Um, in fact, I think this is probably been just over the horizon brewing um for at least the last couple years and we've talked about it as sort of something that we were seeing that was going to um come to a head at some point. So, just in the last year alone, um we have as a tri-board, which is select board, school committee, and finance committee, have met five times and really throughout that whole process we were trying to understand the issues, trying to find out what the solution is, um and also we were just gathering more information. Um we had a lot of projections, we had a lot of thoughts of what things were going to look like coming into this fiscal year, um but we needed some actual data. Um, one of the things we needed was the governor's budget to see where we landed on um on state aid from uh from a state perspective.
Though she plead guilty and served out all the non-fiscal elements of her sentence and filed as indigent to pay this off, aka she couldn't afford it. She was still arrested and detained. In the most tragic aspect, Eileen Denino of Pennsylvania in 2015, the Pennsylvania district fined parents for child their child's truency. Truency basically meaning being late, being absent, not going to school enough. She was fined. She could not afford it. She was arrested and detained for failure to pay those fines. And unfortunately, within a one night in prison due to health complications, she died in that jail cell. And what's most disturbing about all of this is how little data there is. There was no media coverage. There was no news article. All of these people's experiences, again, which come into the tens of thousands, are buried beneath headlines. And you know, via the sixth amendment, as you know, is the right to counsel, the right to an attorney.
So um that was actually kind of fun getting to know my ball after I got that was also recently after I got it drilled. So, um, it was al I also got a good of a hand to like the Valley center coach, girls coach because she also helped me since my coaches weren't able to be there because they were at the campus girls league. So, I she gave she gave me some tips and she taught me how to release my ball better, especially after I was drilled. So, yeah. Um, what's your best shot? Best shot. Okay. So, probably just a head-on strike, but I'm really good at ten pins, which is the last pin on the right side. Um, I don't know why they're just like it's just like a talent of mine. I'm really good at ten pins. Really fun. >> Uh, what's uh what's the toughest tournament you've been in?
>> Um, would you say you enjoy the state or the Nationals more? >> Nationals is pretty cool. I mean, they have a pretty decentsized budget and they've got some crazy stuff going on up there. Yeah, >> it's a lot of work to put in nationals. Um, I will say I think I like state convention more though because it's just more it's just more like home and there's like >> they have like the little laser light show thing going on. So, it's so fun to watch. >> You just don't like all the traveling. Is that what it is or >> I don't know. The nine-hour car ride is difficult to sit through, especially when you're sitting on a >> on a the buckle the seat buckle. >> Not ideal. Not ideal. >> How did that How did that go? >> Oh, I that was me. I just Yeah, we were like stacked four because somebody didn't want to sit in the back.
Our revenues, our biggest revenue is obviously our tax levy. And the commitment that I cannot applaud the borough enough for the commitment that they made to the students of Cliffside Park School District. We had a meeting with them and Mrs. Calbrese, you were with me and they could not have been more of an advocate for us in regard to do what you need to do to make sure that staff and services to students, the core business, is not compromised. That was their exact words, Do what you have to do. We know it's going to be an impact on the taxpayer. These are extraordinary times. And do what you need to do. Again, their the mantra was do not compromise the integrity of staff or the students and the services provided to them. Given that, we had a approximately $3.5 million levy increase uh year over year.
I'll be honest, it can vary from year to year. Um I've had years where it hasn't been an issue whatsoever cuz what students be like, "Hey, I need to call my mom really quick." Um and it's at like dismissal time and it's not an issue and that's just what we've told our kids so it doesn't look like you're out messing around on your phone and like not paying attention and stuff like that. Um and so and it hasn't been an issue and then it's been big issues where especially like in the morning or things going around on Snapchat or um TikTok or other things. It It varies from year to year. It varies sometimes from quarter to quarter or week to week. Would you Would you all agree with that? But, I will say it can be a big issue. And my thing is is whatever we do, I want it to be very clear for students for all of our audiences, right?
We did go through all of our expense lines and make some adjustments where we could like within our information systems which is it. Um, we do have an increase in our utilities to align with our actual spending trends that we were seeing and and then an increase as we move into year two of our transportation contract. Um, and like I mentioned before, an 8 12% increase for our health insurance. So when you take that um I'm going to come back to this town appropriated number of 1.9 million. Um, but we we took the estimate for chapter 70 on the cherry sheet and we placed that in here. The town is going to cover 35,000 of the charter student. There's only currently one student that we know of that's attending charter. Um, so it's $35,000 in the budget, but then the town's going to offset that with $35,000 of free cash.
We also needed to understand what the projected costs were were going to be, what they were going to come in at. Um, and of course like the needs. So, um as part of our typical budget process um on the municipal side and on the school side, both um both go through a whole process of of ascertaining the needs and making recommendations as to what um what we need for a budget for the upcoming fiscal year. Um and so, you know, the other part that we've also been been worried about is sort of what's happening on a bigger scale. What's happening with the federal government, how that might affect grants. Um, so we have been able to look at different options, we've been um looking at different scenarios, and things have kind of um come a little bit more clearer as the last couple months have gone on.
That's inherent in the bill of rights, as you may have learned in your US history or government classes. However, sometimes it gets a bit more complicated than that due to some a very controversial thing called public defender fees. Now, ironically, in 42 states, there is a possibility of someone being charged money for their free attorney, which leaves you to either in that situation represent yourself, which very rarely goes well legally, especially to these defendants who may have limited education or experience of the law. Or accept a lawyer you cannot afford and get deeper in that debt spiral. These are the states who can have council fees, application and council fees. By getting a quote unquote free attorney, you can still end up paying. However, some modern reforms have been made like abolishing the driver's license suspension for debt so we don't have another Mrs. Smith incident.
Um probably um it's either my first or regionals. My first because you know my first thing ever. But uh regionals because um that's the only way I could qualify for state was individually since we didn't have four girls. So we couldn't do bakers. So it was a little it was a little difficult to say the least to do that. But um it was really fun. I assume you succeeded. >> I did not qualify for state. >> Um I wasn't that far, but you know, it was my first year, so senior year going to go to state. Following the tracks of Ellie, >> you're going to win every game. >> Hopefully following the tracks of Ellie. Who's the first girl to ever Clear Water? >> Yeah. Uh outside skills you gained for bubbling? >> Um like communication and like a lot of arm strength and finger strength.
>> Oh, no. >> Yeah. >> So, what did you take to get go up there? Was it Indianapolis? >> Yeah. >> Just one of the normal yellow buses or was it >> Suburban? >> Oh, >> yeah. >> So, not even a charter bus, nothing. Just a Suburban. >> No, we had every single seat in that thing. >> One of our Suburbans. >> Yeah. >> Oh, wow. >> Yeah. >> One of the nicer ones, though. >> I mean, it was nicer. I wouldn't say it was the nicest one. We could have We could have taken a nicer one for sure. >> Yeah. Um, but throughout doing all those conventions and contests, uh, what's kind of your favorite memory or like a funny story? >> Oh, well, I've got I've got a few. Uh, what should I should I touch on the the homeless one or the >> Yeah, that one's really funny.
And what what does that mean to Mr. and Mrs. Taxpayer? So, based on working with the borough, if you have an average home assessed at $360,000 to $370,000, it's going to impact the taxpayer by $270 per annum. >> [snorts] >> That's much higher than historically. But again, the reality of it is because of the extraordinary increase specifically in medical and prescription, we had to use what they call adjustments that were provided from the state. And the state took the increase of 4.2 million that we had, absolute increase, and gave us about 2.8 million back in adjustments. That adjustment is allowable above the 2% cap. What what that does do, it puts it impacts the task taxpayer. So, that's just the reality of the situation. The good news is we've learned a lot about our business. We've got a more efficient and effective business. And moving forward, we will feel good about that.
For our parents, for our students, for our teachers, um for administrators because the last thing I want to do is have something very unclear and the teacher thinks they're following the policy and they're reinforcing what's supposed to happen, and then the parents like, "Well, no, this isn't what the policy says." By the way, stuff like that has happened. Um and then the administrator's kind of in that gray area or vice versa. I just want it to be very clear and delineated for all of all of our audiences. So, that there isn't that question and so it doesn't feel like unfair or people are nitpicking or trying to get someone in trouble. We just want it to be I guess uh safe environment that's conducive for learning for all students. Did I say that clearly? Yeah. No. Yeah, I think you did. The last sentence is what um what is coming up.
Uh we also have an an increase to our Medicaid reimbursement which is actually set up so um what we receive in reimbursement one year then we budget in the next year. So that also um does come from the town as well. And at this in this current budget, what's listed here, we have 500,000 of school choice um anticipated that's already been built in here. And then an estimate for rural school aid and rural reap grant funding as well. And you'll notice this has gone down um from a previous year and that is because we don't know how much it's going to be. And last year, rural school aid we thought was going to see a big increase, but then um they were talking about uh level funding it and then it ultimately received a decrease in funding. So we want to be conservative in in the event that we don't actually receive all of those funds.
So, we've received a lot of public feedback, we've had a lot of public meetings, our boards have had meetings as well. Um, and we've made some changes. So, um you know, we recognize that the um rising costs that we all face like in our own personal budgets have hit all of us. Um, we see it with um you know, our own health care costs, we see it with um at the grocery store with our bills, our crazy utility costs this last winter with gas and electricity. Um, you know, now the pain at the the gas pump. Like we know people are pinched. And so, we um really wanted to create um a solution that would meet the needs of the community, but would have the we would minimize the impact to our taxpayers as much as possible. So, things have evolved. So, um we'll talk a little bit about that tonight.
When you abolish the driver's license suspension, they can still get to work to make money to pay off the debt without accumulating more and more citations. Even in Massachusetts, as recently as 2025, the Debt Collection Fairness Act was passed, which explicitly bans all incarceration of those who are unwilling to pay consumer or court related debts. Even in Massachusetts, this occurs. and I had no idea about it until I started looking into it. This is very rarely covered, has very few studies, and is completely brushed under the rug. This awareness is important. This awareness that people can go to jail for simply making one wrong move and not being able to financially pay it off. This awareness is crucial to be able to make further reforms because we are not there yet. We are not fully reformed yet. These are just some of the first steps and this is how I try to make waves for a better tomorrow.
So like I have I don't I don't know. It just runs in my family. I just have like weak hands. So like it definitely builds up some hand strength and like some arm strength along with like some hand eye coordination better to like aim down the like aim down the um um lane. And so that will also help me going into my golf season be able to like judge the length of the of the ball to the hole or whatever. >> Uh do you plan to continue bowling rather fun or competitively? >> I do plan on doing both. So I I definitely uh plan on doing it competitively next year, but um I'm also planning on going bowling quite a bit over the summer with my grandma. not only for family bonding time, but like also just to keep my skills up and to learn some of her techniques from when she was a bowler.
>> Solid one. Uh, so this one we were at a Farm Bureau meeting and we were we were just attending to keep up with what was going on in our community and they had a meal and me and Broen and one of my a ambassador friends Trey from Andale, he was there and we we were all sitting down. We listened to the first bit of the meeting. They release us to go get food. So, we go through the buffet line. We come back. We eat it. And then they like, "Okay, anybody who wants seconds, go ahead and just go go eat and go get another serving." So, we went and we got another serving. And we're scraping the bottom. Like, we are scraping the bottom of what's left. >> We don't need any of this extra food, but we're like, "Ah, it's not it's not going to go anywhere better." >> Knowing you and Broen, I ask.
We have optimized staff and services to the best of our ability. So, like I said, I think all the challenges that came out of this process, we've learned so much and we're going to build a better mousetrap currently and moving forward. So again, the the levy went up an absolute of $3.5 million. Again, historically, usually your levy is still up about a million and a half, plus or minus. Miscellaneous income, I mentioned [clears throat] uh we get transportation revenue for piggybacking other schools to the same routes that we go to. It's pretty much flat year over year. Uh tuition, essentially the majority of the tuition we get is from Fairview. >> [snorts] >> That's up about a million and a half year year over year. That's essentially a slight growth in the Fairview population in the high school, but also the rates that we are allowed to charge, they're called certified rates, have gone up year over year.
Students may not use a device to disrupt educational environment. Are they disrupting the educational environment if it is before or after school, but they're on school campus? It can. Yeah. I I think the scenarios that I've seen where it's like that is the students will film each other. They'll do something embarrassing and they'll post it they'll post it on a TikTok or something later on at home. And so then what ends up happening is it bleeds into like, "Oh, they took my picture." and then there's like the disruption of that um is what I'm going to gather this is probably referring to. So, then could we could extend the the school day? Like could could instead of it just being before and after school, could it be I guess it would depend um because the schools have early early dismissals than others, but let's just say for example uh one school is from 8:00 to 3:00.