are live Miss FAL County schuber the meeting is yours okay please call the meeting order at 6 o' and let's rise for the flag a speak CH I aliance 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 I'd like to open the Board of Education meeting with the opening statement according to the agenda Mr
halach can you please call the role Dr capella here Mr davio here miss SHRM here Mr chaffy here Mr Deano is absent miss paa here Mr citr is absent Miss gulan is absent Miss Falcone Schubert
here can I please have a motion to move into executive session I'll make it second the motion by Mr chaff seconded by Miss Pacha Dr capella yes Mr davo yes Miss SHRM yes Mr chaffy yes dno is
absent Miss Pacha yes Mr citr is absent Miss gulan is absent Miss Falcone schuber yes all right uh motion passes we'll move into exec session and return at 7M by the right name right yeah ex exactly
can I please have a motion to reconvene I'll second thank you on the motion by Miss paach second by Dr Capello Dr Capello vote Yes Mr DAV yes M Shram yes Mr
chaffy yes mran is absent Miss paa yes Mr citr yes Miss gulan yes and Miss Falcone schuber yes can I please have a motion to approve the minutes for um February for executive and regular session I'll make the motion I'll second
it on the motion by Mr chaffie seconded by Miss Shram Dr capella yes Mr davo yes Miss Shram yes Dr U Mr chaffy yes Mr Deano is absent Miss pachena yes Mr citr yes Miss gulan yes and Miss Falcone
shuber yes and next move on to the superintendent and hi report all right for the month of February we had two reported hibs um this is our second reading for these actually and so uh the
first was neither a Hib nor a violation of code of conduct had to do with out outside events outside of the school uh the second event at the high school uh was a confirmed Hib that resulted in disciplinary consequences against the
student for improper comments and behavior in the school setting did also result in uh parent conferences and uh the board uh this evening by accepting my superintendent's report will again confirm that decision that it is a hiip
um this evening the Board of Education will adopt a preliminary budget that is the product of uh a lot of hard work over the last year and a half um as I share with the public this evening uh
what we had hoped would be a continued Financial Resurgence um has not turned out that way um when I discuss with the board where we are at we look at both revenues and expenditures so our
revenues are down almost $925,000 heading into next budget year that is a result of a loss of $250,000 in federal Esser Aid um that has gone away it is also a reduction in
the use of excess Surplus to fund future year budgets and this was something that we discussed at Great length uh over the last couple of years when you have a surplus above 2% statutory cap um you have to return that Surplus back to the
taxpayers you can do it one of two ways you can do it as checks or you can simply appropriate that money into a future Year's budget as Revenue the problem comes in when you don't have that money every single year to be able
to continue to plug back in your budget so if you think about it for a minute as a child if you get a $50 uh check every year at the holidays from Grandpa and every year you plan to go out and buy yourself a new pair of sneakers but if
one year Grandpa only gives you $25 at the holidays and you still want that $50 pair of sneakers you've got to come up with the money from somewhere else and over the years the last five years the district has lost $8.4 million in state
aid we don't have money left at the end of the every budget year to be able to put into funding a future budget year and that's why the reduction in additional revenues on the expense end you have your typical expenditure
increases your cost of your salaries health insurance went up almost $900,000 this past year um we are part of the state health benefits Consortium 14% premium increases um
those are things that we continue to work on and the state continues to address we're not out of the norm in school districts across the state seeing those uh if you have a car or a home and you insure those those items you know that your homeowners insurance and your
Automotive Insurance continues to increase we are anticipating premium increases in the neighborhood of 11 to 12% on our casualty property and auto insurance we are already part of a self-insured fund um that handles all of
our insurance so moving to a private health insurance or a private Casualty Insurance Company where that company is looking to make a profit doesn't benefit us because we don't pay out claims to a company to make a profit we share in the
risks with like-minded school districts and municipalities across the state all told going into this budget season um our budget was $3.5 Million short okay over that time period we have Whitted
down those costs we are looking at making staff cuts across the entire district with a focus and an emphasis on trying very hard not to impact directly classroom instruction not increasing
class sizes in every grade level we're trying very hard to be able to do that and at next month's meeting we'll be able to share more details of how we're getting ourselves into that position but it means across the board Cuts in a lot
of different areas and some of the services that we continue to provide it will most likely result in um cuts to additional positions like some coaching staff it may result in cuts to uh programs such as advisors and clubs and
activities um and some services that we provide that's a reality the budget increase that the board of education is seeking is 3.62% that is in line with CPI Consumer Price Index your inflation for this past
year which was 3.57% and I ask the public to be reminded of the fact that our tax increase is not on our total budget our total budget is $42 million that tax
increase is only on the local tax Levy which is about $29 million so when you look at a 3.5% local tax increase it actually equates to a 2.4% total budget
increase over 1% less than inflation we will continue to face headwinds across the state the state this year has said we have F fully funded the funding formula and as I said to the board it's a
misnomer because while they have funded the dollar amount that is the full funding formula they have not allocated those dollars to all of the school districts as the formula says that money should be in reality hopong schools is
seeing a state aid increase of $172,000 according to the funding formula we are entitled to an increase of $753,000 the state has limited now how much a
school district can lose in any given year to no more than 3% of their state aid but they've also now capped how much a school district can increase its state aid to no more than 6% so we are owed
$58,000 by the state of New Jersey for state aid that fully funds the funding formula but I don't know if or when we will ever see that money because in order to prevent some people from losing out more than 3%
decreases they've had to hold back the increases from other school districts over that 5year period where we lost $8.4 million the state didn't have a cap on how much you could lose a 3% Cap all those years ago would
have taken the state of New Jersey 25 years to recoup that $8.4 million from our school district we couldn't have lost more than 330,000 a year yet in some years we lost $2.1 million a year
now that South and Central Jersey school districts and legislative Representatives believe that's unfair and school districts shouldn't lose all of that money at once they finally capped it but not to our benefit so
we'll continue to work over the next month we'll have our board budget hearing at our April Board of Education meeting where will fully lay out all of those details and how the the budget impacts our students um but again we'll
do everything within our power to minimize those cuts and and try as best we can not to have them directly impact classrooms on an everyday basis and that's our goal and we'll continue to look for ways to increase Revenue um
we're very limited with the options that can generate uh money as a public institution so we'll continue to do that all right with that I do want to turn the meeting over to our two student Representatives I have Natalya and lilan I know lilian's gonna go first so the
floor is all yours okay um so this past month has been the end of the winter sports and the start of our spring Sports um a lot of the winter sports had a very successful very successful season um
with like cheerleading basketball wrestling and Esports and all of the others as well but especially those um and spring Sports as I said are starting um this is the first time in a while that they've been able to be outside
this early in the year um and our and our drama club is officially in full swing with our spring show the Lightning Thief um this week we are going to have
here um and this week we are going to have the pit Orchestra joining us there are three students who are in that um and they're all very dedicated as are the actors and the rest of the crew um and we're all working hard we're almost
fully Off Script which is a very uh impressive this early in the season great thanks Lily and when does the play start the light that was the name the lightning th when is that going to be performed yes it's May 1st through 4th May 1 through fourth thank you for thank
you very much the Flyers are for taking um in the past couple of weeks in the music department we've had a lot of Great accomplishments um students in trim we visited a homeless shelter in Morristown and we played with little kids while their parents attended a meeting and we plan to go back every
single month hopefully for the rest of the year um we were hear and performed at a devil's game against Edmonton on Thursday that was really exciting and then the new music Ensemble performed at Sussex County at the susex county teen Arts Festival um um as lean said the
Lightning Thief is in full swing um two students admitted artwork for the for the for the for uh the teen Arts Festival and they will be moving to the New Jersey state teen Arts exhibit um and 12th grader Brandon omahan was
recognized as unsung hero 11th grade students took ngj GPA last week and academic team had two wins at our competitions against Sparta and Sparta Newton High School two weeks ago thank you thanks Natalia thanks appreciate
it can I please have a motion to move the superintendent and hip report I'll make it I'll second it any discussion on the motion by Miss Paul chis seconded by Miss gulan Dr Capello yes Mr davo yes m yes Mr chaffie yes Mr
just is absent Miss paa yes Mr citr yes Miss gulan yes Miss FC yes moving on to item eight acknowledgement and correspondence we have some pack on Middle School students of the month try yeah I I'll let you go this
month okay for grade four we have Sophia and Devana grade five Dora Bia Dominguez grade six Kinsley erase and grade seven Roslin
Perez he right right no congratulations kids you'll get your certificate from your um principal yep right do I have anyone here from um parent teacher organizations that would like to speak so for hepto we are right now in
and Beyond which is a program for prek through 7 um where when they read they get prizes and then at the end of the year we do an award ceremony so that's in full swing it's going great um we did a wild an exotic animal show free for
families was really good we're looking to do another free Event in May or June depending on when we can get Space um we had a dance we're doing another dance we're getting ready for teacher appreciation and hepto is partnering with ptso to do a fun run uh the end of
May um so that will be good and then um ptso or Tricky Tray is Saturday so you haven't bought tickets buy tickets come we're still accepting donations so you know donations um anything else going on then
we're g to try to do a dance also at some point maybe we're going to try we'll see um and I just want to say if there's any way that either hepo or the ptso can partner with the board in the few like next year to help fund some programs or whatever like that would be
awesome so please you know keep in touch and everything yeah the word is out which is good we've had some contacts from advisers and teachers and things like that um just want to let everybody know pre-sales end tomorrow so you'll save some money if you buy by tomorrow
you have to order them online you can pay uh venmo or PayPal if you have something you want to donate I'll give you my address you can drop it off um and we also need some help still we need Runners so you have to be 18 or over and ticket sellers so if you want to help up a shift it's a fun time I'll be in
the concession stand Suzanne will be running around thanks um Nikki do you have anything she did all your things stole your liting okay there's public
comments all right that Fun Run is that a tricky train that the high school um it starts at if you if you buy package early you get to come in at 1 after that it's 130 okay you can reserve
a seat so you can be comfortable um overflow seating will be in the bleachers so we recommend um reserving a seat the high school G yeah and calling starts at 4 4 and the concession stand's going to be open we'll have the fryer
going real pros now Suzanne that uh Fun Run is that the color one yeah yes I can donate to that because right before Co hit I had bought a whole lot of stuff because that was a fundraiser that we were going to run then Co hit we weren't allowed to do it so I actually have like a huge economy siiz box in my house I
would love to give to you would love to accept it and if anybody has any connections with um food truck people let us know for that oh that's nice yeah I'll give you the um the PBA um oh yeah all of
their um cont yeah they coordinate with and with J and J vors that's who does the municipal stuff okay did you get that y I have that I have her cont okay great thank you okay and we have Mr
Renault guys how are you we haven't seen you in a while well I was sick and I was away for two months in Florida go to Sunshine and enjoying myself the best part of the whole thing was it was a freebie my brother-in-law didn't have
the house rented the condo on the beach so and I went and ate like pigs took one you took one for the team right I'm sorry I wasn't here I just wanted to say I am so grateful that the referendum passed I think Jeff did an
outstanding job uh he gave immense amount of time to my wife alen and I we came in with a letter gave insights and we were very fortunate that he spent so much time with us uh I thought the concept of the postcards were wonderful
uh a lot of people compliment us complimented you on that the yellow signs were very good if you know anything about advertising B it'ss all their signs are yellow and that's because people pay attention to the color yellow I never knew that until I
had an interview with someone from White gr um Jeff uh we are in the process of and I will contact your office we would like to invite you next month to give an overview of the budget to the Democratic Club if you're ready if you're not uh I
will call you and just send you an email a text and we'll meet you um and we will be uh coming to the April meeting we intend to support the budget uh I think the information that got out tonight that I learned I think uh is astounding
I think it's astounding I think it's disgraceful absolutely disgraceful I think the attack I am preaching to the choir I need I really need to say this I think what's going on in this country today with the attack on public
education is awful absolutely awful as a former educator as a former substitute teacher we have got in contact with some teachers uh Jeff you were talked about quite heavily at mine mcm's house the
other night Susan was 80 Tony Hayes I don't know if you heard yeah um Janet Janet Lynch passed away she was 80 Nancy mosis was there so you have a tremendous reputation jet that was my error they were they were
teachers and I was an elementary school glad to hear they're doing okay so uh you know it was interesting was a nice evening uh a good time it was had by all lot of good food thank you very much thank you thank you Steve appreciate it so youone else in the audience like to speak who didn't get to sign in that
will close public comment okay yes yes can I please have a motion to move item 11 finance a through a through eight which includes the budget I'll make it I'll second any discussion on the budget or
Finance excuse me just ask a question who's chairman of the finance committee or not done by committees by the board as a whole um it's a operations that would be Natalia okay great thank you any
discussion hearing them so let me just read the uh the budget resolution because I I think it's important that everyone understands what we're looking at so the uh item 11h is approval of resolution of submission of the tenative
2526 school budget to the Sussex County Superintendent whereas the superintendent is presented to the finance committee and other members of the Board of Education a recommended 2526 School District budget in the total amount of 42
m9580 as follows and whereas the board approves a local tax levy of $ 29,7 41 $41,600 this local tax levy will increase by a total of
3.62% that is composed of a 2% statutory cap increase of $574,500 Bank cap exception in the amount of $463,500 9,296 from capital reserve for the purposes of paying down referendum bonds
and therefore be it resolved that the Hop pakong School District preliminary budget for submission to the Sussex County superintendent's office is approved as follows on the meeting agenda of tonight March 17 2025 so again as a reminder included in
your budget is 1369 million that goes to pay down the cost of the referendum that the taxpayers approved last year included in that same budget is uh funding for the preschool
expansion initiative that totals about 2.4 million so when you look at that 42 million take 2.4 million off the top for preschool expansion we are basically a pass through agent for that money for the majority of it and 1.3 million that
is paying down bonds those funds while they're included in our Topline budget are not funds that we are directly using on classroom instruction all right they are going to pay Private Preschool providers required by the state for the
preschool program that we can't directly house here and the cost of those bonds and again the cost of those bonds increases slightly over the 5-year term of the bonds um again we went out to referendum those bonds were sold in
December uh the interest rate on those bonds 5 years 2.92% uh was the rate that we got um at auction uh knowing that our current rate of return on our investments is about
4.15% all right all of the interest that is earned on the bond money goes directly back into the referendum project costs it cannot be spent on any project that was not not part of the referendum and it cannot go back to the
district General operating fund it can only be used on cost over runs and direct projects or return back to the payoff itself okay so again just an explanation of our budget for the upcoming year that was a motion by Mr
chaffie seconded by Miss gulan and if I could call the role Dr Capello yes Mr davo yes M Shram yes Mr chaffy yes Mr Deano is absent Miss paa yes Mr citr yes Miss gulan yes and Miss Falcone Schubert
yes thank you moving on to personel can I please have a motion to uh to move 12 a through G I'll make it all second is there any discussion on Personnel none on the motion by Miss
paach cha seconded by Dr Capello Dr Capello your vote Yes Mr davo yes M shrim yes Mr chaffie yes stepan is absent Miss Pacha yes Mr citr yes Miss gulan yes and Miss Falcone schuber yes I have a motion to move items
13 14 15 16 and 17 so the rest of the agenda I think I'll make it second okay any questions on 13 through
17 or discussion excuse me on a motion to move items 14 through 17 uh 13 I'm sorry that's okay right travel 13 travel thank you 13 through 17 on the motion by Mr chaffie seconded by
m Shram Dr capella yes Mr davo yes M Shram yes Mr chaffy yes Mr distephano is absent Miss paa yes Mr citr yes Miss gulan yes Miss Falcone schuber yes okay before we adjourn we have some time for board member comment anyone like to
make any happy St Patrick's Day watch Mania tickets byy Hoops Mania tickets if you're into NCAA there you go you guys good watch the Yankees stink everybody good good right okay all
right so just to wrap things up um I want to thank everybody for coming um so nice to have new board members here I want to thank Veronica for um volunteering to be on the municipal alliance with the town to see that partnership so thank you um just a
couple of things that we spoke about um whether it was in committees or just Jeff and I want to make everybody aware of that um in addition to the money that the state owes us susex County as a whole is owed $8.5 million um based on the of the school
funding formula uh and last week all of the county superintendents including Mr henb back met and discussed this and the county superintendent is going to speak with uh legislators on our behalf so any information that we get based on the outcome of those conversations he's
going to share out with us and then we'll share with you all because you know I hope that we can do a similar movement that they did in um South Jersey and get some of this money that the district is owed um there's like this saying I know you all know it uh
you get what you get and you don't get upset right and we have been getting or not getting a lot of things and we are upset about it but we just have to at this point take what we have and do what we can with it and I really just want to
thank all the administrators um Jeff um and Matt for literally crunching numbers and adding up pennies so we can have the least amount of impact on the classrooms and it is a completely Hands-On um all
Hands-On deck approach up here with the board and behind the scenes and um I just really want to thank you guys because you know we are going to feel it but we're not going to feel it as much as we possibly could if you weren't turning over every stone what you are doing so thank you thank you you're
welcome and um just ask a question who's the county superintend in their schools is it GA Dr Gail Carrick you tell his name from c a r r i c k never got that can I please have a motion to adjourn
I'll make it I'll second all in favor they don't look I'm ready for my breakfast work I haven't yet she on my list for my morning drive she wanted I am trying to figure out I I kicked around the office people
like why does she want to include these things I think your your theory is the best one right now but she's she's angling for she's afraid a year we can't guar that won't happen so either we could do it late Friday
night or early Saturday morning which is C I can't get him going be around if I bring that down tuition's really it's true because for a lot of