this meeting has been provided to the retrospect of The Courier Post say legal ads on March 11th 2025 uh roll [Music] call all right and we typically open
with the Pledge of Allegiance we don't have a flag in here where's your flag where's flag yeah so if you can just stand and rest your eyes to the to the stage to the flag of the United States of
America and the stands na indiv andice all okay thank you this Miss hle and um IID like to take an opportunity to welcome our community to this uh evening
which is going to be uh a community Forum uh to to build some understanding about where we are in the budget process I'd like to begin uh by commending the Board of Education who's sitting to my right for encouraging me and deciding
amongst themselves to have this community Forum because this is a very unique setting for this time of the year um in most cases not only in our County but across the state of New Jersey boards are usually hunkered down in conference rooms uh on evenings like
tonight trying to wrestle with cuts or state aid adjustments and um this particular board has taken a different approach and the approach is now let's hear from our community first before we dve into the
tenative process for constructing uh a budget so um it's it's an interesting it's a bold approach it's the right approach especially in hat Township where the strength of our school district is our community and I hope that the strength of our
community is our school district so without further Ado um I'm going to get into this presentation and as I begin to talk I would expect you to have questions as you have questions I'm going to ask that you write your
question down on the index card just for the sake of time which will allow me to move through the presentation a little bit more fluidly then Mr shorter is going to read each question um and we'll
I'll do my best uh to answer it the second part of the meeting after we take a pause we will move into the public comment section where each member of the audience will have an opportunity to make a public comment to the Board of
Education um in anticipation of us moving into tomorrow night's follow-up discussion at our board meeting uh we're as in the middle anywhere in the first time folks uh so that's that's a little bit about the format for tonight and um
my first time doing this and I think it's our first time doing it as a district thank you very much for taking interest and without further delay I'm going to move into the very first slide so the purpose of tonight is to understand our budget deficit to explore
some options that we have there are some choices that this board of education is going to make those choices are going to be shaped by the community's uh opinions we value your input and I'm looking forward to defining uh the next
steps so the current landscape of public education um we're frequently quinting the time that this is the most rup of time uh in in the history of uh modern education there's a convergence of factors occurring the long-term impacts
of Co the escalating Mental Health crisis the looming teacher shortage price gouging really for the fellow Educators that are in the room in the audience um the slide says Rising prices of goods and services I'm going to call for what it is price
gouging continued search for solutions to school security not only physical security and psychological security for every one of our students but now we're dealing with technological security there was over 110 attempted hits on our
school network we traced IP addresses and they were all coming from outside the country earlier in the school year so school security is now taking a little bit different type of meaning besides just hardening our our entrances
and our exits our exits many school districts such as ours are are having a local budget crisis which comes down to this change of what the state is referring to as the local fair share and what's also potentially on the
horizon that will affect us is the potential elimination of the national Department of Education we annually receive about a million dollars in federal funds which we are certainly counting on as part of next year's budget but at this point are still not
guaranteed and that variable is not part of tonight's discussion let's move into understanding uh the actual budget deficit so here's the bottom line up front here's the problem you know for
the scientists that are in the room you know scientific method Mr Mulligan's over there you know he teaches the scientific method the first thing we're going to do is kind of Define the problem so one year ago in February of 2024 We unexpectedly
shockingly lost $86,000 in state a through contesting that reduction and a series of testimony before the state senate committee and a
variety of advocacy with our local senators and legislators we were restored by 45% and many of you um that came to some of the meetings last spring May remember
uh that 45% was utilized specifically to minimize some of the Staffing cuts that were preliminarily made after we restored those cuts I received a letter from the New Jersey Department of Education that said Dear
Mr superintendent with the 45% funds that will return you must utilize those funds to restore staing of course that's what we were going to utilize those funds for why that's important it's be it's
for you to understand that the state of New Jersey understood where that money went specifically the students uh Staffing and student programs the reason why that's significant is one year later when we
were reduced another 3% $274,000 an additional state aid the state also took the 362,000 that was previously awarded to
us specifically for statue we're contesting that but the unfortunate total new one-year total is 637000 that's now projected for next
year in withdrawn state aid support that two year reduction totals to $1,800,000 the story gets a little bit worse when we
initially propose um contested this reduction we receive a data sheet from the state which basically said that the reduction should have been $1 million
more and the only reason that it was $274,000 less instead of $1.2 million less is because Governor Murphy had imposed a 3% cap on any reduction for
this annual year so that means we have to brace a little bit for opening our schools in September and also Beyond it's important for you to know this this is the information that I have and it's
important for me to tell you honestly and transparently news whether it's good news or bad news ultimately all of this boils down to one variable in the state
former the state of New Jersey is deeming our community's local fair share as insufficient and the the variable that we're using is the aggregate income as
the key metric we don't think it's fair we have told everyone that we could Poss that will listen to us that the total aggregate income is not the right variable it's the total income in the
whole town it doesn't wash any of the outliers it doesn't make any logical sense yet we're stuck with it the other thing we're stuck with is a twoe turnaround timeline to submit a
tentative budget to the county okay um that I want to stress the word tentative because the state is allowing us some flexibility um on changing the budget from the one that's going to be
submitted very soon to the one that we're going to have another public hearing on uh in the month of April okay okay so I've already explained that we're facing a budget deficit between $2 million and $4 million so so which one
is it right um the rest of the presentation will explain to you where I think where this could land and a lot has to do with the choices that are made over the next 30 to 45
days our district state aid if things continue to hold true to what the the um the state of New Jersey forecast will return to 2009 levels while operational costs have
significantly increased now what's making this problem an even more compounded problem is what we went through as a district and as a community last year we reduced programs we reduced Staffing we
reduced textbooks we cut all permanent substitute teaching positions we reduced all supplies eliminated all curriculum purchases eliminated all professional development increased tuition cost for
out of District students and increased tuition for preschool fames those reductions have put us in a position where there's not very much much more to
consider off the top and I think you understand that looking at the faces that are in the room tonight there's a lot of familiar faces so I won't spend a lot of time here I think you understand that there's not much left to
cut there are some other factors that are driving the deficit over the past 5 years or so we have been spending down our fund balance you may recall the conversation a few years ago our high fund balance was being utilized to plug
holes in the budget uh because we have been restricted by this 2% cap every year which we'll talk about and we have Escala costs in every single budget line item not only regular education but
special education our out of District placements our operations and maintenance our transportation costs and our health benefits are also skyrocketing just as everything in this country is skyrocketing and in our area
after Co I've already mentioned that adding to this deficit is the withdra support of the 45% restored funds from last year from the state and this backto back years of reduction totaling more than $1
million there are 600 School districts in the state of New Jersey only 47 of them have lost funding in backto back consecutive years and we're one of 47 here's the concerning new
trend I hope that you can see the two lines the blue line is our local tax levy which this school board has raised by about 2% every single year going back to 20
134 which is the maximum amount that the school board has been able to raise the tax revenue if you follow that blue line all the way to about 2022 23 and then even
2324 you'll see the red line which is the community's local fair share the amount of tax dollars that the state is claiming that we should be taxing our community
at is about the same it's not a perfect 2% increase but if this were a math class well P Howen is here um and we were graphing a slope of the line right the red line you know probably partial
credit if that's the answer what happens now in 2024 in 2025 the local fair share is jumping at a drastically High rate compared to our
2% local tax level so according to the state instead of taxing our community $34 million we are taxing our community at $28 million therefore our commun is not
paying its fair share to support our educational system and therefore they are removing their state aid not only in hand Township it's happening down the street in chury Hill it's happening in glester county and
Washington Township it's happening in clear viiew Regional School District this is not a discriminatory issue specifically aimed at hand Township this formula is heard in middle class
District middle class communities upper middle upper middle class communities across our state of New Jersey and most of them happen to be uh in the Southern and Southern New Jersey the current state aid formula
reveals this widening gap between the local tax levy and the fair share now here is the ironic part that our vice president miss Desi has been wanting to make this point probably for the last 10 minutes had the state
not put into effect the 2% cap back in 1314 school boards like the one we have here in Haden Township would have been able to thoughtfully increase or decrease local fair share according to
our ability and our goals to meet the needs of our instructional program but by capping the maximum increase at 2% that's the issue that created this gap between local fair share and the
local tax level now on the state side of that debate they'll say well they didn't have any idea that a district like hi Township was going to increase so much in aggregate income nevertheless here's where we are with a significant Challenge on our
hands you'll see on the right hand side in the Box on the right it says adjusted state aid so our total state aid for this year is going to be 8,882 however the state has spoken loud
to and clear to miss go or business administrator that if this formula was properly funded and had not been for governor Murphy's 3% C on reductions that we would have been
funded at a total amount of $7 million $816,000 $1 million less that is a projection of where we're going superintendent up the street in broon County who's been similarly affected uh leny Regional School
District colleague of mine Carol bir bomb who's been snake pitten by this formula for more years than us has point the phrase at least in an email to a group of superintendent she's said you know Bob this is really going to be a raise to zero eventually uh in districts
uh such as ours so we have to be prepared in the [Music] future so what does being prepared look like being prepared looks like a
combination of two choices two bad choices and that is reducing costs or raising taxes I'm putting four options before the community tonight one of them is not
a real option the fourth one and there may be a variety of uh a hybrid of the first story let me show you where we would be with a 2% um increase but before I get that before I get to that
slide there are some potential strategy that we're going to utilize to soften the blow of this year's either reductions or tax increase okay there are some preliminary strategies that we can use and these are
very important number one we're going to ask all vendors to reduce their costs by 10% so whether it's our website platform or our computer Management Systems we're going to discuss the uh
conundrum that we're in and ask them to consider reducing cost by 10% we think that could generate almost $100,000 in additional savings right off the bat next there is an ability for us to
borrow against the referendum one of the projects that I think is important to this community that the community voted for is um the repair and reg raing and reconstruction of the lower Rino Fields
And if you have kids that have played in those fields you know it's a mud pit and we're hoping to fix that area we have $1.6 million in that lineup that project seems to be held up
with the D who is examining how much of that area is particularly wets we can't take that money that's designated for lower Rino repairs
and use it to offset our gaps but we may be able to borrow some of it to Kick the Can down the road a year or so because I don't think we're going to be able to begin that work anytime soon if you know
anything about the D and how busy they are so we may be able to utilize some of that money for one budget year and plan for the reduction in that area in future years we have
$500,000 in an account Mark for unemployment benefits this is an emergency account if we have to lay folks off to pay out um the unemployment cost of doing that that's a significant amount of
money considering to what one individual would be paid for one year of unemployment which I think is about 2 $7,000 what I think the board should consider is using some of that money to
plug the holes in this uh in this budget because we've never had to pay that amount out before and it's either we're going to be paying to continue with the levels of staff that we have or paying them in unemployment I'd rather continue with some a lot of the Staffing that we
have we do have an ability to utilize some interest in the bond investment uh tomorrow night that's on the agenda Mrs G Mrs G is going to be explaining that to the board we're investing in arm uh which will allow us to tap into some of those
funds and I plan on lobbying the state for permission to consider allowing us to use $300,000 in capital reserves this is on paper not permitted you know when you're you know counting one or one class in school Finance um but we're in
such uncharted waters that you know I think think it's worth asking for a waiver to be able to tap into this particular account especially because we have such a large referendum that's currently happening and any type of capital expense is already planned for as part
of a referendum so at least a portion of that money and then just on Friday the 14th uh we received an email from the executive County business administrator that said if the district utilizes Bank
cap there's a new state program that has been developed in the last 7 Days apparently that's going to distribute $20 million to over a 100 districts about 175 districts I cannot determine based on the email and I have it in
front of me whether we would qualify for a million dollar in additional state aid were as low as $226,000 and I have to tell you I don't have a lot of confidence in the state coming to rescue us okay but that is an
important part of this discussion tonight and I'll get to that some additional considerations that we're thinking about that would bring immediate cash into the district would
be to sell the school bus fleet for a lump sum we sold the school bus fleet we could potentially lease them back on a yearly basis probably a bad long-term strategy but it helps us preserve uh funding for next
school year in the immediate future we could think about returning to half day kindergarten I don't think anybody on the board or or me really like this idea uh but the district was doing quite well uh you know over 5 years ago before we went to full day kindergarten I think
full day kindergarten has helped the district move forward undoubtedly but it's just not required by the state of New Jersey and by local districts so if we didn't at least mention it as a cost saing opportunity I think it would be short
cited we are going to consider selling the board office property for a lump sum that's not as easy to do um as it may seem I spoke with the mayor about that this morning and we have some ideas there may be an opportunity to
revisit some Elementary School configurations that would be for the the 2026 2027 school year our enrollment is not low it's not at a point where we would consider closing the
school but if we reconfigure to some type of grade level configuration in 2627 there may be a cost savings opportunity there I don't think it's going to be large I think it would be under a half a million dollars but I
think it's at least worth considering considering from the cost savings me as a cost savings measure this budget is due to the county tomorrow March 19th at midnight but it's a preliminary
budget okay at our last board meeting my advice to the Board of Education was let's not submit the budget on the 19th let's delay and we called around and say you know what happens if we delay even the
10th budget I don't think anybody's going to come do any harm to us but I think the reason why to submit a tenative budget that can be drastically changed is because if we
don't here's your answer we're going to take ourselves out of contention for being able to receive and participating in this new state program that is aimed to distribut an additional 20 million so whether it's
26,000 or a million we need it right so I think we have to submit some type of pen of budget uh tomorrow evening so we're that will um initiate our participation and
asking the state um to consider us for additional plan okay option one if the board does what the board most boards have continued to do
throughout the last decade here's where we are it would be a flat 2% tax increase now when we say 2% increase do not think about your
Total Property Tax Bill and add 2% the 2% is on the School portion of your tax bill the School portion of your tax bill is about 55% of the total
bill so if you do the math in your head 2% of 55% right if fall Park a little easier take your tax bill split in half in your head add 2% right that would be the traditional
increase in the the case of an average successed home at $455,000 that monthly increase would be $7 a month or $93 a year now the challenge with that
is if we only increase School tax by 2% that would result in a $4 million deficit that we would have to make up uh with a significant amount of
reductions and I don't think that you or me or the board would recognize the district in September um it's a very difficult option uh for what we would have to do the next option would be to utilize
what we call Bank cap so Bank cap is generated and having Township when we have not utilized you know the health care savings adjustment this is money that we already have that's not free
money but it's money that the state will allow us to bring into the tax increase to make it a 99.3% tax increase this is exactly what the state is asking us to do
tentatively in order for us to participate in that tax levy incentive program for them to consider us for additional funding so the state's basically saying at minimum Mr superintendent you have to and your
school board you have to at least use the money that you have available to you in Bank cap to increase your local fair share before we even consider allowing you to participate in this program if we
do that that would mean the monthly increase is 36 per month $434 per year we significant now that gets us to between a $1 million
and $2 million budget shortfall so which is it I think it's going to be closer to two but if the state wraps up a million dollars for us then it could be $1 million right now we have very little way of knowing how much they would
contribute if we took the first step what they would take for the Second Step so the question is the email I received from a lot of parents is you know we don't want any reductions right we love our school district we don't
want to any reductions what is the maximum increase that we would have to absorb so there are no cuts at all uh to the school district so I'm going to answer that question I don't think the board is going to consider this as an option
uh but I want to answer the question honestly and transparently for you and that would take a 17.4% tax increase this year what that would do was increase monthly taxes for the average sucess
loan to $67 per month $810 for the year utilizes the $1 M9 million in Bank cap and it took balances our budget for
2526 with one Aster assuming no change to Federal Aid now remember we accept a million dollars from the federal government and idea funds there's a lot of
conjecture that the national Department of Education is at risk for total elimination there's speculation that New Jersey may not not receive any of the $18 billion that we
receive in K to 12 public education from the federal government I don't believe that this will happen but I think it could be delayed okay we are certainly in Uncharted times if we were to go this route of
increasing the local tax levy by 177% or even anything above 9 .3% it would require some type of State endorsed pathway which I've been told is coming for
districts that have the following characteristics that spend below adequacy which we do we spend below adequacy and we are and districts that are below local fair share which we
are that pathway is not a on my desk or on my computer yet I'm told it's coming I'm not over promising the ability to raise taxes by 177% I'm not advocating to raise taxes by 177% I'm
simply answering the question of what it would take to balance this budget without any reductions and the last option which is not an option but what increase does the state believe should occur in add
District such as hi Township with our total aggregant income after they've calculated it there's an answer to that question the answer is a 31.8% increase which would take us every
home that was assessed of $455,000 to a yearly increase of $1,500 that's unfortunately where we could be headed if the trajectory of the blue line and
the red line don't change now the reason why this isn't even remotely possible right now is because this would provide us with a 3.8 million surplus it's not realistic and
it's not needed but if continued reductions occur over one year 2 year 5 year 10 year this race to zero comes true this is really where we could be going as a community
unfortunately so I'm hoping you're writing some questions down Shantel I think we can start collecting them I'm near the end of my presentation we have really three options or somewhere in between them you
a local a flat 2% increase which would cost $4 million worth of cuts 99.3% tax increase which would put us somewhere between 1 and2 million but with some of
the strategies I mentioned at the beginning or in the middle of that deck maybe less or a 177% increase what would make us hope we're somewhere in the middle of that right so typically as I started off
discussing the board would be in a room trying to figure this out tonight right what the community could absorb we're opting to do it with the community so we could get input from you
in terms of what do you think the board should consider we're not talking tomorrow night in terms of positions we're simply talking tomorrow night in terms of what should the denominator look like after
we decide what the denominator is then in the weeks and the months moving up to the public hearing we will discuss the more painful we will have the conversations where the more painful work is where will the cuts actually
occur that's not part of tonight's meeting that's not part of tonight's discussion we're simply trying to determine what is the tax increase that this community can handle where should the work start and what's that denominator going to look like as we
inch towards most you have my email here it is and uh I'll send this deck out probably tomorrow um this meeting is going to end tonight at 8:30 it's only 7:00 it's advertised until 8:30 um we're going to take some
questions now that have already been collected Mrs shorer will read them and um after we go through the questions and I do my best to answer them I made to give Missle the microphone who's been a leader in this advocacy work as well um
we'll take a break and then we will have an opportunity for public comment when the public makes comment I'm going to ask that we follow the rules because we are in a board meaning it's really not a time for back and
forth with the Board of Education um so we're using this question format tonight as a way to make sure that we can get through as many questions as we can uh before we move into that more personalized component of public
comment anyone else questions pass [Music] down it's it's really for the sake of time this SLE ask me to make sure that you understood that the reason why we're using this format is we're prioritizing
questions and answers more than the public comments section we are having a formal board meeting tomorrow night at 7:00 we will also be taking public comment at that time as well you don't need to turn them all in now like why we get started on them and
then collect one well mind I'm not keeping [Music] any Mr short you have to ask me these tomorrow probably your questions I see red button on the bottom red button it's on okay you're
good it's on it's on see here there's no particular order here so just start with this one does a tax increase need to need to be voted on if we went up to 9.3% the tax increase does not need to be voted on if
we went to anything higher than that between 9 and 17 it appears that it will not need to be voted on for our district because below adequacy and were below local fair share that's not
100% verified that's the way I understand it as of now okay for years the state has wanted to reduce the number of school districts is this where we are headed I don't believe so I I don't believe that this
is about school district consolidation and what what tells me that is not is that there's a lot of large districts that are getting penalized I think we're being snake bitten by just a rise in wealth in certain middle class
communities if this was just about school district consolidation all the little districts would be getting cut and all the big districts would be getting rich Cherry Hill right on our border you know losing a significant amount of state aid that fact alone doesn't align with
that the objective of this is for school consolidation the objective of this is for a redistribution of State support okay I think I heard you reference this already um as I was collecting the slideshow will will this slideshow be available to the
public the slideshow will be available to the public yes I just may need to tweak that last slide that says option for cuz it's not really an option and I need to contextualize that a little bit and so for folks that aren't here and
they see that slide 4 you know 30% increase I might need personal security as I walk around now I'll probably adapt it I'll probably adapt that slide and send it out and
what is the formula the state uses it's a very opaque formula that's not transparent about all and the variable that's hurting us in the formula with this aggregate [Music]
income is from the Department of the treasury that's 3 years old so there's a threeyear lag between the state's determination of hand's aggregate income rising and Us and Them giving us our Aid
yet they want us in this Board of Education to create and submit a tenative budget in less than 10 days okay which 100 districts get the extra state aid and can we Lobby to advocate for the 47 districts affected
by the Gap can you repeat the question which 100 districts will get the extra state aid and can be Lobby to advocate for the 47 districts affected by the Gap okay I actually have an email uh from
the Department of edness to qualify a district must be spending below adequacy and have a general fund tax levy below local fair share districts will file an application be online NJ
Homer the application will be a combination of an increase in the general fund tax levy Inc of Aid you need to to use all possible adjustments
and Bank cap first that's why we have to that's why we have to send it the budget any type of budget right just to qualify for that the tax levy incentive Aid is necessary to ensure implementation of the required thorough and efficient
standards the aid shall not exceed the lesser of $1 million or 5% of an increase in the general fund tax level if I calculate that 5% I'm coming up with a number of like
$26,000 now I don't know what that 5% is just on the increase or it's on the amount that was cut or it's on the the the the uh local tax level total and they don't really seem eager in explaining to us because when we called
them for clarification the answer we received was we just cut and pasted it right into an email to you we don't know either okay what could a phase in plan look like to bring us to the $8 million local fair share
figure and 3 to five years as opposed to a doable digit increase in one year yeah so a phase in a phas in if I go back to this slide
would be to consider borrowing some money from the referendum there's $1.6 million there if we take $500,000 that $500,000 can be apply to the to our offset our deficit for September but we're kicking
the can down the road for next year the year after because we're going to have to put that money back it's specifically for those projects in the referendum it's not to pluck holes in your budget we would be using it similarly to how we were using fund Balance 5 years ago it's
an effective strategy from the short term it's less pain up front but it delays the inevitable process of reductions in the future now there might be some value in doing some of it
right go ahead okay so this is a piggy back off of that one in a sense so but just to read the questions for transparency are the 1 million $1.6 million lower Rino and $500,000 in unemployment in interest
bearing accounts the $1.6 million is going to be a higher interest bearing account starting tomorrow the $500,000 in unemployment benefits it is in the bank account yes and if so and my hope is
that they are can that interest be used to offset some cost yes especially the bond the bond of investment is going to be utilized to offset some of these costs has there been a discussion with the town to
determine if some funds can be provided by the town or if they can tighten their belts to help offset the cost of educational tax increases since our taxes are already very high well the town budget and the school budget are
two cons completely separate budgets I speak regularly with mayor te we have an excellent relationship he's an excellent mayor he's an excellent supporter I of Education um we're not the town is not in a position to give us money there's no fund balance that I'm
aware of that the township has I don't think it's appropriate um for us to ask them to provide us with funds that aren't part of their fund balance because the way that Municipal governments and school districts work in our in our state
um are their separate budgets now I know in other communities where there's a higher fund balance it may be a little bit different don't believe that's the case in had Township and mayor and I are in frequent communication we spoke as early uh as this afternoon and um he's
been helpful in uh putting me on the phone with various Senators Senator beach has been listening uh in this conversation and Randy's been u a real support of our district and I think he'll be there to help us any way that he can I just don't think our Township
is in a position to loan us anym can we eliminate or reduce some of the projects that are part of the bond referendum to reduce the impact of the bond unfortun unfor unfortunately we cannot eliminate projects that are in the referendum and
take those funds to help plug holes in our depic that that's not legal okay can you confirm I'm having a little bit of I think we maybe at or Miss in here I'm not sure can we can you confirm we have what we have done to um I guess
close the gap in the last three years if not how was the funding made up well we weren't aware that there was a gap until 12 months ago was a real surprise to us like the state aid um the
formula is is not transparent right and if you go back and think about that graph we had no reason to suspect that we were going to be cut by $800,000 we were predicting an increase in funding last year based on Rising enrollment so we have not started down
this road uh of reducing cost um until 12 months ago many of you were part of those discussions you know we've lost Services uh for a counselor we've lost a uh basic skills we've lost music
instructor we've lost a curriculum we've lost supplies we've lost a budget we've lost professional development line items across the district gifted Talent Services have have been reduced and when it comes to
particularly you know the actual provider who's facing the mo interfacing the most with students and that's really our um I would say our teachers counselors nurses there there's just nowhere else
to go in in those LS right uh there's not after last year just doesn't it's just not okay had a Town Township just conducted a property tax reassessment most properties were assessed at a
higher value how much additional tax revenue does hat in Township School District expect to receive with new property tax assessments the answer to that is zero because that reassessment was Revenue neutral onethird of the resident taxes went up 1/3 stayed the
same and 1/3 went down so that didn't really help the township or the school district at all that's a net zero what is the total budget school budget $40 million and the other two questions
already answered I'm back in this one the 9 3% is it based on reassessed home values no okay I'm corrected it's on the 455 which is the new assessed value that was that that average assess
changed even though we headed out at zero the reassessment how does that met out at zero if the average assess home went up okay I stand correctly thank you if fair share is income based can the township
means test property tax based income we wish the answer is no if you go back and look at my testimony before the New Jersey state senate last year I made two points this is PE is in the back she was there she was sitting close to me two
points I made were regardless of how much money money you're going to give us you have to change the timeline and and what it the you require the Board of Education to do I mean for them to give us two weeks to put a ten of budget together it's just mind bothering it
wouldn't happen in any other world certainly they don't follow the timeline of that so the the the budget calendar I beg them to change the second thing is if you're going to use income aggregate income as the key metric
that's going to hurt us our community then you have to give us a meure of the tax income but while some folks may be making higher salaries everyone's living in the same houses our ability is only to raise
property taxes we we have no mechanism tax income I've been discussing this for 12 months straight almost nothing else when I have an opportunity to talk to the state um State Department yet here we are
if the community cannot raise taxes more than 2% every year why does the state want us to raise it more than we can how would these increases impact lower income communities lower income communities are getting additional state aid because if
you look if you email me direct I can send you a list of every school district in the state of New Jersey and what the percentage change as state aid was lower income communities got a lot more state aid I don't want to start
naming districts right but I'll send you the information um so in a lot of cases our state Aid's going down the street right onfor was the first part of that question if the state W allows to raise taxes more than 2% right if we cannot
raise taxes more than 2% every year why does the state want us to raise it more than we can because that 2% flat tax was put into place across all districts in the state of New Jersey as a way to
help cap slow down as a way to slow down property tax increases cuz nobody things they were escalating too fast they applied that as a blanket to all 600 School Districts The Good News
was they had said to Boards of Education you don't have to campaign your budget anymore your residents don't have to vote Yes on the budget but you can only raise it at 2% that applied to everybody now income levels have changed County to
County Town to town and in areas where aggregate wealth has gone down districts are receiving millions and millions of dollars in additional state so they don't have to go to the 2% in a lot of cases in a lot of cases they
still do right there's a district not too far from here in C county that got $2 million more in state aid I spoke with their superintendent he said about even with the extra $2 million prices are so high I have to go to 2% anyway
because I still can't it I still have so the lower income communities are receiving more state aid and the the communities that have been deemed welfare according to
that I think a flaw of measure are receiving Cuts in how do we foresee being able to sustain this many options would help this year but we are not s but are not sustainable and it seems we may need to
consider this for multiple years that's correct this is not a one-year conversation uh this is a new trajectory it's a lot of work before the board the community working together it's going to be a combination of being as offic as we
can and being as willing as we must to absorb the unfortunate reality that probably looking at higher increases than expected on property taxes could we rent out school facilities for extra income to theater
groups summer camps Etc yes any strategy to bring Revenue into the district is being considered could we sell n rights to facilities like new tennis courts High School Etc D donors naming um
conventions that would bring in extra Revenue again I don't think the boards would oppose any idea to generate reeven does state law or hated Township Code preclude raising taxes from new tax revenue could we tax alcohol sales within had and Township bars restaurants
Etc or tax annually liquor licenses and dedicate revenue for schools I don't believe that the school can do that as part of our budget I I can't speak for the town but I you just what we're allowed to do because this would have generated savings can you explain the
determination by PS I guess what it says to not allow the solar panels here was that because local infrastructure can't support it or is it related to the company saying we can
because it cuts into their need for profits the way that it was explained to me by our architect from this fusel group Scott was basically said we applied PSG for these solar panels and they basically said there's we don't need it right there's no there there's
so much energy that's being taken out of that grid already or put into that grid I guess the solar panels take energy from the Sun and they push energy into this grid and then the energy in that grid if you Iz um for electric well it just the grid
can't handle anymore whether it's an in or an out um it's maximized with power so there's no advantage to them to pay for our solar panels when they do not see the value or the ability to use that energy okay and these two are
related if Cuts have to be made how would Cuts take shape Sports and clubs full programs and Administration again my my this is a question really for the board I'll answer it uh because the board will be looking to me for guidance we'll start
this work uh tomorrow um the priority would be any cost that's not a direct provider to the student right that would be that would be the first I think that would be the first
examination right the adult responsible for providing instruction or emotional support or health care or whatever it is to the actual student I think that this board's to prioritize that so if we're prioritizing that what are we considering you know kind of cutting
first so I think any of the other areas would be CS for first Examination for things that uh should be considered for reductions and this is our last question that we received um on the index cards
what about early retirement options I think it's I think it's worth considering I don't know the legality of that or um what that would actually look like I would be cautious about that one because different topic that was covered
in this presentation and recently spoke to the dean of Education of Rowan University's uh College of Education she told me she said Bob there's 500 candidates that um going to graduate
from R University you in May that are going to be able to teach in New Jersey Public Schools we're the largest in this South JY and I said great you know what's the breakdown and she said well
455 of them are early childhood education Elementary education or phys so the last thing I want to do is to and AR our veteran teachers at had C
have AIDS beautifully well they come to work with a ton of energy they work really hard don't love anybody just punching the clock here um I don't want to these folks there go because one they're really good and two I don't think there's anybody ready to walk in the door to replace
them you know that's the end of the in next mon that have been collected unless there's any others out there before move on we have two more cards everyone going to know this question
[Music] [Music] came anybody else just one card for [Music]
custom what positions do you think might be cut and when would that be posted to the community and who makes these decisions what what positions may be cut what positions may be cut yes and then
when will the community know and who makes those decisions okay once we know what the denominator is and that will be tentatively decided tomorrow evening for preliminary submission we're probably going to have additional budget meetings that denom change sometime between that
period and the public Hearing in April or May in May um we're going to have to have the painful dis discussions about where the actual reductions will be um that information will be uh recommendations I think the board will
be looking to the superintendent the assistant superintendent the business administrator um I'm in frequent communication with the head of our teachers union uh I met with our head nurse today uh I'm meeting with our technology department which is in the back so you know there's full trans
transparency around this I would expect reductions um you know a little bit in each kind of area we an administrative cut as well meet I actually have't met with uh the head of htpa about this area yet but um
they know where the budget is as well um and you know over I guess the next 6 weeks that's where these tough discussions need to happen probably first um with the board and [Music]
then as part of our annual uh public hearing uh will'll present the final budget before the community okay are all New Jersey superintendents and business administrators and Boards of education advocating for transparency regarding
Fair funding or just those getting cut I've only noticed districts in the same position as had in Township in those conversations when in reality any of them could be in the same positions in the future would a larger unified presence of all districts have a larger
impact and Effectiveness not everybody's going to oppose this right because the state only has so much money to support Public Schools so if you are in a district if you're leaving a district and you know has lower socioeconomic conditions or
areas of pro poverty you are going to be advocating for additional state aid not flat more money right there's a district in caming County they got 20 more million this year right um some of that
got set up from ad pound trip and Cherry Hill and you know hollingswood you know so not everyone is opposed to this aggregate income as a variable that that [Music]
can hurt a school district um superintendents and PAs and school boards are hired to Advocate and look out for the best interest of their individual District we're not a county system we have local school boards and uh local communities to serve and that's
who we serve 10 years ago school districts were fighting for more funding from the state based on en so the state got a little lazy with how state aid was being provided based on
enrollment were supposed to be funded based on poor people but for almost a decade the state was basically saying ah it doesn't matter how many kids you lost we're going to give you the same money we gave you last year oh you're 300 kids less we're going give you the same money
we gave you last year oh you're 500 kids more we're going to give you the same money we gave you last year who did that upset that upset the districts that were overcrowded that were getting the same funding that they had been getting for 5 years even though their enrollment was
up almost a th000 kids that's a real story um so there's so much to do in education that we really only begin to get rattled when circumstances begin to negatively affect us if we weren't into this
situation this situation wer negatively affecting us if this was negatively affect a district down the street we wouldn't be here tonight we would be in a room trying to figure out what we were adding or talking about elementary literacy curriculum or what are we doing about our math scores or what are we doing
about school security there's just too many other things that we would be discuss if you're asking the community to contribute more from our personal finances are you willing along with other administrators in Haden Township Schools to consider austerity measures
regarding your salaries during this year's negoti ations as an exercise of good faith to the community I'm willing to take any salary that the Board of Education would like to offer me um if that means taking a flat salary if that's what the Board of Education wants to ask me to do I'll absolutely consider
that the Board of Education wants to ask me to take a production that's something that we can discuss um as far as the other administrative they're part of the collective bargaining unit um they all work really hard I don't think we have the ability to go back on a an agreement
uh legally once there has been a negotiation in the settlement I only speak for myself here I love being the superintendent of having Township um I'm grateful for the the way that I'm compensated I love coming to work every day I'm appreciative for our parents that always show up we have a great
administrative team we have great teachers top to bottom there's nothing I don't like about this job except there's not enough money to grow and change and improve right now um so if the board thinks that I should take a c on moment and listen to that work flat
salary that's a report of the sou can the township assume cost of some things as community- based not give money but pay for things like field maintenance because if you know it's used for community events Etc can you
repeat the question can the township assume cost of some things as Community Based so not necessarily giving money but pay for things like field maintenance because it's used for community events yeah at the very least I think we probably can explore some shared services in that area and the
next question is about shared services um has had in Township School District consider consolidating services with nearby districts facilities maintenance IT services Transportation Human Resources Etc I think we're willing to listen to
all of those none of those are easy um you know for example we have a transportation department here and the transportation coordinator and we're all working extremely hard we just have enough drivers to cover the runs that we have plus Athletics we don't really have anyone to loan out right we're already
down a maintenance worker or custodian um we take a lot of pride in our buildings we have just enough staff without anyone really the learn right um same thing for technology I told you about the technological safety the security of our Network that's
imperative again we had a presentation a few months ago from Mr char Mr man you know I don't think there's anyone that know out but if someone has a create a solution to Shared service is something that we would support not opposed to um but we have to be able to meet
the have to be able to meet the objective of capitalizing some of the savings of shared service without sacrificing services to our students in school district that's the end of the in next part
questions okay folks it's 7:45 we're going to go to 8:30 uh we're going to take a 5 minute break is that okay with the board at that time you will be invited to come up to that microphone and make whatever public comment that you'd like to make to the Board of Education we're
going to ask that you keep your uh uh your comments as short as possible just because there's a lot of people here tonight we are going to end it30 so um thanks for rolling with us for that Q&A with the cards I know that's a little bit different um but that's a strat that
we utilize where we expect a lot of questions and we don't want to be here for a long Camp so let's take a 5 minute break and thank you very much on behalf of speak for you is it okay if we allow our students if they have a public comment to allow them to go first so is a
tonight so uh so we'll do students first so you have public comment uh now be if you want to be coming back come Q&A right follow rules okay those students have start
with this Podium and uh say would you like keep it as brief as possible those over there listening to thanks again for taking the time and yes thank you everyone just a reminder for our public comment section you
please state your name and the street that you live on you don't need to give your full address um and limit your remarks to 3 minutes it will be timing CU we have a lot of people in the room and want to try and make sure we have enough space for hello my name is Andrea hawman I live on
statford Avenue um I'll keep it short I know you have a ter but you won need it I have three things I just wanted to make sure are set out loud um full day pre full day kindergarten is important our kids need it our community needs it I know we have to make hard decisions but I'm really hopeful that's not one of
the things that goes away I know that everything has to has to be talked about but um as a parent of a kid who's about to enter kindergarten I'm concerned so please let us know very soon but also beond myself it's important for the health of our community so uh please
make that a priority um second um I appreciated the conversation or the the notice about um reorganization of elementary schools I think again that's not an easy fix but I think can serve our community really well if we think
strategically about where our kids are going to school I know I love that I can walk my kids to school but I want them to have a school to go to um and that is well staffed and supported and so that means I have to on a car to take them to school I'm okay with that and I hope community members feel similarly um and
then I know the third thing is another bigger issue that isn't going to be solved in 24 hours but um thinking proactively about District consolidation not as a I don't see that as a a subve goal of the budget concerns
we're facing but I think thinking proactively about how that can benefit us in the long term talking to other districts about things that are important that we can support and uh utilize shared resources I think is going to benefit us again not a short-term fix but I think a long-term conversation that we can be leaders in
rather than being dragged into when we don't want to be there so thank you and um I'm hoping you all have a an easy path who I know it's likely to um I don't know if this is oh sorry I'm Andy Wagner on Avenue um I don't know if
this is not meant to be an extension of the question and answer period uh and I can follow someone afterwards but um on on the one hand I heard Dr ficaro sort of expressing um that we've made the cuts that were
sort of possible for efficiency in terms of particular staff positions and that we would like to keep all of our staff um and on the other hand acknowledging that there maybe Cuts uh and and I imagine that has a lot to do with which budgeting option that we end up taking
moment before three or four options presented um personally I'm of the mind that uh we like what we have we don't want to make hard conversations and and maybe there is enough Revenue in the town that we can find a way to cover this but um the question I have I guess
is what's the best way for us to get involved going forward in advocating for one option or another from options public comment is not a bad rep unforunately I know hard it's hard
for us not to resp can you guys hear me my name is Nicole suton I'm on East Springwood avue um I want to thank the board for what they've done over the past year to speak out um for those of you who were not at these meetings in February of last year
they were very stressful and a lot of us felt concerned that we would be in the exact position that we were in and here we are in the exact position but I can confidently say that the community did not sit by and let it happen you were very agitated by everything you heard
leading up to today the New Jersey fair fing Collective is a group that came out of um all of the work that we were really pushing for last year I see so many people who come out to the same meetings but I haven't seen you at the meeting for this we really
need um diverse voices like an incoming kindergarten mom to talk about what it means when about 3% cut 3% cut on a Subs sheet means one thing and a 3% cut here means the coun so if you're
interested forer I'm happy to share the link with you but we like Collective action works and we need the collection so that like this scenario where we're chasing zero
STS like our Representatives should be here today to see what the impact of those are like I sit and read Facebooks or everyone has an opinion about the board but they're not here they're not here talking and they're not coming to
those meeting trying to get money so we need you we need your voices it should be speci like this every year like the board has started the b r they were working with our legislature and it's a good oratorial year like reach out to the people who are running for governor
and ask them what are you doing South Jersey school thank you [Music] [Music] hello um my name is Elanor Tomlin I'm too um I'm also in ninth grade and I
have been in head Township my entire life so I've seen you know all sorts of stuff and um I have I'm involved in a number of clubs both in arts and Athletics and I'm also in Mandarin which
was cut last year and it was really really concerning for us and I imagine for all of you too um and I want the I want there to be consideration in terms of um like
keeping teachers who they might not be essential to every student but are very critical to a group of them be it World Language or Arts teachers um you know I'm in marching band and
and I'm also in field hockey and I think it's important that it's considered how um the removal of those programs could negatively impact um students in their well-being or um you know things like
that thank you [Applause] hi my name is Riley Ean and um I live on MAR I'm also a nth grade um I would to kind of agree with what she said I'm
also in most of the Performing Arts programs and I know a goal of the school district is to you know Foster and see the potential in every human being and that's really where me and a lot of people I know that's where it lies when we have um those communities and the
Arts um and I remember last year when we were going through the same thing it was like um kind of scary cuz there was a lot of talk about what would happen to some of the Arts programs and I just wanted people to keep that in mind that they're very
important to many students and there a lot of potential keeping it [Applause] [Music] hi uh my name is Mike Cornell I'm at Cambridge Avenue um I just wanted to I
guess reate first parents point for full day kindergarten uh my son is in first grade now had the but he was second class for kindergarten it was phenomenal for him that kid is academically soring
um in terms of the full day it was much easier for the parents to wife find both work and just just much easier if we didn't have that here for background care or other things in the district so it was really uh it's really nice and
important thing to have in the commity thank you [Applause] hi I'm Alison and was on um and wanted to say first of all Dr you should not get a pay cut I just want
it should be maintained and do a TR we do a great job same for all of our teachers and Educators um I hear a lot of people saying that we don't want Cuts I fully agree um I'm 100% in favor of stopping people hand on the road um
going not the option but um to ensure that um that would be able to stabilize and stop having this V issue um and that's coming from single income household um I'm already taxed
insane amounts living um and so uh these schools are phenomal and uh no expense fa I know there are some but I it's uh absolutely uh worth our tax dollars to
continue uh to invest in the schools it helps us all by having our property values continue to rise as much as they have um so [Applause] good evening I'm Charles mcgomery little Avendale Avenue I just wanted the second
the last commenters uh comments regarding the options presented given the likely other additional reductions in state aid in future years I believe it will be a serious error in this inclined to take the opportunity to close the budget cap completely at this
time to do otherwise at this point one ures imposing additional austerity on the district that's on top of last year's tremendous cuts and two RIS even greater future ofer thank you
[Applause] to all right thank you all for coming out tonight thank you for sharing your input um we do have our meeting tomorrow it starts our work session at 5:30 it's in room m111 in the Middle School the regular meeting starts at 7:00 we're
going to be continuing discussions about which of the options make sense or if we're going to look for a different kind of hybrid option between those so you're welcome to join us at that public meeting um at any of those times um and we're going to be continuing to work on
this budget for a period of time we have our budget hearing where we will finalize the budget and what that's looking like in early May so that will be a special meeting meeting of the board it will be in the meeting semar so look out for information about that it's already on the district calendar on the
website May 6th is when that is and I believe it starts at 6:00 in the media center so join us for that that's when you'll know all of the details but hopefully you'll have information well before that because it's important for us to know what you all are thinking to have your input as we're making these
decisions and to make sure that we're appropriately communicating with our community that's what you all deserve and we want to make sure that we are good stewards of this community our students our schools our staff um so again I appreciate you all coming out tonight I appreciate you sharing you know how to reach us if you have
additional thoughts that you'd like to share as well you can email Bob you can email myself um all board member emails are on the website as well if you don't have those um just so you know board members may not respond to individual emails so don't be concerned if we don't get an immediate
response all right any final thoughts or comments from the board or at me great thank you all yes thank you all board can I get a motion to adjourn all in
favor have a good night everyone