We got the time wrong and we didn't send out our material uh quick enough. So, we're going to work on that. Like to get a motion to approve our minutes from August 26. Second. Four,
four, four, four, thank you. Uh, we have our student representative report from Nicholas Brown. Nick, it's nice to have you. We know you race from a meet, I believe. Yeah. All right.
Um hello, good afternoon. Is this on? Yeah. The school year is off to a very pleasant start. Freshman and new student orientation on August 28th was very successful. Many existing student volunteer students volunteered to speak and direct, offering clear insights into
the LHS experience. The student government association held its first meeting of the year on September 10th. They meet on the first Wednesday of each month. Homecoming last spirit week and the pep rally on Friday, September 26th, along with plans for next year's events
were discussed. A theme was agreed upon for the homecoming dance, MMA Mia. The homecoming dance was last Wednesday, September 24th. Fun was had by all. The 100th annivers anniversary of Lynhurst High School's opening September 11th,
1926, as well as the 25th year since the 911 attacks will be commemorated next year on September 11th, 2026. A commemorative centennial logo is already being created. The student government is planning events and the ceremonies for 911 are being planned. The bathrooms at
the high school were just renovated this past summer and look much better. They are clean, bright, and in order. and the new automated toilets are an an excellent addition to the high school. Fall sports are going well. This season is the 100th season of Liners High
School football. The game on September 19th in which the football team achieved a stark victory was dedicated to celebrating that milestone and to recognizing first responders. Many alumni from the football program attended. There was also a large turnout of fans and community members. The
homecoming football game was last Friday, September 26th, and was also the senior night for the LHS band, Corral, and Color Guard seniors. Each senior received a rose from their respective directors. I'm now going to talk about a few college and career building programs and
activities we have at the high school. There are a select couple of programs that remain active from the past years. The Bergen Tech program, a program where students study various trades in a wide variety of subjects from animal care to cosmetology held in the B held in the
afternoon at Bergen Bergen Tech campus, excuse me. Ho and Hohus program, an afternoon program where students study trades like plumbing, welding, carpentry, and electrical are untrained from last year. There are also many new and updated college and careerbuilding
activities, opportunities, tools, and programs the high school is utilizing. The LCAP or Lynhurst College Acceleration Program has been continued and expanded from last year. Select seniors can now attend up to six college
level classes at Felician University. 18 college credits can be received from this. This year, students can take any class on either the Rutherford or LOI campus and can study side by side with college students. This allows students to have more freedom regarding their class choices and offers a great
firstirhand college experience. The new apprentice diesel automotive program sponsored by AM Crest, the Corporation for Reemployment and Safety Training, District 15 Association of Machinists, various auto dealerships and
diesel repair facilities, as well as the state of NJ is a new free apprenticeship program for high school graduates that places them in jobs to train as skilled automotive or diesel technicians and attend classes at the State County college. Eight students attended a field
trip last year and three LHS graduates were accepted into the program this year. The industrial arts class is a new course that was introduced to the high school this year. It utilizes the new industrial arts classroom in the high school which is equipped with various
tools. It's designed to equip students with the technical skills and knowledge necessary for a career in the residential construction industry. It emphasizes safety and proficiency in using hand and power tools, interpreting blueprints, and engaging in constructing
in construction projects such as building houses and sheds. Students will learn to safely and effectively use a variety of tools essential for residential construction. The Naviance tool is a new online tool purchased by the district that assists
students with career exploration and college research/planning. It is already being used to enroll in college courses, but it has been expanded and the district will now be able to track students applications and acceptances to gain data on students
post college plans. This will help student services better serve collegebound students. The LHS guidance department is planning multiple field trips this year to colleges that are most attended by LHS students. Select juniors and seniors will visit the
campuses of schools like Ramapo, NJIT, Satan Hall, Monontlair State University, Bergen County College, Universal, Universal Technical Institute, Eastwick, and William Patterson University. The trips are planned to take place once a month and will explore both colleges and
trade schools. That concludes my report. Thank you. Thank you so much. I I think we found my replacement. So, um I'm happy to give it up to you, Nick. My pleasure. Uh Mr. Demikov, state
monitor. I have reviewed the financial reports for the month ending August 2025 and support tonight's resolution that certifies that there are sufficient funds available based on the August financials to meet the district's financial obligations for the remainder
of the 2025 2026 school year. We are in the final stages of closing out the financials for the 2425 school year with our auditor and all indications continue to be that the district will close the 2425 school year in a positive financial
position. I have also reviewed and discussed the resolutions on tonight's agenda with Mr. with Mr. Dorso and support his recommendations to the board that they approve all the resolutions on tonight's agenda. That concludes my report for this evening.
Thank you so much. Um, as far as my report, um, I just wanted to tag on to an earlier conversation. Uh, and, uh, the fact that Nicholas brought up uh, the Felician program, uh, for those of know as for full transparency, I I do work there, although I am not part of
this uh, program. Uh, and I'm I've only sort of brought the parties together, but I just want to share with you what I see when I'm there. Um, and one of the end goals of this wasn't just to get credit for students, and you know, that's always the hope and it streamlines process, but it's really to
be immersed in the college experience on a campus setting. And I love walking around and seeing the Lynhurst students. Uh, I could tell because they're so much younger than ours, although there's they're close. Uh, and certainly I know a lot of them growing up in town because either I coached them or I've been
around them at some point at or I know their parents and so on so forth. So, just want to remind you that one of the uh sort of residual impact of that program is not just credit bearing, but it's also meant to be an experience. And I think they've got that. They've gotten
access to to the gym and other facilities. They're invited to all our programs. And I think the the the the ride they get if if they need a ride, they have transportation as well. So, I think that's so I just wanted to share that when I see it, it's really exciting to see. Uh and again, I get to get a front row seat. Now, I don't get to
teach them, uh, but I do enjoy seeing them around campus. Um, I'm going to turn it over now to, uh, Mrs. Dorso and the superintendent's report. Thank you, Dr. Scardino. Um, I too want to just piggyback on a couple of things. Uh, Mr. Demikov said as well as you, Dr.
Scardino. Um, we are completing our, uh, audit for last school year. Our fiscal year runs a little bit differently um, than a typical fiscal year. Our budget rolls over and starts July 1. So we go from July to the end of June. So right
now our auditors are looking at our bills and our financials from last school year which just ended in June. And then our new budget rolls over July 1. I am going to uh in a moment go over um a little PowerPoint that I created to highlight the projects we did with this
year's funds um and everything that happened this summer after that July 1 rollover. But when our auditors are looking at our financial position, they're looking back one school year. And so, like Mr. Demikov said, um they have found that we are in a in a in a positive financial situation, which
means that we um we have a positive cash flow ending last school year. And they're estimating that to between three and $400,000 of positive cash flow. And so what that means is um the board and I, Mr. Demikov, Mr. Heyman have done our due
diligence and budgeted appropriately that we have surplus funds. And I get asked this question a lot. Well, why do you have surplus? Why why so much? And at the end of the day, um right, it's impossible to budget perfectly. And what
I mean by that is I'll give you an example. Um one of the accounts that we have to manage and budget is is PSEG, right? So we have all the buildings in our district. It's impossible to budget a PACG bill to the dollar because electric and gas usage fluctuates
monthtomonth, year to year. One winter can be colder than another. One spring could be um warmer or colder which will impact the air condition, right? So we do our best to budget in our PSEG lines trying to overbudget and have enough
money to cover any bills. So what the auditor does, they come in and they look at all of our budgetary lines for the entire prior school year and they look at every single account and ultimately will say, "Okay, you did budget under in
this PSCG line or that line." They look at all of those funds and they come up with a dollar amount. And so we budgeted properly based on our zero budget based practices and are in the black about $300 to $400,000. And so that money will be distributed into our capital reserve
accounts. We hope to have our capital um we have a 1 and a.5% um state required uh account that we have that maxed out at 1 and a.5%. In addition to that, after this audit, we are going we project to have about a million dollars in our capital reserve account, which is
healthy, but not where we want to be. Um it is the goal of myself and this board over the next couple years. Most healthy districts in our size um have about $3 to5 million in capital reserve and we're slowly moving into that range and I'm confident with what we're doing and what
we're budgeting that we'll get there in the next couple of years. Um because you never know what's going to happen. We want to make sure that we have enough funds um should there be ever be an emergency. So uh so yeah. Oh that's a great point. Doc Dr. Scardino is pointing to healthcare, right?
Healthcare is a huge part of our budget and unfortunately we've gotten numbers from our uh state health care plan where they're projecting I'm not sure if you've seen the articles um in the paper recently they're projecting healthcare increases to be upwards of 30%.
Which is quite frankly absurd. Right? The whole point of the state plan was to keep health care costs uh down. I'll be honest with you, we did not budget a 30% health care increase. Um and so you know when we look at last
year we were in a positive 300,000 right when we budgeted a 15 to 20% healthcare increase and are now going to hit with a 30% increase. That money has to come from somewhere. So um luckily we did have that tax levy money and we had some planned projects that we're not going to
do this school year. We just can't take the risk of doing a project because we have to wait to get our healthc care bill. And again, unfortunately, you would think our budget, like I just said, runs July 1st to June. The health care runs in a normal fiscal year. So that healthc care increase comes January
1. We have no way to project that. We estimate it. So based on that 30% increase, we're looking at a three or $400,000 increase that we didn't budget above what we projected. So, we're going to scale back some of the projects that
we looked at um to cover the health care cost. Um we have um shopped our health care with other plans and unfortunately we're not in a position right now to change carriers. Um I've learned a lot about health insurance over the past
couple of years and um basically we're in the state health insurance plan which again was a was encouraged a couple years ago by changing to the state plan. We saved the district about a million dollars and now unfortunately the state plan is not running as well as they
would like and um there's two major health insurance funds in the state that compete with the state plan. Both of those plans have declined to even quote our policy at this point because our because of the usage that we have. So um
again um that aside, we're happy about our audit report. we'll take, you know, one day at a time um and and and move forward. But we are happy to report that we are going to have more money put in capital reserve. And like I said, we can also have other reserve accounts that
could help offset some of those accounts that we plan to fund as well um in the future. Um that brings me to my next topic. Mr. Demikov gave his report tonight. I do on an annual basis get a contract from the Department of Education appointing Mr. Demikov as our
state monitor. Uh he's been our state monitor for the past several years. Um and with his help and guidance, we have had a very clean audit reports the last couple years and we are budgeting properly. He's a check and balance for Mr. Heyman and I. We run all financial
decisions by him. Um he's been extremely helpful. He was a BA for many years. Um so um I welcome his um him in the district and I thank you for your support. Um so I again I get that directly from the department of ed. Um one of the board members asked tonight
how long does that continue and the state monitor will be appointed here until our state loan is paid off which is 3 years away and then depending on how the board is running the state makes a determination of whether um the monitor can leave or he will remain for
future years. So um all good news there but thank you Mr. Demikov for your support and he will continue to be with us. So I'm happy about that. So thank you. Aside from that thing I want to thank the board and uh
certainly the administration superintendent business administrator for forming a very productive working relationship. It's been a pleasure for me and uh I think the results speak for themselves but without all of you this
couldn't have been accomplished. So, thank you very much for your cooperation and for doing the right thing for the children of uh Liners. Thank you very much. I think you said in the work session how many uh years we have left to pay off the loan. So,
yeah. So, we have we have three more years. So, we have three budgetary years. This plus so this school year plus three additional years of our of our state loan uh payment. And then again the state makes a once that loan is paid off the state can decide um to
keep um a monitor here or to remove the monitor and that really is contingent upon how the board operates. It's more more about the governance of the board more so than the financial status of the district. If the state sees that the board is not making sound
recommendations um or you know then they they they could step in and and make that decision. So, um, all things are going well. So, I think if we just continue doing what we're doing, um, we'll be in a great place. And again,
Mr. Democration member that were following the rules and not going back to way it was six years ago. And if it does get paid off and you do feel that they could be on their own, then of course, but make sure that that
is what you think because I'd hate to see it happen all over again as time goes by as districts right now are having issues with their BAS and being short millions of dollars, which will cause another catastrophe in this town.
But I appreciate your presence here. Uh I was just going to say that I also asked Mr. Demikoff if he could give us a report when we get closer to paying off the loan to see if there's anything that we're doing incorrectly or anything like how we are doing with the state. So to make sure that maybe you know when he we
would know if he would leave or not. If you were doing anything wrong, you'd know it long before that. I'd let you know. Thank you so much. That's good news then. No news is good news in this case. Thank you. I'm also happy to report um the board the last couple years have tasked you
know myself and the high school administration to really evaluate um our graduation rate. um you know in in in 2022 I look back at some of our numbers um our grad rate was in um you know the high 80s about 88% and you know we
really felt that we can do better and I'm happy to report I'm required to report each year our graduation rate and I'm happy to report that we're up to 95.7% graduation rate. Um so congratulations to our high school students and our high
school administration. Um I also am required to report if you look on page nine on the agenda under ed curriculum I am required to report our hip grade.
So if you look at number four there is a chart there we are required to self-report to the state. Each year we're required to give a list of every single HIV program that is run in the district. our teacher lessons, our
building level presentations that we do, we report those to the state. We give oursel a self assessment that we're we are required to report out each year. So that's the information there on page nine. And um at this time, I'd like to
transition everyone down um off the stage because I did promise um this summer that I would highlight um the projects and the upgrades we did, and I'd like to show the community those. I will be sending a separate email out um to highlight even more what we have
planned for the future and how we're going to be spending that money. So, if we could make a transition now, I will go over that. Thank you. That's I think Okay. There was no one. So, there's no one uh signed up for
public to be heard on agenda items. So, we're going to move to board discussion. Mr. Petranzio, you want uh Mr. Corso to do the presentation again? Is that what you just said? Okay, please. Mr. Petronio of Finance. Pursuant to the recommendation of the
Superintendent of Schools, the Committee on Finance recommends the following resolutions be moved forward for a roll call vote. I make a motion to move forward finance resolutions 1 through 22 to be adopted. Second roll call.
Mr. Garuso. Yay. Four. Four. Miss Pasamano. Mr. Pamo. Mr. Petranzio. Four. Dr. Scardino. Four. Miss Stella. Four. And Mr. Valvano. Four.
Motion carries. Education and curriculum. Miss Miss Ms. Pasamo. to the representation of the superintendent of schools. The committee on education and curriculum recommends the following resolutions be moved forward for a roll call vote. I make a
motion to move forward education and curriculum resolutions 1 through eight to be adopted. Second. I'll give Miss Stella the second. Uh roll call. Mr. Garuso, four. Miss Pasamano, four. Mr. Pamo, Mr. Petranzia,
four. Dr. Scardino, four. Miss Stella four and Miss uh Mr. Vavana four. Motion carries. Thank you. Policy and rules and regulations. Miss Stella. Pursuant to the recommendation of the superintendent of schools, the committee
of policies and rules and regulation recommends of the following resolutions be moved forward for a roll call vote. I make a motion to move forward policies and rules and regulations. Motions one through three to be adopted. Second.
Second, Mrs. Albano roll call Mr. Garuso four. Miss Pasamano four. Mr. Pamo, Mr. Petranzio four. Dr. Scardino four. Miss Stella four. And Mr. Van four.
Motion carries. Personnel Mike. You want to do personel? Sure. Pursuant to the recommendations of the superintendent of schools, the committee on personnel recommends the following resolutions be move forward to a roll call vote. I make a motion to move forward personal resolutions A1 through
M6. Mr. Pano second. Roll call. Mr. Garuso, four. Miss Pasamano, four. Mr. Pasamano, Mr. Petronia, four. Dr. Scardino, four. Miss Stella, four. And Mr. Valvano, four.
Motion carries. [Music] At this time, we're going to open up to new business to the board. No. Okay, great. Did we do athletics? And uh there was no there was no
Oh, there is. Yeah. Oh, it's inside. It was an addendum. That's not enough. Okay. Different agenda. All right.
[Music] Not at all. Not at all. There's none. Okay. We We had a robust conversation. And I would encourage uh just in before we close out just encourage everybody to continue to open up the dialogue, invite people to come.
Um certainly whatever we could do to enhance that whether it's getting the agenda out maybe earlier or you know posting different ways um we're we're glad to have people here. We're glad to engage with you. So uh you're motion to
adjurnn. Can I have a motion? Second. All in favor? extensions. Motion carries. Meeting adjourned. Thank you everyone. Have a good night.