Regular meeting of the fitment board of education was advertised in the South Jersey Times posted at bar hall. A copy thereof delivered to all pitman schools to be posted and posted on the district's website. Further notice was posted and follows required by law student board meet and close session at 7 p.m. in the pitman high school media center. President shall entertain any objections with supporting reasons to
the contract of this meeting on the ground that violates the open public meeting act. Seeing none, good evening and welcome to this evening's board of education meeting. Please join me in a moment of silence. Thank you. Please join me in the flag. I pledge algiance to the flag of the
United States of America and to the republic for it stands. One nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Mr. Miles, will you please call a role? Mrs. Bolton here. Mrs. Farrell here.
Mrs. Higgbyono here. Mr. Gman, present. Mrs. Miller here. Mrs. Papalardo here. Mrs. Post here. We have a quorum 70. Thank you. I'll turn it over to Mr. Wild and Dr. P.
Are you guys Oh, no. You guys want to do it? Yeah, we can go right in the finance. That's all right. That Yeah. Sorry about that. No, that's my fault. Okay. Public comment. Pitman public school board recognizes the value of public comment on educational issues and the importance of allowing members of
the public to express themselves on school matters of community interest. This is the first of two public comments we will have tonight. The first public hearing is on agenda items only. This is a public comment and not a dialogue between the board and the public. You have three minutes to speak and is your opportunity to comment or ask questions. In accordance with board policy number
0167, we we ask that you state your name, municipality of residence, and group affiliation of alpha. If you recognize speak, please stand to the podium located to my right and speak clearly into the microphone. Seeing no one, that will take us to correspondence. Mr. Miles, do we have any correspondence? We have no
correspondence. Thank you. I will now move to accept a motion for the minutes of the Pitman Board of Education as held on the dates listed below are approved as printing and reading dispensed with. May I have a second? Second. All in favor? I. Any objections? I
abstain. And any abstension? That's noted. No others. Okay. All right. President's report. Um the board wants to thank Mrs. Nichols and Mr. Finley, the student council um student members and the staff for the invitation to this year's staff
appreciation dinner. Um, the board will be wearing sneakers next year so that we do not come in second place at the scavenger hunt. I'm not making any accusations, but I would like to see a copy of the rules and we may place a board member on a select team next year
to monitor said team as they progress through the building so that we can assure pardon. You're never going to beat they're never going to let you beat them. We're coming for I don't know. Well, I saw Melissa running was out in front. I have faith.
I have a lot of faith. And we also want to sincerely appreciate the board the staff members who drew the short straw and had to be on our team with us, which is hyperco competitive. Um, on March 25th, Dr. Preston, Mr. Miles, Mr. Civiano, Mrs. Higiono, and I were able
to attend the assembly budget hearing. You can find a copy of that on NJ Ledge website. Um, I believe the district also posted it. Mr. Mr. Miles and I were able to provide testimony to the assembly regarding this year's um fiscal year 26 proposed budget on the 26th. Um Dr.
Preston, Mr. Habibiano, Miss and I, Iono and I were able to go to Newark to Njit for the Senate hearing. Dr. Preston and I were able to provide testimony as well. After the hearing, we met with Senator Berichelli. As you know, he's our legislative district three representative. He's been a vocal
supporter of our schools. We certainly know that we have our work cut out for us, particularly next year in light of how this year's funding formula was calculated. Um, one, there's a couple different pending legislative actions that I wanted to discuss. We discussed it on April 23rd. I attended the New
Jersey School Board Association Finance Committee meeting. Um, I'm a member of that committee for the NJSBA. um Senator Gopal's legislative action 3917 which would codify some of the things that we saw this year in the how the funding formula was calculated. Um
some of which some things were removed like for example the tax cap relief as they're calling it was one of the things that they had initially put in the um bill that they've subsequently removed. The explanation for why it was removed is that the full assembly is up for re-election this year and it was not
advantageous to be advocating for property taxes to go up. They're pretty transparent in the reasoning on that. Um, it talked about extraordinary special education funding, something that we've talked a lot about, and it would have attempted initially to have codified a fully funded roll out, but
already within statute, the um, special education extraordinary aid funding is required to be funded at 100%. It simply isn't. So, codifying it wouldn't add any further teeth since it already exists in statute. So, there's no real purpose in
um, making a roll out like that. There's a yet again a conversation regarding hold harmless aid kind of what we experienced as an SU district where we faced like a rolledin reduction of our state funding. This hold harmless aid would be similar to what we saw this year with three and six% caps on gains
and losses in certain categories of aid which would create less volatility in the um school funding formula as we've seen it play out in previous years. the three-year average while was something that we had previously advocated for is really not helpful because if they
continue to change the multiplier um it doesn't really impact us. So to give members of the public something that we've kind of commonly discussed uh a reference point to that this year the multipliers helped increase the local fair share of what the state allocates the local taxpayers of Gloucester
County's property taxes as it pertains to school taxes should be increased by $91 million in one year which is pretty astronomical for a county of our size and that's what the funding formula increased our local fair shares across um the county. So that's something that
we've talked a lot about that works out to about $300 for every man, woman, and child in Gloucester County. And that's above and beyond. Gloucester County has one of the highest levels of fidelity as it pertains to raising their local taxes. They do we do a nice job across the board in our school districts of meeting our um expected contribution
from our local taxpayers. So this is just kind of an area of concern that we continue to look at. An item that I did want to address that we talked about was this what they're calling um tax cap relief which would have allowed Pitman, for example, to go up about $500,000
above and beyond what we're already um you needing to utilize an increase for property taxes. The state incentivized that with about a $20 million pot of money to encourage districts to raise closer to the local fair share. Um, we as a board feel like our community has
done a fantastic job of supporting our schools and just recently with an outstanding turnout at our referendum vote and how they have continue to demonstrate their willingness to fiscally support what our district needs. And so when we're looking at that
$20 million pot, they have anticipated that if all the districts who are applicable for that program would apply, the state would need more than hund00 million. So it's likely to be prrated. So, in our scenario, that property tax relief would have yielded about $23,000 had the state fully funded that pot of
money, though it's unlikely they will because we've seen some big numbers coming out of other districts. So, hardly a match. Yeah, hardly a match. Probably about $5,000, but we would have uh of state aid, one time, state aid, but we would have further burdened our families by about $100 a household,
right? So, that wasn't something that our board was even willing to consider. um are we think that the bigger area of conversation needs to be focused on legislative advocacy as it pertains to local fair share. The next item I want to bring to everyone's attention is the delegate
assembly. Uh Mrs. Bolton is attending in place of Mr. Gman. I'll be attending as well. You also have a virtual attendance option. It is one of the criteria for several of the different u classifications for NJSBA certifications is attendance at the delegate assembly. You can listen in virtually and receive
the same level of attendance. I think it's very interesting. Mr. Gman has served in this capacity for what, two years, Mr. Gman, as our as our delegate representative. His oldest son is graduating with his master's degree. So, congratulations to Alex. So, Mrs. Bolton
is filling in as our um alternate, but it is something I think is really interesting. It tells you some of the the bigger talking points as it pertains to the NJSBA. Um I It's May what day? 10th 10th May 10th. Thank you. It's a Saturday morning
Saturday. And um another item that I want to bring to everyone's attention on the 5th I'll be attending the county leadership dinner in Trenton for the NJSBA. But on the 6th we have the Walster and Camden County NJSBA dinner. I'd like to know who else would like to attend. Um I know I'm
registered. You guys you two cannot. I I I know. Of course. I know if it weren't um county leadership voting. It's okay because it's one per district. Oh, okay. So, we just need one vote. Um, but if it weren't county leadership, I I know I'm going to have to So, I have to be my
name. I'm like I'm getting my new board. I don't Oh, new board certification. Oh, good job. That's great. You won't be there. We need like what are they called? The like fattheads on a stick. Yeah. Because Yeah. Well, congratulations. Thanks. I
know. Mrs. Pavlard is being recognized. Mr. B is being recognized. think I'm being recognized um for C various levels of certification. We'll hold this line up. All right, there you go. Is that good? Um Mrs. Bolton, are you able to attend on the six? Possibly. Possibly. I'm still game time decision. Game time
decision. You like game time decision. I know. No, it's a lot. I It's prom next week, so you're really busy. Yeah. And the spring dance, so I got a lot of clients. I as somebody who's helping add to that, I understand. I'll say um okay
so if the rest of us want a carpool I know Mr. Gman you typically meet us there but we can certainly do so and then the last item that I want to put on everyone's um radar is that we need to discuss availability at um the next board meeting for members to come early
in which case we would need to adjust our um our meeting notification to arrive early to work on the CSA review process. We are very belated this year on that. I apologize. Uh it's got to be a good sign.
Perhaps it could be bad. No, never. People never wait to say bad things in my experience. All right. So, who has availability prior to the meeting next month? Mr. Gman, I know that for you, how much are you?
I think I think Mrs. Papalardo and I would probably if the board's comfortable with it with it work in committee in advance um to do some of the pre-work but we would send out your individual board documents. Um Dr. Preston fills out his you all fill out
yours. We kind of compile them together and review it and create one cohesive document. Um so if we all can agree it's a short turnaround time to complete that in a timely fashion in advance of that meeting. I'd say 45 minutes should be sufficient. So 6:15.
Well, no, because it would Oh, yeah. So 6:15. Sorry. Yeah, that's fine. So it' be prior to our next our May meeting. So May 21st, we're doing 6:15 instead of 7. Correct. Okay. So we would meet um open the meeting at 6:15. Can we
make it six o'clock? Actually, yep. Okay. Okay. Let's make it 6 o'clock and then we'll immediately go into executive session. Um are you bringing dinner six o'clock? Are we bringing dinner? I heard Miss Bolton's bringing dinner. I'll be home eating dinner. You get out. Yeah, she should make us
dinner. I I would agree. Between her and her sister, I'm going to Chick-fil-A platter. You know what I mean? Just have Chick-fil-A to do an email with a link for the NJSBA website because it goes
through NJSBA, right? Right. Yeah. So the NJSB. Yeah. So Mrs. Papardo will send out the email for all of you. Um we just need to fill that out prior to so that then we just go over the results the night of. Correct. Okay. Correct. So and then we will need to schedule a time with Dr. Preston after that and he'll complete his self-review to review that
information with him. Oh just we go over that. We create like a master copy that comes from the entire board. Right. And then we need to make sure that it is logged for QAC and presented to Dr. press in prior to it needs to be on inter meeting minutes prior to end of
year. Got it. Okay. 30. So we're we're cutting it a little closer than we like. I got it. Yeah, we got it. So all right. Is that good for everyone? So if uh six o'clock on the 21st got it. Perfect. So we'll revertise that meeting and like I said, we'll go
into executive session first just as a board and we won't need um anyone else here at 6. we can open it, take notes and all that jazz. And we'll just reconvene at seven o'clock and if we need to go into a second executive session for any relevant issues. Okay.
All right. Um May 21st. All right. So everybody's good on that. We have the list. Sorry, I'm just looking through to make sure. I had a far longer report, but I saved you all a lot of the fun from the uh the finance committee. Okay.
And student report. Oh, superintendent report. Yes, super. No, I could do I could do them both. Um, my report's fairly brief. Um, we had one reported HI, one confirmed HI, uh, we completed all statutory drills. They're on that report as on the report that you can see online as well. I just I did I did meet
with, uh, Becca and Aubrey, our student reps to the board. Um, they are in Florida enjoying themselves. So they did send me a report um uh for they got to Memorial and PES but then they were packing and we it was a last minute meeting that we had right after spring break but zoom them in. Yeah, we should
zoom in. They should stop seeing your trip. Come on out dinner, right? Um Memorial uh they wrote HSA and staff held a book fair for all students who were interested in buying books. Students participated in the kids heart challenge led by nurse Fields to learn more about heart health and how how they can stay stay healthy. the school hosted
its VIP breakfast. Uh that was great actually in which students could bring their own VIPs to enjoy breakfast at the school and share what they've been up to. It was great to see a lot of people out there at that. Um at PES the school celebrated administrative professionals day and recognized Mrs. Mackane, Mrs. Hy
and Mrs. Carr. Um and then of course uh students had the opportunity that we had a really large turnout for take your child to work day. Um it seemed like every staff member that had children did bring them out and it was a great environment. Uh, I brought my own kids and uh, they kind of fell in love with Pitman, too. So, Dad, can we come to
Pitman? So, I don't know if my wife allowed, but it's it's in the car. It might be in the cards, but it was it was a fun day. Um, so that was their report. Um, uh, I also want to, uh, I did host yesterday the Gloucester County Climate and
Culture Consortium, uh, which I I'm just a participant in that. That's a new, uh, committee that's been formed among the county that's led by county officials. Um, one of the big one of the big pushes uh uh was a month ago the county runs a
um we'll call it a student roundt uh teen summit they call it and we had about 15 students attend that from from Pitman uh where they discuss pertinent issues um anything from mental health to academics to collegiate admissions but the students run it and it's completely studentr run the thrust is to get more
student voice out and about how do we push that into the school you know into the or model it at the school schoolbased level. Um and it's just kind of I guess you can call it a think tank of sorts and um and it's it's great. Mr. Mr. McAfee attended the teen summit uh
on Pittman's behalf with the 15 students as well. Uh so we uh I did host that yesterday. Um our central office construction has has begun uh sort of um it's it's getting there any day now. I mean, there's some some people coming
out with permits and uh from from the from the town um permitting office and so we're excited to get started on that. Uh we we did find out from last meeting to this meeting, I'll talk about it a little bit in the budget presentation that our uh the Elk School District
lease is ending. Um and so we will have that annex free at wall at the wall school. Once we move it the central office down to the old library and computer room, we'll have an opportunity to to uh contact contract with a broker,
perhaps get some um other tenants in that building and and realize those revenue streams again. But we do have some challenges right now. I'll discuss that in the budget presentation. Um that's all I have for my report. So any government agency, right, any educational agency, right? Any nonprofit
could potentially rent that rent that space. Yeah. Yeah. All right, that's great. We had we had some interest too from school districts in particular. Well, actually I should say some uh you know even service educational service providers as well. So we could reach out to them as well. We have some avenues.
Okay, that's great. Okay. All right. Great. So that is going to bring us to our budget presentation. It's Mr. Miles, right? So, Mr. Miles tells me that this is the the one meeting of the year where
technically I'm not presenting to the board in ju solely. I'm presenting also to the public, right? And so, I get to kind we we kind of positioned ourselves over here because we're presenting to the public even though we're really doing this every single time. We feel that we feel that way, but really this time we're presenting to everyone, the
board and the public. Um, so welcome to our our budget presentation. We the last presentation we did was the tentative budget. Um, this was the one that is submitted to the county for final approval. Um, so we're going to take you through this. Uh, M I'll kind of discuss some of the, you know, really the design
of the budget, the goals of district leadership, our really our involvement with uh, uh, pea. We tried to be very uh, transparent with at every at every twist and turn. uh you know when we had challenges presented about what three weeks ago when we we found out elk lease
was ending uh we'll take you through that and then Mr. Miles is going to present some of the tech more technicalities uh present in the budget as well. All right Joe am I doing a good job talking in the mic? Okay. All right. Um really really also I want to say
despite the fact that this is a statutory requirement to present this uh all districts across the state have to do this either tonight or this week prior to May 7th I believe. Um you know I know I can speak on behalf of the board as well in saying that we really view this as an opportunity to continue
our pursuit of open, transparent, honest communication. Um you know that's kind of just something we constantly talk about you know in private anytime we we we we see each other. it's, hey, let's let's get this information out. And it's it's a constant question in my leadership team. Are we getting this
information out to people, um, I like to think that, you know, sometimes the lack of emails that I'm getting from from people asking clarifying questions is a good sign. I have my monthly super a superintendent brief. It's called it's called a brief because it's a we're I'm briefing the community on what took place at the board meeting. Not
everybody can get uh get, you know, get here. And so that again, another thrust there is just open communication. People want information even if it's bad. Um, and that's really something that I know was started before my arrival here and I applaud the board on that. Certainly a selling point for me um, in even coming
to Pitman a year ago. Um, all right. So, let's dig into uh really our our what district leaders, our board really wanted to do with this budget. Um, and and and kind of in in a really large collaboration. Um, so we we really have
three boil down to three budget goals. We want to maintain the highest quality services possible and continue to offer and enhance our existing programs to students. Um we want so about 70% of our budget is allocated to personnel. So again we keep that in mind. We had we
deal with a lot of human capital. Um so keeping in mind raising rising health care salary, tuition costs uh in the most fiscally responsible way was a crucial part of our budgeting process. Um, a word we use often in our uh team
meetings uh with with staff with w with uh district leaders, board board leadership is efficiency. Uh my wife always like to she she likes to throw around the fact that she's lean six sigma certified. Some people might know what that is, particularly if you have an engineer, some engineers, some government officials. But really getting
lean and efficient in processes, eliminating variations, eliminating redundancies, creating processes was really part of this and what helped us to achieve a balanced budget. Uh certainly want to commend Mr. Miles, the business office. Uh we're pretty lean,
but um we got this done and in in short order. So really something that's uh a goal of ours is to do that. Uh we did have some challenges, right? Effects of consolidation from a couple years ago. I really want to take a second too to um I know he's not here, but I do keep in touch with them. I actually been
coaching golf with Mr. Crispen. But really hats off to um Mr. Crispen, my predecessors, his his entire team. I know Joe, your mom was part of this, but some really difficult decisions that I didn't even have to make that I've been the beneficiary of moving forward. I
can't take credit for um really really that were in this position um you know was it was really some tough decisions the board made um that in hindsight were actually really good and you probably at the time when you made them were thinking I don't know this seems this seems desperate and drastic. Um we're
kind of at the point now where we might some of the challenges we might face is where our enrollment's climbing. What do we and I'm getting the questions now well what do we do now? Our our kindergarten class Mr. call to be were talking and I were talking about this this morning as approaching 100 kids. Uh
what do we do now? We now we're going up and that's a good problem to have. And so um you know I'll talk I'll talk a little bit about that but I I do I do want to uh thank my predecessors and and and the teams uh that came before me. Uh like I said the elk lease is ending. So
another challenge some news that we received. Um I I I know she's not here tonight but our newly appointed junior senior high school principal. I said what are we going to what are we going to do now? right when that happened and she said, "I want to give you a book." Um, and it's uh it's by Ryan Holidayiday called uh The Obstacle is the Way. I
don't know if anybody's heard of it. I highly recommend it. During spring break that one Monday we were off, we we were dealing with other issues. But in while we were dealing with the issues, I was reading the obstacle is the way and it's really good. And it's the idea that let's look at challenges instead of challenges, look at them as
opportunities. And that's how really big corporations got built, you know, that's that's how Bill Gates built Microsoft. That's how Jeff Bezos beat built Amazon. And look, that's not what we're doing here. We're not a for-profit enterprise. But let's look at these obstacles as opportunities and how can we turn that
into an opportunity. I I started to allude to it. Um, hey, Deli is no longer uh wanting this lease, but perhaps we can we can get once we get into the new central offices. we have a whole a whole building that we can advertise um to to a potential new tenant um and and might
be more attractive and and perhaps I like to I like to be a glass half full kind of guy. Perhaps our revenues are even increased um and we're talking about what we can just add constantly here and and and and really building back. Um and so we're excited about the
future even despite the challenges. Um certainly the passage of the referendum I continually need to thank this community. the fact that it passed two to one um on a cold January day was was really um really a testament to this community, its faith in the schools um and and and certainly really thrilled
there. Um uh this district is, you know, it's really promising signs. Another another promising signs we have and she's not here tonight. Um but I just talked to Miss Stewart. I believe we have uh only six students going to GCIT from 8th grade into 9th grade. So just a
handful of students going there. So those efforts uh certainly you know teachers are in our midst tonight. Um that's a collective group effort um you know to to really kind of promote and market. One of the first things they said and u Mr. Calabiano and I in the first staff meeting we just kind of
listened. We were here at the high school with the junior senior high staff and they said people just need to know what we're doing here because it's great. And so we said all right well let's just let's just get some let's get some uh marketers in here. Let's let's help market this. And um it's really it's really it was kind of lowhanging
fruit and so we were we were excited to do that and it's certainly the fruits of your labor that I think in those metrics for sure. Um um a couple uh a couple things I want to talk about in investments in education. This is what we're here for. Sometimes we need to remind ourselves we get lost in sometimes, you know, broader
politics. we get sometimes lost in uh you know you know you know the nitty-gritty uh the operating uh aspects of the building but really the one of the first things Mr. Miles said I think at the beginning of the year to the teaching staff and Mr. Miles was a former superintendent was really the
most important thing is what the teacher that's in front of your students, right? And and the experience your students are getting on a daily basis and that's really top of mind for us. And so really wanted to just have a slide up here on in how the budget supports the really the strategic plan that the board set out the goals that we have as a
collective. Um one uh we we have no cuts to any programs. um matter of fact enhancements to many uh very minimal impacts to staff. um maybe so minimal such that staff the
staff members that were uh they they saw on the board agenda tonight the all the renewals and all that they were like well why are we being talked about tonight said well this is just standard this is just standard course of action but there's no impact you're good and so I think there's there's that collective relief that we see among staff which is
great again just a just a side relief for everybody which is great um so but we are poised to really en enhance uh our educational opportunities in a lot of ways we're able to add a full-time position of uh VP um athletic director.
U we're in the process of of uh um interviewing candidates right now. A full-time VP and director of student services. Same thing there. They'll be on the the the um May board of education agenda for approval. Um uh we anticipate that. So, we're excited about that as
well. So, certainly some enhancements there. We added yet another preschool classroom. Again, some creativity from, you know, Mr. Miles and Mr. out the piano and teachers and Miss Miller down at Memorial. That's one of the reasons we moved out of Memorial. I think on that was my second week in on the job.
We just packed up shop and and got over got evicted, right? But it was great. It was again what what is best for students and what is best for this community and that's that's kind of our our motto. Um so we we this will account for another 15 students. Um previously we had a wait
list. Uh that will no longer be the case. So, I'm happy to report that as well. We'll be purchasing purchasing a new math program at the high school, an effort effort led by Mr. Calabiano, our director of curriculum instruction. Uh, I want to thank our new IT staff, our new IT supervisors. We now also have a
new Chromebook replenishment cycle. Um, security enhancements. I mean, it's just as much of an investment in education, a security investment that began will begin this summer, will be a muchneeded security vestibule at PEES this summer. Um and lastly, we continue to make
curriculum enhancements to our three high schoolmies. Teachers there have been on fire and seem to keep uh getting grants, attracting students, and thinking innovatively. We'll continue our efforts to market these wonderful programs to both Pitman families and non-resident tuition students, the
latter of which uh continue to grow. And so, um we're we're really excited about the future. And um I'll let Mr. Miles talk about the more exciting parts of the budget. Thanks. Yeah, I think that was the more exciting part. But all right, so I'm going to get into just some of the uh particul part
particularities, I think that's a word, of the budget. So, um this is something that I enjoy. I'm going to try to hopefully make it enjoyable for you. Uh but I'll briefly go through it. So, we did have some budget challenges. One of the things that really I believe helped
us is we intentionally implemented what's called zerobased budgeting. So, what that means is instead of just looking at an expenditure line in this current budget and saying, "Oh, well, this was budgeted at $100,000. Let's just add 2% to it." We
actually went through each line. We have more than 400 expenditure lines. And we did a diagnosis on all those lines and looked at the past expenditures and tried to best project what was needed. Some lines needed more than we thought than we originally anticipated. some
lines needed much less. So, it really allowed us to get down to the nitty-gritty. Um, if there's any fat, not that there was much. There's, but in any budget, you can find little pockets. If there was any fat, we cut that out. We believe we did that, but we also, like we've said, we don't want to cut
into the muscle. So, we preserve the muscle. Um, but really tried to through zerobased budgeting, uh, budget every line exactly where it should be. We had to address the loss of approximately $340,000 in stabilization aid. That was
a one-time uh uh gift, you could call it, from the state in this year's budget, but that is gone. Now, we did see an approximate $180,000 increase in the other state aid categories, but that's aside from this
loss. So really, it's an overall net loss of approximately 150 to $160,000. That's something that we needed to address. We really are trying to rely less on our reserves and our fund balance. Those are essentially, you
can think of them in layman's terms as savings accounts. So, for the current budget, when I say current, I'm saying 2425 where we're currently uh living in this budget, we brought into this budget approximately 170,000 from our
maintenance reserve to close the budget and we brought in approximately 1.2 million from fund balance. Um, and that helped close the budget. So for the for next year's budget uh which we're discussing now, we brought in less in
both of those categories, which was a hard thing to do because it's actually it represents another hole because if you bring in less from your savings, you know, then you have to you have to fill that gap. But we believe that that's a prudent thing to do to rely less and
less on those accounts because they're not recurring every year. they they they will come to an end eventually if you don't take your foot off the gas and replenish. So, that's something that we think is setting us up for success in the future. We also have five schools,
in case you didn't notice, and some of those schools are 100 years old and one of the things we really wanted to do was address maintenance needs. The referendum is a great way to do that. It's really helping us on uh very, very
necessary projects. But aside from the referendum, in the yearly budget, we increased our maintenance expenditure allocation. So next year, we're proposing to go up about $60,000. That is needed. And it's going to allow us to get kind of ahead of the
eightball, if that's a phrase, not behind the eightball, but be more proactive and not reactive. And Mr. Morris has been great, and we've worked together on that. Okay. We really tried to maximize the preschool expansion aid.
We received this really helped our budget. We received an additional $400,000. I have all these categories going and I apologize, but our preschool expansion uh aid is essentially a grant. It's separate from our general fund. It went
up. We received $400,000 more for next year than we currently have this year. So, we were really creative in using those funds. they must be utilized for the preschool program. We can't take the money and, you know, invest it here at the junior senior high school. But there
are ways to be creative to creatively, even though you're it's still allowable, creatively move expenditures from the general fund into that into that grant, which then gives relief to our operating budget, to our
general fund. Okay. We did the same thing with food services. I'm happy to report we're making we're making money in our our food services account. Our cafeterias are profitable. That's great. But we want to reinvest that back into our cafeteria and creatively move
expenditures from our operating budget into our food services budget. We did that as well. All right. And then uh lastly, another specific is we did go to cap. What that means is increasing the local tax levy to 2%. We were very
mindful. We really try to be mindful of, you know, balancing both. We want to preserve all programs. We want to give our kids the best education possible, but also be responsible to the taxpayer. So, we were we did go to the 2% cap based on some of those losses I already
spoke about. And we did avail ourselves to a to a healthc care adjustment, which allows us to go another 1.29% above that. in addition to the 2% for a total local tax levy increase of
3.29%. Now, that's not the t that's not the same as the tax impact. I'll get to that uh at the last slide. We were allowed to take a greater healthc care adjustment which would have further increased the local tax levy. We didn't take that entire adjustment because
again we wanted to be uh responsible in our use of funds. Our health benefits went up a little shy of 11%. It's actually in the agenda today. It was a huge hit. So, this did help us close the gap. But just so everybody knows, we didn't we didn't take the whole thing
because we wanted to really kind of walk that that tight rope there and and keep both considerations in mind. Okay. Why did we go to 2% and then take that healthc care adjustment? We have a revenue imbalance. This is really what we're dealing with. And this chart, I
think, really shows that picture. So the two main revenue streams that we have are our state aid and our local tax levy. There are other miscellaneous revenues that we receive. You know, rental income, admissions at at at uh
sporting events, interest income, but it's really kind of minor and small compared to these two main revenue streams. So in 2223, Pitman schools received about 7.1 million from the state and the local tax
levy was just just above 15 million. And you can see the percentages. It's about a 2:1 ratio 1/3 2/3. The next year you can see that the state aid and this is what Mr. Crispen and and Mrs. Rose were really dealing
with the the decisions they made have helped us today. Um because you can see that precipitous drop off in the state aid of about 1.5 million. And then the local tax levy doesn't make that up. It can't make it up. Um and so the total budget decreases
from 22.3 million to about 21.3 about a million dollars. And now you're getting closer to not two one but really three to one. you're getting almost like a 25% to 75% ratio in our current budget
now 2425 that's exactly where we are. So you can see how it's it's the state is stepping away from Pitman and the onus is more and more on the local tax levy and the local taxpayer uh
specifically for next year where we are slowed a little bit thankfully but you can see that our state aid goes down about 150,000 which I I spoke about and then our local tax levy goes up about 500,000 and we're seeing a little an
overall all increase of about 3 to 400,000 if that if that is clear and if that makes sense. So that's a challenge that we had. We just want to be very transparent with that because this the the revenue imbalance the shift is happening from the state to to
Pitman. Okay. One other thing I'll just show and and then we'll I have one more slide after this. I promise I'll be brief. Um we are really trying to manage the spending. So this this slide gives an idea of basically how the how the
money is allocated among the general fund. That's just our operating budget. A the special line that's just grants. That's all that that means. It's it's the special um funds or or grant
fund and then our debt service fund. So in 2223 the total budget was 28 million and you can see the breakdown in 2324 when we had that big drop off in state aid things needed to
adjust and you can see in the operating budget the general fund there was a big drop off just to let you know too the one of the reasons the special fund is so high is because that was a lot of the uh American relief plan American rescue
plan ESSER funds uh in 22 23 and also 23 24 and it's also our preschool expansion aid is in that special line. Okay, the current budget, as you can see, it's pretty consistent from 2324 to now. It went up a little
bit. For next year, the proposal, and I want to explain this because you might look at this and think, wait, that goes down. And it does. As you can see, the overall budget is actually, even with the tax increase, our budget is tighter next year. We really trimmed as much as
we could and tried to preserve everything we could at the same time. It's a little It's actually overall if you look at the operating budget, it's an exact decrease of $745,830. It's a little deceiving because almost all of that
745 is because in our current budget, we brought about that amount in from our capital reserve for one-time projects. So, that's a one-time project. It really doesn't it's not recurring. So, when you remove that capital reserve amount that
was brought into this year's budget, we're about at the same total budget next year as we are this year. Hopefully, that makes sense. But we I'm just wanting to let everybody know that we're trying our best to be prudent, to be mindful of the taxpayer, and also to fulfill our duty to our students and our
staff. That's what we're really trying to do. All right. The last slide I have here is the preliminary tax impact. So you can see for um Pitman homes, we have the assessed value on the left. I highlighted the average assessed home in
Pitman. I want to just say that's an assessed value, not actual value. Usually that's well below the market value. But the uh average assessed home in Pitman is 239,000. And with the budget for next
year, the monthly, and again, this is preliminary, but the monthly tax impact on the average assessed home would be just shy of $8 a month. Um, and that won't be finalized for a few more months when home values are
finalized, but that's what uh that's what what what could be expected is what I'm trying to say. Um, and then last, but certainly not least, just want to thank everybody. If there's any public comment, we'll we'll certainly hear that at this time. But I put these pictures up here because this is why we're here.
This is why we do what we do. Uh schools are not built for adults, for business administrators to have jobs, even though that's a wonderful thing. They're built for the kids. And that's why we're here to serve our students. And so at the end of the day, we're talking numbers, but
they have an impact. And uh those students are the ones impacted. So thank you. You do want to open the floor if there's any public comment. Yes. Okay. There's anybody who would like to participate in public comment on the budget. Please go to the podium located to my right. State
your name resilation if applicable clearly in microphone and we will do our best to have Mr. Miles and Dr. President answer your questions. See not any questions from the board. Thank you question. Thank you very much. That was very clear. Yeah, I feel like
we've had a lot of opportunity to digest the information and present. Thanks for your involvement. Yeah, certainly team team effort. Y dream team. All right. Well, then I am going to take it to so we need to move a motion.
Yeah, we have to set we have to vote on this separately. one item on the first item there. So, if I could move item one, item three. I'm sorry. Pardon? Items one through three.
It's a little confusing the way that is. Okay. Yes. So, if I could make a motion to approve the following resolution as written under the public hearing on budget. I have a second. Not. Okay. Any further discussion?
Seeing none, Mr. Miles, please call the vote. Yes. Mrs. Bolton, yes. Mrs. Farrell, yes. Mrs. Higgby, Iono, yes. Mrs. Mr. Gman, yes. Mrs. Papalardo, yes. Mrs. Poe, yes. Mrs. Miller, yes. Motion
carry. Thank you. All right. Finance facilities. I'll turn it over to our chairman, Mr. Gage. I wasn't ready for that. forgot my password. Finance and Facilities Committee met on April 23rd at 3:30 p.m.
In attendance were myself, board of education members Mrs. Higgbyono and Mrs. Miller, Superintendent Dr. Robert Preston, and business administrator Mr. Robert Miles. We discussed the corrective action plan regarding the surplus of food service account funds
which can only be used to support the food service program. This surplus was identified in 2023 partially due to the pandemic funding for meals. The district will be using the funds for a new refrigerator for Memorial's growing population, a new service line at the
Pitman High School, and for food service employees salaries. We discussed the ongoing bills that we are waiting for. The ongoing Wow. That's why I pushed That's why I pushed the computer away.
No, I I don't want to admit I get old and need reading glasses. We discussed the corrective action. By the way, we discussed the ongoing bids that we are waiting for and the existing bids for both the referendum
projects such as the partial roof replacement and parking lot and track drainage as well as current facility needs such as the Pitman Elementary School security vestibule and administration offices necessary at Wall School. Capital res capital reserve
funds will be used to pay some of the vendors that have submitted invoices and upon receipt of the bond sale funds we will replenish the capital reserve funds. This ensures our vendors are paid in a timely manner. We discussed the Pitman Police Department's ongoing
support for our district and wanted to say thank you to Chief Mleier McAir. The Pitman Police Department and the Pitman Public School District's partnership is an exceptional example of municipal and school districts working together to ensure the safety and
security of students, staff, and community members. With that, I move to approve items 1 through 22 as written for approval. Can I get a second? Any discussion?
Okay, seeing Mr. Rousey's All right. Mrs. Bolton, yes. Mrs. Farrell, yes. Mrs. Higgby, Iono, yes. Mr. Gman, yes. Mrs. Papalardo, yes. Mrs. Pope, yes. Mrs. Miller, yes. Motion carried. Thank
you. Okay, curriculum instruction. I'm going to turn it over to our committee chairwoman, Mrs. Bolton. All right, my computer's gonna die. So, let's see. All right, the curriculum instruction committee met on April 23rd
at 4:30 p.m. Um, the meeting was less than an hour. It's a pretty light month. In attendance were Dr. Preston, Mr. Caliano, Mrs. Miller, Mrs. Pot, and myself. Um, we discussed some of the items on the agenda tonight. Number seven is the comprehensive
uh equity plan which Mr. Calviano headed up. Um he informed us of the professional development that staff um will be attended by inspired instruction. You'll see that on there too. Um number nine and 10 on the agenda
uh show how we will be using the leftover title one funding to hold a summer program for grades uh students grade one through seven over the summer. We are still working out the details on that um as far as teachers availability
and um just getting some feedback on things, but we are very excited to be able to host um some summer tutoring for those kids over the summer to kind of give them a little push over the summer months and we think it'll be great. So stay tuned for details for that. Um and
that was it. With that, I'll make a motion to approve items 2 through 38 as written. and second post. Okay. And if I can turn it over briefly, I just want to um kind of a bittersweet moment for sure, but I just wanted to draw uh
everybody's attention to items 17 and 22. Um uh Mr. Miles uh we're accepting his resignation tonight. I want to thank Rob for his time. It's been brief, but it's been a lot of fun. Um Mr. Miles has uh accepted a position in Clear View
Public School District. um and clearly regional I should say and uh just really appreciate everything you've done here. I I know I know echo the board would echo that. Also want to introduce uh Mr. Datus uh Rob's replacement. Um certainly um uh that's the sweet part of the
moment. Uh Mr. Stratus is currently business administrator in Pensrove Carney Point. Uh he brings a ton of experience. A former uh president of Gloucester County uh business uh business administrators uh roundt Association. Um, uh, Rob describes him as a tactician and so we're really
excited to bring him on board. Um, he has worked in, uh, previous districts. He's been in school finance for 19 years, but he's worked also as a business administrator in Sweetboro Warwitch for six years. Um, so we're really excited. So, um, yeah, thanks. Welcome. We're excited to have you. Um,
Mr. Stratus will be starting, um, July 1. U, Rob will be done June 30th, so we have plenty of time, uh, to ensure a smooth transition. So, welcome aboard. Thank you. Okay.
Um I'm sorry, Mrs. B, you moved items two through, right? Yep. Okay. Sorry. No one second. Pardon? I did. Oh, you did. You did. Oh, any discussions? That's where we ended. Okay. Mr. Miles, please follow. Right.
Mrs. Bolton. Yes. Mrs. Farrell. Yes. Mrs. Higgbyono. Uh, I have to abstain from number 27, but yes to all others. Okay, number 27. That's noted. Mr. Gman, yes.
Mrs. Papalardo, yes. Mrs. Pope, yes. Mrs. Miller, I abstain from number 37. Yes to the rest. Okay, 37. And motion carried. Thank you. Okay, it's good to get us to communication and policy committee. I'm going to turn it over to our committee chairwoman, Mota. The communication and policy committee
met on April 23rd at 5:30 p.m. In attendance were Mrs. Papalardo, Mrs. Frell, Dr. Preston, and myself. The policies uh that were discussed and approved for our first reading last month are on the agenda to be adopted this month. And the
committee also discussed possible revisions needed to other policies, but we will have more on that later. Yeah. Yeah. And with that, I move to adopt item number one as written. You have a second.
Second. Any discussion? Okay. See, Miss Ros, please call the bill. Right. Mrs. Bolton? Yes. Mrs. Farrell? Yes. Mrs. Higgby, Iono? Yes. Mr. Grossman? Yes. Mrs. Papalardo? Yes.
Mrs. Pot? Yes. Mrs. Miller? Yes. Motion carried. Thank you. Okay, that's going to take us to our third public hearing. Um, to be recognized to participate in public comment, please stand at the podium located to my right, speak clearly into the microphone, and state your name, municipality of residence, and group affiliation if applicable.
Please limit your comments to three minutes. Okay, seeing none, is there any old business? Any new business? Okay, I will entertain a motion to adjurnn. So move a second. Second, Bolton. All in favor? I the
opposition. The next board of education meeting is scheduled for May 21st. The board will meet in executive session for a personal matter at 6 p.m. and go into our generalized executive session at 7 p.m. with public session starting at 7:30. Thank you, John. I'll tell Dan we need it.