001Good evening everybody. I just like to get everybody's attention. We're going to be starting. I like to call to order for the public hearing on the proposed budget for the 2026-27 school year and the committee of a whole meeting of the Board of Education May 6th, 2026 at 6:30 p.m. in the cafeteria of the Conover Conover Road Primary School at 56 Conover Road, Colts Neck, New Jersey. Mr. Marasco, at this time can I get a roll call? >> Absolutely. Mrs. Camera? >> Present. >> Mrs. Horowitz? >> Present. >> Mr. Eurico? >> Here. >> Mr. Rugnetta? >> Here. >> Mr. Scales? Mr. Scarpa? >> Here. >> Mrs. Volpe? >> Here. >> Mr. Walsh? >> Here. >> Mr. Wickberg? >> Here. >> Thank you. You have a quorum. >> Great. Thank you. Pursuant to the Open Public
002Meetings Act chapter 2:31, this meeting has been duly advertised in the Asbury Park Press in a schedule of meetings dated January 23rd, 2026, notice of which has been filed with the deputy clerk for Colts Neck Township and the requirements of posting of notices have been met. If we could kindly rise for the flag salute and national anthem. >> I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> [music] [music] [applause] >> All right. Uh okay, once again, good evening, everybody. We have a packed agenda tonight. I just want to thank everybody all for coming out. Um we have so many fantastic uh achievements that we are going to honor tonight. And uh also
003our brand new student liaisons uh to the Board of Education. Uh so, we are going to start uh with the presentation of our student representatives. Um just to give everybody a little background, this program was put in place uh a little over maybe a year and a half ago. Uh the board fully supports uh student voice. And uh we just want to thank all the participants tonight for making a change and uh you know, being a voice for all the students uh at Cedar Drive. Uh so, Dr. Garabedian, if you want to, you know, uh, continue and call up whoever's first. >> Thank you. We're very excited to have some returning, uh, eighth graders for a few more months for as our new 2026, uh, student representatives to the board continue on their legacies and
004the good work that we've done. So, at this time, if I'm going to call a student up and then I have the list here and then you're going to introduce the next one uh, individual who's going to speak, okay? Got it? Okay, so first one up, Sophia Voucher. >> [applause] >> And um, I've been working on enhancing the lunch options for our students at at Cedar Drive Middle School. Um, especially for those who have uh, special dietary needs. And I want to start off by saying that it's been a wonderful project. Pomptonian, which is the food supplier for our schools, um, have been so so so great. And uh, so right away they took like cheese out of like the salads and put it separately like for people who can't have lactose or cheese. Um,
005and that they also like I've noticed they put like more vegan options out and they like show show all the options like right when you walk into the cafeteria, which is great. Um and so I was working on this project all year and I just came back to say that um it's been very successful and now I've seen so many wonderful changes and it really makes me happy because I'm someone myself who can't have uh lactose. So yeah, thank you. >> [applause] >> Emmanuel Emmanuel >> [applause] >> Good evening, everybody. I'm Emmanuel Dinner. I'm in eighth grade and I have an update to share with you and a new idea that I hope will come to fruition in the future. Um the update is um the bullying project that I've been working on has been
006approved by Dr. Garabedian and the Google Forms will be sent out to all of these students on Friday and a and a and an email will be sent out to the parents also. Um if you're not sure what this project is, I've noticed that a lot of kids have been getting bullied lately and even when being told to stop, they haven't uh the bulliers haven't stopped and I figured that it should come to an end and I've been working with uh Dr. Garabedian and Dr. Rigby and the board on coming up with a Google Form to kind of like pinpoint where the where like the most are getting bullied. So, like is it seventh grade girls or is it sixth grade boys that are getting bullied the most? And kind of going further into that.
007And then once we get all of the information that we need to of like where people are getting bullied the most, then we can start to do workshops with NJ Forest Compass, an organization that does presentations about all sorts of things, mental health, bullying, health health. Um and they do them all for free. So, we get most of our presentations from NJ Forest Compass, and we're going to start to work with them on a way to stop the bullying. Um and in addition to that, I feel like also mental health is getting ignored a lot. It also does sort of have to do with bullying. Kids with like learning disabilities and mental health disabilities have been getting ridiculed more than uh kids without. And I feel like we can do something about that with NJ
008Forest Compass. They can do presentations and they can do activities that require students to work with our special ed students and work together to achieve a goal. And then maybe that'll make people see that people with disabilities aren't that much different than us. Um that's what I have for you, but I am working on something with Ms. Kira Harlan, and I would like to call her up, too. >> [applause] >> Hello, I'm Kira Harlan, and I'm in eighth grade. Good evening, board members. >> Emmanuel and I are planning on working on a project together. In the schools In the schools, there are just there are two outside court courtyards that are filled with rocks. These two courtyards are located near the chorus room and by the eighth grade commons. We noticed that these courtyards have
009been looking bland and empty, so we came up with an idea to spruce them up and make them more useful. By the area near the chorus room, we were thinking of putting multiple concrete benches just placed in rows. They would be like the benches in the peace garden. We thought that these benches would be created for chorus, band, and other classes. This will give more opportunities for students to get fresh air throughout the day. Now, by the commons courtyard, we are thinking of having tables like the ones outside of cafeteria that students eat at during lunch. Plastic versions would easily degrade over time. So, concrete versions of these tables will be more weather-friendly and durable. It does get hot, so we were thinking of adding waterproof umbrellas in the middle of the tables that will
010withstand rain and snow and be of use for shade. Students would be able to take classes outside and teachers could eat that out there, too. Now, you may be wondering, how can classes get outside? And won't the students just go out instead of going to classes? Though they are accurate thoughts, there are doors outside both courtyards that are easily accessible to students when going outside with classes. Otherwise, the faculty have the keys to the doors, so students cannot go outside alone. Another part of this project that we could add on is that the eighth graders could either carve or paint the rocks that are on the ground in these areas to leave their mark. And the art club could possibly paint the benches so they would look more colorful. We do know that furniture made
011of concrete is extremely expensive. However, we found estimates that smaller benches are around $100 to about $400 in total, and longer benches that are over 6 ft are about 470 to about $1,000 in total. Now, this is a lot of money for some concrete for just some concrete benches. And if needed, our school can have a fundraiser to help pull the money needed for these new additions. >> An example of a fundraiser idea that we could do is a fun run where students, faculty, and families can pay to run. This will help raise money and can help create a greater bond between students and staff. >> That's all we have for you today. >> Have a great evening. >> [applause] >> So, our eighth graders, what you can tell we're going to be sad to
012see them go, but I just want to first before we move on to our seventh graders, just compliment the three of you. Um, your growth in this program is certainly so impressive. Um, from kind of learning about what the goal was to be able to really confidence in your voice. So, take that with you as you go on to high school, and we're excited to see all the things that you are able to effectuate a change about when you get there. So, congratulations. All right, our new seventh graders coming into our folks Yes, you can clap for that. Absolutely. [applause] Okay. >> [applause] >> Our first seventh grader who'd like to introduce himself is uh Jayden Battaglia. >> [applause] >> All right. >> Hello, I'm Jayden Battaglia, and I'm in seventh grade. And next, can
013Connor Topola please come up? >> [applause] >> Connor? No, he's not here. Okay. Connor's not here? Okay. Zachary Quinn. >> [applause] >> Done. I'm sorry. My glasses are there. Zachary Dunn. >> [laughter] >> I apologize. >> [applause] >> Oh, hello. My name is Zachary Dunn and I'm a seventh grader like Jane Battaglia. I'm a part of the tennis team. Thank you. >> [applause] >> Jacob Kaufman. >> [applause] >> Hi, my name's Jacob Kaufman. Um, I'm also in seventh grade. Um, that's all, really. >> [laughter] [applause] >> Giovanna Zetanari. >> [applause] >> Hello, I'm Giovanna Zetanari. I don't have any ideas yet, but I'm really excited to work with the Board of Education. Thank you. >> [applause] >> Could Sabrina Schaglowsky come up? >> [applause] >> I'm Sabrina Schaglowsky. I'm in seventh grade and yeah. >>
014[applause] >> Michaela Saddle. Not here? Okay. Otto Weber. >> [applause] >> Hi, I'm Otto. I'm in I'm in seventh grade. Uh, at at That's basically it. I have [applause] nothing else Let's give her a round of applause for our new seventh graders. >> [applause] >> Looking forward to hearing all of your great ideas. >> [applause] >> Moving on to our brave sixth graders who as sixth graders we're hoping we'll see and as a matter of fact we have Emmanuel who was our sixth grader who started last year and has seen it all the way through all three years of her at Cedar Drive. So first of our sixth graders Ariel Resnick. >> [applause] >> Good evening. My name is Ariel Resnick and I'm excited to be working with the school board for the rest of
015the school year. I wanted to take the opportunity to share some of my ideas to elevate the Colts Neck schools experience. One idea that I have was an annual charity sports game. Each team fundraises for the school or an organization. This would be a great way to spread some philanthropy and have some fun while we're at it. One problem that I noticed at Cedar Drive is that many kids are consuming dangerous amounts of energy drinks. It might not seem like the school's role but but like the school's role but including caffeine safety education in the health curriculum could save a life. I would love to work with the board to solve this. Overall I'm looking forward to working with the board to come up with new ideas and solve existing issues. >> [applause] >> And
016our second sixth grader is Mr. Michael Roberts. >> [applause] >> Good evening. My name is Michael Roberts and I am a student representative of Cedar Cedar Drive Middle School. Uh I'd like to thank everybody for the grand honor to be able to stand up here and uh say some words and I'm excited to be able to work with student representative program. Thank you. >> [applause] >> I just want to um take a few moments to say some remarks to the student representatives. I'm so proud that all of you volunteered to take on this role and this Board of Education is looking forward to working with you. Uh I know I met with you personally at Cedar Drive a few weeks ago with Dr. Rigby and Dr. Garabedian and I was absolutely um so happy to
017have you introduce yourselves and go over a few of the things that you mentioned your mission uh to bring out student voice and work with the Board of Education. So, I just want to thank Dr. Rigby and Dr. Garabedian for continuing this program and you know and I I appreciate the board continuing to support it. The board is welcome to make any any more comments if you'd like to at this time regarding the student representatives. Any board member want to add anything? Nope. Okay, well, thank you very much. We're going to move on to uh the student recognition program. At this time I respectfully ask that all parents remain seated for the entire awards presentation. So, we're going to start Dr. Garabedian is going to start with the high honor roll achievements for sixth grade.
018>> Okay. Before we get started, I cannot think of a more appropriate night to be recognizing students who have achieved higher honor roll. There was well over 80 of them at Cedar Drive Middle School some most as you can see from our audience that are here with us tonight some couldn't be but I can't think of a better night than the night of our public budget hearing because the best investments we can make are with our student and student achievement. So, I just want to thank the board for allowing us to and encouraging us to continue to honor students and remember as give a good reminder for our community in general why we do what we do, and how and why it matters. And so, thank you for taking that up for this opportunity to
019recognize students on the night of our budget presentation. Truly appreciate it. That can get a pause. Absolutely. >> [applause] >> Okay, I'm going to have my uh our dear colleague, friend, and esteemed principal of Cedar Drive Middle School, Dr. Colin Rigby, uh join me to help give out these certificates. This is truly an honor. And what we're going to do is we're going to honor students who have received it for first marking period, second marking period, or third marking period. And I say or because those are the recipients for each marking period. Then, we will go into students who received for two of the first three marking periods. And then, we will go in and honor students who have earned it for all three of the three marking periods, okay? And don't worry, you won't
020get shortchanged. There's a certificate There's three certificates for you. So, All right. So, without further ado, let's go first marking period. Okay. High honor roll, 93 or above average. Uh our first certificate goes to Layla Bradish. >> [applause] >> Andrew Gogainzer. >> [applause] >> Jake Klein. Ryan Coster. >> [applause] >> Aubrianna Owens. Nicholas Palazzolo. >> [applause] >> Ella Raman. >> [applause] >> And Reagan Royal. >> [applause] >> Avery Tan Reagan Yell >> [applause] >> and Mila Zarini. >> [applause] >> Come on up. Come on up, Zeal. Come on up. >> [applause] >> Okay, this is now marking period two. If a student received high honor roll, earned a high honor roll for marking period two, okay? Uh Isabelle Holmes >> [applause] >> Zachary Hess There's Zach. >> [applause] >> Skyler Graves >> [applause] >> Daniel
021Lee Jack Mastropiero >> [applause] >> Brielle Resnick >> [applause] >> Gabrielle Steffan, Gabriella Steffan, excuse me. >> [applause] >> Derek Williams >> [applause] >> Okay, high honor roll achievers earnings for marking period three, which just included, we're in marking period four now. Dylan Carey >> [applause] >> Charlotte Maguire >> [applause] >> Zachary Parr >> [applause] >> Maya Slabiak >> [applause] >> Michaela Stottle >> [applause] >> and John Carlos Zurega >> [applause] >> Okay, these are students who earned high honor roll, an average of 93 or above, for two of the first three marking periods, okay? So, for marking period one and three, Jack Alpha >> [cheering] [applause] >> For marking period one and two, Corrine Bockin >> [applause] >> For marking periods two and three, Victoria Bevaro >> [applause] >> Marking periods two and three,
022Luke Bishop. >> [applause] >> Marking periods one and two, Lorelei Rodich. >> [applause] >> Marking periods one and three, Leo Bucci. >> [applause] >> Marking periods one and two, Nicholas Cafiero. >> [applause] >> Marking periods two and three, Quinn Carletta. >> [applause] >> Marking periods two and three, Vivian Cyrus. >> [applause] >> Marking periods two and three, Emmanuel Diener. >> [applause] >> Marking periods one and two, Lily Gerber. >> [applause] >> Marking periods one and two, Paula Kozik. >> [applause] >> Marking periods two and three, uh Xavier Lao. >> [applause] >> Marking periods one and three, Irene Lee. >> [applause] >> Marking periods one and two, Ava Levkoff. >> [applause] >> Marking periods one and three, Addison Linam. >> [applause] [applause] >> Yeah. Marking periods two and three, Veronica Maldecak. >> [applause] >> Marking periods
023one and two, Carolyn O'Connor. >> [applause] [clears throat] >> Yeah. Marking periods one and three, Austin Palantonio. >> [applause] >> Marking periods one and two, Sophia Pesci. >> [applause] >> Marking periods two and three, Ariel Resnick. >> [applause] >> Marking periods one and two, Catherine Roach. >> [applause] >> Marking periods one and two, Charlie Sabatino. >> [applause] >> Yeah. Marking periods one and two, Layla Setty. >> [applause] >> Marking periods two and three, Giovanna Settinari. >> [applause] [applause] >> Marking periods one and three, Daniel Shapiro. >> [applause] >> Marking periods one and three, Sabina Sabrina Sardor Sar- Gordorsky. >> [applause] >> Got it. Marking periods two and three, Sabri- Sabrina Seca. >> [applause] >> Marking periods one and two, Santi Sandi. >> [applause] >> Marking periods one and three, Logan Salvaro. >> [applause] >> Salvaro,
024excuse me. Marking periods one and three, Amelia Straight. >> [applause] >> Marking periods two and three, Scarlett Wallace. >> [applause] >> And marking periods one and two, Giovanna Walsh. >> [applause] >> So, marking periods one and two, we do have they are here. So, I'd like to give a shout out for Ella Raman is here. >> [applause] >> Marking There she is. You can't hide. And marking period two, Daniel Lee. >> [applause] >> Okay, now we're going to move on to all three marking periods, okay? 90 through above earning high honor roll all three marking periods thus far. First up, all three marking periods, Jack Barone. >> [applause] >> Cain Bucci. >> [applause] >> Jake Ciskowski. >> [applause] >> Ryan Ciskowski. >> [applause] >> Frank Clementi. >> [cheering] [applause] >> Jillian De Salvatore. >> [applause]
025>> Alexandra Edwards. >> [applause] >> Olivia Eldelati. >> [applause] >> Parthenia Eskander. >> [applause] >> Caitlin Friend. >> [applause] >> Kira Harlan. >> [applause] >> Amir Hassan. >> [applause] >> Ryan Hassan. >> [applause] >> Mackenzie Wayne. >> [applause] >> Audrey Capadia Vincent Livatori >> [applause] [clears throat] >> Alexander Morfino >> [applause] >> Melania Mule >> [applause] >> Giana Nicholson >> [applause] >> Lila O'Malley >> [applause] >> Nicole Petrov Ellie Rein Reinersten >> [applause] >> Violet Reinsen >> [applause] >> Michael Roberts >> [applause] >> Elizabeth Ramsey >> [applause] >> Maximilian Sharfenberg Knox >> [applause] >> Michael Shapiro >> [applause] >> Cara Smith >> [applause] >> Madeline Wallace >> [applause] >> Elias Young >> [applause] >> McKenzie Ziobro >> [applause] >> Just want to thank Dr. Garabedian and the Board of Education for taking the time and
026for allowing us to celebrate our talented students here. Um, just a huge shout out to to to the team behind all of you tonight. To all of your teachers, administrators through K to 8 that have been here along the way. We're so proud of you and seeing how you've grown. Um, to 8th graders, continue on that journey in high school. Um, but it think what's what's not lost is the amount of work >> [music] >> and I think um pride that you take in your work. So, we appreciate that every day and just know that um we will continue to be in your corner. And thank you so much for all the hard work. We're very proud of you. >> [applause] >> Okay, if all of the of the certificate recipients, high honor roll people
027recognized students recognized today could please take please stand and could we please give them one more round of applause. >> [applause] [applause] >> Congratulations to you all. >> Okay, at this time I just want to echo those same sentiments. This Board of Education is absolutely so proud of each and every every one of these achievements and you know, we just want to congratulate you and your families. At this time I want to ask if you could stay for two more minutes. I would like Mr. Brian Scarpa, one of our co-chairs to the finance department to do a brief preamble to our finance presentation this evening. I think it's important to know this community to know exactly where your tax dollars are going and how we went about doing it. So, if we could just give
028our undivided attention to Mr. Brian Scarpa. >> So, thank you very much. So, what what an awesome night. You know, this is what it's all about. Just great achievement. So, fantastic congratulations to all of you who are celebrating with your students. We have great news to share. This board and the administrative staff has worked really really hard in preparing this budget. We want to share that with you. If you have time to spend with us, by all means hang out for a bit. Ask any questions you have, but it's strong schools, perseverance, and a keen eye on a better tomorrow for a fiscally sound tomorrow is what brings us here today. So, we want to share that good news with you. And by all means ask any questions that you may have through this conversation.
029So, thank you for giving me the opportunity to hang out with a sort of bit. >> [applause] >> Um okay, at this time thank you all for coming. Anybody who is not participating in the budget presentation could leave at this time and we'll resume in less than 5 minutes. Thank you. Yeah, excellent. >> Oh, it's about the photo. >> Jillian, can we get a picture? Yeah. All I did was just say hi and I modeled and I just left. >> Yeah, that's so amazing. That's how it works. Yes, it is. >> Oh, well. >> And hold your awards up. I'm just taking a picture if you don't mind. Give me your awards. Get in here. Good. And we're just waiting. There we go. All right. Smart and beautiful. Show Show off. Yeah! >> Hello. >>
030Sup? Oh man, this never gets old for me. I love it. >> Thank you. Bye. >> You want the same title? How are the boys doing? >> They're good. >> My oldest son goes to school. >> Yeah. >> Besides this morning I think it's like 6 years. >> No kidding. >> Yeah. >> Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. So, what are you doing? >> I'm in the >> I'm down in the down in the school. What are you doing? >> I was in the room. I was in the room. >> Yeah. Right. >> Right. Right. Right. >> Yeah. >> Good. Got >> Next four. >> Uh >> You tell him >> He's He's He's a good guy. >> Yeah. That's what we're inside. >> Okay. He's talking >> All right. >> You got it. >> I'm
031good. >> Yeah. >> Thank you. >> All right. >> You're good. You're good, right? >> Thank you. Thank you, Bill. >> Okay, great. >> Thank you. >> Oh, man. >> You tell him. >> Big guy. >> He gets hurt. >> He's baby. >> We got hit in the gut. >> Like this did happen to me. >> What? >> I'll move over there. >> But But >> Testing, testing. >> Okay. >> Uh okay, everybody. We're going to resume at this time. If everybody can have a seat. We actually want to um address actually invite Kira Harlan to come up. She wanted to make an additional statement um in her position as board liaison student liaison. So, we're going to give her that time. >> Good evening, everyone. I briefly explained my idea about the need for
032new desks at the last meeting I attended. This year, I noticed that all classrooms do not contain the same style desk. Some provide underneath storage, while many do not. The new ones would all have compartments underneath to store school supplies. Those without compartments require students to put their school supplies on the floor. This is unsanitary since their feet then go on top of their school supplies. When supplies are placed on the desk, they are a distraction and take up too much space. The style desk I believe we should have are the gray desks with the storage compartment underneath. Dr. Igby and I came up with with an idea to create a form that we sent to the teachers to find out what kind of desks each classroom currently has. I received a completed form from
03327 teachers. I found that we have 17 brown desks without storage, 158 brown desks with storage, 71 gray desks with storage, and 181 gray desks without storage. This totals to 427 desks and we would need 356 new desks in order for all to be the same gray desk with the storage compartment. These desks cost about $170 each. So, it cost around $60,520 total, not including tax. I realize that this is a lot of money. Therefore, not all would need to be purchased at the same time. The money could come from the school budget spread out over a few years. Ultimately, this project would allow students to be more organized and focused in class. Please consider my idea to help future students. >> [applause] >> Thank you very much, Garrett. We we appreciate you and we're
034we're so sad to see the eighth graders leaving. I We've become so fond of all of you and all the great ideas and a lot of them did come to fruition as we know. So, we want to thank you for participating. Emmanuel, you as well. For 3 years you stayed constant with this program and we are just I can't tell you how proud we are of all your achievements and your input in student voice. >> [applause] >> Thank you. Um okay. So, at this time I know we have a few parents. If you want to uh leave at this time, you're welcome. I'm just going to continue uh with the uh motion. I want to call a motion uh to open the public hearing for the 2026-27 budget. Can I get a motion? >> Motion.
035>> Okay. And roll call? Yep. All in favor? >> Okay. Motion carried. Okay, great. Uh thank you, Mr. Rasco. Okay, at this time the board had requested the present presence of Mr. John Swisher. He's a CPA, a third-party auditor with Suplee Clooney, I'm sorry, Clooney & Company. And he basically he's doing a public presentation of Thank you. Excuse us. Um he's doing a public presentation of the 2024-25 auditor's management report. And we are recording live stream, so we want the public to hear exactly what your report is for that time period. Thank you. Oh, wait a minute, we're going to fix that for you. >> I'm I'm more of a numbers guy than technology. [clears throat] I'm going to just hold this. That'll work out better. So, yes, we completed our audit for the year
036ended June 30th, 2025 several months ago. I came to one of your meetings and gave a presentation of all the results of that audit. Tonight, I was asked to kind of come here and concentrate on your surplus. Okay, which I also go over with the finance committee in depth every year. But it was thought that it might be a good idea so that everybody kind of understands where the district landed fiscally. And it's important to note within the audit report you have a clean opinion on your financial statements, an unmodified opinion, you might remember I told you. And that would With that means is that we were able to do all our testing and say that your financial statements are free from material misstatement. We're in compliance with GAAP and the rules and regulations of
037the state of New Jersey. And that's kind of where the surplus conversation really starts. New Jersey is New Jersey, and there's a lot of different rules. Although you report under GAAP, the state of New Jersey makes you uh report your fund balance in various categories, and I'm going to go over them very quickly. Okay? Some of the categories are restricted. What that means is there's a restriction outside of the board. You guys can't make a decision. Once you put them into these reserves, they stay there cuz it's by law. Those restricted categories include capital reserve, which many of you are familiar with. That's where the state allows you to put money away for things that are contained within your long-range facility plan. Okay? And that reserve cannot exceed the local portion of that plan. And
038what that basically means is the plan also includes certain projects that might have state participation as well. The long-range facility plan includes a lot of different stuff. No district really comes close to that level of funding. So, you're within the uh compliance on that. The maintenance reserve. These are for items in the district's comprehensive maintenance plan. Pretty self-explanatory as well. Maintenance items. This uh reserve is limited to 4% of the replacement cost of of the the equipment and stuff in your district. And that's contained on I guess form M1 or M2. M1. Thank you very much, [music] Ms. And you're in compliance with that as well. Coltsneck is special. And uh as a result, they get impact aid because of the the base uh Naval Weapons Station Earle. You get this impact aid, okay, for
039the students that are on Earle that attend your district. That is also allowed to be reserved separately uh up to the amount of what you get each year. You never know what you're going to receive in impact aid. Okay? The checks come in. Vince and I have been through how they calculate them. We can't necessarily figure it out, but you do get a decent amount of money from the federal government for impact aid, which you can also put into a restricted reserve. This one's a little different from capital or maintenance in as much as you can pretty much spend it on just about anything school-related. Beyond that, you have your state unemployment insurance. Pretty straightforward. That's for your insurance unemployment claims. It comes from employee deductions from their payroll, okay, as well as a district
040contribution. Then two a little bit more complicated topics, excess surplus, which we went over with the finance committee. Excess surplus is a state of New Jersey invention, okay, where they said years and years ago that anything over 2% of your operating expenditures must be used as tax relief 2 years hence. In other words, at 2025 June 30th, we do a calculation, we're required to do this calculation, and anything that's above that 2% gets put into a separate fund balance category and has to be used at a minimum in 2027. So, for 2025 2027, 2 years hence. And so, in any particular audit report, you may have excess surplus from the current year or from the prior year, which is going to get used in the succeeding year. It's a little bit complicated, but it is
041the state of New Jersey. On top of that, you have assigned balances as opposed to restricted. Assigned means that the district is the one that's assigning them. In theory, you can change your mind on this. The most common category here is encumbrances. Those are the orders, purchase orders that are open at the end of the year where we haven't received the goods or services. Under GAAP, they're not an expense, they are reserved as fund balance. July 1st, they go right back into the budget and they get expended in the next year. Happens in every district in the state of New Jersey. In addition, you can also have designated for subsequent years expenditures if you want to give additional tax relief fund balance as a revenue in excess of what you have in excess surplus. Again,
042it's a little bit unwieldy, but those are the categories and whatever's left over is unassigned surplus, which is the 2% that I'm referring to. So, you have your restricted, your assigned, and your unassigned. And a quick tour of where you were both at December 30th June 30th, 2024 and June 20th June 30th, 2025. And the categories are, okay, you had about $10 million in surplus at the beginning at the end of 2024, so June 30th, 2024. And that consisted of, very quickly, encumbrances about 709 795,000 dollars, excess surplus, okay, of 545,000 dollars, maintenance reserve 1.7, impact aid 2.4, cap reserve 1.6, state unemployment 173, that kind that stays kind of, you know, static. Assigned for uh the subsequent years' expenditures, that's revenue that you're putting into the budget, 1 million 33, and then the 2%
0432 million 418,000 dollars. 1 minute on the on the 2%. It's with certain adjustments. So, it's 2% of the operating expenditures, plus you get to add back things that you didn't anticipate, like extraordinary aid, which we don't know how much we're going to get until the end of the year, and the same thing with impact aid. So, they they allow that to add as back. So, if you look at the calculation, it's more than 2%, but again, within the compliance of the State Department of Education. All right, so that's the 10 million dollars you had at the beginning of the year. It's kind of important to note that July 1st comes, and you anticipated 1.4 million dollars of that 10 million dollars in your budget. Okay, it supports your budget as a revenue. In addition
044to 795,000 dollars in encumbrances I talked about, rolls right back into the budget. So, of the 10 million seven, approximately 2.2 is spoken for. The minute the clock turns July 1st, it's not that it's spent, but it's being used to support your budget, and it's being used to cover those encumbrances that were open from the previous year. Going across the the the columns I have in front of me here, you amended your budget during the course of the year utilizing your surplus, which again, you're allowed to do. You do it by resolution. We check the resolutions, make sure everything the t's are crossed and the i's are dotted. So, that came out of your surplus. Then you have revenues that come back into surplus. You have a budget. You decide how much the revenue's going
045to be, state aid and taxes very simple, they come in to the penny. We have miscellaneous revenue as as as a revenue as well. And usually you'll have an excess on that. Two things that drive excesses there are extraordinary aid and the impact aid. And and if we haven't certainly spoke speaking anticipated extraordinary aid, so you're generating back surplus from that and of course the the impact aid. The next category is a category that all school districts use to regenerate surplus for the year. That's unexpended appropriations. You have a budget. It's not a zero-based budget and there's going to be money left over at the end of the year. In your case, it was about $1.6 million, which is about 5% of your budget. Okay, in my experience, we do about 30 a little over
04630 school districts. 3 to 5% is what I see. That doesn't mean that that's the benchmark and you have to be there. Kind of what I see. So you're kind of in line. And that that drives money back to the budget. Once all of that's done, okay, you have the opportunity you pass a resolution each year that allows the administration to transfer money to these restricted reserves that I I referred to you before. Okay, your major reserve, capital reserve, impact aid reserve. As a result of that resolution and with Vince and Mary Jane getting together, they decided to transfer about $1.7 million into these various reserves. All in accordance with the resolution that you guys authorized them to do and all bringing those reserves to levels that are legal under the state of New Jersey
047Board of Education rules and regulations. Then GAAP allows us to put aside the money we've already anticipated in 2026 budget, okay? Cuz we we anticipate by $750,000 to support 2026. After all that's done, you then apply the excess surplus [music] calculation, this 2% plus calculation. And after that was applied in for the year ended June 30th, 2025, there was excess surplus of $1,430,000. So now we'll we'll test the class here. 2025, 1.4 has to be used in 27. Very good, you get a star. So 2 years hence, you have to use that as a minimum. You can use more if you choose to. Okay, that becomes a sign fund balance. So again, at the end of the year, to wrap up the story, you do end up with this $12,556,000. Of that money, okay, 227
048is encumbered. That's already spoken for the for the succeeding year. Then you have your excess surplus from 2 years ago, $545,000. That will be used in '26. Okay? And then the excess surplus I just cited, the 1.4, which is spoken for for '27. That's All three of those are already spoken for. Then you have your restricted reserves, uh the maintenance reserve at just under 1.7, cap reserve at 3.5. I'm sorry. Uh that's impact aid 3.5. Cap reserve 2.6. State unemployment, like I said, we're we're very fortunate we haven't had a lot of, you know, issues with the bills for unemployment. So that kind of stays very static, 173. Uh designated for subsequent years' expenditures. There that is. That's that's unassigned piece. You decided to go above the amount that you had to use, the excess
049surplus, and you just some additional surplus of yours in 2026 of $204,000. And then the 2% left over, 2,072. And so it's just kind of important, I think one of the reasons I'm I'm here tonight is just to explain, you see a number and you see $12,000, okay? And and it's an interesting thing as I sat preparing for this evening, I looked back over the last 5 years. It's a little up and down, but it's very consistent. It's right It's a little bit over $12,000. Various categories in each year, okay, to break down each individual category. But it's very consistent with what you did. And the thing that I always say to the finance committee is when you are planning your budget, I know you have your budget hearing tonight, is making sure that what
050you're using in surplus you plan to regenerate in the next year. That's key because with your revenues the way that they are, state aid is not going to change. Okay, it's just it's a revenue. It's an important revenue, you guys, but it's really probably not going to go up or down that much. Hopefully it goes a little bit up, okay? And you have your taxes, okay? All you really have other than that this this little bit of miscellaneous money is fund balance. So, you do want to make sure and I kind of just tell my clients, "Make sure you're looking at that and making sure that you can generate in the next period." That's the story of fund balance for 2025. Again, the important takeaways here is that we audited this and this is all
051in conformance with the State Department of Education. You got a clean opinion on this. Your financial statements have a clean opinion. That's super important to know. So, I'll pause here and take a deep breath and see if there's any questions from the board that I can answer. First before I get angry. >> No, Mr. Scallion. >> Yep, okay. >> Yeah, go ahead. >> So, knowing this what you just presented, eloquent, phenomenal. Would you define $12 million in reserves as a slush fund? >> So, I will say this and just to put myself I am the independent I understand your question. I am the independent auditor and I I have to do my best not to have opinions. I can tell you this that when I look at the at the way that your fund balance
052is allocated as compared to my other districts, what you're doing is very very common putting money into these reserves, okay? That's not my opinion, you could look. I do many many in in Monmouth County, you can go look at the reports online. Each year the districts have difficult decisions to make where they have to balance what they're going to have in fund in fund balance available for for tax relief as opposed to what they have for the future, okay? We have buildings here in Coltsneck that need repairs, okay? And you guys know this, it's not my opinion. You have you should, okay? I'm getting into opinion again. You want to make sure that you have money available for those issues. And that's the hard thing. It's it's it's a matter of philosophy, okay? At the
053end of the day, how much you want to have in those reserves as as how much you have you want to put back into tax relief. But, I can tell you that looking at the balance sheet here, very common practice. >> And then for as far as tax relief as far as tax relief is is ultimately defined. Having a flat balance, having a flat percentage, having a flat dollar amount, that would also be tax relief, correct? >> Again, I think you know, I'll I'll speak as a taxpayer, not as your order of the town. Certainly, if I had a 0% tax increase, I'd be pretty pleased with what's been going on across and again, you can look across the state and see what's going on in the different increases. I will share a story with
054you that I was talking to one of my other districts and they asked me specifically about Coltsneck and they were very surprised that you had a 0% increase. >> Yeah. Exactly. So, knowing what you know about the town, um you know, Coltsneck kind of having a target on its back with, you know, over development, there's a lot of things that the district needs to be prepared for. So, ultimately what you've presented here today is essentially a very self-sufficient ecosystem. I would define it as, right? Where we are healthy and prepared for what essentially could possibly happen in the future. Would you agree with that statement? >> That's correct, but I would I would go back again to philosophy. That has been the philosophy of the district. I've been here for many moons now, unfortunately or
055fortunately, I should say. And that has always been kind of the philosophy. Many districts share that philosophy. Other folks have different ideas of what they'd like to do as well, but to to do that, let me put it to you this way, to not fund the reserves and and to do the uh the tax decrease. If if you were to do that, you would really want to be prepared to make sure you're regenerating that in the next year. I keep going back to that. If you thought you could do that, you would have lower taxes, but not have the reserves. That's a decision that could be made and each side has its own balance to it. But the key and I always harp on this and the folks that have been on the finance committee
056know this, regenerate your surplus and that way you end up with a more steady uh flow of taxes, shall we say? But again, I think really at the end of this it's truly philosophical, but obviously but what the district has been doing has been working for them. >> That's appreciated. Thank you very much. >> Not a problem at all. >> I have a question reference to our strong financial health and standing and reserves restricted capital reserves. This is get a little bit better. How does it uh relate to our credit rating, which I think is extremely important if we're going out for a bond issuance, purchases? >> I I I won't speak as as a as a bond counsel or a financial advisor or certainly Moody's or Standard & Poor's. I do know this, strong
057financial position, strong surplus uh is is probably one of the most important elements to a bond rating. The other thing that's truly important is the consistency with which you utilize your surplus. Being on bond rating calls and then and knowing this, they're looking for a track record. Some folks have an actual policy as to how much surplus they're going to use. Sometimes that's a slippery slope cuz you don't want to tie your own hands, but at the same time, even if you don't have a policy, you can illustrate it through a trend. Okay? And as I just kind of pointed out over the last 5 years, it's pretty consi- where you're landing this year is very indicative of where you've been over the last 5 years. And I would imagine, although I'm not a bond
058counsel, that they probably look pretty favorably upon that. >> Thank you. >> Mhm. >> I have a question. Um I I'm not sure you can hand answer this cuz I'm not sure what districts you work in, but when you um if you could compare us to let's say uh Homedale, Jackson, Hackensack, and the issues that they're facing financially, um how would you rate this district on how we do uh fiscally? >> Yeah, that that that's a tough one if you're expecting me to say, you know, 10 stars, the 10 gold stars. I can't say that. >> you to say 20 gold stars. >> Yes, and you have I'm I'm a tough cookie when it comes to that. You guys do fine, okay? Obviously, we only have to pick up the newspapers and see there are
059districts, and none of them are mine. I'm pretty lucky in that respect that are really really experiencing fiscal distress. In our own county, we know that there are districts that are out there selling school buildings. The thing about selling a school building is you can only sell it once. Okay, that's when I start talking about regenerating surplus. So, these districts and I'm not picking on them. A lot of that has to do with the state aid, which is also an issue that we've heard seen in the newspapers on and on. And and the suburban districts and and and how that allocation is coming out. I believe that that and S2, which didn't directly affect you guys, really is a big driver of some of these places. You see Middletown, you see Jackson, you see Freehold
060Regional. They were all greatly impacted by S2 and the reduction in state aid. And and Jackson, I think I actually work on it. I kind of watched that situation. I don't work there anymore, but I've watched that situation kind of unfold. It's driven in that particular case by state aid. The district, at least when I was there, was very well run. Driven by state aid. And that's the concern when you're trying to put the budget together and you have such uncertainty, okay, on state aid in particular, it's a challenge. And then on the appropriation side, you have special education, for instance, where you don't know, depending upon who moves in and moves out of town, what you're dealing with. It's very different. I do municipal audits as well. Their Their Their budgets are challenging as
061well, don't get me wrong, but it's a little bit more even. Whereas the school districts have a little bit more uncertainty in it. But it's the state aid, I think, that really And actually, I'll I'll bring one more thing up that me and Vince We If you went back a few years ago with the impact aid, the impact aid was part of the Remember this the sequester from whatever 8 years ago, 9 years, 10 years ago. That was on the chopping block. Uh Mr. Morasco was looking at the at the newspaper every day to find out whether we were going to lose that money. If you were to lose that money, if they were to cut extraordinary aid, which is always Extraordinary aid is another funny thing that at the state of New Jersey, you
062do your calculation. This is for additional excess cost on special education kids. They do the calculation, they figure out how much you deserve, and then they say, "Yeah, we'll give you 68% this year." Okay. And you don't know what that number is until May. Am I right with that? May? Okay. So, you have uncertainties, okay, with between state aid, and I just just named impact aid, extraordinary aid, that make it difficult, and it's kind of a little bit of a moving target when you're doing a school district budget. >> Thank you. Anybody else? Mrs. Cannon. >> Yeah. Looking at our current budget >> [clears throat] >> right now, what's going to surplus, cuz I get asked this question a lot. How much could have gone back to like the taxpayer if we wanted to >>
063Okay. >> cut cut the tax. >> Sure. So, so it's a good question. Okay, so right now, actually, I don't have the 27 Remember, I'm doing I'm giving you 25 information. I'm a year behind. You almost caught me there. So, so so what it kind of comes down to is I just talked about the fact that you put $1.7 million into your reserves, which left you at the 2%. >> Okay. >> So, in theory, you could have probably taken $1.7 million and use that as tax levy and not funded your reserves. In theory, you could have gone further and gone under that 2%, which I don't necessarily know that I would advise. Okay? But again, it's it's the trade-off that we were talking about before. By doing that, then your reserves are lower. And if
064you're comfortable with with the the level of your reserves, is that is there some type of mix in there? I don't know. That's the philosophical part of it. That's the hard part that you folks have to do that I personally am not involved in. >> And as you said before, we could end up having to raise taxes next year if that's if if we >> Correct. >> eat up the eat eat up reserves and lower the tax. >> another good question. So, if you if you go to next year, and let's just say we don't the budget gets tighter, and that's something I have seen happening, and you don't lapse 5%, you lapse 3%. Okay, that's going to hurt. If you don't get as much extraordinary aid, cuz the state size are going to give
065you 51% instead of 68% if they decide down in Washington they're not going to give us as much impact aid. Okay? And I'm not trying to cry wolf here because we've been the district has done fabulously. I'm knocking on wood here. You've done very very well, but they're unknowns is the point. So your your your point is well taken that the surplus could go down and if the surplus goes down it's you can't you literally can't use the same amount of surplus to support the budget in the succeeding year because you didn't regenerate it. >> Is that correct? Thank you so much. >> Um so on the presentation um we have a slide that says throughout the entire state of New Jersey Colts Neck received the fourth highest cut of state aid -5.4% from the
066prior year. So I just want to make the public aware there's a petition online called save our schools fix the formula petition and it's on social media and to have members of the community sign it as well as to email our senators and assemblymen um and I was I was just wondering if you have any suggestions for not only Colts Neck but all your school districts of of how to maybe get a more balanced and fair formula. >> [laughter] >> I've gotten a lot of tough questions before but I don't think I've ever gotten that one. Uh I I don't know. I think that it's it's it's it's probably more complicated than any of us give it credit for. I remember um I do work for Freehold Regional. They actually asked and uh I think
067they sued the state of New Jersey to get the secret sauce as to what the formula actually is and they said that it was proprietary and you can't have it. I I I don't know. Um I I see what's going on across the state. I mean I think everybody even down in Trenton realizes got to change in some way shape or form but I think it's for greater minds than mine. >> Thank you. >> No problem. >> All right. Okay. All right. Wrapping up the questions. Anybody else? Okay. Well that will that will be it at this time. I just want to thank you for coming out tonight and painting a clearer picture of our finances. So thank you very much. Okay, at this time we're going to proceed with the budget presentation. I'm going
068to introduce Dr. Garabedian to start with the presentation. Thank you. >> Thank you. This should only be be about two and a half hours. No, I'm just kidding. That's not true at all. But we do want to provide a very thorough and and and meaningful component of this. Uh the In terms of the presentation, as I mentioned before, it's very important that we have students here with us. It is extremely important that we have students here with us on this night because they are the focus of all that we do. The budget is a story. It is first generated in conversation. Oh, I'm sorry. If the board members would like to join us in the front of the desk. You don't have to I'm sorry. No, no, no, please. Absolutely. My apologies. So the members
069of our Board of Education are people who sit with us side by side hearing the story because I think that one of the things in addition to the operations of how things work for government entities, specifically school districts, is very eye-opening. It's it's a process for learning how school works. Things take a lot longer. Things cost a lot more. Things and and it takes a really a lot of commitment and understanding and time. So I want to first, on behalf of the district, of the staff and administration, thank you for your time. Thank you for your efforts and your willingness to participate with us in this process, cuz it's a big one, and it's one of the most important ones that we do. So, thank you for this opportunity. So, we when we talk about
070mission, we talk about this this budget. This budget is our mission in action. That's what it is. And I always I know that usually every Board of Education meeting we start out with our mission statement. So, if you'll indulge me for a minute, our mission is to empower and inspire students to be confident, creative, self-sufficient learners who maximize their strengths and talents, and contribute as responsible participants in their ever-expanding world. We saw that in action today. We saw that. We saw sixth graders who were 11 years old standing up and talking about wanting to be excited about what they want to do and their vision for their schools. We saw eighth graders who were excited about to talk about all the things that they're bringing to life, a vision brought to life. We're doing that.
071And each student does that in their own way. Their own way. And that path, that way is funded by the annual budget and what we do here. The people who work here, the programs we have to support their growth, the measures we have in place to show that growth, the communication tools we have, it's all part of it. In addition, at its core, the New Jersey Constitution talks about a thorough and efficient system of pre- of free public schools for children ages 5 through 18. At its core, this means that the state has a constitutional obligation to ensure every child, regardless of where they live, has access to a high-quality education that adequately adequately prepares them for citizenship. In Coltsneck, we don't stop at adequate. Okay? You saw that tonight. Over 80 students high honor
072roll at Cedar Drive Middle School. Something that we should be very, very proud of. New Jersey's Constitution guarantees that every child is entitled to more than just a seat in a classroom, more than just a textbook. They're entitled to more and every year we push ourselves, our teams, our teachers, our Board of Education, our community sets a bar that goes beyond just expectations, just a seat in the classroom. Because if I would never ever want any child in our district just to think that they are just someone filling a seat in this classroom and I think this budget and all that we do every year shows that that's not we do so much more. So where does it start? It starts with planning. You know, there's a lot of effort. Currently we have a five-year
073strategic plan. We're in year four of our five-year. The board sets goals. Every year we sit we set district goals. The building has goals. Everything feeds off of it. Our teachers have goals. Every single year that aligns. And when you were making decisions about what to fund and how to fund it, they are aligned with those goals. And that's part of the process. It's not something that we like to be very goal-centered. What is it contributing it to? How is it supporting student achievement? How is it supporting student success? All of the things that that go into it. So in our current strategic plan, we have student learning outcomes. Number one. Number two, finance and facilities, communications and partnerships, whole child and wellness, and engaging staff. And detailed explanation of each one of those goals
074is available on our website. Where else do we want to see it? We want to see our our mission in action based on how we're compared the most public display of our of our of our performance and of our mission is in our state testing. And while it is only one measure, it's one of many. And some and I always caution everyone to look at a number because you're thinking of a child. Each one of these numbers represents children in our district. And when you see the growth and the yellow represents the state and the blue represents Colts Neck in meeting and exceeding This is all grade levels three through eight in mathematics. You can see that we far outperform our our colleagues, our other school districts. >> [applause] >> That slide is also the
075same, although we can't compare to the states because we're a middle school that offers geometry and algebra to our students. And every year, consistently, we can go back in time for a really long period of time, but we went back from '22-'23. You can see how our students are meeting or exceeding in one and geometry year after year. And in case you can't see that from home, that's 100% in '22-'23 and '24-'25. >> [applause] >> And a very, very similar and proud slide for ELA language arts. Looking at the yellow is our state and blue is Coltsneck. So, that is our budget in action. That is a very public display. That is something that everybody can look up on the Department of Education website. You want to learn more, any of us would be happy
076to tell you the story behind each one of those numbers because we know it. Another way that we we also see our mission in action is through our public accomplishments. Our public accomplishments, things that say, "Yeah, we're really proud of that and we worked hard for that." This isn't just an award. There's actions and there's requirements that went through our recent designation as a Purple Star Schools for serving our military affiliate being a military affiliated community. This is about programs, outreach, communication, supports, all of the things that go into that. And all of it is funded through the budget, whether it's a different initiative, but more importantly, it's it's brought to life by the people, the people that are supported by the budget who make these things happen. So, that's a really important reminder. We
077are in the business of people, little people, okay? [laughter] Different all different kinds of people, but we are in the people business. And when you're doing really good work and supporting it uh in the right ways, these are the very public demonstrations of our budget in action. We also had take on different projects. We think of different ways to do things. And a long time coming in our and a lot of planning, uh Mr. Morasco, uh Mr. Moretta, the Board of Education, lots of conversations, and me personally as a superintendent learning about things that I didn't even understand. I had no idea what a unit ventilator was before I became a superintendent of schools. I do now. Um but we have we have aging schools. That's we had a 60th birthday for Cedar Drive. We've
078got a almost 60-year-old elementary school. And if you think about it, 300 to 400 people, little people, big people, go through it every single day for 181 days. Using the facilities, using the water, flushing the toilets, all the things that the roof gets rained on all year long, just like your home, okay? It needed repairs. We went out for some really important work in '18. We went for in 2019, we went out to the public for bond referendum. Those referendums went down, okay? We listened to the public. We regrouped and said, "What are we going to do? We've got to think of doing it a different way." So, what we did, we explored an energy savings improvement program or an ESEP, which you've heard mentioned many, many times at our Board of Education meetings. So,
079in that element, by going through an energy conservation uh an energy audit, if you will, first, and then engaging with an energy savings company, and going through the process and identifying what we can do to save some energy make take some really big energy saving conservation steps, how can we self-generate all of these pro- programs that we want to? And with Kevin Walsh and board member uh head of buildings and grounds, and prior board members who are on board and you taking over and board getting on board for what this means for our district, $10 in facility improvements that were not needed to be approved by the at zero tax impact for the board. For the for the town. Zero. >> [applause] >> And that takes a lot of work. And to go back to
080what Mr. Swisher was talking about, too, that was us rethinking and that concept and use of surplus because $6 million of that was for to add air conditioning and make HVAC improvements to the two buildings, Cedar Drive and Elementary School, that didn't have them. So, when you look at that, nowhere in the world would you be able to get two schools with HVAC improvements and air conditioning for $6 million, but we were able to do it through this So, I congratulate Mr. Morasco, Mr. Morretta, and the board for really going along this different way of thinking about funding programs for our schools and improvements. >> [applause] >> What else did it gave us? At the end of the day, you receive incentives. There's energy from JCP&L, from energy from energy companies to the tune of
081$530,000 in energy in incentives. There's also an educational value. DCO runs our who was our energy savings company runs a program called Competitive Edge, where we're going to be bringing in information to our students about energy conservation, the solar panels, all of the things that we do. So, there's an educational components that we can continue to not just do the things, but talk about the things and why they are important to our students and school community. So, I talked about um you know, our budget in action and doing all the things that we do, but this slide to me means the most. And when I tell you that this is a summary or preview because I do think that all the things that the art annual budget does, I could go on for 2 and
0821/2 hours about all the things that we do and all the people who work here. Because and I would welcome any opportunity to do that. I promise you President Volpe I will not do that tonight. So here's some of the things and these are the highlights. Maintaining our academic programs, extracurricular activities, character education, social emotional learning, and our schools counseling services. Delivering high quality programs, related services, and supports for students with disabilities. Supplying research-based instructional materials, assessment tools, assistive technologies, and supplies. Retaining staff. This is a big deal, retaining our staff. We we are very fortunate that our teachers and it's very appropriate that we say this on teacher appreciation week, are second to none. Second to none. And our ability to support them and provide them with the resources that they need to make
083them want to stay here and work with our children here in Cold Spring Harbor is a true credit to the efforts that we put forth to support them as the professionals that they are. Providing data-driven sustained professional development and staff training, transitioning and supporting our students and families residing on Earl, equipping students and staff with effective instructional technologies and software, also being mindful of the component of that that is cybersecurity and all the things that go along with that because that's an entire back-end component that also goes into that, offering supplemental programs for support for support, enrichment, intervention, and summer learning which includes both of our summer bridge and our extended school year program. Facilitating communications with families in the community, email, Genesis parent portal, all of those things go into an effort to keep
084open lines of communication with our parents and families. Transporting students in a reliable and safe manner. What I just said about the teachers, I'll say about our bus and our transportation department. They are our employees, they are our buses, and we have an outstanding fleet of buses and drivers and supports there. So, again, that's another credit to our district. Serving high-quality food. I know that Sophia talked about her efforts in talking with Pomptonian and all the things that go into that. We make a choice every year about this menu and we look at it. We say, "What can we do that's different?" You know, to to give kids experience, you know, freshly baked muffins, fruit choice every day, vegetables every day, healthy minds, healthy bodies, healthy kids. And that's an effort and we we work
085very hard to work with Pomptonian partner with our food food service management company to do so. Furnishing safe and engaging learning environments facilities. Safety first. There's nothing more important than the safety of our students and staff on a regular basis and we commit funds every year to doing so. Our partnership with Colts Neck Police Department on all that entails, our security monitors, everyone plays a role. Every single person in this district plays a role in security and the training and the efforts and the supplies and the drills and everything that goes into that is included in this budget. I also want to talk about funding the unexpected. That's in this budget and that's what we referred to it as we were talking about that was I really did appreciate the words that Mr. Swisher shared
086because we have a lot of the unexpected. I'm going to tell a story that if you'll indulge me for a second. Back in October, November 2025, we have a water pump that breaks at the back of Conover Road Elementary School. The main water pump. I get a call from our facilities manager. We have no water. And in case you didn't know, no water, no school. That's not what happens. So, thought process, thinking out loud, troubleshooting, going through all the motion, a very quick triangulated conversation between myself, Mr. Morada, Mr. Rasco, and then a very quick, decisive outreach to Mr. Walsh when I say to him, "Sir, this is what I need." And because we had reserve funds, as they talked about, we were not only able to have it immediately fixed the next day, but
087thinking outside the box, we had a gigantic water truck that supplied water to the building that allowed 300 students to continue to come to school when we had an in operated in operational water uh-huh. That's what those reserves do. That we couldn't have anticipated that. We couldn't have planned for that. But because we had fiscal foresight, we were able to address it. And that's just one of thousands of things that happen every single year in a district. >> [applause] >> A budget we get as close as we did we can. We get quotes for things, but remember we're getting them in March, in April. We all know what what inflation looks like. We all know what CPI looks like. By the time we go buy it, it's more expensive. We pay for our own gas.
088Let that sink in for a minute, okay? We're doing things to look at that. We're going through all of those processes, just like your own personal expenses, you have to double it and quadruple it and all of the things because of purchasing laws that that require us to do things a certain way. And those unexpected, unanticipated things are what have to be managed so well. You make your best efforts to get as close as possible to what you're going to spend. You say, "What this is what I need. This is what we need to operate our schools and to provide not just an adequate seat for students, but the excellence that the Coltsneck Township schools is known for on a regular annual basis." This is a cycle. The budget is a cycle and it's a
089never-ending cycle. It start it will be hopefully voted on tonight for the Board of Education and then tomorrow it goes to the DOE and you know and then we start Mr. Swisher in the summer coming back to audit the 25-26 school year and that starts and goes on until the fall. And right about October November we start thinking about the 27-28 budget next year and we start looking at our staffing and the needs and the projections and how many students we have and what was the rotation in Earl and how many new student uh students with disabilities are we taking in new IEPs? What are those services? Do they need a one-to-one aid? Are they an out-of-district student? Any of the adaptive all of those things that we could have never anticipated in March of
0902026, we now have to think about how we're going to do it because the students are here and we want to give them the best experience possible. We can't say sorry people, we don't have the money to do that. That's not an option for the students in this district. So, we go through this cycle right there. There's a we are here marker that says BOE oversight and approval. There's a lot of that. The board has that oversight. That's why that time, those efforts for the board to learn and absorb and process and give opinions and feedback back. Because what are every year board members, current, past, future will give a perspective, a community perspective, something that says, "Hey, I'm in this field. This is how we think about it. Hey, this is what that is."
091And while that's not their role as board members, that idea it's about conversation. Okay? And to that extent all the way through this are the our staff members and our outstanding team of administrators who are and program directors who are here with us tonight because this would not happen and come to fruition. This development also wouldn't happen to you. So, if I could pause for a minute and thank all of you for all the hard work that you do every year. Not just asking for what you need, but advocating for what you need. This district has the has the most the strongest leaders who are dedicated to advocacy for children and what they need, and that's why we continue to move forward as a district. So, at this time, we're going to close the cycle
092and from my part, and I'm going to turn it over to Vincent Marasco, our school business administrator. I know that it's time to get up. That's what I'm telling you. Okay, so >> [laughter] >> Um but, to that end, he will go into much more of the fiscal management and preparation and details of the budget. So, thank you for your time. >> [applause] >> Thank you, Dr. Garaway. I have a lot of notes and numbers, so do we need a stretch now or This won't be another 2 hours, but I do have a lot to get through, so Okay. Here we go. Okay. I always like to start with this basic framework of the school budget, showing the two sides. Conceptually, revenues are the financial resources of a district, while the appropriations are commitments of
093expenditures. And the board must follow two basic rules in any budget year, that revenues equal the appropriations, which is a balanced budget, and number two, that the tax levy revenue must be within a statutory 2% cap, inclusive of certain allowable adjustments. And this balanced budget concept um applies not only to the general fund, as we commonly know it as fund 10, fund 11, but also the special revenue fund, which is a fund 20 under GAAP accounting, and also the debt service fund, which is fund 40. So, that's the framework. Now, every year, there are some unique and reoccurring budget considerations that factor into preparing a one-year budget. And these are just some of the appropriation needs and considerations that are part of the 26-27 budget. As you can see, healthcare and insurance costs continue to
094escalate. We have needs for two buses, various maintenance equipment, and an electronic scoreboard for the Cedar Drive Middle School that are budgeted this year as an equipment lease. We're also funding the summer bridge program that Dr. Garbe talked about, and also have a budget for the charter school tuition that we are obligated to pay. And of course, in all of this, we operate in a general inflationary environment with the CPI being 3.58%. So, in addition to the budget factors each year, overall, a local school district is charged with delivering on the state mandate, which is to provide the thorough and efficient education. So, these things are some of the means at our disposal to realize cost savings and the efficiencies. This year, the first three items here are sources of revenue that the budget is
095using to achieve the $0 tax levy increase. Okay? And in total, we're recognizing over 3.8 million dollars from fund balance as revenue in the 26- 27 budget. Um, and again, this is from a combination of reserve funds and surplus, which I'll expand on shortly. And you've heard Mr. Swisher briefly talk about that earlier. Uh, the other items highlight efficiencies gained through utilizing purchasing cooperatives, pooled insurance funds, as well as other uh things that we use here, instructional coaches, and providing in-house professional development. Okay. Uh before we get to the final budget, I am procedurally required to discuss at this public hearing all changes recommended since the board's tentative budget approval. Uh and in this regard, and as an outcome of the County Department of Ed's budget review process, the district is changing the amount of
096interest revenue budgeted for both its maintenance reserve and its capital reserve funds. Uh this change is simply to be more aligned with the history of interest that is allocated to the respective funds over the past several years. The recommendation is to change the interest to 25,000 for the maintenance reserve and 50,000 for the capital reserve. Okay. This change affects the two revenue lines, which are in yellow, uh of the advertised budget, as well as the equal offset uh to the budgetary appropriation advertised lines in red. Uh and so the total budgetary change to note at this public hearing is $71,000. Okay. Now, as we show the revenue side of the budget, um compared to current year, and there are two slides of this, uh you will see the local tax levy is about 74% of
097total revenues. And the board's goal was achieved by keeping the tax levy flat. Okay. You will see the tax impact of this further on in one of the last slides. Now, it's worth noting that by keeping the tax levy flat for over the last 3 years, the district has forfeited over $2.3 million of allowable taxing authority. Again, by not raising the tax levy to the allowable cap. So, there you go. Uh the New Jersey state aid has declined from prior year. You will see this two slides from now. Uh that some of the categories increased, other categories decreased. And the district is supporting its budgeted revenues by budgeting approximately 2/3 of the most recent extraordinary aid award for the 24-25 year. In addition, we're budgeting this year $620,000 of federal impact aid based on historical
098trends. So, this is new for for the district for this year, but again, it's another revenue source that we are anticipating in the 26-27 budget. And continuing on, this shows our use of fund balance for 26-27. So, um Mr. Swisher talked about this, and while the district is not budgeting unassigned fund balance as revenue, the district is supporting the revenues with excess surplus, right? As defined by the NJDOE regulations that are calculated in that excess of the 2% of prior year's general fund budget. So, of the uh $2.6 million figure that you see on the second row, middle column, $1,430,848 is the figure that Mr. Swisher talked about, which was the excess surplus, the audited number as of June 30th, 2025, that must be budgeted in the 2026-2027 school year. And one that $1,173,180 is
099additional fund balance that the budget program forces you to budget as revenue. It's it's more excess surplus or surplus in general, okay? So, that makes up that number. Additionally, we're using a portion, like Mr. Swisher talked about, of restricted fund balance reserves. For 2026-2027, we're budgeting 475,000 of maintenance reserves, as well as 740,000 of impact aid reserves, making up the 1.2 million there. Okay. Other uh miscellaneous revenue category represents various anticipated and estimated revenues. It's made up of uh four bus runs we provide to Marlboro School District, about 149,000. Uh we recognize one-on-one device fee revenue each year of about $30,000. Uh we bill the township uh for gasoline use because we do the purchasing, and we're approximating 112,000 from the township as on that billing. We're also recognizing federal E-rate revenue and some uh
100income from facility use. Okay, since we've been talking about fund balance as part of the revenues here, um hopefully that print is not too small on this slide, but uh it's somewhat of a repeat to what Mr. Swisher described as far as our fund balance picture at year-end June 30th, 2025. And it's to show the categories that the district had and reflects most of the fund balance activity through March of 2026. So, I just want to point out that we spoke about that $12 million figure that was the June 30th balance. We're sitting right now at about 9.7 million. Um but we haven't finished operations for this current year. And as shown on the previous slide, we've committed about 3.8 million of fund balance to the 2026-2027 budget. Okay, now we talk about state aid
101relative to last year's. So, here we go. The first three primary types of aid are categorical aid, meaning it's distributed to districts based on specific student or district characteristics of the local uh I'm sorry, regardless of the local communities wealth. And it's essentially calculated by the school funding formula, which is the school funding reform act. The state military aid is supplemental funding based on specific district needs. And since we educate students from Naval Weapons Station Earle, the state calculates based on a formula. As you could see, it was reduced from last year because of the count went down from 62 students to 52 students for next year. It's also worth noting, and it's not on this slide, that Colts Neck does not receive any equalization aid, which is actually the largest component of state aid
102for districts throughout New Jersey. And that's simply because our budget is over the state constructed adequacy budget budget, which is really the amount deemed by the state of New Jersey to provide a thorough and efficient education. And it's also based on the fact that our local fair share, which is a fancy way of saying the wealth of Colts Neck, is too high. So, your adequacy minus your local fair fair share, excuse me, is your equalization aid, to which Colts Neck receives zero. So, that's our state aid picture. Now, as we get into the other side of the budget, which are the appropriations, hopefully we're staying awake at this point. Yes? All good? Okay. These are the advertised categories or groups of budget appropriations, and they're compared to the prior budget. So, start at the top.
103Instruction. This is the general education program, including basic skills, bilingual, co-curricular, all your clubs, band, and we have some new advisor and club stipends for 2026-2027. Um it includes athletics, and also the summer bridge program. They're grouped into that category for this purpose. Special education. This grouping includes the collective instructional programs for students with IEPs and out-of-district tuition. Most of the increases here is from contracted support services necessary to support the autistic program next year. Student support services. This category includes attendance and social work, health services, speech, OTPT, and related services, all our one-on-one aides, guidance and child study teams, curriculum and instruction, and staff training. And within each of those categories I just mentioned, some of the common costs include, obviously, salaries, stipends, substitutes, purchased services, and all the supplies and consumables needed for
104these programs. Operations and maintenance of plant. Okay, this is Mr. Moretta's uh expertise here. This includes custodial and maintenance salaries, lunch aids, grounds maintenance, utilities, property, liability, and auto insurance, contracted services for repairs and maintenance, and all of our security costs, to name a few. There are a number of increased repairs and maintenance items across the district that we are addressing next year, such as we're uh going to be repairing the Crest library floor, and the CDMS cafeteria solarium. Including in operations and maintenance is our lovely wastewater treatment plant. It's a big expense to run that in this building, as well as the uh septic systems across the other two facilities. So, um one of the perhaps almost the largest aspect of the increase in operations and maintenance is the energy budget. We're budgeting almost
10552% higher than last year. A lot of that has to do with the the general marketplace of of energy, and the fact that, you know, while we're we have energy we have an energy savings improvement plan, we have things in place to conserve energy, we're also using now air conditioning in all our buildings. So, we have to provide for that budgetary impact. Okay. Last but not least uh I'm sorry. Yes, administration and uh, central offices is the administrative staff. Central office, it's principals, support staff, New Jersey School Boards Association Group Membership, board trainings and workshops, postage and advertising, audit and legal fees, communications, central office software, as well as professional liability insurance. And continuing on, we have employee benefits. This is uh, the employer share of social security taxes, pension obligations, workers comp insurance, medical,
106prescription, dental insurance, tuition reimbursements, unemployment compensation, and retirement benefits. Our transportation, again, is is in-house. We have a complete vehicle fleet maintenance, because we uh, we employ two mechanics. We have driver salaries, aides, regular, special ed, and athletic transportation routes, as well as aid in lieu payments. And finally, our uh, capital outlay is where budgeted equipment and facilities construction activity is budgeted. Uh, next year it includes 40,000 of School Development Authority state assessment, and I said earlier, we're replacing um, this original floor, as well as some cafeteria tables. That was on the one of the first slides where we talked about budget factors. Uh, so that's in this budget. It also includes the increase to the capital reserve interest that I talked about earlier from the um, revenue slide. Uh, charter school is based on
107two students attending charter school next year. The district is responsible to provide the tuition for that under law. And so our total and then there's the maintenance reserve interest. So our total general fund budget is increasing by just over 11%. And again, part of this overall cost drivers are increases in salaries and benefits, commercial insurance premium increases, pension obligations, and all the facilities operations. Okay, so this extraordinary multicolored pie chart shows the appropriation categories I just spoke about. Picture it as a percentage of the total budget. And as you can see, the if you look at the support services, the special ed, and the general education categories, that uh they provide for district direct student instructional services, which is about 55% of our budget. And finally, we get to the tax levy comparison. There are
108two components to the tax levy. One is the general fund and the debt service fund. The general fund tax levy was the revenue stream I discussed earlier. The debt service relates to voter-approved pre-existing bonded debt or refinancing over the years that we must annually service the principal and interest payments, like a mortgage. Now, we'll have paid off our bonded debt by February of 2027. So we have two more annual payments remaining. It's important to note as we move forward and look forward to the '27-'28 budget. So So, the total tax levy has a very slight decrease from prior year. How does this relate to actual tax impact for the community? Estimated tax impact is expressed as an increase or decrease relative to last year. Now, our total tax rate is the total levy requested, which
109was that 24 million, same number as last year, divided by the tax base, which is the total net valuation taxable of Colts Neck Township, or better known as the ratable property. And that's that's a num- that's a figure that's um obtained from the tax assessor in Colts Neck. And a tax rate is based on every $100 of assessed valuation. The rate is applied to the average assessed home value, not market value. Very important. Um so you can see our total tax rate, the general fund and the debt service, is a rate of .5378. It's a decrease of about 4 cents from last year. Now, as you can see, even when there's a decrease, even when the tax rate reduction is applied to increasing ratables and rising average assessed home values, there's still an increase to
110the tax impact. Very small one, but it still results in a positive tax tax impact. So, for next year, the total tax rate of .5378 means that for every 100,000 of assessed valuation, there would be approximately $538 in school taxes from this district. And Oh, this goes back to Dr. Garabed at this point. Thank you. >> [applause] >> Thank you, Mr. Marasco. Um one of the things that we talk about in terms of the board board of education's roles and responsibilities in in addition to fiscal oversight is participation. And uh uh tonight Mr. Brian Scarpa, who is a co-chair of the finance committee, uh will be speaking from the perspective of the board about the uh 2026-2027 annual budget and the board's involvement. Mr. Scarpa. >> I want to switch things up a little bit.
111Okay, so we heard from our auditor. He gave us an excellent baseline presentation of where we're at for our 20 ending 25 budget. And it was a consistent message of fiscal responsibility and security by this town. Job well done, and thank you, sir. We heard from our administrative staff, Dr. Garabedian, Mr. Marasco, who spoke about the details of what goes on behind the scenes to build out this program on a yearly basis, and it needs to be consistent. We are not in here just for 1 year at a time. 5, 10-year program. And as described by the details, there's a lot of moving targets and information, so it's no small task to get this job done well and get it done right. There's very little opportunity to make a mistake in this process because there
112are always headwinds in the state and the federal obligations and what we're experiencing, especially in the aging facility environment. in, we have a fantastic board of nine dedicated, all volunteer, taxpayers here, and it's my privilege to be part of this team. So, I want to take a step back and reintroduce this board and it talk about its opportunity with the town, and more importantly, our go-forward strategy. That being said, the state of our schools is strong. There are a few key board responsibilities. I want to focus on what we do and what we don't do. That's absolutely imperative. Right out of the gate, and then there's a superintendent oversight responsibility. And this is an annual conversation that we have with Dr. Garaybe. We believe we have the very, very best in the business right over
113there. And we want to keep it that way. But it's a it's a dialogue between the board and Dr. Garaybe and her staff to make sure that our district goals are aligned with her goals and making sure that that translates down to our teachers and staff and the rest of our student base. Absolutely imperative. We have a budget approval and tax setting process. That's what this is today. This is not a two-week, three-week program. This is many, many months in the program and in the process. And having it to get to this point is what it's all about. This sets us up for a better tomorrow. With policy and creation and governance, we have experts on our board that that specifically focus on the policies and opportunities out there in the market. And that's no
114small task, either. So, that's a key element of our board responsibilities. Our strategic planning and goal setting is absolutely critical. We are talking about not today, not next week, but how does this facility last a year from now, three years from now, and service the community that's going to come in and support these schools? Additionally, we have a community a community representation as well as the academics and curriculum. We're not to undermine the academics and curriculum. It is a cornerstone of our operation here. Maintaining a strong curriculum is absolutely imperative for a strong program. And of course, our community relationship is what it's all about. Our board represents small business owners, uh former police officer and now state officials. We have uh a real estate broker. We we have uh finance professionals. We have corporate
115travel executives. We run the gauntlet of what it means to be a Coltsneck citizen. All of us are taxpayers, and that's why it's absolutely critical that we have this role and responsibility here in the town. What does the board do not do? What are our not our responsibilities? The school board members do not have a handle on the day-to-day operations. I cannot stress that enough. We hire professionals to do that job. Our tax dollars go to support the folks that actually support that operation. Well, the town and the and the board owns the bus, and they drive the bus. That's absolutely important to remember. We don't manage the school staff. That is their responsibility, and it's one that they do very, very well. We don't handle classroom level hiring, and we we are there to
116operate through governance and setting the course, rather than getting involved in the weeds of the day-to-day operation, and that's a good thing. Let's talk about school finances. The school finances is absolutely critical for the foundation of our success. Without a strong balance sheet, without maintaining proper capital reserves, we don't last until tomorrow. Let's talk about our market in our state. Setting this up, we have a strong blueprint of what a better today and tomorrow looks like. We want to maintain a fiscally secure budget and a and it's absolutely vital for achieving our financial financial stability. That goes without saying. We cannot operate unless we're financially stable right out of the gate. Ensuring resources exist for future goals and emergencies. Let's face it, our schools are aging. Our homes age. The other day I had a
117leak in the roof. You don't just put a bucket out and say, "Oh, maybe tomorrow it's not going to rain." It will rain tomorrow. Either you fix it or replace it. It's exactly where I would our facility program today. So, let's keep that in mind as we proceed forward. The Coltsneck Township School District maintains a fiscal focus of responsibility, and we've done this for 3 years. That is not by mistake. There's a reason why we said, "You know what? We're going to keep at a zero tax impact right now." And to Mr. Ms. Marasco's point, yes, we forfeited $2.4 million over the past 3 years, but with a reason. We believe that not only can we adjust our current mindset today to operate in our environment, but we have more important things to do tomorrow.
118And that means digging a little bit deeper and appreciating the fact that we need to get proper supporting, and that might include proper referendum opportunities to support the long-term infrastructure of what we're looking at. Let's talk about the market. It's very, very important to appreciate the market out there. These 11 New Jersey school districts are facing layoffs, tax hikes, and closures to stay afloat. We do not want to be in market news. We're not. Cherry Hill. Cherry Hill public schools has deal with a projected $14.5 million deficit due to an increase in employee health care costs, which we have, an increase in transportation expenses, which we have. Officials said during a recent board hiring, $14.5 million deficit. While their headwinds are the same as ours, perhaps we're managing a little bit more fiscally responsible. Hackensack.
119Hackensack public schools is preparing to lay off about 100 teachers and staff and raise taxes as it works to close a $24 million deficit. 24. And we're talking about surplus, and we hear from our public about the distribution of excess surplus. Keep that in mind. Jefferson Township school officials say they're nearly $3 million short after making what officials called a distasteful cut to close a deficit. Were they upset about deficits? Absolutely. Did they cut? You bet. But, we're upset about what you cut. Where does it end? Let's talk about the 5.4% throughout this entire state of New Jersey. Colts Neck received the fourth highest cut of state aid, 5.4% from the prior year. Hardyston, Bergen, Ocean from 17% and there we are at 5.4%. Let the market tell you what we're up against. In addition,
120uh our surrounding communities have also received some cuts. Rumson is down 3% and Fair Haven Township is is actually up 4.95%. Let's put this in perspective of our direct market. That's absolutely critical when you appreciate the numbers. Manalapan, a 6% increase in last from last year. Freehold Borough is down three, uh Upper Freehold up 4.73. Holmdel, relatively flat at 1.46 and Middletown is up 6%. Some are achieving high state aids while others are getting impacted in a negative. Let's put this in perspective. This slide tells a lot. These are the top 10 school districts in the state of New Jersey that will receive the most funding in 26 and 27. We're not going to be here, okay? Newark, Paterson, Elizabeth, Trenton, Camden, Plainfield, Passaic, Union, Perth Amboy, New Brunswick. Those are your top 10%. Those
121are your top 10. Colts Neck is not there. I want to dial this back to a market and this means something. I want to focus on three important elements, charity, high education universities, and our private schools, which is actually a competitor, okay? Charity. St. Jude's does it well. If you haven't studied the St. Jude's model, please do. They do it very, very well. St. Jude Children's Hospital has reportedly $5 billion in excess reserve. $5 billion primarily to ensure long-term financial sustainability, multi-year research projects, and act as a cushion against economic downturns. $5 billion. Could they operate today, tomorrow, and 2 years from now without accepting a single dollar? Absolutely. Could they exist 5 years from now? No way. That's smart fiscal management. Will they continue to do it? Absolutely, they will. And they have the
122supporters behind it. That mission works. Not the same numbers, but the same philosophy applies here. Let's talk about colleges. Harvard, Yale, MIT, Stanford, or UPenn all lead the way in endowments. These numbers are real. These are billions in dollars of endowments. Now, endowments and and our reserve fund is not necessarily apples to apples, but the concept is the same. It's putting away for tomorrow so that we can have a tomorrow. These are some of the most successful universities the world has ever seen. What's the commonality? They have an endowment. Do people support it? Yes. Do they show up and go to those schools? Yes. Do they pay high tuitions? You bet they do. Why? Because they support that tomorrow. Look at the tax base number that Mr. Morra opposed before. Our assessed value has gone
123up 6 years. Why? Why are the homes increasing? People want to be here. Why? Because they enjoy the schools, the infrastructure, the support, the lifestyle that Colts Neck affords. Maintain that. Do what they're doing. These schools have it right, and that is our feeder opportunity. Let's talk about our direct market. These are schools that compete with our public education. Okay, these are the endowments for the private schools. Same philosophy, I'll be a different numbers. One year, 15 years, 30 years out. They're not thinking about today. They're thinking about the long-term sustainability. That's the track that this board is on. Maintaining what works today but preparing for tomorrow. Cannot stress that enough. With all that being said, there's a reason why we're here. There's a reason why we have nine dedicated folks on the board who
124are not compensated. They actually spend a lot of their time and treasure to be part of this program. We believe in this school district. We believe in the opportunities that presents itself and we want your support and we are always open for candid conversation and discourse. Thank you. >> [applause] >> Thank you, Mr. Scarpato. Thank you for joining us tonight. Thank you for our public hearing and joining us for our public hearing. I just want to point out um Coltsneck Township schools, the pre-K to 8 district is the largest congregation daily of Coltsneck citizens. It's the largest one. We are the second largest employer in Coltsneck next to Naval Weapons Station Earle. So, when you're thinking about that and thinking about the future, we thank our community, we thank our board, thank our staff members,
125and thank everyone who continues to support us in every single way. That concludes our our presentation. >> [applause] >> If you'd like to join back to the days. >> Yes. Just see where I'm at. All right, we're going to do something in this budget. Just acknowledge this and then we'll go to that. Yeah. Okay. All right. Okay, uh we're just going to wait for everybody to be seated uh to continue. >> Thank you for coming. And thank you for all you do. We really appreciate the staff. Thank you. >> Um Okay, uh at this time I just want to um Oh, where did Mrs. Camera go? Oh, she probably went to the um restroom. Oh, okay. No worries. Thank you. Uh at this time I just want to acknowledge we have uh some information items,
126just one information item there. Uh if we could all uh take notice and then we're going to go right into comments from the public. If anybody would like to uh come up and make a comment, you are welcome to do so at this time. Yep, please line up. I see a huge crowd. >> Allison DeNoia, 4 Westminster Drive. Um I know what goes into making a budget. I've done it a couple of times, and so I know it's a lot of hard work, but there are some questions that um I don't know, I think Dr. Garabedian or Mr. Morasco could probably answer, and so I I'll submit them in writing as [music] well. But just to kind of be thinking as you move forward, um here are the questions that I have. How will the
127loss of the SR funded mental health supports be replaced? What is the impact of reducing instructional assistance on inclusion and behavior support? Is the current level of fund balance use sustainable beyond 1 to 2 years? How will reduced professional development affect curriculum implementation? Like the new writing program. And are student support case loads increasing despite the flat reduced staff? So, those are my questions. Thank you. >> Okay, thank you very much for your comment. Uh, anybody else? Okay. Our last guest of the evening. >> Kevin O'Brien, 18E enclosure. First off, the board did an outstanding job once again in being >> I'm not I'm not sure your mic is on. >> Flip it up. >> Oh, there we go. Yeah. >> I'll start over. >> Thank you. >> The board did an outstanding job once
128again in being fiscally responsible. I made the same comments last year, so I'm delighted to do it again. More importantly, you knocked it out of the park with the kids. Uh, so that was really nice to see. It's been said I can get a little bit too granular, so please bear with me. If I understand correctly, New Jersey law allows a 2% budget increase, which the board did not take. The Board of Education team maintained a near zero over 3 years, effectively effectively saving taxpayers if my math is correct, 3.2 million dollars. So, thank you. That wasn't shared by the auditor. I I borrowed one of the sixth graders to help me with the math. There's been, uh, some emails and social media about the board's 1.2 12, excuse me, 12.5 million dollars in reserve
129funds. So, thank you for sharing this evening, bringing in the auditor to address some of the um, the questions that are out there and hopefully that'll calm some of the nonsense that's taking place. From what I've read, the state law does not require unused funds to be returned to the state taxpayers. So, thank you for clarifying that as well. Now to the there's been some far too many false claims by one resident attacking Kevin Walsh over the board of the Colts Neck election. The attacks have been expanded to include the Board of Education. It's been intuitively obvious even to the most casual observer the smear campaign against Mr. Walsh now includes targeting the Board of Education which in my view is reprehensible. One misguided statement was Walsh and his wife could control over 49 million
130dollars of our tax revenue. With a Walsh win, he will be one of five committee members. No single person controls the revenue. It is governed by collective votes in public meetings which are the primary venue for fiscal oversight. The board's budget is supported by an annual audit per state law. Process undertaken by a third-party accounting firm. The board's commitment to financial integrity and transparency as we've seen tonight is beyond reproach. If the abrasive approach of the self-appointed campaign manager is reflective of the other two candidates, one who was here tonight and left, a Walsh win is a benefit to Colts Neck. His honest, caring, and self-spoken and self-spoken approach is welcomed by many including this unaffiliated voter. I don't have a a dog in the hunt in this situation. The First Amend- Amendment protects the
131rights to display political signs on private property. This topic was addressed last year by the town attorney. The Walsh signs are in accordance with the law. The First Amendment does not does not take a timeout because a disgruntled senior resident has an axe to grind over Walsh, his wife, or this board. There is no law or ordinance limiting when political signs are allowed to go up. Political signs on private residential property are permitted according to the New Jersey Supreme Court. There are laws prohibiting the collection of There are no laws prohibiting the collection of signatures of an elected election petition on public property. Walsh seeking a place on the ballot is fundamental part of our democratic process. The senior resident acting like a campaign manager gone bad had no right to interfere, object, and prohibit
132Kevin Walsh from speak speaking with residents in Township Hall prior to the public meeting. The Township govern the the Monmouth County Board of Election confirmed Walsh is running in the Republican primary. Kevin Walsh is in fact a registered Republican and one of three, not two, Republicans seeking open seats and the public's vote. Voters can visit with Mr. Walsh in person at the Colts Neck Inn on May 12th starting at 6:30. Hopefully voters can see through the maneuvers being spread and a strong voter voter turnout will take place on June 2nd. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you. I'd like to uh to just have some remarks uh to the issues that you brought up uh First of all, we had a couple of hundred people here, I would say. Uh we had a couple
133hundred people and then you know, not only we passing the budget, one of the most important meetings of the year, but to highlight and honor the students that do so very well and achieve these fantastic accolades. Um the fact that only two people are here to make comments shows me something. That this community is very pleased with how the finances of this district are handled. I'm very very proud of that. There's not one person up here complaining about where their dollar is spent, how it's spent, or how we handle it. So, I appreciate the public um you know, appreciating us and what we do here. I want to make a a motion uh to close public comment and I'll continue my remarks. Uh I'm sorry, to close the public hearing uh at this time. If
134we could get a motion and then I'll continue my remarks after. >> Second. >> Aaron Gibson. >> All right. >> Are we all in favor? >> All in favor. >> Closed. The motion is carried. Thank you. >> Um okay, before we start moving into the action items, I want to continue my remarks on the budget. Um just to reiterate again, we all know uh how long this process takes and all the work that goes into it. Um I want to personally thank our finance committee uh consisting of our co-chairs um Mr. Scarpa, Mr. Jason Rico, and Kevin Walsh uh for all their um unwavering dedication and the hours put in along with our administration, um Mr. Marasco and Dr. Garabedian. As you know, this is definitely no easy task uh to you know, to achieve.
135Uh and the fact that we did it three years in a row is just an exceptional exceptional um target and we hit it again. And uh I just want to thank all all who was involved. It just It's just exceptional what's going around uh in the state of New Jersey, how things are falling apart elsewhere, and we're holding it together here. It's just something to just be so proud of. And I'm absolutely disgusted by the attacks that have been previously made this week to tarnish the reputation of this board in sake of uh political um achievements. So, thank you. I'd like to ask the board if they want to add any additional comments at this time in regards to the budget or um any any comments. You could go ahead. >> We could talk about
136all the millions of dollars in the world. We spend a lot of money time about money, where it's spent, where it's going, how we manage it. What's the most What's the most important to me is how happy our kids are in our schools. Did I Are they smiling when they come home? Are they talking about the school day they had with their teachers? The culture of our school district, our teachers love our students. Do the best job each and every day to make sure our kids are getting the best education education in the world. To me, it's not about money. It's about how happy our kids are, how much they learn, and the smiles on on their faces when they come get off the school bus. >> Yeah. >> I just want to piggyback on
137what you said. Tonight, the most impressive part to me, not only were the students who received these honor rolls, but I hope everyone noticed how they were cheering for each other. And again, that just goes back to what Mr. Walsh said. It's the community and the climate that our educators and our staff has has implemented. And I love seeing I love seeing everyone cheering for each other. They were so proud of each other, and it was just really wonderful to watch. >> Anybody else like to uh any remarks? Questions, though? Okay, great. Um let's get moving. Let's Let's approve this budget, guys. I'm very excited. Let's approve this budget. Um we I'm going to make a motion to approve the following uh action items. Uh Oh, thank you very much. Uh numbers 1 through 11,
138including the adoption of the 2026-27 school budget uh and tax levy levy delivering a zero tax increase 3 years in a row. I need to get a roll call. >> I move to second. >> Second. >> Yep. Thank you. >> Uh roll call now? >> Yep, roll call. Thank you. >> Mr. Cameron? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Horowitz? >> Yes. >> Mr. Rico? >> Yes. >> Mr. Rugnetta? >> Yes. >> Mr. Scale? >> Yes. >> Mr. Scarpa? >> Yes. >> Mr. Volpe? >> Yes. >> Mr. Walsh? >> Yes. >> Mr. Wittenberg? >> Yes. >> Uh Vin, sorry. >> I'm sorry? >> Yes. Vin. >> Yeah, I think he's got some um >> Sorry, I wasn't holding the mic before and I had it was quick. Sorry. Um I have to recuse for number seven, but yes
139for all the rest. >> Thank you very much. The motion is carried unanimously. >> Um great. Congratulations, um board members. Uh okay, we have a few communications. Anybody want to take notice? We have two of them on there. Um I believe they were both addressed. Um and then we're going to move right into our board liaison's report. I know it's been uh quite lengthy of a meeting. I don't know if anybody has prepared anything. I did recommend that we do not include the committee of a whole work session due to the length of this meeting. So, if we want to move into the board liaison's report, if we could please make it brief um since uh it's pretty late. I don't know if anybody has anything, but uh Sarah, do you I'm sorry, Mrs. Horowitz.
140Um would you like to comment on your two liaison positions? >> No, I'm good. Thank you. >> Okay. Uh, newsletter, Mrs. Camera. >> Um, no new information. >> Okay. Um, Mr. Regnetta and Mr. Rickberg, anything on the sports extracurricular? >> Yes, just a couple things. Sorry, I'll try to make it real quick. Um, the sports foundation put out that they are um, that there's a GoFundMe page in support of Emiliano and his family during this uh, tough time. Of course, everyone knows Emiliano is the the 11-year-old sixth grader who who was involved in the unfortunate and uh, tragic ATV accident and um, he's in the hospital. So, he's in all all of our thoughts and prayers. So, there is a GoFundMe page. Uh, so please go to the Colts Neck Sports Foundation um, social media
141pages or email and uh, they'll set you up with uh, sending you the link to the GoFundMe page. Um, spring wrestling uh, is is coming back for grades 1 through 5. Uh, it's a $60 um, tuition. Uh, there's 35 spots. Uh, it'll be Tuesday nights uh, from 5:30 to 7:00 p.m. starting um, yesterday. It goes to June 23rd. Um, and uh, uh, just go to Team Snap to sign up. Uh, I believe you can still sign up. So, just go to Team Snap to sign up and or [email protected] for more information. Just to double double check that you could still sign up. Um, there was also um, on May 2nd, there was vandalism uh, in the parking lot uh, on five points on to somebody's car. Uh, this happened between 10:00 a.m. and 12:00 p.m.
142Uh, so if anybody has any information about that vandalism that happened, if you have any video uh, on your car that might have gotten it, uh, please uh, e-send an email to [email protected] uh, with any information that you have or please just go to the um, Colts Neck uh, police department with any information. Um, this is also the last week for the cheer program to sign up. So, um, please go to Colts Neck AYF.teamsideline.com to sign up or go to AYC Cheer at Colts Neck Sports Foundation.com for more more information and they are doing a 6U through 414U divisions. Uh thank you. >> Thank you. Um Mr. Wigberg, do you uh would you like to add anything to those remarks? >> Uh I do not. >> No, okay. Um moving into the Colts Neck Township
143Committee, Mr. Walsh. >> I'll have a report at the next meeting. >> Okay, thank you. Um this 250 celebration, I believe you have something to report for that. Mrs. Camera, thank you. >> Okay, thank you. Um the next meeting will be tomorrow, May 7th. Um this is just a reminder to families and Colts Neck High School families that the calendar contest um is wrapping up. Please hand in your finished products uh to Dr. Garabed by May 8th. Um you could also, if you're still interested, it's on the Colts Neck Township Schools website under the USA 250th. Once again, our senior winner will receive $200 and the cover. Grades K through 11 will receive $100 and the checks will be donated by the Colts Neck Historical Society. Uh we still have our Board of Education video
144contest under the same tab. Uh we have our patriotic theme field day. I want to compliment, it's beautiful the flyer. It was in Dr. Garabed's um weekly update. Um so, it's a stars and stripes and games, June 12th. And um I love I just want to compliment the staff for this wonderful idea. Um our 1776 flags, we're still looking forward to being placed at our schools. And once again, our Board of Education has the USA 250th tab. It has Township events, Monmouth County events, Monmouth County Library events, national events. Um today was the barn tour. Um so, I already started seeing some of the photos on social media. Um, it it looked just so much fun as well as educational, and that marked the second town event. So, we had the George Washington birthday, and
145today was the barn tour. Um, everything else I could wait till the next meeting. Just really the calendar contest is due May 8th. That's the most important thing I wanted to share. Thank you. >> Great. Uh, thank you. Okay, Colts Neck Township, uh, seniors, Mr. Walsh. >> I was actually at the meeting. It was a wonderful opportunity to catch up with old friends. I'm one of them. So, it was a great meeting, great lunch, great conversation with friends I haven't seen in a long time. >> Great. Thank you. Uh, okay, Naval Weapons Station Earl, uh, Mr. Scarbin. >> Yeah, no formal report other than to mention that, uh, Earl continues to play an absolute critical piece of our our infrastructure here within Colts Neck, including in that student base and their participation in our schools.
146So, I'll never stop recognizing them, admiring them, and appreciating them for their valued place in our schools, and our continued success is also relying upon their continued success. A one key piece that it was mentioned or what was uh, was not mentioned earlier was that we have seen some numbers thrown out out there about the 65% of the local taxes being focused on schools. Now, while that might be right, approximately 42% of that slice goes to the Colts Neck pre-K to K, while a full 23% goes to the high school. So, that point needs to be properly identified and respected throughout the budget environment that when we're talking about allocation to schools, it is a shared responsibility between pre-K to 8 as well as our high school responsibility. Thank you. >> Great. Uh, thank you
147for those remarks. Uh, I have nothing for the New Jersey School Boards. I'll report out on next meeting. Okay. Uh, so, at this time uh, we're concluding our meeting. We do have an executive session listed here for litigation. I'm going to ask for a motion to move into that executive session. No action will be taken. The live stream will conclude at this time. Um, and Um, there's no new Actually, it was cut off just as Do you want Do you have something? I'm sorry. Yeah. Yeah, go ahead. Yeah, we'll we'll We'll go back. Yeah. >> Okay. So, I just wanted to take a moment to recognize and thank two groups who play an essential role in our schools and community. So, first in honor of National Nurses Day, I want to extend my appreciation to
148our school nurses. Your care, compassion, and dedication to student health and safety make a meaningful difference every single day. And then of course, being a teacher, I also want to recognize our teachers in celebration. Dr. Garabedian mentioned it quickly before of Teacher Appreciation Week. Again, your commitment, patience, and continued education shape the character of our students, their future, and your impact extends far beyond our classroom. So, thank you to all the teachers in Coltsneck for your professionalism, service, your continued dedication to our students and families. And on behalf of the board, we wish you a very happy National Appreciation National Teacher Appreciation Week. >> Great. Thank you so much for conveying those thoughts. Thank you, and happy Teacher Appreciation Week. >> [clears throat] >> Um, any other new business anybody like to add? Okay. So,
149moving on like I said, I need a motion to move into executive session for that one litigation meeting. It'll probably take 5 minutes if that. No No action will be taken. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> Yeah. >> Okay, great. Thank you very everybody. Yep, go ahead. >> Uh-huh. That's good.