meetings act and that advanced notice required therein has been provided. This is a meeting of the board of education of Somerset Hills at which formal action may be taken. The public will have an opportunity to be heard is shown on the agenda. In accordance with the open public meetings act, the public notice of this meeting which included the time,
date, location, and to the extent known. The agenda of this meeting was distributed at 3 p.m. on January 15, 2026 and 3 p.m. on March 3rd, 2026. Um, if we could all please rise for the pledge of allegiance. 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. >> Okay. Can we please have roll call? >> Miss Ballard >> here. >> Miss Clark Emory >> here.
>> Miss Cooper. >> Miss Gomez. >> Mrs. Hoppy. Mrs. Hunt >> here. >> Mrs. Lber >> here. Toro here, Mrs. Ry, this is Brenda >> here. >> Okay, wonderful. So then we will kick off our budget retreat for fiscal year
27. >> It's uh great to be here on a Saturday with you all. I think it underscores uh your commitment to your role here as board members, to the school district, and to um the respective communities that you serve in the Somerset Hills. Uh
so it's um you know it's our pleasure to be able to present to you um not only the fiscal 27 update uh or tenative budget but also uh to offer a state of the schools um to the board as well because I think that's important to see
the connectivity. Uh I present um you know various parts of the budget. Uh I come with a team with me that does include you and and you in in your various committee roles. Uh certainly uh Colleen from curriculum and instruction
and Jamie from student services and Rich uh from the business office. Uh they also don't work alone. Uh you see some of Rich's team members here from our business office, Jod and Amy, who have a significant role uh in business and operations and oftentimes board members
don't really get to see folks that are sort of behind the scenes like that. Uh and we also have uh principles and teachers and staff members from each of the schools that fed information into this budget. So it's uh you know we're here today but uh it's a budget of
hundreds as far as who contributed to it uh at various points during the year. Uh for those board members that have heard this before, I apologize. But for the new members, the concept of developing a budget is a 12-month process. Uh we will
start uh shortly. um to develop fiscal 28 even though we're in the process of 27. So we do have um you know it is a year round um it is a year- round calendar event uh as an example after uh budgets
are adopted or drafted and adopted uh we then start um processes like ordering and then receiving and then actually implementing uh things at the classroom level. So, uh it is something that's important uh to understand the connectivity around all of the various
pieces um to the budget. Uh so, uh with that said, we do have a uh multi- a multi-tered uh presentation today. Uh we will be taking a break. Uh you're going to hear from me initially and then you're going to hear from Colleen uh in curriculum
and instruction. And we'll have a brief break after curriculum and instruction as has been um our uh tradition uh in advance of student services and then you'll get to hear from me uh to round out uh the remaining parts of the budget. Uh so we I I use the term
balance uh pretty often when I meet with the board and when I meet with uh different committees and um it's important to note that uh it's our desire to strike a balance in the budget. Uh we certainly uh need to offer
um educational enhancement in the package that we put together in the package that we propose. Uh we need to do so being as fiscally responsible as possible and we we have to keep those uh the scales of fiscal justice in balance. Uh you can't
have so much fiscal responsibility that you don't have uh any educational enhancement and vice versa. Uh you can't have the opposite either. So, our mission is to have a balanced learning experience for each student. That's the mission of the district. Uh we want to
be able to innovate. We want to be able to engage kids that are able to contribute to uh a greater society, not only when they're here, but certainly uh when they leave. Uh the board has goals that help drive the work that we do from
a budgeting perspective. Um we have uh goals in student achievement, climate and culture, facilities and community engagement which you are all uh familiar with. And we use those goals to drive the work that we do. Uh from a priority
standpoint, again, we're looking to uh balance taxpayer impact. We're looking to support teaching and learning. Uh we're looking to implement on a on a continual basis in the New Jersey student learning standards. The standards themselves are what drive the
work that we do. Um uh certainly we uh we have New Jersey State Board of Education requirements that uh get spoken to in this budget. Uh a priority of ours uh to the greatest extent that we could uh was to maintain what we had. Uh whether it's curricular,
extracurricular, class sizes, we want to keep what we have. Peeling back um is u always your second and third option. Um we feel like we have strong offerings here and to the extent that the budget allowed it uh we sought to keep them. Uh
so that was a priority going in. Uh we wanted to maintain the fiscal year 25 and 26 enhancements for our multilingual learner programming and our special education program. That was important uh to the administration and I know it was important to the board. Uh in the past
we have increased our transportation services. we wanted to maintain that and we wanted to invest in our facilities as well um for the long term. Um and so we look at our facilities as an asset and
the budget does u maintain um a certain level of priority in order to maintain our asset. Uh so from a priority perspective uh we sought to mitigate uh we have three kind of overarching areas here. We're looking to mitigate um
impacts to our operational um side of the house. Uh we wanted to maintain the integrity of the programs that we offer uh from an academic and a curriculum perspective. Uh we wanted to ensure that our class sizes are in alignment with board policy and we also wanted to
support the expansion of bilingual programming. Uh so u there are uh constraints in this year's budget uh and we wanted to be able to um mitigate um the impact of constraints um in comparison to our overall program here.
Uh we also wanted to be able to support academic leadership uh instructional leadership and uh the stakeholder experience initiatives that the board has um been so strong in supporting on behalf of the administration. Uh we're doing work uh climate and culture work
in all three of our schools uh and and outward into the district and we wanted to be able to capture that in the budget and it's in there. Uh and we wanted to have uh increased examples of um instructional leadership uh from the administration and the opportunity to
lead on the instruction side. Uh and that but that was a priority of ours as well. and from an infrastructure and operations, we wanted to be able to support our long range facility plan that speaks to teaching and learning and efficiency. Uh so uh we feel like we were able to use these priorities to
guide our work. We have uh multiple communities here in the Somerset Hills and we also have a receiving community from Bedminster that that we bring in every year. Uh so the we have information from the census, the most recent census that you've seen last
year. Uh that does give a breakdown of the uh folks that we serve in our various communities and uh you kind of get a sense of how that population is is laid out between uh our total population, white students, black
students, Asian students, and Hispanic students uh across our various communities. And that's important to um really be able to to wrap your hands around because uh we are here to serve the kids uh and the families in the
Somerset Hills region. And as those population as you see population shifting and moving uh the board needs to be lim nimble, the administration needs to be nimble in the programs and opportunities that we're providing. And I think historically uh this district
has been really uh nimble and and been able to pivot and um that pivoting is a result of the board being able to understand the nuances of um the children that we're serving and allow us
to develop programs that speak to that. So uh that's an important variable for us um to express to you from an enrollment perspective. Uh we currently at Bedwell have 460 kids. We're expecting to maintain uh
those 460 kids in a total population. Uh we're expecting 90 kindergarteners again this year. Uh that could rise to 100. Uh currently there are 75 students uh who are registered for kindergarten or are in what we call the pipeline uh for
registration. Uh they're in pre-registration. Um so it's not official but uh we have 75 total uh moving from prek into kindergarten uh new registrations and folks that are inside the pipeline. So that gives you a
buffer of uh receiving anywhere from 15 to 25 additional between today and September 1st as a as a marker. So so we are expecting some stability there. There's stability in the middle school uh population as well. Uh the high
school population, you're seeing a decrease. Uh the cohort of students from Bedminster uh frankly for reasons unknown uh is about 20 less um coming to us. But the current seventh grade uh in
Bedminster is a uh significantly is a significantly larger group than the current eighth grade. So um so we adjust there. So we go down 20, we're scheduled to increase um an additional 30 the year uh the year prior 28. So
we have multilingual learners uh and uh current year we have 129 of them. Next year we're projecting 110. That decrease is predominantly um due to a decrease in enrollment of uh
ML students at Burner High School. Um, special education is um fairly consistent from year to year. Uh, there are currently about uh 10 less students that have a 504 plan uh in the district.
Uh, the special education enrollment information is based off of what we call and what the Department of Education calls the October 15th snapshot. Um, every year on October 15th, the district uploads um its student enrollment. And
believe it or not, that's uh one of the most important days uh in the school district uh every year because that upload does have a significant determination in how your state aid looks. Uh so that's a uh that's something that always gets fed in on
October 15th and that drives the special education enrollment here. Um, projecting forward for special education, uh, we have 25 that are graduating this year. We're expecting 30 to 40 additional students in the
district to be newly classified next year. So in the area of student achievement, uh, we have a comparison of NJSLA uh from 2023, 2024 and 2025. that is the
uh lack of better word like the state test. So that's the high stakes man statemandated assessment. uh you're seeing across the board, you know, if you look at the data, uh it's flat in language arts uh across those three
years. There's, you know, there's some movement that uh based upon the testing population. It's um not a seismic number of kids that are making that move and making that data fluctuate. Uh but
you're seeing a uh consistent student achievement metric you're not seeing on the total population um significant growth uh but you are seeing consistency there. Uh in the area of
math it's a similar story uh from you know throughout those three testing years you are seeing um some movement uh there was a high of 59 and in 24 a low of 56 um most recent results were 57%.
So um again math language arts you're not seeing a tremendous amount of movement uh science uh the results are there as well and um there's a bit more movement as of recently uh with that group but um I think that from a uh just
to reiterate recent discussions that many of us had there is a desire on the instructional leadership side to to offer cohorts of students greater opportunities to move greater levels of support. So we see our total population
numbers start to um project upwards on a consistent basis. Um essentially what's happening now is it's cohort dependent and we want to be able to drive um achievement improvement um
with the total population. Uh there's some trends here. Uh some of these slides we've seen uh these are repeats from September's student achievement uh presentation uh as required. Uh you're
seeing a breakdown of demographics uh between our white, Hispanic, Asian, and um students that are of two or more races. And you're also races, and you're also seeing subgroup information for students that have disabilities or economically disadvantaged or
multilingual learners. uh significant goal that um the district holds itself to is to narrow those achievement gaps. You're seeing significant achievement gaps here and we need to um engage in
compressing that and and and starting that work together. So you do see uh particular um achievement levels between 2017 and 2025. This particular slide is in language arts. Um overall between 17 and
25 you are seeing um in uh in many of these uh subgroups you're seeing improvement uh in those years. Um but um you know we would like to see overall how the subgroups
achieve we would like to see that those gaps uh narrowed. In language arts, we also have uh some trending here and we have some color-coded uh data that uh does um provide some information to you uh as
that pertains to how students move through our academic program uh from Bedwell through middle uh into um our high school years. So this is ELA data and uh you should be able to follow the
colors uh on in the data set and see that as they uh begin their standardized testing experience um as a total group um the the end result is much uh different and in many cases much better than the beginning result. Our goal is
to make the beginning result higher. um you know so um so the trajectory of the students can uh shift a little bit there. So that's information in language arts. Uh in math math math tells a similar
story uh across the board uh as it relates to student demographic information when you're looking as far back as 17 in NJSLA and moving through 2025. Um so you you are seeing from from in
the perspective of that history some improvement there over time for for those subgroups. Uh but again um as the subgroups improve we do want to be able to address the narrowing of the achievement gaps there for the total population. So that's a significant goal
here. Uh and we try to inform the budget around um that information um that we utilize. Uh and again we have the colorcoded cohorting uh information as well. Uh as
kids move through um particular um particular tests uh between bedwell, middle and high. Uh you are seeing uh improvement from the first year they're tested to the last year in the data here. algebra one geometry and
algebra 2. Uh you're seeing those as standalone um boxes that are um shadowed in blue on the outline. Uh that's where the the cohorts split up a little bit based upon their enrollment in math.
From college prep perspective in 25 the class of 25 87% of our children went to um pursued postsecary uh the class of 24 92% of them were looking for post-secary opportunities. 82% went to college. Uh
that's fairly consistent with the class of 24. Um 5% went to two-year college. That's a decrease. Uh 13% of the class of 25 sought employment. um or uh military. Um and I would say that it was
more employment than military um in in our information that we were able to um garner on on their way out. So, uh last year was 8%. Um, so you're seeing more kids either take a gap year or uh pursue
employment before really identifying what they feel like their next step needs to be or is national merit uh class of 25 performed uh very well. We had 11 commended students and a finalist. Um class of 24
had six commended students, a finalist and one winner. Uh so uh you are seeing um success up at the college board level uh up at the high school with the 24 or the
2025 AP test administration. We had 72 scholars of distinction at Bernard's High School. Last year 31 uh were scholars with honors and 42 were AP scholars. Uh I would say overall those numbers are fairly consistent to one
another. Um there are some increases um from 24 to 25 in scholars with distinction and AP scholars with honors and then there's a decrease in overall AP scholars probably because there were more scholars of distinction. So um I
would say that the the trend is fairly consistent. Our SAT scores, uh, math and verbal, uh, both are, uh, above 600. Um, for the class of 25 cohort, uh, we were not
above 624. Um, you'll see 613. Um, for evidence-based reading and writing is the average, and 616 in math, um, well above the New Jersey and national trends there.
students are pursuing um post-secary colleges, many of them four years, and you get a sense of where they're going on this slide. Um that seems to run the gamut. Um anecdotal feedback from the college office is you're starting to see kids um on a more consistent basis
pursue uh schools in um the south and the west in comparison to like the last 10 years as an example. So, we've been doing work in climate and culture and the student experience. We have multiple lanes that we do this work
in. It's not just like one particular area. Uh we have a partnership with the Ruckers University School of Applied and Professional Psychology. Uh we work closely with them on the New Jersey school climate initiative work. Um it's productive work uh with that group and
um there as the as the heading states there are a group of um psychologists that study nothing but climate and culture and work closely with the district um around that. Um we're also working closely with the school of labor
uh and management at Ruckers University. Um we engage in work um around collaboratively designed um planning and decision-making models inside of our schools. Uh the design around our work in labor management is to um allow the
front lines of our organization to inform frankly the the direction that I present to the board. uh because the frontline perspective is so critical and so important and we don't as a board and as
an administration want to work in a silo. We don't want to work in linear fashion. We want to be able to have circular flow between our educators, our case managers, our nurses, uh the administration and and up to the board.
So we kind of need to have this level of connectivity between all of the titles in the district. So that's why we do that. Uh and uh we are we work very closely with capturing kids hearts. Uh and we are in um the second year of an implementation at the middle school. Uh
and uh we do have uh funding budgeted uh for transitioning that work to Bernardo's high school as well. From an attendance perspective, this is an area of needed growth. Um particularly at the K8 level. Uh there
is some consistency in the daily attendance rate at the high school. Uh and you're seeing a year-over-year um dip of attendance rate. Uh the 23 24 attendance rates uh were uh certainly a bit better and by a bit about 4% better
uh at Bedwell and Middle. Um so we need to redouble our efforts around um daily uh attendance in school. Yeah. >> I would say it's more awareness. Um I wouldn't say it's school avoidance, but
I think it's more of a a necessary PR push about the importance of of daily attendance. um you're seeing um more consistency at the high school level because there is the draw of um required seat time in order to earn credit and so
they have that mechanism that um middle and and elementary don't have. Uh but I think but more so than not it is a function of uh awareness um between us and and the homes.
Personally it's not you know we're not seeing like significant travel. Um I've worked in districts where um because of the ethnicity of the students there was significant travel of like 10 and 20 days at a time and uh that's not something that we experience here. Um
that's not to say that we don't have school avoidance. We do but it's like such a small fractional share um that you know we do work through with our specialized services. I would say it's more awareness than anything. Um
and as a parent of young children at one point and currently you know sometimes there is a different perspective that I personally have and you know what does a day mean to a nineyear-old versus a 17-year-old um you know there's somewhat of a difference there so I I think it's
awareness overall students in grades 5 through 12 have a higher attendance rate um than their peers around the state uh and we do have an opportunity for our prek to four grade level group to uh
um to improve from a conduct perspective. Uh during the current school year, 19 students have earned out of school suspensions. 33 have earned inschool suspensions for code of conduct matters. Uh that's a slight uptick uh in comparison to a year
ago. Um we've opened um less HI investigations by 20 uh in comparison to a year ago today. Uh 38 of those have been have been uh referred
and investigated. Um 23 have been founded. Uh we have a higher finding rate than a year ago. Um fewer cases are being referred in comparison to recent years. More being founded. Um I would you know I can make um the conclusion
that One of the um one of the outgrowths is that I feel like there's more alignment around the definition of what um the harassment, intimidation, and bullying law and war policy uh speaks to uh also between uh the district and
homes uh that that does have a um connectivity there. Uh and there's also been significantly less matters referred at Bedwell uh this year in comparison to last year. So those are probably the two major distinctions. uh climate and culture uh survey and
strategic planning work. Uh this is a graphic of the New Jersey school climate initiative survey that we conducted. Uh there are a host of domains here. Uh we all have um seen these before and presented on these. And so this drives
um the strategic work that our school climate teams are doing at each of the school levels and the school climate team will be doing at the district level. So this is sort of the the the bones behind that work. Uh we did administer a survey this year
in January. We had a significant significant participation uh 600 over 600 students at the high school and uh over 300 at the middle school. 60 at um at Bedwell. Uh Bedwell we
survey grades three and four. uh nearly every staff member across the district in our schools uh participated in that survey and many caretakers and parents uh give um you know plug for what will be um either an annual survey or every
two-year survey. Uh we'd like to see a greater level of participation um at home in in completing the survey uh because that will allow us to really get that frame of reference. Um we had a strong um Statistically, we had a strong
performance from the parents in our district. Uh, according to the researchers at um at Ruckers. Uh, they were not displeased with with our uh data, but you know, you kind of always want to be able to have more. Um, so I think next year we want to hit triple digits for each of the schools. I think
that's a reasonable goal with increased um an increased push. It's important data. Uh from an extracurricular activity perspective, there are a lot of opportunities here inside of the budget to um avail students to participate in
either clubs or student activities. Uh 66% of the students in our district uh participate in almost 30 intercolastic teams. Uh we have 120 or some odd students at Bedwell that participate.
There's 180 faculty siphons inside of the budget and the agreement with uh the education association. We have newspapers, yearbooks, art and literary magazines, academic competitions that we support. Um there's performing arts as
this is kind of seems like it was performing arts month with two beautiful uh productions that were put together. Um art competitions, photography competitions. Uh there's a climate and culture team that adds significant value at the middle school and uh we do have
some out of um after school community service opportunities that students participate in. So um education to this board uh and to this administration is really important to be to be conducted inside of the schoolhouse and outside of the schoolhouse and and really being
able to merge that for kids is an important outgrowth. So you see that I would say in broad numbers 2/3 um possibly higher. We can certainly research that at you know down at the ground level. >> Well, you have two in just athletics.
>> I would say that um I can get you an exact enrollment figure. >> Yeah. So, I would I would argue that the money that the budget invests in this work is connected to to great outcomes and kind of like money well spent. Um
certainly, but we'll get you like a an exact total each club, each each sport >> total number. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, we can get you percentage of the district that that
participate in at least one extracurricular activity. Yeah, for sure. And I'm going to transition to Dr. Butler um for what appears to be her last presentation of curriculum.
I've been saddled up, but not this morning. So, thank you, Dr. Brochial. He is always a hard act to follow. Um, I may be a little bit biased, but when I think of the student experience here in the Somerset Hills, I always think of teaching and learning first. Our staff
is really the heart of teaching and learning in the district and our curriculum and our instruction to instructional tools are the items that help them facilitate all the teaching that they do. Another area that we will discuss in a few of the slides um is the
professional development. And I know I say this all the time, but the district has always valued its staff and has always invested in professional development. When I speak with new teachers, it is always one of the first I think our commitment, your commitment
to professional development of our staff is is one of the real highlights of working here in the district. In this slide, I really want to emphasize the word we because it means so much to me. I think that when I see
the Wii in this what we believe with regard to our curriculum, I believe that this board and those that have come before you and hopefully those that will come after you really are committed to curriculum and teaching and learning in our district and um we really firmly
prioritize that and I appreciate that from all of you because I think it's so important. Okay. Our community developed an ambitious strategic plan several years ago and that plan still guides our work today. The curriculum budget supports
goals in the plan and we're going to see items in the following slides that contribute to this work. Examples are training for an effective SEAL program, tools to support assessments, and curriculum that will continue to infuse career exploration into lessons, and
training to help teachers be ready to ensure that students see Hispanic heritage represented in classes, improving inclusion, and reducing the under representation of Hispanic history. That's one of the mandates that we'll be talking about this year.
Okay. We are always in a cycle of curriculum development. Um, this little graphic I think is a a great way to show that our curriculum is of course based on the New Jersey student learning standards, which we're going to see a little bit more about in another slide.
But this slide demonstrates that we monitor our curriculum and we often say that our curriculum is a living document because it needs to reflect not only the standards but our students. We review the standards. We research the best curriculum to help teachers facilitate that learning. Our teachers in
conjunction with content supervisors write our curriculum during the summer and then we develop a program of professional development to support them. We continue to monitor and revise the curriculum as needed. You will note that the New Jersey Department of Education recently adopted revised
standards as previously mentioned in Hispanic Heritage. We are getting ready for new standards in the visual and performing arts and we will be adding more attention to teaching cursive writing which is exciting. Uh teachers will write this curriculum over the
summer for implementation in September. The new state the New Jersey State Board of Education facilitates the process just to give you a little bit of background. um gathers feedback from a variety of sources including testimony at public meetings and subsequent to
that information gathering they are revised and ultimately adopted. After that, districts write curriculum based on the newly adopted standards and teachers implement the curriculum as they facilitate the lesson plans that they write. Your budget budget advocates funding for
curriculum writing and professional development to ensure our teachers are well prepared to teach to the new standards. The next few slides were developed in collaboration with the content area supervisors and speaks about aspects of
the budget that support their specific areas. We're fortunate to have true experts in their fields and I hope to be able to capture their expertise and their spirit in the next few slides. First off, math and science where uh
I I'll do my best to channel over here, but that's a little difficult. So in um this just talks a little bit about the um also talks a little bit about the new
student learning assessments which um have started this year. It has been an interesting year with regard to the assessments. It continues to be an interesting year. We do have a new commissioner who is um I I from what I understand very adept in um all things
testing. So it's an evolving situation, but we will make sure that our students and our teachers are ready for that. Um, we also have some professional learning priorities, articulation, local assessment, data use. There are AP
course revisions to reflect current developments in in several disciplines and to ensure alignment with introductory college courses. So we'll see a little bit more of that when I break down funding. So, we implemented new math standards in
September of 2024, as you can all remember, K12. The revisions contain several shifts that we addressed in professional development and curriculum. For the upcoming year, the college board also revised courses, statistics, chemistry, and biology. And this budget
will support new textbooks for those. As you know, the state has also updated their assessment system and we will be supporting teachers with professional development to assist in processing this um the information in this new platform. This budget also includes student
consumables, diagnostics, and personalized learning for our math program KA. It's important to note, I think, that many content areas now contain greater online resources than in previous years, and we need to remain current with the online resources that
are needed today to support learning in 2026. Updates such as these are imperative to give our students the best and most effective tools to harness the learning that is accessible to them. Um, in the past, you might have been able to buy a textbook and a textbook could
last, you know, several years. I know a lot of the um the places that sell textbooks also have online resources which need to be updated more frequently. Okay. This page details professional development opportunities in math and science and includes work that teachers
will be um collaborating with through RVCC to gain more knowledge about the nextgen um science standards. It also contains funding for our math lab at BHS which um has been very successful and we really wanted to maintain.
>> It's our um science program at the elementary and middle school. >> We have to we have to um um reorder materials because a lot of our science program especially K8 is very
hands-on. So there are materials like actual physical consumable materials that need to be um replenished. most of these like for the ready math is that >> it may be over one to two years and when
you see that the blanket of some of our Iriting materials are um three-fold there's a diagnostic piece there's actual like textbooks and consumables which is in here and um then there's personalized learning
So it's a large number because of all of the different pieces. >> So will it fluctuate? >> It does fluctuate and I think and I have this in another slide some of the costs within the curriculum budget are a
little bit dynamic. Um so and also there are parameters that we really you know I know sometimes we have to stay to a strict budget but sometimes just looking at me um you know if there's a a lot of you know we had
several years ago they um changed the standards in math and ELA K12 >> right >> that summer you saw curriculum writing through the roof >> right >> um so some of it is a little bit dynamic that kind of fluctuates.
>> Sure. >> That's a a great question. I also do want to um say at this point sometimes there are there are states, not New Jersey, not our local um uh schools that
will say you have to be, you know, on this personalized system for you know 60 minutes a day or something like that. We don't use I Ready in that way. Um when we talk about personalized learning, students can and and I know we have um
some parents in the group who who can maybe give some talk about their experience with it, but students can be assigned pieces of Ready to work on on their own um with a teacher kind of coaching in based on the
diagnostic. So if the and they're tied together. So if the diagnostic um is saying you really need some attention in this specific area uh with regard to this specific standard, we can assign some personalized learning to you know
help support the student in that. >> Yes. Okay. So moving along to another exciting item that this budget supports is our uh bilingual program at Bedwell. As you know, uh this year we continued our transitional bilingual program into
first grade. Um some of us were lucky enough to see that uh last week and we welcomed a new class of kinders. So this slide shows components of the budget that will continue to support this important endeavor. The resources detailed here uh were really curated
during our extensive research and many visits to programs um who had been in existence for far longer than ours. So um the teachers have been very happy with the materials that we had waiting for them um that you researched. So
>> can what is that program? I just wonder what is the bilingual program teacher training. It's for them to understand. It's for them to get support from um experts outside of the school who can work with them to um really enhance their teaching >> based on what they're actually in the
classroom. >> But they help them like is people that don't speak Spanish or any other language. So the bilingual >> um is the bilingual program. The bilingual program is a program that uh we are now in our second year of. It's
for uh kindergarten students and first grade students who English is not their first language. They are still learning um English. So they're in a classroom where they're doing a lot of their learning in their
language that they speak at home and then they are so science or social studies they're learning or they're learning to read in Spanish. But then also during the day learning English >> so this is like an assistant to the teacher you know like I mean I like the
I'm just saying it's like because it's a teacher training. >> No no it's just like professional development for the teachers. The teachers are experts in their field but they then have someone from outside who um can help them um you know just be
better teachers. >> Is that the answer? >> Yes. Thank you. >> Uhhuh. Yes. Right. Right. It's um it's a it's been a a really great program to see because we've been um the curriculum committee
was just visiting the other day and watching them in the classroom. Uh it's amazing and it's our bilingual program is a transitional program. They're transitioning into a a fully English gened class. Um so you know, but we're
scaffolding along the way and it is easier um for young children to um capitalize on what they already know. They already know Spanish, so they're starting their learning process in the language that they're familiar with. And
then we are helping them to learn English along the way. So, okay, now I'm turning into Lindsay for a moment. Um, I can I'm actually like feeling enter my body. Um, the next two slides speak to how the budget supports
English language arts in the district. The new standards in ELA had a major shift in foundational reading skills which we continue to support through updated materials including additional decodable text and enhanced units of study. Units of study are our um main
program in English language arts. Um but we have been um uh slowly updating some of those because they hadn't been updated in many many years. So, it's the same program but updated versions that are um enhanced um and focus on the new
standards. Um so, as you can see, our outdated some of our outdated units of study will be updated, additional texts will be purchased and we will continue embedding professional development in this area.
As um I mentioned earlier, it is expected that the new visual and performing arts standards will need to be implemented in the 2728 school year. And as Brian said earlier, we are always planning, you know, a year or two in
advance. So, um we are going to begin professional development this year in anticipation of the standards changing. So, yes. Yes. Yes. Sorry, I should have put that in there. Actually, I think my boss told me to
make sure I fix that. I think I forgot. So, thank you for pointing that out as um Okay. Okay. As mentioned earlier in the cycle of curriculum development, writing the curriculum is a vital piece. It is also
a piece that is required by the state of New Jersey and something that is looked at um very closely when we go through the CUC process. This slide details the cost associated with summer curriculum writing and as you can see it is much lower than it was the year we did math
and ELA then it was like I think $93,000. So not a fluctuation that we can really um do anything about. Um, in order to be compliant with the use of standards required by the state, we must always make sure that our standards are current
and updated. To that end, our teachers will be writing curriculum this summer utilizing our new Atlas platform, which we're really excited about. Um, I believe the writing process will be um much um much better streamlined for
them. As you know, this is always a dynamic number based on which standards the state happens to uh revise. Examples of what will be updated this year, and I I'm just going to give you a few examples because I could go on and on. ESL, all grades are being updated. Uh
Latin, um the four years of that in the high school are being updated. Um uh first through 12th grade social studies is being updated to uh reflect Hispanic labor history mandate. What are the ones like updates the
library? What is that? >> Um uh Felicia, that's such a fun question. Um the um standards for um library instruction are having um new career exploration standards. So that's
her all of her curriculum needs to be updated. >> So which is exciting. Thank you. >> Uh SIP, um I didn't yell at me for that one. Now he never yells. Um but uh SIP is our class that's at the high school.
It's um a student support class for students um who need extra support in making sure that they can pass our high school equivalency test graduation test.
No, >> no, we've always had it. Yeah, we've always had that. >> We've always had a SIP course. Of course. >> Oh, maybe it's different. There's a different SIP course development.
>> Yeah, it does say. >> Okay, >> there it is. >> It's not a new course, but it is going to be completely um when we talk about new courses, if it has to be completely redeveloped, it has to be completely
redeveloped because we have a new test that they're going to be trying to pass. Right. >> Okay. >> And um when we're doing curriculum writing, there are uh different amounts
um different costs associated with different things. So that's really like a whole new overhaul because we have to test. >> One question calling on that. Now, >> is that just like for kids that are like with an IEP or just the kids that
everyone that is falling behind? >> Yeah. Could be students. Sometimes we have students who are fairly new to the country. So that's a course that they might need to take just to have more exposure to test.
Okay, this slide um details costs associated with the materials needed to implement our curriculum. Uh these courses these costs were all mentioned on previous slides but in previous slides you saw them by department. This
is them being listed um al together. Then this slide also includes information that was on previous slides by department but it's shown here um just under professional development. This slide also includes aspects of the strategic plan such as our commitment in
social, emotional and physical health in terms of items such as capturing kids hearts, CPR, health training. As I mentioned earlier, one of the ways that Somerset Hills School District um really sets itself apart from other districts
is the way in which we support the professional development of our staff. Uh staff that is supported is better able to support our students. This budget will support our staff in math and literacy as well as supporting our bilingual program. And it also includes
funding to support the next phase um of our K12CL program capturing kids hearts. Elevation is um something that we use to monitor. It does more than monitor, but it monitors all of our um
ML students in the work that they're doing and how they're progressing. It's used also to um uh gather information that we need to report to the state. It also gives teachers um based on how students do on any assessments that
they're doing. It gives teachers suggestions on how they might um enhance their teaching to increase learning. Yeah, I that would be something that the um colleges would question.
>> When it says district is for everyone like staff, administration, teachers, >> um I'm sorry >> when it says cont district for example the CPR, the elevation and mental health training. >> Right. If if it says district, it's
through the entire district >> but like administration teachers >> yes could be anyone >> and then just to clarify the capturing kids cards is is only high school or is both high school and middle school >> we implemented it starting last year at
the middle school we continued this year next year we're moving it into >> that's what is Okay. Um, you are getting close to your seventh inning stretch. I'm gonna put a little sports in there for Dr. B. Um I I
only have a few more slides so you can get through this. This slide speaks to items that were previously mentioned again within the departments but here you can see them as textbooks. textbook replacements um may not seem as exciting as other costs, but it's really an
essential part of the curriculum process and um you can see the um commitment to even our AP classes which uh need to be updated. Okay, so this slide kind of encapsulates
encapsulates the change in the budget between years. I'm going to reiterate that this particular part of the budget has to be dynamic as different expectations each year that we need to meet. Uh we see a decrease in the need this year um for textbooks and inhouse
PD but an increase in um slight increase in curriculum writing due to um some additional mandates this year um and program development due to updates and outdated materials and an increase in contracted professional development due
to our second phase of capturing kids hearts. So that kind of affects our changes. In summation, um this budget supports the strategic plan that the community developed. It prioritizes up-to-date and highquality instructional materials for
our students. It continues to to provide targeted and sustained professional development for our staff. It allows for a dynamic and compliant curriculum. It produces curriculum to support important endeavors such as our bilingual class, our students with learning differences,
and our advanced placement students. Even more than that, though, it provides exciting means for our students to explore their world and to gather the tools they need to lead us into the future. Jamie is up next to talk about um the Department of Student Services,
but you have any other questions, I'm happy to answer. and I'm happy to myself as well. >> Uh we typically break at this point. Just wanted to get a pulse check of the
board. Certainly I defer to your needs. So I'm just putting it out there to the board. You good? >> We can keep going. >> Sure. >> Yeah. >> Okay. So Jamie's uh gonna move on with student services.
>> So since this is a budget presentation, I have a graphic with money in it. Um I do want to say that the board has been very supportive in supporting the initiatives to help support and grow and maintain our program. So that's a lot
about what I'm going to talk about um today. So some of the information might seem uh familiar um but a lot of that has been through your support. So in New Jersey there's 14 different categories which students can become
eligible for special education services. You will see overall where our student population kind of falls in that. So, I've highlighted some of the areas that are um where most of our students are classified. So, in the autism category,
these students have a pervasive developmental disability that may impact their ability to interact socially and communicate both verbally and non-verbally. Communication impaired, those are students with impairments in language. And keep in mind, this is not my language. This is the language from
the the New Jersey standards. So, um emotional emotional population impairments. Students whose educational performance is adversely affected by an inability to exhibit appropriate behaviors or feelings. Multiply disabled is a presence of two or more disabling
conditions. Um so in in those cases, one area does not appropriately examine who those students are. Other health impaired. This one requires a medical assessment and students either have a chronic or
acute health deficit. Preschool child with a disability is the child between the ages of three and five with a developmental delay. All students before they're five years old need to be assessed again in order to see if they meet criteria um for one of the school
age eligibility categories. Specific learning disability is a severe discrepancy between current achievement and intellectual ability. And students can also be eligible for speech and language services only. So that would be a speech disorder and articulation,
phenology, fluency or voice. So this is from our October 15th snapshot. So the 276 students are represented here. If that number does not equal 276, it's because we do have a few categories where there are less than
five students. So due to confidentiality, I don't include that in the chart. Um, and to give a little more information on other health impaired and specific learning disability because we are consistent with, you know, the state of New Jersey and federally that most students do fall within those
categories. So for students who meet an other health impairment eligibility, like I mentioned, has to be a medical evaluation and those students either have chronic or acute health problems that often includes ADHD, a heart
condition, um, asthma, hemophilia, ep epilepsy, Tourett syndrome, but it also has to adversely affect their educational performance. For a specific learning disability, like I mentioned, that's a severe discrepancy between their overall achievement and
their ability. So that's how they do, you know, perform educationally. comparison to their overall IQ or cognitive ability. There are eight areas um that can a student can qualify under. So that's either basic reading skills, reading fluency, reading comprehension,
written expression, oral expression, listening comprehension, mathematical calculation, and mathematical problem solving. So those are the specific areas students um can be eligible in more than one area or just one area under specific learning disability.
Um so so that number is from October 15th. So if there were any students who turned three or became eligible after that point. So throughout the school year typically those numbers do grow. Um, we did have a a lot more students last year. We had a large number of students that graduated preschool and
moved into kindergarten. So, they've either, you know, met criteria for a school age classification. Um, but yeah, right now that number is lower than it was last year, but it always kind of just depends who moves in or you know, uh, students become eligible when they turn three. So, they start at any point
during the year. Our gened or and or tuition students for preschool have to meet the criteria to be three by October 1st. Just like you know kindergarten is five by October 1, but we add uh special ed preschool students throughout the school year. So the number might be a
little higher now. So these are the programs that we've been um maintaining through our multi-year expansions. We have over the years increased our preschool from half day to full day. We've added another preschool class. We've increased our in-class resource. Um we will be able to
support that uh first grade moving through 12th grade and we continue to support the resource room kindergarten through our 12th grade students. Um but specifically uh expanded at Bedwell to support
language arts and math in grades one through four. In the middle school we also support inclass resource in science and social studies making us able to support all the core content areas, language arts, math, science, and social studies in all grades at the middle
school and at the high school. We support all uh graduation requirements uh in the content areas and we support both academic and accelerated courses which has been an increase from previous years. Um we with your support were able
to open an LLD classroom last year and as our students move up that program will continue to expand. We do have partnerships with assisted technology consultants, um our mental health support, and um as of last year or starting this year, we now have a
full-time BCBA in district. So, these are our new referrals. Um the numbers here are very consistent actually with last year in terms of new referrals. In terms of re-evaluations, we've actually completed a lot more to date from this point last year.
Re-evaluations are completed triannually. So, it often just depends how those students come up and when they're due to be re-evaluated. So, we've just completed more at this point um from last school year. Mental health, uh again, with your
support, I feel we're very fortunate. Um that lists all of our mental health support that we have here. We have two mental health counselors that spans, you know, from preschool through 12th grade. And we have one student assistance counselor. We have seven school counselors districtwide, full four school psychologists and two school
social workers. Um this is our list of risk assessments that we've completed. That's you know any student that we've met with not necessarily that they needed further evaluation but any students that you know have gone through you know that type of evaluation. uh elementary and high school at this
point last year. Um we're down. Um and the middle school is is pretty consistent with where it was last year. Um so these are just the continued services. Uh through student services, we continue to apply for IDA grants. We
also do um extraordinary aid that helps um a lot with our outed district tuition. We run our extended school year program for our students who otherwise would regress without that program. Our mental health initiatives include the lifelines curriculum that was through a grant and we've kind of just absorbed
that program and continued to work on that in our schools. And we still have care solace that's available for all of our students, staff members, and parents. and we've seen that as a great community resource um that people are able to take advantage of. Like Colleen
has already mentioned, we uh support district-wide CPR and first aid certification where that is required and needed. We continue to expand our assisted technology. Um we do have students who are in home instruction for
a variety of reasons. Our in-class support resource expansion, which I talked about, you know, continuing to expand that grade levels and in content areas. It's also important that we have translation services and bilingual evaluators. So, we have a full team of
bilingual evaluators who evaluate our students um you know when English might not be their first language and then we are able to consult with them to better understand um the nuances when working with those populations. We also contract um for medical evaluations outside of
the district that we might need. We have one-on-one nursing services both in district and for our out of district students. And we do um we've adopted the safety care training which is our crisis prevention training. So we're in year two with that. But we do have an onstaff trainer which makes it then we can
provide that in-house and our staff don't have to leave to get that training. >> Yes. Um I love all these mental health initiatives and all that. My question is does this goes also to for coaches for example like uh because I know when you
think well when I think staff I always think like teachers or the district but is uh do the coaches also so it's a a complete >> so we have coaches that are on staff or coaches that are not on staff um
>> that can depend what is you know required for them but all of our coaches do through go through all of our professional development training and they have to anything that is statemandated. So anything that is worth >> I I totally understand. I'm just thinking now like sometimes it's very
good when we're all in the same page that I know the training is I mean they have to have a good training but I'm just thinking like sometimes in the district >> it has to be all connected right like they know the teachers >> even with our you know our bus drivers or our staff in the cafeteria you know
that's why it's great that we have you know case managers or counselors and our nurses. So you know our nurses work even you know when we have we contract out for out of district students. They're working with anybody who has, you know, let's say a seizure action plan or, you know, any, you know, medical needs. All
that information is shared with them. And also, of course, with the coaches or, you know, if a student needs um power professional help to participate in an extracurricular activity or a sports activity, they're, you know, we we provide that assistance and then that's why it's helpful that we have
case managers who, you know, know the students best and they share that information with whoever to the people there. Okay, thank you. Thank you. nursing services. What do you mean by what an example? >> Not typically. Um, you know, that type
of uh it depends all on the individual students needs. Um, so they might require more specific medical intervention that a school nurse themselves wouldn't be able to provide when they're, you know, servicing 500 other students.
>> But all of that is through medical documentation and coordination with the doctor and stuff like that. We only have uh three in district. So I don't want to talk too specifically about that. But >> and the money part. So salaries um overall I now have comparison the past
three years you can see like we know you know salaries increase every year just like health benefits so that's where where the increase is there um tuitions added district tuitions that's you know we plan for what that's going to look like and then we get the exact numbers it doesn't necessarily mean an increase in students who are attending these
program it's just that the cost of the schools go up every year transportation um we can see that the number there has decreased and that's been through years of work to bring um our transportation in district, meaning that if we have the
availability of our own buses and drivers, we're able to transport our students out of district um where we can. the extended school year. Um slight increase there in pricing. That's mostly uh because staff salaries and uh
materials that we use for the program and other which is different you know supplies and services also a little bit of a decrease in there and that's likely um due to specific one-on-one nursing services for a student that has moved
out of district. So but you know Well, we can't predetermine if a student is going to need that support without the data. So, you know, oftentimes we're looking at how a student performs, you know, not only after they've attended a summer, you know, summer, um, but winter
break and spring break. So, sometimes that's when those determinations happen. But, you know, I already have my spreadsheet for ESY. So, we have a lot of students who have already been um invited or who will be invited. You know, oftentimes we have students who are classified later in the year. Same
thing with, you know, sometimes we have preschoolers who their third birthday starts over the summer, so that's when they start the program. But nothing is perfect. Um, there's always going to be people who have to make decisions, you know, probably in January to pay for camps or whatnot. And that's a family decision. Our program is also, you know, a half-day program, which, you know,
might not meet people's needs regardless. >> I don't So extended school year is for students who would otherwise regress over the summer. So there are specific criteria that the case manager and the teachers
review to see that to collect data on whether or not that program would be appropriately recommended for them. Right. So, we don't there aren't new skills that are learned over the summer. It's maintenance for um Yep. So, then overall the overall
total budget is listed there on the All right, I'm back. Okay. Um, we're going to talk about personnel. We're going to talk about um the budget itself. We're going to talk about facilities, capital reserve, and
kind of start to land the plane. from a fiscal perspective. Yes. >> Okay. Okay. Um, so we're going to talk about personnel, then we're going to talk about the budget itself. We'll get into our capital reserve, our maintenance
reserve, and uh, we will begin to land the plane for you. Um, our goal here is to um offer you as much detail um in order to make you know about the budget. There's
a lot of variables here. Uh there will not be a test at the end. Um but uh there's a lot of variables and it's it's okay if you have questions or you need clarification or what have you, but there's a lot uh that went into this here and um
so we'll get going. So we have uh two new positions in the budget. Uh there is a position to support our bilingual students at Bedwell. It's a paraprofessional position. Uh so the intention is that uh students in our
kindergarten bilingual have program have um metriculated into our bilingual first grade program and now metriculate into our second grade general education uh program with a dedicated bilingual pair
professional. So that is the trajectory. We have uh spent time in the bilingual program over the over the past two years. we've just regular program visits and even teacher evaluations. We do think the children are prepared for this next level of their bilingual
programming uh and their multilingual learner programming uh with us here. So there is a budget or there is a position in the budget dedicated to that. Uh there is also an administrative position uh that will allow for greater instructional leadership at Bernard's
High School. I believe that the principles need to be instructional leaders. Uh and there is a position in the budget to avail the principal um to be uh less management and more instructional leadership uh driving
innovation driving achievement. So there is a position in the budget for that as well. In the area of facilities and operations, uh there's a capital reserve withdrawal. Uh it's in um a,350,000.
It's for paging systems, bell systems, door access, emergency notification systems upgrades. Uh that will be implemented at the high school to middle school Bedwell and at Bulcott uh across the district. Uh so inside of the budget, that is what we call revenue. Uh
we're withdrawing it from our capital reserve account and it goes into our revenue budget. We also have the second phase of the tennis courts that comes out of our maintenance reserve budget. Uh that is a withdrawal of $600,000. That too is
revenue that gets put into the budget for uh us to allocate and to spend. Um we are starting this project in consultation with the high school administration and and the the boys tennis team schedule somewhere in May.
um internal communications um suggest it may be on the earlier side of May than the later side. Um and then um we it's about a three-month process. I may have shared in the past when you build uh
track, when you build tennis courts, uh there's a lot of starting and stopping. Um materials need time to cure, materials need time um to adhere. Uh so what's going to happen with the tennis court project is they're going to mill down the current courts. Uh they're
going to build the current courts back up. Uh there was a some significant water damage with the courts up there which is no surprise given the level of deterioration uh that took place. Uh so we're milling all the way down. We're building all the way up and then they're
going to pour a surface. Um that surface itself needs to cure for 30 days and curing is just taking the oil out of it. So the court material and the court service itself can adhere to the base uh and then that needs some time to cure
and we have to strike them etc. So we have worked closely uh with the bureau on this and um certainly we will advise them of our final plans as far as the project goes shortly. We have a meeting I believe in a week or two rich and I
>> Yes. Sure. So, uh longstanding shared services agreement um has been established at the time when the high school construction here built the pack and probably I think
this room is where the courts were. uh we needed the space. The burrow uh did offer us space up at up on Seni Drive. Uh there is a shared services agreement essentially saying yes sure you can relocate your courts. Uh you can also
maintain them um as well. So we bear the cost of maintenance for the courts. Um as far as owning the courts, they are our property as far as maintaining them. Uh, but they are also availed to the residents of Burnersville and the
Somerset Hills region um for for use for public use as well. I'm sorry. So, they don't help with maintenance, but um we're all following the agreement that was signed tens of years ago uh which is
almost up. So uh so maybe the next one will read a little differently but uh right now this is what we have and um so we we built this project over two budgets. So we are executing using fiscal year 26 money which is this
year uh and we're also budgeting for fiscal 27 which is next year. So yep thank you. So that is the facilities info. We are going to go
through the budget. So on every budget there is there two sides. There's a revenue side. Revenues are is money coming in to the budget and then there's an expense side. That's money going out.
Okay. At the end of the day, the revenue side and the expense side matches everybody following there. Okay, good. So, let's talk about the revenue side. That's money coming in. And I'm going to
go down the spreadsheet. I'm going to be reading um in that first column down under the bold revenues. So, the first revenue that we have in there is what we call budgeted fund balance. So that is uh money that came
forward from the prior year's budget. Um and in the current or in the proposed budget we are proposing to use a million610932. So that is a decrease of $112,000. Uh it's important to note for the board
that when your fund balance decreases that's a good thing. Uh these are things that we talk to our auditors about. um in particular. Why is that a good thing as you're heading into uh your bond sale? Uh as an example, uh it does
enhance your bond rating to have less reliance on fund balance. Okay, fund balance isn't a terrible thing. It's a it's a reality of budgeting, but the fact that we're reducing fund balance, uh it was a goal of mine. Uh the auditors understood that and um you
know, it's nice to be able to see that we were able to realize that. Uh so it does also have assistance in your bond rating as well. So just want to kind of point that out in the first area of revenues. Yes, Mindy. >> It's okay.
>> It goes right into the revenue budget. So cap a capital and a maintenance withdrawal is different. So those speak exactly to projects. So, we're pulling this for general use. Uh, there's a capital reserve withdrawal and a maintenance reserve withdrawal.
The next two lines that were spoken to in those slides prior, uh, so it's a million 350 and $600,000. Um, so those are revenues. You had them in your reserve accounts. you're authorizing us in a motion later to pull
them and insert them into re into the revenue budget. Um happens to be a decrease in the capital reserve uh budget for this year and that's only because of the nature of the projects. Um it just happens that the current
capital projects cost less than the ones we implemented last summer. There is a local tax levy. Okay. So, uh that's the big number, right? Those are taxes. So, the local tax levy um is an
increase of 2% on your budget plus something that's called a healthc care adjustment. Uh so we will be taking a healthc care adjustment in addition to increasing your taxes by or increasing
the tax levy by 2% which is both are allowable. Uh so the result there is that there's an increase of a million7 and uh for that line year-over-year there's a percentage increase of 4.75%.
So the local tax levy is two numbers merged together. It's 2% plus the amount that we're utilizing in what we call a healthc care waiver adjustment. Nicole, >> yes. Yeah, we are going to speak to
healthcare. Y we have the line under the local tax levy is a tuition line. We have a sending district for uh that sends us students in 9th through 12th grade Bedminster.
They pay us tuition. U the tuition figure is being budgeted as 5,425,000. Uh it's an increase of $783,000 that goes into your revenue budget. It's tuition.
Uh we have a variety of other funds that have u remained largely consistent um year-over-year here at $655,000. So that leads us to our total local
funds. Uh total local funds are 47,000 I'm sorry 47,937,42. It's an increase of 2.3 million and that you can see reflected as an increase of 5%. >> Yes,
>> I have a question in this. Um this is for the whole district, right? But is there a possibility to have the budget for what will be high school or that's for >> this is the district budget. Um you'd have to be more specific in like what
you're asking. Um maybe we can talk offline if there's particular information but the purpose is for today is uh the district budget. >> No. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. >> Yep. Um
I will say that uh Mr. Lori has communicated with um the district um as I think this past week uh which does give uh a lot of color as to how the tuition bill was arrived at for
Burnersville uh for Bedminster. So I would uh speak to the superintendent about that as well. Yeah. In the event that she hasn't shared it. That's correct. >> Yeah. So, I'm glad you you rose that there is a a memorandum of understanding
between Bedminster and Somerset Hill School Districts uh that basically memorializes our relationship with each other. And inside of that agreement, there was a mutually selected auditing firm um separate from the two boards
auditing firms that handles um solely the tuition matter for um uh for Bedminster and Somerset Hills. So, um so that information you doesn't come from Mr. Lori um but it does get communicated
from his office. Yeah. Um Okay. Um we have state aid this year. Uh there's a reduction in state aid of $73,000 73 $73,95.
Um so we have state aid it's 2,515,932. The total general fund budget is 50,45334. That is an increase of 4 6%. Moving down, there is a line there called total total
restricted grants and entitlements. We are budgeting for uh approximately 20% less in what we call entitlement grants that are born uh that come from federal sources. So the state of New Jersey is
serves as the steward of federal grant monies. That's where your title one money comes in. And that's probably the most consistent term that you guys uh may recall, but IDA, title one, title three, title four. So, we are budgeting for less entitlement grants. If we
receive more entitlement grants, then we're we're in good shape, but we're we're being conservative with our entitlement grants. We do not know how that's going to work out. Typically, it's a summer based activity for school districts to go through the entitlement grant process through applications, etc.
Uh so we are budgeting for 20% less. We may get it may be better. Um so we will certainly keep you posted. And that's a that's been a typical practice in the last five years of of budgeting land um is to not have a um not have a flat
assumption for grant budgeting but to assume a cut. So we'll see how things move there. So that's the top part of your budget. That's your general fund. Um, inside of
your revenue budget is also what we call debt service. So, debt service is something that the residents have voted on in the past. So, we recently had an election. They voted on essentially to contribute additional
monies to the debt service budget. Um, so we have some debt service that we have to budget for. uh we don't use any fund balance for that. Uh there is a local tax levy component that is born out of uh public votes uh in the form of
referendum. Um that local tax levy has decreased 8.19%. Um so we were at 3,83,000 last year. Now we're at 2,831,000 and some change this year. That's an
important figure because uh when we when we start to get into the bottom bottom line of the impact to the taxpayer, that 8% decrease uh was a a very positive thing inside of your budget. Um that 8%
decrease could actually become better. And I'll tell you why. Because when we have a bond sale, I believe it's April 21st. Okay? So right now in our budget, we're budgeting for four a 4% interest rate uh in our bond sale. Uh when we go
to the bond sale, uh things are trending to be less than 4%. So if that materializes, that negative 8.19% could get bigger um by a certain factor.
Okay. Um let me see if I have that. If you give me one second, I have some notes here. So, as an example, and please don't hold me to it, but in the event that the bond sale results in a 3.75%
interest rate, uh your debt service could decline by about a million one. Okay? So, that's important. uh we won't know that until the 21st when we have the bond sale. Uh and that will be the last
thing that we insert into the budget before advertising it and having a budget hearing. So that is like quite literally the last variable we're waiting on. Uh typically uh we're not in this situation uh because you don't have a referendum every year. Uh but um you know we're just waiting on that last
piece. Uh so we can run those numbers. Um yeah, in between now and the bond sale, we'll work with the board on that. Um but it'd be a positive outcome. So
stay tuned. Um the state in their state aid notification, every year we get a state aid notification and inside of that communication to Mr. is what they call um their state aid for debt service that they commit to. So, if
you recall from the budget presentations when we talked about state aid uh coming in over a 20-year period of time, um we have state aid coming in um at $173,000. So, that's pretty consistent throughout the life of the bond.
So, the current um total debt service fund decreases by 7.69%. Uh, I'm going to lean on Mr. Lori for the next line because what I'm seeing gets cut off um behind behind you, but I'm quite certain uh Rich could take over.
>> It's only a total revenue. Yeah. >> Uh which which would add up everything you're seeing on the >> decrease. It's a decrease. Oh, I'm sorry about that. I apologize. Yep. Um
can you just restate that? Yeah, the total revenue uh in the budget has increased from 52,414,000 to $4,196. So an overall revenue increase.
So that's your revenue side. Uh we have uh pie chart, which I expressed to Rich, I really like how it pops. Um, it's a small things when
you're developing a budget to entertain you all. Uh, so so this breaks down your local tax levy or your revenue budget, I'm sorry. The big blue piece is your main revenue driver are taxes. Okay, 70 almost 76%.
Um, and my my eyesight is failing, so you guys can uh follow along with the colors, but uh tuition is your next biggest driver. Um, that's predominantly what comes in from Bedminster. Uh, state aid, a little under 6%. Uh, that's a
revenue. Um, we have budgeted fund balance, which we kind of led the the um revenue budget with, that's in there. That's a little over 3%. Uh we have capital reserve uh little over 2% a
little under 327 uh and we also have maintenance reserve that's your tennis courts and then we have about 600,000 um or 655,000 of other funds that comprises your revenue budget.
So now we're on the other side of the ledger. We're on the expense side. Um, and again, revenue bottom line matches the expense bottom line. They need to zero out. Uh, our current expense budget
is 48,960,000. Uh, it's a year-over-year change of 4.95%. Uh, we have a decrease in our capital outlay budget. That's the amount of projects, etc. that that we're putting
out there. Um, that was a $61,000 decrease. Total general fund is 50,453,334. Again, that's a 4.66% increase in your total general fund. Uh, which is um in the ballpark of where it
was a year ago, current budget. We have our expenses and grants and entitlements. Again, we We're projecting less there. So there's a decrease there. Uh and our total debt service fund decreased by 7.69%.
Um so our total expense budget, that's the money going out, that's all of our PD, all of our curriculum writing, all of our salaries, health benefit costs, etc. Um total expense budget is 54,195,000.
It's an increase in 1.7 million for a percent change of 3.4%. 4%. Salaries uh when you look at the pie chart here, salaries amount to just over 55% of our expenses. Uh health benefits uh amount
to 21% of our expenses. uh that is approximately $39 million and it comprises more than three4ers of the operating budget. Uh the remaining components to the budget after salaries
and health benefits is uh student services uh followed by our maintenance projects, our supplies, our utility costs. It's also followed by our instructional supplies, our textbooks on the academic
side of the house. Um, our capital expenses uh in transportation and then we have some other expenses as well. Um, a particular note in the expense side of the budget um we are utilizing uh what's
called a health care waiver. Okay. uh health care costs um come in two different forms. Uh so it's the cost to cover the um the health care of the
folks that are under our plans, right? Uh and that has gone up 17 and a half%. In approximation in one year 17 and a half of anything is a lot. Okay. So, uh, a significant driver, uh,
significant challenge in this budget. Uh, and our prescription costs went up 29 and a half%. In one year, right? So, this budget is filled with caps. Everywhere you turn, there's a cap and there's there's a big red screen, you
know, but not with healthare, right? Healthcare is has been a significant driver of budgets um across the state and made for a challenging budget here. Uh so we have
the opportunity to use what's called a healthc care waiver based upon this school district's usage. Uh we are not using the totality of the health care waiver. Uh but we are utilizing 54% of a
healthcare waiver. So, we applied um a little over a million dollars. It's a million uh 5,396. So, one Z5396. Uh so, in large terms is a million
dollars of a healthcare waiver out of an eligible um $1.8 million um in a healthcare waiver. So that allows you to bridge your budget. Um and um you know we applied that money
and uh we we tried to mitigate how much of a healthc care waiver uh we utilized. I will refer you mentally back to the first slide the scales. Okay. So there were there
was a lot of discussion about the scales between Rich and I, Jamie, Colleen, Amy, Jod about how do we balance the scales so we're able to maintain the integrity of this school district, maintain the
quality programs that we have, maintain as much of the staff that we can maintain year over year. How do we do that? What's the right what's the right number? I feel like we've thread the needle where we are maximizing efficiencies in the school district um
and at the same time uh we're able to maintain the quality of our programming through uh the application of the waiver. >> Yes. Yeah. It wasn't done um certainly not in a silo.
You know, a bit ago, we presented a really challenging fiscal challenge to the business operations committee and, you know, throughout a host of different iterations and there were some iterations that completely decimated the district. Um and and we
arrived at an iteration that allowed us um to thread the needle and be in that sweet spot where uh we developed a budget that um you know does arrive at some efficiencies um and does adjust um
in in the areas of particularly student student enrollment. U but at the same time we're able to move important things forward. were able to make uh great contributions to all of the different goals of the board. And again, the
scales were really important here. And um that's how we ultimately arrived, you know, at this u particular number. >> Sure. This current year, we're experiencing about a 25% increase in utilities. moving into next year. We're budgeting
for that uh and more. Uh so we'll see where things land. We have we've seen some executive orders uh from the governor regarding utilities and specifically um I do know in advance of
her inauguration there was also significant action at the board of public utilities that um may become a challenge you know for her goal of increasing utility rates. Uh but we are seeing a 25% increase. So um you know
it's it's a reality here. Uh and we've built it into the budget and I think there was a slide here. Um so our one two three our fourth biggest cost here in the chart are utilities. So it's it's significant.
Uh we we have engaged with Schneider Electric. They were on site this week. Uh the goal is to arrive at greater efficiencies inside of our buildings. Uh believe it or not, our building envelopes are not as uh tight uh as from
an efficiency perspective uh as as they could be. So we are working with a third party to really address the building envelope to make our buildings more energy efficient uh because again everything does contribute to the bottom line.
Good question. So from a tax impact uh you have a general fund tax levy uh you have a debt service tax levy and you have a total tax levy. Uh so the general fund tax levy came in at
38,296,420. It's an increase of a,736,593. It's a percent change of 4.75%. At the same time, you have a debt service tax levy that has decreased and could potentially decrease a bit more um
prior to April 29th. uh that debt service tax levy has decreased $252,000 uh by 8.19% um and it's a total of $2,831,027. So the total tax levy is 41,27,447.
Uh that is an increase of 3.74%. Uh that increase does mirror um around where we were uh last year. Um it's a bit lower of an increase, but to be clear, there's an increase to the total
tax levy. Um this year's increase is a bit lower than last year's increase. Um by and large, that is due to the debt service uh budget. So I think that the budget is healthy. I think that the
budget provides opportunities to appropriately adjust uh to student enrollment. I think that the budget allows us to drive areas of climate student achievement uh in all of the various services that we provide uh both
inside of the classroom and outside. Um this is my 14th budget. Uh this was uh without a doubt my most challenging um because there was just a lot at stake. Um I work closely
certainly with some committees more than others in this area. I thank you uh for always being open to learning more about the budget, being open to understanding the different variables in the budget. Um but um you
know, like I led off with it, it it included a team that got us to this point. you're a critical part of that team. Um, as far as taking the time this morning to understand the budget and what we're proposing, we're going to transition to what our
reserve balances now look like. Um, from a projection standpoint, we work closely with our auditors on this. Uh, so from a capital reserve perspective, this is as of July 1 of 26, there was 3,832, 262.
Uh there's a withdrawal of a million $350,000. That's for uh security and infrastructure. Um that will in that will impact every building in the district. Uh your balance after that withdrawal is 2,482,262.
So the reason, and that's a great question, you don't want to build build build and never utilize. The the reason you have your capital reserve money is to reinvest it into your infrastructure. Uh so since I've been here, the board has done a really nice job of
reinvesting every year uh various projects back into its infrastructure. Uh so you don't want it real high and you certainly don't want it low. Um we're collectively happy with where our capital reserve monies are. Um at a future board meeting in June, there will
be a motion where you will authorize uh Mr. Lori to make an additional um deposit into Capital Reserve um in in advance of July. So that always takes place at the June meeting. So when you see that, it's a good thing. That means
you're taking money that you didn't need this year and you're putting it into next year. Yep. So that that 2 million four will grow from a maintenance reserve. Uh historically your maintenance reserve balances are less than than capital. Uh
there was 822,000 in there. Uh we're withdrawing 600,000. Uh the balance after after the withdrawal that you authorized will be 222,000. And then again through the auditing process in June, you'll see a separate motion for maintenance.
And those are for the tennis courts. Just wanted to reiterate on the healthcare waiver piece. Uh you're authorized uh through the Department of Education to utilize a health care waiver. Uh and again, we're utilizing just over a million dollars balance.
So, we want to be able to express um some thanks certainly for uh what this fiscal plan delivers. Uh it delivers an adherence of class sizes um in concert with our board policies. Uh it also um
allows us to monitor for future uh enrollment. Um and uh we this budget does contain a um some levers uh in the form of demographic studies etc. Um inside of the budget, you know, we have a new firm uh that we're going to move
towards. Uh we've made um particular enhancements to student services and multilingual learner programming in multiple budgets leading up to today and we're maintaining that. Uh that was a important priority for us. Uh delivering support instructionally and curricula
and structurally in uh curriculum and instruction to influence and impact the folks on the front lines working closest uh with kids. Maintaining our school security uh certainly is critical. Um we have three CEOs in the district. They are maintained in this budget. Um and uh
there's upgrades to our security infrastructure inside of this budget uh that are non-negotiables. maintaining our transportation, uh, balancing, you know, you guys always need to think about those scales of of finance, balancing the needs of the taxpayers and, uh, continuing our climate and
culture work are all priorities that we've delivered here. And our district goals, I feel like uh, each each one of the goals is spoken to in this budget as well. As we look ahead to fiscal 28, you know, you've you have to understand the fiscal
cliff has arrived. That cliff um is in the form of health care. Uh we are actively in the process of trying to identify ways to mitigate future increases. It's challenging because when it comes
to health care, you are your your next year's plan is subject to how healthy the people you cover are, right? And and I've been through this cycle before. Sometimes your staff's really healthy. Sometimes the people you cover, and it's not just your staff,
sometimes the people you cover are really healthy. Sometimes there are hiccups. Uh so we get a rating uh every year that ultimately makes us either marketable or not marketable to other uh providers. Uh so we are monitoring ways
to mitigate future uh increases. Certainly a 17% increase in health care is uh certainly challenging. Uh 29% in um in prescriptions challenging. So we're looking to kind of mitigate um opportunities in the future. um they are
limited as far as like the levers that we could potentially pull. Um if they were there smacking us in the face, we would have applied them this year, you know. Um determining student interest for future programming, future courses,
particularly electives, electives courses, and connecting uh those projections to um our demographic studies. Uh there all of a sudden is a lot more going on in Burnersville than there was a year ago. Um it's far more
than just Palmer, you know, so we're kind of monitoring what those projects look like and working closely with our demographer as well. Um spoke about health benefits and then again just trying to balance uh everything out.
Um, so there is a board action cycle here. So there's a motion on the agenda this morning uh for your consideration to approve a tenative fiscal year 27 budget submission that authorizes Mr. Lori to
go through go through the final process the final stages of his process with the department of education. and he and I will meet with the department and speak to uh the budget as well uh in advance of a budget hearing uh that is scheduled for April 29th. Uh that's a special
meeting of the board and at that meeting we will have a budget presentation from me to the public that will outline what's in our budget, why it's in there and etc. I thank you for uh
spending some time with me this morning. Thank you very much Dr. Burchil and um Dr. Butler and um Miss Kansky, Mr. wonderful business operations um office
staff um for all the work that you do to make this happen to educate us to make sure that we have all the information that we need to be able to move a motion like this today. So, thank you very much for all of your work and dedication. Um, the next item on our agenda would be public comments for actionable agenda
items, specifically what we would be moving today. Um, I do not believe we have any members of the public outside of our staff here today. Um, unless somebody indicates differently. So then I would like to ask for a motion to close public comments. Miss Labbera and
Miss Ry. Thank you. Um, and in that case then we would work uh move on to the motions under business operations pertaining to our budget this year. So, I would like to ask for a motion to approve action items number one and two on the agenda. Miss Cooper and um Miss
Hunt. Thank you. A second. Is there any discussion regarding um the budget and the tennis courts phase two? Thank you so much. >> Yeah.
Yeah, I want to speak to that and I I may have alluded to this at the regular public meeting. The tennis court project uh we will be re repurposing the fencing um with the current fencing that we have. Uh that fence was installed
shortly before my arrival and is in good shape. Uh the contractors this coming week will be put on notice regarding our desire to use it. So treat it like you would treat your own fence. Uh correct. So >> yeah, thank you. >> Is there anybody else?
>> Yes. I just want to say again thank you very much for all the explanation and I just have to say uh for me it's very difficult sometimes to understand right like so I just want to know I really appreciate all the work but sometimes I think also I need to to to
talk more with my board right to understand and to have ask more questions if I need it on offline >> I appreciate so um I'm here to serve you so at any point that you have questions I'm an email or a telephone call away and I'd be happy to sit down with you
and I do that quite often on a variety of topics. So, don't be a stranger. >> Thank you very much. >> Anybody else? >> Okay, let's roll call this. >> Miss Clark Emory,
Miss Cooper, Mrs. Gomez, >> Mrs. Hoppy, Mrs. Hunt, Mrs. Labbera, Mrs. Santoro, Mrs. Miss Ballard, Mrs. Brenda. >> Yes. Okay. Thank you very much. Again, um the next item on our agenda would be
public comments, but um nothing has changed since um I asked other than this would be on any um topic, but we still do not have any other members of the public here. So, if I could ask for a motion to close, Miss Hunt and Miss Ballard. Thank you very much. Um and
then I just need a motion to adjourn. Miss Santoro and Miss Labraa. All in favor? >> I Okay, thank you everyone for be spending your Saturday with us >> and just thanks for the monitors. This is so helpful. So >> yeah, and to be able to face out. Thank you so much.
>> Thank you so much. >> I was such a pleasant surprise. So how are we going to look