March 25, 2026 – Special Meeting

001But before we go into our presentation, we would like to address a situation that occurred yesterday and our acting superintendent, Miss Andrea Oates Parchment, will be reading a statement. And then I will follow up with the Spanish version. Thank you. Thank you, President Harris. to our families, I hope this message this evening finds you well. You may be aware of reports regarding an incident in our community yesterday in which a young person was injured. While this situation did not occur on school grounds, we understand that news like this can be concerning. Please be assured that the safety and well-being of our students and staff remain our highest priority. We are in close communication with local and county law enforcement officials and have appropriate safety measures in place. to support our schools. As a community, we

002care for one another and we work together to keep our students safe. If you have any information that may be helpful regarding this incident, we encourage you to contact school administration. or local law enforcement. Thank you for your continued partnership and support. Okay, thank you very much. Now I'll read it in Spanish padres tutores yiembros de la comunidad escolar. Espero que esta mensaje los encuentre bien a ustedes y a sus familias. Es posible que esten al tanto de los informes sobre unicente o corrido ayer en nuestra comunidad. En el que a una persona joven result irida. Entendemos que noticias como esta, pueden generar preocupacion. Tenga la certeza de que la seguridad y el bien estar de nuestros estudiantes y del personal siguen siendo nuestra maxima prioridad. Estamos en comunicacion constante con las authoridades policiales locales

003y del condado. Y contamos con las medidas de seguridad adequadas para pollar a nuestras escuelas. Como comunidad nos cuidamos muchuamente, y trabajamos juntos para mantener segurros a nuestros estudiantes. Si tien alguna informacion que puede ser util con respeto a este incidente. Los Alentamos a comunicar comunicarse con la administracionescolar o con las authoridades policiales locales. Gracias por su continua collaboracion y apoyo. Atentamente… La Senora Andrea oats parchment. Muchas gracias. So as you can see, unfortunately, we are unable, as always, per legal, we are unable to discuss personnel or student-related matters. Um, with that, we are now going to continue with our agenda item, which is the presentation of our preliminary budget, and I'll pass it along to you, Miss Andrea Oates Parchment. And while they're setting up, just so that the viewers, the public understands what's

004happening next after the budget. The board will be asking questions. If there are any, then we will open up the floor to public comments. After that, we will go into executive session. After executive session, then we will vote on our resolution items. Thank you. Uh, good evening. to board president Jennifer Harris, Vice President Kenneth Martin, and all of our Board of Trustees. We present to you. Hackensack Public Schools Preliminary budget. which will be submitted to the county superintendent for approval. Tonight you will receive a high level presentation of our projected expenses and our projected revenue. There will be a more detailed budget presentation in April after it is approved by the New Jersey Department of Education's County Superintendent. While this year we are happy to have received an increase in our state aid. We carefully

005use this and other revenue resources to present a balanced budget. Next year's budget had to take into account 24 million dollar, a 24 million dollar deficit which required us to work as a team to make the necessary reductions so that we are able to have a healthy budget. In order to maintain this, we had to be frugal. And reduce our spending by 30%. We have… we also had to, unfortunately, undergo a significant reduction in staff of approximately 100. This was difficult. but necessary. We regret that we will be losing many talented educators. and support staff. And we pray that they find employment. And that there may be callbacks to our district as well. Despite our reduction in human resources, we will continue to provide quality instruction and services for our students. The reason why we

006are all here. By maintaining many of our programs, such as vocal music. instrumental music, media specialists, and sports, with some possible modifications. We also have a plan to ensure that our building and grounds are maintained and the operational needs of our schools and districts will be sustained. going through this process every day. has been taxing. But the genuine support of our community, such as our great city of Hackensack Council. Our PTA President's Council. Our parents and extended families and friends in the community, our Board of Education, Community Relations Committee, our teachers, administrators and custodian bargaining units. And our staff, most importantly, overall. Our central office staff and our team of principals, directors, assistant principals, and supervisors who have sacrificed many hours working with us. And there are so many others I may have overlooked. Next

007year. It will be really, really tough. and challenging because we will all need to do more with less resources. Specifically, human resources. In the beginning of the school year, I encouraged the staff to have hope. And although it is difficult in light of our plight. We are going to overcome this situation and see a fiscally fit district. So that we can create a legacy of surplus and opportunity by making every effort to prevent shortfalls in the future. As we follow our corrective action plan and other best practices. Finally, I want to say one of my principles said to our team recently. that we must reimagine how educating students and supporting our schools will look going forward in light of these necessary reductions. And that is true. That's a reality. This is something we will do

008collaboratively. To the extent possible. We will get through. and we will do this together. But it will come with sacrifice and hard work. Now I was supposed to start with the quote. And I want to end with this quote. But if you could. I think the next slide, and I think I missed something, too. Can you go to? Yeah. I wanted to introduce our Board of Education members, which. I mentioned Miss Jennifer Harris, Board President, Mr. Kenneth Martin, Board Vice President. Miss Melanie Austin Ballaputra, Trustee Miss Layla Mahanza. Trustee Mr. Demetrius Carroll, Trustee. Miss Eugenia Gilmore, trustee. Mr. Mike Jones, trustee. Miss Shivani Pringle, Trustee, and Mr. Mark Stein. I apologize. Next slide, please. And my cabinet members, our cabinet members, our support staff at Central Office. Miss Rosemary Marks, assistant superintendent. Miss Danielle Diaz,

009executive director of human resources, Dr. Stephen L. Lewis, Business Administrator and Board Secretary, and Miss Lindita Agastra. Assistant Business Administrator. And so I was supposed to open up with this quote. from Fred Rogers, Mr. Rogers. I was trying to find something very appropriate for tonight. Some days, doing the best we can. may still fall short of what we would like to be able to do. But life isn't perfect on any front. And doing what we can… With what we have is the most we should expect of ourselves and of anyone else. And with these expectations, and if we live by these expectations, we know that our students and school community will be successful. Because all we can do is our best. And starting with me, those are my expectations. And so, I started and ended

010with this quote. and… Now, I would like to turn the next portion of this preliminary budget presentation over to our Assistant Superintendent, Mrs. Rosemary Marks. Good evening, all. So it is my job here to take us through a review of our demographic and enrollment data. And I'm sharing this because our demographic and enrollment numbers are not just numbers. They represent our students. The children who come to school each day to learn, the children, we are all here to serve. going to move on here on this slide you will see a 5 year overview of our enrollment numbers starting in 2122. Where you see our enrollment was at 5,368. It's important to note that that number did not include students who are now being served in private pre-K providers, like Bright Seedlings and, um… Miss Petronwall,

011the other one. Bright Adventures, bright seedlings and bright adventures. Moving forward to the 2223 school year. Enrollment fell just slightly to 5,266. It was back up in the 23-24 school year to 5,347 students. the 2425. It went up to 5,408 students. And today it is at 5,215 students, and of those students between last year and this year, this year's pre-K provider numbers has grown to 155 students. And so in district, we are currently serving. Just over 5,060 students, just about 5,060 students. Our next slide represents. across the years from 21 to 22 through this year. Our racial and ethnic diversity. And it is our rich cultural diversity. that we celebrate in each of our schools every day. As you can see. Our numbers are pretty much in terms of statistics. The changes are negligible from

012year to year. with the large majority of our students falling into the Hispanic and Latino. Group. Our next category, next highest would be our Black and African American. Students. moving down to the white population, then Asian and multiracial. And there is just a very, very slight, in some cases. Native American and Pacific Islanders. also represented. And again, these numbers are not just about numbers. They are about the children we serve. And why is that important? That's important because, and I think I'm going to go through. The children we serve. fall into different needs categories, some of which include our special program status. And this slide represents the students who are being serviced. With Ieps. Those are the ones in blue across the bottom. students with 504s. Those are students who need medical accommodations. There's slight

013green. In some cases, students fall into both of those categories, and then the gray represents the largest portion of our student population that does not receive either special services or 504 accommodations. In the next slide. This slide here shows us our enrollment. Given the bilingual, multilingual learner status group. And you notice that this here slide does show us some significant changes, where in 21, 22. We had about 400. If I read that correctly, 446 students. in the multilingual program that we're active in the multilingual program. The 2223 school year saw a rise to 627 students in the multilingual program, and across. to this year, I'm not reading each one, but currently we have 1,097 students in the multilingual program. Why is this important? Because enrollment drives funding, meaning changes in student numbers have a direct

014impact on the resources available to do our work. And I will now be passing it on to two of our amazing directors, Miss Jen Lanewski and Miss Monkloa. Thank you, Mrs. Marks. Good evening. I believe my slides are next. Oh, it's me. We're going to next set of slides will be from the curriculum and instruction perspective. These next 2 slides take us through the multilingual department budget priorities. Next year, we're prioritizing essential instructional resources, as you can see, to ensure multilingual learners have the tools they need to succeed, including updated ESL materials, testing supports and classroom resources. We're investing in curriculum development to align ESL and bilingual programs with general education standards, ensuring consistency and rigor across. all grade levels. Thank you. A strong focus is placed on professional development, including state mandated training and

015sheltered instruction. We'll maximize the impact of grant funding in allowing our multilingual instructors to participate in State conferences. aimed at building staff capacity and improving instructional quality. We'll also be in full state compliance with our multilingual learner identification and placement process by supporting language screening during the summer and during the school year. Overall, these priorities are designed to improve student outcomes, ensure compliance, and of course promote equity for our growing multilingual population. The next slide has to do with our K-12 world language department budget priorities. We're investing in instructional resources and digital platforms across K 12 to provide students with standards aligned language learning experiences. The budget that we have planned for next year supports expansion and enrichment, including seal of biliteracy testing. Sponsorship in student Spanish, French, and Italian honor societies and recognition programs

016that motivate and celebrate student achievement in world language. A major priority is our curriculum alignment to the ACTFL proficiency guidelines, ensuring our programs reflect best practices in language acquisition. And we're continuing to develop and refine our Spanish heritage program. Recognizing that heritage speakers have unique needs in terms of professional development. Um, even as we did shrink our budget, professional development remains what we do in in school districts. We'll continue our AP Summer Institutes, ensuring our teachers are up to date with the demands of AP-level work. Including major changes that will be implemented in next year's Spanish AP test. And overall, these investments aim to strengthen language proficiency and college and career readiness for our students. Thank you. Thank you so much. All right. So now we're going to talk about the K 12 world. We

017broke it down into subject in the 512 world. But then in the K. 4 world, this is kind of our breakdown here. So what we're doing in terms of professional development. I'll start there. We're really focusing on leveraging Title 2 funds and. Impact grant funding. Title II funds will go K-12 for everyone, but the impact grant funding is particularly focused on our K-5 world. So we'll be using those grant funds to help select high-quality instructional materials that we will be piloting and ultimately adopt. Um, for the future. So, as you can see in our instructional resources area, we have listed one of our, um, one of our concentrations is going to be focusing on the last year of our three-year contract for HMH. Um, so we are moving into the selection process for a new,

018um, literacy resource. We also have a couple of mandates that are happening at the state level. We have a grades 3 through 5 cursive handwriting mandate. So materials and instructional resources will need to be purchased for that. We also have a universal early literacy skills screener that we are required to utilize and implement in grades K through 3. This year we were able to leverage focus grant fundings to help offset the cost for that. That was, however, a reimbursement grant. So we did have to have the funds in place originally to pay for this, and then we were reimbursed by the the. DOE. I'm not sure if they will be offering that again for next year. The rumor is that they will, but I don't know if we will be eligible, because we did receive

019that, um, that award this year. So we will wait to hear from the state about that. If we are eligible, we will apply, of course. In order to support foundational reading at the K. 4 level, we will continue to invest in the Wilson Reading Foundations and Fun Hub. materials. So the other state mandate that I was talking about is going to be focused on science. The science standards are going to be are being revised right now, and the implementation date is September of 2026. So we will be in the curriculum development area. You can see this we will be focusing on rewriting. All K-12 science curriculum documents to be in alignment with the new set of standards. This then will impact the instructional resources that we will be purchasing. There might be a need to

020purchase additional instructional resources, especially at the K-4 level, to help support those changes to the standards. Again, like I mentioned before, we will be working on including revisions to our ELA curriculum. Um, in regards to the new cursive handwriting mandate, we will be revamping our K-4 media and library curriculum. And then, of course, doing a complete revamping of our K-5 Gifted and talented program. For our 512 ELA department. What you're going to notice in this 512 world, there's a commonality here in terms of Pd ap leadership AP Summer Institute workshops. That is definitely a priority across the the 5 through 12 world. But for instructional resources, we're just working on, again, focusing on supporting the literacy mandate, media literacy mandate. And then, of course, amping up our instructional materials that we're using for tier one

021instruction. In the 512 science department, what I spoke about before about the new science standards in place, we are going to be revamping all of those curriculum documents. Pd in this area will be focused on open sci ed and ambitious science teaching. And then the instructional resources, again, just focusing on purchasing more high-quality instructional materials to support teachers. those areas. Our math department. Again, we have our AP Summer Institute for our teachers at the high school level, and just your standard consumable materials. Math is a consumable world. So there's a lot of consumable materials that we do have to purchase in that area. But then you can see our our we have some platforms that we have traditionally purchased or have historically purchased rather, and we'll be continuing that. social studies. We have our AP

022Summer Institute again, but then also working to find some professional development for our teachers across the district in partnership with the New Jersey Amistad Commission. That comes at a very minimal cost or no cost for for those types of workshops run by that. that organization, and then you'll see curriculum development. We'll be working on curriculum documents over the summer in these areas. And now we are on to human resources. So I pass it on to our director of human resources, Miss Danielle Diaz. You're welcome. Good evening, everyone to the board, to to the public. My name is Danielle Diaz. I'm your executive director of human resources. Let's spend a little time with you. This evening. So oftentimes people wonder, because I've heard this, what does human resources do? And this is just a small, a

023very small sample of some of the things that we do in in our office. And truly. trying to think of it on a global level, really trying to serve as a strategic resource for everyone. So, of course, we do onboarding certification to ensure that people are certificated for the position that they hold. leaves of many levels, but my favorite leaves that the board and my coworkers often hear me say are my favorites are maternity and paternity leaves. Someone just announced today that they're expecting, so we're always very excited to assist them with that. Of course, we're involved in affirmative action cases and truly really serving to be a thought partner to my phenomenal administrative coworkers that I work with every every day. Uh, to navigate the critical decisions. And like I said, we look to

024serve as an asset to assist in our fiscal recovery. So, when I touched… when I touched down in Hackensack. Some 6 months ago, and the time has definitely flown by. One of the things I was tasked with some kind of… and I'm gonna go in the in reverse. One of the things I was tasked with was, um, thinking about ways that we can grow our own. And one of Governor Murphy's outgoing initiatives was to support a Grow Your Own program. This is something that I've done in my previous district. And they just issued a few weeks ago some grant opportunities that we're going to be looking to explore. and how… we know that there's a teacher shortage statewide countrywide to to be honest with you. So those paraprofessionals or other support staff who are interested

025in becoming teachers. We're going to be looking to provide them support and partner with some agencies that. do that specifically, and there are several that do. Huge, huge thing that we're working on daily is our expenditure analysis. We have to we kind of have to change our mindset a little bit and be proactive in our planning. To control costs, unplanned costs that sometimes you don't see, but you have to think about in the future. and analyzing substitute expenditures, Kelly Education is our partner in that, which we've already started, and they have been really great to work with, providing us the data that we need to review where we're what we anticipate for the 26-27 school year. And then the, um… these should be my initials, the PCR. The the position control roster, as we call

026it, is, um… the Bible or the Quran, or whatever you want to, whatever you want to call it. But it it in the Torah. Sure, let's let's add everything. Um, but it really serves to… It has everything or every one in it. And if you don't have accurate data, you can't plan. So we've really been working. over time, um, to ensure that this information is accurate, and I think we're in a much better place than we have been in the past. So, of course, the PCR supports budget sustainability and ensures accountability, not only for. us internally, but we'll assist the board in making decisions going forward. So now I will turn it over to my business office colleagues, Lidandita and Gastra and our business administrator, Dr. Stephen Lewis. Good evening, everybody. Thank you for being

027here. I just wanted to recognize all the hard work that. everyone in administration has done to bring you this presentation. what you have before you is what is the budget? And why does it actually matter? The budget is a balancing act between our revenues. incoming funds and our expenses outgoing. As you can see that little green puzzle piece. We are the connecting piece to try to make sure that it happens in the right way. The budget helps school districts to avoid excessive spending. That allows us to focus on the areas and the reasons that we are here. The students curriculum instruction. Making sure our buildings are good and the proper programmings for our kids. Going forward, Miss Augusta is going to go through a couple of definitions for you guys to. bring things together. Thank

028you, Dr. Lewis. I'll briefly begin by defining key budget terms referenced in the upcoming slides. The local tax levy is defined as the amount of revenue raised through property taxes to support Hackensack Public Schools. State aid is funding provided by the State through a weighted student formula designed to reflect the cost of educating students and promote equity. The district also receives entitlement grants, which are formula based state and federal funds determined by enrollment. population and student needs. These include preschool Expansion Act, which is PEA. Title one, title 2, title 3, Title 4, and IDEA. Fund balance represents the difference between the assets and the liabilities and serves as a financial reserve. The capital reserve is restricted funds set aside for future capital projects and infrastructure needs. The majority of the budget supports instruction, including regular

029education, special education, special services, and co-curricular programs such as athletics. and the remaining categories represent non-instructional support that's essential for daily district operations. I'll now turn it back to our School of Business Administrator, Dr. Stephen Lewis, for the budget overview. Thank you. So moving into our financial breakdowns, we will begin with a review of our general revenue funds. This section will outline the primary resources and sources of funding that support our district daily operations from local contributions to state level support. The SFRA, the School Funding Reform Act. This is also considered state aid. When the governor gave her address, she stated that the districts statewide were going to get an unprecedented increase of funding. Hackensack Public Schools received a 6%, approximately 6% increase in state aid, which is comprised of the equalization aid. special education

030categorical aid, security aid and transportation aid, and the total of $43 million dollars. Previously, last year we received approximately $40 million dollars. Our general fund the general local tax levy. to understand how we arrived at our tax levy. We start with the base of approximately $97 million dollars. To this we applied the standard. 2% allowable adjustment of one of approximately $1.9 million. However, we must account. for a significant increase. in the rising healthcare cost. to to this. The State allows us to do a tax-based adjustment for the increase in healthcare. of approximately 5.1 million dollars. In addition. The utilization of bank cap from prior years. will bring our total tax levy for the upcoming school year to approximately $106 million dollars. I must note that the bank cap is a use it or lose it

031in this year. in this upcoming year. So what does this mean for our taxpayers? When we look at the tax assessment. It is derived different than our tax level. The tax assessed the tax assessment is derived from a calendar year, January through December versus our tax levy, which is. July through June. So when we look year over year comparison from 2025 to 2026. You can see the difference. of approximately $6.2 million of an increase in the tax levy. We also show that the ratables. the tax assessed valuation for the whole city of Hackensack. was down marginally of 113,000. But the value is over $6 billion. But our tax rate per $100 for assessed valuation actually was increased by 0.12%. The average home assessed value. increased by $830. to 3222,035. So the average, according to the

032average home assessed value. The average school tax per average household. has gone up approximately $396.98 yearly. Now, how does this? is attributed to our. tax increase examples. If someone has a home that's assessed. Now, market value versus home assessed assessed value is different. Your market value might be $700,000, but your house might only be assessed at $390,000. So giving you an example, if a home is assessed at $275,000. the proposed increase from the school side only. would be approximately an increase of $28.25 monthly. If your home is assessed at approximately $450,000. Your monthly increase would be approximately $46. If your home is assessed at $775,000. on the school side only. The proposed increase would be 70 approximately $79.61 cents. Now, we don't take these numbers lightly. We just want to make sure that we are

033being transparent and giving different figures that. can be attributed to different households. It is important to. to see year over year comparison and look at the historical context. between 2020 between 2020 and 2024, the district maintained a very low tax increases ranging from 1% to 2%. This year's increase. is necessary to address the expiring bank cap and extraordinary rise in non-discretionary costs like health care. for a year-over-year comparison. I also want to reiterate that the superintendent stated at the beginning. That this budget. was created starting with the $24 million deficit. And then we had to bring forth a balanced budget. So the year over year comparison, as you can see, the tax levy has an 8.9% increase of approximately 8.6 million. We did receive state aid increase of approximately 2.7 million dollars. I do want

034to point out that the fund balance. The district, because we are currently dealing with a $17 million shortfall of reoccurring cost. has utilized all of our fund balance. Thus, we have no fund balance to help us mitigate the. the budgetary gap. In addition. tuition has increased. We have to also show that the capital and maintenance reserve. that the district had previously. is no longer available because we got authority from the Commissioner. of the state of New Jersey. to utilize our cap and maintenance reserve available to us in this current 2526 school year. So our total operating revenues will be approximately 158 million dollars. If you include the grants. It'll be approximately 169.6 million dollars. On the behalf of the Hackysack Board of Education, I would like to thank you for taking your time and your

035continued support for our excellence in education. At this time, I would like to open the floor for any questions that you may have regarding the preliminary budget. All right. Hello? Okay. Thank you. Thank you so much to our central office team. I just want to remind. the trustees that this is your opportunity to ask any questions to the central office. Just to be reminded that questions about the budget cannot be asked in executive. That is all public information, unless if it's related to personnel. Okay, so at this time I will open the floor to any board questions. Go ahead. I think he needs to turn it on. Press. Okay, so the 1st question, just to clarify for the public really just has to do with fixed costs that are really beyond the district's control. Dr.

036Lewis, are you able to just for, you know, the public's information. Um, you know, explain how impactful the enormous increase in health care costs have been not only to Hackensack, but it is something that has impacted districts across the state. Definitely. Awesome. All right. So. Let's talk about statewide first. in general, when we do our budget. It was past practice that business administrators will budget approximately anywhere between 10-15% for your state health. adjustments. Last year. Well, what's current year that we're in now, the 2526, we were hit with unprecedented 32% increase. that pretty much no one in the state saw coming. Unfortunately, with the presence of. the higher higher claims that's coming coming about. You know, people are getting older. People are going to the doctor, which is not a bad thing. But when you

037do that, and your insurance rises with the claims. Because of higher claims, um, insurance costs rise. The district alone was hit with approximately a $7 million increase on healthcare. in the current year, and we have been warned to budget anywhere from 35% to 40% for the next year. So because of this, the district is going to look at other all avenues that we can do to try to save us any kind of funding, any kind of money possible, but we have to budget appropriately. for the cost. So when we do the budgeting, we have to budget at the highest family rate, because we don't know if a staff member will. you know, hopefully, um, have children or get married and utilize the district's benefits for their healthcare. So you have to prepare for that. So

038that just just to clarify for folks, that's one of the reasons that we had to, in that overall increased tax levy. You see that 5% plus increase, because that is really to address that enormous increase in that. fixed healthcare cost. And that's really what had to be used to make that adjustment. So that's where you see such a huge increase. Yes, ma'am. And then one one other question, if I could just, um, I think, you know, just one of the concerns for, for the, you know, speaking on behalf of myself, but I'm sure my my fellow trustees. Um, that we have, um, going into this year's preliminary budget and budget process. Obviously, um, given everything we learned in January, um, at our presentation with our auditor. There were clear, um, significant findings that were raised

039by our audit. And you know, really reflected some inaccuracies or omissions from the the budget that was prepared last year for the current 2526 school year. And so I just want to know, you know, and if you can confirm to the board that any inaccuracies or omissions from that budget, from the 2526 school year, are all now accurate and included in this proposed preliminary budget. Yes. I I don't. I can't speak on what was done in the past, but between the preliminary and what we have to submit to the for the final budget. This will be an accurate and fully transparent budget. Okay, terrific, because I know, you know, last year and some of the significant finding areas, there was definitely concerns around, you know, overtime pay, special education and special services expenses. Um, you

040know, even extracurricular, you know, camp expenses, just wanting to make sure all of that is included here. Okay, Dr. Lewis, for and in regards to exactly what Trustee was just saying that our auditor had found a lot of inconsistencies and a lot of errors right? In previous. findings. So one of the things I would just like for you to explain to the public. You had mentioned about the bank cap. Um, and that it's a use it or lose it situation. Can you just explain to the public what that is? So the bank cap. The bank cap is allowable tax levy that has not been utilized in previous years. You have 3 years to utilize that in your tax base. after the 3 years, you are no longer able to utilize that to raise any additional

041revenue. So we are for the remaining bank cap. This is the last year that we would be entitled to use to use those funds, or we would not have the availability to use it. Is that? Of course. Oh, my question. Oh, sorry. I think this would be to Miss Diaz. I'm sorry. Right now our Kelly services. Bill is 3 and a half million dollars with the upcoming reduction and staff. How are we going to control those costs from skyrocketing even more? Well, one of the things that we anticipate, well, unfortunately, because we'll have less staff, that will have less absences. So it'll it will imagine that'll happen just as part of the process and still be last step. There'll be less of an expenditure. But we'll be monitoring that closely, hopefully, on a monthly basis.

042Okay, great. I think I'm going to go back to my questions deal with slide 6 and 9. So this might be for assistant superintendent Marks. and looking at the population graph on 6 and 7. It seems that there's a drop that we have a decrease and overall for our student population of what's. appears to be a disproportionate decrease in Hispanic Latino population. My concern is, or my question is. How much do we attribute this to? Increased ice activity. And as the political environment changes. Do we need to be prepared for that number to go back up again from a cost standpoint to be prepared to receive students again? It's a great question. To the mic. Sorry, thanks. That's a great question, Trustee. And we can say that monitoring enrollment since last year with the increased

043ICE activities, we have seen an impact, a direct impact. on students leaving the district. So it has had a direct impact. We cannot. We don't have a crystal ball. We hope that things will improve so that all of our students. Including our immigrant students, um, will have an opportunity to stay and to reap the benefits of a thorough and efficient education here in Hackensack. One last one more question on just minor more population base. You've mentioned the pre-K numbers on slide six. that the we started in 2021, 22 school year. the additional pre-K seats weren't there because we were ramping up the seats. all the other the remaining 4 bars contain. The pre-K seats. So pre-K has been here. The difference is that today the current enrollment today reflects enrollment of about 155 students who

044are actually not being served in district. They are being served at Bright Adventures and Bright Seedlings. Those are part of the pre-K expansion grant. Right. Which came to being last year with private providers expanding. And so we expanded this year. We are currently working with another 3rd private provider to further expand next year. One of the things that we are hoping to look at is that. Again, unfortunately, because of the reduction in staff. By virtue of the fact that staff are leaving, there will be… we anticipate some open classrooms. Those open classrooms. will hopefully help us to serve students that are currently being served out of district. not just in pre-K, but in other special Ed programs, and bringing them back to district, which would equal a cost savings, because rather than to spend that

045money, those funds on tuition. We will be able to bring our students back in district. allow them to attend our local schools, be part of our learning community, and those funds would then stay in district rather than go up in that tuition line item. I just want to add to to that, because that was part of my question for special Ed. Those numbers always fluctuate. I don't know who could help answer this. But last year we under budgeted right? So for special Ed. We know that there can be transfers out of district mid-year and transfers. in district mid-year. So what is the average of students that we typically? I guess, just a lot for that that we get. What would be like the average number? Dr. Lewis. Are you talking about the cost for the

046school? Either the cost like like, how do you guys come up with that? With that number? Is there an average? Do you? Do we typically get 20 students a year? Is it 5? I mean, because from what it looked like last year, it was severely. low. So so that's a couple of things in one right? The special ed, the special services department got a significant increase this year. But. I also want to restate that the district was operating with a $24 million deficit. Um, we utilize the numbers that they provide from that department to give us the estimate going forward. But we also have to… we're also looking at what kind of cost cutting measures that can be provided whilst still giving students the appropriate education that they deserve. So, with that, we are… now,

047it's not just in that department, it's still district-wide. We still have to look to see what. What can we do to reduce our budgetary needs in all areas? Because the budget is a… continuous moving mechanism. There's things that's going to happen, like you said, we we might have budgeted for 15 students. coming in, but then we might get 20. That's something that's outside of the scope, because unfortunately. We rely on like a three-year estimate, but things happen all of the time. So how does that… so how does that influence our budget? Oh, it definitely does. So usually what would happen when a when a district is not in a deficit, we would allow. We would use breakage. Breakage comes from if there's positions that are not filled. from the start of the year, if it

048gets filled midway, if it gets filled from September to December, we still have that available funding that we can transfer into the launch to help balance that… that budget. What stopped us from doing it? This year is that we had positions, as we stated before, that was not budgeted or we have positions that were people were hired at higher. how your salaries than what was budgeted. So, and then we had a situation where we kept getting additional students that. we were underfunded in that department as well. So that was like a. rolling snowball down a hill that just kept picking up speed. So going forward the the. Our job is to work with the special services department to try to look whether it's a weekly or monthly basis to see what are the trends that's

049happening and how is it affecting their budget and to see what wiggle room we have. in the whole budget to adjust. So we're looking at revenue producing items, working with the South Burger Join Commission to see if we can host a class that will bring revenue to the district. So we're looking at different things that can possibly mitigate any kind of incoming students or anything that might happen during the year to try to make sure that we're still covered. That leads me to. You mentioned revenues on slide 33. The tuition line that we're saying is going to go up 48.7%. That's tuition that's coming in. Can you speak more to elaborate? Give us even more about what type of tuition revenues coming in as opposed to the tuition revenue that's come that's going out. So

050currently, the district has 2. sending districts that sense students to us. That is Rochelle Park and South Hackensack. We are currently in negotiations with them, but we have settled on the cash value. Um, but we have to bring that finalized contract, um, after legal review that those contracts to the board for approval. That's that's in those figures as well as the estimated revenue. from a partnership with the Commission of bringing of hosting. classes in district that would bring revenue for us to, whether it's another district or us saving funds from having to send our kids out. So a student who might go out to a school. I'm really alpine that might be 140,000, but hosting them in district might be 80,000. That's the savings of 60,000 that is considered revenue to the district, if that

051makes sense. And can I actually to to that question of revenue? I think it's important just for historical context to remind individuals, as you mentioned, right now, we currently have two sending districts. But, you know, as recently as 2020 and the 2020-2021 school year, we had a third sending district, Maywood, and the board at that time, their decision to sever to allow that relationship to end. did cost the district more than 4 million dollars, if I remember correctly, in annual revenue. And so that is important just for context for people to know. Again, as a reminder, that's a loss of revenue to the district that we continue to feel the impacts of, and I believe Dr. Lewis, wasn't it. over 4 million dollars at the time. It was. from my estimation, it was approximately 6

052to 8. Okay. But, you know, moving forward, you know, it's. It's. It's upon us to really try to move that needle to see what we can do now, because we, you know, unfortunately, that district is no longer with us right and. we… I don't want us to… relive the past. So how can we move forward? What other revenue sources can we look at, whether it's partnerships and, you know, we also have to look at any kind of decrease in expenses will also be looked at as revenue, if that may… does that make sense for everybody? So again, if we're. if we save ourselves from paying $160,000. that is money coming back in that can help us with the budget. I do want to make sure that again, a $24 million deficit. is hard to try

053to produce a balanced budget. And this budget is an ever-evolving situation that we just want to make sure that there. That's why things happen throughout the year. If the superintendent talking to the superintendent. And she decides, hey, you might have to do a budgetary freeze in December to make sure that we're still on track. So there's things, there's efforts that we will put in, there's other things that we are working on that we can't… if it's not finalized, we can't put into the budget. you know, that will adjust that will adjust things as well. I just wanted to make sure. And I do have one other question for at this acting superintendent Marchman. I think I know we we spoke in our committee meetings last week and and and talked about, you know, how a

054lot of these. fixed cost increase obviously are not unique to Hackensack that State Health Plan benefits obviously being one of them, you know, with that 32% increase that you talked about. Dr. Lewis, and just on average, I know. Anecdotally, we've heard that a lot of districts are just experiencing their own increase of, I think it was anywhere between 5 to 7%. Is that 5 to 6.5%. Everyone's being slammed. from 4, but on the average 5 to 6.5%. I wanted to just go back to special education, and just in general. One of the things, and our Correction Act corrective action plan is the monitoring, just like we monitor our. business, our our budgets at home. I think the monitoring is going to be key, not just spend, spend, spend, but there has to be every 2

055weeks. Every month, the monitoring of our funds. That's important to do a better job of for sure. In regards to the PCR. In regards to the PCR, we were told in February that it there was it was incorrect. Let's just put it that way. Can we confirm that the PCR is accurate in order to complete this budget? Again, that's the yes, there's still a couple of tweaks that we are looking to do just to make sure that, you know, our. Like when we budget for overtime and ESY, if there's staffing changes, that's going to. adjust that. So while between the preliminary budget, final budget in April, a couple of weeks, that stuff is going to also be looked at and worked out and finalized. So we present the final. That's why they give us the

056time to do a prelim. And then to the final. So. Yes, by the time we submit our final budget in April, yes, the PCR will be accurate, and it's good now, but we just want to make sure we fine-tune it to perfect it. So you mentioned overtime. What other things are. in in that over time and so you have, like, class coverage. Class coverage. So if there's significant. staffing changes, as we stated in the beginning. That's going to directly affect class coverages. So it's you have less tax coverages or less classes to have class coverages, if that makes sense. So that gets adjusted. So we are. That's why we still are. It's a working document. The PCR is a it's always going to be a live document that will be reviewed, worked on, adjusted. worked

057on with the Hr. Department, business office to make sure that on a well, what we're what we're going to do on a weekly basis, weekly to the semi-monthly basis is to review it, make sure, is there any changes? Do we have somebody leave? And are we hiring them? What does that look like? Oh, do we have to adjust for any payouts that they might have? You know, where are we budgeting? Where are we trying to come in at? So that's why it's a live document that will always be adjusted. But as we stand right now, it is… It is, like, a 95 to 97% I feel comfortable saying it will be completely accurate. Thank you. Well, Mr. Stein. Back to what Mrs. Mark said, and it was a little disheartening. When you said we have.

058students leaving the district. Because of the threat of ice. My question is, do we know. Wherever they're going, that they're continuing their education or. Do we not have those figures? and I can understand why we wouldn't maintain those vacuum. So I'd like to first just acknowledge. your comment about disheartening. I would add that it's been heartbreaking for our teachers, for our administrators, and for our children who are losing classmates. I think all of us have heard at different times. Um, you know. ICE was seen on Main Street or on Hudson Street. And so the fear is real. and. It's severely impacted. our families and our children, our students. We don't know where they're going. Um, we, you know, can make assumptions, but that's not what we do. And so our hope and our prayer is

059that. as they go back to wherever they're going that they will continue their education. And my hope and prayer is that they, when they return, they can come back to Hackensack and continue their education here with us. But unfortunately, we don't have that information. Yes, Dr. Lewis. according to our president, we are a sanctuary state. We will not be getting fundings. Do that still stand and do that affect us as a school district? Just to be clear, not President myself. No, no. President of the United States. No, no. President Donald Trump. Okay. All right. That's a great question. So the State funding. is received. A year early if that sold the State holds. their fund their funds before disseminating it out to the school districts pretty much a year early. That's why it's a for

060them. Their budget is so. encompassing, because they have so many different areas, and they pretty much hold it in their account. They accrue interest, and so on. I can't speak on the intent from the United States president and how that will affect us as of yet. Um, the state funding. will be fine. But the issue is the entitlement grants. That's where the issue comes. The federal funding of a federal fund. Yeah. Now, I do want to make sure that I state that Hackensack Public Schools is primarily a local. tax levy funded district. So that's the base is on our is our tax payers. And we receive approximately. 25 to 30% from the state. Now, our federal funding, we only receive approximately $11 million dollars. I'm not saying only. My apologies. Not only that's a huge

061number, and that helps out a lot. But in… To that, we budgeted, instead of that 100% of our previous received entitlement grants, we budgeted 75%. So it accounts for any reduction that might come across from the federal government and as well as it gives us a little wiggle room if it comes in highly. But I feel comfortable. It's not that the funds are going to go away. It's it might make it more difficult to. assess it, or to get to it, but I don't believe that it's going to go away. No. Thank you. A quick question for Dr. Lewis. So you had said that the recommendation was to budget 35 to 40% for the increase in health care. That's for 2627. what are we looking at? Is there any talk right now, or you're hearing

062from peers or anything what we might be looking at 27, 28? I know you can't read into the future, but. I know it won't go down, but I mean, obviously, you always, you talk about this as a 3-year plan, right? So, I mean, I'm just… Yes, that's a good question, and I like the fact that you brought up the three-year plan. Oh, God, stop. Um, so… And with that full transparency. We are currently looking into. Um, seeing if the district can remove itself from the state health benefits program and look at going either self-assured or privately insured. Uh, we, according to our CVAs, as long as we provide better or equal or better than. Insurance, we should be in the. Okay? But it would be a significant cost savings for us to look to see

063if we can remove ourselves from the state health benefits plan. When other districts have been removing themselves. The districts that stay in take the brunt of that increase. So you know, you know, unfortunately, that's something that hit us as well is that you have a lot of districts who are taking themselves out. They have a better claims. Uh, but we are looking and reviewing our claims. Right now, we are at, let's say, a 1.2, you know, but we need to be at below 1. So we're also looking at in talks with the executive director of human resources, doing different wellness programs that will help, you know, look at. what health incentives that we are bringing to the district, um, whether it's. promoting yoga, promoting some kind of, you know, action, actionable items that weight loss

064treatment. Exactly. That would increase people's, you know, when they say health is wealth, that's, you know, that's the definition of it. So, when you increase people's health. That reduces the amount of claims that you have, which can reduce your percentage, you know, of how you are looked at to insurance companies. Thank you. I have another question, just kind of regarding. the overall budget process. As the public knows, and we hired a consultant, Mr. Egan, to to be part of this. What kind of involvement has he had in the budget process? Does he oversee things? Is he… Make recommendations? How is he involved in the budget? Um, he… he doesn't necessarily oversee it. He's, you know. It was a bad choice of words, overseer. No, you're fine. He's, you know, somebody that we bounce things off

065of. He gives us, he has a lot of institutional knowledge. He's got a ton of experience, right? Absolutely. And he provides us guidance. to say, okay, if you're doing this, you can look at possibly doing it this way, or hey, you might want to show this instead of this. He gives us that extra set of eyes and that experience to say. hey, from from the state point of view, this is how the state monitor would look at this. Right. This is how… this is the… the structures that would like… that we would like to see. So it gives us. a streamlined kind of. lane to take when it comes to the budgeting process, and just the way we can think things through. It's very high level, and we just kind of bounce things off. So

066it's definitely been beneficial. Absolutely. That's great. Okay. Thank you. Great. Hopefully, this is my last one. And in this budget. for our extended school year students and summer school programs. Are they being affected this school year? Will they still be happening? that… that, um, is still being worked on. And that's why we have the preliminary versus the final. That's one of the action items that we are looking towards in the completion of the full budget. So how do we go around for our students who have that in their Ieps? That's not something you can remove from that. That's not. So we must have. That's what you must have right. But we have to adjust on the staffing side. That's where we're looking at to see if there's any bumping situations, or. Anything that might account,

067be accounted for in that way. So there would still be an extended school year, but it would just be a reduced, maybe in class sizes, or the amount of classes that we have. And that's kind of what we're working through to look at. Okay, thank you. Are there any other questions? I just wanted to. I'm sorry, add one thing. And I know you heard the governor say this, but one of the things that we constantly have to do. If we have to add something. We have to look to see where we're subtracting. Like, that has to be ongoing and not just continue to spend. So when we look at ESY, we have to look. And where can we subtract this? That will keep us… on target. My last question is really just to, you know,

068really more of an opportunity for you acting superintendent Parchment to just reassure our families and our students, you know, we know, obviously, we've said that we're going into this school year with a $24 million deficit. There have been reductions, very thoughtful reductions that have had to be made. Obviously, impacts real life staff, and it will impact our students. But in terms of the programming, the educational programming and the quality education that our students receive. You know, that is. We are still committed to providing our students with that quality and education. One of the things that I don't doubt is we have a talented, as I said, educators and teachers, and just committed educators in our district. So I am. Not, uh… concerned about that. We're going to move forward. And we're going to be fine.

069One of the things that was that you saw presented was the grant funding that we received. Um, to expand our curriculum. So things like that will also help. with ensuring that we provide quality education. Thank you. And I'm sorry. I also do just want to acknowledge that one of the benefits going into this year is that we do also have, for the 1st time, a really close working relationship with the city. And you know that allows us to also. share services and take advantage of some opportunities that might come out of that that renewed and closer partnership. So, you know, and and that you could see as evidenced in in the city's ability to to help us in this current year. budget deficit. So, you know, that is also another reassuring thing going into this,

070into this budget. And I… I do want to say. As I said before. This is not going to be easy. We're going to work. We're going to plan, and and this is our phase one. There'll be a phase 2. We have to work closely with our building leaders to ensure. that the quality of services that we have provided in the past remain. But we also know that we're losing human services, so we really have to work to see how we make this up, how we provide the best to our students. So I just don't want to say, just, you know, it's going to be. Easy, but… We have to make it work, and that's going to take collaboration. I don't have all the answers, but we're going to work together as a team. And again.

071We're gonna have to do more. Any other questions? All right. So before we go into and thank you again to our central office team, Miss Andrea Oats Parchment and your team. Thank you for your presentation. Thank you for also speaking live. Sometimes it's best to hear, you know, human to human. interaction. So thank you again. Um, before we go into our public comment section, I just want to give just a small little statement. Um, and you know, for the public, as we continue to discuss tonight's preliminary budget, I want to be clear about our approach moving forward. The board is focused on addressing and correcting the financial challenges that we inherited. Our priority is to stabilize the district in a responsible way while doing everything possible to minimize disruption to our students and school community.

072While we recognize that additional revenue may be necessary, our goal is to keep any increase to the absolute minimum and carefully evaluate every decision to limit the impact on our classrooms and programs. This preliminary budget represents our starting point. As the process continues. As the process continues, we will keep reviewing our options and making adjustments as needed to ensure we are making the most responsible choices for the district. At the same time, we are using every tool available to us to protect the district's financial future. In February, the board retained a financial consultant, Thomas Egan, to provide guidance and expertise as we navigate this process. We have also filed a lawsuit in an effort to recover funds that were lost. Our commitment is to restore financial stability, rebuild trust, and move the district forward in

073a way that continues to support our students and staff. Thank you very much. Once again, thank you to central office. At this time we're going to move into our public comment section public participation shall be governed by the following rules. One, if in person a participant must sign the sign-in sheet and be recognized by the presiding officer and must preface comments by the announcement of his or her name, municipality of residence, and group affiliation if applicable. Two, each statement made by a participant shall be limited. to a 3-minute duration during the public session. Three, all statements, questions or inquiries shall be directed to the presiding officer and any questions or inquiries directed by a participant to another board member. Shop directed to the presiding officer who shall determine if a statement. question or inquiry shall

074be addressed by the presiding officer on behalf of the board or by the individual board member and for all board and or acting superintendent responses to questions or inquiries shall be held until the end of public participation. At this time, the floor is open to anyone in person that would like to speak. Good evening. Good evening. My name is Heather Leininger Digen, also known as Miss L, and I'm very, very proud to be the health teacher at the greatest school in the world. Nellie K. Parker. And thank you, Dr. Lewis Health as well. That is exactly why I'm here. How did you know? Um… Miss L, I'm drinking more water. Miss L, I ate all my carrots at lunch. Miss L, I had an apple for snack today. When I hear these positive affirmations, literally

075every day, I know that what I'm teaching is. clicking and sticking. The material I'm covering in class is practically being applied to their everyday lives. And is that exactly what education is about? And isn't that exactly what we do at the elementary school level? We provide foundational information that will lead to future success, not just in language arts and mathematics. But healthy choices and lifestyle behaviors that will turn our precious children into healthy, successful Hackensack citizens. Really quickly, most of us are aware that health and PE are required by the state of New Jersey. However, there's this teeny tiny little clause that says certain elementary school teachers can teach health if need be. Well, as I push into 30, that's 3-0. 30 classrooms every week, I can confidently say that every one of my sisters

076and brothers, every one of my sisters and brothers at the greatest school in the world. is a gifted educator. They are dedicated to their craft and our students. But their responsibilities are never ending and continually increasing. And as gifted as they are, it would be completely illogical, impractical, and quite frankly, impossible to think. with everything they have to do that they would have the time to prepare and teach health as it demands to be taught. So with all due respect this evening, I hope what I'm saying is sticking and clicking as well. that if the great school district of Hackensack really believes that health is well, that the welfare of its students is paramount, then ensuring that this upcoming school year certificated health teachers are in the elementary schools. should also be just as paramount.

077Thank you. Anyone else in person? Hi, Kassine Gaines, HEA president, proud HEA president. And I just wanted to. piggyback on an exchange, a question and answer exchange. from a couple of minutes ago, I was… listening attentively and mildly concerned when Trustee Umir Hamza. asked about ensuring the community that we will retain the standard of education that our families in Hackensack deserve. And a part of the acting superintendent's answer was that we have quality and committed educators and teachers here in Hackensack. understanding the budgetary realities. It is concerning knowing that a lot of the success of this district in the short and long term. hinges on those quality and committed educators and teachers, and the more that we lose. the more we threaten the very foundation of the educational services that we can provide for our

078kids. And so. When we were. Here in January. there was a lot of talk about shared pain. I didn't hear a lot of talk about shared pain today. There was a lot of talk about we're all going to be in this together, and we're all gonna feel it. I didn't hear those words today. I'm not saying that it's not going to happen, I just didn't hear it. And so… I just want to make sure that when we think about. the priorities of the district. We remember that our primary job here, all of our primary job here is to be in service of our kids. And to be in service of our kids means looking at things like class sizes. looking at things like when we're thinking outside of the box and reimagining what education looks

079like, the people that have to deliver that service. Are your teachers and educators and paraeducators? These are the folks that have to work with the kids directly. And so on behalf of the teaching staff, what I would like to request is. some additional collaboration and conversation as we move forward. Um, some consideration as to how we can best retain the folks that directly impact things like student test scores and test scores. aren't just numbers, they are in some ways, in some ways indicators of future success, or at least that's what colleges look at. as indicators. But not just receiving updates in a one-way communication sort of way, but also making sure that we have an opportunity to help this reinvention. Thank you. Good evening, everyone. Good evening. Okay, my name is Jonathan Rodriguez. I'm president

080of the Hackensa Custodian and Maintenance Association, proud custodian from Fairmont School in Hackensail resident in Tasper. There is a little bit nervous. I can hand it in. The reason I'm here right now is that I have a concern and I have to and I need to inform the we are not prepared for the reduction in force and I can explain that. We're gonna lose 13 custodian staff. And at this time, those would remain in the district still having informed how the operational procedures or changes as soon as we know. We have employees that they're going to be transferred in and they don't have no confirmation about the new schedule. The newest school, they're gonna be transferring anything. And we deserve to know we deserve to know about these changes. Is it they're gonna affect them?

081Dedal is, oh my God. I'm going to move. Okay. So that gonna affect all like one of the person is going to be affecting about the situation. So I deserve to know. What is going to be my schedule? Because I work in the morning. If I have to go in the night, I need to prepare my life. So my life. I love the district, but it's not only the district. I have a personal life. So that's the point. So… And I want to remind it to everybody, everybody in here that when we're talking about custodians, it means. We are not just talking about cleaning. We are talking about building safety. We're talking about. Health. We're talking about breast responders in case of the emergency. in as we always demonstrating here during during the Covid, during

082the every storm, during the every emergency in the district. We have the community with the district. Well, in these difficult times, we simply ask to the board members and the people from central office. their respect where we deserve. So we want to see the real action plan, because that going to start next week, and we don't know anything. Thank you so much. Have a good night. Yeah. I didn't sign my name. Oops. Good evening. Good evening. I would first like to start by thanking the board and central office and all of the teachers and paraeducators, admin assistants, custodians, administrators, all of the folks who make our schools run. This is… a very difficult time to be in education for a lot of reasons, and the teachers and paraeducators have just been amazing through all of

083this, even while some of them are packing up their classrooms to leave. Um, even as we speak. I wanted to address the board. I'm sorry. I'm about to. Okay, I wanted to address the board in my role as the HASA president. My name is Nicole Adams, and I am here because I am concerned about what the trajectory of the district looks like. with this level of cutting and reducing and staff members. This budget, if it goes forward, will result in the unit losing 30% of its members and. in a single school year, whether that's through unfilled vacancies or through a reduction in force. That's an unprecedented level of loss. and it has real consequences for our students and our staff, our administrators are already stretched thin, managing evaluations, coaching, family communication, compliance, safety, and all

084of the day-to-day operations. With even fewer leaders, we risk fragmented implementation of curriculum, delayed responses to student needs, and a breakdown in a system that keeps classrooms running smoothly. What is most concerning is that there has not been a transparent, detailed plan for how we will support students. Families and staff with significantly fewer educators at every level. Teachers, paraeducators, clinicians, custodians, and now administrators. Families deserve to know. how their experience will change. Have we communicated that they may no longer have access to administrators in the same way? Who will help them? problem solve when crisis arise, who will ensure timely support for students with complex needs who will absorb the work that cannot simply disappear. When positions are eliminated, the needs of students do not go away. Those needs are simply redistributed to fewer people.

085And every time we stretch our educators thin, we increase burnout, turnover, and inconsistent experiences for students is the result. We understand the financial realities the district is facing. But cuts of this magnitude require a clear plan of how services our students deserve will be given. Thank you for your consideration and for the opportunity to speak with you tonight. And again, thank you for all you do for our students in the school community. Anyone else in person that would like to speak. Okay, seeing that there are none. It's closed for in person. Anyone online? Good. Hello. Hi, I'm Dan Holzman. I teach at Hackensack Middle School. I just have one quick question. So next year, 100 staff members will be eliminated as a result of necessary budget reductions. I was wondering if this number includes the

08633 individuals who have announced resignation or retirement since the discovery of the deficit or the 23 individuals who were not included in the resolution to be retained from the March 11th meeting. Uh, so in other words, is this decrease from this year to next year 100 staff members, or closer to 156 staff members? Thank you. Hello, my name is Anthony Ziza. I'm a parent at Parker School. I'm also the 1st Vice President of the HEA. You know, I'm going to bounce off of Mr. Gaines's point about sort of a disconnect between what we're hearing. Today, and I think the experience at the ground level, both as a parent and as a member of the staff. This, you know, I guess it was last week we received an email from the district about the loss of

087Parker's instrumental music teacher. And the letter described it as a temporary staffing issue. But the reality is, we're gonna see staffing issues like this, where, you know, because of the rifts, a number of those teachers are obviously looking for work, for stable work that they know is going to exist beyond June. You know, these disruptions are going to happen, and it feels like there's a lot of belief that this disruption is going to simply. be handled by the staff on the ground level. And, you know. The unfortunate reality is that the more we ask of the staff at the ground level, you know, as Ms. Adams said, the more we're going to see burnout and quite frankly, we'll continue to see these bang on effects as. you know, people who are uncomfortable with teaching extremely

088large class sizes, who are, you know, being asked to teach additional periods that they never taught. This is going to have a significant impact going forward. You know, it's a little bit concerning that the sentiment right now just seems to be, you know, we have great staff, which we do. Which we do. But that there's just this assumption it's all built on, that… staff members can have more work, more responsibilities, more time. requirements placed on them and that it will not have an effect both on the quality of education. But, quite frankly, our ability to staff, you know, as people become, you know, burnt out, they begin looking for exits. And I think that this is something that as you build this budget, as you consider what next year is going to look like. That

089you take very clearly into account. Because… The reality is, so long as we are not honest about what the future looks like or that we provide overly rosy predictions of it. the less time we'll have to actually correct it. Thank you. Good evening. I'm Tom Terzano. I work at Hackensick High School, and I'm involved with the HEA as the second vice president, but also as the health and safety chair. I don't see my time moving, so… oh, there it goes. Okay, great. So, um, I won't even use all the time, uh, just kind of track a couple of things that end up impacting the members of the HEA. Um, the first thing would be that we've been listening, uh, since January about considerations changing to, uh, changes to benefits, and we've been listening to cost

090analysis of that. And while that ends up making financial sense, it's been offered up freely. for the last couple of months, and many, many, many meetings, because all options are on the table financially. Um, just want to make sure that you understand that we're held, uh, you are held to, um, equal to or better than plans. Uh, so when you're doing the shopping and when those things are being. considered… you have to make sure you end up, uh… following through with that obligation. The second thing that I wanted to kind of bring up, uh, which is kind of a quiet piece of some of the discussion is, um, when it comes to, uh, women's health in particular, it's not just about the meth strain, but it's about the genderized attacks that seem to be happening

091across. Um, the society in general, when you're talking about teaching as a profession, we are surrounding ourselves with very strong, powerful, and when we end up thinking about healthcare issues in general. We have a tremendous responsibility to make sure we end up holding those obligations to make sure that our employees in general, um. But specifically women end up receiving the best care that they can possibly get, because many are not only managing the obligations of work and employment, but managing their obligations for family at home and have absolutely specialized needs during the course of their lives, during the course of their careers. Um, and so, uh, that is, uh, primarily, I think, the, uh, the, the… quieter part of the conversations with respect to the budget shortfalls. When you're talking about employment, and you're talking

092about letting people go, you're… talking about a generalized attack against women employees across the districts, across the… Across society as a general commonplace thing. Please be mindful of your obligations to our female members. Thank you. Good evening, Donna West. Atkinside resident, Hackensack third grade teacher in Ella K. Barker School. And I just want to basically just say that I concur with everything that's been said so far, but I just want to kind of give you a reality. Um, about why the transparency is so important, and why we really can't wait and hold off. Um, one of the persons in our building who was leaving the other day, which just happened to be walking out with flowers. And we didn't know there was three of us standing in the vestibule, like, wondering why she was walking

093out with flowers, and she was walking out with flowers because it was her last day. I can't tell you the range of emotions that the three of us felt, from crying to anger, because nobody knew. And I don't think that you… and I get it, because I do believe that Dr. Gagliana called over to Ms. Diaz to make sure that we're ensuring that we're protecting people's privacy. But the other day, also, some children learned that a teacher wasn't going to be in their room, and they were hysterical, crying. We have to do something. I understand that these are unprecedented times. I don't know, um, what you can do, but I do know that we need more boots on the ground. I've seen Ms. Parchment and Ms. Marks, you know, and they're walking through, um, but

094these walkthroughs have to be more intentional. We have to check on people, we have to ask if people are okay, even if they tell you, I'm fine. But you have to do something, um, because I get what's happening tonight, I get that there's so much you might not be able to tell us or can tell us, or I'm not even sure anymore. But I will tell you, I walked away out of that vestibule, and I was so angry, and I was so hurt, because while that was a private moment for her, that woman worked on my floor, and I had no idea that it was her last day. We have to do better, um, because we like to say we privilege children, we like to say that we want to protect the staff, but we

095are not protecting the staff, and we are not protecting the children. When we can't find ways just to have the human quality or the human compassion. to just come in and check to make sure that people are okay. Because we're not okay, we're not going to be okay, not in the immediate, and at some point, yes, because a lot of us are people of faith, we're praying, we know, we know that God gives us the strength. But I also am reminding people that God also gives us these emotions that allows us to feel what we feel now. So I don't want people telling us what we can and cannot feel, because I want to work through my feelings, but I also know that we have people in the district that need to be strategically placed

096in buildings now. Between now and the end of June to help with this, because I am trying to teach, I am trying to deal with colleagues that are leaving. I am trying to deal with personal life. I mean, we really have to take all of that into consideration, and I get… please don't tell me again that it's unprecedented. I know that already. How do we do something about it? Thank you. at this time public comment section is closed. However, if we can just address a few things. Miss Oaks parchment. Are we able to just confirm the head custodian that came and and mentioned about the schedules. Yeah, I I first want to address. HEA President Christine Gaines, and um. I want to apologize, because… Mr. Gaines. We still feel pain. I think today was a

097budget, the budget presentation, and I still wanted to make sure that. I acknowledge. teachers, educators, and the fact that we're losing talented educators. But the pain? this pain. I feel the pain every day. I even feel the pain in my stomach every day I get up. We have pain. But this was the budget presentation in January. It was even more heartbreaking because I had to address the public about our $17 million shortfall. And I don't want you to ever think that there's no pain. One of the common themes that I am hearing tonight is an action plan. Jonathan, you are absolutely correct. I spoke to you outside of Fairmount School today. And what you brought to my attention raised my eyebrows, and that plan will be. Complete. by tomorrow or Friday. Right, absolutely. While we're

098working on the budget, we're trying to have our hands and everything. We miss things. In terms of President Hassa President Nicole Adams. Again, absolutely correct. We will have a plan. But we can't do this in haste. We have to take time. I know Miss Adams is always saying collaboration, collaboration. There are it requires a detailed plan. We don't have that plan right now. We are. Working on the budget, trying to get a budget done. We have a list of things. that have to be addressed. We keep a running list, right, Miss Laneski? We have a running list of things that have to be done. We have. plans, and those plans are going to entail our building leaders as well. But we're not going to do things in haste. There are so many different things that

099we have to consider. We have a larger class size. We have to also, as Miss West stated, we have to check on emotional needs of all of our teachers. We can't be everywhere, and we can't do everything, but everything that was mentioned here tonight is valid. And I also concur. So we are not ignoring it. And we are going to work on addressing everything, and we're not going to do it. alone. And I mean, really, that's all I have to say. If I. could resolve this, I would. Do I want to see? the number of staff that we are losing. I don't want to lose anyone. But this is the situation we are in. So I thank you, and I welcome your comments. Some some some of the things. I didn't deeply think about like

100I want to speak more to Mr. Ziza about the the woman issue, which I can absolutely relate to, and I can say a lot about that right now. But I will not. Because when there's a situation, sometimes women are. placed in the position to fix things. So, and it has impact on my health and a lot of women's health. So we will have these discussions. I really love working with this staff. I love the comments that are being made, and I take them to heart. and they will be addressed. So thank you very much for the thoughtful comments that were made tonight. Thank you. Are you able to address. The question about the number of RIFs that the 100… is that included with the ones that just happened, or is that an added number? So

101the the 30… it's not 33. It's about 21. And that was already to address the current budget that we're in. This is an additional. what we mentioned tonight. This is in addition. And the reason I use, and just to be transparent. about 100. Because. things are still happening. And when you have retirements, or when you have resignations, or when you have. tenure staff. It's a process. And because some things. We're not in place. it's going to take more. What we have been doing, and we've been working around the clock. And as we work, there's that feeling in my stomach about. the loss that we have. So it's always there. But as we work. to try to resolve. And three or four or five months. What hasn't happened in three or four years is difficult. Right.

102And it's weighing on all of us. People ask me how I feel or how we feel today. I said barely standing. But we're gonna get through. And we need the help of everyone. Now, Miss Andrea O's parchment, one last thing, and if you're able to answer this right now. But Miss Nicole Adams had mentioned. that there's a 30% reduction in staff for administrators. Do you happen to have percentages for other staff? that will be impacted. Yes. Miss Diaz, do you? Yeah. You have to pull it up. Thank you. While technology gets, uh… We did here. So if she can't pull it up after we leave closed session, we can come back and give you that information during the public comment, or you have it. She's great. So we anticipate, and we know that these these

103numbers may may change again, considering resignations and and retirements. But our custodial maintenance staff will be an approximate reduction of about 20%. our HEOP staff, HAOP staff will be approximately 5.5%. Our number for Hassa, because it included not only HASA members, but central office administration will be about 23%. our teachers about 15%, and our non-bargain unit staff about 22%. I'm sorry, I missed the HEA one. Can you say that again? Or I'm sorry, the teachers, about 15%. 15, and then the last one, non-buarding unit staff about 22%. May I ask a question? Sure. Yes. Do these percentages include. positions that were unfilled. Yes. Just to clarify, the Haop is for our administrative assistants, administrative assistants. and you said Hasa included also central central office administration. Yes. Thank you. And that also included positions that were

104vacant. full under non-bargain unit staff. Thank you. Sure. Appreciate it. No problem. Okay. I believe that is all for now. We're going to move into executive session. Be it resolved that the Hackensack Board of Education determines it necessary to meet an executive session on Wednesday, March 25th, 2026, to discuss legal. Personnel, student-related matters, HIV reports, negotiations, and other confidential matters, and be it further resolved that these matters will be made public when the need for confidentiality no longer exists. Can I have a motion to go into executive, please? So moved. Motion by Trustee Stein, second by Vice President Martin. All those in favor say aye. Anyone opposed? Any abstentions? Thank you. It is 8:13. I would assume we would be back by 9:15-ish. Here we go. All right. Good evening, everyone. Can I have a

105motion to return to the public, please? I'll make that motion. Okay, so we have a motion by Trustee Jones and a second. Trustee Pringle. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? Any abstentions? Thank you. Can I also have a motion to? Extend the meeting past 10 o'clock. Thank you. I'll offer. Okay, so we have a motion and a second by Trustee Jones. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed? Any abstentions? Thank you very much. So now we have extended our meeting past 10 o'clock. Thank you very much. We are back. We're going to go on to the approval of the minutes. Be it resolved that the Hackasach Board of Education approves the regular meeting minutes of February 11th, 2026, and the regular minutes and executive session minutes of February 25th. and

106regular minutes, and the executive session minutes of March 11th, 2026. Can I have a motion to. approve the minutes. A motion. Okay, motion by Trustee Pringle, second by Trustee Stein. All those in favor say aye. Aye. Anyone opposed any abstentions? Okay, excellent. That passes. We're going to move on to our committee reports and resolutions, and we have for tonight a personnel and the chair for personnel is Trustee Amrahamsa. Thank you, Madam President. The personnel committee met, and we have personnel items A through D to offer for consideration. Okay, thank you. So we have a motion from Trustee Amorhem. Can I have a second? second by Trustee Carroll. Dr. Lewis, can you please do a roll call? Trustee Austin Balaputra. Yes. Trustee Amarhamsa. Yes, Trustee Carroll. Yes, Trustee Gilmore. Yes. Trustee Jones. Aye. Rusty Pringle. Yes.

107Trustee Stein. Yes. Vice President Martin. Yes. President Harris. Yes. Motion passes. Thank you. On to finance, and the chair of finance is Trustee Stein. Yes. I'd like to. My resolution is, uh, whereas I support it. County of Bergen. It's the preliminary budget of 2026-27. school year budget. Okay, thank you. We have a motion from Trustee Stein. Can I have a second second by Trustee Gilmore. Dr. Lewis, can you please do a roll call and I'd just like to say on B. 2, we did get a. Donation from BPA Hackensack BPA local 9. for $500 for the decap fund. Okay, thank you. Okay, Dr. Lewis, roll call, please. Trustee Austin Balapucha. Yes. Trustee Amarhamsa. Yes, Trustee Carroll. Yes, to all abstain from being 2. Recuse myself. Trustee Gilmore. Yes. Trustee Jones. Yes. Trustee Kringle. Yes, Trustee

108Stein. Yes, Vice President Martin. Yes, President Harris. Yes, all motions. Thank you. Moving on to new business. Do we have any new business? Okay, moving on to our second public comment. Section where individuals may address the board on agenda and school matters of community interest for 1 min. Is there anyone in person that would like to speak? Seeing that there are none. So anyone online? No one is online. Okay. Second public comment section is closed. Moving on to board comments. Okay, so for… If you choose to. Board comments. Trustee Stein. Yes, I'd just like to congratulate the Trium National Honor Society for inducting new members on. Monday night. Okay, thank you. Trustee Austin-Bellaputra. I just wanted to say thank you to all the school events that invite us to things. Sometimes we can't make them,

109especially those in the school day. We appreciate being invited, and I'm looking forward to attending the school play at the middle school tomorrow night. Thank you. Good night. Trustee Jones. Yeah, I just. Obviously thanking everybody for their hard work during this budget season. I know it's a lot, there's a lot of stuff going on. Um So thanking everybody for putting the work and my fellow board members as well. And also I wasn't here for last meeting, but I did watch the YouTube video and it was just good to see how many people came out and spoke. I know we didn't have a lot of people here tonight, but to see. see all the people come out and kind of speak their mind. I think that's super important, and I think it's something that we should

110encourage and we do. Thank you. Thank you. Trustee Pringle. Um… Everything they said, you guys rock. Um, God bless you all and have a good night. Trustee Gilmore. I just want to say thank you to everyone for your hard work. I know that this isn't easy. It's not easy for any of us. But this is something that we we must do, and we'll get through it together. Because at the end of the day, I know they're numbers, but they are students and teachers and staff behind everything that we're doing. So I just want to, you know, remind everyone that that's. What we think about every time we sit here and vote. Thank you for coming out, and good night. Thank you, Trustee Amahemsa. Yes, I just want to reiterate. You know what has already been

111said. Congratulations to our new honors society inductees from from earlier this this week for our musicians. Also, you know, a huge thank you to the Pba local number 9 for their support of our academic decathlon. We really appreciate that. And you know, really, to reiterate what Trustee Gilmore said, you know, this this has been a huge. undertaking for our acting superintendent and her team, especially in light of all of the findings that were raised by our auditors back in January, and I encourage folks, you know, who who just want to get the full information, go back to that meeting, take a look at all of that information. You will see that, you know, the challenges that we had for this year and going into next year have made this a very impossible, you know, impossible

112process where very tough decisions. continue to have to be made. They are not made easily. But I also want to thank all of the staff that came out and spoke today, because your comments, it is really important to continue to remind everyone. It's not about, you know, numbers on spreadsheets. It's about people, it's about our students. And we, you know, we need everyone to hear that. We need to be reminded that collaboration is critical, especially when we have to go through these really tough times. So thank you so much. for being able to remind people of that. And we, as the board, will continue to to make sure that the district continues this process in a more collaborative way, and I really appreciate the comment, you know, from Mr. Torzano about. You know, just really

113being mindful of equity and gender equity as well in this process, so equity in all its forms. So, um, thank you again, you know, for everyone, for all of your comments. Thank you, Trustee Carroll. I just want to thank, excuse me, Acting Superintendent. Miss Parchment and the whole central office. team and staff for their. Hard… hard work that they're doing with all the time restraints. I mean. we we we really appreciate it. And and again, as said earlier. These are tough times and tough decisions. and we are all hurting through this. So again, thank you. And thank you to exact PBA Local 9. for the donation to the decathlon and applicant. All right, Vice President Martin. Yeah, I'm one of the thank you. Thank the. Super Assistance. Acting superintendent. and her cabinet for your presentation.

114I want to thank everyone for calling in, and the ones that also came in person. With your comments. And also I want to thank the number one local number nine for your. uh, generosity, uh, donation to our honor society and. Everyone else get home safe. And have a good week. Right? I'll be quick. You know, just… Again, these are unusual times, very challenging for all, and I just want to thank again Acting Superintendent, central office. Thank everyone who is here with us early in the morning, late at night, fellow board members attending weekly meetings. Um, for an unpaid position that we're here, but we are here for our students. We are here for the district that we care about, and I see the passion that is in everyone, and I appreciate all your help and

115your commitment to this board. Um, one of the words that was said today that that hit home as an educator myself is the human compassion and the check-in. Um, as we are getting closer to Friday, Friday is one of the days where some of our staff members will be leaving on our first wave. Um, you know, I hope that. wherever your journey goes, that you feel supported, and that it takes you where you need to be. You know, it's a very unfortunate moment that we are in. But the doors in Hackensack do not close. There might be an opportunity for you here. In the future. And the check-in part, I think, is very important to what somebody had said. Just because someone says they're okay does not mean that they are okay. Always check in,

116have those support systems in place. I know that Miss Andrea Oates Parchman and I had conversation about this. Where we really need to check in before spring break and check in when people come back, and how things are going to look like, because things will look different. And not just now, but as we get closer and closer to June, things will change, and our hope is that every. One feels supported and heard. And please voice your concerns, say it, don't wait until it explodes at the last minute. With that being said, I. Hope everyone gets home safe and have a good evening. And can I have a motion to adjourn our meeting? Okay, motion by Trustee Jones and a second. Second. Second by Trustee Pringle. All those in favor say aye. Anyone opposed. Any abstentions.

117Thank you all. Have a good night. It's 1010.