WEBVTT

METADATA
Video-Count: 2
Video-1: youtube.com/watch?v=l19BXwSq6is
Video-2: youtube.com/watch?v=P0D-m7F_JIc

NOTE
MEETING SECTIONS:

Part 1 (Video ID: l19BXwSq6is):
- 00:00:00: Board of Education Meeting Call to Order
- 00:14:45: Entering Closed Session for Legal, Personnel Matters
- 01:15:19: Return to Open Session, Pledge, Public Meeting Notice
- 01:17:10: Approval of Closed and Public Session Meeting Minutes
- 01:18:24: President's Report: Budget Context, Priorities, and Improvements
- 01:21:52: Superintendent's Introduction to the Budget Presentation
- 01:27:09: Serving the Students; Demographics and Class Sizes
- 01:30:56: Preschool and Special Education Population Investments
- 01:38:12: Vernon's Road Back, Budget Protects Student Well-being
- 01:41:11: Strategic Plan Funding, District Goals and Community Input
- 01:45:49: Strategic Staffing and Support with Net Savings
- 01:49:05: Major Budget Cost Drivers and Cost Containment Strategies
- 01:54:53: State Aid, Funding Sources, and Fund Balance Overview
- 01:58:36: Understanding Fund Balance, Surplus and Emergency Items
- 02:06:35: Budget Allocations, Local Tax Levy and Priorities
- 02:11:28: Board Report Summary and Public Comment Notice
- 02:19:25: Public Comment: Pete Onell, Vernon Lake
- 02:20:29: Public Comment: Dorene Edwards, Highland Lakes
- 02:25:25: Public Comment: Vladimir Binto, Highland Lakes
- 02:27:16: Public Comment: Colleen Gran, VTEA President
- 02:31:17: Public Comment: Carolia, Vernon Resident
- 02:35:48: Public Comment: Mr. Stacey
- 02:40:18: Public Comment: Miss Paladini
- 02:40:54: Public Comment: Mr. Sassy
- 02:42:30: Public Comment: Anne Larson, Glenwood Section

Part 2 (Video ID: P0D-m7F_JIc):
- 00:00:05: Zoom Issues and Apologies for Interrupted Public Comment
- 00:00:58: Public Comment Critiques Vague Numbers and Budget Fluff
- 00:02:39: Addressing Health Benefits, Taxes, and Pre-K Funding
- 00:08:21: Explaining State Aid Cap and Formula Shortcomings
- 00:11:35: Clarifying Budget Balance with State Aid Caps
- 00:12:07: Board Clarification of Pre-K and Teacher Realignment
- 00:16:58: Health Benefit Utilization Rates and Renewal Negotiations
- 00:20:01: Community Relations and Strategic Planning Report
- 00:23:03: Resolution Discussion: Highlands District Funding Fairness
- 00:27:01: Board Support and Vote on Highlands Funding Resolution
- 00:31:31: Explaining Supplemental State Aid and Development Limitations
- 00:32:30: Federal Lawsuit Proposal: Challenging Abbott District Funding
- 00:37:40: State's Capping & Expanding Disparities in District Funding
- 00:42:31: Statewide Impact of Funding and Forming a Coalition
- 00:46:01: Board Feedback: Exploring Abbott Lawsuit Viability
- 00:51:44: Opening Talks With Town, Ad Hoc Committee Formation
- 00:57:58: Student Liaison Report: Sports, Activities, and Achievements
- 01:02:23: Public Comment: Requesting Itemized Budget Details
- 01:03:51: Task Force Criticized, Financial Records Requested
- 01:06:19: Public Comment: Support for Abbott Ad Hoc, Concerns Shared
- 01:07:43: Public Comment: Challenging Factual Basis and Mismanagement
- 01:10:13: Closing Public Comments, Board Addresses Concerns
- 01:14:04: Superintendent's Report: Shared Purpose and Student Achievements
- 01:22:30: Policy and Governance Committee Report: Policy Updates
- 01:26:05: New Chromebook Time Limits to Help Students Stay Balanced
- 01:28:44: Motion to Approve Policies, Committee Assessment from Strauss
- 01:31:38: Personnel Report: Resignations, Appointments, Leaves, and Transfers
- 01:34:54: Budget Discussions in Context for Various School Staffing
- 01:36:03: Curriculum and Instruction Committee Report: Strategic Alignment
- 01:38:12: Elementary School Literacy & High Quality Materials in Report
- 01:38:48: Motion to Approve Travel, Approval of Common Lit Contract
- 01:41:19: HIB Report, Random Drug Testing, and School Safety Updates
- 01:42:26: Finance, Buildings, and Grounds Committee Report
- 01:44:53: Business Administrator's Report: Financials, Donations, Approvals
- 01:50:02: Board Approves 26/27 Final Budget
- 01:51:30: Committee Approves Grant Changes and Electonics Investments
- 01:53:16: Special Services: Out-of-District Placements and Support
- 01:54:06: Approve Agreements to Provide for Town Wide
- 01:54:35: Closing Public Comment Period: End of 2 Hour Budget
- 01:55:10: Board Member Forum: Statements and Appreciation


Part: 1

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--------- I want to talk about this. >> You might need that. >> Thank you. I'm calling to order the uh April 30th meeting of the Vernon Township Verdon Township Board of Education um

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at 603. Mr. Slam is still unpacking but he needs to proposal call. >> I can do it. >> I got it. >> That's my documents full of before. >> Mr. Smeaggle. >> Mr. Fischer

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>> here. >> Mr. Krauss >> here. >> Miss Nichols >> here. >> Miss Pallet >> here. >> Miss Pac >> here. >> Dr. Ross. Miss Varello >> here. >> Mr. Zimmerman, we have a quorum. >> Great. It is recommended that the board

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enter close session for the purposes of discussing legal personnel and student matters. Coming in a motion. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Second. Stephanie. All in favor? >> I >> I quick. Well, you know, Thank you. It's recommended that the

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board return to open session. Can I get a motion? >> So moved. >> Second. >> Thank you, Stephanie. Do a roll call vote. Mr. Fischer >> here. >> Mr. Krauss >> here.

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>> Miss Nichols. Miss Pellet. Miss Pac >> here. >> Dr. Ross. Miss Aarella >> here. >> Mr. Zimmerman. >> Mr. Smagalia >> here. Here.

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Thank you. >> And then um Mr. O'Donnell, Mr. Mendes, >> present >> and myself. >> Thank you. >> Item five, Mr. Slam, would you like to lead us in the pledge?

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I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank you.

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>> Item six and the public meeting notice. Mr. Excellent. >> The New Jersey Open Public Meetings Law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to advance notice of and to attend the meetings of public bodies at which any business affecting their interests discussed or acted upon in

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accordance with provisions of the act. Bernie Township Board of Education has caused notice of this meeting to be published and notice has been provided and notice this meeting has been properly posted in accordance with New Jersey open public meetings. Just a quick note, the next public meeting will be held on Thursday, May 21st, 2026.

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Sorry. Do you want to reflect that Mr. Zimmerman is here now? >> Um, >> yes. Thank you. >> And seven, approval of your minutes >> to the uh minutes of the closed public session meeting from March 26, 2026. And

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the minutes of the public session meeting from March 26, 2026. >> Thank you, Stephen. Can I get a second? >> Second. >> Thank you, Sarah. Mr. Krauss, >> yes. >> Miss Nichols, >> yes. >> Miss Pallet, >> yes.

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>> Miss Bac, >> yes. >> Miss Varelo, >> yes. >> Mr. Zimmerman, >> here. Uh, it's a motion uh to approve minutes. >> It's It's I or or yes or I, right? It's a yes or no vote.

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>> Yes. What did I say? >> He said he said here. Sorry. >> Oh, okay. >> Uh, Mr. >> Rule, >> maybe he meant here. >> Uh, maybe. Yeah. Uh, Mr. Smackloo. >> Yes. >> Uh, Mr. Fischer, >> abstain.

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>> Motion carries. >> Thank you. Item eight, president's report. Um, good evening. Thank you all for being here tonight. As we prepare to discuss and vote on the proposed 2026 2027 budget, I want to take a minute to provide some context for our community.

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Like many districts across New Jersey, we're facing significant cost increases. Healthcare premiums alone increased by 25% this year, which was just one of uh many financial hits that our budget took that needed to be addressed. I also want to acknowledge that there are valid

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concerns about how state funding is distributed across districts. Our district received an increase in funding this year, but the amount we received was still below the level the state itself calculates that we need to adequately fund a budget that meets our students needs. The state's formula also

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anticipates that districts will fully utilize their allowable tax levy as well as allowable adjustments such as the healthcare adjustment to meet rising costs. Insufficient state funding concerns are real and they are shared by many communities like ours. Those decisions

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are made at the state level and are outside the control of this board and administration. However, later in the meeting, we will be discussing potential ways to engage with the state on addressing the issue of equitable distribution of funds. We can and should continue to advocate for fair and

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equitable funding, but the budget decision before us this evening is about ensuring that our district is able to operate effectively and provide a highquality education for our students. As we prepare to discuss the budget, I want to underscore that improving student outcomes remains a top priority

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for this board and this district. Over the past year, the administration has been working to strengthen and align curriculum across our schools to ensure that all students receive consistent highquality instruction. That work along with maintaining staff programs and supports is essential to

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the kind of sustained improvement that we all want to see here in Vernon. These efforts take time to be reflected in measures like state test assessments, but we are beginning to see progress and we are committed to continuing that work. And finally, I also want to mention that robust discussions about

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every aspect of this budget have taken place in our committee meetings and our public meetings over the past few months. The final version being presented again tonight reflects careful planning and difficult decisions made during that process to arrive at a budget that is reasonable, efficient,

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and supports the needs of our students. With that, I'd like to introduce Mr. Slam, who will be presenting the budget. Good evening. Um, this evening, uh, we are presenting our final budget presentation for the 26

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27th school year. Um, my name is Evan Mendes, as you know, and I'm superintendent and tonight I have the honor of presenting with Mr. Ray Lamb, our business administrator. Um, and just to preface, when I came to Vernon, I think my commitment was to a simple approach. It was to listen uh to learn

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and lead. This project reflects all three. It reflects what I heard from our community. It reflects what I learned about where our district is presently and it also reflects the leadership decisions we are bringing forward

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tonight in our community priorities. Here uh we will see our commitment. Uh we had the wonderful opportunity over the past few months to unite with our community as we thought about strategic planning over the next five years. Uh

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this was something that our our board uh commissioned us to do to write a strategic plan that would really collect the voices uh in our community to say what are our priorities and how would we like to move forward together to define

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them and to implement them. And so these are the commitments that came out of that planning. Our community defined the priorities and this budget funds them. Uh a budget that is examined with care. It was built with purpose in mind and it was found within those priorities. It

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certainly reflects our stewardship of our public resources and our unwavering commitment uh to our children. The presentation and the budget is also the result of months of collaborative work. with our finance and buildings and

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grounds committee. Our board does function in a committee structure. Therefore, all decisions that are made and all process is flow through our uh committees prior to coming to the board. Uh our board goal this year in finance and facilities was that the finance and

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buildings and grounds committee is committed to proactive fiscal and facilities planning, assessing long-term capital needs, ensuring alignment with educational priorities, and exploring all options to address the future of Bernie's building. Uh and with that

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priority in mind, uh our business administrator led the effort. We know that his expertise and his careful stewardship and partnership are reflected on every page of what we will see tonight. So, thank you, Mr. Slam. Um, also thank you to our committee chair, Mr. Krauss, and our committee

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members, Mr. Samag, Liam Fischer and Zimmerman, and of course, our board president, Miss Pellet, for their thoughtful engagement throughout this process. Uh, their commitment to uh the proactive fiscal and facilities planning shaped our priorities tonight. Um, as alongside Mr. Van Kirk, our director of

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filings and Browns. Uh we do believe that this budget reflects um uh the fiscal translation of what we believe in as a community. Uh just a point to our goals. I just outlined what our budget

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goal was through finance and facilities. This is our communication goal in the district. Uh our communication goal was to make sure that we're communicating across all of the avenues in our district, that we're clear, that we're

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consistent, and that everybody has an opportunity to hear where we're headed. We certainly heard that we needed to be transparent with the budget process. That was a goal we believe we achieved. We began with our district website, which we launched in February. Uh it

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includes FAQs, our budget calendar, our common budget terms, and our uh board meeting schedule. We updated our community uh several times, I believe six times throughout the season. Uh and you see the dates listed there. Uh when our state aid was released on February

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19th, our governor uh through the address uh communicated that the state aid would be delayed um and that a possible date change would be noted. Therefore, as soon as we were informed, we sent out our community letter on

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March 5th to let them know that we would have to update our dates. Uh we also posted it on our website with our popups and we sent out legal notices to the NJ Herald um so that uh our public was aware that the date changed March 26th.

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Uh it was again published on the 11th and for our current board meeting it was published in the NJ Herald on April 24th. All of these budget updates uh were done again in aligned with our communications

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goals so that our community could have the opportunity to engage with us in the process. Uh in addition uh we do have the complete budget file at our district office. It is open for public examination at the business office Monday through Friday from 8:00 am to

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4:00 pm. So if anybody would like to see the complete budget, they are able to do so. Um, and also our board received a comprehensive binder of our budget submission to the county on March 26 for them to review. Uh before we talk about our budget, I

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wanted to first ground us in who this budget is serving. Our Vernon Township Public School serves 3,12 students across six schools from preschool at Walnut Ridge through 12th grade at Vernon Township High School.

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That is 209 more students than we served last year. and that is driven largely by our preschool expansion which is bringing more Vernon families to our schools earlier. Uh behind every one of these students is a team of 266

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teachers, 373 staff and 13 instructional leaders. Of note, I know that on our state report card it says that we have a 12 to1 staffto student ratio. Uh this does reflect all of our instructional settings including our specialized classrooms that are legally capped at

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age eight students. So I just wanted to bring to um the board of communities attention that on average our actual general education class sizes range from 21 to 31 as opposed to the posted 12:1 ratio.

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Uh class size is one of the clearest signals of where a district is investing in its students. Um and here You're going to see on this slide where we are with class size, what this budget does to address it, and where we are headed. Um,

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important context about our class size goals. While Vernon is not officially designated as a highne district, uh, the state does recommend specific class sizes for districts where student proficiency uh, falls below 80%. in our

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district uh academically we reflect that profile that the state had in mind when they made those recommendations. So we are not required to meet those targets. However, we're choosing um to use them as a guidepost because they do reflect what our students actually need. And so

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then with that as our framework, here's where we stand. Our preschool currently has 15 students in each classroom and that is a state cap. It's a requirement. We cannot exceed that. Therefore, our goal is 15 and this budget reflects

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that. Uh kindergarten, the uh state recommendation is no more than 21. Our goal is 18 alongside those high needs. Um and this budget does reflect an additional kindergarten teacher to bring down our class size of 21 in

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kindergarten down to 19. Uh we're not at our goal yet of 18. Uh I think what you'll hear from Mr. slam and I this evening is that uh this budget here is not a solution. It's a journey toward restoring the things that were lost in order to meet the needs of our students

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adequately, thoroughly, and efficiently. And it will take a multi- budget process, a multi-year budget process to do that. With this budget, however, we are able to accomplish uh a step forward toward

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our kindergarten class size goal. In grades one to three, we currently have 21 students in our class size. Uh the recommended number is up to 21. So, we're meeting that with this budget. For

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grades four and five, our current class size is 21 to 24. uh our goal is up to 23 and that would be left to a future budget priority. We did not have the budget to consider addressing class size in grades four to five this round. Um

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and for our four middle school and high school classes, our current class sizes are up to 31. Our goal is 25. We were unable to address that in this uh budget. Uh but it is a future budget priority. Uh we

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want to protect our investment uh from our preschool to graduation. Um and therefore uh this is one of our goals. Preschool preschool is Vernon's earliest and highest leverage intervention.

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Vernick receives approximately 4.761768 in preschool funding. Preschool is state funded and it is uh uh an evidence of us being fully invested in our Vernon children. It supports 366 students across 23

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classrooms with two new classrooms opening in September. And I want to highlight what this means for our Vernon families. Private preschool can cost up to $24,000 per child per year. We were just speaking to someone else again in the

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community who said they're paying $2,000 per month per child um for preschool. Uh because of this state funded investment, Vernon families have access not only to high quality early learning at no cost,

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but they also um have the ability to we have the ability to put this money back in their pockets. Um preschool transportation is at a cost of $382,56. However, it's only carried in our LEA budget as a bridge cost. And I'll

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explain that once Vernon reaches its universe, the cost will become significantly offset by preschool age. So what is a universe? Uh the state takes the number of students we have enrolled in grade one. They multiply

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that by two and that gives us the number of 340. The state is saying our preschool universe, the number of preschool students we could potentially serve is 340. Once we receive or we reach the complete

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universe, then we can offset our transportation significantly with the preschool aid. So, where are we on that trajectory? We're currently serving 227 general ed students and another 82 special ed

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students. Now, the state won't allow us to count the 82 toward our universe. They only count general ed. So, what's our gap? We have about 113 students to go. We project that we will be able to serve those additional students by the

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2728 school year. So that's the bridge cost that I'm talking about. How are we serving our students? Uh, Walnut Ridge currently has 17 preschool classes, three PSD, and we have five

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classrooms at our provider sites. Opening two new additional sites in um, September. It bears repeating that our greatest investment is our youngest citizens and those are our preschool students and we are expanding access to

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early learning and putting money back in the pockets of our burning families through these initiatives. Another very um important population that we serve is our special education population. It is another critical investment that

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Vernon makes in its students. Um and this is what we are doing and where we're headed in the area of special education with dependence toward independence in mind. What the data tells us is that 25% of Vernon students

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are currently classified for special education. that is above state and national averages which are at about um 15 and 17% respectively. Behind that number are real students

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with real needs and Vernon is committed to serving every single one of them. This year the state is sending us $4.8 million in special education aid. That is a decrease of $191,258

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from the prior year. The state is sending us less, but we are investing more. Our budget priority remains with our students, and this budget response to special education in three concrete ways. First, we recently

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completed an independent special education audit conducted by AllIn. That audit identified specific recommendations to strengthen our support of our students and this budget responds directly to those recommendations and we will see those as

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we proceed in the slides and you will see them in our budget. Second, in collaboration with parents and child study teams, we are reviewing IEPs with the goal of transitioning students toward least restrictive environments. Moving students only when

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appropriate from dependence to independence. That is the goal of special education and this is the right educational practice for our families and this is what we want for our students. You will see that reflected also in our budget. And the third is that the budget continues to staff more

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special education classes in alignment with class size requirements. It funds professional development districtwide so that every educator who works with our students has the training and support they need. And this work advances um two of our strategic plan goals, a coherent

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learning pathways and academic strength, rigor, and support. So what does this budget protect? This budget protects all of our programs and we are sustaining all of our supports for all of our students. Every

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student need is being served. Vernon serves a diverse student population. We have 75% in general education, 25%, as we just said, special education, and 2% multilingual learners. The budget protects every student served, every

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program, every support. And no, there are no program cuts in this budget. In academic support, we are sustaining all of our core instruction, our intervention, our special education services, our multilingual learner

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supports. In student well-being, we're supporting our school counseling, our mental health services, our nursing and health services, and our social and emotional and behavior supports. For co-curricular, we're continuing to support our athletics, our clubs and activities, our visual and performing

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arts, our student leadership and enrichment. And for college and career life readiness, we are continuing to support our career pathways, our CTE and dual enrollment, all of our advancement AP coursework. We're also added two AP

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courses for next year, cyber security and business and finance. Another new course is AI and critical thinking because we need to lean into what's happening with our students and AI and screen time and how they're really um

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developing their critical thinking as to um really stand to uh compete in our global economy not only within I but with their own thoughts as identity and then our postsecary counseling and

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planning. So what's the road back? Uh I think in order to understand where we're going and how we're supporting everything that we have in this budget in order to meet the needs of our students, I think we first have to understand where Vernon

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has been. In 2023, which was just three years ago, Vernon eliminated 52.5 positions. That was a responsible fiscal decision made under significant funding constraints at that time. and we want to

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acknowledge that decision. It was the right call given the fiscal reality of our district and what they faced with all of the state aid cuts. Uh Vernon was one of the districts that received the highest state a cut one of the highest >> second >> the second highest that received um

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state aid cuts in that year. Um so what has happened with all of those cuts is that it has had a real impact. Flat sizes have increased across our grade levels. Intervention capacity was reduced.

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Programs were strained. Resources for instruction were limited. And recovery has been gradual. Last year, the district began to add back necessary instructional materials and staffing supports, and that was the

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beginning. This budget continues along that road to recovery, and it's doing so carefully. It's doing so responsibly to address what was lost. And while there are no program cuts to this budget, there are targeted investments where need is greatest and our strategic plan

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is funding. Now, we know that districts across New Jersey are facing significant fiscal pressure right now. We are aware and many are making very significant reduction. We understand that pressure and we understand it because Vernon

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lived through that three years ago. And so the decision not to cut this year is a decision for our students. It one it is one uh that comes on the uh trail of Vernon having to already have made deep cut reductions in 2023

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in which our students are still feeling the impact. Uh cutting again now would not be sound stewardship. It would compound what was already lost. It is our responsibility, therefore, to every burning child to continue careful,

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deliberate recovery the district began and not to interrupt it. And full recovery will require continued commitment over multiple budget cycles. This budget is a beginning. It is not a solution. It is a step forward. And it is built on the acknowledgement of where

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we are and where we still need to go. We've talked about our strategic plan and this budget funds our strategic plan. The 2631 strategic plan was developed again at the direction of the board for structured three session community engagement process. It was

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facilitated by New Jersey school boards in collaboration with our teams. Uh we did have a great turnout. I think at our first meeting it was 178 community members came. We had two additional um meetings. We had surveys. We had a lot

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of input, a lot of feedback. Um and again, it was a deliberate process that brought together our parents, our staff, our students, our board members, our community members to begin to define Vernon's priorities for the next five years. I have to say that that was a

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very rich and robust opportunity for us to discuss all of our goals. And while everybody at the table didn't agree, we all were able to discuss in a very meaningful and and uh respectful and professional way, right? Uh what is it that we need? What are we looking for?

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And uh how can we accomplish that together as a community? And so then we reported what those needs were. We certainly weren't able to meet all of them. Uh but over the next five years, we hope to continue to inform them. And a part of responsible stewardship is if

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we're going to invest in a five-year strategic planning process, then we need to align our budget to that. So here are our goals. Goal one is coherent learning pathways. And so then here this budget is going to support K to 8 ELA alignment. Right now our students change

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programs every two years. Every time they move there's a new program and we need alignment in ELA. It reflects instructional materials. We need materials for algebra 1, algebra 2, for science, for social studies. This

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budget will reflect that. We need support and oversight over ELA, preK through 12. We talked about our kindergarten class size, reducing it uh to 19 from 21 in this budget cycle. And we also discussed our preschool

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expansion toward our universe. Our second goal was academic strength, rigor, and support. And this is multi-tiered systems of support. We've um launched our initiative for early intervention when we saw that special education classification number at 25

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and 26%. We understand that that's high and so we need to put interventions in place prior to classification so that we can ensure that our students when um um able are able to access the least restrictive environment. We have

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professional development response to all of our special education audit items and pre-K through 12 district coherence. Uh we're thinking about the resources that we're redirecting toward intervention and also addressing our high school world language class sizes which are

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near and above 31. For goal three, student well-being and climate, uh our special education class sizes need to be addressed. our art and music, our counseling, me mental health is being sustained. We have to have our

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safe and supported schools and student independence and LRE. We talked about that in our special educational side. Propole four, strong partnerships and communication. There are areas that our budget cannot address. We do not have the funding to um outright address some

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very prominent goals that we have. Therefore, we're partnering with universities um in order to achieve the support that we need for our students until we get there. Uh we have taken a very strong look at all of our technology platforms. We've removed the

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redundancy and we have begun to align those platforms. Um checking to see what's being used, what's being used well, what's being used in alignment with our curriculum and if it's not, we removed it. Um and then our ESL supports needed to be added for our students who

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are uh multilingual. For goal five, facilities and stewardship, uh transportation and maintenance, our priorities, our ease of energy savings are applied and of course with strategic additions to meet student

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and operational needs. These were the five goals that our community um established. Surprisingly, we thought communication would be the number one where we started, but it rose quickly to goal number one, coherent learning pathways. And our parents and community

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really expressed how um uh important it was to really gain that alignment as we transition from school to school. So, what do you do with a budget that is limited, with resources that are limited, and so many needs that we have?

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uh our team came together for strategic staffing and stronger support. This slide represents the positions that were added, converted, or realigned with a net savings to the district. And I want to repeat that with a net savings

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to the district. So none of these positions added to the budget's bottom dollar in special services for LRE Independence. This was one of our goals. Uh we talked about reassigning, realigning some of our par

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professionals, our aids, and what does that mean? Through our IEP meetings and in conversations with our parents and our child study teams, any student who was ready to move from a onetoone aid to maybe a one to two or a one to three,

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then we were able to do that. And in doing so, we were able to use those savings to fund most of these strategic additions. For special services, our child study team evaluations, we are adding a school psychologist.

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This is a conversion. So this means instead of depending on our outsider providers to support our students, we're using those funds that we're paying outside and we're just bringing them inside to add one additional staff member. Our CST and a

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lot of our teachers talk to us about this as a priority. The providers and the consultants don't know our students. Our teachers know our students. And so by converting that from outside to inside, we were able to bring on this position and to support our out of

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district case management. Special education class size compliance. We have two classes that the class size is over the state required um uh number for um that class size. And so at Lounsberry

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Hollow and at Cedar Mountain, we're adding two special education teachers. uh we are converting to other special education positions in order to accomplish that. For multi-tered systems of support, we have interventionists

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down at our elementary. Uh we don't have any at Glenn Meadow and Lounsbury. And so then we're converting uh positions that already exist to create those two interventionists at each of the schools. And that is a realignment of our funds.

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The next three are class sizes. We needed a special teacher at Rolling Hills, a kindergarten teacher at Cedar Mountain, and a Spanish teacher at the high school. We were also able to do that through a realignment of our funds and reclassification of those positions.

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And our last one is for preK through 12 ELA coherence. We're adding a preK through 12 ELA supervision. Um, and it is a district-wide position. And again, we were able to accomplish that with realignment of positions permanently in

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the district with a net savings. I'm now going to turn it over to Mr. Slam who will bring us through the business portion or the funding presentation. >> Good evening everybody. So, uh, we were just talking about those savings. So,

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those savings are important. We're about to talk about some of the major cost drivers for the 2627 uh budget. Uh so uh we had an increase in January of about 25% uh for our health benefits. It's a very significant increase that carries over

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into the 20167 school year. Uh and then since we're on the cycle of January renewals, it's been anticipated there'll be another 15% uh renewal uh in January. Uh those are some significant increases. Uh this is something that's being experienced not only across the state

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but across the country not only with school districts but kind of across um in terms of out of district tuition uh we have increase about 7.24%. Um that is a uh combination of things uh that has changed the number of students

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we have and also tuition costs that are dictated to us. >> Oh sorry >> is that better? Is that better? >> Better. Oh, there we go. Can you hear me now? >> Yeah.

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Want me to start over on the slide? >> No. >> Okay. >> Rough. >> All right. Uh, so, uh, moving onward. Uh so contractual increases uh that's dictate that's wages and uh s wage obligations that's dictated through uh contracts in our uh current ongoing

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negotiations. Uh we have transportation uh so those are our out of district routes our in district routes um that's 5.36% that's a combination of uh when we can we bring up the CPI uh which is 3.58%. Uh but often um that is not

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something that vendors will agree to in which case it's generally a higher amount. Uh moving on to operations and utilities. Uh so that's a combination of things uh obviously utilities uh but also things like our liability insurance uh our materials and supplies uh to

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clean and maintain buildings. Uh that's plus 9%. So these are structural costs that are consistent with trends like I mentioned before facing districts across Jersey. Uh and these are things that significantly shape uh this budget recommendation. So seeing those cost drivers, I think

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the next step is to talk about some of the the steps that we took to contain district costs. Uh so before the levy um before state a that we we started working to try to contain those costs. Uh we had a starting gap of over a million dollars. We're able to close

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internally about $800,000 of that. Uh and then right before state aid, we still had a remaining gap of around $200,000. Uh however that was with utilization of the full healthcare cost adjustment which you'll see later in the slides here. We're not recommending use of the full healthare cost adjustment in this budget. Uh so some of the things uh

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that we spoke of we already touched on the realignment of staffing uh which uh through significant work was able to establish a savings district. Um we also mentioned the large increase to health benefits that actually started at a 34% increase. uh we were able to go to

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market and use leverage negotiations to get it down to a 25% increase. Uh with that being said, uh we'll continue to monitor the healthcare benefit utilization and see if there's opportunities to continue to negotiate uh to continue to try to drive those costs down. Uh with transportation, I

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mentioned CPI 3.58% that is the bare minimum at which a uh transportation route can be renewed. Um and essentially if a vendor does not want to renew at that rate, it means they would like to renew at a higher rate. Uh we do our best to always renew the CPI where applicable to save uh taxpayer funds. Uh

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also there's a consolidation of routes uh based on placements. Uh we utilize title one um to offset most transportation. In terms of revenues and offsets uh there are allowable offsets in PEA. Uh so we use those to offset costs in the operating budget uh were

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allowable. We also applied our EIP energy rebates. Uh so we have a significant uh ESIP uh project going on right now and it's projected to save us money next year. Uh and also um we'll get energy efficiency rebates at that time. >> Who's in Ken?

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>> Yeah, >> I'm just going to hold them. That's a lot better. Okay. Uh additionally, uh we have >> Yep. Go ahead. Okay, everyone good? Okay. Uh, so uh we also applied our rate and

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semi-reimbursements uh from the federal government. All right, so operations I mentioned the eup savings. Uh we also review our contracts with vendors and we're apical. We negotiate with vendors uh to try to get those costs down. We also utilize cooperative purchasing and shared service uh shared services um

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specifically of a shared service with the town and that's been able to save uh us money as well. Uh so one of the things uh that I wanted to note was that at the beginning of this process uh prior to this work to attain those savings uh and create those efficiencies the tax level increase would have been

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between 9 and 10%. Uh so we were able to work significantly to get that down. Um in order to uh again um we want to ensure that we have sound fiscal stewardship before asking anything of taxpayers. So the next big factor uh is state aid.

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Uh so we did receive an increase in state aid this year. Um what the thing that we'd like to note here is that while that provides meaningful relief uh does not offset the full cost pressures driving this budget uh that we spoke about earlier on that slide. So the

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state formula uh provides an uncapped calculation uh essentially saying that Vernon should be receiving about $22.2 million. there is a cap on the allowable increase of 6%. So we actually received about $19.6 million. So that gap is

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essentially about $2.6 million that the state itself is saying based off their formula we should be receiving, which we are not. So when you take that factor into account, if we were receiving that $2.6 million, we would be in a very different situation tonight. We'd be

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asking for an tax le $500,000. So, and to add just that last slide. So, while we were uh a big loser uh when the SU funding formula went into place, we lost a lot of state aid, the second most in the county. Um now that things are equalizing a little bit, we're now

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losing because we're being capped on the increases uh when they're trying to kind of back out of the mistake that I think the state made with that formula. Uh yes. So, uh, one of the things we're going to talk about a little bit later tonight is actually a resolution, uh, to try to

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address, uh, that was sent to us from our legislature, uh, to try to address some of these issues in the state a formula. Um, so that's something, uh, that we'll be discussing after the presentation. Uh, I think it's an important initiative. Uh so as we're talking about you know

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some of the different variables there we want to talk about the full picture of how our schools are funded. Uh we were talking about the DAX levy so that's about 70% of our funding. State aid is about 25% of our funding. Uh we also utilize fund balance which is about 2.4 million and then we have other revenues

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that are about 1.5 million. So essentially fund balance is from the audited 2425 school year and that helps us close the funding gap each year. uh the district works to maximize other revenues, manage the fund balance in order to provide uh fiscal uh revenue

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consistency and avoid a fiscal cliff. So I said fund balance. So you may be wondering what fund balance is. Uh so essentially fund balance is the district's total savings. Uh and it's verifi verified at the end of each budget year by the audit. Uh that balance is made up of four

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different categories. Uh the first is essentially tax relief. That's excess surplus. So that's savings from the previous years that are used as revenues to balance the future budget and lower the amount needed from local property taxes in that budget. The next are targeted savings uh otherwise known as reserves. This is money that's set aside

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for specific long-term needs such as building re uh renovations for cap which would be capital reserve uh repairs which would be maintenance reserve or unemployment compensation. The next category is fund balance. So that is unassigned. So that's a cash reserve that ensures the district can

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pay teachers and vendors on time while waiting for state aid or tax payments to arrive. It also uh can help cover unexpected financial emergencies. And then the uh last category is committed pay payments. Uh those are known as incumbrances. Essentially that's money that was already promised

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to pay for goods or services ordered during the previous year that haven't yet been delivered or invoiced um by June 30th. So it gets rolled over into the next year. So there are a lot of variables that can lead to savings or higher expenses during the school year. And we'll talk a little about that in the next slide.

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>> We're going to do this slide a little differently because you know we've received quite a few questions around uh fund balance and excess surplus and what does that mean? So um Mr. Mr. Slam, help me understand just in layman's terms. When the district builds the budget for

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next year, we're projecting expenses that will occur 8, 10, or 12 months from now. How do we approach budgeting for costs that we cannot know with certainty until the

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school year unfolds? >> So, we have to look at current year data and historical trends. Uh and then in certain instances such as you know health benefits uh we work with our brokers to help try to identify where the market's going to go right so we

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have to essentially make sure that we are projecting in a way that we're not going to create uh the potential for a deficit in a future year. Um which again is difficult because you know as you know unexpected things happen uh as we go through the school year. >> Can you compare that to like a checking

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account? Does that make sense? Uh yeah. So I think um in terms of a checking account, so you know, you pretty much have you have a good idea of what your monthly expenses are going to be. So the district's operating account is kind of like a checking account. Um

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so we again we have a pretty good idea what next year's expenses are going to be, but we don't know exactly what the cost is going to be. So uh with a checking account, um you have a good idea. You could have a month where things go well. Uh you could have a month where things go poorly. Um, and then that's when you're going to have to

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pull from your savings. Um, and if you have a month where things go well at the end of the month, you kind of make a decision. Do you want to roll that forward into the next month as, you know, a starting point for the next month? Uh, or do you want to put that in your savings account uh for something you may be saving for?

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>> So, can you talk to us about surplus? Because some of our community has asked, well, you have surplus, you have extra money, right? So, what does that mean? What are some examples of how we would end up with surplus where not just for budgeting.

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>> Uh so a really good example would be with health benefits. Uh so if you have um individuals that are retiring, so you have positions you need to fill in the next year that the to backfill those positions or you have uh new positions. Uh you have a wide range of what that

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could cost for the health benefits for that individual. So you could range anywhere from a single coverage to family coverage. And there's a pretty large discrepancy in terms of how much dollars are behind that coverage. So in that situation, you have to budget for the family coverage. Uh because if you

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don't, uh you're already starting off behind the eight-ball. You can't co budget for a single coverage and then have a family coverage because you will potentially increase the risk of a deficit. Uh another situation that is quite hard to um project is out of

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district students because that can change very quickly. Um so essentially you could have a year where say a lot of students come back in the district or students move out of town or you could have a year where students move into town. Uh so that can fluctuate in terms

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of dollars uh by quite a bit just with one or two students moving in or out. Um so you could end up in a situation where you're generating savings because students are coming back into the district uh and out of the out of district program. Uh or you could have

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students going out where now all of a sudden you are operating at a higher expense than you had anticipated. >> We have to anticipate we have but we're just in case emergency. What are some of those items that we have fixed?

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>> Uh well we've had quite a bit of repairs that have had to happen um unexpectedly. Um a good example would be actually in the building we're in right now. Uh this year one of the boilers went and that wasn't budgeted. So um that's something where we actually had to pull money out

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of capital reserve uh to address that. >> Then the risk for >> correct. Uh you don't want to end the year with a deficit. Um because I think the last thing anyone wants is the state to come in and control the school district essentially. >> Now with that said, we want to be responsible. So can you talk to us? Can

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you walk us through the past three years? What has fund balance look like over the past three years and what does an auditor look at when they analyze these numbers each year? >> Uh so over the past three years we've actually been drawing our fund balance down. Um so each year there's been a

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decrease. Um and that's tied to a couple things but I I would think the largest factor is that we are again using the excess surplus. Uh but also we are completing capital projects. Uh so as we complete those capital projects, we need to pull money out of our capital

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reserve. Um and then as you do that, you're going to be lowering that fund balance amount. Uh so in terms of an auditor, uh what they're going to look for is consistency. Uh so this is important because not only will auditor look at this, uh but also when we go for a bond rating, uh the bond rating companies will look at this and they'll

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determine your rating based off of how fiscally um stable they feel the district is. And this is one of the key things they will look at. >> Great. And just one thing then, can you walk us through this slide specifically to help our community understand which portions of this fund balance are already committed or restricted? We

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can't even touch it. Um, and which uh portion is truly available. >> Yep. So, when we're looking at excess surplus, uh, you'll see two different categories there. You see excess surplus restricted for 2627. So, those are funds that are actually going to be revenue in the budget that we're talking about

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tonight. uh the 2526 excess surplus, those are funds that are already revenue in the budget year we're currently operating in. So those funds have been committed. Um the capital reserve, the maintenance reserve, and unemployment compensation, those are all restricted

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reserves um used for various strict purposes. Capital reserve being for capital projects. Maintenance being for repairs and unemployment, you know, obviously being for unemployment. Um you then have year-end encumbrances, which you spoke about a little bit previously. That's essentially things that have been purchased uh in the prior year. We

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haven't been invoiced yet. So that money is owed that those are bills that need to be paid that we just haven't been built for yet. Uh and then designated for subsequent year that has also been committed. Uh and that's committed in the current year we're in. So really the only thing up there that has not been

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committed is the unassigned fund balance. And as we mentioned before, that is essentially there for when you're in between say a state a payment or waiting for a tax payment uh tax payment to come in to ensure the cash flow of the district or if there's an

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emergency you could draw from that to appropriate during the year. >> Thank you. >> Uh so now that everyone knows what fund balance is, I'm sure as very riveting. Uh so um we rely on fund balance here in

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the form of excess surplus. Uh as you see uh we're drawing that amount down. Uh back in 2223 it was about 5.7 million. Uh 2324 it was brought down to 3.1. Uh went to 2.8 2.5 and then proposed for 2.4. Uh 2.4 being the

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budget we're speaking about tonight. So it's important to gradually reduce uh the need for that fund balances revenue. Uh and it's important to do it over multiple budgets. If you do it too quickly, uh you could potentially end up in a situation where you're worried about a deficit. We don't want to be

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there. Um that's not good for the fiscal stability of the district. Now, the reason it's important to lower that amount uh that you're using as revenue is that means that you're less reliant on it. And as you're less reliant on it, that means that there's less of a chance that you won't end the year with that amount. because if you don't end that

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year with the amount, you then have what I call a fiscal cliff, which means you're not generating the extra revenue to get from where you ended to where you need to be. So, you have to cut. Um, and then also as you lower that amount, it increases the chances that if you end with more than that, you could actually

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put some money in your capital reserves uh where essentially when the next boiler breaks. So in term we talked about our revenues, we talked about fund balance. Uh so let's talk about how these resources actually go to the students. So about 74% of our budget actually goes to

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salaries and benefits. So as you can see that's a majority of the budget. Um and then we got about 22% that goes to special education and related services. About 10% that goes to facilities operations and maintenance and about 6% that goes to general education

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transportation. And all the way at the bottom there you see about 2.8% 8% that goes to instructional resources. So those are the books, materials and supplies that reach the classroom directly. Uh and then the other thing I thought was important to bring up is our 2627 uh total budgetary comparative per

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people cost uh which is $23,47. So uh as you saw on the previous slide uh local tax levy is about 70% of our revenue. Uh so the proposed levy for FY26 so it's 2627 budget is 55,165,220 uh that's about $3 million increase from

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the year before um which equates to about 5.81% um increase on the tax levy. So that's a 2% uh cap uh and then a 3.81% healthcare adjustment uh which equals that 5.81%.

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So essentially that healthcare cost adjustment for anyone that's unfamiliar with it, it's an adjustment uh allowable by the state to go over the cap in situations where there's a very large increase in health benefits. Uh with the idea being that since something like health benefits is not really within the

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district's control and it can swing as you can see pretty wildly based off the prior slides. um they want to try to limit the negative impact um that will have on students and also provide consistency for something that again is not that consistent.

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So with that being said though um we're not recommending the use of the full healthcare cost adjustment uh and there's about $676,429 um that is not being recommended for use uh and would then fall to bank cap. >> Yeah, I think that $3 million number tells the story, right? If we would have

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gotten our full U state aid, which would have been another 2.6, we would have been much closer to not having to increase our tax levy this much. >> Uh so what does this mean uh to burden homeowners? Uh so essentially uh average assessed value uh which I got for the uh

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tax assessor is about $320, uh700. So that's the assessed value, not your market value. Um so it's a monthly impact of about $1951 per month or about $234 uh per year which equates to about a 5.36% um tax impact. First number we mentioned

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earlier 5.8 that's a tax levy increase the 5.36% is the actual tax impact. So essentially what that supports is again our 3100 students, our six schools pre-K through 12, uh our existing and mandated programs, our teachers, our

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counselors, our CST, our nurses, our our buses, our transportation. Uh and then also we're we're working on uh that aligned curriculum and our uh funding our strategic plan priorities. So, as we mentioned and as I think we've repeatedly kind of come back to during

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this budget um presentation, you know, we we're really building this budget for Vernon students. Uh we want them to feel safe, supported, want to be connected, want them to be prepared uh for the world. Uh we want them, you know, we want every classroom to have the rigor, creativity, real world learning,

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excellence. And, you know, this is something we we built together. Uh and this and this budget funds it. Uh so just an overview uh of the timeline. Uh so you'll see some of these dates uh we know obviously happened already. So we're at on April 30th. Um

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that's our public hearing uh right now. Uh and then uh May 2nd uh we would have the user friendly budget uh posted to district website. Uh and then if anyone has uh any other questions maybe after tonight this presentation will be uploaded to the

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website. be available through uh the YouTube link and then also uh as mentioned before uh we do have a lot of updates uh on nearly updated portion of our budget website. >> Thank you. >> Simple.

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Can you go? Thank you. >> Next. >> Um item uh 10, board report summary. Um Mr. Fischer, community relations. >> Okay. So, um, >> I have to do the puff here.

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>> Oh, wait. It's not on my >> It's under the same letter A. >> Oh, thank you. >> Yeah, I'll look right. >> All right. >> They can comment now. >> Yep. >> Okay. So, so do you need to read the

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notice though, the public comment notice or uh >> Yes, I can read I can read the notice first. So, >> thank you. So, I'll just read the public comment notice now so that way it applies to all later public comments as well. Uh, and again,

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this is for the public hearing. Uh, during the course of the uh, public meeting verification, the public has offered the opportunity to address the board on agenda items and issues regarding the school district. Uh the board rem reminds those individuals who take this opportunity that they must identify themselves by name and section of town and limit their comments to

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agenda items and issues that directly relate to the operations of the school district. Issues that are raised by members of the public may or may not be responded to by the board or administration at the time of the meeting or at any time. All comments will be considered and response be forthcoming if and when appropriate. The board requests that members of the public keep their comments to limit of 5

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minutes. Be courteous, respectful, and mindful of the rights of others individuals when speaking. Specifically, comments regarding students and employees of the board of education should be thoroughly considered by the speaker and may or may not be responded to by the board administration. Be advised that students employees have rights of confidentiality and other

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protections under the law. Student names should never be used. The board bears no responsibility nor will be liable for any comments made by the public or in the public portion of the board meeting. Members of the public should consider their comments in the lights the excuse me in the light of the real legal rights of those affected or identified in the

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comments and be aware that they're personally legally responsible with the potential liability for the comments that they make to the board. >> Just just to clarify that um that uh commentary applies to all the public comments but this section is going to be for comments on the um budget

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presentation. We will then have another public comment session that will be for items on the rest of the agenda. Yep. Yep. So, this is the um public hearing portion of the meeting and then later on there'll be other public comments. >> Can I ask a question before we get the public comment? >> Well, this part's

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>> so >> we could have a Q&A. Yes. >> Okay. >> Yeah. >> Good. I I had a question in regards to the the presentation. uh with the fund balance is there a requirement by the state to maintain a

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minimum in either dollar or percentage terms. So if we don't have 2% which is our unassigned fund balance um we actually get a warning uh when we submit our budget uh to the county and we have to provide an explanation as to why

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>> and we're at what in percentage terms. Uh so for the unassigned portion uh which is uh about 1.6 million uh we're at 2%. >> Okay. Anyone else before we open it? Looks a little

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>> So we're at two 2% this year with this new budget, right? Fund balance that we're going to pull into this budget. >> Your mean? >> Yeah. So we're for unassigned fund balance. uh you they want you to have 2% of your prior year's expenditures. So

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once you have your audit complete, they look at the expenditures for the full year and then you should have 2% of that. Um because uh if you call back on that slide, um the overall fund balances that that one uh picture from our audit, the full recapitulation of balances

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includes funds that have already been committed. Um and then the only portion of that that has not been committed or is not reserved for a specific um function is that unassigned fund balance. And that's really the only funds that say for example um in between

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uh we're waiting for a payment and we have a cash flow issue. That's what those funds are for. or say there's an emergency uh and say we don't have enough in capital reserve uh we could appropriate part of that 2% via board resolution during the school year um to

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essentially like avoid a deficit or to uh um fix an issue uh that the capital reserve might not be able to handle on its own. >> And so over the years we have because we were at 5.7 right?

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>> Yes please. So over the years about to 20 2023 I think you said we were >> we were at 5.7 right for fund balance. So we were actually at a higher percentage because our budget was lower right. So we we were over that 2%. And

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over the last couple of years we have been moving towards the 2%. >> So they're connected but they're not they're not the same thing. So that will be utilization in terms of a revenue in our in our budget. So, that amount is going down, which is good because that

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means that uh, for example, if we were still using $5.7 million, we would have to end the current year with at least $5.7 million if we wanted to avoid major cuts essentially. Um, but because that number is going down, the lower that

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number goes, the more likely it is that we'll hit that number um, and be able to utilize that as a revenue in future budgets. And also the more likely is uh that we'll maybe perhaps even exceed that number at some point which means that we could put some money in our capital reserve. Um

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because as things break we need to pull from that during the year. Uh what's it's really twofold. As things break we need to pull for that during the year but we also need that reserve to address normal plan projects as well. >> Okay. So >> is that I I don't know if I

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>> Yeah. And I mean we don't get our money right. and the town pays us throughout the year, I guess, when they collect the taxes or work. So, we don't have all our money to begin with in in September. >> Yeah, there's a there's a payment schedule um uh between us and the town in terms of when um the uh tax payments

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will be distributed to us. That's monthly. >> This year was a boiler, right? We had to pull did we pull money from this reserve to help us pay for the boiler until we got the funds back into our account? Uh,

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so we pulled funds from Capital Reserve at the last board meeting to replace the boiler on Lounsbury, but because we don't have the funds inside of our operating budget, we had to pull from our capital reserve in order to complete that repair because what happens is you

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pull the money from capital reserve and then once it's approved for resolution, you then appropriate that in your budget. Um, but the beginning of the year, those funds weren't in the budget. So that's why it's important to have that cap reserve because if there's something that wasn't budgeted that then

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breaks um you need to find the funds uh somewhere. So capital reserve or perhaps the unassigned balance uh because really after that your only option would be to try to look maybe the finance something which then you're paying interest. >> I'd like to get to the public comment

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part everyone in the board. you you'll have another chance board members when we go to the vote as well. Um do we have anyone in the public who would like to comment? Please just state your name when you come up, please. Thank you.

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>> Thanks. Uh Pete Onell at 13 Terrace over by Vernon Lake. Um I guess you guys cut this all up either raising taxes or what? having less teachers, having bigger class sizes. Is that pretty much

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the give and take of it? That right? Is that one or the other >> choices? Yes. >> So, you all you all are voting for the budget. Is that correct to say? >> I just I just want to clarify this is a time for public comment. So, it's not a dialogue. There's no question and answer. Okay.

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>> Right. is that you can ask a question now if you'd like and then when the public no when the public comments we'll write it down when the public comment period ends we will address the questions but we're not getting into a back and forth because you have a time limit that you can speak and you can ask

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all your questions and then they will be addressed if possible at the conclusion of public comments that's that's our policy with okay all right that was Okay. >> Thank you.

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>> Sure. >> All right. >> Write my name in this book. >> So, you could just state your name. You can if you write it, that works as well. >> Dorene Edwards, Highland Lakes, longtime Vernon resident. Um I have to admit I

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was not involved as much as I would have liked to been have been for the school budget 25 um 26 27. However, I was attending the county budget hearings and I was attending things at the municipal

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building. So only having a certain amount of time. I couldn't um logically be two places at once. So anyway, having said that, there are a couple of comments I want to make. I think Mr. Simiglia had mentioned about how you get

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your funds from the town. Okay. Um, from what I understand from the town, having gone to many meetings, is that say for instance, um, they w give a waiver to a total veteran um, disabled veteran or senior, whatever. If you already got

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those funds, the town does not get those funds back. The town has to eat up those funds. And that's how I understand it. And I don't know if everybody in the audience here understands that. So that's a benefit to the schools. It's not so much a benefit to the taxpayer,

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but to the schools. Um, in 2023, you talk about 52.5 teachers that were eliminated. Well, we all know who were around at that point why that was. Okay. Vernon overextended. They used money they really shouldn't have used, and

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that's why we got in that position. So, I'm I'm just going to leave it at that. If you people want to do um homework on it, be my guest. Um what I'm thinking about is so if you have to fund the health care cost and you're you're leaving some money in the pot for

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perhaps next school year um to help close the gap. And I know you say you have certain obligations to the teachers and staff, whatever. Then why not reduce the health benefit plan? Because I

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personally had to do that because the costs were going up. The automobile insurance, the homeowners, I mean, every which way we looked, we were getting hit with more cost. So I am one person. I have a code on has two pockets, but they only they only belong to one person. I

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only have one budget in my household. Um, also um there was another note I wanted to ask about the math. So it was said about each homeowner maybe their home if they're recessed at 320,000 plus. Well,

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so say that's for instance that's what it is. Most I a lot of taxpayers that I know say the average is like$7,000. Some are way over that. If you do the math$7,000 times 5.81% that's $46.70.

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I don't know where the 20 and something 23416 came from. Anyway, so the county is looking at increasing the budget 4%. The school is looking at incre increasing 5.81%. I don't know about the libraries. I

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think that might be an increase also. And then unfortunately or fortunately, we've been knocking on the door of the municipal part saying you cannot do 11% increase. You would just kill the taxpayers. You're going to have a ghost town if you keep on doing this. So, I

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think they're they're almost like at 6%. So, add it up, folks. You're looking like almost 16%. 16% of 7,000. You do the math, it's a big nut to crack for a homeowner. And um you

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know, when I was working, I had to pay for preschool. I had to pay out of my pocket. And also kept me in line with like how big do I want my family to get? Um I I don't know. I know the state is telling you to do this, but I don't know if they're telling you that you have to

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fund every preschool and it was mentioned something about provider sites and I'd like to know more about that because I had heard that um we're paying different sites in town to house the pre the prek. So that would be

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one of my questions that I would like to be have answered as well. So that's it. I'm here on behalf of the taxpayer are shrinking dollars. I understand it's a tough nut. It's always going to be a tough nut. It's never going to change. And unless they get the school font

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funding done right, we're going to have to go through this every year. So, I would appreciate if you vote no to this increase, try to bring it down a little bit more with the taxpayer in mind. We all love our our kids and their kids in school, but you have to you have to

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think of the taxpayer, too. Thank you very much. >> Thank you. >> Hi, thank you for having me. My name is Vladimir Binto. I'm from Highland Lakes. >> I'm sorry. Could you say your name again? I didn't catch it. Vladimir bin.

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I'm not going to spell it for you. That's um first of all, I'd like to express my appreciation for what you guys do. Balancing is not a very aesthetic act.

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Um, a couple of things I'd like to Well, it's probably a question, but multiple times in your presentations, you mentioned money about $2 million that you didn't didn't get from the state. And if you had gotten it from the state,

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the tax burden would be less. Correct. >> Again, not a back and forth, but >> yes. >> Yeah, you can you can proceed with that line of question. >> Okay, I'll take it as a yes. So my question is why didn't you get

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this money? You are and you personally, Mr. Krauss, you're the chairman of this committee. You should have been at the state. You should have been entrenched getting this $2 million. >> Okay. >> There is a reason, but we'll talk later.

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>> Well, I'd like to hear it at some point. >> Stick around. Stick around. We're going to talk about that, but thank you for your question. Oh, sir, um can I change my mind and can you write your name because I I I feel like we're not catch capturing the names and I don't have

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confidence in spelling yours. Thank you. Thank you very much. Mine's a little bit easier. Colleen Gran, VTEA president. I I just wanted to talk a little bit about the budget and the role of the VTEA. Um, I just wanted

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to make the community aware and the board that the BTEA gives back. We give back consistently, quietly, and meaningful. Uh, this year alone, we've given $40,000 through NJA PEP and BAS grants to our school and our community

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programs. It's not spent on ourselves. It's money that's invested to the the students, the families, and opportunities that might not otherwise exist. Those contributions have helped make things possible like events like elementary literacy nights, steam and

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STEM nights, nights back, uh, math nights, national honor society, back to school night, open house, trips, trucker trail, preschool graduation, and the VTHs senior citizen dinner and musical performances. And let's not forget Art

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Standing, which is three years ago. uh due to financial constraints, it almost did not happen, but the VTA along with SEA has funded it for the last three years. I would be remiss if I didn't acknowledge where the district had been.

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As Miss Deendes had mentioned, just three years ago, the district went through a loss of 50 faculty members, 50 professionals, educators, mentors, and support staff who were the fabric of our school. And yet I hear conversation in the community about wanting smaller

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class sites, higher test scores, and expanded opportunities for our students while at the same time supporting cuts that make those very goals harder to achieve. We cannot ignore this contradiction. We cannot reduce staff and expect the same or greater outcomes

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without placing an un unsustainable burden on those who remain. Our educators continue to rise to the occasion every day, but there are limits to what we what can be done without necessary resources and support. We are

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not here we are not here to advocate for fair and equitable treatment of our members. Although that is critically important, we are also here to advocate for the conditions that allow our students to succeed. These two cannot be separate. They are directly connected. When educators are supported, students

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benefit. When class sizes are manageable, learning improves and schools that are properly staffed, opportunity expands. The VTA is not separate from this community. We are part of it. We live here. We work here. And we are deep. We deeply care about

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what happens in our schools. And we will continue to advocate for fairness, for equity, and for resources that our students deserve. and we will continue to give back just like we always have, investing in our programs and experiences that make differences in the

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lives of our children. I would like to thank the board for delivering a budget that maintains these opportunities for our students. I also would like to add that we have as a union worked with Mr. Slam to decrease health care premiums

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and coverages. Thank you. >> Thank you, Manson. Good evening. My name is Carolia. >> Would you mind signing in? Um, >> sure. Yeah. I just I don't want to butcher anybody's name later.

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>> Thank you. So, as I said, my name is Carol. I uh moved up here in the '9s with my children because Vernon had affordable homes, good schools, and low

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taxes. And here I am 30 plus years later, and we have none of that. Um I did make some notes. So, I'd like to say Miss Demended, I hope I said that correctly. Um, I uh I want to say you

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are a beautiful speaker. Um, the way you presented yourself, but your words came off to me incredibly selfish. I feel that you are completely out of touch with the reality that taxpayers are facing in this current

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economy. Um, your strategic plan to me sounds like a blank check for the BOE for years to come. Um, looking at, you know, you're asking for a five plus% increase after we had a 4 plus% increase

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last year and 11% increase the year before. That's a 20% increase on property taxes in three years with no end in sight. you know, uh, seeing your statistics I find shocking. You know,

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with Vernon has a 25% ratio of special ed students when the average is, where did I write it down? 15 to 17%. What the heck? When did Verden become known as the place to move if your child

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needs services? And what let's uh um I was quite out shocked with our outofd district costs you know um bull instantly comes to mind because the needs of the one do not outweigh the

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needs of the many you know uh bringing up the 52 teachers that were resigned that got terminated a few years ago. Of course, they were, you know, the backstory about them um being hired with

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COVID money that the board of ed was f fiscally irresponsible to um to do that in the first place about eliminating those 52 and a half jobs. not only discussing about the chaos that it caused for parents and

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grandparents of those children that came crying home those days, but that's left for another uh another day. But anyway, my biggest concern was about, you know, in three years you're looking at a 20% tax increase with no end in sight. I

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need you to vote no on this budget and go back to work on it. I have spoken to multiple educators who are facing the same situation and their districts are making those hard decisions and doing the right thing by the people that fund

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it. Thank you for your time this evening. >> Thank you. >> Any anyone else? Do we have anyone online? We're supposed to be alternating. We have one. >> Okay.

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>> Great. >> Go ahead. >> Yes, >> she's able to talk. Person's able to talk. >> They're able to talk. >> Oh, okay. Uh, are you there? I don't even know if that's the right

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name. Do we have audio? Is is there Yeah, they're they're not speaking at the moment. >> Okay. Um, if you can hear us, we can't hear you. So, uh, I don't know. Maybe is there a way to for them to text you if

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they're having >> They're just not on. Okay. Okay. I see some other names up now. So, do you want to move to the next? Uh, >> Mr. Stacey, are you there? I'm here. Thank you. I'm just going to

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read a statement. For weeks now, I've been reading in the newspapers and all over social media about all the school districts around us that are making cuts in so many different ways. I might not have even commented on Vernon's budget

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because I know it's usually an exercise in futility. But what really got me going was the very first line of the article in the advertiser news. It said, "No program or staffing cuts are

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anticipated as the 2026 27 Vernon Township School District's budget." My first thought when I read that opening statement was how arrogant. While we are reading daily about cuts in

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every single school district around us, Vernon BOE is proudly boasting that not only will they make no cuts, but they are also exceeding CAP and giving us a 5.81% increase. That's on top of the 9.85%

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increase last year and a 4% increase the year before that. All above cap. Now, you might as well just say to us, "We'll keep the status quo and just give you a 5.81% increase, and you'll like it."

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Several years ago, our superintendent recommended closing the school due to the significant drop in enrollment. The BOE refused that. Then taxpayers found out that you unlawfully sent a BOE member's child to an

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unapproved school recommended by an unapproved outofstate child psychologist, which cost taxpayers about $800,000 to educate that BOE member's child out of district. Then you used a government

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grant to hire 40 plus new teachers. Tonight I heard the number 52. Twice as many as you should have. And within nine months you fired those 40 plus new teachers. And by the way, you told us that that

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money could only be used to hire teachers when that was not true. You gave away our historic BOE building for a fraction of what it was worth in what some alleged was a rigged bid, including

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one BOE member. And right after you gave that building away, the winning developer put it up for sale for almost four times what he paid the BOE for it and then demolish that historic building. Today, the BOE is sitting on

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land that could bring in maybe a million dollars. And despite it not being used or needed, you refuse to sell it for taxpayer relief. And you make one false excuse after another for allegedly not

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being able to sell it. Yet, we taxpayers pay for its upkeep and its use. We have lost nearly half the student enrollment we used to have. Yet, the BOE's budget has increased by tens of millions of

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dollars anyway. And speaking of student enrollment, we were overpaid tens of millions of dollars in state aid in ERA, but our BOE just kept spending that money anyway, despite knowing they were

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overpaid and not entitled to it. Then when the state demanded that overpayment back, the BOE said they cut our state aid. I'm tired of hearing excuses about the Abbott districts

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and tired of hearing about cuts in state aid from you. You're not getting cuts, you're getting increases. This year you got a $1.1 million increase. And it's like you say to hell with the cap. We'll

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just stick them with a nearly 6% increase anyway. And now we are supposed to rejoice because the BOE tells us no program or staffing cuts are anticipated.

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Please do better. We asked you to do better in 2023. We asked you to do better in 2024. We asked you to do better in 2025. Please start seriously doing better.

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Thank you. >> Thank you. And that was Miss Paladini. You got that right cuz I incorrectly thought it was going to be >> Thank you for taking me. I basically

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feel that you have put forth a very good budget. Now, everything that Miss Paladini said is true, but it's not on this on this board.

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Those are all prior boards that made all those judgments and I'll use the term errors because that's what they were. You're doing a better

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job. You are putting forth a better effort and I commend you on that and I hope you will continue that going forward. Yes, we've had some major increases, but you've had to make up for

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bad decisions. Continue on the path you're on. Continue to make the right decisions for our students and I will always support your efforts.

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Thank you for what you do. Thank you to our teachers and I hope our students value the education they're receiving from you. Thank you. Good evening.

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>> Thank you. >> We try that person again. >> Oh, sure. Sir, is the person's hand still up? >> Yes. >> Okay, let's try again. >> Hello. Are you there? >> Is this better? Yes. Yay.

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>> Yeah. Something went off with my speakers. I apologize. This is Annne Larson from the Glenwood section. Unlike Mr. Sassy, I am not a raving fan of this budget. I'm very disturbed. I I have a number of comments, but I I have to tell you, you need to stop throwing 2023 in

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our faces. Every slide starts with 2023 and the and the problems that were associated with that year. You know, don't we ever start with going forward from from the lowest point in the school's history? I I mean it's the low point. It's not the benchmark to measure other other progresses. Uh I I noticed

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on the first first slide we had in aid 476176 excuse me 4 million761768 for the prek um the prek uh education. You know I found that slide very misleading and disingenuous because it

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doesn't give a lot of other facts. It gave the cost of the transportation. Didn't say how much, you know, how much was budgeted, how much we were over or under. And I feel like the facts are cherrypicked, you know? I mean, it why why would we use a number like $24,000 a

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year for prek from the families when in fact we're only paying $600 a month per child to the other schools that that are that are housing our prek people? These numbers are are not are not legit. Okay. 24,000 for prek. In what universe is

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someone paying 24,000 for prek in Vernon Township? I think you need to reject this budget. Go back and maybe start with last year and not 2023. We don't want to hear ancient history from 2023. It's long time ago and we want to move forward and do better. Thank you very

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much.

Part: 2

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the whole website. >> I'm sorry. The whole >> Zoom itself was just shut off like I think not just not just verd and she says it says I have a please wait. >> Yeah, we're logging on right back though.

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It looks like they are live again now. Yeah. And let's wait for we have some participants back. >> There we go. >> Yep. >> Oh, that's her. >> Let's see if we can get Ann to talk again.

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>> Okay. Can you hear me now? >> Yeah. >> Well, I'm really sorry. This has been a mess, right? >> It's not your fault. It's it's a Zoom thing, but um >> yeah, kind of like the PA system in the municipal building. I get it. >> Thank you for persevering. >> I'm trying. So I started saying I am

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unlike Miss Dazi I am not an adoring fan of this budget. I encourage you to please vote no. I'm disturbed on so many levels. For for instance starting on the first slide where it it made mention of the 4,761 excuse me 4 million 761768

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in state aid. Well what was the total cost? You know it just has these numbers are left vague and hanging out [clears throat] there. It has a mention of a 20 saving the township taxpayers $24,000 per student. What What child is paying $24,000 for prek? These are

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numbers that are like cherrypicked and I kind of feel like they're made up to make us feel it's all fluff to make us feel good and it and it actually means nothing. You know, it doesn't tell us. It tells us the transportation costs 382506 for the prek doesn't tell us what

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was budgeted. Are we over? Are we under? I really think you need to go back and fine-tune this thing. And uh and also the five classrooms at the outside schools, how much we paying a month? I was told six something a month. 600 something. At that rate, why on earth would we estimate that the parents are

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paying 24,000 in prek costs if we're paying these same schools 600 something a month? The numbers don't make sense. They need to be reworked. And like I said, I am not an adoring fan. Thank you very much. Thank you.

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Okay. Uh so, anyone else online? I don't think we have anyone else in the public, right? Okay. So, we'll close the public comment um on the budget, a public hearing comment session. Um do we want to

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address some of these questions? >> Okay. Um, >> so there was a question on uh why not reduce the health benefit plan. Uh, so there are two laws that dictate um the health benefit plans. Uh, it's chapter

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78 and chapter 44. Uh so they've specifically state which plans need to be offered and what needs to be in those plans. Um in terms of I think there's a question on terms of the uh average uh of the uh tax impact on the um estimate

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slide. Uh so that is based off of the average assessed value um which is provided by the town tax assessor. uh and that's multiplied by the school tax rate and that's how that um annual amount is calculated on that slide. >> I I think the one of the confusions

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though was the rate versus the she was using the 5.8% and you were explaining about the 5. >> Oh yeah. So the 5.81% is actually just the increase in the tax levy. That's not the school tax rate. Uh the school tax rate is

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>> what? Two six. I think >> it's uh the school tax rate if you're taking your assessed value and trying to figure out an estimate of what your um tax impact would be is uh your assessed value times 1.435%.

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That's an estimate based off of the variables provided by the town tax assessor. So 1.435%. >> So that's why the math didn't >> correct. So 5.8 81 is the increase in the tax levy, but that is not the school tax rate. The school projected school

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tax rate is 1.435% which someone will then take and multiply by their assessed value to get an estimate of what the school portion of their taxes uh for the 20 2026 year or at least the second half of 2026 year would be. >> Didn't we have that rate for the average

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home? I thought you had that was 5.2. >> That was 5.36%. And that is the impact. So that would be the increase that someone would feel projected. Um but that is not the school tax rate. If you're trying to take your assessed value and multiply it by a

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percentage, it would be that 1.435%. >> I'm just trying to detail the math. So the question was about the math. >> Y absolutely. Um and then I think there was a question on um provider sites and prek funding. Um and then I think there was another

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question on the cost of the prek program. Uh the reason that the uh transportation cost was noted is because that's the only cost of the prek program that is hitting the general fund budget. Um the provider sites are funded through the state aid funding uh which is at

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$4.7 million. Um so I hope that addresses the questions related to that. >> Right. So we so the district is only paying for the busing. >> Correct. And the rest of that program is paid for by the state which also determines how much we pay the um

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providers that we contract with, right? Or >> Yes. The state determines uh what the actual tuition is for uh provider sites. It also determines the amount that we receive per student. Um, and then what we do, um, not all districts do this, but I recommend that they they do this,

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uh, is when you are working with provider sites, the state provides a tuition rate for them, but you're allowed to deduct from that tuition rate to the provider sites and pull that money from the tuition that's going to the provider sites back to the school district for its prek program based off

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of the cost of supports that the district are providing to help support the provider site. So for example, there is a principal uh and program director for the preschool program. Uh so we would pull back a prrated amount of their salary from the overall tuition

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that a provider site would receive for the number of students that they're actually serving and pull that funding back. So that would reduce the tuition amount that they're receiving uh each month per student. >> And then there was another question about where we got the number that parents uh were paying. I can tell you

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that I paid more than $24,000 a year 15 years ago for free schools. So, um I don't know how you calculated that number, but it didn't sound off to me. But where did you get that number from that parent that parents uh >> uh that was just an average from looking

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and talking to people? Uh I know that I personally paid around that much. Uh so um I think we said it could be between 1 1,000 to 2,000 I think is what the smaller print said there. >> So it's anecdotal evidence. >> Yeah. So for example, if you know it

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could be between 1,000 and 2,000. Uh preschool is very expensive. My town does not offer um a full day prek program. I wish it did. I think it's a great thing that came to Vernon and is a a great uh value uh both to the students uh and into the community.

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>> Yeah. And I would also add that it it is one of the ways that we will hopefully be able to increase our test scores because the children come in more prepared if they've been in preschool. >> The other thing I just wanted to add is that a majority of the districts around us actually already had the preschool

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program. Uh so I think that you know this is just conjecture but I think that also has an impact uh on the decisions that people make when they're moving to a town. >> Okay. Um, was that all the questions you had written down? >> I had one. >> Yeah.

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>> The gentleman asked about the why didn't we didn't get that extra $2 million. Could you address the cap? >> Yeah. So, um, the last two years in a row as they without going back too far, there's something called the S2 funding formula which greatly changed how state aid

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funding works uh for school districts. uh Vernon was on the losing side of those changes uh where at one point the district was down about $8 and a half million dollars per year from where they started in terms of annual state they were receiving. Um now there's been some adjustments that have made the state a

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formal essentially not as bad as it was for the district. Uh but as those changes have gone into into effect over the last couple years, there's been a cap put in place. So while when the S2 funding formula first went into place, there was no floor. So we got hit pretty

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hard. Um there now is a floor and a cap. So they put a floor in place after we lost all our money. And now that we're gaining some money back, they put a cap in place. So we are not benefiting from that. That is based off of the governor's budget and something that has been in I think Governor Murphy's last

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budget and is in Governor uh uh Mickey Cheryl's next budget. And that is why we had that cap or we could have had an increase based off their own calculations of significantly more. I think it was around just under $2.6 million more based off the calculation that we received. But because they have a 6% cap on the increase they can give

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any individual school which they put in place to make sure that they had a floor for any school losing um because that's how you balance it. You have a cap on the increases and a floor on the decreases. We have to fund the decreases with a cap on the increases if that makes sense. Uh so we got the losing

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side of both both sides that point essentially >> comment coming up very shortly and you are free to >> this is not an answer for the question I had >> the reason we didn't get the money is because of the cap >> okay wait I know what he's talking about then I I know what you're talking about

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he's asking why you he asked why we didn't go to Trenton and is that the question >> based on the slide that said according to the state formula we should have gotten 22 million bucks Instead, they gave you 19 something

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short of about two2 million. What preclude you from taking that money? >> The slide said that it was based on the state formula. You just explained that it's how that state formula worked.

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>> Unless the state formula stopped working midway through the process, where's the $2 million? >> I can answer the question. So essenti >> we're going to allow that because it was a repetition of a previous question but we're not opening the floor for more comments. Would you like to address that?

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>> So essentially the state has their formula and then in the governor's budget each year there are parameters to how that formula is funded. So this year they decided to fund that formula with a cap of a 6% increase. So no district in the state of New Jersey can have an

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increase in their state aid even though the formula says they should based off that cap. And the other side of that is no district in the state of New Jersey, I think it was maybe a 3% loss, could have more than a 3% loss in state aid. But the way that you fund that floor and

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balance the govern the state's budget of no district can lose more than 3% means that no that they fund that by saying, "Hey, no other district can get more than 6%." So essentially, the state of New Jersey is capping the district and saying, "We're not going to fund you what our calculation says because we

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need to balance our state budget. It's a pi and there's a formula that >> determine how >> Okay, >> great. All right. Uh, any other additional questions from the board or anybody? Can we move on to um

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board reports? Does any board member have a comment they'd like to make on any of questions? I'm looking at Brian because he seemed to have wanted before, but Carol, would you like to >> I just want to clarify that though prek, right? We have if we didn't have the

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prek program, we would still have prek for people for students that qualify, right? >> Needs >> and they would have to we would be funding that totally >> and we would be paying for busing. Correct. >> Correct. So, we uh legally would have to

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provide preschool uh the special education students. Prior to there being a full day program, there was a half-day program. Uh there were some tuition regulated tuition students that were in that program, but the tuition for the program did not cover the cost of the program. Um so, one of the things um

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that is a benefit of this program is we have to provide either way, but now we're providing a full day program. Uh we do have to pay for the um preschool transportation. However, uh like you brought up, we were already paying for the preschool special education

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transportation because previously only special education students were transported to our program. Um what we did to try to contain this cost because we we knew that there was going to be a shift where at one point the preschool program would not cover those funds.

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What we did though is we worked to with our special education department and transportation to try to um I'll take it one step back and then it'll make more sense. So essentially as part of the preschool transportation we are uh required to have a bus aid on our each

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regular uh transportation bus for preschool. It's only preschool students on each bus. There's now bus aid. So that's extra support. So with that being said, what we did and planed working on the last couple years is to try to work for the least restrictive environment uh with the students that were on special

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education buses. And if it made sense now that there's an aid and it's preschool only students on that bus, we help transition them to the least restrictive environment, which then decrease our cost for special education transportation to try to offset that hit financially of taking on the preschool

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general education transportation. Uh and then as M de Mendes mentioned, uh as we hit that universe, we'll actually be able to use more of that preschool funding to offset more of that general ed transportation. Um I don't know if anyone recalls, but uh over the last couple years there's been

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reports of me saying, "Hey, we saved x amount on this route, x amount on this route." You know, that adds up over time. The idea being that would help lessen the impact of having to take on that preschool transportation cost in the general fund budget. I just had one more question about so we

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didn't lose student uh sorry we didn't lose teacher staffing right but but you mentioned that we did a lot of re we did a realignment so we're taking even though we didn't add we didn't remove we didn't add right and we had gotten more services right because I'm correct you

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said that we're starting intervention which we didn't have in certain some of these schools which also would lead to higher special education costs and probably is getting us where we're at, that 25%. If I'm I feel like I'm leading you into the question here, but >> No, I think that's an important point. I

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think that's a very important point. And it was a I guess a wondering on how to represent that to the public um with making sure that it's um really accurately aligned and represented. Just it's very complex. But um with the same amount of

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dollars that we have in our budget, with the same amount of dollars, we were able to uh address our uh needs for our special services, school psychologist, um special education teachers,

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interventionists, specials teacher, kindergarten teacher, a Spanish teacher, uh prek to 12, ELA supervision, algebra 1, algebra 2, science, social studies test, texts, um, multi-ter systems of support. We were

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able to, um, still expand those two classes in preschool, add to our world languages, add to our AP classes. We were able to do all of that without adding. So, that does mean a reduction. Um, but we didn't listed as we're

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cutting these programs because we repurposed them. We repurposed them so that we could meet the needs that we truly have in the district. um by saying maybe these were priorities at one point, but today they're not our priority and we're able to reduce in

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these areas to bring them over to these areas to fund our strategic planning goals. So, while they're not listed as reductions in programs or reductions in staff, um I think we were able to successfully realign, convert positions,

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move them over, um so that we could fund our current priorities without increasing the budget. and in fact with a savings. >> Uh yes, because there's also in that kind of in those variables that equation of variables, there's also things like breakage. Uh we have individuals retiring projecting that that'll come in

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at a lesser amount. Um and then also I believe there is a few positions where someone's retiring and we're able to fill that position from someone that was already a staff member in another position. So we're not, you know, eliminating a person, right? We're not we're not losing a job but we are you know being efficient in the use of

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resources but we're doing so um but I feel is in um a way a planned way right uh there was also I think a question on health benefits um essentially the way health benefits work I won't go like

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real deep into it I'll stay top level give me a look I'll go real top level uh so our health benefits renewal is based off of our util utilization rate. Um so when we go for example we had that 34% we brought it down to um was 25%. So our

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utilization rate is what we are are basically set to that's what the health benefits providers look at. Um but as that rate fluctuates we're monitoring it right now for example we always look for opportunities to save more. So it's not

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a matter of you know just saying hey we want a discount. It's these are what our utilization rates are because that is important to health insurers because they're there to make a profit unfortunately. Um, so if our utilization is high and we're running over the co the cost of our premium, there's

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limitations on what we can do to negotiate, especially when we're one school one school district negotiating with Horizon, right? So we go to market, we try to get other um proposals from other providers to use as leverage, but

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unfortunately this year no other provider would give us a proposal based off our utilization. Uh so even without any other proposals, we were still able to leverage and pressure to get from the 34th to the 25. And that's just because we had high utilization this year. Um and we did make a move with prescription

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to go self-insured which had a significant savings. Uh and then a couple years ago, we made another significant change which saved probably about a million dollars or so. But with the changing landscape of health benefits, the only thing you can do is keep monitoring that utilization, keep looking for other opportunities to

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utilize that leverage to get those renewables down. Um, and hope that the market um kind of cools in general. Um, but we're we're very limited on what we can do. But I can confidently say that we do every

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single thing we can in terms of marketing, in terms of working one of our brokers, um, in terms of, for example, self-insuring prescription, which not a lot of districts will do, um, to do the best we can with taxpayer money. >> Thank you everybody. Um, so we're going

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to move on now to um, item 10, board summary. Mr. Fiser, community relations. Okay. So, uh I did just want to mention before I do anything else, we did not have a technology meeting since the last board meeting. So, there's no technology

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report. >> Okay. >> All right. So, uh we had a community relations committee meeting on April 22nd. in attendance from the public was uh uh Martin Peringer, uh Ebony Demandz

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was there, Jennifer Pelllet, myself, Jackie Van order, and Lindseay Leup Young. Um, one of the things uh the uh committee had been tasked with was uh

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rejuvenating the liaison post between us and the town council. I had spoken to Bill Higgins about that. Uh he said uh he was fine with doing that. I spoke to Carl Cantino who has agreed to become

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the liaison. Uh but Carl has asked that we draft a formal letter from the board to the council president just saying that um Paul's going to fill that position. >> Okay.

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Um at the uh at the meeting the um we discussed the strategic planning and how strategic planning went. Um we decided that uh we would be reporting out on the results of the strategic planning at the

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June meeting uh of the board. We also decided that it would be a good idea to put out a survey uh to all stakeholders in the town to see how they felt about the process. Uh and the first question we were going to ask is if they came uh

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and if they didn't maybe why not. Um but we we've done these kind of surveys before. I know we did one on AI. We got a very good response. So we just want to see how we did and you know project how we can do in the future. Uh we also

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talked about the um state of the district. Uh so we've decided to move the date of the state of the district last year. We did it in May and we've decided that uh people's attention spans are maybe not where they should be for

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that sort of thing. In May, you've got graduations and lots of other end of the year things going on. So, we decided people would probably be more focused on that in September. So, we're going to do the state of the district in September. >> Do you have a date?

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>> We don't have a date yet, right? >> No, we don't have a date yet. Did I miss anything? >> No. >> Yeah, that was that was pretty much it, right? >> Okay, great. Um, thank you. So item 10B

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um for board discussion resolutions. I touched on this in my president's letter. We've had two recent proposals for resolutions regarding addressing unfair school district funding practices at the state level. One came from a board member and the other came from the New Jersey General Assembly legislative

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office. So, uh, we're going to open discussion of those two resolutions now. And we're going to start with a letter and resolution the board and the administration received earlier this week from assemblyman. I don't know how to pronounce this gentleman's name. Does anyone si

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>> I think it's Siki. Is it is it Siki? >> Siki. >> Siki. Sounds like that. >> Okay. Siki. Um, so this letter that was written to us, uh, was for, it says, I'm forwarding to you for consideration a draft resolution in support of

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bipartisan legislation A4860, which provides additional school funding to certain municipalities that have had their development potential curtailed by state law. Senators Buco and Tyver have announced plans to introduce a Senate version in their next quorum. As you are

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living with this hardship every day, I know you understand the importance of adequate funding for our students. I ask that you pass a resolution in support of this legislation. A pass resolution can either be sent to my office at the above address or to my email. Thank you in advance. And it's signed. So, this has

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to do this particular one has to do with the fact that um we're a Highlands district and so our ability to develop land is um hampered by restrictions uh due to the due to the fact that we have a lot of protected wetlands. Um, and so

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it's not as easy for us as it is for some other districts to uh enter into development projects and have partnerships with businesses and bring in bring in businesses that will pay taxes. And so we we have a more difficult time um increasing our tax

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revenue. So, uh, in recognition of that, they're looking for some consideration in in terms of the state funding. Um, and so I'm going to read the resol the resolution now and then we will discuss it as a board. Uh, resolution of the municipality school district of Vernon

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Township in support of A4860 fairness for school districts and development restricted areas act. Whereas bipartisan legislation A4860 has been introduced that provides additional state aid to some school districts in the Pinelands and Highlands whose

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ability to provide ratables is restricted by state law. And whereas the state has further added to their property tax burden by failing to provide the school district with enough financial support to compensate for this rest restricted ability to raise local revenues. And whereas it is vitally

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important to the children in these communities that these financial issues do not continue to threaten or reduce the quality of their education. And whereas this issue was caused by state action and should be resolved by state action. Now therefore, be it resolved, the municipality school district of

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Vernon Township endorses A4860 and calls upon the New Jersey legislature to pass and Governor Cheryl to sign said bill into law. Be it further resolved that a certified copy of this resolution be forwarded to Senators Buco and Tyiver and Assembly

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members Siki Dunn and Sweeney, Senate Presidents Butary, Assembly Speaker Coughlin, and Governor Mikey Cheryl. Um, so this is the wording that was suggested. We, it's our, it will be our resolution, so we could in theory make

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any changes to the wording that we want. Um, I'd like to open the floor for for discussion about this, uh, idea. >> Yeah. Right. >> We have to make a motion. I think >> Oh, we have to make a motion. Do we? Yeah. Are we first we're going Actually, first we're going to discuss whether we

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want >> Well, I guess we could motion and then we can discuss. >> Someone could motion now. >> We could go either way. We could discuss first whether we want to have a motion or we can do a motion and discuss it and vote on it. Um >> let's you know if you want to make the motion. >> I'm going to make a motion.

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>> I'll second it. >> Okay. So, uh the the Can we just say the wording that I just read, right? >> Yeah. And I'll I'll add it into the minutes. It was right into the so I can add it. >> Okay. Is there's a motion on the floor to uh adopt this resolution? Uh but

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questions or comments? >> I have a comment. I'd like to say this is a great thing that that they were coming up with. This will mean $5 million to Vernon Township if it passes through the legislature and gets signed into law. We'd be remiss by not looking

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into something like this. It's this is like a no-brainer and I suggest that the board and encourage the board to vote yes to this pass this resolution. Um >> yeah, >> I like it because following obviously in

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certain places there multiple uh Northwest neighbors are also involved in this. Different senators I believe even down south, you know, South Jersey because it's a Jersey thing as much as it is ours. But a lot of municipalities as a group, I think it has a good chance

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to pass. It seems like they got both houses in line. So, I do think it's a great thing first and I don't see tremendous downside to that one. So, I would encourage to pass it. >> Yeah, I think Wes Milford passed it uh

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recently. Um, anyone else? John, >> a question. John, obviously the research and how did you come up with the >> Oh, it's in the It's in the bill. If you look up A86 A486, it's all laid out in the bill and certain monies going to

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certain districts. Yeah, the the request. I mean, these things can get changed, but that's what they've gotten written out. >> Yeah, for Yeah, you can look it up on on Thank you. >> Does anyone see any have any negative feelings about this? I don't at all. So,

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so generally with uh things like this, I you know I sometimes worry that there'll be backlash from the you know from the state because I know it's a formula that you know the state uh funding is is formula but you know you worry about political

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ramifications let's say um but this is a group of of uh towns so I think there's less of that and I personally think the benefit outweighs the risk in this case because you know there it's absolutely true. I

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mean there's no question that we are hampered in our ability to um in in pursue economic development and so we're in this bind that other districts are not. So that is a thank you issue

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>> question and so we're looking I'm here. >> So I mean we're this is coming to the school district right so it rarely doesn't go to the town but in turn if we're making if we're getting more funding we wouldn't have to ask more

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from the town right this could actually benefit everyone in town not just the school district >> I believe this is just for the school districts though. Okay. >> It comes to us. >> It will come to us, right? I don't think the town gets a piece of that at all. >> Yeah. >> Uh so basically it would act as a form

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of supplemental state aid that the district would, if it passes, my understanding receive every year. Uh so my understanding is that it's similar to something um I don't know if anyone has heard of it. It's called impact aid. Uh and it's for districts that have

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military bases in their towns. uh because military bases therefore in a similar way reduces the ability for development because a lot of land is being utilized for that base. Uh military bases obviously do not pay taxes. So it does not it has a negative impact on raidables. Uh so in a similar

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way uh and I'm an expert my understanding is that because we are limited in that development based off of the wetlands and I think providing a lot of the fresh water for the state of New Jersey um that again that negatively impacts our readables. Uh, and then this is the way for a couple of our

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representatives um for again I think a lot of districts up in the Highlands and then also districts down in the Pelands which I think have a similar situation uh to try to catch up to everyone else in that state aid funding formula because we're being held back uh on the gradable side to essentially in some

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ways support a lot of the rest of the state um with their drinking water drink. >> So [laughter] yes, >> so not changing the formula just be additional money. Yeah, it's supplemental. Yeah, it would be it would be a new category that got that would get added. Yeah. >> Thank you.

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>> All right. Any other questions or comments before we do a roll call vote? >> I see. Well, it's you need to add the grid. >> You know me well. [laughter] Great. Miss Nichols,

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>> yes. >> Miss Pallet, >> yes. >> Miss PEC, >> yes. >> Miss Carlo, >> yes. >> Mr. Zimmerman, >> yes. >> Mr. Smaglia, >> yes. >> Mr. Fischer, >> I >> Mr. Krauss, >> yes.

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>> Motion carries. >> Okay. And now we have a second um was introduced as a possible resolution. It's a partnership with the town, but I'll let Mr. Fischer is his idea, so I'll let him explain it.

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>> Okay. So, I I did uh propose this as a resolution, but uh you spoke to David who said it we may not need to do this as a resolution, but I'll just go through it. So, just as a as a a preface, uh we saw some of what I'm

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about to talk to, you know, just tonight. Every year when towns outside of these Abbott districts go through their budgeting process, you see this this infighting that goes on where, you know, you have the public uh

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the public bashing the board or or the board going loggerheads with the administration and uh this sort of back and forth that's always within the district. And I've always felt that the the fight is being fought in the wrong

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place. That um the real fault here is the the funding formula. And we had the the gentleman who was here earlier who talked about well why would we didn't we get the $2 million? And it's because of the funding formula. All of this goes

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back to Abbott. And just to familiarize anybody who's who's not uh familiar with what Abbott is, Abbott is actually a series of Supreme Court decisions that go back to uh the late 1980s with the

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key Supreme Court decision being Abbott versus Burke. And the spirit of these decisions said that uh because urban districts aren't able to raise revenue through property taxes the way suburban districts are, the state had to adjust

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its state funding formula to uh establish and they they called it uh equalization between fund what the amount of money that suburban districts spend and the amount of money that um urban districts

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spend. And the the problem is that there's no longer any equalization in this formula. So, I just want to go through some of the numbers. Um, the state of New Jersey proposed a 12.4

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billion K12 formula aid for the fiscal year, uh, plus $1.38 billion in preschool aid. The 31 districts uh the Abbott districts which are now known as SDA districts

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receive approximately 5.5 billion of the state's 12.4 billion K12 aid. That represents 44.4% of all K12 aid while educating only 23.5% of the schools of the state students.

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uh when preschool aid is included as 6.4 billion of the state's 13.78 billion combined preschool and K12 uh aid streams representing 46.4%

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goes to those ABIT districts. If you look at spending on a per student basis, um the SDA district spend approximately, and these are state numbers, these come

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from the state department of education, the uh SDA districts spend approximately $25,500 per student, while nonabbbott districts spend $20,800 per student. So that represents a

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spending disparity of 22.6%. In turn, these Abbit districts are spending approximately 10% less per student on direct education. So they're spending more per student and using less of the money to actually educate their

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students. The state of New Jersey receives approximately 1.072 072 billion annually in federal uh K12 funding which includes title one IDEA title 2 and title three.

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Of that 1.07 billion 463 million goes to the Abbott district. So when you break that down per student, $1,438 per student in federal aid goes to

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Abbott districts, while non-abbott students only receive $538, which is a difference of 167%. The um disparities in the amount of money that the state is giving the ABIT districts versus what they're giving

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non-abbid districts is actually expanding. So, we talked earlier about the 6% cap and what's happening is every year the the Abbott districts get their full 6% and then the state works backwards to what everyone else gets.

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So, this year we got 5.2 was it? Um it was we got capped at the 6% because the um I think think of the term right now [sighs] man I'll come back to but there's a portion of our total state aid that we get uh school choice school

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choice isn't included in that calculation. So we're capped at the 6% you remove our school choice from that and you'll see the 6% incl. >> So we we stayed even but I think the state average was was around 2.4%. So the the difference between Abbotts

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and and non-Abots expanded and it's going to expand every year because every year uh from the eight years of Murphy and now the first year of Cheryl, they've done this formula where they start with 6% and work backwards to

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everyone else. So the the uh disparity is expanding the the legal structure for Abbott and the reason Abbott exists and it's so hard uh to do anything about it is because as I said

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these were state Supreme Court decisions. They go back to the late 1980s. The only way you can overturn a state supreme court decision is with another Supreme Court decision that counts the

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first one, a constitutional amendment or a federal lawsuit. So in in this instance, the the courts aren't going to reverse themselves. As I said, it's a series of decisions that have been going on over

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the last 40 years. The most recent one, I think, was in 2007 or 2008. and they just keep reaffirming what they've said all along. A constitutional amendment is never going to happen because the Abbott districts would just block it. You know, they they're not going to let it get

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through because they want that money. So, the only way to do anything about Abbott is through a federal lawsuit. The problem is you can't just show up in federal court and say, "I want to sue." You have to have a reason. In my estimation,

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the misallocation of federal funds is the reason to to bring a lawsuit in federal court. I also believe that it would be the town that would have a greater chance of actually winning a lawsuit against the state in federal

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court because the town would be able to prove direct damages. And you know, under state tort law, uh, a municipality can sue the state if they're able to prove direct damages to its citizens,

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um, by state policy. So, uh, when Governor Cheryl introduced her budget, she said that I think the the raise was 534 million and she said, "I did this without raising taxes." Well, she didn't

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raise taxes, but what she did do was she cut programs for senior citizens. So, one of the programs that was cut was the stay inj uh where uh the the maximum benefit for senior citizens was reduced from $6,500

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to $4,000. And if you take the number of senior citizens here in Vernon who were eligible for stay and were getting that maximum benefit and are now going to have it cut to $4,000, including myself,

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the negative economic impact to Vernon is $8.5 million. So, uh, we get impacted by the fact that they're giving all this extra money to the app districts, but they're paying for it by hurting our senior citizens

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here in Vernon. What I'm proposing is that we as a board of education approach the town on an official basis and propose to them that we form a joint task force whose

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responsibility it would be to investigate whether or not it would be feasible to pursue this federal lawsuit. Now, I don't have any illusions that this is something that would happen overnight. This is long-term. Um,

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I don't see us going it alone either, but you know, just like this piece of legislation here, the the pain is there and the pain is widespread and you don't have to look far to see, you know, where some of this pain is. You look at

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Jefferson and the fact that they submitted an unbalanced budget, your former district, right, letting go of 72 teachers. You can go anywhere in the state. I think it was Little Egg Harbor last year that raised taxes 35% so they could keep a school open. So, you know,

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it's statewide. And my aim would be to form a coalition much like this. And, you know, if the if the lawsuit had merit, then we see where it goes. I've also

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said in discussions with Jen and and Ebony that I also feel if it's going to die, it's going to die a quick death. You know, we have David looking into whether it's something that can even go forward. If somebody's already tried this and it's been shot down, then we're

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dead on arrival. But I think it's something the the way I look at it, every time we're we're in this position and somebody like me mentions Abbott, the response is always, well, that's the way

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it is. There's nothing he can do. And I I don't believe that. I I believe somebody's got to do something somewhere because the the gap just keeps getting wider every year. And if somebody doesn't stand up and say, "No, I'm I'm going to start the fight. we're we're

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not going to take it anymore. It's just going to get worse and worse. And you know, the thing is Abbott's over 40 years old. And it doesn't work. You know, the the kids that Abbott was designed to help who were in school when

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the first ruling came down are grandparents now. And and the the quality of education in those districts hasn't changed at all. So the the spirit of the decision may have been worthy, but in practice it doesn't work. Um,

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furthermore, I feel that a number of the districts that were originally qualified as Abbotts really shouldn't be called Abbott districts anymore. Um, Newark is an Abbott district. So you look at Newark in the like late 1980s and you

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look at Newark now. Newark airport now is one of the busiest airports in the world, right? It's it's a central hub for United Airlines, one of the biggest airlines in the world. They just put something like two billion dollars into a new terminal. Newark has Port Newark,

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which is one of the busiest container terminals in the world. They got downtown with the insurance industry. They have uh two major sports and entertainment center, right? The Brudential Center and then JPAC, two major rail terminals. You know, Newark

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should be able to pay for I'm not saying there's no parts in Newark that need help, but they should be able to pay for their own, you know, start pulling their own load. They took in over a billion dollars in state aid this year. Uh, another one would be Jersey City. you

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know, in the late 1980s, yeah, Jersey City probably deserved that aid. But you look at Jersey City now and and what's happened there in the last 25 years, you know, that whole stretch uh along the waterfront where they built all these high-rise luxury buildings and and uh

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hotels and you have the mall. I mean, I defy anybody to go to the Newport Pavonia pad station during rush hour and tell me that's an impoverished district, you know? Uh, Hoboken is an aid district. I I don't even know where there's a bad neighborhood in Hoboken

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anymore, you know. >> So, you know, yeah, there are districts that probably still have the needs, you know, Camden, East Orange, Irvington all come to mind, but something's not working. And, you know,

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obviously just throwing the money at the problem isn't the solution. You know, I spoke to Call who works in the Nap district. He works in Patterson and he said, "Yeah, we need something like this because the districts are poorly run and somebody needs to to shake somebody up

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somewhere to get things back on track and actually take care of their kids." So, that's where I'm coming from. >> Questions or comments? I want to go first. >> Oh, I just think it's I think it's a

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brilliant idea. I really do. And I think that if it has been shut down before, we'll know right away. >> Yeah. >> What do we have to lose? >> Nothing. >> Um I think it's great. Carl is going to be the leazison between the town council

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and the board. >> So I definitely think it's an interesting idea. I I don't I'm not as familiar with the Abbott districts and there you you know I I I hesitate to say that anyone's

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mismanaging anything or whatever. I because I I really would not know that but I think there's no harm in exploring um this because it does, you know, does feel like we're getting hurt by it. So I I don't see a problem with um exploring

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it. Does anyone have any >> Hey, >> can I go ahead? >> So, Stephanie had it mentioned nothing to lose. I don't know if I totally agree with that because we've seen the state retaliate against districts

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>> who didn't tow the line. >> Okay. >> You know, we had somebody come up here during don't have the kids wear the masks. Oh, so many districts said they weren't going to make the kids wear the masks. the time that came out in the news and the person came to a meeting and talked about it, they'd all rescend

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it because the state said fine, no more funding. They all put the masks on the kids probably as they were walking home from school that day. So there is risk here. You know, as much as we and I agree with this whole Abbott discussion and I believe possibly down the road we

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can do this, but even like Brian said, we're the first one to jump up. So just imagine the arcade game whack-a-mole. The first guy sticks his heads up gets whacked. So you know eventually there's too many and you can't stop it. >> Yeah. >> But the first one gets hit. I don't know

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why. Even though the funding hurts us, I agree with all that 100%. But in my time on the district, but we always wait for that date the states going to come out the governor's address. We've always gotten something to make the pain a little easier. We got

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it this year during co they somewhat looked favorably on us too much that we got ourselves in trouble you know was mentioned before. So if we do this alone one I don't know that the lawsuit could come from Vernon on its own us or the town

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council because it's as you said it's federal lawsuits. This is Supreme Court type of things. It cost millions of dollars to get to the US Supreme Court because Jersey will fight it every step of the way because they've done it in house. Why wouldn't they just do it out

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of house? So, I just don't know that the time is right for us to be sticking our head out for this in this atmosphere of the state right now. I do feel there's a risk. It could be a little risk. It could be a big risk. Nobody knows. But is it worth taking because our main

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focus is the kids here and no pushing it. Every year I've sat through seven of these budgets and crucified and I've never gotten great job raise. I can tell you that. So I've experienced just as much as the other people, but it's a

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painstaking thing. I get it and I agree almost everything what Brian said. He put a ton of work into it. You know, I could see that the numbers and all that. I just feel there is some risk and I don't know if we're ready to be leading the charge right now alone.

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>> Can I address that? >> Well, uh, you can, but I just do want to say we're not voting on actually filing a lawsuit. >> No, no, no, but we're looking to explore it. >> Yeah, >> but you got to be prepared to follow through. >> Well, I'm imagining that the task force will discuss the risks and the potential

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benefits, but and you know, and may decide exactly what you said. I mean, I personally think the cost is going to be prohibitive even if you join with other districts. So, maybe it leads to a different outcome than a lawsuit, but at least you're having the conversation. Uh, but Brian, you go ahead. >> Yeah, but the goal here is that we're

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not doing this alone, >> right? >> The the goal here is that this has merit. You you're going to get enough people on board that it gets legs and and it goes. And I understand what you're saying about the risk. I also

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think that there's a a a flip side to that coin in that if this has enough merit, does the state take the opposite approach and say, "What do we do to make them be quiet in terms of reward, right? You could use

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the carrot or the stick." >> Well, you're right. I don't disagree with that, but the way the climate is now, we're most likely to get the stick. But >> I would say this, I'm not saying I'm totally against it. I just don't know. We should get more districts involved or

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towns, whatever you feel it to do. >> Yeah. It's like I said, somebody's got to do it. >> But I feel we should all come out together instead of us being the only one doing it on our own. That's my concern. >> I I really have no intention of us doing it. >> We can't. >> Well, once we pass >> going to get the money.

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>> Well, that's the thing. >> We I I should have mentioned that to from the get-go. We were talking about a resolution. Now we're talking about forming a task of an ad hoc committee I guess would be the way the term that David used um that would explore it

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would be members of the board and members of the town council assuming we haven't even talked to them yet about whether they're willing to >> what what I'm asking us to do now is to approve opening talks with so that's all we're

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talking about right now. We're not adopting this resolution tonight. We're just talking about forming an ad hoc committee that will with the town council members and members of the board that will explore this issue. Let's say

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is that would that be accurate? >> Mhm. >> That's what we're talking about. We don't actually apparently even really need to vote on it. We can we can just I mean I can apparently as president do it, but I'd like to have everyone's you know I'd like to have the board uh I'd

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like to have a sense of what the board wants to do. >> Sure. >> Um was Ray brought up a good point um about the mask and but what we're doing here it's just discussion right no cost to

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the district. We're going to talk to the town, see what goes on. I mean, we're not we're not um defying what the state the state told us to do, right? The mask was a little bit different, right? The state said you had to wear masks. And I think those districts that

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took out a lawuit didn't wear masks. >> They were going to defy >> Yeah. We're not Yeah. not defying. >> We're going to defy a governor mandate, >> right? We're not going to New York and taking some money, right? Or get then we get whacked, right? Like like a good father's movie or something, right? This is like >> Well, um >> I didn't mean it that way, Charles.

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>> But >> you didn't mean that definition. >> That's why I brought up the carnival, you know. >> But that's what I mean. We're It rarely there's we're not looking at any harm. We're not >> That's right. >> We're not going against any policy, state regulations or anything. We're just It's just an open discussion with

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our town. Hopefully, if they're buy into it, then it go to meeting with other towns. I guess I should act. Yeah, that I mean that's the idea in in my mind and I don't know h what David's

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opinion was on this part but in my mind because of the the state tort law and the damages to the citizen this the town would actually have more success than we would as the board of education.

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So that's why I I'm saying we bridge the talks to the town >> to see if if that's something and then you know that's when we get David on board to see whether we get to it and blah blah blah. But that's the goal >> down the road. I mean what I'm saying is

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>> at some point somebody's got to take a stand. You know I I I don't understand why you sit here and fight over budgets when the enemy is not in this room. All right. So, um, >> my concern was I was just handed this

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right before the meeting, so I really don't feel like I have enough information to make >> my fault. I apologize. >> Yeah, that's that's just a lot of information. >> I totally understand. I mean, we're not vote we're not officially voting on it. So, you don't have to >> Yeah, I don't have a problem with forming an ad hoc committee to do

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exactly what you say because I agree with a lot of this. The the problem I have, one thing is I I read an article the other day about the new um person who's in charge of the state board of education, right? And and they they don't like the state funding formula either, but they didn't have time to get

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into it before she just got elected and she had to have a budget and they want to look at I I think going forward we're going to look they're going to look favorably on that state funding formula and maybe some of this Abbott stuff will be addressed in that going into next year. My only con problem with this would be is if you you'd say they say,

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"Yeah, let's go for this and now we have to fund lawyers. I mean the state has unlimited funds to fight." >> No, I I I absolutely agree and that's why I think it takes a coalition. I read the same article. My immediate thought when I read the

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article was the governor can't, you know, the governor has some leeway, >> but when you're talking about the big picture, >> right? >> Yeah, I I agree with you. >> The governor herself is has her hands tied because it's a state supreme court thing,

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>> right? >> So, the the only way to address it on a on a, you know, major scale is federally. >> Okay. Well, if you want to make an ahead of committee, I'm good with it. I don't know if anybody else needs to say anything.

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>> Does it Sarah? >> Yeah. I mean, I don't I don't see any harm in forming an ad committee or task force just to investigate and gain information. Um, and I I just would would we so say that

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we found maybe a possibility of like a route at some kind of avenue that we can take to initiate maybe a federal lawsuit. We wouldn't be doing that on our own, right? We would be doing that in conjunction with other

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>> That's the goal. Yeah. >> Okay. Okay. >> No, there would be no way we could cover the legal costs. I mean, even David said that straight up. So, um Okay. Well, I think I'm comfortable with doing that. So, how uh do I just I

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don't need a >> You don't need a motion. You can since it's an ad hoc committee, you have the ability to create an ad hoc committee as president. >> I'll be forming an ad hoc committee. Who would like to be on my ad hoc committee for >> I I want nothing to do with this.

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>> That's it. I'm out of here. >> Stephanie and Sarah. Excellent. Thank you. Maybe me. I don't know. I can find time in my schedule, but I'd like to. Um, okay. Great. Thank you everybody for that discussion.

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Uh, moving on to item 11, student leaison report. >> Forgot I was supposed [laughter] >> Well, we have Sarah Pek who is subbing for our regular student representative, Mrs. O'Donnell. Miss O'Donnell, who is

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um at the purple, >> right? Yeah. >> Oh, it's the prom tonight. >> Yeah. >> You still need to see those pictures. >> I think it's a junior >> junior. >> Oh, junior prom. I'm sorry. He's a company. >> Oh, yeah. Okay.

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>> Oh, I see. Here we go. [laughter] >> Practices and games for spring sports have begun. Girls lacrosse is 26. Boys lacrosse is 48. Baseball is 63, softball is 5-6, girls track and field is

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undefeated at 4-0 and boys track is 22. Girls golf is 4-3, boys golf is 37, and boys tennis is 24. Student council had a successful spring pep rally. They also had volunteers babysit for bring your child to work

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day. Uh lots of activities were planned such as slime making, karaoke, fairy hair, and a scavenger hunt. Unified club started a track and field started track and field for the spring. Team mental health first aid is starting spring

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sessions May 6th. The spring SAT team had practice tests with after school meetings. Students are understanding material better to have a greater combined score. Hosta signups are now open with a $25 fee. They are in need of advertising

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from the community through social media. I am assuming that means for the race. The race will be on May 3rd. Um they also hosted a blood drive with the National Honor Society on April 24th. They collected 93 pints of blood which

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will benefit up to 273 people in need. yearbook committee is creating a senior sign out which is a video montage of all seniors signing a camera lens as their final goodbye. The paper mill playhouse trip was

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yesterday. On April 22nd a county community college onboarding event was held to register for classes. Um interest for fall color guard is out. There will be a meeting held May 4th. Uh theater has the upcoming cabaret May

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1st. Theme is the 2426 Broadway season. Tickets are $5 each. Choir is prepping for their spring concert which will which will be held on May 8th. On May 13th, band will have their spring concert and orchestra had a successful

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spring concert on April 24th. Jazz band won best trombone section with Joanna Burns. I'm hoping I'm pronouncing that correctly. As best soloist for Vernon at the Sparta Jazzfest, they also won best trombone section with Joanna

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Burns again winning best trombone soloist and Juliet Jalbert winning best vocal soloist. Jazz at the Flats is coming up in June. For our honor societies, Thespian Honor Society is hosting an actor showcase in June.

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National Honor Society is hosting a blood drive with HOSA. Art Honor Society had their induction on April 15th and celebrated students art and talent within the program. Academic honor societies and CTE programs held an induction and chord

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ceremony for all students in math, English, math, science, Spanish, history, and Italian honor societies, and any student having completed a career technical program. About 150 students were either inducted or recognized for their successes in their

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programs. Seniors are having a roadside cleanup on May 23rd. The junior class student of the month is Otto D. Jagger and >> Jagger. >> Okay, perfect. And the senior class

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student of the month is Juliet Jabber. And finally, guidance counselors have made a spreadsheet with upcoming scholarship opportunities for the senior class. >> Thank you. Well done. >> I feel good [clears throat] about getting that name right. >> Very

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good. >> Item 12, public comment for agenda items only and students. Um the previously read uh what do we call it? Announcement on um public comments applies. Do we have any members

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of the public who would like to comment? Anyone online? I don't see any hands. >> There's one. >> Oh, it just went up. >> Okay. >> Uh Jackie,

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>> can you state your name, please? >> Hello. >> Hello. >> Hi. Um, can you say your name, please? >> Sure. Jackie Brovich Vernon. >> Thank you. >> Can you hear me? I I can't tell. >> Yes. Yes, we can. >> Okay. Um,

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you know, I got to say I'm not easily amazed. And today was the day. Uh, for starters, um, I don't know if it's a Q&A, so I'll ask it as a Q and maybe you could give me the A part later. I'm wondering if anyone at that table has seen an itemized budget. And I don't

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mean, for example, just technology with a lump sum. Has anyone actually dissected this line by line? Have we seen what we're spending on smartboards, Chromebooks, um you know, the big stuff, not glue sticks and pencils, because I'm having a real hard time if you didn't

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see that. And I certainly haven't seen it, and I'd love to see one as a taxpayer. Um, you know, I I feel like you need to treat this like a contract. you're just putting your name and vote to something and you haven't seen where all of the money is going specifically, which I mean there has to be something

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like this otherwise it would be an auditor's worst nightmare. Has anyone uh has anyone voting on this seen line by line what you're voting for and all of the numbers in detail? I'd like to get

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an answer to that. And I'd also like to see that myself, please. I think I can request that. Um, I'm also a little insulted at the fact that we're sitting here in the beginning saying that this money is going to go to

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shrinking class sizes because that's the song and dance you gave us last year when you said you needed that tax increase. And uh we haven't seen that at all. In fact, everything promised for every single tax increase you have given us, I haven't seen anything. Nothing.

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Um, to add to that, I don't get to use this word often, but I'll say I am flabbergasted. I mean, a task force to go against the state. Are we for real? I'm not saying the state doesn't deserve it, but we

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have some really pressing internal matters here. We have a township that can't even collect sewer fees from a developer, and you want to go and fight the state. So, I think we have some internal matters that really need to get addressed here because you have the

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township who was just trying to give us a 13% tax increase. You guys want to hit us with another tax increase at about 6% and you're talking about what could potentially turn into a legal battle that will absolutely us. So, the

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gall, the absolute gall to sit here and talk about creating a task force to fight the state when you're begging us for money, it really makes me nauseous, honestly. [laughter] So, what are we doing here? I I mean, that's the really big question. What are

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we doing here? Because I just don't understand how any of you can confidently put your name to a vote if you have not seen every single line uh line item. And if you have, I'd like you to recite some of those for me because you should know them off the top of your head approximately.

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Thank you. >> Thank you. >> Um, Miss Dasi, I think has her handle. >> Okay. >> Thank you. Uh, first of all, I disagree with the

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previous speaker. I think that we are not starting a lawsuit. We are looking into our avenues. So, I support that 100%. We need to look at every single avenue

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that's out there. I'm not saying go to a lawsuit right away, but I agree with we need an ad hoc to look at our possibilities. And I absolutely agree with the resolution

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and I hope the town will get on board with that to support that in and entirely. We need to come together as a community. You're not the board of ed and the town

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council and the town administration. We are all of us in the same boat. We need to come together and start working together for the benefit of all. Thank you.

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>> Thank you, Mr. Stacey. Um, do we have any other members of the public? >> Madini. >> Yes, >> Paladini. >> Yes. >> Hello again. Um, I respect anybody's

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opinion, but I like to deal with facts. And while I respect Mustacey's opinion earlier tonight about this being a different board of education, I have to say that that is not factual

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because of the nine people sitting up there tonight or or the nine on the board of ed, five were the same exact board members that went through all of those things

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that I itemized earlier. Mr. Krauss, Miss Pellet, Mr. Simaglia, Mr. Zimman, and Miss Ross came on in 2024. Some of you have been on since 2017. So, it's exactly the same board members, but my

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comments were not about which board members did what. My comments were on what seems to be a constant pattern of mismanagement. That's why I itemized each and

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everything that I talked about. So that's all I'm going to say about that. Five of the nine were indeed on this board of education throughout all of those um incidents of mismanagement. The

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second thing I want to just ask quickly is um Mr. Slam said that the school tax rate is 1.435%. Do you know last year's tax rate? >> Again, this isn't a back and forth, but the question will be answered if we can

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when public. >> Okay. If you can answer the question, please answer it later. Also, I asked for a copy of the budget today twice and I didn't get it. Um, I'm just going to make a statement to Ray Zimmerman and I'm not going to elaborate. All I'm

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going to say is bravo to you for your comments, Rey. That's all I'm going to say. Thank you very much and good night. >> Thank you, Mrs. Paladini. Uh, do we have any additional

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>> No one right now. >> Mr. Zimmerman missed his shout out. >> [laughter] >> You'll have to watch the video later. >> Do I get in trouble? >> No. >> No. You got a shout out. A bravo for your comments. You got

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>> Thank you. Don't scare me, Linda. >> So, closing. >> I appreciate it, whoever made it. Thank you, >> Jessica. >> Jesse Paladini. >> Um, closing public comments. I do want to address uh a couple things um that I wrote down and then if you if I you want

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to speak to a few things. Um I can assure you the board's been thoroughly briefed at but at meetings. Um and also we each got a binder with the entire um budget every line uh item with what we spent last year and what we spent this

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year and we had it for weeks to look through. Um so we in fact did have that and did look at that. Um, and then Mr. Slam, did you want to Oh, and and I do also want to mention that last year we were we were looking to maintain class

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sizes. I believe uh we didn't have any hope, I think, of of making them smaller, but we were hoping not to make them bigger with our Mr. Slam. Um, regarding class sizes, perhaps the year before when we did the revised budget and those positions were hired,

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but of course from year to year, class sizes change. Um, but everything that was laid out on that budget um as you updated the board throughout that year was completed in terms of the positions and also the projects that were included in that. Uh, and then there was a

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question on um projected tax rate. Uh so the projected tax rate for the 2026 here for the school only the school portion uh 1.435% based off the ratables that uh number that was given to me by the town. Um the

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prior year was 1.363% and again that was based off the ratable number given to me by um the tax at the town. Oh, and also regarding the availability of the budget, you any member of the P can, excuse me, can um

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view the budget line items at the office. >> Yeah. So, uh after the um of course after the last the preliminary presentation, we put that up on our website. We provide our update. We sent a letter out. Uh and then in addition to that, we advertised um so it's no longer

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required to put the advertised budget in the paper. You can just put it on your website. Um but because the law changed recently, we wanted to continue that practice. So the advertised budget is was published in the paper. Uh just just in case maybe someone doesn't look on the website, uh it is also on the website under our legal notice section.

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Um and then also noted in that legal notice um in the advertised budget itself uh says that the full budget is available from 8 uh 8 to 4 uh each day and it has been um since last week. >> Thank you. Just wanted to make that clear.

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And I actually brought it tonight, too. >> Oh, okay. >> Ray, did you say that 1.363 was the last year? >> 2025. Um, because if everyone remembers, the town and the school operate off at different years. So, when we're talking

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about the town's tax year, it's um the calendar year. Uh and when we're talking about the school budget year, it's half of essentially one uh town year and another town year or a regular year, right? Uh we go from um July to June. Uh

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and of of course the town goes January to December. >> So it's so uh the actual taxes for any given year uh that rate at the town is basically a combination of the tax level you have two separate years averaged, right? Half of one year and half of the other year. Um, and then the readables

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and that's how you get that that tax rate. >> Thank you. >> Okay, great. Thank you. Item 13, superintendent reports. >> Um, well, first I'd just like to thank everyone who shared questions and

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feedback tonight as part of our budget process. Uh, we know that critical dialogue is part of a healthy budget process. Um, and sometimes that's that's difficult. Um, but I do appreciate the community's engagement. Um, so what I

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think I'm carrying forward from this evening is uh a continued sense of shared purpose. Uh, we have to balance the tax levy, the needs of our community, um, and the needs of our students and we understand that that's just not a simple task. Um, I do believe

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this budget reflects our honest effort to honor all three uh, the tax burden, the community, and our students. uh that kind of balance does require trust um and a unified board voice. Uh and so as uh the new superintendent then I have to

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build that trust and uh I'll do that through transparency through continued communication um in partnership with the board with the community and with our administration to make sure that we are presenting a thorough and efficient um budget that really reflects the

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priorities of uh the community and most importantly the needs of the student. uh even when our state budget is fail uh f uh funding formula is failing us um even when the decisions are hard to say we have to maintain the course uh in order

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to do what's right by our students um and even when that does press our community um to continue to invest um in our students perhaps above and beyond what the state is doing. Um so again I do believe that that unified board voice

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does send a powerful message um that the Vernon Township schools stand behind its students and its future and I'm grateful for this board's thoughtful deliberation and I look forward to your vo your vote with confidence in that shared commitment. Um, with regard to our

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superintendent report, uh, we are pleased to announce the artist of the months for April, the uh, Cedar Mountain students artwork is being displayed at the board office. Glenn Meadow students artwork is at the municipal building. Uh, we do have our enrollment report.

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It's attachment S1. We have our HIB report for March, which is attachment S2. Um, and then I'd just like to highlight some uh things that took place in celebrations in our district across uh this past month at the Superintendent

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Roundtable Award. Elizabeth Peak, a student of ours from Vernon Township High School, was the recipient of the Superintendent Roundt Award. Uh we recognized um Elizabeth for her exceptional academic achievement, her

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co-curricular leadership and character. Elizabeth is a top scholar, vice president of the National Honor Society, president of the green team, and historian for the class of 2026. She is a varsity captain in both volleyball and softball, a mentor to

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younger athletes, and a dedicated volunteer at Winslow Therapeutic Center and the Winter Special Olympics. Wow. She's also [laughter] the 2026 Pass It Along Scholar Athlete Award recipient and she will attend Havford College to study science and

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play softball. Congratulations to Elizabeth Peak. Uh the student banquet was held on Friday, April 17th at Perona Farms. Uh board president Jennifer Pellet, principal Lindseay Young, and director of curriculum instruction Vinnie Gaglaststro representing the

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district in celebrating Elizabeth alongside her parents. So, thank you. Uh, regarding New Jersey student learning assessments, our state testing, they are underway across the district. We encourage our students to continue to

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bring their best effort forward and to take pride in what they have learned. Uh the assessment is one meaningful measure of their progress and we are equally committed to the many ways our students are demonstrating growth, contributing

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and shining throughout the year. Uh so uh we're grateful to our students, our staff and families for their preparation and partnership throughout the process as they support our students while they are testing. Uh celebrating our schools, our elementary schools have been filled with energy and learning this spring.

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Can you believe it's spring? Can you believe it's May tomorrow? Um, Cedar Mountain students have been tie dying t-shirts and art class to wear on an upcoming field trip and fun days. Rolling Hills celebrated the season with its annual spring concert. They've

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hosted a camping themed literacy night to inspire love of reading and students and families. Students at Rolling Hills also attended the diversity circus assembly, a spirited performance celebrating what makes us both unique and connected. uh makes me want to be an elementary student all over again. Uh

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Lounbury Hollow kicked off the spring with a blackout glow party dance and released its latest edition of the Lounsbury Life podcast featuring school news and student voices. And Walnut Ridge wrapped up its spring parent teacher conferences this week, fostering meaningful collaboration between

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families and educators. On the middle school front, Glen Meadow honored student achievement with induction ceremonies for the National Junior Honor Society, National Junior Art Honor Society, and Triad Music Honor Society. Our Glen Meadow Jazz Band delivered an outstanding performance at the High

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Point High School Jazz Competition. They earned multiple awards including outstanding soloist, outstanding section honors across t trumpet, trombone, saxophone, and rhythm sections. Congratulations to our um jazz competition or jazz band and our

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orchestra also shined at the April 24th string symposium under the direction of Mr. Mrs. Burls and Mrs. Jones with a powerful joint performance alongside the high school orchestra shine or shed right high school. [laughter]

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Uh the high school had its celebratory uh spring as well. The Art Honor Society welcomed its newest members on April 15th and the CTE Humanities and STEM honor societies held their induction ceremony on April 21st. Uh on the 27th,

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the entire student body attended a presentation by Gian Paul Gonzalez whose allin philosophy of total commitment in academics, athletics, and relationships really left a lasting impression on our students. And the junior class looks forward to prom tonight. They're there.

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They're dancing. they're celebrating. So, uh, congrats to our juniors and we're hoping they have, um, a blast at their prom. Um, humanity STEM honors society induction and CTE recognition ceremony on the 21st. I had the privilege of attending uh, the high

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school society induction for all of these um, different groups. Um, and I did that alongside u, Mr. Gagliastro and Dr. Shep. The evening celebrated students inducted into English, history, Italian, Spanish, psychology, math,

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science, honor societies, as well as students recognized across our CTE programs, allied health, computer science, cosmetology, engineering, graphic design, hospitality and tourism and marketing. And reading this list is not just a celebration. Again, it just

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goes to show that these programs are all important. I am going to say it again. Our budget is supporting everything that our students need. They're winning awards. They're excelling. They're moving forward. They're going to be competitive in a global society. And it's because of the well-rounded education that they're receiving at our

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schools. And we should be proud of that. And we should be um able and confident in moving those programs forward uh for their uh benefit. So, a sincere thank you to our high school administration for organizing and hosting such a wonderful program. And congratulations

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to all of our students and to the families who continue to support them. Thank you. Thank you. >> Okay. Item 15, reports, discussions, and recommendations. I'm sorry, it's four. >> Oh, 14.

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>> Members, we skipped. Okay. I was I was thinking All right. Reports, discussions, and recommendations. Um, Mr. Simaglia, would you like to policy and governance? >> Yes. Thank you. Uh so the committee met

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on April 23rd 5:30 to 6:30. We always meet uh via Zoom. Um in attendance was Ebony Alice Carolyn not here. Brian and we had a special guest for a little bit Nick and

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>> I thought you pointed at me. That's what you doing. And uh so uh so we went over a couple policies, but I just want to uh get some other stuff out of the the governance part out first. Um in March,

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we had three um Opas >> uh Oprah requests. Uh all all were closed. Um a total of two hours were spent. All all were closed on time. uh April we have seven open I'm sorry there

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were seven total three closed already four still open none are overdue and total 90 minutes for that um so I guess the best part we'll talk about the policies right um that's what everybody's here waiting for and we had

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a couple policies uh that we went over uh the first is I we're going to talk about the 1552 that's a sexual harassment um you know basically you know, it's a some language was was updated. Um, this is a policy to protect

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our staff. Um, and um, and couple things that I I just wanted to point out was um, on page there's a change on page um, page two, but the

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where is it on the bottom uh, is our super if you have an appeal process. There's also a bail process. So, it's a superintendent or a designated personnel uh for that. So, um it's the sexual

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harassment. So, it's just to protect our student, our staff members. Um the moving on to the next policy was uh um civility. This is 9131. Um what I wanted to point out on here,

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we're we're changing where it that um the chief administrator or principal or the design um may I'm sorry maybe we should read that from the beginning harassment uh harassing staff or others through repeated telephone calls as excessive

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writing communication or face-to-face communication will be directed to leave school district properly uh or property promptly by the chief administrator or principal or designate and this is the new part may result in restricted access

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to school um this in district events or to uh distant property. Um other than that, nothing's changed on that. The other policies that we've covered, oh I'm sorry, I did forget one

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thing about the sexual harassment. If we pass this now and we pass it again next month, there are a couple other policies that will be uh eliminated. >> U so we it's that policy is replacing. >> Okay. And the last one is uh 2361 the computer

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networks and um couple things that we want I want to just point out on there. go back to my notes is um I don't know I closed my notes I guess um we have big thing is for the students

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is there is a and for the teachers there's a there's a limit on the Chromebooks which is spelt out now in the policy I think there was always a limit right um and but now there is going to be a time limit it's in it's on the last page of the policy I'm sorry on

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the regulation. Um it tells um this car it's next I'm going to bring my own computer but um >> Ceda Mountain starts at I believe is they will be cut off at uh 9:00 10:00

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for the middle schools. So primary schools 10 and 11 I believe with their Chromebooks will not function and this is just to point out so we don't wait you know this won't go into effect until next year correct because the policy is

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not in place um yet but this will affect that turning in your homework assignments so late so just want to point that out for students out there and for the teachers that they have to you know we have time limits that we have to obey by because it's not fair if uh somebody has a Chromebook can't do it

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and somebody has a laptop and can do it. Um, other than that, there's a filtering is also on the regulation and there is a section here we changed about the U bring your own device. Um, I'm going back and forth with this.

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We're going to pass it. We're going to put out for a vote for tonight. Um, I'm not sure if that really pertains just to not to the staff. So, I I'm going I'm just bringing it up here. we're going to bring we're going to talk about in the committee because there isn't a similar policy that has to do

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with students specifically. So maybe that's redundant and we can maybe look at eliminating that or we come back in this. But the way it is it's it's good. The technology department looked it over uh helped out tremendously with this. Um and we're you know we're going to put up

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a vote tonight. So, and it was there was one thing I wanted to write, but I wrote it down and can't find it. Um, >> I talked about Yeah, we're good. >> Okay. >> Thank you. >> Um, can I get a motion to approve?

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>> I just have a question. Sorry. >> Will you do it after the >> Oh, sorry. >> Okay. Do that all the time. Get a motion to approve um item. Is it 14 or 15? We say >> it's 14, but we'll correct it. >> Okay. 14 B1 through B2.

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>> So move. >> Thank John. Second. >> I'll second. >> Thank you. Brilliant. Okay. Questions or comments? Sarah. So you mentioned something about um policy 1552 possibly

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replacing if it were passed, replacing existing policies, right? What what policies would this be replacing? That's a good question. >> They are uh former uh policies on sexual harassment that are now dated. And so then um Strauss Esme, our company is

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taking those out of circulation, but we're unable to abolish those until we adopt the new one. >> 3362 33 uh and 4532 policy and regulation for both of those those four.

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>> And I did add something. We completed our um from our assessment from uh Strauss. We got all our policies corrected, updated. >> Big policy. >> Great job. Policy committee until the next update. >> Yes,

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>> this one. Uh any other questions or comments? >> I had a a quick question. I I don't remember if we resolved this in the meeting or not. the the there was a question on the civility on school property versus

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not school property and where where we have authority and don't >> you remember that >> this so for this policy it's our school property and our events >> just our school property >> okay thank you >> okay

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any others we did we also Remember we're talking about the choice on the prepundonderance of evidence. Yeah, we took right answer that roll call. Mr.

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>> SL, >> Miss Nichols, Miss Pellet, >> yes. >> Miss Pac, >> yes. >> Missello, >> Mr. Zimmerman. >> Yep. >> Mr. Mr. Smagley.

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>> Yes. >> Mr. Fischer. >> Hi. >> Mr. Krauss. >> Yes. >> Motion carries. >> C. >> All right. Um, so for item C, personnel, these are resignations, retirements, and terminations. I'm seeking approval by

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the board for the following non-certificated staff resignations and retirements in letter A. Uh in letter B, these are certificated staff resignations and retirements. Uh for 2 A, they are certificated staff

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appointments. or 2B um these are non-certificated staff appointments or 2C they are substitute appointments at the appropriate substitute rates for the 2526 school year. Letter D these are the

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mentor fee deductions for the 2526 school year. Letter E is appointments for the 26 ESY extended school year program which runs Monday through Fridays and commences on July 6th

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through July 29th for a total of 18 days. That's attachment P1. For letter F, it is the approval of the appointments for the Glen Meadow Middle School summer CCLC program, which runs Monday through Thursday and commences

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July 6th through July 30th. These will all be paid with 21st Century Community Learning Center grant funds and it can be found on attachment P2. Letter G is the appointments for the Glen Meadow Middle School summer CCLC program from

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August 1st through the 31st. Those will be paid with 21st century community learning center grant funds as well. Number three, compensation and adjustments. They are certificated staff sixth period teaching assignments.

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Letter B is the staff for summer case management not to exceed 20 days. Letter C are hourly stipened adjustments. Letter D are start date adjustments. Letter E are the staff for summer CST

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meetings at the rate of $40 per meeting, which can be found in attachment P3. Letter F is staff for summer evaluations at the rate of $400 per evaluation as per the 2326 contract, which can be

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found in attachment P4. Number four are leaves of absence for certificated staff. Letter B are leaves of absence for noncertificated staff. Number five are transfers for

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certificated staff in letter A. Letter B is non-certificated staff. Number six is the personnel agenda for the 2627 school year. It is the reappointment of our staff. The locations are tentative

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and subject to transfer and it can be found in attachment P5. It includes central office, IT department, maintenance, child study team, Walnut Ridge School, Cedar Mountain, Rolling Hills, Lounsbury Hollow, Glenn Meadow,

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and Vernon Township High School. Number seven is um uh to rescend a student from attending Vernon Township Public Schools according to board of education policy 511 child of employee 776 to attend Cedar

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Mountain Primary School as a kindergarten student and that is the personnel section. >> Thank you. Going to get a motion to approve item 14 C1 through C7. So move >> second Ray Stephanie on that one.

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Questions or comments? >> Um number seven. I thought it was first grade too. >> It was sending. >> Oh, rescending. Oh, I'm sorry. Okay. Thank you.

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>> Back up. >> Anyone else? >> I only know that because I did the same thing when I first read it. Um to Roco >> Miss Pallet, >> yes >> Miss Bac, >> yes >> Miss Varello. >> Yeah,

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>> Mr. Simmerin >> me. >> Sorry. >> Yes, >> Mr. Semlia. >> Yes, >> Mr. Fischer. >> Hi, >> Mr. Krauss. >> Yes, >> Miss Nichols. >> Yes. >> Motion carries. >> Thank you.

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D curriculum and instruction. Um Dr. Ross could not be here tonight. >> She could not make it. I do have her um >> report >> curriculum report. If you'd like, I could highlight it. >> That would be good. >> Um so uh the committee discussed the

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continuous alignment of all curriculum instruction efforts with um board goal five. Our focus remains on advancing academic growth and inclusive learning environments through a whole child approach. We are ensuring that district priorities reflect a balance of rigorous instruction and robust student support.

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Uh our administrative team provided updates on our progress towards strategic plan goal number one, which is curriculum coherence. Our alignment group met again and engaged in deep learning conversations around best practice for curriculum development, including unpacking standards and talking about big ideas and enduring

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understandings. Um Miss Ross asked about Dr. Ross asked about literacy instruction at the elementary level in particular and our team was able to provide a nuanced explanation of our current curricula which is aligned to reading with structured literacy and plans for supporting teachers to ensure

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students are receiving appropriate word recognition and fluency instruction. She also asked about high quality teaching materials uh curriculum documents uh will be included uh and approved as part of all of our instructional materials. Uh the next admin uh next our team

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provided updates on our progress towards strategic plan goal two. Uh our VTESS rollout which is multi-tiered systems of support the Vernon way. Um our consulting firm engaged in individual consultations with each building. Relatedly we share a priority to explore

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scheduling options. We're doing that with all of our schools. Uh that would provide perhaps additional time for subject instruction and interventions. And finally Mr. Fay updated us on the CST PlaF training. We're developing templates with New Jersey all-in trainer

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uh today. Uh and CST plans to turnkey information to teachers at our district inservice day on um May 26th. And we will also have classroom management training for elementary schools teachers on that day. Um

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and then you want to continue with your door. >> So D, curriculum instruction. Uh number two uh this is approval uh for travel. Number three is the approval of the common lit contract effective July 1st

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2026 through the 30th in the amount of $6,850. Common lit is our uh ELA program at the middle school. It is in attachment C1 and that is curriculum instruction. >> Okay. A motion to approve item 14 D2

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through D3. >> Wake up. >> Second, please. >> Second. >> Thank you, sir. Uh, questions or comments? Brian, >> I know we we've talked about this before. Approving

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travel after the travel dates. like if what if I said no? >> Yeah, that's a good point. Um sometimes the conferences come up and our board meetings are held once a month and so then um we permit them to go. Um if the board would like us to uh consider a

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different practice, we could think about that. Um we'll try to avoid >> reating or posting. >> It's not a major thing, but I know we've talked about it before. Yeah, >> these aren't board uh they're all paid for from other funds. >> They are.

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>> Yeah. At least it's not our money. >> Okay. Any other? >> You had a comment going um has professional learning is that in person are they or is that >> I don't know the answer to that but I can find out.

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It says virtual, doesn't it? >> Does it? >> Oh, your second page. >> Does it say it right there? >> Virtual. Virtual print. >> We both didn't read, Mr. [laughter] >> Just thought it was a one pager. >> Thank you. >> They turned off the air or something. Getting hot in the air. Everyone's

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getting sleepy. >> Everyone is getting >> That's a building management energy savings right there. There's more. >> That's that's the building manage and control energy savings right there. The EEP at work.

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>> Okay. So, let's move to a roll call. >> Miss Pac. >> Yes. >> Miss Varello. >> Yes. >> Mr. Zimmerman? >> Yes. >> Mr. Sanglia? >> Yes. >> Mr. Fischer? >> Hi. >> Mr. Krauss. >> I. >> Miss Nichols. >> Yes. >> Miss Plet?

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>> Yes. >> Motion carries. >> You're here. reports. Guess that's you have any. >> All right. >> So, we have the HIB report uh that was reviewed at the March 26th meeting,

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which is attachment R1. We have the random drug testing and school safety report for March 26, which is attachment R2. We have the HIV bullying grade report beginning with September 2011 through 2012 school year. Our school

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district has conscientiously implemented the requirements found in the anti-bullying bill of rights act. All of the Vernon Township public schools have met or exceeded every requirement for the 2425 school year and it has been posted on our website and is attached.

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These schools are rated on a scale of 0 to 78, which is attachment R3. And those are the reports. >> Okay. I get a motion to approve. >> So moved. >> 1 through E3. >> Second.

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>> Stephanie. Any questions or comments? Seeing none, can we get a roll call? >> Miss Fareell? >> Yes. >> Mr. Zimmerman? >> Yes. >> Mr. Saglia? >> Yes. >> Mr. Fischer? >> Hi. >> Mr. Krauss. >> Yes. >> Miss Nichols, >> yes. >> Miss Plet,

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>> yes. >> Miss Pac, >> yes. >> Motion carries. >> Item F. Mr. Krauss, your >> finance buildings and grounds report. >> Finance, buildings, and grounds. This is going to take about an hour, guys. Strap in. I'm joking. I'm joking. [laughter]

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>> All right. We met on April 20th, 2026. It was conducted through Google Meet which began at 5:30 ended around 6:50. In attendance were Ray Slam, Evony Demz, Joe Van Kirk, myself, Ray Zimmerman, Brian Fischer, and Jen Pellet. Okay. We

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discussed the preliminary budget and whether we're going to publish it. So, we don't have to publish it in the local newspaper since the law changed this year. But since it is a new law, we felt that it to be as transparent as possible that we publish it any um we're have a referendum discussion is

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being postponed till the main meeting. Um with the health benefits update, I'm not going to reiterate everything. We just did the whole budget what that's all about, but about utilization and how we're trying to save some money that we talked about that which you already went through on

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item. Um school meals are going up 15 cents increase. Um, it was felt that making small raises each year is better than not raising it for a couple of years and then hitting everyone with a large increase all at once. We were shown a comparison chart and the district's prices are in line with the

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rest of Sussex County. Um, just a quick update on buildings and grounds, the solar panel update that's going on over to the high school. We're opting to go with a smaller project that we originally planned because of the amount of time it would take to get it installed. If we go with the larger project, it would take three to four

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years to get the upgrades done for interconnection. By going with the smaller version, we can have it done within a year and start reaping the savings right away. Um, we have a change order for the Lbury Hollow elevator repair. Um, we're able to get parts to

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make the fix and we'll get a 5-year warranty on the parts. It turns out they had a leaking oil cylinder with a burr in it and they had to um fix that. And um we have to replace a a mower. Um and the rest of this is all online. It's

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just some basic things that have been gone and you can we can just look at it in the meeting minutes. >> Thank you, Mr. Krauss. Mr. Slim, the business administrator's report. >> Uh keep it short and sweet tonight. Um the use of buildings and groundsformational item attachment

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number one. And then moving on to uh business office recommendations. Uh we have letter A uh which is our monthly financial reports. Letter B which is our monthly board secretary and treasures reports.

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That's attachment F5 and F6. Letter C is our transportation for the month of April. That's attachment F7. Uh we have a number of donations here uh from the uh Rolling Hills SCA, the Ly Hollow SCA

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uh two from the L very hollow SCA. Uh one is for field day and field trips at Rolling Hills. Uh one is for transportation uh for fifth fifth grade students to Skyland Stadium uh for the minors baseball game. Uh and then the other at at Lansbury Hollow is for u

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field day t-shirts uh for students. Uh so I just want to take a second to thank our SCAS for their support. Um letter G uh we have the disposition of the following items is they're either obsolete or in disrepair >> shapes.

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>> Yeah. So drag and shape select >> uh letter H uh is there recommendation uh to approve the uh VTH uh s stadium advertisement applications as listed below? What's Planet Networks and Ashworth Notary Services?

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>> Can't hear me snap. >> Yeah. So, everyone, I included uh copies of the what their advertisements would be. >> Very excited. >> Nice. >> Things do eventually.

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>> And then uh letter I is the renewal of frontline uh for the 2627 school year statute F8. Uh letter J, uh renewal of frontline IEP direct and 504. Uh that's attachment F9. That's also for the 2627

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school year. Uh we have uh change order uh with Waco Group for kitchen upgrades. That's letter K. Um that will not increase the cost of the project. It'll come out of allowance that was already uh a portion to that project when it was originally approved. That's attachment F10. Uh letter L uh approval of board of

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education accept the amendment to the Perkins uh 2526 grant. Letter M uh is the 15 cent increase for breakfast and lunch at at each level uh for the 2627 school year. Oh my my computer died by the way.

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That's what the beeping sound was. Got my backup. [laughter] Uh, letter N, uh, is the change order, uh, to Otis elevator, uh, LRE Hollow School elevator project, $53,000 at Stat F11. Uh, letter O, uh, is approval uh,

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for the proposal from Tri-State Rentals for the replacement of a lawn mower uh, for the amount of $19,342. That's the uh source cooperative approved source well uh cooperative approved co-op contract which is listed below F12. Uh letter P uh is the uh

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approval for the financing. We had a competitive process for financing for the purchase of the laptops that had previously been approved. So that's the approval of the financing. We're able to get a much better rate uh by going through this route 3.56%. Uh that's the cogent leasing and

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financing inc to provide lease purchase uh financing for those laptops. Um letter Q uh approval by the board of education to approve uh mystery science me mystery science membership for the 2627 school year. That's attachment F-13. Uh letter R is the

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instead of reading through the whole thing. Essentially, it's the approval to reject the lowest bidder because they had an incurable defect in the proposal and to award to the second lowest bidder uh for the fire for the uh fire alarm projects

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at um Rolling Hills and Walnut Ridge. Uh the second award lowest bidder was Hey Service Corporation. Um and then uh it has a couple of stipulations there. need to meet to make sure that in terms of documentation they give us for that award to be effective.

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Uh letter S uh is the recommendation for approval uh to accept the award of the 2526 special Olympics unified champion schools grant for up to $1,000. Uh, letter T is to accept the approval of donation to the Vtown Vernon Township Portification from Virginia Vanderbeck

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of a Riftton Activity Chair model 850 an amount valued at uh $5,130. Um, again, thank you for your support of the students. Uh, letter U, uh, recommended approval u the contract with Hype Nation LLC for the 206 prom in

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amount of $3,000 statute F14. Uh and then letter V uh which is the recommend recommendation to approve the 2627 uh final budget as approved by the executive count of county superintendent.

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Uh that is a long one and we have talked everyone's ears off. So if everyone is okay I'll just say as noted uh below. >> All right. I swallowed the wrong way. Sorry. Second, I get a motion to approve item

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14 F3A. [laughter] >> I'm gonna get John to read it. >> John, um, second, please. >> Second. >> Thank you. Questions or comments? It's coming.

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>> Yeah, I have a question real quick. I'm not your computer that you probably can't give me the answer, but on letter I, the uh the amendment to the Perkins grant, how is that a positive for us or a negative for us? It doesn't give a number. >> Uh it's not an amendment that changes

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the um value of the grant. It's just changes the application for how the funds were originally applied for to how we would like to use them now. So, it doesn't change the value of the grant. It's basically just us submitting an amendment saying originally maybe we had it under this account for this purpose

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but now it's maybe being switched to another account. >> You know you want to do electronics or whatever. >> Exactly. >> Y thank you. >> Any other um questions or comments? >> No really everybody wants to go home.

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>> I want to know what a riftton activity chair model is. Uh it's a specific type of chair for uh a special education student. >> Okay. Oh, >> and real quick on uh with these quotations that we received, it would we

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we went with that first one, coachent leasing and financing, that should be 1.02%, right? Not 102%. >> Uh I will check that. But the main thing that um is important is a 3.56% which is the interest rate we would be we pay the

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>> lowest interest rate. >> Exactly. >> Uh even when accounting for the that one had a $500 fee, it still ended up being the uh better financial deal. >> Thank >> And I do want to say that I'm very excited about our um our first two ads

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for the stadium. So, thank you Planet Networks and Ashworth Notary Services for getting us off the ground with that. Okay. Um, anyone else? Well, let's do a roll call vote. >> Miss Varello? >> Yes. >> Mr. Zimmerman?

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>> Yes. >> Mr. Simaglia? >> Yes. >> Mr. Fischer? >> Uh, page 20. >> 20. That's where they put it. All right. I >> Sorry, >> Mr. Krauss. >> Yes, >> Miss Nichols.

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>> Yeah. Abstain. >> Thank you, Miss Bella. >> Yes, >> Miss Pac. >> Yes. >> Motion carries. >> Passed the budget, right? >> Yep. Much passed. >> Okay. Number four, special services.

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Yep. Uh upon recommendation of the superintendent schools approval by the board of education for the following out of district placements for the 2627 school year as noted below. Uh and then letter B uh approval by the board recommended approval

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recommendation sorry long night recommendation of the superintendent of schools for approval by the board of education to approve establishing a multiple disabilities class at the blue schools for the 2627th school year. uh Cedar Mountain, Bonsbury Hollow, and Roll Rolling Hills. And then letter C, uh recommendation for approval uh for

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the agreement of Burlington County Special Services School District/ Educational Service Unit to provide professional services for 2627 school year uh as requested uh by Vern Township attachment SS1. >> Peter, can I get a motion for items FA

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through FC? >> Stephanie and Sarah. Thank you. Questions or comments? Seeing none. Can we do a roll call? >> Mr. Zimmerman? >> Yes. >> Mr. Sagia? >> Yes. >> Mr. Fischer? >> Hi.

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>> Mr. Krauss? >> Yes. >> Miss Nichols? >> Miss Pellet? >> Yes. >> Miss Pac? >> Yes. >> Miss Echarella? >> Yes. >> Motion carries. >> Thank you. Item [clears throat] uh 15 uh

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public comment. the same um public stage and applies to this public comment as before. Do we have anybody in the public or online who wants to comment? I don't see anybody yet. I'm going to give it a second.

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Okay. They want to go home, too. Um okay. Uh those in public comments open board member forum. with anybody. Ryan, >> I just I'd like to make a statement um just in

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response to some of the things that we may or may not have been seeing on uh social media. I have no problem telling people that I was one of the people who pushed hardest for Ebony during the selection process

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and I continue to support Ebony. I I think um a lot of her initiatives are things that I had no problem getting on board with. Um the the uh realignment uh special

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education AI initiatives and you know the one that I really wanted to address 70 is not cutting AP. In fact, we're expanding it. So, um, I just want to go on record again and say that you have my

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support full. >> Thank you, Mr. Fisher. Mr. Zimmerman. >> So, as I mentioned before, this I believe is my seventh budget, you know, and they've all been all over the place. Really >> [clears throat] >> ugly and sad and positive. But I got to

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say the team of Ebony and Mr. slam, but Ray and Ebony both the same. So, uh, I've never had more confidence that it the ship is somewhat moving in the right direction after a long turnaround and the budget, you know, money's [clears throat] the money. We needed to

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move the education, but remediate what Brian said about Mr. Mendes and Ray Lamb that we are certainly while it's painful moving in the right direction. So, I'm happy with that. Agreed. >> Thank you.

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>> I think [clears throat] we're all in agreement there. I mean, >> yeah. >> No, I don't think Ryan had to push all that hard for Ebony. >> Yeah, it was unanimous. >> I don't know if we're allowed to say that, but >> Oh, during the selection process.

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>> Charlie, >> I thought you meant now. >> No, I I meant during you. Yeah. Anyway, >> I just want to second what Ray said. I mean, great job. I have a lot of faith in you guys and you have done with the budget, the changes you have made. Um,

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you know, and you know, this is why we hired you guys. I mean, you guys are the experts in the field for here, right? That's why you're looking through the line by lines and you're you're cutting and you're changing and you're realigning. So, we do appreciate all the work that you guys are doing hard work.

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Um also want to say congratulations to all those the honor societ honor society um recipients uh two last week two weeks ago. >> Um wanted to give a shout out to the bowling team because I think they did a great team a great season didn't

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>> and uh I used to be on the bowling team when uh Mr. Stumper was the cover >> back in the day and uh so good thing with that. Then I was just thinking about you know like you know want to go home but and then I was thinking you know my like kasa right that's like Spanish for house right and then I was

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like but if you take ho and you take the the end of kasa you have hosa which is hosting an event this this weekend >> what a transition that was [laughter] >> that was good >> have a special

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was going too celebrity now. >> So, you know, it'd be nice everybody support them because those kids um they're future health workers, you know, or at least they're working health right now. Maybe they won't stick in it, but they're they're the future for us. So, >> no, if you're going to pitch it, you

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have to say where it is and it is. >> Well, I don't want to scare anybody. >> No, go ahead. Go ahead. >> You got to be at High Point this weekend on Sunday, right? Sunday at 9 o'clock. >> You can still sign up online. >> Where do you sign up? >> Online. I can uh and everybody know

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everybody on the committee is in know I can I can text you that that message right away where the link to it but >> if you would do that >> yeah where is the link online on our our web page? I don't know if it is. >> Yeah, I don't know. >> I don't know but I guess we can get it.

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>> Yeah, we have you have two days to sign up and uh it's going to be a great event. We're going to run up to the monument. Run down. Roll down. >> Roll down. Yeah. Not fall down though. No falling. We'll walk, Seth. >> Good. All right.

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>> Good times. Um, okay. Anybody else? I I just want to say that I'm really excited about the year to come and it's it's been a hard journey, but um I think things are really looking stronger and we're feeling really good about the

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future in Burton. So, um turn item uh 18 or 17. >> No move. >> Second. [laughter] >> All in favor? I