Calling to order the May one public work session of the Vernon Township School District. Can I get a roll call? Miss Brock, Mr. Smeaggalia here, Mr. Cantino here, Mr. Fischer here. Mr. Krauss here. Miss Pellet here. Mr.
Sweeney. Miss Varello here. Mr. Zimmerman here. We have a quorum. It's recommended that the board enter close session for purposes of discussing student legal and personnel matters. Can I get a motion? So moved. Second.
Thank you. All in favor? I. Closed. Very good. Okay. It is recommended that the board return to open session. Can I get a motion? So moved. Second. Stephanie. All in favor? I roll call. Miss Brock, Mr. Smackle here, Mr.
Canina here, Mr. Fischer here, Mr. Krauss here, Miss Pellet here, Mr. Sweeney, Miss Varelo here, Mr. Zimmerman here. We have a court. Thank you. Please rise and join me in the pledgece to the flag of the United
States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, liberty and justice for all my show. Oh, okay. We need a minute for that.
We said very good. Yeah, it's a nice turnout. Yep. Thank you all for coming, by the way. We really appreciate the uh interest. Um can we get a reading of the meeting notice, Mr. Slim? The New Jersey open public meetings law was enacted to ensure the right of the public to have
advanced notice of and to attend the meetings of public bodies in which any business affecting their interest is discussed or acted upon. In accordance with provisions of the act, Vernon Township Board of Education has caused notice of this meeting to be published. An adequate notice has been provided and notice this meeting has been properly posted in accordance with the New Jersey
open public meeting law. Thank you. Just a quick note, the next public board meeting uh will be on Thursday, May 22nd. Sorry, let me just go to the other minute. Um,
okay. You're up with the presentation. And Miss Brock is joining us. Oh, great. 70. 702. Got it. 72. Oh, do we need to Are we doing the presentation
over here? Yep. People I'm gonna share over Testing. Testing. There we go. Six tries to try. So, I'm gonna leave that there in case I need it.
Thank you. Good evening everybody. I just want to thank everyone uh at home and also in person that joined us tonight. We appreciate it. Uh so this is our final budget presentation uh for 2526. I'm sorry. Can you speak a little louder
please if that Yeah, sure. No problem. Thank you for letting me know. Taylor, how do you let me know now so you everyone can hear me. Um uh so I just want to I always start off uh with our mission statement here. Uh I think it's important uh I won't go through it word by word but it's important for us to recognize why we're all here for the
kids um and and to support the staff that to support the the students. So I think it's important um for everyone to kind of understand the budget. A budget is planned expenses and expected revenues. You know we're projecting out a year from now. A lot can change in a year. Um it's a
financial expression of the district's needs and priorities. And I say it's a living document. Uh and that goes back to it's a year from now. So, you know, a lot can change in a year. Uh and we need to be able to pivot when those changes happen to make sure that we're best meeting the needs of students and
staff. So, we're just going to talk a little bit about how we go through this process. First, we start by gathering information uh on prior prior and current year spending. I also usually go back an additional year uh just because I feel the more data the better. uh
provides you a more accurate projection of what the next year might bring. Uh we verify and validate our personnel costs for the district. We take a look at our fixed costs um and we try to project what some of those increases might be. Um
obviously these being fixed costs, we don't have a lot of control over what those increases are. And we meet with administration. Uh sorry if that was Thanks. Uh so meet with administration to discuss what the different buildings
and departments uh will need uh to support the staff and the students in in the upcoming year. And again that even with that that's a that's a projection. Uh and if something changes uh we try we pivot to what best meets those needs. And then uh this is probably the
most boring part but we prepare the actual uh accounts uh to have the appropriations and put in the revenues. Make sure everything balances. Um, it's the most exciting part for me or one of the most exciting parts because it's kind of like a puzzle and you have to try to figure out uh how you can make everything
work. So, part of that puzzle obviously is balancing the budget. Um, so there are some pretty limited revenues on what a school district uh really has access to. Um, property taxes uh which is uh legis legislation has capped that at 2%. Uh there are several exceptions. um
state aid um which obviously may not be obvious. I'll go in a little bit of history here. So there's the S2 funding formula that went into place um I think around 1819 1920 is when that started. Uh so there are
districts that kind of won in that situation in that change uh with the S2 funding formula which is the state aid the formally used for state aid uh and districts that lost. Uh unfortunately Vernon was a district that lost. Um we were down about $8.5 million when uh I
first started. Um we got about a million dollars back um last year or this current year. And then something that I think really should have been the way that they process this from the start uh for special education aid for this upcoming year, they based it off the
number of special education students that are actually in district, which I think that's pretty common sense and that should have been how it was the whole time. Uh but because of that, we have a pretty high percentage of special education students um in Vernon. Uh so that resulted in another uh million dollars coming back. So we're down
around $6 million from where the district used to be when state aid. Uh we also have grants. It's federal, state, and local. Uh we have fund balance. Uh right here I have it listed as fund balance. Later on you might hear me talk about excess surplus. I use those interchangeably. They are a little
different. Uh when we go through the overall fund balance, you you'll see the differences. Uh and then local revenue. Um what you're always looking for new forms of local revenue. Um we are somewhat limited, right? So one of the things that's coming up, uh we did a
lease for a cell phone tower, uh which will actually be right back behind this building. Uh so that we're not building the tower, but we lease the land. So when that goes up, uh that'll be around $52,000 a year in revenue. So, we're always looking for those areas um where we can increase revenue uh to help
provide what the district needs for the students and staff. So, I'll go through the expenses pretty quickly. Uh so, we want to provide appropriate staffing. Uh we want to make sure that our we're providing effective instruction programs. We want to support district initiatives uh
control item expenses. So, one side is look for new revenues. Other side is try to find savings. Uh and then we're also going to explore shared services and other avenues to cost savings. We'll talk about some of those later on presentation. So one of the things I
just wanted to revisit last year we did a revised uh budget based off of a change in law. Um so I just want to provide a little bit of a status update on how those funds are utilized. Uh the first portion of that was related to staffing. So, so as you'll see, uh, we were able
to we were able to bring those staff back, uh, those positions back. Those many of those positions have been lost. Uh, there were throwing some of the large cuts related to state aid in the prior years. Um, we were also able to bring back the late busing at the high school uh, and a few uh, stipens that
uh, we felt were pretty important um, to the students and staff. So the second part of that revised budget was related to projects. Uh so just want to provide a status update on those. Um I don't know if you were able to catch it uh at one at our one one of
our last meetings, but we had a presentation on our facility assessment which has been complete. Um so that's pretty important in terms of a map forward for some of the projects the districts will have to look at trying to pursue and trying to find a way to fund uh door access control that is scheduled
uh and in progress. um updated man uh building management systems been completed. We had a repair to the storage shank at Clemet Meadow. Um I won't go through all of them, but I'll hit on a couple of the ones that say funds reassigned because if it's complete, you'll see it up there. Uh this will also be posted up on the
business office website, which I always like to plug. We always have our presentations up there for anyone that wants a second look at any of the slides that we send tonight or any other night. Uh I've been up here talking probably way too much. So for the uh fire alarm
replacement, those funds were reassigned uh for the high school. So there was a fire alarm replacement at Rolling Hills that was planned. We had to have a change order at the high school. Uh we also had uh the replace a fire pump at the high school. So those funds are reassigned to that change order and to
the fire pump uh project. Uh we had the locker room water heater replacement and uh that was reassigned for um unanticipated district boiler repairs. Uh we also had some unanticipated oil tank repairs. Uh we also had to replace a grinder pump um at
the high school. Uh so you'll see these are things that can't really project when those are going to go, but when they go you have to address them uh because they're important for daily operations and the safety uh of the students and staff. Uh, one quick note, sorry. Uh, that
water heater project, we are going to move forward with that. Um, assuming this budget is approved, we're actually going to be able to do that in house, which is going to save us the funds. I just wanted to uh kind of shout that out to our maintenance department. Uh, because a lot of times, uh, we're able to use those, uh, their skills to save
money for the district. So, these are other projects that we pursued uh or are pursuing during this year. Um, the Gleno SDA window replacement has been a project that has been very difficult to move forward and actually uh has existed prior to my starting district. So, I'm
going to be coming up a year or two in October. So, this project's been around for a while. Um, so we're finally moving forward with that after having to rev that. So, uh, we're excited to get that going. Uh, we have the fire pump replacement, which I mentioned previously already. Uh, we have the cosmetology building, rampant stairs.
Uh, that is at the high school and I believe that is almost complete. I think they just need to put the railing in. uh which I don't know if everyone's familiar but that that really needed to be replaced. Uh we had the front entrance uh reconfiguration security vest school at Walnut Ridge. Um so that
has to do with opening up the preschool program. Uh so that is in progress as well. Uh we were able to replace the bank uh boards at Rolling Hills which need replacement. Uh and then we're working on kitchen renovations at all schools. Uh just a quick note there that
comes out of fund 60. So that's um the enterprise fund. Uh those are revenues from the school lunch program which is separate from the rest of the district's uh operating budget and those funds can only be used to make improvements um to the school lunch
program. Uh we have currently have inspections of the fire alarm uh replacement at the high school which is a project that started last year. Um we do have the cell Verizon cell antenna on top of the high school. Um quick update on that that's actually complete. Um so that was completest of I believe last
couple of days. Uh we had to this is something else that was unanticipated. We had receptic system repairs and riser uh installation at Warner Ridge uh chiller control repair unanticipated. That's that cell phone tower lease I mentioned earlier. Um so we're hoping
they're currently getting approvals for the permits. So we're hoping that they'll start building in the fall. Uh and that's something that we're excited about because one uh it provides a couple benefits. One we have the lease revenue. Uh what but the other the other uh benefit is that we're going to have emergency services equipment on that
cell tower. So that improved the reception for everybody but also uh for emergency services at town and we worked uh just a quick shout out for the town. Uh they Verizon was actually uh sent our way uh from the town. So we appreciate you know working
together to find those opportunities um to really help the district and the town. Uh and then we had access point installations at Glen Meadow on Rolling Hills. Uh so those are complete as well. So we've been busy. Uh we had uh
issues with the Glen Meadow septic tank and the risers. Uh the risers were deteriorated uh to the point that when they were pumped, they actually found traffic cones and the tanks. Um so those risers have been repaired. Uh but also I don't know if anyone's been over there recently, they've also been lowered uh
because they were quite high. uh in my opinion a safety issue. So we lowered those uh now they they are safer. We don't have to worry about anyone getting any ideas any of the kids getting any ideas uh with jumping off of those risers. Uh we had tennis court repairs at the high school which I think is pretty visible. Uh those were in danger
of being unplayable. Uh so that was something we were able to accomplish uh the oil tank repairs mentioned earlier uh few meetings ago and you'll actually see the presentation on the website. Uh we talked about the EIP. So that's in progress. Uh just very quick overview,
we won't go through the whole thing. Station is on the website if you want to see the whole thing. Um but essentially the idea is you're finding savings uh on your utilities and then using those funds in the budget to budget for a bond payment um instead of paying for the
electricity. So you pay the bond off, but eventually once the bond's paid off, you still have the savings um and you no longer have the bond payment. So we net positive for the district. It also allows us to make some improvements that otherwise wouldn't be able to because we wouldn't have the funds. Um, one of the
exciting things with that is at the high school we're looking at replacing the uh rooftop units for the auditorium, which I think is pretty exciting. And it's uh net impact is zero on the budget because instead of the money going towards the the energy cost, it's just going towards
the bond payment. And since over a large number of years, we're able to finance some of those energy uh improvement projects, boiler repairs, which I mentioned before, grinder pump replacement, uh we had water heater repair, and we had to do a water heater replacement. The sidewall compares, you'll see a lot of safety items. Um
some security items, masonary roof repair, uh uned power supply, which backs up the district's entire internet had to be replaced. Um we had some abatements uh water treatment uh plant maintenance and repairs um and then also some additional
security cameras. So lots of projects uh trying to be busy trying to continuously make improvements uh and always trying to continuously save money uh making sure they have a safe environment for our students and staff. Talking about fund balance now I
mentioned that a little bit earlier. So this is just the history of the fund balance used in district. You'll see 2122 just under 3 million. Uh 2223 uh went up quite high to 7 5.7 million. Uh went down to 3.1. Uh my first budget uh
brought down just under 2.8 and now we're just um over 2.5. So fund balance is another way of saying we're utilizing funds from the prior year's budget to fund as revenue in a future budget. Right? So for this 2526 budget, that's a
balance that we ended the 23 24 school year with, then it gets audited. Um, and then some money either goes to excess surplus. And if you have enough money to be your excess surplus requirement, which would be that $2.5 million number, uh, you can then deposit money in the
capital reserve. And capital reserve is important because during the year if something breaks that you're unable to budget for um and you cannot support the tax levy or the normal budget, you can do a withdrawal from that capital reserve um to pay for that fix. Um our capital reserve is pretty low. I'll talk
about that maybe a little bit later, but just a little bit of the the dynamics of how that works. So this is fund balance as a whole and I always talk about it as I think it's very important uh and it's also not necessarily the most
straightforward thing. This is right out of our audit. All our audits are on the website along with all our user friendly budgets and all the presentations uh for last year's budget budgets and this year's budgets. But sorry I'm sorry.
Um so for 2526 you'll see 2.2 $22 million. I'm just going to run through this real quick. That's excess surplus. So that's money that's being used to fund the 2526 budget as revenue. Right? So the number
below it, you'll see 2425. That's just under 2.2 million. That's money that's already been used to fund the current year's budget. So I'm just going to go through each number. Um the capital reserve is as of June 30th of last year. So that's 2.5 million. However, the next
day, which is July 1st, the start of our year, $900,000 came out to fund the Glen Meadow window project, um the replacement of the Cedar Mountain stairs and retaining wall. The stairs were in pretty bad shape near the parking lot. The retaining wall was bowing in. Um
those are those two projects, the stairs and the retaining wall are complete. They were completed for spring break. Um and then also the cosmetology uh building. So those three projects were about 9 or something thousand dollars at a cap reserve. So right then on July 1st
that number is about 1.5 1.6. Um and then that number goes down again because this budget about $525,000 coming out and I'll go over that project at at the end. Uh we also have maintenance reserve. Um that number is up from when
I started. When I started it was a couple thousand dollar. Uh it's up to 3000,000. In this budget, we're taking 275,000 out and that's going to go towards things like repairing those water heaters uh in house. Um fire doors uh which need to be replaced based off
fire inspection. Uh, and then I think a re a reseal and a um restripe of uh a parking lot uh because this we want to maintain the asphalt so it lasts longer and also make sure the strip is there so it's safe when you're
driving through the parking lots. Unemployment compensation that's just going to pay it can only be used for unemployment compensation. Uh and then you have year end incumbrances. So you see $3.1 million year incumbrances. So what that means that at end at the
end of the 23 24 school year there are purchase orders that were uh in the system that we have either not been invoiced for yet and we owe payment for or um they're in the system and they're currently still working on the project. Right? So you still in keep those funds
encumbered and you roll them into the next year, right? And then once you're invoiced you pay. So basically those those funds are already accounted for um because they're already owed to a vendor for work either currently still completing or they've completed and have not invoiced us for yet. And then you see the
$610,000 that was actually used in combination with the 2425 just under $2.2 million which got you that number on that utilization of fund balance screen which was I think just under $2.8 million total. So those funds have also
been utilized. Uh so unassigned fund balance is you're allowed to have 2% of your prior year's uh audited budget as unassigned fund balance. And that's really kind of like a a safety measure, right? Whenever you're looking at a
budget, you could have things for the district kind of go the district's way where you have savings or they could really not go the district. Sorry, could we get some quiet in the audience, please? We're trying to be Thank you. At first I thought I was being told to be
quiet this murmur and thank you. Um so uh they could really not go away which then would be a lot of increased cost for the district. Uh and in a situation where there would be a lot of things not going away a lot of increased cost for the district that 2% would be the difference between basically a deficit
and not a deficit right so you could appropriate out of that. So, I just wanted to go through that number because if you look at the bottom, it's $11 million. Um, and that's seems like a very large number, but as you see, excess surplus for 2526 is earmarked
already as revenue for the budget year 2526. Um, 2425 is currently being used for excess surplus. Capital reserve is only used for capital projects and a lot of those funds are being used in this year or in the next year uh for safety and security projects. uh maintenance
reserve similarly is being used uh in the next year for uh safety related projects. Um and then unemployment compensation is only for unemployment compensation. The unencumbered the encumbered uh the incumbrance rather uh already owed the vendors. So it's from
the pri year's budget already owed the vendors. Uh and the $610,000 is actually part of that excess combination excess surplus used to fund this year. So that number all of a sudden got very very small very very quick because it's already all being utilized for something right. So I just wanted to kind of do an
overview of that because when I before I got into schools ACE work put a thought development there's transferable skills but I looked at that and I was like what does this mean? So so I I I just wanted to make sure that people had an understanding of this. So I would talk about some key
impacts on the budget which is what everyone's actually here for not all this background information. Um, so we, like I mentioned before, they changed the formula in terms of how they look at special education students. Uh, so we had a little bit over a million dollar increase in state aid. Uh, we did have another decrease in equalization aid. Uh, which is that part of the state aid
formula that was impacted by the S2 funding formula. Uh, where they kind of said, hey, that's how they kind of level the playing field or trying to level the playing field in New Jersey, but it negatively impacted Vernon. Um, but that offset for the special education was enough that our total amount was
increased by 1 million. uh 998,000 is the 2% tax levy increase. Uh because what you have to remember is it's 2% increase on the tax levy, not 2% increase on your entire budget. So when you look at the fact that our tax levy is about 68 69% uh of our revenue that
2% is really like 1.4 1.5% increase in the budget and we all know that nothing goes up 1.4 1.5% unfortunately. Um we had a decrease in fund balance revenue. Um, so that's something that's important because if
you're relying on that fund balance each and every year and you have a bad year, you then do not have that revenue at the end of that year to fund the next budget. And then all of a sudden you're what I would call a revenue cliff. And the only way to fix a revenue cliff is to find new revenue, which is very
difficult for a district to do. It's near impossible, especially if the number is very high. Uh, or to make cuts. And depending on how big that cliff is, the bigger the cliff, the bigger the cuts. Uh there have already been a lot of cuts here. Um those cuts have been painful. Uh so there's not a lot of easy cuts left to make. Um and
then we also had about $106,000 decrease uh in our projected semi-reimbursement and that has to do with the federal government changing how they calculate reimbursement for semi-related services. Those are services for students that are getting some medical um services through the school uh and qualify for Medicaid.
Uh so we were able to get some reimburse federal government through that. Um, but they changed how they grouped the services and also the rates that they reimbured them at, which results in a pretty large increase. And just so everyone kind of has a point of reference, it went from aboutund I think
it was like 120ish uh about $106,000 less, right? So we don't have a so very significant decrease um anticipated projecting costs. So we have salaries. Um, so that's contractional increases, horizontal
movement. Um, and the thing that I've always tried, you know, we've all, I think, tried to focus on, um, especially after those big cuts is trying to maintain staff, right? There's already been a lot of big cuts with staff. Um, and ultimately those sorts of cuts
negatively impact the student. Um, and we always try to look at that last, and that's what you should do. You should always look at that last. Um, you got disability insurance, liability insurance. I'm sorry, district liability insurance rather, but that's to be about a 14% increase. Uh, energy is about 35%
increase over the current year. Uh, so that has to do with two things. One, they're talking about a 17% increase um, starting in June. I'm sure everyone probably got the email that I got, got an um, JCPL and they said, "Hey, your energy is going to go up. We also wanted to let you know it's not our fault, but
we wanted to give you a heads up that you're billing to go higher." But thank you very much. Very helpful. So, um that's a combination of that increase plus the increase that we've seen in the current year. Uh part of that is that the leases contract expired. Um they
were waiting to go back out to bid. Um and we're expecting to get those those bids came in. Um so we're expecting some relief with that. Uh or else the number would have been higher. Um some other key impacts. Um,
in addition to those increases, which by the way, if you look at them, we got the number over here. These are just the large items. Get myself out of my right here. Uh, it's about you're about down around $255,000 if you look at the revenues and the cost. And those
are just kind of the big items. So, you're already kind of behind behind the eight-ball, right? So, basically, as everyone here knows, um, day-to-day supplies, normal things, they're going up more than 2%. Um, and then there's things like transportation
where if you're very lucky and the provider is renewing at the CPI, which I think is about 3.57%. Um, then you're only going up 3.57%. Only, but your increase on the tax is 2%. So that's where the problem
lies, right? And then if they don't renew, you're going up more than that because the only reason you don't renew is because you want to rebid and you want to come in at a higher rate that's more than that 3.57%. Kind of similar across the board. You know, tuitions go up, everything's going up. I won't belabor that. I'm sure
we're we're all familiar with it. Um so one of the other key impacts is we made a change uh in January 2025. Um so this is last January uh with health benefits. Uh so we went from the state plan uh to Horizon Private and Kroger prescription.
Um so that kind of came out of we had budgeted I think around 10% uh for an increase based off of talking to our broker in the prior year. Uh the increase actually ended up being 15.3%. Um so that's a pretty it's only five
percentage points but in dollars it's a lot it's a lot of money, right? Um so when that change was made um that essentially results in a savings about $700,000 over the two years, right?
So without that change, we would have been in in even worse position because we'd be looking for at least another $350,000 if not more to make the b the budget balance. Um the early information that I'm getting uh from the broker,
we're obviously no longer in the state plan is that this year the state plan is going to have another pretty large increase. So that change, you know, not only save money for this year, but it's aggregate, right? So that would have been another large increase in the upcoming year. Um so I think that was a good move for the financial stability of
the district. Um but I just wanted to kind of provide a little bit information on that uh just in case anyone uh wasn't aware that that occurred. Uh we also uh have the pea program. Uh so that's the expansion of the preschool. Uh so this is the first year
I've seen a district where because of the change in health benefits and the offset of the pea um funds. Uh the health benefits stayed relatively um cost stayed relatively flat. Right? Normally it's a very large increase, but for this year at least between those two
items, we stayed relatively flat. uh which is something that really helped uh in balancing this budget. And just a little background, anyone that works for the preschool program um essentially gets uh paid through PA uh state funds. So additional
type of state aid uh and then their salaries and their health benefits can get that are then paid by the state aid funds out of fund 20. And we're also able to offset salaries of support staff um that assist with that program. So you're uh for
example, say like a percentage of uh the transportation coordinator's salary and benefits, we can offset that because they're working to support that program. So that's how we try to help um balance the budget essentially by using those allowable areas where we can
offset with that with those state aid funds that to help the operating budget. Just a quick breakdown on revenue. So, $74 million is our operating uh budget revenue. Um 60.8% of that is tax levy,
25.1% is state aid, 3.4 is budget fund balance, and 2.8 is miscellaneous revenue. Just to give everyone an idea of what those more numbers are. So the tax levy um is 50 million uh
just under 51 million. Uh state aid is about 18.5 million. Uh the fund balance which is that excess surplus the extra extraordinary aid from the prior year and the nonpublic transportation is just over 2.5. Um extraordinary aid is
900,000. Cap reserve is 525,000. Maintenance reserve is 225,000. Uh and then we have 315k miscellaneous revenue revenue and interest. Um that's mainly the revenue we're getting through the bank uh interest change um that we started last year which has helped a
lot. Uh and we have about for the first time uh we have about $75,000 in tuition revenue through our special education program. Um so just another quick shout out for special education department. They've been working very hard along with obviously our staff uh to continue to develop really good special education
programs uh to the point where other districts are now paying us to accept their students which is a great way to help offset some of the cost in the operating budget. So that's exciting hopefully something that continues to grow uh you know as we have the capacity to
accommodate them. Just a quick overview on the general fund expenditure breakdown. I'm not going to go through each number. Uh but uh what you should see and what you do see is that instruction is where the most of our expenses are going. Uh it's
a good thing. Uh employee benefits as the next number which is to be expected. A lot of that is also going to instruction because a lot of that is for teachers, you know, uh either teacher support staff. Um we have student support services. It's about 7.7. So what you want to see here is as
much money as possible going towards things that are directly impacting the student. Uh and and that's what we're saying. Next thing is facilities safe uh facilities and security. Kids need buildings to be in. We want them to be safe, right? Uh transportation. Uh and then towards the end you see central
services, admin and it uh you see special education tuition and then you see that capital outlay number uh all the way at the end. Uh capital outlay is to fund those three projects I mentioned earlier. So how we save to reduce budget costs? Uh so comparing um the current
year budget to next year's budget um we had about we reduced transportation by about $650,000 which is a pretty significant decrease. Uh it's combination of things. Um there's a lot of planning on the routes right uh consolidation in areas
that make sense. Um and then there's also a little bit of luck involved with it right that has to do with how many out of district students you have uh which uh placements they're going to. If you already have a bus going somewhere, you have a student going there, that's one route for two kids as opposed to two separate routes for two different
locations, right? Uh but we're able to do uh quite a bit of planning with the preschool program uh where we had a lot of uh special transportation because we had a half day program prior uh where we now have uh four routes that have aids on the bus where it's more appropriate because
there's aids on the bus for some of those students to now have regular transportation. Obviously, that goes with the CS team and is only uh something we're able to do if it makes sense for the student, but we're able to reduce some routes there uh based off of having those aids on the bus in the morning and the afternoon, which is not
something we're able to do before, but we're able to do that with that preschool funding we received from the state. Uh we did have a a decrease in out of district tuition. Uh we have some kids that have come back to district, which is great. That's another credit to our programs here. Um, but we have also
had a couple students either graduate uh or you know move to uh another town or out of state, right? Uh we have that special education revenue I mentioned before and that's something that hopefully continues to grow. Uh we have the offset of the PA funds for those
areas um that I mentioned before. Uh only allowable areas uh you know percentage utilities for the building. Uh as mentioned I think salary and benefits for staff that are working on that program. um things like that that then uh can help us offset those costs
for the for the operating budget. I have a partial year lease revenue for the cell tower, $30,000. It's because they're going to start building in the fall. So, obviously, we're going to lose a couple of months because the revenue doesn't start until the tower's uh complete. Uh and then approximate health
benefits, uh change savings probably about $350,000. approximate number um probably end up going to be more than that because of the increase that would happen in January because it would be that aggra increase of 15.3 for the current year and then whatever the increase ends up being in the next
January um but just another important thing I think that was done some of the other things we do to contain costs cooperate purching uh we're in aces we have uh rate reimbursements uh we do cooperate purching for our property insurance workers comp that means we're
basically teaming up with a lot of other districts to try to get better deals by having stronger purchasing power, right? Uh shared services with the town which has been great. Uh we have the semi-re federal reimbursement program although not as helpful as it used to be. Uh hopefully um one of the things I said is
uh that perhaps that that'll change and go in more positive direction as we move forward. Um but we have to budget based off the information we have now which is that projection that the state provides us. Um we have the EIP which I mentioned before uh which is one of the other things exciting about that is that is
tied to a U PPA which is a power purchase agreement uh and that will be solar panels up at the high school. Um right now the propo so essentially the approved proposal would be for solar canopies uh over the parking lots which should be nice. Uh they'll have LED lights underneath them uh which will
help with lighting in the in the parking lots. Uh and that'll even include uh some canned panels over by the parking lot that is near um the tennis courts. So that help with lighting over there as well. And then I mentioned before by the marking of the district health insurance
plans. Uh so this is the 2% tax levy. So, I'm going over everything and at the end you'll see slides talking about uh what the changes would be uh if the district's application for additional expenditures tax incentive paid is approved. So, those slides will be at the end, but I wanted to go through and
say this is what the preliminary budget uh was and this is what was advertised. Um and we've been receiving shifting guidance from the state in the last few days. Uh so, we've just been kind of rolling with the punches as they give us different information. Uh but this was uh from the preliminary budget uh and
and what was approved in the preliminary budget. So be a $990,000 increase for a total tax levy of just just under $51 million. And then the total tax levy for debt service which is just under $180,000. And that's from a referendum
from a number of years ago uh that was then refunded for uh cheaper interest rates. Um so it's a separate uh levy that was approved uh during that referendum. I can't remember the exact year but it's quite quite a bit of quite a bit ago. Uh so ratables um we talk about the
tax levy and what the tax levy increases uh but that's not a direct impact direct relation with what the taxpayer impact is right because in between that you have ratables. So as ratables increase and it's a little more complicated uh because we've been having the
reassessments because as things are reassessed ratables also go up. So, it's a mix of rentals are going up uh hopefully because there's either new new business or new houses that are that may have uh been unfilled before that are now filled, but then also part of being the reassessments as well because that's
kind of shifting how the the tax impact on the town is fell based off of someone's reassessed value versus what their value was the year before. But there has been a pretty significant increase in those ratables at about 10%. Uh so this is T impact analysis. Uh so
there really two scenarios. Uh one is your assessment from 2024 is still your assessment 2025. So that means that the estimated impact should be a decrease for the school portion of the taxes, right? And the reason for that is that
when those readables go up, the school tax rate goes down, right? So if your assessed value stayed the same, your assessed value is now being multiplied by a lower tax rate, right? Because it's shifting how the taxes are being paid throughout the town based off the
assessed value of the different properties and buildings. So if your value stay the same, the estimate is that your your tax rate from the district at least should go down. Uh if your assessed value increased from that year to the next, it's a little bit more complicated to figure out, but we'll
talk about it more on our slide. I'll do situations for both. uh just so everyone kind of see in front of them and obviously based off of how much someone's assessment went up uh then that would be correlated with how much their taxes would then go up right uh because the bigger the increase uh in
value the larger the increase will be in taxes it's uh directly correlated so scenario one uh I mentioned before the change in the tax rate estimated tax rate so for 2024 um the tax rate was 1.404%
404%. All right, so about $1,44 $100,000 of assessed value. Uh so for 2025, uh the estimate is 1.347%. So the tax rate went down a little bit based off that increase in ratables. Um so obviously
$1,346 almost $1,347. So that's about decrease about $57 per $100,000 test value if your value stayed the same, right? And then this is just some examples of how that would kind of roll through.
Same basic equation just samples. Uh and again um this will be uh online uh within the next couple days. Um and then uh the average assess values were provided by uh burnt attachment. So scenario two. So for
scenario two, you would take your 2025 assessed value. You'll multiply it by 1.347%. And that will get your estimated 2025 school portion of annual tax, right? So you take your value, multiply it by tax rate. That's the estimate for your school portion of tax, right? And then you then take that and compare it
to where your 2024 uh tax bill was for the school portion of the tax. And that's how you would estimate what your increase would be. Um and then on this slide um I took the 2024 uh average assessed and I took the 2025 average assessed as a baseline and
then I just tried to project so you can see so an estimate of what would happen if it went up. These numbers are just for um purposes of you know examples. Uh they're not confirmed increases because I don't know what everyone's assessed value did, right?
Uh and that increase would essentially be tied to part of it would be tied to uh the the tax levy obviously and then part of it would be tied to the change in assessed value of your house. As your assessed value of your house goes up then your overall taxes go up. Uh so it's kind of difficult to parse out uh
which is what is what and that's why I provide that equation so you get a very clear idea of what that impact would be. Uh so I mentioned the facility improvements um the top three uh are the $525,000 I mentioned are coming out of Capitol Reserve. Uh so that is the
Vernon Township High School elevator replacement, the Lory Hollow uh school elevator replacement and then the PA system replacement at CL Meadow. Um these are all you'll kind of see a trend of the projects you're doing safety and security, right? Elevators are safety. Um PA system to me is safety and
security. uh you want to make sure that you know wherever you are in a building if something's happening everyone can hear what's going on and can react appropriately. Um, and then districtwide, just, you know, we're working, we're working on that EIP. Um, the PPA has been approved. Uh, and we're excited to get some of those projects,
uh, rolling. Uh, we have the bond process that is coming up. Um, and then once we're able to get those projects rolling, that we'll be able to start seeing those savings. and any of the savings that we're able to see. And it's hard to project because you don't have the time and the finish of those projects before
that first bond payment is due would positively impact that year's budget because the bond payment should be the year after. Uh but it all comes down to the logistics of when the when the materials arrive, when does the project complete? Um but hopefully we'll get some good news on that
front. But right now, just to be clear, we're going through the bond process um to to fund that those projects. All right. So this is where we're talking about uh changes, right? Uh so this is so before we get to
that one other change that happened uh in as related to the PCR. So there's three positions that were six periods in the current year in the preliminary budget. Uh we found that they weren't in the PCR. So we added them to the PCR. Um
those are positions that already existed but were unfilled due to staff leaving mid year. Um so we're able to actually reallocate funding based off some additional retirements we received. Uh so it had an impact of zero on the budget which is good. Um but I just want to mention that was a change that happened from kind of preliminary budget
uh to tonight's presentation. Uh so just a little bit of background. So, the governor's budget included um essentially language uh that stated that districts that meet two specific
criteria uh could have be um poss basically could submit an application for additional expenditures and they tried to incentivize the that additional expenditure u by saying that they'll provide some additional uh state aid based off that number. Right. um
initially um you know I wasn't sure that we qualify for this and then very late in the game the state sent out letters said hey you qualified now those two criteria factors are one uh are you meeting your local fair share so local fair share is
part of that um state aid formula related to equalization aid uh so what the state does is they look at the town uh and they say based off of social factors this is what we think the town can contribute to um to their tax levy. Right? So that's the first part. And the
next part is what do they determine an adequate budget? So the adequate budget determined by the state is basically saying what's your enrollment and what do we think your budget needs to be to provide a thorough and efficient education uh to all of your students. So for this specific situation, if you
didn't meet those two things, you could then apply for additional tax authority and try to incentivize that um because they want they want you to do that, right? Um it's one of those things
where in an ideal situation, the S2 funding formula uh would have been calculated differently. the changes would have been different uh because a lot of the difficulties um that not just us but many many school districts especially in Sussex are facing are
related to those cuts in state aid. Uh so you have kind of three things happening at the same time. You have cuts to state aid that happened that were pretty significant. We were the second highest in terms of cuts in Sussex County. Um and then you have everything's increasing in cost. uh and
then you have the 2% tax that we cap which is really only if you do the 2% a 1.5% increase uh in your budget. So when those three factors happen and you have the 2% over that large period of time and then you throw in maybe a few years where you have bank cap that expire uh
it's difficult to keep up uh without you know significant cuts and as we know that those significant cuts have been made uh we're trying to avoid continuing down that path of having to keep going back and cut more and more. Uh with that being said, um so the
number went uh from remember $998,000 is to 2%. Uh so this would be about 1 point so 1.2 million uh dollars in additional tax authority uh which then they incentivize and I wish the incentive was
bigger uh with a little bit over an extra $60,000 in state aid, right? So it's something but be nice if that percentage was a little bit higher. So just a quick note, I mentioned it earlier. So this would be pending approval of the district's application
for additional expenditures and tax levy incentivation. Initially I was told they would let us know the day before and then I was told they would let us know today and then I was told actually they changed how they're doing it and now the commission wants to review each
application individually. So they said put it in as a change in a public hearing and um if the board votes to approve it uh then they would be voting to approve it pending approval by the New Jersey Department of Education. Um so it's been a little bit of roll coverage the last couple days trying to
figure out what exactly uh the process would be. Uh but that's how we got where we are today. Uh so that being said, this is a much more straightforward comparison. Uh because in the prior comparison for tax, we're talking about assess values
changing, right? Um but with this because I know what the average value is this year and we're comparing it to the average value this year. Um then I can say well on top of the 2% that additional one um was $1.2 million val would be an increase of this estimated
number. Right? So, it's a much easier equation to do. Uh, so essentially u for an average assessed value of $320,000, it's estimated to be about a $512 increase um in your uh taxes, right? And you'll see that um example uh
follow through to the bottom. Um and I believe I think off the top end it's about $16 I think it's about $1610 per $100,000 of assessed value. uh increase from the 2% um to
the to the uh 2.2 million the $998,000 to the 2.2 million in terms of revenue. Again, there's the average values we're provided from the town. Um so, uh so why is this funding important? Right.
So, there's about five projects here that we would like to target. Um that would be a Widge uh school fire alarm replacement, the Rolling Hills fire alarm replacement, uh replacement of the PA system at high school, uh which I know is in pretty bad shape, uh the
replacement of the PA system here as well. Uh and then uh Glendo Middle School, uh we to address one of the science the science labs essentially. Um now this is based off of uh architect uh estimates what those costs would be. Uh
right. So if something comes in higher, we would uh if something comes in lower and we're able to do more, then we would do more. Um so that's kind of the immediate benefit for the 2526 school year. Now
when you're looking forward, it provides more stability to the budgets moving forward. Right? So these are onetime costs. Um, and this is similar to kind of h how we planned um the revised budget last year. We had
about $1.2 million uh in projects that were able to complete. Uh, you'll remember that slide in the beginning where I had, hey, this these are revised uh budget projects. Um, those are onetime costs. So, when this budget was created, you'll notice, I don't know if
I mentioned this to any, but I mentioned it in the preliminary, our projects are being funded to the capital reserve. None of our projects are being funded through the tax levy and that's because the tax levy is going to balancing the rest of the budget which allows us to not have to make those large cuts. Right? So you
have a one-time expense, a lot of great progressive projects being done and then the next year that money went to reoccurring costs uh to to balance that budget. So with that being said, these are onetime costs, not one time for eternity, but one time for you know
quite a bit of time, right? you don't replace fire alarms uh or PA systems that often, right? So, essentially you have two situations that could arise depending on what happens with state aid. Uh which we know state
aid you can't predict it, right? Um we we don't know what's going to happen next year with state aid. We I think been very lucky this year and last year. And I say that in terms of we've been very very unlucky with state aid and then the last year we've got a
little bit of it back, right? But we're still down. Um so depending how things go, if we were able to do additional projects in the next year, we could direct those funds to do additional projects, right? Um with the variables
that I mentioned before, uh that kind of constrain us. Um it would also give us the flexibility to help keep our budget whole in the creation of the 2627 budget, right? We have one times cost that then if we had to could go towards
reoccurring expenses like staffing uh or the other areas of the budget I mentioned earlier that typically experience large increases like energy uh liability insurance, health insurance, things like that. Uh so it can help kind of uh address those cost
increases in future budgets. Um and it also increases the likelihood that we'll be able to kind of meet that excess surplus requirement at the end of the year which you then use as revenue in future years. Um and then it also increases the possibility that if you meet that excess surplus amount or you
have even more than it anything over that amount could then get deposited into capital reserve. Uh which our capital reserve is pretty low right now I think. It's probably around five. I don't I saw the time about probably about $500,000
or so. Um because we had uh the $900,000 come out then there was 525 for this uh and there was a couple of withdrawals. So it's about $500,000 right now. But for the SDA window project as we uh so the SDA window project is funded 40% by
the state uh but they reimburse you those funds. So you have to pay for it upfront. So once we get those reimbursements, it'll be around $400 something thousand dollars that I'll come back to cap reserve. So that'll put us from five closer to nine, but that's still a very low number um for a district of our size with the number of
buildings we have. Just as like a point of reference. Um I give you a fun fact. My wife is also a business administrator. We have very fun conversations at the dinner table as you must most must imagine. Uh so uh she's in a K8 district with about five school
buildings. uh and she has about $10 million in cap reserve. So that may, you know, it'd be nice to be in that situation, but uh we we definitely are not. So it's just something that's important. Um because as you see, things break. Uh this year the boilers went
down. We had we talked about the septic tank issues. Um the grinder went down. Um we had to repair um our oil tanks because they failed hydrostatic testing. And those are things that they work until they don't. and when they stop working, you need to find a way to fix
it and a way to find that fix. And usually it's cap reserve. But if you don't have that cap reserve, um then you start running out of options and you have to start looking at your um 2% which is kind of like your emergency if things go poorly during the year. Um and
again, it's a projection a year from now. So like I said in the beginning, things could go your way position for the budget where they could not go your way. uh and you just do your best to try to project as accurately as possible uh what you think the world may look like a year from now. All right. So, um that was my
presentation. I know it was long. I know I talked probably too much. Uh that's my ML. It's pretty normal. Um but uh I will have that up on the website. Uh you'll also see the legendary presentation which is already up on the website. Uh the main difference is that this has the
additional slides related to the application. Uh you can also look at uh the presentations from the prior year. Um and we had a little facility updates presentations up there too. Uh and if you like audits, we have lots of audits there too as well. So thank you everybody. And um it's I don't know if
the board has uh questions and this is the public hearing. Uh so after the board has questions, the public also will have a chance uh to have questions on um the budget. uh first and then after we get through all the budget questions uh if there's any questions on
other agenda items uh as well. We're doing that in public comments though or or as part of your presentation. So uh I figured if the board had any questions I know a lot of questions were asked at the at the preliminary uh presentation and then
also at the did they lose me? Okay. at the at the committee level and then at our meeting since uh but just an opportunity in case anyone had anything else that they they thought of um and then I figured we I'll come back to my chair. I'll read the u public comment uh and then I'll get back up and then I'll
answer any budget questions and then once we get through all the budget questions uh then we could give anyone an opportunity that wants to comment just on agenda agenda items only and then towards the end of the the board meeting we have another public comment where you can uh comment on anything you'd like.
Thank you, Mr. Sun. Thank you. I just wanted to repeat. It's It's great seeing everybody here. So, thank thank you very much. Uh my wife calls it the BA Super Bowl, so and I'm an Eagles fan, so it's been a good year. So,
can't blame you from South Jersey. Okay, great. I know I know we've all um the board has seen all of this in chunks over the course of the year and also the finance committee has seen it multiple times. So um the public probably always wonders why we don't ask more questions but that's because we've had a lot of
robust discussions by now but still does anybody have any um questions for Mr. Slim? Anyone on the board? Mr. Fischer, I have a procedural question. So at what point are we voting? It's item I.
Oh, wait. Was that item I? Yes, it's it's the addendum. I'm sorry. I'm looking on the regular. You go to your next the addendum to the May one. So, it would be item I when we get to that on and um the reason for the
addendum was because the state of changing. Yes, you covered that. It's been a fun week. So item I it's on the second. It's on the addendum after the after the full
agenda. You'll see item I is on the second because waiting to hear date. So we're voting after the board reports. Uh it should be after the superintendent recommendations. You don't remember that before. It's under um
yeah, it's a separate item I and it's before J, which is board report summary. Mine's a corrected as well. So after current H before current. Yes.
Yeah. And we're having board questions, public questions, and when is board comment. Um, now would be when you would comment. Now is comment. I mean, we can you can
comment when we make the motion to Yeah. Yeah. You can comment. So, comment is when we make the motion to vote. That's generally the way, but you're free to comment now if you prefer. You're this is the board's time to ask questions or comment on the presentations. Well, I
don't have questions. I have comment. Does anyone have any questions? Let's start with questions. Stephanie. Oh, I'm good. Right. I just wanted to clarify something because you know last year we talked about last the project.
You know, last year we talked about the projects we added, right? And I just want to clarify something. You had a slide showing that the project's completed. You had one that said the door access control is scheduled. So that's in the books. We we're ready to roll with that project.
Yeah, the walkthrough is very slowly going back to that slide. Sorry everybody. Um so uh the the PO has been cut. Uh the walkthrough has occurred. Um, and they're just uh working on that. I think they scheduled it, but I believe they're waiting till after the students
um are are out of the books, right? So, late June. Um, because we don't want to disrupt the students during the staff during the day. Um, but yeah, that that I believe is our last see. So, that's our just waiting for it to be project. It's finalized. It's it will be completed this year.
Yep. Yeah. and uh and that's actually that's I won't talk too much about security related but that'll be a nice improvement for the district. Yeah, I do have a question. So my question relates to why we qualify for this tax incentive. Can you speak to
I know the verbiage used by the state is that we are under adequacy and not meeting our local fair share. So they feel that our budget down the line with the funding formula the way it is, do they feel it's sustainable? That's why they're recommending we do
this. So what they're doing is they're comparing I believe it was the current year um fair share amount to the next year's fair share amount. I have to double check on that, but basically we're we're not meeting the fair share. So they don't with adequate budget.
Now, it's hard to say what the state thinks on any given day. Um, but I think what we've seen last year with the revised budget, uh, was additional opportunity for districts that got hit really hard with that S2 funding formula. Um, and that's something we've
talked about a lot before, I think. Um on one hand, uh it's when you look at it from kind of a bird's eye view, it's really the state made a change of state aid and now they're saying, "Whoa, there's a lot of negative impacts to these districts, but instead of
instead of saying, "Hey, let's let's give you some more state aid back or changing that formula." They're saying, "Let's shift the tax burden." They're saying, "Hey, school districts, we're going to give you a, you know, a board district, the board of ed, we're going to give you the authority to talk about this and you can pursue it if you want to. Um, but we're kind of putting it on
you, put you in a real bad situation. Now you guys have to make a decision." And essentially, the state's kind of shifting shifting that burden. They're saying, "We messed up, but we're going to let you raise taxes essentially." And as a school district, for all the variables we talked about before, we're very limited on what we
can do. So you're then faced with a decision where you're saying okay well we don't really we don't like raising taxes no one does right but on the other hand you have to provide your main you meet your main goal which is to educate
the students. So it's difficult to educate the students when your only option to make a a balanced budget at that point starts turning into cuts cuz when you take when it's cuts you're taking things away you know um you could be looking at you know programs right
like after school programs we don't want to go down the road those are the things that you know just in my experience and I don't want to take the floor from everybody um that's what kids get excited about when you go to school you know you don't want to be in that situation so anyway back to the what your main question was. I think between
seeing that and seeing then them come out with this budget language. I think it's a way of them recognizing kind of two things and this is just conjecture because I don't have do not have a line to the governor so I don't know and if I did he would not pick up but uh so uh I
think it's them recognizing the reality of the S2 funding cuts compiled with the fact that um tax levies have been capped at 2% over a time period where inflation and the cost of things has not been 2%.
and they're saying this is a problem. Do I agree this is the best way to fix it? That that's debatable for everyone at this table and everyone in the audience. But is it a the one of the only tools that we have? It is. So you have to discuss whether we use a tool given to us to make the to continue the operation
of the district. But Mr. Slam, do you feel that if this is not approved, if we stick with the 2% that we originally supported, do you feel that our budget is sustainable? Do you think that down the line we will have to make cuts
because of the way inflation is? Because the way that this is being presented, that's kind of what I'm thinking is that the state is presenting us with this opportunity as a way to be proactive about our budget and make sure that down the line. We're not facing the cuts that
we had to make before. Because I remember when my first board meetings when we had to make those disgusting cuts and I remember seeing all those students and teachers and families here and I just want to make sure that we're making a decision that prevents that from ever happening again.
So I think no one can tell no one tell the future and I'd be very very rich and I'd share all my money with everybody, right? But um so we don't know what's unless there's a significant change the way that state aid is handled. That either let me two
things. Unless there's a significant change way state is handled or there's a change to how the 2% cap operates, right? I'm not sure how they came to 2%. Um it's not connected to the CPI. It's not connected to any real adjustments there, right? other than you have some
options go outside of the 2% if you have an enrollment adjustment or a health benefit adjustment, right? Um that has to do with how much your health benefit costs are going up and if your enrollment's going up. So unless they make a change to those areas or unless all of a sudden costs go down kind of
across the board which again not super likely. 2% doesn't even account for inflation. Inflation's above 2%. It's only 1.5% of our budget though because because the tax levy is 2% but that 2% only applies to 69% of our budget. So it's actually only 1.4% which is
obviously much lower than inflation doesn't keep up. The state is basically acknowledging something that everybody on this board already knows because we've been sitting in meeting after meeting trying to figure out how we're going to make this work with just 2% to work with. in the states basically saying we understand that we put this cap on you that is going to make it
impossible for you to continue to do what you're doing today next year without cutting significantly and we have nothing left to cut because we've been cutting significantly for years now. So they're giving us this opportunity to continue doing what we do
by asking our taxpayers to give more. That's basically the gist of it. And and out of the local schools, I think we're only one of six schools that did not meet our local fair share. I know it's Vernon, Jefferson, Stan, Hope, and Byum. I don't know what the other schools are, but there are many schools that qualify
that that didn't meet their local fair share. Maybe Apac. Yes, Mr. Fisher. I think you uh this this is where I'd like to make my comment then. So, one of the things and Mr. I want to thank you for the presentation, for the
work that you put into this presentation. Uh you made a comment a couple of seconds ago that really uh struck me and you said that the the state is saying to us we will let you raise your taxes and I don't see it that
way at all. The state is telling us you will raise your taxes. So Murphy as part of his budget said that 281 out of New Jerseyy's 590 districts
are not meeting their local fair share. All right, which to me is a shocking statement because we have the highest property taxes in the nation. And to put it in perspective, if Illinois, which is
in second place, raised their effective property tax by 10%, they wouldn't reach New Jersey. All right? So, with the highest property taxes in the nation, he's saying 281 districts aren't meeting their local fair
share. What stands out to me about that is that out of those 281 districts, none are the 31. on Abbott districts. And to me, that's the elephant in the room that districts like Vernon never address. You
talk about local fair share. You mentioned earlier 68.8% of our education budget comes from tax burdens. In the API districts, it's 42%.
Right? Abber proponents like Murphy say that you need this system to create equity and education in the Abbott districts, but we're the ones who need equity. You have Abbott districts that pay an effective real estate rate which
is lower than 20 other states in my book. Right. When 54% of the state education aid goes to 22% of the population, 78 of the 78% of the
population should be pissed off. But we don't do that in New Jersey. We just get in line and pay, right? This is a gubanatorial election year, right? What I think is that districts like Vernon need to draw a line in the sand and say
we're not taking it anymore. We we need to to band up with those other districts, those other 78% of the people who are getting screwed by the state and do something about it. I give you one
example. Abbott districts s spend $111 per student more on administrative costs than we do. Right? So if the Abbott districts were to reach the level of administrative efficiency of Vernon,
they could pay Vernon's entire budget, right? But we don't do that. We sit there and talk about how much we're going to raise taxes. We sit there and say, "No, we're going to get in line. Pigs are the slaughter. Let's do it again. No, I I can't get on board.
Somewhere you got to draw the line and you got to start fighting for your own town. Um, so Brian, I have nothing really to fight with about how you feel about the state funding formula and all of that. That is a totally valid thing to be mad
about. I have nothing to complain about there. The only thing that I have to say is drawing that line in the sand would mean putting our children in the way of it and that it would mean our district facing the brunt of that. There's
nothing wrong with what you're saying. I totally feel what you're saying. I call I I if I could, Miss Plet, I' I'd like to address that. And Carl, I hear what you're saying. Yeah. Right. And I understand and I see all the signs here. Put our children first and and thank you
for for coming out and thank you for saying that. And it's exactly what I'm doing, right? I mean, maybe my viewpoint is different from most people here, but I'm saying, yeah, put our children first because it doesn't end with the kids who are in school now. There's going to be
kids going to school here in Vernon in 10, 20, 30 years, right? You have districts in New Jersey that are increasing taxes this year by 30 and 35%. Right? If somebody doesn't draw the line in the sand, that's where we're going to be. That's where most districts
in New Jersey were 20 years ago. That's why Christy put the 2% cap in to start with. Right. The only mistake he made was he didn't tie it to inflation. But that's that's where we're heading. And that's that this is our opportunity to tie it to inflation. This is our
opportunity to decide to hey, it's our opportunity to decide to dig in our pockets and make sure our kids don't suffer because of his decision. It's not an eitheror. We can still fight with the state. We can still lobby for our students. But this year, we're going to
need to do something so that they don't suffer in the meantime. I I believe it is an either or. And the year after that, I'll tell you why I believe it's an either or. We're all in agreement, or at least we were a couple of weeks ago, that at some point we have to do a
referendum, right? Minimum, from what I understand, it's $45 million for the roofs, right? If all the work that needs to get done, has to get referendum. You're talking 110 million. That was the number we were given, right? I think the
roofs are probably closer to 25 million, but it's a large number. I thought I heard 45 million. But I I mean either way, right, we're not going to do that through a tax increase. It would be impossible, right? And my point is if if we're going to go
to the voters with the referendum and if we started it tonight, which we haven't done yet, right? If we started the process tonight, we're looking at like two or three years from now, right? If we go to the voters with a referendum two or three years from now and we have
raised the taxes the maximum every single year leading up to that referendum, it decreases the odds of us being able to do our job and get that referendum through. Taxpayers are going to be sit there saying, "You guys raise the taxes every year. Now you want
another 45 million." Mr. Mr. Fischer, I I agree with you what you're talking about, the state taxes. I agree with you're talking about the referendum, but if you draw the line in the sand uh next year, where are you going to cut the million to a million five out of the budget and what are you going to cut?
And and I said if that's going to happen, discussions need to happen now because 10 months from now that budget's being made, what are you cutting about, you know, about 1.5 million out of the budget the year after? This is the money that translates to fewer teachers and cutting programs. And I just we've cut
them already. I mean, you saw the numbers were like the what? That's the news that the state puts around our necks. I agree with him 100%. Well, it's our decision to decide what to cut. So, just uh just a quick comment. So,
we're talking kind of two different things. So, we got um you mentioned referendum, right? So, there's kind of two issues. One facilities and um if anyone tuned in for our facility wide assessment, you'll see there's a lot of things that need to be addressed. um some of the things you we you've seen we
have been addressing uh so you have facilities onetime costs and then you have operations which is reoccurring costs. So uh a referendum would help with those one-time costs and addressing some things that maybe over the years couldn't be addressed because of cuts
and things like that and trying trying to catch up with addressing those issues. Uh but it wouldn't necessarily help from our year-to-year operating budget because they're different funds. Um, so I just want to point out that unfortunately we're facing two two issues that are very similar because
they're related to money. Um, but they're kind of a little different because one's facilities one time cost and the other is trying to get your operating budget to continue operating um with what you have without having to cut more. I would also add that districts that
tried that strategy of not raising taxes for a few years and then doing a referendum didn't raise the taxes and then they didn't get the referendum passed and that was not a good thing for that district that recently did that. Um, anyone else have a question?
Steph, I have a question about the the um LRFP. Do we have can you tell me how much is there a percentage that the architect gets every time one of these are completed? So we
have a contract with so let me go back. So there was an RP we had a let me go back a little farther. Sorry. There was I know we talked about it but I don't remember finishing it and getting there. Trying to figure out where I want to start the explanation. So uh we had a different architect who was uh EI architects. They had been here for a
number of years. uh we decided we wanted to go in a different direction. So over the summer we did an RFP. We had four responses. Uh we received uh proposals. Um the finance mean committee had actually inerson interviews with each firm. Um and uh US Architects was
selected after they were selected uh because it's an RFP process for professional services. So professional services that's not a bid process that that's a different process. Um so they were selected they board approved. We then had a uh agreement uh put in place for professional services with our
architect of record. Now the way that it works is you can either get charged hourly for the work that they do or uh you can get charged a percentage based off of the estimated cost of the project. Right? Now if you get charged hourly generally it's more expensive.
Right? Because if the for example if the project is more expensive right the percentage is lower right? So if it's a smaller dollar project value, the percentage is higher, right? So that's how architect
firms get get their fees, right? But we don't just blindly follow what the architect says. It's ultimately a board decision about what projects we want to proceed forward with, what projects we feel we have a need of needing to fulfill or or complete, right? They can
only say, "We did an assessment. These are the issues we see." They give us that information and then we use that information to plan um and unfortunately with the cap reserve we have uh it's very difficult to to plan those projects in but as we can we try to address those
projects uh or if the projects are big enough then you have to start uh talking as Mr. Fischer said about potential for a referendum. Um but it's not that's not an unusual uh setup. Uh that's how architecture record um agreements are with in terms of districts. There's
hourly rates and it's a different hourly rate depending on which person in the firm you're working with, right? The more senior the person, the more expensive the hourly rate. Um uh but generally what you do and you'll see this in our past um approvals that you'll get a proposal uh before the
project is is before you receive the project, you get a proposal uh be based off of that percentage which is based off dollar amount. Uh and then that proposal will go before the committee, finance mills committee, discuss it. Uh and then uh if we want to move forward, it goes before the board and then the
board votes on it. So before we even go down the road of pursuing this project, we know what the architect fees will pay. Um based off of different phases of the project, you know, you have design fees, you have submission to the NJOE, um you have the construction administration.
Um we don't have an architect on staff. Yeah. So the architect is someone that when a project is being completed first of all we can't design the project in most cases right so you need the architect for that but as a contract's being completed they help us hold the vendors accountable to make sure that
the vendors are doing what they should be doing and that we're getting the value for money that we should be getting okay thank you I do have another question about the roofs you're all different depending on what's no please uh no council you have an
opportunity to comment during public session. H forgot my question. Um you were asking about the roof. Um I last meeting I had asked about the layers on the roof. Yep. How many there were. I it correct me if I'm wrong. It's
my understanding that we have a warranty on all the roofs at present. Not No. Go ahead. Uh the warranty has expired on a number of roofs. There's a couple of roofs that either have a portion of Well, let's back up. So when we say
roof, we have a warranty on some of the roofs for the latest covering, right? So that would be um I think the acronym right now, but essentially you kind of have we'll call it kind of like a rubber coating. It's not the exact rubber coating over top, right? So there's a warranty for some of the groups for
that, but that warranty is for materials like material defects. So if there's a material defect from the provider of of that that roofing material, then it would get replaced. Or I believe if there's a workmanship issue, then it get replaced, right? But if it's say say a tree falls on it and it gets pierced,
that's not under warranty. We have to pay for it to get repaired, right? So I think uh if you remember from like uh when the architect was here, um he didn't necessarily say that that layer is the issue. Uh he say sure what it was until you ripped it up to find out what
was underneath. Yeah. I just want to say that we're the roofs wasn't part of the like this should be a conversation that we have in uh open board for just using it as an example we could talk about door access we have a lot of people here though talking about the the here to
talk about the budget so I'd like to talk about the budget now and then you know the referendum isn't on the agenda for tonight and that would be the roofs the roofs aren't in this particular I just use that as an example I understand so but let's stick to examples in the budget for for now just because we can go off on this roof tangent. It's a
long, you know, it can be half an hour. We have a lot of people waiting to participate. Charlie, you had a question. Um, I do have one one question. I have comment, too, but I think I'm going to wait until we the it comes up for a vote and we can talk
about a little bit more in detail. Uh, one one question here is um, you know, we have a couple options tonight, right? The we pass, it doesn't pass the budget. Um, I I understand if this doesn't pass what you're proposing, then we'll have to work something out, right? So, let's
forget about that. But if it does pass and it doesn't get accepted by the state, are we falling back to the original plan or are we making an adjustment to the So, my understanding from the county is
that, and he's not even 100% sure because things are fluid, they're changing. Um there's a possibility that they could essentially approve part of the application. Okay. Right. Um so again, it's something we have to
discuss. It's going to be kind of unusual just based off the timing of when that approval will be. Uh so I would consult with, you know, the county BA once we're at that point. Um, but if we're, for example, if the board approved the full amount, uh, and we get, uh, proof for half the
amount, the logical cool thing I would think is that we would go for half the amount, and then we'd make that change. Um, somewhat odd like because last year, what happened was you, they made that change after our public hearing last year, if you remember, for the revised budget, uh, and there was another public
hearing after that. But this year, because it's not a change in law, it's a change based off of language that was added to the governor's budget, um it's it's being handled differently, right? So, um that's what I would think, but we we'd have to basically once we get that
information figured out forward, okay? Because basically the way it's being um handled from uh like the budget software point of view, uh is that it's considered um a change at the public hearing, right? So yeah, you would think that they don't approve the whole
amount. Uh that the change of the public hearing will then be whatever they approve, but uh we'd have to get once we get get that information, we'd have to figure out how to move forward. But I will say it's somewhat unusual based off of the timing of the events, which has been Did you
stressful? Anything else? No, I know other people would Mr. Fischer. So, are this aid that we're talking about here, is this part of these 281 districts?
So, I don't know what uh number numbers you're look you're looking at, right? Murphy Murphy said as part of his budget, there were 281 districts that were not meeting their local fair share. and you're saying that we qualify for
this boost in in this tax increase because we're not meeting our local fair share. So, are we talking about the same thing? So, it would depend if those 281 districts are also not meeting their adequate budget as defined by the state. Well, according to him, they are. I
don't know. I I don't I didn't hear I don't know what he said. So, if he said both, then the answer is probably yes. But he said often I don't know. Did the language say anything about state aid being pulled if we didn't do the tax increase? Because apparently with these
281 districts, that's what Murphy's threatening. Uh so I have not received any guidance saying that it would or it wouldn't. Um I have in previous districts uh when speaking about local fair share um at county meetings um
there has always been kind of the concern that if you don't meet your local fair share um that then they could turn around and make some kind of adjustment with state aid. Uh but that's trying to predict what the state's going to do. And a good example of that would be the PA funds, right? PA funding has
been around for quite a number of years now. Um, and it's always kind of been handled a very similar way every year, which was that at the end of the year, if you had any funds left, uh, so PA's, even though it's state aid, it's handled under fund 20, which is for grants, but they're very adamant to let you know
that is state aid and not grants. Uh, but it's still handled under fund 20. So what would happen is you'd be able to roll after your audit, you'd be able to roll that full amount over um into the next budget you create, similar to the way excess surplus works as a revenue. Now all of a sudden, out of nowhere,
maybe a day or two before state aid um forms came out notifying district state aid they said hey guess what this year we're cutting everyone 25% of any balance they had at the end of last year and in addition to that they said
actually we're cutting 25% out of the last two years because the way that it's realized the audit is as one number for two years of balance now that's couple the issue with that is that those districts it doesn't affect us because we're doing the program uh but other county are affected by it. Um they are
having money that they're currently have in their current budget cut after the fact. So all this is a way of saying that it's hard to predict what the state's going to pay. Yeah. And that was a BA geek speak for we don't really know pretty much. Yeah. Cuz no one knew about
the 25%. And I turned around I said wait a second. If they're taking 20 No, I don't know if you guys think this is interesting but I'll say it anyway. They'll say if we're going to take 25% of our balance at the end of the year, well, we have to contribute for the inclusion students. So, are you backing out our funds for the inclusion students before you take the 25%. I asked the
state that do you want to know what their answer was? We hadn't got that question before. We'll have to talk to finance. So, there are things that they don't always consider, so it's hard to say. Any more um board questions?
I have one thing. Okay. I completely agree that the state funding formula has really really hurt our district and that there's a lot of necessary and understandable anger towards the state. But just remember that as board members,
we can only make decisions based on what's in front of us and what we can control. And we were elected to oversee this district. We were elected to make the best decision for the families and the students of our district. And that's
just my logic. I I totally agree with your anger at the governor, but that's something for a gubernatorial election, which is in November. Yes, in November. Yep. I agree with you. We did all take an oath to uh make decisions in terms of
educational welfare of children. So, let's keep that in mind as we contemplate this issue. Any more questions? No. Okay. Finally, we can open the floor up for public comment. But first, Mr. Slam has to read this really long notice. Sorry guys, but some of you haven't been here before. You
really want to know this. The rules rules of the game here. I'll bring it up. You can't read in the dark. You get the lights back on as well. Yeah, we might need the slides. So I don't know if that's the question.
Uh yeah, keep it up. Um during the course of the public meeting of the Bernie Board of Education, the public is offered the opportunity to address the board on agenda items and any issues regarding the school district. The board reminds those individuals who take this opportunity that they must identify themselves by name and section of town
and limit their comments to agenda items and are issues that directly relate the operation 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 or at any time. All comments will be considered and a response be forthcoming if and when appropriate. The board requests that
members of the public keep their comments to a limit of five minutes, be courteous, respectful, and mindful of the rights of other 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 education.
Be advised that students employees have the rights of confidentiality and other protections under the law. Students name should never be used. The board bears no responsibility nor will be liable for any comments made by the public during the public portion of the board meeting. Members of the public should consider their comments in light of legal rights
of those affected or identified in their comments and be aware that they are personally legally responsible with personal liability for the comments that they make to the board. Thank you, Mr. Slam. Um we have a new policy where we're taking turns. Um the members of the public go and then
someone from online goes and then members of the public we alternate until we run out of one and then we can focus on the other. So just wanted to let people know that upfront. Also um we have generally a policy where questions are not answered during the public uh comment session because we want to avoid
getting into a back and forth situation. I do think that would be a little unwieldy in this situation. So, I would like to um ask that someone everyone come if you have questions if you come to the mic just ask all your questions in the list. We'll note them down and
then we'll respond to you immediately during public session but we won't be getting into a back and forth. Um yeah, I was just I was going to mention that. So, the first portion would uh be the public hearing. Uh so, questions on the budget um and then agenda first I'm
sorry, I meant to say that as well. And the first batch of questions should be budget focused and then when we run out of those if somebody has questions about the other items on the agenda, we'll do those and then we'll reopen to to uh board matters. Um and finally, please state your name when you um first come
up to the mic or and on Zoom too and on Zoom on a Thank you. Thank you. Hi everybody. I'm Carolyn Ross from Highland Lakes. Um it's good to see you. Thanks for all the information, Ray. I'm here to ask the
board to use the full tax levy allowed by the state to adequately fund our schools. I understand that we were one of a handful of districts that state identified as having budgets that are below adequate to educate students and therefore approved to increase the tax levy above the annual 2%. It's very
important that we do increase this tax levy appropriately to give our schools the funding that they need. I'm a parent of two kids in the district, kindergarten and third grade. adequately funding our schools is uh in my opinion the single most important investment we
can make in our town and in our kids' futures. I've been a part of school districts who are appropriately funded and districts that are underfunded and the disparity between the two is stark. State notice that our local tax levy is not adequate means that if we don't respond by using the full tax levy
allowed, it means less financial stability for our district. It means we can see cuts in programming and opportunities for our kids. It means that over time, Belo's access to the best teachers and highest quality instruction. Their class sizes could increase. We could see cuts in music and
arts, sports, and course offerings. We don't run our schools with any delicious surplus funding right now beyond that safety amount that Rey mentioned. Um, so limiting our access to this revenue means limiting limiting the opportunities that our kids really need.
In addition, the quality of our schools is tied directly to our property values and the overall thriving of our town. I truly don't think there's anything more important for our futures than funding our public schools. And I ask the board to vote in favor of using the full tax levy allowed by the state to adequately
fund our schools. Thank you. We exel the camera. Angela, can you put take off the light on the uh the overhead? Then this is gonna go. We don't need that anymore. Yeah, I need If we need it, we'll have it put back on. It's just it's blinding us. Sorry, guys.
No problem. Enough vision problems. All right. Uh so now we go online to We have Martin Paringer. Excellent. Uh can you hear me? Yes, we can. Yes. Thank you. Yes, I'm Martin Pinger from
Highland Lakes. Okay. First, I also want to just like Miss Ross did ask you to um go to the full amount that the state will allow us to properly fund the schools for the future. I want to
address some of the things that uh Mr. Fischer said. I agreed with him that the state formula is unsustainable. It was unsustainable when we were presented with it from well it was forced upon us
by Chris Christie and it still is because 2% doesn't even cover the inflation. I also want to tell him and make a point regarding the referendum that he mentioned. It's not going to
solve all. A bond is a mortgage. It works like a mortgage. So you take out a bond, you got to pay it back. So we take out a 50 million bond, we have to pay the 50 million back
with interest. So that means you have to find in the budget on 50 million. My guesses are somewhere between three and six million a year to dedicate on average to paying the bond back. So that
means you need the tax base to pay the bond back before you can even think of putting a bond out. Like if I don't have adequate income, I cannot take out a mortgage for $400,000 and buy a new
house. It's the same thing. No matter what the state does, the kids are ours. My kids are grown and gone. But they were living with me for over 20 years. In those 20 years, I have paid
taxes. I have gotten tax credits for children. I've gotten deductions. I got money here, money there. I didn't get money here, money there. No matter what money I got from wherever, I didn't have to pay in taxes
due to credit or child income, whatever. Credit income credit or whatever. Yeah. I still had to feed my kids. Yeah. And I still had to educate my kids. And the schools are here to
educate the kids. And we the adults, I don't like taxes. I would much rather spend it on other things. 3D printing is my hobby. Okay, robotics is my hobby. But I rather pay the taxes and make sure our future the
kids are educated because as a as a as a society those who can have the dos for do for those who can't. That's a social contract. That means if you're old and
sick and you did all your life you participated and you took care of the old and sick, you deserve to be taken care of. That means when you were a kid and I was and I assume all of you were and you were educated and taken care of
that means the kids now deserve to be educated and taken care of. That is the social contract. Otherwise, we don't have a society. We can just be lone wolves all around. We don't need no city. We don't need no boe. We don't
need no state. We don't need no country. We just go kill each other. And the strongest survives. So, thank you for listening for me and please do what's right for the children. Thank you, Mr. Paringer.
Good evening. My name is Colleen Ranzan and I am proud to serve as the president of the Vernon Township Education Association representing the dedicated professionals who make this school district a place of learning, growth, and community. Tonight, I'm here to
speak in strong support of the additional proposed 2.4% tax increase. We understand that any tax adjustment is a serious consideration, one that affects households and businesses in our district, but this
increase is not just a number on a paper. It is a necessary step to protect the integrity of our educational system, to support our staff, and most importantly to invest in the future of our children. The district like so many of uh across the state and the nation is
facing rising costs, fuel, health care, instructional materials, building maintenance, and technology costs that cannot be absorbed without adequate funding. An additional 2.4 increase is not extravagant. It is responsible. It
ensures that we don't fall behind and that we don't cut programs or lose valuable staff. and we continue to offer our students a highquality education they deserve. Let's be clear, our staff is not asking for luxuries. We are
asking for stability, for the ability to retain skilled educators, keep our class sizes manageable, provide safe buildings, and continue delivering services that go beyond the classroom like counseling, special education, enrichment, and meals to those who need
them. We also are asking for respect. When we support a tax increase, we're acknowledging that education is not an expense, it's an investment. Is the promise that to every parent in this community that our children's future matters. Our teachers, aids, counselors,
custodians, and support staff work every day to uphold the promise. They do it with professionalism, compassion, and dedication. Even as the costs rise and budgets tighten, we are the backbone of this district and they are counting on this board to make a courageous
forward-looking decision to support this increase. I urge you, do not see this as a burden. See it as a commitment. A commitment to our staff, our students, our community, and our children. Let's ensure that when history looks back at this moment, it sees leadership and not
hesitation. Thank you. Thank you very much. We have someone online, I think. Yep. Disgassi. Good evening. I want to uh thank Mr. Sabet for uh an excellent thorough
presentation. Uh Mr. Fischer had good points as we find oursself now between Iraq and a hard place. The first issue is to cover current operating and
immediate needs and the second is the long-term need. A referendum is needed for the long-term need. In my opinion, those of us who care about our
future will support the budget. I'm not thrilled as a retired resident for the increase, but I understand it and I support it. My children went through your system. My grandchildren are now in
your system and I 100% support the new budget. Thank you. Thank you. Can you just say your name because I don't Oh, she's gone. Okay. Pay disasse. Thank you.
You're welcome. Good evening. Um my name is Dorian Edwards. I'm from Vernon. Um, I'm here to talk about the correlation between the budget and the testing scores. Um, the source that I'm going to talk about
tonight is from the New Jersey Department of Education. It's the results of the spring 2024 NJSLA. For those who's not familiar with that, that stands for New Jersey Student Learning Assessment. It's a series of standardized tests used to evaluate
students proficiency in subjects like English, language arts, mathematics and science in New Jersey. Um so the test I try to look at two different um sections one Vernon versus Sparta for instance.
Um so grade eight grade eight they tested 217 students in Vernon. Now they tested whether percent at least proficient or passing in 2024 was
17.9. So 39% of those students out of 217. I don't think that's great. Um actually in 2019 it was 19.4 and 2023 it was 20.1 and like I just said in 2024 it's
17.9. So scores went down. Um, in Sparta, that was the that was the total district. In Sparta, they tested 228 students. Um, in 2019, they had 27.9. They went down quite a bit in 2023
to 17.5 and up again to 24.1 in 2024. So, that's a correlation 55 students. Um, I did that for math also. Um, I'll do it on a a school basis instead of district. So, in Lounsbury
Hollow School, it was reported that they tested 218 students. Um, in 20209, it was 48.1% that was proficient or passing. In 2023, it was
40.7. So, it went down and now it's reported that it's 29.8. eight. So approximately 65 students in Sparta at Helen Morgan School. Again, math fourth grade, they tested 214 students. In
2019, they were up very high, 73%. In 2023, they were at 47.2 and now they're down to 44.8. But that's a big significance difference testing 218 students versus 214 students in Sparta. and we're at
29.8 and they're 44.8. So my point is money money is an issue but it's not everything. It's it's part of the scenario but we can't be throwing money at every every time you need it. I am
getting literally forced out of Vernon because I can't I'm I'm retired and honestly I can't re afford much more. If you look at how many people are getting pushed out, you're going to have less of a income base to draw from and a higher
amount that you need to get. So, I don't see that's a good scenario in any in anybody's point of view. Um, I see some paces looking maybe they explain it properly, but the bigger the pie, the less of the people who's going to contribute. It's going to be an issue. And I just say I care for the kids. I
want them to learn well. I would like a Porsche vehicle, but I couldn't afford it. So, I got a Mazda. Sometimes you don't have to get the the top of the line for certain facility things. You know, we have to budget where we can. And my other question is, what would
happen when last year we you raised it what 9.6 something%. What happens if that didn't pass at the last minute and the and the state didn't say, "Okay, you could go above the 2% cap." What would what position would you be in now? Yeah.
You know what I'm saying? It's got to end somehow. We have to consider I agree 100% what Mr. Fischer was saying. Sometimes we have to test the waters. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mrs. Brooks. Um, do we have any more
comments from We have nobody. Sorry. We have nobody online. So, it's open. Yeah. Hi, Jackie Nichol. I don't have anything written. Um, I just can't believe this. I don't know how everyone in this room
or online can sit here and say that if you vote against this. You're against the the district, the kids, the that's ridiculous. Everyone in this room and in this town supports the kids, wants to see the teachers thrive, the schools thrive. But we you're asking for more
money and we're dealing with a district that was auditing for mismanagement of money. I've been a corporate auditor for 14 almost 15 years. I've never seen financial mismanagement like this in my life. And I look at numbers for
multi-million and billion dollar companies on a daily basis. I don't understand what you guys think this money is going to magically improve, but I I just I I can't understand it at all. And I don't know what the financial
background is at the table as a whole, but what are we doing here? And what that woman said was completely right. People are at the brink of leaving this town. They can't afford to live here. Other parents are
sending their kids to private schools and looking at homeschooling, which I know for a fact because I've talked to people at the private schools. And according to the two local ones, they said this year, quote, record numbers of Vernon students had families looking into enrolling. That's ridiculous. We
shouldn't be losing all of these kids because they have no faith in this district. You must have read a very different audit than the one that we got. Yeah. Well, maybe I show audit. How about it?
Hi. Um, I'm Lauren Scott. I'm a resident of Vernon Township. To put it up front, I'm asking the board to vote for the full tax levy allowed to fully fund our schools. I've been a part of Vernon for the last eight years, but a lifelong
resident of Sussex County. Growing up through the Sussex Wantage Education System and thereby High Point Regional High School, I was afforded access to numerous educators who challenged me to think critically about the world around me and stressed the importance of being
an informed global citizen. Thanks to the robust school system at High Point, I completed enough honors and AP classes to be able to enter college as a sophomore, graduate a full year early. Since then, I've been able to lead a very successful career, be able to
afford my own home outright in Vernon Township. I all to say I really wouldn't be here today without the continuous tax revenue given to schools. It's a vital stream of income for schools, not just for classes, but for clubs and sports
where all kinds of kids can grow, flourish, and find what they are passionate about. And if I could just say one thing, I remember being in a room just like this, probably 15 years earlier. Uh, I was a senior in high
school and I remember just begging the board not to cut my favorite band director and just having my heart completely crushed as a result of discussions just like this one. The kicker though, I do not have kids of my
own, nor do I plan to have children in the future. But even I am glad to pay taxes towards the education of kids within my community because I look forward to the next generation being educated and ready for the challenges
that even we cannot possibly proceed. I fully support their growth however I can as a citizen of Township. Thank you. Thank you. We have somebody on Zoom. Um Oh, I thought we didn't. Do we? No more hands.
Yeah, we had no Okay, she's Oh, that's our board member who is working is remote today. Melissa Brock, let her talk. Oops. Uh my name is Vicky Smith. I am a proud educator in Burn
Township School District and I also am a resident. Right. I am speaking for myself as a resident. No one likes taxes raised. Everybody can agree on that. But we're in a very dire situation here. If we excuse me um don't put through this
levy, what is going to happen to our programs? They will be cut. What's going to happen to our our class sizes? They will be larger. What is going to happen to our extracurriculars? They'll be gone. I have been in the district as an educator for over 18 years. My children
have gone through the school system and are very successful citizens and live in the district now. They own their own houses. They're very proud to live here. If we don't at least We're in a You're in an
unfavorable position. Don't get me wrong. I I wouldn't want to be in your your shoes, but we can't cut off the rose to spite our face. We need to make sure that our students are taken care of. If we want to fight the state, we
can't do it now at the last minute. Let's start fighting the state. Let's start organizing and we can start lobbying and we can start a postcard writing and all these things that I have done at the local, the county, the state, the federal level. I have done
all those things. If you want to do that, I'll be with you. Yeah, let's come on. Let's you get get back what we put in so we can get funded fully by the state. I would love to do that, but we can't do it now. We have to fund this
this tax levy, right? And once this goes through, let's go. We'll start fighting. We'll start protesting. We'll start writing letters. We'll start lobbying. We'll start making phone calls. And maybe that's the way to change, but we can't do it now because our students
can't afford to lose what they have right now. They've already lost so much, right? We're still, believe it or not, we are still catching up from COVID. They are dealing with buildings that were neglected for so long and for the
past few years, you've had to play catch-up with that. you've had to fight that that the the um the one Passover in the uh Glen Meta, it was dangerous because it was neglected. All these facilities had not been kept up because
that oh let's not raise the taxes. Let's give money back. Well, that 13 cents that I got back in my taxes didn't help the buildings. So, let's think of here and now. go through the difficult time now and move forward and try to make it
better for the next time so we don't end up in this position again. Thank you. Scott Castle from Glenwood. Uh just a couple questions on the budget. Um one is I know we had the savings slide and I was just curious. I didn't see really
any cuts on the slides and I'm not talking about studentf facing cuts or you know cutting getting rid of teachers but I know we have an admin and overhead budget that is obviously it's not the biggest part of the budget but it's a big part of the budget and I just find
it hard to believe that throughout the last couple years that I've been actually paying attention to this that we haven't had a you know every budget works out exactly right we always need that much money for each one of them are there not some adjustments that can be made to somewhat offset some of these
costs. You want Okay, I'm sorry. I you you're doing what I asked. So, thank you. Just ask all your questions and then we'll answer them. And again, I mentioned this last time, too. Even if there were proposed cuts that were rejected because it's just like, no, it doesn't make sense. We can't do that. I
would still like to see that that work was done because to me that's a basic part of budgeting is to go through that whole process and say hey we can cut this this this and this and now we can not raise taxes so much but these would this would be the effects of it and then
everybody said no you know you're crazy we can't do that but at least to see that that exercise happened um my other question was where and maybe I should know this but where do costs like what we pay for the you the infamous flex school and all of that. Where does that
show up? What category is that in? I mean, again, maybe I should know, it's not a criticism or anything. I just don't know where that shows up in that overall chart of spending. Um, and then, um, just, you know, lastly, I would say that I agree with a couple of the
comments here that I don't think that just continually throwing more money at a problem, but keeping the exact same process that we have and expecting a different result, you know, I think it's a it's a ludicrous way to do things. So, if you're combining that with a bunch of
changes or something that's that's happening that we say is now going to to make a big difference, you know, I'd be more for that. But just to continually raise taxes and say, you know, next year it's going to be a lot better, but we're going to do everything exactly the same even though our scores are dropping and, you know, we got less enrollment and all
of this. So, that's all I had to say. Thanks. Um, okay. So, we're going to address the questions because yeah, we're going to address his questions now and then you you can speak right after that. Is that is that okay? Um, just on the third one,
I do want to say that we're we're making curriculum evaluations and changes right now and that hopefully will translate to better scores in the future. We were also doing a lot of things with our new educational coaches that we were able to hire last year when we had that other increase opportunity. Um, so that's one
area reinstated. They were cut before. They had been cut and then they were reinstated. Um, and then Mr. Slam, do you want to speak to the We did also make some cuts over. The thing is that these these cuts were phased in for the past like five years. So, we've been
cutting every year. So, you're not hearing about the cuts this year because we cut administr uh administrative staff in the past and we're kind of at a barebones point at this. Um, but I'll let Mr. Sam speak to the bill. Um, so in terms of cuts, I mentioned earlier, um,
kind of where we are with state aid. So just even before I was here, um, and you know, those were those are tough years. Uh, I mentioned that we're about 6 million down on state aid. So just right up front there, again, wasn't here, but that means that $6 million was already
cut before we got to last year's budget, right? So that's that's a lot of cuts in the school district. That's that's where we talked about the staff that were cut. Uh we talked about some of the transportation opportunities that were lost. One of those we were able to bring back. Um you talk about the different programs that you know no longer exist.
Um the supply lines have for the individual buildings uh have been pretty frozen I would say for at least my entire time here. Um they've they've been relatively the same. They've been frozen. Um and I imagine probably the years preceding that as well. Um and uh
I know it's only one blip one uh slide up there. where we talk about health benefits, but that's a major change that affects every employee in this school district. Uh that's not a change they just say, "Oh, I'm changing health benefits today." Uh all right, everyone, let's go on for the ride, right? Because that affects every single person in the
district. That is a um you know, a change that we made where we tried to impact the staff uh the least amount as possible while still uh positively impacting the budget. Um that's a large amount, you know, habit of their savings. Uh but we change health
benefits. That's not just a savings. That's a ch that's a big change. Um and that's a change that is aggregate because every year you have an increase over your prior year's health benefit uh cost you have a renewal, right? So this year was would have been 15.3% in January. Uh instead we we were able to
make that change. I think was between a six and 7% increase instead. We cut that increase in half. Um but then on top of that, we would have had the 15.3% and then what I'm hearing it's going to be probably another mid-team increase this year for the state plan. So, if we stayed in, it would have only gotten worse. Just because we planned it and we
did it in a way where we're calling it savings doesn't mean that it's not a change and a cut, right? We talked about the cuts to transportation up there, right? I called it savings. We cut routes. That's a cut. You know, there are less routes now uh than there were.
And we're trying to do it in a way where it impacts the students the least amount. we're trying to do it, you know, in an intelligent manner, in a least painful manner, but it's still a cut, but I have it as a savings. It's the same thing. Um, it's kind of similar across the board. Um, to answer your other questions about I think it was out
of district tuition, uh, that would fall under the out of district tuition line on that expense breakdown. Uh, and then the other portion if there's any transportation related for an ad district student will fall under the transportation uh, part of that expenditure breakdown. Uh, that will be posted again that will be posted at the website. It is the same slide that's in the preliminary budget if you want to
look at that before that's posted. We've looked to save money there as well as creating programs in district to keep people from going out and have significantly decreased the amount of out of district students in the last couple years. And we're very proud we've talked about it in the past. We're very proud of our ERRI and ABA programs
across all grade levels. Yeah. And kind of back to that, that again requires two things. investment in the program and foresight and planning to get the program where it needs to be to bring kids back. That's just because we're not calling a cut. I mean, I think on my opinion, it's better to think ahead,
plan, put the district in situations where they can either increase revenue to offset costs or I'm calling it save money rather than coming out and saying last minute, all right, let's cut 20% across the board. This is the better way to do it. And just because I don't have it listed
as a cut doesn't mean it's not a cut. It just means that we plan it out so it's less painful. Um so go ahead. Sorry. And then I was going to say and then throughout the year uh we do go for the budget process. We go through every single line, every single expense uh in the in the business department uh with
the other administrators. Uh we look to make sure that everything that is being budgeted is being used. And not only if it's being used, especially with software, if it's being utilized at a high enough rate for us to continue to fund it. And if it's not at a high enough rate, we pull it out, we cut it, right? There are a lot of those items
that happen throughout the budget process, but if I were to list them up here, you'd have a very long list, right? But it it there little amounts here and there, but it adds up. We look at things like, you know, the way that we handle um our leases for f for fax
machines, right? It may not seem like a big thing, but the first year I was here worked with I coordinator it and um we save probably like 50 grand by switching the way that we handled our faxes and our paper management. So those are things that are happening during the year that we're doing before the budget
happens to make sure that we're in a better position when we get to creating the budget so we're not turning around last minute saying all right let's get out the hatchet. Um, in terms of ABIN costs, I will tell you I will tell you what the county BA told me. He turned
around and said, "Hey, Ray, your admin costs are way too low. Do add some salaries to your admin cost lines because what happens is in New Jersey, you're held by your per people uh admin cost, right? So, there's either two things you're held by. either
the regional limit which we're way below or your prior year's limit which is what your per people was the uh in your current year budget um it's lower than our current year budget he said move some salaries in and I said because I like him I said hey Neil I don't have any admin salaries I can move into those
lines there are no other admin what do you want me to do and he said okay if that's the case keep it but if you don't keep that admin admin line where it needs to be you're going to lose it and so there's no other admin salaries to put in there so that that's what we have to do right point being is our admin costs are low. I think you had a number,
Mr. Rogers. Were you uh they in the taxpayers guide they do uh like like schools out of 74 schools, I think we're the uh second highest school for number of students per admin. Um I and I I have a bigger perspective. uh probably seven, eight years ago, uh some people in this
room were part of uh cutting staff and this was a while ago when they talked about cutting and you know and it was supposed to be originally I think 10 to 14 million we were going to have cut and and S2 funding. I remember cutting seven years ago two million two and a half
million so two years in a row we caught we cut over five million that was before COVID um my first year as superintendent we had to let over 50 staff that's after those cuts before um the my first year as superendintendent we had to cut
another uh 50 staff members I think we were able to bring about was it 16 uh 19 total if you included 19 total and a lot of those positions were necessary for a thorough and efficient education. Um, in that first year it it it was rough. Uh,
we talked about class sizes. I in the room talked about late buses, programs, everything else we cut. Um, that's where we're going to be. Um, because the money needs to be toward the the staffing, which is 60 8% of it. If that number doesn't increase, that's that's fine.
But if you're going to make those decisions, I want people at this table to talk about what they're going to cut ahead of time. and instead of just this is what we're going to do, what are you gonna cut from the budget? And the other side of that, you know, we're talking cuts is in terms of that planning and
and looking forward, we're also looking at revenues, right? So, we're always looking at other ways to revenues. Um, we applied for the preschool program, not only is that a great great for the community cuz I have two kids. Childcare is insane, right? Um, it's getting the
kids in the schools earlier, which is great for the kids. It's saving money for the parents uh because it's tuition free and it's full day so it's great for the kids. It's it's great for the parents and it also through allowable offsets is offsetting part of our operating budget which is good for our
operating budget which helps us again offset some of those costs. So it's not just cuts, it's offsets, it's cuts, it's using your grants wisely. It's planning in terms of the different things that you can change without having a harmful impact ahead of time. So you're not last minute sitting there and and and making
those costs and then also looking for additional revenues. Okay. Um, one additional thing that we didn't talk about, I think it was previous to your employment here, was the retire not replace strategy, which um, we would uh, try to downsize our staff by having people retire and
replacing them with a sixth period um, stipen for for educators um, so that we would save those salaries. And that was like a less painful way of reducing staff, but you maxed that out. And then you're looking at cutting teachers and you're looking at bigger class sizes and
it gets really ugly. So, uh, we've just come, you know, we're to the point where there are no cuts left that won't really impact us in a really painful way. Um, okay. Do we have someone else coming to the mic? Thank you for your patience, by the
way. Oh, you're that's fine. Mory Moss, Sussex. I am here to support the students. I have a grandchild that's in the district. I had three children go through the
district. I just had a question. Last year when our taxes were raised, we were told that class sizes would be smaller. The class sizes are not smaller. I want to know why. I and also I have I am
appalled by a high school teacher that sent out a email that she said that this teacher is calling the parents of students and residents
rightwing extremists who do not support public education. Do you know us to make that comment? I think you deserve to give us all an app. No, this is not a time for a
public. You're not No, not not at my meeting. No, you're not going to attack somebody at our meeting. You're not using our microphone to attack individuals in your meeting. Attack. It's an attack to us. That's called Excuse me, ma'am. This is a hearing on the public budget, not a place to
discuss among members of the community. But why is it said though? Why do we have to hear that? This meeting is not about that inter interaction. This meeting is about the public saying whatever they want to say. I'm not
That's unfortunately incorrect because it's public hearing the budget and then you talk about agenda items and that's not incorrect. This woman said nothing wrong. Jesse. My name is Jesse Paladini. Be careful on that platform. It moves. Don't lean on it, please. I'll lean very lightly. Okay. My name is Jesse
Paladini. I'm an educator. I've taught high school. I've taught college. I love teaching. I love students. I love our schools. I have raised tens of thousands of dollars for Vernon schools. Every
single year, the Vernon Township Historical Society donates thousands of dollars to Vernon schools. Spending more money does not
equate better student results. Our town three nights ago gave us a 7% tax increase. Last year you gave us a 9.5% tax increase. And now you want to
give us another what? 4% tax increase. When does it end? Spending more money does not equate better student results. And our student results are
dismal. Now, I have a husband who's home who's handicapped and I need to go home and take care of him. And as you know, I never come to these meetings. I always comment on Zoom because I have issues, too. But I wanted to come here tonight
and I wanted to face this woman over here and ask her am I you'll address all comments to me. You will address this is our meeting and this is not a place to ask asking you the board. Okay. You ask me a question. Am I one of the
rightwing extremists who does not support public education? How dare she make a comment like that? And I will tell you that no child of mine and no grandchild of mine
will ever be in that woman's classroom. I'm asking you. I know you'll do whatever you want to do. I probably could already predict the results from tonight. I'm asking you, please don't give us another huge tax increase.
Please. Thank you. Hi, I'm Bill Higgins from Glenwood. I'm here representing myself, not my uh position with the town or the council. Uh Mr. Slam, you've been here for what, three years now? Just under two. Okay. So, this is
probably I think it's your third presentation. And uh just a comment because it's part of the budget. When you're asked a question, will you please answer it? You spin a tail. You go in circles, but you never answer the question. You try to hide the facts with
all sorts of regulations. A simple question was asked by somebody at the table. What What does the architect make? You never answer the question. Five minutes later, you put everybody to sleep. So, what's the architect make? What's their percentage?
Are the Is that your only question? Okay. Please list all of your questions and then okay that's that's one question that's coming. So the real problem here is that this board really wasn't about education here tonight. It was as if Mr.
Sweeney and Mr. Zimmerwin who apparently are interested in buildings and roofs and and all the rest all important. This whole budget was about physical properties. It was a facility manager meeting. It wasn't a educational
meeting. And and once again, a lot of people spoke about the the the actual grades and the and the test scores, and that's really what the education's about. We get people with signs here who mean nothing. Students come first. Of
course, they come first. But whenever every year the teachers, Miss Smith over here, you get a 3.6% raise and 82% of the budget is salaries and uh and benefits. what's left over for the
students and you have 10 students per teacher and everybody's talking about how many how many more kids are going to be in each class. You got 10 to one and that doesn't count the aids that are in the classes. You've got tremendous
number of aids. So those are facts. And so here we're talking about a 9.65% and a 4.2%. And one of my questions, this extra 2.4%. Now it's it's coming it's being
allowed from the states to raise taxes an extra 2.4 and in return you get $67,000. So the taxpayers have to pay 500,000 and the board gets 67. Is that the deal between the governor and you're
accepting that? That's a question that I'd like answered. I know. Okay. And uh furthermore, you have $11 million in surplus. 11 million. That's the same amount that that was in surplus the year
before our current superintendent took over. And that $11 million that was in surplus was illegally spent to hire all those teachers. And it w and then the sbaticals. A lot of the money went on
that. and a lot of the money was was just improperly spent that that was proven on the audit. So now we're at a point in your presentation, Mr. Slam, you have $11 million and it's as usable
as 7.9 because the balance is in capital reserve, but it's still $11 million. Did you realize that $11 million is 21% of the amount of money that you're collecting from the taxpayers? That's a
pretty good position to be in having 21% savings. And if a homeowner would put their hand up today to say if they have 21% in their savings account for any emergencies, they take it any day. You've got 21%. And now you
want more. Not right. So over the years, the point that I'm trying to make is one minute warning. There's a credibility problem here. We're not getting answers to the questions. We're not getting honest answers to the questions. Whenever you're asked, just give an honest answer. It always comes back
students first. An emotional answer. Of course, the students are first. We're not talking about emotion here. We're talking about facts. Give the facts. Stay with the facts and be honest about it. You haven't been. So it really makes no sense to slam the taxpayers again.
There's none. Thank you. Thanks. Um couple So I've counted three questions I guess. Um in terms of the extra 2.4% that we are allowed and you asked if we're doing that for the 67,000 from the state. You are right that that is what the state is giving us. But that is not
the reason we are doing it. We are doing it because we feel if we do it, I should say if people vote for it, it will be because they feel that the money is necessary to provide an adequate education to the students of Vernon. So that's that question. Um Mr. Slam, did you want to answer about the architect
and the 11 million in surplus? Can you put the uh you put the slideshow back up so I can get to the fund balance page? Um, uh, for the architect, I don't have the contract memorized, uh, cuz there's percentages on it and it's based off the size of the project with different
ranges. If you'd like, uh, send me an email and I'll send you the the the contract. What's the percentage? I signed signed the contract a year ago and you're expecting me to memorize it? Yeah. No, I expect you to have an answer. We're not going to we're not going to heckle him while he speaks, but that's not going to happen here. Here's
the credibility that I just spoke about. If you want, if you want your questions answered, please allow him to answer. Don't interrupt him when he We'll answer the fund balance question again. What would you like me to do? Uh, can you do the fun balance slide where I ask
patient? No, since everyone's okay. You sure? Yeah, you're fine. Okay. Um, uh, I'll start from five and I'll let you. You guys still have the clicker? Yeah, I have the clicker. Yep. Got it. Did it reach that far? There. There we
go. I don't think we behind me. Okay. Okay. Um, so I've had this slide in so I'll go back a couple couple things. Um, this is my second year here. Uh, so it's
my second budget. Uh, last year I did four presentations on the budget. Uh, and I think probably at least two of them have this slide. I have to go and check. It's on the website if you want uh, I'll double check. But anyway, this slide has been in every presentation I think I've done uh since it's come up
aware to me that um people think we have $1 million that we're just sitting on. Right. So, it was in the preliminary. It's uh up here as well. Uh I went through it earlier, but I can go through it again. Uh I really because I know you've had this comment
before. I really want to get to the kind of crux of this. You did something the question. Quit spinning the answer. What Mr. Higgins? We answered her many times. Can you give him a chance to answer it once again? Ask you if you will please stop interrupting him while he's answering the question.
So if everyone looks at excess surplus for 2526 that is revenue in the 2526 budget. Therefore that money is being spent in the budget that is being proposed uh at the preliminary end tonight as the final. If you look at the 2.1 uh just
under 2.2 2 uh restricted for 2425. Uh and then if you also look down towards the bottom, you'll see $610,000 designated for subsequent years expenditures. Those are funds that were spent in the current year. So right off the bat, you're about
24 4.4 I don't know $5 million off of that $1 million number that is being spent next year or spent in the current year already. All right, let's keep going. uh $2.5 million in cap reserve. Uh 900
roughly $900,000 uh is in the 2425 budget which is spent. You'll see on the projects that are complete. Um for the $32,000 uh roughly $225,000 is in the 2526 budget as
revenue to fund items out of the maintenance lines. So that is being spent. Uh if you look at year-end incumbrances, it's about $3.1 million. So that is money that was on POS at the end of the 23 24 school year that rolled into the
2425 school year. And the reason it rolls into that school year is because those are services or goods that were already provided or in the process of being provided that district either has not been invoiced for yet or uh that service is still in process of being provided and say it's something it's not
completed yet. Right? So, we owe the vendor that money. That's not money that's not spent. That's money that's been spent and is sitting there waiting to get paid because at June 30th, we may not have all the invoices yet. So, that's another $3.1 million off that number. Uh, so just off the top of that's probably about $9 million at that
$11 million. So, I think the easiest way probably to explain it is the only money up there that has that were has not been spent is for capital reserve. We probably have with latest with patrol probably
about $500,000 in cap reserve five $600,000 somewhere in that ballpark. And then uh maintenance reserve there's probably about $75,000 there. Um and then if you look at unemployment compensation, that
$180,000 uh although less because time has gone by uh is only for unemployment compensation. So the only money there is our 2% unassigned fund balance and part of that is being spent as well. So part of that is being spent as revenue in the
2526 budget. So really you have 2% of the prior year's expenditures that is a safety net to stop if essentially if there's a bad financial year to stop the district from going into uh a fiscally dangerous situation.
So, I'm not really sure why we've heard that comment, you know, before and I've had other people approach me and ask me to explain it to them why we think there's 11 million there because there's not. This is not This is from the audit. I'm not making these numbers up. I have no reason to make numbers up. My job is
to make sure that the students are provided for, the staff is provided for with the resources we have. um and to make sure that district is being financially responsible and is in a situation where we're not going to risk going into a deficit and having potentially the state come in. Right? We
don't want to go two cuts like happened before. Um I'm rambling, but anyway, I think I kind of answered your question, but if I I know we don't say back and forth, but if there's any other questions you have on the fund balance, I would really love to address them just because I would like us to be on the same page about the fund balance. He is
actually out of time as well. your your your answer proved my point. Thank you very much for that answer which was unbelievable. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. H. Was there was there another question too or is that everything? Um I believe that
was everything. Um I did want to say our cap reserve is only what% of our budget off off the top of my head. I don't know the You going to have a million left though this year? Right now we're probably Hold on, I'll pull it up. Uh, if you want, we could we could
move on to the next commenter as I'm pulling up. I don't want to hold anybody up. Um, yeah, I'd like to do that. Um, who do we have online? You want to turn it off? Oh, yeah. Because it goes in our eyes. It's really hard to look at the audience. Uh, we have Barb Mhau.
I have the amount, too. Oh. Um, Mrs. Mower, just one second. Right. Sure. Get that. Yeah. So, uh, right now, um, I mentioned the, uh, 900,000 that came out. Well, it was $916,000 that came out on July 1st, and that was to fund the
Glen Meadow window project. Um the the school portion of that project, the uh high school um cosmetology building ramp and stair repair. The ramp was sunken. The rails when I first started here weren't attached. We temporarily attached them as soon as I was aware of it because safety issue. Um Cedar
Mountain stair retaining wall. that stair had been cordoned off for I don't know how I don't know how long before I got here that stair was cordoned off but it was cordoned off. Um and the retaining wall which is wood was bowing in which is unsafe. So we address those that's 916,000 that came off of that 2.5
you see on that audit screen. So that brings you down to just under 1.6 million. Um and then we had $150,000 that went to adding a security vestible uh to Walnut Ridge uh which is very important for the safety since that building is now full. uh we have opened
14 classrooms in addition to uh the PSD classrooms that already ex exist and we're looking to open I think probably about three more in that building in addition to two more with provider sites. Uh and then to add to that we had the withdrawal for the state portion the
of the um SDA window project. So that's money we'll get back but we have to fund it up front. So when you take that out uh with the uh vestigial you're at 1,999,000 and then with the creation of this budget you have $150,000 for the
high school elevator estimated $150,000 estimated for the Lounsbury uh hollow elevator replacement and then $225,000 estimated for the Glen Meadow PA system replacement. Uh that would bring us to projected cap reserve after withdrawals of about
$574,000. uh once that CL meta window project is complete uh or as we're going along that process, we can submit for reimbursements to SCA. Uh so the estimate is that after we get those reimbursements, we'll be up closer to a million, but until we get those reimbursements, we'll be at $574,000 unless we're able to end this
year and do a deposit in capital reserve. And finally, our that forensic auditor did state that there was no improper use of funds. Just need that one, Mrs. Munchouser. Please don't shout out from the audience. If you have something to
say, you can say it at the mic when it's your turn. Mrs. Munchroom, thank you for your patience. No, you're very welcome. Good evening. Um, I am Barbara Muncher. I'm the secretary of the VTEA. Um, and I just would like to put my support to um, ask you to vote for
this increase. I do realize that it is a burden for some people. Um, but just as people pay taxes for me to go to school, I'm willing to pay taxes for other people to go to school. I would like to uh clarify something that was said by a member of the public. I'm not sure where
the state got the numbers that we have 10 children in a class. Um, but I have more than double that in my class. I have always had more than double that in my class and none of my colleagues have that number of students. I'm not sure how the state came up with that 10
students per teacher. Um, but that is definitely a misunderstanding. Um, certainly there are some smaller class sizes uh based on need, but generally speaking, our class sizes are not small. Um, and without additional funds,
they're going to get larger. I don't think anyone wants to see 30 children in a kindergarten, first, second, or really any grade level. Um and additionally I realize that a big bulk of the budget does come uh from salaries and health
insurance etc. But when we see an increase of say 4.6% that does not translate to every uh employee getting a an increase in their salary of that amount. It gets spread out over
um a a table to put it very simply. Uh we have different steps that you can be on. on the amount of education you have. Um, our salaries definitely do not keep up with inflation. And additionally, many of us spend hundreds, maybe thousands of dollars in the classroom
for our students. We do everything for our students. Um, so I just would like you to take that into consideration when voting this evening. Thank you. Thank you. No, I'm sorry. Um we don't have seconds until the all the first go and then you
can come after everyone has spoken once question so you know it's it's Robert's rules I'm sorry I try to follow them if I know them I don't always know them but I try. Hi my name is Jessica Debento. I'm also
here representing myself as a citizen and not a member of town council. Good evening members of the school board. As a parent with a son who is about to join our district, I deeply value the importance of well-funded education systems that support our students and our teachers. However, I'm concerned
about the significant year-over-year increases in the school budget. I understand that costs naturally rise. I'd like to respectfully ask, are these increases translating into measurable, oh my gosh, improvements such as better state rankings for our
schools? Taxpayers, myself included, are feeling the strain of these consistent hikes. And I believe there comes a point where we need to explore ways to balance the budget without placing an ever growing b ever growing burden on our community. I'd appreciate your insights on how we can ensure fiscal
responsibility while continuing to prioritize our student success. Thank you. Thank you. Do we have any other first uh Do we have any other first time speakers before we allow someone to come back?
Good evening. My name is Warren Serve. Uh been here before talking about the budget actually a year ago or the same issues on the expenditures. Uh one thing I just want
to clarify on the um the incentive on the 1.2 million. I think Mr. Slam put up a graphic indicating that there were about five projects that were going to be funded by that. Am I correct in reading that? So to say that if that was
cut out of the budget that really wouldn't have an impact on the classroom it would next year, next spring when we but it's it's not it didn't I'm sorry. We're supposed to do all the questions and then Yeah. Yes.
It's all over. Sorry, Mr. That was our fault. Sorry about that. Apologize. Apology accepted. Uh but if if this budget that's going to be going into effect, if you didn't apply for it, the $1.2 million or if we don't get
approved for it, it's not going to have a direct impact in the instructional program in the closure. second part and I'll bring this up again. I don't know Mr. Fischer and Mrs. Vakarella talked about it at some great
length before but the uh right now the 2% increase the cap on the 2% tax levy is just under a million dollar $998,000. The
2.4% in on the tax incentive is another 1.2 2 million for a total of 4.4% increase of $2.2 million. Uh so add out out of that as I mentioned just before if we didn't get 2% uh go
back to that Mr. Fischer was bringing up that couldn't we do something with the unexpended balance that's currently in the budget this year. Last I looked at the figures, there was somewhere about $3 million that was still unexpended out
of that 9.6% increase. Mr. Slam has indicated that he needs 2 million of that to fund the 26 27 budgets. There's been applying about $2 million surplus last year, this year. And so
that would leave about a million dollars which could go towards offsetting that 2% tax levy increase. So I thoroughly had suggestion and consideration that uh maybe you have looked into that and this is you've that you're presenting but I
just wonder try to ease the burden on the taxpayers. Everybody supports education. Uh I spent my career in education. My wife spent her career education and we're there about it. But as others have expressed, people are reaching their
breaking points as to how much we can continually absorb and spend. And uh so I think you need to take these all into consideration uh in your deliberations before you finally pass voting on the budget
tonight. Thank you. Mr. Mr. Slam, would you like to address those questions? Sorry. Uh the impact on projects wouldn't impact students. Oh yes, that's right. It work. So I mean
you could I guess you could say it doesn't impact students, but I think if a fire alarm doesn't work or a PA system doesn't work, that would affect the students. Um obviously, right? Um and then in terms of fiscal um you know sustainability of
the budget moving forward nothing in this environment goes up only 2%. 2% doesn't cover the increases. And I I keep hearing people say well you know um manage it a different way offset a different way. The only way to
offset additional expenditures over your revenues would be to cut your expenditures right. So the only so we as the expenditures continue to go up, we're not adding things, right? There's not glitz and glam in these budgets. Things are just getting more expensive.
Transportation is more expensive, right? Um out of district tuition is more expensive. Energy is more expensive. We can't just stop using energy, right? We have to pay for certain things to operate. And those things get more expensive. and they get more expensive
than a 2% increase on 68% of your budget would allow you to accommodate. So, you'd only be able to really cut again probably programs or staff at that point because there's not a lot of supply money in this budget. There's not one-time budgets that there's not projects in this budget that aren't
funded through cap reserve. Um, so in terms I think the second question was this the surplus. So, uh, so the number for the current year is $2.5 million. Um, I think it was, it's off the top of my head, we had there was a slide on
that, you can see it online. Um, is he putting No, but you're going down. Okay. Yeah. So, I'm trying to bring it down. Uh, so I think it was about 3.1 and then I hold on. It was a little over 5 million, then it was a little over 3.1, and then it was about 2.8. Uh, and now
for the current year, it's a little over 2.5. Uh, so there's 3 million. I'm assuming you're looking at the March board secretary's report. So that's March. We got April, May, June at 3 million. Um, over those three months, as you
know, it depends on what happens, right? If you need 2.5 million going forward, that's $500,000. And I just got done talking about a capital reserve for a district with six buildings in our enrollment that right now is about 500, a little over $500,000. It's 574. Um, so if something breaks during the year and
you only have $574,000 in your capital reserve, that's not a good place to be. So if we the fiscally responsible thing and honestly I think the thing that probably in your experience and when you were a VA you would have done is probably if you had an extra $500,000 if we're lucky to end a year with that, you probably put in capital reserve in case
a boiler goes down or in case the fire alarm another fire alarm breaks, right? um because when something like that breaks, it's expensive and we don't have a lot of options on how we're going to fund that because it's certainly not going to be able to come out of the regular operating budget.
My point, if I could just respond, uh I'm not saying that theire amount of that expended Alex, we're we're not we're not getting into the back and forth discussion. You can if you really want to speak you can wait till everyone goes up for their second
comments and then we're gonna and by the way second is the limit here because this is going on. My turn. Yes. Good evening. Ann Larson. I'm from the Glenwood section and um I just have a couple of points that I have to make. I'm a casual observer. Okay. my students or my children are not students
any longer and um what I see honestly it just makes my skin crawl looking at some of these expenditures that I know we don't have to have for example okay a high school education at Pope John is $18,000 and change and look what we're
paying uh Sussex Christian school first child 4860 second child 1,900 we just keep spending and spending and the money is not going to the children and you I I just don't know how else to make this point. For example, you mentioned,
Mr. Slam, fax machines, how you saved money. I don't know who had fax machines still in 2024 or 2023. We who needs a fax machine anymore. No one uses fax machines that we had them as a crime and it's an indication of of a failure, a
previous failure. Okay. Uh you also mentioned about the uh the benefits of the of the uh all day preschool and you have two children and and you know daycare is expensive. You know what who who needs that daycare? It's the people from Vernon. It's not people who are employed here. It's the actual taxpayers
who are sucking it up to pay make these payments on time. It's not for it's not for the One second. I just want to make it clear that No. No. Yeah. We're not doing that to you. Yeah. Thank you for Thank you for the reminder, Mrs. Larson. Okay.
Thank you. As far as the fair share, I I I mean, honestly, I'm thinking we should just go all hog hog wild and become an addict district, and maybe that's when we'll get what we need. But thank you, Mr. Fischer, for bringing up the point. We should be banding together with the other 200 and so many districts and
fighting back. This is just insane that we just keep funding and funding and funding. And yes, Mrs. Lift, I am a right a right-winger. Okay? Sorry to disappoint you, but the right-wing people know how to spend money. We're not talking to know you love to correct, but it's it we know how to spend money.
I would just like people to behave in I sat through a lot of garbage. No, no, we sat through a lot of nons rules meeting and rules supposed to address the board, not people in the audience. If you want to talk to people in the audience, you do it after the meeting outside. Yeah. Okay. I get a lecture. Meanwhile, the
district of Sparta has 400 less students than we do. is spending about what we're spending and their scores are far superior. We're not getting our money for the our money's worth. So, someone needs to say, you know what, throwing more good money after bad is not the answer all the time. And I'm not cheap
by any stretch of the money. I paid Pope John tuition. Okay? I know what it's like to struggle and pay for that. So, in addition to paying my my Vernon taxes, that's it. Thanks very much. And please vote there. Thank you. U Mr. Slam, would you like to address any of
that? Um, let's see. So, fax machines, uh, those are for confidential reasons for our nurses. Uh, so those are so the information goes directly from the doctor or the mental health clinician to our nurse. It is a security issue and that's why we have them. Um, it's a
positive that we have savings. We need them to operate. We're looking into other options, but we have to see if the regulations allow for it. Uh, I think the second comment was PA. So, I just want to make it very very clear. No staff member is allowed to have their
student. So, no staff member that does not live in town is not able to h is no staff member that doesn't live in town is able to have their student in the PA program. My kids do not go to the PA program. No, no, no, no. I'm saying that I understand that it's very expensive
and I feel that it's a positive for our Vernon Township residents and any employee that does have their student in that went through the um sorry lottery process where it was randomized and it was by chance. Do not please let's not
call out from the audience. I I you know I'm sorry that I have to enforce the rules but maybe if you didn't break them I wouldn't have to enforce them. So I just want to make that clear because there was an allegation that somehow I was benefiting from a decision was made that is incorrect. my student my kids do not attend here and it would actually be against the program and against the
regulations of the program for anyone to attend that program that is not a resident of Vernon and Mr. Slam and other staff members applied for that to get to make sure that state money that's going to the state is going to our taxpayers to fund their pea and I believe it's $5 million in pea money
that we're getting to allow our community members to allow the three and four year olds to come to our preschool. We're very proud of what we created and this past year started in middle of December and it's one of the few ways that we're able to get some of that state money because we're we're all paying taxes to the state back into
Vernon. So we saw as an opportunity to get some of that money back into Vernon. Um it was a lot of work by the administration to get it. Um the staff's doing a great job getting that program up and running. It started in December. Uh and I think it's very positive. just what I was saying before I was trying to make a point where it's very positive I think for the kids and then also for the
parents that are benefiting financially from that for full day uh prek um was there another um fax machines are also required by HIPPA and Sparta spends uh significantly more than budget alone the policy too for the kids preschool in
fact oh preschool no preschool team They have to be residents that Yeah. It's part of our policy that students in the preschool program uh must be residents of Vernon. Yeah. Yeah. It's actually policy but also state regulations. Yep. Okay. Um we have
somebody else online. Oh, okay. We have Kyle. Okay. Hi everyone. Uh Kate Pam Philly from the Sussex side of Vernon. A few questions to start. Um,
number one, what did what was the average class size last year? And then what is the average class size this year after the large increase and the addition of staff members? Um, you know, post budget season or at the end of
budget season last year. I think it was asked, but I don't I didn't catch the exact number. And I want to be clear, I I'm not counting in that say some of the special ed classes that are 12 or under.
Um I mean average in the general education classes or inclusion classrooms. And again, not teacher to student ratio, but average class size. So that's my first Okay, that's my first question. Um, second question. I know it
came up a few months ago, but I didn't catch it anywhere else. Is are we still looking at offsetting cost by putting a cell phone tower on one of the schools or one or more of the schools? Um, that
is my second question and I had a third but I may have lost it. Um yeah, for now those two. Okay. Uh so the first one, um I did report on the average class sizes at one point and that they had gone down in some classes
and uh in some grade levels and um and stayed about the same in others. Um but I don't have that information handy right now. So we will get back to you on that at our next meeting. Um unless somebody I don't think a staff member has that handy, right? Because it was
part of my curriculum. um report at one point but I don't have that information in front of me now. I didn't I wasn't aware it was going to be an issue tonight. Uh the cell phone tower. Yes, we are doing that. Right. Uh so that is uh an opportunity that was was actually
pretty great. The town kind of directed um I mentioned a little earlier the town directed uh Rising to us uh because the town was interested in getting better cell reception especially for emergency services uh and then also you know obviously potential opportunity for some revenue. Um, so we went through a um RFP
process for uh vendors to essentially submit proposals to say what they would pay us for rent and what the terms of that agreement would be. Uh, so that was awarded I don't know if it was in the fall. I can't remember exactly, but that was awarded. They're in the process of uh getting it permits and approvals. The
last update I had from them was that they were going to start hopefully hoping to start construction in this upcoming fall. Um, so it's approximately $52,000 a year in revenue. Um, and then there's the opportunity where if there are sub, we'll call them subleasases.
It's not the exact term that I think that was in the contract, but like a sub lease where essentially another carrier wants to join that tower. Um, then we would get half of that additional um, lease revenue there. It's opportunity that that number could grow through subleasases on the tower. Um, and then also, uh, there's an escalator in that
contract where year-over-year uh, that $52,000 will automatically go up by a percentage. And that tower is at Lounbury Hollow and I believe we just had an upgrade at the high school roof, right? Uh yeah. So there was an upgrade on the high school roof. Um that was negotiated before my start. Um that
existed. They were just um upgrading that tower. It actually takes up slightly less space. Uh but even though it takes up slightly less space, uh it's increasing the rent. I think about $2,000 a year uh over what the rent was. So, I think it's somewhere between maybe 12 to $14,000 a year on rent for the the
what's on the tower, but antenna on top of the high school roof. Thank you. All right. Um I see another hand up on We just We're online. So, in person comments,
sorry, I know, but we just did online. So, we're doing in person. Nobody. Okay. So, online. Oh, we have two. Uh, we have Martin Pinger again and Billy again. Okay, so those are both
Wait, did Martin just go away? Okay. Well, I'm I I guess uh this you were waiting first to go second, right? Did you still want to speak? Okay, so you're up and then we'll and then we'll come back to you, Mrs. Smith.
Um, so it seemed you got offended by what I said, so maybe mismanagement is a better word. Um, how is I I feel like you guys came into this room with a decision already made and it really doesn't matter what anybody here says. Um, so let's just
assume you're going to vote yes for this because you just don't care about the argument otherwise. How is this money helping our kids and these teachers directly? Because all I see on these lines are building improvements and I might have
misunderstood somewhere but 900 B almost a million dollars just for steps and windows in one school over half a million dollars for two small elevators in two schools. where where are the quotes and the itemized quotes for all of these projected uh projects and and
the final payments on all of these because those number that's insane almost a million dollars just for windows and steps. How can that be? What where are the quotes? What were the comparative quotes for all of these? Are you done asking questions? I guess
so. But I mean the main question is how do we know that this money is going to go to our kids because the money that you got last year I didn't see a big jump for them or for the teachers really. My my kid watched her teacher
pack up and lose her job. How many teachers lost their job? What was it last year? Couple dozen. I mean how many teachers did you lay off in prior? See that's a part of the problem too. You look at you look and you roll your eyes. People have genuine concerns here. These are our children. looking at Rogers to
try to figure out if he knows what you you're saying about future layoffs. That's what I'm not rolling my eyes. I'm I've seen you guys and laughing and snickering. People are genuine concerns. These are our children. I'm concerned too.
You are here. So then the question is how is this money yet again going to directly help our children and guarantee that things improve for our kids and our teachers and not just the face of the buildings. And you had a
second question about h how many like did you have to I know there was too many I know no I'm just asking you did you also have a question about that? Uh, well, maybe costs. How about the costs? Can we see itemized quotes and costs for all of these things you're proposing and see where the money is going? Because
honestly, had I known that stairs and windows were going to be a million dollars almost, that would have been something I brought up and said, "Where are the quotes for this?" Because that seems a little extreme. Okay. All right. Is that all of your questions? Probably. Okay. It was just that the the cuts occurred two years
ago. We were confused because you said last year and we were like, "Wait, who did we lay off last year? If anybody, you know, money was mismanaged to the point where that shouldn't have happened to teachers. I mean, it was just horrific. It really was. It's devastating. Like I said, that seven or eight years ago, uh we made
about five million cuts, four four to five million cuts in two years. And then, uh postcoid, uh my first year in here, uh at the beginning of the year, we realized we we'd have to make more cuts. And I believe it was 50 people that 50 positions across the district.
Do you hear that number? Uh, yeah. It was a brutal day. It It was tough. Again, we're not we're not we're not I'm sorry. We're we're not doing back and forth here. This is not when we worked on the budget for this year was bringing was doing some of
the health and safety uh projects. We talked about it. Initially, it was a second question and it became we listed all the teachers, what positions they would be. We totally decimated in that 50 teacher year cut. We totally decimated our uh MTSS support and RTI
programs support for students. So, we brought back RTI uh some some of those positions and we looked at each we looked at the grade levels where the high we had the highest uh class sizes and that's where we added teachers to I believe I believe we added about a
teacher in each school uh at at least a couple more than one to take those class sizes that I believe people were coming and talking about class sizes in second grade close to 28. My daughter is 28. Next to her is almost I think 29 or going to be this year. Yeah. This
year we put extra teachers in to try to bring the class sizes down. But that's a situation we're in right now with the budget. The money lasts for one year to pay for the projects and next year the money's got to go to staff. So if we're going to make cuts, not ne next year's budget, uh Mr. Sevelis mentioned I think
teacher-wise we're going to be okay with next year's budget. I would love to do some safety and security issues with that. I think well the the next year after that you're talking about making a million to $ 1.5 million in cuts if we don't take this extra 2.4 this year. Okay. I'm sorry we're No, no, I'm sorry.
We're not we're not Yeah, we're not doing back and forth. We'll be here all night if we get into that situation. So, thank you for your comments. Um we're moving to Mingcess. Who do we have online now? Oh, yes. I'm sorry. We can answer the
purchasing process. Uh so we're required to uh follow New Jersey purchasing law. Um so couple of things here. One, I want to make it clear that the $900,000 is at a capital reserve. So those are funds that can only be used for capital projects, right? So that could be used for nothing other than capital projects.
So that's the first thing. Uh those are three projects that you mentioned. So they just can't be used for anything other than capital projects. It's a capital reserve. So it's a reserve of money put aside to uh do capital projects or fixes. Uh so there's two ways that two things
that happened here. One uh the window project was bid twice. Um so that we had to go through a bidding process is a sealed bidding process whereas okay please let's not call out from the audience. Let's let him answer the question and let's be respectful.
So the window project was bit twice. The window project actually is about $1.2 million because they're replacing every window in Glen Meadow. Um and 40% of that is being paid by the state. Uh and then the other 60% is coming from capital reserve which is money only that can be used for projects. So that's the
first thing. Um we had between those two bids uh we probably received five or six biders. Um so you said you're familiar with the bid process. So I won't go into that for anyone that isn't. It has to be um advertised. Uh need a certain number
of days to respond. You have walkthroughs of the building. Uh you have opportunities for questions to be asked. Uh and then you have sealed bids that need to arrive um at my office uh prior to the exact time of the bid opening. Uh then you open the bids. Uh you then would review those bids with
your architect and your attorney to make sure they're responsive both in terms of the specific the bid specifications. Uh but also in terms of the legal requirements and documents you need to provide. Um so that's the bid process. That's what happened with the windows. Um for the stairs uh that stairs and
retaining wall that is a cooperative which is a contract that was awarded through a bid through a cooperative. So cooperatives often have a much farther reach uh than one single district would in terms of the number of individuals that or vendors rather that would respond to that bid. So I went through a bid process. It's a state approved co-op
and we utilize that for the stairs and retaining wall at Cedar Mountain. Um, I think I don't know. I have the See if I can pull it up for you.
Sorry, I closed it. Um, uh, so I think was actually on my, uh, slide last year because this is part of last year's BL presentation. Uh but the um it was $70,000 for the replacement of that ramp and stair um that was sinking
into the ground at the cosmetology building. Uh and then it was $98,000 uh for the replacement of the Cedar Mountain stair uh which had been again sealed off for quite a long time and was crumbling. Uh that also included the replacement of a uh retaining wall
that was bowing into the parking lot. Um, and just another uh comment, you know, again, there's this reoccurring comment that the building doesn't matter. Um, it very much does matter, especially when you're talking about a fire alarm or a PA system. Um, if you can't hear the in the entire building
for a PA system and something happens and someone can't hear what's happening, that's a problem. I know you're saying it doesn't impact the student, but that is a pretty direct impact on the student because we're talking safety and security. You need to have an environment that is conducive to learning because if you don't, the students aren't going to be able to
learn. And if the fire alarm or the isn't working, the students can't be in the building unless there's a firewash. We're not doing the back and forth. We're not doing the back and forth. We're we're not doing the back and forth. Uh so, okay. Okay.
Okay. We have online that's currently waiting. I'll be next. Mrs. We have Mrs. Panily online. Mrs. Penfield, I think her I think. No, I'm sorry. I think um I misunderstood because I was
actually not done speaking before, but I wanted my questions first. I thought that was how it worked. Um just kind of going off of that, you know, you mentioned not realizing that class size numbers would come up. I think that's one of the most direct ways
um that like we see the impact of say additional money. Um we hope our class sizes are smaller. Um especially you know when when you break out things such as like Glen Meadow fizzed classes being
over or near 40 and then having multiple classes together in the gym at the same time. um or you know or classes being near 30 and you're adding one teacher a school. I mean that's not even one teacher per
grade. Um so I think knowing the impact or the class sizes and how that how that is touched is a is a really concrete way of making a $2.4% 4% or a, you know, $1.3 million uh increase more tangible for the
public. Um, I think it goes without saying, as my husband and I are both in public education, um, that that of course we are for the teachers and we are for the education system. Um, I would love to know uh what research the
board used and uh compiled before they decided to put cell phone towers on our school buildings and the impact on children's health. Um, I would I would like to see them
information. Um, I remembered my third question and it's kind of budget related but it goes back I had already asked it. I never received an answer. Um, I would love to know how much of the money um, our idea money has gone towards training in neurodeiversity and meeting diverse
learners needs um, in professional development. Um because that kind of leads me to my my culminating comment that I think that it is a perfect storm of the fact that we have massive budget cuts and we came out
of a global pandemic which I know everyone wants to like move on from which is great and we can but we are not working with the same learners that were in our classroom five or 10 years ago and to pretend that we are um I think is part of the reason why we're in the
situation that we're in, not financially, but where we're not setting our teachers and our educators up for success with our students overall. And I think that, you know, we have known as a district that
cuts were coming. We have known how how much at least that that six million we we knew about that upfront once it was announced. We are as a district taking a very reactive stance instead of a proactive
stance in saying not only do we have to write this ship but this is the direction that the ship is headed in. I mean to give you again a very concrete example if you take a flight from Los Angeles to New York and you are off 3.5
degrees which is just a few feet nose of the plane a few feet instead of landing in New York City you land in Washington DC. So, I think that in terms of where our district is headed, like where is the plan? Where's the five-year plan?
Where's the 10-year plan? Where are we headed and how are we getting there? Because with even just minor miscalculations in our approach, we're not we're not making it
anywhere close to where we originally wanted to end up. So, I would love for those questions. uh that I posed uh if not be answered tonight for me to be given an answer uh at your earliest convenience. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah,
I will I will get back to you on the class sizes. Um one I and I do want to say about the where are we headed? We are working on a strategic plan. Mr. Um, Cantino's working with the community relations and we're getting um we're we're getting uh community members
involved in giving us their input and trying to and and we'll be incorporating some of that into our goals. Um so we're working on that. Uh was there another question about the professional development funding that um there was a
question on IDA funding? Yeah. Uh so primarily IDA funding goes towards offsetting um out of district uh tuition placements. Um there are are some funds um I believe in the preschool uh that also go towards services such as uh
evaluations and things like that. Uh however PD normally comes out of title two. Okay. Um oh hi thank you Edwards still lakes. Okay, a couple of questions. Um, this
lady before me uh hit on something in regards to the cell towers. Yes, it's good we'll be getting additional funds from that, but at what cost? If you remember years ago, there was a big to-do over on Edel Drive with the homeowners complaining about different
disease, different things that were going on there because they felt it was from the cell towers. So, that's just an FYI. I don't know how far away from the school this one's going to be, but if you have something on the roof, I don't know. I'm not an expert in that field, but I'd be a little worried about that.
Um, also, I think it's very disingenuous, to be honest with you, that you don't have the class size ratio because the last increase of over 9%, that was the big hoopala about why we needed the extra money. and you had to
know that that was going to come up again tonight. So, I'm very disappointed that you don't have those figures for me. Again, I think that's disingenuous. Um, also I'd like to know how much do you think or do you know that the BOE saved through the town's
aid and services because that's also indirectly funds that the taxpayers pay. Also, um you didn't you we you we didn't even touch about the new um superintendent that you're going to be looking for. That I think could be
another cost additional cost to the taxpayers. And for lack of better words, I was not I was not in impressed with the boilerplate ad that you had. I mean, it didn't ask for anything dynamic or specific or out of the box or something
to get us out of the situation we're in now. So, um, and I don't certainly want to see, for lack of better words, really, again, is recycled superintendent. You know, I like to see some new blood, some new forward thinking in in regards to that. And
lastly, this I found out that I never even knew and I wonder if people know this. Um, so if a taxpayer in our town goes against the assessment that they have and they win, so say if they're over assessed $1,000 or whatever, you
folks already got your money from their tax payment, the town loses out. But from what I understand, the BOE doesn't return any monies. They keep the money. So that's additional funds. So, I wonder how much in the last school year that you folks got additionally that the town
had to suck up and and return to to uh to the taxpayer. So, that's it. Bunch of questions. Thank you. Okay. Jill don't have the class size information. So, um how much did the BOE
save from 10 services? Do we have that number? Uh no, but I think there might be a misunderstanding. uh with the shared services agreement. So, we don't get those services for free. Uh we re first of all, the shared service agreement goes both ways, right? Because we have electricians and
plumbers that the town doesn't have. Um and then they have other skilled workers that we don't have. So, we the idea being that it's less expensive for us to just reimburse each other for the cost of our our internal staff members uh than it would be to go to a vendor to get something fixed, right? So, uh for
example, uh we saved money on um paving separate. I'll if you want I can talk about paving too but that um so that's not through the shared service agreement. So I'll address that first. So, yeah. So, basically, um, we're part
of a co-op that the town's also part of, um, through Morris County. Um, and they in that co-op, there's road resurfacing, which so we could utilize that, but the problem being that they normally won't come all the way up here to resurface a
parking lot, right? But what we did was by communicating, you know, with town, which by the way, communicating with town has been great. Um, you know, we were able to schedule explaining here. Oh, I didn't I in my defense, hey, in my defense, I didn't see him over there. He
reaches out every summer to see Haven, too. Yeah, but he did reach out. That worked out for me. I know he was there, but um uh to go into every little detail, but what I'm saying if I was in your position, I would say, okay, I would again not I I can't allow this
sometimes and not other times. So, no more no nothing from the audience, please answer the question. So the only way to do that will be if we uh got a quote each time each of us uh and that kind of goes against the idea of let's get it fixed quickly and let's get it fixed less. So we did in the beginning
start getting quotes but that was holding up the entire process right. So for example I think we had a quote again this is like a year ago so we'll say between like maybe 8 to 13 somewhere in that ballpark range to fix um what was it a uh a catch basin. All right. Uh but
the town was able to do it for significantly less than that. Uh, I would say a few thousand dollars maybe at most. I I don't remember the number, but it was a significant savings, right? But just gives you kind of an idea. And then on on the other side, um, if there's something electrical, we have electricians that the town doesn't,
right? We we send them over, uh, they're able to fix something. Plumbers where we send them over, they're able to fix something. Again, not huge projects, but but projects that we're able to to, you know, with our staff absorb without negatively impact the district. Same with them. Projects they can absorb without negatively impacting the town. Uh but long story short, we we uh
reimburse each other for the the pay of of those individuals. So it saves no you'd have you'd have to compare it to quotes each time to know what your savings would be for each project. Well, we're not going out to vendors to get quotes because it was making everything take too long, which is inefficient. Um
is there another question to the superintendent cost of tax there? That's a um I can't really comment on that. That's actually not a budget item. So we can talk about that at the end of the meeting if you are. Was there anything um how much there's something
with the tax? Yeah, the taxes. How much? So I'm not familiar with the way 100% with the town because I haven't worked for a town, right? Uh but my understanding is they have a separate reserve for taxes that are unpaid which they utilize in the situation. Again, could be wrong, but that's my
understanding. Um and in terms of we the district still gets the money. Uh it's not really a savings. It's part of the budget that was already struck. So, it's not we're getting extra money on top of that. It's what was accounted for in that budget. Uh, and my understanding that it's based off state law that they need to make those payments to us. It's not like a favor is being done. I
believe it's I believe it's the law and mayor's up. So, if I'm wrong, you can correct me on anything you'd like to correct me on because again, I'm not an expert on towns. So, um, thank you. Okay, Mr. Do we have anybody on line? No hands raised online. Mayor Ross. I guess
you have to state your name. I know who you are. Interrupted. I wish I can say I'm not here as the mayor, but I don't think anyone's going to buy that. Fortunately, I'm on call 24/7. So, uh it's nice to be on this side.
Um it just $1,100 I think the town lost on tax appeals. 1100 that was it back in 2017 I think was somewhere over 350,000. 350,000. Anyway, I I know a lot of I'm not here
to tell you guys voting budget. Don't vote on the budget. Prove it. Not here. Obviously, your your responsibility is to the children. My responsibility is different than than yours, right? You were elected to to do what's best for the children. Uh that's all anyone could
ever ask. I just want to just one of the things that I brought up in during the council meeting was and I don't know how many people actually listen to it. Um we've been hit since 2022. I just just want to know just everything that's
gone up tremendous amount. For example, we had 21% in health health insurance expenses over 26% in liability insurance, 28% in workers work workers compensation, 37% in road repairs and
maintenance and other operational expenses, over 30% in buildings and grounds operational expense. I mean, the list just goes on and on and on. Uh, you could just check out my page, you can actually see all of it. I mean, 28% in pension obligations, police employees, and the list goes on and on and on. So
you you're you're faced with a I and when you're faced with a small amount to to actually fund all these things that cost one of the things I learned I mean especially with all the emergency services equipment I I wanted to throw up how much all that stuff cost
unfortunately and today it's going to be it things are going to get worse before they get better especially out in Washington things it is what it is you want to start changing things vote that's all that's the the the best thing I could tell people. Um, I just want to
say thank you guys. Uh, one thing, Ray, integrity is something that you do have and we we're happy. We love working with you guys. Russ, thank you as well. Um, Russ, you're the one who opened the door to my administration where we can actually look to find ways to save
money. I hope the next uh, superintendent does the same. I said, "Thank you all." And uh and it's about cutting the red tape to get things done. I think that was one of the questions, too. Cut it right out. We Yeah, we did it. You know, so it's it's what's in the best interest of the children, what's in
the best interest of the taxpayers. Unfortunately, they're tough decisions sometimes. You guys got to make one. Uh it's tough. We had to make one Monday night. It's it's tough. It's not easy. Nobody likes to pay taxes. Insurance is going
on. Thank you guys. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Mayor Rossi, and thank you for your um working with us over the years. We appreciate your help and support. Thank you. We definitely appreciate the partnership. Hi, it's Ann Larson. One more time. I'll be very brief in reference to I' I'd
like to wish you well uh on on your uh on your next venture. Hopefully things go well for you. Um, but I have to say regarding the hiring of your replacement, um, I'm sorry. We're not talking about the superendent the second time. No, but we're not talking about the superintendent search right now.
It's not really a budget item. So, if you want to speak to Well, it is a budget item. You spent $7,500. Did you not? It's not a budget item. It's not in We're not We haven't even hired somebody yet. So, it can't be a Yeah. What I was discussing with I don't want you to hire someone. I want you to hire your own people. The people we elected should be
hiring, not a New Jersey state bureaucrat. That's what I wanted to say. Stop with the bureaucrats. People here are capable of hiring the right people for the job. We we we actually are the ones hiring the person for the job. We have a we have a process for
interviewing and everyone on the board will be involved in that process. Um okay. Do we have any other uh public comments? Hi all. My name is Ed Brown. and I live in the Sussex side of Vernon. I was born in Newton and raised in Vernon the
entirety of my life. I'm here to offer my support for the tax levy 100%. I support our district 100% and out of any other district in this county or state, this will be the one I always support. I don't believe everyone has
the full picture here. Test scores are only a sliver of what we face in terms of issues just like the building maintenance and much much more. There are things that should have been done a number of years ago that didn't under former board members who may have been or are in this room at this current time
but weren't completed. Sorry, there's blur. Uh what does that tell you about where we are at with our current position? Waiting until the 11th hour is only going to cost this district more, especially when it becomes an
emergency. I also wanted to point out that Miss Pellet made a fantastic point as for the HIPPA compliance with the fax machines. It is vital. Most doctor's offices use it, hospitals use it. I'm healthcare, but whatever. As someone who
wears many hats, healthc care being my primary service industry, specifically petroleum billing and collections management and project bidding and much much more, it's all a lot to take in and I would like to believe that I have a great understanding of what's actually going on behind the scenes, especially
with the financial concerns some have. However, it's the concerns due to the lack of research and information by others that are not going to stop me or my family from supporting and wanting to get our district um where they need to
be on a financial level, which again, these funds cover any and all day-to-day operations and projects the district has, including our students. We all need to look at the bigger picture here. Our school district is not a business and they are not here
for a profit and will take any and all money to support our children and their journey with learning and growing no matter what aspect it needs to go to. I love where I live. I intend with sticking with my uh roots for sorry I intend on sticking with my roots here
for quite a while if not my entire life. Keep doing right by our future generations please and thank you. Thank you Mr. Brown. And that was Mr. Nagia with the HIPPA. He the one who told me about the HIPPA. So
yes, just like to make a final statement on the real problem here is credibility. This board has been together some of you for five or six years. You've had a record of some terrible decisions. You haven't thought of the taxpayer. And to
go back to Mr. Rogers, when he got the job, he inherited a bag of crap because there was a lot of cheating done. Payroll records were falsified. Money was spent on on things that that wasn't supposed to be spent on. I personally
got a grant for the school district for $133,000 for security upgrades. And it was specifically came from a manufacturer and his product had to be used. It was used on something else. It was illegal. Recently, our business administrator
didn't answer uh some some open requests. There was a contract, a terrible contract with that the company that did the math program and that's failing and the business administrator attempted to pay them off for years four and five
illegally and and then got caught and then the county backed him up. We had the flex school program, $700,000 shot on a school that was not authorized. Once that came though, then the county got them
authorized. So, there's a credibility problem here. All you people, some of you are related to, married to, or uh involved with people that are employed in the district. And and then I know you're
legally allowed to be on the board, but you one of one of the members here after one of the votes last year came to me and said, I said, "Why'd you vote on on the budget the way you did?" And the answer was, "After all, I'm a teacher and I have to vote like a teacher." That
answer should have disqualified that person from being on the board because you take an oath not to do that. and part of the training you go through and your various modules that you have to to complete are part of that. So being that's just wrong and the credibility is
wrong. So monies that were spent on those 47 teachers that were let go, that was money that was false money because the the uh payroll records were were duped to show that people had already retired when they were still on the
payroll and it falsified money that was available that wasn't there. And then people were hired and then they were let go and the the audit showed that as well. So you've got credibility issues. Some of the members of the board were not here at the time, some of you were.
And uh whenever you make this vote, just logically try to say, should I charge the taxpayers 1.2% or $1.2 million in order to get $67,000 from the state to use in your
budget? That's the real question that you have to place here. 67 on this end and let me charge them a million dollars on the other. pretty pretty open and close case to me. Use your best judgment. Thank you. Okay. Um
All right. We're not going to go back and address like the past, but I did want to give you the opportunity to answer the uh is to speak to whatever you want to speak to. Um yeah, I I mean I think it's been
uh conversation. It's gotten I mean I've had chains of emails that are like 60 emails long. Um and then you know basically person's like oh you were right I owe you an apology. Okay so in
over that contract existed before I was there. I did not change any term that had a prepayment. Once I found out there was a prepayment we started negotiations to change the prepayment out because the prepayment would not be the correct way to move forward. Right. and then that was tied to a change in the level of
grades that it was offered to. So that's the first thing. So I don't like the idea of someone standing up here and tell me I paid someone off when that contract was put in place before I even started working here. So that's kind of the first thing. And and academically uh it's now through grades K through three. And our highest difference or our
highest difference in test scores is in third grade math. That's the highest above the state average out of any of our other grade levels with the pro with that program. And I take I take issue with the fact that you're standing up here and commenting on my credibility while you're telling me something that is factually incorrect about myself. So
just want to put that out there. Um the forensic audit is online for anyone that would like to see that audit and read it for themselves. Uh there was stabilization aid that was received. At the time the stabilization aid was utilized um for reoccurring costs uh
which that's a discussion in itself but it wasn't utilizing correctly. In fact, the audit said that it could be used for those purposes, right? It was an allowable use of those funds. So, I don't know why there's a comment saying I wasn't here then. So, I have no horse in this race, by the way. I'm just reading what was in the audit there. It
was allowable use of the funds. There was no issues with fund 20. All the fund 20 grants were utilized correctly that were looked at in that forensic audit. It says it right in the audit. Um, but there was a one-time source of funding used for reoccurring costs. So that that's kind of when I talk about hey we have a one-time source here but then in
the future if we need for the budget then you could use it for the recurring cost but the other way it doesn't work because the other way is a problem right because once that funding goes away you have the expense still but not the revenue to fund it. Um but again I want to reiterate those funds were used as they were allowed to be used as it says directly in the forensic audit which is
available on the website for anyone that would like to reference it. Did I miss anything? Um, no, we can't. We're not going to speak to an individual student matter with the flex school. So, I think we're done there. Um, I do want to say that as much as I love to talk about that audit,
um, because there's a lot of misinformation out there. I I don't want to spend any more time on it tonight. Tonight's supposed to be about the budget and that was, you know, years ago and we have to work with what we have where we are now and what we have now and what we need for the future now. We can't keep going back and complaining
about what happened years ago as much as I would like to. But if anyone wants to talk to me about the audit, you can reach out to me and I'm happy to talk to you by phone or at a different meeting. But right now, we need to kind of move forward with our budget um situation. And it's also available on the business soft website because I have another
chance to plug that website under the audit section as are our annual audits that occur every year. Do we have any more um comments on Highland? Kyle makes trying to make it really quick.
Um 2% isn't keeping up. 4 point whatever percent might barely be keeping up. Um my recollection I'm just here tonight trying to recall news stories from many years ago over time. Um there are states
that have been not keeping up on purpose for many years. I don't think the results of those exercises are something we want to duplicate. I'm in favor of uh moving forward with this budget. Thank
you. Thank you. Online. Sorry. George never say good evening. Good evening. Can you hear me? Yes. Can you state your name, please? I know who you are, but just go ahead and state it. Uh,
George Noner of N I K N O R O V uh Sussex portion of Vernon. Thank you. Okay, no problem. Uh, yeah. So, uh, thank thank So, first I'd like to compliment you, Madam President, on maintain on your efforts to maintain the
quorum tonight uh during the budget hearing uh and maintaining Robert's rules rules of order. I think you've done your best to keep things orderly and to answer and to have all the questions answered uh during the count
during this during this tumultuous time. So, I appreciate uh your efforts as well as the efforts of the entire board of ed education as I've uh as I've said uh many times over. So, thank you for your service. I appreciate that. Um I
listening to the comments that were made and the and the questions answer along with the parts of the presentation that uh I saw uh I I do understand that it is vital that we do that uh these levies are taken advantage of uh so that way
you hedge against uh inflation for the future. So um it's not a uh it's not a huge amount like last year I think last year was like a 9.2% 2% uh increase. Um but uh that being said uh you know I
think you have to take into account uh the uh you know the strain that is happening with the residents. Uh there's a lot of good points that were made tonight. Uh and uh people are on uh being stretched very thin. uh raising
taxes uh and uh you know accounting them to uh everything from standardized test scores which I quite frankly don't believe in standardized testing in in our public schools anyway uh to uh infrastructure and dealing with the
increase in cost uh and the like uh is only going to take you so far uh versus uh looking at alternative means uh including advocating in Trenton uh and voting at the ballot box. And I think
that point by Brian Fischer was very valid. Uh I think you need to group together. I think you need to go and uh uh march on Trenton and get that money back from the administration. Uh so that
way we as taxpayers don't do it because we're essentially being double taxed. We're being double taxed. We're being taxed by the state and it's being reallocated to public school systems that uh my kids are not a part of that your kids are not a part of. And so uh
you know we pay local we we pay these taxes they should be going back into the district. And so while I appreciate your levies uh you know your the fact that you're increasing your taxes uh and I'm hoping to see some good results out of
that uh you h you have to understand that this is not a sustainable model moving forward and uh I you're going to have to absolutely look at different options uh as you uh go down the road. Uh so that's all I have to say tonight and uh once again thank you for your service and thank you for the
presentation. Thank you very much. All right. Do we have anybody else? I just like to make a request. Mr. uh last time I looked at the long range facility plan that was presented not on
the website. Is a possibility coming back from the long range facility plan or the facilitywide assessment? slowly white. Uh yeah, I'll try to get a digital copy of that. Um I just to make sure there's no like security concerns with any about
anything. Yeah. Yeah. Yep. All right. Um so moving on to item uh G, review of public meeting agenda for Thursday, May 22nd. Does anybody have any concerns with the public meeting agenda? No. Okay. Item H, Mr. Rogers.
Uh, number one,formational matters and reports, letter A in the enrollment report, which is attachment WS1. Number two are recommendations. It's recommended that the board approved the harassment, intimidation, and bullying report reviewed at the April 16, 2025 meeting, attachment WS2. It is
recommended that the board of follow approve the following uh staff appointments. shortest part of the meeting. Can I get a motion for items H one and two? So moved. Second.
Certainly. Thank you. Questions or comments about those items? Okay. Can we get Mr. Cino? Yes. Mr. Fischer? Yes. Mr. Krauss? Yes.
Abstain from pay. Miss Plet. Yes. Mr. Sweeney. Yes. Abstain from item B. Missello. Yes. Mr. Zimmerman. Yes. Miss Brock. Yes.
Mr. Smeaggle. Yes. Motion carries. Okay. Item I, Mr. Slam, do you have to read this whole long? You could read the if you want me to read the whole thing or not really. No. No. Is there an abbreviated version
that would be appropriate? Is it the resolution? Um, uh, letter I as updated on the addendum. Uh, just note that it's letter I was added to the addendum. So the remaining letters on the uh original agenda will shift down by what letter? Moving forward. Um so letter I is
adoption of the 2025 2026 final budget as approved by the executive county superintendent and pending approval of the district's application for additional expenditures and tax incentive aid by the New Jersey Department of Education. Uh I can say as noted below.
Um if you want to be more I can if not no that's fine. All right. And uh just for anyone in the in the crowd, the addendum is over there. We got it on the way in. And then anyone at home, uh that would be on the website. Uh if you'd like to reference that directly. Okay. Can I get a motion for the resolution by
the Vernon Township Board of Ed to approve the 2025 2026 district budget pending approval of the district's application for additional expenditures and tax incentive aid by the New Jersey Department of Education. So moved. Second. Second. Try
um questions or comments? Comment comment I want to make is how I vote and how anybody at this table votes shouldn't reflect to the public how they
feel about the children of this district. I'm a father. I have two children in the school systems. One's in seventh, one's in eighth grade. I'm voting on what I feel is best for the
district and best for my children. And if I vote in a way that some people don't agree with, that doesn't reflect on what is best for the children. It reflects what I think is
best for the children. And I'd like to say that about all my fellow board members. I know we're not all going to vote the same. And you know, I don't think that means that anybody at this table thinks any less of the children than anybody else.
Thank you, Mr. Fischer. Thank you. I appreciate that, Charlie. Yeah, I just want to I I'm glad glad everyone came out tonight and even on Zoom, we had a bunch of people as well. Um, everyone's comment I I think I can
probably speak for most of us. It means a lot to hear everyone's comment. We may not always agree and um, but we all we all appreciate hearing one another. I mean, to me, it's amazing how Trenton can do something like this, take a
problem they created and then turn a community um, to fight against themselves, right? Where we're arguing both sides. We both have valid points, but the problem wasn't us. It's not anyone in this room or anyone in in the town. The problem is in trend. And it's
amazing how they just drew threw this problem and flex the whole issue where it is. And and a lot of people made comments about this. I mean, we we do need to bring this to Trenton. This is we're voting in November, right? Sure, you can vote against board members.
That's fine. But think about what this moment and vote against those people who aren't here. Where are our senators? Where are our representatives? Why aren't they coming to our meetings listening to our budget problems that we have and and just letting us fight
amongst ourselves? You know, like we all we all strap for cash right now. I I don't think probably anyone is really saying, "Hey, here's a couple thousand. Just go go with it." Right? So, we're all dealing with these problems and and we're just fighting and we want to
protect our children. You know, Brian made up a great point. Everyone cares about the kids in this town. Everyone cares about each other in this town. We we work together. It's a it's a great place to live. I I grew up here most of my life and I love it here. I mean, this this building itself was probably the
first bu school I went to. I I started in Rolling Hills for a couple months, but I was this is the first building and I and then I have a lot of great memories here. I remember Iggy used to be in the corner there. That was a lizard over there. And um you know, a little bit different. But I look at this this room particularly because I I
there's I think the walls are different because I thought it was I think it was all white, but there's not much different. We have look at the conduit that is used here. That's probably from um token ring and and we have VGA adapters on there. Our facilities are so
behind on just little things. We're not going to fix those. I mean, we're those yellow obstructions are still going to stay there because you know what? We have bigger problems. We have we have the the architect showed us pictures of the roof. It's Yeah. The roof, the material on top is holding up. The
brick, everything else around it is crumbling, falling apart. This is years of I I don't want to say neglect. Just people not paying attention. we have to start worrying about our future for our our our children, our town, our
buildings need to be be fixed. Um, and you know, referendum is a good point and that's something as a board as a board I think we have to look at, you know, make sure the the administration is looking for where they're making their cuts and bringing in money like they've been doing this year. We have a lot of the
ESIP, we have the cell phone tower, we have the cuts on the on, you know, negotiating a new healthcare project. Good. We're bringing in money. We we got to keep doing that. We have to put pressure on them. Let's continue that. We also have to we have a financing committee and as a board we have to
start making sure we start following these putting the money aside and putting these projects first and not pushing them down the road. You know, we just got this big audit done. We had $110 million, right? We're never going to pay all that, right? This we'll
probably just replace the buildings but with that money, right? But we have to start doing some of those projects. We're we're not rebuilding anything anytime soon. So, let's start putting stuff in in place so we protect it. And we're not having these these discussions here like, "Oh, we have to raise the
taxes again because we didn't think about the the mortar on the building's going to eventually fall off, right?" And and so we have a referendum. Maybe we can fix all that. If ma magically maybe we can get everything done with this referendum. We have a budget then we can just pass, right? and and we'll
just get by. But the little things, I mean, where is the where are we putting money for in the future that will cover the budget, maybe covers the teachers, maybe covers the everyone's salary, keeps the lights on, keeps the heat here, the referendum, maybe that covers
it. We fix the driveways, we fix the roofs, but AI is new, right? Where where are we build where are we getting that those tech the tools to do teach these kids AI? I'm looking at a Chromebook here. I'm sorry. Sorry about that. Yeah. Good thing you drank all that. Now, we
have a broken We have a broken microphone as well, but we have we I'm looking at a Chromebook here. It's missing screws. I can see the top screws have been unscrewed so many times because the technology department is doing all they can with the little money
they have to keep the little amount of of uh That came off Brian's chair. Oh, the little amount to keep keep the budget low cuz we want the kids to use the technology. We need them to learn the technology because once they're out of here, technology is all around us,
right? I mean, our cell phones, our cars talk, everything, everything we do is technology. And yet, we spend nothing. We We don't have money to spend on it. And we're not improving the future of our kids. And that's our, it's not only our kids' future, it's our future, our
country, our our community. Those kids will come back. They'll bring the money back into the community. They'll build up the community, make it better, make the country better. But yet, we're we're just lacking because we don't we we build we fix the building or we we keep
the lights on, but we have no money to no extra money. So, this is a very hard decision. I I don't I've been thinking about it for two weeks. You know, I I think people think that yeah, maybe we came some of us came to the table thinking what we're going to vote, but it wasn't we we we made that decision. I
think all of us have been thinking about this for two weeks and going back and forth, fighting the battle in your head. What what am I going to vote yes or no on this? It it's a very hard decision, but you have where who else is going to drop this money off? Where is it going
to come from? We can fight Trent and say, "Hey, you know what? We're not taking we're not going to raise the taxes. Well, who's going to drop the money off for our kids? So, we what? Wait five more years and maybe we got a different governor who comes in and says, "Hey, let's give you guys
right. We'll pay back the money." But we have five years of loss and those kids is the same thing when it happened in CO. They're just keep losing and the kids are losing and losing and we never get anywhere. So I I I think you you have just when you make the decision
tonight, think of everything. It's not just the building. It's not just the lights. We we need to build for our future of the kids and and keep giving the things we have. And part of this is a lab, a science lab that's probably is
the same science lab I went to when I was in school here. It hasn't changed, right? Yeah, but do they probably still have the same mineral boxes missing, you know, speesus now and and everybody used to take the magnesium because you can light it up, right? But everything else
is probably the same. You know, the talc is gone, but we probably have a box of minerals that's probably halfway full and we're still trying to teach our kids and prepare them for the future with with just half half a week we can give them. So, that's what I that's all
I have to say. I think that was a really excellent summary and I don't know that anyone can really add to that. Um and to just Okay. All right. Everybody wants to add to it. I'm trying to Mr. Smaggle I need to invoice you for that.
So it didn't actually touch the mic. Okay. Ray, Stephanie, then Carl. Oh, you're just right. I would just like to say that, you know, Councilman Higgins asked why I talk about the buildings because when I got on here five years ago, you could see the shape of this
place. So, we had to replace two builder, two bridges where, yes, the steel underneath was rotted that you could break with your bare hand, and I'm an iron worker, so I know that's years of neglect. But what about the side of the bridges that were clearly from the road and everywhere that were rotted
through previous boards just ignored it? Think about the things we're replacing. Fire alarms. We had an electrical box at the high school that they were scared to turn off cuz nobody knew if would ever go back on. We've replaced that. These are not things you just replace. They're
safety issues. All these kids are going into these schools. You know, Walnut Ridge, the fire alarm. Those are the youngest kids we're setting into a building. We need to replace the fire alarms. It should have never got to that point. PA systems, you know, I would
love to do more educational things. And I believe Shep is here. When I first got on and we're doing these things and money seemed to be more available than it was, we wanted to do those science labs. They are not science labs. They are a room that has a few sinks around
the corner. I don't even know how they teach science where a kid is over a sink with the walls one foot in front of his face and his teachers behind him. I mean, I'm sure they teach them the best they can, but that's not helping the students. So, we're putting in the
science labs, we put in teachers last year and support staff. So, but when you're talking about the safety and the well building of the students, you got to make choices. Is the science lab priority over fire alarms or bridges that are rotting through? You got to
make those decisions, but it's taken five years. So, we do have the science labs here that will affect the kids in that school. But like Charles said, it's all over the place. This has been going on for years. This has not happened in the last two years. This is many years
of boards making decisions to ignore infrastructure because infrastructure never goes away. It just gets more expensive. And I would ask Councilman Higgins, you know, the municipal building been saying for years isn't dire repair. Nothing's going on there.
The mayor was replacing the roof tiles. I mean, are they just going to keep letting that rot and rot and rot, you know, so boards have to make their responsibility decision? It's not popular. Not nobody wants to make everybody here
is above the same tax increases that everybody over there is. So it's not like we're exempt from anything. But that's all I got. Sorry. Thank you, Mr. Zimmerman. Mr. Pantino, I know we've been I know we have heard a lot from
board members, but I just want to chime in. I will never forget what it was like being a student in these schools in a class with 30 kids, looking up at ceiling tiles that are stained and coming off the ceiling. I'll never
forget what it was like being a student in this district and feeling like the adults around me didn't care. And I speak from my perspective as a teacher. And I'm never going to apologize for having that perspective.
I'm not speaking as a teacher. I'm speaking as someone who deals with children, a room of 30 kids every day. I'm speaking as someone who recently was in these schools in a classroom with 30 kids. 30 kids is too
many. That class is not as wellrun as it should be. And I am furious at Trenton and the governor for putting this decision that they really should be taking into account, taking care of their public
schools because New Jersey always touts itself as having some of the best public schools in the country. And we do, but we also pay some of the highest taxes. And Mr. I don't know if it was Mr. Higgins or um Mr. Fischer or one of the
brilliant people who spoke tonight, but someone pointed out that money we're being double taxed. We are paying taxes that go to Abbott districts or I don't know if that's the term anymore, but that go to something else. Yeah, something else. But that go to districts
that we don't see. And then we're asked to increase the levy locally to cover that difference from their reappropriation of money that we're paying in. And I totally agree. This is something that needs to be discussed at the ballot box and the elected officials
in Trenton who are making these decisions should be held accountable. But your local school board can only do as much as with what they have in front of them. And I was elected. I stepped up to make this decision. For some reason, I
was the top vote getter, too. So, I feel like people have trusted me to make this decision. And it's not an easy one. I have been losing sleep over this. But I cannot support something that doesn't put our students and the quality of
education that we're putting out first. I'll never vote against something that puts us on a path towards sustainability. And maybe it'll cost me an election. I'm prepared to make that decision because I know it's the right thing to do. I've looked at what's in
front of me. There isn't much else that we as a board can do to solve the problem that's in front of us. We can be mad at what's happening in Trenton and we should be and the whole town should be, but your school board can only do so much. I mean, we've done a forensic
audit. We restructured the administration so we don't have an assistant superintendent. We have director of human resources. We've cut administrative staff. We have hired a new business administrator. Did I mention we did a forensic audit? I've been up a long time, but we have I mean all of these issues that the public are
rightfully bringing up tonight are things that I have been hearing about on this board. When did I get on the board again? I was 23 when I was first put on the board. So, I I don't know. I I'm making the best
decision with what's in front of me and I know I have to. Thank you. Okay. Um, are we ready for a roll call vote? Anybody else? Great. Let's move to a roll call,
please. Miss Brock, yes. Mr. Smaglia, yes. Mr. Canino? Yes. Mr. Fischer? No. Mr. Krauss? Yes. Miss Pellet? Yes.
Mr. Sweeney? Yes. Miss Varello? No, Mr. Zimmerman. Yes. Motion carries. Thank you. Jay, board summary. I don't Do we have the finance? Yeah, but it's very very minimal. It's kind of over. It's pretty
much that, but there's there's one item that we can talk about. Great. Go for it. You want me to do it? Yeah, let's do it. It's quick. It's short, painless. All right. Um, we met on the 14th of April, my birthday. The meeting was conducted online through Google Meet. In
attendance were Ray Slam, Russell Rogers, Joe Van Kirk, myself, Jennifer Pelllet, Ray Zimmerman, and Brian Fiser. We discuss how much of the incentive aid we should use if we get approved. If we do get approved and we use the full amount, we can possibly complete the following project based off
of the estimates by the architect. And we've been through them tonight already. It's the Walnut Ridge fire alarm replacement, the Rolling Hills fire alarm replacement, the high school PA system, the Glen Metal Middle School science lab replacement, and the Lansbury Hollow PA system replacement.
It should be noted that these are mostly safety and security issues that need to be addressed. The other is a curricular issue that needs attention. And the next item we discussed was whether or not to purchase the guarantee on the EIP. The guarantee will pay us the difference if we don't achieve the savings that they
say we'll get. We decided to get it for the first year and see how it goes for the next year. We can always drop it. The rest of the meeting was dedicated to the facilities wide assessment presentation that you all saw at the last meeting. Painless. Thank you, Mr. Grass. That's great. Um, then we also have policy.
Yes. So, I apologize. I didn't have the notes, but I'll have them in the drive. Uh I should have them in the drive by tomorrow for you everyone out to read. Um we we had a uh um one of the shorter meetings, I guess. Uh it was um myself,
uh Russ, and John. Uh we met on um April 30th at 5:30 to 6:30. Um we covered a very important topic. Um well, I think a lot of board members feel it's important. We were talking about the um
set up a policy to advertise in the school on school property. So um that would be you'll see it um um uh what's it called? Policies I forgot what the tree standard for policy policy
6163 um that's going to be for advertising school property. We we I think we all have an idea of how we want to advertise, but it is we use the template from Shra's estimate. Um, so it's kind of broad, so we we could expand off of
it. We can change it, but I think to start with, I think we we leave it the way it is. Uh, we're all in agreement. We read it over a couple times and uh and we believe this is going to help bring in some more revenue for the for the district and and we can use those funds for the for for various things.
Um, with that is another another policy that we actually going to hold until next probably next week unless we um I'm sorry to the following meeting unless uh unless we get word back that we are good with the with the bidding process. Yeah.
Race race. Very good. Okay. All right. So, Yep. Okay. So, then it's all based off per it's it's there's no change. So, there we don't have to read it anyway. So, um the other policy has to do with
graduations. Um 5460. It was um it changes the number of credits for the children. Doesn't affect the children that are currently um on credits here right now. It only works for two years because that's what the state statute,
right, is and and we'll probably have to revisit this in two years, but um it it puts us in line. It really nothing's changed. It's actually our policy was wrong or not wrong. It didn't comply. It wasn't the same as our um code of uh um
code of conduct. Code of conduct handbooks. So the kids still had the right they still had the right number of credits. We would just had it wrong in our in our books. Um so there was a couple other changes in there. I'll highlight them on on the report. Um and then a big thing another change we we're
doing we're we're u we're removing uh four policies 1360 13uh 1405 1405.1 and 1405 uh.2 um these had to do with um um
positions. So the positions which was it was job description I'm sorry yes job descriptions for especially two of the positions the don't exist um or three of them don't exist so in our district anymore so they
were cut along a couple years ago um so but that's the administration's job right they're the ones who hire the people that are ones that tell the people to do the stuff u we we consulted with uh Strauss Esme they said they normally do not recommend this they don't even have a template for that. So
they said this was homegrown put into our policy. We feel that doesn't belong in our policy book. There's no statute. So descriptions we approve all the time anyway. Right. And the job Yeah. And they come from the administration. So So we're going to remove um those four. So
and that's it. That's all we have for the policy. Awesome. Thank you. Um okay, we are back up to item K, which is public comment. Um we are welcoming members of the public. Um there will be no questions in this session. It's for
any topic you want to discuss but you have five minutes to speak and um if you have a question it might be answered after we close public comments but it won't be answered immediately after I have to get Yeah. Sorry my leg.
Um, I sent my daughter to this school today with $50 for the school store. It's It's ridiculous. And she came home and she brought flower packet seeds, a car wash sponge, like four
dollar store items. I could throw up that $50 went out the window on it, but it sports a stool. Whatever. The point of that story is that her heart was in the right place. I'm sure that's all of you at the table, but she doesn't know
how to manage money. So, I wouldn't trust her to make big financial decisions, okay? Um, it's not all about the money. The the schools need money. The district needs money. We'd have to be idiots to not realize that it's the
people behind the wheel of the ship that we don't trust, much like my kid sending her to the school store with how they're using it and where. And uh that's really my comment. And you know, for the two people that voted against this, really,
thank you because we keep getting hit year after year after year and my kid is in the same position she was. Don't look over. It's it's bad. It's it's sad and and shame on you. Really, I'm sorry. I wasn't aware I was doing anything. I looked in this direction just to see if
there was anybody online. Is how we got here today. I was just checking the screen to see if somebody was waiting to speak online. I wasn't I was still listening to you. I was still listening to you. It wasn't disrespectful to look in that direction.
Thank you. And that'll be noted in election time. Okay. Anybody else? Diane Larson, one more time. Just a thought. Maybe it's time to start talking about selling one of the buildings. You're talking about $45 million worth of roof repairs. Maybe if
we had one less building to repair, crumbling, you know, crumbling brick and everything. It might be time to really give that some consideration because we'd save a principal, an assistant principal, a school nurse, the maintenance staff, the maintenance on the building, the lawns, the septic, the
risers, all of that. Maybe it's time to ditch one of those buildings, one that's in disrepair. Thank you. Anyone else? All right. Um, item L, open board member forum. Does anyone have anything they'd like to
discuss or share? I've said everything. I just want to take thank board members for the service. These decisions are not very easy and I know you're going to be making very similar ones for the years to come and I appreciate the the service you're giving to to to this as a board. And I think we could all agree that we
would all together march to the state. Um, and I' I'd like to know that that we do agree with that. And I think 90% of what we're talking about we we agree with. It's the 10% of and the hardest part is how to fund all this. Totally agree with that. Um, anyone else
open? I I have a commitment uh next week and there is a partnership meeting if somebody would like to attend. It's a kind of a rewarding experience as a board member. It's a great experience. I'm out of town. But
is it next Wednesday? I saw it on the calendar. Yeah, I'll go 15 to 5:15. You're on, but I I can't make it. Thank you. Thank you. Also, this Saturday is the delegate assembly
meeting. Are you going to be online? You're the delegate. You're the uh delegate. Saturday, the Saturday the 3. Yes. I know there's a delegate assembly I'm going to. I didn't think it was this week though. It is. Is
it? I'll double check. I I registered. You can look out online. You don't have to go. No, I I definitely registered for it. I didn't think it was this week. Thank you for going. Yeah. So, I'd like to just quickly say that he's getting his board certification. He's
getting his master board certification on the 6th at the S. I told I saw your name. Special services which we are having. I just met with Mr. um F. Okay. On I don't even know what
day it is anymore. Monday. Tuesday. It's coming Monday. Yeah. No, I had it already. You had the meeting? We had I had a meeting with him and and Yeah. and Brian and we're setting up for next because there was so much going on. We're gonna there was I couldn't we
couldn't even pick a day with this because I'm on that committee. I know. I know. And I apologize. No, no, no. Thank you. Yeah. Anyone else? The um Mr. Fisher, I I just I don't know if you want to make an announcement to the public about
the uh public input session on Monday. Oh, thank you so much. Yes, there's a public input session about the uh for the superintendent search so that the public can share their views um with the board and uh a number of board members will be there to hear in person and
there will also be uh information collected by the facilitator who will then um report back to the full board. Um so that is Monday at 7 p.m. at uh here right? Yeah. Lay hall. So we really hope people will come out. I should have
actually mentioned it sooner when more people were still here. So, we will be um it's also being promoted on our um website. Thank you, Mr. Fischer. Um anybody else? Oh, you There was the same. Oh, it was the same thing. Okay. Yeah. Thank you. It's just been a long
night. Um okay. Item M, adjournment. Can we get a motion to adjourn? Second. Second. Are you sure you're I don't even know the first. There's so many. So, I have Mr. Fischer and then who's my second? Me.
Okay, we can roll. Oh, all in favor?