Call this meeting to order. Roll call, please. Mr. Musterel. Mr. Bono. Mr. Fio. Mr. Harris here. Mrs. Perez >> here. >> Mr. Santiago. Mr. Silva here.
>> Mrs. Vasquez >> here. >> Mr. Rivera >> here. Mr. Holmes >> here. Compliance with the New Jersey open public meeting law commonly referred to as the sunshine law. The van board of education has caused notice and posting of this meeting to be sent to
the following announcing time place thereof agenda etc. The Daily Journal SNJ today the president of Atlantic City Bisto Bueno the clerk for the city of Vinland and the administrative office public bulletin board. Please rise for
the flag salute. United States of America. Mr. Melro, is there an executive session resolution? >> There is not. >> Thank you, Dr. McCann. presentations special presentation this evening Mr.
Scott Merell school business administrator will present the 2026 2027 preliminary school district budget for the record Mr. O has arrived at 502. Good evening board members, central
administration, members of the public. I'm going to introduce the 2627 proposed school district budget. So the overview is we have a budgeting process that I'll go through. We'll have historical summaries, proposed revenues,
proposed tax levy, proposed appropriations, and budget highlights. So our process is um we have administrative meetings where we plan principal meetings with the county for school-based budgets,
supervisor and department head meetings with the business administrator and the assistant business administrator for district budget and a review of the preliminary budget with board members to discuss increases, decreases, proposals, and initiatives. Just a shot of our enrollment over the
past five years. Um, as you'll see, last year to this year, we decreased 225 students. Uh, our proposed enrollment for 2627 based on our ASSA
numbers this year is 9,435 students. So, the proposed revenues for next year tax levy at 37,422,355. And I'll get into that a little deeper. Uh that's based on a 6%
increase on the tax rate. And I say that specifically again, I'll get into that later. Medicaid 191,000. State aid is up by 6 million 6.7 million
um to 167,228,569. Miscellaneous revenues of 1.1 million and our fund balance dropped by 2.5 million to 11.9 million. Total general fund budget is going to be 217,912,76. Our fund 20 appropriation is going to be
28,747947 for a total of $246,660,023. This is just a graph of those revenues. You'll see that state aid comprises 6.74% of our budget. Our tax levies 17.17%.
Used to fund balance is 5.48. Miscellaneous revenues half a percent and Medicaid is less than .001%. I'm sorry, 0.9%. So the state calculates our fair share. That means what they believe we should
be raising in revenue for the tax levy. Our fair share as determined by the state is 89,735,467. Our actual proposed tax levy is 37.4 million. So we're 52.3 million below what the state is
expecting us to raise in tax levy. Uh so we're what that means is vin according to the state's calculation is under tax by 58.3% um according to the fair share.
So I'd like to I'd like to show these slides just to show how everything works out with the tax levy. So our ratables as you can see are 4.1 million. Last year they were just about four I'm
sorry 4.1 billion. Last year you can see it was just about four billion. Still went up by hund00 million. You'll see our tax rate went from 8596 or86 to 9111
pardon me. So that's a on a monetary basis that's 0.05 or 5 cents increase. Uh the average home is assessed at $163,159. So a 6% tax rate increase
uh will affect the average home owner by $84.15. Now I said I'd get back to this. So the tax rate increase, and I say that specifically because it's not a tax levy increase. The tax rate increase is going to be 6% just like we've done the past
three years as you can tell from the visual. Applying an increase to the tax rate allows us to take advantage of the increase in ratables. So while we are increasing our tax rate by 6% like we have the past three years and this is
the fourth year we're at a 6%. um the actual tax levy increase is closer to 9%. Tax rate history. So I like to show how the school district stacks up against
the rest of the tax rate. So the county is at 1.27 cents. $1.27 27. We're at86. Municipality is 1.163.
The total tax rate is 3.392. So the county is 37.44% of the tax rate. The municipality is 34.29. There's some miscellaneous taxes in there at 2.92%.
And the school is at 25.35%. So that means the county is 47% higher than the school tax rate and the municipality is 35% higher than the tax rate the school tax rate by uh over 7 million over just about $8
million in expenses. Um, our proposal for the 2627, 56 million in regular instruction, 25 million in special ed, $18 million in support services,
uh, tuition, 15.6 million, administrative, 8.11.8 million. Facilities, uh, 18.9 million, close to 19. Security, 3.1 3.2 million. Transportation is 13.5 million. Benefits
is close to 54 million. Uh schedule B is 1.6 million. Capital outlay is going to be 1.8 for a total of 220 million. Now you may remember going back that our revenues are 217 million
and our expenses are 220 million. That's because in the school-based budgets, we receive funding from title one and title 2A that contribute to the schoolbased budgets. So, the expenses are going to be higher on that end because we get the revenue
from the title one, title two. This is picture of our appropriations and the cost centers I just spoke about. You'll see regular instruction is 26%, benefits and payroll taxes is 25% and so on.
I thought this was an interesting picture for 2627. Our proposed um budget for salaries and benefits it's 160.5 million which is just about 73%. It's at
72.9% whereas the rest of the budget is 59.6 million. So the rest of the budget is 27% while salaries and benefits is just about 73%.
Some of the highlighted changes from last from this year to next year uh we did have a decrease in excess surplus of 2.5 million. If you see a negative figure on the sheet, that's a negative impact to the budget.
Obviously, a a positive number is a positive impact to the budget. Our increase in tax revenue because of the 6% increase in our tax rate will be 3,116,38. We're increasing what we're projecting
for interest on investments by $230,000. And of course, we I'm proud to report that we received an additional 6.7 million and change from uh state aid. So
that's wonderful. So benefits, health insurance premiums. I just received word yesterday or Monday um they'll be increasing by 16.68%. That's just the major medical portion.
That comes to 5,879,000. The prescription is going to increase by 23.5%. That's about 1.74 million. That's both negative impacts. So between the two of them, you're looking at over
$7 million in additional cost for just medical chapter 78 and 44. That'll increase what that is. That's the employees contribution to their that's the increase in employee contribution to
their benefits. So that'll also increase by 520,000 because benefit premiums increased. Uh we'll be adding an assist employee assistance plan. That's going to cost the district 50,000. Uh the purge
payment, we'll be able to save 200,000 based on what we budgeted this year. Frontline scanners. Uh this is our time in attendance that we're moving to. That's going to save us uh $112,000. I'm
sorry. It's going to cost us $112,000 for the investment into that uh capital outlay fund 12 4.873 million was what we had budgeted this year
that I'm reducing our budget by. But I did put other capital projects I was able to put other capital projects back and I'll go over there in just a minute. For instance, Violent High School Tanner
building will be renovating four bathrooms, two boys, two girls. That'll cost the district estimated $300,000. Uh we want to do a partial roof replacement at BHS
South of Selta uh over the week V-wing. That'll cost $861,420. The facilities budget subs and overtime will be increased by $250,000. The number we had in there was
uh agent. It hadn't been touched in a couple years, a few years. So, we're updating that number. Um the facilities onm budget is also increasing by 150,000. The simple truth is we have aging
buildings which causes additional problems. So, we have to address more and more issues every year. So, we are going to invest another $150,000 into that budget. Um, we're going to get a mower for the
grounds. That'll cost $50,000. Utilities. So, we have we're going through an EIP right now, an energy savings program. Uh, I've been told by the the company that's doing it for us that based on the
projects that we will have completed by June 30th, as of June July 1st and through June 30th of next year, we should be able to save $450,000 in electrical costs due to the
replacement of the LED lights throughout the district. uh we were able to streamline and optimize the EIP costs by 45,000. Uh the alternative program uh we went through an RFP this past year that was
able to save the district 840,000. the non-health insuranceances, workers comp, student liability, all that automobile. Uh that's projected to increase by 10% that'll be 350,000
um increases across the district per the contract. Uh probably shakes out around 2.3 million. Pardon me. We have a u a bills grant. Verizon is supplying us with Chromebooks at the middle and high
school level. Uh we just received word that we will be getting the bills brand for the high school. So with that, we're required to hire a coach for technology for the high school. And we'll be hiring
two of them actually. uh estimated with salary and benefits is about $100,000 a piece if we and bills will reimburse us $25,000 for one of the position. So it shakes out around $175,000 cost to the district.
We did add a position uh supervisor of physical education during this fiscal year. So I need to budget that for next year. That's 150,000 with salaries and benefits. Uh we are adding two additional instructional coaches at the
secondary level, one math, one science. Um that should be around $200,670. We're going to add a position for itinerary nurse uh for next year. We did add a director of alternative school
this year in the 2526 school year. that should and I need the budget for next year uh because we are keeping the position. Uh it's $150,000 for that position and we should be able to save $492,000
on sub costs while not affecting our operation. By the way, um we're going to purchase a security tower light for events. We're going to upgrade the landed security cameras so they're on the same platform as the rest
of the district. Um, we need to budget for security for uh the Cunningham Academy. We are not renewing our shared service with the city for the SLEO2 officers.
So, we'll be able to save $80,000 there. the arm guards. We were very aggressive with our budgeting when we put them on our in our budget. Uh we now know what it actually cost us. So again, this
savings of 475,000 will not affect our operation. We'll still get the same service as we are getting now. Uh due to special education compliance, um we need to add a net one teacher and
10 aids. I believe it shakes out to. That's uh going to cost the district about 750,000. We want to upgrade the busy yard camera so it's on the same platform as the rest of of the district. Uh as well as the Wi-Fi out in the bus busy yard so we can
download videos from the buses quicker. backend technology. So we have uh we belong with uh we need to replace the entire wifi setup of the district. That project is
going to cost aboutund sorry 1.3 million. The the firewall is going to cost about $100,000. So together it's $1.4 $4 million worth of projects that we need to do.
Because we're -ray, we only pay 20% of that. So, our cost will be 295,000 for that project. So, it's money well spent. We have a vacant position of technology technician in the budget right now that
we're going to cut for next year. That's $17,000 with salaries and benefits. uh technology was able to stream and streamline and optimize their budget for a savings of 255,000 after taking out
some redundant items. Aiden Lou, can you hear me? >> Oh, hold please. Thank you.
Apologies, technical difficulties. Uh, Aiden Lou, that's the money we pay for nonpublic students to transport themselves. Now, we do go out to bid for these students to see if because we we
don't have the in-house capacity to transport them, but we are responsible. So, we have to go out the bid. If the bid comes back larger than the aid and loo amount, then we just pay them the aid and loo amount. So the aid and loo
amount is going to increase next year. We're estimating by $110,000. We have a transportation assistant coordinator position that's vacant that we're not going to replace. Uh we're able to reduce three drivers
from transportation as well without affecting our operation. >> [clears throat] >> That'll be a savings of 171,000. We're able to reduce the cost of our out of district subcontracted bus routes by
$150,000 based on recent history. Uh we have a bus lease that's coming off the books this year. We just paid it off, so we won't have that $374,000 expense for next year. So that's going to be cut.
Charter schools. Charter schools for fiscal year 27 did increase by 956,000 and some change. Uh that was per the state. Their allocation went up as well. We got
money. So that needs to be passed on to the charter school students. That's [clears throat] it's going to be $950,000 increase. CCT Tech, we built that back into the budget. Uh $931,000.
Our actual bill for CCT is between 1.2 and 1.3 million. Um, we had an outstanding credit this year. So, we needed to build that money back into our budget.
And then tuitions tuitions went up by $622,000 as well. So, that's all the the major pluses and minuses for the budget. There's literally thousands of lines in the budget. Four or 5,000 lines in the
budget. This is the major things uh that were notable. So, just to recap by department, uh some of the budget highlights for school security, armed guards are going
to remain in the budget as is. We're reducing the CLEO2s due to the full complement of armed guards. That's why we're doing it because they were a temporary fix when we didn't have armed guards. We now have armed guards in all the schools. So, uh,
we can reduce this service. But we do want to thank the Van Police Department for aiding us in the interim replacement of security cameras at Lannis to conform to the existing camera system. Uh, the security tower light I mentioned.
We're going to do uh adding professional development specific to security staff to include handle with care, CPR, AED training, and unarmed tactics. [clears throat] We're going to integrate Raptor EMS
software with our existing door systems and 911 dispatch. [snorts] Transportation highlights, there is an increase in aid in LO counts. Um, we're reducing one transportation coordinator which was vacant. So, it's
not a person, it's just a position. Uh, again, reduction of three budgeted drivers that were vacant. So, it's not a it's not a person, it's a position. That'll have no impact on the operation. Uh, there'll be a reduction in out of
district subcontracted routes based on our recent history. We're undergoing professional development to improve route efficiency and we're trans we transitioned from stopfinders a zonar my view to improve overall efficiency and the end user
satisfaction this year [snorts] student services highlights we're adding in net 11 positions to special ed due to compliance one teacher 10 aids uh we're adding a full-time itinerant nurse to aid in coverage and we're continuing to
collaborate with local agencies ities and resources to address mental health and behavioral needs. Facilities SDA grant uh that we received this year will go to the Ivana High
School Tanner building HVAC project. Doesn't finish up the project, but we have to peacemeal it out because we simply don't have the funds to tackle a project of that size. We're [clears throat] going to renovate four bathrooms, two boys, two girls. Uh
we're going to do the partial roof replacement at VHSelta for the V-wing. Uh we're increasing the sub overtime budget. We're increasing the onm expenses. um adding one additional mower to for the maintenance and grounds,
reducing the electric expense due to the EIP EIP uh modifications, and of course, we're continuing the EIP. This should be done, I believe, by the end of next year, next fiscal year, that is technology.
We're going to replace the Wi-Fi for the entire district. We're going to purchase a new firewall. We're removing the vacant technology technician position that's in there. Again, that's not a person, it's position. And we
streamlined and optimized the budget program and curriculum. The EIP budget was optimized. Um, we are adding two additional instructional coaches, science and math.
We're adding two bills coaches as discussed per the uh grant award. We're adding a supervisor of physical education and a director of alternative program both from this fiscal year. We're expanding our bookworms to fourth
and fifth grade. Uh due to the professional the additional professional development day that was negotiated in the VA contract uh we'll be adding more professional development. So funds were allocated for that curriculum and instruction
revisions across content areas. We have a new high school science textbook and financial literacy materials for new VHS course. I want to thank
Mr. Yano, Dr. McCann, um, Miss Galooi, Mrs. Deari, Mrs. Speakman, Dr. Spieman, excuse me, and Mr. Bunitz, uh, all cabinet for helping
me. This this doesn't happen overnight. This this it requires a village. um business office, Shannon Carrie, my assistant business administrator. She did all the heavy lifting, so I want to thank her.
David Hart helping out with the school-based budgets, has them under wraps. Uh Kesha Crawford is our new accountant for preschool. And um of course, Carara Irvine, my administrative assistant. Um huge help.
all of them, principles, supervisors, department heads, and of course you, the board, for um all your feedback and understanding during the budget process. Any questions? >> Questions? We'll start with Mr. Rivera.
>> Thank you. Um two questions. Uh Scott, yes, >> Mr. Mtol, excuse me. Could you elaborate a little bit as as to why our fair share that the state says we're supposed to be paying
is so the gap is so wide as to what we actually are paying. It it's it's based on a Yeah. So the fair share calculation based on some algorithm up at the state level. But the reason why
there's such a huge difference, it goes back to when Vinland was an Abbott district. Okay? So when Vinland was an Abbott district, we received all kinds of state aid. We were told that if we increased taxes
during that period that our state aid would be reduced dollar for dollar that we increased taxes. So who's going to increase taxes during that long stretch of time? Who's
going to increase taxes when the state is footing the bill? >> And this is over 20 plus years. [clears throat] I I believe it was somewhere around there. Yeah. 20 20 some years. >> Um so it was a long time. And then even when
Abbott was done, we didn't start raising taxes right away, which in retrospect probably should have done something. We we should have increased it, you know, 2%. Just to get the ball rolling. We did
wait a couple years. Then there was a couple years where we had a 2% tax increase, couple years where we had a 4%. Now we're at a 6%. I think 6% is a is a nice figure. I think it's very
it helps out both sides. It doesn't kill the taxpayer, but it helps the district. Uh especially when the ratables are increasing. Um, but that's why there's such a big difference there because for years it
wasn't being raised and then now that we're raising it and and I think it shows the state that we're doing our due diligence as well. >> Okay. And one one more question. Is it typical for a school district and I'm talking about across the state of New Jersey. Is it typical for the school
district to get the third largest piece of the pie when it comes to tax revenue? >> Um, no. So because we're an Abbott district and we didn't raise taxes all those years,
right? County is still raising taxes, the municipality is still raising taxes. So our funding stay the same, which means if the tax rate is going up and our funding stays the same, then our percentage is going to drop. So if
you're asking what typical is a typical district is probably around 50%. Maybe a little more maybe a little less but somewhere around that district around that figure. >> Thank you. >> Y Miss Vasquez.
>> Yes. Uh and I apologize for missing the finance committee meeting because I probably would have brought this up then. >> Sure. Um so in the original uh in the original budget without the state aid [snorts] I know you had introduced a
reduction of three drivers and now with the state aid it's still reduction of three drivers which are vacant positions and you're stating it doesn't affect operations but aren't there absences daily right averaging n >> yes >> 19 to 20
>> I could talk about that for sure >> so we have4 43 drivers budgeted. We have 134 routes. Technically, I could I could
reduce the number by even more if we were so inclined. We can't even it's difficult to fill the positions that we do need. For instance, I just told you we have 134 routes, which mean we need 134 drivers. We're
currently sitting at 129, I believe the number is. So, and that's just because we we're going to hire some people to get to 129. So, we can't even fill the 134 that we need. Yet, I still have 140 budgeted. So, we
it was we were trying to be responsible by reducing those positions because we can't fill them. We don't need them. and we do have 19 sub 19 subs
on the books. So, we'll take all the drivers we can get and we do have we still have the budget for it. Um, but I think it's responsible to reduce the driver number by three at the
very least. Yeah, >> understand. Thank you. >> Yep. >> Any further questions from Mr. Merrell? >> Mr. from most on behalf of the board of ed we thank you Shannon and your staff uh for pivoting >> and cabinet yes and cabinet we uh were
expecting a shortfall we got this surplus >> very lucky very appreciative y >> and you guys turned around and turn key it and started preparing for the next stage so we appreciate it and thank you as always for your service >> thank
Give Scott time to transition back. Is there any public comment on agenda items or any other matter? Please limit yourselves to three minutes. Seeing none, Dr. McCann, recommendations.
Thank you, Mr. Holmes. Discussion and approval of budget items A and B. Questions or comments? Motion and second. >> So moved. >> Second. >> Roll call.
Mr. Bono, >> yes. >> Mr. Fio, >> yes. >> Mr. Harris, >> yes. >> Mrs. Perez, >> yes. >> Mr. Silva, >> yes. >> Mrs. Vasquez, >> yes. >> Mr. Rivera,
>> yes. >> Mr. Holmes, >> yes. >> Motion carries. Discussion and approval items 8 through 11. >> Questions or comments? Motion and second. >> So moved. >> Second.
>> Roll call. >> Mr. Bono. >> Yes. >> Mr. Fio. >> Yes. >> Mr. Harris. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Perez. >> Yes. >> Mr. Silva. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Vasquez. >> Yes. >> Mr. Rivera.
>> Yes. >> Mr. Holmes. >> Yes. Motion carries. >> Thank you. >> Motion for a German. >> Motion. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I. >> Thank you. Good night. >> Thank you.