertain to litigation, student or personnel items, please see the superintendent after the meeting as the board is unable to comment on these matters in public. Depending on the nature and complexity of your questions,
the board secretary may ask for your contact information so that someone can get back to you with a response. As a reminder, this is a public meeting and all comments should be appropriate for a public setting and made uh in a respectful manner. Please come up to the podium, state your full name and address
and sign in. Any public comment this evening? Seeing none, we'll move on to the uh next agenda item, which is for the good of the order. And uh do any board members have any uh any items they'd like to raise to the board for the uh
the good of the board? >> Yes, >> I I do have another comment. >> Oh, I'm sorry. >> I would like to um thank the school business administrator, the administrators, school administrators, and Mrs. Antilly for preparing such a difficult to fathom budget and making it
work. So, thank you very much for your hard work. >> Anybody else? >> Uh, I attended the middle school play on Thursday night and it was wonderful. We have very many talented kids and the play was written
by Mr. Conover and Mr. Garrison. It was really cool to see that come together. Thank you. Anybody else? >> Jim, Richard, >> I also attended the school play on Saturday afternoon and I can't explain or can't really say how great the
students were in their singing and their acting and I one more can I say that's our kids. It's our future and they're all great. Thank you. Any other members? Okay.
Is there executive session tonight? >> There is not. >> Okay. There's no executive session. >> Could I have a motion to adjourn the meeting? >> All in favor? I I >> Thank you everybody.