Meeting call to order. Mr. Alvo preser here. Mr. Dcasta present. Miss Cinger here. Mr. Lardney. Mr. Luna here. Miss Ryan. Vice President. President here. Please stand for the pledge of allegiance. I aliance to the flag of the
United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. I seek a motion of close session. Sorry. It is hereby moved that the board of education adjourn into executive session
in accordance with the provisions of the section 8 of the open public meetings act chapter 231PL for the purpose of discussion and consideration of matters pertaining for the following subject student matters. The minutes of the executive session will be made available to the public when the need for
confidentiality no longer exists. I seek the motion to go into close. Stephanie, second by John. All in favor? Oppose. Okay, I seek a motion to come out and close. Tony, John, all in favor?
Opposed? Okay. Board statements. In accordance with the provisions of New Jersey open public meetings law, the Milford Board of Education has caused notice of this meeting to be published by having the date, time, and place there posted in the Burough Hall and the Milford Public
Library. Notices have been sent to the record and the Twin B. The board announces that under its long-standing policy, it will not discuss in public any comments made by members of the public concerning individual staff members. At this time, please be advised that all cell phones and electronic
devices are to be turned off. Meetings of the board are open to the public and all members of the community should feel free to participate. Before coming to the board, the chain of command should be followed. There are two portions of the meeting reserved for comments from the public. The first at the beginning of the meeting for agenda items only and
the second at the end of the meeting for other items. Issues raised by the public may or may not be responded to by the board, but all comments will be considered. The board requests that all members of the public be mindful of the rights of other individuals when speaking. Due to confidentiality and legal rights afforded by the state of
New Jersey, members of the public are asked to not speak negatively or in a derogatory manner about any employee of the board or any student. Recommended action. I seek a motion to approve the minutes for April 8th special, April 23rd work, and April 30th
regular. Stephanie, all in favor? Opposed? just Okay, we have a special presentation for the Elks Peer Leadership Conference. Mrs. Jagger, uh, thank you for taking the time to listen to these lovely students. We
attended a conference back in February, the New Jersey Alex Vision Conference, and I turn over to them to speak because I think you'd rather hear from them. I think this work. There we go. Yeah. The
arrows. So this past February, uh, the new Lopford Elks Musical Alliance funded us, seven students, to attend a peer leadership conference in Long Branch, New Jersey. There we had the opportunity to listen to guest speakers, participate in group workshops, and collaborate with other students on ways to improve our
school environments. Oh, this is our group picture that they do every year. And if you look really closely, you can see us all the way back here. Um, you can't really make us out, but I swear we're there.
So, uh, every day at this conference, it was a three-day conference, like just the whole weekend, there were, uh, specific speakers. I'd say there were about three or four per day. And here we just highlighted Patrick, George, Brandon White, and Craig Janei as they were like three keynote speakers we
found especially like relevant and uh, just impactful. And there were a lot of other speech here. There were a lot of other speakers. They just gave like 30 to an hour, like 30 to 60 minute speeches every day. And they were truly like emotional, impactful, and just they
were driven in our direction. And it was really great to hear. Um, so the first speaker we're going to talk about is Patrick George and more relatively about his workshop. Um me and Lily both sat down together at his workshop. But by the end of it, we were
on the total opposite sides of the room because um his workshop really helped us to meet and engage with um fellow peers and just get the importance of listening to each other. Do you want to speak? Um one of the main activities that we did
was having conversations with new people and having different levels of encouragement when they were telling us about something. you were supposed to pretend like you weren't paying attention and then pretend like you're really attentive to see the difference of how it feels to have someone care
about what you're saying. He also had um um like an activity where we folded like or no it was a pipe cleaner and we would do it based on like our dreams and aspirations and he would go around um asking people to present
their ideas and the whole um room would just like clap for you or like be really proud of you and it kind it was really impactful that other people took initiative to pay attention to your desires. So the next speaker that we want to talk about is Brennan White and he was a very
motivational speaker. Um both his workshop and his speech were both entertaining and inspiring. Though some aspects of his story were dark, they were also very positive and he did a lot of dancing and his skills were as a
professional dancer was used to convey to the students the importance of leadership and empowerment. Uh the biggest takeaway that he had in his speech, he kept bringing up his his key phrase and his key pose which was like own it. And he had this pose that was
like it was really awkward, but it was the point of it was that um you're supposed to just embrace yourself and not really think about people telling you that you can do something. So he would go around the rooms and during his workshop we were talking about different
personality types and the positives and negatives of both personality types and just about how like both personality types whether you might think one is negative can be can affect like your person and make you individual and unique. And that's the whole point of
his presentation was just like being yourself and not worrying about what other people think. Which is why he used to talk about how he was a dancer and that wasn't really like something that people would think he would do, but he liked it and he was good at it.
So Craig is like the main keynote speaker every year. Like usually um the speakers at this conference they like differ annually but Craig's been going back for I don't know how long like 10 11 years or something and he's considered the most impactful speaker.
Um what really stood out about Craig was like his how like emotionally driven and like thoughtprovoking his speech was. So when we first got there, he was the first um speaker and we actually like missed most of that presentation or most of that speech because we were there
late. But like what we first saw was how kids were like taking off their shoes in the room which we were all like really puzzled by when we first got there. But it was like a symbolic manner. like he had a lot of things that would be considered like a lot of the strategies for um like just communication were very
like quirky or they might seem very obscure, but if you just get to sit on it, sit in on it like a little more and just take in the atmosphere, it's very like productive. And then me and Christian and I'm sure a few other members here went to his uh small
workshop conference where it was very like there were kids were balling. They were like crying. They were just it was like one of the most impactful speeches I've ever heard. So Craig like grew up um when like an abusive household with
like an alcoholic mother. And then the thing what like really stood out was he didn't like he didn't take time to dwell on that misgiving. He just focused on like what himself and others in similar or way different situations can do to
further like benefit their future and use these like negative misfortunes that they've been given into this world to just keep going. And like he just he just really exclaimed that these misgivings didn't define their futures
as he had all of us write down the three worst things that ever happened to us on a piece of paper and then kids could anonymously share or they could read aloud like no one wrote their names on the paper but then at the end of it he had us all like pick up and throw the piece of paper across the room to
symbolize all these traumas and personal misgivings just going out the window and not defining us. And just to add on to that, I think one of the things that makes him most impactful for our students is he's from this area. He went to Promis Catholic High School. Um, so a lot of the things
he's talking about, we understand that area because we're from here. So in fixed mindset, this trip introduced new ways to navigate obstacles of life by allowing us to embrace the environment with an open mind. Each presentation was a deep
stories such as Craig's and Brandon's um that was used to show students that life doesn't follow a linear progression. Um we need to handle the ups and downs with grace and perspective. Being surrounded by like-minded individuals was a great
opportunity to expand our perspective, learn from our peers and examine our own lives and school environments through a new lens for mental growth. First of all, mental growth is like one's cognitive abilities and emotional intellect. And um this was my second year going along
with Lily. And each time I feel like that I've been at the conference and gotten home that I grew maturely and I came back like a whole new person by hearing different speakers and meeting with different students and our personal uh perspectives of
these speakers really shaped like the mindset that we bring to school and how um how they talked about their personal struggles and the growth of people who've overcome all kinds of um like obstacles in their lives really um is a
topic not mentioned much in like school and like student environments and just being able to be around many students who um came together at the end collaboratively to make a change in their schools was really the big part of
the mental growth aspect. So our peer leadership objective from this exper experience we want to take away what we learned and implement it into our school. As peer leaders we aim to encourage healthy relationships and positive communication between uh peer-to-peer and peer-to-peer
connections. You also want to see uh I think one of the biggest things I took away personally was just that from the conference itself, everybody who was there really wanted to be there and they wanted to engage in the activities. And obviously that's not something that's
easy to incorporate in a place like this where not everyone's going to want to participate in this stuff, but I think it would be really cool if we could like do a mock workshop of some sort because I know when I went I really
didn't think I was going to hear some of the stuff that I did. I didn't think it was going to be as deep as it was and then I came out of some of those workshops and it sounds cliche but I really did feel like I was changed because of some of the stuff that I heard and I think it would be really cool. So now to end this off on a very
positive note, we'll go into the highlights of the peer leadership conference and some of the things that I personally took away which started with meeting new people. This is a photo with from 3 days. These are people that we've met from our rooms, from breakfast, from
games, from workshops, activities, and having this opportunity to network with other like-minded students who are also leaders is especially important because you see such a wide array of perspectives from North Jersey, Central
Jersey, you see their lives. And these are people who really want to show up. These are people who really want to provide more for their communities, more for their families, and more for their schools. So, that's really important. And definitely learning. As Luke said
before, hearing about Craig Craig's story and hearing about the stories of other individuals was extremely powerful. And that's not really something that you can ever get out of a video ever. That's not really something you can see in a TED talk. Because being
there and seeing people get emotional, seeing people um cry and get forgiven and and rise and get this new confidence is something that really impacted me personally. And
of course, everybody can take something from this peer leadership conference when they're running. And also finally growing closer together as a group. This is one of uh our PE leadership games and activities that they do in between lunch, in between breakfast. And in the
beginning of this, I didn't think I was going to get closer to you guys as I have now. I thought I was always I was only going to talk to Luke, but it really out of my comfort zone. It really got me to get interested into people
that I see every day. And I think even although we're in similar classes, I never would have connected as much otherwise. And finally, we go into takeaways and things that we can apply to our own schools and our own communities, right? Starting with
bringing impactful guest speakers to our school like Craig and Lorie Hayes, which was not mentioned in one of the three speakers, but was also very impactful. Bringing speakers like Craig into our school can give an insight
into peer leadership conferences, into the world of of leadership. and I think you'd be a really important um guest speaker to Ash and also potentially organizing mock conferences
as I know Alexandro uh said before a schoolwide day of workshops would also go together with this and provide an almost similar experience for all students in New Milker High School who are willing to to learn more to be to
try and become leaders in their own communities and finally spreading peer leadership activism and trips. This trip was extremely individual to me because there's a lot more freedom and I
understand um with most trips there has to be a lot of safety precautions but with this trip there was a lot of safety. There was a lot of adults and guardians who were able to provide us with a safe atmosphere where we could
really open up whilst also being in a safe environment with these students, right? And it was also combined with the freedom that we were given. We were given the opportunity late at night to either go dance, line dance, to go play
board games. And being given these opportunities was very freeing cuz it also prepares us for what it's going to be like in college. Meeting new people, networking with new people, making your own decisions as an individual,
especially in high school, is really important. And finally, I'd like to thank the Elps community for paying for this trip. It was it must have been really expensive and they were able to provide us seven with the opportunity this special opportunity to go to the
peer leadership conference and connecting with the EL community is really important because they were a group that I've never even heard about before. You know them. They're on river road right next to the burrow and I had my own birthday there and I didn't know that there's community that provides uh
service and activism and just overall community service and it's really important to start reaching out to the elves community and start collaborating with them in Newford High School. And that's
it. Thank you. I don't have a question, but I just have a comment for you guys. I thought that was an excellent presentation and you can see your leadership ability and the way you presented. Um, and I feel like your presentation, I connected with it and you hit the I was going to say that it's going to prepare you for college.
The way you went through this conference and the decisions you made. So, excellent presentation. I'm glad you guys got the opportunity. I hope you get a MUK conference in our own district. Go ahead. Can can can you go back to the last slide with the Elks logo on it?
So, I have a question for anybody there. You'll notice on the logo in the background there's a clock and it's set to 11:00. Does anybody know why? Yes. I did. I'm ask I'm going to ask all of you guys to go look it up tonight and find out. I was a long time. Now you
have homework. It's actually it goes it goes in hand with what you guys were talking about that you you learned at the workshop, but that's something that's very special in in like elk or kingdom or whatever. Like I was an elk for a very short time, a long time ago,
but it's pretty special. I did not. What actually had happened to be frank with you is I moved to North Carolina and that was uh like 15 years ago and then I moved back like a year later, but that was like kind of when my membership lapsed and I just kind of didn't have a read. But it's pretty interesting. What
the hour is? I didn't anticipate you getting homework. But the interesting thing is you can walk right outside with your cell phones just Google it. I like extensive homework. Um I do want to thank you for making this presentation. It's my understanding that you kind of sought us out and wanted to
present because you were moved so much. So that is exactly what we're looking for in education. You know, I'm a big quote guy and um you feel like that quote like knowledge is power, but like connecting with knowledge is power. And so you connected with this material, it definitely changed your lives. You're
definitely stronger for it. And some things you pointed out in there like simple things like paying attention to people. What a what a novel concept, right? but it'll make them feel great. So, I thank you for doing it, Miss Joerger. I thank you for, you know,
helping them through this process. I would encourage you encourage you. You talk talked about bringing uh Mr. Craig and Miss Laurian. I would encourage you to talk to Miss Zacher. We already have good Mr. Manipelli, Miss Odoxia with
with title bonds possibly, you know, to try to make that happen. If you are passionate about it, don't let it die when you walk out the door. And Google 11, I want you to kind of pursue this, okay? You are leaders in this building. And if you can continue to grow the
leadership and we get more leaders and impact kids, that's exactly what we want. So now it's in your court. Okay. Thank you very much. Thank you again. Thank you. I know. Sure. forgot to print. Thank
you. Thanks for notes on it. Now we're going to do our annual budget presentation, state of the district address. Mr. Vaso, thank you all for being here tonight. Uh we do have a lot to talk about. Um, I'm going to go
through everything as specifically as I can. Um, and try to explain to the best of my ability so you understand kind of where we're at. So, the superintendent report, I saw this quote. Um, I immediately thought of my wife and then I thought of Milford. The secret to budgeting is that it needs
to be honest. Not what you think it should be or wish it could be, but what it really is. And so, that's how we have to approach our budget. There are things that I wanted before I even accepted this job. There are things that Stephanie and
I and Lauren talk about all the time, things that we would love to have, but sometimes it's not reality. And so, we have to constantly bring ourselves back to reality and move forward from that. So, anticipated expenditures for the 25
26 school year came in at $1.8 8 million over budget for the following reasons. And what that means is we have to balance a budget. Just like you have to balance your checkbook or you used to have to balance checkbook. If we're spending $50 million, we have to bring
in $50 million. It is illegal for us to do anything else because we are monitored by the county and then the state. All right. So, third year in a row of double-digit increase in benefits. Health benefits is probably
one of the biggest expenditures going up every single year. And we have to budget for double digit increases. So, over 10%. And this has been year after year after year. And when you're at $10 million approximately in benefits and you have to budget 10% and it may be
more than that. It might be 17%, it might be 12%. You have to that's a million dollars that you have to find. that we have to come up with. Cuts in state aid have been for years in a row, including this year. Inability to borrow any more from future
from future budgets. So, basically taking what we gain and just applying it, moving it forward, and then less revenue coming into the district overall. So, we have to make up for all this. So, when this happens, we have to make difficult decisions. So, balanced
budget. So, there's the actual budget. 50,211,18 and that has to equal the expenditure. So budget reductions immediately we started with pretty much going over every single line item in every single area of the budgets. So,
building based budgets, every principal met with Stephanie and I, um the athletic director, the technology director, building and grounds, curriculum, transport. We met with everybody and went line by line to see
what is expendable and not expendable. And Warren can vouch for this. She was a active participant in this. and I thank you because she her her budget took a big hit and we're trying to figure out ways to replenish that as well. Um, but
it definitely took a team approach and people giving their input of what of how we can get through this. The harder one, it's a staffing reduction and I'll talk about this in a little bit, but there's pretty much three types. There's a renown renewal due to economy and efficiency. Um,
meaning that we nonrenew a staff member, we just don't replace it. uh because we feel that you know we can live without it in some way. There's abolishment of positions which means that position we again we feel like we can or
have to live without it. We have to make cuts somewhere. So that position just completely goes away and then there's reductions from full-time to part-time. So you will see we kind of went through this menagerie to balance the budget. All reductions were designed to have a
minimal direct impact on our students. So I want to explain that as well on our students. There's direct impact and indirect impact. So direct impact is we cut 12 teachers and class sizes go up to 28 to 30. That's a direct impact like
the kids directly feel it. Indirect impact is the students necessarily won't see it or feel it but it's there and that's an indirect impact. when we talk about custodians or secretaries or
administration like trust me things are hurting on our end but again it's it's to shelter the kids from any direct impact. So keep that in mind because that was a strong belief of ours on our my whole team was how can we reduce
direct impact in every way possible. So the following positions are being abolished. And let me say this about this whole situation. So I've done this on a micro level as a principal. I've never done this at at this level. There are so many
positions. I met with all but one or two. And that was important for me because cutting people on paper is much different than cutting them in person. So in sitting with these individuals and they all vented in their own way, some
with grace, some not so much with grace, but they deserve that time to vent and keep that connection of this is not just someone on paper. Um this is someone who has a family, who might need benefits, who is a single mom, um who
has two years to retirement. all different scenarios that were shared with me and my team and we were very patiently. So that was really important. Anytime we make decisions that change trajectories of lives, I'm big into that. Um these decisions change the
trajectory of people's lives and their families. So that is not lost on me at all, especially when you hear their stories. So I don't want you to think that this is made of just these decisions are made of just haphazardly. A lot of thought goes into these um and
it's just something that we have to do. I also want to point out that these people where the positions are being abolished or not renewed because of economy and efficiency, it's not performance related. It's kind of wrong place, wrong
time. um unforeseen circumstances that we could not predict that I want to emphasize is not performance related. So with that being said, two administrative assistants, one custodian, three teachers, five instructional assistants, one
specialist, and two administrative positions. You can see there too, we did not just hammer just teachers or just secretaries or just custodians or just eliminate 30 aids. um we hit across the
board from administration to paras to administrative systems. Um so everyone feels it. There's not one aspect of the school district that did not feel this. There's not one aspect that has sheltered from this. So that was important as well cuz I'm a true believer in
that in difficult times if we're all in it together uh we will all rise up together. Um the following positions are also being reduced. two custodians full-time to part-time and six administrative assistants 8 to 75. These decisions were made so that
there was minimal direct impact on students. So no pro programmatic cuts meaning sports stayed whole. The arts, the musical arts stayed whole. Electives, educational programs, clubs, extracurricular and class sizes remain
consistent with what they are this year by shuffling around teachers. That was very very important to us because that if you cut any of those, it directly and negatively impact students. So we will kind of in the shadows take the impact
and let the students be. So the 2526 school year I would love to say that I can guarantee uh bright times in the future in terms of budget. I will not do that. Uh we'll take what it comes. We are already working on ideas
of how we can still continue to focus on efficiency prior to having to get to cuts. So maybe next year this doesn't have to happen. We are auditing all schedules to ensure we are maximizing staff custodial instructional assistance specialists, speech, OTPT. Uh we even
reached out to um other professionals and specialists from other districts to compare our schedules to theirs so we could get ideas. Uh we are mapping out like simply custodians square footage and how we can maximize that. Um we're also parsing out administrative responsibilities such as observations,
professional development, building coverage, benchmarking and assessments and we will all share in this. Um, it's really important to to understand that we are trying to become as efficient as
possible, but adjustments may have to be made. And um, if cutting a full-time custodian doesn't work or five additional aids or IEPs change, there might have to be changes. We might have to adapt moving forward into next year
because this is a living district. This is not just on paper we can cut it and then move on. Things change all the time, especially in the special education world. Um, future fiscal responsibilities. Important that we continue to audit each area of the district to identify where we can be
more efficient. This includes transportation, special education, staffing, building based budgets, outside providers, and vendors as well. And hopefully we have our eyes on some lowhanging fruit.
hopefully and hopefully we can get where we want to be. So now I'm going to turn it over to Steph cuz you have the power. Thank you. So like Mr. Wo said the increase in the state health benefits being uh so large
for the third year in a row um we had to anticipate that it was going to increase again. We've also had several of our employees change from a direct 10 or 15 plan to a lesser plan um with the introduction of chapter 44. And so the
employees are now paying a percentage of their salary instead of of a percentage of the premium which is a larger share for the board to now pick up. Um so that's really impacting the budget. This is the third year in a row that we've
lost state aid. the previous two years. The first year, um, they gave us a one-time payment that we can use in that budget. The second year it was a little bit less. Um, and then this year, I'll talk about it in a little bit, there's something called tax levy incentive aid,
um, which offsets some of this, not all of it, but as you lose state aid every year, that's money that you can never get back. Um, so we're operating with less money than we were three years ago. um in terms of state aid and then
obviously the aging facilities and the monies that we have to continue to put into the facilities to make the building um efficient. We did the boilers, we're still paying, we did a direct install program, so those that's being paid off
still. Um so there's facility improvements that we've done, but their financial impact has not rolled off yet. Um so we're still absorbing some of those costs. The following are areas of the budget um
that we've reduced. We reduced transportation quite a bit. And the idea about what we're going to do there is we're going to take some non-public aid and loop um costs and have our bus drivers and buses transport them. We
have a we have every driver has three routes every day. We have routes triple tiered right now. we're going to try to add a fourth route to them. And so our bus drivers are incredible and they're always if the driver's out, they're covering each other. We are constantly
making changes and the bus drivers are always willing to do whatever we're asking them. And that is sort of invaluable to us because that's a way that we're getting a lot of money back. And so now we're adding non-public students that are being transported.
That's just another level um of the complexity of our transportation in district. Various supplies were cut, the technology budget. Um we worked closely and we did some creative things that we um were able to reduce that budget
significantly for next year. Um and then the custodial overtime. So, we're going to be really mindful about what we're doing after school hours and if uh outside organizations are using our facilities, we're going to really stay on top of charging them um because the
district just cannot absorb the costs um of all the overtime anymore. Thankfully, we haven't had too much bad weather um in the winter and so we were able to reduce that based on a 5-year look back. I mean, next winter will probably be terrible because that's an area that
we've, you know, we rolled the dice to see if we can get through it. Capital reserve is monies from prior budgets. It's essentially like a savings account and it cannot be used for anything other than capital improvements and all of
that is tied into your long range facility plan which is approved by the state and everything needs to tie back to that. And so the area that we identified to to have capital improvements for is the high school
cafeteria. It's single pane windows. Um last summer we did all the roofs. So all the roofs in district are now um are now good. We're no longer leaking anywhere. And so now we're trying to protect our assets and sort of chipping away at a bigger a bigger issue of aging
facilities. And so we're trying to um do what we can and we identified the high school cafeteria as an area that's used by not only the high school every day um for various programs, but the community uses it, the athletics use it for um
their dinners, the uh performing arts uses it, the fall drama. It's used by so many different groups. Um and so we thought that was a good sort of area to target and get new windows. Um, Mr. Glasso talked about the reduction in
staffing. And then the last one is pretty interesting. We've had as part of the audit every year, we keep getting a recommendation that we have too much money and a surplus in the cafeteria account. And that was because the USDA subsidized a lot of the uh cafeteria
food during CO and because we're part of the National School Lunch Program, it's it's not profitable. And so you're only allowed to carry a certain amount of money in the cafeteria account. And so as a way to reduce the cafeteria
account, we are charging lunch supervision. Um that means any of our lunch aids and our teachers who cover lunch are being charged there. And typically that's something that's funded locally. And so in the future, this is going to have to come back locally
because once we complete the cafeteria fund, we still need lunch supervision. Um so we need to focus on that coming back. This is a breakdown of um of where our revenues come from. Obviously, the
biggest one is the local tax levy. um the tuition from other LEAs, which are other school districts. We budgeted a million dollars, which is more money than we're taking in this year. So, we need to find students
who need a placement in special education programs and we do have seats that are open in various levels. And so, we're pretty confident we have a few that are coming in. I think we have about five. the director of special services is already working on it and
she has connections and we are bringing in like intakes to interview the kids and the families and see if it's a good fit for us because listen as much as we want tuition the child has to be a good fit for us and meet the needs of our district um and what we can support
and that obviously means as we take students in we're also spending money on educating those those students as well. Um so we want to make sure that it's something that fits within within what we're looking to do. Um the transportation from other LEAs
uh that is we have a shared transportation to go to Bergen Tech Bergenmies and the Imperis Tech and then Teter one. And so we transport Bergenfield, Dumont,
Riverdale, Cresville, and Tennifly students. And then they pay us a portion of the route. We're also looking to because we're reducing our our transportation that we set send out to bid. We're also contacting all surrounding districts to see if they're
also sending students to out of district placements where we're going and we'll pick up their students. And so then they'll pay us because it's cheaper for us to to do their transportation a lot of the time than it is for them to bid it out and have a vendor like Scholastic or or one of them. Um so that's what
that line is. And then the budgeted fund balance is what Mr. Gassa was talking about earlier when we can't continue to take money from prior years to fund future year budgets. That's a $1.5 million
um revenue. And so we're offsetting our budget with monies that have not been used from prior years. And I know that the budget is not we're not it's we're not saving that money anymore. And we
cannot sustain having that much money to continue to fund our future budgets. The other place that we reduced was federal funding. Obviously, there's been a lot of talk about what's going to happen with federal funding. We've been told so far that it's not going to affect next
year, but with the reduction specifically in um the curriculum budget, a lot of that is offset by title money, which is federal funding. And so a lot of that money um would have been spent locally, is now being charged to
federal funding. This is just a graphic to show you how big the tax levy is. Um, and then these are this is our spending by how much money we spend sort of by category. But if you break it down
just simply by percentages, over 50% of the budget goes to salaries alone. Um, health benefits is about 20%. And then the 5% is between general ed
tuition which is to Bergen Countyy's Bergen Tech. Um and then the special education tuition is out of district tuition placements. That's 75% of your budget right there. Um and then when you
look at the insurance it about 4% that's your the umbrella of policies and coverages buildings and grounds and so forth. So once you're done with the the big expenditures there's really not so much left for supplies, consumables,
um stuff to sort of keep the the school running. And then this is the tax levy incentive program. So, since I've been here, we've never had changes to a tenative budget after it's been submitted. Um, this is the first year
that we're going to that we're proposing to make changes to the tenative budget. On April 8th, the board of education held a special meeting and they approved the submission of the tax levy incentive program. And what this allows us to do
is increase the tax levy by $108,484. And then the tax levy incentive portion is only $5,424. And that's just a one-time state aid. Um $5,000. Uh we have not received approval
yet. And so this is all pending NJDOE approval of the tax levy incentive aid. So should we be granted the aid, we would increase the local tax levy by that
132,000. Um and then we would in we would also increase the revenues by the 5,424. And the same thing would happen on the expenditure side. So we would have a balanced budget. But we are proposing to put that into the out of district
tuitions because we know we are currently have a few unbudgeted out of district tuitions before the year has even started. And so that money um we we're proposing to allocate it in that
budget line. Steph, can I say one thing real quick? Sure. So, with that tax levy incentive program, it was only offered to eight districts in the county. So, that puts you into perspective of where we kind of
are with our budget right now. In the county, eight were offered, four went through with it because the amount of paperwork and hoops you have to jump through to get it. But we feel that, you know, just increase ofund something
thousand dollars on that base will help us in the future as well. So I just I think that's important to understand like eight districts were offered it four are taking it up in the whole entire county. So that's that's the situation we're in.
And part of that what you had to do was spend any adjustment that you that you had. And so we had a little bit of money in banks cap that we had to that we had to use and we had the healthcare adjustment um that we had to use, but
that was already part of the tenative budget. The school the school budget tax impact to the average assessed home is about $22 and for every $100,000 it's about $3.50 um
increase in the taxes and then here's a student created. Okay. So we had students um go around with Mr. and all the high school teacher as part of a little project that they did and just I
guess it's an annual thing now. It's like a ceremonial thing um that the kids make a video. So this is their video this year. Good job. for you. Empowering, welcoming, energetic, unique, motivational, enlightening,
uplifting, influential, bold, connected, engaging, energetic, amazing, diverse. So, I love being principal of Berkeley Street School. It really is an honor and a privilege to be a part of young children's educational journey. I feel
blessed to work with such a dedicated and committed um and effective staff. Everyone here has the same values. We love our children. We want them to feel like they're home away from home when they're with us. Uh we care about their social and emotional well-being because
we believe that's how they do their best academic work. And I feel that Berkeley is a place that lends me to my best work. The most exciting thing that's happened this school year is actually happening this evening. It's our very first annual international night and it's an
opportunity for all of our community to come together and really celebrate our diverse cultures and backgrounds that make BFGs a wonderful community. Okay, so we were just doing morning meeting. Morning meeting is all about building a sense of community. the
kids getting to know one another and really being there and having a good time together. Um, what we you just saw was our greeting and our share. So, we have morning meeting every single day. The kids share an answer to a question or a little bit about themselves. They greet each other and then that leads
into our group activity where they all take part in one big thing as a class. Heat. Heat. What do I love about coming back about coming to work every day? It's really just um trying to help help any all of
my staff and students here and being a listening ear for them and uh just trying to help us and myself grow on a daily basis and seeing, you know, how many different sort of perspectives we can take in and and uh giving our middle
schoolers the ability to have perspective and see things from a different point of view is really one of the things that I love. And my main goal as a as a participant in this community Hi, my name is Mrs. Lee. I'm the coding
teacher here for David Old Middle School. I teach sixth grade code. And um what we do is we start this the year off with learning problem solving and how to problem solving for everyday simple problems. And then they go into learning about parts of the computer, input,
output, uh storage and processing. And they end that unit with um developing their own uh application for like a cell phone. And then we move into the fun part of coding where they start learning how to
use code.org or and unit three is the game design. So they start with the location of sprites and then they move on to like creating the sprites and we end up with making several different types of games. It's a scrolling game, a flying game and um you know a couple
other you know like animated scenes. Very proud of high school and the 24 25 school year. Uh we have a lot to be proud of. you know, everything from our students in the classroom achieving academically to our student athletes like the state championship wrestling
team um to our wonderful musicals uh this year that we were able to uh provide for our students. So, we did a wide range from artistic expression to academic achievement to athletic success uh which really makes Milford High School really stand out. And beyond all
of that, uh, who's responsible for that is my wonderful teaching and coaching staff, uh, that brings it all together, uh, to create a really family-like environment here at Mil High School. So, I want to thank Mr. Edwald and the crew, uh, for giving me the opportunity to share with you
today. Being teachers is a is a great thing. It's a, you know, we have a really good department here in New Milford. uh we have a lot of really good teachers and you know I find that we have students who love history who hate history who are different to history and
I think it's it's really cool to work with students who um you know come from varying backgrounds both in their lives but also in their love and it's it's a great thing to try to bring that love to students you know to to get them to
understand how much bigger the world is beyond just themselves or this building and you know what's going on in the world today, how history is repetitive, the good and the bad, the ugly. Um I think they're all really good things and and you know I I don't think I would want to teach anything else than than
what I know right now. I think right from the beginning when I started teaching here uh the one thing that stands out the most is that New Milford is always um there's support. So when families are in need um when situations
happen um and we need a community to to support and embrace um that individual or that family um they they're always there to step up and help and uh we're blessed to have a community like that. I like how diverse the community is and
how like I don't know how they communicate how the community is like all like very like they communicate very well with each other like it's always like they're friendly. Yeah, very friendly. I like the amount of opportun
opportunities there are and I like the teachers and how they are very helpful with things that are hard and troubling for me. The most memorable moment is probably when I hit my 1,000 points in basketball. Very, very
Mr. Hannah Walt and the kids. I mean, that was version seven. So, they're very patient with me going back and back and back and back, which is part of kind of working for a boss. So, they got that experience, which is great. And even better, Mr. is already like next year
and is already like coming up with ideas which is which is pretty neat. That's everything. If you have any questions okay if there's no question doesn't have any I do I have to stand up.
Okay. My name is Kendra Moore. I live in the um the Milford for 20 years. Um, I understand your position, Mr. Galasso. I just want to clarify the people these people were employed and you had to let them go because of the budget. Is that
what you were saying? Correct. Okay. And I guess um I understand the process of bringing children with special needs because it creates revenue meaning that those who will pay to utilize our system. I guess my follow-up question is
I understand, you know, how you have to make cuts and and things like that, but I think the parents are so um important for children with special needs. I have a child that learns different. So, I guess I wonder if we on board, it's not like it was only five, so maybe it may
not make a difference, but if we onboard more kids, wouldn't that power kind of play a role with children of special needs? I don't know if if you understand. So if we onboard kids from another district like we do have children from at least one child from
another district who has a parah they come with that but we don't pay for that we don't pay for that par anymore. It's yeah it's all part of the tuition that we receive in the full cost to educate any student who we're bringing in who's not a Milford resident we charge their
home district the full cost of educating. So whatever needs come with that student even if it's a nurse we would charge for the nurse. If it's a par a onetoone a classroom shared whatever it is we we have a breakdown we charge them. Okay that makes sense cuz I was trying to understand the losing of
powers with bringing on children that would need powers. So that makes sense. I want to make clear too I mean at one point during this year because IEPS fluctuate we had over 80 80 parents in this district working with children which is a which is a large number.
Okay. And then when Dr. Perau um retired. She made recommendations cuz we've been having this discussion for months and months and months and months about you know how we're going to tackle uh these finances. And I think it's important to understand that we have to
use everything very efficiently. And when we talk about bringing tuition students, I don't want anybody to misunderstand. And Stephanie said if we have seats, right? you know, if if there's no seats, we're not just, you know, putting them in classrooms and overpop populating our
classrooms. Like, we have programs with defined numbers. And if we because kids graduate, where kids move or the best thing is when kids grow out of the program that they were in and you know, and get into the genet setting and it leaves a seat open, that would be an opportunity. Yeah. No, I just wanted to
clarify it, but that makes sense. They're coming with what they need for their education. Question. And then the ESY, do we know when um we'll know more details for that for the summer? Like when you're trying to plan where your kids would go? Um
they don't know where what school, what the hours are, things like that is important cuz school is only a month. What is it? 6 weeks. So we have to kind of know where we're going to put our kids. So it's going to be very similar to last year, if not exactly the same for this year. U Mrs. Horn just took
over two weeks ago. And so before Mrs. Horn got here, Mr. M. Mrs. Horn. So, no, not Han. I know she was like, "Yay, I know you like Mr. Han." Mrs. Horn is our new director of special services. So, she just started two weeks ago, but before her, we already
advertised for the positions, kind of had the program in mind, and now it's just bringing everything together because when we fund our ESY program, we have to hire a lot of staff. It's it's definitely not a small program. It's across three buildings. It's very it's all-encompassing. So, we have a new
director of special services working with the case managers now, going through IEPs and should finalize everything shortly and then you will be contacted. But I will bring that up to Mrs. Warren as well. Um, just so she knows, but it's on her right now. Okay. I think if I could just say one other
thing about the budget, I think it's important to understand too that we're making our best prediction for basically a year out. like this budget starts from July 1st, 2025 to June 30th, 2026. And when we
have these conversations, it starts in December of the prior year is when the whole budget process begins and it it culminates now when we pass the final budget, but the preliminary budget happens in March. And so when you're talking about things that happen from
March even to June, before you even get to the budget, a lot of things change. And so that's why this is our sort of our best guess of of how we can run the district for the next year. And I just hope the community, Miss Esman, I see you back there. She
represents the teachers union, Miss Hourback, and obviously there's the page that I just hope you see we did our due diligence and we we tried to impact the kids as little as possible and cut from all areas, not just one
area. Um, so I I just appreciate the feedback from Miss Esman and the teachers and and the union uh the feedback from the administration of how to make this work. I mean it is a village and everybody's going to be impacted. And I do I know the principles will do a great job showing up. The
teachers will do do a great job showing up. All the support staff will do a great job and keep showing up. Another aspect of this is though when you cut people you're also cutting friends of people and I worry about how it impacts the culture of the school. Uh and so
that is not lost on me as well and I just appreciate the support and you know ideas and just the patience um and how we move forward and hopefully we get this district in a stronger point in the next year or two and uh these budget presentations will be a lot more fun if
that happens. Do you use a criteria to cut like what how do you know what where to start or end? So it's all it's all different. Okay. Um sometimes it's based on contract with some people have seniority and bumping rights. Other times that
does not happen. Um sometimes it's skill based, sometimes it's who's certified, not certified. Got it. Does anyone else have any questions? I don't have a question. I do have a comment though. Um, I just wanted to say that I I know that this was not an easy
bud budget to um prepare and I know that difficult decisions were made. Um, it's another budget where we lost a lot of money and had to make difficult choices. But, um, I think of all of the presentations that I've seen so far as a board member, this one was probably one
of the most thoughtful and thorough ones that we've had so far. Um, so I just wanted to thank you all of you for your work. Um, it's very much appreciated and um, I just like to let Dev know that. Thank you. No, we're transparent. I I
promise you we'll be as transparent as possible so you can see where we're coming from and why we make decisions. I think that's important. So, you trust us that we are making, you know, the best decisions we can moving forward. And thank you for the not direct impact on
the students. Um, so I don't have a lot of questions because I I'm the chair of finance and chair of negotiation. So I think that's strategic so that I don't ask a lot of questions. I know a lot of the answers, right? Um, I I do want to say that I've not I I've been on the board of ed now.
This is my fourth year. I've not had a a good budget presentation yet, meaning like not one that that's not like upsetting, right? because of the trend that we're dealing with as far as financing, as far as funding and all those things. But I but I will say having worked with everybody, you know,
the administration here, Lauren, Pete and and Stephanie, um they work extremely hard uh to do everything in a thoughtful, diligent way. We have, you know, hours and hours of negotiations meetings, hours and
hours of, you know, the finance stuff. And you know, a lot of the things that you see here, you know, we come in here and we vote yes on these things during the meetings, but it doesn't account for like the hours of like thoughtful um just work that everybody here does.
And um I can tell you that I think I speak to Stephanie sometimes more than some of my best friends because I make her do so many numbers for me. Um, but I I do appreciate how thoughtful you guys were, how much you cared about students, how much um like I know that you lose
sleep doing this and I and and so much so that I I appreciate your word of you know that you're changing trajectories of lives, right? Like you appreciate that. Um whether it's for the students, especially for the teachers and for the administrative staff that are not coming back. Um, I just want to thank you guys
because I know having seen kind of how the sausage is made, it is not uh for the faint of heart um at all and you do it, you know, every year. So, um, you know, just just want to kind of, you know, appreciate what you guys do with
the district. Thank you. I I couldn't do it without everybody, you know, very important and your support as well. that that does not go unnoticed. Okay. No one else has any questions or
comments. We're going to move forward. Okay. So, superintendent schools report, Mr. Gasa, do you have a report on top of that? Uh, I have so much to talk about. I do have to do a couple uh housekeeping things. Um, under board action, approve the
April 2025 HIV report. from Milford High School. There's four HIV 338 forms submitted. Two HIVs were not forwarded under principal determination. Um and then two were investigated by the ABS. All allegations of HIV were unfounded. Actually, that's three because I added
the last one. So, three HIVs were investigated by the ABS. All allegations of HIV were unfounded. They did not meet the criteria. DEO, there was one HIV 33 form submitted and one HIV investigated by the ABS. The allegation of HIV was
unfounded. In Berkeley and Gage, there were no HIV33 forms submitted. Uh approval of the April suspension report in Milford High School, one student was suspended for a total of six days. Um one certain students are two
days of inschool suspension and four days of out of school suspension. Deeo middle school trends, we talked about it last month, too. 10 students were suspended for a total of 14 days. Eight students each ser one day of inschool suspension. two students each serve
three days of out of school suspension. Berkeley and Gibbs, zero students were suspended last month. Um there is a couple other things um that I just want to explain on the agenda. We have to form an affirmative action team um to basically look at all
our policies and make sure we are not violating any um it's called a comprehensive comprehensive equity plan that we're not violating anybody's rights. Our hiring practices are sound, professional development is sound. So, we have to actually form a team with the
affirmative action officer, audit over 24 policies and make sure we have them and that they're up to date and then do a board resolution which is coming in June and get it back to the county. Um, so that's on there to form this team that will they've already
started to be honest with you, but um just to get that resolution. What else do I want to talk about here? Um, personnel appointments. So you can see we have two bus aids coming on board. Do not forget about the bus aids.
The bus aids and Stephanie for the test can make our lives miserable if we do not have bus aids cuz then we have to get coverage riding the bus. It throws everything off. So thank you for coming on to the two new bus aids and is going to help us out a lot. I'd also like to point out Isabella. Uh we are hiring her in the
middle school as a special education teacher. She has a very bright future. She's a New Milford alumni and whenever, you know, we are in an interview and she drops Mayor Patino's name. Um, that was pretty funny. You know, obviously we know Mayor Patrino. Really good
interview, well-dressed, um, stood up straight, made eye contact, articulate, just everything you want to see in a young teacher. All the aspirations, the goals, I'm going to change the world attitude. And so that is what we want. and she has a bright
future but she's also pursuing a math certificate um as well which is very very important um as far as district happenings. So I went to my first flag football game was very fun. It was in the pour and rain on
Monday. Uh not a huge crowd. These girls have a lot of fun and Mr. Rickadelli did a great job and they weren't complaining about the ring too much. They won with like 30 seconds left. They scored a touchdown, got the one-point conversion.
Then Hawthorne drives all the way down the field, scores a touchdown to make it 76, and then failed on the two-point conversion. They dropped the football and that was it. So, but it might as well been the Super Bowl. It was wonderful. Um, so that was great to see.
And continuing with the awards that New Milford receives from out of district stuff, we now won the New Jersey Water Environment Association statewide middle school essay contest about recycling, waste, water, and treatment. And I had never really heard of this, but Sebastian Kamage won second place for
the North Section schools and will receive $100. He also won runner up for the overall statewide competition. Will receive $100, so he'll get $200. Check made out to him. and Elicoro won runner up for the north section schools only received $50. So these are kids outside
of our, you know, things outside. So it's not just us judging them and saying, "Yeah, you're doing pretty good." It's other people judging them as well and being like they're pretty good. So it kind of makes us happy. Um upcoming events, May 9th is Pebb Scholarship Barbecue. May 13th is a
senior academic awards which is competing against also on May 13th Bergen County Suicide Symposium. May 15th is the New Milford High School Junior Prom. on May 16th. Very curious about what this is going to be like in the Melbourne High School buddy talent show. Um, and that concludes my report.
Thank you. Anyone have any questions, comments? Okay. Assistant Superintendent report Lauren Doa. Hi, good evening everyone. Um, just an update. We're in the midst of end of year planning as we approach the end of the school year. I recently
had a non-public consultation meeting where I met with our friends from Havanian, Solomon Shector and St. Joseph School. Um we talk about the um spending of federal funding for next school year
as the LEA is responsible for overseeing and making sure that it's aligned with allowable uses. Um so that planning has begun and we're it's well underway. The schools are in the process of developing the title one annual schoolwide plans.
Um we're pulling a lot of data, looking at identifying needs and thinking about how we want to um strategically use our funding to support some of the things um you know that that might look a
little bit different next school year. So that's all in advance of the submission of our grant. We have not yet received the allocations for next school year. Um those allocations would be for all of the titles and we anticipate
receiving that towards the end of June. Um I'll update you as I I learn more. Um we've been having a lot of um conversations and meetings, teachers and administrators and really looking at um
you know we're being really thoughtful in reflecting on the professional learning that we've engaged in in you know during this school year and we're thinking about how we can be creative in supporting the continued growth of our
faculty and staff for next school Um we know there's a direct correlation between professional learning and student achievement. So we want to um continue to support that and we will do uh so in a creative way. We're looking
at our um our map for the school year. We're looking at creating our calendars. We're tweaking our scopes and sequences and adjusting our pacing um so that we can come back in September and really hit the ground running. We're also in
the midst of NJSLA testing. The testing window runs through May 23rd and makeups will take place May 27th through the 30th. Um I'm sure everyone will be relieved when we when we reach that finish line
and I will do a formal presentation um in one of our upcoming board meetings. But we did receive our NJGPA results, which are the New Jersey graduation proficiency assessment results all of our juniors take to
determine whether or not they are graduation ready. And um we did I'll just throw a little teaser, we had significant gains in math with a 6.7% increase in the number of students who were deemed graduation ready. Um, so
I'd like to thank all of our teachers of math. Um, all of our elementary teachers who also teach math and Miss Ginlay for all of their efforts this school year. It's made a lasting impact and we are very grateful. And that concludes my
report. Thank you. Does anyone have any questions? Okay. Business administrator report. Stephanie Cuchar. Good evening. Um my report for tonight is tomorrow it's supposed to be pouring
rain I believe and we're going to be up on the roof with the um the rod grant so the inspector will be there right see if this leaks it'll be a good test
doesn't leak it'll be fine you want to come off I will wear certain culture party on the roof. Make sure we get our funding, but that's what we'll be doing tomorrow. We are also in the process of
setting our meal prices um for next year, which is always a strategic fun time with Pontonian. and we are in the midst of creating our summer ESY bus routes as well as trying to figure out
how we are going to manage our transportation in the fall. All that planning begins now. Um, we're also trying to, I think I mentioned it last week, finalize all of our spending for this year because at the June meeting,
we passed a resolution to deposit monies into the various reserve accounts. And so that will be upcoming. So we'll make a recommendation for the total allocation because the only time that the board can deposit money into any reserve account is done in June. And the
only time that you can allocate from capital reserve is now during the budget presentation. And that's all I have for today. Thank you. Any questions? Sure. Um just the what you were talking about with the proponian.
Is there any movement on the lunch balances? Are they getting better? Are they getting worse? Yours truly the debt collector. Um, we send out monthly monthly reminders of anyone who
have high balances. Um, anytime that we get them that they send out, I get probably between like a dozen and 20 emails back that families have no idea. Um, and so it's a good reminder. Um,
comparative to other districts, we're not terrible. We still have um money. I can get you the total that we have outstanding. Anyone else? Okay. Any lesson on board committee reports? Nope. Okay. Any correspondence?
No this evening. Okay. Open to the public for items on the agenda. I seek a motion as outlined in New Military Board of Education bylaw 0187. Each statement made by our participants shall be limited to 3 minutes. Any second, John?
All in favor? I oppose. Anyone from the public? No. I see a motion to close to the public. Joe, seconded by Stephanie. All in favor? I oppose. Okay. Um, having the recommendation of the superintendent. I
seek a motion for F24-25.231.232.233 234.235.236. 236. Before we before you do that, can I just make a comment? Of course. Um I just want the board I should have mentioned this in my report. I apologize that these resolutions
um 231, 232, 233, 234, and 235 were all the resolutions that were approved with the preliminary budget. But because the approval of the 2526 budget has changes that were made during the public budget
hearing, we need to pass all of these resolutions again. So I just want you all to be aware. And then the F2425.236 sort of has an asterisk because it's pending NJ DOE approval.
And so we discussed at the last meeting potentially making this a regular meeting and potentially not having May 14th, which is looking like we're probably going to need to have May 14th because depending on what happens with the approval letter, we may need action
again. Okay. So I need a second. Stephanie, roll call. Mr. Alro, yes. Miss Alro, yes. Mr. Dosta, yes. Miss Cinger, yes. Mr. Luno,
yes. President, yes. Okay. Having the recommendation of the superintendent, see motion for VA24-25.79.80. 81.82.83.84. I need a second. Tony. All in favor? I oppose. Okay. Educational
Programs and Curriculum Committee. Stephanie Coffenter make a motion to seek approval for C24-257 208 2039 and 2040. A second. I I I I'll second it. Well, if I can, I need
to abstain from 2425.39 because my family gives out two scholarships. I We'll have Cheryl second it, right? Okay. I All in favor? I oppose. Okay. Personnel having the recommendation of
the superintendent, I seek a motion for P24-25.109.110.11.12.113.114.115.116.117.118.119.120122 and.123. I need a second. John. All in favor? I roll. Oh, yeah. I This was a little confusing two pages.
Okay. Roll call. Mr. Alro. Yes. Miss Pelro. Yes. Mr. Dosta. Yes. Miss Cinger. Yes. Mr. Aluno. Yes. President Gomez. Yes. Okay. Finance and Facilities Committee. Cheryl Calg. I seek to vote
uh for F24-25 231.23233 234 235236237238 239240 24124243244 245 a second Joe. All in favor? Opposed?
Athletics co-curricular committee. I seek a motion for AC24-25.18. Need a second. Cheryl. All in favor? I opposed. Okay. Any old business? Any new business? Any board requests for
additional information? Okay. I seek a motion to open to the public as outlined in new mail for board of education bylaw 0167. Each statement made a read by our participant shall be limited to 3 minutes. Anyone from the
public sele um I actually just wanted to make a comment that it is pretty cool to see um a former student being hired as a staff member. Um, makes me feel old, but it's also Did you have her? Yeah. Yes. Good
kid, right? Good kid. Otherwise, yeah. And I'm happy to hear that she's getting her masters. That make that's even better. No, she masters and going for math, which is great. Special ed math, right? Special ed math and then certified at the middle school level. She is a unicorn or something. Yeah. So,
yeah. So, it's it's just it's really nice though to see like things come full circle like that. and she was she wanted this job like she definitely was getting I think offered she was very marketable very good kid and she wanted to stay
where she could walk to work is she going to Berkeley well so it's it's nice to see okay anyone else sixth grade no I seek a motion to close to the public seconded by Joe all in favor I oppose. Are we
going to begin? Okay. I seek a motion to adjourn. Tony seconded by Cheryl. All in favor? Opposed. Okay. Our next meeting will be May 14th. Thank you.