Rich, we're gonna start. I He's coming, I'm sure. I >> um >> Oh, he texted he'll be late. >> Okay, but we'll start and then um Mr. Donnie will be coming in. He's he's just
running a little late. So, uh, may I have a roll call, please? >> Mr. Donnie, Miss Handy, >> here. >> Miss Malli, >> here. >> Mr. McMood >> here. >> Miss Broen >> here. >> We have a quorum.
>> Please join me in a flag, salute, and pledge of allegiance. I aliance nation under God, indivisible, with liberty, justice for all. Pursuant to the requirements of the open
public meetings act, advance notice has been given to the star ledger, the record, and the clerk of the village of Ridgewood. In addition, notices were posted in the office of the board secretary and in all school buildings. Welcome everyone. And I just um wanted
to clarify for everyone who's here and listening um that we have three public comment periods today. The first uh public comment period will follow after I make
this brief introduction. And that's just general public comment. You can talk about the budget if you want, but you might want to save um comments on the budget or if you have questions
in your comments for after the budget presentation because then there'll be another public comment um on on the 2627 budget. And then finally, at the end of the meeting,
we have another opportunity for public comment. So there are three al together. So um just just to advise you of that. That said um I'll open the first uh public comment uh now. And if you come
to the microphone or are you're going to speak remotely, please do so by um telling us your name and your municipality. Um we request that you keep your comments to four minutes or less. Um and that is
so that everybody has an opportunity and um we won't engage in a dialogue back and forth during public comment but we are taking notes and Dr. Shores is very good about um
answering questions when we can and also um you know just giving clarification if that's what's required. So just so you know um sort of the structure tonight um at this point I will open up for public comment and and let the record show that
Mr. Donnie came. Thank you. Uh so uh that that's good. So thank you. All right. Um, comments from the public at this point. Okay, seeing none for just the general public comment. Um,
all right. So just a reminder that if anyone has a comment about the budget, it would be great if you do that um during the hearing so that we can relate that comment to uh any budget discussion. Okay. All right. I will close public comment the first one.
Remember we'll have two more and we'll go to the public hearing on the 2627 budget. Um and Dr. Schwarz and Mr. Matthews will be uh doing the presentation on the final budget.
I'm going to move some out of the way. Good evening everyone. I'll go ahead and get started while we're uh waiting just for the presentation to take up on the screen. Thanks everyone for joining us here tonight. Members of the board of education, administration, our student leaison, members of the public uh and then other representatives who are here
with us tonight. Thank you all so much for being here. This is the final budget presentation and this represents the final budget hearing. If you're not familiar with uh school budget procedures, we have uh two primary phases of the process. There is the tensitive budget and there is the final
budget. The tensitive budget is the budget where we have to submit a budget to the community to the board to the department of education and then we have to advertise that budget. That is the budget at which we actually set the numbers uh that we need including the tax levy. So the tax levy increase is
actually determined at that meeting. Uh it is uh then there is the final budget hearing. The final budget hearing is where the board uh clarifies its final intentions with respect to the budget and then authorizes the budget in its final and advertised state. Uh this is
uh so this is an opportunity for anyone who's here to to uh to to take part in this process to pure their thoughts before the board votes. And again, this does constitute a budget hearing. As many of you know, this has been a very challenging budget process. We have had
um significant health care increases uh like I've never seen before, which we'll talk about in the budget. We've also seen for a second year in a row a decline in our state uh state aid. Um and then of course uh we have a variety of other factors um continuing to go up.
Salaries of course continue to increase. Um uh and then of course we have um rising special education out of out of district placement costs as well that we're we're trying that we're being diligent to be able to maint to to contain. And uh of course we want to
make sure that our students who are uh who require special services to the best of our ability we're educating them here in district as well. Um tonight I'll give the presentation. Uh we will at the end get into a conversation uh for anyone who wants to comment. uh it's not
going to be a discussion per se and that uh people need to make comments but I will make do my make my best effort as Mrs. Broen referenced before to provide some level of comment just for clarification purposes. If we're talking about uh there there are some staff implications in this presentation. Uh
because this is a public meeting and staff members are entitled to confidentiality. We are not going to be able to discuss the specifics of any particular employees or share any information that really identifies any specific employees explicitly. Uh certainly members of the public are
permitted to speak or reference employees if they so choose. um especially if they're advocating for someone. Um but please recognize that we are going to be limited in our ability to respond with specifics. So without further ado, I'm going to go ahead and get started on the presentation. Um Mr.
Matthews, before I get started, did is there anything that you wanted to say? I know you've uh this has been been quite a budget process for you and your team. >> Yeah, thanks uh Dr. Schwarz. Uh just so everybody understands that it's been a very very collaborative process with the budget. budget actually starts around
July August time frame with putting together a budget calendar and uh setting out directions to the schools and to administration in terms of like what are we looking for in terms of trying to be able to manage a budget with certain constraints. So one of the things that we started out with was um
asking for like non-essentials and non- salary items to be reduced like by 10%. because we were still kind of working with um not sure about our revenues for the year, but we started the year with a projection that we would have a 5% reduction in state aid, which is a key
driver for us being able to balance the budget as well as obviously the tax levy. So, we started the budget process with the idea that we would lose 5% in state aid. We lost 3% last year, but we just wanted to be safe in terms of putting together, you know, projections about the year. So we went through those
whole projections and we came up with like a budget gap for the year to start the whole process and um we started meeting with different departments and administrators and going through every line in their budget multiple multiple times. We scheduled meetings for two
hours and three hours and reviewing the budgets and obviously attacking non- salary not positions not not people and working with each department to find efficiencies and making sure that looking at their trends over the last couple years and finding ways where we
can make reductions without reducing programs. And some of those ways we were able to reduce uh reduce non- salary was looking at actually how we were being built over over time. some of the um bills that we were getting were paid over two or three year contracts. We're
paying a lot of money upfront and so we would contact the vendors to renegotiate those bills. So we were able to reduce non- salary through just efficiencies through uh negotiations working with um our energy people to to look at energy costs and how we could uh impact energy
costs. looking at busing, transportation, every every line in the budget we looked at and um then we were able to receive our numbers and then obviously work with the human resources regarding the district control meaning the people the routes and the salaries and the benefits. Um prior to getting to
this year we uh last summer started the process of an RFP process to get out of the state health benefit plan. So we were able to get out of the state health benefit plan um November December of last year we counted the plan which save the district 1.6 6 million. We're able
to bundle health benefits and dental to save that $1.6 million. So, that's helped us arrive to a point now where we can come with a balanced budget. It's no reduction really in programs. Um, some impact of staffing, but u we feel that we were very collaborative and looked at
every possible scenario, put everything on the table for discussion and had committee meetings with the finance team and met with every board member multiple times. just constantly vetting the budget and the numbers that were being presented to um to the uh
administration. Thank you. >> Thank you, Mr. Matthews. So, if you've seen some of this presentation before, um we've done this several times now. We did a preliminary uh preliminary presentation before we adopted the tentative budget. We went over this at
the tentative budget. I also went over a draft of this presentation or the the tentative budget presentation at the last superintendent coffee. We've made a few updates to the presentation. So, I'm going to move through it a little bit more efficiently than I have in the past. U I will stop spend a little more time on the slides that are new for
tonight. So, we've talked about we have our board members here um who are all present with us here tonight. The objectives tonight are to present the final budget. We want to provide some various analysis uh to to assist stakeholders in understanding the budget features and context. We also want to talk about some of our costsaving
strategies and we want to recommend the final budget for adoption. Uh so we're going to go over a few highlights here. Um we do are still operating under vision 2030. Even though we have some financial setbacks, that vision process that we did with the community is still paramount in our
minds. We are focused on articulating clearly what we expect for all students to be able to have as their as their quality education uh in Ridgewood public schools uh and their pursuit of excellence and and keeping the tradition of excellence. Uh we want we're going to be we're focused very much on balanced
climate and culture. Of course, obviously we're focused on our infrastructure facilities and tonight's all about our finance. Uh we of course want to make sure that we're supporting Mr. Matthew said we've made a strong effort to make sure that all of our educational programs are not uh are uh are still moving forward and we are
supporting them with these with this budget. And then of course engagement tonight is very much about engagement as well. Some statistics if these if you're interested in these types of statistics um about our rankings and uh the success that we've had with our students we will
certainly be talking about that more at the state of the schools address which will take place in June. So please join us for that. This is a new slide. We wanted to illustrate for everyone that the fact that we are experiencing declining enrollment. Uh so I want to be clear. These are the grade levels yeartoear. So
you see fluctuations between the grades. That's because they're actually different cohorts year-over-year. But you can see our overall uh or overall felt trends. Um it looks like uh at the elementary level we have a little bit more of a of a of a of a tighter trend, but we are feeling it throughout the
district. I will say for next year, it was pointed out by a board member that it seems to be a pretty significant drop year-over-year, but we do each year have um we do have we do pick up kindergarteners between now and uh September and the new year. So that the kindergarten numbers will bounce up a
little bit and sometimes lower elementary will will pick up too. Uh this this additionally just memorializes some of the many things that we are looking to accomplish with this budget and moving things forward. We've already launched the rep program which is the district's gifted and talented program. It's really a
service-based program that serves all students depending on their needs. We also have uh are supporting the uh implementation of a new uh science uh ELA curriculum for K5 that is aligned to the science of reading um and a variety of other uh excellent transitions. Uh
you know I'm speaking for uh Mr. Ross. Mr. Ross, there anything you wanted to highlight here before I move on to the next slide? Thank you, Dr. Schwarz. Uh, no, just, you know, as you, as you touched on, we've had a very successful first year of the Ridgewood Enrichment program. We're very excited about the K5 ELA
program, which will be coming and offering, uh, systematic explicit instruction in in literacy. Uh, same thing with science at the middle school level. Uh, that's going to be an excellent program for our students. Uh, and we're just continuing to move forward with uh, the transition work
that's been so important for our kids success. Thank you. Thank you. >> We also uh are really continuing to move forward in making sure that we are having maintaining a very inclusive school environment and supporting all of our students with special needs. Dr. Ben, did you want to say a couple words here?
>> Thank you. Um yes, we're um been working very hard um on truly our inclusive practices. Um, uh, Alicia Pavone has been working with Brian Ross, um, on, uh, various focus groups and aligning
some of the more of the curriculum and using special ed to embed on the MTSS, uh, scales of, uh, tier one and tier 2 interventions. I think that's one of the most significant things. as well as the family partnerships. We have been um
intentionally working with our CPAG and our family groups and having uh I think a third round of all focus groups uh student um parent and staff um in order to gain more information regarding that and there'll be more of that on the um
when we speak of the board goals. >> Thank you. >> Thank you. And then of course we have many accolades for our students. We're very very proud of our students. Some of our some of our students are with us here today. We were just talking about AP tests and uh congratulations to Gra. Is that were those your last APs today,
Grace? >> And then I have um I think it's like three more this week and then one more next week. So, >> all right. Full full load. Well, good luck. I'm sure you'll feel uh you'll feel accomplished when you're done with all those. But uh but this is the season our kids are taking all their tests and uh you know of course our students
consistently do well and of course we have here we wanted to acknowledge many of the extracurriculars and sports programs that we have in our schools. Uh we of course have we're maintaining a very competitive set of offerings. Um, we had talked a little bit about possibly contributing to some
programs that don't receive full funding from the board. And although we've we've identified some interest in in in in helping more, uh, this current budget environment is not one where really we can. So, we're working with those programs and doing our best to to provide whatever support that we can. Um
because we value all these programs and how successful they are for our students uh and the opportunities they provide them not only to just have a more rich school experience but also to learn uh character and learn hard work team effort and then also for many students
um it even pro provides pathways and opportunities uh in in the collegiate environment as well. And then of course we have many many different um clubs and activities. Only a few are referenced here but we have many many more. Um we we we are going to
talk about uh an effort in this uh in uh strategy in this um in this process. We are looking at there there are a lot of clubs students love to create clubs at Rididgewood High School. We do have a few clubs that are uh that are that are on the books but are not necessarily uh fully fully in flow. our our very
popular, very well attended clubs are still supported in this budget. Um, and I know uh, Miss Handy, we have a Cambodia club on here. I know it's near and dear to your heart. But let's get to the budget overview because that's that's a primary point of concern tonight.
So, this chart was provided before. It just shows how our expenses are broken out by function. So, this is not um necessarily looking at like salaries and health benefits because they're in this view. They're actually baked into each function, but you can see that um well,
I'm sorry, employee benefits is broken out here, but administration, um school support, plant and property, uh we have people, uh and their salaries broken out through all those, but you can see the distribution of focus. Um you know, one might say, well, why isn't it entirely
instruction? Well, maintaining uh 11, uh building sites is uh is a lot of work. Um there's a lot of coordination that goes into what we do. So instruction is definitely the primary focus of everything that we do. There is just like just anyone who's a homeowner knows uh there's a lot of responsibility and
challenge that comes along with that too. We want to make sure that we're being good custodians of the facilities and the students that we have. The big story this year of course is health benefits. Um we're talking about in the context of one year but I think you can see my cursor here. This has
really been a two-year trend. Last year we were able to absorb a really significant increase um largely thank thanks to the efforts of the facilities committee Mr. Matthews and his and his finance team uh who were able to really mitigate a lot of uh a lot of the pain that we could have been experiencing
over these two years had we had to stay in the state health benefit plan. So this is actually inclusive of that savings. We absorbed a lot of it into this current school year but the rates have just continued to go up for next year. Um actually this number would be even higher because if if we hadn't um
gone through the efficiencies that we had gone through because uh that reduced our obligation to health benefits with the efficiencies that we found was reducing some positions. This is a very technical slide so I apologize for anybody who finds this overwhelming but I did feel it was
important to actually be able to enumerate the total operating budget for the district and has changed over time. Uh it says 2% on here, 2.21%. That doesn't mean that our budget has only gone up, you know, all of our expenses have only gone up 2.21%. Uh it's a
reflection of the total budget, which includes capital projects um and other things that are like unique to each individual year. But the reality is that uh that these if you look into the userfriendly budget, if you look into the advertised budget, uh these numbers will add up and check out. So I wanted
to make sure that people could see how the money was being allocated. I did update the commentary down here working with the team and working with the board of education. Um we did feel like it was important to make sure that we were being a little clearer about what some of the drivers are across all the different functions within the budget.
So again to be clear, we have an increase of about 2.45 million uh in our health benefits over in the current year. If you see employee benefits here, you'll note that these numbers are a little different than on the prior slide. Down here, you'll see it's 1998.
Uh that's that's because the prior slide was just just health benefits. This includes dental benefits, vision benefits, and then of course some pension contributions that have to be made as well as um as well as unemployment insurance and FICA. Um
even after reducing positions, which we'll talk about in a little bit later, um we still have because of u people's entitlement via their contracts for for in salary increases a 2% increase on our salary lines. And then of course we have
um uh some instructional increases as well. So you'll see that the instruction line of here is going up by 4.7%. That also includes uh non-salary curricular expenses which I referenced before to the ELA curriculum and science and also an increase in out of district placement
costs. This is uh the revenue side of the same budget. So you can see these numbers tie out here. It's the same percentage increase. Um, and then this shows where our where our uh revenues come from. You'll see there's not in addition to there being an increase in costs,
there's also been a loss in revenue in some categories. For example, state revenue here. You might notice the tuition line is going up. That doesn't mean that we're incre we expect to get over half a million dollars in additional tuition. This line just includes our budgeting for subscription busing. We'll talk about the difficult
decision uh to discontinue providing courtesy busing for some routes. Um and so as a result of that, we're replacing them with subscription busing. So rather than cutting that on the expense side, it's being added here as a revenue. That's one of the that's why that's going up. Uh the tax levy, you can tell
by numbers, represents the majority of our revenue that funds our school district. And so as a result of that, after all the cost savings that we went through, um we are presenting a 4% tax levy increase, which I'll talk more about that in a little bit. There have been some conversations in prior prior
meetings uh particularly about uh this prior year incumbrances number and there was concern about well how does this reconcile with how does 2526 figure reconcile with the 26 27 figure? I just want to be clear this this 1.6 6 million
here. These are expenses from the 2324 school year that had to be paid out in 2526. So these are almost entirely paid for. This money's already been spent and it's represented I'm going to go back a slide is represented across functions
here in these expenses. So this act this additional revenue this is not like just money that we just that we just find or we receive. This is literally from the prior year and it only goes to fund expenses from the prior year that we had to pay in this year. So, um, Mr. Mr.
Matthews, you want to just what are some of those functions again? Do you want to share them with everyone? And I think it was it was we had some facilities projects in there. >> Yeah. Yes. You get you get you get build late basically. You're saying right.
>> And our and the end of our fiscal year is June 30. So Oh, sorry about that. Thank you for catching that. He speaks loudly. I couldn't tell. >> Yeah. >> All right. Mr. Matthews. Okay. So, Mr. Matthews was just was just saying we talked about prior incumbrances that basically we have bills that don't get
paid in a prior year or we get build late. we still have to make payment and June 30th is the end of our fiscal year. So any bills that come in for the spring into the summer still have to get paid. So we have to transfer funds that line up those bills into the current year budget to pay the last year's bills. And
actually some projects are not done yet. So we might be incurring expenses now that may triple into July but we've incurred the money in the fiscal year the current fiscal year. So when that bill gets closed out or a deficit closed out it may get closed out in the following fiscal year bill gets closed
out it's build and there you go right >> so and we also just for the finance committee we have we do have the auditor coming to talk about this just to make sure that we totally understand what our process is at an upcoming finance meeting I also included at the bottom here some additional information just to kind of call out these numbers I've
referenced already subscription busing um where we we budgeted against a revenue potential revenue line of $539,000 um that is going to be that expects that we're going to get full enrollment and subscription. We're going to be sending out we're finalizing um the the routes
that are being identified as a subscription eligible and those who are no longer receiving courtesy. We're sending information I believe are we we're going to be uh we have a follow-up meeting tomorrow. I believe we're on track for notification if not this week, next week so people can plan accordingly. Um but if for some reason
we don't have the if people are not interested in the subscription busing then we will likely cancel our route which to offset the loss of revenue or cancel some of our routes. State aid is declining as I said before I highlighted that there. Um and then I
did want to call out the fact that you know this is a this is a budget process that we still have to look at for next year. uh we have been drawing on our reserves and drawing them down and we are still using reserves to fund our capital to fund our maintenance uh which as long as we are generating surplus
that's not really an issue because we generate surplus for maintenance and then we spend the money from from maintenance for maintenance which is is a is what you're supposed to do. The problem is that if we stop generating surplus then we can no longer fund our maintenance and then we have a bigger issue. Um we don't have a reason to
believe that we're not going to have some surplus this year. We did an early budget freeze um but it will likely not be this level of surplus that we've had in prior years and I do not expect that this particular budget that we're talking about tonight the 2627 budget is
going to produce much surplus at all. Um so to close the gap we're taking efficiency measures which we'll talk about a little bit more and the tax levy increase proposal is 4% which again I'll I'll describe in the next few slides. I would call out we do have some capital projects that we've identified. We do
want to keep chipping away at these and while we have money in maintenance and capital, we certainly want to put it towards these. So, we are looking at doing a tennis course replacement which is failing badly and is uh becoming a real problem for our teams. Um some bathrooms that are really egregious, some classrooms that are really quite
dilapidated and then of course working on HBAC improvements and exterior improvements as well. So, uh, for those who are not familiar with how the tax levy works, um, since, uh, the, uh, the reforms that were put in place in in, uh, the 2010 to 2012 era
under the Christy administration, school districts gained the ability to, um, not put their budget up for a vote, but rather, um, increase the tax levy uh, through a vote of the board of education by uh, 2%. And 2%, as you often hear,
the 2% cap. Um however the state does allow boards of education to to raise they give them waiverss to to exceed the 2% cap under certain conditions. So we sometimes would get an enrollment waiver if our enrollment was going up. We would
also potentially get as we've seen now a waiver if our health benefits were increasing dramatically. That is what we're seeing right now. And so the board has received some waiverss for health benefits which we'll talk about in a minute. But what I wanted to show was the history of the board of education in
in their votes uh with respect to the tax levy and I wanted to give some level of comparison. So for many of you who are familiar follow economic trends you are likely aware that uh in the years the immediate postcoid years uh with the stimulus packages that were initiated by
the federal government uh while there was some benefit there was also a real trigger in inflation and so consumer price indexes which is what CPI stands for is a reflection of the of the relative price of goods and services and
so when we are here and we are looking at uh how we've been increasing ing our revenues in the district staying flat at 2%. We've been doing that in in an inflationary environment where the percentage increase year-over-year and the price of goods and services is
beyond oop sorry is beyond uh what we are increasing here. So this has been a bit of a squeeze over the last few years. All of our costs as a school district we in the same way that families have to pay more at the grocery store uh and they have to pay more especially recently at the gas pumps. We
have the same issue here in our schools that that the gas pumps is obviously not necessarily inflationarily related. Um but the relative cost otherwise impact us as well. But the board has been very diligent in staying in this 2% range. And even in these prior years there was a vote uh
related to full day kindergarten. And I believe this was a failed vote here. Um and then another vote before the before the the elections were moved to November and back to a 2% tax levy increase. This slide was developed to help everyone get a sense as to what we mean
by bank cap and how these waiverss work. So if you look at this line here, this is a two this is a 2% this shows 2%. And basically the the red here shows what the board is has uh voted to increase the tax levy by. But the the the red
with the gray together represent the 2% cap plus the waiver that was available to the board. Now for the last three years 23 24 25 26 uh when developing these budgets the board opted not to use the available waiverss that means that
they could have raised taxes last year by uh 3.45%. They also could access uh any unused waivers from prior years up to three years ago. That's called if they do that that's called banked cap. So if you look
at this as a representation of this year, the board is I'm recommending to the board a proposal of a 4% tax levy increase the board has authorization using the current year waiver to go up to 4.2%. It also has access banked cap from prior
years. So, if you add all this up, which I'll reference later, the board has within within its within its uh tax levy raising authority the ability to go up 4% plus 0.5 145.5 and 6, which I'll say later is is actually 7%. Um, but their
focus and our focus has been to do the best that we can to mitigate that uh any cost to the taxpayer and to try to absorb these are all healthcare waiverss by the way. Okay, so this is all related to healthcare increases rather to just try to do what we can through efficiencies to try to absorb some of
that cost for healthare. I included a little bit of information here if you want to learn more about how this works. It's spelled out really clearly uh in state uh state um the statutes right here. So you can see it's 18A uh 7F38. Um and I've really just said what these
what this information says here. >> Troy, can I for a second? >> Sure. So thank you for the slide. Um, I think it's helpful just to clarify a little bit for the public. Um, just so nobody misinterprets the, you know, what's happened in the last few years of the board not using
the bank cap is not as simple as just there was free money that we elected not to use, right? Because I know we're talking about position cuts, etc. So, I want to clarify that. Um, the reason the board did not use that is because if you do use that, you now become dependent on that source of revenue. If you are going
to use recurring expenses such as salaries for example, that will now become the baseline revenue source moving forward. Meaning we would have had to continue to have that higher level of taxes to support the additional
higher level of expenses and that is something we will have to think through at the end of this year right is what do we do now that we've raised the tax levy to 4%. So just want to clarify to the board. It's not just free money we could have used. It's it's yes additional money you could have used but now you
were dependent on that moving forward as a district. Meaning you are dependent on a higher a much higher tax levy moving forward continuously as well. Yeah I that that's that's well stated. Yeah these are these are and the reason for not it's not free money. It's the tax it's the paid for by the community
members. Right. So so so if I so I should be thanks. I don't think I've clarified that when I say raise the tax levy, we're talking about the local tax levy. These are the property taxes that everyone hates to pay so much. So, we're talking about specifically the board has an authority to unilaterally raise the
community members taxes and they're we're working with the restraint to try to avoid just passing the cost of healthcare just directly to the property taxes that the people in Ridge would pay. So again, the proposed school levy tax uh tax levy increase is 4%. The
estimated yearly impact is significant. It's uh about $527 per year on the average assessed home of $715,000. And the estimated monthly impact is $43.98. We have another analysis here. Uh we just realized actually our student
student representative Eli just caught just caught the fact that this says 12 cents daily. This is inaccurate. We're going to have to go back and fix that. I'm not sure how that how how that became uh miscalculated like that, but those numbers are >> it's around Sorry. I think it's around a$140ish. >> Yeah, it's a dollar and a half about.
Yeah. Um so, apologize for that error there that went that went missed. But we wanted to show here that your taxes um the way that this 4% impact is felt is it's really felt over two years because the municipality is on their their fiscal year is on the is on the calendar
year. So, it ends December 30th. Our fiscal year ends on the it ends on June 30th. So we're on a staggered calendar. So to in order to calculate the tax impact, we have to spread it out over two years. >> Can I add something on this slide?
>> Sure. So one um differentiation between how um the Ridgewood School District has been reporting these numbers for as long as I remember. I've been attending these meetings for 10 plus years now. is the tax increase that's shown in these
presentations is based on net valuation taxable which is your 6.133 billion right so so we are showing that 4% increase is on 6.13 and um or or 6138940
so from prior year u that valuation also increases so some properties are assessed more some there are some new homes that are built there. So um individual homeowner who was already in their current home it may not be 4% it
may be 3.9 something but and the way this differentiates from village council uh reporting for last 2 three years they also used to report like that but for last few years they have chosen to report it where they are reporting it the impact on individual homes average
homes so they are reporting it as impact on individual homes. So the total impact on the net valuation taxable is more than 4% in that scenario. So if they are reporting 4% it's more. So if somebody's comparing the tax impact on um the
percent terms village council versus board of fed there is a slight difference in how we report it versus how village council reports it. They report it per household. We report it at the base net valuation. So last year for example there was a big jump. So last year uh Dr. Schwarz where he reported 2%
2% 2% every year for last several years. Last year this valuation went up from 5.4 to 6.3 because there were some new uh buildings added or new uh valuations added to the tax base. So impact of um
school district budget was not 2% for each household for existing homes that was 1.4 1.5%. So if you look over last five, six years, you you will not see our impact as 2% to existing homeowners. >> Thanks for pointing that out. I'm trying
to walk the line of not being too complicated with some of this, but at the same time, that's a really interesting point. It probably would be helpful to have a a slide that accompanies the tax levy slide to show the actual felt tax impact because it's different from year to year.
>> Yeah. Yeah. And even and even correct me if I'm wrong, but even the household impact the percentage is for our portion >> correct of taxes. Correct. >> Right. Right. So our portion is not so overall if it went up more than 2% or 3%. That may have been because of county
taxes, library taxes, open state tax, municipal tax, all of that. But if you just look at school district impact to existing homeowners, if you have not done any new renovations to your house and your valuation has not gone up, if you're just living in your house with
the current valuation for last 8 to 10 years, the impact year-over-year is much less than two years. And in last couple of years, it was in 1.5.6 because the base valuation went up significantly. We had new developments in downtown. We had
uh new valuations for existing properties, hospital and all. So our impact was much less than 2%. This year there's not much difference in the net valuation from 6.133 6.138. So it will be very close to 4%.
It's a it's a weird year different year but uh in prior years it was less. >> Thanks for pointing that out and I think that'd be a good analysis to do in the future. Uh so we want to emphasize as we start to close up there's just a couple points we want to tick off here. So we do want
to be clear that all academic and athletic programs uh are supported still. Our courses and languages are preserved. Um we have I mean from year to year all of our courses depend on enrollment but there haven't been any courses that are specifically cut as a function of the budget. Uh expansion of
special programs. We are expanding our prek programs as we're seeing increasing enrollments at that level. and our new science and literacy programs are supported. I talked about some of the health saving some of the revenue uh revenue and costsaving strategies that we've engaged
in this year. Uh I want to be I want to speak with uh with um kind of a somber tone because there are people despite the fact that this budget is supporting our educational programs, we are reducing services and um and that that's definitely impacting some folks. We also
are consolidating positions which is impacting certain employees especially some of our um some of our newer employees. So uh some of the things that we're that we're doing as I referenced before we referenced the healthcare benefits provider change that's already been completed. We talked about uh really looking very hard at all of our
non- salary lines with a zerobased mindset including actually our salary lines. Everything is based off of actual projections. So there's no there's no explicit there's no um there's no just sloppy padding in the budget where we're just rounding up. We are actually budgeting down and if we have to create
health in the budget or create some flexibility, we do that with intention for specific reasons. That makes me nervous frankly because this budget is just very tightly built to actuals which means it's going to be limited in its ability as a budget to handle unexpected um events and unexpected costs. So
that's something we all need to keep in mind. Um we're talking about expanding Glen School services, but that comes at the cost of reducing services in the form of the of the infant toddler development center. We've talked about them talked about that uh this process quite a bit. We are actively uh seeing
the exploring the possibility of uh trying to continue to provide those services potentially at a different site. Um, so I don't have any updates for us here tonight, but we are working to try to maintain that level of service for the community as it's become very clear that the service provided by uh by
the ITDC and its excellent employees uh and staff members are doing a really good job taking care of our kids and it's really a value to the community. So, we're doing the best we can there. We also have the uh courtesy busing. This is something that is going to continue to be a source of pain, I'm sure, throughout the spring as we work
with families who are not going to be eligible for for free busing anymore. Um, and our subscription services right now um are our our transportation rates are very very high. So, the subscription services are very high. Also, I talked about consolidating positions. Um, I'll
talk a little bit about different types of positions, but we have been consolidating positions across all categories. Um there was some conversations that were had uh over the last month or so about um you know to what extent are we if we're cutting some teachering positions, why are we are we
cutting administrative positions? Um we are uh we have uh quite a few positions that we've identified um that we would like to try to rightsize um especially considering the fact that we are downsizing our we've seen a declining in enrollment and we are we're uh we're
consolidating our instructional and support staff. So uh we will be talking about that more as time goes on. We have a couple of positions that are available that are that that we anticipate coming vacant uh which may not be filled. We'll share more about that. But in the meantime, we also have cut two administrative positions which I'll go
into detail here at the education center. And um and then of course we've done work um just lots of hidden work that you would never see. But Mr. Matthews and his team have done a really good job of also finding uh inefficiencies in our contracting and using better uh vendor contracts um
driving a harder. >> Sure. Sorry. Just another comment on that last slide if you don't mind. Um I just want to highlight again for the public uh just that first line up there. I mean that's obviously the biggest driver here for our increasing increase in expenses. Uh and I do just want to
highlight to the public it was not just a matter of oh we got a a higher premium increase and now we're trying to make up for it. Um I think just the credit of the whole team once we got wind of that last year that the health care premium provided by the state would be
increasing. I mean there was months and months of activity by the business office and the administration really taking as much action as we possibly could and that was that that took a lot of time in 2025. Um we started with going out to bid to change our healthcare broker immediately because we
were not thrilled with the one that we had. We looked at I think over five or six different brokers first as a first step. Once we picked a new broker we looked at all possible options on the table. We looked at self-insured. We looked at private and we looked at continuing with the state. And by the
way, also just commentary for the public, you know, the state increase is impacting multiple districts in New Jersey, not just Rididgewood, the statewide problem that actually has to get fixed at the state level. Um, and so we did look at all three of those major options. We looked at multiple healthcare providers, uh, Blue Cross and
Etna and others as well. We looked at all the analysis of the premiums and the cost and we really picked the one that we felt uh would be best for the district from a coverage perspective and a cost perspective. So there was a months and months of work really that went in by the business office under your leadership Dr. Schwarz. So thank
you for that. So we really took all measures possible to keep that uh that damage as as contained as possible from a financial perspective. And our hopes of moving to a private plan is that it will give us the necessary level of detailed reporting that we need to give
us more freedom in the future to make changes as needed. So we're really hoping that this would be a pivot point for us to be able to make better changes at the end of this year if needed and if possible. So, I just want to highlight that to the public because again that is the biggest driver in our cost increase, but there's a lot that's been going on
behind the scenes to to mitigate that to be what it is today. Can >> I can I just add up short that human resources department was very very instrumental in working with us to make sure that this this did happen. We were definitely obviously kind of front and
center running the point, but without human resources and Jamie and her team providing us with the kind of data that we need and also the onboarding of the new company was really really hectic and the support of the of our union partners here Laura and Dedra uh helping uh the
human resource department and working with u Edna and Edna and Alamo. We really thank you for all you guys did this big. So, well, it was a team effort and uh wanted to mention that. Thank you.
>> And also just I just have to throw out just a big thank you to to all of our employees and staff members who accept their health benefits because they all had to change their health benefits plan, which as many of you know is not a small feat. So, uh every single person in the district who took health benefits had to change their plan and go through that process, which is one of the
reasons why it was such a big lift and we're so grateful for everyone who was such a big part of that because um it was it was no no small feat. So thank you everybody and if actually if we weren't able to act quickly then that healthcare increase number would have been a lot higher than actually what
we're presenting tonight and the impact either we would have had to raise taxes more or the cuts would have been more. So thank you again for that fast work on that last year. So, we wanted to provide some sort of an accounting. We've received some interest and requests for uh some explanation as
to um positions that are being reduced. Uh we've definitely had community members come up come forward. We have had some staff members who were directly impacted uh year-over-year. You know, when we have uh positions come vacant, we do look to see if we have to fill
that position. In most cases, we do, but in some cases, we don't always. And so year over year, we always make some adjustments with uh either adding a position or taking a position away or transferring a position from one school to another based on enrollments across the different schools. When we have moments of financial contraction like
this, which thankfully for Ridgewood have not come along very often, but are certainly here this year, uh it really forces us to take a very close look at all of our enrollments and all of our staffing ratios and class sizes. And so particularly at the secondary level, uh we've had some uh some efficiencies,
some of which uh probably were due for for consolidation. A few we've had to push a little prematurely. We had to push sooner than we would normally. We typically avoid uh if we have to if we're trying to find efficiencies, we try to avoid cutting staff members who
are currently working for us. We don't want to see people end up on the street because we're trying to become more efficient. And so you can see here, this chart might be a little confusing at first, but what it's trying to show is that there's the the number of positions that we've consolidated
and then there are the number of people that are impacted in the way that they're impacted. So the reason that that so if you look on the left position impact, it doesn't add up to the same number on the right. That's because our primary method, we're trying to be as humane as possible. We're trying to find
positions through uh through vacancies, whether retirements or resignations or other reasons for vacancies. We're trying to prioritize those vacancies, which often means that we have to transfer somebody from one school to another to save their employment because if the efficiency, let's say, is at like so for example, I'll call it Travel on
the bottom, right? So Treval has no no positions were eliminated at Trell, but because of seniority rules, there was a staff reduction at Treval and that meant that then someone had to be transferred to Trell. So again, the point being that there are
budgeted positions and there are positions that we have allocated in our position control roster and then there are the people who are in those positions. We have to be judicious about the positions themselves in the position control roster to make sure that we are not overstaffed because that creates a
burden on the taxpayer and it creates inefficiencies in our in our system and it also prevents us from being able to be flexible. Um while at the same time paying respect to the human beings and staff members and team members and our educators that we and and support staff that we know
and love being humane about their employment. So there are people who are being transferred. Obviously in this kind of environment uh most people are generally pretty happy if they're keeping their position. Um not although not everybody loves to be transferred although we did have a few of these as
voluntary transfers I think. Right. >> Some of these were voluntary transfers. There were positions that were opening due retirements building. People were in the same building. people were interested in the change, had additional certifications, would would had already
put out to their supervisors that they were interested in transferring and being considered for those opportunities. And it it allowed us to save additional non-tenured staff that might have been cut if those individuals hadn't come forward and said they were
interested in those transfers. So, um, we're happy to have people interested in some of those. >> Great. Thank you. And so uh uh and I'll call out there there was one position where we got a lot of uh we had a lot of folks come in
at our last meeting and advocate that we reinstate this one particular position because there's an individual in the position who was of particular value to the community. And interestingly, when we were looking at were looking at our list of cuts, uh that was actually a fizzed physician. That was actually one
of the last cuts that we agreed to because it was one of the more painful cuts in terms of impacting our students and our staff. So, as it was, um I'm not going to get into the details tonight, but we do have uh we do anticipate some some opportunities to have some consolidation of the administrative
structure. Um when that became clear to me then uh our goal is to save as many of the people that we can in terms of those especially who are um who who are being um human beings who are being reduced and so that individual was actually the next person on the list anyway. So it worked out very well that
we're able to uh inform that staff member that they were being reinstated. We may very well tonight have people who are advocating for other staff members. We certainly welcome your thoughts and anybody of course who's being reduced in any way. We try to help them find another position if we can't find one for them here. But in so far as other uh
opportunities, other vacancies present themselves, our goal would be to offer to anyone who is being reduced for reasons of economy that we would try to uh try to preserve them in district. >> Dr. Just as a correction, that one staff reduction FF
>> was actually is no longer because that person was called back. So that was this numbers that I did based on. So that is actually remove that one offs. >> Oh, gotcha. Okay. Thank you very much for clarifying that.
>> All right. We also received some questions and inquiries around um around administrative staff here at the education center. Um so we did an analysis over the last four years. My first year here is 23 to 24. Um and the year before that there was years prior to a lot of transition. So it didn't
seem to make sense to go back much further than that. But one of the some of the concerns that folks have brought forward is you know a perception that you know we're cutting teachers and you know we're not cutting any administrators and we have all these people at the education center who don't work with kids and some implications
that the roles at the education center aren't necessary and I want to be clear first and foremost that I think it's completely reasonable to be be concerned about administrative costs. So I and that's something that we're very cognizant of the board is very cognizant of. Um but
that said, um as I've said before, we've not had significant changes here at the education center and we're certainly looking at the district cost as a whole. We, uh our central office team is I I use the term central office as a technical term. We call this the education center, but there's actually a
technical term centralized administration is actually a term that refers to people like like like assistant superintendents and directors um and administrative staff and business office folks. So those centralized services um are uh are critical services
that when they don't go well uh the district doesn't function well. And one of the things that I was really charged with by the board when I was when I came here was to really align uh the efforts here of the of the education center and make sure that we were appropriately supporting our staff members. uh some of our some some of our folks within our
associations and just our folks who have worked here for a long time have known that that uh that that we've gone we that we had gone through a period of time where things got a little loose uh in terms of uh the extent to which they were able to get support from the education center. I did propose a restructuring here which um I've been
really really happy to hear some very positive feedback kind of across the district about uh how well it's functioning in terms of supporting the schools. Um there were some costs associated with that. I'll get into that in a little bit. Um but you can see as a percentage of the spending across the district and the percentage of the
positions across the district um it's not not particularly those changes have not been particularly significant. So there's two slides here. This one's FTEES which stands for full-time equivalencies which is a term that we use for a position. So if you have two halftime people both five they equal one
full-time equivalency. Um in this cases most of these full-time equivalencies are are are whole people. I also added a little note here to do this analysis. We had to exclude facilities personnel because prior to this year uh our facilities personnel were coming through Aramark in a contract that we had with a
private vendor. We that was not working well. So we cut ties with the vendor and we built our own maintenance team and now we contract with a different uh vendor to provide our custodial services. But that was skewing our salary numbers and our headcount numbers, making it look like we were adding many staff when in fact that was
all part of the same the same um uh uh the same funding system that we've changed that out in. I've also excluded some instructional personnel. So we have super we have some supervisors who are located here and some like staff developers who work really directly with the schools. We just don't have enough room in the schools for all of them. So
they happen to be at the education center, but they're really not central office employees. And I don't think that the people who were concerned about central office employee spending, I don't think they were particularly I don't think they were referring to some of our district supervisors who support the schools. Maybe they were, but I don't think that they were. Um, and then
also uh community school personnel. Community school is self- sustaining. So there's so I we excluded them from this analysis. They're they're they are housed here, but uh they're they're the profits of the community school cover all the expenses and the salaries of the folks associated with the community school. So that's not a burden on the
taxpayer. Just to add again just a little bit of commentary here. I know we've heard a couple of comments about um you know the the cost of admin staff versus instructional staff expenses and and I definitely sympathize with that. I have
a few you know my own children in the schools and obviously we want our children and our teachers to to be there and not be impacted. Uh, but I do want to remind the public as well just just a few years ago, you know, some of the big hot topics in town were, well, we
haven't had a superintendent for for some time. We've gone through so many superintendents. So, what's going on Rididgewood? Uh, why have our rankings been decreasing all of a sudden? You know, what's going on there? Um, we are not doing a good job with our PR and our
advertising. That was just a subject of conversation just a few years ago. We have no Facebook presence. We have no Instagram presence. We have no social media presence. We're not letting our residents know all the good work that our staff and our students are accomplishing. There were concerns about our our special needs programming and we
really dug in on that as well. Uh there was concerns around our curriculum. We revamped our curriculum. So all of these things don't happen if you don't have a strong uh central admin staff and really you know people steering the ship. So yes, I'm definitely for, you know, less bureaucracy, more teaching, and that is
very important, but also there we need captains of the ship as well. So I think we've seen and and restructuring our our vendor contracts like you just mentioned. I mean, just a few years ago, we had people complaining about the the quality of our fields, right? Because Aaron Mark was not doing a good job there, cleanliness of our buildings. We
completely restructured that to bring a lot of it inhouse to outsource to other more qualified vendors that specialize in, for example, landscaping. And again that could not happen without a business office staff there to do to do those changes. So a lot of the and and our
vacancies right just just a few years ago complaining about all the vacancies we had all the paras and all the aids and you know there's no stability and there's people are in and out and who's taking care of our children right once we got you know Jamie who are going to miss very much enroll uh we saw a very
big change and impact there. So again just a reminder that we do need central admin staff to run the ship as well. Can I can I ask a question or just it prompted based on what you just said about the promoting the school and
everything and I don't want to put you on the spot if you don't have the answer now um we can take it at the next meeting but I read somewhere that we spent $19,000 to promote generate videos for promoting schools. Is that correct? And was that discussed at the
communications committee? >> Uh I don't know the numbers. I can definitely find out and get back to you. There was definitely a big effort to uh rebrand the schools and the logos and all that that was already part of vision 2030 from I think maybe two years ago it started uh but I don't know what the
numbers for that >> okay but promoting schools video about what Ridgewood does is not part of 2030 or low >> yeah I mean uh keep in mind we had to redo our website to be ADA compliant for
example and that started a lot of uh restructure redesign of our of our uh information that we put on the website, the database, the searchability, the ease of use, right? We had parents that were complaining. Uh the website is uh not easy to use. We can't find information. How come I keep getting
blasts from so many different groups? It's not streamlined. It's not centralized. Uh we got complaints that we're advertising community events that might be political and we're promoting other stuff besides school. So there's a lot of concerns about our kind of a communication policy and our branding
and what are we doing there. So it's it's a it was a bigger conversation. Um so it was a much bigger project around the communication. I don't know the numbers. >> Thank you. >> And I'm not going to try to site exact
numbers on these but there were two two uh drivers for there for two initiatives. One was branding and that came directly out of this the vision 2030 process. Um it was actually something that people felt strongly. We did a miss corless did a lot of surveying to try to figure out if it was
something that was worth doing because branding is something that is really dear to people. I love our branding currently personally but the feedback was very strongly that people wanted to do a refresh of the brand. So that was a so we did initiate a process but that was directly in response to that vision
2030 process which identified and the driver in that was that even just a few years ago we when we surveyed folks we were hearing from people actually one of my first meetings when I got here was with a committee of parents when we were building that first survey and people were sitting at a table saying you know
I don't think that we have a strong district identity and actually we're we're doing surveying right now we're asking the kids that question people did not feel they felt a strong allegiance to their school, especially elementary school, right? Their schools were like strong senses of identification, but the idea that like they were a student at Rididgewood public schools was not
something that necessarily people felt was strong. So that was the driver behind the branding. There was a cost associated with that. But I want to be very clear. I have I've actually been pretty tongue-in-cheek about this and even actually I teach college classes about this that like as a superintendent, a school leader, you
don't mess with the branding. So we're not we're not going to play around with branding here just willy-nilly. So that was not a willy-nilly decision that was based off of feedback and a lot of thinking um and consternation. So uh so I I love our current branding. I'm not not I'm not inclined to move us, but we
do want to be responsive to our community. But you may be you mentioned a video that might be referencing uh recruitment efforts that we've been going under. If you remember, we've been having a lot of a lot of trouble find filling positions especially in par profofessionals. And so we found a company uh that really kind of flips the
script from the existing company that we had for recruitment which would make people go through pages and pages and pages of application materials. This is a like a kind of a social media based platform and they do uh they do uh these really nice little videos that showcase the district and really attract people
to Rididgewood public schools. So that really is the it's really about being more successful in recruiting people to Rididgewood public schools. Did you want to say something about that, Mrs. Murphy? >> Sure. and that was part of a whole so there was a trade-off. So we actually I think will drop the cost of our our
original recruitment um application that we were using previously in this 26 27year budget. So we it was really a switching of applications and as part of that application there's a little intro video
that they do and that was part of that initial um implementation for this for this new. So it's very short and and and whatnot. >> So would you consider that as a professional services engagement or purchasing purchase engagement for a
software? Like if somebody's creating a video for us, isn't that a professional services engagement? Then that should >> Sorry, can you repeat the question please? >> So if we have a consultant or a company coming in and creating a video for us, is that considered a professional
services engagement which usually they usually come here for public awareness, right? It's not a purchasing of a chair or a table under $44,000. >> Could be a purchase service. It could be professional service, probably more
purchase service. Thank you. >> But again, I don't know the exact dollars associated with each of these. I have a couple numbers in my head, but I don't want to say the wrong ones. Sure. But we can follow up with you on that. Okay. >> All right. Uh, so this was, like I said, this was an analysis based on headcount.
something I'll call out and point out here. It you can't it this more or less looks like a flat line because when you put it in the context of the total budget um it does doesn't doesn't uh doesn't have the same weight significance but it is it is a significant change. Um we did when I first got here 2324 I was it was
important to me to try to work within the existing administrative structure and see all the ways that it was helpful and all the ways that it was problematic. Um I did find it um that there were some virtues to it but more but really it ended up being quite problematic in that because it was all
very centralized around everyone was very siloed and specialized here at the education center. Um it was very hard for me to mobilize uh different uh different directors people at director level uh into complicated issues and especially school-based issues because
usually those school-based issues would impact multiple areas. And so what was happening and actually this was happening actually before I got here is that anytime there was any kind of a complicated matter that was kicked up to the education center it really required the full cabinet to come together even
for seemingly fairly mundane issues. So what I when I built the administrative structure based on the district's needs what I recognized that we needed to do was have uh a couple we need to have more than one person supervising the schools. we needed to have at least two
and then each of those people instead of having the supervisors and principles reporting in different directions they all needed to report to one person. So that was the model that we built. Um when we went over that with as a board of as a board uh we talked about um some the different positions and the
different responsibilities and one of the things that had been identified actually before I got here was the potential need for an additional administrator for special education. Um this size district at the time we had Dr. Fenwick who is director of special services. We had um supervisor as
secondary uh special education and we had a supervisor of elementary. However, that supervisor of elementary also functions as a gun school principal. Um even under that model, it was decided that uh the board budgeted for a supervisor position for the 23 24 school
year. Um coming in being, you know, not really being a part of that process, I decided that I wasn't comfortable filling that position at first. Um, I don't know that everybody loved that decision, but Dr. Frank, I don't know if you loved that when I when I first came in, but um, but it was important that we really vet and see what we could do and
what the team was capable of. So, after a full year of really assessing and seeing the strengths and weaknesses and areas that we needed to improve. Um, I did decide that uh that I needed to I needed two assistant superintendents to supervise elementary and middle. And so, we moved uh Mrs. Murphy and Dr. Fenwick
were uh proven their capacity. So we moved them into those capacities and then we uh backfilled u uh Dr. Fenwick's position with Miss Alicia Pavone who we recruited uh from another district and that's from the the 30 to 31. That's that additional position and that was a
pretty significant position to add. We were talking about it being a supervisor after discussing it as a board we decided that it needed to have a higher status. We needed someone who's at that director level over the district. Um and that's what we did. Uh 30 the 32 for the current school year. Um, we also we
recognized that uh in this model we were still relying on Mrs. Murphy to do a lot of human resources work and a lot of it honestly um and we we uh also um elevated uh Miss Donna Gathight to be the uh human resources officer. She was in a clerical position prior. Um she
rose to the challenge but everyone was really inundated with a lot of kind of lower level tasks including data entry. So, we added an assistant to help out with the data entry in response to feedback that we were getting across the district, frankly, from our employees and our staff that felt like we needed to turn things around more quickly. We
needed to clean things up and make them more accurate, make our data more accurate. So, those were those two positions that were added going into 2627. Um, knowing that we needed to find efficiencies, we evaluated positions across the district. We did identify two support positions, two administrative
support positions here at the education center, uh, which we did reduce. Uh so we're down two. Uh and in addition to that uh we are aware of some vacancies that that are that are that are forthcoming or that are that are upon us and we're evaluating uh our ability to
find some savings in those positions. This is a pretty crappy time. So that's sorry shouldn't say that this is not the best time to make this comment but I did want to just congratulate uh uh Mrs. Murphy uh in her um in her position. So I'm sorry I should have started with
that Mrs. Murphy, but uh but you know, we are very happy for you. You've done an excellent job here as assistant superintendent at Rididgewood Public Schools and director of human resources. Um and if you if you're not aware, Mrs. Murphy was named uh superintendent of Lakeland Regional School High School
District. So, congratulations to you, Mrs. Murphy. You've done great work for us here. Uh Mrs. I but I I should have said that initially and I have to say that here. I'm sorry because um because I have to clarify that you're still included in these numbers here. So, we are still having conversations about, you know, what what we're going to look
like post Mrs. Murphy's departure. Um, but in the meantime, for the time being, please note that she that her her her position is still included in these analyses. Again, I apologize that I didn't say to you that opportunity first, but let's we'll circle back in a little bit. Let me get through all this and then let's
give you a chance to say a few words. Okay. Um this is the same analysis just via salary. I know there's been some concerns about salary um and the salaries that people receive uh in ed center. Again all the everything in this column over in this uh this bubble here
is the same. Um so that's the same language just explaining this but down here instead of having the FTS we have salary. You can see there is a jump here because we this was a director position that was added. You can see the movement here was a little smaller. There's always movement from year to year as people get
percentage increases as they're entitled to as part of their employment. Um but uh but obviously there's a smaller smaller increase here than there was here and that's because this position was at a director level going to the next year. Uh there is a decrease instead of your standard increase that you'd expect to see for salary purposes.
>> Dr. Schwarz but the so the previous slide that shows 3.78 that is the count is that correct? >> Say again. The the the previous slide was showing the number of head number of people. Yes.
So the number of people from 2324 to 2627 went down but the percent of salary went slightly up. Right. >> Say that one more time. >> So 2324 we had 3.92%
or 30 employees. >> Mhm. >> Right. So now we have 3.78 which is slightly less number of employees at EDC center. >> Mhm. >> But if you go to the next one um the the salary proportion went up
from 4.47 to 4.71. So maybe that did not increase in the same ratio as teaching staff or the new hires were not in the same ratio. There is a slide there.
>> Just say that to me one more time. Make sure I'm catching that. You're you're pointing out >> some so total central admin uh positions were >> 3.92% out of 765, right? Yep. Or 765 and 30.
So if our teaching staff and the school admin staff they all have very similar contract the RA and REA. >> Yeah. >> And we follow very similar contract terms for central admin also who are not
part of the associations. You usually your recommendation is slightly below the RA numbers right. So to to be competitive there. >> Mhm. So if everything went up in that those ratios then probably that 4.47%
should have been 4.44 five or something in that range not 4.71. So probably the new hires here were either in a slightly higher tech salary range or some numbers increased more than that
standard that was increased for others. Right? Otherwise it would have been in the same 4.4 range not 4.7 because the the headcount increased and the salary proportion is increasing here. >> So there is it's not a big difference
but it's probably not so I'm just going to round it up. So so if everybody else is going 3% up every year then here also it's 3% up then the ratio should have been probably similar not more. >> I'll have to take a look afterwards.
Yeah. So that we should question. So that's something probably to to keep in mind when we are hiring new positions or or increasing the salaries for non-contracted staff. >> Mhm. >> Right. So that that may be the reflection here that maybe the
non-contracted staff salaries in some situations may have increased more or when the position became available the new hires were at a higher range than the person who left before. >> Yeah. I I I'll have to take a we'll take another look for you.
>> Thank you. >> Okay, thank you everyone. So this slide is familiar. uh we updated it slightly just talk about some of our additional costs saving measures ways that we're trying to continue to uh find savings. So we are looking at making sure that we just are running our class sizes our our class sections at the
appropriate sizes. Um we also um are you know we've been making an effort just generally to make sure that we're looking to hire people who are uh who are not necessarily brand new but um but have a little more novice in their careers. It's great for the system. It's great for our senior members to mentor
uh newer people who are new people who are newer to the profession. Um and it also helps with it does help with the budget as well. Uh we've been closely monitoring overtime and energy management. Um we're looking at our solar panels include as well. Uh we've looked at in uh improving our in-house
services. We have a very strong maintenance team now that can do a lot of that work. We also have professional development. Um, uh, we're also looking to do more in-house professional development, reducing our reliance on consultants and and professional development providers. Um, I mentioned extracurricular cost
controls. We do want to make sure that we have a minimum enrollment if we're going to pay stipens to to teachers. We have many many of those stipens. Uh, we also have um PD's referenced twice here. And then I mentioned administrative position consolidation is being considered for the future.
And then of course you referenced some impacted groups. folks receiving busing are going to be in a circumstance where they uh um where they are losing service which is very unfortunate. Uh we have some of our fa families uh experiencing disruptions um with ITD services being
reduced and then of course we have some staff members including some of our ITDC staff members um who are being impacted as positions are reduced. So, in summary and takeaways, um I've really already said this already, but we've done our best to absorb the impact of these health benefit premium
increases. Um we've uh we're proposing a salary increase of um I'm sorry, a tax levy increase of 4% of the allowable uh 7.07 tax levy increase that's available to the board. Uh that is a tax levy increase, meaning that is a property tax increase for the community members. Um,
and while we have been able to retain most of our services and programs, some groups are going to be impacted by austerity measures. And so, we have a message from Mr. Matthews and the team here. So, Miss Broen, thank you very much for
the opportunity to present. Um, are there any any questions from uh the any questions or comments from board members that you'd like me to take into consideration right now? I think I know the answer to this question. It's very specific and I think
you don't have the answer yet, but as you're working on the subscription busing and the um those individuals that will lose courtesy busing, you've not yet finalized exactly which routes are going
to be subscription versus other. Correct. I'm trying to understand that. So, no, we have we're still we're finalizing that right now. >> Finalizing. Yes, correct. That Okay, that's what I wanted to know that. >> But we we did we did we have some preliminary determinations. We did
decide that folks the folks who are receiving services who live on Gothal Road, >> right, >> that they're still going to be included. We've also preliminary decided that any that identified that anyone who lives on the east side of Route 17, >> right, >> uh also has busing at all levels K12.
Both both those both those places have all level busing from K to 12. >> Um, everyone else is under consideration right now, but if anyone who's interested or concerned, you can do a search. If you're talking about K to8 schools, it's two mi, you have to be under two, you have to be at two miles
or over to be eligible for busing. Additionally, if you're a high school student, you have to be 2.5 miles or over. There are some there are some very specific details for a lot of folks who fall right on that border about whether you're measuring from door to door. um
what exactly the route is. Um so we're we're working that out right now. >> It's kind of the devil's in the details because I I know when you determine what's hazardous or not, there's also a a variety of factors that are um maybe
not as clear-cut as at least I thought initially. So that's why I'm just interested as as that determination is made just be kept apprised. That's all. Thanks. >> Dr. Schwarz, when we're talking about position efficiencies, I know the number is 17 efficiencies, but that includes
attrition transfers. Do you know how many people are being told that there isn't a position for them next year who are interested in one? Do we have that specific number? Ela, when you say you people that are
interested in positions are being told, are you talking about people that were reduced? >> Yeah. >> So that's in that that second column. So any staff that were affected, >> those that is the number of staff that were were let that were told they did
not have positions for next year. >> So if you look, we're just pull up. >> Yeah. >> So it's eight if I had one extra >> well minus two because tra also you have zero but
>> no no that's positions that's different >> okay there there are there are um two five six there are seven identified on this document >> oh thank you for that thank you
that two five six there were seven stocks that were that were directly affected by those tests talk about the this you know total of 17 we're talking about that there were retirements and some of the retirements
that opened up positions were not filled and again that has directly to related to enrollment issues right so um so you you'll have some less staff but but in
the retirements is just not feeling right. >> I have a question um mainly for the facilities committee. Um I think during the last presentation you had mentioned you had not discussed those projects yet. So have you discussed the projects
that are being picked for the for this budget and what was the criteria to pick those those specific projects like how was your list created for priority projects and then >> to >> sure >> so uh what was the uh process to come up
with a list of all the projects that are in need and then create a priority number on them and then pick the these five projects on the priority list. Right. So, um I'll take it and then if you if you want to add anything um Mr.
Matthews the and Mary. Um we the GF Macaros who are architect and engineering firm did a review of all of our buildings and we began to look through priorities that they identified and
then also priorities that were probably if we were to go out for a a uh a referendum. I'm not saying we are, but if we were that these projects would not be part of a referendum and that we are
looking at we did have monies in our capital projects. We also looked at the scope of the work that had to get done and also know that we are finishing up the Glenn and Ridge school uh project and uh that
is that's you know hopefully be done in the fall. Let's hope. But the projects that we're looking are retaining walls and stairs. So there were some safety issues. The bathrooms at GW. We looked at uh some of the other GW projects.
That bathroom has been uh needing uh repairs for a very long time. Dr. Shores went over reviewed the projects that we had discussed for GW and that came to the uh top of the list. We also um we're
trying to get back to in prior years where we would repate classrooms in each school. Um some of the classrooms it's not dangerous but you know do have asbestous in the floor the steering
tiles they're not prying or whatever it's called. It's not airborne or anything, but it's going to take that over the course of a number of years. We were doing classrooms and classrooms and we got away from that probably in the last four or five years. We wanted to
get back to that um uh renovating classrooms. So, that is part of it. And I'm just trying to see Oh, the tennis courts. The tennis courts. Um we've done patchwork on the tennis courts for a number of years. We've resurfaced the
cracks still exist. We've had complaints about how the ball bounces and and how it impacts play. I guess I'm not a tennis player, so don't quote me on the but I think that's what we were hearing.
We are ex we explored options. We went out for bid. Uh no, we went we um we established a bid. the bid went out u with the different options and um has has the have the bids come back in yet? >> The bid the bid has come back and a
recommendation is coming to the board for the uh meeting tomorrow with facilities. So we have all the bits in and tomorrow recommendation will be made. >> Oh okay. So that um and the tennis courts uh were something uh and we've discussed a little bit with the um the
village and u perhaps there may be some help for the village but at this point we are we are assuming that it will be our responsibility. So that's that's really the capital projects. I don't know Mary mayor you want to add anything? >> Just the only thing was I think the board made a commitment a couple years ago to try to tackle HBAC at each
elementary school. >> Oh yes. Oh, that's >> And so this year it was Haw's turn. So that was something we wanted to make sure that we did. It was Haw, right? >> Haw was last year, but we are doing it this summer. But we have I want >> Travel, but we're continuing we're continuing with the commitment of a
board to to try to >> solve that issue. >> Right. >> So just two clarifications in your statement. Thank you, Miss Broen, for the details. So was I discussed at the last facilities meeting? all of these but where which facilities meetings know that
>> was it could have been the last one or the one before that I know that we worked on we had two facility meetings we haven't had one then um with the budget but was it the last one it might have been the last one I'm not I'm not 100% sure which one it was but we did
discuss it >> so just two clarification there one you're saying that these were identified in the initial list from Jane Ficaro as priority projects Okay. And the rehabilation of elementary schools that you're mentioning, this is
strictly um changing the tiles. >> It's um it is there a picture of this. I think what we want to show is what really needs to be done with in some of our elementary schools. If you look at
some of the work that we've done in the past, which is floor, ceilings, lighting, I'm not sure if case works in it in in that. I think it is some case work >> and and really get a handle on um moving forward with improving the facilities. I
have to say that um you know when I look at this budget I think in the past when we've had other budgets we um downsized what we were spending on on our projects and our maintenance and that doesn't
serve anybody well because it comes back to really bite you in in the future. So to keep keep moving forward reasonably on projects because we've got a million square foot of feet of of buildings that
we need to keep maintaining. So um I think last >> I my question was not related to how much we are spending. My question was related to how these projects were picked. In fact, we are spending less than last year or the year before on
capital. And if I remember the tile projects were mostly done during maintenance uh not even capital projects that did not even need capital. But uh and you have been on the facilities committee for all those years. So if you were reducing it now increasing that's a variation. But that was not the original
question. So thank you for answering. >> You're welcome. >> To clarify on the tennis courts having talked to some people on the team it's not just so that the ball bounces better. so that they can play after it's rained. What it currently is is it'll just absorb water and then for days they
won't be able to play after heavy rain. So, this I I think fixes that in some way so that they're able to play sooner. >> Oh, great. >> Thank you for that. >> Thank you. Just to add to that, we had a whole conversation about the tennis courts because the problem with the
tennis courts is not it's not that we suddenly realize it. is there's been discussion certainly at field committee for the past couple of years with the tennis courts. We just paid I want to say $50,000 I don't remember to resurface them which was something we'd been committed to do that did not even
last a season before crack crash started and then we had a conversation about when the tennis courts were built and when they were last addressed and I think we couldn't identify it. So it's quite possible that these you remember that conversation that they may
have been >> installed like 50 years ago and then never never re never refurbished never properly maintained or or fixed. So we're we are clearly beyond the useful life of them. I think it's like a 20
year useful life when you do this. >> Um >> I think they sampled and you know we've got layer after layer after layer of coding on it >> and we spent quite and in in terms of um you know you asked the question about you know how do you prioritize well there's a lot of conversation there's a
lot of questions that are asked uh J gian Kabaro was asked several times to go back to other experts to say how do you do this what do you do this there's you know three different potential ways to address the tennis courts so there's no rubric per se but there I can
remember and I'm new to the facilities right since January two or three conversations about all of these projects where there were conversations, there were questions, people went back, they reported, looked at things and ultimately came to the conclusion that these were the things that should no
longer wait. And frankly, we have a much longer list, but you can only do what you can do. It's important to maintain schools with kids. Any other thing? I I just want to um talk for a minute about um less than a minute probably about health care and
and and put it a little perspective because we all I I'm assuming that most people with health care have seen an increase in their health care premiums um this year and the expectation is it will go higher. But we were facing with
staying in the state plan, we were facing um remember the state plan has a variety of different um health uh insurance uh plans and and staff will can pick from those. But we
were facing uh premium increases from 32 to about 37%. So that that's that's that's what was the or that's what really was shocking I think to us as we learned that and then all the work that Muhammad uh detailed
before with Etna and so and I just want to say that you know moving to Etna did save us money but cost avoidance because our insurance premiums again if you were looking at the various plans Jamie
correct me if I'm wrong. I think you quoted me something like between 22 and 28% increases on the various plans. So, we we certainly brought down that increase by moving to Etna and thank you to all
that participated and cooperated with that. But it's still a heavy lift. And so I just wanted to emphasize that because that was really a driver when we're looking at um our plans. I I was
saying to uh Dr. Schwarz without that, you know, maybe we could have come lower in we would have come lower in our tax rate, but with that that pushed us um further. So that was just a a thought.
I've got lots of other thoughts, but right now I think um if no one else has anything we want to open up to uh public com Mary, I'm sorry. >> Yeah. No, did you >> I was just going to add a small addition with the healthcare because I I think
it's important is to Mr. Matthews credit, Mr. Matthews started talking about the healthcare and the fact that we were in the state plan and trying to get out of it actually in 2024 and um was putting a lot of pressure and
we had if you remember we had the broker the old broker in with somebody else to talk to us about whether or not we could do that and we didn't because the state plan uh when you come out of it you're kind of flying blind because you don't get detailed information. It was very difficult um and particularly with the
individuals we were working with, there just seemed to be a an inability to get to get past the line to even get good information. But it was something and I just want to compliment Rich and the business office on that because we we tried we spent some time on it. So, you know, and then we were able to finally
make it happen with huge push for everybody, the staff um at the end of 2012. >> I'd like to say something. >> I just think there was some confusion out there. the staff participates in paying for these increases as well. The district does not pay a 100% of the
premiums. The staff members contribute um across the board. So, a lot of people have said, I've gotten some comments about that that why don't the teachers and the staff members contribute to the cost? They do already. So, it isn't as
if we're absorbing all of the increase and all of the costs. the individual staff members, their premiums went up individually as well. So, we are sharing that. >> Yeah, I appreciate you pointing that out. And actually, that doesn't the way that that's accounted for is it actually doesn't show up as a revenue because it
just comes directly off the cost of healthcare. So, the cost of health, right? Am I saying that correctly, Mr. Matthews? >> Yeah, you're getting a net number. So, it's the premium and then minus the employee contribution. So, the $19 million is is a net number. Net net cost of the district. Yes. >> And the actually the actual cost of the
plans is much higher, right? That's after the employees have made their contribution >> and you know our teachers uh particularly our um particularly our teachers have been making a contribution to the health care premiums
before before any other district was doing it. And then we had chapter 78 which raised that and then chapter 44 which changed it. And so we've been dealing with uh you know we've had a staff who's been contributing but then we've been dealing also with all the
state legislation that has changed that and we've figured it out together. So um that that's a positive. Um and as I end this and and open up I I want to thank Dr. Schwarz. I know that he had multiple
emails from many of us um and um really thoughtfully looked through our comments because you know when I looked at like a a a draft of of the of the slide deck, you know, who's our audience? How do we
make it understandable? and that you know what what is what is driving some of the questions or confusion um in the community and u thank you for um you know being open to um
feedback thank you I was going to say criticisms but it was really isn't really criticism what is that a critical print oh that yes yeah >> two numbers that are going out there this $18 million for health benefit cost
and there's also employee benefit costs. So just that people understand that the employee benefit cost is including like DCRP, tuition reimbursement, FICA, social security with additional cost on top of employee benefit cost. So people see employee benefit cost and health
benefit cost. There's two different numbers. Just want to make sure they're clear that health benefits 19 million on top of that makes it get you to $22 million. You see two different numbers up there, >> right? presentation. >> And wasn't that a question I had this afternoon because you know how I like to tie everything in a bow and put it all
all the same number. So yeah, I already I already got that message nice and clearly and I got it tonight in the in the PowerPoint. So thanks for that. Okay. Um any other Okay. So we're going to open up for public comment. This is
public comment on the um budget. Um again uh we won't have a a dialogue. Please um come to the microphone, your name, the municipality you live in, make your comment, ask your question. We'll
try to be good in in making our notes and um answer as we can if we have the information of give you feedback otherwise we get back to you. Okay. Um so the microphone is open. I will start here in this room and then if there are
hands raised um in the audience that is um viewing us online um we'll move to them. So microphone is open. >> Maybe want to move the microphone up a little bit.
>> Yeah. Tall guy problems. I don't know if that works. Does that work? >> Yeah. >> Yep. Hey, Danny Tony. Um, Rididgewood Willard District. Um, I don't envy your position. I know
that this is difficult. Um, but I did want to start by commending the ladies of ITDC. Um, when my when my three-year-old first started going to TDC, um, she had a lot of anxiety from a
previous daycare that we were at and, um, to the point where she would have breatht um, scariest moment moments of my life happened multiple times. Since she's been in ITDC for um, about a year, it's
she wants to go to school. Uh, it's crazy. So, never thought that I would see that from where we were a year ago to today. So, thank you very much and we value them very much. Just wanted to make that clear. Um, so the the W9 bus route, um, I just
want to make this clear as well. It is hazardous. Um, I bike it, I walk it with my kids, without my kids. Um, just two days ago there was a power outage and all the lights were out along that whole stretch all the way up to
Parkwood Deli from Maple and Glenn there. Major intersections. We happen to be driving home from a birthday party and um before the cops and firefighters and everybody got there and it was pandemonium for a little bit. Um,
Glennav, the two crossings are uh, you know, you got to cross cross Glennav at Oak, which I understand there's some discussion there to put in a light uh, a controlled light, but it's not there yet. Um, but now you're on that side of
the street, you got to come back. And doing that is, uh, is dangerous. There's cars zipping up and down. Um, no one's really paying attention. coming around the curbs, speeding.
Um, so that's not safe. There's going towards the train towards Hocus, which I believe you may cross into Hocus. Um, Maple in and of itself is is just narrow sidewalks if you stay on that side of the road. Um, I guess that'd be
the west side. The sidewalks are in disrepair. These sides a little bit better, but why cross Maple if you don't have to? Um then you come up towards the train and and walking up that hill the the sidewalks are in disrepair. But then you come to the train crossing itself
and you know it's a it's a busy station. Um 60 m an hour I think is the the miles an hour that they can pass through. Um, and then to stay on the sidewalk, you have to uh cross the tracks on the left
and then cross over um the the street there where that that hill gets very steep there. Um, so just wanted to comment too. I I heard a couple things tonight that I I kind of
blew my mind a little bit. Um, money on branding and and social media. Um, yet our enrollment numbers are down year-over-year. Um it feels a little shortsighted. Um tennis courts for asbesus.
Um these things are coming at the cost now of safety. It feels and um that feels very dangerous. So um we're asking that you please provide safe access to quality education. Thank you.
Hello. >> Good evening. Uh my name is Matt Misella. I'm a Rididgewood uh resident also in the Willard District. Uh currently have uh two young children uh who attend elementary school. Uh
currently being um taken the bus on the W9 route. Um it's one of the routes currently being considered uh to discontinue uh the courtesy status. Um and I just want to state that uh you
know though we're in the two miles um we've received the status for the past 27 years due to the hazards uh that walking uh would um expose our children to uh many of which
Dan has just stated um along these walking routes. Um, I've made the board aware previously through emails uh and some other uh kind of conversations and talks and whatnot uh about kind of the routes that would be involved. Uh,
currently we're on Under Cliff Court. Uh, but really all the families uh north of the kind of Maple A uh Glenn a intersection would be affected and have similar routes. Uh, again one route involves crossing an active train track. Uh, also certain sections with no
sidewalk at all, including the one leading right up into the crossing. Uh, and then the other route, which bit longer, requires crossing East Glenn twice. Uh, and East Glenn is um a very notorious uh section of East Glenn right
there. Uh, the the remind the board that you guys are required by state law to take hazardous routes into account, not just mileage. and to determine this in kind of a safe uh a diligent way and serious.
Uh again, this stretch of Glen A um had provided um testimony by the Ridgewood Police that they presented to the board to the town board back in September of 2024. This was based off of a traffic study by the county because Glennab is a county
road as is Maple. both major arteries and they detailed the hazards including the high accident rates, high volumes of cars, speeds over 40 miles an hour down the hill in Glenn Avenue. Uh evidence is clear. This is a hazardous route um as
stated by the Ridgewood PD. And I'll remind the board uh that having a motor vehicle transportation is not a prerequisite for the right of a child to safely attend the school they are zoned to. and neither is paying a subscription fee of $1,600, $1,500.
Um, this is the exact the intent and the purpose of the walking route laws by the state to take into account not only distance but also hazards. Glenn Avenue is clearly a hazard and uh our children cannot be expected to take this route uh
to school. Um our mayors uh himself called this intersection uh that our kids would have to cross um the one at Oak and Glenn a scary place. So again, this is well documented and known.
And this isn't just about my family and my kids. It's about all my neighbors and uh current neighbors, future neighbors, um people who are going to be moving to this neighborhood in the future and ensuring safe access to our amazing schools as universally available to
every child currently living or will be living on Undercliff as well as those other streets I've named. Um, again, I'm here for the safety of my kids. I'm here for the safety my neighbor's kids, safety of the kids who move into my neighborhood, you know, 20
years from now, 30 years from now. We all know once the bus service is gone, this this courtesy bus service is not coming back. You know, budgetary concerns are always going to be an issue. And um I for one
h yeah I just want to make sure that we look at the big picture and we think about legacy. We think about kind of what your vision is uh as a board for the school system and prioritizing
safety. And I would just say that a single pedestrian accident on a known hazardous route far outweighs any budgetary savings that you may have. And please really take this into account. It's about the safety of our kids and
that should be our number one priority at all times. Thank you. >> Hi. Uh my name is Susan Madison. I live in Ridgewood. Um, I'm also here to echo these concerns about having children, elementary school children, walk from
the Undercliffe area up to Willard School. Um, those of you who live in Ridgewood know that Glenn Avenue is a very, very dangerous road. It is not a road that elementary school children
should be crossing two times. And Dr. shorts. You know that it's not just distance, it is hazardous conditions. And I also think is not right. We talk all the time about being an equitable
district, being a district that values each of our students. To put the burden of $550,000 on the backs of 300 kids is not right. You either put it across all the
taxpayers or you put it across all the students. I mean, if you're looking for creative ways to raise money, you could be increasing what you charge the football team. You could be charging the band. There are a lot of places you can get this money, not from elementary
school kids, forcing them to walk up Glenn. Um, so I just want to say all of you who live in Ridgewood, ask yourselves, would you want your children to do that? And if not, you have to
change this. And you cannot let this route be qualified as not as not getting courtesy busing because of distance. It is not safe and that is the most important thing that we need to do for our kids. Thank you.
Hi, I'm Vanessa Misella. My husband was up here earlier. We're on the cliff area. I'll try to keep this short. Um he spoke about the safety on Avenue. I'm going to talk about this plan that you're proposing. Um when did our kids courtesy busing related to safety and
hazardous and let me make a decision distinction courtesy busing related to hazardous routes since you refer to it on one of the sides as complimentary and I felt that's almost like making it a favor to us and not related to our kids safety when this was initially
implemented 30 years ago due to being a known hazardous route. When did our courtesy busting along Glenn Avenue in the Hocusville Bailville station become a non-essential item for the budget discussions as Mr. Matthews presented? I get renegotiating contracts, vendor
contracts from 25 years ago to make sure the numbers look right, but you can't negotiate our kids safety into the budget when no mitigations have been put in place on those routes that I just mentioned. But I guess the negotiating the negotiation about kid safety is what you are calling a subscription plan of what I'm hearing is currently be $1,600
per kid. What if a family has four kids? That's $6,400 just for their kids to go to school. Moving to a subscription busing model is not a solution. It is a fundamental portrayal of the district's duty to our children. By offering a paid paid plan to avoid a known hazardous
route, district effectively acknowledges that the walk is dangerous while refusing to protect students unless their families pay a fee. This creates an unacceptable pay-to-play system for child's safety. If the board is clearly shown that a route is hazardous, but only provides a bus for those who can afford it, the district is also
knowingly placing students in harm way based on a household income. I urge the board to maintain a non-subscription hazardous route courtesy busing for the children of neighborhood. Safety is a right for every student in Madrid, not a subscription service.
Any any other Oh, my name is Kevin Aula. I also live on Undercliff Court. Uh thank you all for being here first of all. Um I think that um you know if you guys um maybe you know speak amongst yourselves and think
about what kind of legacy you want to leave. Um, do you want to leave a legacy of having children walking on the streets in rush hour traffic and where where people are are are in a mad rush to go to go allowing their, you know, to
start their day? And do you want to do you want to leave a legacy of of having kids years after you guys are gone? um you know, just scattered around the the most dangerous streets while people are are aren't paying attention. And God
forbid anything happens to those children, you know, and they're going to look at this board of education and say, "This is the board of education that allowed children to be on the road on on on streets where people aren't paying attention and barreling down hills." And you're going to and you're and you're
going to and you're going to vote on that. just even just even just having this as an open vote is an insult and and and abhorrent to the people who live on our street. And we're all um scared and nervous.
I mean, we're all here. We don't we we we can't even believe that this is even what that this is even uh uh is being raised as as a decision to save money. I mean, it's just it's beyond the pale. It makes no sense. There's got to be other
ways to do it. Having children on the road, I mean, just think about it that way. Why would you want to put children on the street? Why? For to save money. Does that make sense? I mean, find it in your heart to not do
that to this town. It makes no sense. It's it's it's it's a a completely um abominable decision that can only lead to disaster. Okay? There's no children that should be running and scattered around in the
roads going trying to just trying to get to school going up Glenn Avenue, even accompanied by adults where there's blind spots, where there's cars that are that are skipping over. If you go on Glenn Avenue, somebody's making a left.
It doesn't matter which cars are in the left lane. Somebody's going to be in a rush and somebody jumps ahead of the of all the cars. We see it every single day. We see people just trying to get onto Glenn from uh from from the from
the side streets and they can't even turn because there's cars barreling up and down Glenn. Now, do you want to have you want to you want to leave a legacy of having kids of trying to get to school? I I mean, you're you're not going to feel guilty and and and when,
God forbid, you know, you your your your legacy leaves a a tragedy in the future, I just put that forward to you to think about. God forbid that happens, you should would all be and I would expect to be ashamed.
>> Thank you. >> Thank you. Good evening. My name is Esther Kim, Bridgewood resident, alum, and current Willard and ITDC mom. Thank you for the space to speak. It has been 50 days since Dr. Schwarz first presented ITDC's
classroom closures as a bullet point on the district budget presentation. 50 days since the ITDC staff and families found out through word of mouth and not a formal communication that teachers would be losing jobs, families would be losing child care despite having paid deposits. As we await possible
relocation, pending and collaborative or words being thrown around and held over our heads, creating false hope, putting teachers jobs at risks, and families with young infants in limbo. Timeline is critical as enrollment for fall is around the corner. There's no clear intended timeline yet to be shared. We
were so encouraged to see the incredible Rididgewood wrestling community speak on behalf of Coach Franklin last time. If 75 infants and toddlers could come and speak on behalf of protecting their school and teachers, the public comment would be 5 hours long. We have over 500 signatures on a public petition urging
the district to re-evaluate classroom allocations at the Glen School to find a phased approach to the fall 26 school year that protect IEP students generates future revenue as well as maintain our current profitable ITDC infrastructure. You're right, the devil is in the details and throughout this process
there have been a lack of command of the details. What defines hazardous bus routes? What constitutes a redundant teaching position? What is the average revenue of a classroom you're planning to shut down? These are objective definitions and calculations that can be shared and are being gatekept by the
superintendent's office. I publicly urge the board to hold the superintendent's office accountable for the details of these decisions. From my communications with Dr. Fenwick and Dr. Schwarz, as of this moment, ITDC as we know it will cease to exist unless the board can step in to preserve this 43-year-old
institution for one more school year. The power is now in your hands. Given that it is teacher appreciation week and our ITDC staff have been faced with uncertainty and now unclear future, I actually would like to take this time to honor their incredible contributions to the Ridgewood community. To the infant
class teachers, Miss Bobby, Miss Karen, Miss Nan, Reena, and Lisa, thank you for caring for our littlest ones in Ridgewood, sometimes as young as four weeks old, as parents return to the workforce. Those first days, especially as new parents, are daunting, but you provide peace of mind, guidance, and grace as young families grow into their
own rhythm. To the toddler class teachers, Miss Carrie, Jennifer, Brandy, Shelley, and Chrissy. Thank you for embracing our toddler's big feelings and big personalities as they explore the world and learn new skills. You are witnesses to their first friendships, sing alongs, and nonsense monologues. To the twos class teachers, Miss Megan,
Jamele, Danielle, Raina, and Lauren, thank you for turning the terrible twos into terrific twos. We're thankful for the patience and enthusiasm you show each child as they develop communication and social skills that will last well beyond your classroom. To the threes teachers, Miss Don, Anna, Jessica, and Stephanie. Thank you for helping our
three-year-olds build curiosity and community. You've created a space where learning happens through talk, play, and shared experiences. Also, these tiny friends are four years into their friendships, and they navigate conflict and resolution with a kindness first mentality. To the forest class teachers, Miss Marian, Maya, and Cheryl, thank you
for guiding our children to be confident, independent as they prepare for the big world of kindergarten. Your dedication sets them up for success with a sense of responsibility and love for learning that carries them into their future schooling years. To all of our high school staff at a time when class workload and extracurricular activities
are overwhelming, thank you for investing your time to give back to the community's littlest ones. To our director, Lisa Ktos, admin Lisa Pisani, and all the aids and custodians. You built ITDC into this beautiful community of educators, families, and friends. behind the scenes. You kept the ship
going, empowered parents, and our tiny voices know that they matter. To the ITDC staff, thank you for the handprint you have left on these children's hearts for over 40 years. The ITDC legacy that this current group of educators has built does not disappear with any
building change or classroom cuts, but will live on in our children and our families. Thank you for giving so selflessly to our youngest Rididgewood residents. I hope these four minutes have given you the recognition and dignity that you deserve in this moment of uncertainty. I trust the board will
influence a mutually beneficial, fiscally responsible way forward and do right by all families this upcoming school year. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you. >> Good evening board. Um, Monica Aula, I'm also under Cliff Court.
I know I'm not going to get any answer from any of you, but I want to put the questions in your head. Any of you will pay $1600 to bust your children to school? Any of you
ask yourselves, will I pay $1,600 if I have four children, three or two or one? We're mediumass families. We don't make millions of dollars to pay $1,600 per child.
Will you send your children walking up Nor Maple and Glenn or crossing the train tracks in Hokus? Will you do it? put those questions and I want to see each of you in your eyes
with those questions in your heart and see if you will do it because I guarantee it you will not and I guarantee you will not pay $1,600 neither. I hear talking about tennis courts. I hear talking about concealed floors with
asbestous. I work in an old hospital with asbestos everywhere and I get to say nothing because there's priorities. What is your priority tonight? Your priority is the safety of our children.
Not the tennis courts, not the asbestos, not the steps from rich. The priority is the children. It says right there, a tradition of excellence. This is not excellence. If you're caught in busing and charging
and passing the bucket to the rest of us, this is an excellence. Let's not pat ourselves in the back and say we're a tradition of excellence. If we cannot balance the budget
and provide the families of Richwood, then that let's not say we have a tradition of excellence. And excellence is when you provide the budget and you're able to balance it and you provide what you need to provide and has
been provide for the past 20 years. I've been living in Richmond for 20 years. The bus has stopped in the corner of my house for 20 years. What has happened? What is different? What has changed?
Nothing has changed. Absolutely nothing. The only has changed is that you have cars running 50, 60, 80 miles an hour. That has changed. It has changed that we have more cars than we had 20 years ago.
It had changed that now we have four, that my neighbors have more uh children than they used to have. That has changed. How is it that the road was hazardous 20 years ago, but now is not all of the
sudden? How convenient will cut the bus to all of to all of us for the love of God. This is not rocket science. We are playing with the safety of our children.
Put yourself in our position. Will you do it? Think for a second. Would you send your children walking? Will you pay $1600? You will not. Thank you. Thank you. I'm going to go to remote.
I see one hand. >> Bonita, you're on with the uh board. >> Hey, can you hear me? >> Yes, we can hear you. >> Okay. Good evening, Bonita Shinsky. I've got um kids at GW and Ridgewood High School. Couple of things and then I'll
jump in my questions. Um it is 19,000 for the rebranding. And I just have to say I don't care if it's 1% or 10% of the 19,000. If we had to pay a third-party vendor to create a social awareness to drive attractiveness of our district to hire employees, then I call
that a failure of our personnel and head of HR. Um, there was somebody who was speaking and you can't really see who was speaking when you are dialing in, but they were saying something about certainly needing a captain driving and steering the ship. And I completely agree with that. We certainly need
administrative positions, but there's a difference between having one captain and having one captain with multiple co- captains. So, I was looking at your um headcount analysis slides um if and I don't know what slide
numbers there are because there are no slide numbers. And I just had a quick question on the headcount analysis slide. There's a second bullet point that says instructional personnel. Some curricular personnel have offices at the ed center due to space limitations at the schools but not generally considered
central office personnels. What are those personnels? Is that inclusive of the the new assistant superintendent roles that you have added since you took over the
administration? Dr. ers is that in also inclusive of their confidential administrative assistance that started of which um I think one started in August of 2024, another started in October 2024 and then we had a latest
one who started in December 2024. So when I look at that headcount analysis of going from 30 to 31 to 32. So, if I just go from 30 to 31, from 23 to 24, jumping to 24 to 25, the
percentage of headcount goes from 3.92% down to 3.86% of your total headcount. But for some reason, your salary upticks 400 grand. So, it goes from 4.47% to 4.9%.
What accounts for that 400 grand uptick? If you're taking that 400 grand divided by 30, let's just assume that it's some sort of p promotion, it's $13,000 per person. So what's accounted for the 400 grand uptick when the percentage of your
ed center admins actually went down year-over-year between those two years? The number is not mathing for me. the 17 FTE or the positions, 88% is teaching staff
of which two are admin positions and I don't understand how you're calculating your 30 to 31 to 32 um because when I look at the boxes of your ORC chart that you presented in Dece or October 2024
which you stated specifically at the board of ed meeting that you um you were honored that our your previous predecessors uh wanted to do a lot of the work and you certainly weren't up for the job so you decided to put more boxes under you. We went from seven
boxes to 10 boxes direct reports to you. So I'm not understanding the headcount analysis slide. The numbers don't add up. Neither does a salary. Can somebody explain to me what falls under the instructional personnel bullet point?
Also, you had specified in one of the slides what the um what the teaching staff impact is, but you still have not disclosed what the impact is on class sizes. Is that something you ever plan to uh share with your community, the community
that you represent, Miss Broen, or do you plan to just bypass that question every time I ask? >> Thank you. >> Thank you. Who's the next Natalia, you're on with the board.
>> Hello. >> Hello. Can you hear me now? >> I can hear you. Yes, we can hear you. >> Okay. Thank you. So, just um obviously it's a lot of information to absorb. Um but I I wholeheartedly agree with Bonita
and every point she made. But on just my own observations, so on the position efficiency and reductions slide, we were looking at uh 17 total reductions with two at the education center while if I'm
if I recall correctly while the over nine of them are coming from high school alone. At the same time, the district's own staffing report, which I pulled separately uh last week, shows general administration increasing from two to
six position. Then the central offices or central services at 38 positions, both part of administrative structure and even as we now cutting classroom roles, um instructional staff has been essentially flat over time. That's my
observations based on data I was pulling separately because this slide was confusing. It was adding something that it was maybe fitting your agenda or fitting your message, but it just wasn't making sense to me. But anyways, yet the classrooms are where the cuts are concentrated.
And in at least one case, well, that's important to note. I think we there's multiple people that send a message about this, but yet nobody addressed it. At least in one case, we are seeing a subject area teaching position eliminated while a similar role now is being posted as an open position for
next year, which is difficult to reconcile from both the staffing and process standpoint. This is a teacher who has been highly regarded by both students in the classroom and student athletes he coaches. And when I look at the HUDcount analysis that was
presented, it shows about 30 education center administrative roles, but that specifically excludes other administrative categories in areas like community school and and certain central management positions, which I think essential to look at the whole picture,
not taking a certain items out of context to just fit your agenda. So to be specific just wanted to clarify are decisions about reductions being made on the full based on the full administrative structure including general administration service central
services and related functions or only the narrower education center subset shown here because it doesn't appear to be just about efficiencies. It's about where are we choosing to make reductions. Why are the classrooms absorbing the majority of the impact while the admin
administrative roles have been grown especially while um asking the community to absorb a 4% tax increase? So the these are the questions and I I'm I'm kind of looking forward to at some point hearing the answers just to
similar to Bonita's questions about what are the actual imp what is the actual impact to the classroom size right what are the students going to feel because we've seen that since the new um superintendent I mean not so not so more new but uh when the new superintendent
joined we've seen increase in a number of his directory reports and administrative staff and admin assistants that come with it. So are we kind of shifting Samoth usually um responsibilities assigned to
superintendent to now his multiple assistance that coming at a significant cost and I'm assuming Bonita addressing Bonita's point that's probably where that half a million is hidden is in that extra helpers that were hired
just to shift some responsibilities to other people. Thank you. Okay, next. >> Hello. >> Yes. >> Hi, this is uh Jen Williams. Thank you. Uh this is Jen Williams. I'm a resident of Ridgewood and my children attend
Ridge. Much like the parents who spoke at the beginning of the public comment for budget, we reside in one of the areas where we will likely be losing what is considered courtesy busing. Um and and like those folks, I think we've collectively put forth as much research
and data and reference to state laws and safety considerations uh that we possibly that we possibly can. We've given you really all of the logical please that we are able to put forth and we know these are difficult decisions but really ask that you honor
that we're looking into the faces of the youngest and most vulnerable children and really we can't at this moment promise them safe passage to school. Um, and it might be just semantics and it might really have only hit me in the heart, but tonight to hear busing reframed not as a reduction in cost
even, which is already sort of cutting, but to hear it pulled over into a line item where it's considered a revenue stream, was really appalling. That was really an uncomfortable thing to hear. It really felt distasteful. Um, and I agree with the gentleman who said that this makes it really feel like you're
putting aside the safety of our children um, for profit now at this point. So, that was a really disappointing way to hear that framed up. Um, and I think what's additionally frustrating is that while we're making these pleas for safety and for our children to be able
to have that access to publica public education, that what we're not hearing is any additional consideration for ways to make the routes safer. This is the moment for the ultimate yes and yes we should have busing at a cost that does not hit individual households
and the routes should be safer for walking. So in our case as you know we have to navigate the entire central business district to reach our school. Uh and we don't reach a crossing guard until 1.1 miles into a 1.4 mile walk. So we want to be responsible citizens. We
want to be responsible community members. And we're asking the safety of our children not be put for sale. Thank you. >> Dimmitri, you're on with the board. I I can't see the >> Okay, great.
You're Demetri, you're on with the board. Demetri, if you're there, you want to unmute and speak. Maybe um I'll go to the next person and then uh come back.
Who's the next person? >> Oh, Cynthia. >> Oh, uh Cynthia O'Keefe, you're on with the board. >> Good evening. Can you hear me? >> Yes, we can. >> Excellent. Um Cynthia O'Keefe, Rididgewood resident. So, um, a a few
things. First of all, I want to say thank you. I know putting a budget together and making some hard and, you know, hard decisions is is definitely not easy. Um, what I will say is, you know, I think the world is aware that
healthc care costs have gone up. So, that's a given. the other considerations are, you know, quite disappointing to me. When I listen to, you know, some of the people who have spoken this evening and over the course of the last two
months, um, I'm still in shock that busing is even a consideration when given the fact that the roads are not safe. You're talking about periods of time during the year where there's, you know, daylight saving. it's dark out
when children would be walking home. There's the ebike situation um where parents may be looking to, you know, give their children these ebikes so that they can get back and forth to school and avoid taking the bus. Again, another
danger that I don't think we want, you know, to go down that road, no pun intended. It's these are very uncomfortable situations for for people who care about their children and their neighborhood and their you know their livelihood. This is terrible. Um the
fact that this evening there are still so many unanswered questions um is concerning. And you know, I guess, you know, one of the things that comes to mind when I'm listening to um to all of
you speak um and and first of all, you know, and I don't know if there's a lot of discussion that goes on behind the scenes, but I don't hear a lot of, you know, tires getting kicked by the board, and that's a disappointment to me. there's usually one person or one, you
know, maybe one or two that are asking the critical questions and other people are not saying so much. So maybe this is all being done behind the scenes and so they don't feel the need to ask questions. But that's concerning. Also, is there any benchmarking done in terms
of the staff size and the admin positions, you know, uh specifically because, you know, maybe you can benchmark against other municipalities um and you know, how they're effectuating using roles, you know, given um how many children are in the
the school system. Um, the other thing is last year, and again this is last year's budget expenditure, $80,000 was given to the village. And I believe Miss Broen, you said this evening that you may be looking to the to the village to
help out a little bit. I think Dr. Schwarz said that a couple of weeks ago. Um, a lot of these maintenance issues like the tennis courts and other things, this is not new. So giving the village $80,000 for lights on Vets Field, while
some people might have thought that that was a great idea and really important, um it it seemed like, you know, a heck of a lot of money that could have been spent on other things that now you're looking to fix because the repairs are more critical now and now it's a safety
issue. So I, you know, maybe going back to the drawing board and and thinking about some of these things and when you're making a decision to give the village money, there might be other ways to spend it that are more effective and essential than lights on a field. Um,
that's really all I have to say. I think the the bus system is really a crime and and it really should not be even a consideration that some people have to think about for their child's safety. The roads are terrible out there. Um, you know, I'm a working professional, so
I'm not around when school lets out, but honestly, you know, I just feel like there's there's some danger and and really serious considerations should have been made. So, this isn't something that parents should even have to deal with. Um, as far as the Glen School,
also major disappointment, very sad. Um, and I really hope better solutioning can can come about so that, you know, parents aren't freaking out and and feeling so unsettled. This is very unsettling and still so many unanswered questions. Uh, that's really all I had
to say. Thank you. Thank you. >> Dimmitri, would you like to speak now? Okay, I will um come back to you one more time and I'll go to Peter Molton. >> Hi, Peter Molton, Ridgewood resident.
Um, something I've said during the budget conversations is just, you know, for for um administration and the board to discuss and decide um directionality and uh where we're going as a community, as
a district. And I was compelled to call tonight in regards to the busing where you know for a while people say that you know first off what elementary school is going to you child is going to go up the hill in the snow you know 1.8 8 miles.
Um, it's kind of facicious joking. Uh, maybe the expectation is that the parents are now going to drive these children. Uh, however, this to Miss Madison's point, I mean, this this is now a substantial tax increase to a specific group of people that are likely
in hazardous areas. um and wouldn't be surprised if that community doesn't come after things, you know, with and say, you know, this is not something we should be charged because it's hazardous and um but there really should be a very specific determination so people
understand what that means. Um but this is a tax on those people and this is going to affect their property values. Um and I would say yeah, I I mentioned before, yeah, what is the town willing to accept? If you went to all stakeholders because this is talking
3.4% I think of the budget and said okay instead of the increase being 4% it's 4.3 or 4% so it's going to cost you an extra $50. Um would the community say you know what this is the right thing so kids are safe. We don't want a blemish on our town. This is the direction we
want to go in as a town. We want everybody to be safe. we don't want to put it on this one group of people and that you know we we want to continue with this as a community. So I I I just put that out there as part as part of this conversation. So again these are
very difficult decisions you guys are making and uh thank you very much. Thank you, >> Demetri again. >> Yeah. >> Hi. Can you hear me now? >> Oh, yeah. >> Awesome. Thank you. Thank you so much. Sorry about the technical difficulties.
Um have to dial back into the Zoom. All right. Um my name is Dimmitri Lashinski, Richard and the Willer Dad. I'm also here tonight to um um raise my deep concerns about the proposed removal of courtesy busing for our neighborhood, the W9 route. Um as you've heard from
all of the concerned parents here tonight, as well as documented in the RPD traffic study, uh traffic volume on Glenn Avenue is extremely high, especially during the peak times, which coincide with the time that children are actually walking to and from school. Traffic comes down the hill in excess of 40 miles an hour, and the intersection
of Glenn and Oak has crashes on a regular basis. I live half a block from that intersection. I hear them from my house. So, I'm, you know, very familiar with the the situation as as is anyone who lives in the neighborhood. Um 40 mph, by the way, seem is a number that
we've kind of grown um accustomed to and normalized, but it's not a trivial number. If you look at the actual pedestrian safety statistics, um a person hit by a car 20 miles an hour has a 95% survival rate. and someone hit at 40 mph has an 9% not
survival rate. This is extremely um dangerous for kids to be crossing the street twice. Um I mean again I I urge the board to consider other um other ways to to fill
this particular budget gap. The 4.00 00 increase number seems like something that was arbitrarily picked and things were then um cut to meet that number rather than any kind of bottoms of
approach uh of what actually should be kept or not in the budget. Um so yeah, please do the right thing for our children for the safety uh of the future of like any all the kids that live in this neighborhood. Thank you for your time.
Courtney. >> Courtney, you're on with the board. >> Hi, my name is Courtney Toli. I also live at 121 Undercliff Court. Um um as as obviously stated um to play devil's
advocate, god forbid this does get passed. Um, I just want to know who's going to be personally liable if um, one of our kids gets hurt or worst case something awful happens to them, they don't come back. Um, as a mother, like we should not be making
this decision. It's you're putting us in a bad spot. And I think honestly um if you can account for expenses for from a future fiscal, why if you know that there's going to be an increase in tax
revenue, why can't you still account for busing and then address it next year? Um that's all I have. Thank you. >> Thank you. Seeing no more hands, I'll close public
comment now. And uh Dr. Schwarz, would you would you like to um respond to anything? >> Sure. Officers, I'll certainly like to pay respect to the the speakers who spoke.
I'm sure that many folks who are up here speaking or advocating for something specific. I'm I'm not going to be in a position to uh my response is not an attempt to assuage anybody. It's really just to acknowledge and then uh there's board members who can feel free to
discuss as you see fit. Um and I apologize. I tried to catch some folks names but I couldn't catch them all as they were going. But we heard from a variety of speakers talking about particularly the W9 route um and concerns about the hazardous nature of that specific route. I would say um sure
we've heard about courtesy busing in general. I know Mrs. Madison uh while she did reference the that that route over W9, but uh she made some interesting points about the fact that you know this is impacting a select group of families. Um, so we appreciate
certainly appreciate that and we are continuing to evaluate. We'll we'll look at I was pulling up the policy here looking at historic policies too about specifically that route. Uh, so we will follow up on that on that specific route tomorrow.
Again, heard a lot of conversation and concerns about liability. um to answer that question um I want to be I want to be respectful of everyone's uh passion please uh and it's not we're we're hearing those please as a
technical answer to the question um uh I think that there's really two parts to it the first is with respect to safety and what the board is liable for boards are not required to provide transportation unless the route is deemed hazardous so um so there's kind
of two different conversations one is should there just be universal. Should there just be courtesy transportation period, which we don't really have right now. We have partial courtesy transportation for some routes. Um, and then the second question is, should certain routes be considered hazardous?
And if those routes are considered hazardous, would those routes be specifically would we continue to provide transportation for those routes or not? um missing from this conversation is that there are very many people in Ridgewood who live within the two miles or 2.5 miles from their school
and do not receive busing currently. So there are many many of those folks. So I think really what we come down to my take away from this conversation is particularly the concerns about those specific the routes that that that are that are that are being identif people are very concerned as being hazardous. Um we also heard a lot about the ITDC.
Uh again uh we have uh the utmost respect for the ITDC personnel and the care that they give our give our students uh give our students in our care. Um uh they do a great job. Um they they are masterful with their kids. I've had a chance to stop in there recently and just was so impressed with just how
well everyone is maintained there. Uh there was a reference to the fact that um that there was a there was a a failure in the communication timeline. I have clarified that and I've apologized before and I apologize again. That was not not the way to find out. Um, and
that was an error in us coordinating who was who is passing that message along and making sure that people knew that we were having this discussion at the board table. So, that's I'll own that. I apologize for that. Um, we are working to uh to see what we can do to preserve the program. Um, I can't give details
right now. Um, but a couple things I just a couple uh things I would just like to clarify. Um, ITDC does turn a profit. It's a strong program in that respect. Um, the conversation about whether we keep it as is or whether we expand the programs with the Glen School
have to do with um are increasing enrollment in preK with disabilities and our projections that that are pretty clear that we're basically we're we're already full in our IT in our Glen School enrollments for next year and we have many students um that we know are on the way. Um exactly how many we can't
be sure. So, it really is it's not just about um it's not just about funding. It's about being able to provide our educational program for preschool disabled students. Uh someone made a comment in another com comment about a third way. We are striving for a third way here to try to be able to preserve
uh really expand the Glen programs and maintain the ITC. So, I can't say too much more than that right now, but we are communicating with our ITDC team um and uh and vetting sites. Um, also heard concerns about the cost of the uh of the subscription busing.
Um, we're going to continue to talk about that. We have talked about u possibly finding ways to um possibly operate buses ourselves and reduce the cost of the courtesy busing. Uh, there was a comment made about feeling kind of hurtful about courtesy busing moving to a revenue source. That's just uh I
explained that at that part of the just so that people could track where that actually landed within the budget process. Um, it was originally just a cut out of the expenses. Um but then that left no option for subscription. So we decided that we would it makes more
sense. It would be be one more at least an option to give people to make courtesy busing available. It is very expensive. It is prohibitive cost prohibitive in many circumstances. I'm not pitching any of these uh any of these things as good ideas.
Uh we had some questions uh regarding administrative costs and those administrative slides. Um there was a couple technical questions in there which I'll try to answer. Um there was a question about who constitute instructional personnel. I I said it earlier in the presentation but
I'll say it again that there we do have some instructional supervisors who really are school employees who just don't have we don't have an office for them in the school. Some of our supervisors are actually housed at schools. some of them are housed here because we just don't have enough offices at the school sites. So, no, we're not talking about central
administration such as directors and assistant superintendents. Talking about people at the supervisor level. Um, and then there was a reference to three administrative position administrative assistants being added. We have had changes in positions. We've had some transfers, but my FTE analysis uh we've
uh we went over that I've vetted that multiple times tracking the actual individuals by name to and by position. So, as I cited before, I was clear when I gave the presentation at that slide that we had a director position that was added. There's reference to $400,000
going up. Some of that was uh was people taking on new roles and taking on uh taking and and receiving increases for increased responsibilities, but a large portion of that was adding a director position, which I referenced before, but another portion of that is just standard increases for folks. Additionally, there
was uh I did reference that we did have one administrative position that was added in my time here. Um and we added that this last year to human resources departments. They can provide better support for human resources. Again, I want to be clear, those positions and all those decisions were made in prior years at times where our budgets were
healthy and we were not releasing staff. In fact, if anything, we were adding personnel. We've added uh since I've been here, the board took some initiative before I even got here. We had added um world language teachers. We added physical educ at the elementary level. We've added physical education
teachers. We've added we special we've carved out teachers uh should be specialists with our rep program which our gifted and talented program. Um we have increased stipens. We we've done a lot to really increase positions since I've been here. Miss Murphy, you know that more than any else you want to that I'm missing here you want to say? We
we've added uh ESL teachers year over year to cut up to um mandates for the state and make sure we're providing ESL services for all of our students in every single school. We've added additional special education teachers both at the elementary and at the middle
and high school level. Um for our inclusion programs and for our self-contained programs. Um in addition this year we looked we we're adding that additional RISE classroom this year at Ridge which we were able to do through some of the attrition and work um in looking at the positions we have in
repurposing. So we do do that on annual basis and we have added staff as programs grow. We have added many teachers um over the last four years while I have been here. Um I think and I think the many of the people sitting here would attest that it's been year
over year. we've looked at programs and added staff accordingly um where the need has been. >> So in the context of Thank you for that Mr. Murphy. So in the context of adding services and adding staff and reorganizing the administration, those decisions made sense as we were
optimizing our ability to provide service in this environment where we're dealing with significant contractions. We are we are spreading those out evenly. Um and that's what the uh analysis was designed to show is the proportionality between the administration both in FDES and in
salary as compared to uh the total population that they of of staff members that they support. Uh there's a question about impact on class sizes. I think we've been pretty clear that what our projections are for class sizes to increase, but there's not any specific classes that we're increasing. We're talking about
secondary level and we're establishing that in sectioning, but I think we've been pretty clear that we want to avoid class sizes uh on the on in the high 20s. Um we're reason to believe that we're going to be seeing class sizes that get that high. Uh there was another speaker who
referenced uh that they pulled a report um about changes in job categories. I will caution. Um, we I did inherit uh some kind of um well, let me say this. The team and I have been working over the last few years to really straighten out our district data. Uh when I got
here uh after the years of transition, we really had um just transitioned the business office and the human resources office. We really didn't have very good controls in place, nor do we have good position tracking in place. Um people were being charged to the wrong accounts. Um so we've been really working over the last couple years to
really clean those up. been working with our board members. We've talked about how it's a little frustrating on our side, too, because when we pull different analyses, it can be frustrating because it looks like this is going up and that's going down, but the reality is that we're just we're fixing people being coded and charged to the wrong accounts. So, I think at this point, especially after this budget, I
think we've really got those accounts clean. So, prospectively, we should be able to do more analysis by category like like this speaker was trying to do. Um, but I will caution that um that over the last couple years and that's why I didn't do it that way by just by category. Uh, we had to actually go
through and identify the specific people because otherwise it was just it was going to look all wonky as it was. We tried to include an analysis of the 22 23 school year uh and that there was so much transition that year and the data was so poor from that year that that was it just didn't even make sense. So, uh,
so I just would would exercise caution regarding pulling that information. Um, and then just in general with respect to, uh, central administration, um, you know, I I would, uh, people can say what they want to say about me. That's fine. I understand that. Um, but I do want to
point out the fact that we have a lot of really great people working at the education center here who really care deeply about kids and students. Uh, most of the people you don't know, they're not people at this table. I'm not referring, I mean, we're, you know, our faces. There's a lot of really just good, honest, hardworking people who show up consistently and really care
about the district who don't get to really interface with families very much and don't get to interface with kids very much, but they're very reliable and they do good work. Uh, and I just want to recognize them and their hard work. They also carry a lot of responsibility and they work pretty tirelessly and there's almost basically everybody here
pulls in extra hours when we need somebody. When there's something going on, whether it's nights or weekends, people make themselves available. Um, so so I want to give them a a give them some credit there, too. I think that more or less touches on most of the responses. Um, so I'll leave
it to the board if there's any additional commentary that you want to provide. >> Sure. One comment on the hazardous routes. Um, have we considered talking to the village council and the police department uh to compensate some of
their crossing guard costs to busing? Instead of diverting all of that to the families because um if there are two or three uh at least two um intersections busy intersections there where they will have to provide
crossing guard because that's part of the police uh department's uh responsibilities I think are to provide safe route to the schools. So if they will have to add more crossing guards there versus if they would consider
contributing to that specific route because at at a prior district where I live that has happened that if a specific route was considered hazardous and the municipal government chipped in instead of providing crossing guards so two crossing guards in the morning two
crossing guards in the afternoon uh in different times because now we have elementary, middle and high school uh different timing. ings, right? So, um if those two uh intersections are being added for walking routes, uh so what
would be cost to them versus if they would be willing to contribute something towards the busing? >> Your your comment was about should they provide crossing guards or in lie of crossing guards uh fund busing >> fund busing and if if they don't then definitely we
should expect them to provide to crossing guards. That should not be a question if they will provide crossing guards or not. I'm expecting they would and at least we we'll communicate to them at least on our behalf we will communicate to them
that hey starting September 1 um we are expecting some students to walk uh at these routes. So per your policy if needed please provide crossing guard so that way we have they don't come to us later on and say that
we were not aware of those routes. >> We are communicating with them right now. I don't want to speak for them right now but all of these uh but you know crossing guards um hazardous routes particularly the the determination of hazardous routes is really we're focused on we're also focused on sidewalks and there's a project apparently happening
on Glenn. So we're working that through right now. So I can't give you a where we are up to this exact moment. those conversations are in play, >> right? So the where the that sidewalk is project is happening that will not impact um the specific route to Willard. uh
because the concern there is that there's an alternate route exists where students might just decide to walk over the train track and uh who's going to stop them and then if they come through uh Glenn and through North Maple then
the sidewalk already exists up to that part. So that sidewalk is I think if I'm not mistaken it's beyond that point because they can make it right on upper Boulevard and then like so we have to measure from the current sidewalk route
whether it's 2 miles. Yeah. And and that's what we're doing. I've I again I've even spected these route sets as I remember it but I don't want to right >> I don't want to speak out of turn right now. The the other thing we could do um is ask for tighter enforcement of speed
limits because people spoke and said that people are exceeding the 25 miles an hour along Maple and on Glenn those are 25 m and if they are going if people I think the public and the home and school has safety committees we need to
have a multi-pronged approach to bring that to the attention of the police and say what about this you know safety issue of speeding and if they hear it from multiple people then that you know wheel
>> it's a downhill >> we need >> it's a that that the Glen Avenue is a downhill you don't realize that >> well you have to realize it I'm telling you they don't realize >> so they do they do enforce that I'm I'm just giving you the facts that they do
enforce it there's a lot of the times there is a dummy police car under the bridge under the train track there so that you can see that and you slow down and they do give tickets also there so it's not that it's not happening so that is already happening so they do enforce
the 25 mile per hour there um there is a dummy car and still at that Glenn and Oak intersection accidents happen >> perhaps at the citizen safety advisory committee you know like for example I just noticed on Bair um there's that
machine that says you're going no slow down, you're going 30 miles an hour and I know that when the request is made at that committee sometimes, you know, and I know that there's a process, but I've I personally have never seen one on Glenn. It doesn't mean there hasn't been
one on Glenn, but perhaps that's something that might be useful for them to put on Glenn. It doesn't solve all the problems, but it begins to because you you don't always realize how fast you're going. But the reality is doesn't matter why if you're exceeding the speed limit you're
breaking and it's the same because we do have other students walking further up on Glenn on Upper and Hillrest. They're walking to Ridge as well. So they may not need to walk on Glenn. They're walking side street that
don't have sidewalks. Not all the streets when you >> the students don't cross Glenn to go to ridge. Anybody who's north of Glenn goes to Willard. >> No, but I'm saying there are families that live on the other side of Glenn, the safer side. They don't have to
cross, but they live on upper. They live on Hillrest over there. And if my memory serves me correct, I don't think there's sidewalks on every street over there. >> But those are internal street. Those are not county roads. >> I know they're internal streets, but those children are walking also with a
potentially hazardous situation. So, we don't have great systems for kids to walk safely in all areas. It's particularly hazardous walking up Glenn. That's no doubt. But once you get even
inside, there's still problems. >> I I I totally understand that. I'm just saying we cannot con compare internal ridgewood streets to county roads. So first of all, thank you for your comments. Um it's it's not easy to come
for the board. This has been a really difficult year um for us as a as as our administration um has proposed this budget. There are certain things that we have um not been in favor of and and
some of the changes to personnel we were not u in the initially supportive of and um and those were were able to find efficiencies. The two difficult positions that were infant
toddler and also um courtesy busing. other districts do courtesy busing and we look to that uh to see how they were doing it. Um very similar to what we're
proposing but as Dr. Schwarz says that the analysis isn't complete on the on your on the route determination. So even though uh it should the board support the budget, remember
we are on a timeline and so we need to vote on the budget. Uh the there are some state regulations that require us to do that, but we're voting on the budget. And again, we are still voting on the um
on the totals, the revenues, the how we're going to um how we're collecting the money uh in our revenues. But but things can change. So that's, you know, I I sit here saying, you know, don't leave hopeless tonight.
Um, but that said, we know that we have a limited amount of things we can take from, you know, you've got your staffing and if you you see that the staffing is, you know, a large percent of our budget, 75% of our budget is are
salaries and and um health benefits. Then you've got transportation. You um you have you can pull up the screen, but but you can see that you don't we've got supplies. We've got the new curriculum,
you've got your athletics, you've got your um you've got your the clubs. All of those are part of building a a program and supports for students. And then you have special education needs,
um, out of district placements, tuition. So the budget has it doesn't have a lot of flexibility, although it it seems that it should. It it really doesn't. So give us some time on the busing on the infant toddler. When we talk about that,
we initi we are talking at this point about closing the infant room, maintaining the toddler and two rooms at Glenn School unless we find something offsite.
And for the three and four year olds, they have priority to come to the reach program. different I understand from infant toddler which um you know has been I know in the district I've been here 40 years I know
that it's been an important part of the program but so is our special education student needs so are our our three-year-olds who when identified with special needs
need a place in the district and what we're doing right now I think we have maybe three or four students that are in an out of district placement and they could come back into and
the good part of the reach program is we're preparing and working with these children. They are with their gened, if you will, general education peers. Hopefully that mirrors and helps as they
move into our elementary schools and then to middle school and high school. So there, you know, it is, you know, it's not one population more important than another, but it it's it's really trying to serve
our students and and make them um make it available so that they can then thrive and move on. So these are difficult choices and I know that each one of us have questioned um we've they've it's been part of
committees it's been executive session in some uh some cases and then um you know in our small committees in conversations with uh Dr. Schwarz with Mrs. Murphy
with Dr. Fenwick. Um, and I can sit here saying, you know, it it's not a comfortable position to be in. We prior to this, um, the a few years ago, the state aid had was increasing each year. Um, we had
savings from the COVID years that gave us the ability to to grow programs. So we're not and and luckily this budget does is not causing us to shrink those programs. So, world language in
elementary school and the gifted and talented program that we added last year. Um the uh the look at um um multi- what is it multi- tiered systems of
support which is is sort of helping kids who are having a harder time in school to make it. So there there are so many things that we have built into the program in the last uh four years
um that we're keeping and and so I try to look at the positives in this budget and then of course we have these negatives and the negatives are these hard choices. So, we I don't think the
the doors are closed on either of those issues right now, but I'm not 100% sure we will be able to solve it. But believe me, there is no lack of will or trying that I see in any board member or any administrator
um in the district. um we are we keep the focus on kids and um I know it doesn't feel like that right now to some of you but the things that are um happening in the district I I
think have been very positive um so just on that thought anyone else okay so I'm going to close the public comment um on the budget. And we're going to move to consent items, regular
and routine, and go to administration. I'll move administration, which is the receipt of suspensions, harassment, intimidation, and bullying reports. Would someone like to second that? >> Second by Mr. Bro, second by Miss.
Uh roll call. Mr. Yes. >> Miss Handy, >> yes. >> Mr. Kelly, >> yes. >> Mr. McMoo, >> yes. >> Mroy, >> yes. >> Affirmative. >> Okay. And our next item is a resolution and
motion not included in the consent agenda agenda and this is the adoption of the 262 27 final budget as approved by the Executive County Superintendent of Schools. and and basically in March when
we um approved the tenative budget that did go to the county superintendent who who is really the state if you will and by law they have to review the budget
and say uh approve it and they did that as of April 19th I think it was >> yes >> 13th oh 13th Okay. Oh, it's in here. Okay. So, I'm going to read the resolution, but just to give you a background. So, that's these are the the
steps we have to go through um by law on these on the budget. So, approval adoption of the 2627 final budget as approved by the executive county superintendent of schools. Whereas, the Rooted Board of Education adopted a
tenative 2627 budget on March 23rd, 2026. and submitted it to the Executive County Superintendent of Schools for approval. And whereas the tenative budget was approved by the Executive County Superintendent of Schools on
April 13, 2026. And whereas the tenative budget was advertised in the Bergen record on April 19th, 2026. And whereas the final 2627 budget was
presented to the public during a hearing held in the board of education administrative office at 49 Cottage Place, Ridge Ridgwood, New Jersey on May 4th, 2026. And be it resolved that the Rigid Board of Education upon the recommendation of
the Superintendent of Schools approves the final 2627 budget with the following fund allocations. as listed on this agenda. And you'll um seeing there are agendas on the back table, are there
not? Um the the um agenda lays out the expenditures, the revenues, and what's to be raised um in taxes. Um so uh I move
the 2026 27 budget. would like someone like to second that we can open up for board discussion if you want if there's anything anyone would like to add. Seeing none, I guess um Dr. Schwarz, do
you have anything you want to add? >> No, thank you very much. >> Okay. Want to take a roll call? >> Roll call. Mr. Donnie. Um Mr. U Mr. Matthews I would like to add some comments to my um in the minutes
in the recorded minutes. Yep. >> Um so um I have a couple of a few comments. So I have number one I have some concerns about our ability to generate assumed revenue with the Glen School program. I'm concerned that we
are going to increase expenses at Glen School more than our ability to increase revenue there. Number two, um I'm concerned about some hazardous routes and how that selection process worked
out. Um number three, I have concerns about the ratio of the reoccurring expenses increase for extracurricular versus the curricular activities. Sorry, please just say it again please. >> Sure. I have concerns about the ratio of
the recurring expense increase for extracurricular versus curricular activities. Number four, I'm not voting today for the facilities projects prioritized in this budget and I'm hoping I'll get to vote on them
individually when it's time to award the contract for each of those projects. Having said all of that, I want to put that also in the record that my vote today is for setting the tax levy for property taxes, which is 4% increase
from last year's property tax levy. And for that, I'm voting yes. >> Miss Andy, >> yes. >> Yes. Yes. Broen. >> Yes.
>> You have five affirmative and you have uh comments for Mr. Donnie one through five. >> Great. Thank you for that. >> So with that um are there any board member announcements? Oh
>> yes. So, >> so this is uh beyond the budget, but because we have a lot of people today listening. Usually our meetings are not that well attended and by this time there are only a few people since there's a lot of attention and a lot of people here. I just wanted
to bring some things to to your attention. So it's it's very good to be involved as residents in the school process and the more you are involved the more you know the more you can influence and you can see that in just
last three or four meetings um uh one of the commentator mentioned that it's 50 days since the first presentation was made here and that was the first initial draft budget and based on the public comments and the emails and user public
input. There were changes in this budget, right? So, it's not that residents cannot bring changes. So, residents do have power to bring changes. And um so FYI, so this year and every year we have elections in
Ridgewood, we have elections for municipal council and we have elections for board of education. This year, um the election is in November. And usually what happens is I should not say usually that sometimes what it happens is the
November election um the deadline for filing those applications is end of June or first week of July and most people are busy during that time. Yeah. So but it may be end of July but I would say consider um early July uh for
planning purposes. So a lot of people are busy during that time in graduation, summer vacation. So so a lot of them miss that. So I just want to bring that to attention. And from now until then we only have two more meetings, right? So because we we only meet once a month. So
next we'll meet in June and um maybe July or or maybe the two Yeah. >> May 18th. >> May 18th is another meeting. Yes. Once a month. >> Then June, July and August. So two more meetings maybe before that first week of July. So that's why I just wanted to
bring it to attention that we do have election this year at both village council and board of ed. So anybody considering getting more involved should uh step up. There is election and you just need about 10 signatures that >> 25
>> 25 now. Okay. Yeah. that used to be 10 signatures uh a few years ago, but yeah, 25 uh other citizens in Rididgewood. Um they endorse you and then you can file a form and I I'm hoping Mr. Matthews will be posting those instructions soon on
our website. Um usually they go up around April. Uh so that those instructions will be available on our website. So anybody who's considering getting more engaged in school process or village council process should consider filing uh for nomination and
run for election in November. Thank you. >> Thank you for that. >> Any other board announcements? As of retired, but I don't think I'm ever retired from being a civics teacher, social studies teacher. I endorse those suggestions and I've always encouraged
my students to get involved and it's wonderful to see people speaking up. I have spoken up in the past on different issues before I was over here and I just want you to know I've had five children go through the district, two children through the infant toddler center now
that you know that is well known and my students my children have been bust. So I do feel we all do we spend a lot of time and this has not been an easy process at all at this time. I've been in the district for 40 years and I've
seen it up and down and up and down and it's very very difficult to be over here and we hear you. You speak with passion. You speak with honesty of your family situation and I have five children and four grandchildren. I we hear you and I
just want you to know that not every time things go one way or whatever. It isn't snap decisions. We're not allowed to meet behind the scenes. You know, we take we know those things and we're very My son went to Glenn school for his
kindergarten picnic only to be told in the summer before he enrolled, "Oh, sorry, Glenn school is closing. Your kids are going to pause now." Which turned out to be great. It was terrible. I went to all these houses. We had all these meetings and we came, we spoke it, but they got in trouble for violating
the sunshine law. So, I guess the laws then prevailed back in the 1980s. But I just wanted to say we've heard you. We feel you and thank you for speaking up as a board member, as a citizen of
Ridgewood, as a civics teacher. Um, it's a lot of work, but we'd love to have people run as well. And thank you very much. And don't think we don't appreciate you for coming. It is difficult sometimes to sit here with a straight face. Just want you to know
that. I'm a mom. Thank you. Any any anything else, Mary? Um discussion items. >> Miss Broen, since I don't have a superintendent report, can I just say a couple things real quick? >> Certainly. >> First of all, I just want do want to thank everybody who came out. Really appreciate your presence and your time
here. Uh similarly it is hard to uh um it is hard to uh go through these processes and making these difficult decisions and it's something we do all together as a board. Um but it's something that we have to uh kind of work through. So we have heard everybody and we do want to uh we are we
are working towards more solutions and third ways. Um it is also teacher appreciation week. want to thank all of our educators in the district, not just uh not just um uh folks who are here, but I want to thank folks who are here, but all of our educators in the district
uh for the good work that they do. Um and also I just want to extend some congratulations and thank you uh first to Mrs. Murphy. So, as I alluded to before, uh rather tactlessly in the middle of a of a budget presentation, uh Mrs. Murphy has accepted a position and
um I just want to say uh Mrs. Murphy preceded me before I came here. she was the director of human resources at a time when uh we were in a state of transition as a district. Um there's a lot of change over in the business office. Uh there was an interim superintendent and uh and uh uh both uh
both Dr. Fenwick and Mrs. Murphy um and a lot of our folks who are here um who who currently work in the ed center were really scrambling trying to just kind of keep everything moving forward and uh Mrs. Murphy was always able to kind of kind of keep the calm and keep the peace
and keep people focused and keep people moving forward, always delivering like kind of human quality to everything and never losing sight of that of that humanistic uh component which made her an obvious uh choice to become assistant superintendent. And in that role, she has been just a consistent problem solver, someone who can always go into a
difficult situation, help people to feel hurt and come come away with practical solutions. Uh she's always she's available 24/7. and she's uh she's all in when she's wherever she is. So, you're going to be missed. Uh Mrs. Murphy, thank you so much for your service to the district. Uh you're going to do a fantastic job as a as
superintendent yourself. No doubt about that. Um but I just wanted to recognize you here beh to give you the floor for a second. >> Thank you. I'll keep it brief because I know it's a long night for all everyone here, but um you know, I've said to the
admin team, I've said to the board, but also to the community and to the staff at large, um this has been a wonderful opportunity for me to be able to work here in Ridgewood public schools largely because of the amazing staff that we
have here in the district. Um, the people that come here every day and do what they do for the kids and the families that live in this community are just some of the the the best educators I have ever worked with in my 26 year
career at this point in time. Um, and and it's really been an honor and privilege to be able to get to know and work with these people um on a regular basis. um and to be part of this team. Um to be part of this administrative team and to work so closely with the board who has just been what you really
want to see of a board and their their discussion and how they really contemplate and talk about um the issues facing the district and how can we still move forward in the face of all of the different obstacles that present themselves on a regular basis. And then of course, first and foremost, you know,
being able to, especially in the last uh two and a half years or so, be able to work more closely with our students at the secondary level um has just been a joy. We have such great students and families here in Ridgewood. Um the kids are just amazing. Getting to work with
these student representatives here at the board level has been great as well. And I I just really thank you for the opportunity. It has been a pleasure. Um, but I'm here until I'm not. So, you've got me for, you know, the the rest of this school year. And I'm I'm really
committed to to the district and everything we still have to do. There's a lot of work that still gets done between now and the end of June. And I know I'll be on uh some eighth grade trips um soon. So, you know, I I just again, thank you.
Um and I will be taking a little piece of Rosewood with me. So, appreciate it. Thank you very much. Um, you know, I I was saving this for the next meeting when you're on the agenda, but since we're talking about this now,
you know, Jamie, when you we ca you came in, we were we had some significant issues and one of them was our pair of professionals and not being able to fill those positions. And, you know, you really analyzed the problem. you you
started the job fairs right here. You recruited and we haven't had that issue. Um after that in a time that uh staffing shortages are real in education,
Ridgewood didn't feel them. And I think it is because of the reputation and and the work you did to get out the ads to form um the job descriptions to make these um a good we have competitive
salaries. I worked and with Muhammad and you on the uh contracts. We worked hard on those contracts always with a fair conversations open to each other and you know you were
so helpful in providing data and information and being that level-headed person saying okay you've got a point they've got a point where do we come together? So, um there's so many things you brought to the district in the last
four years um that um have really moved us forward. Um and then your work with the middle school and high school uh staff, your problem solving um some of the disciplinary um uh things you've
dealt with um have again fair, thoughtful um and you've moved us forward. So, I'm extremely grateful for the work that you've done for the district. I would like to vote no when you're on to the agenda, but um and as I
said as your reference um they are lucky to have you. It is a gain for them, a loss for us. So, um thank you so much for your work. Yeah. >> Yeah. I would just I would just add thank you
I wasn't ready, but I can't I can't let it go without saying something. So, when I first met you, um I was just a volunteer and you walked into a federated meeting where people were pretty upset about the lack of uh aids and par professionals and uh you handled
it expertly. You know, just the amount of information and emotion that came at you. Um and you were able to you know, see the issue, like Sheila said, analyze it, go ahead and start to solve it. And then, as I've worked with you on
committees on different ways, um, I've always been amazed how you can be in a room with, you know, 20 people with 20 different uh, statements and opinions and perspectives and you're very quiet. And then at the end you put it all
together in a way that had that says you've not only heard but you've understood what everyone has said and you've created you've not only synthesized the information but you you've built a bridge among what can be differing opinions. Um you've you put up
with a lot um and uh you know when people get stressed and you never do. you're constantly moderate and calm and um I I have great uh respect and admiration for you as a professional.
I'm also very fond of you and um it has been wonderful and I'm with Sheila. I'm voting but I wish I could but but I am so happy for you and so very happy for Lakeland. Um they really are they made the right choice.
Thank you. want to echo all that and say ever since you joined it's been uh you know a very high bar of professionalism that you've maintained throughout always being on top of everything and having the right answers to all the questions all the time and uh definitely be missed here
and we hope to have you back someday in the future. I wearing two different hats as an employee. You were always there to help my when I was retiring walking me through the steps and seeing you lead
and fill and finding really good people to join our ranks as Ridgewood teachers. So I saw you there for three years on that role and admired your choices and getting the per you know getting everybody set and other people shared
that and also now crossing over to this to see your professionalism filling the positions and always having the answer that we need to to understand something that I thought I did but you've always explained it even better. Thank you so
much again for your leadership. So, we're all voting no next the next meeting. Yeah. >> And and I just >> I just wanted to check on that. No. >> And before we move on, she's not here, but I just wanted to commend Danielle Wood. We're all very very proud of her. She was named named principal of Mawa High School. And uh that's great. You
know, she it's a big loss for us also. She's just she's such a doer and such a such a consistent and thoughtful leader at Rididgewood High School. Um and um she's going to be missed. So, just putting that out there for her, too. Congratulations to her. Absolutely. Absolutely. Um let's see. We are at um
discussion items, other business otherwise I'll go to public comment. Is there anything else? So I will open for our third and last uh comments from the public. If there's anything anyone um else would like to um
uh talk to us about um please come to the microphone again, your name, your municipality and um microphone is open to um anyone here in the room or um and then if no one would like to speak now I'll go to
the uh remote. So, if there's anybody who'd like to u have any further comment. All right. Not seeing it. Um I do have a hand raised. Can't see the name.
>> Okay. Um the telephone number ending in 174. Uh you're on with the uh board. >> Hi, this is Laura Graasso. Can you hear me? Laura. Yes.
>> Yes. >> Yes, we can hear you. >> Hi. I just want I apologize. I had to leave a little early. I wanted to wait until uh this last comment, but um I just wanted to thank the board and Dr. Schwarz for all the work that you guys
have put into this budget. I know it's such a challenging time and um very difficult decisions have to be made, but um it's always uh I don't know how I get sucked back into the REA stuff. I thought I was walking away from it a
little bit, but um it's it's always um it's it's just very refreshing to know that we can continue to work together collectively um to, you know, try and find solutions. And although nobody ever wants to see
any cuts, um I do have to say that I believe um the job that you all did to make it as minimal as possible uh has to be recognized. So um it is my hope that uh just like Bobby was able to be um come back, hopefully that's also
possible for the rest of the teachers uh who were eliminated due to the economy. Um, so I hope that that's something that uh the board can continue and administration can continue to work towards. Um, but I just wanted to take this opportunity to thank you for all
the work that you've done and the continued work with the REA. So I wish you all a good night and thanks for the opportunity to speak. Okay, not seeing any um more hands raised. Um I make a motion to adjourn
the meeting. Um may I have a second? >> Second. >> All in favor? I >> Good night everyone. Thank you very much.