Mrs Carrero here Mrs Gandhi here Mr hayatt here Mr lonsky here Mrs Mendes here Dr MTZ here Mrs seart here and Mr Cohen
here good evening everyone and welcome um I'm just going to draw your attention to our agenda and a few things in the beginning um meeting is under the follows the sunshine laws here in the state um so it's open it's subject to the open public meetings act and there was an adequate notice that was actually
filed by Mr caravell for today's meeting uh we do also videotape our meetings there is a videotaping portion of the public of the Board of Education meeting and that is um just to make every everyone aware that we do videotape therefore there should be no expectation of privacy in any statements that are
made or in address in the board and uh again because this is school property and we have a policy against it please no smop or vaping on school grounds could everyone please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance Pledge Al to the flag United
States to the thank you we are scheduled to go into executive session at the beginning of our meeting today can I have a motion to go into exec Miss Gandhi second Miss Mendes thank you uh we will be in exec for
about 60 Minutes uh we will then return and complete the rest of our um public agenda today all right thank you motion motion we had a motion we did all in favor to go and exec anyone
opposed okay no not yet Mr caravell has very e e e e e
e e e e e e e e e e
e e e okay I'm going to call our meeting back to order Mr caravello can you do a roll call please sure Mrs bomo here Mrs Carrero here Mrs Gandhi here Mr
hayatt here Mr lonsky here Mrs Mendes here Dr misit here Mrs seart is Mrs seart is here and Mr Cohen here thank you Mr caravello um okay
continuing on with our agenda thank you everyone who um waited for us to come back at of exec um I'm going to start with announcements um Mr bom I have no announcements thank you okay next item on our agenda is public comments Mr
Caravella do you have some names for us mesh Gandhi uh good evening members of the board and Community my name is mes Gandhi from Morganville I'm here tonight to address this serious concern regarding the conduct of the sitting board member at the last meeting it is completely inappropriate and
unacceptable for a board member to publicly single out and reference a private citizen especially a taxpayer like myself during an official meeting this should never happen to anyone yet it continuously does during the last meeting Annette seart used her position on the board to single me out during
public discussions I'm not alone and this is not the first time she had done this furthermore and most importantly after the meeting Mrs Stewart verbally confronted and attacked Mrs seart verbally confronted and attacked my wife who is also a dedicated board member in
both the school hallway and in the parking lot Mrs seart you told my wife to do better because there are new board members looking up to her is this your definition of doing better this behavior is not only unprofessional but deeply concerning I'm here tonight for three reasons to call out the inappropriate
use of Mrs Seward's position to publicly Target a private citizen to demand accountability for the verbal attack against my wife and to make it clear that I'm truly fearful for my wife's safety my wife's dedication and countless hours to this board sacrificing time away from her family
and friends because she cares deeply about her about our town and our children's education but no one signs up for this level of hostility no one should have to fear of being confronted in a parking lot simply for serving their Community I hope this board takes this matter seriously and ensures that this kind of behavior has no place in
our school district thank you thank you Mr Gandhi um Miss huart if you want to respond now or do you want to respond after we close all the comments no I don't mind responding now I just I just want to remind everyone that there's three sides to every
story um and a big part of that story that's missing is the um the way I am provoked and I know that we just wonderfully spoken executive about representing this town for the greatness that it is but um it's been an
underlying narrative since my campaign season both on social media and an executive session and in the whole way after board meetings that I don't deserve a seat on the board because I don't have a college education and I
didn't finish college so I'm just wondering if that piece of the discussion was discussed in the gansi household because as a a a diverse member of the board who went the trade route I think that my opinion matters just as everybody else's regard
regardless of my college degree and so my behavior Mr gansi was because your wife constantly puts me down for not having a college education and I'm being provoked and I'm being antagonized and as she walked past me in the hallway she
told me that I would have known what the word pruner meant used by our great board attorney if I had finished college so for some reason that keeps getting brought up it was said first in executive session I chose to ignore it and then it was said again when she
walked past me so I can't imagine talking down to someone in school who might not be in the gifted and talented program so I was reacting to her actions I'm not proud of them but it's the same
as calling me fat if you're going to tell someone that they don't deserve to be someplace because they didn't finish college you might as well call me fat because I deserve to be here just as much as everybody else does regardless of the letters that come after my name and I refuse
to be shamed for that because I chose to go a different route I'm a mother in this District ironically I'm a conservative mother in this District who feel she's trying to be silenced but the other half of that story is how I was provoked and bullied and harassed and
it's it's an it's an ongoing topic of discussion on social media I'll say it time and time again um things that go on inside of my home are being discussed on social media so I'm curious to know why you don't stand up for that because I would never bring
your family into this ever they're off hold on hold on hold on M Mr Gan I'm comparing the two if we can can I excuse me for a second Mr Gan if you can just let me see where finish and if you'd like to respond when she's done then you can come to the microphone thank you
I try to bring to the Public's attention the things that the the the behavior on social media doesn't line up for what we stand for in this district and if the adults on social media can't lead by example and show us what we don't
tolerate in this District then we're never it's never going to bleed into our schools so I bring up social media because you're bullying it's on it's cyber bullying saying my name uh bringing up past mistakes showing body cam footage I bring these things up
because it's if we were in school I would have filed a Hib report for bullying and antagonizing me for not finishing College which I'm I'm going to leave that just where it is I'm proud of who I am I'm proud of my journey I'm proud of the
fact that regardless of the type of student that I was it led me to having a a true honest living working for myself being present for my children and I want to speak to all the kids at home who might not think that college is the route for them don't let anybody put you
down just because you don't think that that's the choice for you if you find a trade if you find an honest living if you find something to do that provides for your family you deserve to be a board of education member just as much as anybody else does I'm sorry Mr gansi if I caused any distress in your home
but if only you knew the same that went on in the seaword household because of your wife so please share both sides of the story tell the district that I'm being bullied by Miss gansi for not having a college education because that's exactly what went on here last
week I'm gonna speak now because these are all false accusations I'm going to actually have Mrs I mean Dr MTZ and Mr hayatt who were there we also have video footage from the school that has been Oprah that clearly show there was no
interaction between me and Mrs seaart as I was exiting the board meeting I was attacked unprovoked there was no conversation in executive when when everybody was campaigning including Mrs seart I unfortunately wasn't even paying
attention to what was going on with the board or any any of that stuff so I was I I'm not sure where she's bringing up the um the campaigning piece I have no idea who she's referencing but there is nothing there's no validity to what she's saying I have never talked about
her college education ever not in any meetings not on social media these are all baseless false accusations that are going to have some repercussions because you can't go around defaming my name when there is no hard evidence and I
know for a fact I have never done that from a woman to a woman I would never do that I have been attached you told me because I did not provide a summary of the of the um conference for
njsba that I stole from the district you have made made false accusations in executive over and over again not just against me but against scope against um this is executive that she's sharing absolutely not this is a this is a
personal conversation that you and I had before executive begun I'm I'm going I'm going to actually ask that we move on this is if there are issues you have avenues that you both Mr Cohen I with respectfully I wasn't I was being quiet
but then she continued to falsely accuse me saying I have been bullying her there is no evidence not one thing and again I would really like Dr MTZ to please go on record and say when we left the meeting and I need you to please say it and say same with you Mr hayed please clear this
up was there any conversation did I say anything to Mrs seart as we were walking out of executive not you did not then why did Mr hayatt tell me he agreed what Miss gansi said was inappropriate that's not what I said you called me that meeting I said if she said something
that you felt was inappropriate maybe you should walk by instead of chasing her out in the parking lot and scre you said you should just let it go ladies and gentlemen board members that's the other thing it is also inappropriate for someone to call a board member at 12:00 at night to complain about another board member Mrs seaward continuously does
inappropriate things all the time she talks about people falsely she accuses them no I'm I'm I'm actually not okay with I know I I have to she seart had a good 5 minute monologue I'm going to finish what I have to say I don't appreciate that she sat here bullace
lied and this is not even about me right now she called out a taxpayer because of what consistantly she brings up social media she brings up her does she not forget yes you are you absolutely are entitled to be on the board however show
it because all you talk about is social media instead of talking about education how does any of none of it is for the betterment of Education nothing that you've done has advanced this District as far as the betterment of Education I've only been on the board for a year you've been here for three years you have nothing to show
for it thank you thank you we're going to bring this to close I apologize for having to hit the gavel but again this is a board meeting if you have you have other avenues to take and we need to sort of move on with our business so please I apologize
um Mr caravell anyone else else I have no one else on my list would anybody else like to speak seeing none motion to close public comments I get I I have never been asked that question thank you me to answer yeah you certainly have a right to step
down i' remind everybody that this is yes but this is this is supposed to be the public comment portion of the agenda of the agenda we have another public comment session we only have one this evening no we have two oh you don't have it just for agenda
items you have two open public sessions for everything yeah we got they changed that and it's for anything okay certainly you have the right to step down from the if you want to make public comments I don't have a second on the motion yet or a vote on to close public comment so it's up to
you can we your mic soon I really think we have to just pause this entire conversation right now we came here to discuss budget for the district and which impacts our children
please you know let's talk about this personally another I know both you know there's no no you did you did not but but I think we have to get back to education and get back to let Mr
Tavella um talk about the budget so we can get this we need to pass a budget we have some important issues we have some important issues to talk about on budget so I appreciate that so I had a motion agree I had a I had a motion to close
public session comments do I have a second Dr MTZ Mr hayatt all in favor any opposed thank you public comments is closed moving on on the agenda we have um the harassment and intimidation and bullying
report Mr balone thank you the Hib report from the time period February 21st 2025 through March 6 2025 there were five incidents reported thank you any questions from Mr balone all right Mr caravell we are up
to discussion number five of the 2025 budget we are all yours okay good evening everybody this is uh discussion number five on the 2526 maror School District budget so since we last met on February 25th we
had our state aid Notice come out on February 27th um it was what we kind of expected we uh talked about the parameters that the state had put in place that you can get no more than 6% and lose no more than 3% uh we were the lucky winner to lose all
3% so exactly what we discussed about losing in our state aid we actually did so the amount of the 241,000 $4 is what we lost um so right there presented itself a a a hole that
we had to fill um because we anticipated a a flat state aid uh number the good news is on the chapter 44 decrease that we've been seeing over the last couple of um budget years we actually had a zero dollar impact so that was something that
we did not need to worry about addressing or navigating um so that was good news because that would have just uh basically expanded the hole even larger that we would have had to um recoup some of those funds to balance a budget now some of the things that went
into the state aid notice so um I attended a call with NJ asbo just to basically go over the new state aid formula that they presented to us and and you're going to see here that there's four different types of categorical Aid there's Transportation Aid security Aid special education Aid
Equalization Aid our they actually went by more of a weighted criteria but they actually went almost by our exact numbers for special education which is why you see the increase in special ed Aid um that also Compares with Transportation Aid as well
um because there's a a bigger weighted factor for students with IPS or students that get bust and have more intensive needs security Aid was was another factor which they increased um and that's basically on the PE per pupil enrollment now the equalization Aid is really the eye popper that's the one
where it just as zero um and the way they they really looked at that is now our enrollment I think was a change of maybe two or three kids from our October count from year overy year but what they took into effect was a couple of Criterion and if
I'm I may not be understanding this 100% because again it's still a little wonky and very hard to navigate um but if you're considered over adequacy the state feels like that you have adequate enough budget to provide a a sustainable and efficient education so
they feel that they don't need to provide you any more additional state aid the other part was they look at your assessed value and your ratables and they look at your assess tax valuation and where you live and you remember what that came into what we talked about last time is we're an eye District so we're pretty affluent they feel that we are I
think it goes all the way to Jay so um they feel that we can go to the local fair share based on on our ratables and our assess value for basically taxpayer money so in their calculation what they deem as a as a fair local fair that we should be having is 117
million so that was another factor of why they gave us zero Equalization Aid now 117 million I our tax levy is not even anywhere near that um it's way below that but in their eyes they feel that we can go to the local fair share route and get our funding that way
rather than relying on the state for state aid funding so you'll see our source of revenues are 87% of it comes from the local tax levy and then another 7% comes from state aid so that's about 95% of your
total revenue um to build your budget the other areas are your maintenance Reserve piece and those are the projects we went over the last presentation where they're strictly coming out of the maintenance Reserve account in the amount of 600,000 you have your extraordinary Aid which again we we budget and then we put in the
applications in the spring in hopes that we receive re all of that amount our interest earnings our add of District tuition which includes our preschool um our pop students our Lottery students and also um students we're anticipating bringing
into our our programs in District you have your rental and your miscellaneous income um again that's really facility use and other miscellaneous income we receive throughout the year your Student Activity fees um and then the two other numbers is your excess Surplus which our auditor actually discussed that was what
was left over that we build for the base of the budget now if you're thinking about this if we did not have that the cuts would have been greater so we try to just have a consistent Surplus to allow us to build a a base so we don't have to always dive into making so many
drastic cuts and then your budgeted fund balance so this was um when Mr balone and I decided to meet about the budget and see what our shortfall was originally our short shortfall was about I believe about 1.3 1.2 million but we do build a fund balance year-over-year
which is reported to the state and in that fund balance it's almost like a I don't want to call it a slush fund but it's almost like a a fund in which you can pull from to balance your budget so we're actually pulling 600,000 from that which is which is a decent number but it's not a drastic number because you
don't ever want to rely on that fully to fill all the holes in your budget because it's like a syncing ship you can only F so many holes and eventually another one's going to pop up so you never want to always just kick the can down Road and just use it just to fill it without really taking a look at the
budget and trying to make changes that are going to be better longterm and more fiscally responsible so we don't have to you know say next year cut double that or triple that we just try to maintain the decrease that we need to make until maybe state aid changes for the better for this district and they figure out
more Equitable formula for everybody based off of not just where you live but how many students you have in the the price of Education that's a topic for a different day um so in this so going back to this so you see your Revenue total that's what we needed to make our expenditure total
so they have to balance we have to produce a balanced budget to the state so in doing so there are some difficult decisions we need we do need to make um some of these difficult decisions do rely on a lot of creativity
and um a lot of the things that that Michael and Morgan and myself and everybody involved that we look at um we want to make sure it does not adversely affect class sizes that's one thing that we do not want to do is make class sizes increase or grow in this District we do
not want to eliminate any programs so that's another factor that we look into when we're we're making you know difficult decisions to make budgetary cuts and the last thing is we don't want to affect livelihoods we don't want to affect jobs so we try to make every attempt to achieve reductions through
attrition retirements people leaving and then we really analyze that position to see if it's it's truly needed or if there's a way we can you know integrate that with another position so there are um some staff reductions that we had to make to really get to that number because you know
unfortunately the number that we were that we were at before the um before the um the the state aid decrease was approximately 500,000
with that with that state aid decrease it compounded to about 763,000 that we needed to find to produce a balanced budget and we cannot just say Okay increase your revenues to to just keep those things because once you increase your revenues and they're not coming in
that's how you produce a budgetary deficit because you're spending more than you think you're bringing in and eventually it catches back up to you um so we had to make you know certain reductions and certain Cuts because a long term this we don't anticipate this ever you know stopping we always feel
like we're going to have to navigate reductions so before before we go in we'll go over some of the reductions um and you can jump right in Mr blone if you want yeah can I jump in for a minute you know we see this the term reduction up there and I just want to be clear
with the board and the community while the word reduction is up there we are we really strive not to lose people right so um we can reduce uh
FTE um and reallocate people who are currently in our school district so we don't like to have good turn good people away I guess is is my point so uh we make every effort to um get creative I know Mr caravell said we we get creative
in in what this looks like and looking at these I can go through the five reductions that you have on the screen here the first two um involve uh a lot of moving Parts but the there is a plan as you know we only
have kindergarten students in three of our five elementary schools um with the expanding uh preschool and special ed programs at the Early Learning Center and the need for space we will have some level of kindergarten in every one of
our elementary schools next year that's the plan so with with that there's a domino effect right so now um we have we have kindergarten students in all five elementary schools next year we currently have instructional coaches at those elementary schools who
are servicing currently servicing grades 1 through five the plan is for them to service K through five so then we have um and in order to get creative we have two kindergarten instructional coaches at the Abbott
Early Learning Center so uh while we don't love doing this and we know our individuals who are in those positions now are wildly effective and um they're doing great things with our kindergarten students across the district uh we have
to sort of consolidate what that looks like uh put the kindergarten responsibility on the elementary coaches and then um take our two our existing kindergarten coaches and they will become kindergarten or not NE
necessarily kindergarten teachers they'll they will become teachers um and we're certainly going to work with all of our staff um well while they know we can't make promises we will certainly work with them to get their um input and feedback on where they would
like to be and if we have space and room to honor their let's say Top Choice or top two choices we're going to do everything we can in order to accommodate their requests can can we pause on that one before we move on just to two things to that first of all when
you talk about reductions and I know you said FTE I've been in this situation too when it talks about the role being eliminated but not the person correct correct right that's what you're referring to correct the other piece is that the impact on the student when you talked about like
some of that change can you clarify that a little bit sure so um as I mentioned there will be kindergarten kindergarten students in all five elementary schools that doesn't necessarily mean there will be zero kindergarten students at the Abbott Early Learning Center we may
still have a few classrooms there and we're still kind of figuring out what that will look like depending on uh Robertsville and Asher are the two schools that currently do not have kindergarten so they will be acquiring kindergarten depending on how many classes they have open to accommodate kindergarten students uh will kind of
Drive what that looks like so those students will be serviced by our elementary coaches the students that remain at the Abbott Early Learning Center will U also be serviced but they will be serviced uh in conjunction with
our district data specialist so we have our we have District coaches call them um who were coaches in the past and they will service the remaining students at the Abott Early Learning Center while
also doing some District level work and just to be clear the data specialist is also a teacher though correct okay and then the other question is the people that you said they'll have you know they can put their first and second choice and we're going to try to accommodate
them which I appreciate what happens if you can't they still get placed somewhere but they may not get the first or second choice is that correct that's correct well they they'll still be placed and obviously with with their correct certifications and endorsements okay but they they will be they will be
placed thank you can you explain what the coaches at the K level do yeah sure so um at the K level well really any level right coaches provide expertise to uh teachers
right um they're part of our RTI model uh for our struggling Learners um so if if teachers need any um anything to sort of deepen their tool kit in terms of teaching those students they the coaches
have a capacity to do that and then in addition when we have our tier three students who are needing assistance in either English language arts or math right that's why we have two of them um those the coaches meet with those
students in small groups for intervention purposes RTI through RTI yes and now that's not going to be effective because your Elementary coaches are now going to pick that up for the kindergarteners going to robertville Nasher and then your data specialist will pick it up for
anybody remaining at abot and they do a whole host of other things as well I'm not minimizing their their roles but they pull all kinds of data right at our at our youngest levels they pull all kinds of reading and math data um work with the principal um and in that case
Mr perno is our is our kindergarten supervisor and Abbott Early Learning Center principal so they work very closely with him um and uh with the other principles on student data to ensure that uh students are on
track to leave kindergarten and and move on in their academic career and throughout the time that they're here in at mtps with us you're welcome is is it fair to say that and you brought up the tier three students
is it fair to say that a benefit can be that since the elementary coaches are going to now also support the kindergarten that this is actually a good thing because now there'll be some continuity for that student as they move from kindergarten
throughout the first second third we've actually had those discussions and uh there are uh that was actually something we discussed just the other day principles were um again not saying that the current system is broken right and
they they absolutely cherish the two kindergarten coaches they uh they currently have um but that was a sort of an you know I guess a positive if you really want a silver lining yeah it's an incremental benefit to to this structure
um so yes there there could there will be some more continuity as as the students leave K and go to one especially now that they will be uh a majority of them will be in that school thank you you're welcome so so
that's on the kindergarten level that was those those two positions um very difficult to um really swallow right and um but again we had to get creative the next one I'll say was an
easier swallow only because um and that one's the elementary World Language teacher and I say that only because um this was a retirement and we looked at elementary World Language and anytime we have a
retirement or a resignation we always have to ask ourselves can we do this differently and save the FTE and in this case we said we could um I met with the principes this week and we really hashed that out we've been
talking about it for a while U Mrs gross and I discussed it as well and we're still formulating a plan of what elementary World Language will look like but we do have a really good handle that um they'll be serviced in some way shape
or form by some of our Middle School staff and and they've also been told that as well um the real the real issue is uh with World Language you need a World Language endorsed person to to at least provide
feedback and um deliver some of the instruction doesn't have to be 100% of the time but you have to have a World Language endorsed person providing feedback to students assessing them and um having them carry forward as they go through
their Elementary career into middle school again another Pro to that is the Middle School teachers know what to expect and they know when they get those fifth graders in sixth grade they they have some gaps in terms of World Language they can help
fix that now if they're part of the actual instruction um so again a retirement we never want to see people leave but this individual certainly earned his retirement and we saw that as an opportunity to save another FTE so
that that one was a little easier than than the other two and then looking at uh marbor middle so this is not just the middle schools in general this is MMS it says it up there so at marbor middle um I have been working with Mrs Milwaukee on uh
reducing to staff members purely because of enrollment and class size right so we can afford to go down to FTE at marbor Middle School which they'll be hopefully reallocated somewhere else right that's
the intent for those two positions um just because of uh the the graduating eth grade class is quite large in comparison to our uh our current sixth and seventh grade class so their enrollment is changing
slightly um and we we do have creeping up enrollment at the lower grade levels grade one I think defino next year is is projected to have a lot of students so we're that's a hot spot we're looking at which we may right be able to take one of those teachers and you know
reallocate even even at the elementary level if it's an over Elementary we're not quite sure what that's going to look like yet but before we post for any open positions we are going to make every attempt to place all of our call it these five
people right here in a position and then you know year year over-ear it might go back to Middle because you're we're always looking at enrollment so your eighth graders coming out and your fifth graders going in it just it's a balancing act each year when it comes to where Staffing is needed
that was my question we're losing one% a little over 1% of our teachers so I'm assuming that aligns with the student population leaving and stud po coming in or are we making sacrifices that I don't see here so in terms of sacrifices to
class size programming or people's livelihood I would say no okay um you know we're we're it looks a little different but we're not sacrificing the experience at all so the criteria that you mentioned at the beginning we've met when making these decisions yes okay
okay that's what I need to know and I I do want to thank all of our administrators our principales district level administrators business office um we worked tirelessly to really um do this with with very little impact to kind of
what it feels like for the students um I I would probably say zero impact to to what it feels like to students so um you know there are times where school districts have to make cuts to programming and they you know students feel it parents feel it and this plan
does not include any of that it's creative I'll give you that thank you Mr B you said something before about these five people I think you meant four people because the world language is teacher retired yeah five positions so five positions four people four people
affected yes just want to make sure I miss that okay thank you Mr bone so that's just basically showing you exactly how we got to our number to balance the budget so again Not only was it what Mr balone just discussed but we just we reduced other areas as well so
we had to get to that number um it was a total of 763,000 million you'll see the reductions in what we just discussed and then there's other reductions as well so we were able to reduce add a district tuition because we are bringing back another student in District
District we reduced an instructional assistant that was basically due to fading out so eighth graders that usually graduate that that have an IA with them we're able to place um or not need or be able to phase out instructional assistance where needed in the district reduced 154 passenger
replacement bus we talked to transportation we we felt that needing five was not needed right now because I believe there's about a ton of buses that will be ready to be recycled about 20 36 but right now we are okay so we can we can actually anticipate to do
that at the end of the year with any surplus we have or just pause it and and and do it next year um and still be okay with our cycle when we have to replace and catch up by and then the last piece was just reduce some b& equipment that may not be needed this year and that would be whether it be vehicles or you
know snow removal plow trucks or or anything of that nature that could be held off for another year and we can make it we we we took that out as well just to get to our number and and again that's similar to what was done with the Staffing we met with all the Departments and basically told them um so thank you to special ed
Transportation building grounds curriculum we we met with every Department over again and really just tried to see exactly where we can get to our number so it really was a joint effort with that so this is your overall expenditure total so as you could see I always like
to emphasize um again not much wiggle room so if you ever have to make a a true reduction or a true cut 81% of your of this year's budget is lumped into salaries and benefits and it's usually double-edged sword if you if you need to make you know drastic reductions if you
reduce salaries benefits also get reduced um and that's really how you have to make an impact unfortunately to try to get to a number based on what our revenues are at um so those are the two biggest increases you'll see and that's really what makes up the total increased
budget and then your your biggest decrease is building in grounds but that's not due to us just completely leveling the the department It's really because we didn't budget as much in maintenance and capital reserve which is where you have to appropriate those funds so it looks like it was a huge reduction but we just didn't take any
take as many reserves out as we did this year and then the last part so this was this slide was also on the previous um presentation our recommendation has not Chang changed it is all the way to the right we actually added the percentages
so you can see um from the left it's just 2% the Middle with the bank cap from last year would be 2.24% and then everything with the health benefit waiver and the bank cap was 4.35% now this was our recommendation prior to learning about our state aid it's still
our recommendation um now more than ever because we still had to make reductions in order to even just get to a a sustainable number so without any of this um um we'd be looking at more more more Cuts more reductions so right so just be clear those five
reductions all the way to the column to the right correct yep yep those five red reductions are inclusive of also taking the column all the way to the right and then you'll see your your total tax rate and then the assess valuation based off of the average
assess valuation of your home now in 2024 the average home in Marboro Township per Division of Taxation was was $497 so that's where we get those those assessed valuations some may be more than what's shown but we try to give just an overall scale what it would
look like so um to like an $800,000 assess valuation your your total tax increase would be 265 just from the mar K through R School District that does not include any other school districts that may be in your tax bill that's 265 total for the year not
26 per 100,000 or just $265 right so if your house is assessed at $800,000 it's total $265 do you know where Freehold Regional High School District fell in terms of their Cuts in budget I do not no
um just because it impacts the community that that was last year I know they're going out for a referendum they did they did lose 3% they lost about oh yeah those cuts so they lost about I think 1.4 or 1 5 million um so they would have to make reductions they did take the
99.9% last year which may be helpful but they were already trying to recoup a lot that they have already lost over time and then another fact is even though um we proposed this our budgetary cost per pupil spending was $1,994 which also also ranked you know
out of malmouth County 24 out of 76 now 24 is you would think 24 but it still shows that we we are trying to be diligent in making sure that our per pupil CLA are comparative compared to the size of our districts to others um and just trying to sustain that level of
Education that we're so accustomed to but also at least just trying to be fiscally responsible keeping the costs down per pupil and again if you have any questions you can email me um and this will be on the website tomorrow for anybody to view
so so just to follow up so the next meeting March 18th will be your tentative budget approval so you will see that number I showed you the 102 on the uh agenda for approval and that will be to approve the budget to be submitted to the county to be reviewed and
approved Ju Just got I'm so loud just one question then on back to the tax side just to kind of tie into what Chad was saying because last year with freehill regional and then ours combined but really was freehill Regional at the
9.9 or whatever percent it did really increase the taxes here so um I know you said this that's the final that what you were saying when it comes to the tax increase you did all the numbers in that that's where we stand correct it's not going to change again
no that would be the tax rate yep and then nothing changes in the budget that would be the tax rate we we present at the public hearing as well nothing would change okay thank you any other questions from Mr caravell Mr caravell just you know I'm not sure if you're familiar with the
anchor program um but I mean that's that's another way for sort of the our our older or our economically disadvantaged families to potentially offset this increase is that that I believe that comes out in October or September
everybody's allowed to apply for their anchor benefit through the state and usually it's like $1,000 doll back as as tax relief um and then I believe there's also programs for 55 and olders that you're able to apply to through the division of taxation for almost like relief or or tax
rebates okay every little bit helps thank you you any other questions or comments for Mr Caravella all right moving on with our agenda um financial and business uh
matters Miss Carrero if you mind sure financial and business operations matters the superintendent of school submits the following resolutions for approval one harassment intimidation bullying hip report two approval of bond Council willin Goldman and Spitzer pa uh
I so move Heather second Miss Seward any discussion Mr caravell roll call Mrs
Gandhi yes Mr hayatt yes Mr lonsky yes Mrs Mendes yes Dr MTZ yes Mrs bomo yes Mrs seart yes Mrs Carrero yes and Mr
Cohen yes Personnel matters Miss Volo would you mind reading that the superintendent of school submits the following resolution for approval One Employment School monitor I so move thank you k a
second Miss Mendes any discussions Mr carella roll call please Dr MTZ yes Mrs Seward Mrs Carrero yes Mrs Gandhi yes Mr
hayatt yes Mr lonsky yes Mrs Mendes yes Mrs bomo yes and Mr Cohen yes thank you and moving on to the agenda any old business I had just one quick question
because I brought up in the last meeting and I just want to bring it up again so again not getting political though it may be deemed that way but there is school funding potentially tied to some executive orders that were put in place
and so I do want to understand I'm asking the question genuinely because we did receive an email from njsba and I know I gave that update that did talk about school funding and executive orders that it's tied to and there may not be any guidance yet and I know they're state level and then Federal but
I think I just would like to understand the potential of policies and practices in place that could maybe put us at risk I think I'd like to understand that if there's anything and I don't know if this is for you Mr gross or I don't know
how to approach that but I am curious I yeah I mean you know it's it's it's a more of a legal issue than it is oh yeah I mean obviously um asking my legal opinion on what you need to do or should do or have to do or don't have to do then obviously we're going to talk
about that in the executive session legal issue um I can't say just in general terms there are state laws and there are situations where marijuana for example is still violation of federal
law or New Jersey it's legal to purchase um what happens when those two laws conflict with each other is what keeps lawyers in business um but with regard to specifics in this District or any school district I'd rather talk about those in executive
session Mr balone do you want to add anything to that from a practices perspective or what you're seeing as a superintendent yeah so far there's a lot of speculation out there we don't really have anything definitive um it's been a topic of discussion amongst our team and what that would
look like but right now we really don't have any clear Direction on on what will actually happen thank you so I guess my question could be that I'd like to add it to our executive session agenda for the since
it's not here for the next meeting and if you can just give us some guidance or some discussion on it thank you okay any other old business new business any new
business okay um with no new business we'll move on to our second round of public comments Mr Carabella I have no one signed up would anyone like to speak in our second round of public comments Al Petrino Morgan New
Jersey um so seeing the uh the budget presentation I think my question would be recycl or you know moving around these um faculty members I'm trying to understand how the
like the meth that was being used to say that the number of staff and the number of students are like trending in the same direction if two meetings ago the number of students from September to January went from 4400 to over
4500 and the number of staff is going down uh specifically Mr Hyatt you mentioned that it was relatively going in the same direction uh the second part is just what we
watched in the first public comment section that was I I don't even have words for it uh for the gentleman that was up here um I have countless exhibits that I can show for
uh you know him taunting board members community members the like so just seems a little uh out of touch to be up here saying the things he was and
um on top of that uh I was served with an Ethics complaint last Thursday which is going to end up costing the district some money in defense costs I
believe uh for my defense so for the uh board member that filed them against me um I'm glad to see that you're taking the the budget talk so seriously when you know it's no problem to go and waste
some more taxpayer dollars on my defense for such fress matters but um that's about it thank you everyone have a good night thank you anyone else want to
speak motion to close public comments Miss Carrero second Miss Gandhi any discussions all in favor thank you uh motion to adjourn our meeting for the evening Dr MCO with
second Mr lansi all in favor anyone against have a good night our next meeting will be next week on the 18th thank you everyone I your