and regional board of education is called to order. Adequate notice as required by the open public meetings act was provided on December 5th, 2025 by posting the notice with the respective clerks of the city of Lambertville, Burough of Stockton and Township of Westl and advertised on December 5th in
the Star Ledger and Trenton Times newspaper. Would you please join me to the flag of the United States of America which stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty justice for
all. >> Shall we call the role? >> Jennifer Bachelor >> here. >> Johni >> here. >> Martha Dennis >> here. Paul Fno >> here. >> Gina Bashetti >> here.
>> Brian >> here. >> Aaron Olirri. Ronnie Todd Marino >> here. >> Michael Sh >> here. Start with >> Okay. Um we are going to start with our
student representative. Uh though >> um All right. So, I'll hit you guys with my update for the uh past past month about. So, of course, we've been doing well athletically, academically, socially, we've had a lot of fundraisers and
different things going on. Um, athletically, softball, baseball, obviously they're in full swing now. We recently had the pink out game, some early grades. They have their senior nights coming up and just last week represent um reps from like each team, golf, baseball, and softball went up to
North Hunter. They had a little convention with a motivational speaker and a talk to some of like people in their respective teams. Um academically obviously sophomore junior seniors all getting ready for the AP exams. They're coming up this next next week and then
in the next weeks just like um the past month this month the peer leaders ran another thing obviously last week was take your kids to work day. So peer leaders ran activities for all the little ones. uh Key Club have been working hard planning field trips, other um appreciation
activities that we've been working on. I'm not sure if everybody knows about them yet. Um coming up this next Wednesday and Friday, there are some things going on within the arts. Um there's the teen art kind of um I don't know, not not festival, but at the
library they're doing presentation for the teen arts. And then on Friday they're going to TCJ and they're kind of getting to work with some of the choir there which is cool. Um overall I think everybody's doing really well and kind of wrapping up for the end of the year.
>> Yeah. Um we also uh this evening have a special recognition. Um so the board is going to be passing a resolution in just a minute. Um but we'd
like to welcome Miss Louie um to present first. >> Good evening everyone. Thank you so much for the invitation for this evening. This is Martina Martinez Pablo. Uh we are proud to honor Martina as our 2026
South Hundan unsung hero. Um, Martina has consistently demonstrated a strong work ethic in her academics, applying herself to diligently applying her sorry, applying herself diligently to earn her grades. Beyond her studies,
she's a kind and courteous individual whose positive attitude fosters a welcoming environment among her peers and teachers alike. This year, our preschool program at South Hunter Regional Elementary School has had the pleasure of hosting Martina as our
dedicated student intern through the Hunter County Polytech program. Currently in your sec in her second year um of the principles of teaching program, she's shown tremendous growth um professionalism and initiative in our
preschool classrooms. Throughout her internship, Martina has actively supported daily routines, assisted with small groupoup instruction, and engaged warmly with our youngest learners. Martina consistently demonstrates patience, enthusiasm, and a genuine
interest in early childhood education. She has developed strong relationships with both students and staff and continues to model developmentally appropriate practices, support social emotional learning, and help maintain a positive classroom environment. She has
recently expressed an interest in exploring ESL services within the elementary school and is now working alongside a colleague in our kindergarten and first grade classrooms to broaden her experience. We are grateful for her contributions to our programs and appreciate the energy,
creativity, and support she has brought to our classrooms. As a former student of our building, um that's the South Regional Elementary School. The teaching staff has been especially impressed by her maturity,
her growth, and professionalism, and they share that it's been a joy having her back at stress. and um and but this time as an aspiring educator. Um here at the high school, Mr. Peterson, Martina's
soccer coach, shared that he has had the privilege of witnessing her growth both in and out both on and off the field. She has proven herself to be persistent and dedicated, overcoming numerous barriers to attend practices and making the most of every opportunity to
improve. Her commitment is evident not only in her p in her presence but in the effort she puts forth once she arrives. Always working to her full potential, modeling perseverance and encouraging those around her. This dedication
translates into all areas of her life, reflecting her ability to set goals and achieve them through hard work and resilience. We are proud to honor Martina Estal's unsung hero as we are sure that she will bring the same level
of determination, kindness, and growth mindset to the world beyond our walls. She is a student who leads by example and we believe she will continue to do so in the future. Congratulations. >> Thank you.
Martina, we will be passing a resolution to that effect just now. Um, it is written as whereas the South Hunton Regional School District School Board of Education hereby recognizes Martina Martinez Pablo for receiving the Hunton
County School Board Association Unsung Hero Award on March 4th, 2026. And whereas the Hunton County School Board Association in collaboration with New Jersey School Boards Association recognizes unsung heroes from each high school in Hunan County. And whereas the
Unsung Hero Award honors students who make outstanding contributions to their schools and communities, but are often overlooked by other traditional student recognition programs. These students have overcome difficult academic and personal challenges, modeled good citizenship, and a spirit of quiet
strength that has inspired others. These unsung heroes may have organized community nonprofits, selflessly supported others, or achieved academic success despite disabilities, language barriers, or other significant challenges. And whereas Martina Martinez
Pablo has overcome seemingly insurmountable o obstacles to reach their full potential has served the school community and the community at large and stands as a beacon to inspire others. And now therefore be it resolved that the South Hunan Regional School
District Board of Education recognizes Martina Martinez as an unsung hero of Hunter County and the South Hunan Regional School District. And be it further resolved that this resolution is presented to Martina Martinez Pablo as a sincere token of the South Hunteran
Regional School District Board of Education's congratulations and best wishes for continued success. I hope you take that last sentence beyond anything else. So, thank you very much. Can I get a motion to pass resolution?
Ronnie first and second by Jen. Voice vote on this. All in favor? Hi. >> Hi. >> Congratulations. >> Thank you. We have a representative from the PTO.
>> Uh first, Miss Aran, congratulations. Uh we had the honor of going to the Education Association this weekend where um Hardigan was also an award recipient and
thank you for representing our district so well. >> Um Jessica Hardigan um I almost said West PTO, sorry. Um PTO. Um so we'll start off with yearbooks. Um we've hit
our quota for South Elementary, but um please order your yearbooks. anyone who wants one or spread the word if you're a staff member. Um there's still quite a few families that normally have purchased a yearbook that are not on the list, so please do so. Um we will have
very limited extra copies. Um so yes, and all of those um announcements have gone out via parent square, so hopefully we'll do a final push with room parents and get them sent out again. Um our next kids night out will be held Friday, May 15th. Um, and
our final kids sign out will take place Friday, June 5th. Um, registration for both events is live on membership toolkit. I opened them today. Um, and they will be going out by the end of the week on Parent Square. South Elementary Field Day is scheduled for Friday, May
29th. We had initially advertised it as Thursday. That has been changed. Um, the rain date will now be Thursday, May 28th. Um, we got two really fun inflatables. one for uh our kindergarteners and our first graders and one more appealing to the older
kids. Um lunch has been donated by Shopright in Flemington. The Lambertville Fire Department will be grilling for both staff and students again and the bishes will be there with their snow contract. Um staff appreciation week is coming up. It's May 4th through May 8th. Um all of
the signup links for all three schools have been shared via parent square. the uh signup genius for the elementary school is doing really well. We do need some support at the middle school and the high school level. Um so if you've seen those and you're able your family is able to please donate. Um it really
does help set costs for us. Um and we're able to put the money other places. Um we'll be following a similar theme that we have in past years. Um breakfast, snack day, lunchon for the elementary school and the middle school.
And then the high school likes to do their own thing with a snack day and a coffee bar. And um we will purchase lunch for our staff members. Um the PTO is also supporting the middle school art and STEM show by providing um popcorn machine and supplies. The
Bachelor family is letting us use their cotton candy machine, which we've gotten a lot of use out of that. Um and we will donate the supplies for the cotton candy machine and decorations. Um, and that is Thursday, May 14th, I
believe. So, please come out and support it and get a sweet treat. Um, next week marks the final week of afterchool enrichment clubs for the spring semester. Thank you to everyone who has supported these programs. We'll be actually sending out a brief survey
to families in the elementary school. We're hoping to do so in the next week or two. Um, we just kind of want to gauge where people are at, what program we could be, what programs we could be offering, what we're not offering, what people would like to see, and more importantly costwise.
Um, I'm not a professional afterchool enrichment program runner, so gauging where we are with cost, we're at a very comfortable spot, but I'm hoping that we are able to work some numbers and lower it and make it more accessible to more
families. Um, so if you see the survey, please please try and fill it out and give us some feedback. even if your children don't um partake in the program or if you're a staff member, we would like to hear from you. Um
and then our prek touch preK through 4 touch truck event is scheduled for June 5th. Um we have a great lineup of vehicles thanks to our volunteers who organized that with the city and local um vendors and the PTO will be providing popsicles when students return back to
school. Um, our middle school pretzel sales have been very, very interesting and the kids absolutely love them. Um, the first one we didn't order enough. The second one we ordered too many. So hopefully this one on Friday we've hit our sweet spot. Um, so it'll be this
Friday with the final sale on May 29th. Um, students, you're not aware, they get upon dismissal, they come down and they grab a pretzel and then they head off to whatever their dismissal procedure is. And then lastly, I'd like to take a
moment just to thank my incredible team that I work with. Um I have the privilege of working with some pretty amazing people and everything that we accomplish for the students in the district is a result of strong teamwork with with my team and with um administration and staff and all of you. So thank you very much.
>> Thank you. >> Thank you. Do we have anyone from the LA? >> Okay. Um, we have received several items of correspondence from a resident this month and we are acknowledging them here. >> Okay.
>> Yeah. So, I do want to just acknowledge a few things in reference to the correspondence that I prepared. Um, so the referendum was submitted to the Department of Education in June of 2021 and it was approved by the department in
August of 2021. It was then voted on and approved by our community on November 2nd, 2021. The projects did not go out to bid until March of 2023 due to litigation delay. Between 2021 and the time our projects
went out to bid in 2023, it's estimated that the cost of construction rose approximately 25 to 35% per square foot nationwide. This was not unique to our district as it was a marketwide condition that impacted school districts and public projects across New Jersey
and our country. It's important to understand that the referendum estimates are based on projected costs at a point in time. Because public school projects follow a deliberate process that includes design, state review, and bidding. There is always a gap between
voter approval and construction. During this period, marketing conditions can and in this case did change substantially throughout the entire referendum process. From our initial planning and design through construction and final
expenditures, the district operated with multiple layers of professional oversight. This included a construction attorney, bond council, and an auditor to ensure that all actions were compliant and aligned with legal and financial requirements.
In addition, the district undergoes a comprehensive annual audit conducted by an independent auditing firm. This review includes a detailed examination of all district expenditures, including referendum funds, and is conducted over a full week each year. These audits have
consistently affirmed that our financial practices are sound and appropriate. Last month, I publicly presented a detailed referendum cost analysis which was shared with the community and remains available for review on board docs. This information provides full
transparency into how funds are allocated and spent along with the total cost of the projects. It's also important to note that in many school district projects, costs exceed original estimates due to the conditions that I've already described. There are
established and lawful mechanisms to address those differences. The district has utilized such mechanisms appropriately and with all regulatory guidelines. At this point, the referendum has been successfully completed. Our buildings
have been renovated and constructed as planned and the district reconfiguration is in place. The focus should now be on supporting our student, staff, and community as we move forward. It's time to move on.
Thank you, Mr. Suzo. Um, as we move through, I have a motion to approve minute from our last meeting. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I.
>> Okay. Um, we now have a meeting within the meeting. Um, so we are going to be conducting a public hearing positive. Um, so I need a motion to enter that public hearing now. >> So move.
>> Okay. Chen. Um, all in favor? >> I presentation apologize. >> Thank you. So for those of you that have been, you know, coming the last month or so, obviously this has been a long process, an extremely challenging
process this year with many of the things that we'll talk about in the slide deck for all school districts across the state of New Jersey. But before I start, I do want to just before I start, I do want to just thank the board because this process started many months ago. um committee meetings
involved, a lot of nuances throughout this process, a lot of patience by the board as we waited for state funding numbers and things along those lines. So, I do credit the board and and thank them for all the time and effort they put in, you know, to getting us to this point where we're actually prevent, you
know, presenting our public budget for next year. So, just there's always, you know, the foundational pieces that build a budget, right? We have our mission statement. Just as those of you who may have participated in our strategic planning, this is something that we looked at,
something that we had in place and made the decision to keep it because we felt it met our needs based on our district. So, this is always a driving force right behind our budget as we look at our mission statement and how our different funds are allocated. Um, these are just our district goals from this year that
we had. Uh you'll hear more about this probably in our May meeting as we report out for the year, but you know, we always are focusing on obviously academic achievement with our students. We'll be implementing next year a process that we've been planning for all year, a new character education program
called Character Strong in K8. Um our community classroom program has been a huge success in my opinion this year. And actually in May, we are going to be inviting our all of our folks who have participated from the community in that project to kind of recognize them at our
main meeting. And it's a long list. So I'm really excited. I'll just full disclosure. I think it went even better than I originally thought it would for year one um with the amount of teachers and I thank our staff for that because they really engaged the process and were invested in the process. So I'm excited
to present that at our next meeting. will have the opportunity to really uh you know recognize those individuals and moving forward they are going to play a huge role especially with our pathways program that we'll be launching at the high school next year. Um and that leads us into goal four. So um you know on the
agenda this night this evening we actually have a recommendation for a pathways coordinator for our new program that we'll be implementing for a new nth grade experience for our students. Um there's still work to be done, but the foundation is laid and we're really excited about kicking that off and
continuing that next year. So really a budget is a planning tool for what we value. We look at obviously, you know, our mission statement. We want to make sure that we use it and we're as as fiscally as responsible as we can be. Obviously, that was a challenge this year with school districts across the
state of New Jersey. And you all know by now if you've been following along with health benefit premiums and how that's all played out along with all the other increased costs that we're dealing with like the energy and things along those lines. It is a planning tool, right? It's something that we got to utilize to mitigate risk, possible risk of things
that could happen during the school year and manage that risk. That's all part of it. It's really important and this board since the time I've come here um has always stressed opportunities for all of our kids. what does that look like from inside the classroom as well as
extracurricular and co-curricular activities and I think we've come a long way um with that in a variety of different ways in order to accomplish that developing the whole child right so not just about the academic achievement but the social emotional and and making sure that when our students leave us
after 12th grade that they'll be productive members of society um and then developing our staff right and making sure that they have what they need in order to do what they do on a daily basis for our kids. Long-term planning for academics, which I think we spent a good deal of time this year
really focusing on the high school as part of one of our goals. Long-term planning for staff as staff retirements and things change over and making sure that we're planning for that. And obviously with just finishing the referendum, we're in really great shape as far as the elementary and the middle
school with facility planning. And now our our focus really is on the high school, right? And that's part of our capital budget, which you'll hear about tonight. So, as I mentioned, it was a long process. We really started this process internally back in October where we
started to work with our administrative team on developing the budget and beginning initial budget discussions. Um, there were meetings with myself and Dr. Lunchko as we developed with each one of our principles and administrators on our team. Um, we had to, you know, administrators had to submit before our
winter break their final budgets to Dr. Munchko before that time. And then we had to do a county review. So if you're not aware, all school districts are required to do about a two-hour review where the county we meet with the county superintendent and the county BA, business administrator, and they ask a
lot of questions and go through our budget, look at the history and kind of where we're projecting. So we did that back in December. Um then as soon as we got back from winter break, we're really digging into it even more. Um we started working with the finance committee in February and then continued that process
in March with our finance committee. Uh we waited for our governor's address which obviously was a little bit later this year than normal because it was a new governor which came out March 10th. State aid figures were released on March 12th. We did a budget work session that evening that we now that we had our
state aid figures. The board approved at our March 23rd meeting a preliminary budget which we submitted to the county superintendent and the county superintendent approved that budget on April 2nd and now we're here for the public hearing and the adoption of the final budget.
So just terminology school budget uh terminology can be a bit confusing. So just so everyone's aware of the terminology and and what we use when we develop our budget. So, we have our general fund. That's our operating budget. That's basically the budget that we use to pay for everything that
happens day-to-day. You know, salaries, benefits, transportation, facilities, whatever it may be. Um, those are all the instructional programs. Those are all the things that happen day-to-day. And we use our general fund. The tax levy is the amount of money that we raise within the community as far as our
taxpayers to supplement our budget. We know in the state of New Jersey that the majority of uh municipalities uh fund school programming, right? Uh we don't get a ton of money from the federal government. We get some money from the state, but the majority of it's
funded through local tax share. Debt service is really our mortgage. So, at this point, we have the 2021 referendum. I'll be sharing in a slide later on. Um, good news that our last debt payment for the old referendum debt for the West
Annaw School was made in February of 26 and that will have a positive impact on our budget and the implications for our taxpayers moving forward starting in July. And then we also have fund balance and surplus. So basically when we go through a budget, if we have any money
left over at the end of the year after we have our audit, which usually takes place in August and September, it's determined to be a surplus or a fund balance. And depending upon how much money that is, typically there's one or two things that happen with that. Uh we can use a percentage of it into a future
budget, right, the following year. And then the remainder of it typically is deposited and moved into our capital reserve account because that is where we do our projects down the road. If we're going to do things like roofs or paving or HVAC or whatever that may be, it all comes out of our capital reserve. So
that's typically how that process works out. And you'll see as I get into specifics how much fund balance we're using for the 2627 budget bank cap. So this can be sometimes a little bit of a confusing topic. So it's not actual money, it's spending
authority. So each and every year, right, there's a 2% cap. Sometimes there's waiverss that are built in. We're going to talk a lot about that tonight. Specifically for health benefit increases that are above and beyond normally what they would be. So it can increase the board's spending authority.
If the board does not utilize all their spending authority, it maintains that authority for a period of three years before it expires. So you can see by this breakdown here how much CAT or how much bank hat we have from the last three years. And we do have some money
that will be expiring at the end of this year to 99,38. And we will obviously, you know, this year for the 26 27 budget that we'll be hopefully adopting this evening, we'll have bank HEP left over because the board is not utilizing their entire spending authority.
Capital reserve, as I mentioned, this is really for our capital projects. Um, this is something that we plan for and you'll see I have a slide of exactly what we're focusing on for our capital reserve projects for the 26 27 school year. Equalization rate. This is an
important one because it's determined by the county, not by the school district. And this is basically the percentage share for each one of our municipalities. So I do have a slide that shows that information that is something we get from the county each and every year. And it shows how much each municipality is contributing towards our budget. And then health
benefit adjustment is a a really important term for this year. Um, so if we have a significant increase in health benefit premiums, which we do and which all districts in the state of New Jersey do, um, there is the ability to go over the normal 2% cap because of those large
increases without going out to an actual budget vote. So, we'll talk a little bit about what that means and kind of where we landed with our health benefit renewals and and the amount of spending authority it's presenting to the board. So this is just a reality throughout the
state of New Jersey right now. So basically there everyone experienced extreme rising costs with health care. Um some districts as much as 35%. For our district health care expenses went
up to 18%. Last year they were 11%. So, when you start talking about 18% health benefit increases, what our contractual uh settlements are as far as percentages and raises, plus heating and oil, which we all know what's happening with that
right now and all our other operational expenses, it creates some challenges, right? Maintaining a 2% tax levy in this environment with all these increases is just not feasible for anyone. And that's why when you see the information I'm going to share where where districts are landing, no one's near that number
because of the all these issues that we're we're confronted with. Um, you know, we've gone through this budget with a fine tooth comb. The entire board has gone through line by line. The finance committee has spent months looking at every possible way that we
could save money the best we possibly can and reduce the impact on the taxpayer. So again, like I said, this is not something that we took lightly. It's something we've spent months on to try to get to where we are today. So, as we know, we're in the people
business, right? And a lot of our costs are fixed costs that evolve from staffing and benefits. We also have special education programs and services. And depending upon situations with special education, that can be unpredictable and it can be even be
volatile sometimes. We could have a student who moves into the district that we didn't know about when we planned our budget that has needs that perhaps we can't meet and that's something that we have to pay for that we didn't plan and that could be sometimes 100 200 or $300,000 for one particular student. So
that can be a challenge. We have our extracurricular and co-curricular activities. We have our maintenance and our operations. We have our transportation. We have ratables in each one of our communities which obviously we don't control but that can impact where we are. And then state aid on a on a yearly basis. We were fortunate that
we did get an increase in state aid this year which helped our budget process. And as I mentioned before, 80% of our salaries and benefits are fixed costs. So when we look at the budget and we rolled over from one year to the next, 80% of it is already fixed, right? That
we can't control or we can't change. The other 20% is where we got to make the magic happen in order to be able to make this all work, which is a challenging process. So expenditures, staff salaries, benefits, our classroom supplies, program supplies for all of our
different content areas, special education, I mentioned our technology that we have, textbooks, all the clubs and the activities and athletics, custodial maintenance. Then along with that, we have all of our utilities which we're going to talk about tonight, insurance for all of our buildings,
workers comp insurance, grounds maintenance, curriculum and instruction, our professional development for our teaching staff, our curriculum writing, and any new curriculum that we want to implement. We have our transportation costs, and then we have the Polytech tuition, which we've talked about in the
past. So, you know, we have to pay when students go to Polytech, which is our vocational program. Right now, we were I actually asked Peter this morning. So, for next year for our part-time students, the tuition is a little bit over $5,200. So, that's for a student
who goes during the junior and senior year half the day and comes back. And the tuition for a full-time student, so someone who's going to enter into one of their starting in ninth grade is over $10,000 per year. I think it's 10,000 and change per year, right? So, that is
a significant cost. It's one of the reasons why we started the school performing arts next year so we can try to help offset that. Um, but that is something that all school districts in Hunter County are dealing with right now, that tuition amount. So, our revenues, as I mentioned, for
our operating budget for 2627, we do get state aid. That's going to account for about 13.5% of our budget. We only get about 1% from the federal government for our budget and then 82.1% comes from our local taxpayers. Preschool expansion
aid. So you can see the number that we received. Keep in mind I think we're now in year five of preschool. Preschool expansion aid started five years ago that pays for our preschool program. We have a full day preschool program and we have five sections of that that can accommodate up to 75 of our
preschoolers. I'm happy to say that all of our preschoolers have seats. any preschooler who wants to come to our district has a seat available, which is not the case of many other districts where they continue to do lotteryies and and trying to get all their kids in, but they just don't have the space. We also
have the school choice program where we have 97 choice seats and that generates almost $2 million in revenue. I've spoken about this a lot. I will continue to kind of preach that without our school choice funding, we would have a significant hole in our budget, right?
we would not be able to just eliminate staff. And I think that's a sometimes a misconception that's out there. If we didn't have the the choice program, we can just eliminate teachers in this grade or that grade. Keep in mind in a fourth grade, we might have two choice students, right? We still need the
teachers for all the other whatever how many kids that we have. Just by going down two students by eliminating choice is not going to save a teach or is not going to be able to eliminate a teacher in the budget. So then we have this huge hole. how we fill that with $2 million. So beyond all the benefits that our
choice program brings without money, the money is also an important piece as far as the revenue. The CA program, so we have a special education program that we house inside of our high school that does not belong to us. They rent two classrooms uh from us from the high
school and that is generating $165,000 in revenue. We are anticipating that our new school performing arts will generate about $110,000 in revenue for year one. So think about that. That is just for our students that are coming into the academy in 9th grade. Eventually then
it'll be 910 and all the way through 912. So you can see where that number could potentially go, which could be a big revenue for the district. Budgeted fund balance. I mentioned the word fund balance before. So you can see we're using that amount in our 26 27 budget.
miscellaneous revenue. So things like we do charge an activity fee for students to participate in extracurricular activities or clubs. And then we've been very successful in using Municipid to sell items that we no longer need in the district. And that's a credit to our
facilities department and specifically Mr. Alan Alvinir um who's also a community member uh who brought us on to the municip and takes care of that on a monthly basis. So, we're generating $59,000 between those two sources of revenue. And then about $4,000 in
interest on our general fund. So, when we talk about state aid, so these are the different categories of state aid. So, you can see where we were with school choice for 2526 and then where we are for next year. So, we did get an increase. We got an increase with some of our special education funds to
help offset some of the cost specifically of our students who require out of district services. We got some increase in transportation security. So you can see in the total we increased 181,343 for our state aid. Obviously if we had
decreased that would put more of an emphasis on the board to figure out where we're going to make up that money. And then preschool aid. So last year you can see the number that we got for 2526 and that number did go up for 2627. So the challenges
a 2% tax levy health benefits going up 18%. Our average salary increases for our biggest collective bargaining unit is 3.4%. Right? So that's in the next year that's predetermined. There's nothing that we can do to ch change that energy
costs. So, we really got hit hard, especially here because it's pro it's it is our least energy efficient building right now. So, originally we budgeted about $145,000 for electricity and to this date, it's probably more by now with this number. We've already paid out
180. So, we had to adjust that. And obviously, what's what's going on in our world right now, that's going to probably continue to increase. Um, so that's something that we had to plan for. Increasing transportation costs. We all know what's going on with fuel right now. at a district tuition and then we
talked already about polytech tuition. So do the math right? When we take our health benefit premium 18% right that includes our medical prescription vision dental you can see what that number is for next year. Then we take our salaries
at 3.4% and then we take a tax levy increase at 2%. With that, we're in a shortfall of 875,000, right? Almost 876,000. That doesn't include increased costs in
utilities, insurance for our buildings, any unexpected special education costs, program expansion that we would like to do, or additional transportation costs. Right? So, from a budgeting side, we're in the hole before we even start. So trying to figure out how are we going to
close that gap based on these things that are beyond our control the challenge. So these are the things that we don't share. You can see for 2627. So this goes back to that equalization rate. You can see the the percentage for
each municipality as far as what they're contributing towards the budget. That's based on that equalization formula at the bottom. And you can see our current enrollment as of today. It's 754 students. That number does include our 97 choice student.
And then ratables. So this is always a number that we want to see the arrow heading up in the positive direction. Obviously, if it's going in the negative direction, there's going to be more of an impact on each taxpayer. So the good news is the ratables have increased in all three of our municipalities and that's a positive in reference to the
budget process. So this is, as I've mentioned before, this is always a chart. We want to finish towards last instead of first. But we are fortunate between West Amwell Township, Lambertville, and Stockton Burough that we are among the lowest
four in the county in reference to tax rates and school tax rates. So you can see where some of the other municipalities are compared to we are. So that's a big positive for us as far as the impact on our taxpayers. So what is the board spending authority?
So, the board between the 2% tax levy, the current health benefit adjustment because we had an 18% increase and the bank cap that we haven't used from our last three budget cycles, we could raise the board could make the decision to
raise the budget 7.8% without a vote. Or you see the total spending authority, which is $1.6 million. All right. Again, that is the total spending authority that the board went into where they could raise the budget. I'm happy to report that we are not going to 7.8%.
As far as an increase, right after a full budget review, the board is recommending a budget with an increase of 3.5%. And I will tell you it's among the lowest proposed increases in the county. So, what I've been doing is tabulating information from all my colleagues and
this is an estimate, but this right now is what 100 count is looking like with other school districts. And you can see that right now we are the orange and we are towards the bottom of this list. And you can see there's other districts that are going four and a half, five and a
half, six, seven, almost seven and a half and almost 9%. In order to make ends meet and they're still cutting, right? But because their health benefits were so high, even beyond 18%, they have no other choice
other than to have massive cuts in their programming. But they are still cutting things and laying people off unfortunately. But again, we still landed in a really good place compared to most of our other colleagues throughout the county. So what's in the
budget? First all know that in order to get the 3.5% we had to cut $900,000. Right? So that slide that I showed before when we were in the hole I mentioned, right? We were about $1.6 million in the hole. We had to sharpen
the pencils and figure out we're going to have to reduce some staff. We're going to try to do the best we can with either retirements, right, or folks that leave and we don't replace their positions, trying to preserve as many jobs as we possibly can. So, we did have to reduce five full-time employees. And
you can see what that looks like. We had a special education teacher at the high school that's retiring that we're not going to fill. We had three positions. Two at the middle school. One was a standards of support position. One is a special education position. we're not going to fill. And then we went down a section in the elementary and third
grade next year where instead of having three sections, we're going to go with two sections. And then we also had to eliminate a paraprofessional at the elementary school. So we had to make all those reductions along with a lot of other things maybe from a programming side of things that we wanted to do that we're going to have to wait a little bit
to do because of the funding sources that we have and trying to make this all work. We are adding the coordinator position that I mentioned before that's on our personnel agenda and we are required to add a special education position at the elementary school based on our IEP needs. Right? So it's
statemandated. There's nothing we can do about that based on the level of services that our students need. We have to add a special education teacher for that building. It also maintains, which is one of the most important things on this list, our mental health
supports. We all know, staff in the room knows we're seeing more and more challenges with student mental health going all the way down to elementary school. It's important that we have those resources and they're in this budget. We were able to keep our buses separate. We had talked about the
possibility if we had to, would we consider combining runs for middle school, high school each and every day to and from school? That is not part of this budget. I'm happy to report that we're able to keep that separate as it is this year and continue to provide our late bosses. So when we talk about back,
you know, slides in the beginning when I mentioned the board committed to providing opportunities for all students, that's a big reason why we have that because we found and the board found that we had students that were not participating in afterchool activities because transportation was an issue. Now
that we have this, students are participating and our rates have increased significantly. Um we have over 65 extracurricular and co-curricular clubs enrichment opportunities. We have professional development to hope continue to focus on our student achievement. And we always provide and
we continue to provide students who have hardships, financial hardships with internet access so they're not at a disadvantage at home be able to complete their schoolwork. So that is also part of this budget. We've maintained our class size. That is a big deal in our district. So you can
see even with the reduction in third grade next year, you can see what our class sizes are. You can see historically what our average class sizes have been and you can see what the NJ doa DOE recommends and we are still in great shape with our class sizes
regard you know even though we are cutting staff and reducing positions for next year. So this kind of just shows you the history of the tax levy. Obviously, we've talked about this during the referendum time where we had debt from
the old referendum and then debt starting with the new referendum. The board tried to really do its best to keep it as close to 2% which they did over a period of really three years because of that. But this year obviously was a challenge. So that's why the board
is coming in at 3.5%. You know a question was asked at the last board meeting. How has financially districts or the district reaped the benefits of the new configuration in the referendum? This sh slide shows it. So
you can see, think about it, right? Referendum passes in 21. We started the process of reconfiguration in 23 24 and now we're completing that process. Look at the number of staff that we had in the 22 23 school year compared to what
we have now. Right? That process of reconfiguration began in 2324 and over that time and over the last eight years we've eliminated 23 full-time positions and the majority of that is done through attrition. Right? We could have made the decision to wait till this year and have
massive layoffs but we didn't want to do we planned this out and knew that this day was coming. So each and every year where people left or retired, we tried to do the best we possibly can knowing that when we fully reconfigured, we probably weren't going to need those positions. So let's not hire someone and
then in a year get rid of them. Let's try to plan accordingly so that when we get to this point when we're completely done the process that we're in a good place. So we have eliminated a lot of positions and been able to maintain our programs. But I will say, and I've said
this to the board, but we're now at the point with this budget cycle where we've kind of bottomed out, right? We've eliminated everything that we could eliminate over the last three or four years. And, you know, we're kind of where we are is where we should be. Um,
obviously, as we continue to talk about health benefits and if things don't change, that's going to create a challenge moving forward for future budgets. But there was planning that went into that. The other thing I want to mention that I think is important is the amount of opportunity that we're providing our kids. I was thinking about
this over the weekend. Like how awesome was it this year that it was the first time ever that we had a middle school musical, right? And we have like 40 students that participate in that where those students in the past may not have had the opportunity, right? Our fifth and sixth graders never had the opportunity to do that before or how awesome right now is we have 39 kids
participating in middle school track. 39 kids, which is like incredible, right? And I think about all these different opportunities and our numbers just looking 20 kids at middle school wrestling. We never even had a middle school wrestling program before, ever. And now this year we had 20. So like all
those opportunities that our kids are having that they didn't have in the past. For me, this is great financially, but that's even more important in my opinion for the amount of opportunities that the kids have now that they didn't have before, which I think is awesome. This is a big help. So, what this shows
you is that we made that last payment in February of the old referendum debt. We've reached the peak, right? We all know when we, you know, laid out the referendum debt for 2021, there was going to be a period of three years where folks were paying both debts. That
has now come to an end. So, now we're going on the downward trajectory, which is a big huge positive, especially in a year when the board has to raise a budget 3.5%. and you will see that in a second. Um, so that that's a really important piece.
So this is the numbers that everyone is most concerned about. Keep in mind this factors in the debt service relief that now the old referendum is no longer there. So you will see some positives, right? You will see for Lambertville they're actually
even though we're going up 3.5% the overall impact on the taxpayer is going to go down $48 a year or $41 a month for West Amwell the overall impact and remember these are on average assessments right and that's the numbers
at the bottom so if you're below the average assessment or above it it's going to vary but for the average assessment for West Annillwell you're looking at a total annual increase of $10 or 86 cents a mole And then for Stockton, and as you know, Stockton did go through some
reassessment recently. Um, they got hit the hardest, but still $85 a year or $7.7 a month. Without that referendum debt coming off, those numbers would have been a lot higher. So, we absolutely reap the benefit. So, I feel
confident coming to you tonight presenting a, you know, a budget that maintains all of our programs. I feel that it's fiscally responsible and for the most part, you know, is having, you know, the best possible impact we can have on our taxpayers based on
maintaining all of our programs for our kids. When we talk about our capital reserve account, and just a reminder, and I should have said this when we were going over our terms, remember capital reserve account is totally separate from the operating budget. You can't take money
from your capital reserve account and say, "Gee, we have a shortfall." So instead of 3.5%, what if we only went up to 3% but we took a million dollars out of our capital reserve account and we put it in our operating account. You can't do that, right? It's apples and oranges because you're basically
artificially inflating your budget. And then what do you do next year when you don't have that million dollars in your capital reserve account, right? So they're totally separate from one another. This is our planning account where we pick off projects that we need. As I mentioned, we have projects at the high school. So, we know that we're going to be creating a blackbox
classroom for our school performing arts. We know that we're going to be creating a dance room that we're really excited about for our school performing arts. Our turf project, if you've been following along, it's getting close, right? Probably within the next five to six days, it's going to be done. I just went out there tonight at about 5:15 and
was walking around checking it out. They're stitching in all the numbers and the and the markings for all the different sports. So, we'll hopefully be opening that up and being able to utilize it in the coming weeks. We do have an annual finance payment in for the turf and our capital reserve. We
desperately, if you've either work here or driven through our parking lot at the high school, you know that we desperately need repairs. So, we have that budgeted to get um repaired this coming summer to correct those for the new school year. Going to be doing some upgrades to our podcasting room. It's
one of our most popular programs at the high school right now. So, we'll be doing some upgrades to that, which by the way came from our kids who did a proposal and presented to us to say, "Hey, we really think to take this to the next level. We would love to see this in our podcasting room." So, we're
going to honor that. We're relocating our high school weight room because that's where our new dance room going to be going. Um, the new high school weight room will be going into our middle school commons, which used to be used for our middle school cafeteria, which you don't need anymore. So, we'll be moving over the equipment, putting new flooring, and adding a few new pieces of
equipment. And then we are due to update our what's called a long drains facility plan. It's something that we need to file every five years with the state. Um and ours is coming to a uh close. It's going to expire at the end of the summer. This is something we'll be working with our architect on, the board
finance committee and the board as a whole. And we will be presenting that and then submitting it. And these are basically all the projects over the next five to seven years that we want to try to address and plan out accordingly. So you can see the total amount there for our capital reserve account.
And then just an update. I know I've been providing updates. So we continue to move forward with the sale of the Westwell School. Right now the due diligence period expires on May 19th, 2026. Originally was supposed to expire on April 9th. Our buyer did exercise a
clause in the contract which expanded it another 30 business days. So now that ends on the 19th. Um once the 19th comes and goes, the buyer has 45 days to close. At the end um of the due diligence period and as we've mentioned before, the board has committed to using
those sale proceeds to help provide relief to taxpayers from the 2021 referendum. And we will be having those conversations. We looked at some preliminary um you know, projections back in the fall when we had our first buyer. We're going to be doing that
again at our May finance meeting and eventually as a full board. uh we'll be discussing that what that's going to look like and then we'll present that to the community and hopefully our go we're really going to try to do the best to close before the end of June and not roll over until our new fiscal year
because it makes things complicated. Um but again the buyer does have 45 days from May 19th. So in conclusion, I know that was a lot of information. The board is submitting a budget with a tax levy increase 3.5%. It's one of the lowest among all of
Hunter County. It maintains all of our programming, the initiatives, and all the things that we're doing, right? We're not stopping our progress. We're continuing to move forward. Um, and obviously, as I mentioned, losing that old West Annell referendum debt is definitely helping us with the increases
long term and specifically this year on the impact on the taxpayers. That was a lot of information. I know. Open it up first to any board members. Before we do that, I actually wanted to just say um to all of the board and to
admin um this year's budget was a difficult one and I I want to thank everyone's for their effort in that. Um but I I think I I definitely want to thank the finance committee for this. But beyond that, each and every
committee has a piece in in building this. So I think that there's a lot of like budget finance it it makes sense in your mind but when you think about it negotiations brings in that increase amongst our our teachers salaries personnel again we're
establishing who is going to be working for us and what they're going to be doing. Policy curriculum we're we're bringing in the actual materials. Um so so this all does feed into the final budget. So it's all of our work here and
I I want to thank everybody for that. And this even though this is a very difficult year, it's also the first year that we are setting a budget fully with a completed referendum. So we have a new operating model this year and this
budget does reflect that future. um it it's for our vision for the students and um our vision for the district and it also to each and every one of your credits is to our responsibilities to the taxpayers. So I think that we have
taken this very very seriously and um I I thank you all for that for putting in the work that went into that 20 minute presentation. So now question sorry >> and I don't I mean we've talked a lot
about this budget so I don't want it to seem like that the board has not had thorough discussions and I I just want to reiterate um that we the the part I thought this is only like my second third maybe uh budget process but this
year going through the budget line by line, which was more than two hours it took us to do that. Um, which was I I thought was very helpful and just to give, you know, everyone the benefit of knowing that we really we really truly went through the
budget line by line. Um, and you know, I'm I'm confident that we had tons of questions and a lot of discussion that we may not have here tonight, but that that did that did happen to go into this budget. I know that you said we discussed what
our outcomes for healthare in future and what weighing what's what's best for us provider at this point but as long as it's something that was not
change the offer >> correct Okay, that is going to open up our first public comment of the evening and this is very very particularly to things presented within this budget
presentation. It is not anything outside of of the budget presentation. Um a reminder before we start public comment, we do have procedures and requirement that include standards of conduct that need to be followed by all members of the public. Um, if a member of the
public becomes disruptive, including during any m period of public comment, the member of the board charged with running the public meeting shall warn and it may result in being prevented from speaking in the future or being removed from the meeting. Disruptive
conduct includes sustained inappropriate behaviors such as, but not necessarily limited to, shouting, interruption, use of profanity, or comments seen as abusive, obscene, or defamatory. Public comment is now open for the
budget hearing only. Any comments? >> You would please state your name and municipality. >> Joan Vanderine, West Animal Township. Um, I came to the budget workshop and you guys talked about how you went about
reviewing and and resourcing the uh, healthcare. Can you just go over that real quickly again? >> Yeah. So, we had a presentation by our health benefits broker who kind of shared all the different options that the board has in reference to um, you
know, going out and getting renewals for health benefits. Uh there was one that we looked at that could perhaps be a cost savings to the district. However, it was a fairly new fund and our health benefit broker recommended to the board to stick around in our fund that we're
in now for one more year and kind of see how that plays out. Um so I think that's basically what Ronnie was talking about that we will continue to monitor that and look at that to see because you know all districts are in the same boat. If these rates continue to increase like they have, it's just not sustainable
anymore and we may have to make some changes in order to, you know, save money but also make sure that we're maintaining everything that our staff deserves as far as our health. >> So, did did the like the deductibles change for the staff? >> No, we didn't change anything for our
health benefits right now. Okay. And you you have a broker that worked through. Okay. Yep. All right. Thank you. Yep. Jessica Hardigan, West Able. Um, thank you all for all that hard work. Um, I know it probably wasn't easy to come to what you came to. I just have a
suggestion for Capital Reserve Project. Um, coming to drop off every day, a sidewalk or some form of place for the kids to walk would be really helpful. There are students that do walk and it it scares the daylights out of me every single morning cuz some of them
especially when we had all that snow they had to walk on the street and it it's scary sometimes. So just something to consider. I don't know if it's possible with permeable surfaces and all of that stuff but just it would be helpful and less scary.
>> Yep. So I'll actually answer that. Um so we have looked at it. the conversations come up especially between the two buildings because now that we share a lot of different things. So I actually had our engineer come out and take a look at it. We walked the site and we determined we absolutely could do a
sidewalk. We got a actually a cost estimate on that that I had not shared yet with the finance, but I'll share here. It's $100,000 about um to actually connect from outside the middle school all the way up kind of behind the field hockey field and then all the way down up to our parking lot. So, it is
something that we'll be having conversations about for longer range facility planning because, you know, for our kids, for our staff, you know, our musical kids coming back and there's a lot of traffic back and forth. It's fine on days like today, but when we have six inches of snow on the ground, that's not
optimal. So, something we are looking at. >> Uh, let me see if there anything. There is none. >> Okay. Not seeing any online and anyone in the room. Let's close this period of
public comment. Um, we now need a motion to approve the 2026 2027 budget. >> So, move. Okay. This is a roll call vote. >> John Banani. >> Yes. >> Martha Denn.
>> Yes. Paul Fno, >> yes. Bashetti, >> yes. >> Brian, >> yes. Uh Aaron Olirri, Jennifer Bachelor, >> yes. >> Ronnie Marino, >> yes. >> And Michael Ste, >> yes.
>> Okay, with that we need to exit the special budget hearing. Correct. So, can I get a motion motion to do so? Shoot. >> John second. >> Second. >> Gina. Uh, all in favor?
>> Thank you. Moving along. Um, but as we do this, I do want to just also take a moment to acknowledge uh Mr. Sudo and and Dr. Leko today as board docs went down. Uh, we are
rolling on plan B and I very much appreciate that they have been able to pull this together. Um, that said, I have not pulled it together very well in finding where we're going next. >> So, Uh we now need to open uh
open up to full public comment. The same rules that I just uh said are in application here. Um except now you may speak on any subject that you would like. Three minutes are in order as
well. Are there any additional comments? I'm Luca Roso from Fielding Strong House. We're in fourth grade and we would like to share something with you about I Ready. We and many others believe that other learning websites are more effective and
fun than I Ready. One reason is you could be spending the money um on that you ready on books. We think literature would be more effective than some words on a computer. Secondly, many students
report stress and anxiety over at ready testing and schools. So, we started a petition to ban it. We got signatures from 52 kids and two adults. Reading books is probably more effective
than something on a computer and students prefer it over I write. and would the board rather we go on some website or read some classic literature. >> Sometimes during testing we feel stressed and that makes us get answers
wrong and that leads us to get lessons below our level of learning that we don't need help in and it makes some students underconfident and it keeps doing the same lessons over and over again. We are doing the same lessons that we
did at the start of the year. To wrap it up, we students have better things to do than I would. Therefore, we think we should deliver you. >> Thank you. >> Thank you, Luca. We appreciate your input.
>> Are there any additional public comments? Hello, I'm Lauren Brunswel from Lambertville. Um, just to echo uh the uh students uh concerns, but um I wanted to express a
continued desire. I've seen the board moving in some um really excellent directions in terms of programming development, equity in the district um reflected in the budget presentation. I want to encourage um the curriculum committee in particular and board leadership uh or district leadership and
board leadership to think about um more projectbased education um more ways in which our students can can work on executive function skill um developing their interests and abilities across different courses across time as well.
Um I think that the you know schools have honestly become very boring unfortunately for many students across the United States. This is really kind of a dilemma that we have found ourselves in. So I just wanted to encourage that kind of creative thinking um as part of the long-term planning um
in the district. Um and on a separate but somewhat related note, um I also wanted to encourage the board um to uh speak more about the gifted and talented uh program study and how that is shaping also uh decisions moving forward about
resources, programmatic design um initiatives and and other ways in which we want to continue to develop our district uh district excellence. Thank you. Thank you. >> Thank you, Michelle. Anyone else? Anything
on >> Nov. >> Okay, we will end that period of public comment. Um, it is now time for our committee reports. So, I am glad we're still here.
>> Oh, yeah. Okay. So, the curriculum and technology committee met on April 14th and um at that committee meeting there were no items that were discussed that are up for approval today, but there
were uh quite a few items for discussion. Um first, we got a technology update from from Vince. Um he advised the committee that cyber security testing has been ongoing and also um the teachers are due for a new
Dell laptops. They have been ordered. They I believe have arrived maybe >> couple weeks probably. >> Okay. And they'll be distributed uh to teachers this summer. They're covered under a three-year warranty. Um, also one of the conversations that
has been kind of ongoing is the possibility of uh whether or not parents can email their students during the school day to the students uh district email addresses. Um Vince looked into it
and the the netnet is that it's very challenging um to to make that happen. Um, and all of the information I don't know, he said a lot of words about email and it all has to be updated manually and
>> wall garden. That's the word. >> So, it doesn't seem like that's a reasonable possibility at this time. Um, additionally, the committee is working on committee goals for this year. We're still discussing them. Um there's been a
lot of discussion which is great and we hope to have something um set by next month I think. Um also we reviewed uh the draft uh AI guidelines that uh have
started to be developed. Um we went through them. They're definitely still a work in progress. Um, also we were given an update on program planning for the high school and the middle school. So there were parent nights that were held. The middle school
parent night was held on March 24th. The high school parent night was held on March 27th. I believe they're pretty well attended. And then the old we have a standing old item uh old business item on our agenda
which is to review and discuss screen time in the district. So um for our minutes the screen time analytics are are attached to the minutes if anybody wants to look at those. Um, one of the things that the committee discussed um
is was noting that the sixth grade has the most log screen time in the district. And then also there's differences uh across grades at the elementary school level where you see classes within the same grade having in
some instances widely disperate amount of screen time each day. So this is something that we're going to continue to focus on and look at throughout Thank you. >> Um I I did want to make note of the draft AI guidelines as well only because
this is the very start of that discussion. Well actually it's not the start of that discussion. Uh Mr. Souo brought together a group of educational professionals to start the discussion and u they have drafted these guidelines but the board is going to be taking all
of these into consideration in its entirety. So all of us will be participating in this discussion of over the coming months >> about the administrator period of course it's >> yes preparation
for the start >> um >> so just before we leave the topic of it it I appreciate the public comments that we just heard because after uh reviewing
the AI guidance um document for the first time, you know, when I had a quick look at it, I had actually written down a few things that were very much in line with the public comment which especially around um science and just making sure that I
hope that we all agree as a board that analog skills at the elementary level and making sure that our kids are good there first will lead them to be more successful in AI literacy, which I hope
that I I hope that that comes across to the public that that's where we would be going. But it did bring to mind and something that I wanted to um bring up to the curriculum committee in that I feel like and maybe it's just going
through middle school and reaching different ages, but I remember years ago that I felt like my older student. I remember that she had a thing that we did where we baked a cake with different layers and it was representing the layers of the earth and we did a solar
system and we did a lot of projects and there were shadow boxes and just really there was so there was a lot of hands-on for I remember doing with my older daughter that I don't see as much now um
which I would love to bring to the curriculum committee and and one of the things that came up recently more from a parent perspective But um like sixth grade science on Friday, we had fun Friday which is awesome and beautiful day and I appreciate this and it was you
know we got to do some outside time and but the way that we got there was that we completed two and then we were allowed to go out outside and to me it felt like we were rewarding the computer-based science and then getting to go outside and I only want to bring
it up as a missed opportunity where couldn't we have gone outside and done something science and then we would have been outside and doing handson. Um, so I just wanted to raise that in the context of what was on the agenda. Um, and I appreciate the
public comment that I I really and and also tying in the gifted and talented hands-on the projects all of that stuff. um I think will lead us to get you know up here and then create more um
ability to become AI literate and good with computers and doing those things. So >> and and to that point in our in our budget discussions our um middle school science curriculum that uh we are going to be talking about is certainly more
hands-on and we are moving that forward. Yeah, but Jen, I just want to say thank you for those comments because I think they're really relevant and important to the middle school, the elementary and and also the high school. I mean, none
none of them should be doing all of these thi many things that can be done in a more analog fashion with real books um and real conversations with real people um are you know doing that is
going to I think really help kids feel more invested in their time spent in school and more invested in their education and result have better results for the district as a whole. The only thing I will say to that I just want to make I don't want to give the impression
to the community that that's not happening now right because obviously we have each in the room are here each and every day. So obviously a focus for us and I think we hear what the board at least of the board are passionate about with this. Um I think it's also important to share if you look at those
analytics we had a significant decrease from February to March in the amount of screen time and you know we we've been working with our teaching staff about not utilizing screen time for fillers or rewards or things along those lines and I think we saw benefit of that because our minutes went down significantly. So
it is a work in progress. We know it's a focus for the district. Um, but we do know that there are great things happening in our classrooms. We want to continue to embrace that and really focus on that critical thinking, creativity, hands-on >> and and certainly we want to highlight
the y that's um and but this is yet another reason why conversations just started uh personnel committee. So, the personnel committee met via Zoom Wednesday, April 22nd, 2026. Will we discuss and I don't know if we
want to open the attachment? Yep. We discuss the following resignations, appointments, leaves of absence, substitute teacher appointments, non-tenured positions for approval, and extracurricular appointments. And I was going to point out as as Tony
mentioned just a short while ago that includes um James McManis, the new pathways coordinator. >> I don't know if anybody has any questions. I don't have any letters or anything associated with this. I'd like to move the following items. >> Move the attachment.
>> A B. >> Okay. Uh do you have a second? >> Second. >> Okay. This is a roll call. U I'm sorry discussion um and and to Mr. point. Uh we are hiring a pathway
coordinator on here. Um and having just gotten a lot of discussion about it prior to this meeting, uh I I'm very excited to be moving this this program forward else. John Bani, >> yes.
>> Martha Denno, >> yes. Vetti, >> yes. Brian B. >> Yes. >> Aaron Olirri, Jennifer Bachelor, >> yes. >> Ronnie Marino, and Michael, >> yes. >> Okay. I know uh the policy committee did
not meet this month. Um however, it has some large things on the horizon. So, we look forward to that as as Strauss catches up. >> There you go. >> Uh buildings, grounds, transportation, finance, and safety committee. It's a lovely name.
So, um, we met, excuse me, of April 21st. Um, uh, a large portion of what we discussed was already covered through our budget presentation. We reviewed that presentation for the final time. U, we talked about turf, um, the remaining
work, sewing and stitching the lines for each sport. And as a reminder, I always like to hit on that the field will be used by softball, field, hockey, and soccer, and football. And so all of those sports are going to be um marked out and the cooling agent is going to be
applied which I wanted to also note that there is a special cooling agent that gets applied to this turf which was an important um thing that I wanted to hear about um that it helps I forget what the numbers were but it helps
>> 50 degrees which was great and um the product itself I I looked at um what the product is and to be clear. It is a like a natural occurring element that is actually taken out of the ocean. So,
it's um renewable and it's not it's it's collected in a manner that's not like excavating or anything like that. It's very environmentally friendly. Um and it is not adding any additional chemicals or plastics or anything and it is getting us that cooling benefit. I just
I found that to be very important and I was happy to hear about that. So that agent will be applied um as part of the final work. Um we uh have received an insurance check payment um for our LBJ flooring closeout. We talked about the
sale of West Stamwell. Um the due diligence extension um septic and some other inspections have been completed. Um we hope to have our May meeting. We hope to have uh discussions around the final closing um on that. Um, in
transportation, we have a new bus expected to be ready in July. Um, and then on safety, Tony completed a five-day district safety training and updates that will need to be made as part of that plan uh will look to be implemented over the summer. And then
the rest of the meeting is just the usual bills list. Um, we have some contracts on the agenda tonight with descriptions there. Um uh yeah and all of the items travel and
expenses field trips um are all to be moved. So I will >> mention the Kana grant will be failed. >> Oh yeah, that's on here too, right? Yes. So that uh Oh god, I didn't write that in my notes. I'm so sorry. But yeah, we
received a grant um that we will be putting in a separate special account um to provide scholarships for uh seniors uh that was provided by the Kamas Club. So that's very good news for us. Um we like to see uh donations like that
coming in to the district. Um thank you to the Quanas. Um yeah, and that'll about do it. So we would be moving A through P.
We have a second. Uh any discussion? >> Then I did want to thank you for looking up that polling agent. I know that there was a lot of concern about the Turk from some community members and I felt like that was going the extra mile. So, uh,
that information hit me very nicely. I I was appreciative of that. Without any further discussion, shall we vote? >> Uh, Brian D, >> yes. >> Ori Bachelor, >> yes. >> John Lani, >> yes.
>> Martha Denn, >> yes. >> Paul Vigno, >> yes. >> Attempt, >> yes. >> And Michael, >> yes. >> School and community. >> Okay. reviewing met on April 21st. Uh we
reviewed first that we reviewed was the uh new internet enabled device policy um FAQ. There's a first draft that's to explain how we will be implementing the ban on internet enabled devices
that um in schools beginning in the 26 27 school year. Um, a lot of the sections have to be held because we're still waiting um, additional guidance from the current education. We then looked at the climate and culture survey survey. That's a survey
that we put out every year to get um, feedback from students and staff and parents regarding um, areas of strength and areas for improvement in the district. We looked at last year's survey and talked about adding some questions regarding the homework policy that was implemented this year and
student use current students needs of KI. Um we reviewed a few press releases um draft on um explaining the upcoming pathways program and then also the community classroom program. Those will
be um put out in the next couple of months with some additional information for the higher of the pathways for the year. And then we also talked about turf fundraising. So when we initially talked about putting in the turf, one of the
things that was recommended from other school districts that had done it was would be to raise some funds that would be in an account for the future if the turf needed to be replaced. So, we're going to be rolling out a fundraising campaign that gives local businesses the opportunity to advertise. We have a live
streaming of of currently a football, which I did not even though I have kids in our team. Um, and then um now that we'll have other sports on the church, we'll be able to live stream other sports and so um local businesses can
have ads through that and also through um field signage. That's really going to be different sponsorship doubles and that will be going out in the summer. Nothing you any discussion on any of that.
Uh moving on to some routine information items uh we do need to accept. We've had one hip u that was presented to us last month uh that we need to accept and then fire and safety drills. Uh this is uh
simply a voice vote. So can I get a motion? >> And and Brian, all in favor? >> I >> I could always subject uh
And now that brings us to our last period of public comment. Uh though again same rules apply. Uh if you would like to address the board on any subject, please feel free to take the podium in the room.
Uh Joan Vanderine West. I just got a text from David Bowmont of Westl and apparently the online comment is not and the alternate is not working. >> Yeah, he just emailed me so I'm going to read it exactly. >> Okay, great. Yeah, so that would be great. Thank you.
>> Y anyone else? >> All right, you Mr. Bowman had some problems accessing. Um, so Dave Bulmont, West Fanwell, my apologies for not being able to share my comments in person tonight, but very grateful for the opportunity to do so
via online. Thanks for another informative and comprehensive budget presentation. Much appreciated. I want to respond to a recent correspondence posted for tonight's board meeting as it relates to the budget you're approving tonight. The author of the correspondence
rightfully notes the enrollment of local students for our region communities has decreased by 200 plus percent 2018. However, the use of the adjective appalling coupled with prior opinions seems to imply the reduction is due to mass exodus of local students who
instead are pursuing other education alternatives. However, the author has not considered the fact that according to New Jersey state health assessment data, the number of annual reported bursts in all three counts have fluctuated but trended downward since a long ago as as long ago as 2005. Running
the numbers, this has by itself attributed to 200 plus fewer potential local children available to attend our public schools today. It should be also noted that the author's enrollment numbers do not include our out of district or choice students. For example, total enrolled students
reported in 2526 Franklin budget was 8/19, which by the way is more than the prior four years. Why is that important? The author continues with a claim that budgets are skyrocketing while other student population has crashed, implying incorrectly that lower enrollment is not
resulting in reasonable inflationary budget increases. However, I submit that the total appropriation for the 2018-19 operations budget was 23 million. Taking into account 31.5% inflation since 2018, the same appropriations would have
ballooned to 30 million in 2627 budget. Instead, the proposed appropriation was just 26 million. That suggests to me that the district has in fact been diligently managing and containing rising cost. So my kudos and thanks to the district in proposing this budget
and with it in appreciation for your efforts at minimizing the impact on our local property tax for Westwell Township at least. I anticipate our overall tax obligation will decrease by 59,000 in 2026. This should result in a decrease
in school tax for any homeowner whose assessment didn't increase more than an average of 5%. Thank you for your time. Is it my understanding that the our Google form isn't working? >> Public comment form could be perhaps I I
don't know. >> I mean, I checked it earlier. It was working. Check it. Make sure that it's open. >> I mean, if you click on our website message that pops up and try to access it >> because normally they we do receive things. Correct. And then if it's
crying, um that's something on the website. >> It'll pop up. working. >> Okay. Um, with that said, if was there anything else on the forum? >> There was no. >> Okay. Anyone else in the room? Let us close this period of public
comment. Uh, we do have need to go into executive session briefly. We do not anticipate taking any action coming out of executive session. Uh, so can I get a
motion to enter exit? Second. All in favor? I I