meeting of the Northern Berlin County Regional School District is hereby called to order. This meeting is called in conformance with the Open Public Meeting Act with adequate notice provided as follows. Notice sent to the Berlin County Times and the Times of Trenton on April 15,
2025. Notice filed with the Township Clerks of Chesterfield, Mansfield, North Hover, and Springfield Township on April 15, 2025. and notice of the annual MA meetings advertised in the Berlin County Times in the Times of Trenton on January
7th, 2024. I will now call roll. Mr. Figs here. Mrs. Bond present. Mrs. Applelegate. Mr. Arminente present. Mr. Bucks. Mr. Narwick present. Mrs. Janice here. Mr. Spence. Mr. Zimmer here. and
Miss Pierre. All right. Thank you very much, B. At this time, I'd ask everyone to please stand for the pledge of allegiance, followed by a moment of silence. United States of America, to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, liberty
and justice for all. Has any board of education member received schoolboard related emails and/or correspondences that have not yet been shared with the superintendent? All right. Uh Dr. Zuckermanman, if you'd like to give us any notes from your superintendent
report. Absolutely. Um, I'll be brief and give uh some of the same remarks um next week, but also uh finish my report next week. Today began teacher appreciation week. While I hope that our teachers um know that we appreciate appreciate them throughout the year, I
want to make sure to thank all of our teachers for just being awesome. We have an amazing district and a large reason for this is because of our amazing staff. So, thank you for everything that you do to support our students and our district. Um, last month we finished
collecting the data that will ultimately help update the Northern Burlington mission statement. Since then, we have spent time reviewing and analyzing the data that was gathered throughout the thought exchange. Just to review, we had over,00 people participate in the exchange.
Those,00 people created over 83 803 individual responses. Those same people provided over 18,000 ratings. What this means is that people could provide a score of 1 to5 to the 803 responses that
were submitted. We use this information to identify what the students, staff, parents, and community felt should be included in the draft of our mission statement. I have had I have several presentations scheduled over the next few weeks. During these presentations, I will
discuss the process, the data as well as the draft mission statements that we have developed. The participants will also be asked to provide feedback on the draft mission statements and we will ultimately use that feedback to develop the final version of our future mission statement. I am meeting with the staff
this week during their faculty meetings. On May 14th, I'll be meeting at the middle school prior to the middle school choir concert. And on on May 22nd, I'll be at the high school before the high school band concert. More information will be shared with the families through direct
emails, postings in the principal in the principal parent messages, and we'll also be advertising for all of these on social media. On May 23rd, I will put the presentations online um for people to view or and provide feedback who are not able to attend.
I shared a copy of the presentation I'll be using with the board in my superintendent report. My June I expect that in my June report to the board it will include the final recommendation for our updated mission statement. That concludes my
report. Right. Uh anyone have any comments or questions? All right. Uh Mr. Cass, if you'd like to go through business administrator's report. Sure. Uh tonight we're going to do the uh open a public hearing on the 2526 budget. Uh so we have a PowerPoint presentation to go
through and then uh any comments from the public and then we close uh close the hearing and then later on as a non-consent resolution the board will vote to um whether or not to approve the the budget. Um so that's on the docket
tonight. Uh the agenda uh contains uh a handful of resolutions business related. One of them is the health insurance premiums, the annual renewals. Um we're in a
school's health insurance fund and even though the uh the premium increases were somewhat significant, they are far less than the state health benefits programs uh program. So um we're happy that we
have some control over uh the increases in that. Uh we also have the interlocal agreement with Hannesport to provide technology services. That's our 11th consecutive year. Um I uh provided the results of the reverse energy auction
for electric supply. Um so that is uh in the uh report uh will be key our facilities director provides um updates on the capital projects and then
uh talks about uh the uh le conversion project that we've been ongoing each year. Uh so we have two resolutions, one for the high school, one for middle school to convert old uh fluorescent fixtures into LED fixtures and then uh
every other year we go out to bid for uh trash services. So we have that uh bid that was opened up that we'll be awarding in in May as well. Um, outside of that, you know, uh, we had a buildings and grounds committee
meeting and I I think we'll have a report on that either uh, next week. And so that pretty much concludes the report for this month. Thank you. All right. Any questions or comments? All right. Um, we will Yep.
this morning. um with the with the start of all the auditorium construction any impact on traffic or has it been pretty normal as expected? Been pretty normal as expected now. I mean there isn't that much activity going on yet?
When do they expect the activity to specifically start? Like when like real real digging up and everything? Uh that's a good question. I mean they've they've started removing the ephus and the brick off the front. Um,
so I still think we're waiting for, you know, permits and so I I would anticipate within the next several weeks, uh, you'll see some heavy machinery start moving in and Cool. Thank you.
If I we also talked to them or Rich also, Mr. Cass talked to them um to make sure that they avoid the congested times during arrival and and dismissal. So they're they're aware of those times as well. All right. Thank you. Any other comments
or questions? Right. Um we will wait until next week's regular meeting for Dr. McCann's high school principal report. Um 2.04 and 2.05 are consent agenda items. Any comments or questions on section 2 consent agenda
items? All right. Um committee reports. I uh Mr. Mr. Arminente, I believe you have the report for the negotiations committee. Yeah. So, Burlington County, uh, we had our meeting on May 1st.
Um, one moment, please. Got my notes. Um, the first thing they kind of talked about is the 2025 workshop. The theme of this year is going to be the ticket to big ideas and career opportunities. So that'll be for uh in September at the
school board's meeting. Yeah. Uh negotiations committee committee first. I was I was doing the committee reports then the then the the BC, but I mean you can do it either way. I just want to make sure they realize where the conversation was going there. So yeah. So thank you. So, we had a
chance to uh to to meet on the 30th um and we had some discussions around the opportunity to um open the superintendent's contract uh and take into consideration of um giving
uh a uh a change to the contract and and an addendum to the contract um with a new one. Uh we had a discussion for about 45 minutes on what the proposal was. Um Dr. Zuckermanman sent over um a potential proposal for us to consider.
Uh we went through the details of that and um we will uh have further conversation to uh with the rest of the board to talk about what that opportunity is. Sorry. Yeah. Yeah. So, we had we had a chance to uh to talk through it. Um and we'll
have further discussion and then uh assuming everything goes to uh one direction or the other, then uh at the board meeting next uh next week, we'll have a chance to um discuss whether we want to renegotiate the contract and uh essentially tear up the
other one and put in place a new one. So, we'll share all the details of that after we've had a chance to discuss it. Uh had a good conversation. felt like um we came to a pretty good uh recommendation and then um we'll we'll talk to the rest of the board of that.
Just a quick question on that. Yeah. What um what initiated the um I'll say the the opening of discussions? Great question. So um and help me if I make any mistakes on this because I don't have the original history. when the
initial contract went into play, um it technically comes out to be about three and a half years because the current contract would be up on July 1st, 2026. So, if you think about it from a uh from a contract standpoint, rather
than us waiting to do this next year, which would only give us about uh two months to be able to work through it or whatnot, uh we thought, let's take a look at what's going on right now, which gives us basically a chance to uh to to talk through it now in case there's
any challenges from a uh what the whole board wants to be able to do. Uh it also allows us to take into consideration uh and think about um whether we're pleased with what's been going on and potentially lock him in for a longer deal uh if we feel that he's done a good
job. So not unusual to open it up given that it would be we'd be having this conversation next year. So why wait uh when we can potentially do it now and take advantage of what that might mean as opposed to waiting a year from now. Yeah. The contract ended end of June
next year. It was 3 years and 10 months. Uh Dr. Shukman started in August. 3 years is the minimum. So he was basically 3 years 10 months was the original contract. Um and opening it up, you know, in in the new school year, you start with the new school year, then you have the change over of the board, end
of year, new VA. we going into his last year of the contract next year when we kind of brought it up to negotiations committee it was kind of like does it make sense to start start it in case there are as Frank said any hiccups in case the executive county super you know has to be approved by the executive county superintendent before we can
approve it as a board so it's one of those as opposed to waiting till too late and rushing and you know having a cra now and start the discussions all right I I won't get into too much I'll take a look and see if I have questions
related. And I think Joe, another thing to take in consideration from an administrative standpoint, we do have some considerable change that's about to happen. So, how can we potentially mitigate the the change and and uh have some continuity for us moving forward.
Um, okay. Having done this a lot of times, not only here in in a schoolboard perspective when I was with Mansfield and even doing it in my own job, it's not a bad idea to think about it as early as you can, especially if you're feeling like like things are going in the right direction. Don't disagree. I
just was curious how it how it started, how the conversation started. So, and I'll I'll take a look at the I guess the contract, see if I have other questions. Great. So, is there going to be recommendations coming out of the committee then? Thank you. Right here. Got them printed out, buddy. Yep.
They'll um Yeah, we'll discuss that since it's personnel a little further in executive session. Um it'll be contract is officially opened at the regular board meeting. It's got to be submitted executive county superintendent at least 20 days prior to to us officially voting
on it. Right. So, so I just kind of finally close this up. Um, so was it our was the board's um desire to open this up or Dr. Zuckermanman, did you approach us and say, "Hey, let's start talking about this now." That's what I'm
ultimately trying to get at. How how did we get this started? Yeah, the board it come up when I had asked when his contract was up because I could not remember the original contract in discussion and then I brought it up to Kevin uh initially in one of after one of our committee meetings and then we
brought it up to Frank. Okay. I think in the April or March board meeting to try to put a I think I brought up first in March and last after April's meeting we kind of tried to put a date more specifically for the committee to make meet. So okay know there was also a personnel
committee meeting. Um Dr. Zuckermanman if you wouldn't mind. Of course, I got logged out in since the time that I was just logged in before. So, just momentarily. All right. And I'm back in. Um, so the personnel committee met on um
April 14th. Um, and any of the committee members, if if I um misspeak on any of this, please let me know. Uh we discussed the um I I provided a summary of the interview process that was used for the um to find the the candidate for the business administrator and board
secretary position. Um along with my recommendation for the position. Uh we discussed the also discussed the plan for replacing the assistant um business administrator. Along with that came discussion about a couple job descriptions that were on the April board agenda which just allowed us to
include those updated job descriptions in the postings. Discussed the the grounds foreman position that we're going to put that on hold for the time being. However, we still approve the job description. So when the board is ready to move forward with that then then we
have the opportunity to do so. uh along with a couple staffing updates. Um we discussed the uh the recommended um increases for the for the non-unit staff um as well as a couple of of additional positions that that we discussed at that
time. Um the for technology and transportation meeting uh we discussed a um we discussed uh the nursing for the nur the need to have nurses attend field trips. Um if there's any student that
has a a medical um need or needs uh to have medicine uh administered, we are obligated to have nurses go with us. So I discussed with the with the board the the timelines that we're going to be used for not only advertising for that, but also the the creative solutions that
we're coming up with to still support some of our overnight um and uh and distance trips. Um, other than that, that was all that was discussed. Any questions or if there's anything that anybody wanted to add? All right. Thank you, Dr. Zuckermanman.
All right. Uh, Mr. Today, like to do the BSSBA one from BC SBA1. Yeah. Thank you. Um, May 1st, we had a chance to meet at Medford Village Country Club down in Medford. Um, couple of the things that came out of it. There was a reminder
that the 2025 workshop uh for school boards, the theme will be a ticket to big ideas and career opportunities. Um you can check it out on their website. I think they've started to post some things there. Um the new field services
uh uh agent for um Burlington, uh Justin Wright, he uh talked about all kinds of different things. He mentioned about how many superintendent searches that are going on right now. They've recently had three successful ones in the Burlington County. Two new searches are currently
in the works. Gave a reminder that sup superintendent evaluations need to be completed by July 1st. He offered to help any board um with any questions on that. Um there's also the opportunities to do board self-evaluations if they
want to do it and he offered um to be able to uh help with that. Um, one thing he mentioned also was that the census information, um, they're working to get them up to date and that was a reminder to all the BAS that uh, to make sure that that was up to date. Um, the other
thing they talked about was uh, our government relations person Jonathan Pushman gave a update on New Jersey talked about how the governor's um, budget is out there.$22 $22 billion has been distributed um meaning across the
entire budget. 44% of New Jerseys total budget um is a part of that. Uh they're moving to a new three-year average. That's what they're looking at. It's a very different approach than they've taken in the past. And they're also mentioned about providing relief to the 2% taxation to allow for districts to
petition for further aid uh should they need it. Um there was there's been some recent discussion on cell phone legislations and the usage of phones in the schools. Um they're looking at some flexibility to provide guidelines to help districts set up. Looks like that
that's been really been pushing through from a state standpoint on the use of cell phones schools. Um they also mentioned that they're they now do a quarterly newsletter called Capitol Watch four times a year. If you go to the school
boards under the advocacy tab on their website, you can you can read their capital watch um bulletin that they put up four times a year. Uh the other part and probably the vast majority of the time at the end was recognizing the Burlington County
Teacher of the Year and that was Margaret Bonagoras uh from the Shauny High School District. uh she had an absolutely amazing presentation um and who she is as a teacher. It was very evident in listening to her speech why
this woman was elected as Burlington County Teacher of the Year. Um the thought that uh the one quote that they talked about was um she talked about student absenteeism and she she it drives her crazy and and seeing
absenteeism rising. The quote that she had was that the way that you can fight student apt aptism is to make the school an experience right so that the kids are not thinking about it as just going and getting you know a education but to
actually look at as an experience and if you think back to our pasts all the things that we think about in high school probably all of us remember specific things and that that was what she was kind of summoning in us she gave a great um presentation and just yeah she really
did a good idea Um the one thing she brought up and uh an idea that I thought I thought was absolutely awesome. Um they one of the years that she was working there and she does a lot of this stuff for the school was to have the homecoming dance on their new football
field when they had it uh made and they did it outside and they had like it was almost like a carnival type of event. And so I thought it might be something for us to think about next year as our new football field opens up. They did the same thing. and they put a turf field in and they did the homecoming dance for that year on the actual field.
I thought it was a great idea and she said it was wildly popular. Um, of the 1500 students that were invited, 1300 students showed up with most of them bringing dates from within the school. They weren't. And she said she's never seen that kind of turnout for something
like that. So, I thought it was a really great idea. Uh, and that's the end of my report. Thanks. Thank you very much. Uh Mr. Bucks, I don't know if you have any updates today or wanted to wait till next week. Actually do. So delegate assembly is this Saturday. Um there's be election of
officers on the agenda along with three resolutions. Um those three resolutions uh let's see are related to one is uh related to esports. Another one is related to requirements for school nurses. I guess there's a
challenge in getting school nurses and they're looking to um to reduce some of those requirements or change the requirements so that in lie of um the 15 semester hour credits that um they complete three classes related to school specific school specific operations. And
then the fourth is related to um excused absences for those students that are um doing activities or absentued activities uh to pursue a uh a trade. So that'll be this Saturday. Uh
I'll report after that and uh go from there. I also um kind of related to this uh tangentally the I also serve on which I've I don't think I've told anybody the New Jersey school board assoc New Jersey school board association finance
committee. I was appointed um gez quite a while ago by the uh by the president. So, we had um a meeting. We haven't met since last year. Uh we had a meeting earlier um this year. I guess it was April when I wasn't here. And a lot of the
presentation, a lot of notes you gave that were uh made to the county school war association came out of that meeting. But part of um part of what we discussed was some pending leg legislation coming out of Senator Kal's office uh related to school funding and
kind of what's happened this year around the caps um or the the changes in putting caps on changes in aid. So that's um S3917 and they're looking he was looking to kind of I guess narrow that gap or
narrow that reduction so that schools that have been basically really hammered uh this past year with school funding changes um aren't as negatively impacted. So um that's all I have. All right. Thank you very much.
All right. Um we will be doing the uh student of the month uh presentations next weeks during our regular board meeting. Um Mr. No for So at this point we will open the public hearing on the proposed 2526
budget. Can I get a motion for item 4.05? Motion. Second. All right. All those in favor? I opposed. Abstensions. All right. Uh 4.05 905 passes and the public
hearing is now open for the budget. All right. Thank you. Uh again, nothing has changed since the uh adoption of the tenative budget. Uh but you know we'll we'll go through this and if there's any questions from
the general public we'll we'll address those. Um so public budget hearing then we go into a timeline. The budget takes about six months. Is this the big one? There you
go. Uh six months. We we start in November with a finance committee meeting where we discuss budget assumptions and I develop a a budget manual that is distributed amongst all the administrators and those participating in in the budget process.
It outlines uh roles and responsibilities as well as the board's goals um for the budget assumptions. Uh we kick off uh the meeting on November 21st uh with the administrations and we review the budget manual and and do a uh
budget at a glance scenario. Um and then uh the finance committee gets together uh in February and uh we give them an update on the the development of the tenative budget. Uh the state aid came
in around February 20 came in on February 27th this year. We were blessed to uh get an increase in state aid uh unlike many of our fellow uh districts. Um the finance committee then reviewed the tenative budget uh with the state
aid figures on March 12th. uh we did a presentation uh public presentation uh to the board uh of the tenative budget and we adopted that budget uh to submit to the state for their review. Uh upon
their review uh they give uh feedback and gave final approval of the tenative budget on April 10th. uh we advertised uh for this public budget hearing uh at the April 18th um and here we are today
uh holding the public hearing and the adoption of the 2526 uh budget. So this presentation is going to review enrollment and projections. Uh review the aortionment as how the tax
levies get distributed amongst the four municipalities. Uh we're going to review the state aid and and all the other revenue items. Uh appropriation highlights. Those are the expenditures. Um there was no
uh no changes in full-time equivalents although there were uh some new positions and we just traded off um some some other uh positions. So we'll talk about those. A capital budget outlay uh it decreased by about 900,000. So our
capital budget keeps uh shrinking each year. Uh we're going to review bank cap calculations. Those are um waiverss that the district uh has available to them to go above the 2% if
need be uh 2% tax levy cap. Uh and we're going to see the tax impact uh that this budget has on the four municipalities uh and the district adequacy notice which provides um whether or not we're
in line with the state's uh adequacy budget. and then uh we'll open up for any questions. So, here's the enrollment. I think uh I heard Doc say we're down what about 70 something uh students over the last eight years. Uh nothing too
significant, but uh as you can see uh the enrollment has been uh slowly declining since 2022. And here is uh the enrollment is broken down by municipality. Uh the red line represents North
Hanover. Uh the uh light blue is Chesterfield. Chesterfield's been increasing and uh Mansfield is uh is the blue uh line there in the middle and that's been
decreasing enrollment. Uh Springfield's been uh sort of holding pretty steady for the last three years. And then uh the choice students that the district brings in as uh we get funded for at uh
51 students. So the tax levy aortionment. So this takes the equalized value of each municipality and then prorates it based on the elementary enrollment and the regional enrollment. So we get a
percentage of the equalized value based on the regional enrollment compared to the elementary enrollment. As you can see um you know from one year to the next uh those percentages shift where you know
right now uh there was a slight decrease in the elementary percentage uh for uh Chesterfield um an increase in Mansfield the elementary percentage so that means
lower uh impact for the regional or less impact uh north handover again the elementary percentage uh went up and Springfield's elementary percentage went down. So uh you get the
increase in percentage share over there at the far right column. Uh Chesterfield uh share increased 4.98%. Mansfield went down. uh North Hanover is less than uh 1%
increase and Springfield uh 5.6% increase in the percentage share. So even if there was zero tax levy increase, the tax levy would be distributed different this year than it
had last year and still have financial impact on the taxpayers. Rich, I have a question. What's the difference between elementary enrollment versus regional enrollment and what accounts what accounts for that difference? Uh you got K through six, right, as elementary enrollment and then
you have 7 through 12 as regional enrollment. So all the kids gotcha in Chesterfield, you know, there's 660 kids in the Chesterfield elementary school and 633 Chesterfield
kids in the regional school. Thank you. You're welcome. Rich, sorry, really quick. Is there any reason it's expressed or it's um expressed here as elementary enrollment versus the regional enrollment? I I just it should just be simple math, right? It's just
going to be a minus one. But is there any reason why it's always presented that way as elementary enrollment or it could be presented as regional percent, but this is how the state does it? Okay. I just didn't know if there was a reason for that. That was always was curious to
me state presents it. Okay. Because yeah, primarily I mean we're like 49% of the Chesterfield's equalized value becomes part of the percentage of our
share. So you see the elementary equalized valuation. So that's $634 million is 51% of their equalized value. Right. Thanks. So, here's the state aid. Uh, these
numbers we uh we patiently wait for the end of every February. Um, we had a an increase in special ed aid for the first time in since probably 2011.
uh equalization aid uh which is based on uh enrollment uh decreased uh categorical security aid uh went up um 35%.
transportation aid, uh, slight increase. And again, those aids, um, for the most part, categorical special ed, equalization and security and transportation aid, they haven't changed in in many, many years. Uh, the impact
aid is where we uh, we we really benefited this year uh, with a 1.2 million plus increase in state aid. So, and then the choice choice aid is based on equalization aid and so that
that also went up. Those are for the 51 kids we take uh into our agra science program each year. So again, we benefit from the aid going up. Um I don't know, you know, we've been very fortunate over the last four four years uh that our
state aid has increased. Um again, I have many colleagues and Mr. Lee is uh on the board of Lenipe where their state aid has been going down significantly and they have uh some financial issues.
So um debt service that is uh this is in layman's terms the the mortgage. So when we go out for a bond referendum uh this turns into your debt service. We had some debt expire. Um it was a refunding
uh bond and Although uh it's reflected here slightly um when that uh debt came off the books at the end of 24 June 30th 24 uh the principal
payment on another uh bond payment increase. So uh we didn't reap the full benefit but again not uh it minimizes the impact from year to year uh on the budget. So, uh, again, the tax levy's
going down by $35,000 in debt service. Uh, our debt service aid is increased by $3,000. I mean, it's not significant, but it's uh it's a it's a positive an amount. So,
uh, the the local debt service budget is being decreased by $27,000 uh for the 26 school year. Again, the revenue summary. Uh the board's contributing uh 1.7 uh million
and change there uh for fund balance. That's money like in our savings account. We're contributing towards next year's budget. Um that's uh you know a high amount uh considering
um what we've done in past years. But uh nonetheless uh we do have that in our restricted uh uh fund balance. So uh that's available to us. You see the local tax levy. Uh this is uh restricted
to a 2% increase. So our 2% increase amounts to $459,000. So that's the effect on your tax levy. uh the tax levy is going to go up $459,000 less the uh decrease in
27,000 in debt service. So uh the net increase is like 425 uh transportation fees. These are uh you know shared transportation routes uh earned interest on capital reserve. Uh that's a bank account that uh any
interest earnings for uh what you have in your capital reserve accounts restricted to the capital reserve fund. Uh miscellaneous revenue includes uh interest earnings uh includes SREx from the solar system uh includes facilities
use uh and uh and just general miscellaneous revenue items. So, uh, so then you get to the state aid and again, that's a 5.35% increase, uh, one two $1.2 million increase. Um, impact aid.
Uh, this is again, this is a tax in lie of, uh, or aid in lie of taxes for those residents on the military base. and uh we've increased that contribution uh by
$150,000 for this school year 26. uh federal funds uh that has to do with um other federal uh funding IDA uh and uh some non-public funding um
title one title four title three there a bunch of titles uh it's pretty much uh insignificant change and whatever we budget and revenue we we
mirror on the appropriation side. So overall um the appropriations are going up three and a half% 1.8 almost $1.9 million. So here's the appropriation highlights. So I'm sorry. Can you go
back real quick question? You you made a comment that um the fund balance of 1.7 million was a little bit higher than normal. What would that target what would you expect that target to be normally?
Well, uh I can't say that it's uh it's that much significantly higher than 2324, but I've been comfortable budgeting more.1.2 1.3. Okay. Thank you. I mean, there's some school districts
that don't have any money in fund balance to contribute towards their budget. We've been very fortunate. uh to to uh have these funds available to us each year. Thanks. So, uh as far as uh how the money is
being spent, uh there's a $546,000 increase in salaries. Uh employee benefits, health insurance, uh is up over a million dollars. Uh that's a cost that um is is tough to control.
Um and then again we uh we reduced instructional supplies. Uh we had computers typically budgeted uh Chromebooks, the replacement of Chromebooks in the budget. Um, but we took that out because we are buying
those with the uh spending plan which uh at the end of this year uh we're going to use unencumbered funds to to replace the Chromebooks that are scheduled. So again uh you know we're just trying to work uh what we can uh in the budget as well as
uh the spending plan each year to uh fund what is needed. um extraordinary services, 322,000. Uh we have some new students coming into the district that require a onetoone nurse, um a personal care
nurse, and a onetoone aid. Uh also increases in um behavior services, uh occupational therapy, physical therapy. So that was a significant increase. um special ed resource room. Uh those uh
basically is uh just a a switch from um in in personnel. I think there's uh some somebody retired and there was some savings uh in there to u to promote uh that categorical decrease. Um
duplication services. Uh we used to have a bus driver who used to do all our copying in between runs. Um so we've since contracted uh the duplication services. Uh utilities is another um another expense that continues to grow.
Uh the electric um rates have been very high and so that continues to contribute towards uh that growing line item. And then transportation. Um, we contract about I'd like to say 50% of our routes
uh with an outside contractor and uh those renewals are 3.57% increase and uh in addition to that there's some new schools that we are attending, students that are attending that uh we have to transport.
So there's a couple new routes on there. So overall the general current expense went up $3 million. uh our capital outlay uh budget uh went down by almost a million. So the the general fund budget increase is
about $2 million. And so again, you know, I sort of highlight uh how we come to that. Um the overall budget uh is is going up 1.9 million. Um, and then when you throw in debt
service, well, it's actually that the total budget change is $1.89 million. And I just highlighted uh some changes at of 1.9. So, they're not meant to match. It's just some highlights. So, this is broken down by
categorical um programs. Uh again, it gives you another look at where your increases and decreases uh in uh expenditures are. Rich, I have a question. Uh when we approve a student to go out of district,
what does that what program does that pull from? Uh well, I'll go back to that slide. and it's uh instruction special ed tuition. So that's when we decide to send someone
out, right? If they come here, then it gets spread into um special education instruction up top as well as other support services, student related on uh this line
here. Then there's the transportation related expenses sometimes with that. Right. Transportation. Yep. Is down under student transportation services. Yep. So it gets sprinkled in all over the place. And if I can add one one additional
thing, one thing just that's important to remember with any out of district tuition student um specifically special ed, they are not beholden on that same 2% cap that we are. their their their fees can increase to whatever they need and then we're beholden to be able to
pay for those if the student is going to that location. Yeah. Most times those uh special service schools um their audit comes out and and they adjust the tuition. So, we're paying adjusted tuition from last year this
year that we didn't even account for in the budget because we don't know what that increase is. So, But anyway, capital outlay, like I said, it went down $990,000, almost a million. Um, you know, I I'd like to just show,
you know, where that uh where that budget's come from and where's it where it's going. So, in 24, we spent 2.7 in capital outlay. Uh we did the high school parking lot renovation. Uh renovated some bathrooms. uh the high
school cafeteria renovations, uh one of the lease payment uh lease finance payments for the health and wellness center. Um and then in 25 uh we switched gears and we did a lot
over in the middle school. We uh put in a security vestibule. Uh we did uh some uh security films on the windows, electronic door locks. Uh so you know we came down to about two million and now this year uh we're we're down to a
million. Um and the health and wellness center is is paid. Um again that's a 5-year lease purchase agreement. And so we've substituted that for the synthetic uh turf track resurfacing. Um so this
will be the first of that five years uh for to fund that project. Uh and on top of that, we're going to put in um uh the high school courtyard. Uh we're going to uh make that presentable to students who
can eat lunch there. And then we're also going to put a window in the west cafeteria overlooking that courtyard so that uh supervision from uh faculty and staff that are uh can both uh supervise the west cafeteria as well as that
courtyard. um in in one place. So um and then an ADA compliance issue with the uh east gymnasium doors. So that's brings us down to 1 million in capital outlay and cap. Hey, you speak into the
mic because we can hear you but the public can't hear you. I got you speak through that mic. Um when is the uh courtyard project actually going to start construction? Is that this year that we're starting it? Oh, yes. It could be any day now. Okay, got it. Thank you.
Actually, we have to take official action before it officially starts, but uh the contractor is very anxious to get started on that. So, bank cap analysis. So, again, you talk about 2% cap on our levy, it
amounts to about $459,000. Um and so there are other waiverss that school districts can apply for um that will allow you to exceed the 2% cap. Uh
one of those is uh health insurance. And so, uh, our health insurance went up and made it eligible for an $834,000, let's call it $835,000, uh, increase in tax levy that we could
have included uh, in our budget uh, without going out to vote to the general public. What you can do with the uh bank cap is you can keep it for three years and then it expires. So three years ago we um we got
additional state aid and we did not increase the tax levy by a million dollars that the board could have at that time. We've carried that million dollars for three years. That has expired. So between what we were able to uh bank
last year 188,000 and the 835 from this year we have bank cap for uh at least the next two years at a little over a million dollars. So if we don't get that, you know, 1.2 million next year and increase
in state aid, we might have to be using bank cap to help reconcile the budget. What do you mean when you say it expires? Like can you explain what that means? Sure. So, um it actually goes away and you can carry you can carry it for three years.
You got three years to use it or you lose it. Is that money that we get from the state to bank cap or is that our it's it's money. It's potential money that you can get from the residents through an increase in tax
levy. So, we can only increase the tax levy by 2% which is 459,000. That's our tax levy cap. Then they give you waiverss that you can you are eligible to increase your tax levy beyond that
2%. Without going out to vote. And so, uh, we've very seldomly used bank cap, although this slide's going to make a liar out of me because we used 350,000 back in
2122. Uh, but um, so again, the 835,000 that we uh are eligible in this year's um to increase tax levy, that'll expire in three years.
we don't use it, you lose it. The way I always explained it was it's a safety valve so that you can exceed the 2% for those categories that you may not have control over like health benefits, right? That's easiest way to probably explain that. I always
appreciate the different interpretations. Yep. Yeah. And you just Laura, you bank it and you hold it and that's it. You can hold it for three years and once you don't use it, it's gone. Yeah. it just rolls off. Okay. Yeah. It's not actual money you have
that you're banking. It's the capacity to get extra money by taxing, right? No actual money that you'll be. It's just Yeah. You have the capacity to raise taxes to add additional money to your budget. It's it's like saying you got a potential loan you can take, but you
don't take it, right? But you could. All right. Thank you. It's like a home equity home equity loan. line of credit. So here it is. This is the tax impact at a at a glance. So the general fund uh the
average general fund tax increase is 2.4 cents. That uh amounts to 5.8 8 cents in Chesterfield, a decrease of 4.1 cents in Mansfield, an increase of 1.7 cent in
North Hanover, and a 6.1 cent increase in Springfield. Now, the debt service is on average is zero increase. And so the bottom line, uh, when you add those two, uh, tax levies together, uh, it's a
2.3% increase. And you can see again, the Chesterfield's at 6.1, Mansfield's down 5 cents. Uh, North Hover is increased 1.6, and Springfield is 65.
And the majority of this change is because these percentages change. So Springfield's up 6.5 cents because their share of the tax levy went from 13% to 14%. So they grabbed like an
extra 1% share. And this is available on the agenda if if you need to. and after the adoption tonight uh will be pre presented on our website as well as the userfriendly budget. So um so and
there's you know on the average assessed home um I got those from uh each uh municipal u municipality's tax um tax assessor and it gives you an
average increase or decrease uh based on the average assessed home. uh the average penny uh worth is uh primarily uh the assessed value divided by let's say 100,000. So uh it doesn't
come out exact um but it's it's pretty close. So that's the tax impact. And then this is the slide I always like to to get to quickly. So over the last five years,
all not all, three of the four municipalities had tax decreases, um, which is, I think, pretty significant. So, uh, you know, in 22, uh, Springfield and North Hanover, uh,
had tax decreases. In uh 23 uh Mansfield, North Hanover, and Springfield had tax decreases. Uh in 24, North Hanover had tax decrease. Last year, uh Springfield and Mansfield had tax decrease and this year just
Mansfield. So you can see um out of the four municipalities, three of them had uh three decreases over the last five years. So then we compare our uh our budget to
what the state dictates as an adequate budget. And this is showing that we're under the state's adequacy budget by $5.4 million. So, that's actually a good thing because
according to the state, our budget should be $5.4 million more than what it is. Rich, yeah. Does that does that ever get us in trouble? And and I asked that because it seemed like we got burned in Springfield one year around that. It
could get you in trouble if you're over adequacy. Okay. Thank you. there's more restrictions on what you can do and uh and your state aid if you're over at the adequacy budget. So I put this in every year
because we've been under adequacy for a long time. And then there's our yearbook pit picture. And uh I open up to the public for any questions. Before the public goes, can I ask you one question? Sure. Back on the regional
funding formula, and we're going to get a little bit into the weeds on this, but this is kind of a recent event. Um, Springfield was notified that they need to reassess. And I just want to make sure they understand uh because my what I
understand is that none of the towns have reassessed since like the early 2010s, anywhere from like 2011 to 2014. And um part of that notice that we got was that we were outside of the bounds the director's ratio for assessments. So my question is um when the reassessment
gets done and it gets computed here, I am assuming that as long as the county tax administrator has done the work to properly equalize Springfield to the other towns that it won't cause a huge swing. Is
that a good assumption? That's a good assumption. Yes. Okay. Yeah. The equalized value is comparative. It's been adjusted town to town, right? Yes. So that we're comparing apples to apples. Okay. Thank you. Yeah. I don't I
don't have a question. I have I have a comment. Um my son started here in 2018 on the back to school night. He was a freshman in 2018. We had to walk outside this building to go to the freshman corridor. And I'm just thoroughly
appreciative of all of the capital outlay projects to improve the look, the security of the building. It it just looks really impressive and welcoming and a place where kids want to be. So, thank you for all your hard work and to
the uh budget and finance committee. Um you guys have done wonders and um it's just a beautiful building. I'm really excited for the auditorium. So, thank you. Thank you. All right. Very good.
All right. Uh, with that, can I get a motion to adjourn the public budget hearing? I'll make the motion to adjourn the public budget hearing and a second Tina Christina. All right. All those in Yeah. All those in favor? I.
All opposed extensions. The budget hearing is adjourned. Um Mr. Lee, can you check if there's any comments on agenda items? All right. Um, for this evening's work session, I
will go through the consent agenda items by the header. If anyone has any specific questions or comments regarding any individual consent agenda item, please let me know. Um, section five is routine matters reports to the boards. Any questions or comments on section
five. Section six is approval of bills. Any questions or comments for section six? Right. Uh section seven is business and financial. Um any questions or comments on the consent agenda items
only. Okay. Um item 7.14 is non-consent agenda item for the approval of a 2526 budget. Uh can I get a motion for 7.14? Make a motion for 7.14 to vote on it. I'll second it. All right. Um is there
any discussion amongst the board? Just a comment. Yeah. Um, I'd like to see this year when we start this um this process in November that we have more of a discussion about what the assumptions are. Um, you know, I think there's been a a tradition here to uh to approach
this with a 2% um, you know, funding. And I'd like us to consider a zerobased budget approach where we take a look at prior year actuals um, and then go through and do a justification as to what we're going to do beyond that. um especially kind of given inflationary
circumstances um and and a whole slew of other financial u uh considerations for all of our residents. I I think we at least um should consider that sort of an approach this year when we come around with the next budget or we start budgeting for the next cycle in November. Thanks.
Thank you. Any other uh comments or questions, Joe? What does that mean? You mean like not taking the 2%? Exactly right. Not starting at the assumption we're going to take 2%. Thanks. Provided the finance committee
that opportunity in November. I did. You did. Okay. I just No, you did. Wanted to be fair. Yep. I know you meant and I voiced that concern then and I will continue to voice it. But yeah, you absolutely did, Rich. All right. Thank you. All right. And with that, can you please
conduct a roll call vote, Mr. Cass? Yay. Nebain Mr. Figs. Yay. Mrs. Bond. Yay. Mrs. Applegate. Mr. Arminente. Yay. Mr. Bucks. Nay. Mr. Narwit. Yay. Mrs.
Janice. Yay. Mr. Spence. And Mr. Zimmer. Yay. All right. Thank you, board. Motion passes. All right. Um, continuing on with the consent agenda, uh, section eight is students. Any comments or questions on section 8
items? All right. Section nine is personnel appointments. Any comments or questions on section 9? All right. Section 10, change of assignment. Any comments or questions on section 10? Section 11 is leave of absence. Any
comments or questions on section 11? All right. Section 12, separation of employment. Any comments or questions for section 12? Section 13 is personnel miscellaneous. Any comments or questions for section
13? All right. Uh we have no items for section 14 programs or section 15 policy. Uh section 16 transportation. Any comments or questions for section 16? Are there any changes on those contracts? the transportation. Yes, Shepard went up
3%, GSC went up 3.57%. Thank you. But no, no additional routes. All right. Uh, any other questions? Actually, kind of a follow up to that. When do we need to communicate? Does any
be communicated back to the um our constituent districts since we provide blessing for them? Is that when is this impact? I tell them that what the CPI is that the state provides the maximum increase and I tell
them to whatever they're currently contracting with to use the CPI to increase their budget. Um, typically I I do provide them some some numbers. Okay. I just if we haven't impacted them, I just want to make sure we're
we're communicating that down. All right. Any further questions? All right. Uh, section 17 is use of facilities. Any questions or comment for section 17 consent agenda items? Are these district or are these outside
of district clubs or camps? Excuse me. Camps from our sports team. There are teams that our teams are leading. I wasn't clear. Thank you. All right. Thank you. Uh any other comments or questions for section
17? Okay. Uh Mr. Lee, do we have any public comment? All right. No public comment this evening. Um future dates, uh next week there is a curriculum committee meeting prior to the regular board
meeting. Um and then regular board meeting. Um is there any um old business that anyone would like to refer to a committee um for discussion or to Dr. Zuckermanman or Mr.
Cass? All right. Any uh new business anyone would like to refer to committee? All right. Um we we do have executive session tonight. There will be no business conducted uh following executive session. Um with that, can I
get a motion to uh go into executive session? Motion to go to exec. Second. All those in favor? I I know. All right. Thank you everyone. Make a motion to come out of executive
session. Second. Second. All right. All those in favor? I I. All opposed. Extensions. All right. Can I get a motion? Motion to return. Second. All those in favor? I extensions. Nice.
Have a good night, everyone.