The summer feeding program, we also partner um with the library with the bookmobile that come around and kind of encourages free books and reading for the children at a number of the sites. updates for this coming school year and in the future. Uh USDA has um impos started a new limit on the amount of sugar and breakfast cereals, yogurt, and flavored milk. We think we won't have any problem uh meeting those regulations for next year. For 207, they're planning a decrease um in total calories in breakfast. So that's overall. Um, budget-wise, we have had um a 13% reduction in our entitlement dollars. The entitlement dollars are what the it's based on how many children you fed last year. The government gives you entitlement dollars and use that to purchase your commodity items. Commodities are foods and things that are excess in the federal government that then we can provide to the school children at a lower cost.
Uh this time of year uh is a sprint every year. It feels like it. Um there's a lot of events happening every single day. Uh, and I just want to thank everyone in our elementary schools for really going above and beyond to recognize our students and um really do memorable, meaningful things to create lasting memories for for our uh our learners. Thank you. Thank you, Dr. J. On to item 7.04, director of secondary education. This is Thank you, Mr. President and board members. I would like to take the opportunity tonight to thank our technology department, specifically Brian Gil and Chris Phillips. They have been instrumental in helping us with the integrations that we will be needing for new at the middle school level as well as um Spanish curriculum at the high school. And so now that you guys have approved that in April, they have not missed a beat and they have been in contact with our um curricular publishers and vendors so that we can start that process to really help support teachers in starting the year off properly in August with any type of buzz integration that we can um do.
And then um at Green Castle Middle School um you're aware that you know we're getting some new flooring might we're doing some uh some painting internally with an internal team and looking to continue that work. Um, but one of the areas uh that needs to be painted, updated, that's heavily used by us in the community is the cafeteria. And that involves a little bit more work than we can tackle on our own because it's got some specialized coating that will have to be sanded off u before being primed and painted. And we have an opportunity to tackle that in the summer as well. Um so just seeking permission to move it forward um with those with those proposals. Certainly glad to see that wallpaper something. Okay. Can I get a motion to approve? So move. All right. I have a motion. I have a second.
Nunes, thank you madam chair. Thank you Mr. Kylie and to the capital improvement committee for this is in a nutshell this is a start I think as to to what we need uh number one just personally the uh at at the moment the week of the 15th of September is wide open for me so I'm good you know I would not knowing what and again just it makes sense but probably be a home football game on the 19th on a Friday night. So, but other than that, uh that that week is fine. Uh have they attempted, you know, pie in the sky, you know, spin around three times in a chair and pull a number out of a hat as to what uh the costs of some of these projects would be. So, type of deal. Yeah. Yes. Uh so initially um and and we're not ready to publish that and that's part of this I mean projecting the cost out to 2040 for the Quinn school right now is yeah impossible right um but um we did look at it and what was important to note is that there's a great deal of borrowing capacity in the town currently.
And so it appears on those Oprah requests that there is a fee for support services. I think my mic went on. We're back on support services. I believe when I did the math and figured out the total cost, it was somewhere around $74.52 per hour. Then there is the um board secretary or custodian of records fee of 9250 an hour. That's $167 per hour for work. That from what I understand in the state of New Jersey, customary fees related to OPRA are based off of production of documents, not the professional services rendered for those documents. And that's posted in multiple places from the state of New Jersey alone. And then we are legal fees. And from what I understand from the research that I've done, not all OPER requests require a legal fee or an attorney to review them. So my questions are, we've incurred over $5,000 since the month of July in Oprah request.
Uh we continuously do our professional development and training sessions with the finance staff and administration. We've done all budget and financial reports um by the deadlines mostly before. Um all mandated state and federal reports have been completed and our annual financial or comprehensive financial report um for 2024 has been completed and our our finance department continues to be top-notch and receive multiple awards for year after year and um I know the governing board's well aware of that. So um with that that's kind of the update of where we're at on on my goals. Uh you do have more supporting documents if you'd like to see them. Um they'll be in your executive session.
For example, we might get um a case of chicken patties from them and it would cost actually $2.50 for a case of them compared to $60. And so having a cut in that really decreases the amount of money that we can spend on our foods for next year. In the same time, we've also been notified of a 2% increase in pricing from our main distributor. um USDA canceled egg commodities, which is the fluctuating egg prices and with bird flu and all that's going on, they really couldn't commit to um how much that they could put towards eggs. So, what that basically means is products made with eggs, um a lot of our breakfast items or even just things are made with eggs, it's going to cost um we're going to pay street price for it rather than the $2.50 a case. Um, also there are some proposed federal budget cuts that is being kicked around and that could possibly cause a 12 billion cut in federal funding at the school meal that is kind of center out around C um at the national level.
I also want to thank our blended instruction design specialist Annie Vasser, Susan Valentine, Jeremy Walker, and Vince Lewis. They have also been really instrumental in continuing this work and will be in supporting teachers. And then I would like to thank Jacob Adams, Amy um Helmouth, and Carol Lamb Bersie for their work in supporting the ELA and math implementation going into next year. There's a lot of work that's taking place over the summer. And so I just really want to make sure that um they get recognized for all of the hard work, the thoughtfulness, and the preparation that they have in really building towards the vision that we are looking to create um with our curricular um adoptions for the 2526 school year. I'd also like to reiterate like Dr. China that it is a sprint to the end, but it has been an exciting year full of a lot of opportunities that have been seized and a lot of accomplishments and we're always looking forward.
Second. Motion and a second. Any further discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor? I. Any oppose? That motion appear? All right. I have a request for a couple. Yeah. Couple donations here. Mhm. Would you like to read those? Would you like me to read? You tell me. Why don't you read them this time? Yeah. This is the one of the highlights of the meeting. Um Edward and Maryanne Meyer scholarship fund uh within the Give Well Community Foundation to Greencastle High School in the amount of $3,000. Um, so that's two $1,000 scholarships to male and female student athlete and a and one $1,000 uh scholarship to a student in science studies in college. Um, the Mike and Mackenzie Meyer scholarship. And so it be my recommendation that board accept those donations as presented and we uh give our thanks to all those involved for making those funds pos available for our kids.
um you know we're not we don't have much debt on the books. Um so we have the ability to move forward and actually complete projects right now. They would require you know a large project obviously like you know a middle school project or an elementary school project would require a debt exclusion vote and it would you know be a long-term borrowing but there is uh there is capacity to do that. Um we also feel that it's not unaffordable to do if you if if we space these out enough. Um it's possible that that you know we could accomplish something in the next 50 years where all of these things are taken care of. Some can't just can't wait. But some will have to, I suppose. But but um but yeah, it's it's it's not it's not impossible to make this work. I mean, if there's if there's debt capacity, I mean, you know, put my finance hat on for a second.
And who are those fees incurred to? Is it the taxpayers? Because if someone is on salary and they are working and there's work production that's being done during working hours, the work you stay until that work gets done. So why are we paying for those fees? My other question is in 2001 I worked for a law firm and we were moving from paper files to electronic files in 2001. So in the digital era, why is it taking us 2 hours worth of time to pull up a file that someone should be able to search and get an instantaneous result? So those are my questions. Who is incurring those costs? I believe it would be the taxpayers. Why are we paying nearly on every single one two hours worth of time for a custodian of record and for a support services personnel which I believe may be a secretary and then I understand in some of them we're paying an attorney fee as well.
Um but with that I will stand for any questions or comments. I have one question. Um when the goals were set up last year, was they was it clearly defined the difference between um meet and exceeds? There is no there is no n okay I just want to make a comment um thank you for this this is wonderful very detailed and I'm excited um on the direction that we're going um goal B where you talked about progress toward goals and evidence um I just want want to say that I'm I'm ecstatic um that we got 94% of the of the 1,225 certified contracts were accepted. That's phenomenal. And as of May 15th, and you can confirm or deny this, 90% of the 995 notice of employments have been accepted. Or is the number more? Madam President, govern board of members, that is inaccurate. It is 93%.
So, we don't know what's going on with that just yet. Just like everybody else, we're kind of waiting and hearing from that. The Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act is um basically put into effect to ensure sufficient funds are provided for school services and we are mandated to raise the price if we don't meet the national level. The national level for this year I have not seen released yet, but the 2324 was $3.85. We're still kind of chasing that. Um, so we are asking to um a proposed meal price change for next year about 10 cents across the board to kind of meet some of the um budget issues that are going to pop up with that.
So, I know that as admin um you know, we kind of wrap up, we have graduation and the next day we hit it and we're starting to think about what we're going to be doing for next year. And so, I just really thank everybody for their dedication, their commitment to creating the best opportunities we can and the best relationships we can with our community members. Thank you, Mrs. Ramirez. Item 7.05, Director of Exceptional Education, Mrs. Pascus. Good evening, President Smith, members of the board. Um, just wanted to recap. Uh, the best day of the year has come and gone. Last Wednesday, May 14th, was our unified game day. Uh pretty incredible site on the football field at Crown Point High School with 500 athletes, uh about 54 volunteers including many of the people in this. Um we cannot thank enough the athletic leadership council from the high school who we developed this partnership this year.
All right. Can I get a motion? So move. Second. I have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? Hearing none. All those in favor? I. Any opposed? Motion carry. Thank you very much. All right. Do we have any other business? I have no other business. Okay. I'd like to take this opportunity to uh welcome Dale back. Thank you, Mr. Pierce. He's been out for a little extended time and we certainly have missed him and we're certainly glad to have him back up here with you. So, it's very good to see you sitting back up in the top. You don't know how good it is to see y'all through these eyes. So, thank you. Thank you all. U also want to thank uh all the teachers, the admin, parents, students uh for a great year. It's almost done. Congratulations folks. Um I have one that's getting ready to walk across the stage on Friday and I'm not sure how I feel about that.
you know, if you retire debt this year, you should replace it with debt only because if you take that money and throw it into a general operating, then leave the when you go to put the money back to debt, you're in trouble. So, exactly. That's level debt service would be, you know, ideal, right? And I and I think that there's an acknowledgment that we got, you know, for a while that is sort of what we were trying to do, I think, in town and got away from that a little bit. Yeah. Um, and obviously the high school came off the books and yeah, you know, that was exclusion. So, that's all I have. Thank you, Madam Chair. Yep. Anybody else? No, just I think my my comment is similar to what I'm hearing is that it's just it's a plan. It's it's a it's a step and uh you know, it centers the the needs of the whole community.
So in the nature of keeping costs down I'm hoping that we have um an explanation as a community as to why those fees are sitting there and I have not seen any for the past few months. So, I'm hoping that this is coming to an end. If they're not going to be publicly posted, that's that's great. But we also want transparency on if they're still being incurred. Thank you. Is there anyone else? May. Good evening. Ever GTO 51 Jewel Street Crawford. I have a few questions. Well, first and foremost, let me just congratulate all the uh teachers that were nominated for teacher of the year as well as the power professionals. I've always said many years ago when I was on the board not that long ago that the power professionals are the absolute backbone of the teachers just like nurses are the backbones of of the doctors.
[Music] So that just that just shows the great leadership here and I'm just I'm so proud to be on this board and work with all of you. So thank you. This is wonderful. Agreed with everything that board member Drake just said. Um I think that the retention of our employees speaks volumes to the leadership here. Um you know Dr. Croto, you have an amazing um perspective, but you also have a an amazing team under you um that continues to support your vision and the and the vision of the of the governing board um which I think are fairly aligned. So, just appreciate everything that you do, everything that your team does um in supporting our students and really focusing on academic uh achievement for everyone. Thank you. And you're correct. I have an amazing team and those feats on those goals are are not me.
And I am available for any questions that you might have. I already told Nancy that I was asking all the hard questions to Brett. So, uh, if you can go back to the financial comparison slide, I think the one for the C So, if I recall correctly, I think when we originally estimated this in June of 2024, it was like 86 85,000. So, what explains kind of like right now I'm looking at it looks like it jumped to about 250ish favorable over the whole period. So, like what what drove that $338,000 savings swing, so to speak? two two things that we think uh this is our first year with C so we're certainly learning um two things that we think are you've seen in a previous slide that participation participation rates were up tremendously um Nancy can help me but I think the estimated increase was around 4% 4% and maybe 8% on the breakfast side and we were 32% average on breakfast and 14 or 15% on on lunch so the number of students participating increased uh well above what was expected.
Uh it was something new. They helped run the events. We were out of there by like 106. That has never happened. They took all the tents down, cleaned everything up. They were amazing with our students. It was an incredible partnership. Um, Taff Middle School also sent their ambassadors who helped out um cheered on our students, helped at events. So, we are so appreciative of the way our school community comes together to support kids. I have to give a huge thank you to Kelly who really organized this year the game day with Rachel Dunlap, one of our physical therapy assistants, and they put all those events together. They changed it up a little bit to make it a little more engaging for some of our younger students. So, we're already working on next year. Excited. So, thank you for those of you that stopped by. Thank you.