is all about a culture that helps create um we encourage everyone in our fantastic diverse covenant to be kind, be positive, inspire and believe in one another and help each other see their own self worth. So I saw these and I
wanted to bring back for everyone that this is at the the tenant of IE you inspire is just be kind and we do it for those kids right out there. All right. >> Thank you.
>> Yep. So, um, we had a motion to adjourn to executive session. That was Miss Cherry. >> And we had a second. >> And we have a second. Okay. >> All in favor? >> Any opposed? >> All right. There we go. Executive session.
>> I wanted to make sure. >> I love the swag. Wait. Just Uh we're back from executive session. Public session. Be it resolved that the board reconvene public session. Motion to reconvene.
>> So moved. >> Second. >> Okay. All those in favor? >> I. >> Okay. No opposed. Uh student presentations. I see we have our Eisenhower Elementary School kids here today. Uh peer buddy groups. Peer
buddy consists of uh third grade students that buddy up with our AT what is at? Okay. Our AT students in their classroom settings. The peer buddies engage in activities that promote social
interactions and act as a role model for appropriate play skills. So Eisenhower, what do we have? Let's see. At this time, we'd like to have the principal of Eisenhower, D. Dwight Eisenhower School.
Our buddies group is amazing that we have first off stand up. I have a guest tonight. not going to stand for long, so don't worry. These third graders were picked and chosen to help in our NGL classes based on their amazing character traits.
These character traits start at home. So, parents, give yourselves a round of applause. These students are chosen to be in our classrooms and stands for multiple grade learners that our amazing digital teacher
applause. You can sit down now. You're good. >> Our ML teachers make sure that inclusivity is going on in our classrooms and that's what we're all about. And Mrs. Ev have teaching with us.
Social wellness opportunities in these programs can't be done because we have an amazing counselor in our schools. What buddies is all about. Our students have that made such a big difference in the classroom are third graders and you're going to see those magical moments now on the video. Thank you
everyone. What is the I'm Lyla and um my peer buddy is Joyce. I like playing with her and we play um we play pretend food. Last time when I went to peer buddies last Friday, we I
read a book with Israel and Valentina and my other peer buddy friends. The thing that I love about playing with Joyce is she's so funny and she's so cute. You're green. >> You're green. You're yellow. You're
yellow. My buddy is Joyce. Um, I like about her is that she's smart, kind, and funny. >> I love Pies. Pe today. >> Special delivery.
Now we have Knock on the door. >> Special delivery. How are you? >> How are you? >> I'm so good. Are you delivering something to me? >> Hi. >> Hi. >> How are you? >> Good.
>> Thank you. >> Have a great day. >> So sweet. >> Hello. I'm beautiful buddies and I love going there. I help Varrage um do puzzles and I help V um like do some
words. I help him with his vocabulary and things. >> I like to play with a >> that I get to have time to spend with them. >> Okay. Anything in particular you like to do?
>> Play with garage. >> How do you play with garage? What do you like to do with garage? >> We play with cars. >> I like >> I like to like play scooter. >> Yeah. Together, boys.
Um, I always play with Ryan and um, he's a super nice kid. I I love playing with him and um, he makes me smile a lot. we get if we mix red and blue >> purple. So, could you stack one?
A >> that is lovely. So, let's give a round of applause. >> Yes. All third graders and all these third graders begin. This is their first year being buddies. >> Second year
practice. >> Who trained you? >> The teachers, right? >> In seriousness, what I love about what we're seeing is the opportunity ties into our strategic plan. about students learning from each other inclusive
environments. But this also talks about that all students no matter how they show up by working together. Let's give a round of applause. come up stand time for the parents. But all the
students come up face the camera. All right. >> The one with the parent. >> Yes. He's our >> smile. >> Sayward >> stay. >> So it's important for parents to get
their photo. Let the students just >> you guys ready? So, I just want to say this is an amazing group of uh young individuals. You guys are really showing the best that we have here in Scataway. You are showing up in your classrooms.
You are being kind like uh Dr. Connor us this uh bracelets, you know, to be kind and to also show your spirit here in Pway. And I just it really shows the heart of what we are here in PCA that like uh Superintendent Glover said, no
matter who you are, you can contribute to the um school environment and we all learn from each other. So, Helena, how do I say your names? Okay, here you go. Let's go. All right.
Next, we have >> All right, there you go. >> That's not it. >> Oh, there you go. it up. Clap it up. All right. Jeremiah friends
Gonzalez Pila Rodas Peter Ruhan. Is that yours? >> Okay. Is >> Valentina? Okay. So, students, stay with your certificate just like this. All right.
Make sure they're in front of you there. And we're going to do one more photo for you guys. All right. All right. >> Take a step to your left. Moms, get in there. Get in there. Moms,
dads, aunties, grandma's. All right, >> we're good. Paparazzi. Oh, one more. >> All right. Yeah. We had Doritos still there. >> Yes.
>> Okay. I want to thank everyone um for coming from Eisenhower. I know that it's um you know a week night, so we want to get you guys back to your homes and ready for uh bed so you can get to school and be smart again tomorrow. >> Thank you.
>> Good night. The little girl in the in the so cute. >> All right, drive home safe, everyone. and have a good night. >> Good night. All right. So, we're going to get back to our
business here. We have um Stu student representation um representatives report uh Mr. Tyler West. Uh to start off, I wanted to thank some of you guys for coming out to the SAD meeting today. It was a great success and um even after you guys
even after you guys left, um there were still people coming in. So, we had a bigger turnout than we did last year, which was kind of our whole goal having it this year. So, it was a great success. And then continuing with SAD a little bit on on April 16th, something that we also mentioned in the presentation today, we're going back to
the Piscatoway Police Department to do a field trip there where they will show us things in the police department and teach us still give us more information about being safe on the roads. And they even have like a course where we drive around in the golf cart just to doing
that as well. And then on April 24th, there will be a chalk the walk during school where students can come out and we have a bunch of chalk out for students and they draw messages all along the sidewalks. >> That's the 24th. >> Yes. And that everybody can see and as
long as it doesn't rain, it stays and everybody can see the messages walking into school every day. And then Mr. Irvondo is starting to have meetings with students during lunch to hear their feedback on anything related to PHS. He's inviting students to have lunch in groups throughout the school year and if
they're interested they can sign up on a Google form that is on our schooly page and they will receive a smart pass to come during lunch and then talk to them about the things going on. There really there really isn't any agenda. It's kind of like a open forum thing where students just come they talk about issues that they think they have
conversations with Mr. Bondo and try to solve those issues and I believe superintendent Glover is actually going in there for their next meeting to talk about the cell phone ban that they're implementing in September. And then there will be some food provided for the students there. And then our Chinese
culture club is having an Asian snack sale that they started today that will start for the rest of this week and for oncoming weeks for a little bit. They're selling Asian snacks from 145 to 155 after school to raise money for their club. Um 50 Strong, something that I mentioned last meeting, they're going to
the train soup kitchen tomorrow where they got the assignment to help prepare foods for people that need it. and they will be leaving at 8 am tomorrow and just doing that for the entire school day. And then the SNHS club is hosting an e-waste elimination drive. So
students can come and bring old electronics, old batteries, cables, etc. And they enter a raffle and they can win a $25 Amazon gift card, which everybody loves. And then um that's for helping the environment to clean out old tech and win the prizes, of course. And then
the ICCA club is inviting all Cascadway students and staff to their annual international night on Friday, March 27th from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. in the patent cafeteria. And then it's just an evening where students can enjoy food, drinks, music at they'll have raffles
there as well, fun games, and then tickets are $5 in advance. So they're selling them in school during lunches. And to purchase, if they're not in lunches, then they go to M. Herrera and room 178 or Miss Bar and F103 and any
officer that's around to try to get tickets from them and then have a fun night. That's all for me. >> Thanks. >> Thank you. Thank you very much, Tyler. Um and uh Mr. Lopez uh Chernos is not here. So, thank you for your report. And
of course, you know, same as with the young guys, if you need to head out to do your work, we're more than um appreciate you being here with us tonight. Oh, one more thing. I'm closing in on a college decision, so I'll have that for you guys next meeting. >> Yes, we are very excited. We're waiting
on baited breath. >> Tyler, before you leave, >> Yes, sir. >> Although it's been a brief time that I've been here, I want to commend you for not just your your scholarly attributes. I want to commend you for just being a good young young man.
Kudos to you and your family for your presentation of self, but also for just your leadership attributes. Your leadership as student representative, but also your leadership in SAD, your leadership in sports. You are truly a young man who PCA should be definitely
proud to support. Wherever you choose to go to college at, be nice if you chose University of South Carolina. There's a there's a there's a dig in that. Um, but wherever you choose to go, you're going to represent Piscataway, your family, and yourself quite well. So, thank you for doing what you do.
>> Thank you. >> Okay. And we're up for the president's report for March 25th, uh, 2026. I was very excited to um, be able to attend and take part of our permanent art collection showcase on March the 12th.
Um the wonderful event was organized by our supervisor of visual and performing arts, Miss Rebecca Seraki. Highlights um highlighting the great artistic talent throughout our school district. Um as you can see our permanent art collection here in our um boardroom has changed and
those are the the newest installations. And at the event we were able to meet with the students, we were able to meet with their families and they received accolades for um their artistic uh endeavors. Uh every art teacher from every elementary school to high school
selected one of their students works to be included um at our board and administration celebrate their great achievements with the students, families, and the teachers. And as you can see, I'm actually wearing one of the art pieces tonight. That's from our Grant View Elementary
student and the piece is up there on the left hand corner. So, um this event was wonderful. It was a way to mark the youth art month, but also to celebrate um where they're where they're at and where they're going. Um
these beautiful works of art will hang here for the next year. Um and then next year we get to get a whole new crop of uh permanent art collection which lasts for one year. Uh as the board we are proud to fully support our tremendous
visual and performing arts programs which foster creativity, emotional intelligence while improving academic performance and student engagement. Uh, additionally, I want to just um mark in my president's report as we're closing
up the um women's history month, we uh the women of the board were able to attend the third annual women's uh leadership conference through uh New Jersey school boards on March the 20th.
Uh yeah, thank you. Um more than 200 women convened in Euing, New Jersey at the College of New Jersey to attend the third annual NJSBA women's conference. Five out of the six women of the Piscatoaway board um were there in attendance. Uh my vice president Chantel
Cherry uh Anika Stafford, uh Dale, Dr. Gail Nelson, Loretta Rivers, and myself. The only reason our uh esteemed haba could not be there because it was also Eid. So we we uh we we held her uh name in our in our uh amongst us. Three of
our five attendees served as speakers. Uh the morning was kicked off by myself um being featured during our uh Kimberly Marcus Harrington's keynote address. She was actually my lead uh uh mentor through the New Jersey school boards.
the conference that I was uh graciously able to attend uh a mentorship program through New Jersey school boards which was a brand new program where uh leaders are taking executive coaching and so my executive co coach was actually Kimberly
Marcus Harrington Harrington and I was the first person to complete the program nineweek program and she was moved by my story um my personal message about education and why I am a board member mber I shared a personal story um about
my childhood educational experiences and how they shaped the woman I am today. Additionally, we had uh Dr. Gail Nelson and Loretta Rivers um do a presentation on transparency now. Is that is that what the topic was?
>> Transparency and women's leadership of education. >> Thank you. um they did an amazing um presentation and I was so proud of them and I attended that and it was standing room only for their workshop. So I just want to say the leaders here in Scataway
really showed up and showed out um on the regional uh stage. Uh I'm exceedingly proud of our women board members and our gentlemen and but this month it's all about the ladies and I want to um particularly close Women's History Month. Um we are just fortunate
to have such great leadership on our Puscaway school board. Um the women and the wonderful we enjoyed a wonderful day of education, sisterhood and understanding the generational differences that exist in board service. So that's basically my report and I just
want to put a plug out there to all women as we close this month. You are great. Thank you. So we're going to move on with our superintendent report. >> Thank you madame president to the board members. I will be brief in my report as
tonight we are going to focus on our 2026 2027 tenative budget presentation that will be given and by our business administrator and myself. But I do want to highlight and recognize a few key students in our district. All of our
students do great things and we saw that tonight. I do want to st give a quick accolade to few students in our sports space. These are two seniors, our wrestling highlights. Those who will know Mr. Sha
Love. Shawn Love competed at the state's tour regional tournament, finished third in the 157 pound weight class. He avenged a loss that he sustained in the regional tournament by beating the champion from region five. Shawn is the 10th wrestler in scoutaway history to
place in the top three at the state tournament. Shawn is also a three-time district champion, twice being named the tournament's most outstanding wrestler. His record this season, 33 wins against three losses, and he has a career record
of 115 wins and 23 losses. Also, John Rodriguez, a true trailblazer in our girls wrestling program. She became the first Piscataway girl to reach the podium at the states when she took eighth place in the 120lb weight
class despite sustaining a shoulder injury that prevented her from continuing. As a junior, Jean became the first Piscatoaway girl to win a regional championship. Her record this season, 24 wins, three losses. her career record as
a junior, 63 wins and nine losses. I'm gonna tell you something. I saw this this this scholar athlete compete. I think her match lasted probably about 30 seconds. She's that good. And I believe she already has some colleges
looking at her even as a junior. We want to also congratulate our head coach Dan Smith and his staff in reaching some of the team milestones at the state tournament. This was the first time since 2012 that Piscataway had more than one place on the podium at the states
and the first time that the current coaching staff had two wrestlers on the podium at the same year. Sean Love is the highest placer this coaching staff has ever had. Congratulations to our wrestling our wrestlers. >> Shawn is also, as many of you know, al a
great football player. Sean and Brady Brady Gall Gallagh on their selection to the 48th annual Phil Sims North versus South All-Star football game. Shawn and Brady will represent the South team on June 20th at
the College of New Jersey, joining 90 of the top high school football players in the state at this prestigious event. Congratulations also goes out to one of our administrators here in the district. Our home Skyaway High School assistant
principal Jonathan Bizzle will be inducted into the New Jersey Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame at halftime of that game on June 20th. Congratulations on that great outlook. 2026 North versus South All-Star
selection tour presented by New Jersey Army National Guard. Shawn and Brady will be honored for their selection at the game of the Priscatoway High School Athletics College Signing Day, which will be taking place on February I mean, excuse me, April 24th. Again, signing day is a big day for many of our
students. We will support them and continue to support their postsecary college activities. Congratulations to those scholar athletes. The last two things, if you have not already seen the superintendent report, please take a
look at it. There are so many great things to talk about. As I say, I wish we could do a book every month because that's just how many great things are happening in our district. We're also going to make sure that our report starts to show up across our township in many spaces and places. And we're looking forward to having our report out
there. Last thing for me before I turn it over to our school business administrator. Last two things. Everything that I mentioned tonight ties into our strategic goals. Strategy number one, which means student achievement. What we saw today, strategic goal number two, equitable
access for all. We can speak to that. And our community engagement, outreach, and involvement also speaks to strategic goal number three and how our students are being active in our community. Lastly, I promise,
New Jersey student learning standards. What we are responsible for making sure our students get every day. The Department of Education here in the state of New Jersey assess our students beginning at the end of April and it goes through roughly the end of May. This year, this calendar will be going out to our students. It will be on our
website, but I'm announcing it publicly. This year, our students will begin taking New Jersey Student Learning Standards Assessment on April 27th. Our 3rd through 3rd through fifth graders will begin first.
Again, the week of April 27th will be our third through fifth graders. We will follow the week of May 4th with our sixth through 8th graders as well as our fifth grade science. And again, this will be on our website posted. and we will conclude the week of May
11th with our eighth graders taking science. We're leaving plenty of room for makeup exams, but we want 100% attendance so that we don't have to do makeups, but we want our students to be prepared. We want our parents to know when this is going to take place. There are some who may say it's going to be a little earlier, but I want to make sure
we give our students plenty of time so that we can go into the come out of the spring recess well rested and prepared, but then go into the May holiday, the Memorial Day holiday, not having to worry about coming back and continue to have our students taking assessments. So, it is a tighter window than
traditional, but it's also the window that opens up with the Department of Education, but I know our students are prepared and they will definitely show how they have been taught this year. Madam President, I now yield the time over to our board administrator, Mr. David Oliver, for our budget
presentation. Okay. Uh thank you uh Superintendent Glover uh board members uh public welcome to our 26 27 tenative budget presentation. So um tonight we'll go
through our budget and where we are projecting for next year uh the revenue and expenses that are going to make the budget work and um some of the challenge that challenges that we'll face. So I know this presentation is is usually
celebratory and fun and and uh sometimes dry, but I did want to start the presentation on a good positive note, kind of send a reminder to everybody here and the community of uh what's going on at the Skyway.
Please. These are days you remember before and You feel it. You know it's true.
something that will remember when it's rushing to be part of the mirror. In every touched by something
that you All right. So, uh, thank you. >> Yeah. Again, the budget's dry and it's about numbers, but uh I the video was helpful for me to keep perspective and remember the amazing things we have going on in
the district and the great things we do here and the great focus of the board, our great teachers, our great administrators, and everything that's going on. Uh financial challenges are going to come. They're here in many ways. They're here across the state. And everyone here is committed to doing what
we can to making sure we continue delivering for our students. So, um, I hope you enjoyed that video. Start on a positive note. All right. >> So, what what drives our budget? A lot of regulations, a lot of things we have to factor in here. State mandates,
federal mandates, learning standards, uh, curricular related stuff, specialized student populations, staffing needs, salaries and benefits. And we have to prioritize all these things and do what we consider most important based on the revenue that's
available to us. in the district. So, this budget climate, what you're going to hear today is not unique to Piscatoaway. And and I wanted to grab a few kind of headlines to demonstrate that to you. I know it's hard. I'll read the headlines. It might be hard to read.
Bridgewater Ritton budget would cut 29 jobs as taxes rise 3.23%. School districts say historic aid, little help in fiscal perfect storm. six, seven different articles there. The last one that came up, Cherry Hill schools weighing a 14.5 million dollars
in cuts and layoffs to close a budget gap for 2627. So, this is a problem across the state. Hopefully, the presentation will shed some light and and will inform the community about the solutions we've come up with for next school year.
Here's a breakdown of our revenue. Okay. 75% of our budget is funded by the taxpayers of Piscatoaway. 16% comes from state aid and the other 9% come from various sources you see listed there. I'll talk about a few of them as we go through the next few
slides. State aid, we'll start there. The second largest category of revenue that we get for the budget um in the current budget year we're in last year's budget cycle. The the formula was tweaked a little bit and those that watched that presentation
recall that it really um hit the skateway hard. A lot of those same measures that were put in place were kept in place for this budget year with the most significant being the cap the cap in the amount of state aid districts could lose. It was capped at 3% of your
state aid total. That was kept in place thankfully and that limited the amount of state aid that we lost which was helpful to us. Governor Cheryl kept these changes in place, which, you know, I think was was the right thing to do for a new governor and for a formula that just implemented these tweaks last
year. You have to give it more than one year. The question is, I've been harping on this, is the formula stable? Is it predictable? We'll see. Here's our history of state aid over the
last five years. We had a loss of 530,000, an increase of 4.8 million, and then backto-back years of losses. These the current year we're in and next year. Again, thankfully, those losses were capped at 3%. We lost roughly 800,000
each year. So uncapped sfa this this column here is if the state just ran the formula this is how much aid we should receive and if you recall two slides ago I talked about stability and
unpredictability unpredictability look at the swing in this number over a two-year period 26.6 million down to 13 million, back up to 23.5 million. That's not very stable. Okay. Um, two years ago the state said
we were fully funded. Last year they said we were overfunded by $12.7 million. Now we're only overfunded by $1.5 million. Again, those types of swings, is that stability? Not to me.
Okay. So, the formula is still unpredictable. Makes it hard when we're budgeting for a year to year and to plan two to three years in advance. State aid is is factored uh based on enrollment, the characteristics of your enrollment in terms of the students that
you're serving, property valuations, and district income. So, our total enrollment had been stable the past five years, but our projections show that that enrollment will start to decrease. What we're seeing now in the
current year we're in, the seniors who graduated last year were over 500 students. Let's call it about 515. The kindergarten class is 435. That's an 80 student swing. And our
highest grade levels are currently in the high school. I think there's one exception might be in fifth grade, but they're mostly in the high school. So, we're going to continue to see larger grade levels graduating, smaller grade levels coming in. Our special education students within
those smaller numbers though have been increasing. You'll see a chart in a second that illustrates that. Um, our LAP students have been stable the last two years. Our free and reduced lunch rate is also stable, 44% last year, 44%
this year. Charter school enrollment. For many years, that number was around 38, 40, 42 students. We're now up to a projected 79 students attending charter school next year. Now, we are we are far from the worst district. Some of our neighboring
districts such as Franklin and East Brunswick get really hard with this number. Um, but you know, ours is on the upward trajectory. And why that's important is because when a student a Piscataway resident student goes to a charter school, we have to pay money to the charter school. It comes out of our
budget. And there's not it's not like, oh, well, one student goes and you can cut a teacher or you can cut this. It's it's not it's not correlated like that. So, it can become a challenge to weigh to balance students you're losing with the staffing that you have.
So you can see the enrollment in this chart. It's, you know, it's fairly stable. You can see that our total enrollment. I'll draw your attention to the special education numbers though, which are in blue. So 5 years ago was 776 or six years ago, I should say. Our projection for next year is 9006. Our
current number is 917. So you know, you can see it was a steady increase for about five years. Looks like we'll be, you know, just over 900 for back toback years. This chart is more uh concerning or more illustrative of of what we're
going to be facing. Our projected enrollment for next year. You can see this drop off. So this graph, the legend, the scale, if you will, on this graph is a little bit more compact. So the the drop off is more significant. It's it's more visual here. And our
student count is going to decrease from where we are this year to what our projection is next year. And the reason this is important is a couple slides ago I mentioned enrollment is used in calculating state aid. Okay. So we have to keep this in mind as as we
try to think forward two to three years. Couple terms you'll you'll hear uh come up in the next couple slides. The adequacy budget. That's basically the state's formula. They calculate how much they think we should be spending on educating children adequately in Piscatoa. the local fair share is what the state's
formula says the taxpayers of Piscato should be paying towards that education and equalization aid is the difference. Okay. So they say your your budget should be 100 million the township should pay 90 million the
residents of Skyway the 10 million is the difference. That would be the equalization. That's a simplified example but that's the concept. one of the factors in the equalization aid formula. This is kind of a catch 22 here. If you're a home earner of Piscatoaway,
you're doing great according to the numbers anyway. Uh and if you're uh your income is doing great. Piscataway is the fifth highest median household income in the entire county. So this this particular table is sorted by median
household income. Piscataway is fifth in the county. that factors into the calculation of local fair share and equalization. That's why I put that figure. So in my example, I talked about adequacy budget. That's the amount the state calculates is how much we should
be spending on the education of our children. 156 million for next year. According to the state's calculation, taxpayers of Piscataway should be contributing 146 million towards that, which would mean we'd get just under 10
million in aid. Okay? And we're getting a little bit over the 10 million. So they're they're currently overfunding us in this equalization. But key thing to note is you'll see when we get to the proposed tax levy revenue
for next year, we are going to be $28 million below. Even after we do the tax increase that we're proposing for next year, even after you factor that in, we will be $28 million below what the state of New Jersey says the residents of T of
Piscato should be paying. It's not David Olivera saying it. It's not Superintendent Glover saying it. It's not the board members. It's the state of New Jerseyy's own formula that they use to calculate what our budget should be and how much
the residents of Piscato should be paying towards it. Homeowners in in Piscatoaway again uh it's it's a strong market in Piscatoaway which again if you're a homeowner that's good news. The bad news is that impacts the state aid population. you know, the
the wealthier the community is, the lower the state aid and the more the state expects the community to pay towards that education. >> Uh, ratables went up in Piscatoaway. We're up to 12.5 billion. Here's probably the one of the key numbers folks are interested in. The average
assessed home in Piscatoaway went up from 520,317 to $567,318. That's the average assessed home. It's the sixth highest in Middle Sex County. Goes back to the old, you know, saying,
strong schools equals strong home values. People move to a town because of the schools. They don't move there because they have a nice municipal building. They don't move there because um I don't know, they got a lot of Dunkin Donuts.
They move there for the schools. and that drives the the popularity of the community and the home values in that community. So the sixth highest average assessed home value in Piscataway that's saying something positive about the schools that we have
offered here for our students. Again, here's that list if you're interested. Property value. I will note here this number is different than the number on the previous slide because these are what they call equalized values. In simple terms, not every town has
their home values updated. So the county, the state, they have to put that all that information into a formula and make them comparable. And when they do that, when they make the home values comparable across all the towns in the county, Piscatoaway has the sixth
highest average residential value at 533,000. From 2024 to 2025, Piscato moved up one slot from seventh to sixth place in those rankings. So the tax levy tax levy is what the homeowners of
Piscatoaway contribute towards the education of students in Piscatoway. It's the primary source of the budget funding. It accounts for 75%. In our budget, there are rules and limitations set in the tax levy. Uh the the base tax levy
can only go up 2% per year. There are some exceptions though when uh health care costs are above a certain threshold if you have enrollment large spikes in enrollment or large dips and if you're going to use what's called
bank cap which we'll get to. There was a healthcare cost waiver available this year and that's because the state of New Jerseyy's school employees health benefit plan increased 31.9%. So there was a healthcare cost waiver available and the district into
this budget cycle with bank cap available $266,371. I'll talk about bank cap in its own slide. We're allowed to go above the 2% tax levy increase for the healthcare cost waiver. So if our health care costs are
higher than 2% and the states are also higher, we have this waiver available to us. As I said, the state plan went up 31.9% back on January 1st.
I'm sorry to say our projected healthcare cost increase is 30%. Um, we're experiencing an extremely difficult healthcare cost year this year during the current budget cycle. Uh, those on the fiscal committee are aware, I've kept them a breast of how far over
budget we are. Um it's been a significant challenge this year and we will be limping to the finish line at June 30th. >> That obviously impacts what the brokers project for us for next year. So a significant increase to 30%.
So based on the formula that's in the budget software, our healthcare cost waiver, the amount that we could go over the 2% tax levy is $7 million. That's the the maximum for the healthare
cost waver this year. Bank cap. I mentioned that earlier. When a district doesn't use all of their when they don't raise taxes to the highest amount pot possible in a given year, they're able to save that money. They're able to bank it on the side and
save it for a future year. And that's what they call bank cap. So, the $266,371 I mentioned earlier, two years ago, the board only raised taxes on the residents of Piscatoaway by
1%. They could have gone higher, but they didn't. So, the money that was left over from then gets to carry over a couple years to use in the tax levy. Okay? So, that that's what bank cap is. And the district does have a little bit
of bank cap available. You can only use bank cap if you've used all the waiverss that are available. And on on an upcoming site, I'll point that out. With our current budget that we're presenting to the board and to the public today, we will have bank cap
available going forward of just over a million dollars. So again, the proposed tax levy increase this year is not the maximum increase that uh the board could recommend for the township. They are coming in a little bit below
that always keeping in mind the residents of the scatter. So here's where we are. Here's our recommendation. This is our current tax levy. The standard 2% increase is just under
2.2 million. The recommended use of the healthcare cost waiver 6,266,371. We had talked we had considered using the healthcare cost waiver of 6 million. The reason why it's if if you're keeping
track of the numbers, it's another 266,371 because that's the amount of our bank cap which we were going to use, but we can't use because we have not used all our healthcare cost waiver. It's just which bucket they let you pick the money out of is all that is.
>> Okay. So, instead of using bank cap, we're using the health care cost waiver and we're not even using all of it. So, our proposed tax levy, it's a big percentage increase. There's no doubt about it. Nobody takes it lightly.
118 million $118,276,96. I'm going to bring back a number from another slide, from a previous slide. Again, the local fair share is 146 million. So even after this increase, I said it earlier, we're $28 million below
where the state said we should be for the residents of Piscatoway to be contributing to the education of the children. I also mentioned this earlier. Um we are not even going to the full amount allowed by the law. We're leaving a
million dollars on the table because we are balancing the needs of the district versus the taxpayers of the scatter. That money could be spent. There's a lot of great programs, a lot of great things that we could continue to do and grow and expand, but it's a
balance between the residents and trying to be as efficient as possible. Dave, if I could just make one comment clarification, you mentioned 75% tax. That's 75% of our budget because
often the residents are seeing a pie chart where 51% go, you know, goes to the schools, but that's from the total taxes collected between municipality, us, and for all
the others. So 75% for here 118 is 75% of our total budget. Right? Correct. So just again some perspective on a year-to-year basis any tax increase is
difficult to handle. Okay? No doubt about it. Um, my job is to present the facts and the information and try and take a longer term view, a perspective on what we're doing here in the district. I've had the good graces to
work here for quite a few years now with all these board members. Over a 10-year period, the last 10 years from 2017 to our proposal for next year, the average tax increase, including this factors in the 7.7% we're proposing for
next year is 2 and a half%. Okay, so over a 10-year period, the average is 2.5%. Only three out of the last 10 years have we been over the average. This orange line is the average. Unfortunately, It's been the year we're
in now and the proposal for next year. So, it hurts now. We get it. >> We get it. But all these other years, we were well below and a lot of data in this presentation. That's why I started with the good
stuff. I know it's a drag down. Um this is just a chart of again the average tax levy increase versus some comparative factors. Um the orange line is inflation.
Okay. The blue line is our contractually agreed salary increase. And you can see the yellow and the yellow line is our total tax levy. And you can see many years the tax levy, the
yellow line is below both the rate of inflation and our um contractually agreed percentage salary increase. So we've been efficient for many years. Unfortunately, some years you're on the
the higher side of that equation. Again, some more comparative data for Middle Sex County. On a four-year basis, we're middle of the pack in terms of our tax levy increase, 2.7%. This information is only
through the current year. It does not include the projection for next year. Okay? So, again, a lot of mixed numbers, but I I try and label all the numbers here so we we know what we're talking about. four year period, middle of the pack, 2.7. When you take a longer lens view,
an 8year period, 181 19 through 25, 26, you know, we're down in the bottom third, 2.1%. And here's a good one, too. This is a multi-year comparison of the state population of the local fair share, how much the state says the resident should
be contributing towards the education of our students. And the orange line is what our local tax levy actually is. And you can see we were right on it in 1718 and 1819. We were right on the
formula. But since then, our expected our residents expected contribution has gone up, but the local tax levy has been a much more gradual increase. And for next year, here's that number again.
28 million gap between the local fair share and the tax. So, I keep harping on this to make sure the community understands that we aren't even taxing at a level that the state of New Jersey says we should be for our education.
So, um, yes, last year's budget cycle certainly was, um, there was a tax increase above the average and this year the recommendation is for one as well. The longer term view, we're below according to the state of New Jersey, we're below.
So, that that is a model of efficiency when you have a longer lens in a one or twoear budget cycle. >> And David, is it true that the two major factors used calcate the local share are the property valuations and the district income.
>> That's correct. >> So earlier I talked about the state aid decrease as we try to efficiently build the budget balancing the state aid decrease balancing tax levy uh limitations
imposed on us as well as the desire to to balance the needs of the residents in return in in regards to the tax levy. Just important to note the burden of funding the budget continues to transfer from state via state aid towards the
residents of the scatter via the tax. Okay. The state formula saying residents should be contributing more. So in the current budget the the proposed budget for next year fund balance uh is being used to fund
what what I call some recurring items over the long term. This is not a great budgeting practice. It's done particularly in more difficult years. Um fund balance should ideally only be used for one-time expenditures, things that
we could walk away from in a heartbeat if we wanted to. Yeah, it might be nice to buy, you know, five more maintenance vehicles, but we don't have to. Those are the type of things you typically want to use fund balance for. Okay? And we have some of that fund balance allocated for some of those one-time
items. Um, but some of it is used to pay for recurring expenses. Okay? So, it's it's a balancing game. We also this year are going to be using $2 million of maintenance reserve to fund the budget. So, we have a reserve for maintenance
reserve. Some of you are aware of it. It's been it's been talked about. Um, the maintenance reserve can help us to pay for maintenance expenses to maintain our buildings in the district. And we will be using $2 million of that money uh for next year's budget. Again, a
measure taken to try and mitigate the tax increase. This is also not a bottomless pit. Okay. We are at the maximum allowed of 6.5 million because we've done a good job of saving funds over the years. We're recommending to use 2 million of it.
That takes it down to 4.5 million. Unless we replenish it, it will stay at 4.5 unless we use it for other maintenance items and it will continue to decrease. So, it is not a long-term viable funding solution for the budget. Again, ideally, it's for one time items.
So in summary, recommended tax levy increase 7.7%. But our average over the last 10 years has been 2 and a.5%. State aid continues to be unpredictable. Okay, swings we talked about earlier in
a slide. There is a lot of uh talk in the state. Many of us in Piscataway are involved at the state level, myself, Connors, Mr. Stoman. Um there's a lot of conversations with the
governor and some some key senators about revisiting the formula and taking a look at it because of that unpredictability. So, it would not surprise me if it was examined this year and possible recommendations for changes might help us, might hurt us. We don't know. All
right. I will continue to keep fiscal committee informed and the full board as we get better information. >> Just finish my last point and then it's all yours. Bank cap. Again, uh we have a million dollars available to be used during next
year's budget cycle in this bank cap bucket, if you will. >> Okay. So with that, I was going to comment to that >> this board and the recommendations um with your help and superintendent, we
could have actually gone up a whole one million2,550, but we did not. >> Correct. >> Okay. Just want to illustrate that. Number one. And number two, the reason that we are finding ourselves um in this
situation similar to many uh individuals all over the state, not just in education, is because of health care costs. Is that the largest driver? >> Number one reason, >> the number one reason the largest charge uh you know driver here is healthcare costs. >> Yes. >> Okay. Thank you. And if I can make a
comment about you said maintenance reserve. There are different types of reserves such as capital reserves. Maintenance reserves. Often people confuse them as savings where the capital reserve are restricted funds
that we cannot transfer over to balance the budget. I want to make that clear. >> They are savings but they're savings that are restricted. Right. >> Yes. >> So um and the next couple I think it's the next slides um touch on the capital
reserve a little bit. >> Oh, not not quite yet. >> Not yet. >> This begins my my um the portion of the the presentation where we highlight again negativity dominates in the news
on social media. Negativity. Negativity. And we That's why I started with the video I did. We lose sight of the positive. Um, preschool is a positive. >> Okay.
We are expanding up to 800 students next year. 707 state funded students. my research uh I don't know what other districts are doing next year but based on current enrollment and if we project ourselves
forward we'll be the 18th largest preschool program in the state and we'll be the fourth largest non-abbid so non-abbid is a is a historical term it identified some of our highest need
districts roughly 32 of them um they get a lot of state funding they were uh early to the table for preschool programs. Um so they had a lot of funding and they were ahead of the race in getting into the preschool program.
And if you exclude those of all the other districts in the state, all 630 of the other districts, we have the fourth largest preschool program. Why is this important? Early childhood development is critical
for long-term student success. Free preschool is money saved for the taxpayers of Piscatoaway. Preschool is funded by the state. So instead of parent one and parent two having to pony
up, my girls are older. 6,000 a year, 8,000 a year, whatever preschool costs these days. >> Those families save money because we offer a free preschool program here in Chicago. It's very important to remember that
>> I want to make one comment about innovative way in which we have gotten facilities in Piscatawa over the years for preschool. Two parochial schools have gone down, Our Lady Fanama and Cababrini, but it's a win-win situation where the school
board could lease those those classrooms and put kids there. That gives us more capacity. you get more money based on the number of seats you have available. So that's a win-win for our community. Those schools would go without students
in them because the DAS of Matuchin closed those so those those schools down just to make that clear. So it's a win. So preschool in Piscataway it's very desirable for people to move here and board of education did it in a innovative way to get those seats and
everybody waits. three preschool >> pres um this is just for information uh because it also illustrates the efficiency with which we operate the general fund budget with what tax
increase I talked about earlier. The free preschool seats are only free to the Piscatoway board of education for our regular education students. The funding formula says that each town must pay to educate their special education
children for preschool. And it's just worth noting that those costs prior 925,000. They're 2.275 million now. So they went up 1.35 million in five years. that
money we didn't come with an extra question or or looking we built that into our budget. Okay, that was part of the 2 and a half% tax levy. Okay, same with the transportation related to preschool. For many years up until this
year, pre transportation costs had to be paid by the district's uh budget, not by the preschool money line. That's another $825,000. So you're talking about over $2 million
over the last five years that is in our budget and is being funded by, you know, tax levy and state aid all within that 2 and a half% that the residents have experienced these last 10 years. Again,
important to remember that. Okay. So what else has been through efficiencies through great management of administrators and and our staff and the district? What else has kind of been in that budget over the last eight years of significance? That
is nobody came looking for extra money or asked extra questions. It was within the two and a half% of the the annual tax levy increase. We've added school safety officers to the tune of almost an $800,000 increase in costs.
We've had some of our special needs students, we've seen an increase in our most needy students. They require additional services. Okay, $500,000 increase in those type of expenditures. Our bus routes, buses that we pay other
companies to do for us, the routes, those costs have gone up by $1.4 million over the last eight years. Substitutes, $800,000 increase. We added middle school sports, expanded
it significantly. We're up to a $470,000 budget line item for middle school sports. the charter schools. I talked about how the numbers have been increasing. That number has increased 660,000 over the last eight years. So again, all of these
items are paid for within the the budget 2 and a half% average tax. This table again, Middle Sex County, 23 towns. This is actual expenditure data from 2023, 2024.
Okay, we rank 20th out of 23 districts in the county and what we spent per student. The average is $18,298 per student in Middle Sex County. We spent $16,424
per student. and think back to my video. All those amazing things for all that lower cost. Um I challenge anybody to to tell us how as
a district, an entire school community, we're not running efficiently. Um you see the amazing things we're doing for these dollars. If we wanted to bring our from 16,424 to 18,298
per student. Is that $1,800 increase? $1,870 increase. >> We would need 13.8 million more revenue. >> Wow. >> Just to get to the average in Middle Sex County.
Okay. I don't think S's going to give it to us. If we want to get there, it's going to be a gradual increase in the tax revenue just to get to the average. >> So, we're one of the wealthiest, but we
utilize the one of the least per pupil costs, meaning like we are the wealth one, we're in the top five, six, whatever it was. Y >> and then we are also though down um along the along the most efficient in
use of dollars per student in in the county. Correct. >> Just illustrating the dichotomy there. >> These next couple of slides will just Tom mentioned earlier about capital reserves. These will talk about some of
the projects we've done. Um, we've done $33 million in projects the last 10 years. We have 11 million that should be completed this year. That's $44 million in projects. We have no bonded debt. We don't make debt service payments. We don't pay interest on our debt because
we don't have any debt. We have some leases, but that's not bonded debt. It's different. those that have been around the town for a while and remember five years ago, uh, we assessed a referendum, the possibility of a referendum. We came up with a list of
projects. my team, meaning our fantastic in-house maintenance team, along with some work from outside contractors, we've chipped away at 12.3 million of
those that $80 million worth of projects we identified and we did it for 9.2 million. So, we did it for $3.1 million less than what the budgeted amount was in that initial referendum study.
So kudos to uh again our our great maintenance staff. The school district's made up of so many different worthy components obviously teachers frontline administrators managing the operations
but we've got maintenance we've got grounds which is a component of maintenance our custodial staff again in my uh mindset that's a component of maintenance transportation all our great aids our secretarial staff
they all play an important role in in what we do here. We completed a $15 million project. Okay. So, that's a uh a bunch of efficient energy efficiency upgrades that will be financed by the savings
that we recognize in those upgrades over the next about 12 more years left on that. >> Yeah. It stands for the energy savings improvement program of the state. Correct. I'm not going to recite these this list, but this is a list of 33
heading towards $44 million worth of projects that have been funded through capital reserve, which many in the community might hear about and might be misunderstood about. Um the and capital reserve is funds saved by the district
to use to improve our facilities. Can't tell you how many times you get visitors here to the district and they're impressed by our buildings. These are some of the current year projects we're doing. This was in a previous presentation. I won't spend too much time on it. Again,
just summary information about capital reserve and maintenance reserve because again, board members here and in the community, they ask me, we talk about it all the time. Okay, we have no bonded debt. Our facility upgrades and improvements are relying upon the
capital reserve and the maintenance reserve to maintain those buildings. Our capital reserve is currently about $15 million. It's restricted to building additions, renovations, and upgrades. Let me repeat, it's restricted to
building additions, renovations, and upgrades. So, we have some projects in the pipeline. Soon enough, that 15 million will be spent. It's not, you know, again, a
never- ending well of money. Um, but we're keeping our facilities in the best possible shape. Maintenance reserve, again, I talked about that that is restricted to required maintenance of school facilities. We had 6.5 million subject to withdrawal
that we're recommending for next year of $2 million. Okay. And that 2 million must be spent on the maintenance of our buildings and the specific account that relates to. If we take out 2 million in the budget and we only spend 1.8 million on maintenance of
our buildings, that 200,000 has to go back into maintenance reserve. We can't use it to give the taxpayers an extra break. It's not how it works. I'll just show this pie chart and then superintendent is going to take over for a few slides. This is a distribution of
our expenditures for next year. The largest slice of the pie, no surprise to anybody, are our salaries for all our staff. Again, I've said this before, I think back in February, we are people driven business. >> We interact with students. We educate
students. It's man power, man, woman power, people power, sorry, people power. The next biggest piece, 24.6% is benefits. Okay, benefits. You combine those two together, you're at 76.1% of
our budget, salaries and benefits. And you can see all those other categories there. Okay, Superintendent Glover is going to take over for a few slides and talk you through some of our expenditures. >> Thank you, sir.
So with that we understand the importance of growing your district. The district grows by continuing to have innovative initiatives. Now, despite what has been presented thus far, we still understand that the
residents, students, the staff, the families want to conceive and continue to have a well-rounded, excellent education. That's what our goal is as leaders in this district. So, I want to spend time on talking about what our plans are even though we are talking
about having to make some fiscal adjustments where we are reducing some areas. The science of reading about making sure our students are prepared for 2030 and beyond. There are some initiatives that were put in place two years two years
ago to full steam this year. There's some right sizing we need to do to make sure that our teachers and our students are prepared to deliver good content to our students in the area of language arts literacy. Over a decade ago, the district turned
to the use of iPads. We have been in conversations with our current vendor of Apple in enhancing that partnership and understanding that we maximize our iPad initiative. Our iPad initiative will continue to go
between grades 2 through 12, but we're going to make sure that we utilize it in our early childhood grades equally. But this is an initiative where we're talking about as technology changes rapidly. We all know that because folks change their iPhones, the Samsung phones
every six months in some cases. We talk to our business partners, they are telling that they are making adjustments in their technology every 3 to 6 months. >> No, three to six months. That means the iPad that we buy today, we have to get
it maximum use out of it because we understand that the technology behind that is already changing by the time we finally receive it in our classroom. We want our students to be prepared for postsecary college and career. One of the things that I assessed
relatively quickly when I came in here is are our human resources and our physical resources getting to those students who are most need and need could be our gifted and talented students and it could be those students are struggling a little bit. It could be our first our newcomers to our community who arriving from another country. So
we're going to assess how our tutorial services have been delivered to make sure that it's getting to our students quicker and more efficiently. We all have heard the term artificial intelligence. Artificial intelligence intelligence is more than just check
more than co-pilot cla and all the other terms that people are think it's not about just creating papers for our students to go and copy and cheat artificial intelligence when done correctly actually revolutionize the way it can revolutionize the way we look at
our purchasing problem the way we also to provide professional development and create learning plans for our students the biggest area that I want to make sure we look at is how do we individual learning plans for all students so that every pathway that a child has takes them to that ultimate goal of graduating
college and career our in-house curriculum design we don't pay for other folks to develop the curriculum in our district profession our teachers our teachers to develop it's a cost savings but it also
builds better capacity in our teachers and then we talk about you saw an activity tonight students from Eisenhower and he talks about inclusive inclusive education, inclusive curriculum. You think about how we talk about diversity, but we also talk about making
sure all of our students are included in the teaching and learning environment. We are not going to stop making sure that all students feel welcome and have a well-rounded educational experience. We talked about the preschool expansion and the preschool initiative. I want to harp on this as someone who early
childhood is near and dear to me. I'm a believer that the more seats we have, the great opportunity we have to increase our enrollment. So, I think about if we have 800 seats, if we can get that up to a thousand seats and we know the private providers that are
currently in the Skyway, parents are going to want to save and I and I know David said he hasn't had his children in the district, I mean in early childhood space in a while. It's about $2,000 a month. >> Yep. >> Do the math. That's $24,000 a year that you're saving a parent >> for one kid,
>> for one child. And the discounts don't come just because you have more children. >> So, what I'm looking at is if we can get up to a thousand, that gets our numbers back up to 500 students enter into our kindergarten ecosystem >> and continue to build that. >> So, our goal is to really build our
preschool space and make our students and our families love being way. They won't leave. Trust me, I have a feeling that in this in my tenure as superintendent, we're going to see that trend go back up. I can't control the housing market. I can control what the schools look like. And
I can tell you with our neighboring districts in those towns in Bergen County, parents will pay taxes if they have great schools. you know, just check out what they say. >> I don't want to read each slide, but I just want to just that our preschool budget and our initiative is essential
to making sure we grow our our students, grow our enrollment. Davis, our BA has truly talked about personnel and what it taught 75 to 76% of every disapp. But I want to harp on what that means.
That means us going back to our strategic goals of recruitment, retention, and profession developing teachers that want to come and work with you. I've had the pleasure of learning that a significant number of our educators started off in the
or chosen to stay here and trust me they could probably leave and get a little more money in another district. Our professional educators want to be here and it behooves us to try to compensate them as best we can. You want the best, you got to pay for
the best. That's what we're trying to do. We're not the I'm not going to lie here and I'm This is one of our union president. They come back to bite me sometimes. We don't pay the highest salaries, but we try to be fair and we also try to make sure our teachers are happy here. Our staff members are happy
here and that's why they come to work here. We talked about health care costs. I don't have to necessarily go through that again, but it's it's a significant cost and I think all of us understand no matter where we work, we want this healthare. Bless you. Good healthare
benefits allows us to feel comfortable in taking our children, our family members to the doctor and we understand the variable cost that I'm a big believer artificial intelligence and other technologies can allow us to be more efficient. That's part of the space where we hope over the
next few years we can see some savings. But that also means training people up. That takes time. Some folks adapt a lot quicker to technology and change. However, we want to make sure we do it the right way, but we want to be more efficient. Trying to be more efficient in
transportation. David didn't mention this, but I want our scoutway families to be reminded and we pay for transportation. Transportation is an option for every some minor cost, but you think about what it cost to feel safe your child on a bus.
staff additions. I know there's there's language going out there about what we may cut. I wanted to show that we're still trying to grow. Our ESL students deserve to be given the same accommodations and outcomes any other student. We're currently operating
under a wage. Say that again. We're currently operating under a wa by New Jersey Department of Education. We we should be funding much more and build. We don't have the space. So the fact that we're trying to bring
our students, make them feel comfortable and educate them the same way any other student speaks volumes that we've been able to do things on our waiver, but we need to add special education teachers are are folks who are wellrounded like all
trait. so hard in this in this environment right now to find special education teachers, special certified teachers. We have to add David mentioned about the related service costs that go over educating our students. Some of our students may have a little more challenges, a little more need
occupational therapist, speech therapist, speech pathologist are part of that portfolio. See assistant principal there because it's it's my philosophical belief and research based belief that in order to instructional leaders in your school. You need to make
sure you have leaders in all those schools and that assistant principal will be supporting all of our schools. We have assistant principal all of our K through eight spaces pre excuse me I'm sorry prek spaces
with the preschool edition we're talking about 15 fulltime employees 15 10 prek teachers one administrator for support position >> yes m
>> with school expansion. Those funds are coming from a separate pot of money, correct? Than the general fund. >> Preschool funding is yes a fun 20. It comes from federal aid. However, when it comes to special education in preschool, we have to fund that.
>> Correct. >> So, this is the part where folks say, "Okay, well, we're doing this. There's some there's some adjustments." Our goal is to not have these adjustments impact the class size, impact the learning environment >> and thus far and we've been working on
this even prior to my arrival in November but since November we've been looking at where can we be more efficient and still not impact class size the teaching staff and I do not want our teachers to feel like they have to run away from our district there's there's some strategies we have
this is the impact across our district we understand that there will be instructional positions that we have to >> make some adjustments support staff positions that we have to make adjustments secretarial operational and
administrative. As you note, we see 38 and a half FTE full-time employees. That's what we're proposing. You'll see another slide that talks about what the net impact will be in the district. Six preschool positions. You're saying what we're adding, but what do you mean you're adding and deleting? to
understand a minute when I explain that positions are being collapsed combined based on enrollment and department needs data has explained our enrollment has taken a dip over the last couple years and in some spaces we've had to rightsize classroom but not so that our
numbers jump to where you're seeing 30 students I don't even want to see 28 students in our five ecos of course, but that's not our goal to have class sizes that go beyond our current policy of 25 outside
and wherever possible. This is key. There are vacies within their district that come about when those vacancies can either be eliminated or we can make adjustments to fill them right now. That's what we're going to do. That's how we plan reducing. I don't want to
see people lose their jobs. I don't want to see impact in sizes on our staff, >> right? >> I also understand it's an impact on our community. So, we're balancing both sides, being very transparent to the community. Our goal is for a parent not to feel the
impact, a student not to feel the impact of saying, "Hey, I noticed that this teacher was missing." It's not what we're trying to do. The net reduction of staff members would be 23 positions. I can go back real quick.
Additions that are essential. Reductions in order to balance the budget. Net staff reductions be 23 positions. Other expenditure reductions. We didn't just look at staff. We looked
at other I made the decision in talking with my team about what's the effectiveness of some of our programs. The parents, you can hear me say that the superintendent came in and says if it doesn't show impact, we cannot justify it in the work
over several years. I look at cohort now anywhere from three to five years. Then why are we doing it? The jump ahead summer program this year will be eliminated. It's going to be replaced. other things that will be supported by
community education foundation with that jump ahead program we are I'm sure that there will be parents who want to have a conversation with me about these two sports elimination of field hockey and gymnastics listen I'm a big believer in
extracurricular activities I'm an athlete at heart however combined those programs have approximately 20 students combined to middle school
combined the cost was pretty significant. I would love to bring them back. However, this point in time those are two and the only two sports programs that we are
going back to that slide that David presented a while back ago. When you think about the sports programs that are being cut by other districts just eliminate that participation that was declining less than 20 students student athletes. We can understand why that may have to
be eliminated this time. Assistant coach reductions, this one, we'll frame it this way for you. It's the postponement of technology enhancement equipment from our general budget.
However, as recent as today, we are looking at grant options that may be available for us to increase. And in talking with our partner Apple, we may be able to do some creative things to also offset the cost. So, we still increase technology options in our
district. Can I say we've already started have grants on the horizon and they be able to help us enhance our technology. Transportation routes will be consolidated. Our goal is not to have students get up and get on the bus at
5:30 in the morning just to say get to high school time at 7:00. That's not what's going to happen. But we do have some spaces where there's one family living on the street that takes us off the route. >> We may have to consolidate and bring that family back in. And as students
graduate, routes can change. And that's team has projected savings from all this is $1 million other operating other operating expenditures. This is our summary.
I want to just make inference to this last slide here. Parents notice on here we did not say we're reducing the course offerings. We're not reducing AP courses and only courses. We're not reducing special education supports. We're not reducing. You don't see that coming across. We're
saying we're touching teaching and learning. In fact, you'll be happy to say we're going to we're going to be very innovative on how we grow our teaching and learning spaces for our teachers and our students. And this class size, we have to be committed to that. I do not believe that students
learn best when there's 30 students. I will not the board and I will have different conversations about what we can do before we have students especially in the K3 space five actually but they're just showing up that's not a
safe space or a healthy space ongoing challenges and I don't know if the word is always challenges for everything but it's just a reality of where we're at in this current economy salaries and aren't going to change. And I'm going to say this, we're about a
year away from negotiations with one of our unions and two years away from negotiations with another. And let's be fair again, we want to keep those great educators that we have. We're going to have to think about that. That's going to be an impact on our budget as we forecast. I don't think that's a challenge. I
think that's a necessary outcome of keeping great talent >> and recruiting great talent. And if our strategic plan, we follow it, you'll see which goal that is members healthare across the state of New Jersey. I think the governor is going to be faced with this challenge. It's in all aspects.
Higher ed is facing even more than we are being hit. Preschool cost. I said we're going to grow preschool. I would love to be able to There's a couple buildings we have our eyes on. We get to 10,000 students in our ecosystem. Trust me, I I'll feel much better about our long-term goals of growing our
enrollment. supports for our families, interventions for underperforming students, and technology are continated to health benefits. Um, this is the most challenging health benefit cost year in my career. It's had
a significant on the current budget and I think you see the evidence here of the impact on next year's budget. Um I pray at night that next year's a better day better year I should say more than just a bit um
>> because that will continue to have an impact on our our budget development and our allocation of revenue. And I talked about how preschool is funded with state funding for our regular education students.
Dr. Con brought up we have a couple of rented buildings. The overall scope of our preschool program is amazing, but um the increase in health benefit costs is actually pushing that program where the state funding will not cover all of the
costs. That becomes a budgetary item that taxpayers the general fund budget we'll have to sustain if we want to maintain the robust program that we have. So um nothing to quote worry about for 2627's budget but that is something
when we try to plan forward we have to keep in mind um and I wanted all the board members to hear about it. Um we will discuss it more in fiscal committee meetings and we'll monitor it. Uh but that that is a trickle down effect of the health benefit costs. It impacts our
overall budget and it's so pervasive that it will start moving into our preschool budget. >> Now the the tax levy chart I got to change the colors for next year.
The white's not coming through. This last year is the uh the column for next year. There's our proposed tax levy. You can see this beautiful row here. Four years in a row at no debt service payment
and total tax levy. There is our average assessed value of a home. This is how much the average assessed homeowner pays in school taxes next year based on our proposed levy. It is a $453 impact on the average
assessed homeowner. Again, everyone on this board in this administration is is fully aware. Uh we don't take it lightly, but we do think it's important to efficiently as possible maintain school programs and
operation that we have in place. Go back one more thing on the health expenses. I also want to acknowledge um the board support, administration support and the support of our our two
unions. Um our HR director and myself have spoken with the unions are fully aware of the issues that exist and this kind of honest conversation is what is most for me appreciated uh in this
Piscatoaway school community. the honest conversations between the board, administration, and our two associations. So, I did want to acknowledge that 453 is a big number for one year. No doubt. >> Again, when you look over a longer
horizon over eight years, the average is $152 a year. >> Much more reason. We had years we had one year $2. >> Oh, yeah. We had two backto-back years where it was in the 30s. 36
and >> 34 and 36. >> 2023, 2024. >> If you have a longer term perspective, nobody likes tax increases. $154, $152 a year, I think, is much more
reasonable over a longer term horizon. We're just in a rough patch now, but we're going to come out the other side. Okay, last bit. >> The board is super focused on transparency. We had two of our board members give a presentation on it last week. >> Yes. >> Okay. Um,
we have been we did a presentation with a lot of these slides a month ago. Okay. But even before that, when I came to Scoutway 11 years ago and they told me we were going to have a committee meeting for finance
with Dr. Connor and they told me they invite the public to it. Like what? What is that? We're one of the unique districts in the state that has the public involved in committee meetings of the board of education. Okay. The budget is reviewed in fiscal
committee meetings. It's talked about both on an ongoing basis and when we get into the planning stage. So when we talk about transparency, let's talk about the fact the fiscal planning and operations committee. All our committees, but I'm I'm most focused on fiscal
are open to the public. >> Yep. >> Information's on the website. >> There's been discussions about the budget for several months in that committee. >> Correct. >> Okay. And these slides have been online since February 12th. Oh, no. February 13th, 2026, the day after the board meeting.
>> Here we have right here, February 12th. And this is somewhat new for us because until last year, we had a pretty good run >> with the budget. >> Yeah. >> Okay. Last year, not so great. Uh, and again this year, but this year
we said, you know what? Okay. Last year wasn't just an anomaly. Unfortunately, we upped our game. So on February 12th, we did a budget preview presentation. >> As board president pointed out, that was posted on the website the day after the meeting,
>> February 13th, 2026. >> Here we are tonight going through the tentative budget. This presentation will be posted on the website tomorrow. The budget is due to the Department of Education County Superintendent on
Friday. Okay. So after the vote tonight, I will wrap up all the paperwork and and the software submission and that will go in by Friday. This is a tentative budget. We do not advertise the budget until the
county approves it and says advertise the budget. >> I don't know what municipalities do. I don't know what counties do. I don't work there. Okay. I know what we do and that's what we do. Okay. After the county to after the county
superintendent approves our budget, we generate the what they call the advertised budget. It will be advertised in our newspaper of record, the Home News Tribune. Guess what? It has been for the last I'll talk about the 11 years I've been
here. It has been advertised prior to the final budget vote every single year in the newspaper. Okay. This year, we will also post it on our website.
Okay. I expect the county will approve it. It's submitted by Friday. within two weeks would be my guess. There are statutory guidelines on the minimum amount of days you must advertise the budget prior to the budget vote. Always in compliance with that usually we're ahead of that that
deadline. The public hearing and this is the actual budget vote. So when people talk about, oh, you didn't present information prior to the vote. The vote tonight is to give the tentative budget to the county for the county to say it's okay for us to advertise.
Then we have called the public hearing. Public can come and speak about the budget. We have public comment tonight. Members of the public wish to speak. At the public hearing on April 30th, members of the public can speak. That is
when the final budget vote occurs. After that vote, the what's called the user friendly budget, state statutory requirement, that is posted on the website the day after that meeting. that'll be posted on May 1st.
So that is the school district calendar, the school district timeline for the budget, the school district transparency and openness for the budget process. And David, thank you. Thank you for that clarification. And then when the budget book does go out in the first paragraph
you always put but I think a lot of people in the in the Piscatoi don't understand this is that Piscatoway municipal township and the Piscatoway board of education are co-terminus which means that we share the same boundaries but the school district is an independent legal entity operating under
title 18A education of the New Jersey statutes and is subject to the rules and supervision of the state board of education and commissioner of State Department of Education. We are not your municipal government. And these are these are why these are different.
>> I will close with another reminder of why we do what we do. >> Best day >> from preK through 12th grade and sometimes beyond working towards uh graduation day for
our students. So that That's our 26 27 presentation. >> David, fantastic job, David. >> Thank you. Thank you so much. Thank you to both um David Aliver, our business administrator, and a huge thank you to
our um superintendent, um Mr. Glover, who came in and really had to work tirelessly from the moment he got here in November on uh this uh current uh tentative uh proposed budget. And as a
board president, as a as a board, we uh even fiscal plannings and operations, we really did push back quite a bit uh to see um what what uh could be done in terms of trying to get more uh cost
savings. So, I do appreciate uh the fact that you guys were really really diligent in trying to continue the service of being fiscally responsible with the funds that we are allocated um
or needing from the the township. Thank you. >> Thank you, David, for asking all my hard questions. Okay. >> Lot of work on into the budget. >> So much work.
>> All right. So, we are going Did you have a question? Hiba, >> you sure? >> I'm sure. >> Okay. Um, we're moving on to personal and labor relations. Miss Chantel Cherry resolve that the following motions
identified as items 8 through C be approved as presented. >> Second. >> Um, can you take the role? >> Dr. Connor, >> yes. >> Mrs. Hawk, >> yes. >> Mr. King, >> yes. >> Dr. Nelson, >> yes. >> Mr. Patel, >> yes.
>> Miss Rivers, >> yes. >> Miss Stafford, >> yes. >> Miss Cherry, >> yes. >> Mr. Salgado, >> yes. >> Motions carry. Okay, we're going to move to um committee reports. We have uh two
committees that convened during the time from our last uh board meeting to this time and the first one was of course fiscal plannings and operations. Dr. honors. >> The fiscal planning and operations committee met on Wednesday, March 18th
to discuss the 2025 2026 and 2027 budgets uh facility capital projects and more uh on the budget status uh 2025 2026 which was uh last year's fiscal budget. Mr. Alivera updated the committee on the health benefits claims
cost through February and a withdrawal of emerging the reserve to help offset the over budget amounts. The district's budget freeze has been helpful in offsetting the healthcare cost overruns. administration is um reviewing health
benefit um um requests for proposal responses and will be making recommendations for changes to the medical and prescription third party administrators on um the 2026 27 budget. Committee reviewed the preliminary budget and the committee discussed the
revenue challenges. everything you just saw from the reduced state aid to the tax level increased options to the health benefit cost increases and other major cost um increases. And madam president, I want to take a moment here that if you look at the news just today
in a tap into East Brunswick was their review of their budget and even though they got a state increase, they were faced with a $5.6 million deficit and they were looking 100 positions, okay,
over the last couple of years. So, this is not unique to Piscatoaway, just so everybody understands that the health benefits cost is an issue. Hopefully, the governor will have a task force that will take a look at it. Um, facility capital projects, Scottway High School
interior alterations, a ramp, ran, handrail, and glass enclosure doors for the media center work room were installed. Um, glass doors for the new cafeteria area are expected to be installed during spring break. Books have been added to the media center. Shelves and training uh staff on use of
esports room equipment is being scheduled. The administration is planning an official grand opening at some particular point. Um, the Piscato High School intercom PA clock system training begun for the first group of uh staff up there who will test the phones.
Feedback will be solicited in the phone system will then be activated for the entire building. Um Quibbletown solar panel decommissioning. Uh the construction meeting was held on site with a contractor pending permit approval and work will begin in the first week of April. Quibbletown roof.
The projects in preparation phase and works expected to begin in uh June 19th. Uh Scott High School Quibbletown solar panel installation. As the weather is improving, the roofing manufacturer can in uh resume inspections and start repair work to the uh the Skyhal roof.
Fellowship Farms, this building, preschool alterations, the contractors nearly complete with de demolition. Asbestous abatement will begin the week of March 30th. Some walls and plumbing have started to be installed. Quotes for the playground preparation and equipment installation will be on the March 25th
board uh meeting agenda. Kakamak roof and solar decommissioning. Uh, Kanakamak had extensive leaks this winter. So, the district is fasttracking the bid for the removal of the existing solar panels to see if temporary roof repairs can prolong the roof roof for a year. Any
services and Prometheian board installations. Mr. Oliver has reminded the committee about the district's plan to install Prometheian interactive boards in the three remaining K through8 buildings, Kakamac, No, and Randol Randall. Transportation route uh con
consolidation is being reviewed. Negotiations for a modified contract renewal of Lea transportation will begin soon. Scatter high school late run buses will be reduced and other routes will be consolidated. Food services the district and Mios continue their preparation for
the administrative review. Mr. Veric updated the committee on initial contract renewal discussions and an anticipated reduction in the guaranteed profit. The committee was not in favor of an increase in meal prices for the 202627 unpaid meal debt continues to be an
issue. Public awareness. Uh, Superintendent Glover talked about several ideas for communicating financial matters, including conversation community about the budget, talking points for the board members to share with the community, and creation of um an infomercial.
New Jersey school business legislative updates. Dr. Connor, me discussed bills that did not make it out of the legislature to the governor in the 2024 25 legislative session. also noted were bills in the current 2020 2016 legis including um bills related to sharing of
pilot funds which see is a very controversial issue. I just want to make a comment is that it's not only warehousing it's also affordable housing and throughout the state uh when some of this housing goes in and kids are put into school system school system have to
absorb those costs. So there is a bill in the Senate uh uh in our legislature that is looking at the fact that if school if if if uh school districts are impacted by kids going into the into the school system that they will be you know they they get a seat at the table with the municipality of board of education
member. So that legislation is um happening within the uh senate educa uh senate uh community uh public affairs public and community affairs. Um, other things are capital project uh funding, AI surveillance systems, and a big one
uh legislative thing is vaping awareness. So, the legislature is looking at a a vaping awareness um piece of legislation. Mr. Oliver noted that implementation of restrictions on time and material pricing for public works projects through the cooperative pricing agencies. And the last thing was the
business office update. Again, being innovative with our money. I have to uh give David Olivera a lot of credit on this investment account. The committee reviewed the current balance of the February 2026 uh New Jersey asset asset rebate management statement and that is
where we can put some of our funds 20% of certain amount of our funds and we can invest that money and get returns on it and since we've been doing it David right for the last couple of years we've generated over a million dollars which can be put against these capital and projects and maintenance reserve
projects. So we are looking at uh to be innovative with our money. So, Madam Chairman, that is my report and thank you very much. >> Thank you, Dr. Connors. Next, we have culture, climate, and community relations. Uh the culture, climate, community relations committee met
Tuesday, March 24th, last night to discuss the positive messaging, community partnerships, wellness initiatives, and more. Positive messaging. Um Mr. Gary Miller shared a slideshow of the monthly themes as per usual with the quotes that are being
shown on the marquees with social media for February and March. February themes as you can recall were um Black History Month and March was uh Women's History Month. February also included Happy Ramadan.
March also included Happy Holly and Eid Mubarak. Upcoming monthly themes were shared um including New Jersey Jewish Heritage Month, which is coming uh this month in uh April, uh Happy Passover,
Happy Easter, Autism Awareness and Acceptance Month, Earth Day, AsianAmerican and Pacific Islanders Heritage Month, and Teachers Appreciation Week on the horizon in May. Superintendent Glover shared um his plans for sharing the superintendent's
report newsletter across the Skyaway community in places like the senior center, the YMCA, and the public libraries. Community partnerships. Dr. Grace shared information about various community partnerships. Junior Achievement has held high school heroes program at King,
Grand View, Arbor, and Eisenhower schools. high school students shared uh grade appropriate financial lessons with our third, fourth, and fifth graders. Six speakers from the Chanel um from Chanel spoke with to students in three
business classes at the Piscatoaway High School. Visitors um included watch makers, project managers who designed and set up uh the storefronts across the world and advertising executives.
NAACP, Matuchen Edison branch, and the AT&T hosted a black history month event uh that 40 students from our student black uh our black student union and PHS at PHS attended. Affinity Federal Credit
Union hosted our financial reality fair on March the 10th and uh approximately 170 students from PHS uh personal finance classes were uh learned about budgeting about and they were um
assigned careers with a monthly salary. They were able to navigate the expenses of a car, housing, cell phone, insurance, gym memberships, pets, etc. giving them a real real world look at what it's like when you decide to pick a particular career and what that means in
terms of your ability to make your finances in your home. Wellness services. The committee explored the possibility of partnering with the Haven for their annual family night. The Haven has not confirmed a date, but hopes to have an event in May. Uh Miss Rivers
shared details about the autism fair that was held at the YMCA on March the 20th. Her positive feedback about the event led to discussion about the benefits of learning ASL um uh American Sign Language and the value of increasing as ASL offerings or
opportunities for our students. In our old business, we discussed um Miss Khan uh one of our uh members at Arbor who's also a teacher and a parent. Uh she did receive a grant uh for community garden from the Piscatoaway Education
Foundation to establish the garden. Materials have been ordered and she plans to start the garden in May. New business, myself, Miss Salgado Cowan shared details about the board's proposed school ambassador initiative which was formerly referred to as key communicators to be launched in
September. I also shared details about um parents and teen safety drive bish night which was tonight uh at the high school for uh students against destructive decisions. The program um took place tonight at uh 6:00. I also
discussed the honor it was that uh we went to the third annual New Jersey school board's uh association women's leadership conference which I discussed in my um previous uh president's report
and how uh I was able to speak as well as Loretta Rivers and Dr. Gel Nelson who presented at the conference and that concludes my report. All right, we're moving right along.
Where are we? Let me get back to where I am. Um, public comment. So, the board of education recognizes the value of public comment on educational issues, school matters of community interest. In support of this position, the law
establishes a period of public comment at every board meeting. Individuals wishing to speak must state their name and address. Comments are limit limited to three minutes duration, but an individual may speak a second time after all others who wish to speak on the
topic have been heard. The board may require that individuals register to speak prior to being beginning of the meeting. Participants may submit written materials in support of their position. All statements and/or questions shall be directed to the presiding officer and no
participant may address or question board members individually. All speakers are requested to express themselves in a civil manner with due respect and for the dignity and privacy rights of others whose legal rights may be affected. Please note, while it's not the board's
intention to stifle comment on matters of legitimate concern to the school community, the public should be aware that if their statements violate the rights of others under the law governing defamation or invasion of privacy, they may face personal liability to the injured party. If speakers are uncertain
of the legal ramifications of their comments, the board urges them to seek guidance beforehand from their own legal advisor. So, I have anyone um from the public wishing to make any comment. Um seeing that there is none, um can I
get a motion to close? >> Motion. Second. >> Thank you. All those in favor of uh closing public comments from the floor. I >> any opposition? >> Okay. Fiscal plannings and operations. Dr. Tom Connors
>> be resolved. The following motions identified as items A through O be approved as presented. >> Second. >> Do you have a comment?
>> Um for a the special reserve fund. I just wanted to make sure what just can you explain that what that was? >> Yeah. So, the majority of it is our preschool money that is covering what we call our fund 20, our special revenue fund. Um,
that is over $12 million of that total. The rest is a compilation of our best estimates of primarily federal funding. So, you're talking about IDA money. You're talking about title one, title two, title three, title four. Um, we are
instructed to budget by the the county superintendent for those areas at about 75% of what we actually received this year. We don't know our final numbers yet. So >> that's just >> that's what that's the $16 million. Yeah. >> Okay. And talked about that the April 30th.
>> Oh, and the the schools. So all the school districts in Piscatoaway have to go through board of education for >> the nonpubliclix. >> Yes. >> Yes. And the they work with the educational services commission to spend their a lotments and they send their
requests to us for approval because the funds flow through the public school district. And for J number three >> that's for this year or this is for the following year for 26 27 the amount
>> the fellowship farms >> three and four will be actually all the items in that resolution will be approved with cap uh paid for with capital reserve withdrawal which is in a subsequent resolution and they will happen this year because we won't wait till 2627 we have to get the orders in. Okay,
>> but it's not coming out of our >> operating budget. It's going to be a capital reserve withdrawal to pay for these items. These are items that are needed for what's considered the construction project of the new preschool. >> Would it come out this year from capital?
>> Yes. I'll be taking it out after this meeting. So, in the next week or two. Yeah. >> Okay. M madam chair if I just make a comment on Dave's comment um >> because we discussed it at our fiscal and I mentioned it is item O is the approval of the group medical insurance program and so we are looking at you
know we talking about healthcare costs increase >> excuse me I I didn't finish >> oh I thought you would finish >> okay sorry no >> uh miss reverse >> all right so um L for the authorization that's the total
David the 575 795 Five for the capital improvements or that's for the rich. >> Item one is for the items for the prek classrooms up the hall. Item two is for the uh some additional equipment and
work we need to for some newly identified spots at the high school for the intercom uh clock system. And item three is to fund a professional to begin the work on the removal of the solar panels at connect.
>> Right. That's the total for all three. >> No. >> Item one is the total for item one. Item two. Yep. They each have their own numbers. >> Okay. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Dr. Connor, were you done, Miss Rivers?
>> Okay. Uh >> oh. >> Item O that we are looking at um you know the group mental medical insurance program just to make sure people are aware that We'll be voting on that as well
>> and we will be making a change there. Our our broker anticipates, you know, there's two things that this is we think are are drivers in our healthcare costs. The uh prescriptions um some particular drugs and some
specialty drugs. Um so we think we can achieve better rebates with this uh other administrator. And for the health benefits, the medical, excuse me, um we think the newly recommended provider Horizon, who
everybody knows, probably the biggest in the state, will have better pricing um for both in network claims and out of network claims. Uh this has been reviewed with the associations. We're not changing co-pays and things like that. We're merely changing the
administrator of the plans. So this would be instead of us being self-insured, >> we'll still be self-insured, but instead of Meritane managing that for us, Horizon will. Instead of CVS Caremark managing the prescription, um, Med Impact will. >> Okay, great. Thank you. >> By shopping around, we got a little
better pricing. >> We hope at the end of the day, we still pay the claims, but we hope, right? All I know is that it's not working great this year. So, >> let's try something new. >> Hopefully, it improves. So, you're voting on that. I just want to clarify that. >> Yes. Um, Mr. Patel.
A few questions. Uh, how much we have in capital reserve as of now? >> I think it's 15 million. >> I think it was 15 million, but >> 15 million >> with these withdrawals and >> the budget. Uh, I know we talked about
uh merit pay are but that's not included in today's presentation. Are we keeping it or we're getting it over? >> The uh that is still uh that is included in the final budget. >> Yes.
>> Is to eliminate that. >> Eliminate that. Okay. Thank you. >> I think that's it. >> Dr. Nelson, did you have a question? >> No. Discuss the set. Okay.
>> All right. So, uh, did we have a second? >> Yes. >> Okay. I've forgotten. So, we have a second. Uh, >> Mr. King. Gotcha. Thank you. And if we can, uh, take the role. >> Mrs. Hawk. >> Yes. >> Mr. King. >> Yes.
>> Dr. Nelson. >> Yes. >> Mr. Patel. >> Yes. >> Miss. Rivers. >> Yes. >> Miss. Stafford? >> Yes. >> Dr. Connors? >> Yes. Miss Cherry, >> yes. >> Mrs. Aano Cowan, >> yes. >> Motions carry.
>> Loretta Ripper's policy 11. >> Okay. >> Resolve that the following motions identified as item A be remove be approved as presented. Second.
>> Um, can we take the role? Mr. King, >> yes. >> Dr. Nelson, >> yes. >> Mr. Patel, >> yes. >> Miss Rivers, >> yes. >> M. Stafford, >> yes. >> Dr. Connors, >> yes. >> Mrs. Hawk, >> yes. >> M. Cherry, >> yes. >> Mrs. Sarakawa, >> yes.
>> Motion carries. >> Thank you. Curriculum for Shant Patel. >> Be resolved that the following motion identified as item A be approved as presented. >> Second. Um, can we take the role?
>> Dr. Nelson, >> yes. >> Mr. Patel, >> yes. >> Miss Rivers, >> yes. >> Miss Stafford, >> yes. >> Dr. Connors, >> yes. >> Mrs. Hawk, >> yes. >> Mr. King, >> yes. >> Mr. Cherry, >> yes. >> Mrs. Salgado Cowan, >> yes. >> Motion carries.
>> Pupil services. Gail Nelson. >> Be it resolved that the following motion identified as item A be approved as presented. >> Is that Ping or was that Cherry? >> Cherry. Got it. >> Okay. Thank you. Um
there secretary, can we please take the role? >> Mr. Patel, >> yes. >> Mr. Rivers, >> yes. >> Stafford, >> yes. >> Dr. Connors, >> yes. >> Mrs. Hawk, >> yes. >> Mr. King, >> yes. >> Dr. Nelson, >> yes. >> Mr. Cherry, >> yes. >> Mrs. Salado Cowan,
>> yes. >> Carries. >> Okay. On to administrative and auxiliary. Uh, and Miss Anika Stafford, be >> it resolved that the following motions identified as items A and B be approved as presented.
>> Second, we assume that the board members whose names are on this resolution will be deemed recused. >> Yep. >> Yeah. >> For um that's exactly what I was going to say. So, yep. >> I will note as such. You can just answer in the affirmative if you choose and
I'll note that you're saying on your own name. >> Okay. Um, can you take the role? >> Mr. Rivers? >> Yes. >> M. >> Stafford? >> Yes. >> Dr. Connor? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Hawk? >> Yes. >> Mr. King? >> Yes.
>> Dr. Nelson? >> Yes. >> Mr. Tal? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Cherry? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Sado? >> Yes. And abstaining to B. >> Motion. Carry. >> You got me for
>> Yeah, I got I got Be my be my name. >> Nancy Salado that one. Okay. All right. Very eventful evening. We are at 9:48.
Old business. Yes. So for old business, I wanted to um just address the we worked on our board goals uh previously at our last working meeting. So, you all would have in your um in your packet
tonight um these board goals as I sent them out to you earlier today. I know there was one comment on making some adjustments um from one of our members, uh Mr. Patel. Um so, Mr. Patel, would you just
address what it is that you wanted changed? >> I just wanted the board to fit uh smart uh format from the NJSBA. >> So in what and what
>> beyond the uh I give it another thought uh and I haven't looked at uh compared the current board goals as they're written with the district goals. So I haven't made that alignment yet. So I I I I don't know
>> unless somebody else here has aligned the board goals with the >> alignments I can't speak to it but what I rewrote and format and sent is uh is to align it with the
>> smart. So I did read your comments u uh Mr. Patel sent um an email to u myself earlier and uh Mr. Glover and um Mr. Olivera in terms of transcribing this
into what is a smart goal. So, but when I reviewed that, I I felt that doing that infringed a little bit upon what it is that we as board members are considering as goals and felt a little
more like um district type goals. So, I don't know if that was my impression only. Um if uh superintendent could speak to that >> uh before you do. So >> you know I'm I'm new >> right >> uh and I went through the training and
that's where this is coming from. >> No I understand. >> Uh if can I comment Madam Chair? I I was not here for the session, but I did watch it on video and I want to commend everyone for you know eventually it was a little bit all over the map but then
you came together with the wording and so on but you and I uh Mr. Patel have had this conversation and I was trying to frame it in the sense that our goals are over there. They're the board goals and the key is that they are our own board goals. Smart means specific,
measurable, actionable, resultsoriented and timely. The board goals are meant for how are we going to improve ourselves? We'll measure ourselves later in a self-evaluation. And so I felt that the way that you
ended up is fine compared to what training you had at New Jersey School Boards Association. So I feeling very comfortable with where you net it out um with your with with the board goals. >> The way they stand. >> Yeah. The way they stand. The only thing I had was that um um because we do the
strategic plan, out of the strategic plan comes the district goals which are for the administration and the cabinet so that they're held accountable when you do the chief school administrator evaluation. The goals here are for for us, right?
>> And so that's why in the past we've broken them down to buckets. Supporting, educating ourselves, communicating, and inspiring. Now I'll make a specific comment about the one that I had on the that I would like to add to the community because it it it adds to what
David Olivera said before and then on the community the board is committed to creating inclusive opportunities for community members. I think Anika you came had that was excellent. You came up with that when I watched the uh the video uh to participate in the growth and development of the district. But I would say such as allowing public
members to serve on our board committees because that is about how we are as board members bringing in the community through our own committee. So I would just wanted to add such as allowing public members to serve on board committees in the last one >> and that's that and that and that gets
added where Tom I'm sorry >> uh right right before ensuring that every voice is heard and valued. >> Okay. >> What number? >> Number five. >> Okay. >> But other than that I think you guys did a fantastic job. >> Thank you.
>> Is anyone opposed to adding the language that Dr. Connor um mentioned? I'm sorry. Number five. >> No, I'm gonna go back to Mr. uh Patel. >> Okay, let >> finish that. >> Yes, I think we're done with that piece.
And I think we were still I was still waiting for um Superintendent Glover to comment on um what Mr. Patel had mentioned about the smart goals. >> So, we don't know what Mr. Patel mentioned. So, you didn't even read what Mr. Patel wrote. So, could you enlighten
us to say what he wrote so we can understand what's going on? >> So, I don't quite understand what he wrote, honestly. Um, I could read it to you, but >> I mean, that's what we ask him to read it. >> Yes. >> Sure. >> I thought that since he wrote it, he was
going to say what he wrote. >> I I can I can read it if you want me to if I can bring it up. >> Um, so this is >> No, you can read it because >> Okay. So, I'm just going to read only one of them, not all of them. Um, so if
uh can I borrow yours because I put mine? Sorry. Um, so if you're looking at uh board rule number one, um, I'm going read. >> Okay,
>> I'm going comment as you go along. I just want to be clear. This afternoon, um, board member Patel sent over some recommendations that the board developed 2026 board goals that relate to its professional growth. These goals have been updated in line with New Jersey school board best practices and the
smart framework, specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, time bound. Number one, student wellness and well-being. By June 2026, the board will receive two public reports from the administration on student wellness indicators, including attendance,
discipline, climate survey results, and counseling utilization, and will use these reports to determine whether board whether updates to board policies related to wellness, equity, and school climate are needed. So that just it's same thing as this but
it adds a date and date is just for example we need to work on exact date with uh administration if but we're not going with what I wrote we're going with what's >> well this was your suggestion which is what she wanted to know what was your suggestion >> I just want to comment on the suggestion
to be very transparent to the board so as I'm reading it you're right smart goals have time um time deadlines and it's also measurable So the I did respond an email and I just want to be clear as to the concerns I have. The
request is asking for the administration to do something in addition to what the board would do. >> Exactly. >> And then that becomes a little challenging for us especially in the window of time that we're really talking about adopting these in April >> and then being able to provide reports. I would want I wouldn't want to put the
administration, my executive cabinet, myself in a position where we didn't meet the goal of providing two public reports for the administration and these reports are meaty. They're not something that simple so that you can best determine how to move forward with board
policies which that statement there challenges a little bit on how we go about adopting board policies. and and I agree with you 100% and that's why I said if we want to do this we will have to work with administration on on getting the dates right
>> and I and I yeah so and then that changes the spirit a little bit of what the initial one was because it wasn't about adjusting policy but it was about making sure the board saw the balance between academic rigor and physical emotion wellbeing being so I just wanted to say I'm in agreement we're always putting timelines it's what we as the
district are now becoming responsible to make sure the board meets its goals and I don't want to be in conflict with that respectfully and without having the board understand our limitations. Um, number two is about education board professional development by December
31st, 2026. 100% of the board members will complete all required NJSBA, New Jersey school board association training and the full board will participate in one New Jersey School Board Association facilitated governance retreat focus on roles, responsibilities, monitor and district goals. I personally did not see
anything wrong with that as that is about the board's actions and what you're going to do to meet compliance with that. Number three was around communicate transparency and public engagement. By March 2026, the board will adopt a board communication protocol outlining how major district
initiatives, financial updates, and facility projects will be communicated to the public. The board will ensure the administration provides quarterly public financial updates posted online within seven days of presentation. So in that one we already have kind of missed the deadline, right? But then that last part
again puts my administration under the the challenge of the board will ensure >> which is some tricky language. The B I think everybody on the board understands when you say the board will ensure, >> right? >> The administration provides quarterly public financial updates posted online
within seven days of presentation. I actually think that we provide financial updates monthly >> at the board meeting. So I think that might be a little bit of a overreach. However, that's just my explanation, but other than that, the that timeline
already has passed. I think we'd be in a little conflict. Inspire didn't see anything there necessarily that was challenging. Um, however, the board will determine whether the policy revision on a new equity goals are needed to support the UI, we inspire initiative. Um, I
just think that sometimes it's about are you in um agreement with the policy committee and how we roll that out when that comes up. Again, that's just something that may take time and developing policy versus adjusting policies that are already on the books
is just a another statement for thought. Community inclusion number five, community inclusion. During the 2526 school year, the board will host two structured community engagement opportunities to gather input on district initiatives. A summary of community themes will be shared publicly at a board meeting within 60 days of
each event. Again, that's just putting more work on collectively because I think that the board and the district administration will have to work on that. But again, we're talking the 2526 school year. I just had to have a point of clarification. I thought the board goals were for a year.
>> Yes, they're for a year and they would start from now and go until next January. >> Right. So there there there's just some overlapping dates and I think we wanted to clear it out before we would add that. So don't want you to think that we weren't paying attention to it. Um I spoke with David Alivera, our board
administrator, just to make sure we're clear, but I just wanted to make sure we didn't have any. >> That's why very in in the very top part I said we would have to work >> with administration because this is not >> right. >> So >> not realistic as it is written. So
that's what was shared with us today and that's what we wanted to comment on. But I think >> I don't want to be disingenuous for the work that did take place. Yes. Last month, >> right? >> Or earlier this month at our board meeting, right? >> Two weeks ago. >> And and making sure that the work that efforts and energy that went in, we have
some goals. >> I just speaking as superintendent have no problem with adjusting them, but I think we should start having some goals in place >> that we can begin to work towards >> then. and then make adjustments along the way
if we need to. >> So, I personally when I when I read the adjustments, they to me felt like it was a recreation of pretty much every single one. And I did not feel comfortable um
since everybody sat here and worked on these goals collaboratively uh to just sort of you know um re reimagine them. Uh there were some
tweaks from our last meeting to this meeting which were really just uh sort of language and and uh cleaning up some uh few things. I think that although the intention is
wonderful, um not sure that a lot of this really is aligned with what exactly the spirit of the five goals that we worked on collaboratively before. They have the same intention and I get the
idea of making them measurable. I think that's wonderful. I just don't I I I don't think that this really comes exactly close to the flavor of what what we had. So I just want to put
that uh out there. So I'll leave it to the uh you know eight other board members. It's currently 10. It's currently um you know time for us to discuss that. >> One more thing. If we keep it the way it is, number four, uh, just remove O.
>> Remove what? There's an O in front of the word inspire. >> It's removed on the copy that's in your >> Oh, yeah. There's no O. >> It means Oh, inspire. >> I'm looking at L. >> The hard copy in your folder. It should be removed.
So, um I that that's uh I want to say if anyone else have anything to comment. >> Madam President, >> yes, >> I I will commit that my administration will work with the board to ensure that in order for the board to meet their
goals, we will do our best to support and provide supporting documentation. I think transparency and we've seen that and hopefully you're seeing that in my short time of being on the board that we're going to support you and give you what you need so that you can feel prepared when you meet with the public and that you can be held accountable and
you can hold each other accountable. So we will commit to that and we have no problem as they say giving that additional addendum to the board goals so that we can say here's a what we commit on our side but we're we're we're committed to supporting the board and making sure you meet your goals. >> I'll just add a comment. So I think two
weeks ago we all sat here and worked comprehensively together to come up with this. So you know now I know that there's some ideas and things that came along but you know when we all sit collaboratively to put together this
type of work we should honor that. >> Exactly. >> All right. That's just the comment that I have. >> I agree. I'll just add to that I got an email today morning saying this is a draft if I have any feedback that's why I
provided the feedback >> okay >> and I'm okay with as it is or with what I wrote with what I wrote I'm we need to be mindful that that's the dates I wrote on that is not
doable we would have to work with Mr. Glover and his staff to get the dates right. The dates I have and what I wrote is just for example and I make that clear in the beginning
of the piece of paper and I'll forward it to you all tonight. >> Okay. >> Madam President, I I I agree with um fellow board member Courtney after reviewing the video,
>> right? Um and I had said before I think that it was a collective agreement at the end after a long period of time and to honor that and then the way in which you s whoever summarized this and that's why I said I'm I am in agreement with this and um and to move on because it's
a one-year period and during that one-year period is it's implicit that there are times it's a one-year period and these are things that we're going to be doing you know the master finishing the master board certification you know, having public uh members on our committees communicating we're going
to be doing all of these things. I think where um my fellow board member uh Pashant goes to a lot of the training and a lot of the training there are people that may not have had you know goal setting things like that and it's
it's a fluid it's a fluid thing. These are our goals that we feel we're going to do and then we evaluate ourselves. There's no if we don't meet any of those goals, nothing will happen, >> right? >> What's important is if we don't meet the dis not we if the district doesn't meet
those goals then there are implications for like you know uh the chief school administrator which is the superintendent evaluation. That's why they're laid out that way. They're laid out that the the most important ones are the district goals right that we
>> help uh help them achieve. these are our specific ones to make ourselves better. Uh and and that's why we go after the training. So I but I agree with you. >> In addition, you know, a lot of these trainings, they're they're state based, you know, and
>> we're not the normal state board, you know, where Piscatoaway is a model board and we're not going to always do the way the the things the way the other boards inside the state do because we're we're pretty much above that bar.
Okay, >> I have a comment, >> Miss Miss Rivers. >> Yes. So, I appreciate Mr. Shant tell giving his input, right? I see the meaningful is a lot more meat on the bone that maybe we cannot do but maybe
we can implement within the course of the year because when we do the what Dr. Connor asked of us for the school board being a master board uh program we implement that right when he asks. So Mr. Patel is only asking us to implement
certain things as we go along throughout the the year. And if someone asks us to review something and he reviews it and he feels though that it's important for his views to be projected, I don't I would wish everyone would have that same
type of, you know, courtesy for all of us sitting here as well. But I do agree on the sentiment that we did work together on this couple of weeks ago and I just think this is the summary and you more done an SOP for us. Mr. Patel, but
we can do you know the work of the district. So I do appreciate all of you. >> Absolutely. I think that uh you know Mr. Patel taking his time to really delve into and looking at um making it more
specific and weighty is um something that is commendable. With that being said, uh I want to know if there is a motion to accept um the adoption of the 2026 board goals as they
are. >> Sean has to stand up. >> Yes, sir. >> I was going to say motion. >> Oh, sorry. >> Okay. Motion by Mr. Patel to accept the adoption of the 2026 board goals as previously um stated, Mr. Patel, or as you've
stated? as it is printed on the paper. It's >> without without Dr. >> Without the dates >> without Dr. Connor's >> without the dates >> without >> with the amendment >> with Dr. Connor's amendment of course.
>> Okay. >> So the board goals that were in the folio with the couple of words of Dr. Connors which I have as number five community. The board is committed to creating inclusive opportunities for community members to
participate in the growth and development of the district, such as allowing public members to serve on board committees, ensuring that every voice is heard and valued. Through collaborative initiatives and shared resources, the board will work to build a strong united community that supports the long-term success of its students
and schools. >> So, that's agreeable. That's the motion. >> I agree. Okay. >> Is there a second? >> Okay. Mr. King, the second. Is this a yay or a nay? Or is this a a roll call? >> Roll call.
>> M. Rivers. >> Yes. >> Miss Stafford. >> Yes. >> Dr. Connors. >> Yes. >> Mrs. H. >> Mr. King. >> Yes. >> Dr. Nelson.
>> Yes. Mr. Patel, >> yes. >> Mr. Cherry, >> yes. >> Mr. Sagato Cowan, >> yes. >> Okay. So, the motion to adopt the 2026 board goals passes.
>> Okay. Um, in old business, I have the next board retreat um is scheduled for April, Thursday, April the 16th, which is the next time um this body will meet, is Thursday, April the 16th in this board room at 700
p.m. um for the purposes of um boardsmanship. and um I will send all out to you guys what the agenda will be for that particular
um meeting. Madam President, again I know that you know it's getting late you had mentioned to me that when you guys were having the discussion about there was some uh about the uh inspire program and where that came from. I will wait
until that retreat to inform you about that. But I do have a handout that she has that you can take. So bring this with you to the retreat and so we can have a discussion of it because it is a program that obviously has worked for the last 10 years for us and I will just
give you a background of the of how it came about. >> All right. >> So um uh Mr. Glover is going around with the um the article. There's also a video that it lives on um on our uh
>> it's on the website. >> It's on our website. So, I will um tag the video and I will send that out to you guys as well. So that the focus of our next um retreat will be reviewing the I we IU we inspire as well as um us
coming up with our why of why we do um our board and boardsmanship. >> All right, that is that and next. Any other old business? I believe that um Miss uh Cherry might have had some old
business in reference to um just reporting back from our last uh meeting that we had with the >> um >> presidents and vice presidents >> in your folder there was a print out
which everyone self-explanatory participated executive session in addition to that at the workshop We were able to engage with districts from across New Jersey and hoping conversation. Um surprised that so many
districts that do not have committees or that run committees still in person, they're not doing them virtual. Uh in addition to that, comparing Bergen County and the issues they deal with versus Middle Sex and Mammoth County and
the issues they deal with. Uh it was interesting and eye opening. At the same time, you have smaller districts that face less problems than we do because of their size because they have a capacity of students of less than 500, but yet
they have more turmoil and have just as many board members, which is kind of odd. body of governors is having seven and nine members and you only have 500 students. But in addition to that, it was just good to be there to talk to everyone, to have round robins, to have
small group conversations, and to see what the state was thinking and where they're thinking where we may need to go fiscally as far as making regional high schools, uh, school districts combining in order to reduce the amount of administrations and so
forth. I personally don't see that working too well unless you get two or three small districts merging together, but that's just my personal belief. Um, but it was a very good day. Uh, very informative and a lot of takeaway from it.
>> You want to add to that, Nancy? >> Um, I think that that was pretty much it. Thank you. Um, Madame Vice President, and any other old business? >> Okay. >> Oh, yes. Miss Loretta Rivers. >> Uh, no. I just wanted to say um great
job to Dr. Connors. He did the NJSBA legislative committee uh two weeks ago Saturday and he um chaired the meeting and you did a great presentation, Dr. Connor. >> Well, thank you. >> Thank you. Thank you. And and I and I and I it was such a the person we had
there. I'm sorry. We had like the chief of staff >> of the new department of education commission. >> Oh my gosh. Thank you. I mean >> as an in Oh, >> thank you. >> All right. Thank you.
>> All right. And uh moving on to new business. I have uh one thing that I had sent out to the board members to think about um going forward. uh in many boards over the um in the state are
being charged with um resolutions or thinking about resolutions in terms of rank cho choice voting. Um and so I did send that out. It's a sample from I believe it was South Orange Maplewood.
Um, and I do want to um have uh Miss Rivers talk a little bit about that because she also being the delegate assembly um person will be in seeing this live when we go to the delegate assembly.
So um if anyone doesn't know about rank choice voting u you saw it live uh I would say example would be in New York mayoral you know um candidate just now they do rank choice voting and what it is is like now that we here in
Piscatoaway you know you just vote one person but with rank choice voting you get the option to rank your vote for one two and three or four whoever how many people and The choice is 50%. Whoever wins at 50% of course is the winner and
then the one who's at the bottom less votes they get dropped off and then their votes go to the next choice of the winners. So it gives them more of an opportunity to get the percentage of the 50% to win. So if we um do it here, a lot of New Jersey school boards are um
getting on the board to do the rank choice voting. So thank you um pres madam president for bringing the resolution here. So once we read it, I'm pretty sure when we're going to read it and then come back, >> right? >> Right. >> For our next meeting, if we are all all on board, we can talk about if we want
to do that. >> Can I just >> Yes. >> I think it should be discussed in policy. >> My recommendation I think the policy committee to to discuss that >> and then we can also have our attorney present to make sure we're following everything according. I know you're a
part of it, but bring it in policy just to make sure because then it could live in policy. >> Okay. >> Okay. Just my recommendation. >> Yeah. And madam chairman quickly because you and I had this discussion so people see the bigger picture about resolutions is that say on this you know vice
president legislation New Jersey school boards I oversee the legislative committee which oversees the resolution subcommittee. This resolution was submitted for the May delegate assembly. In the past year when madame uh vice
president was president, I was able to pull her into New Jersey school boards to become the legislative district 17 person for that committee. She's on the resolution sub subcommittee. So Chantel will be reviewing and I'll be chairing
the meeting. This will be one of the resolutions. And so what we've had a gap in on on our own local school board is how when these resolutions come from other school boards and eventually make it to the delegate assembly, we as a body because you're going to have to
vote whether we you agree with it or not because where it goes is into a manual of positions and policies on education that is to the school boards that uses good for advocacy for the legislators.
So there is a manual. So I believe spot on that it should probably go through there. But during that discussion decide how we as a board when other boards are putting together an issue. The other ones are immigration, special education
pilots, school funding, statewide procurement, monitoring, governance. There's a lot that we have a position on it and we have not had a a way yet to figure out as a board before the delegate goes have a position on it. So
that should be part of the discussion. >> That sounds good. So these are new things that we're going to be you know champion as um going forward. So just some stuff on the horizon. >> I didn't mean to give you more work Adam Rivers. No.
>> No. I'm just saying that you know our we don't have a meeting in April but May will >> No, we have a meeting. Oh. Oh, the um policy meeting. >> Yes. >> I would like to but I'll talk to >> Okay. >> You were reading my mind. I
>> Yes. I was thinking >> you were in there. You were not in there. >> Okay. Um any other new business? Anyone? Anyone for the good of the order? Okay. Uh can I have a motion to adjurnn? >> Motion. >> That was uh Miss Stafford and it I think
Miss Abahaka is giving us the second. >> And with that being said, all those in favor of adjourning say yay. >> Yay. >> Any nays. >> Okay, we are journed.