very like chill but at the same time like competitive April 7 2025 at 7:0 p.m can we all please rise for the flag i pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the
republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all yes um and we have the opening statement according to the agenda mr helenbeck will you please call the role dr capella
present uh M gabial here miss ShraMM here mr chaffy here mr dustphano present miss Paulina here mr citridge here miss Gwan here miss Falcone Schubert here
at this time we will move on to public comment and this is for agenda items only so we have uh Mrs nancy Raleigh on the um list to speak yes
um last year in the fall you said if we voted yes there would be no taxes so now we're being faced with another tax increase there's only so much we can take with everything going up in price our pocketbooks are getting empty so I
don't think this is right i mean why two raises within six months you know and if if this just keeps continuing it's going to be a disaster for everybody we have a presentation for you tonight to explain the situation we're in and to
go through all of the information then afterwards you're more than welcome to stay around and ask follow-up questions okay thank you is there anybody else in the public who'd like to speak okay all right i am going to read the
resolution and then um I would like to have a motion um so um item number five resolution is application for submission for additional expenditures and tax incentive aid whereas in the proposed
FY2026 state budget certain districts have the opportunity to apply to the commission of education to increase expenditures including an allocation of tax levy incentive aid in order to satisfy the thoroughess and efficiency standards established pursuant to
NJSA 18A7F-46 whereas the hopacam burough schools is below local fair share in spending below adequacy to be eligible to participate in this program whereas the hopakam burough schools is eligible to increase
expenditures by $397,216 and qualify for tax levy incentive aid in the amount of $19,861 whereas the Opacam Burough Schools is requesting the approval to increase expenditures based on the following reasons over the past 5 years
our district has experienced a cumulative reduction in state aid totaling 8.4 million due to the implementation of S-2 despite these reductions the district has made every effort to increase the local tax levy
while maintaining fiscal responsibility ensuring that budgetary decisions prioritize student needs and instructional quality however the loss of state aid has necessitated difficult cuts to essential programs and services which the district now seeks to restore
with the requested expenditure increase additionally according to state figures our district will enter the 2025 2026 budget year $4 million under adequacy these investments are crucial for maintaining compliance with the
educational standards set forth by the state of New Jersey without these resources our ability to provide students with a thorough and efficient education as mandated by law would be significantly compromised therefore the board of education is approving the
submission of this application to the commissioner of education now before um there is a motion and a second what I'd like to do for the public and for each of you is to give you a brief
presentation on the screen behind me that will address certain components of this so that everybody understands um all of the details that are involved and then I'll have a chance to answer Miss Ry's question with regard to the
referendum i'll do that i got to jump off to the side you are free to turn your chairs or if you'd like to sit out in the front so you can see whatever works best for you so some of this information is information that we've discussed at
board meetings we've discussed in detail at committee meetings so major expenditure drivers for us as our as a school district salaries as a school district 80% 79.6% 6% of your
entire budget is made up of salaries and benefits right we don't produce widgets we don't produce automobiles or furniture we produce students to do that it is a very laborintensive component our salary increase across all of our
collective bargaining agreements is 3.1% for the upcoming year we are experiencing expenditure increases tied to FICA Medicare and Social Security as a result of those salary increases pension
contributions health care costs um as we talked last year probably at about this time we are participants in the state health benefits a cooperative uh benefits plan across the state that takes into account school districts
municipalities um agencies and the like the state plan experienced a rate increase last January of 22% heading into this coming January which will be the second half of our
budget year the tough part is that the insurance is based on a calendar year and a school district budget is based on a fiscal year of July to June the state is anticipating another 13.5% increase in health insurance
premiums that 92,000 is the combination of the second half of the state's increase from last year and our anticipated increase for the upcoming year insurance this is just our workers compensation insurance
increase does not include our liability our general liability automotive uh insurance increases as well decrease in facility spending an increase in tuition for out of district special education
students state of New Jersey has limits on certain schools for outofd district tuition but not on other schools to cap how much tuition can increase the increased cost for charter schools is also not capped by the state of New
Jersey so if you own a charter school that receives public funding you are not limited by how much your budget can go up each year you set an amount based on how much your expenditures go up and you apply to the state for that increase but
there is no fixed hard cap on those costs and then transportation costs predominantly for outofd district students that require specialized transportation they go to a private school um 30 40 miles away i gave the
board an example um of a student who is in a wheelchair the specialized wheelchair van that's necessary to pick this student up the cost to take him back and forth to school is $72,000 for one child and we are
required by law to bid that route out which we have that's the lowest bid $72,000 and we're required to provide that transportation under the law major revenue reductions the end of federal esser funding the windown from
COVID leaves a hole of 250,000 in our budget title grants reduction if everything goes perfectly with the abolition or the abolishment of the uh federal department of education we anticipate
$188,000 in federal funding reduction if there are additional amounts that the federal government decides to do away with from a federal grant process our entire exposure to federal grants is almost
$900,000 all right semi Medicaid reduction we are required by law for children who are eligible for Medicaid if we have to provide medically necessary services in school occupational therapy physical therapy
speech therapy nursing counseling services we are responsible for billing the cost of those services to the federal and state Medicaid program this year the state of New Jersey and the federal government changed the funding
formula for reimbursement through Medicaid we were required to budget $97,000 in revenue which means we have to go out and generate
$97,000 worth of billable services in order to f to fill that revenue hole okay state changed the funding formula it went from $23 per service to
$3.85 per service as of today ending the February claiming period the school district has build and received $14,000 of reimbursement from the federal government and the state
government in the Medicaid plan even though the total number of services that we have build for is up 13% year-over-year and that's the reduction it's not a promise of revenue it is we
are told you must budget this much revenue in your budget and if you don't get it you don't get it and as of this year we're $84,000 short on that projection state aid when we entered budget season
in February the state was telling us to project for a 10% reduction in state aid all right you know we actually ended up getting a little bit more state aid but again if you read the news and you talk about other school districts across the
state the state put two caveats on on state aid this year one your state aid could decrease by no more than 3% and if you were entitled to a state aid increase your aid could increase by no
more than 6% we fall in that category of our aid can't increase by more than 6% based on the state's notice to us we're entitled to X amount of money but because we're capped at 6% the state
still owes us an additional $530,000 in state aid that it will not pay to the school district we are one of 312 across the state that are capped at that 6% all right one one member of the
legislature um legislature Ocanlin out of Mammoth County has introduced a bill um that would require the state to abolish the state aid cap on increases right there was no cap when we lost
state aid for six years in a row now they put a cap on growth he has introduced a bill to do away with that that bill has not made it out of committee it has not made it to a committee hearing it will not as of right now make it to a vote before the
legislature um to address that issue and then the last thing in there uh excess surplus reduction my apologies this is something we've talked about for for a number of years as your state aid
declines the amount of potential money you might have available outside of your savings declines as well and when you don't grow or increase your budget during that time period you use what is called excess surplus amount of money
you have available over 2% in the state of New Jersey we are limited to 2% surplus all right if you are involved in any kind of finance and an understanding uh generally accepted accounting principles ask that you have anywhere
between five and 8% in surplus we're allowed 2% any amount above that goes back to taxpayers in the form of a credit for the following year but when you year after year use excess surplus
as revenue to fund a future year's budget and the following year there's no excess surplus left you have to fill in that hole which is what as a board of education you have to do this year there is no excess surplus left to pay future
years the budget impact we've talked about extraordinary aid preschool expansion aid we've talked about how our salary and benefits go up i think it's important that you understand transportation makes up about 8% of our
budget tuition VOTE charter we pay $2,500 for every student that goes to the vocational technical school we pay about $17,000 for every student that goes to a charter school public charter school all
right that makes up 6.5% of your budget facilities oil electricity maintenance on the buildings and grounds make up 3.3% of our budget the referendum the dollar amount that was approved last
year 1.539 million makes up 4% of your total budget and then discretionary spending textbooks supplies clubs activities professional development makes up the remaining 3% of your budget
this is a look at what the state calls educational adequacy as a school district in the uh left column you'll see pre-budget year levy then you'll see local fair share and highlighted here is hopacong in the
middle and what the state says is last year our pre-budget local tax levy was $28 million according to the state of New Jersey based on equalization of all of the properties and values in town the
local taxpayers their local fair share is $34 million then we jump to this side this is called adequacy spend how much does the state say you should be spending on every student regular ed special ed
lowinccome uh free and reduced lunch um low socioeconomic non-English-speaking students based on what we spend towards students we spend $30,916,000 towards adequacy the state
says we should be spending based on their formula $34,938 okay we are under adequacy by over $4 million so the school districts that are highlighted in yellow are Sussex County
school districts that are under taxing according to the state their local taxpayers and are under spending on a per pupil basis based on what the state says is an adequate education so you
look Byum is under adequacy by a million3 4 million for us Ogdensboro 780,000 Stanh Hope 954,000 Sussex Wantage 1.4 million and Vernon 1.2 million the other school
districts are either their local tax levies are more than what they their local share is or they're spending more than what the state says they necessarily need to be able to spend
so we've had this conversation over the years and four years ago we had conversations with other school districts around the region looking at regionalization and consolidation of schools and one of the things that I told the board and the public was that a
neighboring school district right next door to us a regional high school spends $3,500 more per student than we can spend to educate our students so if you look at it and you say we have 500 kids
in a high school at $3,500 it's $1.5 million more that they can put into the classroom to offer programs and teaching staff and supports for their students than we can we're
also constrained by a choice system that doesn't allow new school districts to join school choice and we lose a number of students who go to other school districts every year we are locked in in terms of we can't participate in choice
we can't accept other students we spend less than other students and we can't offer anywhere near the same programs that other stu school districts offer what does that mean in the context of tonight
this is a historical look at the tax levy in hopong since 2009 2010 and what you'll see is everywhere there is a dash is a year in which the school district did not increase the local
taxes here here here here here this is a year in which the school district cut taxes by another $240,000 under state law these years were years in which there was a budget vote and the taxpayers of the community
voted down the local budget subsequent to that starting here as long as your budget was presented that included a no more than 2% increase on the local tax
levy your budget could be passed and approved by the state of New Jersey if you look over the last 16 years the total tax increase has been 27.69% an average tax increase of
1.73% the CPI inflation over that same time period is 43.7% i understand when people look at it and they say "My taxes are going up for the same reasons that your costs go
up at home the costs here to educate a child go up as well even though last year this board of education it approved a large tax increase and and it goes to your
question that tax increase very clearly said the district will not increase taxes again to pay for the referendum if the referendum was approved in November so the tax increase that the board passed in June there wasn't going to be
another tax increase in November to pay for the referendum that had already been paid for by increasing taxes 9.9% to say that as a school district taxes aren't going to go up every year
or by some percentage every year in order to pay for increased costs would be disingenuous and it and it isn't it isn't reality costs go up unfortunately they may not always go up in in concert
with salaries they may not always go up evenly across the years when you look at the CPI increases you see when COVID hit and you see the years since when COVID hit our budget as it's struck right now does not take into account tariffs it
does not take into account the costs for additional materials that are undoubtedly going to go up you have to budget based on what you have and what you have available the numbers at the bottom are the important one that I think everybody needs to see the total
local tax levy increase outside of the referendum is $6.4 million the inflation total when you take a look at how much you increased your taxes based on CPI over that time is actually
a negative $3.1 million your dollar has been worth less every single year as a result of CPI when you factor in how much state aid has been taken from the school district since that time period $8
million even with a 6.4 $4 million tax increase over 16 years you're still $4.7 million to the negative which coincidentally almost matches up to the
$4 million that you're underfunded according to the state of New Jersey to educate children so this was something that we talked about last year we talked about as a percentage of your tax bill in
hopacong your taxes whatever that dollar amount is on a percentage basis about 53% of that is paid for to schools we are the third lowest amongst all of Sussex County as a percentage of your
taxes going to the school district this is the budget that you approved in March that shows you the positions that are going to be cut and they're listed here as position numbers because the employees that are potentially going to
lose their jobs don't know yet that they're going to lose their jobs and they are entitled to privacy as a result of it there are nine positions teaching staff administrative staff support staff that are slated to
lose their jobs as a result of the budget that we approved in March there are additional advisors and athletic coaches positions that will not be filled as a result as well and then there are additional line
items that have been cut from the budget we've cut tuition for homeless students professional development as an aside I've talked with the board but I'll mention it to the public as well a family lives in Hopakon and they become homeless for whatever reason and they
move [Music] to Rockaway okay we are responsible under the law for either continuing to educate them in hopon at which time I have to
send a bus to Rockaway every day to pick them up and bring them here and take them home or I have to pay tuition to the Rockaway schools 21 $22,000 a year for those children to go to that school
district the whole pack schools do not get the choice under federal law the family gets the choice of where they want to go and they remain in that position for up to
364 days if during those 364 days they move they they move from Rockaway to Stanhome because they're still homeless the clock 364 days starts all over again and we are responsible for continuing to
pay for their needs we've cut professional development we've cut seasonal custodian help during the summers to help clean our buildings and prepare our outside grounds we've cut additional custodial overtime we got lucky with snow and ice this year that
we didn't have to spend a lot of money on overtime and that's one of the reasons why we had several delayed openings and people said "Can't believe you have a delayed opening." Well we're trying to be fiscally responsible by not spending money on overtime to allow salt
to work to allow the temperature to warm so that we don't have to pay those additional costs we've cut additional supplies we've cut tuition reimbursement substitutes attendance we are going to defer the purchase of Chromebooks we have a 1:1
Chromebook initiative in grades K iPads and K to2 Chromebooks in grades 3 through 12 we're going to delay replacing those Chromebooks for an additional year we're going to cut the purchase of additional textbooks for next year and delay purchases of
textbooks for another year at the end of the day all of those cuts just got us to a balanced budget with all of our cost increases and our revenue decreases we're just able to balance a budget so
what is tonight all about tonight is a resolution that would allow us to apply to the Commissioner of Education based on the adequacy amount to say
"Commissioner here's what we'd like to do we'd like to increase the tax levy by more than the statutory cap and in doing so here's what we'd like to add back to our budget we'd like to add back or in
this case add new we have a newly enrolled child who is coming from a foreign country that has severe disabilities is deaf and and cannot communicate in the English language that
child must go to a specialized school for the deaf and as a hopacon board of education as taxpayers of of Hopakon we are responsible for paying for the cost of sending that child to this school that child enrolled in the school
district after we developed our March budget which means if the commissioner doesn't approve $98,000 for this child to go and we increase our budget by that amount we will have to cut an additional
$98,000 from our budget salary and benefits is basically one additional teacher would have to be cut so when you look at the positions to be cut that was at nine now we have to make it 10 we would like to add back a grade 9 to 12
teacher at our high school to be able to offer elective classes for students to manage both class sizes but offer students an opportunity to take uh additional business and math classes all right so that they can
compete there are health insurance benefits and social security that we have to pay as an employer you know as an as an individual you work somewhere you contribute to Social Security and Medicaid you pay 7.65% of your salary
into that every year as the employer under federal law we pay and match that same amount 7.65% we would like to add money back to homeless tuition and homeless transportation we'd like to address our
attendance office staff those were positions we were looking to cut a technologist FICA benefits these are all things that we would look to do now based on this information it would mean that the tax
increase would go from 6 or excuse me 3.62% to 5% on the average annual house that is and this is a typo it's 345% is the aual assessed property in town the total
increase for that home would be $166 it would be $13.90 a month this out here $3.84 is the difference between if we did nothing other than the 3.62% that
you approved in March this is how much an average homeowner's tax bill would go up for us to add these things back at 3 $3.84 okay that's how the numbers work it's divided amongst all of us as we take a
look at the information that's made available all right the only other thing I can say to you is this resolution that will be before you tonight if someone makes a motion and seconds it is just the
application okay if the commissioner of ed reviews our application and there are nine or 10 pages to the spreadsheets and everything that have to be sent to them the commissioner may look at it and say "I'll approve four of those items but not all of them." We'll get a letter
back that will state how much is approvable or not when you come back for your public hearing at the end of the month your budget will appear exactly as it appeared on your March agenda the budget that you approved it would then
require at the public hearing a board to make a motion based on the commissioner's approval or disapproval of this application to add an additional amount or make changes to the budget at that time so tonight is not about making
any actual changes to your budget it is simply approving a resolution to allow you to submit the application to the commissioner's office for the purpose of him evaluating it to determine if it's feasible and so the question I've heard
is isn't this really a way for the state to get out of paying what it's supposed to pay and if you asked yourself that question give yourself a gold star because that is exactly what this is
this is an election year for every member of the legislature in the state of New Jersey and not one of them wants to go on record as passing a tax increase on members of the the the
taxpaying public that's the reality so what they're saying is we're increasing our state aid even though they owe us $530,000 more which by the way the $530,000 that they owe us is more than
what we would be asking here if a miracle happens and between now and the end of April a bill makes it out of committee is approved by the legislature that removes the 6% cap then we could add all of these
things just using that state aid and this application wouldn't be necessary but if we take no action you have no choice whatsoever moving forward all right i told you last year right in what
were we May end of May June when when the rumblings of that other bill were coming out that I thought there wasn't a chance in heaven's sake that the legislature was going to act and in a total of six days they moved a bill out of committee approved it and sent it to
the governor's desk for signing so just when you think you've seen it all but I don't know where it's going to go so that's our intent tonight by putting this in in front of you is to say "Hey we need to be able to approve
an application send it to the state let them review it and then we'll wait to hear back." Applications are due to the state by the 14th of April and because the window to have budget hearings opens
on the 28th which is our our first day that means they have to turn what could potentially be 300 applications around in a week's time period all right i'd rather be able to submit our application sooner get an idea back from the
commissioner's office as to whether we're applicable so that we can begin to plan and prepare for an April board meeting to be able to say "Hey this is what we can do or can't do." And as far as I'm concerned that's my responsibility to you as as the board
and that's my responsibility to the taxpayers is to provide every avenue and opportunity for you to understand where we're at and what are the rules that that we have to operate under so I'll turn it over to the board with any questions that I might be able to answer
for you as you kind of head back to your seats this was excellent thank you yes thank you yeah charter charter 1700 Jen's question was does the public know how much tuition cost yeah charter school tuition
is 17,000 a year per student and when a student does choice their CD follows them right correct so any money a student who goes to Lenipe Valley or goes to Mine Hill their state aid that would normally be sent to us goes with
that student to that school district all right and we get them a and then we have to pay to transport those children if they live within 20 miles of the school district and their new school is within 20 miles or based on the cost if I'm one
student that goes to ABC public school district I can pay what's called aid inl which right now is $1,143 and the parent can make arrangements to transport that child but if I have a large number of students
it's cheaper to get a bus and pay for the bus to transport those students back and forth all right so choice works on either a bus or a loo vocational technical school i'll give you another example we have two students in our
district that go to Morris County VOTE because the program that they want to participate in is not offered at Sussex VOTE because those students are out of county think about going to a state university right if you're in state you
pay one tuition rate if you live in Pennsylvania you pay a different rate to go here the same is true with vote two hopacon students that go to Morris vote by law I have to let them go we pay $14,600 for each of those students to go
to Morris Votech and by law I have to bust them to Morris Votech i cannot pay Aiden Lou because it is not a choice program it is a mandated offering that I have to give all right so a lot of times
some of these things are things that aren't even within my control or our control they are mandates from the state these are the laws that we have to follow um and some of them come with large price tags associated with it
okay so I read the resolution we would have a motion to accept it and then discussion and then we would vote on it correct so is there a motion to move item five the resolution for application of additional
expenditures and tax incentive aid i'll make it i'll second thank you okay any discussion hearing none let's call a vote on the motion for the submission of the application to the commissioner of education by Mr chaffy seconded by Dr
capello dr capella yes mr davio yes miss ShraMM yes mr chaffy yes mr dphano no miss Paulina yes mr mr citri yes and Miss Gulan yes and Miss Falcone Schubert
yes okay and with that I'd like to make a motion to adjurnn all in favor i 7:39 thank you and I will certainly stick around if anybody has any questions
or would like to share thoughts [Music]