Okay, Mr. Troy >> here, >> Mr. Here, Dr. Mer here, >> Mr. Park >> here, >> Mr. Mr. Zepa >> here, >> Mr.
>> Here, uh, Vice President Thompson >> here >> and President Lee >> here. Okay, we have we have a quum and the student reps are excused and we have superintendent here as well and our assistant superintendent
Mr. Coen our student reps uh were excused today. There's midterms this week. Midterms start tomorrow. So they are at home studying getting a good night's sleep. >> Absolutely always the priority. Um so that brings us to 1.4 publications and
we have a presentation by our auditor Mr. Okay, good evening everyone. I'm here tonight to present the order for the year ended June 30th, 2025. Uh we completed the audit about three weeks
ago. Uh issued our report dated January 8th. Um our one of the main responsibilities of the auditor uh after we complete the examination of the books and records is Express an opinion on
your financial statements. Our opinion on your financial statement was unmodified. Unmodified means a clean opinion means the financial statements are fairly stated. They're prepared in accordance with general accepted accounting principles and there were no
scope limitations in performing the audit. Um we al are required to give an opinion on your compliance with uh federal and state grant requirements. Um our opinion there was also unmodified
meaning uh clean clean opinion means you complied in all material respects with the uh requirements of the grant. Um unmodified opinions uh on your financial statements and on grant compliance is an
absolute must. Um anything other than unmodified means there is an issue with the financial statements. There could be uh a material misstatement. There could be an accounting standard not applied correctly or there was not sufficient
evidence to support the balances on the financial statement as well as a clean opinion on compliance. is also a must. Um any modification could mean you did not comply in all material respects and
there's the potential that um there's disallowed cost and funds may have to be given back to a state or federal agency. So unmodified opinions are absolute must. Uh we also are required to report and end any material weaknesses and
internal control over both financial uh reporting as well as grant compliance. And uh we have no instances noted of material weaknesses in internal controls. We also haven't reported any significant
deficiencies in internal controls and again we had no findings that rose to the level of a significant deficiency and again or material weakness. So um those unmodified opinions no material
weaknesses no significant deficiencies um is important in any financial statement audit or any uh compliance audit. Uh we did have five uh general findings and recommendations and I'll review that in a minute but I'm not sure uh do they
have a copy of the report if if you want to follow along on uh the financial statements probably there's two reports that are issued the uh comprehensive annual financial report as well as the
auditor's management report the annual just a second comprehensive >> Jeff if you could just a second the Um all the reports are found in our finance item 7.1 and 7.2 looking for them on the >> not under the presentation but it's in
our so if you want to follow along one of the most important statements in the comprehensive annual financial state uh financial report is exhibit C1. Uh C1 is
the budgetary comparison schedule. It is a line by line accounting of all the revenues and all the expenses. It compares the original budget that you adopted, any modifications to that
original uh budget amounts and then what actually happened during the year. Um you can find this exhibit on pages 67 through 73. And at the end of 73 is a summary of
your fund balances. And as board members, uh you're going to probably start the process of preparing uh getting together the 26 27 budget. Uh and you're going to want
to know what kind of fund balances do we have, how did we do last year, and what's available going forward to fund future expenses. And on the last page of of the C1 exhibit which is on page 73
again is a summary of fund balances. And fund balances are not all available to be used for any purpose. Um the board approves resolution to put money away in certain reserves. There's certain
reserves that are created uh by uh state statute. Um, and I'm going to go through each of the reserves and explain to you what they're for. Just overall, if you look in the actual column, uh, the net change in fund balance or the increase
in fund balance was 87,847. Uh, we started the year at 7,603558, ended the year at 7,69145. Um even though the fund balance increase is a little misleading uh because one of
the categories of fund balance that increased the most was incumbrances and incumbrances are basically purchases you made um but have not completed yet and and I'm going to go through that. So if you look at the first line under
restricted is capital reserve 1,262637 and these are funds that have been set aside by board resolution to fund capital projects in this the long range facility. Um this portion of capital reserve the 1
million262637 has not been earmarked for any specific project. So these funds are available to fund projects. If you deter decide during the year to do one of these projects in the
long range facility plan, you can draw from these funds through a board resolution and finance that project through this reserve. In addition to the 1,262, you also had capital reserve designated for subsequent years expenditures of
506119. Those are the funds that the board is using and appropriated in its 2526 budget to fund the project. Um, if you do not use the funds for the purposes
that they were appropriated for, any unspent balance will go back into the 1,262637. Monies in the capital reserve account cannot be used for operating costs. You can't go and say, "Oh, we need uh we have some unbudgeted tuition cost. We
want to take it out of cap reserve." These funds by statute and by board resolutions are set aside for the capital projects in the long facility cannot be used for operating. In addition to capital reserves, the
district has maintenance reserves. Uh it had maintenance reserve of 1,201270. Uh that's the portion of the maintenance reserve that has not been designated for a maintenance project. Maintenance projects are different than
capital projects. Uh capital projects add life and value to an asset like an addition to a building, a complete re- roofing. Maintenance is like repairs. It's it's projects that keep the facilities in a
current working condition. Doesn't add life, doesn't add value. It keeps it in its current condition. Um so at the end of the year, the district had 2011 270 that it has not earmarked any specific
project uh maintenance project which uh is available to fund that project those projects if one should arise over the year. You also have maintenance reserve designated for subsequent year expenditures of 496 to30. Those are the
funds that are being used in the 2526 budget to fund the maintenance project. Again, if you don't use all those funds on the maintenance projects that you appropriated uh them for, the unexpended balance will go back to the 1 million20127.
Again, maintenance reserves cannot be used to fund operies, health benefits, tuition, transportation of course, um or capital projects for that. Uh a new reserve that was created this
year, a tuition adjustment for the 2425 year of 170,000. Um in New Jersey, they allow you to put funds aside uh for any additional tuition bills you
get or any additional tuition refunds of revenue you would have to uh give back to a district that was sending their students here. Um New Jersey is unique in that when the audit is completed, the state
of New Jersey takes these numbers in this exhibit and calculates what they call the certified tuition. Um when you charge tuition to a district or you pay tuition to a district, those
are best based on an estimated tuition rates. When the state certifies those rates, the district that uh you are paying you if the rate is higher than they can send you an additional bill. If the rate
certified rate is lower, they refund you the money. The same goes true for a sending receiving relationship where you're bringing students in. If the certified rate is lower than what you charged, you have to refund those funds back to that
district. And the same as if the rate certified rate is lower, you can send the additional bill. So these funds are set aside for the 24 25 year in case you have a refund that you have to pay or if you have to pay additional tuition.
uh for students you send out. If we do not use those funds in the 2526 year, they will be used uh will have to be used as a revenue source for 26 27. The next reserve is unemployment
compensation reserve 186,789. Uh the district has elected many many years ago uh to be self-insured for its unemployment claims. Um these funds are
set aside uh to pay for those claims. Uh when you are self-insured, you basically pay dollar for dollar for every unemployment claim that is filed. Uh a bill comes in, the district reviews it. If you dispute the bill, you file an
appeal. Um you you agree with it, you pay. Um, you also have funds that are set aside that come from the employees uh payroll deductions. Those funds get used first, these funds get used second.
In our experience, being self-insured for unemployment is a more cost effective way than paying uh what is called the contribution method where you basically pay all the money over to the state and
they keep this account for you. So, you're in control of the funds. Next uh item is excess surplus. uh in New Jersey uh many years ago uh the state in their infinite wisdom
decided that they did not want school districts to have large unassigned fund balances. Unassigned fund balances really the surplus funds that are not ear um used to be a 6% of your budget then it went to 4%
now it's at 2%. So when we close the books and you determine what's going to get transferred into the reserve accounts based on the resolutions that you have approved. Anything over that 2% goes
into this excess surplus reserve. Uh the first excess surplus is 650,000 and represents the amount on June 30th of 25 that was over the 2%. So for the
2425 year 650,000 of your surplus was over the 2%. Those funds must be used as a revenue source in 26 27's budget. You have no choice of what to do with those funds.
Uh the minimum amount of fund balance you'll see in your 2526 budget as a revenue source will be 650,000. that compare compares to the year before um excess surplus designated for subse
expenditures of 550. Uh that's the excess over the 2% from June 30 to 24 that you're using in the 2526 budget. Um those funds are financing or
funding expenses in the current year budget. So they're not available anymore to fund future expenses. on July one they're gone used to fund expenses and that'll get recalculated at the end of June 30th of
26. Uh next two items committed and assigned year end incumbrances of 757 320 plus 769 834 uh represents commitments and assignments
that the board has done towards purchases and contracts. Uh construction contracts have been awarded that have not been completed. Uh goods have been purchased that have not been received.
Uh the district doesn't owe anybody money because you didn't receive anything. But once those contracts are performed and those goods are received, that becomes a liability. you owe those contractors and those vendors uh those
monies. Um these purchase orders get rolled into the the 2526 budget. As they get liquidated, they the payments are made and they're expensed in 2526.
Um this is the portion of fund balance that is not available for future expenses. You've already committed it. you were ready to sign purchases on July one. They're not available for any new expenses and by this point in the year
probably most if not all of those purchase orders have been liquidated, paid um and no longer exist. Designated under sign designated for subsequent year expenditures of 300,000. Uh these are the funds that the district
chose to use to balance the 2526 budget. Um you do all your expenses in the budget. You figure out what your state aid is, what your miscellaneous revenues, how much surplus excess surplus you have to use. Um
and then to balance that budget, you use additional fund balance. the board chose to use an additional 300,000 to balance the 2526 budget um and create a tax levy that you were comfortable with and to
balance that budget. Uh that leaves you with the unassigned fund balance. Uh this used to be called surplus free balance uh 841,206. These are the funds that represents the
2% that you're allowed to maintain. It's the maximum. Um, and these are the funds that are available to fund future expenses. So, as you start to deliberate on the 26 27 budget and you get all your expenses and
you put all your revenues in and you say, you know, we need more revenue to balance this budget. These are the funds you draw from this this 841,206. Um overall the fund balance uh like I
said even though it says it increased it actually the available portion for fund future expenses actually decreased slightly. Um, I could just tell you the 26 27 budget uh
for all districts of New Jersey is going to be challenging with the increase in health benefit course. I understand that you guys changed uh your health benefits from the state plan. The state plan's going up anywhere from 28 to 32% depending on what plan
you are. So, by changing to a new plan, uh, that will ease the pressure, but there'll still be a lot of pressure on the budget because the people you pay tuition to, the people you pay transportation cost to, uh, people who
do the related services, their health benefits are going to go up and they're going to pass that off. So, um it'll be challenging not only for uh Leona but for all school districts in the state of
New Jersey. Um that's where you are on from on balance. Um if there's any questions, I'll answer them now. If not, I'll go to the management report. question specific to this section.
Mr. Bliss, if you're okay with that, it's a mixture report, the orders management report. In there we have our findings. Um on the last page, page 14 of the small report, uh we had
six six general findings, I'm sorry, five general findings. Uh under financial planning, accounting and reporting uh the first finding or recommendation is that district
calculate and provide for audit the year end compensated absent liability of its employees. Uh each year uh the business office has to calculate what your liability is for
unused sick and vacation pay that would be paid to employees if everyone retired on June 30. never going to happen but in the accounting standards uh it has to be disclosed in the footnotes as well as
disclosed on certain uh financial statement. It does not affect the fund balances we just spoke about. You don't you don't charge them out until they're paid. Um but under the accounting standards in the footnotes and in
certain districtwide statements uh that liability has to be calculated. uh that liability was calculated year have to do that every year. Item two uh deals with
uh the open purchase order report which is your incumbrances and your accounts payable. Uh the reports that were printed and provided for audit did not agree to your general ledger control accounts as well
as your budget. two. Um the budget reports and the general ledgers appear to be correct uh based on what we ordered into transactions and it appears that the reports that were run
may not have have been run with certain adjustments that were made after June 30. Um, so we have to make sure that we run the reports at June 30, but they they tie out to the uh general ledger and
they tie tie out to the budget course. Item three uh is also a uh recommendation related to a procedure that has to take place after the year end. Um, in
New Jersey. The state of New Jersey pays dollar for dollar all the teachers pension costs and all the teachers FICA costs that an employer would otherwise pay.
However, if you charge teachers salaries to federal grants, the state wants to be reimbursed for those payments they made for those particular salaries. Uh that report is due September 30th. Uh
it was never prepared and filed. Uh you had about $235,000 of teacher salaries charged to the federal grants and there is most likely something due to the state to reimburse
them back. Um it was not filed uh and it should still be filed. It still should be prepared and filed and Item four, food service fund. Um the food service fund because you receive federal and state aid uh for child
nutrition programs has to operate on what's called the nonprofit basis. And there's a calculation done to see if uh you're within the nonprofit parameters. uh and that is called excess cash
resources. Uh it's a calculation of what available liquid resources you have versus uh what three month of your expenditures are. When we did the calculation, you have excess, which is
not a bad thing. Um you about 85,000 more than you should have had. Um and you just need to come up with a plan uh to eliminate that excess. Um I believe probably what happened is there are lunch aid salaries that were
supposed to be charged to the cafeteria count and they were not charged there and this is what causes excess. It's an easy fix um and can be easily uh corrected for prior year.
And then finally number five on facility and capital assets um the there is a capital asset inventory report that is prepared annually. It's by an outside consulting firm. Um that report
uh was not well was updated but didn't include any additions. They were told there's no additions. Um and there was uh quite a bit of additions over the years. So uh we have to make sure that we look at our internal controls
procedures over capital asset reporting and uh make sure that we report to this this company what additions we have and so they can uh provide them in their inventory report and provide the necessary depreciate depreciation
expense we need to record in the district statements. Uh these are all new findings. Uh so no repeats. Uh all five really relate to functions that
should happen at year end or subsequent to year end. Um a corrective action plan will need to be filed. Um and as part of the next year's audit, we have to review these findings uh to make sure that that
corrective action is. So if you have any questions, presentation. If you have any questions, we're more than happy to answer. >> Thank you. So, thank you for the presentation. Um, a few questions, so bear with me. First
one, um, and some of you are just curious. Um, you know, the certified rate, I know that gets mentioned a lot and I know that's in our contract that this is what we're going to charge if we were creating a brand new contract from scratch with a sending receiving
relationship. Do we need to use certified rates or can we come up with our own cost? Uh I can only speak from experience. Um there are tuition contracts that say
that there will be no adjustment made that whatever rate we charge you or whatever rate we pay uh that's it. We're not we're not going to we don't expect a refund and we don't expect to send an additional bill or we don't expect to
pay for additional for additional. >> So you're saying like true ups. I'm talking more in general like if the certified rate is 16,000 but I say I want to charge 20 or I want to charge 12. Besides the true up part, can you
pick the rate you want to charge? >> If the other district to it. I refer that to Victor. >> Well, you could. So, I what I would say is I'm pretty confident you can charge less like that's for example, you know,
used to go to the reason that they got really great deal to do that. Um I don't know that it's legally enforceable to charge more because I think that there could be an argument that you have to go back to that provision statute or the regul talk
about the true up and everything else. Um, but yeah, there are definitely districts that have sending receiving agreements that have different rates and they're not strictly tied to the certified rate plus the plus the true. Yeah, that's usually what happens, but
not always. >> So, this is this is the other question. This is a little longer one besides and I'll get to like some what you were talking about. So, in the news probably everybody about Hackinack, you know, 15 million give or take. I'm not their auditor, not speak for them, but they're
in a in a deficit. Um, Monontlair, I think it's 20ome million. Um, so what steps have you took, have you taken and looking over maybe our POS, our contracts, AP aging, anything where we
would be at risk for something like that? Not at risk. Well, you know, we we we obviously audit your payments and we audit your revenues. Um the issue with these deficits is is that the budgets
appear to be insufficient to fund the expenses uh that are incurred. um deficits in Montlair uh were after the fact you know the one
deficit the deficit in Hackinack they must have done a projection and said we don't have sufficient funds in 2526 to fund the expenses that we have um what we what we have done for districts
is done projections during the year to see where they are, how they are with their budget, and then if if it looks like they're in a deficit, then there could potentially be a problem for that year. Uh, one of the things you have to be
careful of as a board is to try to fund exorbitant increases in like health benefits um with fund balance on hand because this fund balance
2% of your budget is not enough to to have to protect you against unbudgeted cost during a year. Um and it's a very delicate situation. You know you guys have used compared to compared to what
you used for 2425 the fund balances you used for 2425 to balance this budget compared to what you used in 2526. You increased what you used almost
500,000. That's unsustainable. You can't keep using more and more and more. it runs out and that's pro that's probably what happened in Montlair uh or one of the reasons that happened um that's probably
what maybe happened in Hawkins I I don't my experience and we've done a lot of districts that uh we've come in after the fact uh a lot of districts get into deficit for two reasons they don't book all their bills
we one of The high-risk areas for us as auditors is to make sure there's no unrecorded liabilities. We look at all the payments made after the end of the year through three four months after the end of the year and
make sure none of those payments are for the year that were ordered. And and if they are, we make sure they were booked as an expense. Um we also review all your employment contracts. if they're unsettled, we make sure that there's an
acrruel for what you expect to pay out. Um, so that's what we do to make sure, you know, at least what we're telling you the fund balance is is accurate. Um, we don't look at the budget that you do
until we come to New York, but we make sure that what we're telling you you have, you have. >> Thank you. So, I guess sounds like to make sure we we don't miss any liabilities and we're using current revenue to pay current expenses.
Correct. >> You were also identified as under adequacy last year. Remember the only was I think it was like in March and you know the board chose at that point to only go up a certain percentage of the under adequacy for the tax increase. Um so you know as uh Mr. Bliss is talking
about that was it 500,000 that we used uh >> more than a year. >> Yeah. So I mean keeping that mind if that comes around again like this is what Eric and I were trying to share last year with the board the importance of really considering those options and I understand the impact to the taxpayers
but our schools need >> it's you know I understand from a board members perspective that you want to keep the taxes down and everyone wants to keep down but you can't jeopardize the financial stability of the district
um because the the fund balances go quick it It seems like a lot, but it's not. It goes quick. You know, when you use it and you can't regenerate it and put it back, it's not there the next year using
it. And that's when you get in trouble. I I just had a district had, I'm going to say, $6 million in surplus, had no tax increases for three years or two years, and uh when they ended this year, they had
$250,000 and because you you got to manage it. You can't just you can't you can't cover reoccurring costs with more surplus that won't get regenerated to be available to
cover it again because the operating cost ain't going away. It's different if you use it and buy a bus, you know, a capital item that you don't have to put in the budget every year. But when you over usage of fund balance to balance
the budget, the fund operating cost will eventually get in trouble. Thank you. That's helpful. Like you're saying if we used it for salaries or health benefits, we're going to get in trouble. But if we bought some laptops one time item
>> and then then when you don't regenerate it or don't come back, you don't need it because you don't have the expense. >> Everything's got to be balanced. >> Okay. >> It's tough. It's not easy. And you know, there's unexpected things that happen during the
year that you can't control. >> I I appreciate that is helpful for the public and all of us as a board. Um especially with budget season coming up. Um things to keep in mind, you know, when trying to keep taxes down. Also don't want to run into a situation where
um last thing with the findings, I just go to one of them really the one with the salaries and the fed the grants and stuff. Is there a potential that we might have to pay that 200k back to the state or a percentage of that? You
alluded to something. >> It's not a it's 200 is the 200 is the salary amount. Um There's probably sign a good portion or maybe a certainly a portion of those salaries
that are not TPAF pensionable. Uh so you don't have to pay on them. It's you have to pay the FICA back and the pension. It usually comes in around 40% of whatever the salary dollar was. But um it's only
on the teachers base salary. So if you give a teacher a stipen to do a some title one title one job and that's not pensionable then you don't owe the state back money
because you didn't get reimburseed for that side on the pension for that site. So, I it's hard for me to tell you. I could tell you right now it's the most it would be is probably 100,000, but it's probably not even that. >> We only have uh just because it's the
title one grants. I know exactly what salaries they are. They're FICO only. Um and it's only about 20,000 that we uh for the benefits on. Yeah, it's only it's our power. We have three power professionals that we charge. um through the family support powers in the main
offices and then our student support powers that are uh in the buildings. Uh those are the ones that we charge to the >> Yeah. And if the powers most likely are in the Ps system, you don't you don't reimburse on their state don't give you the money.
>> And Eric is already working on um helping us kind of catch up with our grants from where we left off when he was here after July one. So he's already that's the next his uh VA consulting work that he's been doing for us.
>> And with that, I guess >> with >> Yes, Eric's already we already have the action plan together. We submitted the action plan. We submitted the the audit summary. Um all that's taken care of. We already wrote out um the action uh the
the steps and the the things that we need to do. And between Eric and I, we've kind of figured out what we need to do. Thank you. Appreciate it. >> You're welcome. >> Can I ask a question? Um just a clarifying question about the corrective action plan. The third item um that um
the annual report um to reimburse the state for the on behalf pension and that one um you said we can submit it or the BA can submit it after the fact and that's okay. >> Yes.
>> Because I I don't hearing of that happening. It's I've been on the board five years and >> it's always been follow. >> That's what we just say that going to take care of it. >> They they probably have contacted
somebody or emailed somebody and said, "Where's the report?" And there's been no response. Um Mr. I have a question myself as well. Um you probably noticed uh that mid year we changed business ad well we our we
changed business administrators and then uh we we lost business administrator. Just curious I mean in prior years um we've been getting better and better with our audit findings and having less findings or even at least I think last year was none. Um this is kind of
typical um these types of things little things that it seems like with the fact that there were no major findings that this seems kind of like operational maybe things that got dropped in the transition. >> Yes, it's uh is very typical um you know
when you have a in type part-time person um times these things fall through the cracks. It's not uncom. >> Thank you. It's just I mean seeing that
they're minor findings is makes me feel better, but the fact that we have findings at all when we were doing really well is concerning, but obviously the challenge of, you know, of having gone from a full-time VA to inter room to now we're seeking again. Um, I mean
it gives me comfort knowing that that's the cause or potentially the cause. Um, but obviously, you know, we would love to get that BA position filled. It's been very, you know, it's been challenging right now with the industry the way that it is. >> It's very challenging. Um, there's a lot of
open positions. Um, it's hard to find qualified people. It's just >> if you have an excess of staff, we'll be more than more than happy to to interview. asked >> multiple times Chris everybody
>> um so I understand um so so there's no category of the fund called contingency it's more or less that access surplus could be working as a contingency so in a perfect world um like we should try to
estimate all the So there's capital maintenance for operating budget as much as we can do. For instance, healthc care increase we only have like you know range of estimated increase but we don't know that for until like much much
later. So we should make every effort to allocate those real expenses and revenues and try not to lean on the surplus or contingency. It is meant to be. I just wanted to know the idea.
>> Yes. So, and the the the problem is there's in your case, there's three major revenue sources. There's state aid,
there's your tuition contract, and then there's taxes. Most districts only have two. They have state aid and district So, uh, if you don't, you know, if if you like
if there's always pressure to keep the tax rate low, the other numbers are set. The state aid is set. They give you the number. That's it. You ain't getting anymore. And if you're not willing to raise the
taxes more than 2% or whatever percent you're comfortable with the there's two things that happen. They either use too much surplus or they cut things in the budget
and they actually don't they cut them but they spend it. So I mean I've had districts where were layoffs and the layoffs are and they put
themselves in work force because they're cutting the salaries, they're cutting the health benefits and those states. It's very difficult to fund
recurring cost with fund balance. It's just hard. And just on that point, remember last year we did we had to go through that process of cutting positions. I mean, we were fortunate enough not to have to cut programming, but we did I mean, it was
um creative maneuvering also that helped save positions just so that we could kind of maintain our budget. We did take advantage of the um the state's offering because we were considered under adequacy. We didn't take full
advantage of it. The the opportunity was was seven seven plus percent. Um which would have put the tax the just base tax rate increase. We could have gone up to 9%. Um >> yeah, so we we did take advantage of a portion of it. I think we we chose to go
up % of that um just because I mean the burden on the taxpayer would have been tremendous if you used the full amount. Um so I mean that helped us tremendously for this year. But with the health insurance increases coming up, uh that's
you know that was a big reason for the move that and that's on the agenda tonight which we'll see later and not subject of this audit. But you brought up the point of the fact that although we have made shifts to try to adjust our budget and do the best we can to be um
responsible with our money, how it's being spent to help save off, you know, future drastic tax levy increases. It's we're get hit, you know, as Mr. Bliss mentioned, by everyone else that hasn't made these types of moves that we have to contract with, you know, all their
costs are going to be going up. So, we'll still feel it even though we're making adjustments to try to avoid, it's still going to come. Um, and as long as as you know, the health insurance industry keeps trending the way it is, it's a scary prospect for future. And I
think you as a board has taken a major step um to defay that by changing plans. And you're lucky because districts that are in the health benefit plan are trying to get out, but the
experience rating is so high, no one's they won't even offer them insurance and they have no place to go. And as all the good districts come out, it's just making it worse for the districts that s something's got to be done.
What? I'm not sure. >> Thank you. Any other questions from the board? Mr. You don't mind just staying for a minute. We're going to go to the public portion. And if there's any questions for your presentation from the public, I'd appreciate if you ask.
>> Thank you for your presentation. Very thorough. Okay, so that brings us to item 1.5, public comment, anyone on agenda items. Anyone from the public wishing to speak, please step up to the to the podium, provide your name and address. You have two minutes to speak. Arthur,
thank you. Thank you, Arthur J. 125. I'll start with a question for the auditor. Uh, thank you. Um, what was the tuition reserve number that you gave? >> 170,000. Thank you. And also the I I may not
understand this right. The excess surplus which is above the 2% which you said was around rough numbers 650,000 and then at the Andes they gave a number 8 841,000 which was I believe the number below the 2%. Is that correct or is that
incorrect? That is a 2%. So the excess surplus has got to be spent this year. >> So it's not unreason it's it's it's correct to assume that the total surplus the excess surplus and the 2% surplus can be combined. It's a number that is
available. They shouldn't necessarily spend it. But that's a it's not a one $1.5 million. >> Correct. Okay. I understand that. Thank you very much. That's that's my question for yourself. I have um a couple other questions not related to the audit, but um obviously you know you know it and
the public who's listening really knows the urgency of finding a qualified auditor. I mean I have going to these meetings I've been through many of these audit presentations and you know we were we had a lot of problems in the past and then with Eric here and I've said many times publicly he was a star. It was
really painful to lose him but that's that's done. But I'm not sure how to cast it. Why didn't you've cashed and you just need to go wider and see if you can find somebody because I know the auditor said the slim pickings are slim. I know they're slim and you got to get somebody qualified. You don't want to get somebody else in here because
that'll be another disaster. Uh just like the auditor mentioned where people are going you're shuffling numbers and on paper it looks like you're going to balance it. You got a balanced budget but you don't because the reality isn't going to be what your president you're doing. So, u some reason I don't have to
emphasize that to you. You got to find somebody as quickly as you can. Under bills, uh I see allied envelope for $4,800 for the Leonia community calendar. Now, we as taxpayers have to pay that one way or the other, but why is it in your budget, not municipal government budget? That was a question I
have on that, unless it's a different calendar, but I thought it was the same one. under there's under bells also New Jersey easy pass $3,000. Is that for buses? What is that? Um I don't know. It just says easy
pass going. You know somebody got on their car. They're driving around. Who knows? Um also on some of these and I know it's hard to put here. I've had this conversation in the past in the past school specialty. You're going general classrooms apply general classroom
supplies general classroom surprise are all small numbers but at the bottom you add them all up and it's a big number. Is there any way of get of of somehow noting more specifically what each of those is because there's a lot of class and those maintenance supplies also it's pretty much under the same thing. Um
also under viola water we've got a huge variance okay which I find suspicious not nothing going wrong. It just means something needs to be investigated. We've got for the ACS, this building,
$6,000 to $5,900 in water. For the middle school, we've got $72. But for a for the high school, we got $11,500. Something's wrong. Now, either this building or the high school have a water
leak on the wrong side of the meter, or this building is how come we're not using water in this building. I mean, in the middle school. I'm sorry. So, I'd like to That's a total of about $17,000 in water. So, somewhere that should should have rang a bell somewhere and we should really try and find an answer for what
that is. Um, and also, uh, as was mentioned, we are I'd like an you switched plans, which is great proactive. Can somebody just explain generally how much that's we estimate that's going to
save us? had we stayed with the state but we proactively went and got this new plan uh and how much that's expected to to benefit the district. Uh there's different names of the SHBB and the shift or something like that if I'm not mistaken two different ones and
I think uh PID investigations look high on the middle school they have a problem that we don't know about. I know you can't talk about, you know, but it seemed like there's a lot in that and there's none in none. I believe in the others and that's all I have for now.
Thank you. >> Thank you. Anyone else? No one else from the public is here. So, we'll move on to board comment. >> Okay. Um, so we are actively looking Thank you.
We are actively looking for a business administrator. Uh searching far and wide for a business administrator, but a good business administrator. Right. I I I I want to make sure that we find someone good who will continue the work that
Eric has done here. Um he's done a great job over his time here. I am probably the most devastated person, second to Arthur, uh for losing him. Um, you know, I I'm so thankful for him and for the board to allowing him to work um per DM
over the next few weeks. It has been a huge lifesaver for me personally um and also for the district, the budget for the district. Um he's been doing great work. Uh, and I'm hoping in the next few weeks I have some good news about a VA,
but I have to >> Absolutely. >> Absolutely. And we've kept and I've been very very very uh strict on keeping those rules in place um in terms of like how we're setting up our budget accounts
for next year, how we're looking at our budget for next year with the administrators. All of that work is continuing. Um I and even in conversations with the administrative team, we we appreciate and we like the transparency in the budget too. Like we know what line we you know we know um
where to budget what and how to budget this and you know it makes sense to us. uh for the administrators that have been in Leonia for a long time, this was the first time they had a VA where actually understood the budget um and was they are able to budget properly and
appropriately for their schools. So we are looking for someone and the the the search has not stopped. I'm just making sure that we find someone good. But uh and it has to be someone good,
right? It can't just be anyone. So we're We're being very um very strategic with what we're doing here. Uh so just to answer some of your other questions, uh the bills lists uh the calendar, the community calendar, we do pay $4,800. Uh however, after a
conversation last year with the bureau administrator, it is moving all under the the bureau now, moving forward. This is the last year of our payment. Uh we I guess and and this is going back to whenever the community calendar started. uh it was supposed to be something for the schools which is why the schools
took it on and then over time it just became more of a burrow thing. There's less and less school stuff and more burrow uh burrow activity on the calendar. So after a conversation with the burough administrator last year, we moved it to their budget. Uh we will just continue to contribute our calendar
dates, our school calendar, our closings, our major events. Uh but they'll take over the costs and that'll be beginning next year, next year's budget. easy passes for our buses, our buses that travel. We have a lot of uh special education routes that take kids
places. Uh we have buses, we have vans, we have small cars that take uh take our students places. So those easy passes are for for those trips. Um the school specialty. So the reason why they're general classroom supplies is because that's exactly what they are. uh there's
such it's the post-its and the markers and the uh the erasers and the pencils and the papers you know it's very small supplies that it's hard to kind of quantify that into and the way they're ordered we use a system called ad data so they the teachers submit their orders through ID data at the end of the year
and then the the orders through ID data get submitted to whatever company that they're using um so it's really hard for those supply orders to um to identify a a little in detail what it is. Um, but
we've talked and I've shared in the past, we're moving forward, we're we're working on being uh clearer in some of the other lines that we can be, right? The general supplies is going to be impossible for us to be any more detailed in that description. Um, but in the big ones that we can be is
definitely something that we are looking to do and we are working to do. Um, I had the same question about the water that we are currently investigating. So, I just need some time to dig into that a little bit further. Uh, when I I I review the bill's list, obviously. Um, but as I I do one review
to look at it through my own lens, and then I do a second review to to review it uh through the Arthur lens to try and see what Arthur is going to point out to me. Um, and this one I was right. I was right about the water. I had a feeling it I also saw it through my lens, but I had a feeling it was going to be
something you brought up as well. Yeah. Well, that's I thought the same. I was like, what is going on here? The kids at LMS aren't using water. >> Yeah. Yeah. We'll uh Yeah, I'll talk to Kevin and we'll we'll figure out why. And there might be a reason why that I don't know. Um but we'll we'll dig into
it and then I'll follow up with you. Arthur, >> if we ever create an AI agent for finance, it's going to be called Arthur the Bot. Absolutely. it it you know as I'm kind of playing this role here as BA um I it's helpful for me to look at this I'm
looking at it through my lens and I've always looked at the bills list through my lens as the assistant superintendent and now the superintendent but to think of it from a different perspective has been helpful for me as I'm trying to identify even things that I should question more of right so it's it's a little fun little game that I play but
it has been helpful for me to learn more um h investigations There are more HI investigations. Uh but you'll see the the dates of the HIS. Uh Mr. Lee and I were talking about this earlier. There's such a big span between
our December meeting and our January meeting and then there's the break. So it the HIPS get so far extended. Um so it's been a long time since we've been uh since we approved HIPS on an agenda which is why when you look at these some of the dates are from like the beginning
of December and then some there are some now. Um uh I wouldn't say that there's a problem. It's it's behavior that we're handling. There's not a I wouldn't say a problem. This year has been knock on wood. Um our kids have been uh making right choices, making the best
decisions. Our staff and our administrators have been doing a lot of work around uh you know, behaviors and social interactions, interpersonal relationships, uh conflict, things like that. So it's really helped. when you look at the suspension numbers and the HID the numbers have gone down uh since
last year. So we're thankful for that. There are there is also times in the year where you'll see a little hiccup in behaviors. Um tends to be in December, right, when things start to get cold and dark and then we'll get um and everybody's ready for a break, right? Everybody needs to get on break. Uh then
we'll see another little jump in March when it's been a really long winter and everybody's ready to be outside and we have uh just no breaks in March. So t kids tend to get a little you know everybody's ready for some space and some some time apart. Um
and then we the plans the health insurance plans uh the plan it so moving uh to the new plan to the self uh to the school health uh insurance fund. Um we had uh when we had the uh brokers here
from Allen Associates, they shared with board uh it would be in the first year it would be a 500,000 around $500,000 savings uh in the first year from April 1st to June. No, I'm sorry. No, no, to
to January to December 31st. And then it would be another 500 or more from January 30 from January 1st to June 30th because we don't know overall it was estimated a $ 1.5 million savings but we
don't know the exact percent increase from next January to June. So we're estimating that savings. So it was de a definite 500,000 from April to December December 31st. And then January to June
was another five 600,000 depending on the rate. >> Right. Yep. And we've locked in our rates. So we are set with our rates until June of 2027. So we have a 14 beginning April 1st. We
have a 14 I think it's 14 or 15 month contract or agreement to lock in those rates. So we don't have to worry about going up mid year like this year and invest. >> The reason that we don't know what the exact savings will be is we know
what we're going to pay but we don't know how much the state's going to increase next year. So that's why you have to sort of estimate what you think their increase is going to be to estimate our because you're asking what the savings are going to be, right? The savings is what we're going to pay versus what we would have paid if we had
But we know what we're going to pay. That's locked in. So from a budgeting perspective, we know what it's going to be. It moves um with this fund, we move to a July 1st to June 30th cycle. So, it matches our budget cycle. Um, which is
helpful instead of having a mid-year increase and having to just guess what the increase or budget or estimate what the increase is going to be in January. It'll now follow our budget year, which is helpful. >> Okay. Any other board member comments?
Um, I do have to apologize. Um for agenda related items, we did go to roll call where we where we introduced or um took roll call for Miss Rabana and do want to welcome Mr. Rana to the board as a new Edgewater rep. Um appreciate you being here and for your service for
Edgewater. Do also want to thank Miss Molina for her year of service with the board. Um and Mr. We welcome you. Look forward to having you here. >> Thank you. partnering together. >> Thank you.
There are no other board member comments. We will move on to approval of the consent agenda. Um can I have a motion and a second? >> Oh, we'll give it to we'll give it to Mr. Zapka. Second. We'll give a second to
Dr. Mester. Okay. Does anyone have any items for discussion on the consent agenda? Okay. Um although I don't want to discuss any items. I did mention briefly um we do have on the agenda the approval of the uh the the the um the district
join the shift. Um obviously that does come I mean that that decision came after lengthy review um by the uh finance and planning committee. Uh we did have several meetings with the the
insurance brokers that helped us find this plan. Um as Mr. Bliss had mentioned, we did have exceptional an exceptional rating which is why we were able to be accepted into this insurance fund. Um it does I will acknowledge um
that it is absolutely beneficial to the district's budget um which helps in numerous ways in terms of being able to keep positions, keep programming. Um ultimately the decision for this move is really to continue to be able to provide
um education at the level that we can throughout the district. Um we have an excellent um staff that helps us be able to achieve that goal. I do recognize that that that this change and any change like no one ever really likes
change from most people. Um so we do appreciate the staff and what they what they are um you know the changes that are coming and we we have assurances from our broker and from the insurance fund that they'll help them make this as smooth as possible. Um and we do hope that that you know does come to
fruition. We do appreciate um the staff taking this change on um which is absolutely critical for the district. As you heard from our auditor um you hear in the news and from the state all the increases that that we're facing. This was an absolutely necessary change to
make um Mr. Bliss used the word defay. Um which is exactly what we're doing. We know more increases are going to be coming. we have to make moves like this in order to be able to help save our budget and provide again educational excellence. So, um just wanted to make
that comment about that's item 7.1.12. Um I don't have anything you need to change it or anything of that nature, but I just wanted to make that statement. Um so, if there are no other items for discussion, um can we have roll call? I just want to make sure no
one else has any other items for discussion. Okay. All right. Uh, Missy, >> yes. >> Okay. Mr. Grab, >> yes. >> Dr. Master, >> yes. >> Melon, >> yes.
>> Mr. Park, >> yes. >> Mr. Brown, >> yes. >> Mr. Zeppa, >> yes. >> Mr. >> Yes. >> Vice President Thompson. >> Yes. >> And President, >> yes. Motion carries. Thank you.
That brings us to our next agenda item. reports. >> Okay, just a few quick reports. Um, first I want to uh introduce mostly the public. I know you all have met uh Mr. Coin, but I wanted to formally welcome him to the board meeting. This is his
first board meeting. Uh we are excited to I'm excited to have him. I know you are all excited to have him as well. Um but he's been great the past few weeks. Uh it's been wonderful. Um, you know, at first I was a little I've been doing both jobs for so long. Um, it was I was
um concerned about how I was going to start letting go of some things, but within the first day we had, you know, we started talking, we started, you know, planning and, you know, talking about the vision of the district. It was very easy to say, "Here you go, Andrew. This is for you." now. Um so we've been
able to make that transition and we've been working uh very closely together and ensuring that there's a smooth transition between um my role in both roles and now him taking it over. Um we're also being very purposeful with the staff and with the administration on how and what and really defining our
roles between between the two positions um to make it smooth for everyone. So I'm excited to have him and welcome to your first board meeting. Um so uh a few updates. Yesterday we had so yesterday uh we were closed as a
district but the administrators were here. Uh we had our administrative professional development day where we had our administrative team come in. Um it was a great day. Uh it was just the administrators. It was nice uh to be together um without the constant dinging
of emails and phones and worrying about students you know being in the building everything. Um so we got a lot done. Uh we had a great uh great work in the morning. Um Mr. Coen did a presentation on uh reset which was the Bose administrative book that we read over
the last six months. So he did a a presentation with us with the administrators where we talked about what reset meant and the different components of the book and how that relates to the work that we're starting with our strategic plan. Uh we in the afternoon we had uh Dr. San he did he's
a former police chief. He's currently the uh director of safety uh in another district, but he was also one of the founding uh one of the founding members of the uh schools uh resource officer and the school safety specialist uh group in New Jersey, the ones that
really started that school safety specialist program in New Jersey. um he did a lot of work with us and he had a really great presentation on our MLA, our memorandum of agreement with the police and what we should do with the police and how we should uh what that relationship should look like. We also
did a lot of work around mandatory reporting and what needs to be mandatory reported to the police and to who. Uh we also talked a lot about policy and some policy uh items that are in policy that you know over times maybe sometimes get
lost, right? So, we reopened some of those policy policies that we reviewed and procedures and uh looking at a lot of uh procedures across the district. Uh he's coming back to do our security audit. So, we've uh we're working with
him to do an audit of our security protocols and practices within the district. uh specifically looking at how we use our security officers, how we report, how we um our procedures for, you know, reporting uh all of that work
that we do. Uh making sure that we have a unified uh and common language across the district and expectations across the district. So, he'll be back in the next few weeks. Uh and then once he's done, his audit report should be done by uh mid to end of February. So that way we
if there's anything we really need to consider for the budget, we still have some time to include it into the budget for next year. Uh this morning we had a so today we had a delayed opening for students, but we had a full day for staff. It was our professional development morning. Uh we had staff in each of their buildings uh
did different types of workshops. So the middle school had um uh Miss Freshman, she's our uh gifted and talented consultant. So they did a whole school gifted and talented work uh presentation and workshop with uh how to use the different tools and um what gifts and
talented means at the middle school levels. Uh at the elementary school they did different workshops on um effective modifications for students uh social emotional learning uh instructional tools that teachers can use to help modify their work. So teachers got to choose different workshops that they
wanted to attend and those workshops were led by their colleagues. So different teachers uh shared out kind of their their work and what they've been doing in their classrooms. Um and something very similar at the high school. It was really focused on instructional tools that we use uh
including um Brisk, Canva, Magic School, all the different programs that we have provided for our staff. Um the the staff uh volunteered to showcase those and then the staff had to choose what workshops they wanted to go to. Um we gotten good feedback from the staff. uh
they they appreciated the opportunity to share the ones that shared and then the ones that listened had the opport appreciated the opportunity to listen from colleagues and not from just a presenter. Um so that was it was a great PD day. Our next PD day is in March. Uh that is
a full day of professional development that we started planning this afternoon. So be good. Um AP honoral I did want to share this will go in my next newsletter but we were awarded gold of distinction for the third year in a row for AP honor
role. Uh we have um we have just we continue to uh just be recognized for the AP and the honor and the the work we do around college and career readiness. Um we had 73% of our seniors took at least one AP exam in high school which
earned us that gold distinction for that category. 56% of our seniors scored a three or higher in at least one AP exam and that earned us platinum in that category. Um, and 19% of our seniors uh took five or
more AP exams and that also earned us platinum in that that category. But you figure two platinums and one gold for some reason doesn't equal out to platinum. It only equals out to gold. So now we're on a mission to get all platinum next year because how dare they tell us that it's only it's only gold.
Um and we do and I have it I can it is it's it's clo it's it's close but it's like we're like 3% percentages away and it's really on the kids that are enrolled in the classes. So what we started to do even before this, this wasn't a dictator
of this, but there's there's a part of AP classroom that students can take at a young age that tells about AP aptitude and if they're capable. So we started looking at taking that that assessment for students and really talking to the kids, the counselors, really talking to the kids about encouraging them to at
least try. Like you we we think you're capable like you should at least try. um and encouraging them to, you know, take that chance because sometimes kids might not want to take that leap if they don't have to or they're not pressured to, right? Um so we want to encourage them. So we've done a little bit of that data
work that was before this though that that didn't that work started happening before we got this uh award. Um but we do I wanted to share which I thought was really just interesting. We offer 28 different AP courses at Lun High School.
We have 53 sections of AP taught and we have 24 different teachers that are qualified to teach AP courses. I that's for for a little 800 school 800 student building. That's that's that's great. Yeah, it's a lot. Um so I'm I'm happy to
report that our kids have those activities and those opportunities. And just two save the dates. Card party March 13th, the Leon High School card party. uh senior for the senior class March 13th and the LMS Globe Trotters,
they're coming back. So the LMS home and school is doing their Globe Trotter event and that will be February 28th and I will be there this year because last year I was at the national conference and I couldn't be there but this year I will be there. Very excited.
>> All right. Thank you very much Mr. Coan. I didn't welcome you because I didn't want to steal Dr. carous but welcome. Welcome. We did miss you at the last meeting. >> I appreciate that. Thank you. And I I the community a thank you for that.
>> Thank you. All right. So that brings us to item five, committee reports. Um I don't believe we have any committee reports because we dissolved the committees at our last meeting and um we have reformed them just for the public's education. Uh
the four committees that we have for this year are the education committee, finance and planning, policy, and board governance. Board governance is a bit of a new one. It's a bit of a revamp of the um practices and principles, but we'll
also be using this committee to be able to discuss any current topics um that have um like urgent needs or urgent discussions for the committee to be able to discuss any kind of anything that comes to the board or any state level items really that this is the committee that will talk about the hot topics. Um
but we'll also be overseeing uh practices and principles. Um so that's that makeup of that committee. The other three committees are long-standing committees. Education, obviously, we must have an education committee. Um, finance and planning, you know, ever
more important um as we face more more budget restrictions and difficulties. Um, and our policy committee, which establishes really is the the nuts and bolts of what we do here on the board. Um, so I don't expect any committee reports this this meeting, but we will be distributing for the board's
information the committee makeup. Um and then we'll be establishing meetings for those committees moving forward. So um with that we will move on to that takes us to item nine new business.
There is one item for new business. I sent it out email earlier. Um it is uh this item was reviewed by education committee. is for the sbatical request for one of our staff members, Miss Kelty, to do a one month sbatical uh in
the spring of 2027. >> Okay, I have a motion and a second for item 9.1. Motion, Mr. Brown, a second. Second, Mr. Park, please. Yes.
Okay. Excuse me. discussion discussion. Does anyone have any items for discussion on this? >> Okay, see Mr. Troy, >> yes. >> Mr. Gra,
>> yes. >> Dr. Mer, >> yes. >> Mr. Allen, >> yes. >> Mr. Park, >> yes. >> Mr. >> Yes. Mr. Zeke, >> yes. >> Yes. >> Vice President Thompson. >> Yes.
>> President, >> yes. Thank you. That brings us to item 10, public comment on non-aggenda items. Anyone from the public wishing to speak, please step up to the podium. Provide your name and address. No two minutes. these couple of things quickly. Um, has
the website been updated? I wasn't on it recently. Has the website been updated to reflect the changes and assignments and staff member board members and things like that? It has been. >> Yes. Yes, it has. Um, if we missed the spot, I'm sure you'll tell us.
>> Another another question. Um, I know that the kids have to have physicals before they get involved in athletics, but particularly a really strenuous, you know, soccer, football,
whatever, hockey, swimming. Does the check include uh comprehensive check of hearts case? You hear about it every year, kid drops dead, you know, has a heart attack, you I know you got
ads, but in advance of that might establish a baseline that somebody might not be shooting and not our decision to do. that might be a requirement for their physicians to provide and I don't know if they do or don't but it's become of particular interest to me that
there's there are early signs of of heart disease that they don't tell you got kids out there they're running around and have problem so I'd let them know if they if that's if they do it if they can do it can we require it you know it's it's
something I might get do if my kids were in school again right now Last thing is I'm I'm not going to suggest that we raise our teacher salaries by 50%. But there was recently publication I
think it was this week uh in one of the magazines about the median salaries of teachers and we only was 75,000 that was just up from 69,000. All right. I don't know. Anybody can, you know, if you're single or trying to live, nobody can live on
$69,000 a year in Burton County any Midwest. But looking at the other the top 10 Northern Valley regional, I'm going to go somewhere with this. Uh, and you
know where Pasak Valley regional burden Northern Valley is 119,000 the median burden. Pass Valley meeting is 116,000. Hudson, Jersey City, of course they have a lot of industrial. They're not
regional. We know doesn't have any regional. One of the best laid plans of the mayor is that they're going to increase tradeables. It ain't happen in two years and probably going to happen in our lifetime. Uh Morris Hills regional $110,000. Hackinac of course we know they've got
lots of money, but they're broke, right? They obviously have terrible planning, but that's what they're they're paying. Hackinack's paying their uh 109,000 almost 110,000 uh leni or lapi regional 106,000
u and so on and so on you go through a lot of these all the way down so I think some planning strategic planning where we're going keeping the back of the mind seems that larger gets more resources like we are regional mini micro mini
regional with edgeware and we get a lot of money from edgeware okay and that helps just run some of the programs we do and pay a lot of the bills in spite of the fact that people say that well maybe I should pay more money I don't know if they should pay more money or not but they fill vacant slots available
positions you know we have capacity and we can handle we should take more students now we're probably pretty close to full but we can somehow expand our footprint and get more more revenue in then we can relieve some of the you know get more
money in relieve some of the taxpayer burden uh and you can get the salaries up where you're going to get teachers and make a living. They can the turnover will go down. U satisfaction will go up. Uh just something to keep in mind while you're doing your thinking. And it
probably would happen maybe if if it even happened before when you're all off the board, but you know, I keep comment standing and I've seen the whole turnover over and over and over again. But maybe you lay the siege and groundwork for moving forward. Zy, you'll be here as long as I am. You're
young. You're young enough. That is all. Thank you. >> Thank you very much. Seeing no one else from the public, we'll move on to item 10 or 11, board comment. Some responses. I I had a quick question. Um those
numbers that were reported, maybe you know kind of how they're done. I was curious if the numbers that are reported, they take an average of what the um what the contract says would be like the salary rates or if it's actually looking
at what the salaries paid are because if you know you have a bunch of young teachers then your average salary is going to be lower. But if you have a whole bunch or skewed towards you've got teachers that have been in district for 20 years and your average look like
tire. I'm just curious if you know how those Thank you. >> We do report salaries to the state. So, >> um I'll start with physicals. Uh Arthur, sometimes I feel like you're sitting in
my office with me. Today we had a meeting with the school nurses and our doctor, our physician, um our school physician, Dr. Yankis and we specifically had a conversation about physicals and the heart spec we specifically talked about heart the
heart health of children um in this conversation and uh we found out today that our grade 6 to 12 do have a physical form and it it was a threepage document a four-page document um and I would say probably two
pages of that four-page document is dedicated to the heart health of the child and reporting the heart health from the doctor to the school. Um, and we had a conversation with the nurses not just about our our sports, right? So, our sports, yes, our sports are required to complete physical, but we talked about we have ski club, we have
intramural sports, we have, you know, flag football that's not considered a sport, but is it intramural? So, we have all of these other highintense activities. We've started looking at can we require those clubs to also have physicals in order for students to participate. We
also talked about like our abroad trips having requiring kids to have those physical forms completed if they're going abroad on trips for the fact that it gives us the information we need um to make sure that we're keeping our kids safe when they're in these situations with us, any type of school related
activity. Um so we do have the form. Now we're talking about how we can expand it to require it for more than just the athletes that come in. Yeah. >> Yeah. Yeah. And it's part of their physical and you know it asks questions too. It's
not just you know it is a report but also questions about family history, right? Um you know there's there's it's it's a real thing. Um so interesting that you bring that up. You know sometimes is my office bugged? You have
one of my my pens. Um interesting also that you bring up the teacher salary. uh and the regionalization right we've talked about you know we talked about regionalization uh part of the setup and I hope Mr. and Miss Thompson are okay with me sharing this but one of the conversations that
we had when we were developing the board committees was the governance committee and uh the conversation that we had was around using the governance committee to really dive into regionalization and how that would support and impact the school district. Um, we've had a lot of
conversations about it at the county level. Uh, the county has shared what has been done in Bergen County in the past. Uh, in the past, uh, maybe it was before my time in Bergen County. So, in the past 10 years, uh, the county office was, uh, required by the state level to
do a study, a feasibility study within the county from the county office. Um and they found that the biggest factor and the reason why they couldn't move forward in Bergen County specifically was because of the increase it would do to the teacher salaries. So because if
you regionalize with the neighboring district, everybody would have to go up to the to the to the highest salary guide. So whoever whichever district had the higher salary guide, everybody would have to be moved up there. Um and it would have such an impact on the taxpayers that it wasn't feasible to do.
Um but that was you know that was so long ago. Um there is a grant right now that I shared with the board that we are going to pursue uh for to a grant to get uh funding to pay for a feasibility study and a demographic study. So we've been looking into that and how we can
apply for that. Um there's also a local recreation grant first that we are applying for because that's due in two weeks and then we'll start working on the regionalization grant. I started going through >> Mr. Sam. Can you Yeah. If it reaches
as I went through it, I was looking to see there correlation and so I put it into co-pilot because I didn't have time to go through all the hundreds of districts. But there's about an 85% correlation between the teacher salaries and the the economic profiles of town and like you know, the average household
income and so forth. So, it was about 85% correlated. So, I mean, there definitely, I'm sure, benefits to to regionalization perhaps from a teacher salary perspective, but even some of the the this the districts you mentioned,
they come from a profile that's that's a little dissimilar to where we are today. Doesn't mean there's opportunities for for teacher salaries and looking at things, but I would add that there's a pretty strong correlation between the economic profiles of the town, too.
And also u this about like um maybe uh three or four years ago or maybe uh five or six years ago beginning of my turn of the uh the BOE and uh they have a presentation at a county level presentation about the visualization there pros and cons of this. So like
well I mean you might think that like what we're doing because because of sending receiving uh you know district so it's kind of semi like regation you think it is but I'm sure resilization is like a lot different very different it's a comprehensive that just basically u you know whatever taxes school taxes
it's combined together so that like you know the it could be a burden to like all the like you know publics either like you know for example and both of burden to the taxes that's very like proven for like all of the uh state in New Jersey for every uh you know the
schools that has a they took the like regation for it and also um there's um the uh since um the it is um the uh uh more like larger district two different town so whenever there's the decision making happens and there's going to be a slower decision making so it's going to
be a complicated like to get and then wise and everything and also there's like um the differences in um the uh student um the uh the suitability as well too. So like different region has a different you know student has a different level. So because somehow like
end up like you got to kind of put it together. Uh there's like difficulties in doing so. And uh also um the uh uh let's say like for example um the uh what if um the maybe
this actually this is happening about two years ago maybe like it was a medicine or something. I don't know exactly which county it was um in Jersey and there they called because of the student enrollment is like reduced so they have to close down the school what's going to happen is that but maybe
if the same thing happening in uh in um the uh our region what's going to happen is that like maybe we have to close down the ACS or something I'm just shortly in the case like you know okay do we have to close on the ACS or like you know the Washington children school so that way
like the kids um they have like the or edge water. So there's like a lot of problems in the resization board. >> Yeah. And so the the grant the feasibility study before we do anything so the board knows the first step is feasibility. So we can't even apply to
even be considered for regionalization if we don't do the study and the study doesn't benefit the districts involved. So um and especially if the state of New Jersey is going to give us money to do the study, why not? >> So um Arthur, I just wanted to I think I
sent this article to um Zanti last week. There's a state senator currently that has a bill addressing exactly what you said and he wants we have 600 districts in New Jersey. He wants to get it down to 70. Any school that has less than 500
kids, he wants them to be absorbed to a larger school. So there is rumblings um of this going on. Yeah. Yeah. I I Yeah, I would just add um you know once that study comes it will it will shed
more light and two things one where we're at there's towns like Bod and Pal Park that are pretty small um so we could consolidate if that comes out in the study. Yeah, there there's a bunch of of five 600 700 student um areas
around. And for me personally, I grew up in Elizabeth. Um there was 600 kids in my high school. And there when you were talking about AP classes, I remember the catalog of classes and electives I was able to select was bigger than my college. And they said this is because
we have 6,000 kids in this one building. You could pick anything under the sun you wanted to do. We're we're also anxiously waiting or I'm anxiously waiting uh to share with the board when it comes out for the inter school choice. Uh the governor has
also the governor has also uh shared re restarting that program. I think we know it'll be a great place for inter school choice uh to get tuition in kids. we have the space for it, especially at the high school with all these programs to be able to take tuition money in from the state versus parent paid tuition.
That would be because we get inquiries all the time. Um, and once we tell them the tuition rate, they're like, "Oh, sorry." But if we could get that inter school choice application in, that would be great, but we're just waiting for the state at this point to reopen those applications. They've had them closed
for a few years, so we'll see. >> Okay. Any other board comment on non-aggenda items? Seeing none, the next item on the agenda is executive session which we will need to go into executive for tonight
for an unknown amount of time. Um but it has say 30. We have to give a number. >> Okay. For approximately for an estimated 30 minutes plus or minus um it it has come to my attention. I believe the YouTube may not be working, but if this
video is being recorded, I do apologize for the live broadcast not operating tonight. Hopefully, it does get published. And for our members of the public that are here, um I do appreciate you coming. We do need to ask you to leave so we can go into executive. Um once we come out of executive, the only
other actions that will be taking place will be a vote on personnel and then adjournment. Um so, thank you all for being here. Please leave. Oh yeah, we have that's the same that's the same article, right? >> Yeah, we have.
>> Yes. Thank you very much. >> Motion and a second. Can I have a motion and a second to go into executive? Motion second. Mr. Zucka, Mr. Park is a second. All in favor? Any opposed or abstensions? Okay, we are in executive session at
8:44 p.m. Okay, we um Okay, we are back in public session. 9:55 p.m. Um, can I have a motion and a second for personnel? >> Motion. >> Second, Dr. Mester. And a second was Mr.
Park. Can we have a roll call, please? Yes. Okay. So, this is on personel 13.1 through 13.7. Yes. >> Okay. All right. Uh, M. Troy. >> Yes. >> Mr. GR.
>> Yes. >> Dr. Mer. >> Yes. >> M. M. >> Yes. >> Mr. Park. >> Yes. >> Mr. B. >> Yes. >> Mr. Z. >> Yes. >> M. >> Yes. >> Vice President Thompson. Yes,
>> yes motion carries. Thank you. That brings us to 14 adjournment. Motion motion second. >> All in favor? >> Any post or abstensions? We are journed at 9:57 p.m.