Monroe Township Board of Education 03.25.26.Regular Meeting

001Guys ready back there? Now you are. >> [laughter] >> Sorry. Will we please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance? I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> [cough] [clears throat] >> Roll call, Ms. Allen. Yes. Ms. Alvarez. Here. Mr. Payne. Here. Ms. Forrest. Here. Mr. Marazin. Here. Dr. Peck. Here. Mr. Pero. Here. Ms. Ratner. Here. Ms. Sharma. She She texted me she might be a little bit late. >> Okay. Mr. Tufano. Yeah. Mr. Zeikner. Here. We have a quorum. In accordance with the provisions of the New Jersey Open Public Meetings Law, the Monroe Township Board of Education has caused notice of this meeting to be published and electronic notice provided by

002having the date, time, and place thereof posted March 11th, 2026 at all schools on the district website, filed with the clerk of the municipality. Pursuant to S4654, [clears throat] a public notice specifying where Board of Education meeting notices are posted can be found on mycentraljersey.com. Thank you, Ms. Allen. >> I guess I should announce that this was put in existence as of March 1st. Yes. So that's why Ms. Allen can We don't have to post in newspapers or any kind of papers or anything like that. So that's the reason for the change. Thank you. Um the closed session, whereas the Senator Byron M. Baer Open Public Meetings Act, NJSA 10 colon forward dash six at sec, the act provides that the Monroe Township Board of Education may hold an executive session from which the public

003is excluded to discuss matters that are confidential or are one of the nine subject matters listed in section 12B of the act and whereas that the board hereby declares that its discussion of the following subject or subjects will be made public at a time when the public's interest is disclo- in disclosure is greater than any privacy or governmental interest being protected from disclosure. Now therefore be it resolved by the Monroe Township Board of Education that the board shall go into executive session to discuss the following items. Additional items may be determined and announced as needed. Item number one, pending or anticipated litigation and matters covered by the attorney-client privilege. Matters involving employees in terms of their employment contract. An HIB investigation involving students and an HIB appeal. So we'll be going into closed session for

004about We have a question. Okay. For an an hour we'll be out by 7:15. Motion. Second. >> Second. Thank you. >> [clears throat] >> All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Any discussion? Okay, thank you. Okay, we're back on. Um We're on number six, the approval of minutes. Uh the Board of Education meeting February 18th, 2026. Is there any discussion? All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Opposed? Abstain? Closed session meeting February 18th, 2026. Is there any discussion? Seeing none, all those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Any abstentions? Thank you very much. Now our wonderful time of our meeting is our student reports. How are you guys tonight? >> Good. How are you? >> Good. Okay, today we're going to be opening with Mill Lake Elementary School. Mill Lake School's annual Kids Heart Challenge was an incredible

005success this year. Now in its 23rd year, this special event continues to inspire the students to learn about heart health while helping others. Thanks to the generosity and enthusiasm of the Mill Lake community, the students raised an outstanding $22,000, making this a record-setting year for the school. >> [cheering] >> They also enjoyed a fantastic Unified Gym event in partnership with the high school collaborators. It was a wonderful opportunity to build connections, promote inclusivity, and celebrate teamwork across grade levels. Read Across America was truly a dream come true for the Mill Lakers. The fairy tale themed celebration was kicked off with their very own animated self-written story, Frederick the Falcon and the Four Little Pigs of Mill Lake. Students created hallway houses that highlighted leadership, imagination, creativity, and problem-solving. Throughout the week, we welcomed district and

006Board of Education members as guest readers, as well as former Woodland students who returned to share lessons with with the classes. They were also grateful to the Jamesburg Elks Club for donating both their time and books to support the celebration. The week culminated in the beloved Night of Reading event, where over 350 attendees enjoyed activities such as wand reading, reader's theater, fairy tale bingo, and hands-on building project inspired by their story. They concluded the celebration with a special author visit from Sue Fliess, bringing the community together through the joy of reading. They wrapped up the month with a festive St. Patrick's Day fun as students designed leprechaun traps, solved clues, and celebrated together. Now moving on to the Woodland Elementary School. Oh yeah, sorry. Sorry about that. Special guests from the Monroe Township mayor and

007council's office, Board of Education, and district supervisors visited the school and read to the students in celebration of Read Across America. In addition, they had middle school students visit to read to their students and then their students visited to Mill Lake to read to their students. Additionally, Read Across America activities included Sue Fliess, children's author, visiting coordinated by the Woodland Mill Lake PTO and Scholastic Assembly coordinated by Ms. Bianco and Ms. Sornarobush. The Unified students participated in the school's spring event by creating 3D blooming to go along with their with school theme, We Grow at Woodland. Students also engaged in gym activities where they practices practice teamwork and rotated leadership roles. They celebrated Wellness Week this month as well, where their food their committees collaborated with the leadership of food services to create activities and

008spirit days that promote wellness. Their committee and Meth Food Services provided a food tasting opportunity each day for the students and staff during Wellness Week, exposing the community to healthy options to support a healthy lifestyle. And now moving on to Barclay Brook Elementary School. Barclay Brook celebrated Read Across America Week in the beginning of March with a week of themed school spirit days. The week began with a school-wide reading train where all students joined in for school-wide D.E.A.R., Drop Everything and Read. And students wore clothes that represented different Dr. Seuss books throughout the week. During Read Across America Week, they were excited to welcome MTHS's NHS students as guest readers in their classrooms. They thank every one of the wonderful MTMS MTHS students who came to visit them. Additionally, each class was scheduled for a

009Battle of the Books in the library where they had to answer questions about each of these stories. The students receive received points for each correct answer and the battles were very close. Classes battled each other in a bracket-style competition. It was a fun week celebrating literacy. Barclay Brook School recognized and celebrated Developmental Disabilities Awareness Month in March. Students were invited to participate in a week of school spirit days beginning on March 19th and it will continue through Monday, April 6th. Now moving on to the Brookside Elementary School. Parent and teacher conferences took place on February 18th and February 19th. They had a great turnout. Brookside also participated in the Middlesex County Road Replenish food drive where they collected almost 25 bins of food. They celebrated Read Across America Week. Students from the MTHS National Honor

010Society and guests from the Jamesburg Elks Club visited Brookside to read to the students. Also, their March Madness book tournament is coming to an end where they are down to their final two books. They also had an author's visit on Monday, March 23rd. Elish Roe who has written more than 20 books for young readers visited Brookside and read to the students. And the PTA book fair takes place today and tomorrow. And now moving on to Oaktree Elementary School. From March 2nd to the 6th, Oaktree celebrated Read Across America with different theme days all week and buddy reading took places between grades. The Jamesburg Elks and their own staff were guest readers. The week ended with their traditional school-wide reading training. Students took the oath of reading and the entire school read together at the same

011time. On March 10th and the 18th, first and second grade students with their parents were invited to their STEAM lab events. They were able to explore all the different activities available in their STEAM lab including coding, Ozobots, and building materials of all kinds. On March 18th, One Book, One School happened. Principal The principal read the same text to the entire student body throughout the day. Activities were planned for after each reading. One of the goals this year is developing executive function skills for their students and each book chosen focuses on one of those elements for success. From March 23rd to the 27th, which is this week, was Mindfulness Week at Oaktree. Students were able to participate in a zootastic zen week and where each day was a different animal-themed activity that focused on the mindful

012skills that we practice each day during their morning announcements and meetings. On March 27th, the month of March will end with their third grade students participating in their annual March Madness basketball tournament. Now moving on to Applegarth Elementary School, they to celebrate reading they had a book swap, a variety of guest readers from Read Across America, and a Battle of the Books competition. They had their annual mass reader competition. A variety of staff members dressed in costume and shared stories with the class. The students have to guess which staff member was the mass reader. Their club code showcase was held on March 2nd at the high school. The principal's book club members for March discussed Inside Out and Back Again on March 3rd. The students participated in a variety of marker space challenge days filled

013with a variety of different coding activities. Students are currently in a school-wide March Madness basketball tournament. The children research a college and make a multimedia presentation in physical education class and then participate as their team in the basketball tournament in physical education. Applegarth celebrated wellness week, a annual celebration of physical and mental ill wellness. Wellness activities were done in classrooms and students had a visit from the NJ Department of Agriculture and Mets partnered with them to hold up an I Tried It activity during which students got to sample healthy foods. An after-school yoga class was offered by Stephanie at food services as well. Their PTA book fair is being held on the 25th of March and the 26th of March. And the school store on March 10th and a trivia night was held on March

01420th. Their fifth grade students took their CoGATs GoGATs last week. And lastly, Applegarth continues to run an after-school chess club and are currently working with the high school students who are participating in a public speaking program and another group who's presenting scientific issues and having students debate on them. And now moving on to our middle school. They're excited to share that another Code Zero robotics team has qualified for the Vex State championship on March 1st. Congratulations to team Blue Pins who earned their spot thanks to their elite ranking in driving skills. Now both team Anomaly and team Blue Pins will represent that will represent our district at the state championship on Sunday, March 15th. On March 3rd, MTMS held its annual honor society induction. Dr. Layman and all of our honor society parents were in

015attendance. Congratulations to the hardworking students. Monroe Township Middle School is proud to announce that under the coordination of physical education teacher Misty Drake and the rest of her department um the MTMS Hoops for Heart event could not have been as as successful as it was without their dedicated professionals. The student staff and administrators helped in making this day a huge success. So this the school thanks you. They raised an outstanding amount this year totaling over $34,000, their highest amount ever raised. And this makes MTMS one of the top donors in the nation. [snorts] They would like to share the good news that Nithya Thammaiahman was selected as one of the finalists for the National Spelling Bee. The prize money for the winner of this is $100,000. We'd also like to share that Nithya has been

016selected as the youngest delegate in the 70-year history of the UN Commission on the Status of Women. She visited the UN during the week of March 9th and met all of the world leaders. >> [applause] >> On March 18th, MTMS held its quarterly student of the month breakfast celebrating the winners of December, January, and February. Parents and staff joined them as they celebrated the students. Now moving on to the Monroe Township High School. This month hundreds of students at MTHS were invited to participate in the state conferences for both DECA and Future Business Leaders of America. From these students, numerous teams and individuals had advanced to both the international and national level to represent Monroe Township High School. Respectively, MTHS is extremely proud of all participants and advanced is wishing them the best of luck.

017The National English Honor Society led under the guidance of Mrs. DeMarco spent time reading to the students of Brookside and Barclay Brook Elementary Schools for their Read Across America All of the students participating loved their experiences and look forward to similar opportunities. Mrs. Jen Solomon was named the Future Business Leader of America Outstanding Local Chapter Advisor of the Year at the state competition. Dakota Benatti qualified and competed in the USA Shooting Junior Olympics in Colorado Springs. Additionally, Tristan Munez was recognized for receiving all conference honors in ice hockey. Piano student Alexander Broach res earned the Grand Prix top rating at the Rising Talents Music Festival where he was invited to perform at Carnegie Hall. The MTHS Drama Club will present its production of Greece from April 17th in the PAC. So all these like pink

018[snorts] flyers right here, that's just them. The MTHS talent show is scheduled for April 21st. Students interested in performing must submit their audition forms by March 27th. The deadline for the class of 2027 to purchase prom tickets and their paperwork via GoFan was extended to April 10th. And that wraps up our student board members' report. I just want to thank you both for uh always bringing thorough reports on our district schools to these meetings. It's it's really very um in-depth and informational to all of us. So thank you both very much. Thank you. >> Thank you. Now we have presentations where we're going to be make a presentation on the tentative '26-'27 school budget. Sure, thank you. I will start the presentation. So this is uh our '26-'27 tentative budget presentation. Uh I just want

019to start with a thank you to all of the key players that were involved in developing the budget. It starts with our administrators, uh all the teachers that put in their requests, funnels its way up through uh central office uh and the board as well for your support. So here's the Board of Education. We thank you. This is our uh finance committee as well. So our continued work um I know we've had discussions throughout the year regarding health care costs and our concerns surrounding that. Um we'll touch on that a little bit later. Our mission and vision um as always you know the the mission for the the district is to collaborate with members of the community to ensure that all children receive the exemplary education and well-trained by well-trained committed staff in a safe

020and orderly environment. So here are some key budget timelines. Um we started the process as we always do uh in the fall. Uh specifically in November this year, we brought the teams together to do some preliminary budget discussions. Um we had planned out uh curriculum that needed to be addressed, um big purchases that we potentially would consider in the budget. Um we start with that process and we go through defense rounds. Um we received our state aid numbers on March 12th. That was a delayed release uh relating to uh the appointment of a new governor and uh her adjusted uh state of the state address in terms of releasing uh the school state aid. It brings us to today, the 25th, where we're going to do our preliminary budget. Um we had an opportunity earlier

021this week to meet in small groups, non-quorum small groups with uh board members to share preliminary budget information. And uh we look forward to April 27th, the official budget hearing um and approval of a budget for us for next year. So some key budgetary considerations. Um and I'm going to spend a little time in this slide and dig a little deeper than what's up here. Um the first consideration we had one of the considerations this this isn't priority order. These are just examples of what we were considering was to integrate a full-day kindergarten program. Um each year we look at New Jersey student learning standards. We want to maintain our updated resources, updated documents, make sure our students are learning um what they're required to be learning uh as determined by the Department of Education.

022We uh had a focus on maintaining all of our programs this year. That was a a tremendous focus as well as an eye on our student-teacher ratio. That's another thing we manage each year um and we do that uh annually by assessing potential uh sections in terms of growth and or decline. Um and then another focus this year and uh it was it's continuing for many years is our aging facilities. Um and we've discussed for some time about the E SIP program and uh you'll see this year in the budget we're making a continued focus on addressing our aging facilities. Um one thing I want to dig a little deeper in is uh the kindergarten program. So as I mentioned in the curriculum committee meeting uh and I've mentioned along the way uh we have

023been going through the budgetary process embedding the full-day kindergarten process in there. Uh and we sit here today with it embedded in the in the budget. So some of the questions were how much does it exactly cost? Um and as we know we have a uh half-day kindergarten program. So what I'm going to share with you next are the increased expenses directly related to expanding it to a full-day program. Um so that I'm proud to share that we do not have any additional full-time equivalent expenses for FTEs in terms of teachers. Um and that's a reflection of um our enrollment. So our enrollment has declined. Um we're nearly 300 students lower across the district than we were this time last year and we've seen that in our state aid and Miss Allen will speak to

024that as she gets into her part of the presentation. Um where that hurts us in terms of consistent state aid as it's paid out per pupil. Um, that does help us in terms of regaining space in buildings as well as being able to reallocate and reassign staffing. And that's what we will end up doing to support the full day kindergarten program. We do not need to add a new full-time equivalent teacher that doesn't exist in our budget this year, the current school year for next year. And as we projected four or five years ago, that was one of the most significant costs. And what we didn't see was where we are today, nearly 300 students down just over last year, close to 500 students down in the past couple years. So, um, that is something

025that a major hurdle in addition to space that we had to get over. Here are some expenses that we will incur and I'll share where they're embedded. So, for next year, we have approximately $46,000 that we're allocating towards additional teacher guides, additional student work texts, and textbooks. So, that is embedded in our normal textbook adoption process. We have a consistent number that we keep in the budget. Again, when we talk about budgeting, it's a consistent year over year piece where we one year we do math and next year we do language arts, then we do a science adoption. So, those uh textbook costs relative to kindergarten are embedded in our textbook adoption process this year. That's $46,000. Um, in terms of classroom supplies, that's $28,000. And that includes um not just supplies, but if there's

026an [clears throat] additional chair that they need, smaller chairs, if there's some additional tables, but also classroom supplies like rugs, easels, and things like that. So, that's $28,000 to support the new sections that we're bringing out. Um, and then the last piece is the non-certificated staffing. So, that's the paraprofessional staff. So, we'll have more students eating lunch at the same time, so we need more supervision and more support in the classrooms. And that is budgeted for $66,000. And that would cover the paraprofessional costs associated with again lunch coverage and any support in the classrooms. Another piece that we went through the budgeting process with was transportation. And we will be realizing savings with transportation because we're not running two extra runs in the middle of the day, the dropping off of the morning kindergarten and

027the picking up of the afternoon kindergarten. So, when we simulated that out in the transportation department, we are realizing a savings. And that savings is very similar, almost exactly the same, projected to be what we would potentially lose in terms of a revenue loss from the elimination of ECE. So, if we have full day K, we no longer need our extended uh wrap-around kindergarten program. And last year, our audited number, which we presented a month or two ago, was $140,000. That's how much we transferred over from the the ECE fund into our general fund. And the transportation savings align almost exactly to that. So, I know there was some discussion about if we eliminate ECE, how much of a hit are we going to take? Again, you asked us that question five years ago, you

028asked us that question pre-COVID, we're talking half a million, 600,000, much, much larger numbers. It has consistently decreased. And last year specifically was $140,000. And those are the numbers in terms of what it looks like additional costs from what we are already paying to operate a kindergarten program. Again, what does it look like in terms of class sizes? And we talked a little bit about programming and things in the the curriculum meeting. Our class sizes are projected to be at 20 students in kindergarten. Our class sizes in first grade next year are projected to be at 20 students. Our class sizes in second grade are projected to be at 21 students. Our class sizes in third grade are projected to be at 22. Fourth grade 23, and fifth grade 24. Now, there will be some

029fluctuation based on special programs that are assigned and you see a variance, you know, a range in every building. But across the district, that's what our enrollments looking like. So, by moving staff around to uh be able to facilitate this program, we are not compromising class sizes, we're not compromising the integrity of the programs at the the elementary level across the board. So, I wanted to highlight that regarding full day K. The next piece I wanted to highlight, it's actually in the next slide. This is the uh the issue we've been dealing with since the beginning of the school year. And uh this is our health care costs. So, what we have up here are a few different sections of this slide. The top section shows the change between the '22 '20 or '23 '24

030school year and the '26 '27 school year in terms of premium cost for medical and prescription. So, we went from 24 24,600,000 to 39,300,000. Uh, the line below that says total cost and followed by the years is the annual breakdown as we make our way towards that 39,000 or 39 million dollar number. So, we started 24,600,000, we go to 26,200,000, 30,500,000, and 39,300,000. That is the growth, um, about 60% growth since '23 '24. And what we decided to do to show you an example of a plan in our health care plan is pick out a single and a family. This is our direct 10 and our direct 15 plan and show you the actual annual cost per plan. This is again premiums for health care and uh uh prescription. Take you from '23 '24 all

031the way to '26 '27. As a family in '23 '24, the cost of that premium was 44,706. '24 '25, we're at 54,700, '25 '26, we're at 73,500, and projected to be at 84,900 for next year in these for these plans. Now, there are other plans. These plans are for employees that were hired pre-2020. Anyone hired after 2020 will be in the New Jersey State Educators Health Plan. Those plans have a lower premium, um, but growth is certainly similar to this. We just wanted to give you one example of one of our plans. We have we have employees currently in these plans. They had an option they had two opportunities this year to switch plans. If you were in the New Jersey State Educator Health Plan and you were hired past since 2020, you could not

032choose this plan, you can only stay in the the plan you're in. But if you were already in this plan and you wanted to go down to the the lower premium plan, you you could do that and we certainly had many staff members choose to do so. Um, and getting into the health care discussion, there are pros and cons for both. But we just wanted to show you an example of you know, what we were looking at in terms of health care and this really demonstrates the crisis that we have and this is not a Mono Township crisis specifically, this is across districts in the state. This is across private employers, this is across the entire country. So, this is what it looks like here in your community, this is what it looks like in

033your school district. Okay? So, I'm going to turn this over to Ms. Allen. >> [clears throat] >> Okay, so first and foremost, the budget process takes many months to complete with a great deal of teamwork. So, I want to thank everyone involved in this process. A very special thanks to Ms. Vesnif and Ms. Nancy LeFaro for their tremendous help along along with the support of the entire business office. The supervisors, principals, and directors spend an incredible amount of time and effort to make this budget work while maintaining the high standards of this district. And thank you to the board for your support. I know we normally do this at the end, but I think it's important to do this at the beginning. Um, So, moving on, I wanted to mention that the school budget includes

034the general fund, the special revenue fund, and the debt service fund as per NJDOE budget guidelines. So, enterprise funds and capital project funds are not considered budgetary funds and accordingly are not included as per the DOE. So, the general fund includes our operating fund for current expenses as well as capital outlay. Um, and both which are supported by current revenues. The special revenue fund is where we account for specific revenue sources that are legally restricted to expenditures for specified purposes. Um, and included here would be our federal and state grants. The debt service fund accounts for the resources for in the payment of long-term principal and interest on prior bond referendums which were voter approved. Revenue sources are the debt service portion of the debt of the tax levy and the state aid. So, where

035does the money come from? So, the local tax levy represents 85% of our total revenue and includes both the general fund and the debt service tax levy. State aid is our second largest source of revenue at a modest 7% and includes general and debt service fund. Fund balance represents 3%. 2% is derived from tuition revenue which includes tuition from both Jamesburg and our enrichment programs. Federal aid, miscellaneous revenue, transfer from other funds, and transportation fees represent 1% of total revenues. So, the next slide shows the general fund tax levy for 2026-27. Um >> [clears throat] >> So, we are allowed to grow our general fund tax levy by 2% um each year plus any allowable adjustments. It's important to note that the 2% increase applies to the tax levy only and not the entire budget.

036The 2025-26 general fund tax levy inflated by 2% is 127.6 million. There is an allowable adjustment to our general fund tax levy for the increase in health care costs of 7.9 million. The health care adjustment, which is automatically calculated in the DOE budget software, applies to districts with a projected increase in health care costs that exceed 2% in the pre-budget year. So, the DOE calculated >> [clears throat] >> allowable adjustment cannot exceed the average percentage increase of the state health benefit plan as determined annually by the Division of Pensions and Benefits, which is 29.9% for 2026-27. The state health benefit premium increase for 2026 is 31.9% Um so, the increase above 2% up to 29.9% resulted in an adjustment for health care costs. So, the total general fund tax levy cap with health care adjustment

037is 135.6 million. And as Dr. Lehman had mentioned, um health care has become a major budgeting concern for everyone. Um the increase in the state plan rates for 2026 along with the projected increases for the next several years are simply unsustainable. Um so, the next slide shows the general fund state aid award comparison between the two years. So, we received our 2026-27 state aid award on March 12th totaling 11.9 million as compared to the prior year of 12.3 million. So, this reflects a 3% reduction in our categorical aid amounting to $369,000. The DOE increased all major cost factors, including base cost per pupil, special education cost per pupil, special education speech-only cost per pupil, um special education categorical aid, security aid, and transportation aid um per pupil and mileage rates. So, why was there a

038decrease in our state aid? Strictly because of our declining enrollment. Had our enrollment remained the same as the prior year using the increased DOE rates, we would have seen an increase in our state aid of $461,000 instead of a $369,000 decrease. Um and that is a swing of $830,000. It's important to note that our decrease was capped at 3%. Had it not been, we would have seen an additional decrease of 19,000. So, just to do a quick overview of this. So, transportation aid decreased by $329,000 to 3.8 million. This calculation is based on actual number of transported students as reported on the DRTRS, um which shows a decrease from the prior year. Um so, as I mentioned, the cost coefficients for the per pupil base amount and mileage amounts used in the state formulas increased

0393.58%. Um so, transportation aid is comprised of two calculations. Basically, one is for regular education and one is for special education. And it takes into account the number of students being transported multiplied by a base per pupil amount as well as a base mileage rate multiplied by average distance. Security aid increased by $20,000 to 985,000. Um security aid is based on projected enrollment as calculated by the DOE multiplied by a per pupil amount. There is an additional amount added for low in- low-income enrollment, which is which is actually the only component component of state aid where we saw an increase amounting to 40,000. Um Special education aid, our largest amount, which is based on projected enrollment, decreased by $60,000. It's important to note that while our total special education population may show a decline our

040out-of-district students remain steady. The equalization aid formula has changed to a 3-year average, but does not apply to us. The calculated local fair share, which is based on district property values and income, is 192 million versus our adequacy budget of 121 million. So, you can see there's a wide gap there of 70 million. So, the next is a separate schedule, um schedule A, sources of revenues combined. And this schedule details the sources of revenue for both the budgeted 2026-27 school year as well as the current 2025-26 school year as adjusted for comparison purposes. So, regarding revenues, um we must be comfortable and certain of our projected revenues to cover our expenditures. Overstating revenue that we are not comfortable with while paying actual expenses expenditures will lead to a deficit. Looking at fund balance, we have

041an a greater excess surplus in the amount of 6.7 million to include as a revenue source. Excess surplus from the 2024-25 school year is certified by the auditor and is statutorily required to be included as a revenue source in the 2026-27 budget. So, what is excess surplus? Um a district is only permitted to designate a maximum of 2% of general fund expenditures as adjusted as unassigned, undesignated, unreserved fund balance. Any excess that is not otherwise legally restricted, assigned, or designated is considered to be excess surplus and must be included as a revenue source in our 2026-27 budget. Um Next, we have transfers from other funds, which represents the anticipated Falcon Care excess in the amount of 25,000. So, for 2026-27, we are in as Dr. Lehman mentioned, we are anticipating the implementation of full-day kindergarten

042which eliminates the need for the ECE program that has been in place for several years now, and uh the transfer of surplus from the ECE E program has been a declining revenue source in our budget over the years. So, we've already discussed the general fund tax levy. So, other revenue consists of tuition, transportation fees, and miscellaneous revenue. Tuition from Jamesburg is budgeted at three point or 4.3 million. Um enrichment programs are budgeted at 220,000 and include summer programs as well as after-school programs. Transportation free fees from Jamesburg are budgeted at 256,000 as calculated and DRTRS um reported to the DOE. Miscellaneous revenues consist of interest income, use of building fees, intergate integrated pre-K tuition, athletic admissions, etc., and are budgeted at 850,000. So, we talked about state aid. Um we received an additional $500,000 for

0432025-26 that was allocated from the state budget that we cannot anticipate for 2026-27. Um and extraordinary aid is is budgeted at 397,000. Um federal aid, which consists of semi-reimbursements, has increased from 16,000 to 77,000. Um and this amount is provided to us from the DOE. This federal program reimburses districts a portion of the cost of certain Medicaid covered services provided to Medicaid eligible special education students. So, total revenues for 2026-27 are budgeted at 160.4 million. Special revenue fund consists of federal and state grants awarded as mentioned. We have been advised by the DOE to conservatively budget 75% of the current year award due to uncertainty in federal funding. This amounts to 1.2 million. Um the majority of our grant funding is for IDEA, which we use for out-of-district tuition. The other grant funds we receive

044every year are the title funds. Um and there are two uh categories shown here. Awards in the budget year and carry over carry overs from prior years. Carry overs from prior years are grants that were awarded in 2024-25, but were not fully spent that year and carried into 2025-26. So, we appropriately budget based on awards in the budget year. So, it should be noted that we only spend what we get. If our grant award comes in less than we anticipated, we would spend less. And And if it was more than we would spend more, you know, under that grant program. And debt service funds consist of debt service tax levy in the amount of 10.9 million and debt service state aid in the amount of 280,000. As mentioned, these funds are used strictly for the

045payment of bond principal and interest from previous bond referendums and refundings. So, total revenue, including general fund, special fund, and debt service fund is budgeted at 172.9 million for 26-27. The next slide is where does the money go? So, 49% of the budget is for direct instructional costs, regular education, special education, related services, and tuition, not including benefits allocated to the instructional staff. Benefits for all staff are shown separately and amount to 25% of the budget. Benefits include dental, health, vision insurance, PERS employer pension contributions, social security contributions, workers compensation insurance, tuition reimbursements, opt-out payments, sick payments, payouts, etc. 8% of our budget goes to facilities, which which includes required maintenance for school facilities, custodial services, care and upkeep of grounds, and security. Debt service at 7% represents the payment of principal and and interest

046on our bonds. And transportation costs represent 6%, etc. Next is schedule B, which is a separate handout, which um shows the comparison of appropriations, and I'll just run through some of the highlights. Under the regular programs and stock instruction, um you'll see other salaries for instruction have have increased 21%, and that is really due to the full-day kindergarten, um the extra hours that they would be spending in the in the classroom, the power professionals. Um another uh inst- purchased other purchased services under three lines under that is increasing by 14%, that includes um district technology license fees and software, um the iPad paint lease payment, which this year, current year, included the first of four payments uh four-year payments offset by the sale of the old iPads. Um the lease-purchase payments for instructional equipment are

047here, um and includes um textbooks, furniture, instruments, technology equipment, copiers, library books, um etc. Also, the difference between this year and and last year is or for the next year is the trailer rental for half the year, which was included in this budget in this year and is eliminated for next year, as well as the uh trailer removal fee, which is a one-time expense for 25-26. Um so, the next section, special education, um instruction, which is driven by student needs, um and uh at this time we are reviewing some programs, um and and you'll see that under the preschool disability section, um we are reviewing programs, and we may be able to consolidate based on um enrollment. So, that's where why you see that big change there. Um there's an increase of 133% under autism

048general supplies, and that is because we are um looking at uh a new classroom possibly for autism. Um the other most of these other line items are pretty consistent and haven't changed too much. Um few uh some of the other ones. So, summer enrichment and after-school enrichment, um basic- we're just basically budgeting on what the revenue we have received for this year, um and these are like self-sustaining programs, so if we do receive more revenue, that would be spent on those programs. Um tuition has increased uh almost 7% out of district tuition. Um that's a big a big chunk. And see. Most of the other line items are pretty um close. Um so, educational media services library, we have supplies and materials, which have decreased by 45%, that um is because we are for the

049first time lease-purchasing library books, um because they last 15 to 20 years, so we are kind of extending, you know, the life with the uh per- the uh cost. Um I think most of these So, as we go through um to operations and maintenance of plant services, for the first time this year, for 26-27, um we have the So, we have the ESIP program, and for the first time we will be we show the interest and principal amounts that are due on that debt that refunding debt. Um so, and that program, as we know, was um set up so that the savings every year would cover the principal and interest payments. So, you will see a savings decrease in some of these line items because because of that, because of what has been put into

050place with this with this ESIP program, um we can we can make these payments. Um insurance, you know, across the board is is up um at least 12% in the different areas. Um And so, and as everybody knows, we are looking at as everybody else is, you know, a 25% increase in electricity costs, as well as um an increase in natural gas costs, um and that is reflected here as well. Transportation, as Dr. Layman, there is some savings now be- there will be some savings due to the full-day kindergarten program. So, that is reflected in that section. Um Benefits, as we know, are up. The employee benefits are up quite a bit. Um capital outlay, so this year we have um a program um we have a capital project in the budget for mechanical um

051upgrades at three of the elementary schools, Barclay, Brookside, and Mill Lake included, um and we also have been able to establish an or increase our capital reserve fund. So, our capital reserve fund presently is I think $23,000. Um so, we have a 2. a 2 $2,092,000 increase in our capital reserve, um and that is something that due to the age, you know, our aging facilities, um is very important, um you know, for the safety of the of the students and the staff, and for the efficiency of of the buildings. So, that is um something that, you know, once we put it in there, we can as as projects is something comes up that we need it for, we can go to the board and ask for approval to do a specific project, but it's there

052if we need it instead of as as has happened, things break down, big they're big expenses, and we have to just try to find it in our budget and take something else out. So, this would be this is a good a good thing to have going forward. Um Let's see. So, in summary, total appropriations are budgeted to increase by 7.76% or 12 or 12.4 million. Uh the next slide shows the tax rate impact. So, without the health care adjustment, there would be a 2.19% increase to the tax rate or $113 on an average assessed valuation of 336,800. The tax rate increase on just the health care adjustment alone is 2.98% or $152 on an average assessed home. The total combined tax rate is 5.14% or just about $265. Um Let me see. So, the tax

053rate is based on ratables and tax levy. The ratables have increased 0.61% this year. Last year, the ratables increased 0.91%. The year before that, the increase was 3.04%, which is five times the increase this year. Um so the ratable increase was 500% higher 3 years ago and that makes the big difference in the tax rate. So in summary, did you want to Oh, okay. Okay, we are proposing a budget that maintains all existing programs with no staff cuts and provides for the implementation of full-day kindergarten and includes an increase to our capital reserve fund as well as a project to upgrade the mechanical systems at Barclay Barclay Brook, Brookside, and Mill Lake. It includes three new school buses, technology equipment, classroom furniture, textbooks, a maintenance vehicle, etc. Um all contractual salary and benefit obligations, um

054the safety of students and [clears throat] staff, we're maintaining current programs, instructional resources, um our staff development or professional development, we're meeting all state and federal special education requirements, um and all student transportation including courtesy bussing and athletics, and we are increasing our capital reserve and establishing full-day kindergarten. So again, thank you to all who contributed to to developing this budget. Thank you, Ms. Allen. You're welcome. Okay. Ms. Allen, I want to Thank you and your whole staff. Okay. Thank you. The board members must realize how much work that they have done to keep us at these wonderful numbers. So thank you very much for all your time and effort. >> Thank you. Next we have committee reports. On this? Thank you. No? Questions and comments? You could do questions on the budget now. She's

055going to do the resolution in >> Oh, okay. Any questions and comments on the budget that was just presented? On the board members, yes. Ms. Ratner. Um yeah, so thank you um to both of you for all of your hard work and to everyone else as has been said. Very excited about full-day kindergarten. It's been something I've wanting even before I was a board member. So definitely excited to see it come to fruition. Um I wanted to thank our ECE staff members um because they did work hard for several years to create a program that many of our our students including my three kids had the opportunity to enjoy. Um one thing I wanted to ask about the state aid calculation and I don't know if this is something you may have the answer to

056is just um from what I recall, because we have half had half-day full kindergarten, the students are only weighed as 0.5. Are we able to ask the Department of Education to review like or to revisit the aid amount if we are changing to full-day kindergarten? No, so but next year though, the state aid will like if we had had that this year, the full day, it would have been an extra $14,000 in state aid. So next year when they do this calculation, it will be in there but they're not going to go back and change Okay. >> change it now. No. Okay. Um and then um the Jamesburg tuition, don't hit me, Amanda. Um [laughter] I know for several years we had the agreement um as a result from the court decision that came in

057I don't have the decision but I believe that we were close to finishing it or we finished it. Um and so I was wondering if that's something that we can we can look at like I know if I recall it was the cost per student to educate but my thought is because state aid is sort of based on um giving each student like a particular weight and certain things create a higher weight that you know, it's possible that maybe we're not necessarily getting aid for the students that we're educating because we're looking at it as how much it costs to educate and I just don't know if there is maybe when we're looking at shared services, we can look at a a way to do that. I obviously don't want to take money out of

058Jamesburg pocket either but just to sort of see if there's a way to work with that. Okay. Um as well as possibly and I think I brought this up at our our budget meeting which I appreciate having, maybe looking at like grants because perhaps if we work together, we might be eligible for certain things for the high school that we wouldn't be just alone as Monroe because we need a certain requirement um of percentage of certain things that we don't necessarily have. And then I just um looking at the schedule B, one of the ones I had was preschool and then you said that. So I crossed it off. Um but the one thing that I um the one category I saw like fairly large difference in was the plant services. Um is there It

059was a half million dollars. Is that Is there a reason for that um that Okay, sorry. You can share. Yeah. So um we do like I said, we do have the um incre 25% increase in electric cost and we have gas costs that are increasing. Um Basically uh everything else is you know, the insurance is increasing 12%. Um and you have uh base the salaries I guess cuz when I'm looking at it, I'm noticing that the the number is going from 2.5 million for the energy costs to 1.8 which I'm assuming may be a result as part of our ESIP projects and things like that. But then the overall number is still going up a significant amount. So that's I guess where I was curious why we have that. Um That was really the only

060other thing that I had seen that was like I don't even want to say alarming but just stood out to me a little bit more um So So you know, although you like ESIP is saving us money, there are some based on how much we use. It's not the dollar like the rate, right? So the savings that you know, you're seeing a lot of decreases on some of these line items that are that are being transferred over to the principal and interest that is due. But really it the insurance is up 61,000 and the salaries up are up 213,000. Um and just those other minor changes that kind of adds that up to that. Okay. All right. Those were some of my questions. Obviously, I know this is like our preliminary budget and then we

061have the final one. So you know, we can obviously all look and if I have any other questions, you know, I'll certainly reach out to you. But again, thank you guys for your work on this. And I also can I just add to I just realized the salaries of non-instructional aids, that in that is for the kindergarten as well. That is for the lunch room cuz it's non-instructional and that is where that goes. So the lunch room aids for the full-day kindergarten are that's why that amount is up so much. >> The ones under the plant services? Under plant services, salaries of non-instructional aids. Okay. >> Yeah. Okay. Thank you. Does anyone else have any questions for Ms. Allen? Yes. Mr. Marazzi. Oh, I saw his his hand up. Um so uh as far as

062no staff reductions, um so we're eliminating a whole program, the ECE. Um I'm assuming there's program there's a staff members that are working that are just ECE programs. Are they getting reassigned or how's that working? So that that program is dissolving. So in terms of staff reductions, we're looking at our certificated staff within the the school district operating budget. Um ECE operates out of the enterprise fund. So that will that program will dissolve um and we certainly would uh consider to all those employees and bring them on board for any certificated or any program that they're qualified to do whether it's a support program or if they're have a teaching certificate and they want to transition over to uh you know, one of our open positions, then they certainly can do that. Right. So it's

063So to be clear, right now they're they would have to just reapply? Correct. Yep. In terms of other staffing, um any changes in sections, any retirements, we every every year we look at every position um and based on enrollment, based on need, based on program interest, we will uh rehire that position, we will not fill the position, we will uh transfer staff from other positions into those roles um and that's what we're looking at this year doing uh more than anything. And then as far as like how ECE is kind of um connected to Falcon Care, how how would that work? Who who's going to like run the Falcon Care? Is that getting changed? >> So the same team's going to run That's a great question. Same team's going to run Falcon Care. Um Falcon

064Care will run the same way it ran this year. Um we will run it next year. We will uh see what the enrollment looks like. We anticipate even a potential increase based on having our kindergarten students start and finish at a home school um for an entire day as opposed to transitioning to a secondary location and then coming back. It's a really long day. Um so we're hoping to even potentially grow that program. And then we will reassess, you know, as we get through the school year to see how that program's operating as well. Right. So essentially, since the same team is going to be doing I guess half the job or maybe less than half the job, are we going to utilize them to another way to be more productive? Yep. So the other

065vision with that is as we get into uh full-day K implementation, the next step is uh looking at pre-K, right? And what does that look like for us as a district? Um I envision that that team being involved in that process as well. Okay. Mr. Piro. Yeah, I just wanted to know under uh school administration, salaries of other professional staff, what is other? I don't know what that's What is that for? It says like principal, assistant principals, clerical, sec- directors, and then it just says salaries of other professional staff. I don't Yes. And what that's for? It's $463,000. >> Let me grab that. Um Sorry. So, I think that would include Okay, so that would include the director of athletics, the director of counseling, and the director of pupil personnel. So, they're not under the

066directors with program. That's different. No. No, this is where they're um they go under the chart of accounts. Okay. Yep. Thank you. Okay. Anyone else have any questions? I just wanted to say I appreciate the fact that we're staying under the 2% cap and I want the public to understand that the increase is directly related to healthcare costs. People just need to understand that we're we're maintaining all the same programming that we've we have this year. And the increase is like I said, directly related to healthcare. Thank you. Any other questions? I just wanted to make a comment. Yes. I know there's a lot of districts we've been hearing about in the news that have had to close schools, have had to increase their tax rate even higher than what we're looking at or projecting.

067And I'm glad that we're able to maintain all our programs and I thank you for all your hard work. Now, I'm sure there's some members or some people in the public who say, "Wow, you know, 5.14, that's you know, the most ever." If we were to maintain it at a level that we're used to, what would that look like? How many staff would we lose or how many would class sizes change if we were to try to maintain it at prior levels of increases? What would that look like? So, the public would know >> Is your question what is seven seven or eight million dollars look like out of what's in the budget right now? >> Yeah, if we were to cut or needed to cut something of that size, what would it look like

068in terms of staff and programs? It's I would say it's dangerous to just throw numbers out there. Yeah. I would say looking at a staff in connection with seven or eight million dollars, you're probably 80 90 staff members, assorted administration and teachers. Um if you're looking at eight million dollars, um I could tell you that regular operating annual expenses from all the elementary schools, the middle school, and the high school don't even come close to that in terms of athletics and things like that. So, that digs deep very very deep. Um eight million dollars would be tearing the district apart. Uh you wouldn't recognize it after it was gone. Um again, that's off the cuff. That is just um you know, there's rough numbers and you know, but that's uh that's not that would not

069be a situation that I don't think anyone in this community would want to put ourselves in. It would be devastating. We wouldn't recognize it. I think I think the the biggest takeaway and I'll and I'll go off script. The biggest takeaway from this budget is um the healthcare costs are out of control and that's not a Monroe issue. It is a Monroe issue because it's sitting in front of us right now, but that is a systemic issue that we hear about and when we speak to advocacy, when we speak to making a change that makes a difference, a tangible large difference, whether it's a tax rate, whether it's a private employer and how much they're contributing to their health plan and their employees are contributing to their health plan, there's a ripple effect that getting

070healthcare under control would feed through our entire community, would feed through our entire state that would be much appreciated and the solution for that we can stand up and we can show the impact it has on our community. We can stand up and communicate the challenges we have. Um but the change makers are not the ones that are sitting in this room that are making those legislative decisions um or making those adjustments, but we can grab their ear and we can talk them about what this what this has in terms of an impact. Well, I I'd like to really I mean, of course healthcare increase is a huge problem, but the bigger problem is our state funding. We have the new governor in her hometown, a school is closing because of lack of funding in

071her own town. Again, we have Nolan the Greenstein comes to see us so we can talk with her about this. The mayor does not get involved. He doesn't shake, you know, shake up uh Trenton cuz you know, I guess he doesn't want to upset his political bosses. Um but here we have another increase on top of an increase to electric to our utilities, which is all pretty much caused by the same thing. And I don't want to I really don't want to get political. I mean, I can, but I don't want to. Um the problem is we're not getting the funding. We got we got a reduction of funding. We got an increase in medical Yes, okay, the students' population is dwindling or dwindled a little bit, but we have an excess of medical coverage.

072So, we should get the funding to help us. And here we are going out to the taxpayers again and asking them to make more sacrifices and this is an excellent school district. I don't want to see any reductions in the programs we offer. I think it's phenomenal. I you know, all my kids went here and I'm very grateful for the programs and the staff and for your budget, but the problem is we should really Excuse me. [clears throat] We should really unite. I mean, you you have people going out on Saturday to protest at Stop & Shop for a king that we don't have. But yet, they're not out there fighting to get some additional funding for our students so their tax can go down so they could afford to put the heat on at

073night. I don't understand how this community is not uniting and fighting the powers that be to get some more funding. This board should be responsible to put together a protest in Trenton and you're smiling at me because you know I'm telling the truth. A lot of people don't like me for politics, that's fine. This is not about politics. This is about seniors and about families that are struggling to keep their nose above water because we're not getting any funding from Trenton. This is a bipartisan issue. And we are doing very little about it. This board is responsible to get funding. And we're doing nothing about it really, honestly. We we we have committees and you do what you can, but we're not This community as a whole needs to do more because this cannot be

074every year we get an increase like this. Before you know it, your probably tax is going to be $100,000 a year cuz none of this stuff ever goes down, ever. But we're shelling out millions of dollars to the state and getting it back peanuts. It's literally peanuts we're getting. Jamesburg gets more funding than us and they got half the schools. Less than half the schools. And I'm not insulting Jamesburg. I'm just saying you get more funding for less schools. Can I also make a comment though? Our Jamesburg tax rate for schools is much higher than Monroe's. I No, I'm not saying that. I'm not I'm not This has nothing to do with Jamesburg itself. I'm saying the state funds Jamesburg schools more than they do Monroe schools. That's insane. >> community pays in more as

075well. I I agree. I agree. I agree, but that should be not even for you it should be happening. So, I was smiling because my wheels were turning and thinking of like ways that we can advocate and listen, it's I mean, that like we've there's been plenty of people that have advocated over the years. I've been advocating for several years as well. We were down there last week. It seems like they hear us. Lots of things don't change. It is beyond frustrating. I totally hear you. Like one of the things that I do, I don't even want to say for fun because that's just weird, but I do watch like some of the other board meetings, right? And then so I watched the East Brunswick board meeting and there was a board member there who

076was new and equally frustrated and she's like, "We need funding reform. We need consolidation reform and now we need health care reform. And what she said was really true. Like we do. I I completely agree with the things that you're saying. I don't know how even looking at the issues, it's not even an educational like look at the budget type thing. I I like I'm flabbergasted with what we have to deal with and I think that the way that the schools in New Jersey are funded needs to change. I'm hoping now, you know, maybe for false hope or empty hope, I guess, but we've got a new commissioner who sort of comes from a a different area. We have a new chief of staff who's I learned lived in East Brunswick and parents lived in

077Rossmoor and was aware I don't think they're there anymore, but they were aware of the situation in Monroe, which is more than we've had. I think if we can unite because a lot of times we're divided, this is something I think everyone can get behind. Like taxes are too high. We need more funding. That would be great. I would happy to try to figure out a way to do that. And anybody who would like to do it That's all I Listen, we can only do so much. >> I understand that you're working [snorts] very hard. I appreciate it. But I've been on this board for many years and I hear the same stuff every single year. We're not doing enough. Whatever we're doing is not enough. And it's not that we're not doing enough. Our

078elected officials are not doing enough. Our senators are not doing enough. Nobody's doing enough because nobody puts their feet to the fire. Greenstein should be sitting right there so that these people that are sitting behind her could ask why we're having to spend all this money and not getting any funding. We as a board should be able to interrogate her and say, "Why aren't you fighting for us to get more money?" She's never in all the years I'm here ever been at a board meeting, ever. The mayor has never once sat out there in the audience to listen to any of this. Okay, the only council member that ever shows up here, ever, is Charlie DePiro. He's the only one that shows up here. The rest of the council, you won't see them driving even

079past this school. They make the left before they have to get to the council meeting. It's just insane. We need our elected officials and our senators and our congress people to help us. We need help and everybody's ignoring us and we're not being loud enough. We're not. Maybe we're all trying to be civil. We're not trying to upset the dragon, but the dragon's dragging us into the ground. We have to make more waves. We have to. Every I everything you say is true, but I think Miss Ratner, why don't you tell everybody what you're doing with the Citizens Advisory Committee and the letter writing and the advocacy that we're trying to do to help this district. Do you think that would be I mean so Right. So really more with less now because we're doing

080portrait of a graduate, which I'll discuss later, but you know, we are writing the letters to your point, which we discussed last month. We need to start doing more one-on-ones. Listen, I I agree. Like if our elected officials aren't aware of our problems by now, I I don't really know what to do, right? Like they're like I'm pretty sure we've made it very apparent what we're dealing with. I think one thing and again, it's not going to make a huge difference in what we're dealing with, right? When we went down there last week, you know, I brought up the senior stabilization aid, which, you know, there was someone there whose district is very affected by and he knew like the issues with it. And so that's something that could help us, but even then we

081get an extra $500 per student. That's not making the dent to bring us down the amount that we need, right? There's just there's so many things. Could we take a closer look at our budget, try to find ways to save here and there? It's sure. I It's It's frustrating. Like I I really do get it, you know, and it's not our school administration. It It hasn't been our school administration, right? It It's a It's an issue that we're going to need to come up with a solution. We could make that noise and I think having a rally down there and, you know, getting Monroe residents, like maybe we can get someone to sponsor the bus. I know we've discussed that before or just having a, you know, a group of cars drive down there, I

082think is a fantastic idea. Um, you know, we can definitely look into doing that or maybe working with other districts that are dealing with the same because this is all over and eventually if the whole state's revolting, something has to change. So you know, I I definitely I hear you. You know, I wish I could fix it. I really do. I just don't know what else to do as a board member. >> I think I think we all feel that way. I mean, since 2008, that state funding formula has been present. So we've been suffering since 2008, which is not right. And I was reading some articles about different districts and how people are saying, "Well, just make it the same amount across the board for the state. Don't give certain districts because of certain

083situations that I was somebody mentioned to me where she campaigned. Maybe they got a little bit more. Make it flat across the state. Everybody gets the same amount, but nobody wants to get that. Since 2008, that's a long time to have Mr. Tufano said to have somebody ignore and how much can we say go down there and they say, "Well, bring papers and and state what you need in your district." And I think during your testimony, the gentleman that asked you quite a few questions and he said, "Would you bring your paperwork?" Well, of course, Miss Ratner had all the paperwork with her and all the documentation because that's their one main thing. They don't want us to tell them, "Oh, we need $5,000." We have to list 5,000 and the four or five things

084next to it. >> for $22 million just in case you're wondering. Right. But I'm saying they want they want a list. They They want They don't want to do anything. They want us to do everything. Bring it to them and then probably deny it. So I mean, my my But we we I'm sorry. Let me to interrupt you. But we do need to do something. We need to vote out the people who are not giving us funding. Instead, collectively, apparently, we're voting for the same people over and over again every year that give us scraps. Greenstein gives us scraps. She fights for us zero and yet gets elected every year. I don't understand it. Could I Well, we don't have Excuse me? Could I just ask a question with the funding? So we lost money.

085Does that mean we lost money per student compared to last year? Like what did we get last year for per student compared to this year? Are we losing per student? So it it went up per student, but because we have less students, that's why we lost money. But the price per student went up. Yes. Yes. They've the the DOE raised all the um the amounts per student amounts, but we just have less enrollment, so that's why. Okay. Yep. And then my other question is if we have a reduction in students, are we having a reduction other than in teachers and educators or do we need all the Like is there a reduction in any staff since if we're down 500 people, I mean, that's that's a lot of people. Is there any reduction in staff

086with that? So things have systemically over the past couple years been reducing proportionally. So if we have a child study team member that retires and the team the workload of that team doesn't justify supporting a replacement of that staff member, then we don't replace that staff member. So yes, across the board, we monitor those numbers. Yep. Any other questions? Thank you very much for the lively discussion. Again, thank you, Miss Allen, Dr. Layman. And we'll proceed now for committee reports. Mr. DePiro. Uh building and grounds committee we met last week and we discussed the projects with the ESIP. Uh what's being complete. The lighting's almost done. The chillers and boilers are ahead of schedule. Also, the solar as soon as it is approved totally by the state, we're going to move forward with the solar

087on all the schools and in the parking lot here. Um there was a question about uh the facade at Mill Lake School. It was brought to our attention. Uh Mr. Pagan Mr. Layman, we met and talked about it. There was an issue where I heard that the PTO PTA was going to pay to power wash or clean the school and I don't think that's right. I think the money they collect for kids should go to kids and we had a discussion at building and grounds and Mr. Pagan said that during the break his team will try to do some power washing at school to try to clean it and see what we could do. The part that's discolored, it's not moldy. He said it's just discolored. It's oxidation of the metal. >> [laughter] >> Those

088pieces were going to be removed if we did the roof, but last year we took the roof out of the budget. So we're going to do our best to try to make it look better and see where it goes after they do this and then we'll revisit it and if there's no changes. Uh transportation is still working on the bus app for students. They moved it to the middle school and they're working now with that and then we're going to get a report next month on how the bus app's working. Does anybody have any questions for Mr. Pierre? Yes. Um I wanted to thank you for bringing up the the millie issue and that it's getting addressed. I guess do we have a schedule? I know we have a schedule of maintenance of a lot

089of things from terms of our facilities. Do we have a schedule of the maintenance of the exteriors of our facilities similar to what we would have for each factor things like that where I believe we have like a a schedule to to address those. I think they're addressed as they come up. Mr. Teague notified us that they did attempt cleaning in the in the past and it was not not very effective just because of the type of equipment we have. We have residential style power washers and things. They're going to try a new technique. They're going to try a different way to do it. Um Again, if it's not effective, we will pivot and take another look at potential other options to spruce it up a little bit. But the core of the the issue

090here is you know that roof is imminent. It will be done sooner than later and to really dig into that project for tens of thousands of dollars for an entire exterior you know upgrade. It's something that will be addressed when it's when the roof is done. So the goal is to beautify it, clean it. We can take a look at even if we need to you know do some touch up paint or something like that and then uh hold it down until we do the roof there. Committee reports, Ms. Ratner. I have three. I'll make them fast. Um so the policy committee met on March 16th. Board of Education members present were myself, Ms. Forrest, Mr. Marazin, and Ms. DePin. The district administration was represented by Dr. Lehman. Our policy meeting was again primarily by

091the policy wellness check that's provided by Strauss Esmay. This month we covered the 3000s which covers teaching staff and the 4000s which is support staff. There are multiple policies on the agenda for first and second read. Most of the ones under first read are very small changes such as a policy name change. There is one new policy which we learned that we did not have which is P4438 which is for jury duty. Um which is it's the way that we handle if somebody has jury jury duty what like what we provide or you know ask them to provide. Um there's also two policies on the agenda to be abolished which are R3223.1 and R3223.2. The evaluation of tenured and non-tenured administrators are these are now covered by another policy. Any Was that all for policy?

092Yes. Any questions for Ms. Ratner? Okay. I'll keep going. All right. Next is the Citizens Advisory Committee. I'm really excited to share that our Citizens Advisory Committee finally reconvened after a few months off. The members of this committee are are the same as last. It's myself, Ms. Forrest, Ms. Sharma, and Ms. DePin. The district administration was represented by Dr. Lehman. We also had several of our CAC committee members in attendance. The topic that was discussed was the portrait of a graduate. This is something that I was very excited about when we learned about and I'm excited to see it continue. It's a part of our five-year strategic plan. Um the district administration has reached a step where a steering committee representing the community needs to be formed. So this was brought to our CAC committee.

093Um which has a diverse representation of our community including parents, representatives from Jamesburg, as well as our senior community. At this meeting, Dr. Lehman and our staff professional development coordinator Sherry Fatovic provided a presentation about what the portrait of a graduate is and what we've done so far and what we need to do. Mr. Marolda had shared via email several websites from a few other districts that have participated in this program and the committee members were also tasked with reviewing a draft of a survey that I believe will be sent to the community a very shortly where the community members can provide what they believe are the qualities and skills that they feel every student who graduates from Monroe should possess. You finished with that. Any questions for Ms. Ratner on that committee? Okay. Go

094ahead. >> All right. Last one. Um Legislative Advocacy and Community Engagement Committee met on March 16th. It was the same members that were from the other committee. Um we reviewed the materials from the March 2026 Legislative Committee meeting with school boards. This included updates on several pieces of legislation. I also had shared some updates from that meeting which included a discussion with Chris Williams who I sort of mentioned during our budget discussion is the new chief of staff for the Department of Education. Um one thing that I think might might help us is that the people who created the formula are no longer people in charge of the Department of Education and they agreed that it needs to be looked at. Again, hope, right? Like hope for the best, prepare for the worst kind of

095thing. Um we also briefly reviewed the Delivering a Strong Education for New Jersey Action Team Report which was a committee from the governor that had different educational leaders from throughout the state where they discussed important priorities throughout the state that they need to be prioritized over the next several years. Finally, we discussed the budget state budget hearings and possible sample testimony ideas. I actually feel like somehow they've made the timeline shorter for the budget testimonies. I didn't think it was possible, but here we are and they're almost done. Um and so I am pleased to share that last week Ms. Forrest and I had traveled to Trenton and testified before the Assembly Budget Committee. I appreciated that they had asked us several questions mostly about the senior supplemental aid as well as Um one thing

096that I really enjoyed was they had asked if we are over adequate and I had to sort of define like we are, but like adequacy doesn't include full day kindergarten. Like adequacy doesn't include a lot of things that you would expect it would because I don't know. Maybe Mr. Weiss, maybe you know, but there's nowhere I can find or someone from the Department of Education has shared at our legislative committee meetings what a thorough and efficient education is. Like cat like spelled out, right? So I I actually tasked the Assembly Education Committee Chair with doing that and she's like nodding along with me. So that was kind of fun. And then those testimonies are available on our district website on the advocacy page and all I can say is we are committed to continuing advocacy

097even though sometimes it does feel like we're knocking our heads against the wall. That's right. Well, does anybody have any questions for Ms. Ratner? I want to thank you both for going down and speaking last week and if you want to hear two good testimonies, please go on our website and listen to what the ladies brought down to Trenton. Did you want to answer her question? Do you have an answer for her question? [laughter] So so with regard to thorough and efficient, to the extent that it's not defined by statute which I don't believe that it is, you'd have to turn to case law that gives interpretations of what a thorough and efficient education is. Right. Just to share like this had come up. There was another district that they've done as much as they

098felt like they could do with their budget in Ocean County and so then this was prior to the law for kindergarten being enacted. They're like, well, you have kindergarten full day kindergarten. Get rid of it. In order to go you know to meet their budget which you know it was ridiculous when I heard it and I looked it up and it was true. So I said like obviously especially now because it's part of the law like you need to add that, but moreover you need to look and tell us what thorough and efficient is because otherwise we're you know guessing and to say we're over adequate because we have certain things that you assume need to be part of a school district. It's crazy. It [clears throat] is. And you're And you're exactly right. It's

099hitting the wall and we hit the wall constantly. Thank you all for your committee reports tonight. Oh, I want to say I forgot finance. You know, I was thinking of you right here. I forgot you. Okay. The Finance and Shared Services Committee held its monthly meeting on March 18th. Present at the meeting were Dr. Lehman, Mrs. Allen, Dr. Peck, Mrs. DePin, Mr. Zeikner, and Mr. Pierre. The committee reviewed its monthly bills and attorney invoices and everything is in order. The budget calendar was revised to align with the release of state aid and the subsequent change in the county deadline to receive the tentative budget. So accordingly, the budget presentation was revised from March 16th to today and the revision was posted on our website and the online newspaper. I'm going to skip most of what

100I wrote about state aid because Ms. Allen covered that prior in the presentation, but I did want to highlight that the state did add a 3% cap in how much aid that they can remove from a district and because of that we were able to retain $19,000 of aid that we otherwise would have lost if that cap wasn't there. So there have been some minor changes regarding state aid at the state level. All right. Next, the committee discussed the School Regionalization Efficiency Program Grant. The grant allows school districts to conduct a study free of charge which would detail what is involved in merging districts. Being that Jamesburg students already attend our high school, it would be reasonable to ask for a study to detail the impact of merging our two school districts. If this is

101something that Jamesburg Board of Ed is interested in doing, we would need to apply for the grant no later than April 15th. Additionally, both Board of Eds would have to pass a resolution to do so. The new governor and state officials have been speaking about regionalization and it is possible that it may occur in in near future. The committee felt it was best to be proactive to have more control should regionalization occur or be mandated. Lastly, as of March 1st, all public entities such as municipalities, school boards, and county governments will no longer be required to publish meeting notices in print newspapers. Instead, we must post these notices on our own official website at least 48 hours before the meeting, replacing the old requirement to post notices on a physical bulletin board. These online postings

102will serve as the official public notice and must still include the date, time, location, and agenda if available. Public notices must be archived for 1 year. Additionally, once the meeting has been posted online, it must remain visible on our website for at least 1 week, and after that, we must move it into an online archive. To help residents easily find public meeting information across New Jersey, the Secretary of State has created a centralized website which acts as a directory that links to each public entity's legal notices page. Therefore, we must provide clickable links to the web pages so the web pages can be maintained. Additionally, the law adds a temporary requirement for the 2026 calendar year where we must advertise twice per month in an online news publication such as the Home News Tribune or

103MyCentralJersey. This concludes my report. Any questions for Ms. Alvarez? Ms. Ratner? I'm sorry, go ahead. >> be answering it. >> go ahead, Dr. So, I touched base with Dr. Valani from Jamesburg, and they are going to discuss their participation or potential participation in this grant tomorrow night at their board meeting. So, there is no resolution. The grant deadline is April 15th. So, there is no resolution in our current board agenda to participate in the regional efficiency program grant because at the time of the development of the agenda, Jamesburg hadn't talked about it. So, I would say if you're interested in doing that, and we uh want to be proactive, there is no board meeting between now and April 15th. So, if you would like to have that opportunity still available, and if Jamesburg tomorrow night

104decides that they're interested in participating, if we pass a resolution tonight, they can pass a resolution tomorrow night, and then we can proceed with submitting the grant. And if they don't pass the resolution tomorrow night, you're no worse off. Correct. >> So, we don't need them to So, we would just make a motion for a resolution, or you have it? Both boards have to make a resolution to participate in this grant. So, if we make a resolution, no harm, no foul, because if they decide to to jump on board and participate, then we're good to go. If we don't do it tonight and they're interested tomorrow, we don't have an we don't have that opportunity come April 15th or by April 15th. How do we do that? Do Make a motion. I mean, I can

105write for a resolution. It's something usually written out. Does somebody want to make a motion to join with Jamesburg and apply to the state for the shared services grant contingent upon Jamesburg's passage of a similar resolution tomorrow evening? I'd like to make a motion. Just say motion and second. We're good. Fine. >> [laughter] >> Second. Second. Okay, thank you very much. Any discussion? >> [snorts] >> I just think it's good to be proactive It is. in this situation. You know, we don't want to face a mandate, and then, you know, someone else is making these decisions. That's my only comment. >> And the results of the grant will be given to both townships, school districts, and you don't have to accept it. It's just something that they're offering for districts with the consolidation, and they

106do all the the legwork. They give you the report. And if Jamesburg decides, "No, we don't want to do it." That's fine. You know, we're fine. Monroe's fine, Jamesburg's fine. It's just something I think that Dr. Layman present asked me earlier to put the resolution on tonight so we don't lose out. So, we're not in It's not set in stone. It's just something that's out there. Um I think what they did say is you have to make a good faith effort at the solution. So, you can't just you can't just say no, but I would imagine like given that we already have Jamesburg students that are here, if they agree to do the report, like there's plenty of opportunities for us to find a way to make that good faith effort. It doesn't necessarily mean

107we have to do everything that they listed, but we do have to look at it. Um and thank you to administration for allowing us to move forward on this cuz this is a chance at trying to save some money. Yes. And we'll take a vote now, please. Ms. Allen? Yes. Ms. Alvarez? Yes. Ms. Forrest? Yes. Mr. Maraziti? Yes. Dr. Peck? Abstain. Mr. Piero? Yes. Ms. Ratner? Yes. Ms. Sharma? Yes. Mr. Tufano? Yes. Mr. Zaikner? Yes. Ms. DePain? Yes. Motion passes. Thank you very much. Okay. We're up to the public forum. Curriculum. I'm sorry, yes. Could I just um I just realized in the building and grounds [clears throat] on tonight, um the building and grounds committee asked to approve the DI Group Architecture to do a study for repurposing the boys and girls teens room

108in the high school. So, what it is for people who don't know that by the gym, there's two rooms that the athletes use, and they're just benches with whiteboards that they could use before the game or after a game. What we wanted were proposing, which came from Dr. Higgins at the high school, was we could repurpose them rooms and have them made into classrooms. Um it shouldn't be much of a cost to do it, and at that point, we could use them as classrooms. They could use them for health or whatever else they may need. And after hours, the teens would still be able to use [clears throat] the rooms. Instead of benches, they would then have desks in the rooms. So, I just wanted to uh bring that up for part of building and

109grounds. Yeah, we're still talking buildings and grounds. I'm sorry. No motion. We don't need a motion for that, right? No, no, I just forgot to bring it up in my report. That's all I was just And I forgot And I forgot Mr. Zaikner. But But we before we move on from there, Mr. Piero, did you say that you would like essentially permission or authorization? It's on the agenda Okay, thank you. I just want to Thank you. Appreciate it. Okay, that's what I meant. Mr. Zaikner? I can go now. >> [laughter] >> Okay. Okay, the curriculum committee meeting took place on March 18th, 2026 at approximately 6:10 p.m. Present were Dr. Layman, Charles Zaikner, Gail DePain, Carmen Alvarez, Kate Ratner, Dr. Amanda Peck, Sue Gasco, Danielle Dressed, Dr. Kelly Rozell, Dr. Sedensky, Zack Mirada, Samantha McCloud,

110Jen Roden, Marietta Ruella, Salvatore Ingoglia, and Yale Snyder. On the agenda were two items: a multi-tiered system of support and a day in the life of a kindergarten student. Um Lost my place. The topics were then handed over to Dr. Layman, who provided a brief overview of the first topic to be introduced, and then it was turned over to Dr. Sedensky. A handout about the New Jersey Statewide Student Support Service was distributed. Dr. Sedensky explained that the program was created to supplement existing school programs that provide mental health resources and to serve students, caregivers, school administrators, and staff across New Jersey. He described the two-tiered system outlining the services offered and the corresponding grade levels. Tier one focused on community education for K-12, tier two on prevention programs, and tier three on brief counseling for

111students in grades 6 through 12. Throughout the presentation, he made reference to how the program would apply within the Monroe Township schools. Then, Dr. Sedensky addressed questions from board members. Samantha McCloud discussed the topic a day in the life of kindergarten students. First, she distributed a packet before her presentation. She explained that this laid the groundwork for full-day kindergarten. Each page detailed the progress or plans for implementing full-day kindergarten in September 2026. The packet included items like the budget, curriculum, and professional development for kindergarten teachers, and math, ELA, and science. They also talked about planning and preparations, space allocation for kindergarten classrooms, and curriculum adjustments to meet the student learning standards. A sample daily schedule for full-day kindergarten was shown. Other topics covered including drop-off, snacks, lunch, recess, and safety issues. Throughout the presentation, time

112was set aside for questions. The meeting ended at approximately 7:08 p.m. Additional information is available in the curriculum video meeting for March 18th located on the Monroe website, monroe.k12.nj.us. Thank you. Thank you. Any questions for Mr. Zaikner? Okay, thank you all. Now, we'll go to the public forum. Sorry about that, Mr. Zaikner. You were very quiet tonight. >> [laughter] >> You got to yell out to me. Please give your name and where you're from. Ghazala Bora, Monroe Township. Want to start by thanking Ms. Ratna and Ms. Frost for going to Trenton. Um I hope you're more successful than we were last year cuz we still got $0 in equalization aid. Had we gotten even 5 million this budget would have looked a little bit more uh digestible. But I want to start by thanking um

113the team that worked on the budget. I know firsthand how difficult it is and it's amazing that kindergarten full day kindergarten has been absorbed without losing any programs. So I do want to give uh shout out to the team for that. I'm going to ask all my questions and then maybe you can answer in in essence of time cuz I was hoping for two different public forums for budget and other agenda items. Um capital outlay you did explain that the reserve of 2 million is like a rainy day fund. There was nothing last year. If you could let us know what was the amount for capital reserve last the year before last so 24-25 school budget to understand why we need 2 million this year. Um ESIP my understanding was that our energy savings will

114pay for our cost of you know financing it. Uh there is definitely a shortfall of $300,000 this year. That's not how it'll work because our understanding of this program was our operational cost will be $0. And for this year we're looking at $300,000 in negative. So if you could dive in a little bit deeper, I understand the energy costs have gone up but there were some caveats in the ESIP contract to handle that. So this number is definitely not acceptable to me as a prior board member. So I hope all board members will question this and go back to Honeywell to understand what's going on. Um The salaries and the operation and maintenance have gone up by 3.15%. Is it just a contractual increase or is there any hiring in that section? You did mention

115in educational media services the drop of 45% was from what I understood we didn't have to buy books this year. So it would help if we could know the numbers for 24-25 budget year. We spent 69,000 we budgeted 69,000 this year. Last year we budgeted $128,000. This is for supplies and materials. I just want to make sure that it is equivalent to the year prior if this is a 15-year cycle. Um There is an increase of 3.56% in school administration salary of clerical staff uh and secretaries. I just want to understand if that is also just a contractual increase or are we hiring any part-time or full-time employees? And um lastly there is out of district placement has increased by $300,000. I was hoping that that number would go down because of our MTSS you

116know efforts and that was what we were looking at but I am surprised to see that number. So if there can be some conversation around that. And the salaries the only place where the salaries have reduced is summer enrichment and I know we are increasing that. Um is there an offset? Why is the salary reducing in the summer enrichment program? Finally the capital reserve that we have in the schedule A. Sorry the excess surplus is $6 million this year. Last year it was $2.9 million and this year $6.7 million. Would that is that number that we can control that would help make this tax rate slightly better for our taxpayers? And for the health insurance $8 million is what we've gone up with 24%. Is that what we've taken in the 2.51% tax rate or

117have we gone to the maximum of 29%? So can we make this a little better for our taxpayers if we just go to 24%. So that those are my questions. I'm sorry there's a lot of them. Feel free to answer. If you want me to repeat anything I can come back and repeat. >> Okay. Uh so I'll start with the MTSS question. Uh different population of students. So the MTSS process is really targeting students that are uh not having an IEP, moving towards potentially a in-class resource, maybe a resource replacement. Um the out of district uh costs are related to uh special programs um formerly known as a self-contained programs, autism programs and uh that is students that have been determined and or there maybe a legal settlement related to those students being placed out

118of district because maybe there is a emotional challenges that we can't uh have a program that can maintain them. Um so MTSS is looking at classification rates heading into the special education process. Those out of district placements are uh a different uh profile of student. So um we are seeing gains and we're seeing changes in that ICR resource room piece coming out of MTSS. Um but again totally different group of students uh when we're looking at out of district placements. Okay. So why would we have that increase of 6.5%? Have we identified more? So what Yeah, go ahead. So uh Ms. Bora those are typically driven by the IEP requirements related to the students' classification etc. So unfortunately um to a degree public schools who have to use approved uh private schools for students with

119disabilities are at the mercy of those schools' tuition fees and as you know every year those go up uh in a regular year uh not to mention the all of the additional fees and costs that we have going on. So while I can say from my own personal experience in in the in the department the department not only um takes each student's classification needs, accommodations etc. to personalize an individualized education plan for them and take that very seriously while the the code does not permit special educators to consider uh out of district costs and and things like that um it nevertheless is a real factor that that impacts the district. So there's this balance that the special education department has to achieve um given all of the challenges uh that it that it faces both

120you know economically um and also uh programmatically. Thank you. Sure. Ms. Osborne. Ms. Osborne. Okay. I hope I get them all. You'll let me know. Um capital reserve prior year. So we didn't have we have not been able to add to this capital reserve other than there's an interest amount of $500 every year. So it was 20 23.5 23,500 capital reserve. So So as I said we have not been able to add to that for many many years. So this is like the first time we can add to that and have that reserve in place for when we when we really need it cuz we have seen things in our buildings breaking down that are very costly. When we look at the excess surplus it is a non-recurring revenue. It's a uh not a consistent

121you know we're looking at this year. We're not projecting to have that kind of a surplus. So we will look to apply revenue specifically in this case this excess surplus if we were to take the $3 million in excess surplus and apply it to uh health benefits or something else that cost is going to be here next year. We are not going to have the $3 million next year. So as we enter the budget cycle next year we will be $3 million in the hole from the non-recurring revenue that we would have applied this year plus whatever increases go before us. So when we look at this this is a non-recurring revenue we know we have capital uh we have a low basically empty capital reserve account and we have capital outlay needs. So the

122capital outlay project for a million dollars is things that we can do next year we plan to do next year to address our aging facilities and that $2 million becomes the uh the fund that we can now draw on. If you think about when we had the power issues at the high school over the summer and we're looking at an approximate $40,000 circuit breaker 600 amp circuit breaker and we have a $23,000 capital reserve account. That's where we can draw from. If a $100,000 rooftop unit because the rooftop units on Oak Tree and the high school uh fail we can grab from the capital uh reserve account. Obviously there's board uh motions and things that we would do to to draw that money out. Um but not having that puts us at a significant disadvantage

123because now we're looking at what is currently happening. What is our current operating budget? And where are we finding the 100 grand? Where are we finding the $40,000? Um that's we're in a position to add to that capital reserve account. Um it is tremendously scary to have the 20 the $23,000 account. So if you're looking at why not apply it to the health care piece it's a non-recurring revenue and that health care expense is going to be there next year. We will be filling the gap of that that >> my question. So just that why haven't we you know done that um capital outlay surplus before? Reserve sorry. Why didn't we do it before? What stopped us? Go ahead and take it. I would say we didn't have the money in the budget to do

124that. This year, as Dr. Lehman just mentioned, we we do have that that we can put that in there in place, but we haven't >> 2% levy, we are able to Yes. So, that's why. Um the salaries in I think plant >> is a big one. ESIP is a big one. Oh, the ESIP? So, the So, the So, ESIP We had a schedule, as you know, of a cost a savings a cash analysis cash flow analysis, I guess it was. So, for 2026-2027, um they have projected that the annual energy savings would be 561,000. The operational savings would be basically um we don't things won't They've replaced all these things, so they won't break down. We won't have to use our people to the labor there or or materials or anything. So, that's the operational

125savings. Um and then energy rebates and incentives of $287,000. So, the total savings those three items added together is $965,000, and the debt is $912,000, leaving us with the positive cash flow of $52,000. So, that [clears throat] is how the ESIP is is is going to be working for next year. And as you recall, I'm sure that we have that guarantee for the first year. Yes. Right? So, after everything's in place, and I think it's the year after everything's in place, they will come in and do this audit and see that this did is actual these savings are actual. And if they're not, they will give us the difference Okay. in what they said it was and what it is. Okay. Okay. Um You say salaries >> Salaries, right? Educational media and services? >> Yes.

126So, educa- So, yes. So, we are I can just tell you that we are So, I can tell you and you you can pull up the exact number, but um all we did was we took what was budgeted for and what we're purchasing in terms of library books this year. Instead of having it on that line item, we moved it into the lease purchase. So, there's no reduction in what they're purchasing. We just moved the location to the lease purchase instead of purchasing it under that line. Okay. So, we moved the books Lease purchase increased by a similar amount. >> Yep. That this one reduced by Yep. And it has to do with the library books are hardbound books that last at least the duration of the lease purchase, and that's the requirement for it.

127So, >> other supplies were impacted for students. No. So, $63,000 of library books has has been moved out of that supply line and into the lease purchase. That makes sense. Thank you. >> Okay. Um the salaries for the plant Is that plant and operations? >> Yeah, generally overall, wherever I see like a salary increase, is it just contractual or are we hiring more? They are contractual. That's the Teamsters contract. Um and it's it may not be the exact percent because of change you know, changes or overtime or something. So, but that is contractual. Okay. And Dr. Lehman, you were answering that question about the salaries. >> the You're over the 4 minutes. Sorry. My last question, Ms. Bain, I was just clarifying the question. The tax rate of 2.51%, which is because of the health

128insurance we are allowed to go up to 31. Did we only go up as much as we are paying? >> No, we are allowed to go up to 29. So, they take the 31 and and 2% off of that, so it's 29 that we are allowed to go up, and that's what we did. Why Why did we not go up to 29%, which is our actual increase, not 29? No, because that line that's You're looking at the um I'm looking at your allocations, yes. So, this this line item contains many other things other than health insurance for employee benefits. Okay. That's why it's not just health insurance. Thank you. Okay. Anyone else wishing to speak right now? Bob Valentine, Monroe. Um I got to have a mix of comments and questions. I'll try to be

129clear of which is which so you will understand. Uh I also want to thank you, Ms. Alley. I know I've lived your life. I know how hard this is. So, even though I have some comments and questions and I raise some things, don't Please don't misunderstand. I know how much work goes into this and how challenging it is. Thank you. Um so, it's just some general comments. I'll try to give them as quickly as I can. Uh I was hoping the kindergarten program that it would be broken out so we could understand what the changes are in the base recurring budget versus what you're doing for the kindergarten program. Um I still, as I've asked before, I really wish we would do a one-page P&L summary of the budget. I think it'd be much easier

130for everybody to understand at a very high level what's going on. I think it'd be good. >> [cough and clears throat] >> Again, as I've asked before, there's no amount of lit mix in the presentation. Uh one of the one of the members asked about uh price per per students. Um if you might recall, a few months ago I talked about FTEs and asking for FTEs to be in the budget and the excuse me, the board reports. One of the things I hope that has been done internally and you should ask, has somebody looked at the FTE trend over the last 3 years, looked at the cost per student for FTE, and looking at that to see that, you know, everything makes sense that you know, revenue per student might be up, but if expenses

131per student are going in more than the revenue per is going up, that's why you're challenged. Those are the kind of things those kind of discussions that should be going on as you satisfy yourselves to the budget, in my opinion. Um Just a comment on the health insurance. I understand the basic challenge. I did a very quick while you were talking quick Google. I saw non-governmental rates in the state of about in the low 20s. I guess what I was hoping to hear more about is utilization. Um what are what are our utilization challenges? How do we compare to other school districts in our area? What What's driving the utilization? Is it Is it GLPs? Is it something else? You know, what is the action plan besides I know we're going to do um you

132know, follow up in general but advocacy, but really about identifying what are the strategies? What are the things that we need to address if we have if we have an issue. Maybe we don't. But there was no really no discussion really about utilization. I was hoping at a high level we might hear something about that. Um as far as the fringe benefits go in general, uh the other comment I'd like to make more for the community or for you cuz I know you all know this, but in addition to what's in the budget, you've got another $30 or so that's for the pension and the post-retirement medical that's not in the budget, correct, Laura? Correct. So, just for you just for you to be aware, you look at your property tax bills and looking at

133the cost of everything, those numbers are not even in this budget. Um Capital reserve, uh again a comment. You know, it's $2 million for the capital reserve. I understand the logic of it. I don't I can't dispute that. But I would also say to you, the total budget is $160 million. $2 million is about 1% of that budget. I find it hard to believe that you can't put your heads together and find say enough savings >> [clears throat] >> that if the district ran on 99% of what it had last year, that it would cease to exist as we know it and there'd be such dramatic draconian disasters all over the place. I really think, you know, I'd like to see you take another hard look at that, especially given what's going on with the

134health insurance and the rate increase in general. Um I I would think there'd be some opportunity. I'm not sure you you quite pushed on it and and maybe just the timing trying to get everything done, but I really would ask you to take a look at that. Um and my I guess I really just um Uh oh, I do have one more question on the capital reserve. Is this a change in strategy? In other words, you we talked about going out for a bond. Have we changed strategy now that we're going to try to do this by increasing capital reserves every year instead of going out for a bond? Is this Is this more than just trying to set up the capital reserve? Are we changing strategy? That was the other comment question I'd like

135clarity on. And lastly, um one detailed question. Um how much How much has legal budget increased this year compared to last year's original budget if it has? If it has, approximately how much? You want to go first? Yeah, so in terms of a strategy change, uh big picture, no. The goal is not to say squirrel away $15 million in a capital reserve account. Um this is an opportunity that we have in terms of not applying a non-recurring revenue and getting ourselves in a jam in a future year. Um it would also uh building up a deficit that we actually had a conversation about in terms of a capital reserve in the past. So, um it's taking an opportunity to make sure we are able to address the facility needs. We know they're aging facility needs.

136Um And then every year, if we come through and we have the ability to contribute to uh that capital reserve, I think that is something that needs to be considered. And uh but the goal is not to necessarily try and squirrel away $20 million. Um We haven't had in many many years the ability to even contribute a little bit to the capital reserve. Um if we begin to trend in that direction, we have a bigger conversation about that. Um but right now, it's uh building up just having a a simple base. Um and I think you could look at um districts that are in a healthy financial position around us and think that we probably could have should have a capital reserve account of maybe 5 to 7 million dollars um to really handle our

137projects coming and going in terms of our aging facilities. So, um this is the beginning of building that base. Maybe a question of timing, right? Given what's going on with the other other aspects, right? >> Correct. Yep. Yep. Okay. So, the legal question? Um So, legal fees were budgeted um are budgeted right now at 260,000 and the same for next year. Okay. So, that that begs the question then, are we going to have a resolution to our long-running superintendent problem by the start of the new budget year? Is that what that Is that what your goal actually in your past your four minutes Uh uh what that was the okay I asked the question you can choose to answer ask again later. Yeah, you can ask later. That would be fine. Anyone else willing wishing

138to speak? Can I can I just clarify something so legal expenses it's not just board attorney. It does include all of the ethics cases all of the cases that we have to pay attorneys for which which are unknown. We have to you know estimate what it will be based on what it's been but that does that that is in there too. So that's all I want to say. Okay. Thank you very much. You're welcome. Good evening board member double matter. I have a couple of questions related to budget. Thank you for the full day kindergarten and the question related to that is like Is there any cost involved in that because we believe that there will be some reconstruction or combinations of the class or something like that? For that? You may take it. Yeah.

139So in terms of the full day kindergarten cost we're absorbing the staffing within our internal staff space wise because we're declining enrollment. We are not having to add on to the buildings at this time. The only staffing additions and we talked about earlier would be the non-certificated staff to to monitor them at lunches and to engage with them in the classrooms supplies wise and things like that. There's a slight increase. We do operate full day or kindergarten as is so this would up the supplies needed to function a few extra classrooms as well as you know some one-time expenditures in terms of additional rugs or easels and maybe some desks and chairs. Okay so no cost for any construction or anything like No no construction costs built into this. We do have a project that

140we have in our back pocket that we certainly can engage with in the future if we see enrollment pivot and change. That's something we haven't had in the past. Okay. Then the second question is as our enrollment is decreasing year by year. Are there any impact on the classes reducing or transportation or anything like that? So everything is proportionally decreasing. So you saw the state aid reduction. That's a that's a reflection of our DRTRS report reflecting that students traveling to and from you know in our transportation in the mornings. When we look at classes for instance the application of full day K as the smaller class sizes you know if you have five or six sections of grade one and they move up and you have an incoming four sections of grade of grade one.

141That goes to the grade two the next year. We are moving teachers around. We're reallocating them in this case to full day K. So yes, you see a proportional adjustment to the enrollment as they move through. Currently the the bubble the decreasing bubble is in the middle school and that is working its way through the middle school. It is not yet hit the high school. Our high school class sizes are are consistent to what they were for the past 10 years or so. Okay. And the last question or not the question not related to budget related to the school calendar regarding Diwali holiday. We understand is like so Diwali is a I don't think that's not one of our agenda items. This is this section is referring to agenda items only. You can bring it

142up at the end when we put up public can speak on anything. >> But I think it's a public forum right? It's not related to budget. >> is not the right time. This is public forum agenda items only. You can speak towards the end of the meeting. We can come up again about that. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. Anyone else? Hello everyone. My name is Jordan Braun Monroe Township. Uh I don't have a question. I just really want to thank everyone and not just everyone on the board and sitting here but everyone who was a part of the full day kindergarten that whole program that whole process. It's a really big deal and the fact that we're implementing it such a relatively low cost for such an amazing service like I'm amazed. So I just

143want to thank everyone and it's a big deal so I'm hopeful that you know this is something that is a part of the final budget and thank you all. Thank you sir for your comments. That's very nice. Anyone else wishing to speak? You were already once. Good evening Chrissy Scruby Monroe Township. I just had a couple of questions. I just want to point out the increase in the budget is $12 million from last year. That's a 7.76% so while we we remain under the 2% or at the 2% tax levy it's only because the state is allowing for such a large adjustment for the health care. But we didn't have to go up to the 2% cap as we just said. We're going to maximum spending authority for a second time in a year. Last

144year the taxes went up approximately $136 per assessed value of 300 and whatever $35. It's almost double this year. Our taxes are increasing at such a significant rate. And you're doing it to to Gazala's point. You're [snorts] doing it to increase the base budget so you have more to increase next year. We don't have to do that. If you don't have a project that costs $2 million do the right thing for the taxpayers. Don't put $2 million in put a million in. That means something to the community. You're just going to try to increase that base budget. We didn't have the $2 million and we did not have a problem. And if you do have a problem then you go out for a question and you ask the the taxpayers to to fund whatever you

145have to fix. We have a long range facilities plan. We know what needs to be done with our facilities. To just budget $2 million like that is irresponsible. And I'd like to know one big question I have is what percent did you use to increase the teacher salary? And have we had contract negotiations because the contract is up June 30th. I've not heard anything about contract negotiations with the MTEA. For three years the MTEA had a 4% contract increase. I'm doing quick calculations in my head and this does not go anywhere near 4% increase for the teachers union contracts. So what what are we doing? Is the contract renegotiated? Do we have a new rate and what did you use? Did you use 4% or did you use something below giving our our teachers in

146essence would be a tax decre decrease in their salary because they're used to getting 4%. Are we saying now that we're only budgeting to give them less of an increase? >> [clears throat] >> And I'd also asked Dr. Layman we had a very nice conversation and I thank you very much for answering my questions whenever I have them. I think it's important for you to explain why full day kindergarten works now because we had a dialogue about that about why it did not work in the past and why it does work now because there are some very negative comments from the vice president about previous boards and about the superintendent not wanting full day kindergarten and that was not the case. And I think Dr. Layman you could give that explanation of why it actually

147works this year as you explained it to me how it wouldn't have worked in the previous years. Sure. I'm going to have Mr. Weiss address the Miss Scruby I'm just going to address the issue of what percentage was used your question what percentage was used for the teachers. There's a placeholder of 3.5% however we are going to be starting negotiations so I don't think it'd be appropriate for >> have not begun yet. The contract is over June 30th. When I was the board president we started I'd like to finish before I get cut off. The negotiations when I was the board president for the last contract started in October. >> They've started already. I I misspoke just now. >> first meeting? We are beginning negotiations. >> When was the first meeting? We we are beginning

148negotiations. We we have met with our attorneys and they are preparing their side and we will be getting together very shortly. So there has not been a meeting yet. Miss Scruby your time your time is up. Your four minutes are >> are doing is wrong to the teachers. >> [laughter] >> Anyone else wishing to speak? >> In terms of full day K I wanted I wanted to address that. So um four or five years ago we were looking at several issues with full day K. We were looking at overcrowded elementary schools. The high school still is extremely full. We were looking at the number one issue for us is space. Um If we had the space then we would have had higher teachers but we don't have the space. You you didn't have the option

149to hire teachers. So once we began to see some of the trends in terms of smaller kindergarten classes coming through they started to work their way through the elementary schools. Was it a one-time hit? Was it a two-times hit? And we've seen a trend now long enough that our incoming kindergarten classes are much smaller than they used to be and it's stabilized. Those bubbles are moving through the the school. And what that put us in a position now, and honestly if you asked me 18 months ago, it was a different discussion. I think we were still having a conversation about space 18 months ago. We have continued to see that trend of lower incoming in kindergarten classes, and that allowed us to not only have space to fit it in, but to be able to

150reallocate staff as those bubbles move through. So we have other elementary teachers that are interested in teaching kindergarten or want to teach kindergarten that now are able to do that. So the history from years ago to now is it wasn't an option because we didn't have the space. We didn't have the ability to spend our $20 million to add on to the buildings. And similarly we didn't have the ability to hire teachers because we had no place to put them. Both of those issues have resolved themselves over time, and we sit here today being able to fit in full-day K in our existing space. Um and we will monitor enrollment. We have the ability to flex a little bit in a couple of the schools, but if we see an increase in enrollment, we go

151back to seeing the numbers we saw years and years ago, we will uh we will have to revisit how it fits in the building and what our class sizes are, but for the next several years I think we are in a good trend. Thank you, Dr. Lehman. Yep. Yeah. Next is your assistant superintendent report, please. I'd ask if anybody else Excuse me. Oh, did anyone else want to come and speak this evening? Thank you. Dr. Lehman. Sure. I'm [clears throat] just logging in. So a few highlights and then I'll get into the report. Um just wanted to touch base and thank and congratulate the cast of SpongeBob from the middle school. They had an outstanding performance. All the students and the staff that put on that performance worked extremely hard. They had three performances earlier

152this month and it was a tremendous success. Um our honors percussion MTHS honors percussion ensemble achieved an outstanding milestone on March 7th and 8th. They won the WGI East Power Regional Championship in the Scholastic A Concert Percussion Division, making it their fourth consecutive years champions. Um so congratulations to them. That was That was down at Toms River North. >> [applause] >> And then this just recently happened. Our Monroe Township High School Honors Wind Ensemble had a very successful and busy month. They were recently invited to perform at the Carnegie Hall, and the concert last Wednesday evening was a huge success. It's an experience our students and staff will remember forever. That's one of the most renowned concert venues in the world. And last Thursday they also were successful at the CJMEA Concert Band Festival. They

153earned a gold rating, which is one of the highest scores awarded across all four nights of the festival for all the high school bands from Central New Jersey. So tremendous opportunities for our students and we congratulate them on their performances. Dr. Lehman, can I just say I'm sorry Sure. once that the concert at Carnegie Hall was sponsored by the Monroe Ed Foundation. They They contributed The students student funded, but they contributed to lower the cost. Yes, it was several hundred dollars per student and they helped us. Is that performance able to be viewed somewhere? We have it on our website. >> I can ask. I don't know the answer to that, so I can ask. The the Carnegie Hall one you're asking? I can ask. I know they took some pictures. I actually shared them

154in the confidential, but uh I will look and see if there's a recording. All right, Dr. Lehman. >> Sure. So under the 10-member personnel I it's recommended that the board approve the attached personnel items A through M. Motion. Second. Is there any discussion? Ms. Allen. Yes. Ms. Alvarez. Yes. Ms. Forrest. Yes. Mr. Marazin. Yes. Dr. Peck. Yes. Mr. Piro. Yes. Ms. Ratner. Yes. Ms. Sharma. Yes. Mr. Tufano. Yes. Mr. Zikner. Yes. Ms. Payne. Yes. Motion passes. Under the nine-member personnel vote, it's recommended that the board approve the attached personnel items N through AK. N through AK. Motion. Second. Is there any discussion? Ms. Ratner. Um I just there are a couple of staff members under the nine-member retiring that I just wanted to recognize Ms. Lequay, Ms. Garaventi, and Ms. Visocky. Um I my daughter

155is the only one who would have had Ms. Visocky. However, I have been to several programs that she's run that you know she really has gone above and beyond. I know the history happens here was a lot of work on her part as well as a lot of the optimistic smiles for ohms things that we do in the school. And so I did just want to thank her for all of her years as well as the other retirees for all of their service to our district. Thank you. Okay. Dr. Lehman. Anybody else have any questions? Let's get a take a vote. Okay. Ms. Alvarez. Ms. Alvarez. Yes. Ms. Forrest. Yes. Mr. Marazin. Yes. Mr. Piro. Yes. Ms. [clears throat] Ratner. Yes. Ms. Sharma. Yes. Mr. Tufano. Yes. Mr. Zikner. Yes. Ms. Payne. Yes. Motion passes.

156Under board action 10-member vote, it's recommended that the board approve the attached board action items A through J. A through J. Motion. Second motion. Is there any discussion? Roll call. Ms. Alvarez. Yes. Ms. Forrest. Yes. Mr. Marazin. Yes. Dr. Peck. Yes. Mr. Piro. Yes. Ms. Ratner. Yes. Ms. Sharma. Yes. Mr. Tufano. Yes. Mr. Zikner. Yes. Ms. Payne. Yes. Motion passes. So for board action nine-member vote, it's recommended that the board approve the attached board action items K through S. K through S. Motion. Second. Any discussion? Ms. Ms. Allen. Ms. Alvarez. Yes to all abstain on letter N. Ms. Forrest. Yes. Mr. Marazin. Yes to all. No on student G on letter N. I'm Can you repeat that, please? I'm sorry. Student G. No to student G on letter N. Okay. Got it. Mr. Piro. I'm

157yes to all. I'm a no on student G 302643. Yes. Okay. Ms. Ratner. Yes to all. No on 302643 for student G. Recuse on letter L and O for Mr. Ratner. Ms. Sharma. Yes to all and no for 302643 for letter G. Mr. Tufano. Yes to all except for G on N. Okay. Mr. Zikner. Yes to all except for uh number 302643 and that would be student G. Okay. And Ms. Payne. Uh yes to all and again um no on 302643 student G. Okay. So motion passes except for student [laughter] G under 302643. Thank you very much. [snorts] >> Okay. That concludes my report. Thank you, Dr. Lehman. Okay. Ms. Allen. Yes. Um it is recommended that board action items A through K under the 10-member vote be approved by consent. Roll call. Motion. Second.

158Any discussion? Ms. Ratner. Um yep, I just have um I wanted to thank the MEF for their donation that's listed here. I also just had two quick questions. The first I know that we see this often on our agenda disposal of surplus property. Where does that go in into our budget? Cuz I know we get something from it. Is that anything that like the the cost that we recoup from selling our surplus property? Yeah. Yeah. So in this case it is from the food service fund, so it's going to go back into the food service fund because that's where they purchased it from. Okay. And yeah. And then the other question that I had, and I apologize for not asking these earlier. I was looking at you know other the budget and other things. Um

159I saw that there's the contract for Normandy photographer under letter H. The The attachment mentions a cost of a $20 session fee which provides seniors with an average of 12 to 20 images. I'm assuming that there's other costs and rate, but I don't see those in the contract for the other grades and for the seniors cuz I mean if it is just $20 for seniors only, that sounds great, but I would imagine that there's got to be something else. That's got to be a lot That's why I'm asking. So in terms of that, that is the senior photos. So um there's other packages obviously that could be purchased and things like that, but uh this is just changing and pivoting the the the photographer there for the high school. Um but I guess just looking

160at cuz it also mentions the ninth, 10th, and 11th graders, but there's no cost on here. Right. >> Is that So the there's a different photo photo process for the seniors than there is for the ninth through 11th graders. You have your standard school photos, yearbook photos, but then the senior photos are separate. Okay, I guess just I was wondering how we find out what like how much the cost is increasing by changing or is it decreasing? Is there a way for us to know that? >> There is no cost for a student to get their photo taken as long as they Everybody gets their photo taken for the yearbook. You just purchased purchased packages if you choose to. That's why there's there's no cost to get a photo taken. Okay. >> When you take

161your senior photos, that's different. Okay. Right. Thank you. >> Mr. Piro? This is for Mr. Weiss. Do we need the doctrine of necessity to vote on the bill list? Yes, Mr. Piro. Um we do need the doctrine of necessity for the bill list. Cuz I think that's part of what >> next? It's in this It's in this >> next one. Okay, I just want to make sure. Okay, thanks. >> like me to read a motion? Yes, please. Certainly. Um [laughter] Did you say not really? >> Yes, she did say that. Uh whereas Dr. Sherry Chanley serves in the capacity of superintendent for the 25-26 school year, and whereas the board must consider certain financial-related matters concerning Dr. Chanley's employment, and whereas upon review of the various conflicts of interest of the current board members, it

162has been determined that six of the members have conflicts of interest pursuant to the New Jersey School Ethics Act, and whereas pursuant to policy 0163, when a quorum of the board has conflicted interests, the doctrine of necessity may be invoked in order to allow conflicted board members to participate and vote only when the Board of Education has fewer non-conflicted board members than are required pursuant to statute to take action. And whereas when invoking the doctrine of necessity, the board shall state publicly that it is invoking the doctrine of necessity with the reasons for doing so and the specific nature of the conflicts of interest. And whereas the board policy further provides that it shall read the resolution invoking the doctrine of necessity at a regularly scheduled public meeting, post the notice of the resolution for

16330 days, and provide the School Ethics Commission with a copy of the resolution. And whereas the School Ethics Act, NJSA 18A: 12-21, was enacted by the New Jersey State Legislature to ensure and preserve public confidence in school board members and school administrators and to provide specific ethical standards to guide their conduct. And whereas the School Ethics Commission has provided guidance regarding the invocation of the doctrine of necessity when a quorum of the Board of Education is not available because members of the Board of Education have conflicts of interest on a matter required to be discussed and voted upon. And whereas the board intends to conduct votes concerning Dr. Chanley. Whereas members of the board have conflicts of interest that would prevent their participation in and vote on matters related to Dr. Chanley are as follows:

164Carmen Alvarez, Gail DePaine, Peter Piro, Usha Sharma, and Charles Zeikner are involved in litigation with Dr. Chanley. Kate Ratner's husband, David Ratner, is a teacher employed by the board. Whereas as a result of the foregoing, the board does not have a quorum to vote on matters related to the superintendent's employment, and the board's counsel and the board have determined that it is necessary to invoke the doctrine of necessity. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the above paragraphs are hereby incorporated by reference, and be it further resolved that the doctrine of necessity is hereby invoked with respect to the board's public votes related to Dr. Chanley this evening, and be it further resolved that a copy of this resolution having been read at a public meeting of the board on March 26th, 2026, be posted in

165accordance with the board's standard procedures for not less than 30 days, and that the board secretary reflect the same in the minutes of the meeting, and be it further resolved that a copy of this resolution be provided to the School Ethics Commission. May I have a motion and a second? >> Motion. Second. Roll call, Ms. Allen. Um Ms. Alvarez? Yes. Ms. Forrest? >> I'm sorry. Wait. I have a question. You said the 26th I thought I may have got the date wrong. It's almost the 26th if we think I'm going to change it to the 25th. And And Ms. Allen, I would just ask that um your minutes reflect the change in the date because the copy that I sent to you has November 26th in it. I'm changing it now to November 25th to

166reflect the >> November? March. >> [laughter] >> Sorry, I'm batting a thousand tonight. I think we all are. March 25th, 2026. Um so Ms. You keep saying November. Mr. Marazin? Yes. Yes. Okay. Dr. Peck? >> Yes. Mr. Piro? >> Yes. Ms. Ratner? Yes. Ms. Sharma? [clears throat] Yes. Mr. Tufano? Yes. Mr. Zeikner? Yes. Ms. DePaine? Yes. >> Motion passes. Okay. So, I think we are back to um Yes, Mr. >> My uh I um sorry. I uh I would like to make a motion. Um before I make that motion, I want to uh just let the board know and be aware that we are contractually obligated to pay any and all of Dr. Chanley's legal bills. So, I'd like to make a motion um to have this board vote to pay for all any and

167all of her outstanding legal bills as to not incur any more cost on the taxpayers when she goes to court and sues this board. Second. Anyone have discussion? Didn't we just talk about this? No, we're not allowed to deliberate. >> we can't because of the Yeah. Okay. Ms. Ms. Allen. Ms. Alvarez? Uh just for clarity, I'm voting on the Mr. Tufano's motion right now. True. Correct. >> Okay. Uh abstain. Okay. Um Ms. Forrest? Abstain. Mr. Marazin? Yes. Dr. Peck? Yes. Mr. Piro? Abstain. Uh Ms. Ratner? Recuse due to conflict. Ms. Sharma? Abstain. Mr. Tufano? Yes. Mr. Zeikner? Abstain. Ms. DePaine? Abstain. Motion does not pass. Yes, we have 10 members. For your 10 member So, my 10 members, so we had a motion and second, so now we're just taking the vote. >> vote. Okay.

168So, um Ms. Alvarez? Uh yes to all, abstain on check number 14696 and 14821 on the bill list. 14696 and 14 821. Okay, here we go. So, Okay. Um Ms. Forrest? Yes to all except abstain on check number 14821 and 14696. Mr. Marazin? Yes to all. Okay. Um Dr. Peck? Uh Mr. Piro? Okay, I have to recuse on 14 561, 14562, 14696, >> [clears throat] >> 14700, 14822, 14870, 14878, and I'm going to abstain on 14821. Okay. Ms. Ratner? Yes to all. I need to recuse on letter J for myself. And then I need to recuse on the bill list um 14410 for Dr. Lehman, 14270, 14358, 14414, and 14630 for Mr. Snyder, 14561, 14562, 14822, 14870, and 14878 for Methason Werbel. Um Excuse me, can you just start again? >> Oh, sorry. 14 14561,

16914562, and then all of the ones for Methason Werbel. Does that help? Okay, 14561 I know, but then we have 2 Um 84 So, 14561, 14562, 14822, 14870, and 14878. Okay. 878. There's more. Okay. Um Okay. Ms. Sharma? >> Wait, wait, wait. I'm I'm I'm not done. >> Oh, you're not done? Sorry. >> [laughter] >> I just wanted you to catch up. Oh, okay. 14880 [laughter] for Mr. Laury, 14696 for Mr. Rubin, and 14821 for Mr. Coy. Okay. 14 for Mr. Rubin, 14696 you said? Correct. Okay. Let me just make sure. 14561, 14562, 14696, 14822, 14870, 14878. And then the other ones, these were the legal ones and the other ones were Uh 14821. 14821, okay. Got that. All right. Ms. Sharma. Should I do my turn now? >> [laughter] >> Okay, [clears throat] no

170for 14821 and abstain 14696. Rest is yes. 6, okay. Okay. Mr. Tufano. >> Yes. Mr. Zickner. Uh yes, except for um 14821. That's a no. >> 4821 is a no. Okay, that's it? Okay. Okay, that was easy. Okay. This wasn't easy. Mr. Payne. Uh yes to all but no on 14821. Okay. So, let's see. We have um So, the checks that do not pass, let me see. We have 1 2. So, 14561 passes. 14562 passes. 14696, we have 1 2 3 4 5 does not pass. 14696, that Yeah, David Reuben. Um 14821 does not pass. 14822 does pass. 14870 does pass. 14878 does pass. Um And that's that's it. So, the only ones that did not pass are 14696 and 14821. Can uh Okay. >> Can Laura, can you read to the public what those

171checks What they are, yes. is for David Reuben, um the attorney, and and 14821 is for William Coy, the attorney. This board basically doesn't want to pay anybody's legal fees. That's basically what's going on. Terrific. Okay. Yes, so my um It's recommended that board action item L under the nine-member vote be approved by consent roll call. Motion. Second. Any discussion? Just thank you to Steve and Shari Weisman for their donation of the adapted bike for Milly. So, Ms. Alvarez. Yes. Ms. Forrest. Yes. Mr. Marazin. Yes. Mr. Piro. Yes. Ms. Ratner. Yes. Mr. or Ms. Sharma. Yes. Mr. Tufano. Yes. Mr. Zickner. Yes. Mr. Payne. Yes. Motion passes. Um so, now I would like to read the um budget resolution. Okay. Yes, yes, please. Okay. So, >> [clears throat] >> be it resolved by the Monroe

172Township Board of Education that the 2026-2027 tentative general fund budget be adopted in the amount of 160,411,874 and a tentative general fund local tax levy in the amount of 135,602,106 and a tentative special revenue fund budget in the amount of 1,229,501 and a tentative debt service budget in the amount of 11,255,437 and a tentative debt service local tax levy in the amount of 10,000,000 10 10,975,494 whereby the tentative 2026-2027 budget totals 172,896,812 and be it further resolved by the Monroe Township Board of Education including the budget is the appropriation of surplus in the amount of 6,703,125 be it further resolved that the Monroe Township Board of Education includes in the budget the adjustment for increased cost of health benefits in the amount of 7,939,427 the additional funds will be used to pay for the additional

173increases in health benefits benefit premiums. Be it further resolved that included in the general fund appropriations is 2,090,000 for deposit into the Board of Education's approved capital reserve account for future funding of capital projects. Whereas the Monroe Township Board of Education has been notified of state aid amounts and whereas such state aid amounts are for 2026-2027 the categorical special education aid is 7,132,661 and for 20 for 2026-2027 the categorical security aid is 985,227 and for 2026-2027 the categorical transportation aid is 3,821,065 and for 2026-2027 the debt service aid is 279,943 and whereas the Mon- Monroe Township Board of Education has estimated a state aid amount pursuant to application and for for 2026-2027 the estimated extraordinary aid amount is 397,484 and whereas policy number 6471 in NJAC 6A:23-7.3 provides that the Board of Education shall establish

174in the annual school budget a maximum expenditure that may be allotted for travel and expense reimbursement for 2026 school year. Now, therefore, be it resolved the Monroe Township Board of Education hereby establishes the school district travel maximum for the 2026-2027 school year at the tentative sum of 165,500 and be it further resolved that the school business administrator shall track and record these costs to ensure that the maximum amount is not exceeded and be it further resolved that members of the Monroe Township Board of Education authorize and approve a transfer of $25,000 of anticipated retained earnings from the proprietary Falcon Care program as a revenue source in the 2026-2027 general fund budget. Now, therefore, let it be resolved the acting superintendent of schools and the business administrator board secretary file the required documents with the executive

175county superintendent. I have a motion to accept the resolution. Motion. Is there a second? Second. >> Second. Is there any discussion? Ms. Allen. Yes. Ms. Alvarez. Yes. Ms. Forrest. Yes. Mr. Marazin. No. Dr. Peck. Yes. Mr. Piro. Yes. Ms. Ratner. Yes. Ms. Sharma. Yes. Mr. Tufano. No. Mr. Zickner. Yes. Mr. Payne. Yes. Motion passes. Thank you. Thank you. Um I just wanted to say on behalf of the Board of Education and I know we must all agree, I'd like to thank Dr. Layman for keeping us updated during both snow storms, which we didn't want anymore. Uh every day he let us know what was going on and he was very efficient with that. I'd also like to thank Mr. Jerry Tag and our entire maintenance department for a job well done with the snow removal

176for both storms. I think the word dedication comes to mind for all the time and effort that they put into making our district ready for the students to come back to school in a timely manner. Mr. Tag even mentioned during the BGT committee meeting that couple of his workers lived far and they asked to stay overnight in the building and they stayed here, got up the next day and were ready to complete the the plowing and getting the schools ready in a very timely manner. Also, Ms. Marder mentioned that her bus drivers and maintenance crew with regarding transportation were also very helpful during the two snow events. Um I want to wish everyone a happy Easter and a happy Passover and that our next board meeting on April 27th, we will have the board meeting

177and a budget hearing at the same time that evening. So, looking forward to see everyone come that evening. And um thank you everyone again, Dr. Layman, Ms. Allen for all you did for our budget. Okay. I'll look for um closed session. I'm sorry, yes, I'm sorry. I was going to say business. Other board busi- I'm sorry, other board busi- I'm having a bad night tonight. >> It's all right. Other board business. Yes. Okay. Okay. Um so, just really quick, want to highlight a couple of things. Um had the opportunity to read uh for Read Across America. I know several of us um had that opportunity. Um I had it at Milly and Woodlands Elementary School. So, I just wanted to thank them for allowing us to come in and read every year. It really reminds

178us one of the reasons why we're doing this um and definitely is appreciated. Um I also I'd had the opportunity to spend to attend SpongeBob last week. The students really did a great job. I'm looking forward to going to Greece next month and I just wanted to thank them for the chocolate bars that are sitting in front of us. Um it's appreciated. Um and then last night I was able to stop by the work-based learning event. Um it was a networking event um where the alumni some alumni, some community members participated in a dialogue and then they um provided some breakout sessions to talk about different employment opportunities and different skills you may need in the workforce. So, I just wanted to thank you to the administration. I saw Mr. Maraldo was leading the uh

179dialogue there for spearheading that as well as to the participants from our community um and the MEF because they also helped to sponsor that event. Um, finally, I just wanted to say like as far as our budget, and this is not for this year, this is not new to anyone here. And I I Mr. Payne, I think you might have been on the county meeting when we heard from the Sayreville BA, I believe it was. But I would love for perhaps us to review how we are handling our budget process as a board and as a district and look at what some of the other districts are doing. Um, I know like what they had said is a lot of their budget defense rounds are like in collaboration with the board. I know that um,

180you know, I watched with the East Brunswick, they had gone through a lot of the line items and things more like individual, almost looking at like the um, the more detailed breakdown of the budget. And so, I don't, you know, again, this is this is what we've had, this is not like there's been changes this year, but I really do feel like it would be helpful for us to just maybe maybe for finance committee or something else break it down a little bit more throughout the year. Um, just to, you know, get a better idea of where we might be able to save if there's a possibility of saving. Um, but I did just want to bring that up and uh, wish everybody a happy spring break because that's coming up as well. Yes, Mr.

181Marzano. Um, so I also got to read at Mill Lake and Woodland. Um, that was a great experience. Uh, and then now we're going back to February cuz it's been that long. I was actually at the NJMEA convention. Um, and um, I saw the Monroe Chamber Singers there. They did an excellent job. Um, I I wish more of the instrumental groups in the in the district would go down there. But you know, just to see Monroe and and they were represented great. Um, I mentioned last uh, meeting Mr. Snyder was, you know, he was the president. He did a great job running that event. It's a It's a It's a It's a convention for like every music teacher in in the state and it's uh, he he ran it like it was it was incredible.

182Um, so uh, big shoutout to to him. Um, and then just as far as um, the budget just for the uh, you guys out there. This is my first time experiencing um, how the budget works and um, it was it was great that you guys have invited us to the board office. Um, and we got to uh, basically, we just saw this is just this is this is just for your information. We got to see this presentation and then ask questions. And that was basically the extent of me as a board member. Um, and there was multiple times uh, given for board members to come in. Not every board member went, which is unfortunate. Um, especially on something that's raising, you know, families and and and our seniors, their taxes. Um, so that that unfortunately

183is something that I'm I'm disappointed that in particular the Monroe board members, the ones who live in Monroe, um, it would have been nice to have everybody go, but that's all I have to say about that. Thank you. Anyone else have something to say this evening? Yes, Mr. Piro. Yeah, I have an issue with uh, what's going on. So, um, there's a there's a conversation between a board member and a private citizen that somehow ends up at the Board of Education. There was no threats made to us. There was no threats here. Yet we have to spend extra money on security and police to be at a meeting for which I still can't understand why. And then on top of that, we have a board member who uses a board email and gets involved in

184this situation to bring this board into litigation. I find it horrible, disgusting. It's unbelievable that we are going to now end up costing wasted money on things that have nothing to do with the Board of Education. Zero. It's ridiculous. Thank you for your comments, Mr. Piro. Anyone else have anything they'd like to say? Mr. Zeikner. Yes, I just want to mention that uh, as a former school administrator and as also as a teacher, which I loved, uh, I had a great opportunity to go over to um, let's see, um, it was the two schools in Mill Brook Mill Lake. >> And yeah, Mill Lake, I'm sorry. I need be corrected on that. And uh, what's the other one that side? Woodland. Woodland, thank you. Uh, I had the opportunity to read to little ones and

185I must tell you it was I had a ball. It was such a wonderful, wonderful experience and I really enjoyed it immensely. I and I'm just going to say something else. I did read also. I was invited to go to um, Mill Lake and Woodland. I was able to make Woodland's, I think it was Mrs. Troiano's class, might not I said her name right. I picked fourth grade cuz I have a grandson that's in fourth grade and I was able to read and my daughter teaches fourth grade in New Brunswick. So I was able to read at her class in fourth grade and fourth grade here in Monroe and it is a wonderful day to be with the students and the questions they ask you were a little bit off key, not in Monroe, but

186they were in New Brunswick. Um, that I really can't mention, but um, it was a a wonderful experience. And I do want I Mr. Snyder did tell me that um, yeah, I don't know if it's chorus, who can correct me, Kate, is performing May 3rd at Rossmoor. He told me this a couple months ago and it's on my calendar. So, anybody that lives in Rossmoor, anybody around Rossmoor, please come. It's the um, church, whatever they call that hall, is the acoustics are beautiful. And the the children that come and make the presentation, it's just it's extraordinary to hear them sing and play the instruments and it's just a wonderful time. So, he always reminds me and I wanted to remind everybody May 3rd at Rossmoor, it's on my calendar. So, anyone else have anything they'd

187like to say this evening? Any board members? I want to miss anybody. Okay. Now we have our um, We did our close public >> public forum. Yes, I'm sorry. Um, I'm closed session items only. >> No. Any. Any. No. Any items. I'm sorry. I'm reading the wrong thing. What's this up here? Don't do that right >> [laughter] >> Happy birthday. Um, just a quick reminder um, about the kindergarten um, request that I made. Dr. Leman, you made a great point that we have the space today. We may not have the space next year because a lot of parents that send their kids to private kindergartens will now decide to come to Monroe. So, I think we need to look at um, we need to call our principals here and have them explain how they are

188making full day kindergarten, what compromises or adjustments are being made so that we can look at a referendum for facilities in the near future. Um, I do want to address the biggest issue that this board is not talking about um, and is very critical to the taxpayers given that we're looking at the budget that we're looking at. I know that's not in your control, but what is in your control is that our superintendent has been at home. A qualified superintendent has been sitting at home for 10 months now getting her salary while the district of 6,500 students is being run by Dr. Leman, the assistant superintendent, and it's not right. And thank God for Dr. Leman, we are, you know, not missing a beat, but eventually something's got to give. And also, I haven't heard

189of any public discussions or votes about compensating Dr. Leman. He's been doing this job for 10 months now. And that is also beyond ridiculous. So, as a taxpayer, I know I don't want my taxes to increase, but at the same time, I know the person who's doing the job of two people for the last 10 months needs to be compensated for it. And there needs to be some conversation around it. The investigation has been going on for 7 months now. 7 months? We've got to draw an end to this. We keep voting no on legal bills, that is going to be another lawsuit, which is again going to be footed by the taxpayers. I am sorry, but there's no sugarcoating this request from the community in Monroe. This needs to be wrapped up now. You

190did what you had to do for whatever you believed in, but now you're in a position to expedite the outcome. Please do. I'm sure if you I I can tell you that people here have the authority to push this forward sooner than now. 7 months is not what we were told. All right, thank you so much. Anyone else wishing to speak? Uh, Ganesh Prasad Amas address 283 Morning Glory. So, a few things, right? I heard that the budget uh, there's an increase of uh, like there's a deficit of $12 million and 7% tax increase. I think that I know we cannot control the health care cost and all that, but what is the board doing to get new avenues of funding from whatever sources it can, right? Like uh, uh, I know the first thing

191is the state funding formula, which has been bad from 10 years, right? Now, I see the board here. Uh I want to see eye to eye to everybody that we are having a case for Dr. for the for Dr. Channi, superintendent, for a legal case, okay? Which we are we have opened the investigation from August, okay? And still doing it. We are in a AI age where if you have all the information, it can just give you all the investigation done in a matter of minutes, okay? We can do that, but instead of that we are not even trying to get If you want to open a legal case, go and open a legal case with the state, right? So, that we can fix the funding formula, get new money for for the Monroe Monroe

192school district, which will be helpful, so that the taxpayers don't have to increase the their tax bill should not go up. So, I want to know what is the board doing for newer new avenues of income? Um The second thing is like I know like I don't know if I mean your board knows more about how to reduce the reduce the budget, right? I mean, how what are the places we can decrease our costs? Um What what That's something also should be we should look at. Um Maybe we don't need more administrators. I know that we have so many principals for every grade. I mean, if we are in a 12 million dollar deficit, and I my taxes are going up 5%, then we should see what administrators we can we don't need, right? And

193then we can run those efficiently. We should do that. So, I would say I wouldn't want those questions answered from the board, okay? And as the second question second thing I want to say is this superintendent investigation which is going on from August, right? Why is it taking so much time, okay? I would never ever run uh vote for anyone on the board who will run again because this is a bad thing which is happening. This is very bad that we are just sitting on the investigation, and whenever I need an answer, you'll say that, you know what? I cannot we cannot answer on this forum. This is so bad. I mean, come on. You cannot You are just doing the investigation from August and just sitting there, and we are paying legal fees. And

194now I saw that the we have voted no for Dr. Channi's legal costs. I mean, what are we doing on this board? I think it should be for the people of the school district and not against. And the third thing which I want to bring up was on the Diwali holiday. Last time you mentioned that um uh the holiday for this year is is on Sunday, but uh I would now I would ask the board to because what happens on Diwali what happens everybody is like the celebrating the holiday. It's It's more more uh kids and every families who are visiting, and then they are late night doing fireworks and all that. So, next day if there has any school programs or any exams, the kids are not in a position to do that, and

195it's not fair for them. So, I would request the board to at least have a constant holiday on Monday. Okay. Um So, now I want my questions answered like from the budget So, it's a two questions, right? The budget perspective, what are the avenues the board is going to do to get more funding, and what is the board going to do to reduce the cost? Okay. Sir, your 4 minutes are up, so anybody would like to answer the gentleman about the budget. Who's going to answer? Um regarding the costs, um we do we spend an awful lot of time. We go through um combing through every single account, looking at past years, looking at current years. >> question was specifically how do you increase get more funding from outside and reduce cost in the So,

196two things, right? How do we get more money, and how do we reduce what cost we have? Okay. Okay, [snorts] that will help reduce the 12 month 12 million dollar deficit, right? Yeah. So, we're not required to respond. Oh, okay. >> Thank you for your questions, sir. No, I need an answer. Your time is Well, your time is up, and we really don't have to respond to questions. No, what but >> [laughter] >> No, I I just need some answers from the board. If you cannot answer me now, like I need something like you are sitting there. There are so many people on the board, right? I need anybody to answer that. Sir, it's not a question and answer session. It's public comment. You've made your comment, and you've run out of time. Thank you.

197You're not going to get any answer on this? No. Your time is up. So, what is the Where is the forum I can get the question answered? Sir, your time is up. You're going to have to take a seat. No, what I'm saying next time when where is the place I can ask the question and get I'll get an answer? It's public comment. There's no public question and answer session. >> what session I can ask my question to get answered? No answers. Sir, please sit down. Thank Take your seat, sir. Thank you very much. Here we go again. Chrissy Skurbe, Monroe Township. Wow, times have changed. What happened to I will always answer the public's questions? Wow, that was That was very unbelievable. Um I have a couple questions. Mr. Marazin made a comment that

198um the board members some board members went to the board office to review the presentation. Um I'd like to know, when did the board actually get the budget? Um because I asked as a as a citizen if I would be able to view the budget before the meeting, um and I was told no. So, I'm wondering when the board actually got the budget, and if you had time to go line item by line item to look at it before coming here tonight and taking a vote because it was my understanding as of yesterday the budget was not completed. Um that's one of my questions. The other question I have, which is very alarming, as the former board president who was part of the negotiations for the teachers' contract, to hear that we have not even

199begun negotiations on a contract that ends June 30th, and we've decided Who decided on the 3.5%? If the the the negotiations committee are the one the board The board is the one who has the contract with the teachers' union. It is up to the board how much money they want to negotiate with the MTEA. It is not up to the administration. I'd like to know, was the negotiations committee I don't even know who the negotiations committee is. We've never heard that there was one formed. But did the negotiations committee have any say in what was being put into the budget? And how come no board members came here with any questions on the budget? $12 million dollar increase from last year, and nobody had any meaningful questions? What kind of fiscal responsibility is that? You

200have residents coming up here asking questions that you should have asked. [cough] And in terms of going to Trenton and advocating, yes, every everybody should be going, quite honestly. Ms. Allen, you should be going. Dr. Lehman, you should be going. Every board member should be going and testifying. But when you go and testify, you have to be careful that what you're saying is accurate. And I listened to Ms. Force's testimony, and yes, we do need more funding. Can we afford kindergarten? Obviously, we can. It's in the budget. So, to say we can't afford kindergarten, and then we're affording it isn't accurate to our state legislators. And to say that the senior tax freeze is hurting our state funding, one has nothing to do with the other. The senior citizens in our town that get the

201senior tax freeze, they pay their entire tax bill. That comes into the municipality. Then they apply through the state through another program that has nothing to do with state funding, and they get reimbursed for the difference in their tax increase. That does not affect our state aid. So, to go and say things to our legislators that is not accurate and and not true, we have to be careful because basically what I heard watching the testimony was we we can afford it, but we just want more. To use personal uh personal stories when you're going to testify in Trenton that your child has to work, and therefore it doesn't have the money to afford daycare, so we should have full day kindergarten. That's not a reason to bring full day kindergarten to Monroe. The reason is

202educational reasons. Full day kindergarten is not daycare. When we go to Trenton, somebody should be looking at what our elected officials in Monroe Township are going to say. It has to reflect the truth. Those are my comments. I'd like answers to my questions about when did the board get the budget, and about the contract. Your time is up, Ms. Skurbe. Dr. Lehman, were you going to answer when the board got the budget? I'll answer. So, we presented the budget to the board members on Monday. They came in. They had an opportunity answer ask and answer quite a quite a few questions. We continue to compile the budget documents. The budget itself was completed, so we were manually creating these documents that everybody sees and double-checking. And the breakout document, the one that you saw, was

203emailed to them earlier this afternoon. The same >> In terms of posting documents to the web for the public, we posted it at 6:15, right prior right as soon as we we began the meeting, and that was consistent with what we've done in the past years. I actually went back and looked and I can actually highlight. So, for 25-26, we moved uh the public portion of We moved these documents to the public portion after we presented. For the 24-25 budget, we posted these documents on the web the following day. And for the 23-24 budget, we posted them for public view during the meeting. So, in terms of us completing them, we got them these finalized documents done earlier this morning, and we provided the in-depth detail, which we we discussed much of the detail when

204we had the members board members in with us. So, Yes. Only the ones that came. And just for the record, in previous years the board got the budget There's no Mr. Abby, there's no more questions. Your time is up. >> Thank you. The board got the budget a week before it was presented, not the day of. So, board members should actually have a problem >> you very much. Thank you for your comments. >> Thank you. Good evening, board member. Dhaval Mehta. As I was asking the question earlier, and I'm not sure as mentioned that it's a public forum, it's not question and answer session. I have just a question regarding the Diwali holiday. Like in Hindu calendar, we consider Diwali as a 5 days, and we celebrate for 5 days. And I understand like Diwali

205is falling on Sunday, and that's why the holiday is not given. Is there any consideration to give the holiday on Monday? Like we celebrate for 5 days. And if not, the question is why even it is not mentioned as a holiday on Sunday on the calendar. Yeah, we we definitely if it's not on there, and I believe it I thought we were going to I thought we were adding it I knew we added a couple of the holidays. We will certainly add that as the Sunday holiday. And that is traditionally for the years in past we've been we've been recognizing that. That's the first day of the 5 days. Um you know, each year. So, the Monday if you know, we can have a conversation if the second day or the third day would be

206the preferred day to recognize. We can we can do that consistently. But, for this coming year we will add it to the calendar on refer recognition on Sunday. Um you know, we we don't have the ability we'd have to take another deeper dive into the calendar for the as the gentleman said it as an extra day off to recover to you know, to you know, from the late night on Sunday night. But, you know, our our calendar is is fixed. It's set. Um and we you know, we certainly I would certainly gladly add it on Sunday for recognition. But, if if we want to have a conversation about is it better to consistently recognize the second day as opposed to the first day, you know, moving forward, I don't you know, whatever day is appropriate.

207And if the first day is the is the preferred day, then we can keep that as well. >> first day is definitely the preferred day, right? Because Diwali is the main festival, though we thought like you know, we celebrate for 5 days, then if it's falling on the weekend, can it be considered like giving on Friday or Monday? Yeah, and and we certainly take a look at that on an annual basis. I actually didn't Sometimes I look a year out to see where it falls cuz I know some of these holidays jump around. Um you know, something we can certainly think about in the future. But, I will definitely um add it as a Sunday marker for sure. I think that's totally appropriate and and absolutely appropriate. Thank you. >> Thank you for your comments,

208sir. Okay, good. Thank you. Bob Valentine Monroe. I just want to make a couple of comments kind of summary about the budget and a discussion about the efforts you're trying to make to get rate improvement and more state support. The budget you approved tonight is basically a blueprint of why the state doesn't need to do a damn thing for you. Or everything's intact, all the programs will stay, kindergartens being blended in, taxpayers will take care of it. It's basically I mean, our individual represents like Linda Green Green side might go and argue for us, but anybody outside just looking at it going to say, "What's the problem here? They're doing everything they need to do." I'm not criticizing you for doing it. I just want to help you I just want you to see that

209the budget the way you laid it out, what you're doing is really to me I look at it as an argument why you don't need to do anything to help us. You're you're making it work on your own by getting the taxpayers to fund it. And maybe you feel you have to do that, and that's your your call. But, you know, every every district would love to have more money, right? They all would. And some have serious problems as was pointed out. But, at the end of the day, you have to manage the budget that you have and not the one you wish you had. And you make choices of what you're going to fund and what you're not going to fund and what you're not going to cut. You made your choices, you made

210your budget, and and you're all individually accountable for that budget going forward. It's not about what you wish you had. You did what you did based on what you had available to you, and you made your calls. The other comment I want to make is about kind of a general comment investigations. One of them earlier we heard about the superintendent. Last month there was an issue with a a second incident with a child, and you know, you didn't want to talk about that cuz there's going to be an investigation. I understand that. Okay? But, at the same time, um we're not talking about the Kennedy assassination. I mean, these investigations need to be done and resolved. I mean, the superintendent issue has the potential I know not all of you may agree, but it has

211the potential to be a very serious exposure. And it needs to get addressed. It needs to get resolved. It's probably the reason why I asked the question I did during the budget. I would hope that this board would try to take the time of a new budget cycle as a as a deadline to get the superintendent's issue finished, resolved, and closed in some way, whatever it may be. Get it done. It's taking way too long. It's been going over a year soon, and it needs to get wrapped up. And if you tell the community you're going to investigate something, let's get it done with some expedition, with some intention, and get it done, and get back to the community and tell them what the findings are, what you learned from the investigation, what recommend recommendations

212you're going to implement. Cuz I don't you don't want the perception that investigation is just a way to say we don't want to talk about it, we're not going to tell you anything about it. Okay? You need to get back to people with answers and resolutions. It's important, and it affects your credibility. So, I would appreciate, you know, really take a hard look and say, "Look, this is these are serious matters, and we need to get them wrapped up, and we need to make sure we're putting the attention to it that it needs to get it done." Cuz I think you're going to have a serious budget problem if it's not resolved by the end of the day based on what your answer was tonight. I know you have a piece in there. You gave

213a good answer. But, if it doesn't get done, you don't have enough to cover. And and it creates all kinds of other issues. So, you really need it's time to really get this thing resolved. Thank you for your time. Thank you, sir. Anyone else wishing to speak this evening? If not, do I have a motion to close? >> Motion. Second. >> There's a second. All those in favor? >> I. I. Have a good evening, and have wonderful holidays, everybody. Thank you.