This is a specific house that I used and I will not say where it is. That also had an increase. And based on the evaluation, my school tax levy, that's how I get my tax rate and then against the value of the house. So it is the third year in a row that that is going down. So minute. Sure. So when we look at the budget overall, um you know, I think this this board has been very fiscally responsible for a good number of years and that has put us in a very good position as a district uh to be able to, you know, be very fiscally responsible, maintain our educational programs. Uh the district supports all the co-curricular programs that are currently in place, our athletic programs. um it meets the state mandates and I would say even goes above and beyond those and still stays at the 2% cap.
All righty. It'll melt. So, I just throw it in there. Do you like my cooking terms? Throw it in. Okay. Now, of course, I need to wash my hands. All right. Here go the veggies. I'm going to keep some behind to put on the top just to make it look pretty. So, there are all the roasted vegetables. Oh my god, people. I have to tell you, this looks really good. And I added the pasta water, which will give it a consistency like a like a sauce consistency. But of course, we're going to add grated cheese, parmesan cheese to this. All right, let me have the grated cheese, please, my assistant. Thank you. Yeah. So, I suppose I could buy a block of authentic Parmesan cheese, but come on. Um, I'm in a hurry. I had enough to do. And so, I figured I'd buy some Parmesan cheese already grated.
And so that's what this article is about. Questions? Again, I should point out that this will uh this actually should be replenished as well during the free cash appropriation the fall. All right, seeing no questions, um I'll move to article four, which is the fiscal year 2026 budget. Um the only reason I'm pausing is I'm really trying to think about the the best way to frame this because there is quite a bit of discussion um lead that has led up to this Warren article. Um and uh there will probably be discussion at town meeting and certainly there will be a lot of discussion within the community afterwards. Um and I'll explain why. Um so this year again we had a pretty substantial deficit meaning that the revenue that we had received outpaced our expenses to a pretty significant tune. Now this isn't the first year that this has happened.
Maintenance and transportation takes up 12% of our budget. That's all of our custodial salaries. Their supplies, our utilities are included in there. Our maintenance supplies and services. Uh transportation is included there. That's our in-house transportation as well as our transportation that we contract out with Camden County Ed Services Commission. Uh for some of our out of district placements, we have liability insurance falls in here. Um property insurance, all of the vehicle insurance, all that falls under here. And then capital projects would fall under maintenance and transportation, which we don't have any others for for next year, but um that's generally where they that amount falls. And our grants, our federal grants are 7%. Um, it is higher on here because it pulls in our preschool expansion aid. Whereas on that first sheet, you saw that it was less for federal grants. That's because that was just the federal grants.
Diego, are you here? Diego. Hello, Diego. receiving on his behalf. On his behalf. On his behalf. That's okay. All right. That's okay. Okay, Mr. Ros. So, you had to work. So, Diego, I know a very special soul. Uh, strong. He has a sister. He is going to Gettysburg College. Um, to he will be doing pretty much a free ride there. So, congratulations to him for going to Gettysburg. I had the pleasure to work with him and see him succeed to get there. He's uh history and math and anatomy are his favorite subjects and he's into soccer which he's very good at and he spends quality time with his family. So to his family and to him congratulations very much. Good. Come on up and take a picture. Let's do a picture. You come on up. Mom, you can come up. Gracias. Hello. Thank you. Congratulations.
So um again I think the district has been really fiscally responsible and has thought long term also along the way and that's what as certain things fluctuate and go up and down it has been that past management of budget that allows us to continue to be in a very good position. So, um, you know, my praise to the board for for many years of of setting us up for this success. I want to talk just a little bit about the specific district goals we had this year and how the creation of this budget, you know, has allowed us or will allow us to continue to work on certain initiatives that we've adopted. um and and you know where we are taking some of what is in this budget and applying it to these goals. So we know for goal number one our ELA and math programs were really getting um a thorough analysis this year.
We use this at home. And I bet you do, too. If I was having company and I was making a real authentic Italian dish, and I do sometimes, uh, then I would take the pains to grate because it really does make a difference to have real authentic grated cheese. Okay, now I'm going to let that sit for a little while and let the sauce absorb the cheese and the spices we put in. Meanwhile, I'm going to get the garlic nuts out of the oven. Oh, well, they came out pretty good. I'm going to put them in a cooler pan right here. Look at that. Didn't even spill one. Okay. So, then they're just about ready to serve. All right. Now, we need a serving bowl, don't we? Something pretty just to tighten it up a little bit. And of course, the most important thing to do is to taste this cuz I need to know if we have enough seasoning.
This is actually the second year in a row where we have faced this situation. So what we've chosen to do instead of making cuts and services which are already pretty lean um and our staff which is already pretty lean, we've chosen to supplement the revenue utilizing money from stabilization funds and and other resources, grant funds if they're available. Um ARPA funds which is American Rescue Plan Act funds. Um, essentially we have tried to uh do everything we can and basically utilize any tool that we have in order to not make cuts uh to staff and services here in town. Um, that being said, what we're doing is not a sustainable practice. Um, this is again when we're when you're talking about deficits of, you know, two 300,000, those are generally manageable. But when you start talking about deficits that are in the millions, two millions, um you have a structural issue that needs to be addressed.
This is all the grants and that preschool expansion aid is a grant. It just is paid to us through the state through our state. Um, so the grants are the, like I said, the ESA, the elementary and secondary education act that includes title one, 2A, three, and four. um IDA um which is for um IDA and then there's a preschool IDA as well and then our preschool expansion is included in there as well.
Congrats. That's it. Okay. And next up, we have one more student. This award is a little different um other than our student of the month. This is an award that was um given by the NJA most improved student night winner. So, if we could have Miss Winter come up to recognize this student. [Applause] So, I'm going to ask that the student we're honoring come up and join me, Cameron Riddick. And I'd also like her one of the two teachers who nominated her for this honor to come up as well, Miss Fondees. [Applause] It's a true privilege to recognize an exceptional student today. Cam, as I like to call her, our Somerset Patriots most improved student. Cameron exemplifies the very spirit of perseverance, growth, and resilience. Her journey is a testament to what can happen when determination and the will to succeed meet opportunity and support.
Um and along with that you know we were really looking specifically at early intervention and literacy and we were also looking at our math program. So that was our first goal. Our second goal was around social emotional learning um and providing support and services to students in that area. And then our last goal was really to look at our use of our technology tools and determine you know where there were maybe redundancies, inefficiencies and were there some tools we could use um or replace or uh look into that could make us um more efficient and um make better use of our resources. So, I want to just talk a little bit about our progress on our goals and then how the budget supports that. So, uh the math, we had a math committee this year. Uh that math committee took a close look at the state standards, examined a variety of different math programs, visited other schools, had conversations with other districts, had presentations by publishers, um and really dug into uh looking at the replacement particularly of go math and starting at our K5.
All right. Let me taste a little zucchini here. And then I'm going to add the basil. And one thing I like to put on give it color is and I didn't roast these little bitty tomatoes. But first I'm going to add basil. I chifonard the basil. I'll put the rest in here. Maybe mix it up a little bit. Bring some of those vegetables on the top. These are so cute. They're called sprinkles, and they're multicolored candy tomatoes. So, we'll just sprinkle those on the top, hence the word sprinkle. Wow, I think that looks pretty good. We'll save the rest for when half of them are gone. And here's an extra. Really? [Music] Yes. [Music] Right. Put it next one. I think it's on the 14th. And what is it? Oh, it's sweet and sour chicken and rice kilo. Ah. [Music]
Um and so again, that is the way we chose to handle it this year was by using one-time funds like the stabilization funds to help bridge that gap. But moving forward, we're going to need to have a more robust conversation about how to fix that structural deficit. And that is going to be accomplished either by finding more revenue and there's a couple of different ways that uh we do that or we will have to look at making cuts in services. So uh that's just kind of like my general overall preface to discussion about the overall line items here in the budget. Um, and what I'll do is I'll go through just kind of some of the highlights on the budget in terms of uh larger items and then I'll open it up for questions. Um, so if you have an opportunity to look through the warrant uh the latest warrant, you'll see some of the more the the detail associated with the budget.
Anybody have any questions on that so far? All right, so just some of our budget details. It was approved by the county um superintendent and the county school business administrator on Tuesday, April 15th. At that point, we generated our advertisement. and I put a user friendly budget in the paper that was um posted in the paper on April 20th, 2025. Um the budget has been available in my office for anyone that had wanted to come and take a peek, public included. Um I didn't have anyone come and take a peek, which is fine. Um the district received an additional $286,598 in state aid and an additional $189,262 in preschool expansion aid. And that's to kind of to cover that um fifth classroom for 2526 um which you see there. We're adding a fifth preschool classroom. All five will have a combination of three and four year olds.
Her transformation shines not only through her academic progress, but even more impressively through the remarkable shift in her attitude and mindset. Improvement isn't always about dramatic leaps. Often, it's about the quiet, steady choice to show up every day, to listen, to learn, and to keep going, even when the path feels difficult. Cameron made that choice. Throughout her time at Smallley, there were moments when frustration could have taken over, when giving up might have seemed easier. But Cameron didn't give up. Instead, she steadily moved forward. She took great responsibility for her work, embraced challenges, asked thoughtful questions, and engaged in class with a growing sense of confidence and curiosity. And her progress didn't go unnoticed. Her teacher saw it, her classmates saw it, and today we gather to celebrate. Growth is one of the most powerful accomplishments we can honor because it reflects true strength of character.
So that work has been ongoing. We're making some decisions. Um and the other pieces that we've been working on is really looking at data analysis with respect to how our students are doing. Really looking at benchmark assessments, creating targeted instructions. We the win period at the elementary games really got a second look. Uh we've been revamping our interventionist schedules over the course of the year. Um so that is another place that we've really focused. Uh we've revised our schedules to provide more opportunities for small groupoup instruction and as I said we really did focus on early intervention um and getting some of you know two teachers in the room to create more small group um particularly with respect to literacy and really what we've seen this year are fewer referrals to special education. We really feel like that, you know, getting our kids early um and providing that extra support that they need has been effective because our referrals are definitely um at a lower rate this year, which is encouraging.
Um, and just looking at some of the larger items that you see here. Um, one you'll see a pretty large increase on a percentage basis uh with the assessor's office and that is essentially to change over the software that we use for assessing. What we currently have is only used by about 10 out of 351 communities in the Commonwealth. It's not very well supported. It's uh has quite a few issues uh bridging with some of our other software systems. And again a lot of municipalities are facing the same issue which is why they have moved away from the system um that we currently have like we are now looking at moving towards an additional system or a new system I should say and so that's what accounts for the increase in that budget um moving forward um looking at a significant increase in um health insurance uh which I think is really kind of the primary driver of uh one of our budget deficits.
Um tuition in Overbrook has decreased which I informed everybody about approximately $670,000 because they stabilized some of their per pupil costs. Um I'm not sure if that was due to retirements or um if they were using grant funding or whatever that might have been. So, um, at this point, we do have a reduction there. We'll see where that takes us in the future. Uh, special ed tuition in public schools had a slight increase of, uh, $12,000. Our CCTS tuition is down by about 92. Again, that's from a prior year certified tuition amount, tuition adjustment, which every school district gets that every single year. So, their tuition rate came in lower, which means then they owed us a credit. Now, they're they get a lot of their funding through the county. Um, so it could have been that they, you know, it went down because of their funding limits and things of that nature.
It shows with the right mindset and supportive community and belief in oneself, there are no limits to what can be achieved. Cameron, we are incredibly proud of you. We believe in you and we are excited to watch all that you will continue to accomplish. Keep pushing, keep believing, and know that this is just the beginning. Congratulations, [Applause] J. You must smile for the picture. All right. All right. Congratulations again. And next up, we will have our educational service educational service professional of the month come forward. Miss Winter, you're on again. [Applause] At this time, I'd like to invite invite Miss Jessica Craig to come join us up here. [Applause] With great appreciation, we recognize Miss Craig as the Bound Brook School District Support Staff of the Month. Miss Craig's outstanding dedication and tireless support of our students, especially those on her case load, have made a true difference in our school community.
So, how this impacts the budget, um resources will be dedicated from this budget to adopt a new math program. Still working on that. Not sure we're going to be able to do kick five all at once. uh things are a little more expensive I think than I initially um anticipated but even if it is done incrementally we do have resources in the budget to begin that process um we do have some short-term increases you saw the special ed costs increasing that I think is a shortterm um need our special education largest special education populations are in the upper grades Um, so as those students graduate, right, I do foresee that that portion of the budget may in fact decrease as we see fewer students being referred for special education. Sorry. Uh, the math program in in the lower grades, what what would be what would be the um uh what's the thing that's holding us back from doing doing that?