001Okay, we have a few upcoming special presentations on April 27th. We have the 26-27 school year final budget presentation and hearing. On May 11th, we have the presentation for the annual persons of the year uh for 2026 in cooperation with the combined PTAs and the Denville Education Foundation. On May 18th, we have some Riverview students and staff. On June 8th, we have the Valleyview and Special Services students and staff along with Valleyview Athletics County champions. And June 8th will be the 25-26 goals recap and goal setting and board self-evaluation review. Um now we'll move to Superintendent's comments. Thank you. Just a couple comments here. Wanted to remind everybody that the county did deny our emergency withdrawal emergency reserve withdrawal, which is um to me very disappointing and it's also very hard to kind of understand.
002The whole purpose of the reserve was to put the money in there from leftover money from 2024-25 to help us with this unfunded increase in our health benefits that started on January 1. So, if you recall, we spoke with the county. We had conversations with them in the summer. And we talked to our attorney. We talked to our auditor. Everybody agreed. Now they're they're denying they're going to deny our withdrawal. So, that's $300,000 in the in the reserves that not that you can't use it in future years, but this is a pretty tight year and that's what we wanted to do, but it was it was denied um by the board by the um county. Um calendar update, this memo went out to the public on Friday. It's posted on the website. Um we are
003just going to do basically what made sense. We used 3 days. We're going to cut off the We're going to just end school on Friday the 19th of of June and it'll be an early dismissal day. We do have eighth grade graduation on Thursday the 18th at Morris Knolls. So, Thursday the 18th of June and Friday the 19th of June will be early dismissal days with the 19th being the last day of school. This is all been updated on the calendar. There's really no need for a board approval because it already says it in the board approved calendar that that's what we could do. Um so, that's why we didn't go through with another another uh approval. Um couple green team events, if you guys want to mark it down um April 22nd 11:00 a.m.
004if you're around at The Oaks, which is a really nice event. Um our students from Valley View, the green team, goes to They go to The Oaks. They work with the retired folks there and do some plantings. Uh the mayor usually attends. We usually have a board member or two. It's a really nice day. I always make sure I'm there. So, April 22nd 11:00 a.m. at The Oaks. And this year also with the in cooperation with the town green team on April 24th at at 11:30 a.m. at Muriel Hepner, there'll be a presentation cuz they're going to be planting a tree there. So, April 24th 11:30 a.m. Muriel Hepner Park and April 22nd 11:00 a.m. at The Oaks. Remember, we have the persons of the year. The uh the voting will end uh it's the
00527th of April and I have a meeting already scheduled for the next day with Dr. Coles and one person from each PTA and the foundation will decide who the winners are and then we'll announce them at the next board meeting after that. Um, Jessica Seidel um, sent me an email and said she's no longer interested in being the head nurse. Don't usually say anything about something like this, but I wanted to just bring attention to how what a great what great service she's done to the district for a few years leading us through, if you recall, the the um COVID No, I remembered COVID. The rabid bat, too. So, a lot of tough stuff. So, she's really was uh uh very instrumental in getting us through both things and um remember, we opened every day,
006every kid the first day. So, uh Jessica was a big part of that and um I felt like it needed more than her just not being on the list of approvals. So, I just wanted to point that out to everybody. Um All right, couple Danville Education Foundation events that you might want to mark down. Spring Fling, May 16th at X-Golf, 7:30 p.m. So, May 16th, X-Golf, 7:30 p.m. The movie night, it will be September 11th at Gardner Field. And you might want to mark your calendars for the annual golf outing at Knoll Country Club, October 8th. So, October 8th, the golf the golf outing, Knoll Country Club, September 11th is the movie night at Gardner Field, and the Spring Fling, May 16th, 7:30 p.m. at X-Golf. And that's it for these superintendent comments. So, Dr.
007Forte, we uh came to the conclusion that it's not worth trying to repeal that uh um denial to use the uh emergency funds. So, today the three of us met. And it's it's hard to it's hard to appeal if if we feel like we can make it without it. So, we met today and we're confident we're going to make it without having to get the 300. If we couldn't, I'd say we don't have a choice. It's going to be a hard sell if we do it, you know, and then put all that back in reserve. So, let's let's just say that money can be used for a couple reasons. It can be used for an insurance thing, right? Supposedly, but I guess you can't sometimes. And it can be used for like a security issue,
008anything like that. So, down the road when you need to replace the cameras, something like that, because it's a pretty big expense. The last time it was like 700,000 for all those cameras. Maybe it can go towards some of that. So, it's not like you'll lose it. You'll be able to use it somewhere some other day down the road. You can also um if you have a big budget increase, you can use that in the subsequent year. So, you could say, and you don't need approval for this. If you're having an increase in your health benefits, you could take that 300k to reduce the the one-year hit to the taxpayer. Even though they already paid the 300, right? Cuz it's in the bank. You can use it. Let's say you have a million-dollar increase. You
009can use 300,000 of it towards that million. So, there's a way to do it. It's not going to go to waste is my point. So, based off of what you're saying, if if you don't mind Dr. Moore, based off of what you're saying then, the upcoming budget, this is my interpretation of what you're saying, and please correct me if I'm wrong, the upcoming budget where we were given that waiver to increase it by another 7% could now be be reduced by 300,000. Not for this next year. In a in a in a future year. In a future year. So, it could be the subsequent year. Correct. If we do not use any health insurance waiver in the future year, you we can utilize that $300,000 for insurance waiver. I don't understand why the government or
010the Department of Education is making this so complicated. I really think that um you know, we're doing everything we can for the interest of the children as well as the staff, but at the same time we still have to be cognizant of the taxpayer, especially with that 31% increase in health care benefits that we are going to be experiencing. So, I mean, this should not be that hard. Common sense should apply. If a district is fiscally responsible and has the ability as well as the wherewithal within their reserves to be able to subsidize some of those increases without putting all the burden on the taxpayer, then we should. And I frankly, I want to take that letter and bring it up up to my legislative committee, which I'll address later during the good of the
011cause or governance, but yeah, this is a clear example of maybe the Trenton can you know, see this clear example and then maybe utilize something to clear up the language and make it a little easier for districts. So. The one the one thing they said is they don't want you to rely on this. This is where it gets really complicated. They don't want you to rely on reserves for recurring cost, right? Now, the you have to think about the thing in totality, right? If you're in the state health benefits plan only, you don't know what your increase is when you make your budget. Like, the districts that have it still, they don't know how much their increase is right now. They tell you budget for double digits. What is double digits mean? 10%? 30%? That's
012what they're saying now, right? Double digits. So, this is why I find it even more troublesome because for a district like ours who is fiscally conservative and has done the right thing of putting money in reserves and and living like within our means, this is a perfect reason why to use it because it is a one-time thing. We've already fixed the problem. We just needed to get through the year. But I just don't know. Can we Can we die on the cross here if we don't really have to have the money? That's the point, you know. Well, and I think you basically touched on the the wording of it because there's only so much we should be budgeting for for health care, right? It could be anywhere from let's say 10 to 20%. But if
013you're suddenly seeing 30% increase, I think that extreme value should be justification enough for us to be able to use our reserves because that's an unplanned event. It isn't hopefully not a recurring event, and if that's the case, then that's a completely separate issue. But bottom line is if we are planning and budgeting for 10 to 20%, then any extra ordinary circumstance we we should now be allowed to use reserves to protect ourselves. I think that what I think that the hidden reason is they're expecting another 30% hit. That's the problem. So, if you do if you do take the money now, what do you do the next time? You know, that's what they're saying. They don't want you to use the reserves to plug a hole because according to the group, right? Is that
014it's they're going to they're going to feel like some districts, if you've been reading about it, right? Like it's this is not a dental thing. This is an everywhere thing. I put it in chat GPT yesterday and said, "Please tell me all the districts are in a fiscal crisis." And it It's unbelievable how many, right? So, they're um what they what they don't want to happen is like another Lakewood situation or another Toms River or a Jefferson where they're where they're actually borrowing money, right? They don't have the money, they're borrowing money from the state. Um so I I still think if you take the if you take it in totality though just for us and you don't think about everybody else. I get it. I get some other districts might not do it the
015way we do it. But if you just take it in totality all the circumstances and just consider us to me, it's the perfect reason to use the 300 grand, right? It just makes sense. It's a one-time thing that we already corrected, right? Just to get us through a time that we didn't know. So And the one final statement I will make is that if Trenton does believe that there might possibly be another spike in health care costs, then shame on them because that means that they are now aware of the possibility of it and they're sort of ignoring it or and letting all the districts brunt as well as the taxpayer brunt the additional costs of health care, which seems to be a statewide epidemic as well as a national epidemic from my opinion. >>
016They they already put out something the beginning of the month like April 1st saying that they're expecting at least a double-digit increase. So they already know it's going to be big again. I don't know I mean double-digits, right? I mean let's just face it. If we got 10% this year, we would all been cheering, right? 30% is what we got. So They're they already know it's going to be double-digits again. Just one quick comment on this. The The ironic part about it is I feel like we consistently as a district who does the right thing financially get screwed by the state. Because in addition, what the other thing you can use out of this is for a school security improvement. That would be approved automatically. Well, we did that the right way and budgeted it
017and did those things already, right? So, if you play games and try to switch stuff around, which every other district seems like they do, or they wait till their roofs leaking, or they wait till they have to do these security improvements, and they leverage it on debt service and everything else, then that's what they end up doing. They bring it to the taxpayers. So, unfortunately, I do feel, Mr. Kim, the same way that like we consistently try to do the right thing, and consistently run into these barriers that the state has created only for boards of education, not for municipalities. Only for boards of education are all these rules in play. We're elected the same way as the council is elected for all these municipalities, but for some reason we're under a set of guidelines
018that are completely different from what we can and can't do. So, I I mean, they could float debt tomorrow by a council vote, right? We can't do that, right? So, consistently it feels like there's these rules in place for, you know, boards of education, but somehow they're different across the board for, you know, other, uh, you know, municipalities. So, I agree with you. I think that it's worthwhile to bring up. It's like we got to start pulling back on some of these rules and letting the boards of education do what they have to do. And if they're they're doing the wrong thing, then the constituents in their town should vote them out. Like, that's the easy it's it's very obvious, cuz that's what happened with the council if it happens. So, I'm not sure why
019it seems like they want to put all these, uh, restrictions on us, but and they have over the years. It's over and over. It feels like there's more and more burdensome. When you get together with your legislative committee, there's a lot of good information being discussed here that this may exist, but, uh, we're not aware of it. You know, what is their criteria to define an emergency? Because when you get a 30% increase in cost, you know, from my business perspective, it's a lot of money, and that's an emergency where you got to all of a sudden put 30% in a health care benefits. And this has been going on for years and years and years. There needs to be uh a thorough examination of of the cost, the components of of that cost, what
020the brokers what the commissions are, what they charge, etc. That's a it's a big big problem cuz I I called Dr. Forte after I read the letter, I was very disappointed and I didn't like the content of the response. It really didn't give us a good reason of why. But, as as always, our administrators here have found a uh a solution and uh we're moving forward. All right, uh Assistant Superintendent comments? Uh kindergarten update, so right now we're still at 185. Lakeview has 86 students, Riverview 75, the flex zone has 17 and possibly seven that will be regrading for a total of 185. So, just keep you updated, but it has slowed and we'll just keep watching to see what we're going to have 10 or 11 sections next year. Our summer uh Devil Accelerated
021Learning Academy, the registration is open. The program runs from June 29th to July 23rd and you can find the form in the Friday folder or on our website. I think that even the schools have sent it out as well. So, that will be starting along with ESY. And uh finally, our Blues and Beyond program at the in the eighth grade at Valleyview started on Friday with the kickoff concert and today started their instruction and it was nice to uh see the students getting uh participating in that program. They really do like it and see a lot of value in it. This concludes Assistant Superintendent's report. Okay, Business Administrator's comments? Just one comment. The New Jersey uh School Board Association conference for October begins October 19th through October 22nd. If you're interested in attending the conference
022this year, please uh email me. And uh we didn't make reservations for you everyone and I will need confirmation uh by September, but we'll remind you again. Thank you. All right, at this time we'll open for uh public discussion. This portion of the meeting is open to any individuals for the purpose of addressing resolutions on the agenda or matters that they find as important to the Board of Education and is governed by policy 0167. And we'll open at uh 7:48. All right, seeing that uh no one's here in person or online, we will close at 7:48 as well. So, we have old business, no action to be taken. Uh the following resolutions have been recommended by the Superintendent of Schools to the Board of Education for approval. Under A, we have the Treasurer of School
023Monies and Board Secretary reports. Under B is the uh report of student enrollment and the report of the health office. And C would be the minutes for March 16th and March 23rd. And then we'll move to uh new business, action to be taken. Um I'd like to move for approval under item number one A, B, and C, a head custodian um position, uh and then two resignations. Under item number two, we have the attached employment contract for Dr. Charles R. Miller as the assistant superintendent of curriculum instruction for 2026-2027 school year. Uh item number three is the updated master staff list. Item number four is the approval of the revised substitute list. Item number five is the approval of the list of staff for the uh ESY program and Dalla and child study team work
024for summer 2026. Item number six is to rescind the appointment of Janelle Campos as a substitute teacher. Item number seven and eight and nine and 10 and 11 are leave of absences. I second. Any uh questions or comments? I just want to congratulate uh Dr. Miller. And we're excited to have you on board. Congratulations. Yes, congratulations. We're we're glad you're here. Uh thanks for for coming and uh introducing yourself and we're excited to to be working with you in these upcoming years. I don't know if anyone else has any other All right. Roll call. Ms. Idellis? Yes. Ms. Asterino? Yes. Mr. DeCas? Yes. Mr. Anderson? Yes. Mr. Kim? Yes. Dr. Moore? Yes. >> Welcome aboard. We know. We know. She was that confident. All right. So, under instruction program, Mrs. Esterino, can you take us
025through that? Sure. Um I move to approve the following resolutions under INP. Uh first is the extended school year ESY program to run from June 29th, 2026 through July 30th, 2026, Monday through Thursday. Um and this will be at Lakeview Elementary for districts who have their have it required by their IEP. And then also that the board approve the attached list of field trips. I'll second. Roll call. Mrs. Adellis? Yes. Mrs. Esterino? Yes. Mr. Cass? Yes. Mr. Anderson? >> Yes. Mr. Kim? Yes. Dr. Moore? Yes. And under governance, Mr. Kim, can you take us through that? Sure, I'll be happy to. Uh I have the pleasure of motioning uh and hoping that we approve the following resolution, which happens to be the nomination of Dr. uh Mr. Dino Cappello for the Morris County School Boards
026Association 2026 Irene M. LaFave Excellence in Boardmanship Award. Whereas Mr. Dino Cappello, a resident of Denville in Morris County, has served a total of 11 years on the Denville Board of Education, demonstrating a sustained commitment to effective school governance. And whereas Mr. Cappello has made a meaningful and measurable contributions to steady student education, consistently focusing on improving achievement for all students, while supporting initiatives that promote student wellness, including mental health awareness and anti-bullying efforts, and serving as a liaison between the Board of Education and many community organizations to strengthen partnerships. And whereas Mr. Capello has demonstrated exemplary leadership both on the board and within the community by actively supporting students and family through families through involvement in organizations such as the Parent Teacher Association, volunteering volunteering at school events, and participating in community service initiatives,
027including local drives and outreach efforts. Through his continued engagement with parents, staff, and community members, he has fostered positive relationships and strengthened the connection between the school district and the broader community. And whereas Mr. Capello has shown a active and effective involvement in school governance by providing thoughtful input and informed decision-making on district policies, curriculum, and operations. He has served on key board committees, including finance, facilities, policy, negotiations, instruction, and personnel, offering oversight and guidance on critical matters. He has also participated in student superintendent evaluations, goal setting aligned with district policies, and collective bargaining negotiations addressing salaries, benefits, and staff working conditions. And whereas Mr. Capello has demonstrated a commitment to ongoing professional development by maintaining a status as a certified board member through the New Jersey Board School Boards Association, and participating in workshops
028and training programs offered by NJSBA and other professional organizations. And whereas the Denville Board of Education wishes to formally formally recognize Mr. Capello for his dedicated service, leadership, and unwavering commitment to the students and community of the district. Now and therefore be it resolved that the Denville Board of Education hereby expresses its sincere appreciation and gratitude to Mr. Dino Capello for his distinguished service. And be it further resolved that the Board Secretary is authorized and directed to submit this nomina- nomination resolution along with all required application materials to the Morris County School Boards Association for consideration of Mr. Dino Capello for the 2026 Irene M. LeFebve Excellence in Boardmanship Award. I'll second. Any comments or questions? All right. Roll call. >> I'm surprised he got nominated considering he didn't show up tonight. Got lucky, huh?
029I think this is how we snuck it in, you know. So, he doesn't object in any way. I don't believe he was aware. Uh it's a it's a great I thank you guys for putting it together for him. He is well deserving and hopefully he is a winner of the award. I agree and I want to thank Ms. Garowsky. She was the author and the one who spearheaded this. So, but I think it's definitely deserved for Mr. Capello. He's he's done a lot to this. He's got such an incredible relationship with the with the union as well. So, you know, that's truly amazing to see and I want to thank him for all the contributions he's made. So. All right. roll call. Ms. Edelson. Yes. Ms. Asterino. Yes. Mr. Cass. >> Yes. Mr. Anderson. Yes.
030Mr. Kim. Yes. Dr. Moore. Yes. And now we move to finance. Mr. Anderson, can you take us through that? Sure. If there are no objections, I'd like to move under finance D item number one and two as a block. This includes the board to retroactively approve the out-of-district placement for a student as listed in the agenda. And then item number two is for the board to approve the agreement with behavioral therapy associates to provide psychological consultation services for a student at the cost not to exceed $2,960 for the 2025-2026 school year. I'll second. Roll call. Ms. Edelson. Yes. Ms. Asterino. Yes. Mr. Cass. Yes. Mr. Anderson. Yes. Mr. Kim. Yes. Dr. Moore. Yes. Now we move to operations. Mr. Cass, can you take us through that? Glad to. Under operations, number one transportation, no actions
031to be moved tonight. Number two building and grounds, I'm asking the board to approve the attached quote from EI Associates in connection with the review annex electrical service upgrade project in the amount of $36,000 paid from capital reserves. I'll second. Okay, roll call. Ms. Edelson. Yes. Ms. Asterino. Yes. Mr. Cass. Yes. Mr. Anderson. Yes. Mr. Kim. Yes. Dr. Moore. Yes. Item number one, we have a under A, there's vacation day and A and B there's vacation day cash outs and C is some professional development. Under two is the updated master staff list. Three is the revised substitute list and four is the updated list for ESY, Dalla and the child study team work for summer 2026. I'll second. Uh, no action. And so. Thank you anyway. Um, under instruction and program, Miss Cesterino, can you
032take us through that? Yep, we will be asking to move following resolutions, workshops and expenses, professional development workshops for staff members and board members payable through the professional development account. Also, the attached list of field trips. Okay, and under governance, Mr. Kim. Sure, for the next meeting, we will be uh reading the first or motioning for the first reading of policy R5600 student code of conduct revised. Um, I do have a question about that. Is this a product of the committee's recommendations for changes to the student code of conduct based off of uh uh like changes for hib and and other stuff or is this a state mandated policy revision? This is a regulation revision from the work that we did. So, this is based on what the committee discussion uh and then we took
033this through IMP and now we're going to put it on for first reading. Thank you. And And there may be uh further uh revisions and additions as we go along. All right. So, under uh finance, it doesn't look like we have anything. Um so, for uh operations, Mr. Caskey, take us through that. Yes, we got a couple items on here under building and grounds. Going to be asking for approval for the attached MOA with CCM for the 2026-2027 school year. Item 2.2 is to approve the attached service agreement proposal for the building automation systems from Automatic Temperature Control Services, Parenzo ATC, in the amount of $12,638 for the school year 2026-2027. Okay. And that uh brings us to the uh good of the cause. And uh Mr. Kim, did you have some some things to
034talk about under uh governance? Uh yeah. So, I wanted to use good of the cause to give an update to the board with regards to a meeting we had with Senator Bucco. Um I, along with three other board members from different towns, um presented some slides. Um now, before anyone tells uh gives me uh you know, a pat on the back or anything like that, I will honestly say I was more of a bystander than active participant, but uh the major issues that were discussed were uh S2 funding. Uh so, I'm glad we talked about that today. Uh but, I also want to talk about um HIB. They The HIB was a major conversation with Senator Bucco as well as virtual instruction and being a little bit more flexible with uh use of uh virtual
035instruction in school districts. Uh the main conversation around S2 and funding and school finance was that that is a very hot topic in in Trenton right now. And if we were to try to create a task force or something like that, it would be met with deaf ears and everything else because it's being talked about constantly. Um his recommendation to us as a as board members was to maybe start grassroots campaigns, work with other associations such as the super superintendents um association as well as the business administrators uh administrators uh uh association as well as New New Jersey School Boards, the the parent parent organization. Uh and our topic should be very focused with recommendations. It should not talk about broad issues and really have a focused message about specific things and um and possible
036solutions that are very specific so that that that way we might be able to make some progress. So one of the thoughts I might um one of the thoughts I had tonight was maybe taking a copy of that letter and showing Senator Bucco and say, "Hey, listen, here's an example. Our hands are tied. We you know, we're as Mr. Anderson said, we're fiscally responsible and yet we're still being rejected on something like this and now we're forcing the taxpayers to pay that extra 300,000 when we're trying to find ways to one pay for the budget and still not break the bank for every taxpayer." So those are uh of the recommendations that he made uh to us as a committee. The second thing that I'm really proud of was the uh conversation about HIB. Um
037as I mentioned in previous meetings, this is not something that only Denville has seen, but also other school districts. However, other school districts were more complaining about the the the burden on the administration as well as all the paperwork and the processes that are there. And it seems like that burden and those those um things that school districts have to do um often don't really get anywhere. It's just uh so much paperwork with not a lot of results. And And the one one example I made was that, you know, students still feel like uh they're not being helped even if it's not a HIB case or it is a HIB case. They're still being threatened and stuff like that. So, his recommendation was or the recommendation that we presented to him was creating a task
038force uh specifically around HIB, and he loved that idea. And he is going to author uh a bill to start a uh where he's going to recommend to start a task force to look at HIB again and seeing if there's ways that we can reform HIB uh whether it's the the paperwork process, the administrative process, so that it's not as big of a burden on administrations and districts, but also hoping that we can try to get some results as well uh specifically with regards to victim safety uh or that them feeling safe as we've discussed numerous times here during our board meetings. So, um yes, that uh and that was already co-sponsored or uh seconded by another um uh representative. So, that's the latest update. And uh yeah, I'm super excited about that. It's a
039great idea to have that legislative committee and also sharing the membership with other school districts get different perspectives. I'm sure there's a lot of commonalities and some differences, too. Um the the health care crisis which isn't just this time. This is going back to when many, many, many years ago. Um did that come up at all? And I'm sure it's a statewide issue with the government employees as well as just a a national problem with the lack of health care in the rural areas and then the cost of medication. Yeah, that actually was brought up. I'm sorry if I cut you off, but yes, that health care was brought up and we've had extensive conversation around that. And I think that's when you begin to see a lot of the politics. You know, apparently he
040he allegedly had spoke to the governor to say, "Hey, you know, there are unions willing to do certain things with health care." And he brought that to the governor's governor's attention. And I don't know if it fell on deaf ears or, you know, what the politics are involved with regards to that, but nothing was mentioned during the latest um speech that she had. So, you know, I really don't want to get into the politics and specifics. So, yeah, I I don't I don't know or nor do I have a It seemed like he had no good answer for that. Yeah, I mean if I was running for office, I mean that would be a terrific thing to have on your platform about reform in the the health care cost in in in the state. It's
041probably you know, nationwide, too, but uh those of you John Parisi hasn't showed up for a long time, but he had this hypothesis that uh we'd be running out of money at some point. And if this health care is like you said, is is there a guarantee it's not going to be 30% again when we do a budget again, or is it going to be less or more? So, we're just putting more and more money into that, along with the the salaries and everything so we we have to do and everything. So, it's just a lot of money is already spent, and you're not going to have the money for a lot of these uh extracurricular, you know, the nice to haves that make our district uh excellent. Uh Mr. Candidate, how was the decision
042made to go to Senator Bucco and not Senator Pennacchio? Out of curiosity, was that just I mean, I know it's a Morris County thing, so I know both of them are in Morris County. Yeah, um Senator Bucco actually happened to be at the awards ceremony for the unsung heroes, and so that's when um board member um Jessica DeCicco, who I believe is a part of Washington Township board, uh she she's the chair of this committee, and she spoke with him along with Aura Dunn. So, she that and they they have she has a wonderful relationship with them um right now at this point, so yeah. Excellent, thank you. And thanks for uh sharing the slides. It was uh really interesting to see. I think the cost versus revenue slide is like staggering. I think it's
043something we've talked about over and over again, as Mr. Candidate said, but when you really look at it broken down by state employee health benefit plans, salary inflation, and then the tax levy obviously with our 2% cap, it uh we've said it for years, but when you look at that graph, it really is staggering to look at, and you realize that, you know, the reality of balancing a budget there, it only comes like Mr. Candidate, to your point, like you can't even cut enough programs to make it happen. The the only thing you could do is one thing, and it's the thing I think that we fear the most in Denville because of um how important our people are and our staff are and what we've seen the benefit of having the right student-to-teacher ratio
044and just the incredible staff we have and obviously, you know, it's becoming more and more challenging. So, uh appreciate you uh uh updating us and giving us uh the information and and being part of that cuz I think it's hugely beneficial cuz the uh the state is big part of uh what can help us out a little bit here. I'm just going to tag on one more thing. I don't know if you all had a chance to uh see uh Dino's uh article that uh I gave it a quick perusal office. Spent more time looking at it. Oh, yeah, it was an excellent study and uh it shows you the difficulty in in school funding. That's just been terrible for some districts. I mean, I never thought I'd see the day we have districts declaring
045bankruptcy cuz they don't have enough money. Now, I don't know if uh you know, there's some malfeasance when when they got all that big money in and all of a sudden there it's been taken away. But when you slash budgets like that, it's says it's terrible. It really affects the community. So, a lot of problems down there in Trenton, but the same cast of characters running the show for many, many years. Dr. Morgan, can I make a comment on related to health benefits? Uh June 8th uh board meeting is originally scheduled for to begin at 7:00 p.m. That board meeting is packed with school presentations, goal settings, and uh the regular agenda. We are proposing to begin the meeting at 6:00 p.m. instead of 7:00 p.m. If everyone is in agreement, we can um advertise
046the calendar again to make that change and we'll probably begin at 6:00 p.m. with executive session. 6:30 we can begin with a regular working session and presentations and then Paul Dr. Paul Pineda from New Jersey School Board will be in the district at 7:30 for goal settings. Any thoughts or objections? Um I am perfectly for that. Uh last year we tried to have that as a retreat format so I don't know if that's still possible and anything to have Dr. Forte stay as long as possible. I am definitely a four. Thank you. I'll advertise and re-approve the calendar. Any other committee reports? Okay. Um board highlights? Dr. Capello nomination. Dr. Miller. >> Dr. Miller, Dr. Mr. Capello. You're you're still here, Dr. Forte. Uh Mrs. Garowski, can we see if Dr. Forte is still getting
047a paycheck as well? Maybe you right? All right, so we have the honorable Dr. Miller, we have Mr. Capello. What else? Anything else? Good? Maybe if Dr.'s Forte's paycheck could be spread among the board members, you know, we'd be happy to We'll spend more time here in the board. All right, we're going to move on now. What is the highlight? Highlight could be the meeting with Senator Booker, perhaps. You know, at least highlighting that we're out there, we're trying. Would you Would you just send me like a like a one-line sentence of the recap of what you did and I'll put that into Friday 5. I think it's a good thing, too. >> I'll be happy to. All right, so we'll move on to the open comment section. This portion of the meeting is open
048to any individuals for the purpose of addressing resolutions in this agenda or matters that they find as important to the Board of Education and is governed by board policy 01 67. We'll open that at uh All right, seeing no one online and no one in person, we will close it at 8:16. >> And we don't have need for executive session. So I will move for adjournment. I'll second. Yays? Yay. Any nays? Anyone want to stay longer? No? Okay. 8:16.