Please stand for the flag to the flag of the United States of America and to the stand indivisible with liberty and justice for all >> in accordance with the open public
meetings act Adequate notification of this meeting has been provided by advertising in the record and posting notice of this meeting in Burough Hall and the superintendent's office. I hereby call to order the public meeting of the Little Ferry Board of Education, Thursday, April 30th, 2026 at 7:02 p.m.
Can I have a roll call, please? >> Mr. Belli, Mr. Rolley, >> Mr. Fitro, Mr. Pan >> here, >> Mr. Mey here, Miss Patel >> here, >> Mr. Boris, Mrs. Viso >> here. >> Mrs. Bradley
>> here. >> Miss. >> So, we're just going to go out of order. Um, it's really two meetings that we're coming to. First meeting is the public budget hearing. Second meeting is regular board of respect families that came for students of the month. We're
going to start the meeting with the students of the month. That way you'll have the option to either stay if you want to stay or if you want to go for the rest of your game and uh listen to democracy and then we will allow you to do so. So we will start with >> should I don't do this.
>> Did you do any roll? >> I did roll but not because we'll just move. >> Very good. Thank you. All right. So, it will I see two. So, our student of the month for March
in grade six is Jaden Sville. All right. Sorry, Julian. So, okay. Uh, our grade five student of the month for March is Julian Gay. Congratulations.
All right. Teachers in grade five has the following things to say about you. He is an active listener who stays focused and engaged during lessons. Demonstrates a strong work ethic in all his tasks. He excels academically across all subjects. He is
kind, thoughtful, toward his classmates and teachers. He's willing to help others and lend a helping hand. Works well to partner and in group settings. Contributes positively classroom discussions and activities. Congratulations
and our grade eight student of the month is Eva 7 in grade eight and the following things to say about it. She shows responsibility by doing work and staying organized. She helps others demonstrate kindness. She stays focused and manages
time well deadlines. She shows determination and doesn't give up when working. She takes initiative by going above and beyond expectations. She maintains a positive motivated attitude for graduations.
At this time, we're going to move into our public budget hearing. Families over here, you're free to go. If you'd like to go, like to stay, by all means. We're not kicking you out here. We know this is not very All right. >> All right. So, we're going to present
the 2627 budget. We'll be relatively brief, but for the people that are we have a student I got practice before you got here. >> Our grade six students of the month
student of the month is Jaden Sainville. teachers in grade six have the following things to say about you. He consistently demonstrates kindness, positivity, and strong character. He is always smiling and brings warm, welcoming energy to
every classroom each day. He is respectful at he has a respectful attitude for both peers and teachers. He sets a wonderful example for others. Incredibly helpful and thoughtful. He is quick to lend a helping hand to classmates whenever they need.
Congratulations. There we go. All right. >> Yes. All right. So, we're just going to present to you um in a relatively quick fashion the U 26 27 budget that it's takes a lot longer to put together than
what this presentation is going to do. So, similar to the the pre goals that I had last year, I kind of we done it on purpose, but we wanted to be strategic, we wanted to be consistent, and most importantly, we wanted to be fiscally
responsive. And those were the three categories we try to hit every aspect of this when we were building this budget. Before John jumps into some of the numbers, um, and you'll hear me probably say to you out, this was a challenging budget in
New Jersey in general. This was an extremely challenging budget year for B County specifically. Uh, I am very proud of this budget. I'm very proud of the budget that John everybody put together. So, uh, it's not
easy. We have kind of tried to protect ourselves a little bit for the future at the same time ensuring that our programs are going to be sustainable and consistent and be able to maintain status quo by also adding a couple things. So with that uh we want to just
kind of change the numbers a little bit. So the first thing is our tax levy. So it's at 23 million increases 140. So what we decided this year even though in New Jersey we're capped at 2% we were allowed to take adjustments. So that
adjustment >> yeah 3.9 we'll discuss it later is basically the healthcare increase for those that do not know we had a 36% increase by January 1 from one year to
the other was $883,000 this budget year so that was the challenge plan simple um state aid I like to so it shows that we got a 6% increase. We were supposed to get triple the state. So the state did
not meet its obligation and fund the formula. We were shorted over a billion dollars. Why would we supposed to get more money increase? So two years in a row we haven't gotten what we're supposed to get and everybody
else in the state. We've also um we should have gone even more but they adjusted one of the items in the formula which is special education. So we'll see what happens. So two years ago we were
100% funded on state formula. Today we're at 75%. Somebody explain that to me. So we're still making budget work. Where where we did get a significant increase was in the preschool aid. That was up by 25.9%. So >> that's not carry.
>> That's not carry. >> So we got significantly more and as we move forward and increase the universe that we service that will that will be critical. uh special ed tuition which is
special ed high school was a 1% increase right now we're just holding the line so capital reserve we're going to be doing some projects and we'll get into detail later million capital equipment that's the
lease payment on the phone books uh the buildings and grounds we have to buy some new equipment nothing significant and u some IT uh servers that have left. So that's that. So the total general fund is about 6%.
So how do you do that at 3.9? We made it work and everything is whole. No reduction in force. All the programs are in place and we're able to pay for the the health. So I call it a miracle budget. Don't say
that. But it's a great budget. it that we hold it on is a great thing. >> So, one of the things I want to highlight, John, I'll dive into some of the other stuff in transportation, you're going to see a negative% that's hard from Mr. Murray, from Melissa, from Vincy
and your crew. um you know stepping up grabbing the buses really consolidating the routes in a manner which we still have just as many kids taking transportation but we really not creative in a manner where I think it's it's probably better than it
has in a long time but being able to be creative being able to be really how we're doing the routes year after year we've been able to bring that cost down um so we're seeing another decrease this year in verification which again is relatively unheard of but we I think we
we started with a little bit of a higher budget so we can work down uh just so you know where that number is facilities facilities we're doing some extra work to the building but overall one of the things that's interesting
we've been under staff for over a year so now we're going to be at full staff and we're also planning on what we need to do for the new facility we go part of theuture are ready and prepared for the future. When that building, Liberty opens across the street. Obviously,
that's going to be cost increase of the facilities. So, we are blessed. We have started to budget some of those costs now so it's not a major hit when that building opens up. So, we will start buying supplies and God willing, if we
can open that building, we want to, we also need some of that. But, God bless you. special education. So, this one is a big increase. Uh there's several factors that play into this, but mainly it comes back to the health benefits and the uh
for the providers. So, we do a lot of work with South Joy. When their health benefits go up and when their salaries go up and they settle their contracts, those costs come directly on us. So, that's why you'll see that big number. We are working and I discussed with the
board tonight to move away from some of the provider stuff and doing inhouse because it'll getting to a point where we'll actually be cheaper for us to just hire them or not everyone and we have some great people that work in their far
but some of them we will be trying to now bring in house and not be paying over pizza at this point. So you'll see that discussed a little bit as we get going the benefits that John and keep hearing about through the presentation.
It's not a blind discuss how that's split up. Yeah. So what happens is that number is actually two increases from the 2425 budget. We get an increase every January. So when we're budgeting for 2627
part of this is the actual that we received this January and then I project for the next. The scary thing is right now they're saying that the state's going to hit us again another 32ish 28 to 32
which which I'll address in a minute when we get down. Salaries you see at plus 6%. The reason for that is we're opening up another ASD program. So that is the procedure classroom and you'll see in another slide another
without those additions we would actually probably would have almost not for the increase in sales. This is just where the money goes. I I don't I don't know if there's anything specifically you want to touch on here, but this is just a breakdown of kind of
where the money goes. We all know it's salaries and benefits and then everything else in line to the districts. This is just a slide that every puts on the budget thing. So, I felt like I had to put a link there. What I do want to point out because when
I when we advertised this to to the community, I think it's Friday, Thursday or Friday when put it on the website. Uh I had inadvertently put a negative 3.7 here and that was not the intention was not to have a negative sign there and I'm hoping people that have been reading through the numbers will understand that
it was 3.7. Um for the lack of a better term, I figured it was putting it into the system. Um, the reason why it's red is because what I'm proud of is that we've raised the tax levy to 3.9%.
But when you combine our debt service, which is Liberty School, and the local tax levy, the actual increase is 3.7. So we actually break down at 3.5, which is impressive. The other numbers I don't try to get you
want to touch a general is that general 5.6 almost 5.7 million. We also get a little bit of debt service aid and we're going to get them for the life of the box 83,000 last
79. So they that's pretty standard for a district our size and our in our demographic. So uh fund balance uh we balance the budget when we have
excess at the end of the year part of it gets designated on the next budget. What we've done is keep it flat maintained. A lot of districts will go up and down. It's not a good practice
>> preschool budget. So in order to meet 100% of universe 16 total, they use the first grade number to double first grade total. Let me get that number where 50% of that universe has been given the permission to pay get to 100 that is
open for this is where our total budget is preschool which that money the excess started out is built. So there was no funding adjustment this year. Last year there wasn't pretty significant amount. It
almost looks like this year they put that back staffing programs. We're continuing mental health supports. So we're not having a reduction in that and it's also develop which is going to be helpful. We talked about the ASD classroom. The facilities uh we're going to continue
doing some projects they'll talk about on the next slide. The tile project getting rid of the carpet wherever we can. re relocating the offices and installation for building management system which again we'll talk about in a minute an instructional coach instead of we haven't had coach we've touched some
things we are discussing the idea and we are funded for just a general instructional coach that kind of help everybody special ed teachers all the way through general ed teachers u and then expanding the goal of the literacy coach to get her days u which is in this
budget that's titled title one out of your general budget the relocation of the kitchen to the new cafeteria are all things that we're excited about curriculum wise or instructional material wise cater to 2 will now be full so
fans that need it get it which is cater to 2 3 to 5 ELA uh magnetic literacy and then six day math uh will be revealed now for games so we're adding some consistency to what we're doing and
Again, the a capital projects that we're doing for the year, uh furniture for the new Liberty School, uh to help better fund the project, keep cost down, we are going to use capital to fund the furniture, the new kitchen at Memorial School, which has been approved and
breaking ground for that everybody's out here in June. And then building management system, we are going to start establishing system allows us to self control >> modern buildings you control the
temperatures across the building and when the building's unoccupied you lower the temperature >> like perfect example is the other day it was Thursday came in my office he walked out of here somebody so this room was cooking at 90 degrees
somebody said we cannot control that anyway so if that were to first of all wouldn't happen but if it didn't go faulty we would be getting alerts like something is going to get your purpose. Um, >> and with the BMS, >> it also saves a lot of money. >> Yeah. You allow usually plus or minus a
couple degrees for the person in the room to adjust it. But to have a building with energy cost right now just running full board all the time is just insane. >> And from a teacher perspective, because that's probably looking at right now. Um, also if you have a question and your
arrows out, we're now going to know about that. Yeah. when it happens, not when you call us. Hey, by the way, it's not working. We're going to get the alert and drop below whatever set it we're going to know. We got problem fix right then and there. Now, we can make
that caller and maybe get the first person here and start fixing. And then the big thing, the tax impact on the on the homeowner. So, we this is what we were talking about before. We reduce the allowable 2%. Then we use the healthcare
adjustment which is 427,47 leaving substantial amount of money on the table. >> Yes. Our adjustment would have been we were allowed 770,000 plus we had an enrollment adjustment and another number. If we would have used
everything like 16% right back to where we were anyway. However, I think what's important for everybody to understand what this number does is it raises our
so when we don't pay this money we do it's our bank account. It's gone forever but then we start the year for the next budget cycle $427,000 less. So if we don't take that money, we're doing we're really doing the
district service. So that brought the tax levy to 3.9%. The debt service impact, the biggest part of this was 1.15 million is what we contributed from the state funding that we received from uh the senators.
So the town the community owes 1.957 this year for the we're contributing 1.15 plus the 83,000 which is a year to year that reduces the payment to it's negative.1 from year to
year being it's very 725. So what we did was because we had to raise our tax levy this year above 2%. We tried to kind of offset that with the money that we're contributing to service
questions into the fact that you know gas prices are going. >> Yes. So we are actually working we're doing several things try to uh we're looking into third party we're looking the building management system
for example but yes all that consideration which is why you saw like facilities maintenance was up about 16%. That's all part of that are they going to be fighting together? >> We're working on that right now. So we are we have our architects. We have the
people that are going to be doing this building. The goal is to have one, not two. >> Anybody? All right. You've heard this about 15 times. So, >> thank you.
>> Thank you, sir. >> Okay. those questions public comment. No more public comment on the uh Okay. So, let's um um let's take a vote on the budget adoption. Do I have a motion?
>> A second. >> Thank you. Okay. >> Melli's absent. Mr. Fulli. >> Yes. >> Is absent. Mr. Pan. >> Yes. >> Mr. Haley Pal. >> Yes.
>> Mr. Boris is absent. >> Yes. >> Yes. >> Budget is adopted. >> Thank you. >> We'll just move ahead until we get to this part. Let's be resolved at the Little Perry Board of Education submitted to the regular public meeting
held on March 24th, 2026. Do I have a motion? >> Second. Second. Mr. Belli's absent. Mr. Polei, >> yes. >> Mr. Fos is absent. Mr. Nan, >> yes. >> Mr. Neely, >> yes. >> Mel, >> yes.
>> Mr. War is absent. Mrs. >> Yes. >> M. >> Yes. Pass. So, all right. We'll now open up to Mr. Parado. >> Superintendent report. If we can just
transition to board secretary >> uh financials, we're done on time once again. uh the timing of this meeting. So at the next meeting uh the food service,
but I can tell you the last month we increased our profit by $10,000. So the winter's tough. So now we're getting back into a roof. Right now we're trying to hit $200,000. >> And where will we send you? >> About
70 to Yeah, we're we're ahead. >> Great. >> So that's all I have. Miss, you want to go or >> I'm ready. >> Okay. Mr. Parado's ready and then he'll introduce you. >> Oh, I can't read the last time in.
>> All right. Here we're zero Washington memorial this month. Um, I do want to congratulate and we haven't I'm not sure if this put it out yet, but Maline Catlo was the recipient of the Bergen County Autobon Society um the Dick Nber teacher
appreciation award for 2026. So, There will be a ceremony on May 31st at the plant day at Richard Park's going to get that she we will recognize her as well. So we
had her forient so we're very very happy about that. Thank you for got that. uh traps want to thank Miss Bal and his son that it's always an amazing event work hard to do that deserve a lot of credit as do the
students who really put in a lot of time it's one of my favorite events to attend to be honest with um very proud of the students I don't want to steal your number so I don't know what's in your report so leave it at that but you have that in there about so with that our
next meeting 513 teacher of the year teacher a year 25 years of service day will be recognizing that Kylie will be giving her last report as our student representative so that'll be a very very nice nice meeting state testing as we've
got going uh as well as state testing go and before I turn it over to you it ever lasted about All right. And without further ado, our grade seven student of the month
That's what I have Good morning. I believe >> I think so. >> All right. Yep. >> You ready? Teachers had a lot of things to say about you. Here we go. She displays perseverance and curiosity, viewing challenges as learning
opportunities. She treats peers, teachers, and staff with kindness, empathy, and respect. She sets a good example of her behavior and follow school rules. She exhibits strong moral character, volunteers to help, shows a
willingness to assist others without being asked. Congratulations, Congratulations. All right, without further ado, Kylie, please take it away. We'd like to thank the DTA
administration staff and this event. We also appreciate all the work on April 29th. Thank you to writing a homeless and miss organizing our street. We also like to thank the community for coming out and
helping make the event and on April 24th grade. Also on April 20th, 83 took their capping out photo of Memorial. Finally, our spring sports season off to a great start. Baseball softball are underway with both teams earning early
win. The softball team maintaining an undefeated track team had their first meet today. esports is wrapping up when you get on. Thank you. Thank you.
Um, all right. We'll open it up to MTO provide personnel reports. We met earlier today. Personnel on tonight's agenda. We're approving job descriptions, which board will approve, and also in addition to hiring a new physical education. Tony, um, still education,
middle school students completed their spring diagnostic assessment. Overall, reading and math scores improved by 50% in both areas. Grade five show a 23% increase in reading and a 26% increase
in math. Great job, Miss Lanterni loan and the grade 52. Grade six man had the highest percentage at or above grade level with 63%
great job with tense and the six sixth grade team students in grade five and eight completed the NJSLA science assessment this week. Thank you for their best effort and we look forward to
the results. Grade five and eight will complete the NJSLA adaptive writing, reading and math next week. Grade three and four the following week. Best of luck of our students. Try your best and
make us proud. >> Great. Thank you, Mr. Policy. >> We don't have policy. Great. Mrs. Patel for transportation. >> There are no updates at the moment. >> Uh, as far as expansion updates across
the street, we're moving full steam ahead. Um, no other Is there anything else? >> No. >> Great. Um, all right, Mr. Mr. Han for NJSBA. >> No.
Great. >> Uh, we'll now open it up for public comment on agenda items only. Now take a block vote from F59 to 62, DO237 to 42, P170 to 182, FA11, C29 to
30, and PO15. Do I have a motion? >> Second. >> All right. Mr. Bali is absent. Mr. Bulli, >> yes. >> Mr. Pros is absent. Mr. Canad, >> yes. >> Mr. Mrs. Patel, >> yes. >> Four seconds absent. Muzo,
>> yes. >> Mrs. Bradley, >> yes. >> Motion. >> Thank you. Will that open up to public comment on non-aggenda items? >> Okay. Do I have a motion to adjurnn? >> Motion. >> Second. Second.