--------- Meeting to order. Mr. Hastings. Roll call. >> Mr. Brady >> here. >> Mr. Cobbert >> here. >> Mrs. Dam. >> Mrs. Gilman >> here. >> Mr. McCarthy >> here. >> Mr. McGovern >> here. >> Mr. Schneider
>> M. Stevens. >> And Mr. Tol >> here. Would everyone please join us for the pledge of allegiance. 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. >> Okay. President's report. Um, also I just say briefly, I'd like to thank our staff, especially our
buildings and ground staff for all of their support in getting our schools prepared during this storm. I don't know if anyone watched the news, but seems to be the six years are the years 06, 16, 26 are the years where we get hit with these uh crazy storms. And we know
everyone being careful about shoveling. We hope everyone was able to get safe passage back to our schools. Um, we will uh be doing some recognitions today and I'll leave that to our superintendent to lead us in that. But if we could please have our student represent our student uh representatives provide their report,
we would appreciate that. Thank you. >> Tonight the boys basketball team won their senior night against Long Branch and one. Congratulations boys. At group two states relays Leah Sarki, Avery O'Hara hero, Sarah Zalei, and Daniel
Dyler set a new school record in the DMR running 1308, breaking the previous record by 4 seconds. Congratulations to Aiden Winters and Jack Toppy on being the group 2 state relay shot champions and setting a new school record of
96-7.75. The wrestling team has nine short conference tournament qualifiers. Congratulations, boys. Um, congratulations to the boys swimming team on qualifying for states and securing the eighth seed. Congratulations to the to the girls swim
team on qualifying for states and securing the second seed. Last week, hockey hosted their senior night and won against Central Regional. Now for clubs. Earlier this month, students in DECA participated in district's competition at Kane
University. Congratulations to those who qualified for states at Atlantic City later in March. The freshman class will be having a freshman only event Friday night after school. It will be completely free event with pizza, bingo,
and prizes and spirit poster making. and then a group will go from go from the cafeteria to the gym for the boys basketball game. Uh moving on for the middle school, congratulations to San Pebbles's School Literary Magazine on
being selected to receive the rank of superior and the 2025 National Council of Teachers of English. >> Thank you for your report. We really appreciate you being here this evening. Miss Weldon, you have a comprehensive report and we have all of these smiling faces in our audience with students and
family members. So, it's great to see all of you here this evening, Miss Weldon. >> Yes, thank you. Good evening, everyone. And thank you so much for coming out on what is so far the coldest night of the year. And so, we do apologize for that bringing you out here, but it is so wonderful to have a packed house to
recognize so many outstanding uh Spartan students and staff. We're going to start with a our eighth grade winners of the Mammoth County semiwincentennial essay contest. So if Mr. Romano's here,
Mr. Schwarz, do we have Mrs. Muscleman and Miss Kelly here as well? Yeah, please come on. Join us up front as we Thank you for being here. It's wonderful to have you here.
Okay, at this time I'm going to recognize our second place eighth grade winner, Victoria Ribero Morera. If you could please come up. If you're here, come forward. And we have a certificate for you.
And please stay up front here for a minute. You can stand right over here. Yeah, perfect. And our first place winner is Ingred Romero Vargas. Ingred, are you here? Come on up. Congratulations. And if we can get a picture with
everyone over here in front of our backdrop and parents, families, please feel free to come up front and take a photo. Go in the middle. Okay. >> Careful. >> Hey, congratulations again. Great job.
Make us very proud. Thank you for all your hard work. Okay. Next, we're going to recognize some of our students from the high school. And for this recognition, I'd like to invite up Mrs. Don Kazuba, Mrs. Gina Hagermanerman, and Mr. James Young and Miss Cara Clark. If
you're here, if you could please join us up front. These are our principal, assistant principal, and our adviserss who helped our high school students compete in the Mammoth Regional Chamber of Commerce team challenge where they took third
place. This challenge is an annual ethical decision-making competition where students analyze real world business issues through a hypothetical scenario about real life facts. It builds critical thinking, communication,
and teamwork skills. Ocean Township High School competed for the first time this year against five veteran teams and earned third place in their rookie year. That's an outstanding performance. I was there to see it. It was remarkable. And
I was told by many of the judges and the coordinators of the event that it is unheard of for a firstear team to place. So, uh, you hear third place, but I need you to know this was really an outstanding and remarkable third place finish. So, I'd like to recognize our
students now. When you hear your name, please come forward across this way. Ava Archer, please remain standing. Grace Fuller, not sure if she's here this evening. Mark.
Okay. Julian Rotado. Maya. Denn Jacobson. Narrow Leonard Richard Brook Todd Marissa Williams and Sarah Zilli.
I'd like to congratulate all students and their advisors and Mrs. Mrs. Hagermanerman and Mrs. Kazuba. I know that a lot of work went into preparing them for that competition and really you're all to be recognized tonight. Outstanding job. Let's take a photo. >> Parents, you're welcome to come on up
and take a photo. One minute. >> Congratulations again. >> Great work. Mrs. Kazuba, if you could stay up, we're going to recognize. And is Miss Vita here? No. Okay. Cecilia, she
>> Okay. Um Okay. Moving on to our staff. >> This year, NG NJA announced their 2025 equality champion, and it is our own Allison Connelly, social studies teacher at Ocean Township
High School. Allison, please come on up to be recognized. Congratulations on your recognition. Let's take a photo. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Okay. Okay. And now we get to one of my favorite parts of the year where we get
to recognize our governor's educators of the year. The governor has a program every year where districts across the state recognize a teacher of the year and an education services professional of the year at every single school in the district. So, we have 10 fine
individuals this evening to recognize. You may have seen we do a um sort of surprise announcement around Thanksgiving, the day before Thanksgiving where we run around all over the schools and and surprise each individual in different ways. And I
could, you know, really give that credit to the principles. They've come up with very creative and meaningful ways to make each of our uh honores feel special. And then we get to bring you here this evening to recognize you again. So we are going to start with the
education services professionals of the year. We have our five principles here to hand out certificates. So please when you hear your name come up but also stay stay up here for a photo. First up we have Miss Dr. Bridget Burns from Ocean
Township High School where she serves as Okay, you could just stand right up here. Next up, we have Laura Maluso from the Township of Ocean Intermediate School. Okay, we have Miss Jill Mahoney from Ocean Township Elementary School where
she serves as occupational. Next up, Rachel Moss from Wamasa Elementary School where she works at social worker our elementary schools. And finally, Ed Allison Mandelbomb from
Wayside Elementary School has served as a speech prevention language specialist. Congratulations to all of you. Please stay standing up here. We're going to move on to our teachers of the year. Starting again at the high school, we have Mr. Robert Clinger, who I know
could not be here this evening, but I just like to >> from the Township of Ocean Intermediate School, one of our special education teachers, Miss Gia Patterson from Ocean Township Elementary School. Another special education teacher, Mr.
Michael Hicks. Come on up. From Wamasa Elementary School, we have Mrs. Jessica Fischer, who also serves as a special education teacher. And from Wayside Elementary School, elementary teacher, Mrs. Carolyn Conifal.
Congratulations to all of you. You all deserve this recognition and then some. We thank you very much for your service to our students and to our school districts. Let's take a photo. Yeah, you guys should get in there, too. It's up to you. You want to get in
there? Go ahead. >> Just sounds good. >> Yeah. Yeah. Up to you. They they choose out. I get it. >> Thank you so much. Congratulations, >> Mr. President. That concludes my report this evening. Thank you, Miss Weldon, and thank you everyone. Thank you to our
educators for all that they do for our students. Thank you to our parents and students that are here this evening to celebrate. I think on these dark days of winter, we need this time to come together and be part of a community together. So, we appreciate everyone coming here today and to celebrate all
of these wonderful things. Um, we also recognize with the ice and the, uh, cold weather, um, we may not want to be out late. So, I will pause if any of you wanted to make the exit. Um, but you are more than welcome to stay with us for
the rest of the evening. Might be a good hot chocolate night. >> Congratulations again. >> Careful, man. Don't feel bad. I ran away. Okay. There's Ellie. You can see him, but
>> Mr. Hastings, school business administrators report. >> Thank you, Mr. President. I have nothing additional from upstairs. >> Thank you, Mr. Hastings. We will now move into public comment. The board of education recognizes the value of public comment on educational
issues and the importance of allowing members of the public to express themselves on school matters of community interest. >> Public comment is not a question and answer session. Specific questions can be directed to the administration. Superintendent's contact information is
on the deis and on the district website. We encourage you to contact her with any questions. Public participation shall be governed by the following rules. Each statement made by a participant shall be limited to five minutes duration. No participant may speak more than once on
the same topic until all others who wish to speak on that topic have been heard. The presiding officer may request that a person leave the meeting when that person does not observe reasonable deployment. Would anyone from the public like to comment on any item at this
time? Okay. Hi, >> my name is Mike Bon. Um, I live in Ocean Township on the Felsway. Great job getting everything cleared. Kids back to school. It's nice back to school. Um, uh, I just wanted to recognize my friend
Alison Connelly for her award. She's done so much for all the kids here in Ocean Township and the rest of teachers and staff and all the kids. I just wanted to mention um I I know that one of our teachers might have been mentioned online for wearing blue and uh
you know this goes back to this discussion the last time I was here about what people say online or what I just it's it's just gotten out of hand. Um and people should be able to wear whatever color they want. Um and people should be able to express themselves but
be respectful. And I'll just add this as a parent of two children who are immigrants, American citizens, forever's listening. Um it is a scary time for some of us. Uh you know, I my son, he's uh in college and he he carries his
passport card around. So whatever side of the spectrum you are, whatever, it doesn't matter. These are real implications and our schools are a safe place and I appreciate that. So, you know, just thanks very much. Think about
what you say online. Think about what goes on inside people's homes like I tell my kids all the time. But it is a scary time, but I feel I know our schools are a safe place. So, thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Be.
>> Anyone else from the audience? >> Good evening. My name is Brooke Fenon. I'm a resident of Wanamasa, a mother to two boys in Ocean Township School District. Over the past several weeks, our community has witnessed intense public reaction to public expression
connected to tragic and emotionally charged events. In one instance, a district educator was publicly targeted, doxed, and suspended following a personal social media interaction. In another, a sitting board member made a
public comment about a violent death of a woman that many in our community found deeply troubling. What has been most difficult for families to understand is not disagreement. It is the inconsistency. We are living in a time of extreme
violence and our children see and absorb far more than we give them credit for. It is our responsibility as trusted adults to lead with humanity, respect, and integrity. When actions are taken quickly and publicly against some members of our
school community, while similar concerns involving others appear to be handled differently or not addressed at all, it creates confusion and erodess trust. This is not about politics or personal beliefs. It is about standards, process,
and fairness. As parents, we expect clear and consistent expectations around public conduct and for educators and elected officials alike. We expect that freedom of speech is respected and that accountability when applied is grounded
in transparent policy rather than public pressure. Our children are watching how adults in leadership respond to tragedy, disagreement, and responsibility. They are learning not only from what we say but what we tolerate, what we excuse and
what we choose to discipline. Tonight I want to share for the record that clarity matters, consistency matters, and leadership means holding everyone to the same standards regardless of role or title. I hope this board will recognize
the impact these decisions and silences on families, staff, and the broader community and take steps to restore confidence through transparency and fairness. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you. We have any other members from the public who would like to comment at this
time? Do you have anyone in the queue who would like to comment at this time? Hearing no other commenters, let's move on. Uh, approval of minutes. >> Yes. I move to approve the meeting
minutes from January 13, 2025, ex including executive session and the work meeting minutes. May I have a second? >> Second. >> Thanks. >> Thank you, Mr. President. This is item 5.1. Mr. Brady, >> yes. >> Mr. Covert, >> yes. >> Mrs. Gilman, >> yes.
>> Mr. McCarthy, >> yes. >> Mr. McGovern, >> yes. >> Miss Stevens, >> yes. >> Mr. Go. >> Yes. >> Motion carries. >> Uh personnel. Mrs. McGovern. >> I move to approve items 6.1 through 6.5. Can I have a second? >> Second.
>> This is item 6.1 through 6.5. Mr. Brady. >> Yes. >> Mr. Cobert. >> Yes. >> M. Skilman. >> Uh, yes. To all. I must recuse from 6.4. >> Thank you. Mr. McCarthy. >> Yes. >> Mr. McGovern. Yes,
>> Miss Stevens. >> Yes, >> Mr. Dolan. >> Yes. >> All items carry. >> If I may, I just would like to take a moment to recognize Mrs. Laura Maluso, who will be now joining our administrative team as assistant principal of the Township of Ocean Intermediate School. Congratulations and
welcome. >> Congratulations on that new uh appointment. Thank you. Financial Management and Resource Services. Mr. McCarthy. Uh, >> move to approve items 7.1 through 7.13. Do I have a second? >> Second.
>> Items 71 through 713. Mr. Brady. >> Yes. >> Mr. Cover. >> Yes. >> M. Skilman. >> Yes. >> Mr. McCarthy. >> Yes. >> Mr. McGovern. >> Yes. >> Stevens. >> Yes. >> Mr. Dolan. >> Yes. >> Miss Carrie. Instruction, Education, and
Student Activities. Mr. Brady. Uh, >> move to move to approve items 8.1 through 8.7. >> Second. >> All items 81 through 87. Mr. Brady. >> Yes. >> Mr. Covert. >> Yes. >> Skilman.
>> Uh, yes. To all recuse from 8.4. Short conference wrestling. >> Miss McCarthy. Yes. >> Uh, Miss McGovern. >> Yes. >> Miss Stevens. >> Yes. >> And Mr. Dolley. >> Yes. >> All items carry.
>> Okay. Public relations 9.1. >> I guess I I'll uh >> start. >> I'll motion for this one. Yes. >> Mr. >> I think Mr. Hazing. Are you going to uh >> read this? >> I'm going to read this. Okay.
>> That's what you >> Is he going to read it? Is >> that what I said? >> That is what you told me. Okay. >> As our secretary, >> uh, January is school board recognition month in New Jersey. Uh, so the township of ocean board of education, whereas the New Jersey school boards association has
declared January 2026 to be school board's recognition month, a time when all residents can acknowledge the contributions made by our local school board members. And whereas the township of ocean board of education is one of 581 local school boards in New Jersey which sets policies and oversees
operations for public school districts. And whereas the township of Ocean Board of Education embraces the goal of highquality education for all New Jersey public school students. And whereas New Jerseys local school boards help determine the educational goals for approximately 1.4 million children in
pre kindergarten through 12th grade. And whereas New Jersey's 5,000 local schoolboard members who receive no remuneration for their services act as advocates for public school students as they work with administrators, teachers, and parents for the betterment of public
education. And whereas school boards strive to provide the resources necessary to meet the needs of all students, including those with special needs. And whereas the board of education provide accountability to the public, they communicate the needs of the school district to the public and
they convey to school administrators the public's expectations uh for the schools. And whereas New Jersey can take pride in its schools which ranked among the nation's best and key achievement indicators such as the National Assessment of Educational Progress scores and the preparation for
college through advanced placement offerings and SAT assessments. Now therefore be it resolved that the Township of Ocean Board of Education does hereby recognize the services of local school board members throughout New Jersey as we join communities statewide in
observing January 2026 as school board recognition month and be it further resolved that the Township of Ocean Board of Education urges all New Jersey citizens to work with their local boards of education and public school staffs towards the advancement of our
children's education. Thank you. >> Thank you. I'd like to present to our board president a certificate for his role as our board as a board member. And if you could assist me with the rest, I will lead to you and we will we will
recognize each of you one by one. So you can come across the front here for a photo. We'll figure that out too. >> I'll get my phone to you just go right up. >> Perfect. Right up. Yeah, I'll I'll go ahead I'll read the names for you.
>> Okay, so first up, Mrs. McGovern. >> Thank you. >> Mrs. Gilman, >> you're next. >> Mr. Brady, Mr. McCarthy, Mrs. Stevens, and Mr. Covert, Miss Dam,
and Mr. Schneider cannot be here this evening. I'll hold those for another night. But we'd like to recognize you for your service, for this volunteer role that you so willingly part, you know, serve in to to help our
students and our district month. We recognize you. So get together little bit closer. There you go. Thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you for your service.
fridge. >> Yeah, there you go. >> Use the kill next. >> It's gonna cover. >> Thank you. >> So, I' I'd like to just thank our administration um for their uh recognition. Um and I'd also like to
thank my fellow board colleagues. Um, we do volunteer our time. Uh, we do so with great commitment and love of our community. Um, and love of students and love of our families. Um, that's why we all chose to do this. Um, and so we
thank you for coming out this evening and being with us. Um, and our work, I just have to say, is made better because we work with a great superintendent, a great business administrator, and all the folks we get to work with. So, um it
makes it more enjoyable to give your evenings and your afternoons and all of that when you have great folks who stay in touch with you and who uh make sure that our children are well taken care of. So, thank you for all you do. >> Do we have any old business at this time?
Do we have any new business at this time? Mrs. Gilman, >> I just wanted to reiterate that uh next Tuesday, the New Jersey School Board uh education is having a forum with Senator Vin Gopal and uh Senator Dlano Scanland
to discuss the state of New Jersey schools. Uh President Dalton and I will be attending virtually. Uh and if any board members would like to submit any questions that you'd like us to ask, like where's the money?
We would be glad to pass that along. >> Thank you, Mrs. Gilman. Any other new business? Motion to adjurnn. >> Motion. >> Second. >> Thank you. Have a safe trip home everyone. Part: 2
Call to order the uh work session meeting. The work meeting for January 27th, 2026. Pres president's report. I'll wait till downstairs. >> Huh? >> Okay. Um,
>> superintendent report. >> Okay. Um, >> oh, committees. Yeah, the, um, draft of the board committees was placed in the agenda for everyone to look at. If you have any feedback, please get back to me uh, so that we can be ready for our next
meeting with a final draft of those committee uh, placements when based on what people had provided or prior experience on committees and um, some new folks that do it. So, any feedback,
let me know. Okay, my turn. >> Your turn. >> All right. Thank you. Good evening, everyone. It's wonderful to be here again with you. I hope everyone survived the snow. I know uh not to steal your thunder, but I would like to just thank
the director of facilities. You can do it. You can do it, too. No, you can do it, too. I'll let you get into specifics, but I really do want to thank our entire team, custodial and maintenance, for all of their hard work. um you know, while everyone gets to stay home and enjoy the snow, at least at
first, uh they're here working for us to really make sure our schools are in good shape, and I can't thank them enough for that. Uh we also did launch some new notifications, a new communication system while maintaining our current notification system. So, I apologize if
you received the message five different ways, but I wanted to make sure that you did receive the message. Um, and so as we worked through those kinks, we did send things out through our uh it's really our new website hosted by a
company called Final Site and they have something called messaging XRE. In messaging XRE, we can send an email, a text message, and an a voice phone call um to all of our members, community members, parents, students, and staff.
um and and not all students because we don't have their phone numbers, but um certainly to our community. So, we did try all that out this goound while still doing our Remind notification, which has been our main form of communicating up till now. Remind was bought out by a new
parent company and we are going to move away from Remind at the end of this year. It's just not something we want to continue with and we were very happy to see that our new website does provide that for us. So we are reducing platforms but expanding communication
off opportunities for our district. So we'll use both the remainder of this year but then after this year we will we will stop with our paid accounts. Remind um I do believe also if I'm understanding it correctly from the account managers will no longer be in
operation. It has been bought by a company called parent square. So the whole platform itself, you may if you use Remind for other purposes, you may see that change coming as well. Um, okay. So if you happen to not get the
message, then I would strongly encourage you check your Genesis parent portal, check your contact information, and if you need to make any changes to your contact information and need help doing that, please contact your school's main office. and each main office is ready
and able to support you in any updates or changes you need to make to your contact information. Okay. We also sent out a notification, I believe it went out today, on um the new law regarding ebikes and the changes to
some of the um allowable uses of ebikes and the age restrictions and licensing. So, uh, the Ocean Township Police Department put something out last week and they asked us to coordinate with them to put it out again, which we did do. That came um this morning. So,
hopefully parents, you've had a chance or if you haven't yet, please, please take some time to review that letter that I sent regarding the changes to the ebike law. And just a couple other uh upcoming events. One thing, we did have our high
school exam schedule adjusted slightly because of the weather. Uh exams will now run through from today through Thursday. And then upcoming this week, we have our Wayside School Glow Dance on January 28th at 6 PM. We have our
Wayside PTA meeting February 2nd at 7 p.m. Next week is school counseling week, February 2nd through the 6th. We have our fifth grade conferences next week as well. They are early dismissal days February 3rd through the 6th and
our evening conferences are on February 5th next week. Ocean Township High School is having their share the keys presentation on February 4th at 6:30. OTES PTA meeting February 4th, 700 p.m.
in person and virtual for that one. want to massa PTA same night February 4th at 7 PM Ocean Township High School Spartan band I'm sorry Spartan parent meeting is February 5th at 6:30 the band parent meeting is the same night at 700 p.m. So
you can get to both if you need to booster club meeting is February 5th at 700 p.m. Then the OTES special someone dance is February 6th at 6:30. And the high school sophomore lockin is also
February 6th at 6:30. So, lots of events happening next week. We're back at it here in the home of the Spartans. A lot of great things going on. Please come out and support our students or come to some of our parent meetings. Okay. So, uh in addition to my updates,
I have a report this evening. Uh every twice a year superintendent are um required to present the student safety data information to the board of education. So, um I don't know if we can display that and
attach. No. Okay. It's um it's attached underneath my report um student safety data and it is for the months of September 2025 through December 31st 2025.
And the reporting categories are the number of HIP investigations that we initiate. of those, how many are confirmed TIBS, the number of violence incidents, the number of vandalism incidents, the number of weapons offenses, and the
number of substance offenses. So, I'm just going to go school by school and read that to you. At OTHS, we had one HIV investigation initiated and zero confirmed HIVs. We had eight incidents of violence, zero vandalism, zero
weapons, and four instances of substance offenses. At the intermediate school, we had four HIB investigations initiated. Two of those were confirmed HIVs. We had two incidents of violence, zero
vandalism, one weapons offense, and zero substance offenses. At OTES, we had one HIB investigation opened and one confirmed HIB, zero in all other categories. At Wanomaster
School, we had zero in all categories. And at Wayside School, we had one HIB investigation opened, none were confirmed, and zero in all other categories. Okay. uh for a district total of seven
HIP investigations initiated, three confirmed, 10 instances of violence, one weapons offense, and four substance offenses. Okay, the next page of this report gets into more detail about the HIV
investigations. And just again, we had seven HI investigations. Three were confirmed HIPS. Of those three confirmed HIPS, the nature of the incidents were two regarding race and color, one regarding religion, one regarding sexual
orientation, and one regarding another distinguishing characteristic. And the mode of the HIP incidents were one written and two verbal. All of these actions where warranted resulted in disciplinary
interventions and counseling for all participants. Okay. And that is the report for the first half of this school year. >> Questions? Anyone? >> That concludes my report.
>> Just a clarification. That's for the first part of the school year, but that's not quite half, right? >> Correct. It's September 1st to December 31st. Half would be incl to include January, but it doesn't. >> Right. So, the next report >> will be a little bit more than half. >> Right. Okay. School business
administrator's report. >> Thank you, Mr. President. Um, also like to take this opportunity to thank Mr. Sosa and his team who worked tirelessly over the weekend, Sunday, Monday and again ending very early this morning clearing snow and ice which was quite
the effort given the type of storm we had over the weekend. Um so thanks to him for getting things ready so that our students and staff could get in this morning to welcoming buildings and warm buildings and get there safely. Um, I
also want to note that u a week and a half ago uh we had a meeting the superintendent and I with our county superintendent and business administrator and their staff. Uh they conducted their annual midyear budget review uh with the district. Um that's a
review of our financial position, our compliance with certain standards and regulations uh that are in place and they also talked to us about uh any future new programs or initiatives that we might be looking for going forward. uh spent um an hour with them going
through these different measures and and the questionnaire that they provide and receive, I think, very positive feedback from them and um um encouragement to keep moving the district forward and and um some some nice comments regarding the
direction of the district and the um leadership of the superintendent. So, uh that was great and and uh we really appreciate the feedback that we got. Um, and that's my report. Thank you for your report. >> May I ask a question? >> Yes. >> Um, do we still um do shared services
with the town for any of our plowing and all that or is it all us now? >> Uh, I believe they help us with some of the lots. I just wanted to thank um the families of all of our maintenance workers as well because as as a usual and he wasn't this year because I was away, but um
Snow Widow myself, I do know what it's like to be the wife or the you know family children of the people who are out making sure everyone else is shoveled out. So, thank you to their families as well. >> Excellent point. Excellent point. Okay, we ready for we should we save any questions regarding the budget
presentation for uh financial management resource services section >> during the workshop I'll do an update on the uh >> the budget for 2027 and how it looks and and where we're going. We'll discuss that and and what the plan is over the next two months, three months.
>> Okay. Okay. >> Anyone else? Okay. Um, public participation board of education recognizes the value of public comment on educational issues, the importance of allowing members of the public to express themselves on school
matters of community interest. Public comment is not a question and answer session. Specific questions can be directed to the administration. The superintendent's contact information is on the deis. We we encourage you to contact her with any questions. Public
participation shall be governed by the following rules. Each statement made by a participant shall be limited to five minutes duration. Participant may speak more than once on the same topic until all others who wish to speak on that topic have been heard. Presiding officer
may request any person to leave the meeting when the person does not observe reasonable decorum. Would anyone from the public like to comment at this time? and my friend downstairs. >> Doesn't look like anyone.
>> Yeah, >> there are no comments. >> Do we have any commenters in the queue? >> No, we do not. >> Okay, guess that closes public comment.
Uh personnel, Mrs. McGovern, >> we're going to discuss downstairs. as well as minutes will be discussed soon. >> McCarthy financial management please. >> Any questions or comments regarding 911 to 910?
>> Yes. I just wanted to point out 9.8. What a wonderful idea for TOEA to supply backpacks for the summer for our ELA and and math title one students uh to close
any summer gaps. I think that was a a wonderful thing. So, thank you very much. TOEA, >> anyone else? We have a few grants on this evening of teachers and the supervisors and different groups TOEA who are are doing their part to try and bring other additional resources into
our district. So you will see that in their finance. >> I'd also like to note um item 9.4 uh you'll see just compliance with the increase in minimum wage. However, we do have an increase uh for these substitute
bus drivers uh to match that January 1 date that keeps us competitive with other uh districts that are looking for subs. Um and it had been tied in previously under the um former contract. We did separate that out. Uh however, we
did not give an increase at that time. This just reflects an increase for that group of of drivers. I'd also like to note in 9.5 the board had asked us to look at the um meeting agenda the meeting calendar. Uh we did submit for
your approval this this evening. Uh the combination of the January 5th 2027 organization the workshop meeting. So we'll have two meetings in January of next year instead of three. Uh and we did eliminate the workshops on June 2nd
and July 14th. So, one meeting in June and July later this year. >> Uh, with that, if no other questions, I'd just like to take some time to talk about our 2027 budget. Um,
if you put up a couple slides or the slide deck, at least we can go through those. Thank you. Uh, this is a slide I've had for for quite a number of years and Miss Welden is really enthusiastic about it, so I keep it on here for her benefit. Um,
often times we're questioned about where where this the district's funding comes from. >> I should at least be right about this. Just saying. red and blue but point taken although red in
financial terms might mean >> um anyway so uh our our funding comes from three sources basically uh the local tax levy which is the majority of our revenue uh we get a portion of state aid and then there is carryover from
budget cycle to budget cycle budget year to budget year uh in terms of savings or unspent funds that move forward into the next year's budget. Uh and those comprise our operating budget going forward. There are a number of budget challenges
facing us. Some of these you may recognize from last year, but they continue to be challenges for the 2027 budget. Um we uh I attended a county meeting for the business administrators uh with the uh county business administrator and the county
superintendent and they started to give some guidance in terms of how we should look at the budget going forward. Uh typically we would budget 85% of grants uh from the prior year's allocation. Uh but again this year uh they've asked us
to only budget 75% of our current allocation. So that's a change. Uh we've been advised about a 30% increase in our health care costs. Um so >> this budget >> I'm sorry >> and that's January December like the
budget we're currently >> right so I put January to December because the health plans run during that fiscal time period which is not what we run. So we're always paying half a year of the current and half a year of an estimated. Uh so we had a a significant
increase last year. We have a significant increase this year that goes into next year for the first half of next year. And we've been told yet again there's going to be another significant increase and I'll get into those at the next slide. Um you may have heard a bit about commodity costs and the cost of
electricity and natural gas in the state. Um the supply and the buildout of our capacity uh has not met the need with all the data centers and the AI centers going up. It's uh creating a
large demand on electricity. Uh was at a meeting recently and they talked about the restart of a portion of three mile island uh which sounded like that would produce lots of electricity and they follow that up with the entire generation of that restart is going to
be used um uh for a AI datab bank. So that will not reach uh the U or I or the the general public. Um, we have out of district placement costs and and again the district has has actually reduced the number of out of district placements
from 46 to 43 this year. However, the tuition and transportation costs uh continued to increase uh and the uh consumer price index or inflation is up almost 3% over the past 12 months.
Um, so I want to put this graph up to talk about our health benefits plan. Uh, so the blue bar is our health benefits. The orange bar is our prescription uh cost,
the blue line is the combined amount, and the red is a trend line showing uh what that's looked like over the past several years. So, as you can see, over the past two or three years, it's increased sharply and it's anticipated
to continue to increase. Um, for 2425 school year, uh, the cost to the district was approximately 16.7 million. In 2526, we're looking at 19.8. The estimate for next year is 26.5
million. And the estimate for 2728 is 35 million. So we've seen significant increases over the past um several years uh in these costs in the premium costs. Um they're driven by several different
um issues. Uh you may have seen uh over the past year, year and a half uh that Horizon has been negotiating with their healthcare providers. So we've been receiving notifications as that time has gone on that, you know, they've worked with this hospital group and that
hospital group and are in the cycle of renewing these contracts that they have and increases are being absorbed during the negotiations of those uh new agreements. Um the district is in the school employees health benefits plan
part of the state health benefits plan. um districts uh and municipalities have been leaving those plans. In the school employee health benefits plan, uh in July of 22, out of 683 districts, 350
participated in that plan, which is roughly half of the districts. uh as of this month that number has gone down from 350 out of 683 to 170 of 683 or a
quarter 25%. Um what that means is districts with good experience. In other words, they paying a little bit more in premiums than they're actually using in in pre in benefits costs are leaving the system.
So it's called a spiral uh in terms of of the plan and and what's happening in the plan in that districts that can leave are leaving the plan which leaves districts that use the plan and the plan benefits more often which are more costly which then drives up the cost to
be spread across the remaining districts. As you can see the number of districts has dropped uh you know in half. Uh so that cost again is now spread over a smaller number of districts. Uh so it seems to be spiraling down um in terms of of um
anybody paying in who's helping offset the costs of other districts. Um the district has u looked at our experience. In other words, how often we use the plan as relates to the premiums that we
pay in. uh we pulled our experience uh in August of 2024 and our experience was 103% meaning uh we used 3% more than we were actually paying in. So it theoretically cost the state more than
we actually paid in in premiums. Um, we've applied again uh for our experience uh and are working with the broker to see what we can do and if we can market our plan outside of the state system and see what's available to us.
Uh we did talk to uh other districts who have recently made that change and who had similar experience uh to us and while they didn't um get a decrease in the premium, they did see a decrease in the forecasted uh increases. So instead
of the 20 and 30 and 30% increases that we've seen in the state plan, they're looking at numbers less than that 10% 15%. So it's not necessarily a savings in terms of the premium itself, but a savings in the
increases over time. Uh we saw that when we went out and marketed our dental plan. Uh we were with Delta Dental. Delta Dental uh was looking at 15 to 20% increase over the next two years for us
for each year. Uh so 15% this year into next and another 15 to 20 the next year. uh we went out and marketed that plan and while we didn't again see a decrease in the premium the increases were locked
in uh for two years at 4%. So again that helps us in terms of not having to add significant monies to the current premium. Um, we do want to acknowledge uh that of the total premiums that the district is
paying um that employees uh do make contributions to the plans. Uh for our district, approximately 75% are in the educators plan. Um which is great. It's a great plan. Uh however uh one of the
downsides for the district is the contributions when you're in the educator's plan are based on your salary. So you pay a percentage of your salary towards your benefits. In prior plans and those direct plans that uh less and less people are in and the
state keeps increasing significantly. Those increases were based on percentage premium. So employers would pay based on the premium cost um rather than the um salary. So while we do receive contributions, the contributions rece
received from staff are not increasing at the same rate as the premium costs are increasing. So um again uh this is putting a significant stress on the district. I think um you've heard probably in some of the workshops you've
attended, the conferences that we've attended that health benefits are big topic uh that needs to be addressed. Um uh so again, this is something that the district has to deal with. This is something we're going to try and market
to other providers so that we can perhaps get out of this plan. Uh but it does uh again look that over the past or over three years last year, this year and next year we'll basically be
doubling uh premium costs for our plans. Next slide. We want to look at our operating budget. The operating budget for 2026 is about $88.5 million. So that's what we're operating for uh with this year.
That doesn't include our grants. That's just strictly our operating budget. Um and if we look at additional revenue sources that we can raise for 2027, uh we have our tax levy uh which is capped at 2%. So, if we raised our tax
levy 2%, we'd raise about a million and a half dollars. There's uh the opportunity for what's called banked cap. Banked cap would mean that in the past three years, the district didn't take the full 2%. So, that difference between what a district
may have taken and 2% then rolls forward as as an option for the district to utilize in a in a given year. uh we've taken advantage of that bank cap over the past several years. So there is no bank cap moving forward for us to utilize.
The third waiver that's available to us is a healthc care waiver. So we talked about the significant increases in the costs of our our health care plans. Uh this the state does allow the district to take a waiver above that
2% uh to offset health care costs. So the state looks at the health care plan and allows for a 2% increase uh to be built in um and anything above that 2% then becomes eligible for the
district to pass forward. The uh increase was 31.9% in healthc care costs. So if you reduce that by the 2% that's uh built in that means uh we have 29.9%
available to us on our healthc care uh expenses uh to increase uh our revenues. Um so that is $4.7 million. And if you look there uh that's an estimate with the budget software just came out. The
budget software generates this number for us. uh we've put in uh all our our numbers and into that particular section so we get an idea of what this is. So that is an estimate but it's pretty close. Uh but what that means is you're looking at an additional 6% if we were
to take that full number. So, if the board were to allow us to take the full 4.7 million, it would be the 2% cap plus another 6.17 or an increase in the rate of approximately 8%.
So, uh that's something I want to bring up and and these are the waiverss that are available to us. It doesn't mean we necessarily take them. Uh but I will remind uh the board that uh in conversations with the county superintendent and the county business administrator as well as some
legislators uh when we talk to them about funding and and shortfalls that the district may have their first and usual responses. Did you take advantage of all the built-in waiverss that we've provided in
the law for you to take? So, um, they have not come forward with additional monies or free money, if you will, for us to use. The response has always been, but have you taken advantage of your bank cap? Have you taken the full 2%
that you're allowed to take or any other waiverss that we have? Um, so that's that's what's available to us. If we were to take all those funds, that would put our revenues for 2027 at $94.8 million.
So, we've talked over the past um several meetings about our 2027 budget and how the superintendent and and assistant superintendent and I have been meeting with our principles, with our administrators, supervisors, uh to go
over their requests for 2027. um they've completed that process, that initial process, and have come up with district-wide expenditures of $93 million. So, you can see we have our revenues there of 94.8, and our first
expense is $93 million. We've asked them to put together a list of capital requests, capital expenditures, and the uh total in uh capital expenditures was nine almost $9.4 million.
We've asked about personnel requests and again looking through the different stipen and positions that they'd like um additional IAS perhaps additional features and looking at an additional $480,000 and then uh technology expenditures
uh which again because a lot of technology isn't capital those are more like cameras and lower cost items uh that's about 45,000. We add the expenditures between the districtwide capital personnel and
technology looking at almost $103 million in initial requests which is a shortfall of $8 million. So that's our initial swipe, our initial um calculation in terms of what the
revenues can be and what um administration is asking for in terms of expenditures over the next month. next two months we'll be going through these requests. We'll be uh >> red buckets. We'll pick the red pens and
and marking through those. >> Is it is it on purpose? >> No. Want to be speared. >> Um again, this is just the initial picture of of all the revenues that we could raise and all the expenditures that are being requested. That does not
mean, for example, that of the $9.3 million in capital requests that we're going to grant all those requests. Some of those we'll look at. Um there's, for example, a four million almost $5 million request in there for the intermediate school to replace unit
ventilators in the fifth grade wing. That's 37 units that are of significant cost. They're older units. We've worked through the summer and in repairing them and and keeping them uh operational and functional and we're looking at options
in terms of not replacing all 37 at once, perhaps doing smaller portions or again in speaking to the architect and and our maintenance folks. you know, is that an expense we should uh consider for 2027 or can we push that and
continue to maintain those and have a good experience with those? Um, we've talked about the stadium, the football stadium at the high school, the turf field, for example. That field is ending uh reaching end of life. So, at some point, we're going to have to look at that and decide when we want to replace
that field. And that again is a $600,000 expense. You know, we've talked about resurfacing the track. uh again another three to $400,000 expenditure. So, you know, there are smaller and uh other expenditures built into this that we
want to address. Um but again, this is the overall picture of what's been requested. We wanted to put some of that on your radar. Uh so that you know, you can keep those in mind as as we move forward and as we try to shuffle this deck into what we want to do this year,
what we want to do next year, the following year, you know, what perhaps we could go out for grants. uh to get funding for or or we have to uh perhaps use capital reserve or maintenance reserves uh to address some of these
issues. U so again this is the initial uh initial 40,000 foot tracker of of where we are. Uh and you know, we'll continue to work through these things and present to you at the next u couple
meetings uh updates and and reductions to requests and a reduction of that gap in our budget. Next slide, please. And again on the timeline, uh the state has put out the calendar of of when
these things have to be approved. Uh the current adoption of the tenant tenative budget is March 19th. Uh we have a board meeting on March 10th and the adoption of the final budget is a window of April 24th to May 7th. We have a board meeting
scheduled for April 28th. Uh and again a recent update from the county has said that they anticipate the governor asking for an extension and her submission of the state budget and they anticipate that her submission and her uh
request for an extension there could adjust these dates slightly by a week or two. So they may change. Then I'd be happy to take any questions from the board. >> Questions? McCarthy, >> what decisions are you going to need from the board in terms of the healthc
care waiver? Because you had mentioned that we can go all the way up to six $6 million, 4.7%. Is that correct? >> Uh 4.76%. >> 4.76%. So what does what decision does this
body have to make in terms of supporting that? We have to decide if we're going to allow for the entire percentage or >> Well, there's an option available to the board. So, the board has the option to approve $4.7 million in a healthcare
waiver. Um again we saw significant increases in our healthcare costs uh going from you know uh 20 million to 26 million with an anticipation of 35 million further down the road. Um you know those
are not I mean those are just huge numbers to try and cover with the current budget. So again, we want to look at what we need to do go to what we need to do going forward. What capital projects do we need to invest funds in um and and
you know what the state is going to do going forward. You know, they continue to talk about the school funding reform act and then how that's maybe adjusted. Uh but I haven't heard and the county has advised us that there's been no guidance at all in terms of of of
changes to that plan. There is a meeting uh next week uh sponsored by school boards association where some legislators will talk about that and and I'll be on that call and as well as some of our board members. So we may get some guidance or some ideas there. Uh but
again um you know we're going to look collaboratively at what's been requested and what makes sense, what are the musthaves and what are the things that can wait and and what that impact is on the budget. And then from there uh you
know what does that mean in terms of the revenues and how we have to uh to meet that number. So if we can shrink that gap of eight million you know down perhaps we don't need the full 4.7 but I think the board needs to consider
consider that number and and what their feeling is in terms of accepting that kind of increase and and the impact on taxpayers and the community. So we'll have to come to a decision for that prior to you presenting your tenative budget on March
19th. Correct? >> Yes. >> Yes. So to your point, ultimately before that March 10th meeting, we need to present at that that evening what we hope would pass this board a
percentage increase that the board can support. So, we will be working to close the gap. >> Mr. W, I know this is a loaded question, so if you can't answer this right now, I totally understand. But I think that like for parents who could potentially
be listening or you hope are somewhat dialed into this, what does this look like in concrete terms for you to close that $80 million deficit to our district? >> Well, I think I think we have to I'll be able to answer that more specifically in the coming meetings. I
think there are some things that we can cut immediately. In other words, we we need the board to realize there's an HBAC project that needs to be done eventually, but as Mr. Hastings said, we can phase that in. So, that can already be a cut. So knowing that we have this
maintenance facilities issue and that we have a scaled plan to address it is important for everybody to know because obviously doing it and getting it done would would improve the the HBAC system over there. It's outdated. Um I think
that we can look at what do we have in maintenance reserve? What do we have in capital reserve to do some of these other projects that are allowable from those funds, right? So that would also close this down. Obviously, we're going to look at staffing very very closely.
In some cases, we need additional staff for certain new initiatives, but also we could probably reduce staff in certain areas. So we but we're right in that process of going through that. We don't want to, you know, we're hoping that as we've done over the last 10 years that
ultimately we're able to repurpose as many staff members as possible, but when you see a gap like this, it's unlikely, and I think this is a heart of your question, it's unlikely that you close this gap without personnel cuts.
>> In previous years, you've discussed that eventually reductions of programs shows up as well. >> They do. >> Are we facing that this year? We are not ready to say that. Okay, >> we are not ready to say that. >> What what is what is disheartening and I
think probably all educators across the state would say this is that when you look at numbers like this, program expansion is off the table and that is a hard reality to face. And we still try to be creative between grants
or other opportunities that present themselves at different times to get creative to do things differently so that we can continue to develop newer, more modern programming for our students. But ultimately, when you see numbers like this and a gap like this, you have to go into a cutting phase. And
when you're in a cutting phase, it's hard to be in a growing phase. Those two things don't, you know, don't both fit here. Um, but we still try to do that. We do still try to capitalize on opportunities, you know, to to bring in new programs
while also making cuts. And sometimes you're not going to be able to some years you're not going to be able to grow. We're going to have to make cuts and and tighten up budgets because as we just saw, we're talking about if we took everything that was available to us, it would be an 8.17 8.17%
increase to the taxes and we're still short and we still have a gap to close. So, if we don't take 8.1% the gap is bigger and and I realize that's a reality. It probably will be
bigger to close. So, we're working on that and we'll have more specifics in specific categories as we go through the next few meetings, but I think it was important for you to see the full overview because so you could understand that some of the really great
things that we'd love to add might not be on the table. >> Mr. Apologize to the board too because I'm asking a lot of questions here. Um, so $24 million from 21 from years calendar
year 21 to calendar year 27 is projected to be our healthcare increase. So I make sure I have that right. Is a $24 billion increase over seven years. >> I think it's a doubled in two years. >> Yeah. So if you want to talk about the
increases over the past two years, so last year, this year, and projected for next, you're looking at a doubling of the uh premium. >> So you had calendar year 21, we were at 10 11 million. Is that correct? >> Uh I started at 2425,
we were at 16 million. 16.7. Uh for 2627, the estimate is 26 million. >> Is a $10 million increase, right? And what are you projecting for 27 28? >> Brokers have told us to expect another 30% increase in premium costs to
>> put us up to 35. >> So we go from 16 to 35. So almost $20 million increase >> in two years. >> Two fiscal years. >> In two fiscal years to a $19 million increase in two fiscal years. >> But but I think I heard you correctly.
There's an opportunity to shop the plan at some point. >> Right. So the first step is to um ask the state for our experience. So in other words, how you know they look at the premium you paid uh into the plan
versus the costs of the district out of the plan and they come up with a percentage. So less than 100% is viewed as more favorable. Over 100% is less favorable. So we were at 103% about a year and a half ago. >> Okay.
>> Yes. So if we did the healthcare waiver, let's just say we did the 4.76 or whatever it was and then we shop a plan and we and that came down, would that waiver, what would happen in that waiver situation?
>> Well, I don't know. So look at next year >> where you wouldn't necessarily have to take that waiver or take a waiver >> the second year of doubling. >> Okay. perhaps we could talk about in next year's budget >> and but this year's it's happened. This
is actual >> and the um and shopping that plan since the plan would be the same as what it is doesn't affect the negotiations process in the contract because it's the same stuff, >> right? So typically the uh equal or better. >> Okay, just like we just did with dental,
right? It was equal or better but better increases, less increases, >> right? So a 4% increase over two years versus Right. 15 to 20 each year. >> So the state health benefit plan people
are fleeing from, you're explaining that correctly. More and more districts are leaving it. Is there any indication that the state plans to do anything about this? If they're seeing that their benefit plan is not being utilized by more than half of the districts, are
they planning on doing anything? And perhaps that's one of the questions that we need to ask next Tuesday is how they're addressing this. >> Well, I I think districts have gone in and out of the plan over the years. I happen to
I'm retired now, but I worked in a district that a number of years ago did come out of state health benefits, but their experience rate in the private in their own plan ended up outpacing the state plan. So then they're back in the state plan. So
I it it depends on each district's situation. Am I right there? >> Yeah. So several years ago, we left Horizon Dental because we got better rates from Delta. We were in Delta, my understanding,
maybe three, four years. And now we've gotten to the point where Delta's increases are significant. So, we're going back to Horizon who had wanted us to come back to their plan to get us back. They've offered us a two-year locked in low rate. So, so
>> again, the ability to move back and forth between plans helps us. However, it's very unsettling and you know, >> it is unsettling. But if Horizon's, you know, tried to woo you back with a better deal, if we shopped, you know, if we left the state health benefit and
shopped around and they're seeing everybody leaving, they might make adjustments. >> I don't know. >> So, I think the state is aware of structural problems with their plan. They understand that they may have been underfunded or
charging what what should have been charged in prior years to make the plan soluble. But again, it's something that they're looking at and trying to come up with ways to to correct. I don't know that
anybody has the exact answer on how to fix that. >> Thank you. Any other questions on finance? Okay, thank you. Instruction, education, student activities, Mr. Brady.
>> So, up discussion 1021, 10.6. I guess any discussion on 10.6. >> I have a question, >> Mrs. Gilman. >> Thank you. Uh 10.2 2 is a new course
preapp algebra 2 that requires TI 84 calculators. Uh are we supplying them to the students? >> We do provide them. >> If they need if they need them. >> Okay, that's my question. Thank you. >> And the strength and conditioning class
sounds pretty good. >> I just wanted to say that I I appreciate that. coming in. I know that they've some students have asked for something similar to that for a while and we kind of piloted it this year and there's been a lot of growth in it seems. So, it's
exciting that as you said, that's kind of what I was thinking is is >> it's replacing a PE section. Correct. So, it's so we're being able to grow the PE program without cutting, you know, without cutting a program, you're able to grow it in a different way. And I
thought it was very innovative of how you're doing it. And um I know that um I think it'll be a hit. >> Any other questions? >> Any old business? Any new business?
Motion to adjourn.