notice to the meeting to be held by the township ocean Board of Education on Tuesday February 11th 2025 at 6:30 p.m. has been provided in accordance with the requirements of chapter 231 public laws 1975 the meeting will come to order Mr
asting would you please take the role Mr Dalton here M Dam here Mrs Gilman here Mr McGovern oh she's here she just ran outside um Mr Schneider Miss Stevens present Mr T Rico
here M McCarthy here president support can we um Allegiance oh thank you what let's go the this time 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 get another R you know wrong but I am right we usually only do okay all the uh the president's report
so most of the town is aware of this but to make it publicly known at this session uh Mr Weinstein was offered the opportunity to become a member of the council this past uh about a week ago he accepted and was sworn in on February
3rd um with that you know he will be very much missed and and we wish him well and personally I do know that I have uh been honored to have served with him on this board and I think he's done a lot for us I look forward to the great things that he will do for us for the town um that being said this past
weekend many of us had the honor to watch one of our Spartans uh take snaps in the Super Bowl and uh and it was absolutely wonderful thing to see a Spartan who performed in the highest level of competition in the highest level of a sport in his given field it
was an absolutely wonderful thing to see Kenny picket do that and we have a wonderful history in this District of top performers in More Than Just Sports uh this past year we had the opportunity to induct into our Hall of Fame Charles
malikowski I hope that don't pronounce that name right but he is uh a co-founder of Nvidia uh weend did Caroline Fox Elkins who was a pzer prize winning author who did great work on uh things happening in Kenya that that won her the P surprise we have a proud
tradition of excellence in this district and they say that it takes a village to raise a child right and it takes a lot of people to be involved in the creation of these top performers in our district much of that has to do with our staff and with our Administration but behind
the curtain is this board right and so what I would like like to say to the public is we now have a vacancy here and we are asking for the best possible candidates in this town to submit a letter of interest and their resumees to
potentially be a part of the creation of Spartans and that is a great honor to be bestowed upon people and a great opportunity for you to serve and what I would also say to someone listening to this who does not think that they have the capability to do that you likely in your mind can think of someone who does
and I would argue that many of us on this board were asked to serve in this capacity so if you do not think that you are of the capability of doing this kind of thing I ask that you reach out to someone in this District who you think is anyone who would like to find
information about this it has been posted on our district website uh there's actually a wonderful popup that we have right when you get onto the website that says click here it's very difficult to miss but if you're one of those people who just that doesn't work for them you can contact our Administration they're more than happy
to help you to find out what is necessary to submit interest on becoming a member of the Board of Education and what the requirements are and what it will entail so I do ask very earnestly that that anyone in this town who is thinking about this that they take the
time to throw their hat in the ring and to be of consideration and that they also consider someone who they admire to potentially ask them to serve in this District I can speak very candidly that it is a massively rewarding thing to contribute to our Spartan Mission and to
create Future Spartans that will that will leave behind an awesome Legacy well said John thank you very well that is all that I have for my president's report um I will move on to superintendent's report thank you Mr McCarthy okay I do want to just give uh
the board and the public a few updates we have our preschool Lottery and preschool applications are ongoing as we speak we opened up our application system on February 3rd so we are looking for all new preschool students in our community any student who's going to be
three years old next school year is eligible to apply for our preschool Lottery the lottery applications are due by February 21st at 12 noon 12 noon that day and on March 3rd at 10:00 a.m We
will host our Lottery you can join us here in this room uh if you'd like to be in person and or if you have if you apply and want to watch virtually we will send you a zoom link to participate virtually so we are still hoping that we
don't need a lottery but um at the rate of applications it looks like we we may need a need a lottery again this year so just wanted to remind everybody about those deadlines and that that's happening also a couple upcoming events for us to on Thursday night we have uh
the Tois winter social for grades 6 through 8 on Friday February 14 school is closed for students our staff will be here for professional development day and this district is closed on Monday the 17th in recognition of President's
day and then um we have our one aasa spring pictures are coming up and our OES Book Fairs coming up as well later in the month so I just wanted to make everyone aware of those important events and that concludes my report thank you Mrs W School business
administrator report thank you Mr President um each year the district is uh required to have a independent audit uh completed of our financial uh books um that's completed annually it's our annual
comprehensive financial report that has been completed this year for the year ending June 30th 2024 uh we're also required to present the audit to the board for the board to accept uh and here to um present that to
the board is uh partner from will cots and Company a firm that's been auditing the district for several years now uh so Mr Paul Kua is here uh he spent time over the last several months with his team going through our books and our records uh and um you know making sure
we're doing things right so he's here to present the audit ending June 30 24 to the board for acceptance which is mentioned uh under the financial section as a resolution good evening everyone good evening uh it's really a great pleasure this year
that we had got we had received the financial information for the pension in the medical a little earlier so we were on time with the order report this year they did extend the deadline till January but we had it by December the old deadline which was December 5th we had completed on timely manner and which
I was very happy about the state that is yeah the state provided not the district so I just want to start with us thanking Mr Hastings and Mr Cass and the rest of the staff for their assistance in conducting the order this year they were all very kind and helpful in preparing
the report uh everybody should have received by now two reports the first one is the annual comprehensive Finance report it's quite a long report it's 147 pages long and if you have time to go
over it it it probably would give you good insight into what the financial condition of the district is there's actually very confusing sometimes because there's three counting methods in this report there's a gap basis counting method this is one I call Super
gap which includes everything of of the finan of the district the pension Li liability the medical liability the uh fixed assets of the district all that's in there so um that is a little bit more confusing than the regular gaps basis
the one section that you should look at is the C1 section which shows on a budgetary basis the revenues and expenditure of the district and the fund balances the recapitulation of them at the end of the year um and if you had trouble sleeping tonight can just take
this to with you go through it the smaller report is the administrative management report on findings and recommendations of the district as far as uh from the audit accounting perspective there are three findings in here that I understand that that you'll
be going over tonight two is on internal control regarding payroll the other one is finding that is actually a good finding that you have excess money in the Food Service fund that you're actually required to lower every year in one in one way or another one way to do
would be lower fees the other way would do is to do Capital expenditures which I recommend you do that you improve the district's uh Food Service program so that that's all in this report here and drop something there um I don't know if you have any questions on these reports
the district is in good Financial condition I mean last year um we were in good shape and then we really pretty much wound up the same as we did last year as far as our exit Surplus number goes we're going to have the pretty much a little better maybe a $30,000 better
than prior year so that's that's good you want to keep your excess Surplus the same year in and year out because of the fact that if you drop then you're gonna have to raise tax to make it up excess for cut expenditures which you really don't want to do um the report my independent orders report is a clean
opinion is means that the financial status are in conformance with General accepted County principles uh was audited in conformance with General accepted auditing standards the ordering standards of of the US government and the state of New Jersey so the best opinion you can
get and uh that means everything's in good shape at this time I would like to open up the opportunity for any questions from the board regarding uh these findings one one thing I would just like to ask as little privilege of the chair
findings one and two uh in page three of uh AMR 2024 those have both been responded to and we are we already have processes in place to yes deal with a supervisory signature needed on certain things and
and so Mr Kuba can correct me but findings one and two findings one finding one is a signature on a payroll report uh it was not being done in the past we implemented a process to do it this past year but we need to tighten
that up a little bit further yet uh the second finding was uh on the payout of vacation pay and a signature there as well by myself or the assistant ba to show supervisory oversight the third finding that Mr Kua uh mentioned on the
cafeteria um I believe the comment says it's not a finding because there's a plan in place uh and that's the cash balance that's being maintained and the uh unit lunch that we're talking about for next year is where we're going to spend those funds uh for new equipment
new uh cafeteria tables chairs those sorts of things so that we can feed everybody during the same period so yes all those issues have been addressed wonderful any comment from you Mr G that all right wonderful any other questions
from the board regarding the financial audits the accountant in the group good you're good okay wonderful good well hearing nothing Mr C thank you sir we appreciate your time thank you for taking the time to put all this together and for getting it all prepared for us
and being with us on this snowy evening thank you for the opportunity of doing performing work for district Absolut appreciate sir okay everybody have a great night stay safe hold on going down this and if you don't like them you can go up this way and down out the other
stairs that are a little bit less all right do a good job of rock salting these I would say at this point the meeting we will now conduct the first of two public comment sessions the first session will be open for public comments on agenda items only the second session
at the end of the meeting can be on any topic Board of Education bylaw 0167 public participation in board meetings the board 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 the superintendent's contact information is on the podium we encourage you to contact her with any specific questions you may have public participation will be governed by the following rules each statement made by a participant shall be
limited to five minutes in duration no participant may speak more than once on the same topic until all all others who wish to speak on that topic have been heard the residing officer May request any person to leave the meeting when that person does not observe reasonable decorum would anyone from the public
like to comment on any agenda item at this time hi Alex Hayes from Oakhurst um thank you I thought we were having the reading presentation um so if we are not how is that um articulated or
communicated to the public because I was under the assumption from the agenda that was on line that there was this big grandiose reading presentation but since they're silence and you can't even answer that question I'm going to assume we're not having a reading presentation okay wonder when
it's going to be um there's also no budget printouts do we not print out anything when it's a reading I mean a work session or um only when it's a monthly meeting because I walk in and there's only the
agenda so that's rather interesting um I have a couple of things here that I kind of raced here after work thinking there was this big reading presentation that people would actually get a chance to ask questions and get answers to so I feel a little bit um behind here um I also thought because there was a
presentation with the audit you know I thought we were allowed to ask questions when there's presentations but is it only certain presentations like only when you guys deem a presentation Worthy is that when we're allowed to ask questions or is it any presentation because I had some questions about the audit but I guess I
can um email that to Mr Hastings um uh a couple other things um on the agenda I think it's in the meeting minutes so that's why I feel I can bring it up um you guys voted on the attorney
at the last um meeting here I'm just curious why the attorney new attorney is only um for five months I'm wondering why you only hired an attorney for five months and didn't just do it for the year I understand Mr lesser's um Taylor's previous
appointment was like from July to July so I get that but you're going to have to re redo this again in July so this doesn't make sense also curious why four people recuse themselves from the attorney um vote that's a question that's not just a statement I guess why
did people recuse themselves um once in a while like a lot of people don't remember that uh or don't know that before I got on the board I did apply for that like half session or half seat that's what's open right now and
with Mr Weinstein leaving um for Council and I do remember being in that um meeting being interviewed by members of this board some of whom are still here and I'll never forget the question that one person asked me since you brought up you know Mr Weinstein so
that's why I feel like I could bring it up now um I'll never forget that one question one of you folks here asked me because I was a stay-at-home mom for four years going back to the workforce and one of you asked quote are you g to have enough time are you going to be able to handle the time constraints of being on the school
board and I besides that being a little sexist to me I thought that that was a fascinating question to ask for somebody who is offering up their services you know to join the school board this was like when my kid was not even a kindergart so um you know I'm asking
when you ask for applicants today in your opening statement I'm wondering if you're GNA ask people that exact same question are do people have the time to do this um but I also think you should maybe ask if people are doing this for
the reasons of to be here for the kids or if they want a stepping stone for another larger public office a year and a half ago as you all know you know there's a big contentious um issue with who won three votes Jeff didn't win then
he got back on um he wanted so bad to be here to be sitting amongst you guys that he fought for and caught this cost this District a little bit of money um but he was applying at the exact same time for the council at the same time he was
fighting to be in your seat so you know maybe whoever applies maybe it'll be for the right reasons and for somebody who wants to sit here for a while and to do some things for kids um that's about it right now I'll
wait till the second uh public comment thanks thank you Mrs Hayes Mrs Conway do we have any commenters in the queue no Mr President there are no commenters thank you so much moving on to the approval of minutes Mr Doan thank
you Mr President I move I I ask that we move items 71 and 72 the minutes from January 28th second thank you sir Hastings thank you this is approval for 71 and 72 Mr doton yes Mrs Dam yes Mrs
Gilman yes Mr McGovern yes Miss Stevens yes m t Rico M stain Mr McCarthy yes motions carry Personnel Mr MCG um I move to approve items 8.1 through 8.9 may I have a second second
Mr H thingss this is all items 8.1 through 8.9 Mr Dalton yes Mrs Dam yes Mrs Gilman yes Mrs mcgoverin yes Miss Stevens yes T
Rico yes Mr McCarthy yes motions carry financial management and Resource Services Mr Doan would you please take that yes I'd like to move items 9.1 through 9.6 9.7 open uh for discussion I'll second 91 to
96 Mr would you take a vote on 91 96 please yes sir uh Mr Dalton yes Mrs Dan yes Mrs Gilman yes Mrs McGovern um yes Miss Stevens yes Mr T
Rico yes Mr McCarthy yes motions carrying 9.7 up for discussion uh so I would like to give an opportunity Mr Hastings do you have any comments ahead of any discussion thank you uh we have a couple slides just toh go through um so as you know
the uh 2026 budget is upon us um so I'd like to uh provide a little refresher on the uh State funding process and then give you an idea of where we are uh so uh this Conway if you go to the next
bucket pleas next slide please um yes the next slide with buckets um so as a reminder the funding of the district comes from three basic uh components one is state aid so that's Aid provided by the state of New Jersey and over the
past uh years that's uh been anywhere from 8 to 10% of our budget uh we have the local Levy which is taxes uh so that's another source of of revenue for the district and then the third and sort of final uh bucket here is District
savings or operational efficiencies so uh as Mr Kua mentioned and as we do in June typically we set aside some resolutions to put money into our capital reserve into our maintenance res reserve and those are funds that we can carry forward uh and accumulate over
time to use as a resource for funding uh larger projects next slide please in terms of our state aid um the state is using the uh school funding
Reform Act or sfra as you may have heard uh what the state does is that they look at a model K through five school they staff that school based on a fixed number of students uh and uh come up
with a base cost per student for 2025 That Base cost per student was $3,946 when they go to middle school and high school they look at that same model uh but they wait those numbers uh by 410
of up by 4% and by 16% so uh the theory being it costs a little bit more to do a middle schooler than a ele student and again a little bit uh more in terms of funds going into the high school uh as well as looking at the regular
education and the base cost uh for the student population the state also looks at uh some subgroups we look at our special education students are atrisk population are multilingual Learners and then there's also a geographic cost adjustment so the state looks at those
various factors as well and adds waiting to those categories based on the number of students we have in each of those and adds additional funding uh for those uh particular um uh
sections next slide please so Administration has been meeting over the past several months as I've noted in the past uh we've met with the principes and supervisors and other groups uh to talk about the 2026 budget
we've looked at our 2025 budget and ask them to examine those costs examine those uh budget lines uh and see what it is we're going to do moving forward so are we going to look at programs and continue them or are we going to look at programs and make a decision that
they're not successful or not successful enough and reallocate the funds from those programs to something new to address potential or specific needs um we had several one-on-one meetings uh with principles and uh appropriate
supervisors uh for the high school the middle school and the three elementaries um to go through their budgets to look at their programs to look at their staffing needs to look at their Capital requests uh to look at their technology requests and we've asked them to then input those numbers
into a budget built system that we utilize uh to come up with our draft budget um some of the challenges facing the district this year and all districts in New Jersey is one a 15 to 20% increase in our health care costs so
we're in the state health program um and the direct plans uh which are some of the uh better plans are more expensive and the premiums for those plans are being increased by 15 to 20% so that portion of the staff that utilizes those programs will see an increased cost to
them in terms of the employee paid portion and the district will like as well see an increase in our costs uh for those particular programs uh was at a meeting Friday uh and there was a presentation on uh Commodities and electric uh Natural Gas
Utilities and they're uh indicating to us that we should expect a 20 to 30% increase in our utility costs so over the past several years uh New Jersey which is in the pjm um uh power grid
which Pennsylvania uh Jersey and Maryland has seen the closure or decommissioning of several coal fired and natural gas plants uh which is decreasing capacity uh and at the same time we've seen a boom in data farms and
and AI which uh uh was sort of new to me in terms of thinking of how much electricity they use but they use a significant amount of electricity to power those particular um uh resour our ources uh so again as of June of 2025
the state has already passed through the BPU an increase that will affect not only residents but also uh commercial accounts as well so we had to increase our estimated costs uh for utilities as always we look at our out
of out of District placements and the costs associated with those and it's not just tuition but it's also Transportation costs as well um if you look at inflation or the consumer prices index the Northeast region year-over year is up 3 and a half% uh and additionally uh at the same
lovely meeting uh we were told that uh there's going to be reduction in Federal grant funding uh so um where we are always looking at um trimming those back a little bit in terms of how we estimate what funds will be available to us
through Essa or through idea uh we've been instructed to trim that back even more so uh there's several large items here that are challenges for us uh and are putting us um up against it in terms of of uh meeting those demands and those
increased costs uh over the face of the budget next slide please thank you so if we look at 2025 which is our current you current year uh our current revenues are 85 .9 million and as it
should be our expenses are 85.9 um if we look at 2026 and if we increase the local tax levy by the cap of 2% that would put our revenues at 87 basically 87 a. half
million if we look at the budget bill that was completed over the past months uh that I've mentioned earlier our district expenditures are $90 million the cost of capital expenses uh Capital Improvements for the district uh a
million dollars we're looking at a request for about $370,000 in Personnel costs and another $47,000 in technology expenses so that puts our expenditures at 91.7 million or
a deficit for the District of $4.3 million um if we look at additional waiver they're available to the district so districts in New Jersey can only increase their tax levy by 2% however there are some recognized waivers to
that that districts can utilize uh so one of those is a healthc care waiver so the district has available to it about a $450,000 healthc care waiver uh and we also have $200,000 of what's called Bank
cap or U $200,000 of of tax taxing ability that we haven't used in the past over the past three years uh that we can now utilize in this current budget so you can carry those for three years and then they fall off so that's sort of a rolling three-year figure that's
available to the district so if the board were to approve utilization of those funds we'd add back revenues of $653,000 which would put us at about a $3.6 million deficit now Administration is going to
go back uh over the course of the next several weeks and and reexamine our budget and see where uh we can make Cuts where we can make adjustments to programs um and maintain our academic Excellence um and and come back to the
board with with revised numbers uh and as you can see on our final slide um the state says the district must adopt its tentative budget uh by March 19th so we have a meeting on March 11th that's scheduled so we plan to present to the
board on March 11th the tenative budget the final budget the state says we have to prepare um and present to the public between April 24th and May 7th and again we have a board meeting scheduled for Tuesday the 29th of April and we'll plan
on doing our final presentation of the budget at that point and in between the adoption of the tenative and the um presentation of the final budget in April uh the budget does go out to the county office for the superintendent uh and County business administrator to
review and to have some input on our budget as well and to give us suggestions or corrections to make so that's sort of the state of where we are right now and uh be happy to take any questions from the board thank you Mr Hastings any questions from the board Mrs
Gilman well as the rep for New Jersey school boards Association I attended a meeting on February 4th with Senator gopal and about 90 other people on Zoom and I'm afraid much of what you've said is is correct Mr Hastings and that no
one is coming to help us and the aid that we've come to depend on from the federal government everything is in limbo everything is in question the school funding formula is still undergoing changes so um I leave it to you and to
our administrators to do the best they can to maintain our programs but things are looking pretty dire and we're going to have to depend on ourselves to make the changes that we're going to need govern H go ahead Mr as I would
just comment on that that uh the state requires school districts to adopt their tenative budget in March and their final budget at the end of April beginning of May however the state doesn't adopt their budget till the end of June so last year there was a lot of talk as we
went through and as most of us recall we had to come back and and represent the budget in June with some adjustments um so uh that time difference does create some uncertainty for us and and Senator Cal and some others have presented bills
uh that may make some adjustments to the budget but right now there's no certainty that any of those will will pass or go through that was Ben thank you yes uh m m MC sorry I recognized her first yeah um I just have a question
with the utilities um I know we're correct me if I'm wrong are we still in a Consortium with a bunch of other districts buying util didn't we do something to that effect of buying utilities kind of as a group yes and sorry so to that is sorry cut is the um
that kind of Hedges it a little bit correct doesn't it usually hedge it a little bit but does is that it can depending on when the contracts are struck and when they expire so uh the district participates through New Jersey school boards uh through the aces
program um that's a program where schools get together pull all their uh Power needs and natural gas needs and the uh uh school boards goes out through a third party and bids that commodity demand uh that's a great thing and it
creates great Efficiencies For Us in most cases however this year that contract is expiring so we're looking at a commodity increase uh that again may be slightly lower than will be in over the summer but uh um I believe the
commodity cost that we were paying was in the double digits uh in terms of less than $100 uh and we're looking now at between 250 and 275 as as a potential commodity cost so um you can see the
significant increase even though we're bidding it as a pool to group still better to do that the way we are yes and actually it's a requirement that we participate that unless we can prove to the state that doing it a different way would save the district money thank you
m talo thank you um I just want some clarification so this is proposing a 2% tax increase is that correct yes so that's the the maximum we're allowed to propose could you just remind me from last year what was the total tax
increase you remember I was trying to find it right um because I remember we came back twice right so I don't want to give you the wrong information so I'll give you the exact number tomorrow I can email that to you and to the rest of the board as well uh but um I believe last
year we took the 2% increase and we took the uh a portion of our healthc care waiver that pushed us into the mid tws and then the state came back in June and offered districts offered districts the
opportunity to increase their Levy by up to 99.9% before there was a calculation where you looked at what the state uh provided in state aid in 2021 I believe it was and what they were providing for 2025 and
that difference was also a cap so you could do 9.9 or that difference whichever was less so we took the lesser amount which was about another $1.1 million which in percentage wise would have been three
four I don't want to misquote or give you the wrong numberers so I'll get that for you or we could look back at that last year's presentation in June um and I believe it's probably on a presentation chart I do have one more question I I do believe it was roughly
3.5 to 3.8% um and I I do not believe that we were eligible for the larger amount I think that we took the maximum of what we were eligible for we originally had decided as a board that we were not interested in taking the maximum and
then finally at the last minute the board decided uh that we were interested in taking the maximum which which I believe was between 3.5 and 3.8% okay thank you um right well so you figured 10% would have been seven plus million
dollar uh we had about a 1.1 million available to us so that's the lesser amount I do have two more M go go ahead my one question is how much has shared services how much has that saved us over the past like say three years
if anything which I'm sure it has again I'm sure it has um the district receives revenue from the township for shared services for custodial um and we have the um our uh class three police officers in the district as well that we
save funds on and again I can get you the specific numbers U this week my last question um the amount of the decline in enrollment from last year this year you probably don't know off top
here you mean the number of students yeah that we've lost between last year and this year it's pretty status right now the expansion of of prek is offering us the opportunity to have flat or near flat enrollment so you could make the argument that enrollment is decreasing
uh year over-ear but if you look at the addition to our pre pre- School population what we've been able to add we've been able to offset that to a flat number which I think last year is why we had a we had a a delta in what we were supposed to lose from the S2
reallocation and what we actually did lose meaning that we lost less we still lost some but we lost less go ahead Miss T the amount would be comparable so the money we're getting for a preschool child would be
comparable to you know losing high school kids I don't believe there's a difference it's just number of students for enrollment right no but the money the preschool funding is for preschool right so a portion of that can be utilized for again sort of shared
services in a building where a principal is is serving you know prek-3 through uh four or or um you know custodial cost so a percentage can be absorbed because we're sort of sharing those costs
servicing prek and our regular educ uh regular grade kids um but it's not a one to one okay that that would be my point that the preschool is less money compared cost wise that we would
be getting in okay so we may still be losing money by the decline even though we're at the same enrollment I believe correct me if I'm wrong but our S2 reallocation uh our our callback is is
complete yes S2 is done S2 callback is complete so we have we have paid our call back completely to the state so we shouldn't see a uh yes we should be flat I think that's what you're asking so we should be flat at this point in terms of
but we're getting but but we don't know I I think you should answer this question about it's not the type the the money we're getting that we know we're getting well that's it we don't know what we're getting I want to be clear about that we don't know because we won't know until until the formula isett that's what they said so the governor
will give his budget address the 4th Tuesday of February okay and 48 hours I believe it is he's then required to allow this the uh Department of Education to release the state aid figures that's when we'll know what the exact funding is going to be I'm sorry
you said what date it's uh Governor gives his address the fourth Tuesday of February and the numbers are released 48 hours later or Thursday thank you any other questions for the bo Jamie I just had a quick question um regards to uh
Capital expenditures and Personnel I'm assuming these are like wish list items wants of you know principles or or other staff members that are yeah so part of what we're going to do over the next couple of days is go through those lists and look at them and see what costs are
are mandatory or must be done sure for safety Public Health those sorts of things and what are not so I figured but I wanted to double check thank you m McGovern I was just going to as a point of information the budget from last year the resolution
is on the July 16th work meeting 9.1 for it doesn't have the percentage but it does have the number the monetary amount any other questions from the board m m Skil the date that you gave of
Mr Hastings Senator gopal was hopeful well he was going to request that the governor push that date further back to give districts a little bit more time uh but it I'm not quite sure how that would work if they release the funding 48
hours after his budget address uh maybe he wants to give districts a little bit more time to formulate their budget but how can we formulate our budget if we don't know how much money we're getting it it seemed like a right so it was mentioned that with the change in governor and you know last years
typically they may um honor a request from the governor to postpone his his budget presentation unfortunately that courtesy does not extend to the deadlines that are applied to the school districts of course so that just means we have less time to less time to work
with the real numbers Mr one question for me the um uh the ma so so it's safe to assume that the maximum increase the board would be able to approve is um to to with if we were to add in the waiver and and the uh
um Bank cap do you only know the number do you know the percentage increase that would I believe that's about 2.8% 2.8% is what the board would have the opportunity to go up to um just so that everyone is aware of that so by law we will not be able to improve anything
above that um and it is my assumption that we will not receive a additional opportunity after uh this go around the way we did last year you're right good and that bank cap I remember last year is that something we would lose if
we didn't okay it's correct thank you and so just looking at the budget numbers that you give right now I know we don't know final and let's just say we got rid of all the the cap X and the Personnel right like we still have a large deficit yes
so we're going to have to work with that existing yeah existing programs will have to go as well okay thank you so that the board is aware if that is the case and I'm speaking solely as my opinion right even
though I'm the chair of this board I now have an opportunity to share my opinion if that is the case where you have a deficit that you need to increase and you're not going to receive any money that generally means that that is a cutting of programs or in certain cases
Personnel that is all that that can result in and for the the district again speaking my own personal opinion that is going to potentially mean an increase in the size of our classrooms and uh more difficult time for our teachers to give
the same level to our students that they they are already giving but knowing that we have an excellent staff in this District we know that they're going to try to their best to find a way to make more with less and that is a tough thing to do in a district when you are already
struggling so much with asking of uh your teachers which is a job that is not as popular as it once was and I say that not to scare people but I say that to set expectations for this town to understand what this will mean for the
future Mr Hastings I don't admire and M well I don't admire your job to try to find $3.6 million any other comments this might sound like a very silly thing to say but is there anything we can do or is writing letters or anything else that we
can do to because no one wants this right no one wants our district to go through this so I don't know you just always want to try to find a solution so just even as a citizen like what can we do about this more if we know right now this Dam so
that a great question I appreciate you asking that of the board I would like to say this as an opportunity just to State what the board has already done the board has written letters um previous boards have right they've written letters to their representation in Trenton we formed the legislatively aison committee mostly out of the need
to and and the foresight of seeing this coming uh as a district and to highlight the the flaws that we see in the S2 funding formula um which has has really plagued districts like us for a very long time so those actions have been taken any citizen of the public at any
time has a right to contact their legislature who who repres presents them and to explain to them that one of the things that they are not satisfied with is the funding that we are receiving in this town you know that these are discussions that can be brought up what will be pointed to to level set
expectations is that we are not the only town in this district and that there are towns in this District that are facing far worse Cuts right if we look at Red Bank and Long Branch and other close to us districts they are facing the same issues that does not soften the blow
personally it is my own opinion that I have one District to worry about right now all right and and I would rather see that we see an improvement in Ocean Township but unfortunately from what we are seeing and from what we are hearing as M Gilman eloquently put it no help is
coming I hate to hear that I'm sorry to say no I just would like to also add that these the federal grants being um you know ID and Essa that's a huge component to the the you know the The District budget um and that really being in limbo
and as Mr Hing said actually having to budget less than anticipated um when that's money already built in is problematic so um locally obviously we're doing as much as we can but even reaching out to um our our state senators in regards to that so
they can discuss it at the federal level very good point M Stevens thank you Mrs Gilman and Caitlyn we're continuing to meet with our or set up meetings with our assembly people uh commissioners uh to make our to plead our case if you
will uh we can always look for Grants and I know that Miss welden's team is uh Dr kalicia Morgan does that regularly and that's going to be what we come to rely on more and more are these grants so the problem with that is that it's a
one-time Grant so what do we do we hire a mental health professional and then the next year don't renew the contract but we're always going to be looking for ways to fund and as John said writing letters making phone calls locally to plead our case and you know I'm a local
Board of Ed member and this is how it's affecting our district any other comments or questions all right moving on uh instruction education Student Activities M Gilman yes move to approve items 10.1 to
10.4 second Mr Asing items 101 through 104 Mr Doon yes Mrs Dan yes Mrs Gilman yes but recuse from the New Jersey state wrestling uh field trip and the spring break baseball event
yes to all else thank you Miss mcgoveran yes Miss Stevens yes T Rico yes Mr McCarthy yes motions carry moving on to policy m
yes these are first readings of revised or new policies and regulations and uh so many of them were mandated uh our district is at the Forefront for things like uh student
smoking in that uh it's now been expanded to vaping and the contact of course the memorandum of agreement with our local law enforcement which we're already doing uh of these new policies enforce that uh so I think that we're
doing a great job of keeping up with these changes that are coming uh we already have our spectator code of conduct uh for events but the uh revised and mandated policies and regulations are there if there are any questions
about them during your readings of them so just as a point of procedure for 11.1 we'll have another reading of this which will'll also have an opportunity for questions should you have not had an opportunity to dive into them the way you desire and then we will vote do we have any questions about 11.1
11.2 11.2 our bylaw policy number 0164 conduct of board meeting at a previous meeting I brought up a the suggestion of changing our
agenda and I'd like to make a motion to revise or amend this particular policy so that our two public comment sessions become one public comment session to be held at the beginning of
the meeting on any topic rather than divided up between agenda items and anything uh giving the public the opportunity to give their comments sooner before we uh vote on our action items
and still maintaining the five minute uh time limit that we have and all of the parameters of what it takes to speak in public comment now I know that when we change a policy we have uh several readings so I'd like to make
that motion uh for this evening and then continue our discussion so we have a motion on the floor to amend our bylaw so that it remove correct me if I do not understand this that it removes the second public comment uh on any item and
that we then have a single public comment session on any item at the beginning of our meeting uh do I have a second to that motion second is heard from Miss Stevens so the motion has been brought forward an argument has been made by Miss Gilman I would like to ask if any member of the board would like to
argue against this bylaw please go ahead thank you so over the past I guess two three years we have limited um the public comment from unlimited time to only five minutes we've also limited
their questions to no answers where they have to um then contact our superintendent to get answers so that also has been limited and now we're cutting the two public comment sections down to one honestly to me it feels like we're violating the public and parents
from commenting and offering their suggestions and comments to what we're doing and I absolutely feel that no I will not go along with that thank you Mr Taro do we have any arguments in favor of the motion that is on the floor to
amend this current bylaw do we have any comments from anyone on the board about anything regarding the motion that is on the floor our policy currently reads um it's pretty vague in saying public session
will be uh awarded the to the uh discussion of of items it doesn't say how many public comment sessions it doesn't say how long that's up to each individual board to adjust uh just in speaking with uh fellow board members in
other districts some have uh three minute sessions some have a public comment of only one session so I don't think we're being out of line in saying that people don't have to wait until the
very end of a long meeting to express a comment uh some districts do not even have the kind of you can contact the superintendent they are asked to go through the chain of command if you have
a comment you contact your building principal and then you move to uh further up the line where we have offered the opportunity to go right to the Head of the Class if you have a comment if you have a question Miss Welden Mr Hastings have made themselves
available so I don't think we're being uh particularly out of line I think actually we're in line with many of our districts and our policy does State just that we for public comment does not specify one two or how long I I would
just like just like to ask so this is now open for any comment Pro waron go ahead Steen I just would like to add I mean it's already 8:00 at night and I feel as though it's discouraging for people to have to wait to make a a comment um versus being able to start at
the beginning of the meeting and comment on agenda and non-agenda items um you know we're going to be here pretty late and people have you families to take care of um and we certainly aren't getting a good turnout let's call you know let's who to our meetings whether they're virtual or whether they're in
person and perhaps if we got ahead of that um by allowing people to speak about items both uh topics ahead of time it would encourage more people to talk uh m t go ahead can I respond to that so then open up both for any
comment on any item or any comment do you know what I'm saying like it doesn't have to be just agenda items for the first one it could be on any item that the public wishes to speak about um that's how I feel any other comments on the motion on the floor M MCG I think
I'm um like I can see both sides I think that if we're GNA eliminate the second public comment that um the presentations which generally come before the first public
comment anyway but um I think that if there's presentations made we should make sure that we do take public comment on them if they happen after the public comment session so like if if we don't if we don't have a presentation on a SAT
scores until the fifth agenda item which generally we don't do but I'm just saying if we happen to not have one till then then I think there should be opportunity to maybe comment on that because it's a presentation and there's staff here that maybe you know not necessarily a presentation that's from Miss Welden or Mr Hastings but if
there's staff that's here that's not generally here you know that maybe there's a question that that person is um what is my word an experte in that we want it to come from them um then I think I would be more willing
to get rid of second public comment if we keep second I'm not in favor of having the first public comment be for everything and then the second public comment being for everything I think that if we keep two public comments then it stays I would be in it would stay the
way it is now but I don't know that I see I tend to agree with Jamie that when we have sometimes and there are times where we have a packed house right that isn't necessarily on something that is on the agenda um to have people wait till the end is not
necessarily conducive to a lot of people um and we may not get people that generally want to be here for that because they know they're going to have to wait till 8:30 or 9 o'clock at night you know depending on where you have kids and stuff so I guess that's my round my roundabout
opinion solution is to you know but like I said we normally have presentations before public comment anyway so they be done anyway just so just as a point of procedure for the board right this is a bylaw so if there is an amendment to this bylaw we will still need to have two readings the motion on the floor you
are approving whether or not you would like to uh remove the second public comment from the bylaw which will then go up for a first reading the change to this bylaw and a second reading which will then be voted and approved on I remember at our prior meeting when we talked about this I brought up the
idea of also as we start with a new attorney having that discussion and receiving some input advice what's happening in other places New Jersey school boards when I did look either format is acceptable um and I I always like to be clear because I've sat at the table in a variety of
formats you know it is public comment it's not a debate it's not a question and answer period it's for us to hear the public it's for us to consider so I'm listening to what Mrs McGovern is saying and this idea of with that presentation and things like that we have to be careful about the order of
how we have things so that if folks want to come on things they don't feel that they don't have the opportunity based on the order of the presentations and things like that so that's an an excellent point to consider um you know we do have five minutes many districts
are only three minutes you know so um you know and if you've ever prepared a speech that you have to give the public five minutes is feels like a really long time when the clock is going and you have to fill that time um but you know it can also feel very short if if you
have prepared something and and you're ready for that um so you know I I don't feel strongly one way or the other I can go with either um but I do think we need to be careful about those nights when we have a lot on the agenda that people
feel that they have that opportunity to comment on something to provide us with input to guide our decisions M Doo I just have one last thing to say may also be bad timing right now because we're putting out
there that we're looking for almost 3% possible tax increase and now we're going to further have the public comment and input down to one instead of two comments period so that's just my opinion do I have any other comments at
all from any member of the board so I will go ahead M Sor Miss welen just to your point and the presentations has often stated that if it's going to be a special presentation that the the public has to opportunity to make a comment and
again it's not a Q&A it's being able to make I have the document right here it's very clear so there it is it's it's clearly there already um before we go to the vote I will say that uh it is my opinion that I I would like to do everything in my
desire to drive our public uh to interact with our Administration and our staff right and so um I think that it should be known that if you have an issue with something going on in your school or anything like that we ask that you please bring that up first to the teacher that is involved and then to
their supervisor and then to the administrator who is responsible for that school and then if that is not giving the appropriate remediation you move up to our central office administration I'm a firm believer in that uh and I would like our parents to interact with our wonderful uh Administration and staff as much as
possible I think that most of most of our staff and administration welcome that um I like the idea that this streamlines our agenda uh and I do I do hear the comment of of limiting uh the Public's ability to to interact here but I do not believe that this limits their
ability to interact with our staff and with our Administration which is why I do believe that I will be voting in favor of this amendment to our bylaw Mr Gilman Mr Asing would you please take the role to amend uh policy 160 bylaw
164 uh as noted Mr doton um no Mrs Dam yes Mrs Gilman yes M McGovern yes with the with the piece I spoke about is that you would have to
make a motion to amend the PO the what has been proposed in the motion you can either vote in the affirmative in the negative or you can abstain from the vote sorry um okay
yes Miss Stevens yes Al Rico no M McCarthy yes motion carries thank you moving on to Old business do we have any old business from the board M mcgoverin um yes I would just like to um I know we spoke
you spoke a little bit about it in your report but I just would like to thank Mr Weinstein for his time here um I spent all of the years that he was here I was here so um I've seen a lot that Jeff has done with two feet in this building for the students of this District um I he
was very very um informative when it came to Tech questions very much so um when there was switches and things that we did over the years through budget to explain it in a way that somebody who's not tech savvy understood so I appreciated his time in
that I appreciated his time um when he was president I appreciate his caring nature um and you know while he while Mr WI clearly wanted to serve our town in a different capacity and in a different way I I think he will do great things
there and I also think that um but I think that while he was here his his mind was in this building and in our five schools and um he did a great job so I thank him for his time thank you m MCG any other old business M talo I do have a question
about an agenda item we did vote on it but I do have one question that I forgot to ask before was for the ocean High School auditorium with the water leak was there any insurance that could cover some of that damage yes $5,000
deductible okay but we approved 152,000 so we're putting out the money up front and then the insurance car will reimburse us oh we'll get that money back yes okay thank you any other old business any new business from the board
this government um I also another thing you spoke about um with um Mr picket Kenny picket and his um achievements this weekend I just would like to direct the public to our I think it's on our home of the Spartans um Instagram page there was a wonderful um news clip done
today that included Mr Todd and um uh coach kleene and Mr Bosman and a couple of other people around town and I would just like to um direct people to go look at that because I think it's it's really cool um piece done and it's nice to have the um eye on Ocean Township in a
positive way thank you m govern any other new business from the board wonderful public comment the Board of Education recognized 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 the superintendent's contact information is on the podium we encourage you to contact her with any questions public participation will be governed by the following rules each statement made by a participant shall be limited to five
minutes in 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 any person to leave the meeting when that person does not observe reasonable decorum would anyone from the public like to comment on any
item at this time um Alex Hayes oir might as well get in one of my last few five minutes towards the end of a meeting um well it still last um some of you sitting here right now have prayed fared pretty well um when we had unlimited public comment you
know when family members and other people could come up and speak for 20 minutes during public comment um then you reduced it to five minutes now you reducing it to zero Bravo but shameful it's really embarrassing that you are
limiting public comment and discourse the sign of the times and we're not supposed to be political but for the Democrats on this Council shame on you for wanting to
limit public comment I guess some Republicans can feel that way too I guess be Pro public comment but for you Democrats I'm embarrassed for you and it's
sad um moving along I'm curious if this is the worst position we've ever been in in terms of the budget um I did not see the pages that Mr Hastings posted I mean I'm sorry that um that were posted up here online while Mr hings was giving his
presentation online I only saw like the four or five pages so um I'm a little a gassed how you're wanting the public to speak about the budget this is the first time you're bringing this up you don't have the numbers that Mr Hastings was
was alluding to available to the public that was not online where you were getting all that so um Miss Welden said existing programs will have to go you mentioned increasing class sizes
staff Cuts $4.3 million deficit a 3.6 million you know if you try to find a little bit of money um you know I hate development in this town to such like a crazy degree that I believe is happening but you are sitting on a multi-million
doll trash heap of a building that has so many problems and you're still yet doing nothing about possibly selling this building and spare me the oh but we have to use up the money in a year um there there are creative things
you can do you are literally about to see existing programs will have to go I hope parents and teachers are hearing this Cuts in staff you literally said tonight you found the money to get a $500,000 set of Stadium lights this year
but you're going to have cuts and program Cuts Staffing cuts no wonder why many people are going to private schools no wonder my why many families are moving also moving on I'd like to know what the district is doing
for Black History Month and will the board draft a resolution I ask this every year will you draft a resolution celebrating the contributions of black students staff and alumni or I can answer that for you now I'm guessing you won't because you never
have um I will email my questions about the auditing to Mr Hastings and miss weldens and miss Wen excuse me um I think that's it but if you want more public involvement which to me this entire discussion
screams you don't um keep up with not posting all the things that you want to talk about tonight keep up with not making it available that you going to be talking about the budget tonight keep keep up with limiting public discussion thanks
thank you m m con do we have any comments in the queue yes Mr Pres president Lori Todd would like to speak please go ahead Todd please go ahead hi everyone Lori Todd Walnut Avenue
wanasa uh thank you guys for letting me speak I would very much like to commend the new program at the high school the Spartans offering support program for student athletes who attended a mental
Fitness Symposium at Redbank Regional High School on February 5th you had athletes come to our school to participate in a keynote and breakout sessions on mental Fitness and mental
health and what an amazing response we got from our students at Red Bank collaborating with the students from Ocean Township they very much appreciated the cross District perspectives and conversations so just
wanted you guys to know that that was happening and thank you for supporting the mental health efforts in our district thank you Mrs Tod Mrs Conway do we have any other comments in the queue no Mr President
there are no further commenters thank you very much may I have a motion to adjourn motion do I have second second meting ISJ