okay good evening it's Thursday April 10th 2025 and I'd like to welcome you to the meeting of the South Board of Education and call the meeting to order please stand for the pledge of allegiance
i pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all i know i love it i heard I heard our
little kids saying the pledge yay yay okay um I'd like to read a statement of advanced notice the New Jersey Open Public Meeting Act NJSA 104-6 also known as the Sunshine Law was enacted to ensure the right of the
public to have advanced notice of and to attend the meetings of public bodies at which any business affecting the interests is discussed and acted upon the primary purpose is for board members to discuss and vote on board business in accordance with this provision of this
act the board secretary has caused notice to this meeting 48 hours prior including date time and location to be posted in the South Public Library and board office filed with the township clerk and communicated to the home news
and the star ledger it is also posted on the district website roll call mr palowski miss Julie Ferrara present miss Alicia Khan here mr raja Krishna present mr mike Mitchell present dr smith Raj here mrs lisa Rogers here mr rajes Sony
here mrs deeparthik miss Laura Hernandez here we have a quorum okay um I need approval of the minute agenda may I have a motion and a second to approve tonight's meeting agenda so move mr mitchell and Miss Khan
all in favor i and now I need approval of the minutes of the March 13 2025 board meet minutes may I have a motion miss Rogers and a second miss Ferrara all in favor i i
okay our next order of business is a report is she here oh it would have been but our student represent is not here so um so the next up would be the report of our superintendent Mr feder welcome everyone
try and go fast we have a lot going on tonight uh first there's a whole bunch of people here because we have It's not for the budget i know it's not for the budget um we have our honoring our educator and educator support persons of the year tonight from our schools that's like one of the best nights of the year
so glad we have so many people here for that uh quick calendar update we're going to send this out as well um but there's a calendar change for June right now we have June 5th off which is a Thursday and June 6th is an early release day we actually have to
flip-flop those so we're going to put this out so you can see it it actually is a pretty good flip-flop in this case school will be closed on Friday and there'll be an early release day on Thursday and this is due to Eid and not exactly sure where the mistake comes
from but it's a mistake that we are fixing but in this particular case it's a pretty easy one to resolve so I think we all prefer to be off on a Friday than a Thursday and this actually works well but it is being done strictly for for that reason and again um you'll be
getting a letter from Lordis on that I guess tomorrow we'll send that out and so everyone can see that and if there's any questions you just reach out to my office um you also received a community letter and a survey um this is regarding the work we're doing for the K5 study on
all the enrollment coming in and so far we had almost,00 people fill out the survey so thank you uh like to get that up to about 2,000 so we usually have a big hit once we resend it out again so we'll probably resend it out again and get a get a couple more hits and then we know it's the break so we obviously will
hold off for next week and then revisit it again when we get back but that reminds us all we have a uh spring break is coming up next week and um much needed much needed especially after tonight's budget presentation um school performance reports are out so
if you want to look online you can see all about our school district and any other school districts we have the high school parentel player spring musical is coming out it's Mean Girls so great play that'd be a lot of fun that's uh tonight
tomorrow and Saturday um the big event of the month after this event tonight with our staff is of course the 20th annual Joan Kirk Student Art Gallery and again that is just one of the highlights of the district
amazing amazing work of our kids our art teachers and staff do an incredible job putting this together so looking forward to that it's April 23rd and uh we hope to see everybody there it's usually one of the most packed events of the year april is autism acceptance month's over
50 years of that so just an important aspect that we honor and and show appreciation for all of our students and families um that autism is involved in their life it's it's it's an important part to remember and to be aware of and to support of um let's see we have
another Nope nope nope nope no i think that's going to be it i'm going to stop there and um again thanks all for coming out and you are all welcome to stay after the teacher recognition to hang out for the budget it's about an 80
90minut presentation very exciting stuff so we hope you all stay who's planning on staying give me a round of 80 hands one meg's non tenure got it see how this works all right we got one good deal and I'll turn it back over to you Madam
President okay well without further ado we um are so thrilled and pleased to honor the people um that we are honoring tonight because before there's doctors and before there's lawyers and before
there's firemen and before there's judges there are teachers and um it just is such a wonderful thing to celebrate and without the teachers there wouldn't be any other careers but without our support staff it
would make our teachers lives very difficult so this is an awesome night and without further ado Miss Blair Eisman thank you good evening everyone members of the board our honores their friends family and colleagues and everyone tuning in at home i'm Blair
Eisman director of programs and professional development and I have the honor of recognizing this year's educators and educational support people of the year this is a timehonored tradition in the district dating back to 1996 each year staff students and
parents are invited to submit letters nominating staff members across the district a selection committee then has the difficult task of reading hundreds of nominations and scoring them on a given set of criteria and in the end just 24 are selected and that brings us
here this evening tonight's honores inspire learning on a grand scale and make a difference in the lives of students colleagues and the school community with their caring support and unwavering work ethic they are leaders highly skilled and dedicated to their profession of course some thank yous
thank you to our nomination writers and readers as well as our admin who surprised each honore in their building with the special announcement and for being here tonight thank you to Rachel Kibbos for all the behind-the-scenes work she did months in the making she takes great care in making tonight
special for our honores and I couldn't do it without her thank you to the PTO from each building they purchased one of the honores uh gifts for tonight a desk name plate for them to display proudly wherever they choose and I'm so grateful for their continued support of this
program and thank you to the Ed Foundation of South Brunswick for their generosity and supporting the program they purchased the second print the second gift that our honores will receive it's a framed print that you'll see up here in a few minutes that ties into our theme and I believe Caroline's
here tonight from the Ed Foundation and we thank them for all of their support and you can visit edf foundationb.org to learn more about their work and how you could support the foundation so in the past I found my inspiration
for this recognition program in books trees the stars in the sky and even our very own students this year though Mr feder gets to take the credit i toyed around with a couple different ideas but I kept coming back to this year's district theme being present is a gift
to yourself and others presence is more than just showing up it's offering your full attention your heart and your talents to the moment and the people around you and a gift is more than something you give it's something you are each year you spend with our students and community is its own gift a
gift of time of dedication of a love for what you do today we celebrate not just what you accomplish in a moment but the legacy you're building year after year thinking about gifts then led me to the idea of anniversaries whether it's a
first or a 50th they are celebrated as a symbol of value growth and impact many of you probably know that each anniversary has its own gift to mark the milestone so tonight as we celebrate each of our honores I'll share the anniversary their marking with us this
year as they accept this honor of educator or support support person of the year and the gift they'll receive to remember the occasion so I'd like to ask President Laura Hernandez to join me at the podium to help congratulate our
honores and I ask that Brooks Crossing and Brunswick Acres honores and admin come on down and stand along the wall here when one school sits down the next one can come up hi perfect right there
so I'll start at Brooks Crossing with Mrs natasha Losho third grade teacher in just 5 years Natasha has taken on many teaching positions kindergarten instructional support special education and now third grade she moved into third
grade midyear when the Brooks Crossing community lost one of their own Jennifer Spencer a colleague shared "Both our teachers and students were hit hard mentally emotionally and physically our staff was left without a friend a teammate and a colleague and our students were left without a teacher
while everyone else was mourning the loss and wondering what would we do and who would fill this large voice large void one person saw just what was needed and stepped up and that was Natasha she didn't think twice about it and flipped her world instantly to pick up the
pieces of those students who needed it most her colleagues have called her brave inspiring unwavering a hero and naturally a gift the 5-year anniversary gift is wood so Natasha is being gifted this print of a birdhouse which
symbolizes protection home community and remembrance which couldn't be more fitting for her and a nod to Jenny as well congrats Mrs palavia Tumar is a special education paraprofessional at Brooks Crossing her secondy year anniversary brings the gift
of cotton so she's receiving this print of a quilt which brings warmth and comfort the same way a quilt wraps around you Palabi surrounds the classroom with a quiet and steady presence she stitches together experiences and connections with students that tell a beautiful story her
colleagues have said she has infinite patience is a genuine and collaborative spirit and gives students the time and space they need congratulations mrs is Teresa Foster a kindergarten teacher at Brunswick Acres is in her 20th year in the district she
is receiving this print of teacups because her anniversary gift is China teacups carry warmth and console with just one sip which is exactly what our little little learners often need mrs foster pours from her cup daily with love patience guidance and kindness
she's funny thoughtful and patient a colleague shared "She creates a space where every student feels important and valued." While another said "One of the best gifts this job has given me is the opportunity to work with Teresa to learn and to grow from her and to be a better
teacher because of her." Congratulations Mrs romea preschool par professional at Brunswick Gres is in her 23rd year in the district i've known her since I was a student teacher she is being gifted a silver platter to mark this occasion like a silver platter Era
is a constant support and holds the weight of what is placed on her with grace and strength she's always reliable and cheerful and helps her preschoolers see themselves the way she sees them smart capable special and valued the reflection of the lemon in this photo
was an added bonus because it symbolizes her ability to find and spread positivity regardless of the situation congratulations to you miss Ariel Selina fifth grade teacher at Cambridge Elementary is in her fourth year in district her anniversary gift is
a flower so she's being given this print of maragolds every year at New Staff Training I tell a story of how farmers plant marolds next to other crops to help them grow i encourage our new teachers to surround themselves with marolds to find their people well four
years later Ariel has become a merry gold herself for everyone around her she is supportive caring and motivating she instills a love of learning and selfworth in her students parents have shared "Miss Selena puts so much work into learning about each student their
strengths and weaknesses and seems to figure out a way to help each student grow i'm not sure when she sleeps her energy and creativity is infectious her depth for understanding children and the effort she puts into teaching and forming connections is amazing
congratulations miss Jamie Deary Guavara head custodian at Cambridge Elementary is in her 11th year in the district 11 years brings the gift of steel so she is being gifted this print of a bridge to symbolize the safety and support she provides to her school community just
like we need a bridge to cross to get where we're going students and teachers need a clean welcoming space to keep growing and learning together jaime's colleagues have called her a leader dedicated and valued and praised her ability to foster relationships congratulations
Miss Allison Alvo first grade teacher at Constable she is in her fifth year in the district and she is being given this print of a wooden desk a wooden desk symbolizes stability and the foundation of learning it's steady supporting all those who sit there it's a witness to
growth many nomination letters spoke to the ways Ally supports all her students academically socially and emotionally but what stood out in particular is her work with a student with unique needs she has created a warm inclusive and supportive environment where this this student is provided with the same social
opportunities and learning experiences as her peers she has already started planning for the upcoming school school year to ensure a student's success gathering materials from second grade teachers to ensure that the resources and worksheets are accessible to the
student and that they're prepared for September she has advocated for materials that she believes are necessary for the student to fully engage with the GenEd curriculum and she's even contacted publishing companies and other vendors to inquire about available materials i clearly can
go on but I'll end by saying what a gift congrats mrs donna Lou Allen is a special ed professional in her 17th year the anniversary gift for year 17 is furniture so I chose a rocking chair because Donna is gentle and supportive
she moves with the rhythm of a student's needs she has a quiet strength and is a safe place to just be to rest to breathe to reflect her colleagues have recognized her compassion and attentiveness and how through a calm persistence she strives for all students
success congratulations People hate being the center of attention it's got to come down we don't bite mrs kelly Crabar is a school psychologist for Dayton and Dean's preschool in year 20 she is being given
a porcelain pair which symbolizes timeless value it's carefully crafted with attention to detail the same way Kelly approaches our youngest learners with sensitivity understanding and a deep awareness of their needs a colleague shared "She is committed to fostering equity and belonging within
the school community and actively helps colleagues create inclusive environments that meet the diverse needs of students this is fitting because the pair also symbolizes nourishment and growth which is exactly what she provides the Dayton Indians community." Congratulations
Your turn mrs urelisse Joelle did I say right thank you is a preschool special education par profofessional at Dayton and Dean's preschool for her year 4 anniversary she is being given a flower the violet just as a violet symbolizes watchfulness modesty and faithfulness
she observes her students with a keen gentle eye always present but never seeking the spotlight her positivity and patience bloom with every interaction her work is rooted in kindness a colleague shared "She consistently provides support in such a meaningful
and thoughtful way always prioritizing the needs of others her presence in the classroom is invaluable her warmth and compassion make her a true gift to every student she interacts with congratulations Mrs fatima Kunia is a fourth grade teacher at Greenbrook Elementary School
in her 22nd year in the district because the gift for this anniversary is copper she's being given a print of a penny but not just any penny a 1943 copper penny because of a copper shortage pennies during this year were made of steel however a mistake in production led to
some being made in copper so if you find one they're pretty valuable like Fatima her qualities as an educator and person are hard to come by and make a lasting impression on her colleagues and students a colleague shared "If you were in Fatima's room anytime during the day
her phone could be ringing teachers may be stopping by for advice or former students are visiting for a hug or words of encouragement she is the hub of our school and everyone knows that if they stop by to see her they will have an answer or a resource to help them by the
end of the school day her ability to balance her experience combined with an open-mindedness and willingness to collaborate fosters a love of learning in her students and extends beyond her classroom congrats mr paul Keller is the custodian at Greenbrook Elementary this is his
35th year in the district the most years of our honores tonight the gift for this anniversary is Coral so he's receiving this print of the ocean floor coral is an integral is integral to the health of this ecosystem
much like coral supports the entire reef Paul cares for his school community with great care a colleague shared Paul's contributions and efforts are measured far beyond maintaining the cleanliness of our classrooms he helps to create a space where all students and staff feel
seen respected and cared for though much of his work is done behind the scenes it's the its impact is felt throughout the school in a safe and inclusive environment where every student and staff member can thrive congratulations mrs janine
Kendrusio effectively affectionately known and effectively as Miss Cal right third grade teacher at Indian Fields and in her in her silver year year 25 for her gift I chose a print of a silver pendant of the goddess Athena athena
symbolizes mentorship guiding others through challenges offering wisdom protection and encouragement ultimately inspiring their growth and empowerment janine offers exactly that a colleague wrote "Over the last two years I have learned much about myself as a teacher
my management style craft and approach to challenges janine helped me become a better teacher and taught me things that that cannot be found in a textbook she goes to great lengths to support her students academic and behavioral needs instill structure and high expectations
for success and supports everyone students and staff alike a true mentor congrats Mrs laura Firch is a special education par profofessional Indian fields this is her ninth year in the district and the gift for year nine is pottery she is
being given this print because the gentle hands working with clay symbolizes the love and care she gives to each of her students as she helps mold them into the best versions of themselves laura is described as selfless dedicated a leader and a role model a colleague wrote "Everyone feels
safe loved and cared for when they are around her." There are so many things that Mrs fch does because she cares that it is hard to list them all but all of those things make a huge difference and impact a student's well-being a leader is someone that does the right thing all the time when no one is looking and that
is Mrs burch she loves and cares unconditionally and Indian Fields is a better place for it congratulations Mrs edna Burkaw is a library media specialist at Mama Junction Elementary because the anniversary gift for year five is wood bookshelves felt
appropriate for this special librarian like bookshelves holding countless books Edna holds a wealth of knowledge creativity experience and opportunities for students to grow like bookshelves she preserves and presents what's valuable a parent wrote "It
struck me how differently Mrs burkhaw saw her time with her students tr truly she took every moment she had with them to expand their worlds my kids have learned about the northern lights tooured the White House watched endangered an animals learned about
holidays and so many more topics you would not expect for their library special i believe she sees literature as a jumping off point for teaching the world to her students and what a true gift for all kids congrats Mrs maria Lupo two-time winner is a
special education par profofessional in her 20th year in the district first time winning at Constable this year at Mama Junction the gift for this anniversary is China and she is being given a print of this
porcelain vase which symbolizes grace stability and a timeless foundation much like her leadership and professionalism just as a vase holds and protects flowers Maria fosters an environment for her students to grow whenever whether they need to learn or they need to be
loved or both she is exactly what they need her to be when they need her to be it congratulations Mrs laura Failen Colony is a math teacher at Crossroads North this is also her 20th year in the
district she is being given a print of a porcelain tile with the pattern of a ship because she is a steady presence providing direction and clarity and since North's mascot is a Viking we could also say it's a Viking ship making it even more fitting laura's knowledge
care in I'm sorry laura's knowledge care and instruction gets students where they need to be she steers her students through challenges and shifts with the wind to meet the needs of each of them students have said she helps them navigate the curriculum in a way that is
fun they also described her as encouraging engaging and enthusiastic about what she teaches and they have the utmost respect for her congratulations mrs shyamala Sathkumar is a safety par professional at Crossroads North in her 19th year in the
district the anniversary gift for this year is bronze she is being given a print of a key a bronze key represents trust and her colleagues and students know they could depend on her it also represents responsibility and she is consistently dependable she is a key
part of the North community and appreciated for the work she does every day congratulations Mrs tracy Dovas is an art specialist at Crossroads South this is her 12th year in district the gift for this anniversary is Silk silk is associated
with softness comfort and enduring strength hidden beneath the surface which couldn't be a more appropriate way to describe her silk represents transformation and over the years we've watched Tracy transform her teaching and transform her students as artists a
colleague wrote this year Tracy has been particularly active in getting student art into the community she has entered many of her students art into local contest and show and they've won allowing students the opportunity to shine and feel like a more valued part
of the school and community imagine the confidence that she's instilling in these students the passion she's developing and the sense of creativity that she's cultivating there's nothing truly more important than that congratulations mr chester Embley also
known as CET is a school security officer at Crossroads South he could not be here tonight it is his fourth year in the district and the anniversary gift is flowers he's being given this print of a fisherman surrounded by flowers in nature there's
a sense of peace and solitude with fishing you have to be willing to adapt to changing conditions you have to be patient and observant observant a skilled fisherman reads the environment carefully and chat remains highly observant noticing the smallest details
that others might miss ensuring the safety of all staff and students he radiates a sense of quiet confidence and composure and Crossroads South is lucky to have him so congratulations to Chad Bonnie do you want to Bonnie Miss Shama Chisty is a science
teacher at South Brunswick High School and this is her eighth year in the district the gift for this anniversary is bronze so she is being given a print of the statue the thinker sheila is a maker of thinkers she embodies and encourages curiosity daily a former
student wrote "In physics Newton's law says that objects at rest stay at rest unless acted upon by an external force however we could extrapolate more from this law than just the motion of physical objects as people we begin at
rest waiting for exter external forces to give us a reason to move a reason to become more than what we are and Shemila is that external force and for those fortunate enough to be moved by her ability to teach passion for learning and oftentimes tragic attempt at being a
comedian they'll be able to tell you that her presence is truly a gift congratulations Mrs patty Sutton is paraprofessional working in the science department at South Brunswick High School this is her 23rd year in the district and the gift for this anniversary is a silver plate
silver is often associated with clarity and balance patty is described as kind and considerate reliable and trustworthy a colleague wrote "Patty began working with me to learn how to prepare the chemicals needed for lab activities although she had limited experience in formal science education her common
sense approach and commitment to learning made her a quick study i predict that in a few more years it will only be the lack of a formal degree that will separate her from an industry technician." Congratulations Mrs jessica or is a learning consultant across two buildings in the district
supporting self-contained and general education programs she is receiving this print of iron doors to mark this occasion and her sixth anniversary in the district the doors symbolize her solid and dependable presence as she works to make sure all students are safe
and in an environment that is both conducive to their learning styles and filled with support and love she's described as trusted smart honest and approachable through her tireless work Jess opens doors to empowerment growth and learning that leads to lasting
change congratulations Yeah you last but not least Mrs marcia Garitano your boss of She is the administrative assistant to the assistant superintendent of business and board
secretary she's celebrating 24 years in the district the gift for this anniversary is an opal the opal symbolizes someone who is layered and vibrant and just as the stone reflects shifting colors Mar
Marcia shows her ability to adapt gracefully to any situation and meet the needs of those around her a colleague shared "Marcia has become the go-to resource for questions about district operations and history her extensive knowledge from 25 years of almost 25
years of service provides context and understanding that newer staff members simply can't offer by sharing this knowledge willingly and patiently she helps maintain continuity in our district's operations and culture and like the Opal Marcia adds strength and
value in every circumstance congratulations please give all of our honores one more round of applause this concludes tonight's recognition program thank you so much for being here to celebrate with all of us and I will turn it back over to Mrs hernandez
okay just a quick we do one more um quick thanks um so Blair over there uh every year this is not only do we get to honor the people but Blair does this she
writes that entire script and she picks the theme and she is amazing at this one of one of her many incredible qualities but can we give a round of applause for Blair thank you thank you
kim said I get to come back tomorrow um you know when I look around this room and I think you know that saying that it takes a village to raise a child and in South Brunick we just have such an amazing village here and tonight to
honor the best of the best is um really amazing and as far as Blair is concerned I gotta be honest Blair I was bragging about you today because I also work in a district and I was telling them tonight that this is our board meeting and how cool it is that we're honoring the
teachers and the support staff but we have this one person in our district that does these amazing things with these teachers so um I couldn't even come close to that so I am you know grateful for that but thank you thank you teachers thank you support staff
thank you Marcia who I always call and say "Where is David?" So so uh thank you so much like Mr federer said you are more than welcome to stay and enjoy the budget presentation or we'll take a fivem
minute recess and you can leave thank you thank you so much okay break's over and we're back so we have we have two more um two more presentations real quick we're going to start with Evelyn you're up there for SV
reads is it just Evelyn or nobody else she know did you know that as you remember we had our second annual SB Reads and as is the tradition now we capture all the work that we do
all year and our librarian extraordinaire Lisa Manganelo W puts it all together and I'm really excited about the theme this year once upon a time a Viking tale south
Brunswick Reads presents Reading is a Gift a partnership between South Brunswick Schools and Our Public Library once upon a time in the magical land of South Brunswick there lived a
Viking the Viking knew that reading was a gift and wanted to share his love for books and reading with his community he wanted to give the gift of reading to all the students and families who would eventually call themselves
Vikings with the help of some dedicated librarians and administrators the Viking decreed that February 24th would be South Brunswick Reads Night an evening full of reading community and good
cheer a team of eager librarians because the Viking knew that librarians make the best partners called upon the magical Mrs nancy Duko Sweeney SBHS's newest assistant principal to create a selfie
station where his young readers could show off their love for reading but the Viking knew that librarians are community builders and the district staff who arrived to be guest readers surely agreed reading some
of their favorite picture books with Mrs sherry Sassin joined by her very own special young reader the South Brunswick administrators made this a night to remember for all the community seemed excited just to
hear a great story and meet the Viking but the Viking knew the librarians had a secret you see our school librarians had invited their public library partners who led by Mr matt and his team brought crafts and good cheer
all of this reading is making me hungry thought the Viking enter the PTO parents led by the South Brunswick High School PTO all of our school families contributed enough cookies to satisfy even the hungriest reader while the
magical team of Capes and Flanders made hot chocolate by the gallons in the cafeteria parents and students could listen to SBHS students speak about why reading is a gift write thank you notes to the brave first responders who fought
wildfires in California and listen to the fantastic musical stylings of the Crossroads Jazz Band but the Viking and his friends realized that they needed even more guest readers to give all of the future Vikings a
chance to explore the SBHS library our future Vikings heard from our principles administrators police officers township officials and school board members all of whom had picked a special book to
share the middle school team challenged readers to create a box of their most treasured memories and to design book covers that explain their personal journey but the Viking and his friends
wanted more and the librarians came through inviting local authors to come and share their books with our families the Viking was surprised to learn that some of our own students were already published authors and only too glad to
show their work to the community the Viking realized that students at SBHS also love to read our multilingual learners shared books reading and writing proudly in both their home and school languages
sb Earth shared picture books about the importance of being kind to our planet while making bookmarks from recycled materials ms payne's honors global studies students shared the picture books that they had created and even
earned a visit from Mr feder she's the first shared books about empowering young women to consider careers in science and technology the Viking wanted to make sure that his new friends had something to take home
to remind them to see reading as a gift at the bookmark station readers could pick a bookmark designed by Miss Durier's 10th graders or design one of their own to encourage them to keep reading many families arrived with Book
Donations which our volunteers boxed up to send to Book Smiles a nonprofit organization that helps to distribute new and gently used books to New Jersey communities where books are not always available with that the Viking realized
that the second annual South Brunswick Reads Night had been a big success and while he was tired he knew that the librarians of South Brunswick would continue to encourage all of our readers to keep reading and enjoy the gifts that
they find inside each and every book the end we already have plans to um top that next year we're planning something massive so it'll be the third annual one
and we can't wait thank you all right Taylor and Kelly come on up bring bring the students with you this is our South Brunswick helping hands and they are going to do a presentation for us on distracted driving initiative that we're working on welcome
Thank you oh thank you thank you hello everyone who is still here uh my name is Taylor Payne and this is uh Kelly Zalinsky we are both social studies teachers at South Brunswick High School and we also have the honor of
being co-advisors of SP Helping Hands which is a community service club that focuses on service above self so our our students want to give you a little piece of our campaign so we had a custommade designed by one of our
our officers last year um bumper magnets so we're actually selling those at local businesses in the community but we'll let them tell you more about that but um it's been really an honor i think this is our fourth or fifth year doing this uh in conjunction with the Brain Injury Alliance of New Jersey um it's a
statewide competition uh and campaign because research shows that peers listen to each other about things that are important more than they listen to us adults um unfortunately for us teachers but um they've done some really amazing
things and I've watched them grow over the years and come up with even more amazing initiatives and we're really really excited for them to share with you what's to come this year so we'll give it away i'm just testing if this works dope great here you go introduce
yourself hi I'm Julia i'm the president hi I'm Angelina i'm the vice president so this is a picture of our board and then our co-advisors Miss Pain and Miss
Zillinsky and then we're going to talk to you guys a little bit about our campaign so our club focuses on community service and we promote this throughout our school community and beyond at each meeting we have a speaker from a charity or an organization that comes to speak
to us about important issues like cancer autism and even mental health and we focus on these issues and partner with the charity to give back to them at each month's meeting so this is our campaign Mind on the Road Hands on the Wheel and um we
are participating in the Champion Schools initiative partnered with the Brain Injury Alliance of New Jersey and our campaign focuses on reducing the impact of texting and driving we aim to help educate our community on the dangers of distracted driving and the
impact that it has on themselves and others around them now we're going to show you some of the things we've done in our campaign here we have some images of things we posted on social media on our Instagram we also created a billboard
that's by the Target and then here we also have a t-shirt that we made and we threw at our pep rally we also have distracted driving tables that we hold once a month and they have different themes for each month that focus on um different dangers
of distracted driving we have games trivia prizes that help to educate our school community okay we also have held a movie night at our school where we watched the movie Turbo and we raised $500 in which we donated to the NDDD organization
which helped spread awareness about distracted driving we also created bookmarks with facts about distracted driving on it and we donated it to our public library so then people in our community know more about our campaign and also during one of our club meetings we had South
Brunswick High School's very own physics teacher Mr rosenwall talked to the students about the dangers of distracted driving as he was affected by it in addition we also collaborated with local businesses like Jazeppes and Pizza
Deitzia to sell our bumper magnets that we showed to you guys and all the proceeds that we make by selling these will also go to NDD organization and in a few weeks we are actually visiting Mama Junction Elementary School and there we will
teach the students about how to be a safe passenger and the photos here are from the visit that we had last year as well and in May we will we plan to have a club meeting dedicated to distracted driving awareness and our guest speakers
will be a local police officer or and a representative from NJM Insurance teaching the students about the dangers of distracted driving and the consequences and we'll have fun and engaging activities like how like drunk goggles which help teach the students
the effects of substances and if you guys have any questions we we would love to answer them we have a few more things we'd also like to play our PSA that we made hey yeah I'm on my way there's like a lot of traffic right now but I'll be
there soon just give me like 5 minutes just one quick text before I get going sure because that worked out so well last time whoa who said that me your car you know the thing you're supposed to be paying attention to while driving oh look at you multitasking pro
huh sure let me just handle the steering braking and not crashing for you while you scroll on TikTok visual distractions check manual distractions check cognitive distractions check double check how you got your license beats me being in a rush doesn't give you a pass to not
practice safe driving you and everyone on the road share a responsibility to keep each other safe take it seriously and take actions against distractions mind on the road hands on the wheel lastly we also have one of our flyers and you can scan the QR code to
sign the pledge on being a safe driver i just want to make a comment i just want to say thank you it's so important right now we know that there's a lot of accidents lately especially on rap and the more that we get out there and present information such as this may
help save a life so thank you for doing what you're doing yeah I I'm going to jump on Miss Rogers comment that not only thank you but thank you that you're students and you're doing this like for to hear adults like you said preach blah blah
blah blah blah is so much different than hearing peers and having our kids realize this is a problem this is really a problem so thank you good job keep it up keep it up we really appreciate it
any questions any questions and okay thank you thank you so much it's ready for you are we ready for you you are next unless I go into this policy and all that you don't have any information i I feel like there's like
the hit squad in the back row it's South Bones's finest our administrative team yay hey just so people out there in television land know your administrative team is back there dave you're not
going all right so going to it's it's a lot of slides but Dave and I want to make sure that we we move out to Yeah sure we will anyone who wants to move is welcome
to move or or comfortable with so uh we've been working on this um you know we do this for about three or four months till we get to about here and we go all the way to May 1st so tonight we're going to explain a bunch of things
and kind of give the background and uh try to move as fast as we can but there's there's a lot here so I'm going to start off with the number one topic of state aid so as we know state aid has been a continuous problem for us this
year um they put a guard rail up so we would not lose more we were we were apparently scheduled to lose 2.2 million instead they only had us lose $427,000 plus $645,000 in stabilization aid that we
received last year that they've informed us we are not receiving this year overall we're down about a $1,70,000 from the state um this is just a continued problem but the numbers we want to show you that
kind of demonstrate the real situation that is the formula the gigantic problem in the state of New Jersey is the formula if you are paying attention to Jersey News as of late you have seen many many many school
districts reporting catastrophic loss the reality is no district lost more than 3% of their state aid yet you're hearing districts report catastrophic loss um we've been doing this now for six
years uh where every year we lose money and we're still at a catastrophic loss so you know we've done a lot of things to try and avoid that last year there was a huge thing that the board voted to do in order in other words bring some
more money in that saved us from catastrophe last year and what would have been further catastrophe this year but if we look at 24 25 26 the items in blue I'm not getting into the whole local fair share explanation again i've
done that for all of you many times but the local fair share is the amount of money the state says South Brunswick should be paying for schools so last year we were at 142 million we closed
the gap by increasing the revenues by 8.93% we actually thought this year we might get money from the state because we did the right thing again which we've been doing for years no look what they did the
formula took the 142 million which was the local fair share and they decided somehow to raise it 15% the $166 million local fair share is more than our operating budget so the
state is saying South Brunswick taxpayers should be paying more than we even spend altogether including all the money we get that's what they're saying it's not reasonable it's not
mathematical it's simply another example and I'm going to say it how the government in New Jersey doesn't care and I hope they're watching because they have not shown one inkling that they actually care
enough to understand to do something about this instead we hear the governor's speech every year for the last 3 years touting we fully funded the schools we fully funded the schools over the last three
years the governor's budget has given $3 billion 3 billion to public schools in that time South Brunswick has lost 11 million what could possibly be the
explanation i'll leave it to you to figure out one cuz I don't have one well I don't have one i'm going to say on camera so on top of this issue we have a tax levy cap we want to just explain carefully how this all works so basically what you're
going to see is this is how we spend our money 57% of our money goes to salaries 18% goes to benefits 3% to energy 7% to transportation 3% to tuition out of district tuition students that attend other schools that's mostly special
education in fact it's totally special education um instructional supplies um and buildings and grounds that's that's not all of it but that's the general gist of it so what we want you to keep in mind with a 2% cap we have to
deal with each one of those line items and so when you do that and we look at that salaries at 57% of the 157 million is $89 million 3.5% which was the increase is
$3.1 million that's already more than 2% of our operating budget that we're allowed 2% of our tax levy that we're allowed to go up so we're already in the hole before we do anything because of this formula the continuation of taking
money and the 2% cap next we have benefits benefits we are under trend we are actually doing well at 11 12% increase and I'm going to get into that a little bit more in detail but that's actually a good number for
benefits in the country right now that's benefit medical and RX pharmacy and dental those two numbers equal almost $6.4 million we're only allowed to go up $2.6 million you're getting the gist we can
go through this each line by line of those same bigger issues and you simply get to a point where you're $8.2 2 million needed to roll over the budget well we're allowed to get 2% leaves us a $5.5 million deficit this
year due to the insane cost of health care in the country which affects everybody including South Brunswick we actually qualify which I'll get into a waiver which allows us to go to 3.51% i'll explain as we go those that
is the basics of the problem with a 2% cap now I've explained this to legislators multiple times many times and there are a few that are listening and trying but they're outnumbered by people that are not trying or they're trying but not trying for South
Brunswick i will give credit to Andrew Zwicker i will give credit to uh Michelle Doulus and to Roy Fryman they have been friends to South Brunswick trying to do things roy Fryman has been working on this he's written bills uh
Andrew Zwicker last year prepared a bill michelle Druis has joined those bills andrea Katz these are people that we know are trying but they are being met with resistance to do the things that need to be done legislatively that's where we are but
I'm going to keep going so that's our number state aid is reduced by 1,65 there's a 2% cap gap I just showed you with an increase of 3.51% we are still 3.6 $.6 million in the hole that's with the
3.51% if it was only 2% we'd be another couple million dollars in the hole so that's where we are this is the hole we try to fill this is what we do every year we're doing the same thing the people in the back you call them the hit squad in the
back they have to sit and talk to staff about the carnage that is $3.6 million $6.6 $26 million last year $4 million the year before i I honestly I'm thrilled they come back every day so thank you you have to be at work by 9
tomorrow it is every year it is debilitating and it is a morale killer in this district right now there are people waiting waiting to be told if they have
work or not next year it's every single year so and I'm going to share this this is not a the fault of anyone this is not South Brunswick doing something wrong this is the reality of healthc care in
America right now glp1s they are the only one I can ever think of as ampic is the as is the kind that one line item of drug classification of drug in just South Brunswick has gone up over a million
dollars in one year again every every RX if you look at the average RX pharmacy in the country it hovers between 25 and almost 30% it's not because of South Brunswick faculty and staff it's the reality of our country right now
anti-inflammatories the most well-known one that I can think of is Humira that that one line of anti-inflammatory medications have gone up 531,000 in one year just those two numbers are almost our full 2%
the cost of procedures meaning the claims just when you look at if we did the exact same procedure last year and did the exact same procedure again this year no changes a $1.8 million increase
in the cost of health care now we beat the trend at 11 12% but 11 half% is a lot of money $3.4 4 million so $3.4 million plus the cost of
uh our staffing and all our other expenses puts us at the point with even the $2 million we're allowed to get this is the formula in the state budget system dave puts in our numbers and the
formula says "Hey Dave you can you can get this waiver if you want." So the waiver is a choice of the board in other words no one's giving us the money a waiver means it allows us to tax nobody wants to
tax but this is where the situation is in South Brunswick while many districts can sit and not tax and haven't had to tax in six or seven years that isn't our situation big factor so I'm I'm hitting trying to hit the big factors for you
enrollment is a key factor in this particular case this year it's a positive factor financially but only financially this is our district enrollment for the last four years and a projected fifth year as you can see
we've gone down from 7,900 to 7200 so almost 10% in the last 5 years is projected for next year that 10% has allowed us to endure and handle these fiscal
challenges now that's not a good thing we have to uh unfortunately reduce our staffing but we're able to manage to a degree to a degree that's what we're looking at right now but I'm going to get more specific um people ask me this
question why is it happening in South Brunswick i'm going to give you some things from our demographer and then some things from societal that that are going on so we are what's called an aging community what that means is our families don't
leave the normal rollover of a home is a family buys a home their kids go to the schools they stay they either leave the home after high school or after college or about that time frame our families
don't leave if you think about it in 2015 we had 9,100 students with less homes right now how do we go down almost 2,000 students with more
homes because people don't leave and there's a 17 13 to 17 year rollover before a home if you have a multigenerational household before the next generation in that household starts producing school-aged
children that's a lot longer than I sell my house and a family buys my house with young kids ready to start school so in our community we have a lot of multigenerational families and they don't roll over the
homes as fast in our case incredibly slow so the that means the original homeowners are older aging that's a reality in South Brunswick there also is you look at birth rates there's been less births than there used to
be the next one is gigantic issue the housing market since around 2022 it's gone kind of wacky and even in later years now we're dealing with mortgage rates that make it very difficult for someone to move out of one home to buy
another home chances are if you've had a home since pre2020 or even 2020 you have an interest rate somewhere in the 2 to 3% those interest rates now hover over 7% so it makes it very difficult to move
and afford the next home therefore keeping people stable also in the final one this is a pretty cool place to live this is a really cool place to live people don't want to leave so because of the bottom bullet
causes the top bullet and it cycles so how scientific is this not all that scientific but there is some good science behind this and that's why our enrollment is dropping that's helpful financially and it will
be helpful as we continue through the presentation and we fully understand what's coming so the district enrollment now by level still pretty impressive class size this is projected after reductions which
I'll be talking about k2 still hovering in the 20s k35 still hovering in 21s 22s 68 extraordinarily good for middle school and 912 is you can't really say there's not like a number range but you're looking at probably an average of
25 to 27 per class and um all the administrators have been working on this uh the high school um we had a long meeting to go through all of this and we we just keep looking it over and over again but that's about where we project
to be for next year so it's important to keep that in mind i'm going to give you an example of the elementary and I want to show you a conundrum that we deal with having seven smaller elementary schools this is a reality of a district our size this is
not a South Brunswick per se problem but it is a reality i didn't use what schools but these are real numbers for next year i'm going to explain the first column is first grade the first three columns of first grade the column all the way to your left is the number of students in that school the number of
sections meaning if there's 80 students in first grade there's four first grade teachers in that class therefore the average class size is 20 if we go down to the next school we'll see 54 in in the class and three sections then a very low class size of 18 now this is first
grade we don't want to see class size of 27 now that's what you would do if you cut that three sections to two it would be 27 per class in first grade we really don't want to be near that 27 number for first grade if it was middle school or
high school we could live with that but not at first grade but I will tell you this is the reality of the districts in the state right now many districts would not even be hesitating to cut that third section and you'd have two and
there'd just be 27 in the class and that would be the class and you move on we're trying not to do that the blue represents a class that we're watching where we might close the
section not a fun thing to do however if you look at the school below the 23 you see 46 223 below that is 51317 below that is 5316.7 now just so you know some of those
schools were also expecting more students to come in because they're zoned for the new developments so we also have them low knowing they'll rise a little bit but if we look at the at the school with 23 in the class we might go up another two kids to
make it 24 but then after that we close the section and if someone moves into that development they might be moved to one of the other schools that is not desirable it will certainly not be desirable by the parent but the other options if you don't do
that is you're going to have to reduce the class sizes or have incredibly high class sizes for your youngest learners so we have to watch this but this is a microcosm of what it looks like at the elementary level if you look at the second grades you're seeing four of the
schools hovering at 23s and 24s but look at the other ones again we'd be looking at 38 students at the bottom one if you don't have two sections you have one section you'd have a class of
38 so instead we have two but if you had if there was a magic way to put all of those grades in one school so one school of just first grade you'd be able to manage this much better now I'm not suggesting we do that i'm just saying
that's what happens when you have seven places to send the same age student which is normal not weird but this is our dilemma in elementary the reductions we've made in elementary next year are all due to this and this is about what
our class size looks like across all the grades this is not something to complain about this is the reality of a lower enrollment not a reality of staff we don't want but you can't just have things that are not going to get us the
things you need now small class size is better than larger class size but there has to be a standard and when there's financial wos I'm going to be honest with you I've kept this class size as low as I can keep it for as long as I can keep it not by accident that's been done on purpose very
blatantly we're just at the point where I can't do it anymore i can't and that's going to have implications but this is where we need to go and this is not bad i describe it as we went from
excellent to good not from good to bad so the impact is going to be class size staff impact relative to class size and enrollment um and I just shared with you about the closing the sections we might do that on those blue sections um
we are still prioritizing the realities of behavior the behavior of students so we could probably sit and talk about why it's different but I don't know of any school superintendent I've spoken to that doesn't describe the exact same issue in their districts as well none of these things are South Brunswick related
but we have challenging behaviors that we did not have in the past um we are working to limit job the human loss by making decisions we can when we can to match someone that's leaving the district to an opening we're trying to
do that we are not 100% successful we're still working it through and unfortunately we won't be successful at work at limiting redu disruption at stopping disruption but we are trying to limit it and you do that
through making decisions that might seem logical but have significant negative impact on the disruption side and so when we have to make a choice of A or B and they're equal we do look for which one is less disruptive and that's where we are with
elementary but I want to share um I shared this yesterday with the elementary um faculty as well i want us to remember some things we've done so for example academic coaches these are people that help teachers become better teachers that's their job
we've increased that from 1 to 8 since 2017 that's I know 800% increase on that one line we've added behaviorists people that support
teachers and administrators in the best ideas on how to help kids with their behavior challenges we've added greatly I think three times since 2017 we've added instructional support staff who work with our struggling
learners we've added guidance counselors at all the levels but at elementary we may we had some part-time guidance counselors that are all full-time we added special education programming specifically we've added the rises program very successful program
where's Jamie she's still here and Stacy's there yeah and where's Au yeah those three were all part of the administration team and is Raph still here no Raph he gets no
credit that has been a very successful program very expensive program very expensive but I'm going to tell you why that's okay and we've maintained excellent class size so in the heart of all of this challenge with fiscal we've tried
to put the money where it needed to go to support our kids that's what we try to do can we cut all of those things we could cut all of those things and my fear for our district in the coming years is that's going to be where we're
targeted because we're not going to have room anywhere else because the enrollment is going to level and then it's going to rise and then you don't have the enrollment to play with and you're going to be looking at massive class sizes and loss if nothing changes
so here's middle school a little complicated chart but I want you to focus on the seventh and eighth grade where it says projected south look at seventh and eighth grade so in seventh and eighth grade those classes combine and we mix the kids together so together the seventh and eighth grade are
projected to have 529 students there are currently six fiveperson teams if we leave all six teams the class size in middle school will be 17s and 18s while that's awesome and I know our middle school teachers would love that
we can't afford it so that six between 529 and 1763 is going to become a five meaning that's five staff members in one school go down to
north pick it you can cut in the sixth grade and make the 17.8s 26s or the 627s 25s but there's another team cut there that's 10 staff
there that's horrible for our system to have to keep doing this is just so disruptive and debilitating for all the people involved even if you know that you're safe and you're not one of the people you might get moved you might
have to teach a different a different level a different school that's what's happening right now when everyone is on eggshells trying to manage their own psyche knowing this is again every year do it again same thing now again this is
enrollment this isn't people doing bad stuff it's just it's still very difficult it's very difficult high school impact i can't really show the same way but we're looking between 25 26s 27s in the class some classes go as high as a little over
30 and for some reason some of them are are in the teens just because of the way the high school uh is designed certain programs don't have more than 15 or 16 or 17 to stay in a course of study so that's what happens but when there's a class like in and some classes we keep
low because English let's say the academic English where we have inclusion programming so special needs students mixed with regular education students we try to keep those classes low but honors classes AP classes they're on the higher side but that's so it's hard to kind of
describe the full monty of high school but that's a generality there is a staff impact um all relative to class size um we didn't really do any we didn't cut programs or anything but we did look at the class size and the impact
um course enrollment if there was a course that maybe in a previous year we would have run with 12 students we're not running that course this year that's one of the big changes so if we don't have the numbers we're just not running the course there's a long list of courses I think it's about 15 to 17
courses that we're not running the courses or or we just didn't collapse them we're just not running them this year if the interest changes next year they'll still be on the list if the interest changes we can always go back to run them again the next year this is a big
change normally a kid who drops a class or wants to make a change goes to guidance counsel they can make a change that's going to be limited we're not going to have the room because we're going to close sections we're just closing the classes and I'm saying this out loud so anybody
watching this a parent who's upset about that it's they're not going to win the argument and I hate to say it that way and be so blunt about it but they're not going to win the argument we have to manage this
financially or if we don't we start to lose programs altogether we have to be able to say you took a class you can still change your class to one of the classes we have opening but if we have to close a class due to class
size we have to close a class the same issue is going to be as I mentioned elementary even worse if you have to move a school we're going to really try not to have that happen but there could be times where that does happen we want to just warn the board now those are the kind of things that parents have a right
to be extremely upset about but we can't have everything we have a lot can't have everything um same issue we said about the elementary in the middle we're going to work to try and have attrition be the
openings not people losing their jobs but I know we're not going to be perfect at this there's going to be job loss and we hate that i'm done doing it i'm telling you it's too many years of doing this every year it's it's it's it's ridiculous that every single year we're doing the same
thing um we still prioritize keeping programs open even if we have to reduce the size of a program but we're not looking to shut down programs and we don't want to lose our supports for our kids mental health support is a gigantic issue in the high
school and the middle school probably in elementary in our staff we it's you just can't cut it because the money is not you have to figure out ways to save these things so you know this is the crux of what the schools are about right and and that's what we're
trying to save so the overall staffing impact is this a repeat slide all right that's the number we're at 40 positions not 40
people 40 positions it's just awful that's where we are and not all these positions are enrollment based most of them are most of them are class
size in enrollment but that wasn't enough that wasn't enough money so we had to go a little deeper and to be honest I'm 600,000 short still the next 600,000 are heavy hitter cuts but that's where we
are this is the problem so the money associated with the enrollment reductions that got us to a point it didn't get us to 3.6 million and the prediction for next year is you're not going to have the enrollment cuts
if you don't do everything in your power the next year like this year would have been if we didn't do it last year your cuts wouldn't be manageable cuts you're going to be hitting direct programs but we would have been there
again remember we would be there if you did not act last year i would be talking about $6 million worth of pure program cuts and that's what you're seeing in the newspapers that's what you're seeing schools talking about selling off buildings that's what you're seeing with
class sizes of 40 we're trying to make sure we never get to that spot and we're going to tell you that you have an option this year again which completely unexpected we still don't understand how but we'll talk about it
shortly with all this we still try to do new and better things for our kids we don't have a lot but what we do we try to make the most of i talked about the ERRI program at the at Brooks Crossing a new special ed
program we're looking to expand it next year to the middle school it's expensive but well worth it we'll get through that shortly we are doing an elementary academic screening program so we can learn about our kids at the earliest levels so we can make the best decisions
and support them in the best ways and another great opportunity inexpensive to get mental health supports directly to our families and kids it's very difficult to find mental health supports for for pediatric this program for only
$32,000 is incredible amount of resources i've just listed all of the newness for next year in a $161 million budget i just listed all the newness that's sad but I want to talk about the positive
parts of it the rises program is currently at Brooks Crossing that program that's the title of it and it is basically an emotional regulation impairment program formally for stu for students that readily struggle with behavior to the point that a regular
education class cannot really meet the child's needs in a regular education class in years past students with this kind of behavior need would be sent out of district at a cost somewhere of between $50 and $100,000 per
student so Raphael and his team came up with a plan to build our own model and it has been incredibly successful that's currently at the elementary level this is where it costs a lot of money it includes all of those things
and they're all expensive things and it's not for that many kids but what this does it helps the whole district because if you're supporting the students with the most severe behavioral challenges in a
setting where they can get the support they need the district benefits by everyone having an ability to keep moving forward while those students are getting their supports because when you have significant behavioral challenges it can be very
disruptive for other classrooms so this has been an outstanding plan um uh it's been very it was a rough start jamie would you agree she's giggling if you didn't see rough start rough start and
then it started going and now we're in our second year very effective and we want to make it another year so this is the success so one student was transitioned out two students returned remember the placements i said they cost $50 to
$100,000 two of them came back so now they're in the classrooms five students mainstream for different subject matters but look at the net last number we have six paying customers six students from other districts pay to have their kids come to
our district for that program those six students I think pay about $40,000 a piece that's a quarter of a million dollars to start helping fund that program so that's massive success that's after two
years and I think they closed do we close acceptance Jamie are we not are we closed for business i think so i think we're capped so you know this is pretty incredible after two years to be at this
stage so we had good success let's expand on it let's bring it to the middle school and our plan is to do that um maintain four of the students enhance the services in we want
the four students our two current tuition students we want to maintain those four and then we'll be able to open the door in the middle school for more um returning two students D this is fantastic stuff so if we can get two
more students back eventually this program kind of pays for itself but it's an expensive I think I budgeted an extra 300,000 just for this program for next year for the middle school now that'll get offset but I can't budget that way so right now it's just a plus in the
plus column so other things that we want to make clear you that we still have like we're still we still are doing great things um we still have good class size we have all the extracurriculars we have all the athletics our music program is
is still beyond extensive beyond extensive and beyond expensive amazing mental health supports behavioral supports all of our AP courses are intact um we have program continuity where we didn't cut programs
in the middle you're allowed to keep moving forward and a lot of academic supports at K8 so you know we and and we do a supportive administrative structure to do all these things someone's got to run it but that's what we still have in the
district uh even after all this we're still here but we have a lot of fiscal challenges and these are some big ones so district health health is the word that David this is um David has to run the budget and the budget is not healthy
at all in fact it's very unhealthy and at this point we really shouldn't be spending another dollar for the rest of this year outside of what we already including salaries benefit costs called encumbered funds we shouldn't be spending a dollar and David's going to have to be you're going to be talking to
admin soon about this and this is going to be a hard cut off and that's not going to feel good for anybody but if we don't stay healthy it has a negative effect the following year and we don't want to do that um I don't even want to say anything about what can I what else can
I say about it that's a concern it's not going to ever stop being concerned I don't think but here is a tough one i'm going to go through this in a little more detail but this is very difficult for our district right now
and this is the one we're going to talk more about tonight we have avoided doing this to keep everything else intact last year the money we received and the extra money that you guys voted to do thank
you went to saving staff and programs and towards health of the district budget we did not put it towards the facilities and just like your house every year or your car every year you don't take care of it you know it costs more to fix the problem the second year
than it would have cost if you just fixed it the first year and we're getting to that place where we're kind of we have no real choice at this point in a couple of our areas talk more about that in a second we want to still maintain programs and that's going to be tougher and tougher and class size is going to be tougher
and tougher i'll the the need to do the redistricting and re reconfiguring conversations and study that's happening right now and again you'll be getting a recommendation from that committee in January of 26 to implement to make a decision about
and implement for the following school year that's September 26 not September 25 and this is a conundrum that we don't even understand yet is there going to be a is there going to be a change are we going to lose federal funding are we not
we don't know but to not at least acknowledge that it's possible would be irresponsible so that is a possibility and that could happen at any given time there's no time frame on when we'll find that out we could find that out tomorrow
we could find that out September 1st we don't know so those are our tennis courts first little project we want to talk about so all of our tennis courts look like that now you can play on those courts
but not not really great but if you don't fix it those cracks are going to get more and wider and bigger and eventually become actually a safety issue not just a playability issue now this is not that expensive a project it's a quarter of a million
dollars to do this project but we have six courts at the high school and they all look like that now I know we'd say "Well let's leave that and you know do more with the staff and do more with that." We can't do everything
there's a point where you can't and we did all we could do with the staffing side last year we did all we could do and the majority of the reductions this year are still enrollment based and good class size instead of excellent class size based the majority
so we have to recommend we we have to put them into facilities you you have 14 buildings that have to be cared for it is the reality of it dave you want to explain the solar panel so
in 1718 the district participated in a ESIP program that placed solar panels on rooftops throughout the district one of the uh buildings that and we inherited we I think we started in 17 and we were
behind schedule so we put solar up as fast as possible one of the district um rooftops at Crossroads South had a design where um they didn't really assess the roof before they put
the solar panels up on and attached them what you're looking at on the picture on the left is a solar panel system that has about a thousand um through through holes or penetrations through the rooftop and they're bolted
inside from outside and holding these brackets down and the solar panels are connected to the brackets over the course of time the wind blows the solar panels move they shift around the caul uh gets older and brittle and now we have water penetration all throughout
the entire rooftop at uh Crossroads South the other issue with Crossroads South roof is uh you see the kind of brown or offcoled long uh stripe going right across the uh top of the solar
panels that's actually a skylight and in that's what the skylight looks like from inside the gymnasium so one of our guys there standing with a a big barrel collecting water but that skylight is like a corrugated uh fiberglass this
roof is original to Crossroads South uh and you can see on the picture on the left that fiberglass has just deteriorated over time when the solar guys were up there putting solar uh installing the solar panels they walked on it and and caused some areas to be
you know damaged and we also have water uh penetration through these corrugated panels that run the entire length of the high school or excuse me the south's um gymnasium uh you know rooftop so what's
happening now is we've known about this for a good 3 years and we've constantly just kind of put it off to the side we didn't want to get involved with it it was in this scenario because of the way the solar works we're responsible the district's responsible for the removal
of the solar we're responsible for the loss of solar generation to the company that manages the solar um and were also responsible for the replacing or putting the solar back on the roof so that
contract was you know um signed sealed and delivered back in 20189 when this 18 when this uh project was complete which is a standard contract um it's not anything different any other district that has solar and been through an EIP
has the same type of contract so uh we're at a point now you know three or four years ago this project was a $2.2 million job uh this year um it's on our docket for a $4 million job so one of
the things we're running into across the district is every project that we're taking on that we put to sleep three years ago is now 50 to 60% more and we're just at a point where we're either
going to damage the gymnasium floor and we're going to have to replace a a a classic wood floor at Crossroads South or we're going and in addition to the rooftop or we're going to have to replace the rooftop and and save uh the
gymnasium floor so that's the kind of situation we're seeing across the district we have windows at Crossroads South that have been put to sleep for since 2017 in 2017 that project was 2.3 million um today we have quotes coming
in for window replacement at Crossroads South that hover around a $5 million mark so every everything with regards to construction has just gone through the roof over the course of the past five six years and um we're at a spot you know when we talk about the health of
our infrastructure or the health of our our buildings um it's just not in a in a great place right now so that's Thanks sir so now I want to talk specifically about the other one so now we have unknown enrollment
impact semi-nown locations in an unknown amount of time this is very difficult to budget for so this is what we have as far as
building that's scheduled or on the docket some more than others are moving forward uh the next slide it's a little fuzzy i couldn't unfuzzy it but right now there are
3,177 units that are slated there's also another 230 that are potential to be on this list that's 3,400 homes residences of all of those
3,400 only 90 are single family all the other ones are apartments and condos town houses that's it 90 single family so when we look at this we work
with the township to try and determine what the impact should be and about when it hasn't exactly been rocket science in the way of getting that information but we do have an idea and I'm sorry for the
fuzziness but the three that are circled on the left are the three that are currently in construction with the bottom one that's circled already sending students to the district that particular one which is the one behind Four Executive Drive off of Route One
North umberland Way that one we're expecting another or a total of almost over 400 homes occupied during the next school year then you have about another 300
there's a development on Henderson Road and there's a a development by Shocks Crossing on Ridge Road so a right turn out of the high school before you get to the light if you look to your left that's all South Brunswick and that's
moving jill our director of transportation who is the ultimate guru of all things building she already drove by she has already received calls we will have students starting in September from the Shocks Crossing
area we are positive of that we are positive we will have students coming because the entire development of 177 homes on Henderson Road will be built and occupied before the end of next school year the thing is when how many kids
will be coming we have formulas but formulas are just formulas there's no guarantees if everybody moves into those houses with school-aged children will be hit with a great deal of students if it yields the way it's normally does we
will get students that are already factored in to the enrollment projections so in other words since we know what we know we're able to factor those numbers in and those are already built into those numbers we showed you already so for
example all of those developments currently are slated to go to South not North for Crossroads because South has room north is almost at capacity south has dropped many many students so they're going to build back up again so
we've set it designed it to manage this however it takes us off our normal track our normal track would have those schools go some going to north depending on where they were again redistricting is a necessity you're not going to have
a choice to do something because eventually you can't have 1,700 homes of students go to Brooks Crossing along with all the other homes that already go to Brooks Crossing you won't be able to do that so we're looking at all this
right now you see a bunch of other zeros at any given point one of those zeros might become a number and if that happens then we have to start factoring in those students as well unknown we kind of have an idea that
we're using the best we can but it's not this is not a perfect science but as those numbers get bigger and bigger remember the enrollment reduction will will stop and you'll get flat for a little while i predict we're
kind of flat for next year to a degree but where we have movement is to give you a full example there are about I think it's 600 is Pete here 660 670 from the high school in the senior and the 12th grade and we only have 400
kindergarteners right now that's a massive difference now the high school has has since I've been here the high school one one year graduated 789 students in one graduating class so they're now all 600s now so the high
school is down to about 350 to 400 kids that's where we're seeing the the impact at the high school level elementary is going to start to stable off soon that's how we look at it and South will continue to grow that's pretty much what we're expecting over the next few
years ultimately it's 3177 new residences that are on the books and that other 234 that we're told could be added to the list back to why there has to be a configuration and a redistricting
study the 63% of the 3100 units currently are slated to go to Brooks Crossing it's not going to work so that alone causes the district to have to relook but if you can see that number
four that's a big big area that's the 1,700 units but they're all over the place and they're not going to fit nicely into a box so that's just a general understanding of what we're facing and that's important because you can't think
one year at a time you have to think projections you have to think where you're going to be financially in two or three years and once you stop losing students it's extremely expensive because the the way the formula is the formula takes a six-year
average of your enrollment so it you don't get a big gigantic dip when you lose but you don't get a big hit when you gain so we might go two or three years before we really see any increase in state aid as a result of the numbers
even though you're already getting the kids that's just the way the formula works one of the more wonderful things about the formula so now it's the money so we received word we don't know how we
don't know what magical powers existed at Department of Ed to create this but they put out a letter to districts like us 300 districts apparently where you can now use a tax incentive aid okay here's what it is
districts are being told we could go all the way to adequacy for our district that means we're $5.1 million under adequacy which means we are allowed to collect up to $5.1 million
above the 2% and the waiver we're allowed to do that there's no bill there's no rule that we even understand as to why or how or who but we're not going to fight this
one it's bizarre the people that we've been working with in the legislation they have no idea about this in fact we told them they didn't even know what it was that's concerning to us because that could be a problem but as of right now it's not a
problem so we're presenting it to you the state is going to be very generous however and for every million dollars you raise they will give you $50,000 more dollars i know very
generous so even if you raised all the money you're allowed to raise you still wouldn't make up for your a quarter of your state aid loss so pretty much this is it this is the rule we're going to show you what this
rule looks like in math in the with the math and we'll go from there so here's the important thing to remember and we really want to hammer this home um those are the last five years of tax impact
in including a projection of next year's 3.51% so if we do the 3.51% and you look at what we did last year and then the three years before a 5-year average the average home is paid
at only $42 a year over a 5year average still unheard of no one wants to pay more taxes but $42 a year that's pretty impressive so now we want to show you what happens with all the numbers that are
possible so the 2% is orange if you go up 2% this year just the 2% there's a tax impact that we did not expect to happen in fact we expected a tax decrease at 2% this year what happened out of this district's control are the ratables
you've heard me talk about the ratables over the years the ratables are now horrible for some reason no idea why it doesn't actually make any sense that they're horrible because the state aid formula said you got so much more you
got 15% more wealthy this year so if the district got 15% more wealthy where's the money we don't know we have no control over this so even at a 2% increase the tax impact for next year will be 176 the
full 3.51 brings it to 227 so as you can see these aren't massive increase numbers from one number to the next number um but you are allowed by this tax incentive aid to go to 7.29% that is
the total number so we wanted you to see each million after the 3.51% which is your 2% plus your $2 million waiver for healthcare which we talked about that's the 3.51% you are then allowed to go up a
million more up to 5.1 million that's the way that it reads that's how it's in the formula so we wanted to show you what that looks like we also want to show you so you can look if you go up another million to the
4.27 you're at 253 so you can see it's about $25 a million that's about what it comes so now we want to show you this chart this is a five-year average
if you took any of the others in green those are the numbers you're allowed to take 3.51 then go up a million each time so even if you went all the way to the top while no one is going to like having an increase in their taxes
nobody i still believe this town would prefer I don't know if I'm right to not have your schools go down the tubes or have your roofs start falling in i think a roof just fell in somewhere in our in our country didn't our roof just fall in
yes killed like 16 people i'm not saying our roofs are that bad that was a little dramatic but you know the average is all the way to the right so if you went 3.51% your average over the five years would be a $68 increase
over the five years each year not per month if you went all the way to 6.53% that's $4 million your average would be $89 that's the reality meaning no one complains or comes out and tells you how
wonderful you were when they got $90 decreases or even bigger decreases in years prior cuz that was good news but I say this and I say this a lot the board the community anyone who
cares about schools has to make a decision and the decision is simple do you want to fund schools or do you want us to stop doing stuff that is the only choice there is no magical answer to the
finances of schools either stop doing stuff and tell me what you want that to be stop fixing the roofs stop teaching certain things stop offering certain things or we fund our schools i honestly did not expect to be up here this year with this option at
all if we stick with the 3.51 I have to cut $600,000 more out of staffing that will all be painful it'll be programming and you will not fix anything we'll be back here next year you will need to find probably somewhere
between three and a half to $6 million hard to tell just yet and you will still need the roofs to be fixed you will have nothing left to cut because you've cut it all already and every single dollar you cut will be programming this is a gift i don't even know why how it's a
gift or how it's legal but I'm not the one who created it so I'm gonna assume it's legal we're encouraging the board tonight to pick a number close to the bottom of that chart either the very bottom or right
near the very bottom tonight the state told us we have to have a resolution now that's not a final answer the final answer is May 1st but we have to pass a resolution in order to access anything above the
3.51% that's what we have to do tonight we have no choice if we want to do that so we are asking you to have a discussion tonight and eventually we have to make a decision if we're going to move forward with a resolution to go somewhere above
3.51% again not our doing this is the way it is we think it's pretty horrible that they just keep shackling boards of education with this in districts like ours while other districts next door to us don't even have to have these conversations they have spending parties instead
no understanding this is going to occur next year yeah well but you saw Dave just said and no understanding what's coming next remember you've heard me say this is going to be every school district and this year you're seeing it all over the place now because districts aren't preparing for it they're not
expecting to really understand what happens with a 2% cap and you don't get free money we're good at it by now not a thing I want to be good at but we're good at it but this is all still very problematic and we were saved last year
we have an opportunity to be saved again unfortunately it's just the question you want the schools to do what they can do or you want us to do less because there's no other answer there's no other magical button to press with that this is what we're looking at this
is be the 3.51% snapshot the local tax levy would be 1369 anything above that it would either go to 1379 130 138 139 or 140 or 141 that's pretty much your options right
now this is what you need to understand is I think what people are most concerned about is what is the impact to the taxpayer and this is kind of where we are david and I have a recommendation for the board to consider which is not going
for the max we went to the max last time even though the community did not seem to have too much of a problem no one came out to to say it was a problem other than a few people which we understand and I'm sure the people that didn't come out still didn't like getting a tax increase but we think we can do the job we need we can fix the
roof we could fix the tennis courts we can not cut anymore maybe even look a little bit and see what we cut and see if we can put something back and that would be 6.53% is our recommendation to get an extra $4 million for next year that is
what we're asking the board to consider however we've made that statement now it really is for the board to have a discussion tonight and Dave will have a resolution for the board to consider and again the resolution is not permanent it's as part of this process from the
state and then May 1st is the real time where the board would vote on whether or not that is what you're going to finally do that's how it works we did not have to call a special meeting because we already had a board meeting tonight other districts would have had to call special meetings if they had a board meeting after April 14th that's the
deadline for this April 14th and obviously that's a weird deadline in schools because half the school districts have spring break during that week but again that wasn't really part of the state's thinking I guess so before you go into discussion
uh Dave and I can answer any questions um that you have you spoke about the adequacy which office did that give give you the adequacy number that we you So the adequacy number comes from the formula so the same formula that tells us we're
rich and we shouldn't have any money tells us we should be getting all the money from the town 166 million that's what the formula says at the same time it says that it says we're not spending enough money that same formula says you're spending $5.1 million less than
you should be spending which is why they're letting districts go get the money so they're spending the right amount that's their perspective is that's the department of education though is there a way to find out
where we gone richer isn't it the community says that south branch has gone richer where is the tax money going to or where is it why can't we find find it so the the numbers used in the formula are the income tax for South
Brunswick as well as the property values now the property values in South Brunswick is a very skewed Uh Barry's been here how many years 20 i've been in town for 35 years
so Barry said 60 years he's been here so in those 60 years Barry when was did you ever see us reassess no one even knows the last time this district this state this township reassessed so because of that we can't get real
information on the value of the property the average house is valued at $200,000 in South Brunswick so where the money goes unfortunately we have nothing to do with the ratables the collection of taxes we only control the part that we control
the formula we've tried to get more information about that we haven't been very successful as far as the ratables go it's hard to understand how the formula said we got worth all of a sudden became worth 15% more but the ratables show a decline not that the
ratables are went down they went down from the numbers we normally look at when we didn't have such high impact on the local fair share we've had ratables over hund00 million and the local fair share didn't go up that much money so we we don't understand it i don't know how
to answer the question Raja of where uh we've spoke we speak to the town we've asked questions I don't know if they can answer that question or not but we can try and ask them again and see why why did the ratables go down maybe they have an answer okay so
6.53 you say is your recommendation yes what is the impact to each household on a yearly each household over the course of a 5year average the last four years plus this year would be $89 on average for this coming year be $332
so this year it's going to go up by $332 yeah that if I I just want to make it clear if you can please we normally would re recommend a 2% yes right to get to the health waiver we want three we want the 3.5 so we can get that health
waiver correct correct okay so if if my calculations are correct if we went from 2% to 6.53% um where am I here difference of $154 thank you so I'm sorry1 $154 difference
$154 in addition if we went to the 2% correct 2% would be 176 right so I just want to make it clear that we're we're we're talking really about that $200 correct because we would probably I
would vote I can only speak for myself Lisa 154% $154 so we would want that 2% we would want the 3.5% because we're getting the waiver so if we go from 3.5 to the 330 you know you're talking less you know a little bit $100
$103 extra so is that correct if if my memory if I did that right so we're talking $103 extra in tax impact to each household from going from 3.5 to 6.3 yes okay
thank you other questions no no other questions here question what um I was thinking along the line into the mic no mic into the mic mike mic i was thinking along the lines of 6.53
myself however what steered you steered you away from 5.78 it's a million less okay so the roof is $4 million mhm so we have money in the reserves but not
enough to handle what we need to do we're $600,000 still short on 3.6 million okay so 4 million would allow David to spend probably about 2 million specifically on the roof get a little healthier because
our fund balance is too high i'm getting now a little technical i would not have to cut anymore maybe even take a few of the cuts back and keep us healthy deal with our roof and be able to be
solvent at least for another year and I would I would just interject that this tax this tax incentive plan wherever this came from wherever this plan came from or wherever this opportunity came from this
opportunity might not exist next year this this whole idea of being able to add to your tax base may not exist next year so next year when we're standing here we're talking about only being able to do a 2% possibly possibly there might
not be a healthcare waiver next year um there this opportunity might not exist next year so next year when we talk about where we are with budget we tech we could be in a situation where it's 2% with no other options you could be but
we don't know we said last year and I feel bad said last year that was only a oneshot thing too so we don't know this is the problem it's so hard to run a $161 million business with the unknowns
of this magnitude year after year so I guess we look at it as you take what you can get to get yourself solvent as Lisa's point it's another hundred or another $150 um which is not I'm not saying only it's it's not it's not
good but that's where we are rajes had something before oh I'm so sorry and actually Rajes Julie was up before i just I'm just curious um in terms of our student reduction you know how that impacts
uh the budget uh are you looking at that for this year or the that the reduction in student enrollment for for next year i I'm curious if you if you're setting this budget it's impacting do you do you think student
enrollment is impacting your budget decisions um the whole first part of the presentation Yeah was all about enrollment reduction yeah all all of those reductions all those first slides that was all anticipating
um increasing class size and hitting where the enrollment reductions are okay so uh have we have we done a um a line item on on like student reductions uh for students who are going out of district to other schools do we
have information on that yeah we don't have much of that that isn't really a Can you give like a ballpark figure um inconsequential well that's not a ballpark figure no it it is um I don't know the percentage but the number is not a number that's
causing the enrollment decline in other words we can see how many more kids go to charter schools and that's not a higher number for not I mean it's a little bit each year some down sometimes so that number has been relatively
static year after year and we're not seeing our kids leave from 8th grade to go to another high school we do have kids but nothing different or it's not really the causation of the enrollment decline okay thank you you're welcome Rajes so so if I summarize and I may
oversimplify so correct me what we are saying is the proposal you already worked out an opportunity for 40 positions and since we are 3.6 six down to start with and that will be sufficient to to run for for this year
yes however we do have some of the capital expenses and what we are saying is the proposed increase so the community is going to get in return for that additional $100 $150 is a roof to
crossroads and basically and a tennis courts and tennis courts for next year that's for kids but that's only regest because those are the only ones we can afford right now we need we need other roofs we have other needs we have to be realistic to afford what we can afford
so to your point the extra money if I'm reflective listening will allow us to not cut further than 40 positions maybe even knock that down a couple positions and get us a roof which we need and get us tennis courts which are only going to
get worse at an exponential rate if we don't fix them so but again this is just to kind of understand what what what community is getting in return or what people will get in return if we go ahead with this yes thank you for that um Lisa
then Raja raj go ahead no go please okay so thank you so much you're welcome so what Dave explained and is that indicative of the thing that if you don't have if the choice is not going to be available next year is it indicative
that the board should try and go towards the full amount extent of this of 7.29% so that we can secure um whatever is there already and cater for any downfall next year yeah you know what what we
what we wish they would do is to do the same thing that they should have done 3 years ago and say you have three years to get this money they should say a reasonable thing for boards of education to manage that's
right which does not make you go to 9% one year and then 7% the next year they could have done this in a way but they're not doing it that way they're hitting us with lastm minute rules the last one came after the last minute last time it was after we were already done
and we had to redo it if you remember we had to reopt the budget in July this time it's it's you right under the wire here's another opportunity and if you don't use it all now you're not getting it again that's what they tell us so we don't know if this Dave's point is we don't know we can't
predict we don't know what to do so if we don't take advantage you could be left in far worse like last year remember last year remember before we got the money where we were that's where you're going to be next year if we don't do this and they don't offer something
next year and it's horrible it really is this should be a It should be guys you're $5 million under budget you have two years or three years to get up to adequacy so you're not damaging like one big year of hits after hits last year we were very lucky the amount of money that
that was because of the ratables didn't have a significant impact to taxes this year the ratables aren't as good it's a worse impact with less money things all of these factors are completely out of our control but yes Raja the answer to
your question is yes i think David thinks you should go get as much as you can when the availability is there because your schools you fund the schools that's what makes your homes valuable your schools go down South Brunswick goes with it that is the
reality of this area of New Jersey that's my input thank you i just want to dovetail off of what Raj um Rajit has said um if we go do go to that 7.9% that extra uh the extra million
7.29 what is your recommendation as to what we would do with that extra million to be honest I'd give it to Dave to put and get those coffers back where they need to be your fund balance is too high you're you're carrying over too much money every year you need to bring that
down um can you maybe for the Yeah so your your reserve accounts after we do the roof even with the 4 million our our our reserve accounts are going to be very very very low so your rainy day funds are in trouble mhm so they're already in
trouble but we you know we have more things that still have to be done but I think for one year to be honest you have to have a healthy budget it can't be this scraping the bottom of the barrel every year and being back to reductions
reductions reductions i'd rather be saying "Hey we don't need," and this is what the other districts are able to do that have been getting money so we have enrollment reduction instead of cutting staff I'd be reallocating those resources to do better things for kids we can't even have those conversations
in fact we have no conversations about how to be better none we don't talk about it because it's so frustrating to think about hey there's this great thing if we did this we can't have those conversations it's it's it's it's so yes
if it was 10% I'd probably be telling you to go to 10% but I'm also realistic okay so going to to the full to me getting the roof on South is is a
non-negotiable that thing is going to cave in and we're going to go from 4 million to 14 million i mean we don't have a choice we have to do that that's 4 million right off the top of the bat can we kind of bypass the tennis courts
probably but it would be a stupid move so then we'll go from what we're paying now to quadruple when we wait a year or two and we might not have the money to do that and then it's going to be the we're totally going to have to gut those things
um that now Dave correct me if I'm right or if I'm wrong the Yeah if I'm wrong the roof at South is the original roof yes so we before you guys came they made the decision to put solar panels drill
all these holes in our original 55year-old roof yes good move on their part i think it was kind of smart when we when we took over in 2017 the EIP uh construction
it was all of those um designs were put in place uh within within 5 months the architect or the energy specialist that designed those systems was no longer allowed on job site good and when we put
these solar panels back on because right now we drilled in the roof correct correct and when we get them back on aren't we kind of doing it differently the clips the the design that's going to replace what's there now has clips that attach to the ridge of a solid metal
roof uh so there's no penetrations or through holes uh from the exterior to the interior of the of the um of the building okay seal tight let's stay with South tell us about the windows in the original twostory portion of South back in uh
2017 when I arrived we had a a job that was on the table for 2.3 million uh to replace those windows uh was tabled just because the next year we uh had a we had an increase in of uh state aid the first
year and then the second year the million hit and then we got kicked into S2 so that those windows got put to sleep or or were just put aside all the HAC and those Well yeah but we also did at North and South uh we did a we did do
a um HBAC project okay uh we also I mean we did a lot of things in in the district we we have a robust um we have a robust um transportation program with leasing of the buses that saves us a ton of money in parts and maintenance we designed and and put in place an an
amazing health center that kind of curtails and curbs our healthc care expenses so you we've been doing a lot of these things the EIP and the um energy savings that we experienced with replacing the HBAC at North and South has has driven down our energy costs uh
because of the EIP we have a consultant on staff who or is under contract anytime we do a project like that they come in and make sure that the project that we're doing adheres to the specs that were in place with our EIP from 2017 and doesn't take away from our
savings but adds to it so the district over the course of the past 5 years has saved approximately 48% uh in energy costs just just in relation to the ESIP so we've cut our energy costs in half by doing projects that
save the district money in the operating account so that we can continue with the projects and the programs that we have in place for kids programs for kids not projects that's awesome that's awesome how old are these windows in in South originals the original windows so it was before when South was a high school and
way back when so but we can't even at the 6.5 that's something we're not even looking at being able to replace now once you're once you get your reserve accounts and your fund balance back under control uh and you re you know
right now we have a $161 million operating account and we're walking around with you know $3 million in our savings account it's like having a checking account with $200 in it and you're making you know $100,000 or $200,000 whatever it is your salary so
we're we're not in a healthy spot with what is sitting in our in those savings accounts or those reserve accounts once those reserve accounts get rebuilt then you can as a board step back and say "Okay Dave it's it's two we're two years into this what's it look like?" Um and then we can put some of those projects
on the table but just know that next year we're going to be in the same spot if nothing changes with the funding formula and we have a 2% cap or we're in a 2% cap and we're bringing in three less than $3 million and we know we have a 3.5% increase on our salaries we're
already 3.5 million we're we're break even right so you know again we have to realize this is an ongoing issue that's going to span years um and this is an opportunity for us to try to extend ourselves get a project done get our
district healthy again financially put some money in a in a bank so we can sit back and say "Okay what's our next steps with regards to where we want to go?" Uh so yeah the windows are the next big project when that can get done I can't be 100% honest with you but I'm just saying that okay that we we'll be
looking at that problem fairly soon in the fair right okay yeah it's It's not That's That's the next big thing right excuse me so So by increasing all the way to 7.29 we're looking at $355
laura I want to tell you if you go all the way remember the state's going to give us an extra $50,000 man you're so generous so proud don't forget that so $355 a year so spread out for 12 months
i don't I'm I'm not good at $30 a month okay um and and by doing this we can get a new roof that we don't that is a non-negotiable as far as I'm concerned non-negotiable in our middle
school it repairs our tennis courts it gets our district in a fairly healthy financial situation healthier on a pathway back on a pathway back so so okay and don't and Laura and also I
still have to cut $600,000 more dollars if we don't do this that's correct that's right i forgot about that okay 7.29 i'm good with 7.29 i'd be I'd be I'd go home a happy guy no yes okay um well you
have Rajes Laura hold on a sec okay just a question again a little bit out of the box is it possible because last year we raised taxes by 8.x% is it possible the formula changed or increase the local
fair share saying hey you are able to raise so you should raise more so no the those two numbers don't help create the formula the the the reason the formula pushed our number up is again the wealth factors not how
much we actually collect how much we collected should have closed the gap but then last year and it wasn't just so how I know it was not us all the other districts that are in this trouble they all had the same massive increase to their local fair share out of the blue
places that never had an increase to their local fair share before were hit they have a multiplier in the formula that we can track that shot up and% 2% there's no explanation they won't give us the explanation i don't think
you you were on the board when this happened um we s not us personally but we sued the state for the formula and the the the judges ruled against the public knowing the
formula that's real it's proprietary so there's no explanation that we've been provided but it wasn't a South Brunswick thing if that's it Dave and I will sit down are you guys good to discuss
sorry Raja one second julie you mentioned other districts that have that are really struggling uh with their budgets and have had to do things i know I I've heard about Lakewood um you know I I think this is a problem
across the board in in the state of New Jersey for districts that seem to have lost money from the state um do you think that um like that pressure created this
little free get grab of tax money for from the taxpayers we do we actually think that the work we've done like because some of the things they created are things that we told them to create so we've been working on this for years and not just South Brunswick but other
districts as well so unfortunately this little thing as you put it I I like that this little thing that they gave us yeah um this is exactly what we use the term adequacy to them and saying you can't have a
formula that tells you you're spending under adequacy and then cap you know tie our hands to spend so they heard that we didn't ask to have to use the tax money to do it of course but that was their solution but Lakewood's a different story they give Lakewood an extra they
just gave him an extra $65 million they haven't done that to anybody else no other district got extra money no district so all the other districts have had to do other things like Jackson just sold its second building tom's River just sold the
building lacy Township has class sizes of 40 brick has empty classrooms because they have class sizes in the 30s and 40s so this is just a matter of time unfortunately if nothing changes and we would be just remember we would be there
right now if last year didn't happen we would be there today we we a whole different story and so our fear is you're going to just be here tomorrow if we don't do everything we can do so can can we assume or can we tell the public
uh in all good consciousness that the 2% tax cap is dead no i I wouldn't I wouldn't say that okay but it seems like that because this is the sec second year they're going for this okay get what get it whatever you
want or get as much as you want as much as you can well only remember only to adequacy but only for districts that are under adequacy yes it's it's very perplexing i don't disagree
so so can you give us an example of um the percentages that other districts Yeah sure um South Planefield uh South Planefield advertised a 36% increase uh Hillsboro has has um um said a 20%
increase i know of some other districts i'm not going to say but they're in the high teens um we're going to be at a very moderate level to be honest of what this would be for the districts that are out there um but yeah we've seen as high I've seen two in the 30s i've seen um
probably three or four in the 20s and a bunch in the teens so so even though you know 7 point or 7.29 29 is not great it's not horrific it's not even close to some of the places it's not even close and and when you say sell
buildings selling schools selling schools they're selling schools they are selling schools so here's the challenge so mathematically you closed the school once you closed Greenbrook right you could do that again right not Greenbrook jody it's okay
relax don't worry no panties out there the mob mob squad it's Mike Cushion panic where's Mike there he is at so it it's it's not the problem is you don't close a building when you have 3,100 homes being built it's not intelligent
but if that wasn't the case the district would have to consider not selling it but coming up with a different plan you can't do that right now without causing massive chaos massive disruption and then have to cause the same level of massive disruption in a few years from
now that's not the way to do it now I don't know all those districts issues middletown proposed they were going to cut um they were going to close two buildings and restructure jackson did sell their second building and it just is the what it is we don't want to ever
be up here telling you that your best option is to sell something or to close something i'm good with redistricting i'm good with restructuring that's protecting the district i don't like the idea of selling because then when your enrollment comes back you're got to go
buy and remember what we said about the cost to fix something think of the cost to reopen something or to have to reby something you just don't want to be in that position so while it might look good mathematically and if you didn't
have 31 to 30 excuse me 3,400 homes coming in we can have a different discussion but I'm not willing to entertain that with you because it's it'd be a I don't want to recommend a really bad idea well I want to clarify myself i I don't think it looks good at all no it's bad it's a horrible thing
it's something that we should never ever have to do and this is the unfortunately this is the kind of stuff that keep again I I know I'm being a broken record if you didn't do last year th this we're not talking 3.6 million in the hole
we're talking a heck of a lot more than 36.6 million in the hole with nowhere to go cuz I would have already cut the 66 positions from last year those would have been gone and you'd still be over 4 to6 million in the hole right now and all those positions would be gone you
you you're we're trying to save off so they can fix this this is a fix the the other part remember just keep this in mind our state aid they told us we should have lost 2.2 million plus the
645,000 they only took 427,000 we have no idea right no idea if next year they're going to calculate the state aid minus the 1.8 million it's the not knowing that makes all of these decisions impossible for boards and for
and for administration to make these recommendations with the information I have and we have a lot of good information we try to get as much information as we can the board should do this to protect the interest of this town as much as the
town's people no one wants to pay more taxes they want their value of their homes to stay up so our recommendation is go okay um I think right now we have to
think about Can we have Raja's one more and then I'll then I'll sit down i'm sorry Raja i'm so sorry so you can't be a little quiet with just your finger there man you're just I'd already put my hand so he knew that I was going to so Scott the bottom line
is that we need to decide between 330 and 355 which is $25.72 or 73 cents yes that is the bottom line in my opinion yes in my opinion too i like your opinion and I
apologize i'm a little confused um I thought tonight was just voting on the 3.5 no okay just wanted to be clear we have to pass a resolution that's fine and in the resolution they have to put a dollar amount after that you vote officially on May 1st got it okay i just
wanted to make sure we were clear on that so we got Oh I'm sorry i thought it was just in yesterday is that resolution tentative or nothing is official until May 1st right you vote officially for the public hearing if you
all voted no we have to go back to a whole drawing board doesn't matter what you do tonight go ahead the application the application is due yes and that we have to submit the application sub submission of a desire to the county saying we plan to do this and That's
correct okay okay you want to take a Well we're going to we're going to we're good thank you guys all right guys you You just kind of We got to keep in mind that what we're doing tonight we can't think of is the cap going to be lifted are
they going to give us grants are we that those are so we can't answer that so we have to think about what do we have now what is before us that we have to make an intelligent decision we have right now these numbers and with these numbers
we know we have to fix South we know we have to look at those tennis courts we know in the very near future we have windows at South that are 55 years old we know that our budget right now is
hurting it is not even close to being healthy so tonight we have to decide if if we want to vote at for $355 per a $200 assess
$200,000 assessed home which you could probably sell for $700 $800,000 to ensure tonight that South is not the roof's not caving in that the tennis courts are going to be refixed
and that our budget It's going to be a little healthy and that we're not going to have to chop any more than the 40 positions that are on on the chopping block right now that's all we can make the decision not what if they give us money what happen if they lift the cap
next year what those are so out there we can't even consider that i think what we also maybe as a board we if we do get magically some money um from somewhere I think we should make a
principle to put that directly in the reserves capital reserves not in the operational expense not in hey we got some money let's just move it be very diligent about it agreed because we do need to build um and that's probably one
David can correct me I know his finger went and he will probably say in which account or which um uh number it goes into but again the desire what I was saying from anything we get should just go into reserves somehow so we start
doing it for next year or coming years I I I agree i mean I just want to ask Dave is that feasible or is that dependent on any money that we get could be restricted to go somewhere well when
you when you pull a when you pull a tax levy your tax levy is um assigned to your operating account and then after your operating account at the end of the year your surplus is transferable to reserves right so no
no levies the stabilization aid for example or anything something like that magically that came last year from I have one last question um uh is it not feasible to do a separate
tax uh question to the public for the capital improvements and then keep a lower interest increase on our taxpayers julie if that gets turned down we're that's dead in the water if we put the if we put a question on there and it
gets voted down let's say we we just since we're talking about South so much if we put on there to increase you know get the money to fix the windows in South and it gets voted down we can't bring that up again there south is out of luck
it is way too risky to do that yeah it is just way too risky and when you look at I know we we're we're hung up a lot on the percentage the 7.29 oh my god 7.29 but but look at the dollar amount the dollar amount especially like we
were spoiled because not only did it not go up for so many years it was in the ne Yeah thank you like look at the look look it was negative $86 where we did it went down like we didn't pay we paid $86
less we the next year we paid Sorry sorry sorry we paid $89 less we I mean for three years in a row it went down so over an average of five years we as taxpayers in South Brunswick
for the program we have the teachers we have the buildings we have have averaged out to $90 a year because we kind of were a little spoiled there and now that we're saying "Okay the gravy train's over we've got to make a decision to go
up a little bit and pay some money i said this last year when we when we were doing this if you want good you got to pay for good it it is pretty much that simple so over a span of five years $26
and a home assessed in South $200,000 only paid $90,000 i mean $90 for the I know God for the whole year so that that's kind of what we have to look at and if they say next year we're going back to 2%
that does not even 2% doesn't even cover the raises that we've already approved in contracts for the teachers it doesn't cover the health expense that is Absolutely it doesn't even cover that so we got to like kind of seal it now if I may yeah go ahead so we had talked about
we had a finance committee which I'll be getting to later but the finance committee had met over the course of two weeks twice to discuss all that i'll get into that in a little bit and um we walked away at the last meeting at the 6.53 and we had talked about it quite a
bit but I will be completely transparent and honest here after thinking this through a little bit more and Reanjes you and I had talked about it a little bit too i look at that 89 89.36 to 94 and I really gave that some thought
because my biggest concern was next year making sure that we're healthy ensuring that the money is there in case we need to do extra work and I look at that and I think $26 a year $26 a year annually for a family to pay to ensure that our
schools are healthy to ensure that we have the um financial ability to fix things if they do come up um I think $2 a month i know it's hard i know we're all there i pay taxes i'm not happy with it but the fact that Trenton put this on
the board's okay lap and they didn't step up they gave in the last four years half a billion dollars to Trenton excuse me my apologies half a billion dollars to Newark okay really upsets me a great deal but I think about that $25 and
knowing that at least the schools will be healthy if we need to fix things i'm actually going to retract my point of six uh 6.53 i am for 7.93 i really believe that that extra
$25 a year should not should not hold us back from making the commitment we need to the school's financial stability that's where I am uh correction on You don't have to say correct yet we're just still talking okay okay okay i just want to make sure
they know that that's what they're voting on um yeah yucky position to be with the state but here we are and so here we are and no offense to Dave and Scott i don't want them to have to come begging us again next year for more money you don't know though that's what
I'm saying like so so by doing this tonight yeah unless they make the the what is that again where they jack this up the um your average kind of Oh my god the ratables not the ratables the
um to make us Thank you adequacy you know unless the state makes to go that that makes that go up again but um do Okay so do we have any more questions here guys yep okay we just need someone to make a motion oh yeah to
make a motion to where you want to land and then you can vote on that motion because then Dave will put that motion on the agenda i would like to make a motion to go to 67.29 yeah that bottom line changes okay thank you i'll second
it roll call roll call again this this motion is to approve for the tentative budget what what we're really doing is we're adjusting the motion uh 1.8 eight in our consent agenda to show that uh the board is
approving the increase to the local fair share by the maximum allowable amount in the uh tax incentive aid uh program that the department of education put out this year okay to make that does not change
the changes that Scott has to make yeah yeah okay agreed yeah uh and I know you just mentioned it that the tax levies goes into the operating account u but
the difference uh right about a million is there a way to to somehow commit and secure that goes directly in reserves so what happens Rejesh is if there's more money in the account we're able to bring down the fund balance therefore leaving money
so when we were in our first few years here before they started taking all the money we put money into the reserve accounts at the end of the year that's our goal each year to get healthy in the reserve accounts so an extra million to the health of the district at the end of this at the end of next school year Dave
will be able to make a recommendation to the board to move money into the reserves that's the first time you can do that okay no so again I'll be a little bit direct what what I'm wondering is how do we as a board feel
secure that the additional million let's say for example we are we are talking about will be eventually moved to reserves and for some whatever reason since we had money or we we did something I mean generally accountable at the end of the year yeah you want to
hold us accountable to committing to that million dollars to go into the reserves you're asking us to do that that's the work we would work to Okay yeah you can say that with it and that's all we can do though there's no there's no other mechanism there's the audit correct there's but there's also
at the end of every year when there's surplus left over in fund 11 the board has to determine and allow the business administrator to make the transfers for the surplus course into those reserve accounts so at the end of um the at the
end of that fiscal or at the end of that year Jan June 30 you're going to see a motion come across after our audit and the auditors are going to say "This is what's left over in your surplus as per your business administrator's recommendation we're going to move this million dollars
or this however many is left in the surplus into those reserve accounts." That's how it No no i'm now following more the process but you understood the spirit of where I was coming from right exactly i think you're very I think you're I think you're very clear yeah and you know what that's our job yeah
you are that's our job and I commend you for asking that i think it's a great question i really do so on there's a motion on the table to um to allow the the board of education or to provide the board of education to
provide the uh maximum amount allowable in the uh we're going to call this the tax incentive aid motion 1.8 8 um to increase the local fair share to the amount um to the amount allowable which is the
5,125,539 there's a motion on the table i'll take a roll call on this even though it's in our consent agenda only because it's a roll call i want to pull this out and and put it on record so let's go uh roll call vote on the motion did I have a first and a second i did
yes I did okay miss Julie Ferrara except Miss Alicia Khan yes mr roger Krishna yes mr mike Mitchell yes uh Miss Lisa Rogers yes mr rees Sony um I'm still debating but but considering
this motion is to submit a tentative budget um I accept mrs laura Hernandez yes okay that motion carries okay finish the rest of the agenda okay finish the rest of the agenda okay so
next up is um our board committee and liaison reports miss Khan policy the policy committee has not met this month so I don't have an update at this time c can I can I just add a little bit to that we're waiting to hear from the
state on our cell phone on cell phone because I know that's a big thing so we're actually waiting for a uh the state to issue language so that stress estimate can create a draft policy that will then give us the information to then ask the survey questions we want we
don't want to ask this survey question two questions we can't do right so we're waiting on that and if if they don't do it soon enough we're going to ask the survey questions anyway okay all right good because you want to be in place for next year right with a plan right exactly because I know that's a biggie
okay um Miss Rogers finance thank you so uh again we discussed the financial health of the district we talked in depth of programs as well as their importance um significantly Mr federer provided a detail of the enrollment decreases across the district
i know there's more questions um from the committee i know that they'll be answered and its impact to our staffing uh the committee also agreed upon that percent increase we were at originally at 6.53 as as I had mentioned um uh that's where we were as well that included the healthc care waiver which
brought us to up to the 50,000 incentive as Mr uh Federer presented as well uh finally Mr powski uh reviewed the fund balance which we had just talked about in depth and the impact on this current budget and next year's thank you thanks
Miss Rogers uh Mr krishna operations yeah we we had our operations committee meeting on uh Monday 8th of April and it was attended by me uh by Lisa
Rogers Mike Miguel Laura Fernandez Laura Hernandez sorry uh Scott uh David Brian Redfield the director of business and grounds and Steven Corsa the assistant business
administrator and as uh um as Scott and uh Dave already have explained about uh all the outstanding things that we are doing uh the committee had discussed the uh current state of reserve account uh and
uh our ability to maintain our buildings across the district specifically we discussed the uh crossroads south gym roof it's original uh it's the original of the building and the current leaking that has uh punctured the roof
with the solar panels mounting system as well as the deterioration of the original uh fiberglass panels also the committee discussed the issue with the high school tennis court uh shifting and cracks which are making the court not
playable and we need repairs to that we received pricing for both these projects as well as uh potential incentives uh its impact on the project and overall budget health moving forward finally we did uh review a list
of projects that are currently on hold as our ability to fund them is not available as already discussed earlier in the budget that's it thank you um education
Dr garage is out um is not here tonight dr ma'am and and Suzanne go ahead you want to hit that up the our education committee I know that we talked about the national anthem right was that allowed to So we met via Zoom and we talked about um looking at
the national anthem incorporating that into the elementary level and Dr mammon spoke with our music um teachers and they had a great point they're like they you know they do lots of patriotic songs the kids work on a lot of patriotic
songs but as far as a national anthem learning at such a young age they just don't have the range like it's just too above it's like teaching calculus to third graders so um anything else guys that I missed on that okay that was it
it was pretty short uh liaison reports i want to start with mine and this is for this is actually from uh Miss Carik who couldn't be here today but sent me a message and said please read this she would like to congratulate
the efforts of Dr mammon and the parent academy in organizing uh the anxious generation panel she said that the student panel was extremely informative and perceptive and the kids offered amazing insight and she attended
both and was beyond impressed and she wanted to make sure that I thanked you on her behalf and your crew and tell them what a great job thank you we we had a whole team yeah um it was really
it was a lot more fun for us than um other parentmies but to hear our students speak and tell us how we can better talk to them and get them to do things was really insightful so I just
thank um Miss Cathic for her kind words and I will share that with the rest of the team awesome good thank you so much any other leazison reports right now yes I've been pretty silent lately but I want to
definitely speak up about Mr sbhs which I attended along with Miss Caric um and the outstanding job that the uh the uh team did the the uh students did and presenting themselves it was a lot of
fun um our teacher um MC's did an outstanding job um they really really set the tone for the entire evening and I'm so super proud of them and I'm sorry I didn't get a chance to share this last
time but um no she didn't but um I wanted to make sure that I did this time um also the annual chessathon i wasn't able to attend but I heard it was a great success and um just want those
individuals those students to know you know how proud we are of them and I'm so sorry I couldn't make it this year and I'm so looking forward to next year's event uh because it's a great event it's a big event and um just wanted to give them a shout out on this evening and
that's all I have to say thank you Angel anybody else okay let's move on to old business the budget we did that we're not going back to that right now new business there's none at that time we are up for public
comment on any topic but our public like left the building they left the Elvis has left not yet i got to read my little thing and then we're going to welcome you up there um the board of education recognizes the value of public comment on educational issues and the importance
of allowing members of the public to express themselves on school matters of community interest complete copies of palace policy 0167 which govern this portion of the meeting are available to the public at the auditorium entrance
online or by contacting the board office to permit the fair and orderly expression of comments we ask that participants be recognized by the presiding officer and preface comments by announcing his or her name place of residence and group affiliation if
appropriate and by completing the sign-in sheet please print legibly or we will be unable to document your name for permanent records each statement made by participant shall be limited to three minutes no participant may speak more
than once on the same topic mr palowski will indicate when you have 15 seconds remaining all statements shall be directed to the presiding officer no participant may address or question board members no discussion between a
participant and respondent shall extend the threeminut time limit it is our plan to listen to each member of the public once all questions and comments from all members of the public are made the board of education may respond or respond via email in the most
timely and efficient manner available all questions and comments will be noted mr palowski has anyone pre-registered yes we have Mr barry Nathansson has pre-registered we also have Come on down mr umesh Meta if he's here he could make
his way to the podium as well barryson Mr mike is not behind the podium barry Nathansson 40 Dunston Lane Mammoth Junction New Jersey uh I'm here to talk about the budget uh I appreciate what you did this
evening uh it was a necessary thing uh let me give you some history and knowledge that I have fell on in the last few weeks uh
I'm a former member of the New Jersey School Board uh Association Legislative Committee and I was uh as of last year I was the longest serving member of that body
uh for some stupid reason they still communicate with me uh and I still talk to them uh within the last couple weeks and I've CCD a few of you on on the letter uh I
have continued sending it out i've also spoken to several people like Vin Gopal uh a few others uh because the issue of the funding formula
was on the docket on the legislative committee almost every meeting for the last couple years we knew it was suns setting we knew it wasn't a a good
formula they kept promising us that they were going to do something they were going to come up with a formula uh I listened to Scott and Lisa testify last year they said the same thing to them
they said they kept saying it okay uh this is not uh in writing or whatever but the bottom line is we have a new governor coming uh they
basically use this as a scapegoat that they don't have to come up with a formula before they got a new governor because they didn't know what direction the new whoever the new governor was and this is the way to almost illegally get
around it because I I brought it up with a couple of them how is this legal uh did the Department of Education come up with it they're not saying that it it came through the Department of
Education but it wasn't voted on so this is uh a way for them to not do it but do it okay and just to clarify Lisa uh Newark is getting
1.326 billion this year which is a 6% increase from the 1.251 billion uh I have constantly brought this up there
is there is a member of the Newark school board or Newark district on the legislative committee he happens to be an aid to the mayor that was appointed
to the school board so it it's kind of you know funny i've gotten enormous fights but Scott brought it up if they only got a half a billion if they've only got
$800,000 $800 million and spread the rest out to the districts that got cut we'd be in great shape yes thank you for your comment Mr nathansson it's always a pleasure
i love you too i know i know you do i can feel it every time you talk any other registered next anybody else here regard i know but I know come up at any other register no okay come on up come on down hello
good evening uh my name is Jay Krishnan i live in Manmouth Junction um I've been uh in South Brunswick community from uh 2016 onwards so I have uh two kids uh in middle school they are twins twin boys
nice so you know so great to be here this is my first time being in person while I have seen this remotely in the past um uh I have three points for for me to you know put it across to the board and before that you know it's a quick shout out to the team you know
it's a lot of insights it's a great great to be here to uh see uh you know lot of data points and all the work and and so on right so thank you for that first of all and to my point um you know uh Scott uh brought in the point of the
um enrollments right so when I moved into to this uh school district in 2016 uh the rating was around nine right so while I agree with the point on the aging community so this uh the rating
has also is makes a play in you know in terms of people coming into this community would like board to uh see how how what what all the actions we are looking to take on that right and second is more personally what as we are as a family as we are going through the last
year uh you know the uh from the extracurricular activities there has been a cut down on uh the soccer teams and there has been cut down on the program so which is which is also also something which I wanted to put it across what is the why uh while we are talking about adding the funding and ask
and increasing the funds and so on there is a program uh you know cut down would you know request the board to look at that right and uh third is on the summer program uh which is we me as a we are a family we are going through as we speak
uh the template what you had in the past uh is no has been uh revised in the current uh um current period which is like a trimester 1 and trimester 2 only has been considered for this year so which is uh I would urge board to look
at how this that has been considered in the past you know why don't we consider in the same way uh in the future also right so that is something uh this is specifically for the geometry uh you know for going into the ninth th grade and so on right so that's something which I wanted to personally as a family
what uh we have seen this uh while I have added those two points uh which I have seen in the past and the current year also what we are going through so the those are all the three points what I wanted to make thank you thank you thank you so much welcome we're glad you came thank you so much anybody else in
the audience we have anybody else okay well then I am going to close this portion of public comment ments next order of business is the consent agenda review by Mr powski all
right everybody we have a very concise consent agenda we have the board transfers financials a bills list sorry my apologies uh we have acceptance of some funds for some nonpublic handicap we're approving transportation
contract we also have an athletic trip transportation contract for the season uh we have a um tentative district budget i said in our update the rationale for this was the last
paragraph that specified the use of the healthcare waiver 1.8 we modified earlier to show a number at the bottom that is equivalent to the maximum ability for the district to take we are have our HIV bullying trans uh excuse me
bullying and um intimidation report student field trips we have transportation travel reimbursement expenses for uh staff we are approving a nursing plan that was added to our uh board portal a little
bit later i also emailed that out to some members that were questioning we have a professional services update for special education services and we are revising our school calendar and that is our consent agenda okay any questions for Mr palowski on
our consent agenda i mean I do have questions on the nursing plan so maybe slightly clarification type so this nursing plan is if I understand is a is a list of protocols or steps that each nurse will will adopt in in a situation of that
particular conditions is that accurate it's been in place for years yes okay so what are the changes are there any changes or is exactly the same there's there's typically no changes to that plan it's just every year needs an update and and this year Roash we're going to um have the nurses actually
they want they want they've asked to do a review and this summer they should be producing a any modifications and you'll be seeing those when those come out okay so that kind of dovtales into my next one is I personally am no expert in
validating those medical procedures have we or do we is it a normal practice to get for example the school doctor has prepared this to get it validated from a health center doctor or vice versa or some nurse kind of
looking over so we got a forey check on it and not just me kind of giving an approval on a nursing plan so the the practice is the the district employs a doctor it's but it's not our it doesn't it's not uh doesn't work for South Brunswick okay in
our case Dr fan works for Brunswick Urgent Care okay so he's the one that prepared that document for us then the nurses take that and adopt that to their own sites so it is a that is a doctor doctor not Well we we have nurses we
don't have doctors do we do we pay them for general services yes okay so maybe and again it's something to consider now it makes me at least my question is clear but to get a forite check something given from a doctor whose services we are taking maybe have it
kind of ver verify validated from another professional like our health center doctor or somebody else we don't we don't get any service this is the service we hire him to do okay yeah so in other words there's no Got it clear okay yeah yeah if we hired another doctor it would be to do the same thing he's doing be a second opinion I guess
but that's okay it's clearer now okay good i'm good thank you you got it any other questions for Mr palowski all right roll call roll call on consent agenda miss Julie Ferrara consent miss Alicia Khan yes mr
roger Krishna yes mr mike Mitchell yes miss Lisa Rogers yes mr rees Sony yes miss Laura Hernandez yes what is motion carries got some absentees
uh can I have a motion to approve second second Mr sony sorry sorry can we just move what are we doing no that's Yeah okay i don't know i haven't at least lost that we did roll call after 10:00 you do for Come
on come on now okay come on people look at my audience they've all got the wheels on the bus are falling off okay please note the next scheduled board of education meeting is set for Thursday May 1st 2025 at
7:00 can I have a motion to adjourn miss Ferrara second Mr mitchell good night South Brunswick