roll call. Mr. Abate, Mr. Andronopoulos here. Mr. Garuso here. Miss Pasamano. Mr. Pasamano here. Mr. Petranzio here. Dr. Mr. Scardino here, Miss Stella here,
and Mr. Valvano here. You have form, sir. Thank you. Adequate notice of this meeting has been provided by the following means. Annual notice was sent to the record newspaper, township clerk, and posted in the lobby of the town hall and board office. Setting forthcoming
schedule work meeting for the lobby uh in the lobby of the town hall and board office. Thank you. Superintendent report. Thank you. Good evening everyone. Um before we start our our our budget presentation, I'd just like to give everyone a little bit of an
overview of how the evening is going to go so you just have a better understanding of of the pro of the process. Um so I'm going to come down off the stage as is the board members and I'm going to do a public hearing on the agenda. Um at which time at the end
of my presentation I will open it up for for questions. And so, um, the public has a right to answer questions, um, on the budget. And so, um, I'm prepared to stand down below and answer questions all night, uh, quite frankly, if I have
to, just to explain the PowerPoint and clarify, um, any details, um, that you have questions on. But once we come back up on stage, if you did sign up to speak on agenda items, um at that point, it's just comment at that time and there
won't be a chance for a dialogue back and forth. That's meant for for public comment, not really um public question and answer. So, please, if you have questions, when I'm when I'm down below at the end of the presentation, I will say, you know, um do you have any questions? you could just raise your hand and again I'll answer any questions
that you have um and take as much time as needed to go through those. Okay. So, we're going to we're going to come down um off the stage. We're going to set up the presentation and then we'll get started. Okay. Thank you. This is this is
Thank you. Yes. Okay. Okay. Looks good. games. Yep. Yep. It's working. Okay. Thank you everyone. Okay. So, um I'm going to first start with uh going um how the budget laid out for for next
school year 2526 and then I'm going to um go into a tax levy incentive program um that our state recently rolled out. So, um the first couple slides are going to go over again um just the budget process um how the administrative team and I lay out the budget and then we'll
get into um the tax levy incentive program and I'll I'll detail that out as well. So when we look at our presentation again um the first couple slides are going to be developing the 2526 budget. We're going to talk about the g uh the
guiding principles which dictate the parameters of the budget. We're going to talk about the annual um increases and revenues that we see each year. Um we're going to talk about the unfortunately the cuts that we've had to make as a district due to our funding the past couple years. Um, we're going to talk
about why this district lost state aid, which we did do for this upcoming budget cycle 2526. We lost state aid. Um, we're then going to talk about the tax levy incentive program, which the state rolled out, um, which, um, we had to submit an application for. We're going
to talk about the spending plan of that application. And then we're going to talk about, uh, the consequences to the district if we do not approve um, the plan that we submitted. So each year when the the admin team and I sit down and develop our budget, um these are the six guiding principles
that really dictate the parameters of our budget, right? So we have our instruction and program which is of course all of our learning materials. Um I put our staff um in there um our administration as well and their benefits in instruction and program. We have special education which is a huge
chunk um of our budget annually um both to our students that are in district at a district and busing of course our building and grounds maintaining our our outside of our buildings we have technology um our infrastructure in terms of technology those are the
Chromebooks for our students but also the backbone our access points our servers um security of course is a huge um part of our district budget we have everything from swipe access to district cameras um to the class 3 officers we
have in the SRO's and then of course facilities as a whole that's uh windows doors um maintaining those and then we also put energy cost and facilities as well um which are always rising as well. So when we look at some of the things
that that dictated our 2526 budget um we look at some annual revenues um verse increases that we see each year. So the left there is um the cost of what we
face each year. Contractual increases that we have no control over account for roughly 881,000 a year. Our healthc care increase 809,000 added district special education 350,000 energy and facilities
150,000 insurance premiums unfortunately we lost60 $176,000 of state aid which I'll get into and explain um and then payroll taxes increase over year every year. This is just an overview of our largest
expenses. And then we come across and we look at our revenues. Each year the district is only allowed to go up 2% on our tax levy every year. That's 893,000. Um our health care, we do get a health care adjustment from the state.
So when someone says why did my why was the tax levy last year 3.2 say or 3.4 when you could only go up 2%. The state recognizes that the numbers really just don't work. And so they allow you a healthcare adjustment to help offset
health care. But if you look, we got a health care adjustment of 604, but our healthcare increased 89. So it's not enough to cover that increase. And so unfortunately when we looked into
2526, we were behind a million dollars based on that. So when when we looked at the the budget as an admin team, that was one of the reasons why we ended up closing a Memorial School and renting out that property because obviously we don't want
to we don't want to cut programs. We don't want to cut teachers, but ultimately we needed to make up the difference. And by closing that building, we're able to reallocate staff, then ultimately rent that facility and get a revenue back to the district.
So when you look at what the district has done over the last several years, like I mentioned in 2526 in the right hand column, we closed Memorial School. By doing that, we reduced um our budget by four faculty members. We were
not able to do the repair to the Jefferson School playground and unfortunately we're not able to do the repair on the high school roof. Okay. And so um when we look for this current school year, okay, when we look at this current school
year, for last year when we developed our budget for this school, this school year, we cut seven teaching positions for this current school year. We cut three custodial positions, we cut a central office uh position and also in and we hope to do those repairs for this
year as well. And so, um, when we look again at what we we've been faced the last several years, we've unfortunately had to have cut and reduced staff when that's the last thing we want to do. I think the administration and I, we've worked extremely hard with the board of education and one of the biggest goals
that we've had is to lower class size. So, when we open Memorial School, the whole purpose of opening Memorial School was to reduce class size. And unfortunately, we're going in the negative in the other direction. Okay. The other thing that we did when we when
Mr. Riza came to the middle school um we reduced the principal and so that was done for the 23 24. So we've cut administrators, we've cut faculty, we've cut custodians, we've cut central office positions because of the shortfall that
we've been facing year after year. So the majority of our budget comes from our tax levy, right? the taxpayers. Some of the money comes from state aid, some of it comes from federal funding. So when we look at our tax
levy, they they call that the local fair share. How much of the tax dollars does your school district get verse what the state determines they feel the district should get? And I'm going to get into a bunch of slides and um I know there's
been a lot around but I want to be clear that the state of New Jersey is saying this. Joe Dorso is not saying this. Larport of education is not saying this but the state of New Jersey is dictating obviously the parameters of our budget their funding formula and whether they
feel the township is contributing enough tax dollars to our district. So unfortunately the state of New Jersey determined that the township of Lynhurst the dollars that the town takes in is
under district by 12.9 million. So if you see in the bottom left hand corner here there's a slide 12.9 million. It's highlighted in yellow the very last number there. That's a statement. That document was not created
by the board of ed. that was given us that was given to us by the state of New Jersey and it shows that we're 12.9 underfunded. And so when we talk about what is
adequacy, the state has said you're not the township of Lynhurst and their tax dollars are not meeting adequacy standards. And that essentially means what I just said. When you look at our tax dollars and the tax dollars that the township brings in, and I'll have some
more explanations and more slides to kind of showcase this, they feel that the township is not contributing enough money. And that was one of the main reasons we lost state aid. So, when we look at how the state
lays out their budget and the timelines that we faced, um, they have their funding formula, right? And that's kind of what I just went through. So, as you go through um this diagram, um the state department of ed determines cost. They look at the financials of the district
and they determine those adequacy standards. We have no control over that. And what they do is year after year, they look at those formulas and they adjust the numbers. So, that's why you see each district every year their state aid either goes up or down. Unfortunately,
um, because of this 12.9 million, our state aid went down. And again, state of New Jersey, not the Lynhurst Board of Ed, the township has no control over it. The state of New Jersey controls this. And
so this side, this slide was critical for us because when the state flagged us for being $12.9 million underfunded, they said we were not going to contribute
to. And so we were slated to lose $975 $975,000 the top number. But the state this year said, "We recognize we've changed some things with the funding formula." So, we're not going to
decrease anyone's budget more than 3%. Okay? And so, we lost 176,000, which is 3% of the 975. But here's the catch. Over the next couple of years, we will not get any more state
aid until we surpass the 975,000. So I already know in the development of next year's budget I have to prepare for another reduction of 176,000. And the problem for our administration and the reason why we had to go to the prior slide and make the
cuts that we did over the past three years prior to this year our district received 500,000 more year after year. So our admin team in the board of ed is expecting a
$500,000 increase. They reduce us $176,000. So when you couple that with the energy in the healthcare, that's why we faced um the problems that we did. So like I said, the bad news is
this is going to continue to happen over the next couple of years. We have no choice. So, how do we bridge the gap? Right. How do we bridge that gap? We we we're below adequacy. The state of New Jersey is
saying we need to be $63 million funded. We're at $50 million underfunded. There's a $12.9 million gap there. We were not alone in this. So when we talk about adequacy, I thought this slide was a
great representation of this and I think it kind of puts things into perspective. Okay. So Lynhurst, the town of Lynhurst, the township gives us, the school district 49% of their tax dollars. So the town
collects all the money, all the tax dollars from all of the community members. We get 49% of that. Gets 59% of their tax dollars. Hasbro Heights
59%. Livingston 60% of their tax dollars. They are considered over adequacy. That means the state of New Jersey feels that their township tax dollars contribute what they feel the
town should contribute. Not only do they contribute, they're overfunding the district. Those townships right there were not eligible for the tax levy incentive program, which I'm going to talk about next. And that's the reason
why to show how alarming that is. I think that number in red highlights it all. If Lynhurst, if the township of Lynhurst were to fund us at the 60, 59 or 60% that those towns fund us, we'd
get 28 more million. $28 million. For me, this slide says it all. When we talk about adequacy, we talk about funding. When we look at those percentages, Lynhurst is substantially
low percentage-wise of what these other towns are contributing to their school district. $28 million. So what did what was the state solution? Again, not my solution, not the sport of edge solution. State of New
Jersey. So in the state's in wisdom, we developed a budget according to their timeline. We had to submit that budget to the county. It wasn't until after we submitted our budget when districts in
our position lobbyed to the state. When we got our state aid reduction, a lot of people said, "What are we doing about it? Are we calling the state? Are we complaining?" The answer is yes. There's many districts in our position who lost state aid. and we reached out to the state and this is a program that they
developed to help districts that were underfunded like ours. I think there was 280 290 districts that were in our position who lost state aid because they're under adequacy. And so on March
28th, we received this application. This is a document from the state of New Jersey. Not I did not create this again. After we submitted our budget, after we got our state aid numbers, the state
developed this program. What the program essentially is saying is we are eligible to approve to apply I'm sorry, apply for up to the $12.9
million were underfunded. Okay, sounds great initially, but I'll get into the details of that program. Okay, so 95% of that falls on the on the heels
of the taxpayer. The state said 5% they would contribute back to the district. So the board of education and I were left to decide what to do. Okay, we obviously unanimously decided
we could not put a $12.9 million bill onto the taxpayer. So, we talked about it, we debated what can we do, what makes sense, what makes sense for our district. Okay? But we had to do this in the parameters of the state. The
application rolled out March 28th. We had to submit the application which was extensive which I'll detail out within two weeks. The state then said to us, "We'll get back to you within two weeks so that on
your April 29th budget hearing, you can present this." Well, the state did not do that. So, unfortunately, it could be perceived that we were moving board dates around and we were um shifting things. It could
be seen as lack of transparency, but we were unfortunately dealing with the state. we had to we had to conform to their timelines. Okay? And so they said, "Look, I know we told you you're going to have your approval for your
application by the 29th. You're not. You need to shift your meeting another week to tonight, May 6, because legally our budgets have to be submitted to the state by tomorrow." Okay? So the board was left with the decision. We didn't know what to do,
right? Should we apply for the 12.9? What are the chances the state's going to accept our entire application? Typically, if you apply for X dollars, they knock it down. I I didn't know this. The state has never done this program before ever. They have never
allowed a district to go above the 2% levy really carp launch. So the board decided with obviously admin input, my input, we developed the application and we submitted for
$7.3 million. And so ultimately the state came back and said you are approved for the full amount. They're going to fund 5% of that. The Linders Board of Education thought we had we had committee meetings to decide are we
going to take or do we want to take that full amount and ultimately we decided no that was still too much on the taxpayer and ultimately the board decided on 6.2 million which is on the agenda tonight for approval. And what that means is the
state recognizes this is a burden to the taxpayer. So they set aside money and they're going to fund 5% of the 6.2 million. So 5.9 and change is what then gets pushed
onto the taxpayer. So this speaks to the process that I just talked about in terms of the timeline. should have probably clicked to that slide, but um so again, that just talks about when the budget so we find out February 27th, we lose state
aid. We have to submit to the county our preliminary budget March 19th. State does not come out with this program till March 28th. We have to submit the application. Um we have to develop the application, submit it by the 14th. April 28th, we have committee meetings
to decide ultimately what we're going to accept. But again, this points out the timeline. And I do that because a lot of people are saying,"Wh did you rush this? Why didn't you tell us about this? Why didn't you have this in your original budget?" Unfortunately, the program did
not roll out till after we submitted our budget. And that's why I wanted to highlight that state document that I received because that's on state letterhead. That's on their Department of Education website. And that's when they rolled it out. and this board was left to deal with the timeline that they
gave us. And so what does that mean? What does that mean for the residents in this town? What does that mean for the taxpayer? So the first column represents the tax increase that we
would have gone out for. Meaning the budget that I submitted on March 19th had a 3.4% increase to the taxpayer. Why 3.4? How did I get to that number? The 2% were allowed plus the healthc
care adjustment becomes 3.4%. Okay. So again, when someone says, well, how could it be 3.4? The state law says you can't go over 2%. It's 2% plus that's what was it? 604,000.
If you add those our tax levy plus the 604, you get to 3.4%. Our budget, which includes the 6.2 million, which I'm going to detail out, would be a 9.9% increase to the
taxpayer. But let me explain, that's inclusive of the 3.4. You don't add those two numbers together. Okay? So, I'm going to answer questions at the end. If you could hold on to your questions when I'm finished, trust me, I will be here. We're not
going anywhere. I'll answer any and all questions that you have. So, again, listen, I just want to clarify the increase you do not add together. The budget we submitted already to the county was
3.4. With the 6.2 million, we would go to 9.9. And so the school district is required to give estimates based on those numbers. So what we do is we take the median
value of the homes in Lynhurst based on the government census. We've spoken to the township. They take a little bit different approach. They use the mean number. We use the median. So they take
the average. We take the middle number. They're they're they're they're very similar. We met with the township today to go over our numbers. They use they use on average an average home of 518,000 which is the mean. The median is $496. We're talking
a few dollars difference based on those values. So on a on on the 3.4 on a $496,000 home the tax increase would have been $152 and change. with the 9.9, it's
$452 and change. So, we just broke that out what that would look like per day and per month. Okay? And again, we understand your house could be worth more, could be worth less, but we're that's what we're required to do to give
a an average whether it's the mean, whether it's the median and project out increases. Okay, so we submitted for a six $6.2 million million dollar application. What does that mean for our schools? What does that mean for our
kids? So, I talked about over the last several years reducing elementary teachers. We would start slow and we would put back some elementary teachers so we could reduce those class sizes again. We would add a high school LLD
teacher. We have a new EL ELA curriculum. We would pay for that in full so we don't have to finance it. We would put back high school electives that we lost. Um we did not place some retirees. We lost high school electives because of that. We would put
those back. We're looking to start a trade program at the high school. Everyone's aware of the Felician program which I'll get into, but we felt like we should um obviously address every learner. We're not just looking to meet the needs of the students looking to go to college, but we need to develop a
trade pro program for the students that are not collegebound. We have school buses that have a 10 per uh a 10-year lifespan and the state's made some concessions with that because um it's extremely difficult right now to get buses. And so what did
they extend that to? 15. They extended to 15 years, but over the next couple years, we have two buses that are going to hit that 15 year life expectancy. So, we'd get new buses. We would do the Jefferson playground. We would also renovate the high school locker rooms that are in
desperate need of repair. They haven't been touched in, I don't know, 50 years. Um, and they're really, um, not up to par. We would do the Jefferson windows. The Jefferson windows, many of the Jefferson windows are original. Um, and so we replace some of those Chromebooks.
Um, I'm going to get into some snapshots of of districts around us facing challenges. One of the things that happened which was was which was great but in hindsight it ended up hurting a lot of places was when COVID happened everyone went online right everyone was
remote everyone was home so we were required to buy computers for our students and that was very easy the first few years when COVID was happening because the government gave us $2 million to offset the cost of these
programs but now that CO money was a one time drop and it's gone. And that has also helped us sustain those middle years. Why is this happening now? Well, you'll see in my next few slides, they're coming up. Many districts are
faced with the struggles that that that that we have. It's because really CO money has given districts a lifeline for the last couple of years. But also what CO did is they put technology into buildings that may not have necessarily happened. Meaning we now have
Chromebooks one to one in grades three to five. The co money is not there. We need to maintain that technology. Our students have come accustomed to using that technology. It's essential for their learning at this point. Those Chromebooks are old and dated. We would replace all three to five with brand new
Chromebooks. Our smartboards in our classrooms. Um through the years as technology improves and enhances, every classroom has an overhead projector. Over the years, we've tried to do interactive smartboards in every classroom. We don't have the funds to just to do the entire district. Each
year, the admin team and I, we develop when we develop the budget, we pick five to 10 classrooms that we upgrade each year. This money one time we every classroom in the district would now have the latest technology when have a smartboard. We'd update the servers, the
things that you don't see. Unfortunately, sometimes in schools, the most expensive things things that you don't see. And so, our servers, our infrastructure, our routers, they're dated. We would replace some of those. The high school roof right now over the
auditorium is in need of repair. It has been need of repair. It actually is leaking. And the high school balcony in the auditorium has been closed for, I don't know, over a year um because it's dangerous and it's leaking. We would replace the roof that needs to be
repaired. Obviously, we haven't done the repairs under the roof because if we're not going to replace the roof, why do the repairs? So, we would then do the repairs. Here's one of the biggest ticket items on here, the high school boilers. We've got estimates roughly a
million dollars to do the high school boilers. We would never be able to do that without this money. Um, I'm going to give you an example that happened to us this past year in about what was it July. We had instate inspection of the
Jefferson school boiler and they told us the boiler would not pass inspection or it did not pass inspection. We had to shift and replace the Jefferson school boiler and rush to get that done um by October 15th because that's legally the date that you have to turn on heat in
the in the buildings. If that were to happen at the high school, we we'd be in big trouble because the Boilers haven't been replaced. I don't even know when. Um, probably it's been the 50s, if not earlier. So, we would put a million dollars to the high school Boilers to
upgrade to upgrade those. I talked about security cameras. Over time, we've been trying to upgrade security cameras, but they're costly. We're trying to manage all of the costs that we've been talking about and security cameras. Um, they're they're our priority, but when we're
looking at everything in totality, it's been challenging. We would take that and every building would be outdated or, um, I should say outfitted with the most up-to-date security cameras. When I talked about facilities, I mentioned energy. After we submitted our
budget, there's been a lot of press on the fact that they think energy costs could rise almost 20% in the future. So, we didn't budget for a 20% increase. We budget increases, but we didn't project a 20% increase. So, we'd add money into the
energy. So, once that money drops and we do all of those upgrades, what does that mean for the future of our district? Because once that money hits our budget, it will be there forever. Which is why this program is so important. It adjusts
the base tax levy for next year and every year thereafter. So what does that mean moving forward? I talked about the Felician program. We have students right now, seniors in high school. They're on a campus at Felician University. What I'd
really love to do with our high school administration, they work very closely with Felicia and and our students love this program. We've gotten rave reviews. The goal is to grow that program so that when students leave our high school, they graduate with a two-year associates
degree, which is gonna which could potentially save, okay, our residents hundreds of thousands of dollars because again, we're going to try to develop a program, which we've been in talks with them to do, but it's expensive to fund. We're gonna have high
school juniors apply to an advanced program and start taking courses at Felician while they're enrolled at Lynhurst High School. And junior and senior year, they'll attend Felician and the high school. When they graduate the
high school, they will have an associates degree. They'll have two years of college ahead of everyone else. Paid for. Tremendous program. There's other districts around. I can't take credit for it. Um there's other districts doing that. Tremendous
success. Um and it's highly touted. I want to expand the trade program. Okay. The first two the first two were so important to grow and sustain because here's why we lose students every year that we have to pay for to the
Bergenmies and trade schools. Okay? So students, we have Lynhurst students that go to the Bergenmies and go to trade schools that we have to pay for that comes out of our budget. So if
if James our BA is a high school student and he wants to go to one of themies for um for marketing, okay, we don't have a marketing track or program here and he goes to Bergenmies. you have to pay
$18,000 for him to go to themies. If we can keep him in district, okay, and have him go through the to the Felician program, which has marketing, not only are we saving money, we're keeping our students in district. Same thing with the trades. If we have
um Miss Funo, what's another school? I'm my mind's going like Hocus. Thank you. Hocus is a program that offers trades. If we lose a student to Hoo Hocus for their electrical program, okay, we pay for them to go to Hocus, we actually
have to give physically give them money that comes out of our budget that goes to that Hoous school. If we develop our own trade program and we keep them here in district, we save that tuition. Bringing back remedial teachers. Over the last couple years with our budget cuts, unfortunately, our
elementary schools have lost remedial teachers. We want to put those back. We want to have our technology, like I said, on a proper upgrade cycle. Every three, four years, our students get new computers. We want to remove the
technology fee. Right now, there's a fee. When students enter sixth grade, when they enter 9th grade, they have to pay a fee. When they get their Chromebook, we would remove that fee. We would expand our curriculum. Right? We're expanding our ELA. Um, we're getting a new ELA series. We want
to get a new social studies series. There's a few other series we want to look to grow and expand. We would use that money to continue to expand and update our curriculum. Same thing with so so facilities, right? So I'll give an example with facilities. We have to start saving money. Our district has
never been in a position to save money. I'm going to give an example. about three years ago, three, four years ago, um unfortunately our turf football field at the high school was beyond repair. So um there was there was cuts
in the turf field. I had been superintendent for a couple of months and um I got a phone call. Um we have a problem. There was an 8 foot cut in the in in the in the turf field. I got a company. They could repair it. It's not going to last.
The field was over 10 years old. Okay. What do I do? We did not have the capital money to fund the turf field. So, we asked the township for help. The town bonded the money for us that we pay. Essentially, they they took
out a loan for us. The Lynhurst Board of Education does not have the ability to bond money. They have to go out for a referendum. The township could bond money because we have a shared services agreement with them. They used the field for their wreck programs. So they were
allowed to bond the money and then we got the turf field. So they bonded the money, we we pay them, you know, the payment. Basically, what we would do is be proactive. We would take some money and save $200,000 a year to have a field improvement fund so that in eight years
we know that field is going to need to be replaced again. I want to have if three and a half, four years ago it was 1.2 2 million to replace that high school field in eight years. What's it going to be? 14156? Who knows? Now we take $200,000 a
year. We put it in a field capital account. So in 8 n years when that field needs to be replaced, we have the cash to do that. And we never take that out of the budget line. Why? In 10 years needs to be replaced again. Right? These are the things that we haven't been able to
do. Um yes. So, right now we have ESL students that unfortunately have to travel to certain buildings because we don't have the ESL faculty to service every single building. We'd put an ESL teacher in every building. Okay. So, that that's just a
highlight of some of the things in the 6 uh $2 million that we that ultimately I hope the board votes to approve tonight. But what happens if we vote no to this tonight? These are the things that we could
face. Okay. Um, we could have to continue to eliminate teachers. Our class sizes are going to go up. They're going to continue to go up. We've gone from nine sections of K12. We're moving to seven sections of
K12. We can continually go down. There's a potential that we could lose sports programs. Clearly, we cannot maintain our facilities to the standards that we want. We we we want to update our curriculum advance and move forward. Um our
outdated technology, the computers, the infrastructure, we're not going to be able to approve and go ahead with some of those projects. We've done a really great job of sharing the cost with the town for our class 3 officers. We may have to roll back. My hope is to expand
that program. I'm a firm believer in um security of our facilities and our town. I give them a lot of credit. We work extremely well with with with the police department, but unfortunately we may not be able to continue the class 3 program which puts armed officers in our
schools. Performing arts, plays, musicals, the high school trade program might not be able to be funded. The Felician program may have to be reduced. And ultimately, we may have to continue to reduce administrators as well, which is the last there on the bottom right.
And I really have a plea to the board because um we've had neighboring districts that were in our position that have not approved this money and the very next board meeting they eliminated freshman sports. They cut 40some aids.
So there are consequences to us not voting to approve this money. And much like some of those other districts, we have a state monitor. So, if the board ultimately votes no to this tonight, they essentially really are also voting to take some of the
decisions out of their hands because when there's cuts or if Mr. Heyman and I and the ad team can't balance our budget and the numbers at that time, the state monitor steps in and says, "Well, you need to consider these cuts." And he at
that time could enforce cuts. And that's exactly what happened in this district. Their board voted not to eliminate the sports programs. Their board voted not to cut those aids and the state monitor said overruled the decision and then and they and they lost those programs. So,
um it's really critical. We're at a crossroads. We see the impact of our budgets. We see the numbers. We see the cuts we've been making year after year. And right now, the numbers just don't work. Um but we're not alone. The
numbers don't just work for us. These are some of the layoffs that we've seen in the news over the last several weeks. We've had small cuts because I have to say our admin team, our board, we've
worked really hard over the last two years to balance our budget and we've done without. That's why you haven't seen us in the paper. Right? I know. Right. I was not the most popular person when I closed an elementary building and I rented it. Why did I do that? Do I want to do that? Absolutely not. That's
the last thing in the world I want to do. However, we need revenue. These districts did not over time make those cuts. Wayne's been in the news cutting 40 teachers. Districts closing two ele elementary schools. Tom's River facing a
$22.3 million gap. These are all districts that are facing massive layoffs. I saw Middletown. There was news was at Middletown. They had over 400 people at a board meeting protesting against the cuts that they were making.
So, we're not alone in this. We're not alone in the tax levy incentive program. These are some articles from local districts, not so local, but throughout the state that have used the tax levy incentive program. And I want to emphasize here,
this board could have submitted an application for 12.9 million which would have been in the high 20s, possibly low30s of a tax increase. Look at Little Egg Harbor. That's the Jersey Shore district. They're increasing taxes
33%. We're looking at 9.9. Hillsboro went out for 22.9 million. Lacy, um, they they, um, 7%. Right. So, I get it. I do. I'm a taxpayer in my town. and I don't want
taxes to go up, but but we're at a crossroads here. And it's essential that we act now so we don't we don't face these cuts down the road. And I really do think this board was conservative. And I think we applied for the money that we need and we did not want to pass
a huge impact onto the tax taxpayer, but we needed to do something. So here I am. I stand before the board humbly asking to please approve our modified budget tonight with this 6.2 million because our kids, this
district desperately needs to get ahead. The programs that we've we've outlined, we have an that our administrators tonight, we work hard year after year to balance the budget to put the best educational program forward that we possibly can. But at this time, the way
that the state has structured the funding, we're losing money and we need to make up some ground. We tried to be responsible. We try not to overburden the taxpayer and um that's why um we're here tonight and that's why the budget
has been modified. If you see the agenda, you'll see the the initial budget and you'll see every single dollar amount allocated for that 6.2 2 million the state required a line account be assigned to every single dollar amount um that we
do. So with that um I'll open the floor up to questions. Um and then again before we start questions um I just want to mention I will stand here for two hours. I did it when we reconfigured Columbus school and answer all the
questions that you want. But once the board goes back on stage and you come to the mic it's going to be for comment only. Now's your time to ask questions. And before I answer, you could ask. I'm just going to get a drink of water. Oh, thank you very
[Applause] much. Okay, fire away. Okay. Okay. Okay. So on social media it was publicized that the current commission would be meeting with you today to discuss uh your property tax increase
you know seven days before the election but exactly two months after the state funding shortfill was made publicly known. Um my real question uh to well what came out of that meeting today and I do have follow-up questions to that question.
Okay. Um we did meet with the township today. They requested a meeting. The meeting was prior primarily to to double check our numbers and our tax increases. And so um Mr. Heyman met with um we had four board members there. Um we cannot
have five. We had four. We had uh Mr. Heyman, myself. The town was was represented. Um and then they had their CFO and their their tax expert there um to doublech checkck our numbers. Um ultimately the township did agree with um our numbers um that we presented. Um
James presented uh Mr. Heyman, our business administrator, presented the tax impact and how we came to those conclusions. Um that was really the the primary purpose of the meeting. Um I know some people had surmised maybe the township could help offset those costs,
but um that was not presented to us. And the the the the commission basically said it's our budget. it's our decision. They respect our decision. They see the position we're in. They know it's it's really unfortunate. Um but they did agree with the numbers that that we
presented to them. Congress passed a new bill um a reform to this the 2018 Senate Bill S2 that was basically telling everybody we're getting ready to do everything that we said because we're getting closer to
funding. ing um the new school funding reform. Um and then COVID happened and but everybody was g given a warning shot in 2018 that here's your local fair share act again. Remember what's going to happen now once this with this reform
is we're going to start taking money away from people. That was one of the key the caveats in that. Obviously COVID stopped that. So going back to this, so 2018, how many times has the district met with the commission since 2018 after the misappropriation of $5 million resulting
in a state loan and state monitoring? The last one I have on record is January of 2019. I asked this because at the recent Columbus Memorial Campus reallocation meeting on 317, a current commissioner stated, "When stuff like this happens, it's embarrassing to the
town and you got to do better." implying they were unaware of the district's current situation. I am perplexed as to why the commission isn't already demanding pulse checks with the district since we are actively paying for one blunder by a former administration as
well as in possession of a township funded state-of-the-art building that is current currently being utilized by the town in addition to other shared services. Does the board of ed does the district actively pursue to have such meetings with the commission and why were they so
surprised? Uh so I can speak to prior administration. I can speak to um you know my time as superintendent. Um when we did um speak about reconfiguring the schools, we did meet with the township
to lay out the plans. Um there was a number thrown around that could potentially um allow the district not to close the building. Um Mr. Heyman was present actually Mr. McKver who I saw uh walk in. Our board attorney was present
at that meeting as well. Um we expressed the deficits that we've shown. Um we expressed that it would take X dollars to keep that building open. and you know the town essentially you know whether the town raises taxes or we raise taxes
it's going to fall on the taxpayer. So in order for the town they would had to have given us money which ultimately would raise taxes and and so it's funny cuz my taxes did go up 24.5% in 2003 and then an additional 4.5 after that due to two reassessments in this town. It's so
it's so let me let me So that was one of the things that did not help Lynhur. So, uh that adequacy budget is based on values of the township. To no fault of anyone, um the
town's over uh had a reassessment over the past couple years and so that really widened that gap. So really, this is the state saying, "We understand you're in this position. We've never offered an opportunity to fix it." So, if you think
about it, right, you have a 2% tax levy and you have property values soaring, right? Over the past 5 years, property values have soared. I know in every town they have, right? So, a house used to be worth 500,000, it's worth 750 or 800,000. The state capped our budget at
2%. So, you have assessed values going up and then you have a 2% cap. So what happens is the adequacy just gets really thrown out of whack and the state basically said we know that right common
sense says no one wants to do a huge increase all in one year but they've capped us ideally you want to do three four 5% a year and incrementally grow. They haven't allowed us to do that. You cap us at 2%. You use assessed values to to determine this and then there's your
gap. Unfortunately, we have no ability to change the values they use and we have no ability to change the 2%. I I I Exactly. So when with all this information being presented to the commission, did they even show any
slight like sway in changing their local fair share contribution so that maybe the board doesn't have to vote for such a high percent considering they've already collected they're collecting these funds on these increases on the properties? I don't I I don't want to speak for the township and what their
what their plans are. Um we met with them today. It was a very civil uh meeting. Um we agreed on the numbers we presented. Um I can't speak to their you know their plans in the future or Yeah. pots of money that we're talking about
here 100%. So from my So the way I understand the town does not have a limit. So if if the town says we're going up 8%, they're going up 8%. You're limited. True. And as you pointed out, with your 2% per year, you'll never
care. Correct. So, what some people may think is that the town could say, "Okay, I have an extra 200 here. I'm going to give it to the to the school board." Is that possible? It is possible. It is. It could be if the town so chooses to do
so. That's right. I can hear you to be able to make that doesn't mean there's extra. Yeah. No, absolutely not. And and that's what I'm saying like so 100%. You took the words right out of my mouth. So So let me tell you, let me tell you. I'm
going to just cash this. I don't want to play that game. All right. Um so yeah, so so to your point, sir, the state is doing this on purpose. They want us to be at war with the town. Why? They don't
want to raise taxes. They want the news articles. They want to show Little Egg Harbor 33%. Why? Because state could say we didn't do that. The township did that, right? So, you hit the nail on the head. And that's why there's no blame here. I'm not, you know, and that's why
today we met with the town to go over the numbers. It was a great meeting there. There's no blame. You know, we're we're handcuffed here. The state recognizes there's gaps in the formula. That's why they're giving us this program. But to answer your qu 100%. And
and the state wants this, right? They want townships to kind of go back and forth and they want tax they want they they want taxes to be raised by local so that they say that they didn't have to raise a tax. Right. Thank you. Sure.
The tax rate. Well, it's it's a 9.9% increase, but 25 tax for 2025. We don't know the township side of the taxes, so we don't we don't know how much they're going to increase. However, our tax rate is going to go up about
eight points. So, it's going to be 2.16. Yes. Above that value. 100% 100%. And and and and you bring up a great point. Um we we we project taxes
from July to June and that's the 9.9. That's what we're required to do. So that's why there might have been some rumblings about our numbers and the towns not correlating. That's the reason why when we met today, we we ironed that out. And again, we're from June to July.
And then we don't know what the town's budget's going to be, so we're only projecting what our numbers are going to be. Yeah. Thank you so much. Okay. Any other questions? Sure. 14,000.
No, but but but you're missing the the the the purpose of the slide isn't to compare the demographics or the the values of the homes in the town. It's to show that we're constantly compared to Rutherford, right? I remember you being on the board saying, "Why aren't we like Rutherford? Rutherford does this.
Rutherford that." That's a statement you've made all the time. And so the reason we can't be Rutherford is because Rutherford funds their schools at 60%. So 55%. So we're So we're under So I put those towns up not to not to say
that. Yeah. So So I put those towns up not to say it it has nothing to do with values. They contribute that much to the town. You could pick any town. I pick towns in our area that are over adequacy. So they pay they pay their
district that much money. Think about this that slide if we were at 50. So you ready for this? We did this comparison before we left. We're at 49%. By going up 6 million we're at
50.4. By going up $6 million our ad our adequacy goes up a point a percent 1.4. We're never going to get That's why at 59% this district gets $28 million. That shows the
disparity. There's nothing I could do. I stand before the board asking for the money, not because um for any other reason I want to put it back in the district. It's earmarked. Every project is earmarked. Every dollar is going back to our district to improvements to sustainability so that we're never in
this position again. I get the mistrust. I get what this district has been through. Okay? But you can't blame this board. You can't blame me for something that happened seven, eight years ago. I'm with you. I lived it. I was a building principal. I went through the
deficit. I had to cut teachers. I had to be the one to sit with someone to give them a termination letter. I don't know if anyone's ever had to do that. I've had to do it on several occasions. It's awful. And so, I've lived that. I don't want to go back. And I get that this is a burden on the taxpayer, but please
understand we were reasonable in what we've requested and every dollar is allocated for the kids in this district. I'm good, Mr. Donovan. How are you? It's definitely going to happen. So, so just to clarify, we will be okay for for next school year because our budget was
for 2526. We've balanced the budget. We closed Memorial School. We recouped probably $800,000 by doing that. Um the problem is going to be the development of the 26 27. We're balanced next year
from September to June, but next budget cycle we're going to be down a million or two. And we're going to see the cuts in 26 27 major cuts. Not will we, we will. It's just a matter of what on that sheet ultimately happens. It could be sports, it could be plays, musicals, it
could be loss of technology. It will happen. It just won't happen in September. It'll happen the following September because that state aid is that state aid is going down again next year. So, we're going to be facing the same
the same budget shortfalls. That slide showed I'm out of options. We made it up this year because of closing Memorial and renting the property. The other thing that could happen is they could after next year say we don't want to rent Memorial anywhere. We have to find $500,000. So, those were
painstaking decisions that myself and the admin team didn't want to do, but we had no choice. We didn't lose that much. We're not laying off 40 teachers, 35 teachers, 40 aids. We've been working hard to mitigate this, but there's only
so much we could do. Okay. So, 100%. I'm you. No, but but I'm going to give you one better. I'm going to give you one better. Let's talk about this this this middle school. Please please don't take this
the wrong way. Okay. I am extremely grateful for this middle school. It changed the town. The first thing I'm going to say is just because we got this middle school doesn't mean every other facility doesn't get touched in the district. We have to sustain all our
facilities. Okay. The second thing is the town gave us this middle school which was a tremendous gift. Here's what no one accounted for. The cost to run it. Look at Lincoln school. Lincoln
school's electric was 50,000 a year. This building's 250. Lincoln school. We lost Lincoln School. We gained the the middle school. It takes seven more custodians to clean this building than it did that building.
Who accounted for that cost? No one. Okay. So, so that has added to our deficits. No one's fault, right? But the budget wasn't adjusted. So, again, please don't take this the wrong way.
This building is gorgeous. It's a beacon in the state of New Jersey. There's people that call me. I'm home sometimes on like Saturday. It's like superintendent night. I'm like, why is that? I was just at your middle school. It's gorgeous. Can we walk through? Can we come by? Absolutely. But that was a there was a cost to run that, right? To
run this facility that was above and beyond that we didn't prepare for. So, um, the other thing, how do we get to the 6 million? That's a great question. We saw we're running a million behind, hence the cuts this year in
Memorial. So, that's a million. the second um so that's a million then the state aid over the next four years we're losing a million so that's two million okay and change so when you look at $3 million that gets us whole for our
losses we want to get ahead and so so that was a great question but the projects that are slated if 3 million gets us ahead or even a million for the boilers you put the roofs and the windows and a few other things and 6 million were there. It adds up very
quickly. So the first two and a half three million is really to again to get us whole. You saw the numbers. We're losing a million dollars over the next four years. Not my opinion. Fact. So when you look at the first million state aid loss, second million is we're behind a
million, hence the cuts this year. You add a few other things out of district tuitions and a few things, we're easily at 3 million. The next 3 million is about sustainability and growth. Remember, we're 12.9 behind. Six is six.
We thought was fair. So, that's a great point. So, the other huge thing when when we replaced the boiler at Jefferson this summer, we had like 340,000 in capital reserve. The boiler
was like 320, 315. We ended last year's capital reserve at like 15,000, which is unheard of. When I talk to superintendents at conferences and and different things, most healthy districts have 3 to 8 million in capital reserve.
We ended last year with 15,000. So, no. So, so there's another huge thing, right? So, there's another big big factor here. Not big, but substantial worth worthy of talking about. When you know the rich get
richer, right? Why? Well, they hedge their investments. They use leverage and they they make their money work for them, right? See, these districts that have $8 million in capital reserve, they live off their interest. Okay? The other thing that they do is they're eligible
to apply for other grants that we're not that we can't apply for. Meaning, we have to replace the high school roof. There's state grant programs that say if you fund 75% of the project, you could get a 25% rebate back from the state. We
could do that for the boilers, the roofs. We could apply. We can't apply for these programs. That's why the town has had to bond us because it's this exchange. They have they have the reserve, but we don't. Well, no. Even the bonding, right? Don't get me wrong. The town, we could not have done the field without the town. Yeah. We owe the
town. No question. They bonded the money, but we pay the payment. So it's not like they gave us the money and then they pay the paperwork for us. They're doing the paperwork. Granted, we never get that field without the township. Right? So I had to go to them and basically say, "Listen, I have a field.
I can't replace it. Can you help me?" They did that for us, but they didn't give us the money. We bonded it, but it does go on their debt, right? So they have to claim that and so on and so forth. So um you know, again, this is not about us verse the town. The town,
you also have to pay the town back. So, you can't default on them either. So, no, I can't default on the town. But, um, but again, you know, but to to to to your point, why the extra money? Now, we're going to be putting money in capital accounts to fund things that we
need. Yeah. No, 100%. But the town Yeah. But to give the town credit, they pay for both our our SRO's, right? So So the value add on the town is huge. Is huge. We trust me, I've had
this argument with the board. We don't want to go back and forth with the town because I'm gonna say this publicly. I probably shouldn't say it. We will lose. Trust me. I've done the numbers. They pay for our garbage. They pay for our water. They gave us this building. Like they
help us with snow. Like there's things that people don't think of that would annihilate us. And I'm going to give you an example. When I call the town and we get 10 inches of snow and our guys just physically can't move it or put it anywhere, the town comes in with their trucks. They help us get that snow out.
They they give us their men. There's districts that could pay $50,000 in a snowstorm to do that. Town jumps right in. Town pays our water. Town pays for an SRO here. Town pays for an SRO at the high school. Trust me, I don't want to go back and forth with the town. We win,
right? They they gave us the middle school. So So there's things that I know perception is why don't you do this? Why don't you do that? But when you dig deeper into it, there's reasons why. We've never paid a water bill, right? There's towns, there's superintendents I
talked to who the town charges them for water. So again, we don't want to go back and forth with the town. Trust me. Yeah. So, so, so here's another thing, right? Our special ed costs are skyrocketing.
Um, obviously we want to service our our neediest students, but you have to understand the way education works in the state of New Jersey. someone could move in tomorrow with a a severely uh disabled child and they may require an out of district school. We
have to pay for that. And so every year we budget x number of students. And so um not only are we required to pay tuition, we're required to pay busing. Okay? And we have to invest and have money set aside for that. So we've had
it happen a week before school or in the middle of the school year. A family moves in. They could have one or two children with special needs that go to an out of district placement. The placement of the of that student could be $100,000 and then like $40 or $50,000 for busing. Oh, here's another thing we
have in the application. I didn't highlight on here. We're we're recognizing the cost of transportation. The state passed a new law that we're allowed to transport our own students in eight passenger vans and not use CDL. So, we pay almost $2
million of out of district busing cost in this district. And so, we're trying to also get get vans and other things to help offset that cost because transportation has skyrocketed. I I I don't want to keep
going back. No, Mrs. Corin, I can't do that because it's not us first to town. I It's It's dollar for dollar. I I I don't you can't quantify that because it has nothing to do with that. It has to do with the tax levy. So that those numbers, let's just say for argument sake, they give us $2 million worth of
services. That's not in the tax levy. That's just through shared services. So the SRO's for instance they pay for that's not impact the state's looking at the tax levy. They're not they're not going to say oh by the way here's a piece of paper the town gives us X dollars of shared services
more. You know what I mean? Because it goes to the tax levy. The tax levy has to go up. Those things help us save a lot of money but it's not helping the tax levy which is what they're looking at. was done accidentally by the state. I
agree with you because there's no secret pot sitting somewhere that to say that the town is not given a fair share. We are the town. Correct. It's us, right? Again, you're telling me I'm not paying enough. Okay, how much you want? Here's my checkbook. I mean, really, that's who we're 100%. And so when the town So when
the township came to the meeting today that you referenced, we showed them the state documents that we get to your point. They give us these documents. I have no argument. So they want the to go back to your point originally. They want
this fight between us and the town so that they could skirt the issue of number one addressing our aid and number two um not raising taxes on their end. Let me tell you another frustration. Okay. And I and I'm not going to point out towns because my phone's going to be blowing up. My own phone is already
blowing up for two weeks on this. But other towns, why do we get $5.5 million of state aid? Someone gets 11 million. Someone gets 30 million. I know a superintendent who has not increased the tax levy a dollar in three years. Why?
They got 3 million state aid, 3 million more in state aid, 3 million more in state aid. We're at 5.5 million in state aid and they're cutting a million. We have neighbors that get 11 million in state aid. These are things I have no control over. It's extremely
frustrating. Trust me. We're literally like waiting for our state aid numbers for us is like the equivalent of like waiting for the birth of a child. Like we're like on pins and needles, right? It's like we're going to get the number. What's it going to be? My stomach's in
knots. I want to throw up. And then it's like ah god. God, we lost money last year. We're like, "All right, yes, we got 500 and something thousand. This year we lose." And we're like, it's these things. No one wants to make cuts. No one wants to take programs away from kids, but we're we're bound to the
constraints that the state gives us. Good evening. Good evening. Can you hear me? Yes. My roof is 31 years old. I'm a senior. until last year. My niece was very
happily working. If you're wondering where Angelina is, she's gone. She was a beloved art teacher and she's gone. She's doing well. So, don't worry. I took care of her, but she's
gone. You need to um understand I raised my two great nieces without any connection to Felician. They went on their own. They graduated with honors without any
preparation. And we had no support from the current president of the Lynhurst Board of Education who's a professor at Felician University and that's why they connection. Okay. 31year-old roof. The
biggest issue I have with your presentation tonight and all the soft steps in you're doing is that the senior freeze is not a guarantee. First of all, in the state of New Jersey for disabled people and
seniors, we have to lay out every single tax dollar due by the end of June. Yeah. And then you try to apply. I also have a degree in school finance and I'm a retired school principal and college professor.
Okay. No. Is there a question? I've been living in town a very long time and I don't need my school taxes raised. But I believe in school. But you have other ways of doing this. You can take I don't
see any administrative cuts here. That's I don't No, what that would What was that? Well, I'm going to explain, but go ahead. And what about not only the administrative cuts, what about incentives for early retirement and release some of these teachers that need to leave. Okay, I
I'll address those. You need to do more, Joe. Okay, you took the easy way out with the tax levy. I So, I'm going to explain. I I agree with some of your points. They're great points. one, seniors do have the ability to apply for
the senior freeze. They pay it, they get it back. Okay. Um, Felicia University, of course, um, that has nothing to do with Dr. Scardino, although he is a professor there. Um, those connections were made without, um, any anything to
do with him. It has nothing to do with him or his department. Um, that's through the education department. I actually sought out Felicia. They didn't seek out me. I mirrored the program to to be honest with you of why we selected Felician. I'll I'll I'll answer that
question. So, North Arlington and Steve, they have a tremendous program that they do in NA and they partner with Bergen Academy. I'm sorry, Bergen Community. Okay. I was talking to to to Steve in NA and I'm like, this program is
unbelievable. You have high school seniors that graduate with an associates degree. Yes. I met with his team. Um, and the high school team met in North Arlington. So, Miss Vuno and I and her team go to North Arlington. We hear about Bergen uh community, their
program, and and we were talking and we're like Bergen Community, but they're in a office building down what road is that? Wall Street. Thank you. I don't want our students to leave the beautiful campus of Lenhurst to go to an office building
at Bergen Community. Felician's a gorgeous campus. Let's reach out to them and see if they'll partner. We made a contact. We met with them and we developed the program. Nothing I hate to say it, but nothing to do with Dr. Scardino. Um, and so one time we were
there and he stopped by to say hello, but but other than that, it had nothing to do with him. So that's how we got to Felician because what I didn't know, shame on me, right? I've been here for 15 years and I knew Dr. Scordina was at Felician. I never took the time to ride
to Felician. Shame on me. It's less than four miles. I was there in like six minutes. The campus is gorgeous. So I said to myself, do I want students to go to Bergen Community in an office building? No offense to Bergen Community. They run a tremendous program. NA is extremely successful. I
just wanted our students on a college campus. Okay. Our students are thriving. They love it. They're able to go to the med. They're able to go to their libraries, their athletic facilities. Unbelievable. Okay. Um you mentioned, and I agree with you, the retirement. I
wish I could offer retirement packages. It's illegal. I'll say that again. It's illegal. If I try to buy out an administrator or a teacher's contract with pension, it's illegal. I cannot offer an incentive.
Only the state could do that. So, I agree with you, right? There's teachers and administrators who are on the top of the god, but they've been here 20, 30 years, right? That's the way that it works. But to say that I could just buy them out and save money legally, I
can't. So, there's things that I know make sense. And in corporate, it happens all the time. My uncle was one of them. He worked for Bell Atlantic. It merged with Verizon during that time. They bought him out and he was home, right?
Um, but I can't do those things. So, there's laws and things that the average person might not know. I wish I could, but you're right. Administrators. Yeah, I had on the slide there administrators. We would lose over the next couple years
our directors and supervisors. It's happened in this district before. But please understand, we have four supervisors and directors. They're tenured as teachers. They bump out non-tenure. So the thought to lose four administrators, which I'll get to how
valuable they are, only saves the districts 240 thou. You're bumping a non-tenure teacher at about 60,000. So those four people go back to the classroom, which they have no problem doing. In fact, we talked about teaching a class here or there, but now they're
bumping their salaries stay the same. We've been down this road when we had the deficit. So, you have now you have people making high salaries back in the classroom. They bump out teachers. So, it's 240,000. It's not even close to the millions we need to make up. Not to
mention, um, we have an assistant superintendent used to work for the Department of Ed districts that have made cuts in supervisors. four years later when CQAC comes around and none of their curriculum is revised and edited and nobody's been overseeing any of their programs, they failed QAC first
year. So, so yes, right, we always look at admin costs and and that's going to be in any in in any business, right? We're in the business of education, but you always look at the top and yeah, we could make sacrifices there, but there's always a sacrifice on the other side. So if you want your students to have a
curriculum that hasn't been revised in five, six, seven, eight years to meet the new standards, if you want CUC to come in say that our our curriculum doesn't meet the guidelines. The other thing is those four people, we have 500 faculty here that do observations. So
now we're going to have 10 principles do 500 observations. The math doesn't work. So there's other things that those supervisors and directors do that maybe you might not see. So So I agree with you. I'd love to be able to go back to one of your points is to is to to have
some working agreement with the state. Maybe they'll come to listen, they developed this program. Maybe they'll have some kind of pension incentive which I would definitely participate in. So to answer your other question, we Yeah. Yeah. We we've done
without. Here's the thing. If I stood before you tonight and we didn't make cuts, if I didn't close a building, if we didn't cut remedial teachers, if we didn't make these things, I But we've been doing it. We've been doing it and
our students are suffering because of it. Any other question? Are we to the already lean? We're already where we need to be. I mean, I know there anything could be cut to, you
know, finesse things, but there's there's nothing more left. Like, we we need a reserve. So, so I will say this. I don't want to speak for the monitor. He could comment if if he chooses. Mr. Heyman and I meet with the state
monitor often. We have conversations. He evaluates every single thing we do. He evaluates the programs. He evaluated the cost differential of closing a building. So, so I get the
apprehension, but he has access to our system. We have a system called system 3000. It's budgeting. It's where we put all of our line accounts. All of our money goes into. He has full access. He checks every transfer, every dollar. There's times where he'll call James, not so much me, be like, "James, I saw a
$200,000 switch from this account to this. Why? What happened? What's this?" So, he's he's in our budget. He's seeing what we're doing. I've spoken to him. He's allowed me to say that, you know, much like our neighbors, if if we don't get this, these cuts will be coming and
then he'll have the ability to just have them. There's there's no option at that point. Yeah. Any other questions? Yes, sir. Just a question about the the enroll the dual enrollment program that
you have with Felician. And if you don't know the answer off the top of your head, it's okay. I'm just I'd like to know is it more what what is the cost difference with doing it with Felician University
as opposed to Bergen Community College? And I'm going to and I'm going to ask you why. Yeah. Cuz I understand I understand what you're saying. You don't like the Metallands campus. I get it. But you also
highlight you want to give students a diverse education. Felician offers three associates degrees. Liberal arts, liberal arts with a business administration option, occupational therapy. I don't think that
our students are doing occupational therapy. If I'm wrong, fine. one and if it's cost effective to do with Felician and they're getting the liberal arts degree or the business administration option fine but if you're
keen on diverse options for the student body of Lynhurst Bergen would make more sense only only because it is a community college and the Community College
specializes in and only in two-year degrees. Understood? So, you see where I'm at? The question is, so two parts here. Yeah. Cost difference. I'll answer. I'll answer. I have cost difference and if Bergen was the better option financially, which I I'm going to
wait for your answer. I'll answer. Just go ahead. Yeah. Okay. So, so the first part of your question, you're on point and um our administrators will tell you, I've gotten a a bad reputation, not bad, but
of being cheap, right? I'm watching every single dollar and and they'll tell you, right? They get phone calls, why'd you spend it on this? Why'd you spend it on that? And I see them laughing. When I met with Felician, my first my very first point was if you don't meet Bergen's rate, there's no deal. Okay.
So, um, so Felician's matching Bergen, the same monetary amount that NA pays, we pay Felician. So, that was one selling point. The other selling point to Felician was they'll they'll transport our students. Okay. So, Felician has a shuttle bus that comes
and picks up our students. So, if we don't have a student that drives, they free of charge, we're so close, they shuttle our students back and forth. So, that was the second selling point. The third is they have said and we're in development. So we we get the funding now we have to develop the program. They
did say they would expand their associates degrees. So yeah. Oh and they have use of facilities too. So those were like some of the some of the selling points for us with Felicia. No, you're welcome. You're welcome. Um any other
questions? Okay. So we're going to now shift to the first thing will be public comment. Like I said, now is the time to answer questions and then we'll get into the formal approval of the budget. Thank you so much everyone for coming. I appreciate
[Applause] [Music] Tracy Corwin, you're good. Got it. Okay. Uh Daniel Para, Mr. Dorso, can you explain how our district found itself in this f this
financial predicament? I distinctly recall Mrs. Stella warning us all that relying on surplus COVID money and funds was never a sustainable strategy. She emphasized the importance of making timely budget cuts to prevent exactly
the situation we now face. That guidance was clear. Yet here we are grappling with difficult choices that could have been avoided. At the most recent board meeting on the 29th of April of 2025,
you cited $180,000 reduction in state funding. However, it's difficult to reconcile that figure with decisions made a year ago. On June 18, 2024, eight out of nine board members approved the
raise to approved a raise for the assistant superintendent, bringing their salary to $172,900, just $7,100 shy of the exact amount lost in state aid. Mr. Mr. Corso, I must ask you, are you unable to fulfill your
responsibility as superend superintendent without an assistant? Is this additional is this additional layer of administration essential? Furthermore, during that same June meeting, the assistant business administrator received a raise increase,
increasing their salary to $117,875. I question whether this role is truly necessary. Eliminating such positions could free up substantial amounts of funding and that might otherwise be used to benefit students and relieve
taxpayers. Many other districts are facing similar economic challenges, but they are finding ways to adapt. Meanwhile, Linder seems a drift despite the oversight of the state monitor. That's deeply concerning.
The time has come to stop burdening the taxpayers, especially when the return on investment in terms of educational outcomes is falling short. Fiscal responsibility is not optional. It's expected just like any household or
business budget, the district must live within its means. I urge this board, do not approve another tax increase. do not pass the consequences of poor planning on to the community. Instead, take meaningful action to manage our finances
responsibly and prioritize student success over administrated excess. So, thank you Mr. Prada for your comment. Um, as I mentioned in the pre uh, you know, presentation, I did discuss salary increases um, and the
cuts that we've made postcoid. Um, so the opportunity, like I said earlier, was to ask questions. You know, at the end of my presentation, I addressed many of your comments and your concerns in the presentation. Um, so I thank you for your comment. Laura Vuno.
Hi, good evening. Um, I'm Laura Vono, the principal of Lindhurst High School. Uh, first I want to thank Mr. Dorso. That was um extremely thorough and very well thoughtout presentation. It explains a lot, especially to
me. I've worked um at the high school for 25 years. Um I've lived there for a really long time. So I'm here to just advocate and speak on behalf of the high school. Um that's my place. I've been there for a long time. I've seen a lot
of things happen there. One thing I do want to mention and Mr. Dorso, you mentioned that you know the middle school is the you know is is you're getting phone calls because it's so beautiful and you know great things happen here. But one of the things we
have to remember the crown jewel of the town should be the high school. When young families move into town, they're not looking at nail salons and how many hair spas there are. The first question
that they're going to ask is, "How are the schools? How is the high school?" And for those community members who believe that we're not getting a return on our investment of education, I'm going to
beg to differ because had you been at our academic awards night last night and you saw some of our students and where they're going to college and the accomplishments that they have made over their past four years at Lynhurst High School, I think your mind would change.
So, I am appealing to the board because you are the ones right now who have the power over what happens to my house. Just as you take pride in your homes, I take a lot of pride in mine. And there's a lot of, for those of you
who know me, there's a lot of history and tradition that comes with me being at the high school. I don't need to say anymore. If your ceilings were falling down in your house, I'm sure you'd fix it. Well,
that's what's happening in mine in the auditorium. If you have a leaky roof, I'm sure you'd fix it. It's happening in the auditorium. If you couldn't heat your home efficiently in the winter, I'm sure you'd want to get that
heat fixed. We have boilers that that's happening to right now. If there are areas in your home, believe it or not, that are damaged and unsafe to be in and have to be closed, I'm sure you'd address it. We've got places in our
auditorium that students cannot and they're not allowed to be. If you've had outdated, disgusting, and stained rooms in your house, I'm sure you'd upgrade them. I don't know how many of you have been in the locker rooms. We mentioned the boys and girls locker rooms. Um,
it's a disgrace, you know, and and you can't only say it's used for the athletes. Every single student in our school uses those locker rooms every day. So, that's what I'm here to do today is to ask you for your help in
fixing our house. I know that you explained, Mr. Corso that you know it's no one's fault about our percentage and and what the schools are are are receiving from the town. But now you have an opportunity to fix that. You have one shot. The state is never going
to offer this deal again. You have one shot to make your mark and do the right thing. There's one reason why you sit up on the stage right now. You are there to advocate for the students and the schools of
Lindhurst. That's why you're up there and not sitting here. It's not about politics or petty arguments. You were elected by the community to do what's in the best interest of the schools.
And we wholeheartedly as leaders in this in in the schools believe that this is in fact the right thing to do for the schools. So what I'm asking is all of you to make
the right decision for our schools. realize the impact that it's going to make because a $147 what was it a day? $1.24 I think right um $1.24 a day is not going to
mean anything in 5 years but the legacy of the improvements that you do right now on our schools is going to last a last a lifetime. So, I humbly ask you to make the right decision tonight on
behalf of the high school, our students, our teachers, and our administrators. Thank you so much. Thank you so much, Mrs. Vuno, for your for your comments and your support. Thank you. Mr. Corsaw, the board, how you how you all doing? I know most of you. Uh bear
with me. I I flew in last night from California into Newark airport and I'm I'm like still shaking. It was a rough ride. It was really rough. But um I I just, you know, it this really concerns
me. And just to give you a little history, um, I moved to this town, and it's been great to me. It's been great to my kids, especially since my oldest was born with special needs. And as a special needs parent,
you got to fight for your son. And I had a lot of advocates and a lot of a lot of people to go to to discuss education. One of them's on the board right there, Mrs. Stella, she was very informative with me. And there there's been other
people in this district that that were were super Deb Kravitz and there's some women here tonight a and men that are here tonight in the education in Lynhurst that really helped my kid thrive. And that's what it was all
about. And it motivated me to see his improvement on what these people have done and what is going on in education in the state of New Jersey. Because I'm going to tell you what, our attorney doesn't know. And I
bet our state monitor doesn't know the actual formula that this state uses to give aid to each and every district. Do you? Our governor sure as hell doesn't know. And anybody that's running for that office right now doesn't
know. Who knows? But it kills us because we have to take our kids and put them into this school district's care. And our school district has done a phenomenal job of ensuring that. Now, my
son that had special needs that has special needs that was deemed failure to thrive. what it what it the doctors called it has a degree from Montlair State University and is contributing to society by working full
time as what his dream was supposed to be of going into the sports broadcasting industry and I thank them and I owe them and then I ran for the board of education and then I saw what really all
of you go through but the one thing that every board of educ ation me member said when they were running and you all said it and I heard you even the ones that came after me. You said it's all about the
kids. And I'm not asking you to approve this. I'm not asking you. I expect to leave here tonight that this thing votes 90 in favor of it regardless of what each and every one of you see in
social media. Because if you vote against this, this is telling me you're not for the kids. And shame on you. Thank you, Mr. Donovan. And congratulations to your son. and I know him well. No, absolutely. Thank you. And
thank you for your service as well. Michael Rizzo. Everyone else is taller than I am. Sorry. Um, it is teacher appreciation week. So, if there are any uh teachers in the audience, I know we have some educators up on stage there. I want to just say thank you to all the teachers
on teacher appreciation week. Thank you for everything you do. Last week, the board allowed me to sit in on some of the committee meetings uh when we were discussing this budget uh and when we were putting forth what number we were going to apply for and what number we put on the budget. Uh and
I heard a lot of debate back and forth uh about what we were doing and I was very impressed with the arguments, I'll call it, you know, the back and forth about what's best for our school district. Um, I know that when everyone left that meeting last week, they were
on board or most a majority were on board that they were going to uh approve this. Uh, and I hope that you still will um, honor what we talked about last week. Uh, cuz as a taxpayer in this town, and I'm not only the middle school principal, I was born and raised here.
Um, my sons go to school here. Um, I know that for a fact I didn't vote for anybody up there to keep my taxes down. That that's not why I voted for anybody sitting in those chairs right now. I voted for you to echo what Miss Vuno said and Mr. Donovan. I voted for you to
do what's best for the students of Luners Public Schools. And I'm pretty sure that nobody up there ran on the platform that they wanted to keep taxes down. I'm pretty sure everyone up there said, "I'm in this because I want to do what's right for Luners Public Schools. I want to do what's best for our
students." And voting for this budget tonight and approving it is what is best for our students. So, I hope you will honor that. I hope you will continue that. Um, and a few other things. You know, I know some people, Mr. Prada, made some some good points um about some things from our past, but we've had an
assistant superintendent in this school district for as long as I've been here. Going back to Tim Giri, going back to Tracy Marinelli, going back to Shauna Demarco, Nick Cafarro, Joe Dorso. We've had assistant superintendents for 25 years that I've been working here.
Assistant business administrator, that's just a new name for what was our office manager at the board of education. So, these are positions we've had in our district for as long as I've been working here and I've been a teacher here. Uh, so and student here. So, I hope you will honor this budget and I
appreciate your time and thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Rizzo. And thank you for taking the time that evening. We we we were here um you know, the 28th till um I don't know what time, but thank you for your support and thank you for
coming to our committee meetings. Much appreciated. Okay. So, we're going to open up to the board for board discussion. I I would just like to say while I have a minute, um I really appreciate uh the great turnout and uh
the the the thoughts today. I couldn't get a word in with Joe today, but I thought he did a great job. I I will say that uh for for any of you thought that thinking that at any point this is easy uh one way or the other right so to the points of the educators about uh the
importance of being with the kids my my uh my soon-to-be 89year-old father who I called uh this week a few times points there he actually spelled out K I Ds to me as as a grown man when your father's spelling out a word he's really trying
to tell you something on a lot of different levels But I will say that Mr. Dorso and James Heyman and their team uh Dr. Morurell worked very hard at making sure that the due diligence due diligence was done at
looking at all the numbers. As imperfect as some of you might think some of this is or how we could do better in other areas to some people's points, there's no question we could all do better. To Miss Corin, I want to just tell you, you're right. One of the things from my
particular position the short time I've been president is we should have had more dialogue. I didn't know I I knew but I didn't know you know there's certain things. So that's really something that we have to I'll take accountability for and we need to do better. Okay. So I I wanted to tell you
that and I really appreciate your comments. I also want to thank the teachers teacher appreciation week. I know uh Mr. Riz already said it but it was the one thing I wanted to share and tell you how much you're appreciated. Thank you. Mr. Petranzio.
Oh, pursuant to the recommendation of the superintendent of schools, the committee on finance recommends the following resolutions be mo move forward for a roll call vote. I make a motion to move forward finance resolutions 1 through three to be adopted.
Second, Mr. Pamo. Roll call. Mr. Andronopoulos for 100%. Mr. Petranzio, I have to do what's right in my heart here. As a board of uh education member,
I've been charged with providing a thorough and efficient education for every school child in Lynhurst District. The state has deemed that that's not happening, but has provided us a truncated timeline to get this done. It's been extremely stressful on
the board of education, the administration, especially Mr. Dorso. Thanks to Mr. Gio Russo, we've come to a consensus of 16 6.2 million, and I'm happy to do the right thing for the school children of Lynhurst. I vote
yes, Miss Pasamano. Four. Mr. Valvano, I would just like to say that um I vote yes, but I've talked with um Mr. Dorso and I'm going to make sure
that every dollar spent goes towards the kids, especially towards increasing our ranking online and our test scores because I want to make sure that this money is well spent and it goes 100% towards our students.
Very good. Thank you, Dr. Scardino. It's hard to follow up all these great words. I am four. Mr. Garuso, four. Mr. Pasamano. Yes.
How could I not vote? I know they didn't have a clue where I was going with this because I kept them. How can I say no and I'm the person out here
who [Applause] behind my best friend and not you gentleman in the back turned around He said, "You got to be doing this 100% because you're the only one who's going
to watch this." And I will watch it. Like Michael said, the money is going to be spent properly. It better be spent properly or fight. Yes. This is I understand, Dan. I
know you're upset, but I'm in all the schools. I coach. I go to all the schools. We have teams that come to don't want to go in our locker room because it's disgusting. Don't want to go in the bathroom because they're disgusting. And it's not because the custodians didn't do their jobs because
it's old. There's no question about it. We don't do this. We don't have security in the schools no more. I went to a basketball game when there was no security. You know, parents who walked in with me were afraid to stay in the gym because they didn't know who was walking in the gym. Everybody. That
school was wide open. And this was an upper Burton County school. No security at all. We need security. We need security in our schools. Our children need to be safe. Is probably going nuts right now
because we argue all the time over. That's the way I am. I'm not going to tell you where my children need an upgrade. The teachers need an upgrade. teach the children moving forward.
[Applause] Miss Stella, I've been after Mr. the Corso telling him for the last four or five years our budget was 2.5 million short and I told him time and time again you have to do
something about it. You gave a great presentation. I really wanted to say let's do three million because that would make us whole because it would be where we didn't have to cut and everything. But then listening to what
he said and it's killing me because I I feel bad for the taxpayers. I really really do. But the difference in that bit of money because since you're going to go up 13 points would be an extra two
points. I would have to agree I vote yes. And Mr. Abate Yeah. So, you know, I'm in a tough situation here, but you know, I'm getting bashed all over the social media and everything, but you know, I took when I took this oath to be on this
board. It's been five years now to do the right thing on this board. You know, many we're moving. Let me remind everybody this is not a pain department, okay? This is a volunteer. We we take our hours with hours, days and nights, phone calls, meetings, and everything.
It cost me money, time from work, vacations, use all my patience. And let me tell you, it'll come. I have to do doing the right thing by the kids. It's probably going to kill me. My my team's probably going to hate me for this. Uh, everybody uh I'm being, like I said, I'm being bashed, but I took all
the to help this this school system do the best I can, and I vote yes. [Applause] Motion carries.
Well, I just can't thank this board of education enough. I can't thank our administrators. can't thank everyone that came out to support this. I've been in this district 15 years and I have to tell you, I've never been more invigorated in my entire career here. This money will be spent right. This money will be managed. This money will
impact our kids. This money will impact this district for decades to come. I commend the board tonight. Sincerely, and Mr. Dorso, Mr. the Corso whether I'm on the board or off the board. I'm going to make sure that that 4 million in between
is spent for the kids, not for all this. What I see is um construction. You got it. I'm on it. You have my word. Thank you so much. Have a great evening, everyone. Thank you. A couple things at this time. Is there any new business for the board?
All right. Uh the public be heard on non-aggenda items? I didn't have anybody. Uh, and I need a board member to make a motion to adjurnn. Motion to adjurnn. Second. Second. All in favor? Against? Abstensions? Motion carries.