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budget in the amount of 1,633,263 and a final debt service local tax levy in the amount of $762,773 whereby the final 2526 budget totals 62,731,78 and whereas the bound board of education has been notified of state aid amounts and whereas such state aid amounts are for 2526 equalization aid is 33,43 38,223 and the 2526 school choice aid is $131,835 and the 2526 categorical special education aid is $2,511,744 and the 2526 categorical security aid is $830,194 and the 2526 categorical transportation aid is $137,591 and the 2526 preschool education aid is 1,768,877 and the 2526 debt service aid is $870,480 and whereas the Bound Board of Education has estimated a state aid amount pursuant to application and for 2526 the estimated extraordinary aid amount is $200,000 and whereby policy 6471 and NJ administrative code 6A2 23A-7.3 provides that the board of education shall establish in the annual school budget a maximum expenditure amount that may be allotted for travel and expense reimbursement for the 2526 school year.
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Can you clarify graduate? Is that graduate from the elementary school or Yes, sorry. Yeah, from here. Oh, from here in here, not from fifth grade into the middle school. So I Yeah, from eighth grade. So you anticipate a a two section following those students all the way through. Well, look, I will say we look at these enrollment numbers every year, right? So if and this is still being looked at very closely. This is what I'm recommending today, right? And this is how I'm building the schedule. However, if there was a big change, right, then we've got to say, okay, maybe we need to to create three sections again. So, it is really ongoing depending upon who's moving in, who's moving out. These are where our numbers are now. And you know, we do have some flexibility with our staff. And, you know, we are not there's no reduction in force or anything like that.
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So, any uh any questions related to that? Oh, wow. Okay. Um gosh, we're 25% of the way through. Um I've been the one talking mostly, so yeah, we got a while. So um article six uh annual consent article uh standard article that we do every year uh and it basically is some housekeeping items in terms of grant program authorization contracts and these purchase agreements. Um but probably the most substantive piece of this article are what uh what what we call revolving funds and the authorization of certain revolving funds. Um which allow us to take in money and spend money uh on certain services. Uh so and basically those are outlined in the warrant what those revolving funds are, what they're used for and also what the caps and limitations are as well.
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Now therefore, it be resolved that the Bound Brook Board of Education hereby establishes the school district annual track travel man maximum for the 2526 school year at a total of $57,500. and be it further resolved that the school business administrator shall track and record these costs to ensure that the maximum amount is not exceeded. Whereas due to the consistent student enrollment growth, instructional staffing of program needs, facility needs, and other priorities set forth by the superintendent of schools. The board is budgeting the maximum spending authority which does not include an automatic enrollment adjustment to cap of 1,552,491 and it also does not include the healthc care cost adjustment of $551,555 both of which will instead be added to the district banked cap. The district is not applying any of the previous year's banked cap. So that can be interpreted as we're storing resources that we receive for future use.
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It's just a matter of where do we see our resources being best utilized. Um, can I ask that just sorry, how does it work in middle school when you have specialized classes? So, how would you have two quote? Well, this four five is going to be ELA and math and then the science and social studies will be shared between the two teachers because up until this grade, you do not need subject matter specialization to teach. You can use your elementary cert to teach any subject area. Now, what's exactly going to happen when this group gets into sixth grade? I have to think that through a little bit because every year is its different puzzle to put all the pieces together. But what I foresee for both of these grades, and this is a little I'm still contemplating for fourth exactly what I want to do, but one will have ELA, one will have math, and then they'll share the science, social studies.
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Any questions related to article six? Okay, moving on to article seven, which is another annual consent article, but this time it's uh specifically for community preservation act funds. Uh again, this is something that we have to do every year, which uh basically um says, okay, this is the amount of money that we're anticipating bringing in from the Community Preservation Act um sir charge that goes on taxes as well as uh from the state. And then it also at the same time authorizes specific bond payments that had been previously authorized from town meeting um for specific things like um construction of the ball fields, purchases of properties such as Warren Woods. Specifically, there are four items that we have for um Yes. So, one being the Oak Street bond payment um which actually should be coming up that should be ending in a couple years. Um the athletic fields um which should actually be coming up in a few years as well.
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Now therefore, let it be resolved that the superintendent of schools and the business administrator board secretary file the requirement required documents with the executive county superintendent. May we have a first and a second. Miss Hy made the motion. Second. Mr. Dawson with a second. Thank you. And now we will open up Mr. Januzi for a public hearing. If any members of the public would like to speak strictly to the budget, you're welcome to do so at this time. Mr. Januzi, I don't see anyone. So at this time, if you wish to open that up for board discussion, please appropriate.
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So, um, and then like I said, moving into six, seven, eight, we still have a solid three sections. Um, and we'll work from there. Um, this also continues to support professional development. As we know, our teachers meet weekly. We stay committed to that common prep time. We want to stay a part of BDO consulting. that is our professional development cohort that we participate in with the sending districts. Our teachers have great experience there. Uh continue to consult with experts in specific fields. We had a great experience this year with Dr. Jennifer Gouki from Montlair State and special ed and Kate Sullivan who worked with our teachers on assessments. Uh we continue to provide training for our technology tools. Um, again, I think our teachers have done a tremendous job with really learning how to use Lincoln and EXL to identify gaps, target instruction, continue to work with students at their level, and we continue to use GCN, um, which is a very cost-effective way for our staffs to meet their statemandated training.
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Um then the Warren Woods bond payment and uh we still have we've got about five more years to go on that one as well. Oh, and excuse me, the Valentine estate is also part of that CPA portion.
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Any members of the board wish to make any comments or ask any questions? Hearing none, Mr. Gorski, should we do a roll call, please? Yes, sir. This is the adoption of the final 2526 budget. Mr. Dawson, yes. Miss Gazino, yes. Miss Musen, yes. Mr. Minhas, yes. Miss Hy, yes. And Mr. Vulmer. Yes. And Mr. Januzi. Yes. Mr. Board President, motion passes. And at this time, I would like to thank Dr. Freeman for his inspirational vision with the budget. This is a very difficult group process that involves every administrator in the school district, every teacher in the school district to put together a fiscal plan that satisfies everybody for the next year as best as we can predict. Just like any plan, there's modifications that happen through the year that the board of education approves with transfers. But we believe that conceptually this budget provides everything that's needed for success.
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It's all online. It comes free without insurance. That was something else that we were able to find savings with this year. In terms of safety and security, we continue to pay for our school um resource officer here. Our security cameras and our related systems are in very good shape. We had the visit from the state earlier back in November. Um and they shared very positive feedback about what we do have in place as far as that goes and any you know it allows us to do all the things that we need to do um as manded by the the department of ed in terms of safety. So, I want to thank everybody. Um, hopefully we were clear and uh, thank you to the board for your ongoing fiscal responsibility. I don't know if that's the right word. Uh, about 476. All right. Thank you, Miss Pra.
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Um any questions on CPA? The consent article on CPA article 7. Okay, moving on. Um, article eight, um, is to appropriate community preservation act funds for the creation of the Ashland Arboritum. Um, Ashland Arboritum is formerly known as Cadillac Paint. Uh, those of you that have been in town for a while are and especially if you live over on the eastern side of town, 126 Elliot Street, are probably very familiar with the Cadillac Paint property. For many years, it sat abandoned, overgrown with some dilapidated buildings. uh over the course of decades uh a lot of work uh has been done to start cleaning up that property, cleaning up some contamination. And ultimately in 2017 uh we made a real uh basically a fullcourt press, if you will, on basically getting that that property to a place where it could become a park. And so that meant at that time taking acquisition of the property um which we took by imminent domain and also as part of that we were able to negotiate the forgiveness of an almost $400,000 lean from the Mass Department of Environmental Protection for cleanup efforts that they had done.
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And we're very excited to see the result of where these dollars are going to make an impact. Thank you, Miss Lee, for all your contributions, Miss Griffin, and all of the administrative team. Uh Mr. Ross, you as well. and seems like every day you're bringing me a check to help offset some of the costs of the CTE, which is most appreciated. Keep them coming. So, thank you. All right. [Applause] Thank you, Mr. Gorski. Uh, I see that our student board member is not with us this evening, so we will skip his report for tonight and move right on to committee meeting reports. First up is Mr. Dawson for education. Uh thank you, Mr. President. Uh we met several weeks ago. Uh a few topics we covered were the recent Spanish placement test given to our uh middle middle school students in 8th grade. Um the test was really efficiently done.
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Yeah. Does anybody on the board have any other questions or concerns about her presentation? Uh I do want to thank uh Miss Pra as well as Miss Quigley. A lot of work put into that budget. It's sincere. I would also like to thank Mr. Vitali. I mean his years of understanding and input crucial. Our administration was extremely well prepared for this. Believe me, extremely well prepared. Thank you, Mr. Thank you. Uh that is presentation. We are now at visitors business. Uh visitors are permitted to comment on agenda items only at this time. We just ask that you approach the mic and state your name and your address. There seems to be none. There are no correspondences. And that brings us to committee reports. Uh district operations. Mr. Vitali. Uh I I do not have a specific report, but I did speak with Mrs. Quigley a few days ago and asked if there if there were any updates.
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Um, additionally, we got some more grant funds as well as a town meeting appropriation to clean up the property and take down those uh really ugly eyesore of buildings that they were. But uh since that time, a lot of work has gone into the planning and uh you know creation of this arboritum concept. And those of you that aren't familiar with arboritums, they're really, I guess you could say, parks that are really designed to highlight vegetation, things like trees, uh, shrubs, ground cover that is typically it's native to the region. I've seen some that are deal with more exotic and non-native, uh, type of plants, but this, uh, would be specifically for native plants. Um, we worked with a uh a young lady who graduated from Ashland High recently um and is a student at Cal Berkeley, um, Erica Grassburgger who did a design for this project um, and working with our staff including um, Alro Esparza and uh, Becca Solomon, uh, Sophia Beth, they've all they've all contributed to, you know, working on this project and designing this project as well as Ed Hart.
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We were able to get a large number of students evaluated and we were really excited to talk about the options they have at the high school specifically for uh students who are heritage speakers and the programming that's being developed to support those students as they uh formerly work on their Spanish. We talked about our action plan for multilingual students. Um the district has identified some strengths that have really emerged uh with all the work that's gone in to support those students in recent years. Those strengths include identification, program description, um and reviewing the exiting process, and the action plan targets uh staff certifications, uh curriculum updates, and evaluation design. So, we're all excited about that work that's taking place. And lastly, we talked about something that's called option two, uh, which looks at different ways for high school students to meet credit requirements um, and alternative pathways, whether they're student athletes or they're looking at online classes for um, health courses.
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I was more focused on the building. Uh and um you know um um no specific need for for for a for you know for a committee meeting at the time. Uh the you know the where we're where um uh the boilers are in the process of being installed. I think there's a little bit of a hiccup which we're overcoming and uh you know we'll we'll have to see when the next meeting is warranted. Did I say that right? Okay. The boilers are in the building. That was good to take care of. Thank you by Kelly. Uh Dr. Dean Broio High School. I actually couldn't make the last meeting. Um but one thing that did come up that is just worth mentioning has to do with um Italian language program at the high school. Due to uh declining interest, they've actually eliminated the in-person um program.
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I can't forget Ed Hart who u whose passion has been uh Cadillac paint. But uh anyway, this is uh for up to $500,000 to basically finish that project and bring it to life. Uh which I anticipate will be done this year and uh next year. So, we're really looking forward to that. Once it's going to be done, it's going to it's a nice park with walking trails again, different types of vegetation. People will be able it's really kind of an educational um area as well where people can learn about the different plants and species uh that are there. So I mean you know when you look I think of things in terms of storylines a lot and so when you think of the story of Cadillac paint and where it was a few years ago and where it's going to be next year um it really is a remarkable story.
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This will be a big benefit for students who are involved in the athletic program and also for some of our multilingual students. So, we're excited about those developments. And that was it for us. Excellent. Thank you, Mr. Dawson.
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Children's can still opt to take Italian if they wish based based on an online platform. Um so there was there there was actually one of our constituents reached out to me about it from Bel was concerned about it. Um so he was meeting with uh with the superintendent there to discuss it. But um my understanding is that over the last few years the enrollment the inperson enrollment has been declining significantly and there have been children the last few years who have been doing the taking Italian through this online course and they will still be able to take it if they wish but there will not be inerson instruction for now. They can obviously always revisit it in the future if if there's an interest enough to justify it.
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