good evening everyone good evening thank you all for being here we're going to go ahead and get started because we'd like to um get a question and answers and we want we will be here educated about our school budget we hope that you really the purpose of tonight
and uh to be fully transparent in terms of the creation of the school budget what it means some of the vocabulary that we use day-to-day um in education that our community may not know however it does impact our community when we talk about school budget when we talk
about taxes so the goal of this evening is really to educate everyone answer questions um we do ask that we get through a few of the slides um and you can jot down some questions that are posted on there and if we need to go back to any particular slides or
clarification or questions and we can share it at that time first I'm going to have my team over here just stand up because they are part of my office and they play a big role in terms of creating um the school budget
along with Mr wctor and Miss Case and I will present student case as our assistant superintendent and Dr okay so first um we just wanted to get
started in terms of school budget it is all connected to our district goals so we are still under a we created a 5-year strategic plan our strategic goals are student success mental health wellness community engagement and communications
facilities and finance and diversity equity and inclusivity so our strategic plan actually was finalized right um right around CO so um a lot of the goals are related to that time and then we've been updating our strategic plan to ensure
that we're um adhering and addressing the needs to the now for our students right now um in terms of the budget our goals are to commit our commitment to fiscal responsibility providing a highly quality high quality education for all students continue to improve and
strengthen instructional programs professional development education offerings for our students um particularly in the areas of math and literacy and then curriculum alignment through transition years and continuously support and grow counseling services we can talk a little bit about
that as well and continue support spending um programs for special education and student services good evening so as we talk we're going to discuss what is a school budget the school budget at its core is our priorities for our students that we
just reflected in the first slide and that it should be centered around our children and their aspirations for the future while we love that we know that in practice it starts to gentrify financial considerations and budgets and so with that our school
operates on a July 2012 student calendar so those are the fiscal calendar and that at the end of the day in order for the state to approve our budget it has to have two key rules our tax revenues have to remain within the cap or within
cap allowances so some of the cap allowances that a district can have there are four cap allowances that a district can have the first one is a healthcare waiver so that's anytime that you hear multiple times for multiple years
that a lot of healthcare has been over 15% uh we have to wonder what happens with the state budget they have taken out surplus out of their own in order to help that um but with that are we have utilized that waiver along with the
second one is an enrollment waiver we have not utilized that waiver uh the third one is sent to receive relationship because we are prepared for that and last but not least there is a shift to and that was when
the state was going through like retention we do not qualify but there are some seats that are still applying to the state and so they would qualify for that and then so total revenues must balance with expenditures so what are the things that we utilize to start the
budget process we utilize planning tools we consider contingencies manage risk beerally responsible reflect our values and then we need to consider safe parts of the project [Music]
so our job is to make sure that the budget is developed to ensure thorough and efficient education so how we do that is we again go back to our strategic planning goals we look at our district and schoolwide goals for each of seven buildings
program needs how it relates to compliance regulation anything that's mandated we must ensure that we do um that we are completing that um and the mandates um we need to make sure we're adhering to extracurricular activities and
staff this was our budget timeline so while we get to do our budget hearing just one time a year that's between April and May the budget is actually developed throughout the entire school year so we felt that it was important for for the public to know that the
timeline actually starts really early on um and in the fall once we started school school was open kids are in school we actually started meeting with our principles and our directors to start to work on this school so we get a lot of questions
about right um so this slide particularly we hold data that shows the trends from 2015 to 2025 so if you look I don't this sorry this doesn't matter but if you look at
2015 we're at 3,720 students districtwide 2425 we're at now currently 3,990 students you see each year it is
fluctuating but like last year we had 403 students um we we calculate students away um into town and um our graduating class we had a huge graduating class last year um so they exit so it does
fluctuate but right now you can see through the last at least through the last three years since 2023 we've kind of maintained a little above here so what's important to notice too is that while enrollment is increasing and
it's fluctuating our special ed population is not our special ed population is increasing so over the last 10 years our special ed population has increased 26 that is significant when it comes to
budgeting we we are all about least restrictive and having our students stay in our community um but there are costs for students that do need specialized program that are outside of our outside of the seven buildings sometimes that
cost is driving $3.5 million our school so if you and I just want to point out that it's from 2015 to where we are
today 764 students are receiving special education related services which if we think about it though um I see it as a positive i know it impacts the budget but at the same time you have you have families that are moving here that know
that we are providing a thorough and efficient education we're addressing all of the needs um of our students so that's the other piece too so students parents are moving in um the other piece a big question that everyone is asking how is housing the new housing impacting
the moment is it impacting yes we um I'll take glass works for example um we were able to pull some data and we have um 120 students from glass works alone that are attending um our
pubs where glass works okay so we recently just lit I literally received a report on Friday our demographer if you were attending any of our um and attended any of our board meetings the board of education was in support of
doing a demography study demography study sorry from Ruckers and um we recently received that report in that report I can only high um but in that report and I want to highlight and I also want to share the
board has um has an opportunity to review too before we go public report but but a few things that I learned from the report 16 total population in both towns you had an increase of 16.9 in your
population percent so which is significant in the report we'll be able to share out that how in terms of what we're going to look like in July 2030 [Music]
quick review was is that our schools will be impacted by the developments can you just explain in uh glass works Miss Pres that the special need so out of the 120 students that are
currently attending our schools 40 students are special education and we have quite a few that are being transported um to our schools from that area to over 90 students [Music] and the study for the photographer was
actually done by [Music] CD so the purpose of this slide and why we we we did want to pull the special ed population is because that percentage is
growing at a faster rate than even our own so it's at least it's grown 6% over the last so we wanted we got a lot of questions about staffing um it's where app ratio low ratio what are our student
class sizes look like this um slide here indicates um has all of our students in each of the buildings it's demonstrating the ratio teacher to student ratio we're at one teacher to 11 students um that's in line with the county average and then
um for administration it's one administrator to just about 200 200 to 300 um students when you look that is that ratio is a little off um we are above the ratio
we have less administrators the county average is one administrator to about 117 students in the county that's not the state that's the county [Music]
it's really hard to projector [Music] [Music] is that better
[Music] somebody hand me something we are [Music] so we'll just talk about a couple of budgetary challenges uh we know
substitute rates we have tried to fill over 4,600 absences uh our fill rate with the company that we utilize is about 58% uh actually higher than the other school districts that they're utilizing it's
it's very hard to find substitutes and um with that we projected 3.5 million in substitute coverage and that is up from this year currently of 3.3 and then custodial coverage we do outsource our maintenance
is in-house but our studio coverage is outsourced and that's 3.1 million that did go out for a request for proposal and we'll be in our fifth of five years for that so for the 26 27th school year we will have to go out for a new bid for
healthc care costs uh next year we are projected at 17.6 million so a little over 18% of our budget for healthcare and uh with that again we talked about double digits rising over the last 3 to 5 years uh some significant changes with
that as well is there's a cost called chapter 44 that employees most employers have to pay into um that completely changed what goes on it used to be prior to that something called chapter 78 and chapter 78 was a percentage of salary
versus a percentage of the healthcare premium that is still in play and those people had been grandfathered into that program however chapter 44 took over in 2018 and that is actually a cost per percentage off the salary and so what
happens with that is a employee can be capped and pay for health benefits so if health benefits cost 15,000 they can be kept at 9 we have to pay the difference and in future years when that goes up 15% the district is taking out 100% of
that cost so it's a huge increase to the district budget versus what used to be so a lot of times a lot of districts talk about breakage and that breakage would come from salary or come from benefits when someone may retire and
someone may come on however that breakage has become less and less as time has gone on and health benefits have rised into the double digits and then for special education uh for out of district placement we have $3.5 million that is spent for our
students to go out of district for students that we cannot cover in district um the difference for that is those schools do not have to have a 2% cap and we've seen double digits a lot of times we'll get letters or what'll happen from those schools is they can
actually come back after their budget has been approved by the state that they can come back two to 3 years after to ask us for whatever the differential is so a lot of times you'll see that we have to approve a cost that's after the
fact yet we don't have that ability to do so and they have the ability to then also increase cost for the next year at any cost that they deem necessary to run their program in the next year so a lot of times you might receive a letter that says please ensure to project over 10%
for next year we are still kept to the 2% cap this case i'm sorry for whispers um can you just explain a little bit about what happens with the substitutes um so those are all all
buildings all kinds of classes so for example if it's a chemistry teacher they're not getting really close instruction they're getting a lesson you know than the left teacher maybe what about if it's and does that include just teachers does it include stack anybody
else in that number any any additional cost for like so any any staff member under the um our teacher association contract so that would be clerical um instructional assistance teaching staff
uh [Music] nurses that would also however say if if the company that we utilize cannot support that coverage we we're very blessed that a lot of our teachers will come and have class coverage and they'll take you know their time out of their
lunch or out of their prep period and then obviously there's a voucher for that but that cost is covered within there we're grateful that [Music] they're [Music] ask what is your sub8
[Music] [Music] so if you don't get subsc [Music] Secondly what do you pay
the fill up if I give you this up I have to go through that website right and I get 120 how much would you pay them if I pay so they may every day $39 on
top so we have to know so what happens is because [Music] for the cost of what we pay for substitutes we actually have to go out for a competitive bid that requires us to put the bid package together it has to get approved by the state and then uh
we have to then go ahead go out to bid companies come bid on what they believe their services cost a matrix gets filled out and then we have that contract for either one or two years this particular slice was done in this for years could you could you not just go
directly and hire yourself for above 40 rates low cuz some schools are paying 100 some schools are paying 150 since you're paying $38 and you still get 120 could you not raise that up a little bit so you can get more subs in your school you save
the $38 and you pay this company also if you get more subs in you're paying less for teacher coverage like the teacher salary so maybe it's $100,000 so for one so you get a sub just say I come in and you pay me 120 you're paying them
$38 and say another teacher's out so you have to and you don't have another sub so you have to for the chemistry teach or the math and you're paying them their hour salary which is like $90 or depending on if they're the step they are they're in their salary is there
another way to maybe make it where you pay the subs and more but then you save on this company you save for the teachers coverage you said like how many how many teachers are happy to get that's that's some savings generally
doing that we could go back and run the cost analysis on it uh however why some districts are able to versus why some districts aren't is um potentially how what your staffing is and your personnel department and you would have to hire
more to be able to be able to organize coverage the program and everything behind it i don't know when the change happened that we outsourced but that's maybe you get an internal person just to handle it at a cheaper salary because you know you got a lot of people here
that you know they have their sick days they have their their personal they have their their family illness that might be a little costly I would say that and then the second thing is when is the teacher's contracts um up they uh for
renewal it was just it was just contract what Okay so what is the average percentage um of raises did you give to this the fac to the teachers not just the administrators what percentage 3.75 3.7
and administrators are they getting around in that range or higher last what about the [Music] ASR so you're about 3.7 and Mama County average at the time was 3.77
if we could if you could you can just jot down your questions so then this way we can go through the slides and then we can address any questions at the end and then this way you'll kind [Music] of So let's talk about the school budget
this is kind of just going to be the flow of slides for the remainder of tonight how are we funded where does the sourcing of funding come from what does adequacy mean under advocacy spending cap reserve cap tax levy what's the tax incentive program and then you know what
is our district revenue stream so with that where does our money come from our biggest chunk comes from local property taxes and that's 70.4% of your budget the next category is state aid uh state aid is broken down into different
pockets of money and different categories so what we receive is equalization aid special education aid transportation aid security and technology and this is the first year after the 7-year reform that the state
had that they did some changes some of those significant changes are that they went from looking at a one-year look back for equalization to a three-year average and then they did the same thing for district income so those things
increased what they believe our towns are able to pay which reduced our equalization by about 3.7 million and then for special ed categorically the biggest change there was that instead of using census data they actually went off
of what our what we what we call is our application for CE and that always happens around the October 15th cent shop date and so they actually to what we said is currently enrollment in our district and gave us money based off that so we had an increase of a little
over 2.5 million in that category so with that the next part of our funding sources come from federal funds well state aid just so you know the total state aid for our district is 25.1% for federal funding those are
things like title one IDA and before this co funding so every year we utilize those so for IDA that's for our individual disability education application special education and so
with that we try to keep our risk low so when we utilize those fundings we utilize it to offset our out of district cost for our special ed kids that go out of district uh next year we're projecting that to be
$712,000 and the reason why is because the state normally tells us that we have to budget at 85% of whatever our grants are this year they let us know that we cannot go over 75% so we are seeing a decrease as we budget for next year and
then same thing for our title grants we received title one title 2 title 3 and title 4 and each one of those has different categories so title one is used for targeted assistance um for any of our lowincome areas and then title
two is usually for our professional development and title three is for immigrant and title four is for what the state considers as well so with that next year that would make up 1.3% of our total dish total
budget and with that the problem is um we we've seen that you know just in the past couple of days they've pulled back over 85 million dollars from 20 districts um so what will that look like for our future and how will we be able to fund that if they don't come to
fruition with that and there's a lot of that are coming out saying what we do or do not have to do and that can also be based off of what the state does so we'll be paying close attention to that but currently what we have now has been projected through September of
2025 also one of the biggest changes for us was semi for what they call Medicaid reimbursement and that is required again by federal and by state so last year when we built our budget they were requiring that we had a minimum of 100
[Music] Last year when they did that they told us we had to project our revenue source for that at $190,000 and so we did and mid year they decided that they're only going to pay us nickels on every session um so we are
seeing a reduction in that so next year when we're looking at the 2526 budget they told us to project $23,000 so that is an area that we have to make up revenue in just to keep our balance our district balance
budgeted and then last but not least we also utilize other revenues throughout the district those things would be tuition from out of district students so if we're receiving students from another town we're taking them in and they may be helping us we're uh charging that
district revenue and they're paying us the next thing that we do is we have interest income so we try to utilize any money that we're not currently spending for something into a high interestbearing account so that we can replenish and make money that we're not yet
utilizing and then we also utilize facility rentals we went and did a uh board was able to reapprove the new policy so that our categories change from five categories to four so that we could change percentages or rates
especially since our facilities are utilized a lot we want to ensure that we're receiving money back so we can push it back into our facilities and then we also utilize shared services that we'll touch upon in a little bit and then last but not least we'll talk
about fund balance and surplus and what that means so with all those four wrapped up that's 4.5% of our budget so when we go to the next slide what does fund balance mean fund balance
is like having a savings account [Music] k through 12 if we have them we have to put them on our budget so if ever we're to receive a grant or a donation usually it's a direct source right so if there's
a reason or a cause then we can only utilize it for that we do utilize those and we do apply for them uh one of the things that we applied for recently from the state was uh one preschool expansion for the facilities and we were able to support 1.73
million so we anytime we could take it we also have teachers that write grants for Chick-fil-A sometimes we have Walmart grants and very specific direct causes we could potentially typically they've gone to student activities for a very specific cause that's outside the
operation [Music] budget so fund balance fund balance goes into what our operation cost is so when you're budgeting if you have $100 and at the end of the year you have 10 that's
your fund balance that fund balance is able to be used like a savings account and in essence it's be able to help offset the next year's budget as well as potentially go into what are called reserve accounts and so let's just go over the three reserve accounts that our
district has so the first one was capital reserve and anytime money comes out of a reserve account is at no tax impact so capital reserve accounts have been utilized for facility projects like when we did at the high school the turf
field and the track for sometimes HVAC projects or um we're definitely going to be a group replacement in our future so the next that we have is maintenance reserve and this district has utilized maintenance reserve withdrawal to
balance our budget for many many years um with that we utilize it for repairs it cannot be utilized towards salaries it has to be utilized towards one-time cost and then last but not least there's the emergency reserve it is the most
difficult to withdraw money from it also needs it is also really supposed to be for unanticipated general costs and with those unanticipated general costs you have to get approval by the state to utilize that funding
so this case so you call it a savings account um but I think what I'm hearing is like a savings account for a household you would draw to balance your checkbook right and hoping to be able to put that back that savings back when you have the
money back but I'm assuming that for a school district you're you're not getting more money you're getting less money so it's harder to put you to replace that savings account fund right it's being completed there's nothing right so uh we get audited every single
year and one of the main things that we've been told by our auditor every single year since I've come here is that we do not surplus enough money we should surplus at least 2% really 2 to 5% uh we surplus under one so it's very
challenging to utilize that money to either put into a savings account or replenish the money that we've been taking out of these maintenance reserve accounts and so that will play into future budget [Music]
so our next slide is really um we know that when we send out information um to our community like I mentioned earlier that we use under advocacy spending caps and um some terminology that may not be familiar with everyone so I'm going to have this
case share exactly what that means um and again if there's questions then just drop them down further clarify [Music] so the state did some rate funding um formula in 2010 and with that uh it was
decided that school budgets could not go over 2% or 2% and those four cap allowances that we talked about earlier and with that part of the calculation that the state utilizes is what's called an adequacy budget that adequacy budget
they determine is a weighted average for our enrollment that you saw in the chart prior and the weighted enrollment is least for kindergarten and then highest for high school students and so they use that so that they can decide whether a district is over adequacy or under
adequacy and what does that mean that means if the state determines that your budget should be $10 and you spend nine you're under adequacy and if your state determines that you spend $11 then you're over and you have to explain what
that additional dollar was being spent on typically districts will say that's being spent on your music your arts your extracurriculars so with that and with the formula change from last year to this year and doing the three-year average versus that one-year look back
it was determined that we are under adequacy that we in our first year ever going into 2526 spend under what they consider our local fair share to be so what is local fair share local fair share has two important indicators the
first one is property value and the second one is district income now for property value Mammoth County decided to be part of a pilot program in 2013 where they reassess your property every single
year and with that it increases your property value which increases the ability for what the state determines can be your local fair share the other component to this is district income they are actually taking what each of your households make determining what
that is for a town's amount and then doing the same thing on an average look over those three years and giving it an average and those two indicators together create local fair share so they determine that your local fair share you
can pay more and but the district budget for your local taxes is only a base number that can go up 2% so the state determined this year that they are going to allow for the first time ever a tax
incentive program [Music] just just one point um this case before you move on i just want to repeat what you just said in my own thoughts um so the state the
town reassesses our properties to be what they feel they're worth and then we what they're saying is that we should be taxed on the worth of the house and if we're not then the homeowners need to make up
that difference so they they feel that we're not paying enough taxes cuz our homes are here but our taxes are here am I am I getting that right right says that right so they're they're assuming if our homes
are going up in value we're making that kind of we're making more money and your district income and your district right and therefore you should be paying more in tax so that your town has the ability to pay more in taxes so when they say
we're under adequate the state is saying that we are not being paid what we should be paid but they're not going to give us the money they want the taxpayer to do correct they're saying that the local towns can pay for more
themselves and now with this tax incentive program they're giving you the ability to do so right because before there was no mechanism for you to increase it right so the the incentive on their end is that they raise the taxes and they're going to give us a
tiny little bonus right so currently the way the tax incentive program is set up they would give you 5% for every dollar you increased a tax levy or how they explained it for every million dollars
they'll give you 50,000 [Music] this is the tax incentive program it's important to notice um it is not it has
to be approved at the budget year they have asked for those school districts who are eligible which 20 districts are eligible in the county most of our neighboring towns are eligible they have asked that we complete we're willing to move forward
that they ask that we complete an application and have it submitted by April [Music] 14 what about the counties that I don't know the ones that don't have
that are they also or they file for this tax county so um in the state of New Jersey there are 300 districts that are eligible so that 50% of school districts in the state of New Jersey are eligible
to participate or apply for the tax incentive program yeah so it's 300% [Music]
[Music] comes out of it'll come out of tax and tax levy decrease so for every dollar you increase every for every dollar you increase in the local town tax they'll give
[Music] you5 it's not that like if the district raised $1,000 extra from the community that the district would only be able to
spend in our district 5% of that is what is $550 $50 whatever i'm sorry that don't matter um it's that we actually would be raising all of the taxes here that would go all into the school budget and then in addition the state would give a
little bit more money 5% so so for each million I'm not saying I'm in favor i'm just saying this just and this is information [Music] so
[Music] So we can get to the questions and then so just drop down so we have the visuals so then this way it kind of gets her thinking in terms of answering the [Music] questions so for the tax incentive program itself
uh the way it works is that again for every million the state will match 5% so how are we eligible we're eligible because this is again the first year ever that the state is determining that we are below [Music]
adequacy and that our state tax levy falls below what they deem to be our local fair share so if we didn't have those two components together we would not qualify and in order for us to even qualify for this program we also have to
exhaust all of our eligible adjustments and so what do we mean by that we mean we have to take our 2% plus we have to take if there are any cap allowances currently what we've had to use in the last few years is the healthcare adjustment waiver so we would be using
our healthcare adjustment waiver in a prior year honestly two years ago in 23 24 we were creating that budget and we had a huge impact to chapter 44 we had a health waiver adjustment of about $1.2
million you did not use all of that so that is what they consider going into banked cap banked cap gives you the ability to then use that leftover money for the next three years so as we were creating this year's budget and knowing that we had challenges uh some of those
challenges that we were facing wasn't only just the healthcare waiver but also utilities uh you know utilities gas is going up 17% electric is going up 22 to 26% and that is impacting us
significantly cuz we have over about 625,000 square ft that we need to keep cool and um it is it is impacting us quite significantly and the reason why I'm sorry can you do the poll sure
so in July of every year for uh utilities they go out for an auction that auction was it was like 22 $2 or $28 i'm not remember the exact amount but it actually increased
to over $270 a kilowatt and so why did that happen because two um two plants closed and we are not creating enough energy in order to supply all of the electric that we need as a state not us
as a state and so they are considering reopening 3 miles so that they can help it uh they were also anticipating that solar would take off higher and it would actually create more energy generation it did not uh we do go out for bid every
single year for our energy consumption and we will continue to do so uh but that's not only going to impact us here it's going to impact us everywhere and we've already started to see some of that impact happen through vendors we're receiving notifications from vendors
that our cost for supplies are going to increase 3 to 7% and that they can't project what that cost will be there either uh due to potential tariffs and they're writing that in letters to us letting us know that these are things that we need as consumables in the
vision to run our program yet they're going to double or triple the cost that we used to have this is the chart we shared um two weeks ago in terms of what the tax lending or the tax incentive program would look like um the minimum amount
that you can apply for is 1 million the state will then contribute 50,000 for 1 million and we the district is eligible for [Music] 5.873,000 um the state let's just say we
are pretty let's raise taxes which we're not then the state would contribute almost $300,000 we're not here to say we agree or disagree with the program um I think up in my town a similar situation i have to say though I
haven't received any information from my um school district so I'm learning a lot i'm learning more here doing the work here as opposed to what our superintendent is providing us um so I I I feel you i empathize so it's not about necessarily going into making
recommendations to the board without you know understanding what what we're asking for or what what the options are in terms of um providing additional funding to schools mr president I just wanted to know what you touched upon it's very important our our sisters
districts are also looking into andor applying for this um but a lot of them do not have the community feedback behind it so I want to give you guys credit for coming out and allowing us to
talk to the community first um so that's much appreciated um the transparency [Applause] [Music] so in terms of the tax program I think
you know the board has asked what happens where does the money go so or what can we use it for a few slides before we said that the budget was created in order to provide a thorough and efficient education this tax incentive program that's the money is
utilized for providing a thorough and efficient education so if we look back and we connect it the team has been in terms of making sure ensuring that we're it's aligned to curriculum go um to strategic plan and our school and
district goals so the key the the areas that would be impacted and where money would be utilized is curriculum and instruction so maximizing professional development instructional material curriculum material for the classroom special education it will be utilized to
enhance provide programming um offset some of the cost with the added district as M case already mentioned that we already anticipate a decrease in IDBA most of our mo all of that money is utilized to to cover for outer district however it still doesn't even I feel
doesn't even put a dent from respect to $3.5 million on our district um intervention supports um improve and provide targeted assistance to not only our struggling students but also um closing achievement gaps and enrichment
programs um are on here mental health services um for the last um five years we work with profession school solutions who provide um intensive um therapeutic services to access students that has decreased a cost of placing students at
a district gened or special ed at least $3.5 million by having the one um contract and agreement that we have with them to provide services so that those are the types of programs and enhancing and providing it to our further students um student support services um
essentially providing supports to our families family engagement community partnership for students and families so Miss Roso um I know you said special education um students populations increased what
are we seeing in terms of mental health services for students and it's a struggle for [Music] um in terms of we worked really hard um in terms of this budget here in terms of
looking um for our people and other vendors and contractors for those services that we're providing currently because of the cost we need to um make some difficult decisions in terms of where money is being spent before tax program so we
worked with um different vendors um because and we were asking them to increase services for those transport cases we're no longer seeing this years ago it used to be more of our special ed population um having kids with um selfreation
um we're not seeing that it's crossed it's it's cross from elementary all the way on up to school so we I'm very very proud of the team and with our contracting providers to be able to increase those services for not only um are at risk but
also um training for or working with students that are at the member level perhaps um mental health also includes the state we are required to do risk assessments that is not that is a mandate that is not fun so all of your
school counselors your social workers your school psychologists if a child is in need safety is number one they are to stop conducting a risk assessment which the team in across and every building is excellent in doing that but that is not
fun that is not fun so sometimes we need to exit staff in terms of work that's they need to they need to complete their regular dayto-day operations for their dayto-day work
sometimes we have um that's a [Music] cost can you explain what a risk assessment is so a risk assessment is any um or others
so it starts like I said elementary students that are struggling in middle school high school um which again we do a lot of um I would say I always want to um
teach but there's only so much we worked really hard on that contract we were able to save for our upcoming school year $18,000 I'm kind of just saying the predicament that we're in um we're see we're
receiving a reduction in need etc and we negotiated those are things that we didn't have to do years ago because we were being fairly fun um and there weren't these increases in cost so you know so I was proud to have 180,000 they
will be using my district to market though um so tomorrow I'm doing something with the company um so we are all free but but we're doing it because we want to increase the cost for so other areas and um case touched
upon the revenue generated um that we are bringing in and we're we are really really creative um like I just said I will work for free for a company and do a a chat or a podcast whatever they need to do their helping their marketing we
do that um to help bring it on the bus in addition to that Miss Case mentioned the facilities usage how we changed the policy before changing the policy um in terms of bringing in revenue that way um for example the YMCA our before and after for years they were not paying to
they were not contributing to users and we are now seeing that um the preschool expansion aid we're very creative um we're not not doing any we're adhering to regulations in terms of how to utilize the funding for preschool
education um we receive that money and it's a lot of money it's over 6.8 $7.8 million we're serving 440 students 440 students out of that funding though what we utilize funding
is to offset salaries and benefits meaning that if um if there's preschool going on at Cobra Elementary we've offset salaries for the administrator the nurse the school counselor strathmore for years in the main drive
was sharing their school counselor with preschool expansion a we were able to provide a counselor for each and every elementary we were not able to do that without preschool expansion so we utilize in terms of funding um custodial services
um teacher salaries instructional assistance everything is included in the public schools um tuition in so we have our reach program 18 to 21 that I'm just using them as that program as an example we have three students that are from
another district that they are paying our district to be able to attend our program so that helps offset the salaries for um and benefits for teaching staff and they're also the kids are also able to um to socialize and you
know be part of meet kids too which is really nice um in addition to that we have a transportation jointer which just simply means that we're working with other districts to um cover say um some transportation routes whether they're out of district they may be a vocational
school so we're able to share that cost shared services we um our revenue is about a little over $400,000 for shared services and with other districts and then most recently on our board agenda we now um will be advertising
sponsorships so which will also um be projected some revenue for that as well shared so basically with shared services we um we work with I'll give you an example Belmont um we work with their school district one of our instructional
master um the master teachers for preschool we share her one day a week and we're able to generate say $30,000 day um so while it's not impacting um her work um she's
still able to complete the board a district which she needs to do that one day it helps um with pregnant for $30,000 um another shared services we share we have an agreement with Kingsburg as well as with we share
payroll um business office um technology [Music] Um so we just wanted to let you know there are some tax assistance programs uh one of them is their senior freeze i believe Aberdine is doing a workshop on
this on May 8th from 2:30 to 4:30 and uh just to explain what that is and then the IRS will from time to time send us notices and they are allowing if you do an electronic filing for it to be free just wanted to let you know some of the
things that were out there uh they'll also be talking about the anchor program as well and state jersey so that there are some tax-free benefits to that so what's next for us we did approve our tenative budget on uh May
March 20th and so then it was able to be submitted to the county office on March 21st um this did not include any tax incentive initiative it came out after the fact uh so the reason why are we
have an April 10th board meeting and then where we will have the board resolution on this tax incentive program and the reason why we need to do that is because the state requires us to have the application due to them if we are going to participate no later than April
14th uh with that being said then we would change our tenative to our approved budget and we would potentially have our public hearing on April 24th some of the things that could change the April 24th deadline is the state has to
have it back to us within 4 days before so that we can advertise in the paper that is an election calendar rolling so in order for us to even have a public hearing we have to ensure that it was advertised 4 days prior to when our public hearing takes place the election
calendar also dictates the dates we are allowed to have our public hearing and that would be between April 24th and May [Music] 7th i have a question so with all those
challenges you said the budget was submitted so how did what what was what didn't make it onto the budget and what didn't make it onto the budget so I mentioned um contracted services right so I spoke about the mental health piece and we've decreased that cost by
$180,000 we've also decreased it so we not only do not only do we have Malawan Avenue um staff members we also contract out services for um for some specialists so for example um speech language therapy occupational therapists
um some counselors all of those contracting services it's usually aligned to students IEPs um so we were able to decrease that cost and it in terms of like you mentioned like is it easy or does it save do you save money
with hiring your own as opposed to contracting um so in this particular state um scenario we were able to do a cost analysis so we will hire um some part-time individuals and that will work out the cost of contracting services so
we saw some um I say revenue but we saw whether we could [Music] [Music] align I just wanted to ask was it um we tried to There was a lot of um questions online um people were asking so I just
we jotted down a bunch of them so moving forward I know there was um the demographer said where did they foresee our district to be in enrollment in the next year if I I I think I'm right in saying you had said um closer to 5,000
yes so we're at four 4,000 right now okay so people had asked about if this money would be able to pay for transportation um more busing subscription busing i know people a lot of people have been
asking about that so I just wanted you guys to talk to that because if we did want to bring back that what would we be doing then to possibly bust these extra thousand children moving in the next year i would predict that you have to
cut somewhere else because if you're going to have an increase in enrollment you have to anticipate that you're going to have an increase with transportation costs so Miss Perez um I know the public hearing is on April 24th but just so the
public's aware currently we have a fiscally sound budget for 2526 i know you'll get into the details at the 24th meeting but we are balanced um there are concerns that I think we should be
transparent about in terms of um moving forward with these increasing costs what that could potentially mean is at risk in the future and that this is really this even if this is being voted on
correct right so So what we're looking at right is a band-aid we're on a boat the boat has a hole we're trying to put a band-aid over it we're trying to bail water out as quickly as possible um you know we've been doing this for this 2% gap for over 10 years with our consumer
price index in New Jersey being well over 2% and so we're really starting to feel the effects um you know we hear it often about our facilities and we we hear you and we see it too and it's a huge challenge um you know we want to we
want to do more every single day but then it was at the cost of you know staffing or student needs and so we picked those over that and then the issue too you know just going back to transportation for a minute is over 5 years ago we transported you know 800
students less than we do now and so right now we're we're transporting over 2100 students uh whether that's in our district or outside of our district uh we do uh obviously talked about our special ed has to go to adequate placement they would need to be
transported there uh we've seen definitely an increase throughout the state in homeless and having to make sure that we transport that and then uh one of the other significant costs is that we are required to transport non-public students if we cannot do so then we are required to pay aid and low
that aid and low amount is set by the state so if we don't have a route to put them on then we have to pay the parent back per child [Music] is it your assessment that the
municipalities use of the pilot program with developers negatively impacts our budgeting process here we are looking into that um and researching in terms of what maybe could have been
done in terms of getting some money and some money from the um from the housing um so you still have to be connected to the board and also but it has it like the housing has
factor [Music] i know you touched on that the preschool programs um bring in a lot of revenue um I can only speak to drive it also has taken up a lot of space at drive um and
unfortunately I don't know any exactly like in the schools that are gay it has detracted from like some of the older kids's education experience in ways that like such like kindergarten first grade second grade third grade they're now
like I guess before the preschool came in they would have more classrooms where they had a designated art classroom and a designated science classroom and a designated whatever the other extracurriculars are right um help um when we go to parent teacher night we're
often talking to those extracurricular people saying "Okay why aren't there more activities?" Like "When you're learning about germs why aren't there more like petri dish you know pepper in the petri dish type of things?" And all of them say because they don't have a designated classroom they can't cart
around all these experiences to incorporate in their learning and you're talking about like kindergarteners first grade second grade they need these hands-on learning experiences they can't just be listening to a teacher drone on in lecture format um and I think that's where you get a lot of the
distractability um and they have very limited outside time i mean you're talking for like several hours a day they might be outside for like a 10-minute recess by the time they leave the classroom and get outside there's just not enough like movement for them and so I don't
know if we're looking at like expanding these programs are great but are we looking at what it's taking away from the education experience in in like combining classrooms and these teachers not being able to like teach to their full ability do you guys look at those things and how do you navigate them i
mean short of expanding or being driving classroom size what's the end goal so we we do um and then a lot of that comes through um their grade level meetings personal meetings but and I appreciate your students here so we can address
those concerns um just we sometimes don't hear from our teaching staff that have their word and whether they shy away you know they shy away from telling us that I appreciate your feedback i know that
Yeah so there will not um this was probably our last year um in terms of expand in the norm when we talk about high school expansion age the state determines the number of students that we will be able to serve so according to
their population um we are able to serve 500 preschool age students 94 years old we will not be able to meet that thick quality universe we will not meet that universe because of space so we're not going to be taking any traditional
classrooms or anything like that we're now um we're at um about we're at 90% of that we're at 90% of the universe um this will come back in June and things like that in terms of
special things um so she can get feedback from her um but she's also questioning why we're not at 100% [Music] i you said there's 120 children coming from the glass works um I'm not sure
with with the pilot program with all these houses that are being built there why isn't there the tax dollars to cover all of that and if and if it's not if they're not collecting those taxes then why isn't picking up that because they have the property they put all these houses
there april brought all these children in why not do not get the burden and why is it falling on us i can't see here okay
[Music] we're not we're not experts in the pilot program so I don't want to speak to something you have information but we'll definitely take the feedback and look more
[Music] into a follow municipal government so um in New Jersey payment loan tax agreements um do not have to include school districts by
law um that so that's not the school district's decision by any stretch i I understand good concern i used to work in New York in New York it the school district had to be involved so it was very mentioned that there's 760 special
ed i'm just curious how much do we expect student and how does that compared to last year what we expect to spend for next year so cost per student would range um in terms of depending on program and depending if they're district so we have
a variety of programs ranging from um a student may be identified and have an IEP in the application center support so resource teacher
[Music] um and that's well we have more students we are creating more programs so for next year we're projected to add three additional specialized classrooms some of autism and also for zero so there
that's just to um they have to be compliant in terms of adhering to their ideas so costly for at district that calculation why we keep talking about it um is because that cost could be anywhere from $120,000 to
$300,000 for one student and there's so because when we look at out of district out of district placements it's not only just their education in terms of where they go to school or paying them say you know
$90,000 they need to fire nurse that's an additional $120,000 tack on any additional services that we have to pay the school it can calculate to almost $100,000 in transportation transportation so three each year we in
May um and we're preparing for this now is we are able to apply for extraordinary each year last year we submitted over $7 million worth of reimbursement you did not get $7 million [Music]
i have two questions so for you mentioned earlier about the um contracting of the special education therapists and that you were going to hire them you mentioned something about the part-time hiring are you saying that you're going to hire some part-time
folks from the contractors to work in the school district in addition to the therapists that are already in the school district or are you cutting their hours to part time that was my first question so it's we're [Music] hiring
the we are recommending to hire our time staff under the Maria contract our teacher contract in addition to that we still will have contacted services but we're decreasing the contracting services so for example um because
numbers students who require um who receive speech language services it may not the staff member when they get contracting that staff member out elementary it may be that you'll see the special um the other question is just with regards to special education
classes like I have a child so um they do get specials where they get to switch classes like art music library computers but I have been hearing in the last few weeks just being the leazison at at Strathmore for parents that they're not always necessarily getting their
specials because there's a shortage of staff and things are happening but what is frustrating as a parent is that nobody's really communicating that to us personally on a whole we hear about it through the grape vine because maybe somebody at the school mentions it or maybe a parent overheard something or
maybe you know a parent works in the school and so they hear things so it's just frustrating because it's like so they're missing out on these things because of these this what's happening so for 2025 2026 what is what is there a plan for what you're going to do about
that not necessarily the school district that's my second question so unfortunately there's absolute shortage of teachers they graduated last year in the state of New Jersey seven students
from TCMJ which was one of the top schools um nation it's happening nationwide so we try we advertise we recruit we post them on social media etc and we want subs to apply you know for the assessment it's not only just the
teach but the substitute however I'm going to be full transparency sometimes the company will send people that we don't want when you say a company do you mean that you have a ESS okay so meaning that they're they're not qualified to be
uh just out of any you know just I know that you have the ESS but the school district ever think about not just utilizing them but also like you guys have an HR department to I worked in HR and benefits in my my past history and
we used to go out to the schools and recruit these people like I used to recruit nursing for healthcare i'd go there they'd have a job fair you'd meet them because sometimes going through your contractor doesn't always mean they're going to get the best candidates sometimes they're just pushing people through because you know you're paying
them to give you people but they're not really looking at everything they're just like "Oh they graduated okay." And like you said they're not sending you what you need we're just sending you just because so you're kind of wasting money that way too because you're not getting what you need and then our kids are not getting what they need that was
my last question so I wasn't here but years ago they did have it wasn't contracted out um a lot of districts unfortunately the state of New Jersey didn't to utilize contracted service um we can look into it and see and maybe
pilot maybe with one building is what it would look like i'd have to you know talk to see what it would look like now so we used to my prior history you had one person they'd go down the list and she had like 10 people yes and it was easier to do um I guess
it's just shifted where there's not enough people um but we're open to being creative and kind of trying something new because we do know that it is a concern for all of us it's a concern for you a concern for us and it's more important it's a concern for our kids
because they are missing out on valuable um curricular activities [Music] and you said that we're going to have about an extra thousand students or so how are we going to have like this LA i don't think there's going to be enough
it's not next year but not next year but it's so democracy [Music] oh my god no I'm sorry no clarification and um and we're happy to have this study and share
the information out to a public session we'll make sure that we do a great job with um sharing when that team will um will be presented but the thousands of students that there is projected is by 2030 should be looked at over 2030 and then even beyond that are there any
plans on expanding buildings i would love to i don't know where to build where are they coming from if they're coming from the the developers that have tal or tal I think it's both i think it's both
because and I don't don't quote the numbers but there were a,000 there were 1,200 units or 1200 new housing that was built um up to today but they're projecting another say 700 so not only
the building my assessments this is just me as a superintendent what I see happening as a community is that we also have a high turnover um with with people who are moving in so our seniors are leaving we don't want them to leave right we still want them to be part of the community but our seniors are
leaving and then you're having new families move in that are young um young with kids or they're going to have kids so in the demography study what it's going to show is the age group who live like 30 years census data
they're going to look at that and they're going to share okay there's an age group say certain percentage from 19 to 20 or 35 childbearing projects you know as well so it's really
telling but um I and we would like to work with the chaps to kind of share that i started trying to share that with the board as far as with um what we can do you know especially with my other question was um the money
that we would raise for this tax all of the money goes into the school district like everybody that gets raised in this tax levy through the tax levy incentive this is only for schools that will go directly to the school okay and then also are we allowed to use it to help it
portion of it is that allowed or is there like special like it can only be used for this it has to be used for the efficient education so does not as long as it meets the specifications of what the currency provides are we able to do
that so if if the if the we're going to go through the tax program we want as a team you want to make sure whatever the money is making
this thing is to now do this and we're okay for the next two years and then you're taking and I say that to be fully transparent because some parents have asked you know um in terms of feedback
you see from the board about staffing certain positions and things like that we can add things to extra grade we need it to be we need to be um make sound decisions where it's sustainable Because if you're in a in a in a position in the next few years where you see a decrease
in state aid and a decrease in federal [Music] grants additional [Music] state transformation to
Yes yes and the other but we also want to make sure this goes out is that um with the tax incentive program if we do submit the application then we will be meeting with the finance committee
the board has a finance committee intern so that this way everyone knows where the dollars are being spent so if you received an additional million dollars you know where's where where are we spending it and what changes can we make we want to you know we haven't max
[Music] it would be in so if It would increase your taxes forever [Music] and the state as far as we know they're
only making a lot of money for the one year and we only [Music] we still have to discuss that with the board in terms of the All right yes and so it would be on the board
agenda April 10th recommendation and then um shortly after that then we'll um we'll share that information we're going to take one more question [Music] so first I want to say thank you for having this meeting because there are
other districts across the state that are facing the same thing they are not being as transparent as you are so first and foremost thank you for this um and I know it's a hard thing to address you probably expected a little rich on tonight um I completely understand that you guys have increased costs right we
all between state increases we have no idea what's going to happen at the federal level over the next year uh BPU I mean it's just every time you turn around somebody has their hand out so now we get this letter and here's the school district the letter read like we need 6 million so we can get 300,000 i
mean it's kind of like trip over a dollar there penny here it doesn't make sense add some that being said you're going to submit this budget let's say it gets approved for the right you're going to submit this budget now April 24th it then has to go to the state and the
state can still say yes or no in June if they're going to give you that additional funding two you are correct um this has happened before uh what you see has actually decreased our speed by June or July and then we have to show what you know what
we would be deducting from our budget right so by concern we're going to do all this right everybody out the state's going to be like psych you know it's just the state is the state I mean you live here we all know how this game works and more than
likely you're going to get class or whatever it's going to be um so that is a little concerning my second question is I understand that there is a fine line between local politics and a school board but at some point and I've been to many many board meetings now for the
town i haven't seen anybody here going to the town and saying hey guys you're making all these decisions and I understand that our budgets are different but something's got to get here we got to start getting a conversation because with the town doing it what they're doing is
true i don't see any board members here you know you guys had to go to those meetings too something has to happen so two two years ago we we did start having monthly meetings with them and then quarterly meetings with both and then the other thing that the board
started is they have a leazison program so that they can make connections both question shared services heport put out the same letter pretty much verbatim that you guys did like is there any opportunity to
continue to look at more shared services across the district we do so we have we have meetings um whether that's for transportation special ed business of curriculum and instruction so that we all know what each other is doing so that if there is a program or there is a
way I mean down to let me tell you for the Bayer area we let Basel do it but we went out for a a garbage contract so that we can reduce the cost for just picking up basic things and so we'll continue to do that and we continue to
assess every contract We continue to assess every single subscription that's utilized by students so we're we're changing that yearly based off of what the district needs and what we're seeing and we're also getting that from you know teacher feedback and administrative
feedback so that we're making those decisions so that you know maybe last year we needed a district subscription but this year we only need a K to2 we're making those changes so that we can use those savings to offset pay for something else wanted two others came down you want that letter to the people
with them letting them know already voted on they already Yeah it wasn't that was just a hey we're doing this not like like having a conversation with the community and letting them know what's going on that was them letting them know oh by the way here you go and the other
thing so you know too while you see me so when I can get about the work I'm the town leazison with Joe Watuchi so we've been having those conversations yes and then add on so we have also been we were
in communication before the letter went out to the community just like our we want to make sure that cuz we know taxes are going to be raised there as well yeah so we want to make sure it's all sorry um balanced so we're not hitting
the community all at once um so we have had that conversations how it's impacting us you know one now maybe a little more than the other but you know we are talking to at least once um so and that just
recently started a few months ago um I did just want to bring up again because I'm far from a lawyer and nor this administration but basically the pilot program means that we're not receiving any money to pay for the children that we
are educating so Glass Works was a pilot program um and we're not receiving tax to cover the kids that we're educating so that comes out of everybody's pockets so yes pilots are mandated in New Jersey
i understand but the problem lies is that when they do pilot programs sometimes the towns will work with the district and give them a percentage to cover what they're going to have to spend unfortunately that hasn't been the
case so that really does affect and and and I know um our administration has been looking into that on the legal and and what we can and cannot do for that so thank you for bringing that up i mean
I just want to type program trying that work shouldn't there be an expiration it's not the same it's a payment li of [Music] tax payment in lie of tax that's the pilot not like what you're thinking i
know what you mean like a what if trial type thing no this is a 30-year pilot 30 years 30 so I think that the challenge for us like and I'll speak for myself second year superintendent so we weren't I don't know when I don't know
the history in terms of when the planning was taking place for when the building was happening i know when I started 10 years ago that the demographer was here and I believe that board at that time thought that there there was another building that was being filled and they thought that that
would impact enrollment at that time it the demography said no correct so right so they said it wasn't going to impact enrollment now we're seeing with the most recent development that it is so um so when I say I mean I'd like to speak to legal to see if there's anything we
can do it's kind of I'm kind of back at tracking you know back a pedal a little bit because there were things already in motion so um I just wanted to say that [Music] so my name is Mark Bishop and I live
here in Aberdine my wife our 2 and 1/2year-old son and now our 2 and 1/2 week old and both of my children will be going through the school system and I want nothing more for them and every child in this district to have access to an exceptional education first I want to start by thanking for
holding this fork i understand that giving residents a seat at the table for a conversation is not required and it's not very tough i genuinely appreciate that you've chosen to engage the community before making such major decisions and I think that this is what public accountability and transparency
should look for now to be clear I'm not here because I post funding our schools it's quite the opposite uh I want more investment in our schools and that's why I've been so critical in the way that we structure commercial development we have
multi-million dollar properties in town such as the for glass which just sold for $57 million and they are paying zero school taxes because the pilot approved by the council which this board had no
say which is astonishing that one development alone would have generated $800,000 this year for our schools had it been taxed properly like the rest of the school but it's not and our families are
being asked to make up that difference and that's only one of many such profit in town and that's on average um so I understand that's the environment so yes I support public education enhancing a community to take
on a nearly 10% effective tax increase without a clear break on where the money would go that's not responsible that is for uh blind trust and I can't agree to that this district already submitted a balance 2025 budget within their account
without cutting programs out this extra $58 million is not part of that budget that came after the state's uh tax lady adjustment for under and it is optional so I only have one simple request show us the
right just because we can raise the money does not mean that we should and if we're going to consider it we need to do so carefully because the increase that we're talking about will likely cause some residents here's a solution that I'm proposing to support answer these
questions for us first where is this money going to go we need an itemized plan for each funding level that's being considered $1 million $3 million and $5.8 million show every dollar we go show us why we need it every line item
we need justification why do we need it why we need it now what problem will it be solved and what's the impact what measurable benefit will these investments bring to our students and how will that success be tracked i think just in doing that we will find out if
we really need this money and if so exactly how much a couple of examples that I came up with you know say line item a we need $400,000 for a new math grade and that you've seen in neighboring districts that this has
resulted in vastly improving test scores in our students residents can turn around and say "Hey I think that might be worth investing all of my tax money in say we need $250,000 to renovate an elevated lobby." I think the residents
might say "Hey I don't think that we really need that right now." So that's why we need the itemization and until it's been done I don't think that we're not only are we unprepared to improve this but we are ready to really have a conversation um I just don't
think that you did the homework on that yet uh if we're going to ask working families seniors and young homeowners to stretch even further in this economy the very least that we can do is show them where every dollar is going to govern and I understand you know talking
about the the pilot programs and I understand that the schools here kind of short change for and I understand that this is an easy way to make up the lost revenue that you guys should be getting
for and What I'm asking you to do is to sit down and look at exactly how much we need because we even have funding options at a million million 58 million that tells me that we don't know exactly how much
depends um I would say don't take the easy route you know I know you guys work hard already trying to figure this out and um I I think that that's the best way to get the movie that
um I don't know that by April 14th deadline Very important [Music] i can uh been involved in the school [Music]
district since I've been here all I want to do is just tell you how we got here there was a time actually around 2011 before that people of the townships actually got to vote on the school budget but um I think Governor Christie
was he was a big incentive to move away from that because budget used to fail districts would be guaranteed up to a 2% increase every year without having to you know go out to the public and get
the approved but the dark side was that that vote passed like seven voice members two of us voted against it and my reason back at the time is when you give up a right to the state you don't get it back um I don't know if it's
possible to do that but the more important thing about it is used to put a check on the township because when the budget failed Board of Education had to negotiate that budget with the township as to how much was going to go
in so now what happened with this i knew this thing was going to come all this building got up and township council isn't responsible for any of it they don't have to take any for it they put it completely on the school district they have no control over it so they
have no skin in the game so it's easy for them to do these projects because they don't have to stand up when the school budget is going to get cut and say "Well we have to negotiate and restore some of this money." So that's kind of that's kind of how we
got here um so the lesson there is like you have a right don't give it up don't give it up for the state because just like income taxes i think that was supposed to be temporary in New Jersey it's still here right so just remember anytime like some kind of
public body gets its hands on money they let it go but I feel bad for you i I I've been out there and you have a hard decision to make because you have to balance what you got to do for kids but you know there's plenty of people in the town that you know they don't they don't have 5% a year salary like whether or
not you know fortunately some people do but you have to kind of keep that in mind and you have to balance that with the education i don't know what the answer is to it i just this is how we got here for those of you that that don't know that and this is what it is
and hopefully hopefully people should take their they should take their complaints to trending because the school funding in the state of New Jersey has been a disaster for the last 30 years and righteous be have money
follow the special ed students follow the students that have free and reduced lunch so that you don't have districts that gentrific school budgets spend 30 $40,000 a school and then you had a lot
of middle class districts getting absolutely crushed you know by environment because of the way it is and until they reform that nothing is going to change that's Thank you [Music]
[Music] they really haven't said anything to you you guys probably [Music] tomorrow question [Music]
there any other there's a board meeting on the 10th um which is this week on Thursday and then um the weather hearings on the 24th um if you like to ask any questions or any additional feedback please use the Google there's a
form under the board education site and you can um receive your feedback in there um but a lot of parents have provided feedback already as well so we're open here and listen and that's what we're here to do It's not um while we are responsible to create the webinar and work with all the staff members and
the administrative team and present it to the board um we know it's a it's a community so we care about um I just wanted to say really quick that we would like to town we're trying to make those um
inroads by having these leaison relationships as best we can and we had we're kind of still coming back off of the co year years here years so um we're starting to kind of get back to normal with a lot of things including committees committee that's true um so I
I would I really welcome that if anybody I don't know if anybody's here or but we do have our less try to keep an updated on what's going on um I know that um
indep have really good relationship we just happen to have a virtual relationship so it makes things a little easier um I mean we would like that really quick question is there a way that for more transparency when we have these conversations with the town is
there a way to communicate that with the public hey we met with the town today and this happened at the board meetings we do we update those leison on conversations that are what the liison from the board did to their town counterpart and vice versa and they do
appreciate you know I will say the communication has improved and they do appreciate like we um shared with them the YMCA's program that we have for the summer that's going to supplement the right programs for Avenue 91 they appreciate that because they run out of space so now we have an additional
option for parents for the summer a lot of things you know they've been they've been keeping them informed and even just even just simple things like getting construction around with bus routes and all that stuff and even things like um you know where we are in
the budget process where they are in the budget process just trying to keep that line of communication open that's from the board liaison side and as they mentioned um they also have conversations with town managers the police departments we have a memorandum of agreement police department so those
those I mean we really are trying to keep those lines of communication open you know there's only it's it's a two-way street for accountability hi everyone uh I'm Cindy
um yeah um I go to a lot of these board meetings um a lot of the stuff that they're talking about is not new um they talked about it at the last board meeting um how this was sprung on them um and I have to be honest with you it's very disappointing to have me and maybe
one or two other people at these very important meetings i go to the council meetings again very important meetings that maybe only one or two people um go to so I think that um seeing an increase of people who attend these things would
be wonderful um the next thing I want to talk about really fast is uh the budget right so I remember last year you know we had to let go of a couple teachers there was a lot of upset parents and then I started watching like the news coming in of like the blood bath that
was happening in other districts like extracurriculars completely cut um letting go of 150 teachers i know that I'm following living in Middletown where they are closing two schools and then
council came and rescued them and now they're not closing anything because the household is giving money to the school district to make the residents happy um I know that in Homeown they have a pilot program everyone loves bell works right
and the council is sharing the payment in taxes so basically Glass Works pays the council money every year money that does not go to educating the students of
Glass Works okay everyone's aware of that okay so Home Now is taking that money and sharing it they get money from Bell Works and they're taking that money and they're sharing 600,000 it may not sound like a lot but that's a nice chunk
of money uh with the district um I think that's what we need to do i think we need to go to the council um there's a lot of building guys there's a lot of building coming there's a huge building going up by the train station they just approved a bunch
of houses over by Works they just resone four buildings over by Glass Works they have they just resold before uh buildings over by glass works that they result from from commercial over to residential so I mean like I really think people need to start to come to
these meetings because I think this is going to be an ongoing problem for us and um I know my taxes since 2020 has gone from 9,000 to 15,000 i can't be the only one who's experiencing this so thank you
uh just a real quick question the demographical report will that be given to us before April 10th or is that going to be released to the public before April 10th it's going to be addressed when is it going to be finalized [Music]
not to be a Senate right but a thousand people over 3,900 seems like even if everything got built is like on the high high side right i think the bigger concern and I
don't know where I sit on this right like I really I think a meeting with an open mind because your your budget's 95 million right if if we add even just one million we're talking about like a 1% increase in the school budget i think
like the bigger crisis is you're talking about our school population exploding by 20% right like that million is going to be a drop in the bucket you know what I mean and then if so like I taxes
increase right like I'll do whatever I can to fight against my taxes being but at the end of the day it's like you're you're bound by a 2% cap right um it sounds like the states only be one of the
gather so my concern is how accurate these districts are uh demography especially when they're not going to be released to the public prior to the board making a uh you know a wellfounded
you know outcome of how they should vote um so that's my big concern that this isn't going to be released to the public that they're not going to have the final draft before being able to make a decision i just listen at the end of the day it's class works 120 kids they can
build another five class it's not going to be a,000 so I and as you said it went from 4,000 deaths to 3,900 in 2015 we're at 3,700 we're talking about 5% increase now you're talking and you haven't given
a date range for a thousand kids or you did it was 20 30 or 29 it's all five years listen I'll give the person I had if you guys 5 years i don't think I don't think it's happening uh within logic reasons
buildings just don't go that way so uh that's my only opinion i don't know where I sit on it i just think you guys need more money i don't know um This is the way there thank you not just the the new buildings it's like the old
developments like strap yeah there's only certain amount of houses they were built in ' 62 in the 70s we had uh a split schedule because there were too many students so then in the '9s we closed a couple of schools because but now they're coming back those are where
the children we had schools but I'm just saying that is where the it's a house listen I work in Portland they're knocking every house down and building triplex and bottlex and everything so this isn't a localized problem this is a New Jersey problem the
population is going in your head you're thinking explode they're not just not in the rate that you expect so I think we're going to just take maybe one or two more questions um and then we would welcome followup feedback
emails calls um unless you want to see 2030 we were supposed to end an hour ago i just wanted to time um and then also um I have I want to hear from this case about
um other other things that could be coming in terms of facilities [Music] so we have two bonds currently within the district uh those bonds were utilized for past referendums we will
have in 2027 2028 school year our last payment for one of those bonds so we've been working with our architect to give us an update on the long range facilities plan currently we are waiting for the demographer study which is coming to us much sooner than anticipated it is supposed to be 12 to
18 months we're under 12 months so we're lucky to have that and then we also want to utilize our architects to assist with the long range facilities when it's necessary um so that we can really get an idea of what
these facilities need uh currently our roofing that we have there is not one roof throughout the whole district that still has a warranty these were built warranties for 15 years have most now has either 20 or 30 years we did apply
for rod grants through the state we were approved however we need the money in order to put on or replacement um so we hear you we do pay taxes we are trying to figure out a solution um you know we
know when it comes to finances we're always looking for a return on investment um currently with where we are it's really a stop gap measure on whatever we decide in order so that in future years we're not changing the landscape of what we come accustomed to
in our building and with our and I know that's really hard to hear um but we know we see the news every single day we see our revenue streams are changing for every single day here out the state and we have been
very creative for 10 years and now So if we did uh if we need to in order for us to then replace our we do not have the money to do that so we would have to go all out for a referendum there's four times a year that you're able to do so
and why it's necessary but we do see our facilities what is necessary study what helped again capital project perspective not not an operational everyday perspective that's that's the difference
of what we're asking for for this particular program is to help our operational day so talking got to get a bandaid um just want to reiterate that that he did this even if there was any thought of
going to school to help us fully for anything so it's still um just for people that don't know I'm president of the board this year with Tara Vice President Martinez um board has been working really hard i want to thank them all for their patience with all the
questions very thorough um you know I don't I see all comments um we can work really really hard to look at all these numbers ask all the questions that you're asking if you live here too we don't want our taxes to go up um we have
kids in the district we have gone through the district are both out so um and it's important for us to hear from you so we appreciate that but we care the comments board doesn't care i take that really personally because everyone
cares thank you and I I didn't want to say something on my birthday um that um all of the board meetings are posted on YouTube so uh if you want to see what happened you couldn't make it out let's say you got little ones at home they're asleep that kind of thing um definitely
check that out they're all on YouTube and our um our agendas are posted ahead of time a ton of information is and that they're available afterwards as well our minutes are available afterward as well and um the reason that it's a Google form now for feedback for those who have in the past emailed us and now they're
using a Google form that's so that it can go straight into our email inboxes when it wasn't emailed and it had to be filled somebody had to read it and then send it and it's this is just a lot cleaner so I just wanted to share that i don't have the official duties aside from the important number but I have my phone go ahead
thank you everyone and we look forward to continuing the conversation and your feedback