5 entitled open public meetings act Adequate notice of this meeting is provided as specified in the act Proper notice of this open public meeting was provided in the notice of January 6 2025 Said notice was posted at the entrance of the board of education offices sent
to the Nutley Township clerk sent to tap into Nutley sent to the Nutley Sun and Star Ledger on January 17 2025 and posted on the district website Will everyone please stand for the flag salute i pledge allegiance 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 [Music] Roll call Mr Deiza I'm sorry
Wow That's a Yeah we're back Mr Dvita Mr Balsamo here Mrs Danek Martin here Dr Dia Mr Fragel's Mr Gilbert Mr Gazinski
here Mrs Quirk here Mr Scotty here Mr Ferraro here Any correspondence no correspondence I get a motion for approval of the minutes Make the motion approve the minutes All in favor anyone opposed
okay good evening everyone Before we move forward with tonight's agenda the board of ed board of education would like to briefly address the district's financial situation and difficult decisions ahead To begin we as a board do not support cuts to student programs
including sports and extracurricular activities And we strongly urge our superintendent our administration to find alternative solutions to protect opportunities for our students Despite having taken the maximum allowable tax increase last year which was just under
6% To address address a significant budgetary shortfall Nutley faced a 3% reduction in state aid this year the maximum cut permitted While nearby districts like Belleville East Orange Norc and Irvington received millions
more Of the 22 municipalities in Essex County only seven saw aid reductions which total 3.5 million while 15 districts received increases in addition to what they received last year totaling more than 100
million In response to growing concern the state in early April offered a one-time waiver allowing districts to raise taxes beyond the allowable cap without a public vote It's important to understand that our preliminary budget which we just introduced a month
ago reflected a 2.73% increase which already accounted for the available state approved waiverss for health care costs and enrollment growth This 2.73% increase represents the maximum the board could res responsibly approve without removing
voter oversight While some saw the state's new onetime waiver as a solution we believe it would undermine transparency and taxpayers rights If a tax increase above the cap is necessary the people of Nutly deserve the right to vote on it Later this
evening I will move to create an exploratory committee to investigate how we can formally return school budget approvals to the voters exceeding the 2% cap Because that should not rest with the individual board members It should rest with the people of Nutley Now after careful con after
careful consideration and discussion a majority of the board decided not to pursue the one-time waiver And that decision was based on several key reasons One it would remove voter input It would unfairly shift the burden for the state's cuts onto Nutley
taxpayers It would be unfair given previously identified areas where efficiency and cost savings must be addressed and it would allow the state to avoid responsibility for its funding decisions We also recognize that addressing these financial challenges requires real lasting change not just
temporary fixes that postpone the problem to another year Last spring the district submitted a corrective action plan to the state identifying key areas that must be addressed to stabilize Nutley's finances including operational inefficiencies such as scheduling
modifications to reduce strain on faculties and staff while creating cost savings and benefiting students Staffing adjustments to better align with district with our district needs and resources as current staffing levels exceed those typically found in
districts of our size and aligning special services to ensure they are effectively meeting the needs of students while managing managing cost efficiently While the reforms were identified in the corrective action plan they still need to be fully implemented and additional efficiencies must
continue to be explored This work is ongoing and necessary to achieve long-term financial sustainability Failure to address these challenges will continue to place unnecessary pressure on programs and most importantly our students In the wake of last year's
budget challenges this board and administration must continue to find efficiencies and cost savings within the budget We understand that some of the decisions that need to be made may not be popular and we acknowledge that they will cause concern and anxiety among some members of our community However
these are necessary steps to ensure long-term stability and success of our school district These are difficult decisions and we collectively lose sleep over them But we need to make them in order in order to balance core education needs with much neededed cost
efficiencies and in order to avoid huge tax increases Now at this time I welcome any other comments from any any fellow board members Yes Mr President if I may Um I just want to share your sentiment Um in the early
budget proposal last month up until the waiver was granted uh I had not been privy to any conversation about uh sports programming Uh and I was I I was I am very concerned about that And I want to
just reiterate from your statement uh that I do not support that and the need for sustainability within our [Music] budget Any other board members okay with that let's move on to
our uh presentation Mr Ba and Mrs Locan Solo [Music] [Music] Thank you Good evening Um thank you all for coming We have two presentations scheduled for tonight While the monitor is coming down and we're setting up uh
we will be presenting uh the school performance reports and district performance reports as required by statute Um the this is an annual presentation as well as following by Mr Devid and I will present the uh budget
presentation Uh that's also an annual presentation Uh the 2324 school report Uh Miss Egan can you hear me in the back volume okay Uh the school and district performance reports um are from last cycle and they are dependent on last
year's mostly last year's spring uh testing cycle uh which we're currently in for this year right now Um it's also based on the October 15 snapshot demographics that gets uploaded every year on October 15th Uh myself and Mrs Lopen Solo will uh present uh what's
available to the public where you can find it and what it means Next slide please Um so the school performance reports and district performance reports reflect uh outreach by the New Jersey DOE and its efforts to engage community stakeholders
in conversation The goal of these reports is to begin conversations about where the district is based on data uh learn about the school day uh by uh exploring all parts of the reports The reports come in two fashions They come in summary reports and detailed reports
and are available on the New Jersey DOE website They're searchable as well as linked to our website Next slide please Uh what kinds of information are included in the reports um they give you school and district overviews They give
you a sense of demographic information which can be tracked October 15th through October 15th the uh change in data of student growth our overall academic achievement how we perform on the tests and how our kids are growing how ready our students are for college
or careers Um information on our graduation rates uh school climate and environment are in the detailed reports as well as staff information School accountability typically means um attendance and other measures of that uh
nature as well as an opportunity for schools to provide narrative information about their programs as well as our district I will go through the summary reports By the looks of that screen you probably can't read it It'll get bigger
on the next slide Uh but the DOE provides a district as well as each school summary reports that have these speed dials on them And these speed dials talk to our student growth as well
as our district achievement Next slide Ian On the top of our district report you'll see information pertaining to our demographics For for 2324 we had
4,252 students enrolled in public schools That's up 175 students from the previous year Our students with disabilities is 21 a.5% That's down.9% from the previous year Our studenttoteer ratio was 13 to1 That's up
from 12 to one the previous year Um the 0.9% is about 40 students and students with disabilities Our average teaching experience is 11 and a half years That's down from 11.9 years Uh multilingual learners is 3.6%
that is new in the reporting cycle of the DOE and our economically disadvantaged students which is measured by students that apply for free and reduced lunch is uh 13 and a half% that's up from 11.8% Um the next set of speed dials on
the district report overall for the entire district the top two show growth compared to other students in a similar cohort from around the state For teachers in the room this most most closely resembles your MSGP Uh for the
district as a whole we are 54% meeting the standard ELA That's down from 59% And we are 55% in math down from 57.5% The bottom speed dials represent
overall performance On ELA and math we are at 67.1% up from 65.8 And for math we're at 53.6 up from 50.5 from last year Next slide please
The district report talks about attendance chronically absent is being absent more than 10% of the school year roughly 18 days The district is closer aligned to the state at 15.1% down from
19.6% This is a good job The state is also down uh from 16.6% here Next slide please Graduation reporting Uh the the state reports four and fiveyear graduation rates Uh we are below the
state in four-year graduation rates um by a a percentage of a point Uh this is due to a small amount of students continuing in our five or six year programs our rise programs um compared to our five-year graduation rate and where they graduate We are meeting the
state requirements Um on the bottom of this is another set of good news for the district Um our AP um it measures how many students in 11th and 12th grade take one AP course is at 38.7% up from
34.7% Our dual enrollment measures how many students are in a duly enrolled program 11th and 12th grade is 57.4% that's up from 35.1% Our seal of biiteracy is a new reporting feature that's
7.1% And we are up from 3% to 16% in industry valued credentials That's uh when students take career in technical education classes even even CPR in health 4 that's an industry valued credential that they
earn Next slide please I'm going to turn this over to Mrs Loan Solo who's going to talk about the detailed reports You can find all of these reports not only for the district but also for each individual school Please keep in mind that at Spring Garden School many of our
preschool annex are tied to that school So the data looks different because those students are a part of Spring Garden School when we report to the state Thank you [Music] Thank you Mr
Ba So the state also provides detailed performance reports for districts in each individual school This allows the public to click into a specific section of the report and access additional helpful information Categories include demographics student growth academic
achievement college and career readiness graduation rate climate and staff to name a few Next slide The demographic section here of the detailed report breaks down enrollment on the left side by grade and then also
by specific groups such as gender race and ethnicity and other factors Next slide The student growth section achievement shows student growth in both math and ELA The data shows grades four
through eight growth based on student growth percentile or MSGP data gathered from the NJSLA the New Jersey Student Learning Assessment Here you can see students in all five performance leveled levels achieved what the state
categorizes as typical growth So you'll see typical written above each of these columns in the performance levels Again this is all available online for easy reference as well Next slide Looking at the same data in
another way you can also see MSGP data by grade level in both math and ELA So here you can see fourth fifth sixth etc on the chart A highlight here is grade six growth showing students are demonstrating high growth in both ELA
and math So kudos to our sixth grade [Music] teachers Next slide Here you can see the district science NJSLA data You'll see consistent growth in students meeting or exceeding grade
level expectations in grade five I've used kind of a red box there to help draw your attention to the combination of the meeting and exceeding that top section of the graph and relative consistency from last year's performance in grade 8 next to it
Specifically 23 24 was the first year of grade 5 departmentalization something the district was very proud of Um that allowed for teachers more specialized in content areas Next slide In grade 11 science we saw a jump
in um students meeting or exceeding standards Um in 2223 we went from 26% to in 23 24 35% and we maintain that goal with 36% of students meeting or exceeding grade level standards there as
well And that's again in the red box The performance report also shares information on DLN the dynamic learning maps assessment This assessment is given to students for whom general education assessments are not appropriate in grades 3 through eight and 11 And here
you can see the participation data in that assessment Here you'll see data on the district NJ GPA assessment the New Jersey graduation proficiency assessment In 2324 we saw slight increases in students meeting this requirement in
both ELA and math And you'll see in those green boxes because I know this is hard to read I numbered out there the percent increase Um ELA on the left and then math on the right Scrolling further down to the college and career readiness section of the
performance report you can see information on AP and dual enrollment courses offered at the high school Here you'll notice we are well above the state in students enrolled in one or more AP course students taking more than one AP course and students scoring at
least three or passing on an AP exam I'd also like to highlight our dual enrollment participation which is over double the state average at 57% This is due in large part to the work of our supervisors who work diligently to establish and facilitate
these university partnerships So thank you to [Music] them Scrolling further down to the climate and environment section you can see we continue to make strides in addressing chronic absenteeism In 232 24
we reduced chronic absenteeism which is defined as being absent for 10% or more of the days enrolled during the school year and we decreased that from 19.6 to 15.1 However we are slightly above the state average So this continues to be an
area of focus for us In the staffing section you can view data on teacher staff and administrator experience This section also provides totals for the number of staff in particular roles in
district such as school counselors nurses and other valuable support positions Further down under that staff tab you can also see the level of education of teachers and administrators in the district For example 69% of our
teachers hold master's degrees and 96.3 of our administrative team does as well The last section of the report offers the opportunity for districts to share narrative information on a variety of topics of interest Here we highlight
um for example our distinction as a NAMM foundation's best communities for music education Um we also highlight the seal of biiteracy among other achievements We also use this section to highlight our continued full day preschool expansion and 25 inscolastic
athletic teams On the next page here the state posts the school performance reports publicly for all schools in the state to ensure transparency around student performance You'll see here on the state website that you're able to search by a specific
school or by a district and then by school You can also look at the school or district's growth over time You can go on that um top left hand corner where you see that green box and you can select a previous year So you can click back to last year or a number of years
ago and be able to compare the data to the newly released performance report as well We post the performance reports on the district website for the publicly to e for the public to easily access as well To view these you can go to
nutleyschools.org and click on office of curriculum and instruction So you'll see that top green box that says district and then you scroll down to the office of curriculum and instruction that bottom green box Once you're there you can scroll down to
see all of our board um presentations including the New Jersey performance reports from the past several years Um and you can also see previous year's reports again so that you can understand the way the data has evolved over time We wanted to end with some links to
helpful documents and websites if you're interested in exploring these reports further again these slides will all at this point do we want to take any questions if we can uh it's okay uh Mr President if it's okay we'll take questions during the open question
period uh later in the meeting You want to take them now okay Uh we'll take questions on the school performance report now if you have any questions I don't see any questions We will have a question period later in the in the board meeting uh for questions related to this as well Thank you Mrs
Logan Solo and thank you to all the teachers supervisors par professionals everyone in the room for supporting this data we're showing tonight Thank you I would like to shift to our second presentation Ian of the evening our budget hearing presentation
and I would like to call up and introduce Mr Mike Dvita our business administrator uh to begin the presentation Right Good evening Welcome to the uh 202526 uh budget hearing Uh next
slide Uh first I'd like to talk about what our uh budget goals were uh for when we were developing the budget Um we have a um long-term sustainability was important Um we wanted to ensure that the school district's financial health is sustainable over the long term while
balancing our current needs Uh we wanted to maintain critical programs Uh we wanted to ensure that essential educational programs and services are preserved and funded All programs are important Uh but we are focusing on the
programs that meet the state graduation requirements We wanted to minimize reduction of staff Uh we did have a reduction in force in our current budget and wanted to limit that in the proposed budget We were able to reduce physicians through attrition to limit the amount of
reduction in force uh needed for employees for next year Uh we wanted to continue uh maintenance of our buildings Um our buildings are aging and in need of improvement Uh we want to keep the district's physical infrastructure u make sure it's in good condition to
ensure a safe and conducive learning environment And lastly um efficient use of existing resources Uh we wanted to maximize the value of every dollar spent by optimizing existing resources including staffing and
technology Uh next slide Um this is just a timeline for uh when the budget process started Um uh it is a team effort uh for everybody in the district Um uh that started in December with the administration uh preparing and
submitting their their budgets um to my office Uh this information was then gathered and we held prioritization meetings uh with uh all principles and directors On February 27th uh 2025 our state aid figures were released um and
we did receive a 3% um uh reduction uh from the current year which amounted to $374,641 On March 8th uh we did hold a board workshop uh where the budget was discussed in more detail and the necessary reductions that were needed to
achieve a balanced budget On March 17th uh the tenative budget was then approved and submitted to the county office for their approval which we have received And on March 28th um the um Department of Ed notified eligible districts of the availability of a tax levy incentive
waiver which uh the district did qualify for So that led to another board meeting on April 10th to discuss the waiver that would allow the district to restore some program cuts by increasing the school tax rate Um this now leads us to tonight uh which uh the what is being presented
is a preliminary budget that was approved by the executive county superintendent Uh now the board will be approving tonight the final tax levy numbers for the 202526 school year Um now this does not mean that the funds will remain in these lines throughout the entire year Um the the budget is a
fluid process and the the amounts that are in the accounts will will change each month Uh next slide Uh back one slide way Here we go Um most important part of a budget is the the revenues Uh
determining um what you can spend uh or what you're going to receive in order to know what you're going to spend Um the operating fund is the largest part of our budget Um I'll go into a little bit more detail in in the next slide for what amounts to this um $82 million number Uh the special revenue fund Uh
this includes all federal and state grants that we receive including the preschool grant the ESA grant IDA grant and non-public grants Uh and this uh amount here the $7.2 million does include a little over $2 million of an increase that we received in our
preschool grant Uh the debt service fund This includes all the principal and interest uh payments for bonds that have been issued by the district We currently are paying off two bonds Um and we are working on refunding one of them to um help save some money Uh so the total
annual budget has increased by a little over $2.8 million or 3.12% Um but keep in mind that this does include our preschool grant which was a little over $2 million increase Uh next slide
Um this is the the detail of the um um revenue for our operating budget Uh the local tax levy um is the majority of um where the district receives our funds Uh this is the amount of funds that come from the taxpayers Uh we are statutoily allowed to increase our to local tax
levy by 2% each year So this number includes that uh plus two uh waiverss an enrollment waiver and a healthcare waiver Uh so it totals uh just under $1.7 million um increase uh for our local tax levy Our state aid amount um
is the next highest number just over $12 million Uh this is our um money that we received from the state and it does include a reduction uh from uh last year from current year Extraordinary aid number Uh this is the money that we receive from the state for special
education students that uh we have both in district and we uh send out our unrestricted miscellaneous revenue This includes um uh majority of this is our uh interest that we receive from our banks um athletic participation fees
athletic admissions the - grant and some unanticipated uh revenues Uh we um are going to be switching banks um uh shortly So we're in the process of doing that now uh when we are um going to be able to double our interest rate Uh so that um led us to uh
increase this uh budget by um by more Our facility rental uh is the fee that we charge our extended day program for using our facilities Our capital reserve withdrawal um this is uh funds that we're going to be using Um there it's a one-time uh withdrawal to be used on
one-time expenses for our anticipated additional classrooms at John H Booker uh middle school uh maintenance reserve withdrawal This is again a one-time uh to be used on one time expense uh for uh anticipation of a renovation of classrooms in the um the basement of the
middle school by district staff Uh semi um this amount did decrease by 87% from our current year This is funds that we received through Medicaid from the uh federal government Um so it is it was about a little over $100,000 decrease
that that we got And uh tuition this is money that we received from uh district staff that uh have children that attend the schools uh that don't live in town Uh so this shows our total operating revenue uh is an increase of $1.6 million or a little over uh
2% Uh next slide Uh this slide here just shows a pie chart um just to show um how much uh where all the revenue is spent Um our local tax levy um is a little over 81% of our uh operating revenue State aid is
14.63% Extraordinary aid is 2.97% and all the other revenues that we get amounts to 1.25% Uh next slide Uh this is our expenditures Now um these are the expenditures for the
entire budget Um we have all of our different I I like to break them out into different categories between instructional special ed employee benefits uh support services and maintenance Um I will be going into um some more detail in future slides on on
what all these amounts uh come to And our special revenue and debt service um uh they're in there too So our um expenses match our revenue So uh the budget is balanced Uh next slide This is just a pie chart uh that
shows the operating expenditures Our uh instructional expenses amount to 30% of our budget Employee benefits is 24% Uh special education is 22 a.5% Uh support services is 15.4% and operations
and maintenance is 8% of our operating budget Uh next slide This is the detailed breakdown of our uh the first category is instructional programs Um it includes all the salaries uh stipens of all of our regular uh
instruction teachers uh in grades K through 12 Also any leave teachers substitute teachers degree changes uh class coverage home instruction pretty much any salary Um and also supplies and and software for all of these subject
areas And that's uh 23.4 24 million uh basic skills uh and ESL These are the salaries and supplies uh for staff in both of those areas Uh media services this is the salaries of all of our media specialists in each school and also
communication services for all of our schools and libraries And instructional staff training is the uh includes curriculum writing and professional development and workshops and conferences for our staff Uh next slide is our special education uh budget
here Um you see the amounts for our uh special ed instruction This is all of the salaries and supplies for our specialized programs which include an LD program uh emotional regulation impairment program a resource room program autism program and a preschool
disabled program Our out of district tuition is the outside placement of students um that we uh don't maintain in our own schools that attend private schools Uh we currently have 63 special ed students that are in um either private disabled schools or other LEA
programs Our related and extraordinary services this is the in-house uh speech personnel that we have um our occupational and physical therapists and uh par professionals and ABA services And lastly our child study team Uh this
is all of our salaries of our child study team which includes psychologists social workers um LDTC's and a behavior specialist Um and also supplies and professional development Uh next slide This is our uh employee
benefits Uh social security Uh this is all of the payments that um the district makes to the state for all non certified staff such as secretaries custodians and par profofessionals Uh retirement contributions These are the pension payments that district pays
to the state for non-certified staff Workers comp These are the premium for our insurance coverage for all employees for workers comp Um other contractual obligations Uh this is all as per contract uh for tuition reimbursement Uh sick day payouts when people retire Opt
out payments for health benefits and also uniform payments And lastly the largest number here is our health benefit uh expenses for medical prescription and dental coverage Uh the district is self-insured for health and prescription benefits Um so this amounts
uh the majority of this is is for that Um it's uh includes our estimated net claims uh our plan administration costs uh and stop-loss premiums and a search charge for the state Our our dental plan is a fully insured
plan Um and we are weighing options uh to remain self-funded or to return to a fully insured plan Uh next slide These are our uh support services Uh we have our health services all the salaries for all of our nurses
in all the buildings and our school physician that we share with the township and also orthopedic services uh guidance are the salaries of all of our uh counselors in all the schools and also a sack and secretaries and all supplies and testing supplies and um
evaluation student software general administration Uh this is the salaries of uh central office staff Um also attorney fees audit fees um some professional fees such as stress estimate which handles our policy Um our
rate program u and also postage um and uh we do also have in here um the salary of our state monitor and uh uh it's the first year of our um repayment of our loan to the state which is a million dollars uh school administration These are all
of our principles vice principles uh directors of coordinators uh that are in this here and also uh school office supplies and graduation expenses and dues Uh central services and admin Um this is for the uh business office staff and the technology staff uh
departments salaries and also legal advertisement and supplies Uh transportation issue the salaries of all of our bus drivers Uh we do have uh currently have 24 buses in our fleet Um so it's uh we also um outsource some of our routes that we
can't handle um for some special ed students and also our uh maintaining our buses repairs and um gasoline athletics and co-curricular This is for all of our coaches and advisors and um also music Also the
salary of our trainer um and any game help uh and supplies and uh league dues uh charter school payment Uh we currently have uh four students and we're projected to have four students um that are Nutlely residents that attend um charter schools uh next year and
transferred to our food service This is uh funds um that go to our food service program uh that account for uh lunch supervision Uh next slide is our operations and maintenance uh for maintenance custodial and grounds Uh this includes the salaries and
supplies and services that uh to maintain um our our buildings Um it also includes any gas and electric charges uh in each building and liability insurance for each building Uh which did um have large increases for both of those areas uh next year Uh security uh this amount
includes the armed security guards in all the buildings and um security software and supplies for the district uh capital outlay includes a debt service assessment from the state that we get and also the funds from our capital reserve that are going to the new classrooms at the middle school are
included in this um line there Uh next slide Uh this slide I like to um pretty much your every budget is based in into two types of costs You have fixed costs and your discretionary costs Um your fixed costs are the costs that you know you're definitely going to have your
your salaries uh benefits um you know pension contributions insurance um so that that's there um uh in there you have a specialized programs um out of district tuition transportation special ed evaluations and all that um and your some of your other costs uh your your
legal bills your order um payment um schoolboard fees um and all of those um add up to about $79.5 million of our budget Um so that leaves um about 3.2 million of discretionary funding Um now
that's uh pretty much what fits in that category is here Any supplies software professional development repairs for our facilities um athletics security um that's all included in in um that budget Uh next
slide Uh this um here um is a pie chart Um it just uh breaks out um personnel is the majority of our budget It's about 81.5% of our um operating budget Our specialized programs is 10.5% And the other areas is uh 4.1% Uh
so that leaves uh just under 4% of our discretionary funds to spend Uh next slide Uh so in order to balance this budget uh we had to look to reduce the budget by $5.7 million uh after cutting $6.3
million the previous year This was not an easy task Um this is where we are today Um this is a fluid process that will evolve over time as we identify resources and work within our team um to give the best educational program we can
to the students of Nutley Uh the first thing is we have some retirees some resignations to not replace those has significant cost savings um in different areas around the district Uh the second thing is to restructure the par profofessional based on need Um and that
is to say um to discover and find our need in district for next year based on IEPs class size overages that require by statute a paraprofessional and build our district paraprofessional pool based on these moving some to part-time where
possible restructuring our behavioral mental health services Unfortunately the Rucker's behavioral health services comes with a very high price tag It's a very valuable resources for our students and staff uh we have to find a different way to provide these services within our budget We're currently working with
Nelly Family Services who have clinicians in in town uh to work through what this looks like for our students Uh reduce special education and transportation contingencies Um these are in the budget based on um things that we can't anticipate at this time
but may present themselves at a later time Uh we've reduced those from the budget uh we have reduced athletics and extracurricular uh across the board Uh in developing these uh we wanted to make sure that we looked at where cuts were made last year as well as as well as
make sure that we instead of take from one place took from across the district uh for consistency um and equity We reduced our school supplies We further reduced our projections for summer hours and we eliminated key pieces of technology such
as schooly um uh some other ones that we have in district that help support our staff as well as some of our students Um these this is the beginning um of where we need to take from in the district All of these things uh have been discussed
at central office um and have been shared uh with our state monitor who has overseen this entire process Uh moving forward we will continue to work through these with within our teams uh to develop the best program we can with the resources we're
provided That concludes the presentation Oh there's another slide I'm sorry Excuse me I just want to go over the um estimated school tax impact uh for the budget Uh the average assessed house uh for 2025 in Nutley is $493,362
Uh so for the um the average increase uh for that size home would be $2284 and that includes [Music] presentation Sure There's a lot of questions and comments Uh we can take them during the public session I believe
uh we're going to return to the stage prepare our normal reports uh and then take questions following that Uh thank you for your patience We appreciate it Okay we're going to move on to our uh reports and we're going to have our
student Matt Lee with us to give our student report Uh so since the last since the last board of ed meeting um StuGo has sponsored a March Madness tournament for the staff and students Um our key club has also sponsored a blood drive on
March 25th Um the school raised about 90 pints of blood and uh we also had a student government day where our student leaders um me uh our student leaders went over to different departments across the town
and got a deeper look inside of how the each department works and how the town works Um on April 8th there were 65 students who were inducted into the world language honor society Um on Earth Day we had a great group of student council
and Bonnie club volunteers uh go into Booth Park and clean up high school campus And we also planted a tree in honor of Earth Day And beginning tomorrow we'll start NJSLA testing which runs until this Friday And for other upcoming things we
have National Honor Society induction which will be this Wednesday Um there's going to be about seven there's going to be 75 students inducted And then May 1st we're going to have our Night of Nations event There's going to be lots of food
music performances art and cultural attractions Um AP test will be starting the following week Uh the NHS spring kura concert will take place on May 20th The NHS art show will take place on the
21st and we'll have our 2025 to 2026 class officer elections take place on May 16th Thank you Thank you Uh Matt you're you're more than welcome to stay but if you have other things that you need to do you're you can you
can exit out and do what you need to Thank you Mr Bay our superintendent report Uh thank you Mr President Before I begin my report tonight I would like to pause for a moment to recognize the passing of Mr
Lewis Williams a former trustee of the Nutley Board of Education who served from 1975 to 1984 and again from 1996 to 1998 Mr Williams was a dedicated member of the community and is also the father
of our high school principal Dennis Williams I ask that we take a moment of silence in his memory Thank you Over the past month the district has continued moving forward on several important initiatives On Tuesday April
22nd the transition planning committee held its fourth meeting During this session the three subcommittees school day operations academics and fifth grade transitions met to identify and develop two to three key goals along with action
steps research and resources needed to advance their work Each group presented their progress to the full committee Additionally on April 23rd Principal Materia from John H Walker Middle School along with a small group of committee members visited two middle schools in
Wayne to observe their operations scheduling and facilities These site visits will continue through the spring with another visit planned to Little Falls on Wednesday as we work to gather best practices and idea ideas for our
future 68 middle school model For more information on the transition planning committee's work please visit the superintendent's corner on our district's website Over the recent spring break a group of Nutly coral students traveled to Austria where they
had an incredible opportunity to perform at historic venues and immerse themselves in the culture of Vienna and Salsburg Mr Vicarella and his staff shared a wonderful photo with me of our students hiking up the Alps a reminder of the remarkable experiences that
extend far beyond the classroom I want to thank the Nutly Music Boosters for their continued generous support as well as our talented staff and dedicated chaperones who made this life-changing trip possible And of course congratulations to our students for representing Nutley so proudly on the
world stage [Music] [Applause] Looking ahead uh over the coming weeks all schools will begin New Jersey student learning assessment testing Building principles and teachers will be sharing specific schedules with families
We encourage students to get a good night's rest bring a fully charged Chromebook each day and be ready to do their best Also the John H Walker Middle School Drama Club will present Willy Wonker Jr on May 1st and 2nd at 7:30 in the John Walker Middle School auditorium
We hope to see you there to support our talented young performers On our horizon we have the Junior Olympics on June 2nd and the lead picnic for sixth graders on June 6th As we near the end of the school year a few important dates to keep in mind The last
day of school for all students will be Monday June 16th Students will have single session days on Thursday June 12th Friday June 13th and Monday June 16th we will celebrate our students Preschool celebrations will begin
throughout the week of June 2nd coordinated and communicated directly by classroom teachers Our kindergarten promotions will take place on June 12th Sorry where was I here our six our uh sixth grade graduations will take place
on June 13th And the John H Walker Middle School 8th grade promotion will be Friday June 13th at 9:00 a.m Our high school commencement will be Thursday June 19th at 6 p.m Please note that subject to change uh based on weather
patterns we're seeing that may be moved up in the day based on uh safety and discretion Uh we encourage everyone to support the Netley Educational Foundation which provides generous grants and donations to enhance educational programs across our school
The NEF is looking for members and it's also hosting its spring fundraiser SIP and Saver at the Kingsland Manor on Thursday June 12th Tickets will be available on the district website and it promises to be a wonderful evening at
the Kingsland Manor At tonight's meeting the board is being asked to approve the 2526 tax levy We recognize the budget development process has been difficult and the district remains committed to using all available
resources to provide the best education possible for our students As discussed during the budget presentation there will be some impact across the district While we work within these constraints to maintain strong programs it is important to acknowledge that we will
most likely see some reduction in programming particularly at the high school and we are anticipating an increase in overall class size We want to assure our community that the district will continue to follow all individual education programs and meet
the meet all New Jersey Department of Education curriculum and graduation requirements In order to align our staffing needs to the evolving needs of our students and to move the district toward sustainability we are restructuring the paraprofessional role and staffing it
based on district need On tonight's agenda there is a resolution to sunset or abolish the current paraprofessional job and approve a new job description which establishes three distinct categories of paraprofessionals During this transition some positions may shift to part-time
All positions will maintain their staff longevity and sick day acral for continued service Follow following tonight's meeting The district will post and send the new job description to all current parrofessionals Appllet track will open on Wednesday with job postings for all
categories and we aim to complete this process efficiently to ensure a smooth transition for our staff Any paraprofessional that needs help with applying online please out reach out to special services department for support Thank you all for your continued support
of our schools Thank you Mr Ba Mr Dvidita our business administrator report Thank you I just wanted to point out a couple of resolutions that are on for approval for tonight's meeting Uh the first is a proposal from a contractor to upgrade the fire alarm systems in three of our
schools uh Lincoln Washington and Spring Garden Schools Uh funds for this project are through a uh US United States Department of Housing and Urban Development grant in the amount of $500,000 Uh and this proposal will only be signed after confirmation of funds
are available Also on for approval is renewing our membership into the Suburban Metro Joint Insurance Fund This is the fund that provides property and casualty insurance and also workers compensation and surge for the district
Thank you Thank you Mr Dvita Miss Danek Martin academic Yes Mr President The academic committee met on Wednesday April 9th Uh Mr Mr Vicarello presented the committee with
process data findings and recommendations from the five-year program review of career and technical education department Miss Lok Solo presented the committee with information from the five-year review of the library media program The committee reviewed the work of the elementary report card
committee Miss Lok Solo shared the initial recommendations that the group discussed The committee reviewed the performance report folder and discussed some of the summary reports from around the district The committee also reviewed professional development requests field trips that will be added to the board
agenda The committee reviewed policies that the policy committee moved for the first reading and we reviewed job descriptions that will be recommended on the board agenda Uh the next committee uh academic committee meeting is scheduled for Tuesday May 13th at 6:30
Thank you Thank you Mr Kazinski Administration Yes sir Mr President thank you Uh the administration committee myself Mr Valsama when Nick Scotty met on April the 10th we discussed the committee
reviewed the district school performance report folder as well as specifics regarding the summary performance report We discussed the board policies Committee reviewed the policies that the policy committee move forward for the first reading The committee reviewed the
work of the tech committee The committee re reviewed job description that will be recommended on tonight's board agenda The committee also reviewed facilities and operations project Our next meeting is scheduled for May 13th Thank you
Thank you I'm going to take uh finance uh Mr Fragginal is out of the country So uh our finance committee me meeting occurred on April 25th 2025 Uh the attendees were Dan Fragginals Tom Deia
Janette Makers Kempia Mike Dvidita Teresa Lori and myself Um at that meeting we received an update on the work being performed at 777 Bloomfield Avenue and the John Walker Middle School Media Center temporary library and classroom conversion
projects We received an update on our health benefits regarding how claims are for running for the current year Uh we looked at our dental amounts for next year and also medical projections for the next school year We reviewed estimated amounts and
priorities for HBAC projects throughout the district We were updated on the facilities projects uh including the Lincoln school auditorium chairs which I believe are set to be delivered early part of May and installed sometime thereafter
Correct Uh Lincoln school hallway floor repair We discussed the PSCG direct install program We discussed the digital signs that were donated for the Nutley High School and the John Walker Middle School We discussed work that needs to
occur at the uh IT department for their chiller We discussed moving the prek classrooms Um and also we discussed the asbestous removal that will occur at Lincoln school Do we have a date for that Mr Dvita
not not as of yet Okay Is that going to is that something that's planned for uh during the summer yes this summer Yeah Yeah We're we're trying to um work around with the um to do the the hallway floors to make sure that they don't um you know that and the asbestous will be
done during the summer when school is uh there's nobody in in session Yes Absolutely Uh we reviewed our current and outstanding requests for proposals which include our auditor uh our forensic auditor food services and uh our sports
physician Uh we reviewed resolutions for tonight's uh that are on tonight's agenda Donations for photography equipment and a portable volleyball system And as mentioned before the John Walker Middle School projects which are the temporary library alteration two new
classrooms and change of use for that space Uh we also discussed and renewed the renewal in our suburban metro joint insurance fund and discussed the uh final budget resolutions that will be on tonight's
agenda Uh we also discussed a proposal for Abundant Life Academy Uh Mr Dvita can you expand on that a little bit yeah that's um uh funds for Abundant Life which is a non-public school in our district Um we receive funds from the
state Uh so it's not district funds it's funds from the state Um and we just have to uh still abide by all the pursing laws Uh so this is just to approve um the payment uh of the proposal since it is over a higher amount and it's through
a uh a cooperative Um so we just have the board has to approve that before we can issue that PO Okay So this this is not school related money This is money that's going to be going to abundant life It just comes from the state to our school district and then we have to uh
forward that on to them Correct Yes Correct Thank you And we also reviewed um the approval of funds for a homeless student and the HUD grant that uh that was for the fire Correct the fire alarm systems and our next meeting hasn't been
scheduled yet We now come to the portion of our meeting where we allow members of the public to address the board Oh I'm sorry I missed policy Mr Scotty I apologize Policy committee Yes Mr President The policy committee
met on March 24th The committee was provided with policies to review prior to the meeting The committee reviewed and discussed the most recent Strauss alert policies and HIB school calendar and school visitor policies from the district's policy book After discussion
the committee abolished two policies and moved the rest to first reading on tonight's board agenda The meeting adjourned and the next meeting of the policy committee is to be determined pending the next Stra Alert release Thank you Thank you Mr Scotty
We now come to that portion of our meeting where we allow members of the public to address the board In this section we allow questions or comments on reports resolutions and all school related matters Our board regulations number 0167 allow 20 minutes for these communications Each person shall be
limited to three minutes and we ask that you try to stay within this requirement Speakers may speak more than once only after all others wishing to speak on a topic have been heard All statements will be directed to me as the chairperson and no one may address board members
individually Please be reminded that if your statement is too lengthy abusive obscene irrelevant or redundant your participation may be terminated Please remember to state your name and address each and every time you address the board Does anyone have any questions or comments
[Music] good evening and thank you for allowing me to speak tonight My name is Michelle Puzio formerly DPiano and I'm proud to be a 1999 graduate of Nutley High School During my time here I was a four-year
student athlete an experience that helped shape who I am today For the past 21 years I've served as a math teacher in Hasbro Heights where I was also the varsity softball coach But for the past 12 years I've had the distinct honor of
returning home to my alma mater as a coach Coming back to Nutley to give back to the school and the community that gave so much to me has truly been the most rewarding decision of my coaching career Under the leadership of our athletic director we are fortunate to
have one of the strongest athletic programs in the state Our coaches are experienced We are passionate And we are determined and dedicated professionals who invest countless hours into shaping not only athletes but well-rounded
resilient young people We're not just building teams We're we are building character responsibility and lifelong values The same values that were instilled here to me by my coaches at Nutley
We now find ourselves at a crossroads As found on the district website from the April 10th public board meeting the board voted down the proposed tax levy 7 to2 This levy would have cost us
taxpayers approximately an extra $10.81 per month Now many of us stand to lose our coaching positions But even more heartbreaking our student athletes risk losing the programs that shape
their growth their discipline and their future Cutting coaches means the possibility of cutting multiple lower level sports or individual programs altogether This means taking away opportunities for our student athletes
opportunities for growth for belonging for mentorship and for joy You're not just cutting games or practices You're cutting off lifelines for many students So I ask you tonight what do I tell my JV softball player who might never play
beyond high school but who has found confidence friendship and purpose in being part of a team what do we say to the athlete who shows up every single day not because they dream of going pro but because the field
the gym or the mat is the only place they feel seen safe and supported What do we offer the student whose only source of stability comes from the structure and encouragement they receive from their coaches
these students matter Their experiences matter And the work we do as coaches often behind the scenes often after hours and always from the heart matters We work hard We are deeply
committed We willingly spend time away from our own families to support the young people of Nutley because we believe in them We believe in the power of sports to uplift to unite and to transform lives We are here because we
care Sooner rather than later we will have to stand in front of our student athletes some of whom are here tonight and answer and explain why their programs may be cut We will have to face these questions hard questions for which
there are no easy answers So I ask you whereas I appreciate your words Mr Ferrara and your position Mr Balsamo there still lies the question of how these coaches which equates to programs will be funded when an
opportunity for additional funds was voted down by seven trustees This is not just an athletic issue It's a district issue Our property values and quality of our community and
children hinge on our district being the best it can be And being the best comes at a cost Currently our cost per pupil is one of the lowest in the county How do you expect us to compete in any arena
athletically or academically how can you ensure that our programs will not be lost [Applause] thank you Thank you for that Um as we stated earlier we're not in support of cutting
sports programs or extracurricular I know that you said you don't support it but it was voted down We we do not make those decisions The board of education voted down the waiver that was afforded to us by the state which we did not feel that that was something that was just
based on what I had listed before earlier I mentioned So those decisions with regard to what gets removed those those are administrative decisions This board votes on the budget number So
I just want to I just want to clarify what you said You couldn't have done that for the extra $10 a month in our taxes by voting for that levy Yes So again you look at it and when you break it down into $10 a month right it may not seem like a lot of money but when
you factor in that we are that would have brought the school portion of the budget just the school portion to over $350 somewhere in that neighborhood When you factor in the municipality portion when you factor in the county portion you would have been close to $600 on
that average home that's $600 per home on average of $493 which means others in town would have seen over $1,000 tax increase And as I mentioned earlier there are issues there are areas that we identified in the budget last year that we put on a corrective action plan and
submitted to the state where there are cost savings and areas that need to be reviewed And those are tough decisions and they are not easy ones okay like the one that that's here before us tonight And and these are these are decisions that this board loses sleep over It's not decisions that are comfortable ones
to make but we have to make decisions that are going to allow our budget to be sustainable Not to kick the can another year and and come back another year from now and have the same situation The problem is as a member of this town once you cut those they're never going to
come back And all I want to end by saying is there are a lot of different stories going around So I just hope that you can reconsider and continue to support the coaches the programs and most importantly the student athletes that Nutley gives the opportunity We
give them the opportunity because we love what we do because it truly makes a difference every single day And we appreciate that and we thank you Thank you [Music] Good evening My name is Joe Pyro I speak to you today as a resident of Nutley
High School not the Nutley High School athletic director I live at 40 North Spring Garden Avenue I'm a taxpayer in Nutley for over 20 years I'm confused You guys said that you were going to not
support cutting of extracurricular activities and athletics and the other programs that were up on that um slide However they were still on the slide They were still on the slide So somebody's not telling the truth
You say we're not going to support but we still have a $5 million deficit that could have been closed And I appreciate the the $600 per or $1,000 per average household which works out to be a little
bit over $100 a month At 40 North Spring Garden a 60 by125 lot threebedroom home for $18,000 a year an extra 600 or a thousand is like throwing a deck chair off the
Titanic Our property values hinge on what this district does And when you trim the tree from the top which means the high school which is what we are rated on which is what we are judged
on You're cutting out the leg our legs from underneath us And sooner or later those taxes are going to be real high The property values are going to be real low Nobody's moving to Nutley because we have a paid fire department Everybody's moving to Nutley because of this school
district because of the hard work of the teachers the hard work of the administrators and the commitment to these kids Do what you have to do Winning is not cheap Winning is not cheap And I am not talking about an athletic arena I'm
talking about winning in this district I'm talking about competing with the Milburns with the Livingstons and with the West Essics who raise their tax levies when they run into this problem Winning is not cheap Ask the Oakland A's Thank you
[Applause] Good evening Good evening My name is Zam Johnson I'm a 11-year-old resident of Nutley I have two twins One of them goes to Radcliffe uh the special education program in Radcliffe and another goes into uh Washington School I find it very
very disheartening that the fact that we're losing budget over our pair of professionals who's worked hard for my son The reason why I stayed in Nutley so that my son who could have a better education would have had options to go elsewhere but decided to stay for the sake of my kid because he because I knew
the school district would help him to be told that we were structuring the paraprofessional program so our kids can lose their paraprofessionals who they've been the entire year they've had them the entire they've had them they're comfortable with them and you have to
understand why I'm upset sir all for all of you Because I hate to see that my son is going to regress because he's not having structure That's what our kids kids are based off of structure They're not based off of anything else but structure They're teachers these parent professionals these teachers that help
them out they're doing their due diligence to our kids And the fact that we're try we're probably possibly going to lose them is really really discouraging and disheartening So I want to know what's going to be done for our kids next year because I don't want to see my kid regress next year over something because we don't have the
proper funding for the kids Thank [Applause] you Uh sir can I can I just speak answer your question you asked a couple questions Thank you so much for coming up and speaking I would agree I think um
you know we're doing this based on need What we will be doing is assessing all the needs in district which sounds like your children have some needs for support staff our special services is going through our IEPs our projections for class sizes and we are building um
the need and then we will um transition based on new job description Hopefully um our power professionals will still want to be here and we will get them to apply for the different need in districts Sir I have to I will have to say this I've I've been a I've been a member of this community for 11 years
However I've worked at Starbucks for two years I have known majority of this of the staff here people who come to see me just to say hello to me come who I've always praised every single day There's not one teacher that I've known that I have not told them what great job or even a pair of professional that I've
not seen that I'm not commending for And the fact that we're losing our paras over something where my son who is non-verbal who is a practicing who has shown progression since coming into the district and now may lose it is extremely heartbreaking And I'm not going to let and I'm not speaking for myself I'm speaking for all these
parents I'm speaking for all the parents that are here that are dealing with the same situation that I am I brought my kid from a in in-house facility so he can have a better school to have a better life And because of that because of the structure that he's been given into the school he's he's flourished But
what I don't want to see is my child or any other child regress because they don't have structure in their lives Thank you for your feedback man You're welcome Thank you [Applause] Good evening board and chairman Mr Chairman I know you guys have made very
difficult decisions I made those decisions two days ago However your decisions have caused me to have or everybody here to have two tax increases property tax increases last
year I pay more for an 1,800 square foot house in Nutley in taxes than I do for two 2,000 square foot houses in
Texas With the tax increases I do not see my child getting the quality education that you guys have v uh been voted to get deliver the 7 million or 11 million
deficit Who caused it what happened to it nobody knows Nobody is being held accountable for it What are you guys doing about that one other thing I tell I tell everybody okay all of my colleagues that
I live in a retirement uh community Everybody one out of every one out of every three houses is owned by a retired person My next door neighbors are having difficulty paying the the tax
levied by y'all So what are you doing about it and what's going to happen about IP i second the lady's uh concern because my two of my kids
need and I see them regressing because they are they uh they don't have the attention they need I hate to lose another teacher like Miss Mrs Andrea Carnival when she when she
retires Thank you Thank you [Applause] Thank [Applause] you Hey my name is Ray Apparicio to Falton Street Uh this is my daughter Scarlet She's special needs So
um yeah No we have a really big problem and it's uh it it spans multiple facets Uh the way you treat people that you just fire them and the year prior you scared the hell out of them We're talking about our teacher aids Literally there's no other definition
than to call that absolutely pathetic And if you call yourselves leaders and that's how you treat people I don't know what kind of leadership we expect to have in the future When you could barely manage a budget you scare the hell out of our staff You can't even handle the pledge of allegiance correctly in the
beginning of this thing Now I'm looking around at this auditorium and I may not know when it was rehab but I can tell you that we didn't have to spend so much money on RGB lights you know five of them We didn't need all that You could have just kept it simple This is just one example
of what happens in this town And I've been here long enough to know that every year year over year it just gets worse And you blame this and you blame that I think you should look in the mirror and just kind of blame yourselves And I don't need a rebuttal I don't need answers because quite frankly I don't think the answers that you're given are
genuine and truthful anyway I just want to know that when my daughter goes to school that her aid is there because she's nonverbal She can't really communicate too well So if something happens to her who's that on who's that
on i paid 20 grand in taxes 20 grand in taxes Two folds in triple lock 20 grand in taxes And my daughter can't even go to school anymore My daughter can't go to school anymore You scare the people here These
people have no jobs now You scared the hell out of them Last year you did the same thing So two years from now what's going to happen it's just becoming quite evident that this town is just on a downward slope and none of you are doing anything to fix it You may say you are
You may say you are but I'm more of a results guy And at the end of the day the results are not speaking to your to your uh what you're trying to say I don't care what bar graphs you put up there It doesn't matter anyway But you're really not doing anything that's affecting us in a
positive way Every year we come here year over year it's the same nonsense It's just negative and negative and negative Give me some positive And the truth is you really can't Um trees don't count as good news All right we have enough trees We don't need anymore So please guys do something because for my
daughter to have to go to school and I have to worry about this crap I've been up since 5 in the morning working Now I got to be here to talk to you guys You know who doesn't want to talk to you guys me Cuz you should be doing your job [Applause] Hi good evening I'm Janice Razer I'm at
256 Woodford Avenue Last year I came before the board to advocate for general education We've had many wonderful people speaking about sports and special education This happens to be a little bit more in my wheel wheelhouse I have a son that's a freshman and a son that graduated last year And I'm still
concerned about the impact that the loss of teachers would have on the student population While programs were maintained there were fewer sections of courses like culinary and forensic science And with fewer electives offered more students were placed in study hall While some students choose to be in
study hall many do not and wish they could have the experience of the electives Last school year there are 453 students in study hall This year there were 680 That's approximately a 50% increase Okay And I anticipate the next
year they are probably will be more students in study hall Without replacing instruction for the four teachers retiring from the high school we will lose about 22 sections of classes which is approximately 550 seats in classrooms That likely means that class sizes could
go up again Last year the size cap for classes in the high school is kept at 30 or 31 students This year the cap for classes is 39 While my freshman son has 33 in his health class there are many sections of junior and senior gym and health that
have 38 or 39 students That is the effect of moving one of the gym teachers from the high school to the elementary school Now imagine that effect on other classes in other departments This year the Latin 3 and four honors combined class and the AP Spanish class each
began the year with 37 students in class Imagine learning a world language with that many classmates Well there are many students that could not and about eight students dropped out of their language because they couldn't deal with the size That's not great for students that are collegebound because many competitive
colleges are looking to see if students finish the four language sequence available at their high school There will be a ripple effect with fewer teachers other teachers have to take over the classes that are required for graduation like world history English meaning fewer will teach electives maybe like Holocaust and genocide or you know
the New Jersey class in the community there will also be students fewer students taking career and technical education requirements I understand the TV and radio teacher is retiring and if he's not replaced that whole program goes away um that means we learn we lose
um a whole pathway for students and That's ironic considering that one of the pieces of your academic vision from the last board meeting that document said you wanted to expand the CTE pathway Taking away a whole program is diametrically opposite to that goal I'm
also concerned about the cost reduction honors and AP course sections For example we lost one section of an honor science class this year that I know of forensic science That's a loss of 30 possible seats Will other high school classes high level classes be reduced the next year not only is his rigor
important for college preparation but AP courses will save parents money My older son is actually able to complete his undergraduate education at Boston College because of his APs One year of private school tuition Tremendous savings Between the 2324 and the 2526
school years there will likely be an estimated 100 sections of classes lost due to the loss of classroom seats uh and resulting in the loss of classroom seats This is a tremendous number and will negatively impact the quality of the education offered In conclusion I have two requests The first is that you
consider impacts to general education in Nutley High School and making budgetary decisions This affects or will affect the majority of Nutley public school students Most students from the elementary school middle school will go on to Nley High School We do have kids that choose private school which may be more happening more if things keep going
this way but the majority of these students are going to be at the top of the tree as Mr Pyro said um career and higher education readiness is of the utmost importance preparing our students for this world Perhaps there's a way to optimize the wonderful staff we have or consider other methods of cost savings
But I ask you please to consider the importance of general education and don't forget about them Um the second request is a familiar one but with nuance like many people have been asking Please we need some transparency
but we also need transparency with context When you tell us what the average class size is please tell us what that number is when you don't factor in the very small special education classes with two or four students We all know how statistics works That changes the numbers It would give us a better picture if you give us
an an assessment of general education classrooms how many students which is why we're probably surprised we have 39 students in classrooms when that's not the number we were told last year We were told that programs are maintained but we don't get told about the number of sections reduced For example the very
popular culinary program is maintained but we had 12 sections of classes three years ago and now we have 10 That is a 50 to 60 classroom seat loss Many students and parents are surprised that they received a study hall section because they were not given information that there would be fewer overall seats
for elective classes These elective classes are also required for graduation for practical arts uh fine and performing arts etc Giving complete information will enter more tr and gender more trust in the district and also manage everybody's expectations and I hope that clear
communications given to all stakeholders uh so that we can navigate this together Since last year I have not seen any further FAQs to follow up on the corrective action plan I've not seen any other information There was a heavy flow of information right at the beginning I even met with you Mr Ba and honestly I
didn't see anything resulting from that conversation with information being posted on the website I thank you all for the time that you spent on the board I know it's not an easy volunteer position Dealing with dwindling resources is extremely difficult but I hope that I offered something for you to think about when you make decisions affecting the high school students Thank
you Thank you Hi Carmen Pisano Lyndon Place Um I feel I've been when the start of this has been going on this board has done a really bad job of educating the public I have pe half the people in this
town are walking around saying "Somebody stole $7 million Somebody stole $7 million." And I'm constantly defending and saying "Nobody stole $7 million We just spent a bunch of money that we don't have just like I do every day Um so that it just needs to be educated and taught a little bit about the
situation and what's going on Um also you talk about we self-fund our insurance We selfund our insurance Explain to I know what that means but explain to people what that means We have educators up there Teach better Teach the public Teach everybody what
that means I haven't heard it really taught out and explained Make a document Make something that explains what that means Um Mr Bazano Yeah And I just want to so I I agree with you Um we we as a board do discuss a lot of these things
here and unfortunately it's hard to get the information out to the everybody in within the town Um but you did ask a few questions right so you don't need to answer these questions right now I'm not looking for the answers I'm just saying do a better job explaining There's Facebook pages There's plenty of ways to
get the information out nowadays with social media There's plenty of ways That's not an excuse And I don't need I'm I'm not looking for answers right now Thank you You talked about Belleville getting millions of dollars more than us I was born and raised in Belleville
I made a choice to come to Nutley From what I saw living in Belleville I saw what kind of great town this was I saw how it was run I saw how the school system everything was better Belleville's getting that money because this kind of
stuff happened in Belleville and it almost has to go to garbage before you start getting money Belleville is hurting right now But they have beautiful facilities beautiful everything because the state stepped in and gave the money because this is what started happening there I saw it with my
own eyes I moved out my parents moved out That's why Beville's getting millions of dollars And then um the last thing is every kid no matter if it's a paraprofessional a coach or anybody in their life all you
board members up there have had either a coach some kind of aid or somebody that's touched you and molded you another adult in your life These other adults in our kids' lives are really important to them And it's it's a big deal because they need more than just
parents one parent two parents So that really helps their lives and become men and women that they are And then you also talked what was the levy you talked about just from the board of education alone was 130 What was the price per year uh how much the tax impact you said board of
education the municipality There's there's different the tax impact currently is about $228 $229 just from the board of ed That's what the current that's with the current budget Yes Right So let's not worry about the other parts Let's just worry about this part And $100 is the
new $50 nowadays guys We are Everything's inflated Eggs are $8 a dozen Like I'm sorry I moved to this town I knew what the property taxes were Property taxes have to go up too It's too bad We have to pay our bills And if eggs are $8 a dozen we got to go up a
little higher And if I don't like it I'll move out But it's part of the deal It's part of living It's the expenses of today Let's just worry about this part of it Let's get this fixed with the state's help Accept the state's help and
let's get this right Thank you Thank you [Applause] Hello Hi Uh my name is Mary Simmons I live at 29 Kerry Court and this is Miles All right Um I have I just have a quick I have a question and then a
comment The question is you talked about the restructuring of the par profofessionals What exactly does that mean like is it I know you talked about some being part-time and some getting seniority and keeping their sick days but is it like a reduction in hours benefits like what exactly does that
mean with the restructuring of that job can I answer uh thank you for your question Um the restructuring of the job means first um looking at the district needs Uh we look at IEPs We look at um areas in district
where we have to put a a pair professional in a classroom based on class size and some self-contained classrooms Currently special services is assessing the need Some of that need may be part-time in district Um as we assess that we believe 25 positions are part-time uh as we go forward looking at
that need um to uh recreate the job description with different categories based on a one to one full-time parah u a preschool parah uh pea parah as well as a class parah which we believe will be part-time um
following this board agenda for this board meeting um asking the paras u to look at the job description and then apply for the job that best fits their needs and and matching up the needs of the district with the needs of the employee Um a question came up before and I don't think I answered it properly
so I'd like a chance to correct myself If there is an environment where a student has a need and the parah is working very well with that student the district's goal is to continue that placement moving forward while we're aligning our par profofessionals So there going to be different types of
paraprofessionals Is that what you're saying so each type of like par profofessional like I work in a in a middle school and so we have a classroom we have LLD correct stuff like that So like I know in my district the ones who work with the you know um children who need more help they get benefits while
some parents do not So that's what what's going to happen is on Apple there'll be certain job titles and that some will be full-time and some will be part-time but seniority will be taken into place for uh we're going to look at the contract and go through all the collective bargaining arrangements Uh we're going to carry over sick days
we're going to carry over the tier and we're going to um try to move our par professionals into the job that they choose to apply for Well my comment will be to compliment them and hopefully help her retain her job would be Miss Denise from Lincoln School
[Applause] As a parent it's nice to know that someone at the school loves your kid And I'm not saying my the teachers don't but Miss Denise is usually the first face that I see when I drop my kid off in the morning and the last face I see at the
end of the day She truly loves the kids She truly loves her job And she's probably one of the hardest working people in this district And I think when people have commented about how devastating it is to come in on a Friday and find out that your job's taken Someone who volunteers her time taking
pictures at every event sending it to every parent and making and she knows not just the kids but their siblings and she loves every family And I think that's something that needs to be considered when we look at restructuring these jobs and retaining these important
people in our district That they're not just line numbers That they're the people in our community that when my son sees them and my my daughter who's not here sees them that they're part of their family They're not just a number in a budget So I beg you to really look
at what you're doing and understand that these people are not just bodies in a classroom but they become the foundation of our students education and they are necessary to their success Thank you for your feedback Thank you
My name is Kim Damonte My address is 337 Paya Avenue I am here on behalf of the Education Association of Netley as well as a teacher I have been in the district I have been in the district since 2011 I started my career as a
one-to-one par professional in Radcliffe's self-contained ABA program with my masters in teaching My experience as a par professional is what motivated me to go back to school get my teachers with of students with disabilities certificate where I was then hired as a special education
teacher in 2014 I am here to take to thank the power professionals of our district because without them our students would not have created the bonds that they have They would not have grown academically socially and functionally The success of our programs are thanks
to our dedicated power professionals Power professional responsibilities can include daily collaboration with the special education teacher and the child study team on student programming and expectations Implementing and data tracking of
student behavior plans and reinforcement systems which unfortunately sometimes because of these behavior plans that are used to reduce the number of inappropriate behaviors being displayed boundaries are then being set And sometimes there is an increase in behaviors that include that could
include being on the receiving end of physical aggression verbal abuse and or bodily fluids Power professionals also gather materials teach they implement a hierarchy of supports and they track the data of academic and functional goals
and objectives They also implement and track the data of life skills which includes but not is not limited to toileting brushing teeth handwashing eating and dressing They model and facilitate the appropriate social behaviors between their peers They help keep students on
task They provide reminders for transitions They provide reminders for necessary supplies and sometimes they read materials to students They also model and teach safety protocols such as following district security procedures bus routines street safety all of those
things Prof Power professionals have been working with one or maybe up to three students at a time depending on the makeup of student IEPs and supports within the classroom Without that continuity within their lives it could halt their in their it could halt their advancement Since my time in Nutley we
have expanded our special education program to include preschool disabilities our self-contained ABA our self-contained LLD our self-contained ERRI program and our RISE program in the high school We have built these programs because of the power professionals on
the backs of our power professionals My name is Jessica Mabel and I'm here tonight on behalf of the education association of Nelly as well uh address 337 Payic A I would like to take this time to express my gratitude to the amazing pair of professionals we
have in Nutley I am disappointed to see that on tonight's agenda there is a resolution to abolish the paraprofessional job I'm even more disappointed that a the new job descriptions will be the same as the old The general duties and
responsibilities will be the same and they will require the same knowledge skills and abilities But because of the mismanagement of funds demonstrated by this administration and this board of education you are now asking them to do the same job while taking away their
health benefits This is being done and it's not what's best for students Therefore it is not what's best for this district This proposal is not only irresponsible but it is all but it will also severely affect the most vulnerable students who
rely on paras to reach their full potential as learners and future contributing adults It is also in violation of the contract I hope the board I hope the board reconsiders this
resolution Thank you for your time [Laughter] [Music] Hi I'm Christine Palumbo 50 Kenzel Avenue Uh when the tax levy was voted on each board member saw a slide titled
proposed increases with 16 line items listed Is that correct which slide i'm sorry It was entitled proposed increases with 16 If if you're not familiar I can read it I just want everybody in the in the um it said
maintain tonight's tonight's uh well you guys voted on it right the seven to two Thank you for the two members that did vote for it Mr Kazinski and Miss Danjack Martin Thank you Um I'll read them It was maintain child study team member
maintain supervisor of counseling maintain TV video production teacher maintain social studies teacher maintain business teacher part-time Latin teacher to full-time maintain two 10-month secretaries maintain math special
education teacher maintain speech therapist maintain athletic assistant coaches two additional strategies reading specialists benefits for 12 positions Keep 12 preschool paraprofessionals Keep 13 special
education paraprofessionals Crisis clinic uh clinician and support special education contingencies for in and out of district So by voting no for that though we we do
not have those positions funded Correct Mr Ba uh yes So my recommendation at the 10th meeting was for the board to go up um that percentage uh to maintain those programs Thank you Okay So we didn't so
that was not voted Okay Um I was 5 minutes late to the meeting I was listening in the car I heard part of the initial statement I don't know who it was saying that um I think it maybe was the president about how the cuts weigh heavy on your hearts Um I heard a board
member state they weren't aware of some of those line items but they voted on them That's a little concerning I'm not really sure who it was but it was regarding sports Um so I don't know I I I was trying to drive I couldn't look Um anyway last year I'm feeling it's this
is a deja vu We were here around the same time We had students and parents attending these meetings pleading for teachers coaches therapists and programs to remain intact because of the mismanagement of funds fiasco I still don't understand how a real explanation
was never provided Um again someone mentioned earlier things were purchased checks were written without funds in accounts I'm really not sure how that happens in some type of business because um I know it's a way lesser um program I'm the president of the
baseball booster club at the high school When we are purchasing things we have meetings We look at what they're going to cost how much money we have We vote on it I know it's a lot lesser than what you guys are doing but we make sure that
we can do it before we put anybody in jeopardy Uh one of the promises made at the meetings last year was that freshman sports would stay There was a student that came up She said "Freshman baseball will stay next year." Yes Freshman whatever other softball whatever that it
wasn't softball but every went through every freshman sport Yes they did stay this year I'd like to acknowledge this is the entire freshman baseball team Boy stand [Applause] up Thank you Thank you for
taking Thank you for taking the time to be here tonight I appreciate that After Well your game got cancelled right but after a game Um but is someone going to tell them that maybe next year there's not going to be a JV team i mean these
these boys work so hard It's a shame Like they're here What are they going to do next year it's very concerning um how will that affect them you know when they have nothing to do they don't have sports they don't have activities It's not a great thing with
extra time that they don't know how to manage when something that they love is taken away You guys addressed that You um gave us a presentation at the beginning of the meeting uh talked about growth You thank the teachers and the paras Now you're going to reward
them for their achievements by getting rid of them um how will that affect your reports next year uh without speech therapists paraprofessionals reading specialists etc those special needs students aren't getting what they need by law How will
that affect those students um do we really need to come to these meetings every year to fight for programs teachers therapists coaches and activities our children deserve don't we pay enough in taxes i know you guys volunteer your time I know you don't get
paid for these positions but you also made the choice to be on the board to run for the board You stated these tough choices weigh heavy on your hearts So you should continue to work on creative ways to save money and keep these
crucial items that will only help our town and our children They're our future And I think it's you owe it to us to really I'm sorry work harder Everyone in their jobs every every household with increases everyone's working harder and
doing things to make things happen I think you guys also have to bite the bullet and find ways to make this happen for these children or maybe you should tell them next year that they can't have these classes these teachers these coaches um and disappoint them instead
of having us do it Thank you Thank you Thank you very much for allowing me to use this podium to let go of my demons Now that they're gone I want everybody to look at the
these kids over here What are they doing here are they doing drugs no Are they drinking no Are they doing some other ungodly acts no they are not And
why do why do nuttly kids not do that that's because they they are engaged in sports after school activities and that keeps them busy and out of the nasty things that kids nowadays can fall for It's so much
easier to get fentinel or any drug on the street for cheap These kids don't do that Nutley is clean Let's keep it that way Thank you So I implore my plea to you is let's take
action tonight to save not leaf and school for our kids Thank you Thank you [Music] [Applause] Hi Venus Hernandez 274 East Pac I have been a resident here for the last 25
years I have two children I'm a single mom I have a 16-year-old son who does not attend Nutley High School for reasons of how Nutley handled bullying Bullying was handled horribly And I'm lucky that I work for a company where my job my boss gave my son a full
scholarship to attend private school Not a lot of people here have that ability to pay for their kids to attend private school I have a I have a current seventh grader at John H Walker Middle School I'm heavily involved in the schools I have been part of Lincoln School's PTO
I'm the current co-president at John H Walker Middle School PTO I'm vice president first chair on PT council And this saddens me because last year my son who doesn't attend Nutley but is wrestles for St Joseph's Regional High School had a very hard year And one of
the only things that got him through that was his wrestling I mean where my son I don't even want to put this out there in public but my son tried to hurt himself And the only thing that got him through that was the ability of his extra activities of sports Sports are
really important and the kids that struggle some of that gives them the ability to come out of that and overcome those abilities And I say please really think about before you cut these JV sports because JV sports give the
kids I'm sorry give the kids to get better for varsity If you're only going to have varsity sports your varsity teams are not going to be that great because they're not going to get the skills to build from their freshman year up to their senior year Not every kid is built athletic My older son is athletic
but my younger son is a much different kid when it comes to sports He's a lot more athletic And again I'm lucky that I have a company that has now offered my younger son the same ability to not have to come to Nelly High School So that's sad the
amount of money I pay in taxes And I've been involved in these in these schools again My son is 16 He's gonna be 17 this year And I've been involved since kindergarten And I've been on the boards the PTO boards everything And it's sad that I have to pay these taxes and I
have to take a scholarship because I'm lucky that I have a company that will pay for my children to not attend Nutley High School And not everyone here has that ability And it's sad because I would love for my son to be able to go to Nutley High School and compete in the sports with all his friends but he's in
seventh grade and he even says he does not want to go here So think about that Thank you Good evening My name is Teresa Solano I have few questions for you I would like to know maybe everybody all of these parents knows but I don't who voted yes
to cut um the paras and to cut the excuse me if you're speaking a microphone it's hard to hear appear okay yes because this is public I would like to know because I don't know maybe other parents do know who voted yes the
persons the names of to cut the programs the JV and the parents I understand seven persons voted the other thing is I would like to know how much are you saving by cutting the sports the amount
um and with all that due respect I think you are missing to find state funds more grants and for example ways to uh saving energy get solar panels you will save
thousands of dollars and I'm telling you because I'm also a a public employee I work for another County And by the way the reason that I moved to Natalie in 2018 is for the sports And my son is
going to be a freshman And I really don't know what to tell him because that's all he likes He doesn't even like the classes because here my teachers they know very well how much he does He doesn't but he loves a sports So you're
g you're cutting everything the meaning that he has every day And I don't know how you're going to sleep tonight with all of the um disappointment here tonight Thank you
[Music] Chris Moore 168 Oakidge A I'm here to talk about our Paris Last year at the CPAC meeting some of you guys came that don't normally come and
you gave us a bunch of lip service that this is just the corrective plan I don't think you can really sit there and look at these paras and say "Oh you're going to come back and do your job for not
health insurance." I asked you guys a question What do you think will happen with getting quality employees after seeing their department first on the cutting block and it was
more lip service this is just what we have to do for the state and what have we seen no offense Amy we've seen our head of the department leave because she saw this our paras are the most
important part of our child's day Our teachers our teachers all have kids who learn differently and it's the par's job to take her one-on-one or his one- on-one and get that kid an education
When my son got homebound instruction and weeks went by where you could not find a teacher it was me who suggested to his case manager can his par come so
that he can get an education and his parah said yes That parah has left the district because of the changes Other paras have left the district because of the changes When
teachers leave how are you going to replace them with quality when our therapists leave how are you going to replace them with quality these are the most
vulnerable who need the most They should be the last on the chopping block And I say this as someone that graduated from here in
2000 I am an athlete I scored Nutlyh High's first goal It's in the trophy case I scored our states our state's first goal That's in the trophy case too And how did I get that because I had
good coaches I had good leadership Show leadership Not lip service Stand up and act like it's your child and not your child's wants your child's needs
[Applause] My name is Tracy Rafa It's 28 Weston Street I have um a son who's 16 He's a sophomore here at the high school And I also have a daughter who is 11 and she's in Radcliffe in the ABA program She's
been in since preschool Um Mr Bane I've asked this question of you twice before and you haven't been able to answer me but I know that the district gets money from the state to have our children our special needs children in the district
to keep them in the district Can you tell me how much that is per child per year are you referring to X8 or state aid i'm talking about what kind of money does the district of Nutley get from the state to keep our children in the ABA
program here in town how much mr Dvita Miss Makus I don't have that information in front of me How come nobody knows this this this is the third time I'm asking this question and I feel it's important to
know It's important for the people to know how much money the state gives per child per year to keep them in the special ed program in this town When you say keep them in the special ed program in this town and not send them out of district well I don't we get 2.4 4
million as per the revenues in XAD and that's money that we uh what the district does is over time we collect how much we spend per student out of district and in district and the state reimburse us for a certain percentage based on the monies we spend that money
in our budget is $24 million out of the state aid category you saw it was about $12 million if memory serves me from the presentation that state aid is broken into uh five or six different categories transition aid security aid Mike's up right now It does not designate that per
student and it does not earmark for keeping our students in district That money comes into our general revenue and gets distributed to our expenditures whatever they are So I I think I have trouble with the the answer to your question because it's not as clear as
you think The state aid comes in two forms which I just explained The X8 is calculated based on a percentage of what goes over um the overages based on a student For each setting there's a state number say 40,000 for ABA Anything you spend above that gets put on a
spreadsheet and the state reimbures 60 to 70% depending on the year And we get that in August It's very difficult to budget for As far as the state aid that comes in the regular package is broken into many different categories It's not disagregated by student at least what I've seen That's why I struggle with
your the answer to your question I'm hoping that Miss Makis or Mr Dvita have more of an answer than I'm able to provide Mr Bay I just want to just clarify for everybody too the fact that because of our special education um percentages are
higher than the county the state and the national average We're we're not getting fully funded for that because of that reason Um so we we advocate for that We we we met down we we actually sat down with our assemblyman and assemblywoman and our state senator Um we actually met
with Senator Cabal um last year to advocate for more funding because of the fact that our special education numbers are higher in some cases 10% more than the county state and national averages So I just want everybody to understand
that too that that factors into this Okay But there is a certain amount You may not be able to tell me what the amount is but there's a certain amount that's given to the district for special education students No I can answer that
Our the steady that we receive uh for special education is $6,797,730 Our extraordinary aid that we're projecting for next year is $2,456,57 So that's about $9.1 million uh that we get from the state and our special education budget uh for next
year is projected to be $18,600,000 Okay Well is that 9 million or whatever it is is that kept separately from other funds well all of our revenues are going to one pot It's not separate like um you know this money we get here goes to this
expenditure line It's all uh uh we have our revenues um and then uh our expenditures go against that Okay Well that doesn't really make sense but um I'm sorry ma'am I just want to ask a question of Mr Dvito as well So the number that you have here for special
education I'm just looking for it I think you said 18 million Y 18,600 That doesn't include healthcare as well though Correct Healthcare is under a separate separate bucket Correct So that number that number that 18
million number when you factor in healthcare and all the pensions it's a lot higher than that $18 million number Well I don't know who's getting all that money because it certainly isn't our Paris uh making that that kind of money or or the
teachers or the teachers for that matter I I don't think the teachers are making that much money either but that's neither here nor there Well so so you you asking a question as far as who gets what money the the $18 million Yeah So Mr Dvita where is that being spent
because I mean there So Mr Dvita can explain that It's it's in it's in the chart here right it it it's costs that go towards our special education department It's running the department But Mr Mr Dvita you can you can expand on that
Yeah Once our uh user-friendly budget will be posted after this meeting uh then it should break out more the special ed categories Um I mean I could break out uh let's see here off the presentation it looks like
uh special instruction is 7.5 million out of district tuition is 7.2 million related and extra extraordinary services is 1.9 million Child team is 1.8 8 million and then the added benefits for our employees as well That totals $18
million that we're referencing up here It's on the presentation handout And then you have to include the benefits for the employees and other things most likely Okay So when you say part-time um that some par profofessionals will be hired part-time how many hours is that
exactly as per their contract is 25 hours a week It would be 25 hours Just short enough that they don't get benefits But um anyway I would like to just advocate for the Paris um at Radcliffe School My child she started
non-verbal at three years old And between between them I mean they really are the rock stars The teachers are great but the paraprofessionals are the ones that do the work They know the kids They know what they need Um they're they're there every day They're the
first person we see when we bring our child to school They're the last person we see when we pick them up They really deserve all the credit And my child is speaking now She's 11 years old She started to speak I credit them I credit
our speech therapists I credit our staff And it's really sad It's really sad that the most vulnerable population is is are the ones that are being you know they're being
um it's it's terrible They're the ones that are suffering because of someone's mistake or multiple people's mistake It's really unfair and I really think you guys need to reconsider what you're doing because it's it's really going to affect a lot of people it's going to
affect our children and you know a lot of people are here in town for the special ed program and you know that we we need our paras we need our staff so please reconsider them thank you [Music]
everybody hear me okay I'm notorious for not standing close enough so sorry um Jim Natne 90 Raymond Dav I stand up here tonight as a graduate of Nutley High School a taxpayer a friend to many of the teachers par
professionals therapists case managers and school staff both sitting back there and districtwide Uncle to kids in the grammar school in the high schools both of whom play sports And most importantly the spouse of an incredible PAR
professional and the parent of two boys in the special ed program in this town I want to read something to you guys The Nutly Board of Education is guided by the mission This is The Nutly Board of Education is
guided by the mission of the Nutley Public Schools to challenge inspire and empower students to become creative confident passionate self-directed citizens who actively and purposefully contribute in our global society That's
directly from the district website when it talks about the board Remember something as clearly stated on the website Your responsibility is to the teachers and to the school not to the taxpayers It appears that you are more
willing And I say appears and I want to emphasize that because I know a number of you outside of this forum and I don't think it's the case for everyone It appears that you are more willing to have the parents of all the students including those with disabilities your
employees and any and any of the other folks in this room mad at you than the taxpayers As Autism Acceptance Month draws to a close for you know anyone who doesn't live every single day it appears that acceptance is just a
word and not a concept to this board A number of folks have highlighted thus far that there was a vote regarding the state waiver and it was 2 to7 I think a few people have asked it I'm going to ask it again and I'm going to pause Who voted yes raise your hand
Raise your hand That was a public meeting So that's I mean it's it's there Miss with all with all due respect I I appreciate it but let's give him a chance Okay Okay We Thank you
I understand that it was a public meeting Fair But the fact of the matter is that this is a public meeting So unless you have a fear of showing everybody what your vote was for there's no reason for you to say not say
now who voted yes I'm not asking the people who voted no because obviously you guys have a little bit of cowardice in you But I'm asking for the yes's because I would like to show my respect to those two people Very brave folks Very
brave Um so on to my other statements With the current project underway to make the middle school a 678 um has there been any thought put into pausing that project and the related initiatives including the renovation of the middle
school to create funding to avoid some of these cuts it's about 200 grand right just based on the the middle school renovation I've worked in a many aspects sorry many aspects of vision uh business in my 20-y year professional career And while I understand budgets budgets
change to reflect need So think about that Um we've talked about this before about the current positions you guys listed as not being replaced but generally speaking when something like this happens and you have this type of
tumultuous environment in a district or really anywhere there will be natural attrition Other people will leave right is the plan to handle that the same that if someone leaves their position won't be replaced yes Go ahead Uh yeah so tonight the um
we're approving a tax levy for the total amount of revenues coming in Uh our team will continue to work and listen to all the feedback and work through those revenues to um come up with an educational plan So to answer your question more directly if someone wants to leave those are available resources
to the district um in the budget One last question about some of the handouts that you guys have given that I think it was the balanced budget section of the handout Um it said reduce special education and transportation contingencies What exactly does that mean um in the budget creation we um went
through and planned um cushion in certain areas for contingencies I I think we overplanned and removed those in developing where we need to be in the final budget So you removed special ed contingencies
to reallocate elsewhere Correct Correct And also are eliminating and changing and restructuring We maximize the efficient use of the resource we had instead of creating what we would want to be cushions in that budget for different scenarios But we weren't able
to do that in this budget Correct But but essentially the the special ed coaching wasn't given to special ed It was just reallocated elsewhere Right Correct Yeah Okay Um I'm sorry I I just heard your question
Um I don't know the answer to that It depending on how we reallocate it may or may not have You know we're looking at it as a total budget not as a a compartmentalized budget Fair Okay Um the one thing that I'll say is if it was a public meeting there's obviously
minutes out there Everybody has a phone So if anybody can figure that out in the next little bit and come up here and publicize who voted yes and who voted no that's a good move Um last thing you know I personally to all the parents and everyone sitting behind me um especially
those that I see at my son's school every day thank you guys for coming It's not easy to come to these things So thank you guys for being here Richard Pulcado 64 Ernest Street I too began my professional career as a par
professional in Nutley After 14 years of teaching special education I've had the privilege of teaching approximately 120 students and working with a dozen or more paras
all of whom lived in town all of whom have up to 20 years service in Nutley education and all of whom donated their time and efforts to teaching the most amazing students that also present the
most amazing challenges Students that also increase every year as families move to our town Now you said you hope that the Paris come back with the re rehirings but I ask how can they when
the bulk of the positions you're offering also do not contain the benefits that brought them here in the first place it was never about the salary It wasn't the money Rich can I clarify something for you thank you for speaking Um just to put
some context um I believe we have 77 district paras and we we based on our need we're going to have over 60 full-time positions available um when we open the postings So the bulk it I just wanted to correct that because I think that's important In closing
the paraprofessional position has been brought up in in front of the board numerous times in the past and each time the town has voiced their um opinion and the board has been able to find the
ingenuity the collaboration and the courage to come up with a new plan So I just hope that tonight when you guys come together next you come up with a new plan Thank you Hello my name
Hello my name is Destiny Um Center Street Uh just a little about me I grew up in Nutley I went to Lincoln School and then I went to the middle school and then I went to the high school and so did my mother and so did my
grandmother I'm here today standing here to show my support to the paras and to also be the voice of my two little boys who are in the special education program one non-verbal This past Wednesday at Spring
Garden where my son attends kindergarten uh in ABA class I was informed that my son's ABA kindergarten class was not going out for recess not because of behavior issues or weather but because there weren't enough staff members
available to supervise the children safety I don't know if this is true but it is what I was told Either way the school segregated all ABA kindergarten students from the
general ed students and the ABA teachers were authorized to have hallway recess instead Disgusting Disgusting And you all got this email that I sent to honestly everyone
And I want to thank Mr Gilberty because he is the only one who on that stage who contacted me about our kindergarteners with special needs being denied to go outside even on the nice
days And for the rest of you that stayed quiet I'm surprised considering a law was broken at one of your schools With that being said did we ever find out who authorized hallway recess even
on the nice days while the rest of the students can go out and enjoy fresh air while my 5-year-old son was stuck in a dingy b to play did we ever find out you all got
the email who authorized a question Mr Mr B is going to give you an answer Thank you so much Um I I do I I do apologize I did talk to Mrs LaGuardia about this immediately and and I think she shared with you that we spoke about uh making sure the students were integrated at lunch I my understanding
of the matter is students received recess depending on um but a different time not during lunch which we all agreed at that time was not appropriate We are working to uh move things to make sure that this happens moving forward Um as far as who authorized this this is
something um it's a personnel matter I can't speak about but I can talk to you or call you tomorrow tonight whenever just to make sure you have the questions answered that you have to the best of the ability I can answer them Why didn't you email or call me on Wednesday i I do apologize I did speak to Miss
Lagardia several times Uh I did um go through your emails and and I have been returning to a lot of emails I do take ownership of that I didn't get back to you but I did address the situation with the building principal Yes And the principal is a little wacky I I don't
think I don't think so I think she worked through she pretended to not know about hallway recess and then she admitted to knowing about hallway recess during September and October when my kid also didn't go outside I have to correct
you in in Mr Bay This is a It's a personnel matter as far as we we can't It's not that personal It's all matter kindergarten class There's multiple children It's all special needs ABA kindergarten class [Applause]
Um not just my son That's what I told Is it true i'm hearing a lot of different stories That's the thing The board's just not going to engage in a conversation regarding that investigation Of course Okay With that being
said with the pair of professionals uh being delivered last minute news on this meeting abolishing their jobs under disguise of reconstructing it's insulting It's the very people who show up every day for
our kids mainly whom have been here for years supporting teachers calming students stepping in to do whatever role is needed And I mean whatever role is needed all the gross bodily fluid stuff
Even my son's not perfect He'll want to kiss you and then he'll want to bite you I mean that's just you know and this is what these paras are dealing with And they do this all while being underpaid and [Music]
overlooked Our par our paras deserve better Our children deserve better This community deserves transparency not decisions that devalue the very people who keep our schools running And I don't want to be up here and be the villain
And I know you guys are getting a lot of hate but that being said I do strongly urge you to reconsider this course of action Thank you Thank you Hi my name is Carla Wilson This is my
son Liam Wilson Okay Um he attends third grade at Radcliffe Elementary He's in the ABA program Um and I just want to share a personal story When we decided when we chose Nutley we chose Nutley because of its because of its school district because
of the benefits of the school district when he entered kindergarten him his aid his teachers he came in just no learning mom and dad He left knowing my full name my phone number the street that he he
lives his school his town um and knowing his the names of his aids and his teachers By first grade he he was identified to have reading comprehension By second grade he was reading a full sentence By third grade he's showing interest in photography He's making videos He's making little movies All of
these things happen because there's a safe structured environment created in the classroom And the key to that are the paras These paras are rock stars For any of you who have children for any of you who have
children I know you must understand the anxiety it is to have to bring your child to school and drop them off especially in today's world And especially when your child is nonverbal They can't come home and say "Mom this is what happened This is what happened to me today." That comes that
communication comes from the teachers and the paras And so when I drop my son off I know he is in good hands I know he's safe I know he's going somewhere where he's going to thrive And that happens because our parents are loving They're nurturing And they come in every day knowing the heavy lifting that they
have to do but they come in every day with a smile ready to take on the challenge And so I ask you I urge you to reconsider the restructuring of the program and providing part-time And I know you said that there will be full-time positions but I also know how this works I'm a 14-year educator from
Patterson This is a downhill slope More cuts just becomes more cuts And so I just want to leave you to say my son is important our kids are important and our parents are important Thank you Thank you Uh my name is Yanel Fernandez I live
on 11 car place and I'm a freshman here at NHS As you can see me and my teammates are here today to represent the young population in this town that's involved in athletics Myself included A lot of us are multiport athletes and we love playing the sports at NHS as it has brought us fun and remembering
experiences So far my experience here has been great and to get that taken away from us is unfair These coaches and directors in this town love teaching us the games and sports we love And by you taking away their jobs we'll lose mentors and people to look up to in the future I also have a younger brother in
the middle school that has to worry about when he comes to high school that he may not get the opportunity to play sports because you guys want to cut the JV and freshman programs I come from a family of amazing parents and all they have done for me is work hard and pay a lot of money in taxes for me to play baseball and do the things that I love
What I would like to get out of this is to say and explain how taking away our freshman and JV athletics will destroy the dreams and goals of myself and all of my teammates I hope that you understand why we are frustrated and why we come here for change And from the bottom of my heart I hope that you take into consideration that you are taking
away our childhood and our high school experiences Thank you Thank you Christian Sebastiano 443 Prospect Street So I'm a freshman baseball player and I'm here with my whole team and there's been talking speculating around the potentiality of freshman and certain JV
sports being cut We fear for the potential cuts to JB and freshman sports because we view these sports as an outlet I can speak for myself when I say that this year so far has been some of the most fun I've ever had playing a sport as I'm doing it every day with some of my best friends and teammates These sports are not only an outlet for
us but they are teachers for us as they teach us teamwork discipline leadership and perseverance These are not just skills for the field They are skills for life Every day we learn how to support each other how to handle setbacks and how to work toward a common goal These lessons carry over into the classroom
and to our futures Cutting sports would mean taking away opportunities not just for athletes but for students who find confidence friendship and purpose through sports These cuts would limit chances for our future on and off the field I understand that the budget is tricky right now but I ask you to consider the true cost of cutting these
sports It's not just about saving money It's about what we would lose Spirit character opportunity and much more So I conclude my time up here by asking can you tell me if any freshman and JB sports will be cut and if so which ones
right now in the memo that I released um we had eight uh coaches um being removed from the budget Uh right now the budget is as I mentioned uh a work in progress as we move forward we're listening to your feedback Um as far as the specific
ones it was ones with multiple tiers to not affect uh running that program Um as we work through um this budget this spring into the summer into next year uh we must stay within the resources that we have allocated to us as a district um
and talk through it um as a group And that's what we're doing So just so I can get a better understanding will there be like a rehiring process for certain coaches or are these freshman and certain JB we took 5.7 million dollars from the budget Uh we had to um with
with our business office with our state monitor we um approached this um to all all areas So it's not just one specific area It may seem like we're talking about sports and uh special services but each area of our budget hasn't been impacted Our general program was
mentioned by Mrs Frasier different things Um unfortunately sports does have a component to it that's removed from the budget as well All right Right now this is all right now All right All right Thank you I think I I I think in the memo we the
answer would be I think football softball baseball Uh those are all sports we we listen with multiple teams They'd be cut Is that is that what you're saying those freshman sports would be an assistant coach right now Yes From those sports the coaches would be cut or the the No not the sport not the sports in total an assistant coach
eight assistant coaches So can you tell me if that's definite though because I went to a meeting last year and you guys were asked if there would be certain cuts and you guys lied to the public because you were asked if there would be a reduction in school security guards and you said no That same week the security guard at Spring Garden was let go So why should I believe a word you
say right now [Applause] i I can't speak to security right now but uh the budget is um a fluid process where we'll continue to move through it over time Okay I I know it's not what you're looking for It's Look I I understand right you're you're
frustrated and and and you're upset but this is a as Mr Ba said it's a fluid process right there's going to be this is things that are going to come out over the next few weeks uh that that hopefully we'll be able to bring some uh find efficiencies in other areas but
it's not an easy to to give you an answer today So as Mr Bay said these are you know these are these are tough times It's budgets that are we need to make our budget sustainable and and and that's an issue Um and we're looking at everything So we're not in favor of
cutting sports And I think the administration can look at other areas to see if there's anything within the uh athletic budget that that won't affect uh teams and and and coaches Uh there's areas there's areas they may look at There's there's areas that may say that
they can save money in uniforms and equipment that they may not need to order for an extra year So those are things that they're have to look at and that's why it's it's difficult to say today what what's going to be taken away and what's not
All right then Thank you Hi good evening Cynthia McNelte 57 Lakeside Drive I am a speech pathologist at Radcliffe School for 14 years Um But I'm actually here as a parent because I've I have three children Two
of them already have graduated and I have a son who is a JB lacrosse player And I have two questions The first one he loves playing He's not a diehard athlete He's not one of these kids who were born with a bat in his hand What are we telling our children who are not
varsity potential kids you're not worthy of a sport like so how do we look at our kids and say you're not worthy if they're taking that away So that's something that I really want you guys to consider because it's a really negative message to children who were not born with a bat in their hand And my second
question is regarding the high school drop schedule I know that wasn't on the board but I know that's on the chopping block Um what data have you gathered that shows that the drop schedule no longer is effective for our students
i can answer Uh to your point um the task now becomes taking available resources especially at our high school and making sure we use them the most appropriate way Um and that's something I've asked our principal and our team of supervisors to take a look at to see um if they were to run a schedule what
would it look at how many kids would be in study hall to the point raised before how many programs would be offered or not offered based on our available resources uh of course we would consider moving forward looking at all district resources and how to how to shift things We have to stay within the revenues
allotted to us um and and to find the best program that fits based on that I will say I think the rotating drop gives us um when when staffed appropriately uh gives us the best opportunity to give students more opportunities to get into
some of the goals uh dual enrollment AP classes things of that nature It definitely gives us those options Without those resources I think the district has to assess whether that's still a valid schedule for a high school to operate if there's a better schedule there and what that looks like Um so I've asked our team this is one of those
things that will be developing over time as we look toward the scheduling component um of this and and find uh the best way to do that because I do know the kids love the drop schedule I've done my own data and I've spoken to many high school students and they don't want that eliminated So that's just something
they can I I would anticipate class size going up as mentioned as well as study holes increasing based on our available staffing Um and the question is is that worth the extra opportunity or is it is it not and that's something our team has to assess and advise on and then we will
bring it forward Okay And I have another question Um do we know about getting the money back that was denied from the state um what money would that be there there was money that was denied from the state Um the ones that voted no Can we appeal
that and like uh regain that that waiver opened on the 28th and closed on the 14th of April All right So that's a flat definite no to my understanding Um I've never seen a waiver uh like that come out before my experience is only what I've learned and it opened on the 28th
and closed on the 14th and the public we are not able to participate in that vote Um I'm sorry that was that's that's one of the that's one of the um one one of the topics I want to bring up at some point later today uh during this uh the
agenda under under new business is is to be able to give that opportunity to the taxpayer Right Okay So uh I'm going to I'm going to make a motion for to to form an exploratory committee that will look at that to see how do we take those
instances where we're we are uh we have a 2% cap and anything above that bringing that to the public So that is something that I I'd like to make a motion later and create this exploratory committee to look at that Obviously there's a process involved There's other
school districts that do that So they they they understand that there's only a 2% cap you're allowed to to you have to adhere to So anything above that would then be able to put on a question for the public to vote and the taxpayers to vote So we want to look at that see what how it looks how it operates how it
functions And that's something that we need to look at to see is it something we can do in the November uh period or we need to move it to April to coincide with when the budgets are are introduced and passed So I'm going to be making a motion at some point later today under
new business but it's exactly for that It's to put the voice back to the decision back on the taxpayer on the residents of the town Okay Rather than on this nine member board We would appreciate that because many of us moved to this town for the school district and
a lot of the children in the special ed program move to Nutley for the special ed program because we are excellent if I may say so myself Um and we don't want it watered down So and we recognize that and and and budgets are challenging and it's not just Nutley that's facing the I
mean you read every day in in the newspaper there's there's districts all over the county all over the state that are faced making cuts and staff and this is just the cost of all our expenditures are increasing right our healthcare we're seeing double digit increases in
healthcare right and and you name it everything across the board right there's utilities right there they're there's supposedly going to be 20% increase in utilities later this year from PSG Uh these are all costs that are that are not anticipated there you know
they they there was a question before about healthcare right and an explanation as to how our health care system works We're self-insured which means the district pays the actual claim So every time someone goes to the doctor that
bill gets reviewed by a third party administrator and and and then it gets submitted to the district for payment So when you look at our health care that's actual claims Those are payments made on behalf of all of our employees and their
families And that number continues to grow at double-digit numbers every single year So when you when you look at our our healthcare and I believe and and Mr Mr Dvita and Miss Makus I don't want to speak out of line but I believe we're we are somehow anticipating budgeting somewhere close to $19 million for for
healthcare for this upcoming upcoming budget this 2526 budget So when you look at the budget of $85 million TW and and we're we're almost at 20% of uh 25% of that is healthcare Then you look at all of the
other costs which is salaries and every year there's a guy that there's there's an increase and those are those are those are costs that you you can't avoid So that's what makes a lot of these budgets challenging year after year and it's not something that's unique just to
Nutley It's it's across the whole state No Well you understand and I don't envy any of you at all and I know this is a volunteer position and you're probably all like so fed up of hearing this but we just it hurts that our children are suffering because someone's mistake and that's there's there's the parents who
want us to take the position that we should just vote any type of increase for the school district because it's for the kids But then you also have taxpayers who feel opposite And so it is it's this balancing act and and Nutley when you look at how many homes are in
Nutley there's 8,500 homes in Nutley 2500 of those homes are seniors right okay So you know you look at that and and you you say "Okay well it's it's only an extra $119." But when you factor in that maybe that senior has a home
that is valued at 700,000 because today today a home at 700,000 is not what it used to be right and and then so that senior is going to see a $7 $800 increase and that's a difficult you know for someone who who's a senior on a
fixed income it's difficult So these are these are not easy decisions representing the kids and staff So again these are all the challenges and I know you know this room it's not you know I understand everybody how they
feel but it's there's a lot of different decisions and and thought that go into this It's not just you know as easy as everyone thinks that it's just we should we should increase the budget and and we just don't want our children to pay for someone's mistake And I understand we do
understand that across the board Thank you Thank you Hi my name is Anna Bontig I live at 54 Clement Street I also moved to not leave for the school district I am a 20 year teacher at Hudson County Schools of
Technology in Jersey City And for 20 years I was a math teacher For the last five years I'm a special education teacher and support teacher So for the 15 years that I was just teaching math I thought I was like be all and do all for everybody But I really learned that you
are it when you're that special person And that's who the paras are So I'm also here for the support of the paras And I was afraid that my emotion will speak over So I give these gentlemen like so much credit for speaking to you with so much courage cuz I can't do it even
though I speak every day But I have two children both nonverbal and both attend um spring garden and let me just collect my take your time So I also don't want to yell at you So
that's the opposite cuz I do understand it It's tough to to sit up there and take the blame and and it is nonpaid and all of that But when you're already short of paras and your solution to to things is to let them
go and there just has to be better solution My son is one of the the classrooms that was also in this hallway recess whatever that was And every day he was coming back with a sad face until I found out that they weren't even going outside And now every day he comes back
with a happy face And maybe that's just coincidental but maybe it's not So I wouldn't feel good to go home and kiss them good night if I didn't at least come up here and spoke my peace I had to hire two ABA therapists to just be with
them tonight so I can come up here and listen And then as I was walking out I said "You really have nothing to like go home to." And something that they fight for every day They they try their best and I didn't even speak up for them So I
urge you please reconsider your actions as far as the uh firing of Paris If you know you have 77 you're thinking of letting uh rehiring 60 but you really need 85 or 100 because you had nobody to
cover lunch when the kids were supposed to play Also I do trust the system And I I tried I have two children like I said both are non-verbal And my son I said "How is he doing can he be okay in a
classroom with paras and they said yes your special services are wonderful they communicate they do their best they gave me reassurance that he will be fine so I said fine he will be there safe and paris say hello to me they let him go everything you already heard about the
wonderful Paris already for my daughter she elopes so she's just a runner I can't have her running like outside of the building so I assign one to one on to her so now I know that she has that But now if the system is going to push
Paris out right it's going to push me to push the system So now I'm going to say you know what my son needs a one-on-one and I'm going to do my best for him to get a one-on-one because that way I know he's going to have one So then in the
end you will still have to pay more because as you see we are outspoken or at least we try to be even when we have no courage So there has to be another way I also work for a school district money was cut and yes they difficult
decisions have to be made but really you do get a lot of money for special education and that goes into the general pool and then when the cuts come you take away from them you took away their whole pool
tomorrow That also seems unfair right so I don't know how many of you have a special needs child but that para is their safety It really is like for me to let a child go to school and know that they're safe is everything there is If
it means more t taxes that's that's what it means Like people said if you can't afford it you go somewhere else Like that's the reality of life Just like right now that's your reality you're cutting but we don't agree So we're going to speak out So I do urge you because in the end there will be another
fight that will put like law into place and like I will have to place oneon-one and it's just going to be like that kind of battle So if there is another way find it please Thank you [Music]
Good evening Edward Sriracho New Street Uh before I get started I least want to commend you It is not easy to sit up there with an angry mob coming at you So I applaud your poise and leadership But with leadership comes accountability and that's what everyone out here is looking for is accountability and we don't have
it All right Uh gentleman made a comment earlier I think he left that 11 million wasn't stolen it was just misspent That is theft That is taxpayer theft Whether it's misspent stolen taken or used whatever Our federal government runs that way It's a mess Do not let this
town get that way All right there should be accountability for that money What happened who took it who misspent it it's not there and there's no transparency to any of these people of it All right second uh I am life grown from Bloomfield born
and raised When I moved back to New Jersey I chose to buy a house in Nutley for one reason only the school system The Bloomfield school system is trash I was not putting my kids there I came here for the wonderful school system And in the four years I've lived in this
town it has consistently found a way to get lower and worse And I don't know how One of our board members is a superintendent of Beville schools Even he lives in this town and puts his kids in this school system because it's better than the school system that he leads Everyone knows how good Nutley is
but we're screwing it up We as a community are screwing it up by allowing our elected officials to continue the nonsess they've been doing and for you guys not holding your own accountable for the mess ups that they're doing All right Uh we're getting on to Paris right
i have a son who has an IEP Okay I spend money out of pocket as well as what the town affords me to get him special tutoring Someone made a comment "Oh it's only 600 It's only $1,000 That's a lot of money for hardworking families only $600 a month The price of gas eggs
everything it's high And you know that So anyone out there who thinks "Oh it's just $100 It's just $600." No it's your taxpayer money We formed a country over taxes we fought a revolution over taxes and here we're trying to justify how much more we should give to a government
that's misspending 11 million of our dollars All right We're saying we're 5.7 million to cuts is needed Well your little pie chart up there there's 5 million for administrative salaries How come we're not making cuts to those salaries huh why don't we start at
top we got a superintendent who makes over 220,000 a year I don't make 220,000 a year Any you guys why don't we make that a part-time position why don't we cut from that salary it's easy to come to the people who are making 45,000 a year and say "I'm going to slash your
salary I'm going to make you part-time." And then we wonder why the working class is suffering in this country Why the bluecollar class is suffering in this country because we allow the people up top to tell us "Nah you're only worth part-time jobs The work you do in the classroom isn't as important as the work
that I do sitting up here at a meeting." No Take a look in the mirror You have a hard job You were elected to do a hard job We ask you to make hard decisions but make the right decisions and take accountability and be transparent with the taxpayers that put you in those
seats Good evening My name is Kim Van Wart 34 Ivy Place Um I just want to make a comment to the situation that was said in regards to the 8500 to the 2500 which very rough numbers is about 25% to 75%
So for the individuals that you aren't in control of the senior citizens because you're here for the education of our children their amount matters more than the 25% that my child is a part of in this district and he's going to lose the powers and the individuals and the
services he has The cuts could be from there So that's a little disheartening to know that the scale weighs heavy for them but not for the kids And I I just and again I know that's rough numbers in that those are rough numbers but out of the 2500 that are seniors right the other 6,000 are not are not are not
residents that will have students in the school system So sure but to a town to know that the taxes are part of it I think I think I think some the you know the the school district portion of it could be somewhere about 2500 to to right but anywhere you go your taxes are going towards the school district but
with I understand keeping on the taxes this one time exception is is a rare thing to get from the state it's not something that they hand out often correct I believe that at least from what I read it's not something that they it's not an every year thing they're like hey it's not an everything it's not an every year thing and and and so so
let's just look at that for a second right and I'm going to give you my personal opinion Okay My personal opinion is I believe the state did that did that because they wanted to divert from the tax cut from the state aid that cuts that they made Okay That's my opinion Sure All right
Are we Because when you when you look at the when you look at all of the other school districts within the county that received over $und00 million additional money the state could have taken some of that money and they could have distributed to the other districts that they cut Agreed I mean that's the
problem as well this is this a higher up thing that it goes Again that's just that's just my opinion It's my personal opinion It's not my opinion here as a as a board member So knowing how the vote happened and um the minutes allowing us to know who voted which way uh or and having a state monitor I know she might
specifically not be able to answer but was there direction based on from the state with the state monitor as to where you guys their opinion of how the vote should have gone or is that something that we're not allowed to maybe didn't happen or we're not allowed to know i wasn't at the meeting so I don't know if that was something that as an opinion
as part of the state was if they said they were more in favor for it to help your budget or if they said they they don't have a say or they said no it's something you shouldn't do Miss Mus I don't want to speak for you but my what was discussed too was the fact that that was a decision that was that's the board
decision not a state monitor decision The state monitor would not be able to uh overturn our decision Not that she could overturn it that what her opinion was to help the budget which he's here for to help you make decisions So did she have a voice of not telling you
which way to go but what her opinion was to help the budget whether you agreed with it or not is that your vote happened but did she give an opinion on whether this was appropriate or not i'm not going to speak for Miss Makus I that's you know and if you can I totally understand It's just a question
Again I wasn't at the meeting so I apologize It was an open public meeting So any of my comments would have been public The bottom line is did I uh recommend that the board
uh accept the proposal as as described by the superintendent the answer would be yes Okay Thank you Okay They they there was a lot but I I do have to say the there was a lot of discussion
surrounding the decision It wasn't something that was just a flipping it's not a rash decision and and I don't think anyone takes it as that but just to know that as from the state side of it based on the knowledge you had and the information given I did recommend
that favored in that way Yes I did recommend to the board that it was a direction they should seriously consider Thank you I I appreciate that Um know having that knowledge which which makes knowing the vote and how it went even more disturbing Um my other question um
which came up tonight I have a couple different areas I apologize And just for more clarification as you were going over the uh the slides the capital revenue uh reserve withdrawal and the maintenance reserve withdrawal if I understood correctly as as Mr B was
going over it that is money that is being used to help the middle school program Um the upgrades for the sixth grade to attend I just want because I might have misunderstood it So that's why I want to know in regards to that I think I have your answer but I'd rather our business office speak to that if
that's okay Yep Yeah it's uh the with capital reserve and maintenance reserve there's a certain uh restrictions that we're allowed to spend the money on Uh so even if there's $300,000 in the budget uh even if we wanted to use that for other items uh we couldn't Uh the
maintenance reserve can only be used on ordinary maintenance and the capital reserve can only be used on items that's in our longrange facility plan Okay Um so where exactly in the budget is the money for that's going to be allocated for the building restructuring and all
of the items like where does that fall in yeah the uh the capital reserve money is in uh fund 12 Uh that's in the one of my it's not in the operating budget for next year The what Mike's going to tell you are accounts from capital It's not
there are no monies in next year's budget that are allocated to do the work you're talking about So in next year's Oh I Okay I just want again I don't mean to repeat just Yeah I just want to get the like the black and white of that because that sounds very concerning as well If so next year we're not budgeting When does the when does
the money where do we find that to to because we've got 300 kids that need to go to the school and I don't mean to misspeak but the monies that will be used for the project come out of capital reserve not out of the operating budget of next year Capital reserve Capital reserve Capital reserve is not on the
sheets that you have there It's not on there Okay Okay Where can we find Can is that on is that on like a different board meeting minutes when do we find that you're going to have to help me Mike Yeah The the the cap the maintenance reserve the $100,000 that was taken from there that's in the budget with the the
maintenance custodial and and grounds budget And then the the uh there is $200,000 that's in from Cal Preserve If you look on the the slide for the operations and maintenance under capital outlay um the
$289,000 uh $200,000 of that is for um the capital reserve money right but maybe I'm misunderstanding You said those two amounts weren't for those things but now that they are I'm very it feels like a circle And that's why in the operational budget for what we pay
teachers what supplies like it's separate in those accounts That's what I Okay So money is there to make this happen Basically the money the money Mike's talking about Yeah To to make the to make the school ready for the sixth grade to get there Yeah I mean I mean some of the funds are
there I mean we we still have to uh the information has been sent down to the state We we still have to um bid the work just to see what the final costs are So nothing So with cutting the budget and if the bids come back and people over bid and you can't do it does the program then get abolished for a
year two years how many years because we have kids right now that don't know what's going to happen and they're we're being pushed to believe that it's going to happen but there seems to be a lot of things in the way when we have some of the money We're hoping for the other money and then just purely from the
activities and projects that have happened that have all gone over budget which is why we are where we are Are we prepared for that are we is there even planning for that that this is going to go over budget It's going to go over time and that's concerning as a as a
parent whose child is affected by that Right now it's the project is in the planning stage We have an we have an estimate uh the beginnings of an estimate from the architect uh in terms of what the total cost is going to be
We took 200,000 if you will as a almost as a place card because if the money is not in the budget you cannot withdraw from capital reserve during the course of the year So in order to begin the planning
of this and to have monies to uh start the project that is indicate that we're going to go move forward That's the 200,000 That's not the cost of the project That's a a place card a holding
Once we have all the information certainly uh I can tell you that unless we have the full amount of the recommendation for the project it will not move forward We are in the early
stages and to the best of my knowledge we are working I'm so sorry We are working with the town uh as as a team to ensure that the project goes forward But
it's right now if we look at what the cost would be and we estimate the cost you know and I know that the uncertainty out there is going to create a situation where the cost may be too high but right
now the plan is to move forward working with the town to ensure that we have sufficient funds for the project to move forward That's our goal But if it's not there unlike maybe in the
past I would not allow the PR project to move forward because of what I'm not going to do is put this district in a situation that they were two years ago So uh do I think the project's going to move forward yes I do Will it move
forward if the bids come in $300,000 higher than what we're estimating the answer is going to be no That that's the most information as I have now Sure And if the bids get properly and are adjust like to the
liking of the district and then they go over does there is there a is there a abort button that we press on that or is there a what button is there a kill button on the project then like if they bid again using your 200 I know it's a hard thing but but that's kind of what happened with the other projects of they
got bid for something and then they went two to three times over and plus time So again does it where do we where does one of one of the things that I have indicated to the board and very clearly is that no project is going to be done
if there's any indication that it goes over the cost as budgeted It's just not going to happen We're going to prevent it from happening So yes is there a kill button yeah If the pits come in and we can't afford it the kill button is it
doesn't get done Well I'm glad you I'm glad you're here for that Truly I I mean that in a very sincere way I'm very glad you're here to be a part of that decision because that's the fear because that's what's happening No it we we are
we are um it's being there's a lot of work going into it and we are working with the town Um there is a desire for this to move forward but again we are not going to be in a position where we don't have sufficient
funds to complete the project Great Thank you Um another area that I just have questions about uh just looking at the balance budget Uh again I speak as and many of the parents have so I won't repeat too much but as a parent who does have a child who has a parah um and has
seen the growth he has gotten because of that individual Um and just again knowing statistics of removing an individual like that from a classroom that's already exceeding numbers and making it that challenging a general education teacher has to spend anywhere between 10 f 5 to 10% of their day with
that said student if the pair is not there to take on the roles that they do Uh in my class again I I'll speak for my son specifically but I know in his class there are three So that means anywhere between 15 to 30% of her day would be taken away to focus specifically on not that she doesn't focus on them but
focusing on them taking away from the other 17 to 20 kids in the classroom Um to know that that's a potential of not that the struggle my son would know but to know that that's a struggle on the teacher uh is very disheartening So I do hope that you really truly take a
consideration on how the paras are going to play a factor and and again I know there's a restructuring and all the things you have to do but um it's really an area where we need that help C can I just comment um and thank you um based on your situation uh three the three
paras in your class bas um it sounds like a shared parah it's in their IEPs The district will continue to support all IEP documents and all overages based on class size as per state guidelines but some of the roles to do that may shift to part-time
We will still have significant amount of somebody who doesn't know my son the way his individual par does now understands his epilepsy understands the things that he goes through Could be two to four could be an agency could be any things And that's where things get I just want to share with that we're we're following all IEPs and all right i have no doubt
that he'll see somebody My problem is who is he going to see he's not going to see Miss Zayn who was with him for four years and helped him grow as an individual Yeah it's not going to be her I'm experiencing that right now So I won't say the reasons why but he sees three people a day He doesn't even know two of them because they're only there
for one period So by the time they come in and they go out his ADHD has erased them right so and now I get to be like that's what you get every day That's not as a I'm not okay with that and I'll fight and continue to come to the meetings and say that until hopefully
everyone on the board understands that My last thing I just had one more question is in regards to your reduced maintenance and custodial services and school supplies Uh we already have a school supply shortage in the respect of teachers can't make copies Um there in I
in our school at Radcliffe half the time there's no toilet paper there's no paper towels there's no soap Kids are sick all the time We get letters telling us our kids are out but we can't send them because they're sick because they can't wash their hands I have a teacher who I
literally took her pencil sharpeners because they did not work couldn't get them to work for her so bought her new ones So kind of full circling back to the tax situation these cuts inevitably then asked the teachers to come to other parents and ask for assistance
Understandably so cuz I can't imagine a single parent not wanting to donate tissues which we're not allowed to buy anymore from what I understand pencils those things So it's going to be more money out of our pockets to help the teachers get their classrooms the way that they need because this stuff is going to be cut from them So I'm going
to be spending that money anyway Maybe not the person who doesn't have a kid in the school and maybe not the person who isn't doesn't really care in that regard because they don't have an effect but that money is coming from us one way or another And it could have come from a community that we're supposed to be
about this one nutly but we pick and choose when one nutly is actually one Thank you Thank you Uh Nick Frey 66 North Spring Garden Nav Um I'm going to come at this a little different angle I don't have a child with special needs Uh I don't have a
child in high school sports Uh sorry Can you hear me now thank you Thank you Yes Thank you But yeah but I'm fully aware of the challenges that this budget year has faced Uh with the decrease in state funding it has affected multiple mun municipalities Uh Wayne Jackson Tom's
River uh East Brunswick East Orange Planefield are a few that are going through and being creative on how to maintain a budget They've reduced staffs uh uh created regional schools or more drastically are selling buildings in
ways to do so Netley is no different than us being affected by this state aid decrease It has been mentioned in previous meetings as recently as December when Makus said during her state monitor report that there will be approximately 1.2 uh million in
budgetary reductions in the next year This uh was also when the state's budget was released it was known that indeed we would be affected by about $300,000 along with some other adjustments But I also know that in the
past year we've had other difficulties Mr President you did mention that we have a now corrective action plan and this corre corrective action plan is in place as of this time last year So my
questions to you are the communication along with that corrective action plan to get to the the situation that we are now because we had plans in place There are multiple ways that we can get creative to save money So in that cor
corrective action plan which I have here I'm going to ask you a couple things I already know that some of them have taken place with Mr Dvita and Miss Bakus here So I'm going to skip over those because I already know that POS are in place I know that we have more accountability and transparency with a
lot of the checks and the monies that are going out Those are no longer in question and we now have full transparency in that But there's a couple things in here that uh on page starting on page six um was the
deficiencies to 23 and 24 And a couple of them were freezing the budget eliminating professional development freezing non-essential hires eliminating non-essential overtime and downsizing non-instructional aids Has any of those
taken place i'm sorry Can you go through each one of them you're talking about for this budget year So I I do the last one was non instructional I know we have worked um for lunch coverages and different things We use non we have decreased our non-instructional aid usage and I think uh we we are spending less on lunch
coverage and different things of that nature Our principles are getting creative um to find ways to support that So so the first one was freezing the budget which was done in in October of 23 The next was eliminating professional development Then there was freezing
non-essential hires which I think was done so I could speak to them Um the professional development as you look on the board agendas you'll see multiple professional developments that are coming out of our title grants A lot of them have zero next to to what we're doing Um uh eliminating non-essential overtime
which I think was done summer work Correct And then downsizing non-instructional aids which is that the par that's the lunch aids What I was just that's not the paras are instructional aids Non-instructional aids in district are lunch aids Okay All of them
[Music] Overall overall I think the biggest thing and this is on page seven Lack of transparency in reporting budgetary status to superintendent and board of education Mr Dvita I know you were brought in for this Sorry to go right to
Mr Dvita Um uh and it was creating a zerobased budget process and establishing a regular review process with all stakeholders Is that last part being completed i think Mr Dvito that's you could explain more on the process of the
budget on how that's that's done with the administration Yes Um um myself along with um state monitor uh the the budget is reviewed every month Uh we did have a budget projection from our auditors Um so we we
we do look at everything Uh we um project the salaries uh every month Um so so so we are doing that And is this budget I know this has been mentioned before but I just want full transparency Is this budget for this school year the 89 million still on budget
100% Is it still our budget is it still on budget are we still for this calendar year are we still on budget for this school year this school year currently yes Yes Okay Um uh lack of communication for
business office staff to superintendent board of education I know that was an old thing Um are we identifying areas where we can be more efficient in communication within the people on stage i I could tell you our meeting structure
and the way we communicate has improved over time Um you're looking for intraboard communications We we updated our email system on the board We're using ED to post documents That that type of thing Is there any point in time during those communications where you
feel the need that that information should be communicated to the people in this room and beyond so with regard to information on the budget any any information so you're looking for more information more information that is put out into the
public I mean that's something we'd have to obviously uh you know look discuss to our attorneys to see what information we're allowed to provide out to the public The reason I ask is because right now and I stood here a year ago just
asking for more transparency and that is that is a continued approach with municipalities is we want to know where our money is going whether it's going to the Paris whether it's going to special education whether it's going to recess
whether it's going to uh our health insurance because yes that is a big part of our budgets I still don't feel like that last part that communication is being sent out here So then the paras are blindsided on Friday with the
meeting that they weren't anticipating So what I'm saying is within the walls of our buildings morale is down Morale is not there because in two years in a row they have been b blindsided with
inefficiencies because that information has not been passed along So if morale is down and it happens in the corporate level it happens everywhere It goes up and down But if you don't have the incentive to the people in this room and
the people within these buildings what incentive are they going to have to come back what incentive are they going to have to give it 110% if they are not feeling the need to come back and give that 110% not knowing
what's going to happen to their jobs I've been there I've done that on a corporate level But within these buildings the same thing is happening So I guess the bottom line is we need continued transparency from somebody who has had been from a family of educators
I've seen the sacrifices on a daily basis I know what happens when a teacher goes home The job doesn't end I know what happens when my own kids see that and see that there's an
additional 15 kids out there that are also their brothers and sisters that they don't know I get it But there there needs to be an appreciation in these job situations to keep the fire alive Right now it's burning out I also am in complete
understanding that there needs to be flexibility on both sides to work together to write this ship So I just hope I really hope that this financial situation is the last one because if not then the true transparency is gone and
we need to continue with this transparency Thank you Thank you [Music] Good evening Tim Nelagar 14 Cadmus Street Uh I'm another as we've heard multiple people say tonight eight years
ago my wife and I chose Nutley We could have come back to my hometown of Bloomfield where I grew up but I said "No it's better across over in Nutley It was a place to aspire to and to come because of the educational opportunities that my children would have." I have a
daughter who is a sophomore in high school plays two sports and I have a third grade child over at Spring Garden And each year I see these opportunities becoming less and less for them And I'm specifically here to talk about the athletic opportunities for our children
tonight because the coaches that are there for them put in a tremendous amount of hours If we broke down their salaries hourly they are not making minimum wage between the hours they put in coaching teaching our students
outside of that checking in with our students scouting and all of the work that they do They not only check in with my daughter during the season but year round to make sure not that she's hitting her softball lessons or that she's shooting her free throws to
practice but that she's doing what she needs to do as a student athlete that she is doing what she needs to do academically They are teaching our children life lessons Leadership teamwork sacrifice time management how
to win with grace and how to overcome defeat and come back stronger These are lessons our society needs And those students who will lead it in the future need these Without these coaches and these athletics our next generation of
Raiders are going to lose these If we remove these leaders collapse and end programs we are doing a disservice to all of these future students They lose the life lessons that will help shame uh shape them as future educators law
enforcement officers lawyers doctors entrepreneurs and a host of other professions Not to mention using these lessons to become great parents and great citizens hopefully of Nutley in the future I implore you to reconsider and I know
that we've missed the waiver deadline I would like to address a couple of the comments that were made at the top of the meeting If you want voter input voter input happened when we voted you all into office You are our voices because we're not at all the meetings
and I'm part of the problem because I'm not at every meeting Maybe I need to be at every meeting now so I can look over your shoulder at every single thing and send you an email before every meeting but we voted you in because I'm coaching
and I know a lot of you do other work I'm doing other things outside of here as well Also the house is already on fire Now we're going to make a safety plan Now we're going to have an exploratory committee that probably should have been something we looked at
a while back Also for you to say that you support these programs yet you voted to not have the tax levy last time you're talking out both sides of your mouth for some people And for you to say I didn't know these programs were going to be affected when they are on the
public slides from the April 10th meeting then you shouldn't have voted if you didn't know what programs are going to be uh affected when you voted no That's a major mistake that you made to say tonight I didn't know what was going to be affected I know it's a thankless
job but you guys did step up to volunteer in these positions And I know you're trying to do your best but our students deserve more They deserve a lot And I know you can't make everyone happy but these programs are important These coaches these par profofessionals all of
those positions listed on the April 10th slide they're very important to continue to move Nutly forward Thank you for your time Thank you Um sorry Can you hear me all right Can you hear me all right Okay Um my name's Calli Gira 111 No Jav I'm an eighth
grade student at John H Walker I don't really have any questions but I I have concerns even though I know they're not really easy fixes Um I have no intent of disrespect towards any staff when I say this but I want to mention the lack of support of staff that I've noticed in issues that students aren't even
confident enough to bring up and bullying or teachers having a very evident favoritism towards certain students in class I say confident enough because there are lots of students that are too scared to speak against staff because of the fact that they feel so inferior or helpless I have friends feeling unsafe or scared coming to
school knowing they aren't being supported or being bullied or are being favored against by the people who are supposed to be supporting them I know this isn't an easy fix but I also want to mention how I know people who reside in sports or electives for happiness myself included and they're at they're
already losing or are at risk of losing that enjoyment in their lives Students are losing the desire and joy in coming to school and receiving the education that they need because of this lack of motivation and excitement I know friends and I have peers that lose have lost IEPs and other education plans that they
need and special ed students are losing paras therapists and staff that they need on top of that Not only are special education students losing the staff that they need to be provided with proper and assisted education but the staff is also losing the ability to provide for their
families Even working part-time my mom works very hard every single day just to help me and my family to have a roof over our heads food in our stomachs clothes on our backs My mom who's here with me right now and my uncle who's listening from home are both pairs and all of the other amazing pairs that they
work with could be losing benefits that they have and that ability to be providers for their families with medic with medication doctor's visits anything that they need every day I just like to say that I think it's a little bit crazy to me that getting rid of staff classes
and sports that are so important to this entire district was even like considered Thank you Hi everybody My name is Jessica Niccastro 53 Pistake A I am a parent in this district I'm also a parrot at Spring Garden and I work morning care
afterare and lunch duty between Spring Garden and Radcliffe on top of coaching seventh and eighth grade flag football So I'm involved in the town I was also one of the last ones hired as a Paris So I will be one of the ones that will not be rehired full-time or part-time So
this affects me very personally I have very simple questions that require very simple answers I don't want to be gas lit I don't need the politicians answer I don't need the runaround I want simple yes or no one-word answers The best you can give me What will the hours look like for Paris from morning till
afternoon how will that look you said five hours 25 hours a week Five hours a day Uh yeah it's five hours a day So how will that look 8:30 to 1:30 10 to 2 How does that But imagine once we make our schedules for students we will have different options So you don't know at
this time it's a fluid process So how much will we be paid for part-time work uh it's based on the contract So you're at you're at a tier and it'll be So we start at 26,000 So let's start at 26,000 If you move a $26,000 a year first off who can survive off 26,000
okay so keep that in mind No one can survive off 26,000 in this economy in this town anywhere So now you want to prorrate our salary So say we work 25 hours What's that roughly come out to $16,250 minus taxes That comes out to
roughly I'm going to be very generous 15 grand Who can survive on 15 grand okay With a child Now I don't have health benefits when I get sick because I have children I work in ABA preschool I change diapers I get sneezed on I get pooped on I get peed on I get scratched
I get bit I do it with a smile because I love those kids Now when they come in sick and doing all that and now I get sick who takes care of me at the doctor who pays those bills i have to pay those bills off 15 grand a year How how could you do it anybody up here could do it no
you couldn't So let's think about everybody else in that situation I only have one daughter Imagine the families that have two three four kids They have to pay for themselves their husbands all of that stuff Take into consideration you're taking from us We're going to leave I can't come back and survive off
15 I barely survive off 26 grand That's why I work morning care afterare lunch duty do all those things Last year you told us we wouldn't be affected Spring Garden was affected We now don't get paid for lunch I worked two lunches for free Don't get paid for it Last year I
worked one lunch and got paid for it So you're asking us to do extra work for less money And now you're asking us to do the same amount of work for even less money and now no benefits How how could you guys ask us to do that how could you ask a parent who mind
you this is my daughter is a fifth generation nut I went to high school here I went to middle school here I went to elementary school here As did my father and all of his siblings and cousins and family as did my grandparents We have built our lives in this town and now we are being run out
of this town by the incompetence of the idiots at the top If you can't restructure your own salaries I know not all of you get paid If you can't restructure and give part-time to the top earners why would you give it to us why are we on the chopping block how
Thank you How many solutions did you go through before you decided to cut the paras were there five solutions six solutions three solutions what was on the table before the paras were said that's it You're
screwed Nothing Cool Love that Okay hold on I've got some more notes if anybody wants to answer any of those questions You don't have to because I'm sure you don't have the answers So lunch duty Let's talk about lunch duty Do you think that it's fair that you restructured the lunch programs and asked this the
principles to get creative and take money out of the hard workers there last year I made almost $39,000 with my extras With my extras that's how hard I work to make ends meet I got that taken away from me this year So now I had to pick up extra jobs The solution from the
school was "Let's rotate staff Let's make it unsafe Let's have not enough staff and let's not pay them either." You know how many kids I take care of at lunch with one other person 117 Do you think two adults for 117 people 117
students children kindergarten first grade second grade do you think that that's sufficient do you think that's following IEPs and legalities no Yes Anybody we don't think that's fair We do think that's fair We think that's normal It Anybody Anybody think that's
normal i would like any of you to come and work with 117 five six seven and eight year olds for a lunch duty that you do not get paid that you used to get paid for And then I have to go downstairs and work in ABA lunch program You're asking me to do double the work
for less money and now you want to tell me that you love me you respect me you're so empathetic towards us You're not Nobody else was restructured None of the top admins none of the top earners nobody was restructured You guys did get raises You accepted raises right
everybody accepted raises Yes everybody It's public knowledge We don't have to act like it's not public knowledge Everybody accepted raises We're getting payouts for vacation days we're not taking but we're cutting paras Why why you guys are up there You're
saying transparency Tell us why I would rather you tell me because we don't care that much about you guys And I would say I respect it We're the clogs at the bottom Okay cool But you guys want to give us fake empathy You want to give us fake sympathy We want fake We don't want your fake tears We want to know why we are not important enough Why are we the
ones suffering when there's people making hundreds and thousands of dollars to sit on their asses in offices i would like those $100,000 salaries to come downstairs and change a diaper of a kid who's non-verbal who's scared who has poop all over themselves and is running around the classroom I would like one of
you guys to please come to our classrooms see what we do every day and then tell us if we're not important enough to keep around Because let me tell you something There are dozens of paras that are not coming back We don't feel loved We don't feel respected We don't feel valued We feel like we are kicked to the curb as soon as you guys
can The special needs kids are always suffering We are not following IEPs We are not You can sit up there as much as you want and say we are We are not We are not staffing these classes the right way I have asked for admin I've gone above admin's head I have asked for more
teachers I have asked for more powers I've said there will be accidents in school I was met with "I'm sorry We're following everything by the legality that we have to We are not giving you any more money We are not or we are not giving you any more people because we don't have the money." Guess what happened an accident happened and an ambulance was called How much did that
cost the school how much did that cost the school we don't know right would it would it be cheaper than than having a onetoone and then guess what happened after that accident we got a one:1 Imagine that Imagine if we could have prevented a child from going to the
hospital a non-verbal child all because we're following the legalities of the law You're not You're not It's putting these children at risk Now when we leave these children are going to be even more at risk We can't survive off 15 grand We cannot feed our families off 15 grand
And then you want us to what we don't even know what our schedules will be We don't know what schools we'll be at We don't know if we're going to be with kids we've never been with before Where's the accountability i'm a parent in this school I mean in this district I deserve the right to know why you guys
think that we are disposable but none of you [Music] are It's simple I don't need everybody to stare at me I would like answers Do any of you even sympathize do any of you even care everyone's staring at me I've had a couple of you in school Some of
you have been my teachers before I've known you around this town for 30 years But now you're very silent We don't have any answers I'll wait I've got time Everybody could I've got time I'll wait I want an answer I haven't got one answer Any anybody and not a politician
answer Not the runaround I want to know Let's start with this How many solutions were put on the table before the paras were were chosen to be cut well how many no No A number That's that's a that's a discussion that we're going to have That's a number That's a discussion that's going to have to be discussed Mr
Dvita is going to have to answer that question Mr Dvita how many options were put on the table before you cut the Paris benefits and the hours and did you even think that we would want to stay for people who disregard us so no a number I don't want to sew I want a
number No no but this look is not going to happen I understand I understand you're angry I understand you're frustrated You don't because you sit at home making a lot of money No I do I don't I don't get paid I don't get paid You get paid at a regular job and I bet you get health insurance don't you okay I bet you get health insurance at your job Yes Okay So were there one
solution yes or no okay Was there another solution ma'am yes or no ma'am I'm sorry but we we've we've we've said these are tough These are tough decisions we have to make You haven't said anything You've walked around the questions It is a yes or no question Have you had other solutions put to the
table besides the powers yes or no you say transparency Show me your transparency It's a yes or no question How is that a difficult question to answer so every aspect of the budget was reviewed I want a yes or no question I can stop talking to you Thank you so
much ma'am Thank you ma'am Thank you Thank you You're not going to shut me up sir Okay But ma'am these are these are these are these are tough decisions that we have to make I I I can't I'm sorry ma'am But but he's not answering He's running around the questions like this to everybody
else here since 6:30 I'm not having it It's yes or no I'm sorry I'm going to speak my mind as yes or no Not going to answer yes or either Yes or no you're going to kick me out of the meeting because you don't want to answer a yes or no question I'm not kicking you out of the meeting I'm not kicking you out of the meeting ma'am So yes or no but
the budget is reviewed and there are difficult decisions that have to be done that have to be made All I asked was a yes or no question I don't want the politician answer I want a yes or no Were there other options put on the table besides the mus please yes Yes or no the answer is yes Okay And so why
were we chosen above anybody else where's the transparency in that there is the you look at the entire I'm sorry to interrupt you Can we note how she's the one answering and nobody else on the board okay Thank you so much I appreciate it I appreciate you answering
May I speak yes Thank you The budget is looked at in its entirety There were cuts made not just to the Paris There were cuts made throughout There are cuts made in programs at the high school There are
electives that are not going to take place There were a lot of sol there were a lot of areas In fact the entire budget has been cut And I will be honest with you the entire budget has not been cut Teachers are getting raises and getting paid hundreds of thousands of
dollars And we're getting with all due respect I listen to you You can listen That's fine Okay Without interruption Okay I would appreciate the same I mean I will cut you off if you're saying things that aren't true but okay What I
said I'm What I said was 100% true One thing I don't do I don't lie You can drop the attitude cuz you work for us Thank you I don't have been disrespected and nobody cares You know what i asked for a simple yes or no This individual
is not interested in information She's I'm interested in a yes or no question Please please please don't Please don't That's fine That's fine That's fine if you guys don't want to We're going to terminate the public portion of the meeting and these other folks aren't going to get an opportunity to speak To close the meeting because you don't want
No the public portion of the meeting because the board still has to adopt the budget The budget that and this is not a Q&A The board has been very respectful has been very public forum Ma'am we're going to have to terminate the public hearing of the citizens if you can't Now thank you for your comment You're
threatening my silence Let's let's be clear You're threatening my silence I am not threatening your silence I'm asking you to be respectful of the board You're all very disrespectful You don't care about your students You don't care about their IEPs You are in violation of several IEPs daily We complain about it
and we get told nothing and then we get moved to buildings that we don't belong in That's what goes on in Nut That's what Okay we're going to That's going to be the last person there Please That's these are the last three before we end the public comment portion Thank you
Christian Sebastiano 443 Prospect Street I was here last year when you guys were talking about the budget cuts and I asked you know how are you going to make sure that what you're doing is going to be sustainable and we're not going to be back here next year And we're back here
right now This was May 16th last year I'm here today asking you what did you do and what do we have to do different now so that we're not here next year and what I said was when you said s Mr I guess I'm supposed to call you here Um but when you said you said we're doing
it we're we're making it so that we're not going to have to be back here next year That's the plan And I said I don't believe that I think we're going to keep coming back And we're back So to avoid that us all getting really angry about all the cuts you're making and all the things that have to happen Can you do
something that's sustainable have a different approach this year Is it a different approach do you have different people with different ideas so that we're not here again because it's the same story as last year It's just you have a couple of different answers as now you're cutting But what do you what
did you do so every year the budget we're trying to work to get the budget sustainable and we knew last year Miss Makus when she came in here last year one of the first things she said is this is going to probably be the one of the toughest years is this year Um but those
are it's very hard because year after year so expenses continue to grow So you know when when health insurance grows at double-digit numbers and you're projecting that well that money then has to be taken out of other aspects of the
budget So we're taking we're looking at this to make it sustainable because we're we're looking at these these restructurings and and and there's cost savings there So in hopes that next year obviously the expenses don't continue to
grow at a double digit increases Uh I mean healthcare alone is an issue Uh I mean we we've looked at other health care plans going to the state health care plan and and those are those are seeing even higher increases every
single year So again it's a challenging it's a challenging aspect I I you know Miss Mis Mr Mr Dvita and the administration Mr Bea you know they're the ones that go through the budget day in day out and and it's not an easy easy task
I understand that So I I mean I but so so right So you know that everything's going to go up every year every year So unless you're doing something that has a little more foresight we're going to be back here again So now I'm not saying that I want there to be deeper cuts but
you could be more creative Like a lot of people have said about some salaries at high at the high higher ends Like you could those would have a bigger effect if you cut some of those than just nickel and dimming the really low the low hanging fruit That that's that's
just that's just math Our our revenues our revenues are they increase every year you know 2% two or if we have some waiverss um uh like we had this year went up to 2.73% Um but but those are the challenges because the expenses are outpacing the
revenues and and some of those areas like health care we're looking at different avenues uh to to to save money but but again a lot of that stuff is also it's it's it's negotiated with the union as well So there are a lot of things in there that you have to still
abide by and that's where we need you know we need assistance from our partners uh so that when we we look at these things we we look at it and we see that that some changes have to be made that are going to allow us to become sustainable Okay and the other point I want to make
is and Tim had brought it up about like we vote you guys in the people who are on the board right we vote you in to make decisions for us So the vote came up It was seven against one two four And and if that's your vote and that's what
you truly believe I can respect that Will that affect how people vote for you yeah And I think that's why when you say "Oh we want to bring it out to a public vote." That's why So then you can say like "Oh the public wants it All right then Then then it's okay I didn't raise your taxes You voted for it." So it's
purely politics So So I'm making Hold on I can let me finish It's it's purely politics and that's exactly how it seems like and you'll tell me it's not true It seems like a huge lack of accountability that you're gonna say we'll do the vote but then we'll put it out to the public
which is going to cost the money to have the public vote anyway Like what a waste of money a waste of time Just vote what's in your heart Vote what you think is right And if it turns out that people disagree with what you did and they don't like it then you're not going to get voted back into your spot and you just have to deal with that
Listen we we're aware of that Thank you That's the last person right there Thank you Brent von Roth 32 Colonial Terrace Um I'm coming more with no anger
Just kind of listening to the people and I'm going to tell you it's 10:00 Got down here at 6:30 My wife's still there Came a softball game work softball game in the year I just want to make that for the record And I was here also last year and now I had some time to think Mr for Bane Thank you because this is a tough
situation and you coming here as a state aid state monitor Thank you too cuz you're the watchdog to make sure they do the right thing So I appreciate the efforts you're putting in So we're going to start there We're start there So ultimately yeah we have from last year BA tough situation
The state uh monitor here watching what's going on and I appreciate that And budgets are what they are And what I want to really just say and support because I'm born in
79 Alexander Ab born I live now in colonial terrace but I was only before that and I graduated 98 so yes I know this this room was packed at 6:30 packed and I took a look there's still people here you know why they're here because
they're being affected by this budget and not the budget the budget that and I see the attorney I could tell that he's the attorney that got affected two years ago and Mr Ferrar you're on that you're here Thank you Cuz I work
for the state or for the emergency management program and we manage our own budgets too and I'm involved in those budgets and you know what I'm well aware of fiscal years fiscal year July I don't know Let me ask a question Do you guys
follow the same fiscal year budgeting close at July yep So all our stuff has been into our director already So thank you for the record that was just stated and I know the budget I manage So I'm putting it out
there She came in two years ago That's one year I know But you said two years is when things were going down and I understand that So she gave me timestamps And the reason I'm saying this I was a classified athlete
Can anyone Does anyone know what classified athlete is or classified does anyone understand what that is on the board not you Banny because I think you know the answer Do you know what classified is i'm asking as an educator or board of ed does anyone know what classified
means back in 98 we'll say from 98 to uh 94 Does anyone understand so that if that's a yes or no question you don't That means I had a learning disability And Mr Topolski Mr Topolski And I'm going to
tell you I know some people in this room probably know Mr Topolski or I don't know where the camera is where the camera is seeing me I don't know where I should look into He helped me out when I had situations and I had trouble with my chemistry physics calculus I could name
all the different And the reason I say it these Paris they're getting cut because of a budget that was messed up And those are the type and the reason I say Mr Depolski before my coaches because a lot of people didn't even know
I was classified and now I'm going on the record I was and I am add those are the type of people that molded me And then I see some of the coach that are still here I saw the you know people that are supporting and
these kids that came here I guarantee you some of those kids that were shaking their heads when they said they have IEPs It connects all of them And I'm sorry I waited to the end and again it's 10 o'clock and I know you only have so much time and yes my wife wanted to go home maybe an hour ago but I want to ask this
question when budgets are passed You answered it June fiscal years are coming up and closing You have purchase orders and bids because I heard both of those key words Some are under contract and some aren't
Is that correct do you have some purchase orders that are made under contract where you have contractors that you just you don't have to get multiple bids like if you were going to purchase something yes Okay And then how many
bids do you need do you need three bids or just the one from the contractor well depending on if we use a cooperative contract then you don't need any bids you you uh uh take them Uh if if a a price is over a certain amount then you have to get at least two quotes So um so
the the bid threshold for us is is $44,000 So there it is You have either a direct purchase and if it's not under contract you need three bids So I was asking not to see the kind of knowledge you have knowledge Thank you So you need three bids and the lowest
bid gets awarded the the contract or the work The reason I say this is that I want to make records that we're going to keep doing this every year I don't want to lose these assistant coaches I don't want to lose these
parents What are we doing and the reason I point out my wife we should be home She should be sleeping right now actually if you want to know my home routine And we all know what your routines are too But the involvement is saying are you really involved and are you really volunteering for us because
you have seven seven nos We know where the nos are and two yeses for a tax like this isn't a referendum And Mr Fra I've been looking at you because I have a senior that lives at home too He's my father He turns 80 to dad If you're
watching sorry you're 80 years old And there's multiple of those seniors that are even younger because I think what senior 65 is a senior 65 is a senior 65
Okay Thank you So yes it is I'm sorry I can't I can't hear you I'm sorry Only reason I say that is because this is being a recorded You mentioned all the answers to the new budget based on seniors taxes It didn't address the concerns that we're having They're not
going to change I just really I'm speaking on behalf of really the people and kind of what what what are we doing because the the concerns I'm having is if we lose these coaches we lose these paras there's there it's going to make
the job for not only the teachers harder the teachers that are special ed teachers harder there's there's it's going to then our township will slowly erode And I just wanted to make records And really I don't really have questions
I just want accountability And if we're here again and listen I what's your name the whatever the state is still there I want her gone as soon as possible Soon as she's gone it means you're doing your job And Mr Bay I do appreciate it because I know you walked into a tough situation And yes we voted everyone in
but please please please just get the budget right And the reason I as those fiscal years and things like that it's a responsibility you guys have You owe it to these these teachers that teach our kids and make it what this town is Thank
you Thank you I know it's late It's I go to bed at 9:00 but I felt like I needed to stay because it was that important Um my name is Lette Negron uh 107 Stanley Avenue Uh I'm a parent of three children One is
out of the Nutley school district already She's a biomedical engineer did AP courses very successful working out in Philly Um I also have a 11-year-old who's out of district who's been out of district now for about three years
Um as I was sitting there I I I was thinking I was just listening in and I could I needed to come up to say something that I thought was really important and I think needs to be assessed I didn't want my son to go out of district I wanted tutoring for him I wanted a certified reading specialist to
help him with his dyslexia because he was profoundly dyslexic especially after COVID I was denied However I was given the opportunity to go out of district four five times the
cost So I wanted tutoring that probably would have cost after school a couple of maybe few hundred right but yet Nutley is paying for my son to go out of district an hour away from here He did not want to go It was a struggle He went
through depression He lost his friends And as a parent you do what's best because learning to read and reading is a fundamental right in order to be successful later on So I wanted to say as I was hearing the paras one of the most important relationships my son had
was his parah One of the most important she saw him when he felt unseen So I wanted to just shout out all the paras because they deal with the most difficult children every day Every day and we expect them to show up and
they're paid nothing to peanuts So we really need to be mindful where we're making these cuts Also as I was hearing um the programs being um jeopardized I'm a social worker and I'm appalled because
we're talking about I saw something on mental health If we want good mental health we need to have these activities for kids We It's It's It's so important for our kids to feel connected to to build relationships Right now they're
stuck to our their phones They're stuck to social media There's no communication sometimes at home because they're on their phone But when they're playing these programs right a lot of these kids have special needs They may have ADHD They may struggle in school They may hate school especially our boys They
need athletics You know why because that's what makes them go to school because I have to do well in order to play a sport So when we cut sports we jeopardize their education as well So I want you to really consider what we're
doing with our kids right we're taking away paras for the most vulnerable population that we have right kids that parents as you could see we had some stu uh families bring in their their kids How difficult it is right just sitting through a presentation This is all day
right and these are what the paras are dealing with every day They're doing it as best as they could They're probably the le the least trained right to deal with the most delicate students at their schools yet we're trying to take away benefits So I would hope that you
reconsider that because it affects everybody When you have a parah especially because sometimes we talk about self-contained classrooms but we have students in in regular classrooms right we have paras in regular classrooms kind of managing those students If we don't have good paras
there because anybody can come and say "Hey I want to apply for a job." But we want quality paras We want people who are vested in our community We want people who love our kids who we know when we're sending our kids to the classroom that they're going to be okay
That's important And that's a fundamental right for any parent who's sending their child to school So I really hope you do consider that Um I want you to think about out of district placements I'm fighting for my son now to come back Not because I feel like
after hearing what I'm hearing academically he's going to be in the best place ever I hate to say it that way but because his mental health is important He needs friendships He needs community He needs to be a part of this community And I want him back So that's
the goal right i wish I never had to send them back I wish we had quality reading specialists who were Orton Gillingham trained in this district What I was told when I asked for that we have no one here in the district How do you
not have anyone here who's a reading specialist in Nutley how do you not have that when every other district has that that's important when they say 20 to 30% of our student population has some form of dyslexia especially
postcoid how do we not invest in those specialists how did we spend almost $100,000 a year on my child when we could have paid a salary that could have serviced 15 20 kids that's being smart
about money Looking at okay if we hire a professional to support this group do we have to send the student out so I want you to just be mindful and look at that how we're not how we're we're going to make cuts but if we're hiring people they're people that can service a larger
population right and our paras need to be here We need good quality people to take care of our kids Um I did not expect to speak tonight but I felt moved enough to stay um and and share this
story because it's really important that we not cut Paris It's really important that we not cut programs that are going to protect our students mental health especially our boys who need role models who need to be active who don't like school They're just getting through it
right but it gives them something to look forward to later on Thank you Thank you Okay we're going to close the public comment portion Can I get a motion roll call Do we need roll call on that
no Okay we're [Music] good Okay Um Miss Dan Czech Martin academic Yes Mr President I'd like to move academic resolutions one through three is written Second Any discussion
roll call Mr Balsamo yes Mrs Danek Martin yes Dr Dia yes Mr Gilbert yes Mr Gazinski yes Mrs Quirk yes Mr Scotty Yes Mr Fero Yes
Mr Gazinski Resolution Administration Yes Mr President I move uh administration resolutions one through three Second Discussion Roll call Mr Balsamo Yes Mrs Danek
Martin Yes Dr Dia Yes Mr Gilbert Mr Gazinski yes Mrs Quirk yes Mr Scotty yes Mr Ferraro yes Mr Dia Finance Thank you Mr President I'd like to move finance as stated resolutions 1 through
23 [Music] Discussion I'd like to um I'd like to read resolution number 12 It's resolution of the Nutley Board of Education honoring Charles W Kazinski
Jr for 30 years of dedicated service and the naming of the Lincoln School Elementary Auditorium in his honor Whereas Charles W Kazinski Jr a lifelong resident of the township of Netley and a proud graduate of the
Nutley public schools has served the Nutley Board of Education with distinction and dedication for a cumulative total of 30 years And whereas Charles Kazinski was elected to the Nutley Board of Education on April 20th 1982 and subsequently reelected on April
2nd 1985 April 5th 1988 April 30th 1991 and April 19th 1994 faithfully serving until April 14th 1997 And whereas following a period away from the board Charles Kazinski was
again reelected on April 20th 2012 and subsequently reelected on November 5th 2013 November 8th 2016 November 5th 2019 and November 8th 2022 continuing his remarkable legacy of
service through the present day And whereas over the course of his 30 year tenure Mr Gazinski has held numerous leadership positions including five terms as vice president and seven terms as president And whereas having grown from a student at Lincoln Elementary
School to Nutley Junior High School which is in current currently the the Nutley High School building to Nutley Senior High School which is currently the John Walker Middle School and eventually serving on the Nutley Board of Education Charles Kazinski has left
an indelible impact on the Nutley Public Schools and the broader community has so faithfully served Now therefore be it resolved that the Nutley Board of Education does hereby recognize and expresses express its deepest gratitude to Charles W Kazinski Jr for his
extraordinary 30 years of public service Be it further resolved that in recognition of his enduring contributions and legacy the auditorium at Lincoln Elementary School shall be henceforth named the Charles W Kazinski Jr Auditorium as a lasting tribute to
his dedication and service Be it yet further resolved that the appropriate signage will be placed at the auditorium and a dedication ceremony shall be scheduled to commemorate this [Applause] recognition Actually I'm going to see if
any of the board members have any anything they'd like to add Okay Before before Charlie you get to speak I'm not going to speak now It's not that time So anything else for any of the other board members yeah Charlie I just want to say
you've been a great mentor Yeah I've joined the board right after you were elected for your second stint in 2010 I just want to thank you for your friendship and your leadership and you mean the world to me Thank you for your dedication for all the students
[Applause] All right that's anyone else It's not necessary We'll get plenty of time to thank me I appreciate everyone for what you've done for me tonight S I can't thank you enough
Um while all the discussion was going on tonight I I was jumping through my skin because I've been here for 30 years and I've heard the same thing for 30 years Different people We don't get the help
we need from Trenton It cost us $17,000 to educate educate every one of my children my two grandchildren Now we get $12 million in state aid and we should be getting twice that We struggle and we struggle every year but we do a
fantastic job Um I I I've always appreciate the administration Um I will vote in favor of the budget tonight because I trust the administration even though in clo I wasn't in favor of I mean I was in favor
of increasing the taxes Somebody was talking about their taxes from their house You wouldn't want to pay my taxes I live in a flood zone But I trust Nutley I trust the district I trust everybody that's here And I want to thank you very much I cannot say
anything more than that Thank you Thank you Charlie Roll call Mr Balsamo Yes Mrs Dan Martin Yes Dr Dia Yes Mr Mr Gbertie yes Mr Kazinski yes Mrs Quirk yes Mr Scotty yes
Mr Ferraro yes Mr Scotty policy Roll call Mr Bossamo Yes Mrs Danek Martin Yes Dr Dia Yes Mr Gilbert Yes Mr Kazinski Mrs Quirk Yes Mr Scotty Yes Mr
Fero Yes Miss Quirk Personnel Yes President Thank you Discussion Roll call Mr Bamo Mrs Mr Dan Martin yes Dr Dia yes Mr Gilbert yes Mr Kazinski
yes Mrs Quirk yes Mr Scotty Mr Fero yes Is there any old business to come before the board any new business mr President yes Uh I know you wanted uh to say something also Um I just want to
reiterate because we didn't get to ch we we had Mr Kazinsk's uh resolution Uh we didn't get to have a moment to discuss uh in finance Um but that's okay I just want to make a statement that uh I want to I want to reaffirm uh what was said
at the top of the meeting and I really hope that the administration makes every effort to uh not change programming uh for sports at the high school I believe it probably can be done within this budget and I I I just strongly believe
and support our high school sports [Music] program Mr President I'd like to echo that same sentiment I'm apologize for being uh a little late So I um I did miss the uh the opening statement but I do uh have confidence in this
administration that they will be able to bring back these sports programs when you leave through the budget or even look through some of the um the ancillary costs that are associated with uh education $50,000 is a lot to our kids uh not a lot in the budget and I do
feel that it can be found and I have confidence that it'll be every rock will be turned over um in those efforts we're dealt we're dealt a bad hand here and there's no right way to address these things everyone's frustrated it's been a
long day um already and uh one of the things that we can um we can say I have children in a district and um I it was it was a very difficult decision and when you make these decisions there's a lot that uh is is going on not just in
your mind it's in your heart but it's also in your in your uh it's in uh local shops it's in your when you're getting a cup of coffee it's it's when you're talking to your neighbors mowing a lawn um where we we are not uh people we we live here too These things do impact us
Um but the bottom line is this would have been a drop in a bucket in terms of a essentially a f in a sense a futile move We would be back here again Something big has to be done Uh I implore two things Bang on Trenton's
door as much as you can Demand what we deserve as as taxpayers and also all the funds that come through the the state uh to it every school district should be fully funded from what the state is collecting It's simply criminal uh that
we have to continuously do this Districts are are laying off hundreds of teachers selling schools Um it's it's absolutely disgusting and to sit here and and to uh offer us a solution of a problem that they created And that's
what this is They created the problem They're not doing anything in Trenton about the rising cost of of insurance And that's a simple fact They could cap these things So advocate for us help us These are the things This is the only
way to fix the system is to let the people that run the system at the state know we want our fair share as well And it really this is going to just be a reoccurring theme The substantial amount of money that is required to make us solvent again at
this point not just us is a staggering amount And and Miss Makus if I'm not telling the truth please call me out on it But there there this is something that we are we are going to be chasing this Oh yes it would have been helpful but no it would not been a
solution We are discussing in finance we continue to explore all options to make everything work When you look at what it op we are operating on it is such a small percent after all other
costs have been taken care of and that makes this district work But the truth is the people do make it work and it it pains us to have to do this and had had to bring this decisions that were brought tonight None of us want to do this It absolutely is it is painful and
we still have to look everyone in the eye and and we will These are heavy decisions but um decisions nonetheless and that's why we're here Um so I just wanted to make sure that uh uh I can't
demand but I would like to heavily suggest that 50,000 or however much money it takes to get these coaches back because it's not everything but it's something to start Um everything be explored to possibly do that
Thank you Okay Any new businesses to come before the board um before if I'd like to um and Mr Mr McKver if you could assist me on this because I want to make sure I get this motion correct but um I want to
make a motion to form an exploratory committee to evaluate the process and explore um adding questions regarding budget uh expenditures above the 2%
um uh for this exploratory committee to come out and look at that and and to see what the process looks like and report back to the board with their findings I mean because it's being recorded um as
the board president I don't have your policy manual in front of me but you can form a committee and appoint them appoint individuals to that committee um we might want to look at the verbiage for that But in terms of financial
uh evaluation and to determine what if anything you can do above the 2% cap and involve the community it sounded to me that that was the direction you were going Is that true yes It's just Yes It's just a it's it's a factf finding um to go out and to see what
other districts do how how how it works how it could work and report back to the board Miss Makus is there anything with regard to that that you see an issue on your end no The board has the option of of
forming a committee and at some point making the decision decision uh to go forward with the question uh for uh a permanent increase in taxes There are rules as as will be uh
delineated with regard to what goes into it For example it can't be required for thorough and efficient education If you put the question out there and it doesn't get approved you cannot put it back into your budget for
a period of time uh and if you put it in you cannot uh and it's approved you cannot remove it from the budget for a period of time the the expenditures So yes uh there are factors involved but
there is absolutely nothing that says you can't form a committee to decide if this is the direction you want to go in Okay Thank you And I don't mean to give the legal opinion but thank you So we'll we'll we'll move forward with that
I'm I'm furiously ready I think that's what Mhm [Music] I think the motion you are considering is a motion to appoint a committee to explore the possibility of expanding the existing tax levy cap including the
legal implications financial financial implications while at the same time involve in receiving input from the greater community Is that is that it so we need a second [Music]
There a roll call on that or just all in favor okay All in favor anyone opposed okay Whereas the board of education will be discussing matters exempt from public discussion pursuant to NJSA 104-12 Now therefore be it resolved that
the board of education recess to close executive session at this time to discussive We don't need executive session Okay I think we do So to discuss contracts and personnel be it further resolved that the results of the
discussion will be made public by inclusion on the agenda of the subsequent meeting of the board of education or when the reasons for discussing such matters in close session no longer exist Can I get a motion to adjourn are you going to take action uh we're not going to take any action
A motion to adjourn into executive session motion Thank you everyone [Music] Okay