okay members of the public thank you for waiting we apologize we actually had an executive session for another matter that we had to go into so we did open the meeting officially but we did not do the Pledge of Allegiance so I'll ask everyone to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance please okay we have already performed roll call
so we're going to move right on to public comments regarding any agenda items anyone from the public wishing to speak please step up to the podium Arthur's at 125 R um I've got a few things to go over I'll try and go over quickly with
them uh I'm not in order here but um the so the srex that we uh cashing in uh do we know how much they're going to be uh based on the current market because I presume that's what we're dealing with about how much that's going to generate and uh how many more do we
have or will we generate any idea on that was the first question um on the under Finance also um the what are the there's a $496,000 uh withdrawal from transfer
from the maintenance Reserve uh and it says it's for use unrequired maintenance activities for school facility so if it's uh easy enough if you can just itemize or tell me what those were or if it's one project or or or two um under travel it looks like we're
reducing the anticipated expenditure from 55,000 to 46,000 which is $119,000 uh still above the current spending level so the question I have is do you anticipate we're going to need we'll be spending $199,000 in travel
knowing approximately what the schedule for people that are traveling is going to be or D anticipate will be less than that so we can uh more that would go back into Reserve under um the I can't I don't know if it's semi or see me uh the special
education um we have a corrective action plan so the question is it's apparently if you're 90% less than 90% compliant or or something special uh you need a corrective action plan we have a corrective action plan so
what was the failure uh that we had that we experienced if you can talk about I don't know if you can talk about it or not special education um the it looks like and I could be wrong I may have Mis uh misread it under finance that we're our Revenue collections are
under by about a half a million dollars uh under under expenditures so the question is going to be I think it was it was uh total liabilities are 27,1 6,7
57 uh this comes off the report of the secretary to the Board of Education I'm not sure um which section that is uh Eric and the amount on amount of balance that we have is 26 milon 516 which is a shortage of about
$59,000 um so did we spend more money are we having a problem collecting revenue or we anticipated we' collected Revenue so I wanted to find out how you're planning on on managing that shortfall that's all I have for now thank thank
you thank you anyone else from the public wishing to speak okay thank you seeing none we will move on to the next agenda item which is board comments um we'll start with responses to Mr Z's question thank you Mr z uh relating to
the asra so we're anticipating I mean obviously it's based on the auction right now the rate I believe is around a little under $200 per SRE um I don't have the exact number in front of me but I want to say that the the srex that we're selling I want I want to say it's about 400 and something estx that we
were able to generate roughly in a year year span um so hopefully that looks at you know around hopefully 990,000 a little bit maybe more depending on how the auctions come in uh relating to the withdrawal for maintenance Reserve that's that's pretty much tax relief so
historically this board and and district has been uh providing um uh a reserve an influx of of revenue from the reserve from the maintenance Reserve that that we're able to generate you know every year to offset offset our
operational U maintenance standard maintenance projects so it's not tied to any specific maintenance project you know for next year it's just really our standard maintenance Roofing H uh relating to those needs relating to expenditure travel so
part of and you'll see uh part of this budget relating to some decreases in revenues you know we had to look at um all lines to cut one of the areas was travel uh so we did reduce the travel expenditure in different areas
uh the however the reduction is is still higher than the current expenditure that expenditure is as of the dated um of the budget so that's not actually the true picture what we're going to close out the the year with um and also that travels is kind of tied to bargaining
agreements contracts you know what's what's approved for specific employees uh so we did reduce it and then we'll keep monitoring it throughout the year of next year um the semi action plan I don't have the exact uh data but from my
understanding it's it's there's different buckets that we need to meet like you said the 90% uh Revenue we have to we have to meet that 90% Revenue that we um earmark at the state earmark for the district I don't know the specifics as
reasoning why we we didn't meet it but um I could say that that semi action plan was created by our director of special services and reviewed by the county so all that is complying as far as what we need to do to to maximize that Revenue dollar um but there is
difficulties with semi just across every District in meeting those thresholds uh because of the the regulations and rules that need to be followed uh as as far as board board secretary report um I don't have the exact figures as far as the shorall and revenues but the reason why
is there is some uh revenues that isn't anticipated one of the revenues is extraordinary Aid so that Revenue we budgeted 270,000 uh that revenue is not anticipated because we don't have the grant award yet that usually comes out sometime the the the application gets
submitted in May and then usually the state releases it end of June beginning of July so once we get the exact dollar amount then I'll realize that Grant amount uh also there is some revenues that we don't realize currently one of the revenues is our Bergen County Special Services are evergreen the
rental that is basically invoiced on a monthly basis based on the actual students population so that's invoice on a monthly basis once we we get that final number but a lot of the other revenues are realized so we're anticipating that the overall Revenue wouldn't be a shortall um the other area
is the estx which you you mentioned that's not that's also not realized until we we finalized the auction so um so the the revenues we're looking at pretty much to either be flat or we should be in a positive hopefully by the
end of by the end of this school year and just to clarify the semi um so the semi components of the action plan uh the the areas that we uh needed to create the action plan forward around documentation um the way semi requires
uh there's different there's multiple ways that you need to document so we just had to create an action plan to make sure that we're documenting in all of the different places that we documented it one way but semi requires multiple you have to document on multiple different sites and multiple different things so we just have to clean up our
documentation yep exactly paperwork State paperwork even better any other board members any comments on the agenda okay see none that brings us to public presentations okay uh the district's ba
will be giving a presentation on the draft budget for 2526 and just before he does give that I just wanted to give a quick statement on it um obviously this has been just challenging year for the country in terms of all types of matters regarding
finances um and everything so um particularly for the Leonia School District uh we we had a further reduction in state aid based on reduced enrollment in the district um we continue to see increases in health costs um and health benefit costs um
year over-year I think it's been at least three years now where we've seen near double digit Co increases in those expenses um but you know thanks to some diligent work by our school administrators by uh the board office um we do have um what Mr Thomas sevich will
be presenting today in terms of what we're looking at for the tenative budget which is fairly modest increase um and is in line with essentially inflation that we're looking at right now um I mean and but looking ahead um the most important thing to
really consider is that all the all the changes and the budget adjustments that have been made um have been made to keep our budget as tight as possible um without sacrificing the quality of the education that we're providing in the school district um that always remains Paramount know that's what we're always
looking to do um and our administrators hold that Paramount and that's what we're really trying to to push as part of you know our role here on the board um and our staff in the board office and the school district um so in terms of looking to the Future
um if health insurance costs continue to increase if enrollment continue to drop those do affect our budgets um but our administrators are doing an excellent job of looking at ways to you know keep the quality of the education at the level that it continues to be at um and
I have confidence in them that they can do it um they've done it this year last year the year before even with all the health benefit changes so um with that unless Dr k has anything she'd like to add I'll turn the floor over to Mr Thomas oich hello
hello I just told you it's been a tight budget year all right thank you president Lee for those comments uh tonight I would like to welcome the people in the public for attending our tenative budget 2526 meeting as well as the people watching
on YouTube so before I start with the relating to the budget I just like to kind of reiterate uh the School District budget is a extensive process it pretty much starts all the way back in into October is when we kind of release you know the
information to our administrators and then from from that point midle of middle of October till today there's numerous meetings with the finance and planning committee uh between myself and Dr caramanos as well as all the all the administrators in the district so I just
like to you know thank everyone for for their support for their time um including you know the administrators who who kind of looked into their specific needs on a on a building scale as well as on a department scale so thank everyone for for making this budget balanced and supporting the
overall needs of every student in Leona so the main objective of you know the purpose of a school budget is uh to align District's educational priorities serves as an action plan for the district uh one of those action plans is we're in the
middle of is the Strategic plan uh SL mission statement so as that plan gets developed the budget will will be revised to kind of meet those goals uh some other areas is districts and board goals long range facility plan uh it's
also accountability to the taxpayers as far as where the tax dollars are going what line what what programs it establishes the framework for allocating spending as well as comply with state federal uh mandates and statutes and laws okay so one of the areas where we
consider uh in the budget is is really the main goal of the budget is basically to provide free public education that meets the needs of every student on rooll in Leon Public Schools while keeping in mind uh our current mission
statement so I just like to read it out loud to everyone so our District's mission is to provide schools that respond to individual needs and abilities as well as our Republic's interest in an educated citizenry we seek to inspire our students to develop
their unique talents to live productively and to make a positive difference in an increasingly complex and interconnected World in concert with Home and Community knowledgeable Ed educators will tailor rigorous programs that encourage relevant learning in the
humanities Arts Sciences math Wellness vocation and Technology as a result of their experiences with our staff and within our schools our students will learn to think clearly critically and creatively the next aspect is to kind of
uh provide you know everyone uh viewing from home in the public today as well as our board members overall landscape of what Leon Public Schools entails from the various facilities so the district com comprises of five facilities from an
elementary middle school high school to an administrative building as well as an Annex Building which houses our department of special services um relating to uh special services we we transport 50 resident districts uh mainly those those resident
districts are a combination of uh technical schools as to well those special needs um in addition we transport over 520 non-resident students uh a lot of those students is part of our send receive with edgew and we have roughly 25 buses in Vans and a majority
of our transportation done is done inhouse with our transportation department uh as far as Staffing we have over 400 full-time and part-time employees including daily substitutes our enrollment um as far as students is
about a little under 2,000 students uh with 1460 allocated to Leona residents and that's basically the snapshot as of October 15 2024 which is what uh the state aid is based on that snapshot for
2526 uh as far as Athletics we have 33 Sports 51 teams 54 coaches one athletic trainer and we have a lot of student athletes uh roughly a little under 900 student athletes so we have a variety of of programs to co-curricular to
Athletics that this budget you know um meets those needs um in addition we have about 65 curri co-curricular clubs and activities the other areas where we look to maximize uh dollars and and try to
save costs is share services so the another area when we dive when we start diving into the budget is is looking at areas to you know kind of save overall cost one of the ways is is shared service so some of our share services that we
have um consisted in this budget as well as in our current year budget is transportation and related services so we have partnership with C certain commissions with the region five uh to provide those needs on a on a c saving basis uh another area is purchasing
through local cooperatives these are some of our local cooperatives that the board has approved that the district can utilize to secure purchasing of Supply Services uh another area our share services that we participate in is our Asus program that's where we uh they go
out on on behalf of the district to get the most favorable rates for our gas and electric uh in addition we have insurance which we participate in in safe which is a joint Insurance Fund which is basically pulling all districts across the state to get a a more
favorable rate on insurance uh another area is curriculum Services which one areas that generates re revenue for the district is our Bur County Special Services uh that's part of the Evergreen program so they basically utilize some of our our space at the high school and
we're able to generate Revenue dollars um on that behalf uh the last piece is borrow Leonia we have a couple of areas where we generate a few areas where we generate some shared services and some cost savings one of the one of the areas is our mechanic Services garage usage so
we basically uh part of our shared service agreement with the burough they allow us to to utilize their FA facility on in return we share the uh mechanics salaries and wages um with an allocated percentage next area is gasoline for our
district Vehicles which we participate in with the burrow um Emergency Services on an as needed bases such as snow removal and additional items as they come need be relating to maintenance of our buildings and the last pieces are Athletic Field uh which we basically
entered into a share service agreement I want to say back 2019 2020 which is basically a shared use improvements um and that Athletic Field is at the high school uh the key areas where this budget encompasses as far as funds is
it's made up of three different funds general fund special Revenue fund and Debt Service fund there are some other funds that aren't in the budget those funds are self- sustaining they're basically funded from revenues that we generate from those funds to offset our expenses some of the funds that aren't
in this budget is our food service fund and some of our Enterprise funds uh but basically the bulk of the budget is is made up of the general fund that's that's our regular operations special Revenue fund is how we allocate and and account for local state and federal
grants and our debt service fund is is how we allocate an account for our long-term debt those typically are approved by the voters through a referenda okay uh these are some areas I'll go a little bit more detail as far as the changes in revenues and
expenditures over those three funds but this is just some highlighted areas that are um larger changes that just wanted to bring everyone's uh attention to uh the first is the district y so the overall total budget is a decrease of
about $1.4 million so the overall funds is decreasing three 3% um that's made up of the general fund which is a decrease of about 82,000 a little under 2% special Revenue has about $600,000 decrease which is
almost half that funding and Debt Service is a slight decrease actually a slight increase of about 8,500 and that's based on our debt that's coming due next year uh the other piece is considering enrollment changes so which is a big part of this budget obviously enrollment
triggers state aid it triggers uh triggers tuition Revenue coming from our send receive relationship with Edgewater as well as uh prek program as well as other leas or parent paid in varage programs so we're projecting on on Roll
student enrollment to decrease 70 students from our current year enrollment numbers so that's looking at about 1907 currently we're a little bit shy I believe of 2,000 students um so that's that decrease revenues major
changes in revenues is an increase in the total tax levy which is roughly a little less than 4% increase to the to the tax payers and I'll go into what that means as far as impact and on the average home uh the next piece is the
reduction of state and federal aid so the in the general fund um the aid in the general fund it's a decrease of about 400,000 and special Revenue as far as grants that's a decrease of 600,000 so I just like to highlight the the general fund Aid that's trigger that's
mainly State funding so that's the state state aid that was recently released end of February and that's Trigg triggered by enrollment numbers as well as um uh equalized values for Leonia income levels so that's basically a decrease of
400,000 the special Revenue grants is a decrease of 600,000 uh the reason for those grants is there is a lot of non- reoccurring grants that we can't budget year in year out so that decrease isn't due to any new information from the federal government that's just uh a
standard Inc decrease that you'll see from budget to budget of um you know practice reduction in tuition Revenue there's a decrease in there of about a little less than 1 million that's also tied to enrollment numbers that we're
projecting from our send receive with Edge order as well as our prek program as well as any other leas that are sending students uh to one of our programs mainly one of our special ed programs uh there is an increase in a miscellaneous revenue and other that's about
120,000 uh the reason for that up tick was due to our interest rates so we kind of had meetings with our U main depository uh and we're kind of restructuring our funding and financing to kind of um strategically get the best
best return on our on our dollars and there's a projection that we'll be able to increase that close to 120,000 going into next year um the next areas is a reduction in the withdrawal from capital reserve that's a little less than a million that's really uh tied to capital
projects the reason for that decrease is that the district has been moving along with a lot of C capital projects currently um however with strategic planning and with the completion of these projects you know there's going to be a gap as far as in linning future projects with future needs of the
district as well as long range facility plan uh the next area is the increase in budgeted fund balance so what this District uh was able to do um and from this board as far as uh you know building a healthy fund balance and to
kind of offset some of these higher increases onto the taxpayer we were able to kind of offset that with a $300,000 contribution to reduce that tax levy so we're able to bring in an additional funding which um you know
looking at in future years that's something that you know we want we want to monitor it's not something that's sustainable that you know to kind of keep increase in funding because we got to regenerate that that amount of funding year and year out as far as on the expenditure side here are some of
the major changes as far as increases and decreases um so one of the areas which uh president Lee has mentioned this budget with all the increases that are that are we're experiencing whether it's due to inflation whether it's due to you
know insurance rates health benefit rates uh salary increases you know across the board every every line is was projected to increase so with my myself with Dr caramanos and and with our administrators um so I would like to
just thank them again for their hard work in looking at the lines more detail in areas where we possibly can reduce costs based on enrollment based on still meeting the the current enrollment needs um maintaining you know a reasonable
class size but still providing you know the highest level of Education to every student uh one of the areas is the reduction in instruction and program costs that's about 800,000 like I highlighted that's really due to enrollment needs so we're not cutting programs that's just base on
enrollment uh the next area is reduction in state and federal grants that's kind of the flip side the revenues um with the special Revenue fund at more grants come in the revenues go up expenditures go up the next area is increase in added District tuition that's an increase of
about 186,000 that's pretty much tied to the placements of our current students projected for next year as as well as any new students that will be placed um for myself with Dr caramanos and our special service director who does an
excellent job um Miss uh Jenner ruso that's based on on those placements as well as you know the current and future uh projected tuition rates for 2526 um as far as general administrative costs you'll see there's a reduction of
800,000 uh something to keep in mind in the state and it's a required by the state we have to compare the Revis budget to the project the proposed budget for next year U what's in the revised budget is rolled over purchase orders so some of those numbers are a
little bit inflated one of the areas is our general administrative cost the reason why it's inflated is we're at um kind of at the tail end of closing out our pending legal cases so those purchase orders rolled into this year's revised budget um with the goal by the end of this year those purchasers
hopefully should be closed out any unexpended fund F will go back to um the taxpayer in a form of excess Surplus go to the reserves so we're we're looking to close those out but in this budget it's showing a decrease for that reason
um the other area is reduction in operational maintenance cost that's about 306,000 that was pretty much contributed what one of the areas where we looked at is our Enterprise funds um the revenue and the fund balance that we built up over the years to kind of
offset offset some of these other increases so we were able to do because of through covid the district kind of um received a lot of funding uh because every student was freay every student got free meals we got funding from the federal government as well as through the state um by doing that we built up a
fund balance in our food service program so we're able to offset some of our salaries which is mainly tied to lunch aids to that program to kind of um help with these higher increases in the general fund budget um but overall our maintenance
cost is pretty much flat uh increase in transportation is another large area that's mainly due to our EV bus lease so I'm happy to report that our EV buses are looking to come through um possibly
most of them are coming into the district arriving within two weeks with the all the buses all seven buses coming by the end of uh April and we're moving along with in installation on the EV char charges so as a result we had a secure uh funding which you'll see in
tonight's agenda to approve the lease agreement uh with the lowest uh bidder and the the first principal and interest is due next year and it's a five-year lease um in addition the district is looking at uh better scaling our phase
in phase out of our buses so we have 27 buses these are seven e buses uh ideally you don't want to have these big gaps in face and phase out of buses because then it has spikes in the budget as far as overall cost so you strategically want to phase in you know possibly two buses
every year or or three buses every year and ideally you don't want to keep a bus uh up to the life that the state requires so they in the past it was 15 years uh all the state allows you to keep a bus for 15 years of life they extended it to 20 years but once a bus
hits more than 10 years the maintenance cost starts increasing and the the value of the bus starts decreasing so ideally if we could phase out buses 9 10 years uh we'll we'll maximize our maintenance on the vehicles as well as the the trade in value on those Vehicles is at the
highest so we're trying to work out a better phase and phase out uh the next area is increase in benefits which all districts are experiencing uh based on broker projections um for next year we're still looking at a roughly about a 15%
increase on on rates and that's kind of across all plans as of right now so you'll see that's that's an increase of $1 million um for this line the state allows uh the board to
kind of increase the tax rate over 2% because the State caps the tax rate at 2% but you could go over the tax rate if you're experiencing increase in health benefits in which the district kind of has limited control over kind of
handling those increases um one of the areas is to kind of we're we're part of the state plan we could privatize the plan which the district looked to do but because of our claim rate claim loss rate on those um our current data it's not beneficial so the rate would have
been higher if we would have privatized uh and the next area is reduction in capital projects like I said that was the result of the withdrawal from capital reserve just based on on closing out these projects and and kind of strategically
you know strategically linning it with the goals of the district based on the strategic planning okay um state aid uh so this is just kind of looking at data and kind of seeing where the district was at where the district is projected to go not only
in 2026 but also in the future so as you see from 2017 so this is uh nine years previous and one year for next year uh so we've we've been pretty much flat from 2017 to 21 um even though enrollment changed um
that was based on the the old calculation of the state aid then back in 2018 the state started phasing in uh the state aid formula based on a new calculation which more in line with current enrollment uh equalized values
of the towns as as those equalized values go up and down it affects State rate state aid and in addition to um the income level of the town so all those factors into to to how much state aid or District's going to receive then in 21
Co hit uh there was a spike in enrollment but what happened was is the state providing more funding to districts to kind of combat you know some of these uh demands relating to remote learning that districts were experiencing but then as you see in 2024
so the past couple of years state aid has been decreasing that's really tied to enrollment numbers so pretty much um it's something to kind of consider and we had a meeting you know myself Dr caramanos and the finance and planning to kind of look at projections for next
year um and as you see enrollment isn't isn't projected to increase so there isn't there isn't going to be a high influx of state aid so that's something to consider because state aid is a big bucket as far as you know how that revenue is offsetting
expenditures another area is student enrollment which on the flip side of the state aid so as you see 2017 um state aid uh the enrollment numbers have increased and this is Leon your residence only this is not students we're receiving from other districts so uh enrollment numbers have been
increasing steady to 2022 and then you'll see it's slowly starts decreasing um and we're projected for 2026 our Leonia resident number to decrease to 1428 uh the next area which look at which impacts obviously the budget and
overall costs and revenues is our on Roll numbers so this is basically taking the resident numbers from Leonia and how many of those students are are actually staying in District not going to a technical school not not needing to be placed in a special you know um
education program that that meets the needs so as you see here it's kind of an increase in overall enroll and then it start decreasing after 2022 to 2026 and that's projected to be at 13 a little under, 1400 on Roll
relating to Leon your residence uh the next area which impacts the budget as far as tuition revenue is pretty much Edgewater other alas parent paid uh the bulk of it is coming from Edgewater that's our seventh to 12th graders but as well as our parent paid relating to
our prek program as well as any any districts that are sending students into our special need program um to support that student's need so that's kind of almost in line with with the data from
Leonia and you'll start seeing from 2023 to 2026 that's also a decrease uh and we're projecting in 2026 that overall received students will be about 509 um so both of these impacts so the red line which is Leonia residence that impact
state aid the blue line which is students we're receiving impacts tuition Revenue so as as these lines are going in the same direction they're going down state a decreases revenues decreasing which impacts expenditures so these are the overall um
numbers by fund so general fund makes up the largest of the the budget which is a little under um I shouldn't say a little bit but 43 m300 th000 special revenues um about 650,000 Debt Service is 1.2
million so this overall budget is about 45 million uh these are some areas as far as Revenue tax levy federal aid state aid Transportation tuition uh rents miscellaneous Revenue rents is use of facilities and then we have reserves
withdrawals Surplus that we're able to bring in to offset expenditures okay this is the general font analysis so I kind of highlighted some of these big buckets previously so as you see here uh local tax levy that's the 960 so
these just kind of overall what makes up you know the increase is decrease in the revenue so if you you'll take a look from the 2425 there's a decrease of about 82,000 which is a decrease less than two uh percent and pretty much that's tied
into those those buckets that I identified and then you'll see here there's some buckets that you know some small increases some smaller decreases and that's based on current data that you know as of today that we're anticipating for next year um and you'll see what the state did was they they
changed they changed the state aid so you see these categories uh so Transportation Aid now we're getting aid for that we're getting more aid for special ed we're getting more aid for security but this equal equalized Aid decrease so what the state did this year
is they kind of uh revise the state aid how it's being distributed and allocated to properly reflect the needs of the district um in those areas okay this kind of uh shows you how the budget's really impacted so as you see taxes you know kind of balances the
budget you know roughly almost 60% so I mean taxes is is the trigger so as expenses go up it's going to kind of reflect in a in an increase in taxes the other area is tuition so so this is kind of unique to to uh Leonia is because we
have a shared uh send share uh send receive relationship with Edgewater so we're able to kind of you know bring in those that student population from 7 to 12 and generate you know Revenue um for those students so what happens with those T tuition dollars is we project
out that that uh that enrollment number based on our estimated tuition rates but that all gets Tred up two years down the road to meet the actual cost per pupil so Edward as well as Leonia once in two years that number you know will balance
with a tuition tuition adjustment uh the another another area is state and federal aid so as you see state aid goes up and down uh enrollment from tuition students that we're receiving go up and down and then taxes um that basically balances a a School District budget
there really isn't a whole lot of Revenue generating areas um you know we we look into use of facilities as one area we could look into maximize maximizing our investments but uh part of the state we kind of are restricted
to invest those funds in in a in a risk risky uh in Risky areas so we kind of have to keep it to CDs and and those lower levels um and then miscell and then uh reserves is another area where we kind of generate Surplus we give it
back to the taxpayers as well as you know any additional drawals from from other reserves U special Revenue programs so these are the grants that we're able to bring into the budget on a year ande out basis so that's why I said the decrease in the federal grants isn't due to any
new information that the federal government has cut or is looking a cut So currently we're projected at still receiving funding for these grants um and strategically what what this District does is we basically budget roughly 80% of the grant award because we don't know where where the funding is
going to go with the hope hopefully that funding increases so as you see we have the title one title two title three title four those all meet um the needs of students and staff in in those key areas Ida is the big bucket which offsets some of that special ed cost so
as far as um more students you know need more services the state will provide you know more funding in the Ida so as we report you know higher level of specialed students will'll get more funding in Ida all these grants are passed through through through the state
but they're all federal grants so the federal really as as as of this moment they dictate the funding levels so they provide the funding to the state and then the state kind of you know determines how much ibaa is going to go to you know the district so they'll they'll further allocate
it um this is the special Revenue this is basically kind of in line with like I said with those grants that we're able to still bring in if they're recurring some of the grants that you'll notice that are coming off are the op grants so that's why the the decrease is not
necessarily um a real loss in Grants uh what Dr caramanos did uh strategically uh since I've been here with these Co grants they're basically not we didn't earmark positions and and with the with the you know projection that these
grants aren't going to be still here going in the future so these grants were utilized to basically um supplement programs that we already had so it was adding value to our current program so some of those needs you know obviously were reduced but it wasn't you know
where we're cutting sta because of these grants uh the last fun is death service and as you see here it's pretty much flat we had the huge uh fond that came off last year that was maturing so as you see here this and I'll show you a
more schedule um projected out for over the remaining life of this one Bond but you'll see it's pretty much going to be flat until 203 31 Appropriations these are the categories that our Appropriations relates to so the state requires us to allocate it
based on programs uh functions and programs so as you see here you you pretty much have your instruction uh categories your support services your capital outlay and then Debt Service is the other area uh these are the areas that the general fund increases decrease which I
highlighted the the bigger areas which you'll notice help benefits is an area uh some of the instruction is a larger area and that's uh instruction is really based on enrollment needs health benefits is projected rate increases uh General Administration that
was highlighting you know um some rollover you know legal uh purchase orders for those pending pending claims that rolled into the 2425 budget all right but the overall you'll see decreas is
1.84 same number on the revenue side uh the next area is salaries and benefits so so in these numbers you don't see this is supplies this is salaries Professional Services all those all those different objects uh this basically identifies and to bring to
everyone's attention that the overall budget of a district is kind of dictated by salaries and health benefits so as as these salaries start increasing benefits start increasing you know that roughly makes up about 80% of the overall budget
so the supply lines is is really minimal and then we're projecting at um a little over 2% don't want to on a larger scale you know we haven't you know we've been strategically um you know making sure that you know
the salaries are in line with the needs of the students correct programs and all the all the positions are supported you know for that need and and there's no um you know these additional uh Staffing that isn't needed
uh this is the special Revenue it's the same number as the revenue side this is the the appropriation side it just basically grants come in it's it's earmarked for that that purpose Debt Service same thing so this
tells you um the revenue that's needed to pay down the interest which is about 283,000 and the principal is about 93 935,000 um now we get into Capital Equipment projects I like to you know provide the
public as well as the board the overall future planning as well as current projects that we have in the process of completing or have completed so as you see here I mean this district and board has done a great job in maximizing the dollars and all these
projects were able to be done without doing a referendum so as you see here and I know you know uh Arthur you kind of bring up reserves making sure that the money is you know properly um your increase in reserves and and making sure
that you know there's a voice from you know from the public from the residents um but you'll see here and and there's a couple areas where we were able to maximize so the rod Grant was one of them we applied for a rod Grant which they they funded 40% of that roof replacement which is completed um
replacement of the five exterior doors at ACS with that's almost completed so as you notice if you walk around this school you'll see there's new doors um on ACS all the exterior doors that needed to be replaced for Safety and Security so that's in the process of getting completed um which we did
through capital reserve the other area is replacement of interior exterior doors at LHS um unfortunately you know we don't like a disaster or like Ida and the rainstorm that occurred in August um as far as flooding but the the U bright
side of it is that we were able to get you know the doors that got damaged from the flooding replace through Insurance Recovery um and that's in the process of of getting replaced uh which um the Ida one is in the process of being completed
and the second uh phase or really it's phase one of the rainstorm but overall phase two of the of doors at LHS we actually had the bid opening uh tonight today and it's currently being reviewed by our attorney um and then we're you
know we'll approve it at the next board meeting uh the next area is the science Wing that was another area where we're able to and we're in the process of renovating that that wing of the high school and that's going to be through Insurance Recovery uh the fitness center that's in the process of being completed
and you'll see that there was a there's an approval tonight to award that project uh that is basically funded by capital reserve a renovation of the media center that was the need of the high school from relocating the old Media Center to a newer location that
will support the needs of of the students uh for next year and that's in the that was on this agenda to be awarded and that's funded by capital reserve replacement of the electrical secondary that's in the process of being completed over the summer because we got to do a shutdown of of the electric
going to the high school that's also funded by Insurance Recovery uh ADA unisc Bathroom we basically updated one of the bathrooms there was a need at the high school to meet um you know various student needs uh relating to Ada so now at the high school we have one ad a
compliant bathroom that was funded by capital reserve mitigation drainage project at the high school and middle school uh pretty much the middle school is completed the high school is uh with the exception of one exterior door that's in the process of being completed that that was funded with a combination
of FEMA proceeds so because of the rainstorm the district was able to kind of reach out to FEMA to get uh reimbursement back uh because of our insurance covered a lot of the cost to replace what got damaged uh part part of the FEMA they're able to provide
mitigation so to prevent you know future uh flooding in that area so that's in the process of getting completed the district added some local reserves to that to kind of Meet the the overall cost uh the media center project at at the high school like I mentioned uh it
was renovating the old one that's the new one that's all capital reserve 7 EV charges and buses we're able to get a d Grant so that's covering uh pretty much majority of the chargers installation and the difference between Diesel and an
EV bus uh so the district has to fund the the difference that that difference is basically um well I shouldn't say the difference but the the district has to fund basically uh the the cost of a diesel bus if we don't if we didn't go
to EV and that's what the lease is to get that funding to pay it over five years uh bus cameras installed on all Transportation vehicles that was completed this year we did that through through Reserve Reserve funds additional smart boards that was also done through
within the budget through through reserves and replacement of a maintenance vehicle which was in need to meet the needs of you know snow plowing um so you'll see there's a lot of project no referendum uh budgeted for
2526 LHS turf field and the technology infrastructure so we're paying down those two projects and that's the reason for the withdrawal of capital reserve other than that there is no new project that we had um highlighted in this budget so this district and board has
done a great job in kind of waiting for strategic planning and like Arthur like you mentioned you know we're not just throwing money at projects and then two years down the road you know we're changing it because we now we want to add a different program so we kind of put a stop on all future project uh
long-term debt as far as bonds so as you see here in 2526 which the last payment 2030 31 it's pretty much going to be uh steady so this is just something to kind of consider uh when looking to do future projects that we can't do within capital
reserve because our capital reserve is limited um and and you can only Build It Up over you know multiple years so sometimes certain projects you know you can only maintain an as uh you know to a level where at some point you have to do a capital uh project and replace
whatever the the item is uh so this is just something to think about you know for planning as far as future projects debts coming off you know to the tax pay you want to kind of maximize and keep that tax rate steady and not have increases decreases you know year in year
out uh the next piece is financing agreements and leases payable so these are items that we're either renting at the end of the lease we got a return or at the end of the lease we own so as you see here the turf field uh that's one of the project projects that's coming
that's due in 3031 uh the tech upgrade this is the last year so 2526 it's the last year on the tech upgrade project that we did that that the board approved um but keep in mind with all technology it gets outdated
very quickly the maintenance and and kind of you know replacing equipment you know so that's something to consider as these things are coming off it doesn't necessarily mean you know a true savings because now that money might be you know earm Mark to replace servers or or um
you know replace certain other technology equipment that there's a need uh some of them water coolers posters machines those are rentals uh same thing with the copier so th those are basically this District strategically um to reduce you know paper gold green we
kind of you know strategically placed uh larger copy units throughout every building um so staff that needs to print they go to one of those Central locations to print uh by doing that we have a lease for those coffers but once that lease comes up we need to replace the copers with
newer copers so they could be a change as far as need maybe we don't need as many cop maybe we need different styles maybe you know placement of them so it could change but you know that will even though it's ending in 2728 there's probably going to be another lease to replace those copers uh
iPads iMacs those are coming off we don't we own those so we got to figure out the need for you know those grades that use those devices if we want to you know maintain iMacs iPads um EV buses that's that's the last least so as you see here 20331 is kind of the last year
of O financing that we have currently obligated um and now the big thing tax tax overview so like I said it's a little less than 4% increase right so what does that mean so uh so the tax rate is is projected and
this is for the school year so keep in mind the school year is based on July 1st to June 30th right so it's kind of two calendar years the burrow works on a calendar year so kind of when you get these rates it looks a little bit different I'll go into the calendar year but as you see here it's
it's an increase a change in rate of 0776 per. which is an increase of about $342 on the average home which in Leon it's about $441 and you might say I wish I could buy a house in Leon for
$441 there reason why it's that number is because it's based on assess it's not true market value so um so when you get your you know your what Your assessed that you got to basically take that number divided by the assess value percentage which I think in Leonia might
be around like 50 something percent 40 something to 50 something percent and then you'll get what your true value is assessed at at the burrow um and that's what you use to see if you should appeal your taxes um you know they go by you know assess value True
Value and then the overall impact on the on the school year is $ 9,50 so that's what the average home will be paying in school levy 9,000 a little over $9,000 which is only a $342 increase you know
under these you know situations I mean and we try to kind of maximize and not passest the burden onto the taxpayer and by doing it you'll see that what why those lines were reduced as far as overall spending so on a calendar year uh so
basically this Levy is kind of split into two different calendar years so we have the the portion that was is being raised from last budget which is the almost 12 million then we have the portion from this budget which is 13 million so the combination of those two on a calendar year for
2025 so the burrow you know all burrow um budgets are always behind so they're working on a tenative budget um once their budget gets approved if it hasn't been already then they they kind of finalize that number um and then give you the true tax uh bills usually comes
out in the summertime but for the school levy the portion on those bills will be based on 25 million uh 8978 which is a rate of a little over 2% which it's a little bit less on the calendar
year which is uh uh 335 on the average home and $8,888 so that's from January to December of 2025 and the next this is kind of to give everyone the schedule what's kind
of comeing due what's the next step so tonight is the tenative budget uh the next step is my office will submit it to the county uh by tomorrow by the end of the close of the business tomorrow county has pretty much a month to review it check off make sure everything looks
you know okay as far as um on their end once we get the okay we're uh projecting to have the public hearing May 6th once the county signs off on it um and then depending on the public hearing once it gets approved by the board then it gets
submitted and adopted and sent to the county so from now till May 6 the district can make changes on the budget so if there's something that comes to light that we overestimated or underestimated we could modify revenues
and bring in expenditures or vice versa we can make changes from now till till the public hearing so this is just kind of a tenative budget and then those changes can be made and then I'll open it up to the floor as far as questions
yeah yeah what we'll start with questions from the public um any any members of the public have any questions about the budget presentation Arthur's at 125 realdi that was an outstanding presentation and it was uh really well done uh no one likes
to see increases but it's really minimal uh couple comments um when the auditor was here he talked about uh unspent projects and monies and how it rolled over I thought it was a two-year process had to be spent but whatever it was is obviously that you captured almost
$800,000 uh from that which I think helped offset $794,000 um and um you moved stuff around enough to minimize the impact the huge impact from the government on the on the the
benefits and the health benefits uh the you had one chart there that was um like a roller coaster showing enrollment okay but it was a short window do we have do you have any historic information on that is that kind of con a constant up and down the student population
increases like from 20 years 30 years where that seems to be a steady up and down what I'm getting at is although it's dropping down now and it's going to possibly lead us to excess capacity in two or three years from now can we anticipate that it's going to swing
about to back up which should play to the Strategic plan that even though it's giving us a little relief now now maybe that's something you need to plan for anyhow because historically it will swing back up again so I don't know if we have that or not um if we are anticipating a long-term decrease and
excess capacity is there any effort or thoughts about tracting Alpine Anglewood Cliffs or any other uh uh townships who don't have uh school districts to come here instead of wherever they're going right now to because if we have excess capacity uh then we want to get tuition
we want to fill those seats up we know that that's where that helps us a lot out a lot and finally um um have you given any thoughts on the electric buses to selling advertising letting psng put the electric bus on it the electric company who were buying the
buses from put put the banner on there clean ad get some money coming in for it as long as we have it just some thoughts that I had on that uh anyhow that was uh that was really well done thank you any other questions any questions from the board
any comments from the board Tommy can can you use your microphone I'll press it I think I think download might be the reverse for some reason I think if you talking it doesn't oh it's
off if your lights on right now then it's always on you have to push to mute if your light is off you need to push to talk and you have to hold it they just rolled out these extra mics today so obviously we have some technical issues to work out with those
sure just to make sure that I'm on the same page um there's a big jump between to 22 or 23 that well let's start with the 21 to 22 did you say that has to do with the updated formula or something to
up from that was outdated or is that true respective is it reflective of anything that has to do with enrollment or because I know Co and onward for two years or so those are just truly bubbl
because of that you know situation um what what is I'm trying to understand if we can project we can anticipate what the true projection is if that is you know a
bit how much is it like a million dollar it's a big job yeah you to understand like over years um so I'll respond to you and then I'll Circle back to Arthur so um so when the state came out with the c for Reform Act
it pretty much rolled it out I believe 2018 and then it was a seven-year phas in so from 2018 to 2025 was was where they they kind of phased it in and they gradually uh what they did was was they basically G uh they did it over small
percentages um which is in tied tied to your enrollment in those years but then in 21 when Co hit they kind of skewed the state aid because I believe they had all more funding pass through from the federal government so they kind of passed through this funding through
state aid um onto the district not necessarily tied 100% to that seat for act so that's why I think from 2123 it it's a little Mis viewed as far as why it increased drastically when the enrollment didn't jump up drastically it
did increase but not to that level um and then from kind of 24 that's kind of a true you know we're two years out of covid and then now this is kind of really in line with the way enrollment is going and equalized value in Leonia and income levels in Leonia um
because that as equalized value is going up and and uh income levels are going up the state calculates basically basically you know if if towns are adequate to meet the needs of the overall budget um as well as enrollment you know our District's able to meet the needs of of
based on enrollment numbers so as your enrollment numbers change they kind of calculate you know they they they put a cost on every student special ed at risk and they come what your adequate budget should be how much state aid you should get um and then they kind of compare it to what your current state a is and then
if it's a decrease or increase from the previous year then they kind of make those changes but something to keep in mind which I forgot to mention this year the state what they did was they capped all decreases at 3% because last last year if you remember we've got we got a
larger decrease and then come June the state because a lot of District said I we can't handle this large decrease you know in one year even though districts knew that this the the state aid was was full in 2025 that you know that's why they did seven years to kind of give
districts a sevene f in of the state aid but districts you know it's hard for them to calculate like even me when I look at it I don't I mean it's all the different formulas if I was to kind of change numbers around I mean I wouldn't it's hard for me to calculate what the state Aid's going to be because there's so many formulas in moving parts so then
what happened was is this year they said um so they gave districts kind of some relief and and stabilization Aid last year they gave them a percentage of that loss back but they said you're not going to get it again and then what they did this year in a way to give it back they
capped it at 3% so any districts that should have got more they only decreased it by 3% and we're actually one of the districts that we were we are at the cap of 3% so we probably should have got you know I don't want to say more but we
shouldn't get yeah yeah so equalized value equalized factor is that a is that affecting is it a big portion of the um as en it's a portion but I don't I don't know I don't think it's as big as
enr I don't think it's as big as enrollment right it's also against usun We Don't Need You Know Much correct okay and that is the control correct so the state I mean uh
Vic could elaborate on it but the state what they did was you know districts have the ability to go to the taxpayers to go over 2% um to bring programs back to add programs to the district um and one of the ways that they did it to make it easier to
districts is they allow them to move the November election to April but not necessarily have the taxpayer vote on the whole budget so if you're able to keep it within 2% um and you want it to go over 2% then the taxpayers would vote
on going over but if you moved it back to April and the budget is still within 2% I don't believe believe the taxpayers need to vote which that was the advantage of going in November it made it you know I don't want to say less transparent but it's you know still transparent we got to present it to the
public but it made it a lot um easier relating to elections and all that you know it's less political because you you know you don't get you know that vote depending on you know who comes out and it's more in line with the needs of the district not necessarily who's voting on
the budget so that's why districts kind of you know kind of moved it to November to kind of you know but now with you know with these you know struggles you got to go to the taxpayers and by having it in November the school
year is almost you know then if it gets approved you can't implement the program until it gets approved just had a one oh you and then just to art that just before I forget so one of the areas I mean we do look at projected we look at um data so uh I
could probably go back further so this was the historically I kind of look at 10 years but there is data I mean this is all from asssa numbers um some of it is archived I would have to request it from the state so I don't have the ability to go back further I would have to kind of request that data from the
state but basically relating to uh Edge order per se the other leas parent paid Edge order um so part of that is is our send receive relationship with Edge order um from speaking to their intern VA their
trend is starting to kind of pick up and increase so I think next year's class coming into seventh grade is going to jump up and then I think the classes are more kind of at that higher level of 90 to n between 90 and 100 students per se
um for 2026 it's lower it's I think it was like 70ish 70 students so that that was a drop off so I we're project ing you know Edge Water students that we receive from them will have an up pick but the other uh parent paid relating to our pre program which you know currently
is paid uh that level is still low so we opened up at um registrations so for all parents that have been registered you know their child at four years old they're able to send it to Leonia and pay and we try to uh structurally make it uh affordable we we have uh three
tiers so if you are uh considered lowincome or you know struggling you can get a a possible reduced rate um but without the reduced rate the the level is a lot cheaper than you know local dayc carees it's part of a a program you
know we tie it to the instructional program of the district so that registration is still low um and that's just based on overall data of of families moving in having kids uh we communicating with the burrow as far as developments there's nothing on the horizon for at least two to three years
I believe so there's no there's no big project that's going to come and and bring all these families in with uh kids and coming into the system so I mean we do look at that data other areas is some of the neighboring districts so um
president Lee kind of uh brought it up he mentioned uh something and we're kind of monitoring but there are programs that besides bringing in students from uh another District in our special needs program typically a District's not uh isn't required to send the district and
they don't to our our our school for general education right if it's special need and they can't meet the needs then they'll send it here to meet those needs but they're not going to send a 12th grader to our school just because the parent wants to if that happens the parent has to pay but there are programs
out there where we can open up for to a parent like almost like a charter school where they have the option to send a student into Leonia they don't have to pay their resident district has to pay but there's kind of diff there's um
negatives to that you know you got to have a process you got to you know um accept the certain amount of students you can't restrict students based on you know just because you don't want to you know have that student you got to make sure that you know you're following all those protocols and bringing in those
students from other Town yeah yeah yeah yeah and I think part of the strategic planning we have a demographic study that we kind of are looking to do again we did one uh for the long range facility plan and part of that there
wasn't no increase you know there was no like huge increases where uh we were going to experience any any issues but we did the long range facility plan I want to say back in 22 as you see enrollments decreasing from
that so they projected slight increases but which is incorrect because we're decreasing because they were they were basing on previous data um yeah just I appreciate all the work you've done and and really nice presentation there I mean I think you
kind of answered part of my question was related to the enrollment Trends because it seems like when we have reduction in enrollment it's almost like a double whammy it impacts the state funding to some level and then secondarily we lose tuition Revenue so I know you mentioned the tuition Revenue dropping by about
$953,000 uh is that related to those 70 students being reduced is that how it's relatively linked generally speaking correct so a lot of it is is linked to um the dip in Edge order students as well as parent paid as well as uh the prek level we kind of projected at the
same level as this year so it's really other leas that are sending into this District um parent pay those students a lot uh some of those students are in 12th grade grade they're coming off we don't have any new tuition agreements uh some of it is Edgewater their their class that's coming into the district
for 7eventh grade is at a lower level than the 12th graders that are graduating um also the diff is in projected botch so this year we we increased our votek historically the amount of students we sent to votch um and I don't think there's restrictions
on how many students they can accept but in the past we were always at like seven eight students we were sent to votch this year they uh the students that applied and the students that got accepted it's 12 so every student we lose we almost lose 15 $18,000 per
student yeah now that's helpful with the demographic Trends especially because anytime we hear about Edge waterer and they're you know building then it's like there's a panic that you know comes here like oh no you know our school is going to be overcrowded but in reality it seems like for now it's stabilized a bit
so I guess that's why those demographic studies are important because and a few years ago we were projecting all these increases we moved the fifth graders to the middle school and then that increase didn't really play out so um I guess keeping close to that both from a funding perspective and then obviously a
capital investment perspective as well um Eric yeah thank you great job I know we're a part of the finance committee so we see these um slides all the time I wanted to point out um to Arthur's question about like excess capacity I brought it up to zanti and
and um say what she said to me and then she could confirm is that current levels we're perfect we fit we don't have excess capacity and we're not busting out the scene so she could you know because I brought that up to Arthur I says hey if we lost 60 students why
don't we you know utilize we got space you know so that was definitely something I brought up as far as the EV charges I didn't bring up um putting ads but I put brought up maybe we can um rent or sell like the EV charging equipment like people come in and they
charge it other like bod I think Eric said bot uses electric buses so that's another way and besides the 953 th000 decrease on the state aid the health costs going up that to me is the one thing that scares me like crazy
because there's like you said 70 students goes down you lose a million dollars there's a correlation but health benefits going up 15% every every year is always going to increase the taxes there's just no way about it um that has to stabilize
get to somewhere between three and 6% which would be like a normal inflation even that's kind of high but what it the third year in a row where we're double digit increases in health benefits all right so I just wanted to add that yeah to to add to Mr Z's comment uh with the
EV charges I mean we all looking at I mean obviously we have to get it installed and and see how the project goes but we are looking at kind of possibly either partner and do a shared service agreement with a go or other districts um but we have to kind of circle back with insurance you know we don't want to open it up
to Residents because got for bit if something happens they charge their vehicle and you know and something happens but so we are looking at different area yep yeah correct um relating to the health benefits so we are projecting 15% like all these are
projections right we we want to project 15 if it comes in 12 that's what we want project 15 it comes in 10 so that's why we kind of um stick with these projections based on our Brokers based on um you know professionals that are are recommending these increases but
that's what generates extra Surplus money to move into reserves because what happens is this is projection based on current data um sometimes you don't know how you know as we hire new staff staff resigns retires we don't know what plan they're going in if they're family
single we don't know if the state's going to do 13% so as these unexpended balances don't come to fruition um then we move it back to extra Surplus we move it to reserves but unfortunately we have to project with these numbers because got for bit if we project 10 we're like
you know what and then it's 15 now we're kind of in a deficit any other questions from any other board members thank you thank you yes so thank you um thanks to Mr Thomas evich for just all the work he's done the last few months um I also
wanted to thank the administrators the the principles uh specifically for the work that they did um the supervisors who spent a lot of time looking at our curricular programs and how we can um better budget those programs our instructional Tech our directors you
know everyone all of the administrative team did a lot of work on making sure that we uh balance this budget without you know any major uh damages um it is going to be a challenging year ahead with the budget um we're going to be not
spending as much right we're going to be a little lean in the next year but um we really took a deep dive into the efficiencies we have in the district and making sure that we're capitalizing on all the the people that we have here um and really looking at our schedules and
our uh the just everything the the human the um the physical all it um so we that internal internal work is going to help us improve our efficiencies within the district which will then you know lead
us to a successful future that's the plan is to make us make sure we get set up for a successful future uh with a strong strategic plan it'll give us guidance into how we're going to spend in the future um and then you know getting someone really strong in this spot that can lead us into a good way
thank you thank you and one of the reasons why I'm really glad we got the strategic planning process started so looking forward and I think you're going to report on that a little bit today um okay so that brings us without
any other comments on on Mr Thomas's presentation that brings us to item 2.1 um student representative comments to on okay thank you um that brings us to item 3 3.1 approval of consent agenda
items can I have a motion and a second motion Miss Thompson in a second Mr Grow um and that is a roll call actually excuse me do we have any items that um uh for discussion do any board members have any items for discussion
within the consent agenda items okay seeing none uh can we have roll call please miss choy yes Mr Grow yes Dr Meer Miss Molina Mr Park yes Mr zepa yes Mr SEO
Miss Thompson vice president Melman and president Lee Yes motion carries on consent agenda items that brings us to item 5.1 Dr P okay so for my report I'm actually going to start with the Strategic plan just to
give a quick strategic Plan update uh January February we finished we wrapped up all of our feedback sessions uh we did the community the administrators the staff we did them all um at this point we've been writing we've been actually you know going through going through all that feedback and writing our objectives
and our indicators um now uh and we reviewed that with the policy and practices committee which I'm sure they'll give an update to at that point um and then now we're in the process of making those edits so in the next few weeks uh our admin team will be looking
at the objectives and the indicators and now they'll be we'll just be going through those edits um and then hopefully in I think we said the April meeting we'll give a a more detailed presentation on where we are with the board and District goals so that I'll give more details on the Strategic plan
the plan is to the plan is to get the plan approved uh in June um at the June board meeting so we'll be ready to start the next school year with a strong plan in hand um part uh recently we just closed our gifted and talented survey uh just
to give an update on that we just closed that uh two weeks ago it was the end of February um so we got a lot of good information from that survey uh we also had our consultant who's running the survey she met with the principal she was in the buildings um collecting
feedback from uh you know the more qualitative Fe feedback um and then she wrote her res recommendations her summary results which I just got probably yesterday uh and we will review that we'll present it and then we'll talk about how we want to present it to
the public um she's offered to come so we may consider having her here um so some other updates just some quick updates around the schools um ACS we had read Across America week um big week for ACS uh big week for me I got to read to
a bunch of classes which which was the most exciting part of my month um uh Friday was day so we had different activities in all three buildings uh today we had ACS had an assembly a schoolwide assembly uh through Health Barn which focused on providing uh for
students to make healthy options uh when they're with food um and that was sponsored by the home and School Association so we really appreciated that support and setting that up uh for our students um LMS last week had the wellness fair and then few weeks ago I
heard there was a phenomenal Harlem Wizards event that brought in a remarkable crowd and was a great event for the community um we're really thankful for LMS home and school and for all of the home and school associations and all the people that supported um we look forward to many more events as a
community the one piece of feedback that I received and as you know I wasn't there because I was at National Conference um which I was the entire night just miserable I was not at this event um but uh but the one piece of feedback I received is how nice it was
to have a CommunityWide event and it was nice to see kindergarteners with eighth graders with ninth graders all together in one space doing something together so we look forward to many more of those uh and then for LHS we want to thank everyone for attending the card party it was a very successful night it was great
I hope everybody won a few prizes that they got to take home um the other last Thursday was our Winter concert uh I'm sorry not our Winter concert our music music trip concert for our Music trip for our um our bands orchestras and our
choirs our students are headed to Nashville for their annual trip to Nashville uh they leave tomorrow I believe tomorrow's Wednesday they leave tomorrow um so exciting very excited I they are phenomenal every year I'm more and more impressed with our music
department it is absolutely every year they just kids get better and better um so I'm excited to see what they bring back um we just wrapped up njp a testing so that's done uh one less State assessment for the year so uh that's
checked off the book um state seal of bi Literacy for this this school year we had 32 so last year if you remember we had 11 students this year we had 32 students take the Seal of B literacy in nine different languages so we'll do a formal presentation we'll bring them in we'll do a formal presentation as it
gets closer to graduation and then just some upcoming events we have ACS Global Feast on March 28th LMS drama club play on April 3rd and 4th and limelighter spring musical is April 25th 26th May 2nd and May 3rd
and this year's spring musical is Mean Girls um I will be there it's one of my favorite movies as a child right um so I'm very excited for Mean Girls and that's all for me okay thank you and that
Mr Thomas Savage anything more to add tonight I don't know I'll keep it short I know that I know the presentation was long but thank you have not and if you have if you have more to add I apologize I didn't mean to come across that way if you have
information you you need to relay please by all means do so I know you've been very extremely extremely busy with yeah with the budget so really appreciate it um okay so seeing no comments from Mr Thomas sevich
we'll move on to item 6.1 back to our student Representatives thank you so much president Lee um actually for tonight I had three items to report but Dr Carman has already covered two of them but well
I will still um do a report as a student so first uh we had a car party last Friday and it was really successful Leonia high school and especially senior class appreciates everyone who helped to plan successfully all of the companies that donated their products and everyone
who participated to support the senior class the another one will be all of the spring Season Sports started uh boys boys tennis track and field boys volleyball girls flag football golf baseball and softball teams have begun to to have hope to beun and to have hope
to start their season strong lastly um Good Luck to everyone who who is part of the music department on a music trip to Nashville and we hope everyone has a fun and safe trip thank you awesome thank you and for those eight people on the public watching card
party is a great event to go to great opportunity to win great prizes and obviously for an extremely great reason it was great to to see everyone there and all the board members that can make it members from the public I highly encourage you to attend next year if possible um okay so that brings us to
next committee uh uh practices and principles yeah we met on March 11th um we discussed a number of items um the first was a possible ethics training um for next week March 25th um with Vic
possibly um and then we talked about the CSA evaluation even though um Dr Gaton is on medical leave we will still be completing um the evaluation it will will either be for um Dr um caramanos says acting interim um there a distinct
possibility of that um depending on the timeline of when um and if Dr gon comes back um from the medical leave in time um so keep an eye out for emails about um that evaluation um and
then um reviewed the um strategic plan updates with Dr caramanos um and we looked at um the goals and objectives document that she's been working on um and we had a really productive conversation with her about um all the
indicators and the action items um and I believe that's all forgetting anything okay okay thank you that brings us to buildings and grounds um yeah so Eric covered a lot of
things with the capital expenditures and stuff only thing I wanted to it's kind of question we brought up in our meeting we met three weeks ago is that for the EV charges we were waiting on a permit um so I don't know if Eric has any updates on that but otherwise he covered
everything yeah um so pretty much the permits were recently dropped off at the construction the um construction code official uh Department um he's aware of it uh Mr Woods had reached out just to let him no so he's he's on top of it um
and then hopefully I think he anticipating end of the week we could possibly receive it and then once we receive it the vendor could go ahead and start the construction excellent thank you okay thank you uh next up we have
education we're meeting uh later this month but we're excited to hear that there are updates on my GI to the progam excellent thank you uh that brings us to finance and planning which is myself um you you essentially heard
summary of you know what was discussed in the last we had two meetings for the finance and planning committee on March 7th and the 14th um obviously all that information really the committee didn't have much to do with it but we spent most of the time um asking Mr Thomas
evich questions um trying to understand exactly what's going on with the budgets you know why we're facing certain issues we are and how um uh Mr Thomas sevich and the school administrators and the board office how they are essentially tiptoeing their way
around the issues and really kind of coming up with a way to resolve them and and find budgets and make things really work in order to as I mentioned before keep our educational quality at the level that it is you know with the funds that we have available balancing all the revenues and
expenditures um so we will have another meeting uh depending on any adjustments that are required um that comes back back from the County's review of the the draft budget okay that brings us to policy so we were able to meet uh late
last month and we typically spend the focus of our time reviewing various trial ssme updates or information that's come from the state uh we there were a considerable number of updates uh a lot of it uh could be clarification language while some may be a bit more material so
we're one of the action steps is just really doing a side by-side comparison and of what our existing policies are where do we need to make some you know more required changes so the policy committee will meet again in in April to kind of see those changes and see what we want to apply as a committee and then report back to the
board thank you very much okay I think the next item on the agenda is actually new business however [Music] um we are going to I'm going to switch the agenda around a bit and go to our
second Public public comment section on non-agenda related items um because we do expect I do expect to have a length the executive session so we will we'll move to item 11 and then item 12 and we'll go into executive session um and come back for
new business as well as Personnel so if anyone has any comments from the public on any non-agenda items please St up Podium provide your name and address thank you so much that that all goes to the administrative team really
so arth at 125 Reales um I was glad to hear that you're that it appears of some of the thing I I come in here and I snipe all the time about things that I see on the agenda because I do go through all of it and I read all the stuff um and I was glad to see that Eric said you're going to starting to
consolidate because one of the things I brought up a long time ago is all the copier releases you know why I have all these why can't you consolidate and obviously uh they're starting to do that slowly one thing I'd advise is copers if it's an enclosed room you ventilate it properly copers generate a lot of carbon and the air quality in those rooms and
those are is extremely high you need to have negative pressure in there sucking all the air out if it's an En closed even if it's an open area but semi enclosed um the um a long time ago I mentioned a number months ago I mentioned that Kevin really
should have access remotely to the HVAC control systems in all the buildings from his uh from his handheld you know his phone or his device or whatever else it is so he can respond to emergencies he can temperature lighting everything and he can monitor the the energy
consumption so it's something I know there was an issue with security and his access but you get you can parallel access on servers to have him come in to control that which is separate apart from I understand the security of your system but it's something you need to
look forward to um and the last thing well two other things one is um Eric has a lot on his plate okay how do I know that because I talk to him I email him and I know pretty much what goes on around here uh and he doesn't know I'm going to say this but he needs a um a
purchasing agent because when I look at these things what jumps out at me is the amount of buy the small stuff the 20% of your budget because 80% of your budget is really not controllable the 20% is but still a lot of money 20% of $45 million is a lot of money uh and you
can't get your arms around all this stuff I mean things even today we looking at you've got all these energy companies supplying Gas Propane fuel oils all different companies from different and some of them are different buildings and you've got the electricity buy you got a contract buyer coming in
someone it's a lot of money someone really needs to watch that and that's really something that takes a full-time job so it's something to think about now I know I'm not suggesting you add a headcount I'll bet you I could find in the 400 employees that you have a head count that we can kind of convert or
through attrition you know and work into that you don't like a lot in administration I'm not a big person in a lot of administration but there's money to be saved by paying attention to all that stuff and consolidating some of the stuff that you're doing there the phones the copers the you the software it's
just you know there just this page has got that two pages is here a different report it's there but it's all stuff St you got to put together so something to think about and the last thing is positive that your agenda and the access from the public is really excellent the Burrows is really terrible and yours is
good so when you go through it you click on stuff there's information there and you can see the you can see what's going on it's it's much easier to get a handle on what's going on the BS is just uh just very very soft thank you that's all thank you very
much going to board comments on any non-agenda related items um I did want to add respond respond to your your final comment about the agenda I did struggle with it in the beginning but I have adapted and I
actually really do like it I mean it's had a couple glitches but with these the board docs process um it it works really well so and that was that your your initiative that was you know it it's definitely something that we've been looking at for a while um
it's also much more efficient internally too and when it comes to staff you know thinking about our staff and what our staff are doing much more efficient internally thank you and it's only going to get better or we're working on our website as we speak any other board member
comments okay um so with that um as I mentioned before we are going to go into executive session now so I'll so members online and members here in person we do expect to have an extensive um executive
session the purpose actually sorry excuse me the reason for the longer session is we'll be discussing um our our superintendent search uh candidates in particular which is why we cannot speak about it in public um but we are making progress with it our advertisements have been out
we actually are closing advertisements um tomorrow so we're just going to be going over an update and discussing the process proc and how everything will be moving forward um ideally that all unfolds within the next month or two um but if um you are waiting for the rest
of the board meeting I expect this could be as long as about an hour um hopefully not that long um so you can stay tuned with your YouTube on or come back we may or may not be here so thank thank you all thank you all that are here in
person and for those that are watching online uh can I have yes thank you can I have a motion to go into executive session Miss Thompson second Mr Mr seel all in favor any oppos or exensions
Miss Choy yes Mr gr yes Dr me yes Miss Molina yes Mr Park yes Mr zepa yes Mr SEO Miss Thompson vice president Melman yes and president Lee Yes motion carries
on new B business and Personnel thank you can I have a motion for adjournment motion Mr Park second second Mr zco um all in favor any opposed or extensions
okay we are adjourn 10:05 pm. thank you