one good evening everyone adequate notice of this meeting was provided by sending such notice to the Asbury Park Press the Middletown patch and the Middletown Township Public School District website and the posting of such notice at the August T minor administrative office offices in each elementary middle and secondary school
in the district roll over mrs she's here what you say say you're going to roll mrs camdi here mr fitzgerald here mrs min here mrs golski here mr s here mr t here mrs ray here this is
tobacco here mr here please stand for the pledgece to the flag of the United States of America standy and justice for all okay we're now going to open up the
microphone for public comment [Music] we don't need to unless there something you want to speak about anything you need to speak about we can do contract i don't know if there's anything that a board member needs to speak about
okay and then we were If you want to make a motion depends I think that's a function of the program you use for your uh agenda automatically post that but there was no as far as I know
there was no planning session just once again we're going to open the microphone up for public comment if you wish to make a public comment please step forward state your name and address for the record so [Music] I would make a motion that we delay
until 7:30 how about you [Applause] one good evening everyone okay before we get to public comment I'm just going to pass over the microphone to Mr thor to speak about an agenda item
that we just added it's for number seven mr d you can speak about it thank you Mr pone uh we are going to be uh having on the agenda tonight a resolution to approve the acceptance of a proposal
from our stock loss insure uh for the policy that would be in effect July 1st 2025 from Zurich American Insurance Company uh accepting their proposal as a stop-loss carrier for their medical and prescription drug plans per proposal
that was submitted u we're putting it on the agenda because of uh the due date of the of the renewal into foreign export meeting thank you Mr d okay now we're now we're now going to open the microphone up for
public comment if anyone wishes to make a comment please step to say your name and address for the record [Music] hi everyone Kristen Nie um one Oakdale on Atlantic Highlands i don't think I've ever given me that one before um I just
wanted to start um by saying thank you um I think we've come a long way since March 18th and we asked for transparency and communication that day and to be part of the conversation of what Middletown is going to look like and our
schools going forward and um I think this is a step in that direction um and we're just we're looking forward to basic a resolution now and in the future continuing to be a part of this so I'll hand it over to others who have more
things to say than I do but thank you thank you good evening dan 39 hi I'm Norard Doss 44 Onita Avenue so I think we're here to talk
about yet another tax increase or tax adjustment i think there was going back to the drawing board as requested from what I've heard is that we need to reassess what our tax uh levy is going to be for this next year and digging into kind of the numbers and and
what I've been seeing right i'm part of the budget and data group and historically what I've been looking at and seeing is missed opportunities of tax increases as a drip fee right is slowly
increasing year-over-year which also has an exponential increase on your actual operating budget you miss it one year you don't recoup it by the same value next year so I think what we've seen and what we've calculated out is if we had
about an average of a 3% increase over the last 10 years or even 6 years is we would have had a much better solveny situation we wouldn't have depleted our reserves we would have enough budget to
operate at the at the ask today and you know I'm still digging into the the requirements from the state for ad adequacy and I think part of that also is penalized because we are below where our adequacy should be so we are being
punished which also adds to our deficit so we are we by keeping our taxes artificially low if you look at inflation we in the last 6 years we've only had increases of anywhere from 1 to 3% inflation has gone as high as 7% you
cannot operate by being 4% under inflation so I think one of the things that we need to do and take away from this is we shouldn't be faced with this 10% increase because there is a a precipice that we're on because of mismanagement or or missed opportunities
over the last 10 years i think that's that's something that is is very clearly stated or seen when you look at the numbers but I know when you're trying to present it to Middletown and to everybody out in the general public it's
hard to say we need to increase your taxes a little bit every year but that's a lot easier pill to swallow than a really big pill in one year [Applause]
so property tax calculations are tricky and interlated with a lot of factors but you know in good faith I'm going to try and represent the the best you know and based on best data available you know the max budget increase that this board
has an opportunity to go to would be a shock um but it nets out to an effective 6% property tax increase assuming the other municipal increases stay the same so you know and this is in a year where we found that you know home values are
going to be reappraised for 11% more so essentially what the max budget increase that you could actually you know deploy would still decrease the tax rate because basically you know you're you're
char home values are outpacing the tax or budget increases that are available to you right so no matter what even if you maximize the budget you're still compressing the tax rate so I think that's important to to get across
And if anybody wants to chat after the meeting we can kind of dive into those numbers um again the best available information you know Tony Curry would you know floated to 5.8% and 10.1 has been you know a budget
increase of 10.1 you know that would cost you know that jump from like let's just say 5 to 10 would cost the average Middletown homeowner about $294 a year so going from a 5% increase on this school budget to a 10% increase on this school budget is real dollars for for
you know every household in Middletown which we're sensitive to but going back to Dan's point if we had just raised taxes 3% incrementally going back even 5 years we wouldn't be in this situation so with the maximum budget increase that
is available to you today I'm optimistic that you know state funding can start to match with adequacy and you might be on a path towards normaly without holding schools you know enclosures hostage here so you know my my my plea is to just you
know let's not stop making let's stop making the same mistakes we have an opportunity here to get things on track for real um and I hope that the board can do that all right thank you hi Julie Armstrong at 206 Walnut Street
um so we are in a position where our district is bleeding out no matter what got us here the decisions the missteps we are now at the point where we need to stop the bleeding and we've been handed a tourniquet in the form of of a proposed tax levy and right now it
appears to be the only concrete solution on the table to keep our school district alive and we need to be clear that this levy is not a cure it's not healing the wound it's just stopping us from immediately losing more more staff more
programs more students and more trust but once you apply a tourniquet you don't walk away and say "Job done." You act fast carefully and strategically to address what caused the injury in the first place and that's where we need to go next so let's ask the real questions
what happens after the levy what is our plan to make this district financially sustainable long term are there additional cuts planned if so to what to programs to people to schools and most importantly how will we protect what matters most the quality of education
and the strength of our community the answer has to be strategy not just emergency measures we need a forward-looking plan one that builds a stronger foundation and this means full transparency means real meaningful
community involvement and by that I mean true representation parents educators from every school in the district senior citizens who've shown up and spoken out new families who are just joining our community in addition to legacy families who built their lives here we need the
taxpayers representing what they want which is both excellent schools and responsible spending and we want seats at the table not just for final decisions but for the process the data analysis the RFPs the walkthroughs the
top tradeoffs we are engaged informed and passionate community let's use that invite us in let's build a real plan one rooted in smart budgeting efficient operations and a shared commitment to our kids and their future the levy buys
us time but what we do with that time is up to us let's make sure we use it wisely joanne Altis Thousand Oaks Drive Atlantic Highlands hello my name is Joan Altis i'm the mother of a third grader at Neasync Elementary and the treasurer for
fundraising for Save Our Schools when my ex-husband and I were trying to decide where to raise our daughter we agreed on Mammoth County we both grew up here but in different towns he constantly praised his education from Beij and convinced me middle town schools were the way to go
and I did not agree easily or quietly do you know how annoying it is to tell your ex-husband who's right i And that is exactly what happened after only a few months at NBC this school quickly became our village our community and it truly feels like
home so we want to do everything we can to keep our community alive as I said earlier I'm treasurer of Save Our Schools but I've also been an operations professional for over 10 years managing budgets of over $und00 million that being said budget transparency is not hard the lack of transparency and the
level of difficulty to get answers from this board is concerning please work with us and be transparent about how much money is used work with us and be transparent about how much money is needed under each proposed plan and where we can help fill
the gaps you have a motivated passionate and hardworking community ready to do the work to keep our schools open in only a few weeks Save Our Schools mobilized and put together multiple events showed up to every forum held a rally basically made a clothing line and
raised all of the funds and more to bring visibility to both what has been happening to Middletown don't even get me started on how much our individual PTAs fund raise every year imagine what we could do together as a community with a long-term thoughtout fundraising plan
to help bridge the gap to what the district receives in funding and what is actually needed we've already had conversations with Rumson and Fair Haven about their gap funds and can get this up and running quickly and work with you to raise money to provide for our schools there are also opportunities for grants that can take on some of the
costs for maintaining and improving our buildings let's start a grant committee focused on finding money for our schools for example Navasync is eligible for a grant from the New Jersey Historic Preservation Trust for capital improvements such as roof repair ADA accessibility HVAC electrical upgrades
and more i urge you to use the resources the people in this room so we aren't standing in these same positions this time next year thank you good evening Josh Grley 305 Park Avenue dancing as discussed this budget
shortfall has been known and projected for the last 5 years we have not kept up with inflation during our budgeting process cutting programs downsizing staff closing our beloved schools cannot be and should not be the only solution to this shortfall why is no one on this board or
administration move for a referendum to raise a portion of our property taxes that go to schools to be more in line with similarly situated towns in Mama County putting forth a referendum to properly allocate funds across all of Middletown will help to create a sustainable future for a better
Middletown where our kids are supported educated and kept safe a referendum will allow the good nature conversations to continue and will work in tandem with a factual and datadriven strategic planning the referendum will provide a runway to create sustainable success and
can be a plan that all of Middletown can get behind and be brought into the long long-term strategic planning procedure thank you very [Applause]
much to Middletown Avenue so I had what uh is fair to call screed prepared for this meeting uh it talked about things like arrogance deception contempt for transparency and
proper communication about the costly and embarrassing politicization of our school board by people who clearly don't have eyes for office and of course and of course about the years of financial
negligence but since I wrote that screed uh the incredible ground swell of community activism and engagement and frankly a whole lot of damning press coverage has had an effect we now have some reason to believe that this board
you will change course and will not close our top rated schools at the end of this year will not overcrowd our middle schools next year will not rip the hearts from our local communities and will not decimate the ranks of our
teachers but the current proposal of a 5.88% school levy increase which is about a 3.6% 6% overall tax hike in the town a property sale and a non-eing staff cut is not enough as others have
pointed out to address the root cause that brought us to this place the simple fact is that Middletown hasn't been putting enough money towards these schools this is well known for many years we've been raising our school levies slower than the rate of inflation
and in some years not even at the automatically approved 2% this has made for good headlines and easy votes for you all and for us not having to vote but it also means that we've been slowly
but surely starving our school district tens of millions of dollars in potential school funding has been left on the table has been lost as a result our reserves have been drained our buffers are gone part of the problem too is that the tax split as Josh pointed out
between our town and our schools is we're decidedly below average as compared to our economic peers in the county and how much of our overall taxes we put towards our school system and I concur i think uh a referendum on that
is absolutely in order so even if the board shortly approves a proposed 5.88% levy increase our school will still be 7 12% lower than if it had simply kept pace with inflation since the 2019 2020
year so that is $13 million lower in real spending power than we gave our schools in 2019 2020 and we will face a dire situation next year once again now in just 3 weeks many of my
fellow towns folk have already come up with novel and creative ways to reduce expenses and increase revenue and I have no doubt that we will discover even more across this coming year but this may not be enough to set our school system back
on the path of financial stability and sustainability the prudent move would instead be to take advantage of the singular opportunity that we have this year according to the recently discovered uh state opportunities that
superintendent alone uh communicated to us and raise 11 10.1% or about 6% overall tax increase even this hike would not put our school budget back to the level it was in the 2019 2020 year
in terms of real dollars but it would be far better than this half measure that you were considering today ultimately it comes down to a question of what sort of town we want to live in a a town with mediocre and
slowly diminishing schools or town with schools of the caliber and excellence that we can most certainly afford and which our children deserve on a separate note I'd like to I'd like the uh board to address the issue of why the township is at least according to
the data that I saw reported in the newspapers why the township is preparing to pay just 1/3 per acre to our school district and it agreed to pay for the matter day property did we get impartial appraisals
in these properties did we get second opinions i know they're not exactly equal but that gap is profound and I would love some answers on that in terms of transparency would anybody else wish to take a hold
of it uh my name's Eric Dowel two Maxon Avenue the post office says I live in Romson but I don't i live in um I'd just like to reiterate uh Christ Rooney's comments uh in the beginning a thank you um this was
a we saw a community speak and we saw our elected representatives listen that doesn't always happen that's very meaningful we we've come a long way in a few weeks um I'm I'm not an elder person but clearly some of my colleagues are and I listen to them best we can tell we
we do not have a spending problem in this district we can nibble around the edges we can quibble with things like like scoreboards uh but fundamentally we have a revenue problem and it's one that's built up over time the tax revenue increase averaged something like
1.89% from 2011 through 2023 and in 2024 it wasn't much higher and as I understand it teachers in this district are contractually entitled to a 3% annual raise so again we don't have a spending problem we have a revenue
problem we also have an opportunity um this state benefit if we want to call it that it doesn't sound like it's guaranteed to be available next year um so you have an opportunity to remedy with the benefit of hindsight what we
see was historic under taxation um and and catch up and more importantly gain some flexibility in the years to come so we're not all back here next year with a new hole uh the opportunity to get a runway as a district uh the opportunity
to have meaningful conversations to get you know community steering committees up and running in consultation with the board and the administration the opportunity to think meaningfully about referendums to to really finance um what what needs to happen with respect to our secondary schools the opportunity for
these community fundraising efforts to get really ramped up um and you you've heard we've already gotten a fresh start um so it's it's rare that you're going to have a bunch of homeowners say "Please tax us more." Uh but what we're
saying is "Please take advantage of this opportunity that presents itself this year to put this this budget pole not only not only close it but but at us and give us that multi-year run it's something that I think the community and
I suspect many folks up on the stage would really appreciate thank you hi I'm Erin Tuarez i live at 170 Grand i'm a lady with a baby but the baby's sleeping um I wanted to just really
quickly say um obviously I'm a mom i'm a teacher my daughter's in kindergarten and I really got to know Davis Bank in the community because I was on maternity leave for the first half of the year and one of the things I got to do was to go into the school for one of uh the activities and I heard two teachers that
didn't know me they were in the hallway talking and there were two things that they said one about a fifth grader and they had an idea for the whole fifth grade and talked about an exciting thing that they could do with them um to talk about the things they missed in kindergarten during co the second thing
they did was talk about uh PD something that they had learned in a class the night before and they were going to go to a meeting and I'm so ready to present this to my colleagues and I was like "Oh my god these people love their job." And it was so refreshing and I went home and I talked to my husband and I said "Um
we're really lucky that we're here." I said "These people love their job." We're talking about money we're talking about salaries we're talking about benefits and yes our salaries are contracted and yes they're open to certain amount um benefits are going up
but we have no control of that they're going to go up more because of CO because of inflation because of everything else going on in this state and in this country but we need to really tap into our staff they know our buildings they know our kids they know our community and we rely on them and we
support you and we hope that you do what you can and that you support them in supporting us thank you would anyone else wish to make a public comment seeing no one else coming forward I wish to close a public comment
sure [Music] [Applause] spur of the moment demography of Leonardo um I guess I
think I think we've all pretty much had a crash course in this but to the extent that we haven't maybe we should just do like a little wonkish how school budgeting actually operates your budget has to come up with
something known as an adequate budget the way you do that is you calculate a baseline figure basically what it's going to cost for each student to be educated you weight that by middle school or high school etc right you add it all up that's the cost of actually
educating the district you call that an adequate budget am I correct okay now what then gets split up is the local fair share which is what the town can provide if I'm not mistaken the median
income the median middle number of Middletown is $141,000 a year hooray we're a rich town our property values on average I believe are $765,000 [Music]
good okay now when it comes to our local fair share what I seem to understand over looking through reams of spreadsheets and data and find out is that we don't
actually provide our local fair share that is in line with what we can provide the two things that go into determining the two things that go into determining your local fair share
contribution is your income level and your home values that gets divided by two the local fair share comes out okay the rest of that is then filled by the state with equalization aid basically this year we got called out by the state for saying you're a rich community with high property values and historically
you haven't actually funded your school system at a basic adequate level the whole thing with New York getting aid come on that's race baiting let's grow up okay move to Newark okay so which obviously has much higher levels of uh
much higher rates of poverty so we don't want okay so where does that leave us well sure we could worry about a one-time increase and fill a gap or something like that but at the end of the day I have bad news for you you have been
defunding effectively your school system for a very long time it is up to us collectively as a community to get ourselves out of it by funding our local fair share and I'm sorry this is a Tina
eventually there is no alternative to that it will have to happen okay we can afford it we should in line with that seem to be having this debate of 5.88% versus 10.1% versus Okay if it's my understanding the
board of education's job is to provide an excellent education administratively and financially for the students of this district i can't imagine if somebody said to me "Hey Beon you have the opportunity to get a 3% increase or a
10% increase or a five and then you sign off and say "Yep I'll go with the low the lower one right i mean that's effectively what you would be doing by not asking for not asking by not voting for the max it would make no financial sense whatsoever." And as I broke down
at the last meeting it's effectively the cost of two appetizers at the Outback per month to the Outback so I guess in closing I don't particularly know what's on the agenda for tonight necessarily but the fact that we are actually talking
about maybe not going for the max and adequately funding the local fair share which we will have to do at some point no matter what is economically ludicrous podium is over here
thank you for your time [Applause] hi everybody Melissa Mir
168 i wanted to thank you all i did not speak at any of the other meetings because we have so many really really dedicated people who are digging in and looking at everything that's going on
and making alternative suggestions and I have I wanted to thank you because I feel like I've been asleep for a little while since I moved to Middletown i spent a lot of time in another district
um actually meeting some of you there and having a lot of passionate discussions and a lot of um you know difficult discussions and when I moved to Middletown I felt like
you know I can relax everybody is in good hands this is a great community you know we can kind of just sort of pull pull back and enjoy life and I feel like a little bit of mistake because clearly
while we're you know enjoying our homes and our schools and our communities there are things that are happening you know that we're not really aware of or that we're not being um made
aware of so I wanted to be really clear that throughout all of this discussion today in terms of your ability to raise taxes and our willingness to engage in that conversation at the same time I feel
like I at least personally will be watching really closely every single We're not going to be asleep we're going to be in every meeting and we're going to be digging into the activities the
contracts the deals and whatever else is going on because if we're going to say yes tax uses more I want to know exactly where that money is [Music] going remember the time is going to be for you
to acknowledge what you guys have been doing so this isn't just because today you know there's going to be a positive vote and we're all just going to go home on our way i think this is going to be a very long relationship thank you
hi you're safety ash drive um I'm not one to like to get tax more um but I would like to propose that um as we go through this process we look at amending policy um I believe it's
5117 um assignment of students and attendance areas um I think that needs to be an operational um decision of the administration the board can certainly um put parameters around it for example
the board can approve if there be if it ends up requiring a school to be closed but I think we are getting hampered by not being able to do little things like put some relief or give new moms relief because of the weird zoning that we gave
port um and I think that the administration needs to be able to manage that also having gone through this in 2014 2019 and now here we go again um what
tends to happen is um school um class sizes seem to increase in certain schools that have more classes so the smaller schools like Navasync which is beautiful I I would love for my kids to have gone to a school like Navync um
when you only have two classes it's very hard to combine and and and to cut things so I really think that we need to look at this policy and we need to make sure that um that the administration can work effectively with it so that we can
make sure that the class sizes are fair across the district as we move forward thank you or Acts 16 i wasn't planning on speaking tonight um but I just kind of want to echo what um
Yura had just said um I feel like this is becoming a very north versus south um debate and as a parent of children who go to Nutswamp and Thompson
um I don't feel like there is equitable education being given to the students um my son is at Thompson with over 900 kids he has classes with 27 and 30 he's
got 30 in his social studies class and 27 in his social studies class he's now living in a class of less than 23 people since kindergarten um my daughter is now a nut swamp she has usually about 22 in her
class and while I appreciate you know what everyone's here I think I think really what the big issue was this the surprise of this um the lack of planning and
transparency of this i think this is a bigger issue and you know I hear how much these people love their schools how much they love Madison how much they love Behore we don't have that sense of
community on the other side of town where everyone thinks you know we get so much more and I'm really getting frustrated hearing that i'm going to see my taxes raise by 10%
what are my kids getting more kids that's what they're getting so my taxes are going up 10% my kids are going to have more kids they don'tact [Music] i understand that but my kids have 960
kids in their school and they have classes with 30 and 27 what I'm saying is that we need to come up with an idea that works for all in [Applause]
Middletown i should say I should have sent my sister to the Beayshore there was a girl who talked about how she was did the transfer program to engage her in Thompson and how overwhelmed and like scared she was to be in Thompson that's
where my kids are every day so I just think it's really important that we come up with a solution that is equitable for all of middle not happening right now the class sizes in Thompson aren't going to go down whether or not whatever decision
gets made tonight class sizes in Thompson they're not changing it my kids are going to have 30 kids in their classes regardless so I just really hope that we need to come together as a
community right and there needs to be equitable education for all of our students thompson has been an issue for years why does Thompson have 960 kids and there's less than 600 at Beayshore and Thor like how is that
equitable it's all Why does my kid have to There's not enough room in the cafeteria the kids are bumping into each other in in the hallways like I feel for everybody this stinks like nobody wants
to be in this situation but I really think you need to think about all of Middletown and not just a small part of it we're all taxpayers and if we're going to increase our taxes 10% i want to know like how is
that benefiting my kids and 75% 80% of middle 10 I feel everyone here but we have to think about everyone we have to think about everyone and I think
that I understand that we're saying like the 5.8% is a band-aid and maybe and I agree that it is but I think that we've been banding let's take that I think
it's and then we will come together come up with a strategic plan which we should have done 10 years ago I remember sitting when we dropped the ball we're going to redistrict and let's come up with a plan that works for every one of the 8500 students
in this town i want the best for everyone in this town but the reason you don't have more people from Thompson and all the other schools is because of the backlash and it's not
fair so let's come up with a solution that works for everyone we can come up with a strategic plan there's going to be changes i hate change i hate change more than anyone but you know what it has to happen and it had it should have happened 12 years ago i remember sitting
in this auditorium probably at least 10 years ago and they were talking about redistricting and everyone freaked out and we pushed the can down the road now we're in between a rock and a fireplace but honestly I really I
I really struggle with the 10% i really do because I don't see how my kids and how 80% of this town is going to benefit from it i really I just I think we need to fix this year family this year and I
think we can come up with a strategic plan there's going to be major changes if you It's not realistic guys they're they're going to keep 11 elementary schools open long term i'm telling you it's not it's not going to happen so Mike
once you increase taxes you're never going to come down and I'm speaking for the seniors in this in this town that don't have the disposable income i know some people talk about advertisers at Hoolands but you
know what our taxes are going up electricity in this state is going up and I think we need to be mindful like we need we as a board need to be mindful of everyone in the town if there's a way to fix this year and then come up with a
plan for next year it it's without a doubt something's going to change it should have changed 10 years ago drastically we're too big of a school to be operating without synergies and shared services it doesn't make sense it
just doesn't so I know that's not the popular opinion but it's how I feel and my kids are being affected in a negative way [Applause] hi I'm Catherine 144 Chestnut Sing um I
want to respond since you all really are not responding to anything that's been said tonight um I want to respond to the woman that just spoke and say that number one we hear you we wish that this movement had more representation from other parts of
Middletown we want something that works for all of Middletown as well i think the Yes there was a problem with the lack of transparency and yes a lot of people feel emotionally connected to their schools my kids are little they're not in the school yet so I can't speak i've heard wonderful stories about
MedSwap about Naplesync about Thompson i hear you on the overcrowding but when I started to hear that we were going to close these schools and take what you just aptly described as a very overcrowded middle school and shove even more kids in it that [Music]
high Totally agree yes I think it's but I also hear what some of the folks involved are saying i can work in human resources i am not an economist but fortunately we have some of them
here if we have been effectively defunding our school system for years and years and years it's coming for you too it's not something that 10% increase to keep one tiny schools open right there's an increase
to get our school back on budget and on track with inflation step two of that is absolutely a strategic plan that needs to have the involvement of the entire community because I think it's clear um and I think you know to tie things together with what was said earlier
we're going to be watching i don't understand I think like logically it's hard for me to wrap my head around how some of these decisions or lack thereof have been made so either there's somebody getting an incentive somewhere that we don't know about and we're going to have
eye or facing a political career if you don't want to be the person that says you leave taxes look at our peers look at the rest of Mammoth County and get our school system back where it needs to be nobody is saying raise it 10% just
keep Nasync open but if raising it 10% is going to get us on the and Leonardo i'm sorry everybody here um if it's going to get us back on track with where we should be based on the rest of the county based on
the rest of the state based on the rest of the country you can't go on forever just being the guys that don't raise taxes it's going to catch up with you eventually and unfortunately we're here on the precipice of a recession trying to figure it out so I don't know what the solution is but it needs to be a
strategic plan it needs to involve everybody including the senior citizens that don't have it in your school system but you make no attempt thus far to have that conversation authentically and thoroughly and that's what we'd like to see as a next step thank you
hi everyone Park Avenue um just a quick clarification about issue main issue is capacity as we prove the capacity numbers are actually very different from
what was presented we cannot and I completely agree we have to actually increase our actually building capacity so strategic planning is the main goal for the future if Thompson is overcrowded maybe that's where we need
to build an addition um without why currently someone said "Okay Thompson has 900 something students versus Basher on Thor left." The main reason is actually special education kids we numbers that's why they differ
Thompson has zero self-contained special education kids we can't compare apples to oranges when we comparing numbers we need to look at overall everyone needs to be involved redos kids I don't care if they go to
Thompson to Bashure there are special education kids at Bashure and Torm we need to include everyone in making strategic planning so if Thompson is overcrowded in three years our bonds are off let's actually plan ahead and actually maybe do an addition because the numbers that you provided that
you're willing to spend 750 million that's just bob numbers then if we build a new municipal building brand new scratch huge half empty for 60 million how are you planning to build 10 new schools I mean I'm not quite sure how
you get around to 750 million for renovations you can build you can scratch everything and build Everything brand new top t top whatever you I don't know what you imagine you have in there but you can do whatever you want
so the first issue is capacity we proved the numbers are not reflecting reality we cannot afford to close schools second inflation is running high and now I don't know if you're aware but we put the 10 1 104% target from China the
inflation probably is going to be higher so you need to be proactive instead of reactive um thirdly we did come up with alternative plan you can sell land make sure you get fair price for it you can actually we have very
dedicated motivated outstanding teachers supposedly we have the best teachers in New Jersey why don't we use them to actually bring in-house training for other other teachers i know amazing teachers that will be great mentors to young teachers and bring that whatever
training the teachers get in house and save money that way [Applause] i think municipality can actually take the full cost of policeman instead of sharing half
I wasn't planning to talk today so I'm on a sixth now actually actually one more thing actually I remember what I wanted to say um so to operate NASA thing it cost around 170k
per year similar to Leonardo uh and I'm assuming average salaries on admin is around 150k per year so I'm I'm not quite sure what why do we need 26 admin where are the cutting admin because that I
would like to actually have a in in a normal job you do have performance reviews I'm assuming that's being done at admin yes okay great so when you sit down and review your head count I'm assuming we're going to get
some count yes or no maybe are you going to are you planning to have to cut head content admin administration from the top so how many are you assuming to that we don't know that we don't know okay i would
suggest So Middletown used to have admin to student ratio around above 2002 10 years ago five to 10 years ago now we now we are at 182 so I would
suggest so that implies we have more admin versus students i would suggest bring that ratio back up so we have less argument for the number of students we have lastly about our demographics and stuff so I moved to 308 Park Avenue 12 years
ago we were out of the 14 households on that street we were the only family with little kids now the same street has over 50% of households with kids actually that I are already in in elementary school or
middle school or the little ones that are even entered the school district here so I don't buy this whole oh we our enrolling is going going to go down actually I think it's going to have to be opposite our enrollment is going up because of
the babies that actually were born after poverty which we do so I would just suggest look at your spending make smart decisions that actually and plan ahead because many schools may be overtraveled for
different reasons and we need to also take care of our special education kids do your job well and if you need help we are happy to help [Applause]
hi my name is Ashley i am from One Forest Rise i am a new mom and mom i have three kids currently in the school district one who is in daycare so we're going to have another one going into the school
district shortly um my oldest is in fifth grade he actually spoke to you guys at the first public forum which I was very very proud of him to stand up and start fighting um but I want I I want I kind
of want to talk about my middle son my middle son his name is Nathan he goes to radio he has ADHD he has a developmental delay and he is in a secluded class he needs to be in a small class size no
bigger right now than 10 kids um so when we moved here back in 2021 he we we didn't know that you guys
separate families when it comes to their needs so imagine my surprise two days before school starts I get a letter from uh my oldest's ch school teacher at New Mama then I get one from a teacher in
Bay View me thinking it's a mixup i try calling a school no comments whatsoever it goes to voicemail and I try emailing emails always bounce back because you can't get a person so you are leaving these pleading voicemails 2 days before
school we have fallen in love with the baby community go to Bayore and he talks about them every day if you walk the schools you have seen my son because he is probably the one kid in Bayu that all
these kids know which is hilarious because he is his in his own little world and that kid can make anyone in this room smile when I told him what was happening his first thought was what's happening
to my friends not what's happening to him not what's happening to his teacher but what's happening to his friends and it broke him he started crying and I go "Nothing's in stone yet we have to fight." and he is so
scared for his friends they don't He doesn't know what's going to happen to them next year he doesn't know if he's ever going to see them again because of where the where the middle schools are going to go for these kids who are in special
needs there needs to be a better guide for them these kids who are in Bayshore need to know last year what was going to happen not today they're
very oriented in the fact that they have routines you're going to disrupt their routines again these fifth graders with special needs have already had their world shaken the fourth graders have already
had their world shaken when they had to start school virtually now I don't know how many other special ed parents are out there but virtual with special ed with special need kids were the liquor store knew me by
name okay because you were you couldn't work i don't know any parent who had a special needs parent where both parents were working at the end of CO because you couldn't i'm begging you please do not
make these kids class size any bigger they can't handle it yet eventually I'm hoping they can i'm hoping they build the skills through their teachers but I also wanted to say one more thing that
um kind of mind boggled me when I was at back to school night I went to go meet his therapy teachers my son Nathan he has speech therapy physical therapy and occupational therapy to my surprise I couldn't find
one of his therapists at back to school night to find out that they're all contracted so what is the cost between the contracting programs versus actually hiring to have someone in
house that much of a money savings if anything I would think it's more expensive and then because you're having kids who cannot go to their zoned schools they qualify for busing that costs
money i know that there's kids that are closer to Harmony being bust across 35 ply to go to village that makes no sense to me whatsoever if it's a numbers thing then
you know maybe trying to take the schools and drawing a 2-m radius around each elementary school might help you figure out where you can get numbers at home and save money just food for thought but in the end
please for these kids who need the therapies and everything like that and need those small classrooms don't don't don't mess with them they are already they're already freaking out as it is and you know they
get very loud too when they're upset so Would anyone else wish to make public comment hi uh John Converse i'm in 12th Maxon um my neighbor mentioned earlier that uh Napsink Elementary is eligible for
grants from the Historic Preservation Trust um I just want to point out that the deadline for that is April 24th so
[Applause] Anyone else wish to make a public comment
[Applause] scott McN Leonardo i wasn't planning on speaking to but the parents who had spoken so eloquently about the issues that you're faced with got me to come up here and speak to you know part of my
job a big part of my job is risk management and I understand that you as a board have to take that in consideration as well regarding the issues that you're faced with so we understand that and we acknowledge
them one of the big things that in family law that they talk about is the best interest of the child now I don't practice in family law i'm glad that I don't but when you as a board when when you're you're talking about this uh
propo this what you know the issue that's on the agenda tonight we want you to take into account the best interest of our children throughout all of Middletown and to the parent that got up here from Swamp and Thompson we hear you we really
do and we want to engage with you and we want parents from all across Middletown here with us we also want to hear from the board we want to know what you're thinking so we ask that tonight before you vote on the issues on the agenda we want to know
from our board members that were elected by this town what are your thoughts regarding these issues because we haven't heard any of them see no one else coming forward to make public comment i wish to close the public comment and move on with our
agenda dr yes um I just want to thank everybody for coming out um over the last several weeks I agree with many of the speakers who have talked about the fact that we've come a long way um I think the conversations have been
extremely productive um I'm just going to take the elephant out of the room right now there is no plan for school closure for next year hi I'm glad that you're all [Applause]
clapping so you know we've heard you loud and clear i think we're all recognizing of the fact that we all in this room are passionate and want what's best for our kids collectively from every corner of
the district and I think we have a captive audience i think that's important you know Mrs rooney I think last meeting talked about silver linings i'm a silver lining kind of girl myself and I think this is an opportunity i think it's an opportunity that doesn't
come often um in general just in organizations that are this big it's a challenge to engage people and have them see something this big through um you know I came back to Middletown 3 years ago because I believed in Middletown um
it was by choice because I believe there's something unique and special here and I really mean that so um I think it's a rare opportunity that we have here to continue to maintain what we what we have always known to be here
and I think that's really important um two things I just want to let you know have already happened is we have partnered with um a consultant that will help lead us through strategic planning um that will be a four to five month process where we will have full
community engagement anybody can fluidly come in and out of those meetings forums um you know they're not going to bind anybody because they know everybody's busy but um they will lead that charge and a lot of the work we've already started um I know we've have a survey
going out which we're appreciative that the parents had a hand in developing and we've gotten the highest response rate we've ever had for a survey and we will we were able to get that out to our community at large through partnership with the township that's number one the second piece of this which is an arm of
strategic planning is getting good data so we partnered with a consultant who will do a large scale efficiency study of the district um not only looking at infrastructure but looking at um lines we talked a lot about the sending zones
and who goes where and you know we're not immune uh you know oblivious to the fact that there are some some odd send and receives across the district that certainly create inequities as some parents spoke about um in not only
numericics of class sizes but also demographics i mean you name it it exists so I I truly believe this is our one unique opportunity to get this right once and for all um and and I'm happy to be a part of it i'm happy that all of
you want to be a part of it so you know I think we're committed to seeing this through on the whole um we do want to develop a steering committee kind of to anchor the ship so to speak with representatives from each school um but then everybody becomes what part of the larger strategic planning process so I
know I've sat with many of you and listen we want you in the room with us talking about these things and analyzing the data and really looking at what's good for everybody so um you know I wanted to put that out there tonight i want to give you more than hope i want to give you something tangible and know
that you know you have a partner in us in in moving the needle on this because this is our opportunity we've seen it fail multiple times before so we need to get it right because of our kids so thank you i just going to start with I will
make a motion to approve number six recommendation of the superintendent of schools whereas this will increase the taxes by 1% over our tentative 4.88% expenditures of $1.685 685 million
and a one-time incentive aid in the amount of $80,238 point of clarification please so what I'm not seeing here is well first of all let me back up because I was not part of this meeting with the township that made this deal and I don't think several
other board members were either she had service i'm sorry i'm speaking now and we were also not sure Like I said I'm getting to that okay i would also like to make it known that we were not given an opportunity as a board to discuss this before tonight emergency
meetings could have been called which I made clear both to this board and also the mayor and that was not taken up the mayor could have come tonight we could have actually had a session tonight and that wasn't taken up so now we're going to have this in public what I want to know is several things first of all on
March 18th we had to come up with a temporary budget number to be sent to the county superintendent we had not yet received an answer is my understanding when this deal was made last week have we received an answer from the county superintendent
the county superintendent has told us that they will not approve our budget without committing to um providing 2% of fund balance um for our next year's budget and we do have to commit to that in a letter to the Department of Education and what amount is that uh
approximately $760,000 to be added on top of what we're already facing correct correct okay so and also part of this deal is what the mayor announced in a press conference to be 40
positions of teachers if I'm understanding this correctly teachers not in a classroom administrative positions and duplicate positions now because I actually have a full-time job and can't just drop my work schedule and my responsibilities to my job when I am
summoned in a cryptic message to go to city hall on Thursday morning not be told why a meaningful chance to discuss whatever deal was made without our knowledge that then and there we find
out that there's 40 administrative positions and duplicate positions which to my knowledge don't exist so I would like to know before any vote is taken what those positions are it is
my that part of those positions are actually staff qualified staff that reach our students who are struggling every single day it's also other staff that make this district run i have a
problem with that i had a problem since day one i have a problem with the fact that we are now being forced into a position to now accept 5.88 which I am going to say and I don't know what any other board member feels
about this but is going to lead us right to the same position we are today one year from now it's very process that should have finished five years ago like I said March
[Applause] 18 as a district because we have done our district a disservice we have done our kids a disservice because it wasn't
sexy enough to get on Fox [Applause]
News and I understand that the mayor as he tried to tell us is trying to help he could have helped on March 18th he could have helped on March 19th he could have come and he could have talked to us as elected officials
to elected officials to figure this out but instead we get back into a corner where we bought and know that this is not a good deal we look like the bad guys when all we are trying to do is save this district and all I'm trying to
do is save the town that I love [Applause] how do you feel [Music] [Applause] i'd like to move to amend levy to go up
to 10.1 there's already a motion on the floor joe but what did you want to do i'm sorry it's been moved but no one's been second seconded so it needs to be seconded and then you wait I have discussion we do discussion
okay Joe you want to make a motion also i do yes which is I'd like to move to amend the proposed levy to go up to 10.1% we have two motions a discussion now joe um second I
want to discuss the motion that's on the agenda i was I was all for it um I thought you would help us but being that we have not gotten our tenative budget approved and we need more funds I don't see where that's feasible right now i
think we have to explore other options um but I do have to say I I was really disappointed tonight that we did not have a close session because we have not discussed as a board any of this
budget stuff and in my 23 years I've never seen anything like that i've never been a part so that kind of granted I'm telling you I truly truly feel I was all for the 5.88 then we get told last night or the
night before that the state is saying we need more money 5.88 isn't going to help us so I I can't go through with a yes vote on that and I do think that um So you want to raise taxes and more you saying I think
that is what I think wait this is what I think I think we have to have a resolution into the state by the 14th on whether or not we could take advantage of this one time deal so I would like to say we propose the 10.1
so that we have an opportunity to take advantage of any kind of an increase other than what we have and that this board seriously start meeting together as a board and come up with a budget but I have never seen us budget
so you I think we give her the resolution she doesn't have to go to 10.1% she has the opportunity to work out a budget that's going to help us with the numbers that the state is telling us we now have to add in and anything else that could help us get up
to adequacy now let me ask everybody a question where's the cost savings going to be whether you raise it 5.88 6.88 88 or 10.1 where's the cost savings year over year going to come in
well that's what I'm telling everybody is just by raising taxes is always going to be a band-aid taxation taxation I'm speaking right now one second taxation is great as a word but taxation
on the whole entire district is not the proper thing to do in [Applause] exact we can't this meeting cannot be productive if everyone's yelling out from the audience
like like I'm asking administration as well what is our way to get down our cost because as everybody spoke eloquently which we listen to yes I understand what everyone's saying if you don't cut down
your cost you're always going to have that cost there so if it's 10.1% that's about $16.5 million that only fills last year's gap so now next year you're going to be in this problem again with either one of
these problems [Applause] if we had actually taxed in the way that we should have went up to the cap of 2% every year we would not have less accumulated bank of approximately 60
to80 million you have a little base going forward to be able to then have cost then you have a strategic planning process that looks and answers the question you're saying what efficiencies what redundancies do we have you don't do that by closing three schools in two
months hey De I just had a question i believe it was last meeting you said "Stop kicking the can down the road this is necessary to close these schools." I never said it was necessary to close the schools that was not my quote what I said was leading the town to the fact
that five years ago is when we dropped the blah and not actually finished the strategic planning process then because what it had given us would have been time in maybe 3 years if we had to have gotten to this painful point we would have had three years to plan so you
weren't for closing the schools i was for a temporary budget number no I as you were for closing the schools when when Dr [Applause] presented budget number to get us to
where we are now to be able to do this so we have a motion on the floor to approve 5.88% total with the 100 I'm sorry the 1,685,000 and the $80,000 incentive 8
and there was a motion to amend and there was a motion to amend it which was seconded also up to 10.1 if needed okay so that that's a secondary motion so we're going to vote for a 10.1% increase right now temporarily if needed if
needed just to clarify I want to clarify what the 10.1 means the 10.1 means that that's the max we can take advantage of we do not have to eventually in the end use all 10.1 but if we don't approve the
10.1 we can't utilize it so that's all we're voting on right now so you want to vote for a 10.1% increase possibly [Applause] excuse me excuse me everybody wants to hear us talk we want to talk right now
okay so the 5.88% 5 guys we can't hear up here [Music] [Applause] [Music]
if everybody can be respectful cuz we used to listen to everything everyone had to say in every form and we actually came back to the table to find a [Applause] resolution can I speak okay silver nicely
excuse me sure you can speak more i had I had no knowledge of this budget until Amy and Jess spent several hours sitting down with me and several other groups of board members to try to come up with some solutions that were not knee-jerk reactions and when I found out that that
a lot of this budget was done uh I guess in secrecy because I found out from members of the finance committee that it wasn't even discussed in finance i'm just learning this whole process and I'm hoping going forward that we are all included in this because I think when you get nine heads together that also
listen to the community and are in the community and hear what they want we have a better chance of getting this done in a in a more thoughtful process so that it doesn't come to this again and I'm not for a 10.1% increase i own a business in town so I pay commercial
property tax and residential property tax but I also saw the numbers and how this school district has been decimated over the last five years for somebody's piggy bank i don't know whose if it's the township's piggy bank or whatever but we need to
get more excuse me we need to get the we need to get this budget back in order if we need to do the 10.1% to get there I'm in favor of that i'd like I'd like to speak now and ask you a question mark on February 26th you
sent an email about future planning future vision and budgetary planning thanking Dr alone for her thoughtful budget and the closure of schools which was necessary is was that not you who really was Frank
but let's reason I'm speaking now the whole reason why We are here right now is because of your the quorum of this board wants this and the people who are speaking out right now Mark should be speaking at you because you were the biggest advocate
for this my friend you wrote the email on February 26th and I hope people look for that that's fine and I'll I'll take ownership of that i sure did and then when I then when I got into it and I was in a facilities committee meeting and Miss Dy shared some some bids and I started looking at the bids and seeing
campaign donations I started getting Why don't you look at the shared services committee and the people that are on that and campaign donations with some of these i'm going to be respectful to everybody we want to we want to speak here and come to our resolution on the board if everybody can please stop just
speaking while we're speaking just so we can get this through okay okay so the motion to amend has been moved and seconded so that's before the board right now and this board is okay with the up to 10 more.1%
well I have a Frank I have questions about that if can I I'm not interrupting a minute i don't know if Dr alone can explain what Can you explain the this news we got about not being approved because of that dollar amount what is that dollar amount sure you are so you
can have up to 2% in your fund balance which is basically your savings right it's whatever drops down after you've paid out all your expenditures for the year um we last year used a piece of that fund balance to prop up our budget um knowing full well that it was going
to drop us below the 2% the state did approve it um but we were not able for all the reasons that we've already spoken about um not able to recoup that money to a place of 2% so the state is at this point requiring us to have a plan to recoup and put back our fund
balance at 2% so that is where that the 2% on our budget is about $3.6 6 million and the fund balance that we need to generate to get back to that 3.6 is that 762,000 and change figure that was told
to us yesterday they're willing to take a letter written by myself and Mrs doerty committing to that in our budget for next school year so that at the end of the year when we paid out all our expenditures we would have that to drop down into the fund balance thank you so
and then just followup question so that $762,000 that's that's obviously not the the gap between 5.88% tax rate correct 1% right how did that would equate to about a
6.15 it's about $1.65 million per 1% so procedurally then is the question really all or nothing 5.88 88 or 10.1 or is there a dollar remember you're only voting for the ability to go up to 10.1 you are not
voting for the actual tax increase at this moment that would come on April 30th when our final budget gets approved but if this is on the table and the board is debating that by not doing it you're limiting yourself into not being able to go up to that amount if the
board chooses to do so so you get this one moment because we have to submit that application on April 14th with a resolution stating what the board has committed to as the max that doesn't mean you have to use the max and that's what you know people are alluding to
just to clarify for everybody so if we voted for 5.88% what stops what what what comes next in terms of how you make up the 762,000 well that would be through either raising more revenue which the
tax increase could potentially do um or making more cuts which obviously listen I think it would be an egregious thing to decimate this district instructionally for our kids like I just can't in good
faith think of a world where that's okay because if we are putting children first that can't happen so my like it would be very challenging I think to be able to find at this point another
$760,000 to be able to do that because in order to have our budget approved we have to commit to that and that is 100% from the state we have to put it in writing so that wasn't accounted for when we started to figure out our initial budget figures and I know many of you have asked you know what are we
cutting where it's hard for us right now because it's a moving target so we are I have lists upon lists upon lists upon scenarios upon scenarios and all we do is go back and revisit them i mean my admin team can tell you every day
because we're like what can we consolidate or what can we create a better efficiency for that doesn't impact our classrooms but we are in the territory of like it could impact our classrooms and that to me is not something that I'm okay with
can I ask question please i want to ask this to Amy amy going to the 10.1 or below the 10.1 what kind of benefits do we see from that i'm sorry you said going below the
10.1 no going to the 10.1 or somewhere between where we are and let's say the 10.1 cuz we don't know where we're going we're just giving you the rights to go up to there if you had to what benefits does it do for the district well when you raise your your tax levy
that is recurring revenue that you'll have every year so instead of putting revenue in that's only available for one year that you have to recreate the next year you know that will there that would be there in your base to build upon for
subsequent years which would be a huge benefit because the last few years we have had quite a bit of revenue that was one shot revenue where it would not come back the next year and we would have to dig out of that hole before we start doing budget so that would be a huge
benefit to the district to have revenue that would actually be there for subsequent years do you have an idea of what kind of revenue it is as far yeah we projected today if we went to the 10.1 because we were kind of vetting this out we've had questions obviously
and we're trying to do our due diligence in giving people good information um if you look at how we were planning on efficient creating efficiencies consolidating some positions doing that type of thing without impact in the classroom we were looking at potentially having an overage next year of about
$2.5 million which is important because that allows us to save money and to drop things down into our fund balance and our capital reserves um we also get the incentive aid from the 10.1 which is another important piece even though we should not use that towards our
operating budget that has to drop down into some type of reserve as well so there are over and above benefits that don't we all also get an additional 400,000 that's the money I was referring to but that remember is dependent upon the rate that you choose to tax at so
it's proportional so that is why when you see on the agenda the 5.88 88 that I believe it was 80,000 coincides with that obviously the more you use the most we could get for that incentive aid is the 414 and I think there's a little bit
more like 200 300 something like that but um there we did that calculation today just to see in case we did get a question tonight what that would look like in practice and and that's about where we stand financially with that and then obviously anything lower than that
dwindles down that excess 2.5 that we would have if we kept everything in line with the the um reductions and the things that we were planning on making um but not willing to also sacrifice the important things in the district either
can you explain to us what happens if we just take 5.88 well that remains to be seen because next year well I mean obviously we can't rectify our budget at the 5.88 without other things happening which is where
the land sale and the other pieces came into play so obviously the 10.1 would circumvent the need for some of for particularly the land sale or you know a full cost sharing with the or you know the cost savings on the officers so
we're looking that tax increase would replace those other things in essence so without them we have to do something because I do not think it's proper and I don't think anybody up here or anybody in the audience thinks that we should be cutting 120 people and decimating
education for our kids i don't think that's where anybody here up here or out there wants to be i have a question i I have a question why wait the public comment public comments over the board's discussing no public
comments over the board is discussing the motion to amend the 10.1% sir you're out of order sir you're the board is discussing there was an hour of public comment sir you're out of order i'll I'll answer the question
right after we finish here i will [Applause] i have a question Amy so you guys who came up with the 5.88 that is on a resolution tonight if the administration is now saying they want to go to 10.1
I'm just confused like where did the 5.88 come from and are you guys not saying that that's what your recommendation is anymore we were told it was 5.88 told by who in our shared services meeting Amy and I sat there and we were
told because we said we were putting 7.37 on the agenda i don't I have no idea go say 5.8 so I'm sorry can I Can I just clarify can I just get some clarification so I guess was it back and
I'm not I'm not accusing anything i'm just trying to clarify but was that the back end of if we accepted the 600 and we accepted the sale at 2 million that's where those numbers came that it made the budget made sense then when I was at the shared services meeting this is what
was laid out to us by the mayor and the others who were there [Applause] services sorry so my question is at the 5.8 are we covering the new information
we got yesterday that the state won't won't approve our 4.8 are they going to approve us at 5.8 well we don't know yet we could as Miss Dr alone already explained that was not factored into that original scenario so we would have
to find a way to either you would have to cut more expenses you'd have to eliminate more things from the budget to make that up in order to create that 762,000 um there's no without raising revenue that's what you would have to do you would have to cut more expenses out
of your budget okay so what what is the percentage increase in taxes that covers that $762,000 it's about 48% i just figure out real quick i'm sorry what i can't It's about 46% another
another cover there's $1.65 million per each percent approximately so it's approximately 045 approximately 4.8% 8% 48% correct so 5.88 plus another what
48% [Music] correct 6.35 6.35 so I'm sorry just clarify so 6.35 would put that money in
to cover our fund balance or would our fund balance then go up that that would be the amount that would be increased to add $762,000 okay and at 6.35 is that also an increase in the incentive payment from 5.88 does every
increment we go up give us more of an incentive payment yeah but we don't know how much i mean it's it's it's roughly 5% of whatever you go up in the tax so I mean it's not exactly roughly 5% of that 762 so
[Music] okay the motion to amend 10.5 we all know that [Applause] [Music]
[Applause] you have to vote on the motion to amend the original motion up to 10.1% so discussion is currently open open no other motions can be taken no you have to resolve that one so if you have a different proposal you can discuss that
during the debate on this motion and then you can decide whether you want to approve the up 10.1 or go with some alternative so if this one is voted down then you can make another motion to amend the Okay thank you thank you
wait a minute wait a minute they we're talking about this motion of up to 10 record that means then the other motion is off the table the what's it the land
and the 5.88 the just to clarify the say the 5 the original motion's on the table and and Mr gerald made a motion to amend it so now you're debating the motion to amend it if that passes you're then voting on the original motion as amended
up to 10.1% that includes the land and the class the No no it doesn't so what we're what we're But what we're approving today is just the tax it's just a tax but the
first Wait Leonora leora the five this motion that we have right now does not include land at all it's just what we have the 4.88 plus 1% if if I could just clarify Mrs camini
this motion that is on the agenda is to authorize me to submit an application to the NJ DOE% to increase our tax levy by 1% to 5.88 and qualify for the aid that is related to that all that's all it
does it just authorizes me to put an application into the DOE to increase our tax levy to 5 million right but if but let me but I think I can add to her to the to to answer her question if we do that then we would
have to do other things that would have to be approved on the April 30th agenda to be able to meet our operating expenses correct so that's where the land and the police officer contract comes into play so that is contingent
with I guess the 5.88 and then after we get the response back from the state on this application whatever however it gets put in if it's approved then the next step besides what Dr our phone just said is we would have
to introduce our final budget that would reflect whatever changes that we're making to the tendant budget and then that is what we present at our public hearing and then that is what the vote the board has to vote on on April 30th [Music]
thank you okay any more discussion yeah so and I want to kind of go through uh I think how we got here Um so originally we were looking at a a 7.3
um levy um and that number it's not just like we're we're just throwing spaghetti at the wall right and you know trying to figure out it's 5.8 it's 7.3 those numbers actually mean something right and we're trying to play catch-up here to actually what the
number that we're trying to get to um and I when going through this kind of plan um we were looking at that actual you know brass tax number um and that brass tax number
is is around 11.6 million right that that's what we're looking at we're looking at that number um and uh at that time I think I called up uh Mr on on Friday um and we talked about the factory officers and
such you know um I I was actually going to try to reach out to the mayor and talk about possibly him taking over giving us a temporary reprieve on those class three officers um during that time I had a good discussion with the mayor and we kind of brought up different
things and he he agreed at that point if we put together a good plan he would take over you know half the um half the class 3s um at that point there was no discussion about land and you know what was going to happen going forward he he agreed he said you come up with a good
plan that's what was going to happen um so that 7.3 as we discussed I I told him I said we're just we're trying to get down to the 6.3 number that's that's the overall number that we're trying to get to but the actual dollar amount was 11.6 so if
he threw in the 800 or the 600,000 for the officers then we can walk that number down so we get it to 6.9 and eventually do some more cuts and get us to 6.3 where we all agreed um then I wake up you know or at Wednesday
I'm having dinner and then I see an email from Mr capone saying that we're going to go see the mayor the next day and the 5.88 came about um the 5.88 88 puts us right back where we are right now it it it it it just it prolongs it
it doesn't give us a strategic plan um you know when when we talk about you know strategic plan have it set we we want to get to that it it's we need to get a to a place where we're financially you know in in a in a financial
trajectory way where we hit the points of administration you know being up on contract where we hit the teacher contracts being up the bonds that are hitting up in 27 28 and that's what we need to get to to get to financial health right because we have to have
enough money to get there the 5.88 gets us to next year and we don't even get to that point right we're collapsing before that and it just gets worse and worse from there right because next year we're not just talking about Navasank and Leonardo you know we're bringing up you
know River Plaza and and Fairview and everything else and then we just keep collapsing i don't think collapsing these schools and and judging by the numbers they didn't work either it doesn't get us to where we need to be financially so um unfortunately I don't like raising taxes and I'll be the first
one to say that you know no you know I don't want to do that but this is the future for our kids you [Applause] know correct me what is our operating
budget this year versus last you mean the proposed budget or our current budget the proposed correct you proposed a budget of $19 is $187 million no 197 no the tenative budget that we
approved is $187 million okay so what's our proposed budget for next year that is the proposed budget that we approved where did the $197 million come from well that was before we we were going through all the cuts that had to come into play and
it included the school consolidation savings you missed my point okay last year we were at two years ago at 180 we went up 1% in that budget correct last year 1.2 so I'll take your This year we were
told it's going up 1617 million i I don't I don't have all these budgets lined up in front of me i know that our tended budget was $187 million for this year but I will say um it our operating expenses were projected at about $197
million and then in that budget that we submitted as the tenative budget included the consolidation plan which was approximately $4 million and then another $6 million for reductions we were making so when you look at our operating costs we were projected to be
at about 197 million we got it down to the number that Amy has just or Mrs doerty just said because of those things we were doing as part of the tenative budget obviously we have to take that now and reconfigure that because the consolidation you know isn't happening
and there's other things on the table for how to rectify that $10 million gap that we were left with after all the other pieces came into play does that clarify right that's just want to make sure that that's what I was seeing yeah
is there any more discussion any role what's the motion right now this is for the amended up to 10 correct so this is for the amended motion this is just to amend the motion this is to amend the motion
okay not motion no this passes you will then have to vote on the amendment please state that again this is just for the up to 10.1% this is this is to amend the motion to up to 10.1 if this passes we then have
to vote on the resolution as amended thank you mrs wright yes mr tull this is to have a motion on the table this is to amend the motion that's on
the agenda to reflect an increase of 10.1% versus I'll And then and then that will have its own discussion that'll have it own right we just discuss we just Yes mr sarowski yes mrs gowasi yes mrs
minuise yes mr fitzgerald yes mrs camini yes mrs tobacco yes mr capone up to 10.1% [Applause] [Music]
[Music] [Music] americans you said yes now before the board is the actual motion that's on the agenda but it's amended direct reflect up to 10% [Music]
so I don't know if there's any discussion right now questions just so now with this on the table Dr you mentioned it earlier could you just What's the procedure for
um was there a was a deadline for the resolution or something that's different from our budget deadline yes the resolution for the deadline is April 14th which is why we're voting on this tonight cuz Mrs already has to submit the application in order for us to be able to even consider utilizing that
10.1% in our budget which again will be reflected whatever number the board eventually lands on for the tax increase will be reflected in our final budget at the April 30th board meeting where we will outline the reductions and the tax increase and all the specifics of the
budget so we have quite a bit of work to do between you know tonight and then but that's the only this is just allowing us to utilize as much as we can in formulating the final version of our budget and could I can I also add the
board will be included in this process yes is that um so between so say this were to pass tonight and then Amy can Mr authority can submit the application to let us talk about how far we want to go to cover what we need to cover yes and
you know certainly we'll entertain discussion with the board in regards to you know where we all feel com or where they all feel comfortable landing in regards to that tax increase and the reductions that would have to offset potentially not going to that 10.1%
so we would we would have ongoing conversations then about truly you know balancing all these interests and everything about what number actually gets us to what we need or just I think we can all agree that if this process has shown us anything is that we're
picking among trying to find the least horrible of a lot of horrible options and what what I've I think a lot of us have been angling for is something that gets us not only the money to get us where we need to have some breathing room to do this but more importantly the time and the process to to think it
through the right way and I don't know that just saying just saying you know of course 10 point whatever the highest number is of course it's going to give us more money it's going to but I don't I mean I don't as I sit here today I don't like the idea that this and maybe I misunderstood
it but it sounds like we're talking about raising taxes as high as we can and forgetting about that we shouldn't be paying the full cost of the class 3s in the first place still part of the conversation I Yeah I think that there are many things that are still up for discussion and kind of outliers i know the property has
been up for discussion and potentially getting a second appraisal like there's a lot of other things that have been brought to our attention so I think that between now and the time when our finalized budget is due there's a lot of discussion that needs to be had about
all these pieces and how they fit together to be responsible to the taxpayer pay attention to what our kids need and um give us breathing room to be able to put together a plan that really works and is viable for the long term not something very short term and just
to add on to what Gary is saying you know I I think just because we're we're saying we're proposing to go up to 10.1% we still need to make the cuts that that we said i still stand by what I said in the beginning about cutting the fat we really need to look at it and
cut it as much as possible um but also on top of that shared services we really need to work on the mayor as well and and make sure or or see if he can help with you know still paying for you know our [Music]
officers also we need to take the land off the table we can't sell when we're desperate to get by it doesn't work and just to add on to Miss Kennedy's I think leasing the land is the way to go
so I I would rather not sell the land i'd rather lease it if we could our different land how does help it's reoccurring revenue how much it's $1,000 a month like what's reoccurring revenue versus $2 million it's better than zero it's a coach it's
a stipen like $10,000 you have to go over 20 years to get that $2 million back i'm not saying to a seller or not sell it i'm just saying leasing is not money generator for a district we're not real estate no I understand that but we have we have real estate just sitting there not doing anything i mean if it's
making $500 10 cents doesn't matter we're still making We want more development here we want less development here i would definitely say to do with the developer it has to do with revenue for the school board like for instance with with the Kings Highway right where there's there's a farm that
actually is looking to lease that they've been looking to lease that for a while we can lease it to a farm i know nothing about it could you tell me about it uh yeah it's it's what the mayor told us he said there was there was a cross from the other side in the If that is a possibility I'd recommend not talking about
[Applause] it all right we're going to move on now to the next [Applause] [Music] [Applause] roll call okay roll call for the
application for the additional expenditures as amended mrs wright yes mr tull yes mr sakarowski yes mrs golaski yes mrs manuise yes mr
fitzgerald yes mrs camdi yes mrs tobacco I know this isn't going to be popular but I cannot go on the record in good conscience voting to 101 i I listen you guys I we've heard you we have heard
you at the forums we have listened and you have asked for transparency you've asked her what our thoughts are and then every time I go to say something you guys say something over me and I'm I'm disinterested i actually had eye surgery and that's why I haven't been
looking over there but thank you for calling that out that's great but I'm going to Can I continue hippa i have supported I have supported our superintendent's
proposal from the beginning i thought that she proposed a plan that was fiscally responsible i thought it protected our teachers i did not want to see our education get decimated the quality of our education get decimated i did not
want to see our kids be hurt um I understand the the uh need for time for transitioning um and I think that we have had some decent proposals and we've come to some kind of a middle ground i
think there's still room to come to a middle ground with our tax base but I also have to consider that I represent the entire town of Middletown not just the parents who are in this room tonight and the senior citizens count to you and people who have written to us and advocated and begged us not to go up to
10.1 with that being said I cannot in good conscience even though my vote at this point doesn't matter the motion will pass my vote doesn't matter but I will make a statement that I will not support for this town being on the record that I would ever go up to 10.1% in this economy and with people
struggling that is my vote thank you Mr capone i will echo those sentiments and I will be a no up to 10% i said no that motion carries me there's one more motion when
we add i got it motion number seven business office business office consent agenda award of stop loss carrier for medical and prescription drug plans motion to approve so moved second you want to do a roll call or
roll okay roll mrs wright yes mr t yes mr sarasa yes mrs scholastic yes mrs finley yes mr fitzgerald yes mrs cami yes mrs tobacco
yes mr kapone yes [Music] uh old business is there any old business to discuss new business any new business to discuss
all righty i wish to make a motion to adjourn the meeting discussion all in favor i object have a great