001Okay. Uh good evening everybody. Thanks for joining us. I like to call to order for the Board of Education um meeting March 24, 2026 at 6:30 p.m. in the boardroom of the administration building at 70 Conover Road, Colts Neck, New Jersey. Um Mr. Marasco, if we could get a roll call. Sure. Mrs. Cameron? Here. Mrs. Horowitz? Here. She is participating remotely. Mr. O'Rico? Mr. Mr. Rigney? Here. Mr. Scales? Here. Mr. Scarpa? Mrs. Volpe? Here. Mr. Walsh? >> Here. Mr. Wigberg? Present. You do have a quorum. Okay. Uh thank you. Uh pursuant to the Open Public Meetings Act, Chapter 231, this meeting has been duly advertised in the Asbury Park Press and a schedule of meetings dated January 23, 2026, notice of which has been filed with the Deputy Clerk for Colts Neck Township and the
002requirements of posting of notices have been met. Uh at this time, let's uh 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. Okay. Um all right, we don't have too much on the agenda tonight. We'll open the floor uh for public comment at this time. Uh if anybody like to get up, uh state your name and address for the record, you may do so at this time. Okay, seeing none, we're going to close public comment and we're going to go right into uh the finance section. Um we're going to need a motion to adopt uh the items under finance, which is one through four. Motion.
003Second. Okay. Uh anybody have any um questions or comments on this? Um I'm noticing it's tentative, so if there are going to be changes, um the full board will find out about it in advance? Yeah. Yeah, so any changes that happen after tonight's adoption, they have to be approved and read in by way of resolution at the public hearing in May. So but yes, if there changes at a time, it's a it's a process that go through at the board, yes, in advance and then any physical changes to the appropriations, revenues, those things like that, have to be recognized by way of resolution. Great, thank you. >> You're welcome. Anybody else? I just want to add a comment [snorts] to this. Um I know the finance committee um along with uh Dr. Garabed and Mr.
004Marasco have been working many hours uh to come up with this budget and I just want to thank um our board uh finance chairs, Mr. Scarpa, Mr. O'Rico, and Kevin Walsh um for their uh time in doing all this work. So thank you all very much for that. Uh at this time, we'll take a roll call for finance items one through four. >> [snorts] >> Okay. Um Mrs. Cameron? Yes. Mrs. Horowitz? Yes. Mr. Rigney? Yes. Mr. Scales? Yes. Mrs. Volpe? Yes. And Mr. Walsh? Yes. Thank you. Motion carried unanimously. Okay. Uh great, thank you, Mr. Marasco. Um okay, so that's all we have on the action items. Uh we'll open the floor again to the public uh for any comments on that adoption of the budget. Just state your name and address for the record.
005Allison DeNoia, 4 Westminster Drive. Um congratulations on passing a tentative budget. Just a quick question where um I'm sure the public is interested in knowing if we are at a 0% tax increase or if there has been an increase in you have anticipated revenues of over $8 million. I'm just curious as to what those revenues are and where those are coming from. Um so that would be great if you could just give us a little bit of an explanation. Thanks. Um uh thank you, Mrs. DeNoia, for your uh question. Uh right now, the board is focused and determined to deliver a zero tax increase for the third year in this district, um which we are absolutely proud of doing so. Um Mr. uh Marasco and Dr. Garabed um have been making sure that um we
006work together um collaboratively to achieve that goal. So we do thank them for working so hard to make that happen for us and the taxpayers of this town. Um I'd like Dr. Garabed to speak on some of the issues Mrs. DeNoia is requesting. Sure. Um well, final [clears throat] details that will final details will and Mr. Marasco can chime in uh certainly um will be presented at the formal public hearing in May. Uh the appropriations come in the form of, you know, uh use of revenue of uh audited surplus, um additional uh when you have to force surplus when you put the information into the NJDOE software, um fund balance, um and re- uh withdrawal from reserves, particularly for us uh impact aid reserve, um maintenance reserve, uh extraordinary like those kinds of things and
007appropriating that going forward. So that's where it comes from. The majority of it comes from. Yeah. I know you but yeah, that's I you know, yeah, that's exactly where it comes from. But but the detail of the exact appropriations and everything will be once everything is finalized, we'll be going forward in the adoption and presentation of the public hearing. Great, thank you for those additional comments, Dr. Garabed. Um okay, if there's seeing no other comments, uh we'll close public comment. Uh we'll go right into new business at this time. I'm not sure. I know um we're missing a few board members, but if anybody has any topics or any comments they'd like to make, uh they could do so now. No comments? How about congratulations? >> [laughter] >> Yes, I'm sorry, Mrs. Horowitz, yes. I
008just wanted to echo what you said, Angelique. Um you know, I I know you guys know I work with a lot of other school districts, so I know first hand how time consuming and how demanding the process is when it comes to budget season and um I really do appreciate the finance committee along with Dr. Garabed and Mr. Marasco because, you know, it's it I I know what you're going through, so I really do appreciate all of it. Great, you great. Thank you for recognizing that, Mrs. Horowitz, we appreciate it. Um okay, no new no other new business? Okay. Um at this time, we're just going to take a motion to adjourn if we have nothing else. Motion to adjourn? Motion. Second. Mr. Scales, all in favor? Aye. Opposed? All right. Great, thank you. Thank
009you all for coming. Yep, thank you. See you. Bye, Sarah. Yeah. You too. Bye, guys. Bye. Okay. All right, off to the um choir. Show. What? That actually might be That's like a Actually, yeah, we're going to make it just a topic.