Okay. Uh, like to open the meeting. Roll call, please. >> Mr. Ramando, >> present. >> Miss Bali, >> present. >> Mr. Deello, >> present. >> Mr. Roello, >> here. >> Missyello, >> present. >> Miss Roloff,
>> here. >> Mr. Torvik, >> present. >> M. Traverso >> here. >> Miss Zerelli. >> I'd like all of you to stand for the pledge of allegiance. I aliance 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. >> Adequate notice adequate. Adequate notice of this meeting has been sent to all members of the board of education and to the Bergen record in accordance with the provisions of the open public
meetings act chapter 231 1975. Everybody turn off your cell phones please. The purpose of this meeting is to adopt a tenative budget for 26 to 27 school year, approving a transfer from the capital reserve funds and approving renovations to the elementary
playgrounds and other items that may come before the board. I'd like a motion to open this meeting to the public. >> Motion >> for comment. >> Second >> on agenda items only. Okay. I'd like to close it.
>> Motion. >> Second. At this time, I'd like to turn it over to Mr. Akamando for budget and finance. Do you have >> Okay. >> Okay. Good evening.
The 2026 27 budget uh build started in November. The superintendent and business administrator reviewed the budget submissions with the administration and they made cuts and revisions. The budget was then presented to the bud budget committee. The budget
committee commits of Miss Barley, Mr. Ericello, Miss Roloff, and myself as chairperson. The budget committee and the administration met many times and worked hard to complete a tenative budget for the 2627 school year. As you have been hearing in the news, many
school districts are facing tough times with health benefit costs projected to increase another 30%. contractual obligations, utility costs, and many other items in the budgets that are pretty much fixed. We had to use tax levy adjustments
uh above the 2% tax cap in order to balance the budget. Taxes will increase. However, we were able to maintain almost all staff and programs. After the county superintendent's office reviews the budget, we propose to hold a public
hearing on May 4th at 7 PM where we would detail the budget. All this time, Miss Vileleti and Mr. Karate at I'm sorry, at this time, Mr. V Miss Vileti and Mr. Karate can highlight a few items in the budget.
>> Okay. I'll share that to begin with, we did eliminate a middle school Spanish position. It did work out. We have a vacancy in high school Spanish, which we have a long-term sub in. So, one of our middle school Spanish teachers is going to slide into that high school Spanish position. This was the first year we
actually had two middle school Spanish teachers, um, which worked out really well for our students. However, we did need to find some funds. So, we did eliminate the middle school Spanish, but that staff member is still going to stay with us. We also decreased instructional funds. We were able to put some back,
but we did decrease the amount of instructional funds our staff were going to receive. However, we were able to retain all other staff positions and our student programs. We added several iPads for related service providers, child study team for test administration. Our
one of our middle school classrooms, their science classroom has extremely old tables and stools. So, we do have new science tables and stools for that classroom. Our Washington school has never had risers. So what they do is they transport the risers from one of
the elementary schools to Washington school. And now that we have a full-time a real full-time program there and so and the population is growing those every time they transport those risers there's issues one of them breaks down with the wear and tear of them. So we are we do have in the budget for risers for Washington school. We are
maintaining all current technology and continued the funding for new Chromebooks for grades five and nine because if you recall every student in grades five and nine will get a new Chromebook because it's a four-year lifespan and then their chrome the older Chromebooks go back down to the younger grades. We are also starting to update
our staff Chromebooks. So we did provide our staff onetoone Chromebooks and we're going to over the course of several years um replenish those update those Chromebooks. We are really excited that we are going to continue with the amplified program for grade five and the
NJSIAA um has is saying that girls wrestling is going to be its own sport next year. So in the budget we do have a girls wrestling coach. >> Okay. And also in in the budget we have a school bus that's going to be aging
out next school year. So we we are financing for a new purchase of a new school bus. We also are trying to continue our electric vehicles. So, we want to replace the uh van for food service with an electric van. And we also like to get a um
a small van for uh school bus transportation. Give us more flexibility that you don't need a school bus driver because we have uh work-based learning, students going from uh different businesses and also at times we have different students we have to pick up from different uh areas. uh due to
homelessness and stuff. So that would give us a lot more flexibility in doing that. So we put in for financing of of those two vehicles and we have projects in the budget. Now we we're able to maintain u the general maintenance. We kept the number the same as the current
year to do our normal maintenance for HVAC uh items, tile abatements, uh water fountain upgrades. But then we did the same thing we've been doing the last couple years. we have that maintenance reserve uh balance that we could uh do
additional um additional items. So some of the items again a lot of HVAC uh plumbing electrical repairs, concrete uh repairs. Uh we're going to upgrade the bathrooms at the fieldhouse. Um we got to replace the fire fire panel
here at the at the high school. Uh repairs to a section of the parking lot at Franklin um in between the parking lot and the field. replace a bunch of bathroom partitions at Long School. Um we're going to replace some window balances at Long
um Smith School in the lower level. We want to renovate. Um the part the part of the building that has the uh hallway by the elevator and also there's a right now it's a storage room. We like to create that in some kind of uh meeting room or small group
instruction room. Um we got other bathroom renovations at Washington. put more exterior lighting at school. So we are doing a lot of stuff with that maintenance reserve and that got added to the budget as well. Um so all these items and the and the huge
increase with health benefits and other like Mr. Akamando said before contractual items, salaries, uh energy costs and stuff, it was still a uh a huge number to try to get the budget down to 2%. It's almost impossible with
everything way above 2%. So, we're able to use what you see on the agenda tonight, two tax levy adjustments. One major one is the health to absorb most of the health benefit increases that gets put on to uh property taxes is
almost $1.6 million. And then we have from two years ago um they call it bank cap some some tax levy cap space that we didn't use uh like I said two years ago $400,000 they were able to use that as well. So the two
together have put us well over the 2%. So the impact to a a house now next year, actually this year 2026 is estimated to be average house of $500,000 is a $399
increase for the year. >> Break it down to a month. It's uh I think it was 33. Let me just double check. >> That's 30 >> 33.27 $3327 cents per month um to the a again to the average house.
>> And again, we weighed this with the budget committee. um to to bring it down to bring down like $8, you're cutting out $100,000 out of budget, which is again a a ton of
supplies or it's a a staffing position. So again, if you want to bring the, you know, down to $16, you're kind of 200,000 and and so forth. So, it's just a lot and the committee felt to take advantage of to not lose that 400,000 of uh cap adjustment that we have because
once we don't if we don't use that this year, it goes away and then next year it's we have to deal with um the 2% cap and whatever that health cost adjustment is and that's all we'll have available to us. So, next year is going to be even tougher. >> Any questions?
>> Through the chair. I just want to say that we've been very fortunate over the years to where we can keep staff and programs and and with the cost of everything like you said going 30% here for health benefits and then uh utilities it's going to get harder and
harder every year and uh people I'm uh you know we feel it at home too so we're going to feel it in your schools. So unfortunately eventually it's going to catch up to us where we might have to cut stuff but so far you know Ray Tony the the committee you guys have done a
great job over the the years to where we've always been the budget has been um that >> balanced. Yeah, we've been lucky enough to that and so uh unfortunately it's going to go up a little bit but thank
you for your hard work and dedication to the district. Yeah, I want to share that, you know, you may hear some districts with these large number of staff cuts. They have fluff in their district. So, I spoke I've spoken to several superintendents and, you know, they're not renewing some wellness coaches and, you know, some positions
like that. Um, instructional supervisors. We don't have that here. So, we're cutting the middle school Spanish position and that's we don't have much more to fluff unless we're cutting student programs. So, if we want to cut basic skills, we're cutting a student program. or if we want to cut a
school counselor, not ideal. We don't have a lot of fluff in the district. So, I just want to make that clear because you may hear about these districts with all these cuts. It's a little different. >> And the administrators did ask for I forgot many of the words several
positions that uh all across the district that we just couldn't couldn't fit in the budget at this time. Now, you know, after we adopt the budget, things change, people staff members retire. We always go back and look at that, but we just couldn't fit into this budget, >> right? There was um I know an ESL
teacher for our elementary schools because our ESL population is growing. We have one teacher, we have two teachers for three buildings and one of them travels, that's 20-minute travel time. And with the increase in the ESL population, their groups are really high and they're they're strug they're very dedicated and we're so appreciative of
them. But we were trying to get an extra ESL teacher for K to 6. also our middle school counselor. We just have one for seventh and eighth grade. And as you can imagine, middle school population is quite busy with the counselor. So, we were hoping for another middle school counselor. Our PE and health classes here at the middle school high school
are large. So, that was another request for an additional P health. Again, it would all be lovely if we were able to do it. Um, but at this point for we wanted to be financially sound and we eliminated the middle school Spanish and we didn't we were trying our best not to make any more cuts because we feel if we
make any more cuts then we are not doing right by our students. They would lose out on their programming. >> And as I stated in my emails too, if you have this budget's getting submit to the county office probably tomorrow. um
they'll take a couple weeks by the time we get it back from them in time for our May our May meeting to adopt the budget. So, you have you have time in between now to look at all the the links I said in the detail budget. If you don't want to if you don't want to really go through them all, there's a lot of stuff there. Uh I forgot my I counted up the
lines. I don't have it with me, but I will say it again. Anytime, call me, email me, uh come in. I'll be glad to go over any part of the budget with you. Uh ask any question you want. Uh if you don't know how something really
operates, you want to bring in a fellow board member with you. I don't bite. Uh I'll be glad to do it. I mean I said it could be any one little thing. I'll I'll I'll go through. I just want you guys to you know fully understand it and uh so
we can go forward because it is it is like people see it you know 40 what do we have here? almost 46 47 million in just in our general fund almost 50 million overall. Uh everybody just thinks we have tons of money all over and it's all kind of fixed. Uh there's
not much leeway into cutting, you know, taking out stuff until you start hurting staff and programs. though through the chair, >> right? Is this the biggest benefits increase that you've seen in your career
or in the last five years? Like can you talk to the increase and how it impacts the district overall? >> Well, last like this current year went up the same pretty much the same thing. So, we're getting the same increase. I'm hoping the state could do something. I don't know what they would do, but um
I mean our I would say our our our biggest hope right now, we're doing some experience reports where we could see if we could come out of the state fund and go into maybe a different self- insurance fund. We're kind of capped at increases. Um but I don't I don't know if that's going
to be available to us. Our our use of the health benefits is pretty high, so we're not attractive to any insurance carriers. It would be huge increases, but we had one years ago, probably I don't know tw I can't remember the years anymore. 12 years ago we we
thought we could come out. We we went to a separate plan and that next year was a 40 like 43 46% increase. So we've been through some bad times. Um but this is two years in a row where that that's a huge number going up 30%.
>> We had to um we did email the staff because to remind them that the increase started in January. So at this point we did stop professional development. So we won't unless it was already board of it approved. They they have been told that we need to stop that at this point.
>> Stop what? >> And other and other lines too. We we we we shut the budget in uh gez back in October, October, November. I I stopped some of the projects that were in the budget or put them on hold for now till we could see how how it goes. We had a bad
winter, you know, a lot of energy usage and and custodial overtime. So, you know, there's there's no breakage from those accounts. So, we see how we hobble through the year. It's almost uh end of March and we finish up the next three months. Um, you know, so far we're looking okay, but it could swing any
time. We got we got pipe breaks and pipe clogs and everything there. Thousands of dollars, so it's tough. >> Anybody else? I also want to thank Mr. Karate and Miss Vleti for and our team for um doing such a great job at the
budget this year and for being very transparent on everything and letting us ask questions. Um so at this time Mr. Akamando would you
like to uh read >> before well before that if you want to let's just I guess talk about before we make the motion. >> Any other questions? So if I can So 7077 was the budget we just did which shows those healthc care costs and bank cap
those two bullets in the middle there. Uh the paragraph above it was 418,000 for maintenance reserve. Um and then if you go down to the next item, the next couple are just standard items that we have to include with our budget submission is to show the maximum
travel expenditures. It's a state law. I just put a higher number there in case we get any kind of grant funds. Um the next one is uh this federal special education Medicaid initiative. Uh that's a line item in the budget roughly 20
what is it here? 21,000. Uh but they make us put a um because we're not achieving we're close to it but not achieving the revenue stream that they feel we should be have. So there's a corrective action plan. That's what that is. And then as Mr. Mando said we want to have May 4th which is our
caucus meeting uh to do a separate you know presentation at that time and public hearing. So that's all the budget items and they all get submitted to the county office. The next the next two I've said in a couple emails to you and this this helped us um uh bring down the
amount we were over cap in the budget was to take this financing since the playgrounds kind of got stalled out by getting the proposals and everything together. We had money in this year's budget and then we were budgeting for the next payment in year year two next
year. So I talked to the county office, the auditors and I found a different way to fund it is since we have funds available in our capital reserve funds is to fund it that way. So that that was able to cut out $100,000 in the current year budget to offset those huge health
cost uh increases and also next year take out $100,000. So, we're saving um although it's it's it's you know good with if we do all the tech Chromebook um financing we're able to get and stay on top of uh current technology. We are
paying a finance charge. We would have with this playground but we're we're not we're able to get some more playground equipment and and get that surfacing. So, that's a transfer from cap reserve. It doesn't agree exactly. It's a little bit more than what the two numbers below equal. any monies left over go back into
the cap reserves. I just make sure I have enough in case there's like an unforeseen item in there that has to get done. But then the next one 82 is our final approval for the three playgrounds at the at the Franklin Helen Smith and Long School to to award it to Liberty
Parks. And pretty much um they're going to have similar pro uh playgrounds. Miss Valetti can go over that if she wants to. and then general recreation. We we um are want to finish up the Washington playground, the last two phases. So, those two items together and then we're
supposed to get um we got awarded and when we hit the submission in $81,000 from a a grant, a playground grant. So, there will be money going back into Cap Reserve and we'll get playgrounds that'll be good for for many years.
>> Sorry if I took anything from you. I'll gladly speak up to playground talk. So our principles got together very excited. This has been over the course of several months and they we've um agreed or this Liberty Parks he worked out um as far as the budget is
concerned. So they've been meeting with him and as it turns out originally they had slightly different play structures and as it turned out they basically picked very similar ones if not the same. However, the colors will be blue, gold, like navy gold and blue, and kind of mix it up to make it look a little
different. Um, they have a playground apparatus, like one of the larger ones, and then there's two smaller ones. I forget exactly what they might be. I think one's a climbing dome and one's a 10erson spinner. Um, with the rubber matting. So, they are really excited to
get started on this. the Washington playground. If you know the whole fenced in area, if you're enter that fenced in area, that rectangle towards the back, you see the rubber matting in the apparatus. That final part is going to be towards the front where they'll put more rubber matting and then they have
some um stay along like fire engine rider and things like that that they're are going to go over there. >> Mr. Chair, how long will it take for all of this to get done? It'll be done for like September. >> That's our plan. >> That's the plan.
>> Okay. >> Okay. >> All right, Michael. >> So now, do I have to reread this again? Now that Ray stole my thunder or just ask for a motion? >> Just ask for your motion. >> Okay. Could I get a motion for all that? >> Motion.
>> Second. >> Second. >> Roll call. Okay, order. Mr. Akamando, >> yes. >> Miss Vali, >> yes. >> Mr. Deello, >> yes. >> Mr. Oello, >> yes. >> Miss Einelo, >> yes. >> Miss Torbick,
>> yes. >> Miss Traverso, >> yes. >> Miss Roloff, >> yes. >> Thank you. So, with that being said, let's see where it brings us. At this point, I'd like to uh adjourn the meeting. Can I
get a motion? >> And we're closed.