e e e e e e e e very careful good evening everybody Welcome to the board of school ESS meeting scheduled
for Monday March 3rd if everybody could please stand for the flag salute I pledge Alle to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands nation under God indivisible liberty and
justice for all in aordance with the acquirements of the open public meetings act I wish to announce that the New Jersey open public meeting law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice of and to attend the meeting of bodies at which any business affecting their interest is discussed or acted upon notice is announcing the daytime
and place for the special meeting were sent to All concerned individuals associations and sent to Union County local Source in accordance with chapter 231 of public law 1975 for the role Justice Mr
small mayor Fagan you have a quum at this time I would ask all the members go to the audience so that we can get on with our presentation okay good evening welcome I'm Scott Huff superintendent of schools and I am pleased to be here to present the
tentative 2526 school budget keyword tentative uh there's a lengthy process that involves some formal action that we will take further later in the month when we approve the hopefully approve the final budget I want to start by thanking my administrative team um you know the endless time and thought that
goes into preparing a budget making budget requests year-over-year um you put a lot of thought into it I know you put children first and it's very important as well as thanking the Board of Ed you know it's they're they're just as vested in this community as all of us we're all on the same page when it comes to trying to provide the best educational experience a fiscally
responsible place for Summit and that's a process we do every year we start this process in November going back and meeting with the administration checking um budget request back and then and and uh D's business office and I go through it all the way till now we meet with ation committees many times this is a
topic of discussion so there's a lot of eyes on what we do and what we present here tonight and again this is tentative so about Summit I really don't have to tell anybody in this room but some of the things that really make us who we are we are constantly ranked very highly in the state of New Jersey
sometimes nationally when it comes to our high schools our school districts best places to live in New Jersey last year Lincoln hubard was rated the number one Elementary School in all of New Jersey and there's many different platforms that do that there's US News and world there's New Jersey monthly uh
School Digger Niche they come out on different timetables and time frames good um and I know our community watches them it's not what we hang our hat on we're very proud of it because we're very diverse and we teach the whole child but it's something that matters and it impacts our community so to be
able to maintain that level of Excellence over a long period of time is something we should be proud of and of course our highly qualified teachers and leaders we try our darnest to recruit and retain the best we just started something last year called The Summit educator recruitment um Expo where we
invite people to come from other communities to see what summit's all about even if there's no employment for that year that's connected to their certification just to come and learn Summit last year we had in year one about 60 Educators from across the state come to see what Summit was all about we're building relationships in those
moments where we might need a maternity leave they may remember well some I want this place I want to be I can get my foot in the door we have a week long orientation program with our staff to get them acclimated to learn some when you come here to learn what we do on education and more importantly learn our
community and we also follow our new hires for two years with support supports around them in their teaching and learning in their classrooms and one thing in the five years that I've been here that has not changed is the commitment to Excellence the partnership between the Board of Ed the administration and the
parents all of us all the stakeholders are on the same page that we have a commitment to Excellence and want to continue to maintain Summit Public School goals for what they are some of our shared values that are reflected in this budget we look at these things as it relates to board goals every year to make sure that our budget reflects the board goals and
things that we're trying to accomplish our steam initiative which is in year three right now K to2 we started in the elementary school raving reviews right from the beginning as you know we're building new spaces in the middle school and in the high school to to um add more academic rigor in the areas of steam
with course proposals like robotics biotechnology Dance computer science courses all of these things that are Cutting Edge that we know we need to provide our students with the experience to prepare them for the life after grade 12 again that academic riger and student supports when
we talk about student wellness down there and student supports we know now more than ever our children need these supports they need to be able to be feel a sense of belonging and be well adjusted in order to thrive academically they go hand inand we know that you see there the strategic planning process the district and the board are under way for
a five-year planning process for the vision of our school district we are soliciting information from all stakeholders students staff Administration Board of Education even community members that do not have students in the in the school system to say what do we want to do who are we going to be in the next five years and
we're in the middle of that process now we've got a lot of information a lot of community feedback we're very excited about being able to prepare year one action plan sometime before the start of next school year in this budget you're going to see a few new positions requested these positions
are associated with um ongoing initiatives so when you talk about a dance teacher this is something that we slated a couple of years ago when we started our steam initiative and when you talk about the special education teacher that's something that we've slated for our co- teing pilot that's going on in one of our elementary
schools that's a program whereas the special education teacher will be pushed into the general education classroom rather than the special education teacher pulling students out of the general educ education classroom so these are things that we've started prior to this year's budget that we're looking to maintain and then you see
there the ER teacher and a that is a specialized program where that if we didn't have these programs we would potentially be looking to send those students out of summit public schools to a private school at a much higher cost so it makes fiscal responsibility to create those programs here if we can sustain
them and the bottom line This slide pretty much sums it up who is Summit Public Schools are we you talk about academic riger comprehensive curriculum we're constantly revising curriculum taking a look at what we can do to enhance it for example this year at the elementary level we have a new Ela
program English language arts new reading program more phics based more research based so to help our kids read AP courses we're always looking to add honors courses last month we celebrated 44 National Merit Scholars that's back toback two years in a row of students in the 40s which is certainly something to
be very proud of that reflects the rigor of our students and our our teaching and and learning in the high school and of course we talked about the steam initiative the next pillar that we're really known for and everybody here knows it is our Athletics and co-curriculars you see there over 30 Varsity Sports we're constantly bringing
home County division state championships we have hundreds of students who participate in our co-curriculars and our Athletics over 40 co-curricular clubs that's really quite astonishing and again the Arts and nothing you can't say enough about the Arts even if you went to the play uh musical this past
week outstanding very talented kids very dedicated to all that we provide you can see there all the theater um options that we have electives full year and half year courses and this is the epitome of who Summit public schools has
been and who we want to remain being so with that I'm just going to close by again by say thanking everybody who's been involved in the budget process for this tenative budget um process it's Collective effort and I'm going to turn it over to Mr Jess for inside the [Applause]
numbers good evening everybody thank you for coming out to our meeting this evening so what are the funding sources for our students so as you can see the top one our state aid we get very little state aid uh from the state of New Jersey and
you see this year we experienced a 3% decrease now while that only translates to $160,000 it was still a decrease over the prior years that we received now our state aid is made up of three components it's made up of Transportation Aid special education Aid and security Aid and for anybody that listened to the
governor's budget address last week he was tabbing how he's putting more money into the school aid as well as increasing security Aid so while he was kind of true in his comments about security Aid he didn't tell you was that he was taking it from one pocket and
putting it into the other so for our district we lost about $5,700 in our transportation Aid we lost about $537,000 in our special education aid but miraculously we went up $383,000 in our security aid but overall
we're still down 3% of where we were in the current year our second line is extraordinary at $700,000 and what that is is that is money that we get back from the state for special education students so when we send a child with special needs out of District to a
private school and tuition above $55,000 the district gets a portion of that back we don't get 100% of it back but we get a portion and of course the state keeps a portion as well semi money is special education Medicare Aid and that is also based on specific needs of
children with special needs and as you can see this year we're losing $57,000 in that age as well and we got a memo from the state because this money comes from the state as well where they said guess what last year you got 64 now you're only going to get seven and that happened across the state some of our
neighboring districts who received in the millions of dollars for this are now in the low hundreds of thousands so it's not just something that happened to us but it still hurts nonetheless the next two line items our capital reserve and our maintenance Reserve that's where we SP where we fund projects within the
district uh so we're going to you'll see later on we're going to uh do some playround Renovations do some flooring work in some of our schools uh some as bestus removal windows and doors and things like that the monies that we have in these two accounts are budget neutral because we have these funds already in
our Reserve accounts so capital reserve and maintenance Reserve when we want to fund these projects we pull that money from the reserves and we put it into our Revenue Stream So these two accounts are tax neutral they have no effect on our tax balance because it's money we had from prior years we were able to save into our Reserve accounts our tuition
receivable those are tuition students that we either receive from other school districts and it's also our prek program as well so the parents that pay to spend to send their child here for prek that money goes into there and we have students from other districts that come and we charge them a tuition rate as
well the reason that that number is down is because we're receiving less students from outside districts for tuition the next one which is the big one is our local tax levy and as you wrong button and as you can see you know currently
we're at 73 million next year 79 plus an increase of 6 million4 the reason a lot of it has to do with reduction of state aid and the next line which is our fund balance fund balance is money that the district has that we have left over from year to year that we put in towards PX
taxpayer relief in the current year we were able to put away $4 million and when we had this meeting last year we had said that typically at the end of every school year the district puts in about 2.5 million in fund balance and a million and a half into our reserves so that we can help fund our reserves
moving forward so the district continue with whatever upgrades and projects we need on a smaller scale basis the current year we're in right now we didn't put that money into our reserves we put it into our tax base in order to help keep the tax increase for this year under 3% and that was a decision that
the operations committee uh was in favor of last year and so we did it however this year we don't have that million and a half anymore so not only were we unable to put into our reserves but after our AIT was done we only had the two point almost $2.5 million which is what we figured we would have so that's
why we have a reduction and right away that's a big hit to our bottom line next one is miscellaneous that's interest that we earn on our investments The District participates in the New Jersey Cash management fund and NJ arm and we get a higher rate of return for the money that we put in there so over the past couple of years we've seen more
interest on our investments and so we're projecting to have that as well I mean it's still up around 4.16% that we're getting for a 60-day investment so we've been fortunate to get those monies and then the next two lines are federal funds and our other state funds our federal funds are our
entitlement grants Title One title two title three and our idea funds both General and prek so we get those monies every year we always budget the same amount because we never know what we're going to get from the federal government and this year with the uncertainty that's happening now and all the memos that are coming out in executive orders
we don't know what's going to happen so we just budgeted the exact same amount and the other state funds 140,000 is pass through money so those are money for non-public schools within Summit ool oratory Kent Place St Teresa they get
money from the state but the state can't give it to them directly so they give it to us we then have to approve the requests when they come in from those schools the board of vet approves it at a meeting we then pay them and at the end of the year if there's any of those any of that money left over we don't get to keep it we have to send it back to
the state so all we do is take it from one hand put it in the other and pass it through and that's why you see our overall budget for fiscal year 26 91 m775 N5 so our state aid actual 5.2 million
overall or 5.6% of our budget so because Summit is an affluent town the state doesn't think that we need a lot of help from the state and that's why it's such a small portion of our budget as I mentioned Transportation Aid we had a 3% reu reduction that's
197,000 our special ed Aid 4.1 million our security Aid as I mentioned it went up which is $846,000 and our debt service Aid of $626,000 so Debt Service Aid is money that the state provides to the district to help pay off the bonds that were
issued by the city on behalf of the district so we had some outstanding Bonds in addition to the bond issuances that we just did over the past year for the steam initiative projects so the state then gives us a percentage of that back we know that when we apply for
funding from the state for our projects that we're going to get 40% back of eligible costs in actuality 40% becomes 32% because the state keeps their portion of the 40% as well so this $626,000 has already been pre-calculated
by the state and we will continue to get Debt Service eight until all of the debt has been paid off for school projects so our history of state aid as you can see going as far back as 201122 we were just over a million 2013 and 14 we went up a little bit we
stayed flat for two years the next two years we're flat a little bit and as you can see we kept going all the way up until the current year where we hit our peak of $5.3 Million and then this year of course we have the 3% decrease which brings us down to 5.1 but we were on a roll there for a while we hope to get
back up there but with the state you never know so what else makes up so our budgeted fund balance as I explained is money that we have left over over from prior Year's budget which we put towards taxpayer relief withdrawal of our reserves so we have our capital reserve of 1.8 million and we have three
projects right now slated one is to replace the flooring in this room uh not only the carpet but the flooring underneath the seats because it looks like it's in desperate need of repair and then we hope to take that and start to do a refurb of the whole Auditorium as well uh the Jefferson School playground we're going to renovate that
we received $150,000 Grant from the Department of Community Affairs and so we're going to put that plus funds that have been raised by the Jefferson PTO which we're very appreciative of to renovate that playground the total cost right now is about $824,000 to renovate that playground
which I agree is a little excessive but the costs have just skyrocketed ever since the pandemic and so the we're budgeting 650 to help that and then braon playground as well we've put in for another Grant from the Department of Community Affairs and we hope to get it
but we won't know until later this month so if we're able to get that Grant our hope is to do the Brighton playground as well and taking money from our maintenance Reserve we have $75,000 slated for Brighton there are two classrooms which have um as bestest under the subfloor and so we've cleaned
up seven classrooms this year those will be the last two that we have to do so our hope is to do them over the summer and then replace the flooring in there as well uh we have money set aside for architect and Engineering fees for the various projects that we may have during the year and then $200,000 to start replacing the floor tile in the middle
school and also districtwide exterior doors to make them more secure and so as I said before the reserve of the 2.75 million is budget neutral because we have that money we're just moving it from our appropriation into our Revenue we'll be fine um our district tuition as
you can see 241,000 from other districts that paid us and 83,000 for prek students and then our local tax levy which again makes up the bulk of the revenues from the budget so where's the money going so right way salaries insurance and
benefits two of our fixed costs so for the current year that we're in right now we have about $72 Million worth of salaries benefits for the current year we're going up by $42 million as well and that
makes up 83% of our budget so 83% of our budget we already know those fixed costs we have special education tuition which is money that the district pays to send students out of District that have special needs and that are in programs that the district does not have in house educational supplies are supplies for
every building every Department every student our buildings and grounds Department that's what it takes to run all the districts it's our custodial supplies our maintenance supplies security and grounds our capital outlay and our equipment that's what we're taking from our Reserve in addition to
some lease purchase payments we have from technology that was purchased a few years ago we entered into a 5-year contract to pay that so we have to pay that off and then some technology equipment as well as a new salt spreader for the uh buildings and grounds Department we purchase our salt from the city through an interlocal service
agreement which is beneficial to both parties but we need to upgrade that piece of equipment our transportation costs are up why is that it's mainly because the cost of Transportation have skyrocketed and we have a lot more routes this year which we're budging for we have techn um transportation for
athletics as well as for dist children going out of District whether it's to the vocational school or to some of these specialized schools professional our Technical Services our our speech services and Consultants that we use our District administration is the superintendent's office and the business
office textbooks is self-explanatory as is Athletics and then the bottom line PD and other expenses that's mainly for districtwide professional development as well and so there we have 91 million 775 95 and you can see it's up about 5.6 million dollar from the current year
budget this is just to show you how the money is spent out over each dollar so 83 cents of each dollar is going towards our fixed cost for salaries and benefits almost six almost five and a half a little bit more than five and a half cents for facilities capital projects four and three quarters going to
supplies textbook PD professional Technical Services and the other expenses three and a quarter almost for special ed and three and a quarter almost for district transport District admen transportation and our Athletics so that's a very simple breakdown and then as well percentage by
spent and category so as you can see a bulk is going to classroom instruction so 66% of our budget goes right into our classroom instruction 2% is going into our co-curricular and our Athletics our
undistributed is almost 13% that's our tuition our health services our speech our guidance our child study team our media and our library our staff training our Improvement of instruction support service General Administration is the office of the superintendent school
administration are the uh principles and their schools central business office is the business office information technology is it then you see we have our operational plant and uh plan service so that's our buildings and grounds our custodial our security and our transportation and then finally the
last almost two and a half a little bit more than two and a half percent is our capital projects and our outl so you can see most of it is going towards the capital projects which are the reserve funded and our leas purchases and $40,000 going to equipment purchases so you know everybody talks
about the 2% cap and you know we're living in a world right now where it's very very hard to maintain 2% currently are some you know our salaries are up three and 3.4% our medical benefits right now are projected to be 10.8% our property
casually workers comp is projected to be 15% social security contribution up about 11% and our utilities water gas electric 15% or so so when you take all those into consideration I don't know how we could
be at 2% and so I wanted to we just wanted to show everybody what the actual Levy was so keep H the wrong button so this column here actual local tax levy this is what the actual tax levy was for every year from fiscal 12
all the way through the current year I'm gonna ask you just to ignore the top line for now right and these were the percentage increase or decreases for every year so you can see that from fiscal year 12 to maybe I should take the superintendent uh Quee and not use this but um you can see that only three of
the past 13 years the district went above the 2% most years we were well under well the last column what would have happened if the district would have been at a 2% flat every year and you can see that the accumulation would have
been significant and we wouldn't be at this line right now as matter of fact we would almost be we'd be a little bit over but we would have been in much better shape and you know providing for less than a 2% Levy is always very good it certainly
provides a lot of taxpayer relief but also you have to look to the Future at times and sometimes it's not and so we just wanted to show everybody the comparison between actual and what we could have been had we been at 2% every year you know so so what does that mean
tax comparison over year over year right so looking currently we're proposing $79 million tax levy which is a $6 million increase over a current year Levy or an 8.83 per. that's why Mr Huff called this a
tenative budget because tonight is only a vote on tenative budget provide it to the state the state can approve us now to move forward with the final budget and to advertise and to have our public hearing at the end of the month we have 24 days between today and the 27th when
the public hearing will be to continue to work and to reduce these numbers and between the superintendent and myself and Miss Sno we have already started to look and see what can we do that will not affect the educational Excellence that we have in Summit and so we will continue to work on that over the next
three weeks to L lower these numbers to make it a little bit more palatable and hopefully a little bit better for everybody but that's I just wanted to show everybody where we would be you know and in the bottom one right now even though it's proposing an 88.8% increase for the average assessed Home in Summit which is$
44,6 42 that would represent a 4 point almost a 4.6% increase and would be a 3.4% increase for homes that are assessed higher than that and that's the end of our presentation so at this time I would ask the members of the board of school
estimate to please come back to the days and we will go from there no I'm good go this is uh time for public input is that or public questions well so the first thing is first I'm just going to acknowledge that Mr small would is here so I have him down in the role and uh
this is time if there are any questions from any of the members of the board of school estimate now is the time before we open it up for public comment yeah give it a minute as long as the green light just got to give it a minute hold it thank you so right now it's just
School Board estimate not the board okay correct uh well good evening thank you for uh your presentation is it possible to pull back up the slides der administr Jess if you could pull up the uh expenditure by category slide please while Mr Jess is doing that I'll
just remind the room about and the board of school assment and the Board of Education about the process there will be an opportunity for public comment to the Bose as we are open here now we will also close Bose open the Board of Education me meeting and there's another opportunity for public comment to the board of education so two
opportunities sorry to make you go back D and thank you for all who are are here in the audience tonight my name is councilman dilia Hamlet and I'm on the school board estimate along with h councilman Smallwood and mayor fan okay so when we look at expenditure
by category we talk a lot about healthcare costs uh for our employees so looking at an increase uh correct me if I'm wrong administrator J of 2257 correct correct so just for the uh for the public that's the health insurance uh piece uh so we're looking
at a 10.8% increase in the school health insurance fund so going forward I'm going to refer to it as the shiff is that the right terminology you corre and asked administrator just a few of these questions today so considering the state health benefits plan went up 20% correct
correct uh for those in the audience being a brand new board member I didn't have a lot of experience I didn't realize we had left the state health benefits plan a few years back so upon further education uh I was surprised and pleased to hear that we had joined uh the shift for for those of you who don't
know it's about 119 municipalities and it's really for high performing municipalities so it's really the it's it's a place you want to be so it's a good thing that we're in the shift and I apologize if I'm the only person in the room that uh didn't know this um so you
know Madison chadam 119 Boards of Education are also in the shf and historical increases have averaged about 5% I think five years ago it was three something percent highest was 7% uh but on average it's been 5 per. so again this is a big piece of this number up here is $2.2
million um so administrator Jess my question to you and and I don't I don't need the answer today but when we come I promise when we come back uh for a vote uh as a trustee can you confirm that you're a trust on this board yes yes you're a trustee so it's it's a voting
me board uh voting so you vote on just about everything correct correct okay so can you please confirm if they're using the rate stabilization Reserve uh for 20125 I believe they projected $2 million uh for the rate stabilization
Reserve so my question to the shiff and the other 119 municipalities is are you using this uh to smooth out this drastic increase uh in in this specific piece if not why I understand some of the criteria on holding Surplus for uh you
know producing dividends and managing claims however I do believe they received a grant recently I was reading the last four or five months of minutes uh so I think in looking at the if you look at the school health insurance proposed budget
2526 um I would feel like this would be a really good time to use that uh rate stabilization Surplus um because what happens when we don't is we're bringing that increase back to our our municipality and it it really forces us
to make tough choices when I was actually looking at this in Greater detail one of the largest costs of of at least this this piece of money uh were were certain prescriptions that you know we just can't get around but I'd like some answers from the shift and I'd like
the public to get educated because it is a large amount of money and I think it's important to educate the public and the second thing I'd like you to confirm is that in reality I believe Etna and amera Health kept their rates flat um so I'd like you to confirm that because when you start looking at the
piece of the pie the the two main providers didn't increase their costs it's truly um it's prescriptions and it's it's a drastic I mean it's a $75 million increase from from last year prescriptions account for
14 million do of that amount so are they really taking a hard look at at those prescriptions and if you if you'll see what I mean when you look at it but those are sort of my questions and I think that as as a member of such a prestigious group we we deserve those
answers and and the community deserves to be educated on that yeah so I I will let you know with regards to prescriptions you're right that the cost have skyrocketed and it's mostly all the new weight loss drugs that are coming out um but I will also tell you that we we are in the shift for our medical
benefits we are with Benard which is a separate Co-op for our prescription benefits and our rates with them have been basically stable since we joined them and one of the reasons that we went with them is because I was with them in my former district and every year if you had a very good claims history they
would provide you with rebates at the end of the school year and so we've been in there now for two years and now we're starting to be eligible for those rebates well I'm really glad to hear that because I spent most of the day looking at the OIC weight I could I said I had to talk to the public about this
because I think the shift has so I'm really glad to hear that um not that I don't want all of our employees to be healthy um but I'm really glad to hear that that's not the case so maybe if you could just get back to me on the um other question any other
questions keep going I need a break okay so my question is sort of a fundamental um have we done the exercise the other way and looking at our budget
and trying to stay at a two or even a 3% cap so flip it on its head a little bit and say not saying what we want and what we need but how do we get to 3% what would that look like what would what would be be sort of cutting or you know
rolling back yes we did take a look at that uh Derek Jess Kathy and myself along with some administrators I met with some members of the operations committee to take a look and it would have a profound impact if we we came at it from that per uh perspective as a two or 3 increase what would that mean it
would have a profound impact any chance you could be more specific uh it could be but since we haven't pretty much drew a line from numbers to um items that would have to be eliminated there would be things that would have to be eliminated and I don't
want to put a scare because we haven't finished the process yet um but there's something that be said for doing that exercise to see exactly what that impact would be it is significant yes thank you anybody else Kevin sorry
councilman small this on thank you mayor uh councilwoman Hamlet and the mayor pretty much answered or asked everything that I was goingon to ask uh given the fact that 83% is essentially a fixed cost between salaries and benefit benefits um
I think before the 37th we we need to take a hard look at and I know it's not much but it's the 17% that that we can actually work with and have control over so um I would I'm very interested to hear what the the residents have to say about the presentation and see where we
can reduce some some cost some major cost that we have within that 177% there uh administrator Jess I I I know we spoke about this briefly today uh regarding the Medicaid Cuts so we're we're going from 64k to 7K
for Medicaid Cuts so last year we had 125 students enrolled in that program I believe so okay so you don't have to get back to me now but I'm curious how many children we have in that program this year number one and then I'm wondering
did did we receive back cost settlement component of that semi I know you said we wouldn't be eligible for a waiver and we wouldn't want to be right because correct we wouldn't want to be eligible but I I was reading that when you look at the cost settlement calculation uh when they look at the corresponding
salary and benefit data is it possible to get a different funding stream uh it it sounds as though you can seek approval from the executive County Superintendent to um to look at semi reimbursement for different categories um audio you know different auditory
things and I I just make sure that we have exhausted that and and we make sure that we are the experts in semi and I'm sure you are um but I want to knock on every door and I want to get that money back because I believe in it and I don't understand why we lost it well so it was across the board from every District in
the state and and I don't know why the state does anything that they do I mean we were all shocked when we received the notice that we're going to be losing it but we'll um make sure that we because SE has run through our special education our special service department so we'll make sure that we speak with Mr margolus there and get some more information and
to your earlier point about a waiver the waiver if you do a waiver semi it means that you're not going to participate in semi anymore so you wouldn't get any money and there are some districts that do that just because the amount of work that it takes in order to enroll and to make sure everybody is checked and you get the money out does it outweighs the
costs a lot of District cost them more to go through all the um steps to apply for semi and so some districts do that yeah and I guess the last comment really not a question but I think it's important to recognize that other towns in New Jersey right now if you look at
Bernards you know they're looking at cutting I think three million um you know a lot of municipalities East Brunswick over five million so you know when you look at the health costs and all of these things I think that it's really important to stay within this cap if we
can so I think we have to just trying to really you know scrutinize these operation costs and and obviously want to have as many teachers this is an amazing School District but um you know I think we have to sharpen the pencil a little bit it's my I know I know and I know you are anybody
else um this may be a really stupid question and I may be exposing myself hopefully not um but when we talked you talked about um the um Reserve Surplus to go the capital reserve um we were looking at playgrounds and among the
things um and then we look at this Capital outlay are there would it make more sense because this budget year is so tight um and I understand listen I love playgrounds they're amazing I have four kids thank goodness for playgrounds I probably wouldn't be here today if
there weren't for playgrounds but is that somewhere we could look to utilize some of that Reserve to do some of the things that are in our capital outlay and Equipment well so capital capital reserve and Reserve are only allowable for specific projects which we budgeted
um the capital outlay that we have is $40,000 for equipment so if we decide that we don't need that equipment we could certainly look to reduce that but the other portion of the capital outlay is a $35,000 payment that we have to pay to the state because of um money of the
bond issuances and money that we get it's an it's called the school Development Authority assessment and every District in the state has to pay that and that's for them to provide us with grants and our bonding cost right so we Bond we still have to pay them a viig because of the state aid that we
get the remaining balance of that is about $221,000 which are for lease purchases that we entered into a few years ago and that was used to to purchase printers and um technology equipment sorry being annoying uh one
thing that U director administrator Jess and I talked about today mayor F and I know we've been talking about it um councilman Smallwood in city council is uh we recently received a $750,000 jake law grant for maybe playground and the
city uh owns certain playgrounds in the in the municipality so for example uh the city owns Washington do you own 30% of Washington or do we own we own some percent own some it's like a third and twoth thirds I believe okay but but I I think it's important that if there are when Derrick and I talked about the say
any city-owned true playgrounds we should be 100% actively pursu doing any type of grant funding um because uh typically it's Green Acres funding um which the Board of Education would not be um eligible for so one of those things we talked about
today thank you anybody else have any other comments or questions any others councilwoman Hamlet okay I think with that we will move on to public comments correct so anyone wishing to anyone wishing to speak Force recognition by the presiding
officer please come to the microphone and state your name and address and a clear audible tone for the record please direct all comments to the mayor and not an individual member of the board and please remember to conduct yourself with decorum and respect when speaking and addressing the board unless additional time is granted by the mayor please be
respectful and keep your comments three minutes or less in addition please note that this portion of the meeting is for public comment and not meant to be back and forth board members and administration will not respond to questions or comments at this time however information will be provided by the appropriate individual soon as possible questions asked at this board
meeting will be answered in two ways publicly at the next board meeting and by the superintendent or is designed directly to the person who asked the question any public comments come on [Music] up yes
yes can you tap it is it on hold on there there we go cheex support here oh good hustle though yeah all right oh thank you for the the clock too my name is Steph spur I reside at 63 Woodland Avenue in addition to to
being a homeowner taxpayer here proud to be and a kindergartener at Wilson wild um I'll offer my emotional reaction first and then some questions hopefully for the the bosc and Boe to reflect upon
at the appropriate time is I was shocked to see a high single digigit number up on that uh up on the the slide there um and I understand this is a work in progress and appreciate you know there's a lot of effort that's going to be undertaken moving forward to bring that number down um and I also appreciate that the 2% cap is not as Ironclad as it
may have been in in past years but um I applaud the work of Prior Board of educations to not what may sueding the can see future of educations need to fairly entertain a 10% increase
um in one year U but instead applaud them at using the 2% as a serious point of reference to make hard decisions and restrain a very significant part I think at this point at least if not slightly more than half of our property taxes are returned back to the school district um
some specific questions I had um again don't need to be answered now I was curious what the Board of Education or Administration used as their inter Target I understand there's a lot of informal discussion through the operations committee around how to to Really wrestle with the budget but I'd
be curious if the 2% was taken as a serious point of reference or some other number um was taken into effect given inflation and you know other other impacts that may be unique in this calendar year or in this budget year um curi I'd be curious to see something akin to a net budget number something
that U would would reduce from the say the 9091 million the fund balance the pass through expenses so we get a trer understanding of really what the operating costs are for the budget in a given fiscal year and then to the mayor's comment earlier is uh I
understand there are difficult trade-offs and difficult tradeoffs that don't want to be adjudicated in public um but if we as the public could have a greater understanding as to exactly or more exactly I should say um what some of those trade-offs are I know we've got 24 days it's a narrow window with which
the administration BOS Boe I and the community can reflect upon those but that would be helpful point of reference really what we're what we're wrestling with here um so it's my hope that you know we can be sensitive to this may in fact be extraordinary circumstances um
but this risk setting a new and very substantial Benchmark that moving forward may be further compounded on by 2% or potentially more and before we know it we'll find ourselves here probably in the the age of my children before they graduate for Sumit High
School looking at aund million plus but and that's uh that's a reality that's just how compounding works but appreciate as a taxpayer here um that we can find a balance in the overall expense that we all we all need to encumber living here in Summit and contining to prioritize the quality of
Education thank you thank you Mr spur any other comments or questions I don't need my three minutes there Mr Jess I promise good even I'm Stacy galdi this is my 31st year as an educator 24 of iny of
roles we joke in my family that I believe maroon and gold I am currently principal of sum high school and the president of the Su principales Association during my time in Summit I've seen many years in which the Administration has been tasked conning a budget with a less than 2% increase and
on multiple occasions a 0% increase we have done that while aiming to provide the level of care educ and support for our students that this community has come to expect we recognize that the tenative budget comes in over the 2% cap but that is what is
necessary for a variety of reasons as outlined by The District administration tonight the summit principles Association supports this tentative budget and we are hopeful that you will also be able to support the budget as as as it has been presented this evening
and with any changes deemed appropriate by the administration while maintaining the Excellence that we have been known for in Summit thank you for your time thank you mral any others good evening mayor and remaining
members of the board of school my name is ho I live inport and my comment first of all EO the the feeling that we to be fiscally responsible keep
our increases in line and it is going to be year for Summit not only here but also City and we're coming in after a tax increase last year but my question
I've run businesses before and one of the things that you try to do is look for changes that may right that may not be 100% sure but could happen and I'm thinking specifically of the way that at the
federal level USA has been dismantled and we have a lot of uh rumors going around as to what might happen in dep of Education um so I would like to know if this board remains committed to ensuring
that reducing free Lun and free lunches will be uh kept if Federal funding dries up for that I would like to understand what is the view towards special needs education4 and individual
plans um we have some of our schools get t on funding um we do know what might be cut we don't know how likely those cuts might be but given the rapid nature of the implementation of cuts at the
federal level it would seem to me prudent to evaluate what would be the impact of losing all federal funding and sign State funding if the federal government Cuts everything and I think it would be useful for the community to
get a sense from you mayor as the leader of the educational Community here in or we stand as a community in serving the needs of those students who need special help and those uh in families who have
final need where would we put the money in our budget to pay for all that if we had to thank you any other questions comments I don't know how long I have to wait looks like there are no other no
further public coms that oh may I have a motion to close follow comment second thank you any discussion all those in favor I any
oppos carries now motion there's question here um Mr D if we can respond to some of the questions uh we do not you typically do not ESP some of the question go back that's what I said we would provide
that information to their question can we just make a couple more comments okay coup more points one more question guess I know I'm just thinking of things as they go uh for theous children we have where
does that funding come from do we get any funding for that in any title program what do you mean by UNH housee do you mean homeless students so yes homeless students um we typically pay for those from our own
Budget on that and we have year that we have are responsible for those and then those students can either move back into town or if they remain in the district move to that District then becomes the responsible party but for that first year we're responsible for
all you know Transportation if we had to I mean I would say that all of us are going to be advocates for keeping as as much money possible for this municipality um and for your children you know real quick I sat on a bipartisan panel uh
last week for homelessness and it was bipartisan and I said one of the great things about that panel is now we can go back to our Senator or congressman and say hey we just did some great stuff funding back we want that we want that for for the homeless individual so you
know we are committed to constantly working on creative ways to obtaining the most money for not only the municipality but for the school board and last thing I want to say is we is the school aboard estimate doesn't get to look at the granular details of this
book we only get the one from last year um you know I'd love to get it ahead of time I know dere we can't get it you send it to the state um you know I'd like to dive deeper this year into your Grant allocations um and and not we can help with you know any ideas that we may
have for for cap projects or anything we're certainly willing to help so thank you and just two things um we the district did receive ,000 last year Mar for students that were homeless so we there was Coalition within the state and we received
$35,000 and then yes absolutely once the budget is approved by the superintend back everybody provided with a copy of that um tailed budget that 35k came from DCA uh no it came from Co Coalition there was
a and it did pass through money did pass through the state but okay okay thank you uh may I have a motion to adjourn we have one from Mr small second Justice thank
you any discussion all those in favor at 653 thank you e e e e e and welcome back everybody now we are here for the special board meeting
in accordance with the requirements of the open public meetings act I wish to announce that the New Jersey open public meeting law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have advanced notice of and to attend the meeting of bodies at which any business affecting their interest is discussed or acted upon notices announcing the date time and place for this special meeting were
sent to All concerned individuals associations and sent Union County local Source in accordance with chapter 231 of public law 1975 for the role Miss Stanton here Mr Maha here Miss Kelly Miss ER Mr Cho here vice president
president Justice you have a quum and at time I will open up with our operations committee chair sure thank you very much good evening everyone um I am Eileen Kelly I'm the operations chair for this year's fiscal budget so just want to make a couple comments um Summit
has historically and continues to provide an unrivaled educational experience in the state of New Jersey it is the goal of the Board of Education to ensure that this educational experience remains High while providing fiduciary responsible fiscal oversight to our
annual budget tonight's 2025 to 2026 propos budget proposed tenative budget excuse me reflects the reality of expenses across major light items most notably salaries up 3.4% employee benefits Insurance up 10% utilities up
15% and transportation expenses up %. additionally as mentioned earlier last year's funds balance offset 1.5 million expenses and was utilized as lever that was considered to be a one-time pull that leaves the district in this upcoming budget year needing to
fill that Gap we are anticipating the need to utilize the bank cap as well as cap adjustments for health care cost increases nonetheless tonight I want to emphasize that this is a tentative budget and we remain committed to further reviewing every expense line item in order toensure that we're minimizing the tax burden on our
community the Boe has a long-standing tradition of ensuring that our community delivers excellence and education while simultaneously maintaining the utmost fiscal diligence the budget at the end of this month will ensure that that tradition is continued I just want to say on a personal note I'm voting yes tonight to
this budget but I do expect tonight have full confidence the district you know the board of um sorry the superintendent and the business office are going to work you know work together to improve upon tonight's budget um and so I have full confidence in that process but for me personally a yes vote does not
guarantee yes vote at the end of this month thank you thank you Miss Kelly at this time any discussion on the budget from Boe members I I had some question every every time I see dark uh Mr just present everything I always have
a couple more questions and I know this is going to be a long month ahead I actually just had some questions around Transportation which I know is a topic we dove into earlier today um but but we talked a little bit about how our um extraordinary which if if I'm correct in
saying this is the amount we get back as a percentage from amount of students in special ed services that we send out of District correct any St yes correct any student that goes out to a private school any tuition that we have to pay in excess of 55 we get a percentage back and that number this year is 700,000
we're projecting 700,000 year on year so basically we're flat in our projections in special Aid uh special ed um transportation expenses but you said in our transportation cost that there were more routes and there were more increases in our need to SP send special
ed students out of District so you can you can you just help kind of reconcile the we're sort of flatten how many kids obviously are in special programs but our transportation expenses are going up that same group so Transportation expenses going up not only for special ed but for regular trans and athletic as
well there was increase the forward for athletic because we've run into um additional routes in each of the last couple of years and so that's one of the reasons why doing that we always budget extraordinary Aid as flat because we
don't know how many students are actually going to be and what those services are going for transportation so 700,000 excuse me could turn into bit more it could turn into a little bit less it doesn't necessarily mean have the exact same number of
students um this year also we had more routes that we're doing to the Union County vocational school because we had increase in students two years ago from roughly 20 to almost 70 and so that requires us to have two buses going to and from both full-time and sharetime
services so the transportation is made up of all of those and just you know again for the Public's awareness you touched upon this which I was going to mention Vocational School attendance is is up significantly in the last few years and obviously that has bearing effects on the budget but significantly
on Transportation where now we actually obviously have to pay students to attend XYZ schools outside Summit correct and and not only for the votes for uh Transportation but also for tuition because Union County vocational schools charge the districts within the county tuition to send their students there or
I know is in some other counties if students are going to their vocational schools there's no charge okay um thank you and I know uh Mr and I were just talking in the in the in the audience while we were watching your presentation so I'll just bring this question up to it on the topic of
textbooks it's about $300,000 everyone has a Chromebook now I'm assuming we're using textbooks a lot last I saw there was a I'll call it nominal decrease but do we really need to be spending $300,000 on textbooks can we just give some examples of where we're still using them that we you know it's still a lofty number especially
vers prior year they use textbooks I think and I I would ask M Miss Roco for that because that's where it's coming from so if I could ask so there [Music] I think I think my only comment would be if most of our students are predominately obviously on their
Chromebook and I get it we have a textbook it's being print it needs to be updated but that's probably an expenditure again where I i' say is it critical we have a textbook moving forward I mean we obviously SE in a new age with student engagement stud you know how much are they actually going to use that textbook is the question so just just a comment there and but the
costs are also like BR said it's also for the digital textbooks as well that we have to pay for so right it's not just a physical hard one like like we had like I had I didn't hear that yeah the electronic version as well okay yeah mean we can get doesn't have to you right now but for a breakout
what's print versus digital and I'm assuming obviously digital is considerably less I know you have to pay for copyright Etc but it'd be good to see that that's thank you um I do have a question Mr Jess just for informational purposes total number of students for is
flat or less I'm sorry Mr M total number of students total number of students for the district yeah has been going up slightly over the last couple of years enrollment numbers last month come out went up again we're over about
44 students currently but from a percentage perspective not Material five years ago we were under from yeah from last year to to the next year that we foresee here anywhere to mon 15 to 20 15 to 20
students total sorry is that you said 15 to 20 students okay fluctuate monthly we have students moving in and moving out um but over the last six or seven years the total number in the Agate has gone up right okay thank you just as a point of reference from last year to this year
it's been nominal thank you any other comments I do have I do have one more forgive me here uh thing I wanted to write read out that I do appreciate the efforts of the operations committee and the administration in developing the
initial budget and I look forward to continue continue to contribute to achieving an effective responsible budget given this is a preliminary budget in the process of being refined I will vote abstain until the March 27th vote when we get the final budget thank
you hi oh there it is um I had uh just a question you mentioned that the Vocational School enrollment is up do we know why and or how that impacts also our um like students here in terms of class size and so on it because it's vo is at the high school level correct um
enrollment is significantly up do we know what's driving that currently and also um then in terms of class size how it impacts our students obviously there's less right but I didn't it's in particular areas or if we're seeing a decrease in the number of classes in
specific areas or um curriculum and such yeah so so clearly they are going for the variety of programs that they have to offer depending on student interest that is why with our steam initiative we're hopeful that we can pull some of those kids back who are interested in science technology engineering arts and Mathematics um see considering we're
implementing some of those new programs this year we may see a difference but clearly they choose that to move forward for programs that they have interest in yeah if we do side note I'm just curious if we would ever this is a suggestion um do ex sort of the exit in philosophy to
parents or stud students that are coming out of middle school at the eth grade level that might have selected a vocational to determine if that's a driving factor or if there's something else that's driving students the other way and also to build on our curriculum we might do that already I don't know yeah we'll have conversations with the
High School uh counseling and administration we have Trends over the last couple years as why we we went up I don't think that's unique to us okay I think um I so neighboring districts have seen increases maybe if not this year and past years has been trending up un
County yeah any last comment yeah um president Justice I am Yan Cho and I've been on the board for five years I would like to provide a little background in terms of how the budget has worked during my time on the
board so the administration and staff really start they don't go from year say and we don't the board does not give them tell % more for next year the slide that uh Mr Jess put up 10 of the last 13 years the tax rate increase was less
than 2% the way the really process works is really starting from zero and what is needed to provide the education with the mission that we have to be a top performing School District year-over year and as noted in the past 13 plus years 10 of those years the number was
less than 2% why because of efficient Administration being phisically responsible and we also benefited from some increase in state aid you know the number was like around a million dollars 10 plus years ago now it's around five million but those increases have stopped we also
benefit from just being fiscally responsible operationally during the course of the year which provided savings which were allowed to carry over to reduce budget during that time frame and just as backround I four kids are all have graduates of someone high there
has been cly an expansion of the programming mically I think we all know that it's been the district for a while one for example full day kindergarten uh the steam initiative increase in counseling staff to have a colge counselor counselors and I shared
among elementary schools so there has been increase in the programming I think responding to the demands from the parents and also the needs and the broader environment around us and with all that we've been able to up until this past two years keep the cost
increase below 2% I just want to say that but that I think is indicative of how fiscally responsible The District staff has been taking advantage of Grants uh shifting service providers as needed you know we redid All the lighting utilities and all the uh
lighting and such and all and the hbac and most of the schools resulting in lower utility cost so we've they've exhausted all the efforts year-over year to minimize cost increases and tax increases for the students for the residents here in the district I know it
is a bit of a shock to the system to be below two most of the years and this year is much higher but as a slide on the board outlines there really there really was very little that we could do the only thing that we could do is maybe use a little bit more of a reserve but
that would deplete a potential reserve for next year there really are uncontrollable cost increases that we've all faced in our everyday lives I think as a board my own view on the mission as a on the board here Ed is to ensure that the students of today and tomorrow get
the same education that my my four kids had in the past 10 plus 12 years here in Summit and I think I realize that the costs are much higher but as noted again if we had simply said to the administration no you have 2% every year
we'd be at a higher level today so I would hope that this community understands how much money has been saved it's by the efforts of the school district over prior years that not simply think it as a 2% oh do 2% more each year but this increase really is
unavoidable if we want to maintain quality we have here any final comments if not we will move to the comment excuse me we're open for public comment and again this is going to be like deja vu so any wishing to speak
shall first seek recognition by the presiding officer please come to the microphone and state your name and address in a clear audible tone for the please direct all comments to the board president and not an individual member of the board and please remember conduct yourself with the cor and respect when speaking and addressing the board unless additional time is granted by the board
president please be respectful and keep comments of three minutes or less in addition please note that this portion of the meeting is for public comment and not back and forth board members of administration will not respond to questions or comments at this time however information will be provided by the appropriate IND idual soon as possible questions asked at this board
meeting will be answered in two ways publicly at the next meeting and by the superintendent design directly to the person who asked the question good my name is John creel 46 bur place here in Summit appreciate your time and your service to the community
I'm here this evening on behalf of the Summit High School sing Team to urge all of you Board of Education to fund a paid coaching position High School Sal team for the2 2026 Academic Year is our understanding that funding for a paid
saling coach on the the team is on the list for future consideration but currently not included in the budget that you will all be improving uh this evening I recognize the large numbers and the increase that's already in place so difficult tradeoffs but please consider our
sailing team during this process um Team successfully operated as a full-fledged Varsity Sport for over 10 years compete in both the fall and spring Seasons we typically have 12 to 16 Sailors on the team only three years
has District beun to fund transportation for the team with this current Academic Year the first time the transportation cost are fully funded by the athletic department all the expenses over the years of the team have been paid by the summit sailing Foundation thanks to the
support of our sailing families and also the generous support of the summit boosters need for a paid coach in this upcoming pic year has become urgent because I served as parent coach for the last three years and I have been bust chaperon for each of those three years
that's seven sailing Seasons 12 weeks in the spring 12 weeks in the fall two round trips to per Michael is graduating at the moment there is no other parent within our sailing team or do we anticipate that has the degree of
flexibility could fulfill that role me taking over that responsibility we tried to secure parents to do a single in the course of a year we just simply can't fill the full schedule it creates variability and frustration so we ask
that the Board of Education fund a PID coaching position with the guidance of of Dan hilly the athletic director on how that would be leled to create consistency for the team and allow the program to continue with my departure and there's nothing problem except I'm able to get on a bus at 2:30 out the the
gym doors there that this program be discontinued and 10 plus Year Legacy would come to an ending the offerings at Summit High School it enhances the image of our Public Schools confidence develops grit rewards to
requires communication and forces complex decision making on our student are not just compete High School regards they're deving skills that will serve them well for the rest of their lives in addition s is a legitimate Pathway to College admission recent Summit going on
to schools including Cornell there been two in the last three years George SE Chapel Hill for and UVA our colors they earn Varsity letters and awards and they Banner in their accomplishment gy they deserve this
financial support from the school district we thank you again hope consider this myself and K who's not here tonight the two volunteer coaches who've been handling team for the past three years we stand on a legacy of a decade of support so please in your process of determining this budget this
year please consider funding a paid coaching position for the sailing team thank you hello Bob palowski three Crest SRE Court um I'm also a councilman from W um came in here tonight and I looked down at this floor and I thought this is a
goodlooking floor I mean to to to stand the test of time and um you know I think uh you guys are going to be looking really hard at things like a floor that we can get a couple more years out of to get these numbers down
um Mr Cho said that um you know hopefully our residents could understand um such a big increase because of the way that it's evolved um but it still will be a shock right when they see that number it'll be a shock to their
themselves and a shock to their bank accounts to uh for the associated tax increase caused by the lobby um so I hope you guys are getting granular I know some of these textbooks are pretty old too my son had a history book that
my brother had uh when he came here you know 20 years earlier of course it was a history book that I think cut off around the Civil War so I don't know what's happened since then that we have to update it with um so we can just you know taking close look and and getting
it down as low as we can thank you motion to close um public comment come on down just I say my name sh deth five Ox Bolan um not very prepared to speak tonight um and very educated on the subject I thank
all of you uh but I just want to say that as a parent uh I am in support of the budget increase in order to support um our teachers our administrators and most importantly our students in our community in order to maintain the education um that Su has provided and
keep it going and as a side note I'm in support of more textbooks instead of less if that's meaningful here um as students who you know online learning has its benefits but Al also its challenges and hopefully we can find some other ways to cut the budget if we
need to I appreciate all your hard work thank you motion to close discussion all those in favor any post any extensions so move all right so now I will I will read the budget resolution um just comments beforehand
please so I'm going to read the time of the budget public hearing however I want everybody know that time may change so I'm going to read it as it is but time may change um to later in the day number one number two if you'll see on the website there talks about on the 27th that the budget is going to be
recertified um the budget will be finalized and voted upon at that time with whatever changes are made between today and that time so this is the tentative budget there is going to be some a lot more discussion and review of it and changes will be made it would only be certified at the
original dollar amount as of today if no changes were made so I just wanted to make that D sorry can I just say come now or do I say it later I can I can yes you can thanks D um so I just want to Echo some of the sentiments that have
been shared today I want to emphasize that my vote which will be in support of this tenative budget at this stage is a vote for support on the ongoing process it's not necessarily an endorsement of the current number but I know how hard the individuals who are on uh Board of
school estimates have been working and will continue to work the budget as it stands is high but I do fully expect to continue this group to continue to work diligently to identify adjustments where they can and bring it down significantly before quote that
D having been through this process before just as Yan mentioned I know the final approved members have not necessarily reached this level and I don't necessarily know that they should be at this level now but remain committed to ensuring a responsible and
sustainable budget that reflects the needs of all of our stakeholders and I want to be clear that I along with every member of this board fully support our teachers who are the heart of an incredible education our students receive we must continue to prioritize
the Excellence of our schools and the success of our students while also working to be more financially sustainable solution the goal is to strike a balance maintaining that high quality a e goed by our teachers here today as well as meeting the
expectations of our community by not placing an undue financial burden on the taxpayers so as we move forward I do encourage the budget committee to find meaningful adjustments where they can so that we find that perfect balance between our education standards and our
financial responsibility to our town thanks Derek very welcome all right with that I will read resolution approval of the the 2025 2026 school budget resolution resolve that the tenative budget be approved for the
2025 2026 school year and sent to the executive county superintendent schools in accordance with the statutory deadline for review approval 2025 26 total expenditures 87 million 989,50 with special revenues of
$777,000 for a total of $88 m766 n76 less anticipated revenue of 11,297 $1,476 from the general fund and $777 773 from the special Revenue fund
so the local tax to be raised 76 m69 727 and to advertise said budget said tenative budget in a local Source in accordance with the form suggested by the State Department of Education and according to law further resolve that the public hearing will be held at the Wilson board meeting room Thursday March
27th 2025 at 11: a.m. with the cave I mentioned before for the purpose of conducting a public hearing on the budget for 2025 2026 school year further resolved that the Board of Education authorizes a supplemental adjustment to exceed the total tax levy limitation in the amount of
$3,819 for purposes of maintaining the district's quality educational programs the district has made efforts to enter into shared agreements and maximize efficiencies further resolve that includ in the general fund appropriation The Summit City Board of Education authorized the approval of withdrawal from capital reserve in the amount of
$1,800,000 as followed $650,000 for the break School playground update $650,000 for the Jefferson School playground update $500,000 for the Summit High School auditorium fall replacement further res that as per njac 6823
a-14 point2d including the general fund Appropriations The Summit City Board of Education authorize the approval of withdrawal from maintenance Reserve in the amount of $375,000 as follows $75,000 for the Brighton Schools bestus removal and four replacement $100,000 for the lcj Middle
School floor replacement $100,000 for district doors replacement $100,000 for architect engineering fees in districtwide projects further resolve that the Board of Education included in t of the budget the adjustment for increased costs in health benefits in the amount of 1,455
789 the additional funds will be used to pay for the additional increases in health benefit premiums and further resolve that the summit Board of Education include intended to budget the adjustment for Bank cap in accordance with njac 6A col 23 a101b the district has fully exhausted
all eligible statutory in authority and must increase the base budget in the amount of $537,475 for the purpose of supporting the district's educational programs for all students the district intends to complete said purposes by June 2026 note figures are subject to change
up to the time of adoption of this resolution based onate figures or other adjustments I think I have said enough have ation second is there any discussion Miss Stanton yes Mr Mah
abstain Miss Kelly yes Miss ER yes Mr Cho yes vice president Co yes president Justice yes thank you motion carried so now the surveys the process the budget will be submitted to the county superintendent for their review um once we have approval that means we have
approval to advertise and uh be ready for our public hearing on March 2nd so once we have that approval we will advertise the budget and Mr Huff Miss Sarno and myself will continue to work for reductions then on March 17th we are operations committee to go over that and
to continue to review after such time Board of Education members will receive copies of it as well members of the board of school estimates so everybody will be on the same page so with that being said can I have a motion to adjourn please thank you thank you is there any discussion all those in favor
I any oppos any extensions we are adjourn 725 thank you everybody for