heat heat there we go heat up which one about what it's still doing that close your iPad what's your no
audio where he is explaining i don't know it's adult i am an adult i just have to pay attention honestly that is it get in here heat heat
call to order the New Jersey open public meeting law was enacted to ensure the rights of the public to have advanced notice of and to attend the meetings of public bodies at which any business affecting their interests is discussed and and or and or acted upon in accord with the provisions of this act the Robinsville Board of Education has
caused notice of this meeting to be published by having the date time and place thereof posted in the Trentonian Times on April 8th 2025 in the Township of Robinsville Bolton Board no less than 48 hours in advance of the meeting the notice was also posted at Sharon Elementary School Pawn Road Middle
School and Robbinsville High School in accordance with NJSA18A1224.1 and policy 0142 the Robinsville board of education shall be bound by the provisions of the school ethics act roll call please here
dr gold here miss Hill D'Angelo here mr howard absent miss Leman here mr nandon here mr ray here dr pierro absent mr goldberg here
dr piso here myself Mr mccree present and Dr wiznooki here we have a role we have a moor sir please proceed thank you Mr mccree please stand for the pledge of allegiance i pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the
republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all good evening everyone thank you for being here um I don't have a president's report for this evening um but the administration does have a presentation to present i just want to thank everyone
for coming on short notice and being here to to review uh what's been put together so I'll turn it over to Dr fo and the administration all right thank you and and thank you to all of our members of the board of education for allowing us to make this presentation today uh and I'm going to
get right to uh to my part of the presentation and um we um very happy to be able to come out tonight and share this with you okay um the difference between people and organizations who were good
and those who achieve greatness is definable those who become great were good because they believe they could be great taking the necessary steps to obtain that goal what we will present today is a fiscally sound multi-year plan to ensure our path forward we are
at a fork in the road and a path to a better tomorrow can potentially be obtained with approval of this proposal the yearly cycle of cuts and reductions of child focused programs must end we have the potential for
greatness in our school district and this can be the first step what we need to get there is to address our structural deficit which was created by not maximizing our fiscal opportunities for numerous years this can be fixed and new legislation has provided a vehicle
for this to be accomplished we can together build a district that can be the standard by which all central Jersey districts are measured bar none this will take many years but what our students deserve can ultimately be
provided we have the team fully committed and working together prepared to make this happen we just need your approval to make our vision for a better tomorrow a reality what um what you see behind me is the representation of the fork in the road and we're going to get
into uh the decision that we have today and what the challenges will be for uh for either path and now I turn over to Mr mccree to uh continue with the business component of the
presentation the next slide go to Yeah right there all right thank you i want to inform everyone of the timeline that this has occurred uh it is uh we were tracking this a couple of weeks ago uh or a few weeks ago uh it came out uh in DOE and the governor about an
additional opportunity for for funding um it was changed a bit we didn't know exactly what was going to happen but we were notified on Friday afternoon at 3:24 p.m by the county business administrator um on March 28th we read
it we had to digest it see what was going on with it are there any uh you know pitfalls or some situations with it um and we have to call a board meeting to discuss this so we are here tonight for an application to apply for the
opportunity to put it on the final budget presentation on April 29th so the process is tonight review and approve for us to apply to the county the county has to then approve and send it to the state
for approval the applications are due Monday um then we would have to go to the board meeting a public discussion on that that is when you would actually officially accept uh to increase uh the tax levy
and strike it and then after that the next day or a few days after that I go and apply and you know submit the final budget and and deliver the tax levy form A4F to the township exactly what the tax levy is going to be um so it's a very quick turnaround uh we understand uh the
information but this is a tight window for us to do this if you've been watching the news many towns are having their meetings this this week um and the news are coming out about that uh our next slide shows uh the notification the
eligibility and guidance that came to us the guidance is actually a few pages long i can share that um if you like i think I have already uh and we went through that we just wanted to show you the date because people were questioning when did this come out when when is it why are you acting this way because this
is it this is the timeline that wasn't forced on us this is the opportunity uh to occur now I will also say we have a fiduciary duty to to present this tonight uh could you imagine we there's a funding opportunity we never said
anything right we have our right uh and and to present to the board based on fiduciary duty and and to the students in the community as well um so this tax levy incentive program I'm going to go through the checklist
because they this is where we have to go uh in the details and the guidance do we apply do we do we offer it uh are we eligible or not so you have to number one be under local fair share if you can see on the spreadsheet uh on the table
they look at your last year's budget and your current year and what you should be at the state is saying we are undert taxing by $17 million okay then they also look at what's
adequacy what they believe our minimum budget should be now going back to local fair share this is why a few years ago the state ch you know said uh was starting was threatened to cut why we never got extra money and we're getting continual cuts on state aid is because
they believe we should be taxing 17 million more adequacy we are below adequacy we are about $5 million below adequacy what the state believes the minimum you should have spending in your operating budget to educate your students so the application is allowed
if we are under adequacy we are under local fair share we have taken the full 2% which is correct we have applied all of bank cap we have no bank cap left that's all done for it and we've also taken the health waiver basically have
you used every vehicle available to you to do this and the state says "Well if you have used everything now we'll allow you to go higher as opposed to being trapped at 2%." And of course you only have two weeks to make this decision um to apply
so our request is for 2.4 million additional the state of New Jersey one time this is their kicker will contribute 5% so we'll get an additional 120,000 from the state on this so the use of funds uh we are presenting that 2
million go directly to capital reserve specifically for the rod grant for the high school that we're approved for and the remainder goes to curriculum for instructional supplies technologies and we know those prices are going are already starting to increase so 80 roughly 80% will go into capital reserve
and the remainder go for curriculum there are items that they would like to purchase most of it is non-recurring almost you know um and that is the key point is that the two million that goes into capital reserve
the next year will be free to go to the operating budget so this coming year straight to capital we have to save enough money for the rod grants and then the following year those funds are freed up to go straight into the operating
account okay and that's the multi-year process that we're going to show and discuss so right now the high school HVAC rod grant these are the rooftop units um um air conditioning u estimated to be around $7.5 million this is an
estimate from 2023 we understand what's going on in the markets prices may be higher our current capital reserve is about 1.3 1.4 million so we're short adding the two million in there some end of year funds ne this year some end of
year funds next year we might have enough to do it in the summer of 2026 if not summer of 2027 reminder the ROD grant the state will reimburse us 40% for that construction some of these items we do yourselves you get nothing this is a
special application we did we expect to get 40 we know we'll get 40% of whatever the total cost is in the following years when do you get that money you have to front it and then after your project is completed you would get it you can get a portion of it when most of it is done
but you can't get all of it until it is 100% done and when you understand HVAC seed projects that are in millions of dollars you have your final punch list that could take a whole year and so you can get most of it when most of it is done substantial completion and the
final 10% 20% the following year uh I've done these before so I always say about a year to two years later you get those funds that is also very important because we are now doing the summer project for Sharon about 4 million so we're going to
see about 1.6 1.7 million back to us and you're going to see we're going to use that money to fill the following year that we needed as well so you're going to see Rod Grant the two million and the 1.7 million
later fills those gaps that we are going to have and why are these gaps that I'm talking about is the budget cash flow you've seen me presented this before you've heard about me saying about $2 million it's about 22 right we do have
some declining enrollment you know is that going to be around 2 million 2.1 and so forth i've done an updated financial proforma revenues and expenses i've taken into account a decrease of 3% per year from the state i took some my assumptions and went through it we are
still short 2.2 every year and it cascades so if you're short 22 the following year well it's 2.2 plus another 2.2 when we went for the public question we presented these figures and someone from the audience said you know Mr mccree what you're really telling me
is you need $7 million but we went for the 4.8 you need three years we went for two years in November that failed then we went for one year i want to make that we went for one year reprieve to maintain and that was it one year is
what we received we had to massage a few things we took care of some items and we went through it budget strategy this is where I talk about what's coming out and what's recurring and not so you have a 2.4 million in
2526 coming in i don't have a cash flow shortfall right now we've made the budget work recurring 100,000 because it's one teacher okay the rest would go to capital reserve and some instructional items for one time the following year
that 2.4 would actually go to 2% above that we're about two and a half million shortfall because we're going to hire some more staff to make these these programs work all of it's used up and we're and we're covered the third year I have a Rod grant coming
back that'll fill the plug and as we go through it um and the year after that the debt major debt has been f has fallen off already january of 28 is the last major debt payment not all of it but the major and it's almost 5 million
um there will be further discussions on that in the future um we are going to be a little bit short that third year but we can figure that out and this is a pathway you have asked us what is a pathway to to deal with this crisis and we have gone for a three-year plan that
can help us get there hi can you please explain where the rod grant goes when it comes back like sometimes it's capital reserve and we can't use it on this like sometimes it goes into a special budget where we can only use it for buildings where does
that rod grant money go so the reimbursement will be coming straight to us as miscellaneous revenue and at that point at the end of the year you can decide what to do with it or just let it go to fund balance and it'll be used okay so uh in this scenario we are
saying let it go straight to operating do not restrict it you're going to you're going to need it if things change you have those options but at the present moment we are going to rely on that in year three to fill that gap it doesn't solve the problem but it fills that gap until we have other issu you
know but it gives you three years so this is a three-year plan um tax levy impact next slide please um so we gave uh the scenarios here the public question cost was about 3.7% increase this year so we're on the
second half this is a rub that we spoke about at the tenative budget meeting um that the second half comes in our current 2% and the health waiver we threw pumped it up to about 5 a.5% with the additional 2.4 million
that'll go to 7.9% and we're showing the average home price in there if you went for the full adequacy it would be at over 10% um but we are asking for the 7.89
um to go for that okay we we would like to share in greater detail how these funds would support our expanded programmatic options and comprehensive district-wide goals our team will now share our plan from multiple perspectives the uh the
final plan uh will incorporate the goals and aspirations of our students by our students and I turn over to Mr defazio okay good evening everyone thank you i would just like to take a moment to introduce our fabulous presenters um so
here tonight I have Miss Molly Avery our Robinsville High School principal i also have our curriculum team Mr david Fusco our assistant director of steam Mrs megan Tenery our assistant director of ELA and humanities and Mrs stacy
Camarano our elementary supervisor so really excited to be here tonight um and happy to share this plan with you so moving forward Robinsville what does that look like for us when you hear Robinsville right away any community member anyone who hears of this town you
think beautiful town amazing community excellent school district everyone knows this about Robinsville we've been this way for quite some time now thanks to our incredible board of ed members our incredible administrative staff not to
mention our fabulous teachers our students and our families all thanks to them but we're at a point now where we've done so much but we need to continue to grow we need to keep moving forward so we've developed a plan here of how we can make this
happen and that's with going with the new motto of your future your path your Robinsville and we want to take this everywhere we go so we've developed a hashtag so it can literally go everywhere with us hashyour Ararville and this is going to be representative
of where we're going advancing and moving our district forward so of course with that being said you can't have a motto without a new vision so here we've developed a vision in Robbinsville we empower students to lead innovate and succeed in
a rapidly evolving world through diverse courses real world experiences and a culture of curiosity every learner gains the skills to adapt grow and thrive in the future so like every vision statement we get it every district has
one but we have to put that vision statement now into action so what does that look like for us so from vision to implementation this is where we come in with our three key words: empower innovate and succeed we want to give students the tools to lead their own
learning journey create new approaches to education that of course reflect real world needs and experiences and of course we want every learner to succeed in this district preparing every student for achievement in school and beyond but of course like every district
and the current state of affairs we have challenges and our current challenges are evolved from our elective offerings this is something we've been hearing across the board we do not have extensive elective offerings and that's not due to the fact that we don't want
them it's because of the fact we have staffing constraints it limits us from offering K12 electives and it really reduces early exposure skill development and career exploration with that being said we can't offer
these electives because of our resources and infrastructure so with the current budget we've primarily focused on our core content areas so you've seen quite a bit in our board of ed presentations as well as what we're doing throughout the school district we have a heavy emphasis on ELA and math it's been that
way for quite some time now and it's been quite an overhaul i have to say our teachers our administration and our students have done a phenomenal job of getting this off the ground and running but it has taken years to get us to this point not to mention the fact that we have not even touched or explored
science and social studies so moving forward what does this look like for our students because at the end of the day this is all about the student experience for Robinsville public schools we have to make sure this is equitable so we've been hearing a lot aboutmies and the strategic plan it's
been something that's been going around for quite some time now but unlike the academy model I just want to be very clear this is not an academy model that we're introducing here unlike the academy model the career pathways approach which is what we're proposing tonight focuses on all Robinsville
students not just the higher achieving students every single students that every single student that enters the door in our schools and we want to make sure that our students have an equitable access to every learning regardless of their
academic performance and background so with that being said what's something fabulous that we've all been talking about our Robinsville preschool so I have to say our preschool I'm just gonna everyone's been hearing it we say it every single board meeting
our preschool is an incredibly innovative program led by I just have to introduce her Dr lori Burns in the back over here um fantastic staff uh unbelievable program for what our students have access to so we're
developing a foundation here k12 pathways across the board need to build on this momentum to better support our students for where they're coming from this program when I tell you these kids are ready to go they are coming from this preschool program our kindergarten teachers are going to be pumped up and
excited because we have to meet them where they are and they're ready to succeed in these classrooms and just to give you a little insight on this here are quite a few pictures uh Mr mccree if you notice you're in the top left corner um so Mr mccree um participated in the clothing study um as you see here in the
bottom right corner we have our SRO with us from Pawn Road Middle School our former SRO um as well as our staff and our fabulous teachers really working through career exploratory activities they're did they're doing this every single day every time they walk through
those doors in preschools they're exposed to these elements unlike we have had ever before so they have equitable access coming from our preschool program not to mention the expansion that we're offering moving forward so we're going to have more contact time with our three four and fivey olds before they even
enter into our elementary school so very excited about that um and just have to absolutely applaud the preschool team for all their efforts all right now with that being said we start with a very strong foundation of preschool and now the end road to that where all our students end up in Robbinsville is of course
Robinsville High School so I'm going to kick this off to Miss Molly Avery our Robbinsville High School principal good evening everyone it's great to be here tonight with all my colleagues esteemed colleagues um community members and board of education um I was very
humbled when I was asked to speak here tonight but I've been here for a long time you know came here in August of 2007 that first year was the very first year we had four grades at the high school and uh Lori Ratundo and I spent a
lot of time today going down memory lane thinking about different pieces of how we got to where we are now and there's a lot of great pieces but there's a lot of outside the box things that we've had to do because of constraints along the way managing rapid growth so just as an example um in
20078 that first school year where we had four grades there's only 147 seniors and there's only 614 students in that class we rapidly grew to in 10 years later we had
980 and 10 in less than 10 years later we we tapped out at 1086 in the 2021 school year and we graduated our largest class in 2022 at 319 and all this is really important to understand because what Christie said
about managing growth prioritizing staff and for people that have been here for a long time also working through some really major major crisises in our budget at different times along the way and each one of them had a huge impact on our ability to grow programs for
students so as we talk about that um just a few things in that fall spring of 2008 a student who ended up being the valadictorian came to me in January and he was concerned in January he's now an orthopedic surgeon and parents still
live in town he came to me and he said to me "There's not a lot of classes for us to take after we take our core classes." So the theme that we're talking about when it comes to electives started in 2008 the first year we had four grades with 200 614
students because of that um one thing that I worked on as a brand new principal in this high school with not much infrastructure around what we were doing is we had to work on different ideas but before I get to that I also want to talk about that very first year
that very first year um Lori got hired Lori Ratundo got hired out of the college setting in May of 2007 and she was charged as a guidance counselor all right to brand our high school those first two years that junior and senior
year those that classes of 2006,778 colleges did not know who we were they had no idea who Robinsville was all right my first year here in 78 eight college representatives came to our our school eight eight college
visits that's it there was nothing else lori and her team mighty team a couple of other guidance counselors were sent to national counseling conventions state counseling conventions everywhere to brand our high school our students that
year helped us a lot because with very little they did very well and started to develop that reputation of our students succeeding at that postsecondary level at the college level and all of that I've learned through my work with the guidance department really does
matter with that being said we've managed this growth over time rapid growth one thing that we've done I think that we do better than anyone because of the lack of opportunities in our classrooms is when it comes to electives is we've taken a really personalized
approach and sometimes if you talk to student parents of um teachers who have students in other schools in our area our ability to set a personalized approach to students gets us a long way
and sets our students apart but it's not because of the classes we offer inside the walls of Robinsville High School and we're starting to get to a point where it's becoming very difficult to give kids the rich experiences that we really want them to
have so that theme with elective offerings um caused us to have to make some decisions along the way and as I see it there's been three things that have happened along the way that were pretty drastic in us trying to find opportunities for students or trying to
allow them privileges because of our inability to educate them when it came to elective offerings the first one was in that fall of 2008 we started to offer what you would call late arrival to school or early release okay a slide in
a minute will give you some quant quantitative information on that so we started that in the 89 school year out of necessity out of necessity because we did not have enough electives for our students travel down a little bit longer down the road and it was during a little
bit after uh that budget crisis in 2010 not yet not yet i don't want them to see the numbers yet so after the budget crisis in 2010 and we really started having some trouble and we were really growing rapidly at that point in time um if you have ever
toured the high school during your facility walkthroughs in the black box in that back corner in that area is a beautiful spaces that were designed to have recording studios communications opportunities video opportunities and
went approaching district to try and really work on getting those programs we didn't have the money for the teachers and we didn't have the money for the equipment and at that point in time you know I went into Lor's office and and we kind of put our heads together and that's how really because of
relationship that Lori had with people from from that university we developed that unique dual enrollment program that dual enrollment program um started in the 1516 school year where we transported we paid and transported
students to Mercer County Community College during that fourth block time for the first six years we had that program the school district footed that bill for that program for our students because we didn't have the electives but through more decisions around budget
crisis we don't do that anymore we transport but parents are required to pay for that and then the third piece of this um as we go through um talks about another thing when it comes to um a creative way to allow students to gain credit um
without having elected teacher is our um teacher assistant option and that started in 2012 1213 school year with 12 students partaking in that so we talk about late arrival early release we talk about dual enrollment we talk about
teachers assistance we also over the last few years Mercer County Community um technical school has really rapidly developing the four-year academy programs so more students are going into that and a slide we'll show you has the number of students that have been
accepted out of our eighth grade not necessarily that they're going but accepted into that program so these are all the things in this first 20 years that we've done to be creative and and to be personal but really it's all around us not having the staff to teach kids um the elective programs that we
want would love to do you know and and that's really what this is about and Chrissy's going to put up a slide now about our current reality so right now if you look at this slide the early release late arrival slides are representative of seniors in our school that are not here first block every day
or or not here fourth block every day that far right column represents the number of seats we would need in elective programming to accommodate those students dual enrollment this year that number and remember those the
students pay for that program that's during the school day is 64 merch countymies 15 students are either accepted or on the wait list from the eighth grade going into nth grade and then that teachers assistance per piece
is 145 kids so that represents 590 seats um that if we had people to teach in the high school for these we would absolutely want these kids back in there for things but it's it's one of those things you build it and they will come type of a things there's just not a lot
there for students as they cycle through that junior and senior year and opportunities around things unless they're an AP student and mostly in the tech side of the AP student you know those math and sciences were heavy in but students with other interests and diverse interests are not really um
representative well in the opportunities outside of that very low-level beginning classes that they take for graduation requirements so I did want to make sure that you saw this slide so the next 20 years right i'm not going to be here for all next 20 years i
might be here for a couple but I do implore this group to really think about this opportunity even though it's a very difficult decision to be made here but I do think it's important to think about it because at the end of the day you know leaving a legacy in this school
district is really important making sure that our kids have what they need moving forward is very important um having more opportunities for all students is very important and the slides that were shown by uh Dr piso Mr mccree um paint a
picture that I've lived through many times but it just seems to be getting more difficult and we've had many times over the years you know I can count thinking through in this time missed opportunities um to have an opportunity to do something and I think this might be one of them um even though it's a
very difficult decision to make um I think it's an important one to really consider um all the aspects of it thank you thank you and it's my opportunity now to introduce Megan Tenery who will start to talk about what those next 20 years could look like
thank you thank you Miss Avery good evening everyone um what an exciting time to be in education right and we are preparing students for a future that is undefined right so as a team when we sat down to really start thinking this
process through we kind of thought where do we even begin how do we even start planning for this for careers that potentially don't exist or ever evolving um so we sat as a team and we thought okay let's first do our research as good good educators so we researched future
forecasted careers um what careers are constantly changing what careers will be needed in the future so we started with that that research then we started looking at our Robinsville students what are their interests what courses are they currently taking um what what
extracurriculars are they involved in and then finally where are they going what are they doing after they leave Robbinsville what kind of careers do they find themselves in and we kind of used those three points to start our selection into these career pathways so
from that information we decided on the following six career pathways to investigate further so medical science um engineering and technology visual and performing arts if you saw the wedding singer you know like we have a really strong performing arts department here
uh students computer science finance and business and future educators something near and dear so on the next slide what we did was we kind of put together a sampling of what these career pathways may look like so we chose four electives
for each pathway that we currently do not offer here at Robinsville High School to focus on so if you notice each of the pathways begins with some sort of introductory course um so intro to esports uh intro to medical science intro to acting intro to computer um
sorry computer aed design intro to education intro to business management so why that was important to us was for the students who enter the high school really not having that clear focus of where they maybe want to go there we
created an exploratory approach so you have a student who enters and says I don't know maybe I want to try education so they'll take intro to education nope that's not for me maybe next year I want to take intro to computer science so allowing them as Mr defazio said earlier to really empower them to create their
own path what we'd also like to try and do with these introductory courses is align them to those 21st century skills those graduation requirements so that if a student chooses that more exploratory path they're still meeting the graduation requirements they would need
to the Robinsville High School so we really thought this was a really interesting way of approaching it um again we only kind of chose four electives for each pathway just to kind of get started thinking one per year but certainly if we had the opportunity to
develop further we absolutely would um and to kind of figure out where we would begin or what career path we would begin with we would survey the students we'd find out where those students interests lie so that we would start with that that pathway first so to explore further
into what one of these pathways may really look like in full bloom we have Mr david Fusco to walk us through the medical science one good evening thank you um as as Miss Tenery said it really would be ambitious to try to develop six different pathways
that most likely will not be feasible so it really is important for us to do the leg work of identifying what the major areas were but really let the student and community surveys drive what really goes into the planning and preparation process the hope would be to develop absolutely more than one um but again
the future would be determine what we actually would offer and how many we would offer with an a goal of having at least two if not more if feasible but I did want to walk you down a pathway of medical science especially since I was familiar in one of my previous districts with what this could actually look like
in implementation and what possibilities were offered to students and as um developing for anything career and developmental related we really wanted to look at what projections were out there there was a study that was conducted two years ago by the US Department of Labor that projected an
8.6% growth in the health care field and this is specific to New Jersey so 8.6 6% from 2023 to 2033 also we chose this because this is one of the areas that Mercer County Technical Schools offer that we do have students pursuing so
that's something that we would want to encourage students uh from Robinsville to stay with Robinsville um to develop this pathway so um you all have uh a booklet with you i'm going to kind of go through what this would look like in implementation but the last two pages of the booklet give you a more detailed
version of what a proposal and implementation would um would embody so there are six major areas that focus on where money would need to be invested in order to make this dream pathway a reality the very first part would be
focused on curriculum development in one of my previous districts uh we partnered with the Rucker Health Science Career Program um as that's something that is currently available curriculum that's already developed from one of the universities um as speaking with Mr ratundo and knowing that a decent
portion of our population attends Ruckers um but this would be an opportunity to develop dual enrollment courses again as Miss Tenery said we wouldn't want the entirety of the pathway to focus on that because we are concerned with accessibility so we want to make sure we do develop some
homegrown courses that are accessible to all students but those higher level courses or electives could potentially um offer students credit through dual enrollment courses such as dynamics of health care um nutrition clinical and emergency medicine medical
terminology besides the curriculum development it would be very important to invest in instructional materials as well not just our simple instructional materials that we invest in every single year but ones that really correlate with industry related experiences so those
resources and materials that are going to support those learning experiences specifically for these types of courses that are specialized in a career pathway besides having the curriculum and materials in place we would also want to invest our resources in learning spaces
that really mimic and replicate industry standards so if we're truly preparing students for a potential career we would want to develop an environment that simulates one of those experiences so that students are familiar with those settings and backgrounds as well obviously one of the most important
pieces that would be involved in this is the staffing piece making sure that we dedicate um funds to hire instructors with expertise in that field and to provide ongoing professional learning professional development to these teachers to support what's going on in
the latest field and the latest trends so even though those are the four core areas that we're seeing the funds go to we do have those external experiences that are still very important to making this successful and a successful pathway and those last two pieces include the
career experiences and the marketing for the career experience we're looking at making a holistic approach to this so not just these singular courses but providing those opportunities maybe having and developing a an extracurricular club that correlates
with this um there's one called Health Occupation Students of America also known as HOSA which gives students the opportunity to gather together to compete not only regionally but also nationally with content that's developed in these courses it further develops in
the extracurricular activity we want to make sure to support the opportunity for guest speakers to come in and talk about their experiences in the field with these students offer these students field trips to places that are going to really support and they're going to dive into what a day in the life really looks
like so all of these opportunities are really important to making sure that students get a holistic experience the last portion of the career experience and again ask me to be a dreamer and I will is to provide certification opportunities for students in this field
we could pursue CPR certification AD certification and if we really had the funds and the opportunity doing a junior EMT or an EMT certification because this directly correlates with the medical pathway the one thing that would be the easiest part of this and probably um not
require the most funding is the marketing but this is also a very important piece as Miss Avery said earlier um when she arrived at Robbinsville it really wasn't on the map especially with colleges so when these pathways if these pathways develop we would need to make sure that the
community knows that the students know because it's very important to start with in our family but also to develop that name and that brand that extends beyond the town because this is something um that would really put Robinsville um deeper on the map with these experiences that we would be able
to um create and like I said the last two pages that are in your booklet really go into a little bit more detail about what the funding behind them and it goes into a little more detail than I may have shared here but ultimately even though we're focusing on the high school we do want to paint the picture of what
this looks like because we are a K through2 district so our starting point is really to move forward with surveying students as to where those interests lie because as I mentioned it would be incredibly ambitious to try to start six
different pathways so what is our starting point where is our starting point and that would be completely driven by student and community um interest and um input with that because we've outlined what it looks like at the high school i'd like to invite back up Miss Tenery to kind of say what this
might look like at our middle school um and Miss Camarano as well to talk about the experience and what that would look like at Sharon thank you thank you Mr fusco um so as educators backwards design if we have this at the high school what does it look like at Pond so for Pond we're looking at
possibly creating exploratory um electives where students have the opportunity each year to explore maybe two of the career paths that are offered or will be offered or potentially offered at the high school so they have that opportunity to kind of explore the content get some hands-on experience um
maybe have some field trips just so they can kind of start to explore what does it mean to be a future educator what does a computer science you know pathway look like um and start kind of working with those types of skills also with bringing back Spanish um one full year
to eighth grade it's a valuable career skill um to speak another language so just again re um reinstating that um love for another world lang for a world language and just providing students with those skills would help them so again giving them
that stepping stone into the high school so that they can be prepared and have a little bit of a better idea where they would like to begin when they enter as nth graders so Miss Camarano if you'd like to come up for Sharon thank you Megan um so we know our students at Sharon Elementary School
have a number of years before they have to really start thinking about their careers um and their passions but it's important that we start to develop and provide them opportunities and experiences to understand what their true passions are at the earliest age that we can these students are naturally
inquisitive and so that is a prime opportunity to provide them these opportunities one way that we plan to do this is through the revision of our steam science and social studies curriculum as we review our current curriculum we aim to highlight and value
the hands-on and inquiry based learning when revising our curriculum we plan to encourage design creativity questioning and problem solving our goal is to connect these skills to real world applications for future
readiness additionally through PBSIS we will focus on supporting our social and emotional learning early social and emotional learning helps children understand themselves it teaches emotional regulation cooperation empathy and relationship skills it builds
confidence curiosity and engagement in learning as they grow social emotional learning continues to guide their responsible decision making over time students will strengthen their skills their self-awareness skills and lead to a purpose to a future where they are
well equipped to make choices about their passions and their careers additionally we are excited to be adding world languages to uh to Sharon Elementary School language learning is more than just learning how to communicate it has cognitive benefits
such as improving problem solving critical thinking and creativity it promotes cultural awareness with exposure to different perspectives which helps build empathy and global connection it prepares students for diverse future opportunities in their
careers and in their friendships lastly it reinforces curiosity connection and confidence which are necessary skills to thrive outside of the school room so you can see our overall goal is listed in this quote integrating real
world learning into K12 education help students develop the adaptability and the critical thinking necessary for jobs that do not yet exist so in summary you can see our goals listed on the screen or within your booklet but goal one is really to
help students discover and develop their passions as early as possible goal two is to gain valuable career skills and industry knowledge goal three is to stay engaged in Robinsville schools instead of having to seek opportunities
elsewhere and goal four is to compete for top college programs and job opportunities and now Fazio will come back up all right so we hit you with so many ideas is I know it's a lot to process right now um but I have to say this team
um as well as the administrators in the audience we're pretty pumped up and we're ready to go so just give us the green light and sign sealed and delivered um to start off the next steps so you've been hearing a lot about interest surveys so we want to make sure that we're administering developmentally
appropriate student surveys and what I mean by developmentally appropriate is that survey is going to look completely different from Sharon Elementary School all the way to high school based on our student population we want to make sure that they we get feedback from everyone as well as our parents and guardians out there our elementary students sometimes
they don't know what they want if I ask my daughter she wants to be a cheerleader one minute and then a um astronaut the next minute so we want our parents to also be a guiding factor in those decision-making processes as well um our staff and admin um our staff has been adamant about this they've been
asking for this for quite some time they've been coming to us as a curriculum department with ideas and goals and we just need that force to drive them forward and to support them in that endeavor um so with that once we get that survey data from all of our community stakeholders then from there
we're going to form our implementation plan so we're going to be doing a comprehensive data analysis of the surveys and then further establishing action plans as well as timelines and of course our advisory board um which is
what we spoke to quite a bit before um in supporting our pathways moving forward so the implementation plan so what does this look like so putting some dates behind this to back it up so 2025 to 2026 we're going to be preserving one
FTE position so basically a staff member um through an elective field and that's again offering funds allocated to these career pathways from 2026 to 2027 we'd be hiring an additional three FTEEs which is an additional basically staff
members that would fulfill the needs of hopefully introducing one career pathway and developing a second pathway for 2728 we'd be hiring another uh two full-time staff members uh funds allocated to expanding the pathways further and at
that point in time we should have two functioning uh career pathways up and running by the 2027 2028 school year so just to give you an idea of where we stand right now with some level of an implementation plan and then of course I'm going to
kick this back to Dr pisa for the multi-year funding plan all right thank you very much and and thank you for all of our presenters and I so appreciate the uh the time and effort put into this to be able to
present this today um financing for a plan such as this must incorporate not only a plan to fund but a plan to sustain the resources needed to maintain the achievements long term okay again here's our multi-year funding plan and long range look ahead i really want to
just speak with uh to this and and really kind of talk this through as we um as we have this up on the screen what we would look to do for this year would be uh and this this slide maybe looks a little bit familiar nick did it in a little more detail i did it
in a way that we could see the cash flow uh for this year 2526 we don't have a shortfall we were able to close that working very hard with all of our team together to close that that gap and and we were able to preserve most of what we
have but like was was mentioned by by our principal Miss Avery uh there are uh issues that we need to address in regards to having vibrant uh rigorous programmatic options for kids to expand
what they're able uh to do uh so if we were able to move forward on this the the amount that we have mentioned is the 2.4 million of course I know that uh Mr mri also mentioned about the one-time uh
5% that would be added we would look to take that money to fill our gap next year any school district that that is going to have a sustainable long range plan must look at future budgets when developing this budget so this would be
funds for this year that would help us with our solveny going down for many years now we can't just flip that money forward what we would need to do with that money is put it into the capital reserve and then dedicate it towards
needed building repairs repairs we're going to need to do anyway but really accelerating that timeline in regards to getting this work done now and that's where that that two million would go while we would have other uh funds available to really start start to seed
what we're doing in regards to one uh position that we would then be able to further preserve and start to develop what we need to do in regards to the classroom uh or classrooms that we need to amend i can't tell you exactly what that'll cost because this is again for
students by students so this is going to be contingent upon what our students want and based on that that's would be the what we would use the seed money for and where we would direct our efforts so um this year our cash
shortfall has already been addressed next year uh those uh the funds from this year are going into the capital reserve now uh the uh we would also then have um the funds then for next year would
cover that that shortfall for next year so next year's money would go towards next year's shortfall bringing us up so that we don't have that deficit so we don't have that running structural deficit that is has been uh has kept us
reducing what we need to do in regards to program for kids because when when we talk about reducing staff we we're talking about reducing program for kids they're they're the uh they're the mechanism to deliver the these rich resources that we're looking to uh to
provide for our our children uh then the next year when we're looking at 2728 now I during uh during our different discussions related to the budget I had mentioned this is uh this is where we're
going to have a a fiscal cliff now we need to find a way to close the gap to get to when the debt service is coming off here is where that capital reserve comes in handy uh Mr mree mentioned about how we would be able to develop
the money into our capital reserve and address those projects we got we're looking to time this so that the aid for this these projects that 40% would come back that would then avoid the fiscal cliff for
2728 once we get to 2829 you do have the debt service coming off from the previous capital projects and then you have an opportunity to offset in regards to planning going forward and that would be something that would have to be determined at that time
exactly how we would handle that debt service dropping off and the reduced burden on our taxpayers so this is a multi-year plan a lot of the things that that we're looking to do uh you need to be able to sustain it going forward it
does to have a program uh that we set up if we don't have a plan to sustain it it's not uh it's not a viable plan going forward so I'm going to ask if if we could uh Mr fazio if we could now go back to the slide on the fork in the road so that now I could tie this
together for everyone here we go okay now this will make a little more sense now I want to introduce this earlier but now we're going to be able to to uh really get into this what what we're talking about now in 2526 and that starting point in
the middle um we just stay just about even this year so that line across is pretty much staying uh where we are with status quo uh and that's where we have that first uh that first job uh preserved we do have a program that we're looking to start world language
where we're looking to uh to expand what we're doing at the middle school and to start a our world language program at the elementary school so we have that consistency all the way through we are looking at everything from a global perspective
of it having our our children all the way through addressing what their needs are so that is a piece that we already were able to do within our current resources and could be supplemented by this uh going forward if you look across
the top with the green arrows uh 2627 that is when we would really look to uh bring the uh bring the bulk of uh the teachers on board for that first career path to really work on what that career path uh work on on being able to enroll
and start to bring our our young people into these uh these paths so we would have to during this year uh do the planning uh start bringing the staff on board and really get ready for what we're going to do when these uh when the career paths are launched again I can't
tell you what that career path would be because again this is we're designing options but this will be driven by what our students need what our parents uh identify a as a priority and input that we're getting from all members of our
great organization here um and as as you see just going forward 2728 as that first uh career path is launched we would we would add to that program and uh the fiscal cliff would be avoid uh would be avoided at that point because
of this this uh this alternative that we're bringing up today and you look that we have a path into the future where we would be rising into filling that gap in regards to those uh the programmatic challenges in regards to adding what our offerings at the high school but we're also addressing what we
need to do in our middle school and our elementary school with with that entry path of our prek program really giving our kids such a great starting point now on the flip side next year what we're looking at I
think I promised that we would be able to get by we would be able to get by next year uh we would have a reduction of we're looking at at at 10 to 20 staff members now we will have we will have natural attrition and we could work to
try to uh to try to mitigate uh you know some of that loss but we would be running into adversely affecting programs at this point but here's the real scary piece to this there's a there's been uh there's issues related to federal funds and maybe some of our
federal money uh being clawed back uh that would hit us with a $700,000 hit and I'm concerned about there being a tale to that in regards to other other monies that we receive that are backed by federal funds uh so it could be worse
than $700,000 if that were to happen and this is something that's going on in real time right now where letters are being sent for uh to uh for uh for authorizations to the federal government in regards to how programs are being handled uh and and uh making different
assertions if we were to lose that funding the fiscal cliff would move up to next as early as next year if we were to lose those federal funds and um at that point we're really um we're really in a very dire situation but if we do
avoid that um we're looking at uh the fiscal cliff of 2728 and at that point we're looking at uh everything from a reduction in staff of 20 people i don't think there's any way we're able to keep that down in the range closer to 10 uh there's no way
we're able to uh to offset that by uh our natural attrition our class sizes are not discre decreasing at the level where we could uh naturally just have our class numbers uh uh shrink uh and at that point you're looking at everything you're looking at class sizes of of
potentially over 30 students you're looking at uh programs being eliminated uh you're looking at uh at at different uh increases with fees to sports uh a whole host of options many different programs that we have would be
completely eliminated i don't want to name what the individual programs are but there are some programs that would need to be eliminated um and you know by the the next year if there wasn't a serious adjustment at that point uh at that point you'd be looking at at at uh
at at at eliminating sports teams which is really unthinkable um I've often spoken about the uh the whole child and all the different opportunities could you imagine if we had to forego those those opportunities for for our young people um so that that's our our
presentation um again uh we we appreciate the uh the opportunity to come forward and talk about different options this is one option uh we do feel that that anytime an an alternative is presented um that we will bring it
forward and um you know we're glad we had that opportunity to to bring this uh this potential option forward and I'd like to now ask if um if our board has any questions that any me or any one of our team could answer
i have a couple of questions um the first question can we go to the slide that Miss Avery talked about that had the 590 unfilled nick would you mind talking about the 15 students from MCTS
what happens to the funding for those particular students if they choose to enroll from eighth grade into ninth grade um in the Mercer County schools in the four-yearmies uh yes so right now I
think we have about 14 students attending um of all ages of all grades uh from from 9th to 12th uh we pay the county around right now 7 and a half thousand i'm going to guess next year is going to be 8 and a half thousand we also transport those students um so we
have about three seniors fallen off and potentially 15 going so I'm going to have a shortfall of next year around 96,000 that I did not budget for if that continues if this is the new trend you're looking at a $400,000 loss um
what also is not mentioned is we also have charter schools in the area and we had five leave our first year unfortunately I was only able to budget four because the state tells me what to budget and I can't put more um but you see a pattern developing of and then you have other
competiting school districts who are trying to launch 15mmies um so uh and we are the anchor should I say in the cost bring the average cost per kid in the state and I'm sorry in the county we are the
lowest uh in our county and so wherever we send it's going to be more expensive um if you had your own programs you could block those students from going and two
um so specifically on the MCTS program just because I'm most familiar with that if you were to offer programming here that was similar to the MCTS program you're saying that those
students would have to elect in or pay in the school district wouldn't pay for it because we are now offering those programs correct most mo I don't know i'm not sure they wouldn't be allowed to go there'd be a legal issue and how Yep that's exactly
what I thought but then how much would you save per year is it 40,000 times 15 students it's It's about eight grand a kid i don't know how what the breakdown is i'd have to go look it up um which programs they
apply to but you can guess a third of them i don't know the exact portion um we'd have to look at the data but let's just say it's three or four or five of them you're looking at 40 grand right there times four years right um
plus you pay their transportation and you're also losing their enrollment so we lose aid for enrollment we pay their transportation and we also pay their tuition to attend correct if they go to a neighboring school you would pay certified tuition
so a neighboring school district could be 18,000 20,000 24,000 plus you pay transportation right so sorry Barb you and I are bouncing off each other um so then if Robinsville
offered a program similar to the health science path would Robinsville offer that to a wider community where people would then come in and then pay Robbinsville to come here for the program
so yeah it's way too far down the road to think of that first you would have to do that would be an academy program we are nowhere's near that first you have to serve your population set up your program this let's if you start a biomed
program here let's assume that's the first one there's going to be students fighting to get into that especially in this community now if you have two three four pathways it may spread load and then you can look at that option we're talking years away to do that and there is an option for that and then they
would have to pay us a certified tuition but first get a program running take care of your kids before you talk aboutmies you have to do the pathways and launch that first with your own students and the biggest issue is that you know uh Miss Avery talked about is the electives right and it's it's I
shocking when I first came here what do you mean half my parking lot's empty you know at noon you know i I couldn't grasp that um and so that's the ramifications that we have to deal with and how do you create a program when you're missing one or two
and then you have to make it valuable important you know u everybody wants to jump into it and build that steam and effort to proceed further and then you and you have the momentum once you have the momentum you can do more and and opens
opportunities for everyone else right i I just want to first of all agree with uh with what Mr matt Cree said but I just want to you our focus here is is really about providing for our students that we want to make sure that our
students have the opportunity um but I I also don't think that we would have seats available and the reason why is this is a beautiful town people want to come here they want to raise their families here uh our prek program will
have an impact on our enrollment i believe this program would have a positive impact on our enrollment so those seats are would be filled by our own students who moved into the town and this being one of those reasons to do it
now we're going to be looking at an enrollment study and I think that with things moving so fast in regards to the success of the prek program and and what we're looking at potentially um I think an enrollment study would capture some of that but I would be interested to
then amend the enrollment study the next year and see how the trend is accelerating um so that is um you know that's where our our focus is is really different in regards to the way we're looking at this application but if there
were seats available you know then we would have a very rigorous criteria uh you know for students to be able to apply and and uh competitively come in but I I really think that would be you know not not common in regards to the amount of seats we would we would be
filling with our own students thank first of all thank you very much for a very compelling presentation and I know the effort that it takes to actually do all this particular work to the detail and you know I read through the last few pages of implementation
which is really detailed so I like the presentation i like the idea it's an awesome thing to do but my biggest problem is given the uncertainty out there and our community is still digesting from the tax that we
actually went up and levied on them last year are there any other ways to achieve what is getting presented here without overburdening our community i know I'm asking a very what do you call a tough question probably would have actually
gone through and said no no no no no no but you know these uncertain times require us to be thinking completely out of the box and turning every stone out there to see if there is any other way to do this particular programs
you know let me um you know answer this as as as honestly and as candidly as possible first of all I'll never concede that we can't do something um we're we spend every minute of every day trying to find a way to to do good things for
kids that's what we do uh so um if this was not to go forward that doesn't mean that we we stop trying uh do I see a clear path uh to doing something like this absent this uh no uh but um I
didn't see this opportunity that was presented being available before it became available so is there a possibility that there's some other avenue for us to do it yes and if it becomes available we will rush right
back with a uh and go and identify what the potential way we could access this my concern is that that things are very volatile in in uh you know prek12 education at this point i'm worried
about you know about hoping for something to come when there's some possible avenue here there may be an avenue in the future u it it's a bit of a leap with with I think the political climate right now to believe that we
would be in a better position next year than this year and and every year that goes by um is is compounding the problem and making the path back to where we would like to be a little bit longer but
um but rest assured everything from I I I the efficiency measures we've done uh the the the cuts we've made to focus every dollar on students we're going to do that and we'll do everything we can um we're just looking for really an opportunity
to really launch something uh that could really uh be something that could really do something special for for our kids but we're going to continue to provide uh a sound education and and do everything we can with with what in
whatever the constraints are um but like I said we the future is uncertain now and I I'm always cautious about uh having uh expectations of something coming along but it may thank you for that particular answer i
always like that particular hope i think you know with with everything going on out there and I think hope is very very essential for us to keep it keep it burning right i think you know I do understand the compelling argument about what we're doing for the kids here and I
always actually ask every time I do anything is it helping the kids if it is I'm like all for it let's do it but I think this one is very very difficult proposition in front understand and just to continue what Ru was saying
and again I want to thank everyone that put together the presentation in such a short period of time right the DOE gave you not much to work with in a short period of time to get this presented to a board of education it's statewide it's not just for Robinsville it's statewide but this team did a great job putting together a comprehensive plan it's well
thought out and I think it's great as Reggus said it's doing great things for kids and one of the presenters said you know we want to dream big if you give me the opportunity to dream big I'm going to do it and this team did it so it's it's fantastic and I love everything that's on here but I do think
it's difficult in an air in a time of uncertainty right now to um you know I think for the residents and for the community based on what we're already asking the community to do but my question would be I know some of these we I can't ask that you guys do
this without the funding right because you're saying you need the funding to do it but are there things on here like surveys and things like that that we can do you know let's say that this doesn't move forward to start canvasing and understanding those areas so that way if there is an opportunity with hope and what we're talking about in the future
to then act upon it right is that something you know what parts of this can we do to to keep it going for a potential future opportunity under any scenario student voice is vital and that's that's going to be a piece of any path that
we're on so um these are things that we're we're going to uh to develop and whatever whatever paradigm in which we're operating uh we'll identify uh areas to be able to uh capture student voice great because I think it'd be good
again if you know to to have that voice available right we right now we don't have the voice there's there's no voice right now for any of the plans i I love all the plans but we don't know what our students want we don't know what the community wants for that pathway so if we can have that in our back pocket that I think that would be a good thing to
have absolutely yes i think adding on to that I do appreciate the um going out to the community and to the students because I do think that there are pieces of community feedback that we have received that you have addressed um such as bringing back world language and
looking at some of the math pathways at the middle school um I think another piece of the community feedback that we should continue to consider is bringing uh the media specialists back into the middle school so that could be something that we talk about in the future as well
so I think hearing that feedback is really a great way to take a step forward i did want to ask you know I know you mentioned that we could continue to hope for the future and I agree that this is a really great
opportunity um and maybe just the timing is is really difficult um with the referendum having passed and that being an additional piece to the taxpayer you know what is the likelihood that we will have this opportunity again
next year like thinking about the Department of Education thinking about changes that are happening maybe you could speak to that piece a little bit i I think you know for the most part it would just be kind of judging which way
the the winds are going and and it's um I do think that you know obviously what goes on beyond Robinsville has an impact on us here and that would include both at the state level and at the national level and uh obviously there's there's
difficult times that are that we're charting right now u can I just ask a question nick you mentioned that this is like a 17page document from the Department of Ed and given the fact that they gave you about two weeks to make this decision is there any criteria here in the pages that
you've gone through that would give an opportunity to apply for an extension of any kind that we might meet the criteria for no I'm sorry once and done decision i mean we when we launched you know when
preschool came out first came out you had two weeks to apply you know um it happens a lot uh unfortunately um going back to the question before it would be amazing if we had something legally on the books to give you options and that relief you
need but they come halfhazard every year i mean this is the third one fact after the fact depending on how much public outcry there is after you did your tenative budget sometimes after you did your final so at least this one was done before a final budget give us
some time to go through it uh this would be a different conversation we know it's a big ask uh especially on the second half of the public question um but like as I said before it's our fiduciary duty to give it to you um I'd also like to say thank you um for allowing us to to
have this meeting so quickly Uh and I know we're wrapping up but I I want to tell you the amount of work we've been talking about stuff like this for a few years the amount of work that's been done in the last week and a half from all the administrators um what
we saw from Dr po and I and and Dr wnooki and I were it was so wonderful to see them all coalesing working it was so vibrant i'm very proud of every single one of you for what you have done and presented to us for the next decade to
two decades uh if this is enacted in this town that everyone will be talking about and we'll be stealing everybody else's kids in an envy so thank you everyone for for doing what you have in the last week and a half i I really applaud you all and uh I'm very thankful for having you and doing this all for us
so um thank you for allowing me that moment to for for our staff and the recognition but um there is It's unlikely and we'll see for next year as well yeah i think the unfair thing is when when you take the NJSBA training on finance they tell you you
should be preparing your budget 12 to 18 months in advance and they give you something to throw a monkey wrench in the whole thing with 14 days so it's it's a very it's an impossible task to ask which I think they knew when they gave it to us but I I think that you know I this team did a great job with
what they were given and I we'll just keep saying that and I I appreciate it may I add just one just one I know and I think we're we're done i'm No I have more questions you do okay okay so I just want to make sure that I'm not that one not a budget question i mean I have a budget question for Nick but I'll go ahead and Nia thank you yeah no I was um
regarding the survey i I think that um doing our diligence earlier rather than later is going to pay its dividends just because I know that it's not going to go for a community vote but in order for there to be followership buyership and just uh have them as excited in the community as we are to hear all these
things um would help immensely but also I think tell the community what kind of community partnerships there may be out there um and it just can garner some additional things that we may not even have considered um so I think surveying is all all really really seinal um and takes time it takes time for the right
kinds of factors to be brought back in um but the other consideration I wanted to think about was you know we've got all these unknowns about the budget right like how they think about how to allocate funds um when they do and I just don't want to be in a position
that the DOE says "Oh well now we gave this tax levy it was a contribution on top of that and therefore it's going to factor into whether we would have reduced aid next year so I don't want this to be a moment where it's a you know a factor that's taken into consideration for next year's budget so
um that's that's one thing I would I would caution us to consider um and just thank you this is like an incredible incredible presentation whether or not we vote um in the affirmative for it just having your foresight and the amount of effort and work that you put
into this i'm just excited for Robinsville in general so thank you i'm really love um okay so I really sat with this a lot there's been a lot of questions we sent to Dr piso he got back
to us within like 30 minutes nice job thank you so much um I think one of the things we just said was like we don't know how the community would feel about this and I I very much disagree and I think that the
community has have two voices here two years ago when we were um doing the strategic plan one of the things that all of those people those 110 people myself being one sat in a room and we sat down and we said "This is what we
want for our school." And one of the things that people said they wanted was this they said they wanted extra classes extra clubs i literally looked at every single objective and that's what this is so we have community voice of 110 people
you know uh two years ago saying yes we do want this at the same time we have a referendum that went out for 4.8 8 million which is the you know and we failed and and it could have covered
this and so I also take into consideration that we have that community voice saying no this is too much and I really think about like how much did this fail by and I feel like and you can quote me I think it was like 240 votes or 400 votes or it it was a
small margin right for a special election what I'm what I'm thinking here and I just want to think out loud because I don't know if the rest of the board is thinking this as well is what you had said Nick is that you're just asking for
us to apply And then what happens that we apply and they say yes or no and then they decide our fate right or is it we apply and we can then come back as a team and say no
actually the community has come out and and they're all on Facebook talking about all the things that they they they don't want this like what is the process can you walk me through it so let me see if I understand the process Nick and and Dr po just and then you can nod and we
can agree and that way I think I understand it and maybe it'll help so the way I understand it is we vote tonight that authorizes the district to apply then the state the county and state have the authorization to review
our application and they can then say whether or not we comply with all the criteria to then go for this if they agree it then goes onto the April board meeting for approval as part of the budget and then it'll be stricken as
part of tax law if we approve it then so those are the phases yes now there's also I knew there was a butt that the state's going to respond back quick enough so you may approve it at the public question and they may still come
back and say and say no highly unlikely but there's always the option there's that risk but in the end you're your your the motion uh that's being asked is authorizing us to apply for this amount by Monday the deadline to go on the
public question as you said correct not the public the uh the public presentation the final budget presentation April 29th so then we would that's when you make your decision correct and then we would be under under Amanda's scenario I even if we did that tonight
and tried to get public sentiment there's not enough time in two weeks before the board meeting to get public sentiment especially with holidays and spring break in the middle to really understand how the public feels about this and I and and that's truly where we
need to be is you know we have it's that balance you talked about balance right we have to balance there are all different types of people in the community and what can they how are they with this right you know I I think back to because I think we were on the we were on the board right with the with
the 4.8 8 million that went down as part of the regular that was the regular November meeting or or election I'm sorry the community was not for projecting what a loss could be years in advance they were for in the special
election in March bridging the gap that we could demonstrate for that following year so that's I think where the challenge will be with some community members that would not before this pete can I just can can we not move the bud the budget meeting out and do a this
application is due Monday no no so if we apply and then we have to formally approve it at a later budget meeting could we not move our budget meeting up no it has to be done in April we have to approve our budget in April is that still set standard or 29th and I think
you have another week after that to approve it right it's like there's there's that's a state requirement or is it a state window and we've timed our window uh we would have to another add another budget meeting uh or something i mean it's also very distinctive like I'm going to say this is approved tonight to
apply we'll put the 2.4 million um we'll advertise the budget as it currently stands and then you will have a discussion at the at the uh at the budget presentation nick add the other 2.4 4
million on top or submit it as normal right you have a chance to amend it or submit it as we advertised so and and no democratic process involved in that for the public for the community to vote on their taxes whatsoever no that is that is that is a
rub right that's the friction point this is what's been going on for numerous years now that it kicks it down to the the DOE the state has kicked it down to the local boards to decide and make a decision
outside of a normal window 14 days I want with 14 days they're giving local board members 14 days to make a very large decision unilaterally up the house say it how it is so
um my question If we can just go back to the Rod Grant real quick i I know unless we have more on this i think we've beaten up the fact that this is a board decision for the taxpayer without taxpayer input really
and that's what this is so the rod grant piece now I know we're going to go out for a rod grant component for Sharon Elementary this summer we're going to we're going to get that 40% will come back in future years
when that hits as the special monetary pot of money that's a one-time infusion it doesn't hit the T does that hit the the opex for future or is just a one time infusion one time infusion into your revenue and then you decide where to put it thank you i just want to make sure that
that everyone everyone understands that um but it can go into your operating you can go into your operating maintenance capital wherever you want for that year for that year it's not a permanent tax levy increase when it comes back just want people to understand that it's just your money because it's already ours yeah you're just being just for clarity
for the rod grant we still have to be approved for it though correct you're already approved for two rod grants i just want to get that out there on the record so people know that money is guaranteed to come in you both so so then that the second piece of it
is for the interim funding that we could maybe request is there some kind of agreement we would have with the state on milestones that would be achieved and payments made that we could then apply for some interim reimbursements how how would that work Nick if we did it yes you are allowed to apply for substantial
completion uh typically you know I think it's 35 or 65% the reality is within two months of the summer we're going to be 95% right it's the last piece that you close out usually the last 10% of the final punch
out and that takes about a year um it just it just does and so you can apply at that time for the for that 90% or whatever it is of substantial completion and probably get it back in six months and then we'll have to time it just right and squirrel it away and make a
decision on that uh if you put it towards operating and leave it there as a fund balance you you're unrestricted right you can do whatever you want with it and then you you can make a future boards will have to make a decision on that
thank you I just want to add on Amanda's like well noted point on having already gone to the community and them having given feedback and the amount just not being the amount amount that was digestible how far from that
four like so if we think about strictly numbers that was a 4 point that was when we went out for 4.8 and now what's can you just help me understand the new number that we would had they been voting now what is this new number
it's exactly the additional right we still need the 4.8 right on that point is what is what's being projected by Nick I understand I understand the cascade with the $2 million deficit every year yeah no and to that to that point they it failed then and giving a
window for the although I would love Tanya a democratic process to then go out with that vote again it's like it's in in vain I guess because we already had that feedback when we needed it so I think it's a matter of hoping for the best next year educating the community about what more to be achieved D it's
very volatile times i don't think we have to say much about that except like there's a lot of unknowns and um people are in the community have questions a lot about their own livelihood so um I just wanted to point that out and I don't disagree with I do think the one
difference though is that in that scenario we wouldn't be getting anything back from the state and with the ROD grant we would be getting 40% back from the state and that could go back into our operating budget which then offsets
costs for us in the following year so that piece is a huge difference um for us so it is important to point that piece out but let let me ask this question and I understand when I say this that it's it's not going to affect us until July 1
2026 but there is time right now I believe if we wanted to ask the public about this to get it on the November ballot to get something on the November ballot right we still have the window when is I think July is the window to get it or June or July would be to get a public question on if we wanted to i
think it's like 45 or 57 days or something like that in advance so we have time right if that's if that's the will of the board to do it but then wouldn't we wouldn't get that um 120 from the state i'm not concerned about the 120 the 120 is peanuts in comparison to our overall budget and what we're actually asking for so if we want to
have a democratic process which I believe is the prudent thing to do to see exactly what the taxpayers of the community want we should put it on a public question and not do a unilateral increase it would be my would be my
thinking because I'm concerned about a unilateral increase without taxpayer input can I can I can I also possibly propose that we do get this window of time to get and gather whatever sentiment to just to see the variance
like is it dramatically different and then if we need that if if the data tells us one thing within the twoe window maybe we then push it off for a public question at a later point but that way we have two streams of consciousness here to gather input and
and we may not lose the peanuts which I think you know I wouldn't consider 120k peanuts I like a teacher because we can make an amendment so if we were to vote affirmatively it can be amended on the 29th yes to a lower amount or none
like right now you're not putting it on just the application and get the documents ready at that meeting you'd have to add it or just leave it alone and just just to give an example there was a school district in Mammoth County who
had the meeting last night um they could have gone up to a 10% 10 and a half% so they approved 10 and a half% and said we'll come back to you working with the board to say what it really needs but they gave them the permission to go to 10 and a half% if that is what they
needed but it didn't necessarily mean they were going to 10 and a half% that night so that's how there's not only uh the ability to fluctuate within the number but also uh within the process at the very end as well
nick um quick question would there if we approve this and you go forward with it and let's say we have our meeting in two weeks we decide not to would there be any potential repercussions in the future you would foresee that we may have if not the opportunity presented itself with the state no
no not this year yeah I don't see a single I don't even know if the state's going to approve us for it right there there is that piece as well i understand it's probably a low risk that they would deny it but it's still out there as well okay yeah i think I think knowing what I know
I would probably use all my energy to do something very different rather than kind of pursuing something we know will probably not happen right sometimes when I see that particular stuff I go back to Dr what you said hope I think we should actually keep that particular thing
burning and see if there is anything different that we can do to achieve what I saw today and I think this is very compelling but it's it's just the money factor and I'm very sure if we go to our public community and start asking
questions of how can we achieve this without burdening you are there other ideas that we can actually kind of collaborate not only just with our community partners but with with all the the local businesses and you know big corporates out there is there any other way to actually achieve this would be
the would be the plausible avenue that I would actually go through and put all my energy there but you know again I cannot say how much of an effort this has gone through to put all this and as Nick said and everyone upload I'll keep thanking
you all for all the work here uh I have a question what is the harm in voting yes today and allowing the I mean I I don't even know what today is but two weeks from now allowing the community to take
these two weeks to think and reflect on this and come out to the next board of education meeting and say absolutely not do not do this or go for it this is what we want and we
put our ears to the ground and we listen to the community for these two weeks if we say no presently at this moment we are not giving the town uh any voice to say and I hear that we we
already heard what they wanted for 4.8 we already heard what they wanted for um strategic planning but those voices are different the community is going through something different right now we're seeing a different future due to politics in the world
like if it's me I want to offer the community every opportunity to make their voice heard even if they come out and say absolutely not and we shut it down in two weeks at the board meeting let let me ask this question h how do you have an
unbiased integral data set for that democratic process in two weeks absolutely no idea but I'm willing to like like what's the harm so So here's the harm you you you you have to consider the fact that you're only going
to get a particular group of people who are coming who are hearing these board meetings who maybe have kids in the school so we we're not canvasing the whole community right and that's that's the bias that plays into that what if could we think about a partnership sorry
no go ahead okay um could we think about partnering then with our town just to post our question on the town council website just because they they reach out to a much larger audience they can but so so the the problem is there's a reason why voting happens the way it does it's to ensure that one person gets
one vote in the process and has that opportunity to voice it if you do I love Google i love all of the technology out there everyone knows I'm a tech guy love it love it all give me more tech the problem is how do you ensure that the Google straw poll or whatever you're going to do doesn't have multiple people
going on there and voting right or whatever you're going to do so you have to make sure that the process is auditable it has a trail and is not going to be tainted and that's going to be very hard to do and I and I that there's plenty of IT people in here that
could tell me how easy or hard that is and I'm sure it's harder than than IT table i know that and then so so that's my problem with this and getting to those people because as Tanya just said you'll get to the parents easily the parents are easy but there's 14,000
voters 16,000 voters in the town and how do you get to them all and as we've seen even in the last election which is a presidential maybe you got a third or a third of those that came out and actually voted right so that that's my thing you have to make sure you get to
everybody and have a good a good sampling to understand the sentiment of the town it's it's hard thing to say but end of the day you know they have elected us to kind of make some hard decisions right i think you know to us it's it's we owe
our you know certainly our decisions to the community end of the day I certainly recognize you know what what you're saying but end of the day I go back to what Pete you're saying saying that there's no way we could actually get anything done within the next two weeks
for us to actually kind of you know know anything so to me I think we should be making the decision and I think you know I'm a parent right so I'm representative of the parent community and I know how I would vote on this right and I think I know how parents would vote on this potentially i can't say for all parents but you'll be able to get to them and be
able to hear their voices easy because we have the broadest access to them but we also when we signed up for this signed up to serve the entire community which are people that had kids in the in the district or or don't and we have to also hear their opinion on how we how we
proceed so I think without being able to have a sound way and and look when I think we said that it's not really us the state did this to us the state did this to all the districts making this impossible decision unilaterally at our
level which is in 14 days i'll keep saying in 14 days so it's maybe a little bit more because it was the 28th but give or take yeah exactly and you have to do it on by the 14th so and again herculean effort to get it but the thing
is I think you know with more time I you know to us and what what I've seen put together in four or five days if we put together you know another story for for something in the future I think this team would do wonders right I think this
this is already you know a more cohesive roadmap than what I saw for $4.8 8 million okay and that nothing against what was put together for the for the first referendum but I'm seeing something different here so I I think we need to be able to understand where the
community is to be able to make a better decision so can I ask a completely out of the box question so we asked for 2.4 which was the amount the community voted no on
um but what about a revised version of what we presented if we meaning if we apply for this because this is what's proposed and then on the 29th we propose a revised version do we have to go out for the 2 million
for the rod grant could there be a lesser amount that is proposed you you can but it doesn't solve the long-term problem not the whole thing
does it cover any part of it well I mean you could do the you know let's just say you put a half million and you want to do start the the pathways the issue is going to be okay now you're proceeding you're spending funds the half a million what's behind
it for the following year right you just launched a program that you may be half and cutting i'm short two million well guess what the first thing is that's going to get cut right so how can you build the program you're just you may be wasting money the idea about the rod
grant was let we need the two million for the following year right is there a tax avenue to say okay can we kick this down one more year the 2 million or whatever there isn't this is the option and why we said the two million was to fill or the two and a half was to fill
next year's hole well what are you going to do with the extra $2 million like well we have a capital project to do that we're going to do anyway so let's let's prove it let's be done with it earlier a year earlier um before the
prices really go through the roof right on HBAC and it's more palatable for long-term viability of this district and that is an item that I've asked already is this T& thorough
and efficient like yes because maintaining your property and your buildings is T& so that because that's also a requirement uh through this so you would not execute the capital project you described until summer of 26
at the very at the very earliest most likely 27 so you would be taking those funds I'd put into capital reserve you know right now I'm making about four and a half percent interest on it you know and and stock up for it let let me ask you this if if we were to go out for a
public question in November that would hit July 1 26 if it was approved for the the rod grant that you want is the rod grant still available for July 1 26 so the rod grant at the present moment is still available
there is no expiration date we have a new governor coming in doesn't matter what party we don't know how that's going to be affected so if you're looking for options say you do a public question in November all right so we're going to find out the first week of November is that enough
time and you can kick the can like we did before of don't tax until the following year okay so it won't be an immediate tax pack but it will be available to us the following year i won't you would have to go higher if you wanted to do more
capital um is that enough time to say execute the pathways to at least start something for the following year i don't know we haven't gone through that analysis yet um and then you find out real quick hey sorry no pathways town doesn't want it
and then we've got our we've got our directive and our mandate right um you know but that was one avenue that we came up with years ago like hey don't tax immediately tax the following year now with that being said I don't there's
new rules now on public questions like we broke the mold right we did something that because we found an old law right that went around their new process because it never referenced the old right um and so now they made a new
version of what you can go out you can't go out twice in one year you have to go out once they really want you to go through this process the problem with this process is right now the normal process of a public question for November is you would put
it on the agenda you know on the final budget with the option hey click a box i will be asking a public question for this amount for the following year it would tax immediately
immediately so what we came up with last time was to go around i'd have to get with with with our attorney uh make sure everything's correct the new law hasn't impeded us and to do that i don't think it does but I I have to get his legal
opinion on that but that is an I think I believe that is an option because I understand you'd be giving up the interest on it in the interim and you'd be giving up the increased uh opex for next year five the 5% and the increased opex so that is an option um if you do
that public question um mind you there is everybody would vote in November right u there is no cost y right last time it cost 55,000 for that um so you know I throw my hands up as it is an
option as a board if you that's a direction you want us to go to then Dr po we will all get together and come up with something uh once again tonight is do you give us the option of doing something you can always pull it back um
just another consideration which is kind of semi- alarming also is just kind of three years from now the the less money state funding how are we going to sustain this the monies it's going to take to to have the program ongoing if we have less there's
no guarantee of a larger pool of money and possible cut of state aid three years from now or even next year and then incrementally and then we have a shortfall just that pipe okay you're talking about when the uh when the debt falls off yeah
right um at at that point at that point you would have an offset that um with the uh with the reduced payment there then that might be a time when you would want to seek to to do a public question um and you know that I think I think we
were looking at is we wanted to be able to see if we can get three steps down the road um but there's at that point it would need to be uh that would need to be decided by a future board as to the pathway but it would be an opportunity there there because of the uh the debt
service falling off and that being an offset all right thank you any other questions comments okay um can I have a motion to uh I read the notice first let me do that
first so public comment so public comment on agenda items and non-aggenda items time will be allocated uh for public comment at this meeting members of the public wishing to address the board of education on agenda items must state their name municipality and the group if any they represent a member of the public shall not be permitted to
speak until he or she is recognized by the presiding officer in accordance with district policy 0167 each comment shall be limited to three minutes no participant may speak more than once no dialogue between a speaker and a board and or superintendent shall extend the threeminut timer live stream the comment shall be
for viewing only although the board encourages public comment the presiding officer can interrupt warn and or terminate a participant statement question or inquiry when it is too lengthy and may be interrupted and warned and warn a participant when the statement question or inquiry is abusive obscene or may be defamatory moreover
the presiding officer can request any person to leave the meeting when that person does not observe reasonable decorum in adherence to the protocol established by the New Jersey board um the board's association the board will be will use the public comment period as an opportunity to listen to to resident
concerns but not to debate issues or to enter into question and answer session issues raised by members of the public may require review and investigation and may or may not be responded to by the board or superintendent during the meeting all comments will be considered and a response will be forthcoming if
and when appropriate i have a motion to open public comment for 30 minutes so moved second it's for both yep so there is only one public comment today for agenda and non-aggenda so whatever you would like
yep and motion yep so the motion was Nadia and I think Reggu did you or Tanya seconded all in favor i Any obstensions no all
right for 30 minutes three minutes hi hi my name is Ed Keenan i'm a Robinsville resident 102 Street um wow so for the last five years we've had to
fill gaps that were created because for four years this board not you personally but the board collectively at that time did not raise taxes because they had extra cash and that's great it feels
good raising taxes stinks raising taxes hard costs go up linearly taxes should usually follow linearly you're limited to 2% per year because generally speaking inflation is related
to 2% per year unfortunately we're starting from a lower point we're starting from a point where you're making up for a gap that was created by a board that did not raise taxes for four years it's never popular to raise taxes and I'm not
standing here asking you to raise taxes especially at the end of the other referendum where the the people of the township did reject the idea that you should in case we need it raise 2.7 million in case we need it is a lousy
argument for raising taxes it always is and it always feels better also to raise taxes when you know you have permission to do it however this is a an an extremely well-qualified board it's a board that
I'm proud to call the board that I have in my town um and we we elected you to make decisions we elected you to take advantage of opportunities that present themselves we elected you to speak for us because
the idea of having the the the electorate vote on every single item is not democracy that's that's pure democracy but it's also stupid and inefficient that's why we have a representational democracy and you are
our representatives this is a unique opportunity you you are all directly elected by a majority of the voters at the time that you ran you have a strong you have strong empathy from from Robinsville residents at this time you
you you if anyone's ever going to be in a position to raise taxes this is a good one um I encourage you to take a brave decision i don't know if the 2.4 million is the right decision and I'm not telling you to vote one way or the other but I'm telling you you should feel
strong you should you should do what you feel is right thank you any additional public comment going once going twice have a motion to close the public comment so moved second
anthony all in favor any abstensions no okay okay approval of the monthly resolution consent item which is the one we just talked about so the superintendent recommends that the board of education approve the following business item F to allow the application
of the $2.4 million tax levy to the state do I have a motion to go forward can we have a clarifying point just a clarifying point oh well before just for awareness again to repeat to to I just
want to recap for the board right nick do you mind sure that this is just a yes or a no this is a yes to then move it into consideration formally yes into this this would be a motion to vote on
to apply to the application and then we can amend therefore pull at a later date should we be approved to further we then have the opportunity at the April board meeting to then say we don't want to exercise or or amend the amount that
we're going or amend the amount got it okay so I'll say the motion I'll say it again so the superintendent recommends that the board of education approve the following business action item uh item F which is to apply the application for
the 2.4 uh 2.4 levy to the state yes a motion to vote for that okay do I have a second second all right uh any discussion Mr
please Miss Bandupta yes dr gold yes miss Hill D'Angelo yes get your application ready please mr howard is absent miss Leman i can't make that decision i'm a no
sorry mr nandon no mr ray no dr pier is absent mr oldberg no right thank you motion is
declined move on to old business sir yep any old business any new business just a a thank you to um the Muslim community who came out and I think sponsored some meals after Ramadan for a service project that went
to um the administrators and uh I know you guys sent nice comments back to them so I just wanted to point it out and uh thank you to them um and uh I know that there's a seder event happening at the Robbinsville Library um tomorrow night maybe possibly tonight uh if you can head over
i'm just going to say one more time thank you for everyone for what you've done to get us here this evening i know it's it's disappointing but I I I I think if if there's anyone going to find a way to do right for kids and do great things for kids it's the people sitting in this room because you've done it i've been on this board for almost three
years and we've come a long way and I think we've done great things with kids for kids with with the hand we're dealt so um I don't want this to take the wind out of our sales i want us to be able to do continue doing those things which I know everyone in this room is going to keep doing so I just want to thank you
all for for where we are and what we're going to where we're going to be going and I'm going to say the butterflies are a good example of that so you know I just I just think about the the preschool program and and the great things that I saw over the last couple months so I think I think that's great i just want to say that any other new
business i have a motion to adjourn the meeting moved all in favor any or abstensions thank you