001Everyone, it's the April Finance and shared committee uh shared services committee meeting. Um I have with me here Dr. Chanley who stepped out for a second, Dr. Layman. I have Mrs. Allen here, RBA. Uh joining us tonight is Dr. Pat, Mr. Piro, and filling in for Mrs. Fabiano is Mrs. Ratner. Uh Mrs. Sharma is running a few minutes late. Um and we also have your Michelle from the food uh services department and we're going the first item on our agenda is for Mrs. Sheller. So please all yours. Okay. Sure. Thank you um Miss Bora. So these are some highlights if you just want to look through them. These are some of the things we do every day this in school. This is just a little glimpse of the first few months of school. Um we've
002introduced dumpling noodle bowls. We always have a nice holiday dinner. We have um fiesta um cilantro lime rice with chicken. And then for opening day every year, Mets provides for the for all the uh staff and the high school columns a nice breakfast for all staff and faculty. Uh you know this year we and raised with uh students funds. We had a senior sunrise for the students. They um had breakfast in the morning and watched the sunrise outside. And it actually it was very nice on October 14th. In fact, it's tomorrow, May 1st, is decision day. And for decision day, we're baking fresh muffins for the students and coffee for the seniors as they make their college decisions. They're going to join us for breakfast. Um we have a new breakfast uh program at two
003schools, Mil Lake and Woodland. Um that's just a little picture of the cart. We started it. Um the high school is offering an alocart breakfast this year on Fridays and they will be serving um part they'll be part of the breakfast program for next year because four more schools will need to join the breakfast program. We'll have a total of six. Just really quick the the breakfast is that only for students who are mandated to receive it or any student at Mill. Yeah. It's for purchase too. So it's $2.25 for purchase um and free and reduced reated for free. um opening meeting just sharing a little bit. You could read through that. We have a lot of long-term associates. Our food service associates tend to stay. It's a nice place to work. They work really,
004really hard. Sometimes when we hire new ones, they don't realize how hard the work is in the kitchen. They don't last very long. Sometimes they make it through a day or two and then they leave. No, unfortunately, because it is very hard work. Um just an example of we do 15-inute trainings every day, all schools. um pre-ervice meetings. This would be a little topic about handwashing. Um METS has a company called Echosshore that comes out and does even a more thorough um inspection than the two inspections that the schools receive. Um we meet with the students regularly. We really enjoy doing that and getting their input about the the meals program. Um this is just an example of the student leaison committee meeting that took place in November. We have another one. I welcome you
005all to attend on I I think um Dr. Chanley sends out and we have so the June one I think you're providing a similar situation and this is something we do I'd say three or four times a year. Children love it. It's a really a great opportunity to get feedback. We always make the joke we will never not have enough napkins now in last lunch. Correct. They really Yes. They talk they talk about everything and the food is excellent. We also meet with all the other um the uh we call them the outer schools but we meet with the K K5 students too. We meet at their schools. Um we have committees wellness committees that we meet with. We have just some nice comments that I included in that for you to take a look
006at. Those are true comments from staff. Um holiday lunch and back to those meetings with the students. They're called leave advisory committee meetings. We meet regularly and get student input about the um the meals program. and on the back some of the support team from METS that help us make all this all this happen. Okay. Um I guess we'll jump right in now to the renewal for next year the uh the budget the 2526 budget. Okay. So we uh took historical data from this school year and preparing the budget for next year. I'm just going to speak about um the the current um budget that we prepared. So the guarantee will increase from 3% at 3% from 105,000 to 108,000. The current index rate is 2.5%. The state requires us to use that um for
007the management fee. They cannot exceed it. So the management fee will grow from 77K to 80,000K for the year. 80,00050. Uh we put some breakfast projection sales um revenue costs associated with the program in the in the plan. Labor cost goes up a little because of CBA. We have to abide by it. So goes up some. We projected a modest 3% food cost increase over current year. Um, I mentioned to the pre at the pre-inance committee meeting that unfortunately local food for school funding goes away next year on October of 25 and that's nationwide unless anything changes. So for this year we were granted $40,000 to spend on only local produce and there was a bid involved. You have to send in all your documents to show the forms that you're using that are local.
008Um, and we have a balance of 26 26099 to get us through October 25th. So, October 2025. The the local produce is great when it's in season, which is usually in the summer when we're not here, but it's also very we in abundance for us in September, October. Now, May starts we start to get heirloom tomatoes from hot house tomatoes. Even asparagus is on the menu tomorrow. Fresh uh roasted asparagus um from a local farm. Um and June. So May, June, September, and October is when we really take advantage of that of those funds. Um do we have to spend that 28 by October? Yes. And it can only be used with local farms. Only with local farms. So you don't have you don't see any issues with being able to do that? No. And
009we we use a purveyor that uh utilizes uh many local farms. There's many that and they're they're specified for school. They have um liability insurance and things behind. We just can't go to a farm stand and buy things. We go like we use Chick Farms out of Pennington, New Jersey, Element Farms. I've brought some of them. They give the little cards even for the when we do tastings with the with the students um and the elementary schools and such. But we do use also who's on that list is an East Frontto farm. I'm not sure if you've ever heard of Pine Farms, his pineies. Yeah. And um he's even going to speak this fall with at the high school with the environmental committee. Oh wow. About farming and about composting and things like that. So
010um it's it's a very it's a very nice program. I'm hoping that maybe I maybe they'll expand it or not cancel it, but it really is due to be cancelled unfortunately October 2025. Um, okay. So, all of that said, with a 25 cent price increase, um we are still significantly below others in the air, but Miss Bora, Miss Bora did request data. So, I I know that Nancy sent you all out the one sheet, right, with price comparison, but you requested the data to see do other districts over the years, the past, I guess, few years. That's why I handed another one because I gave a third year. But we'll look at that one I guess next. So yearon year like last year 2324 versus um this year 2425 you can see yes Monroe did
011have a 35 cents increase. I put a little column of the increases increase in our price over um yearon year 2324 versus 2425. Manellipin 15 cents um South Brunswick 35 cents Marboro 25 cents. Uh Spotswood 15 cents, East Brunswick 55 cents, East Brunswick uh 20 cents at Matuchin. Um so the two districts that didn't have any kind of increase year-onear were Cranberry who's already at four $4.50, which is a very high price, and Jamesburg is at 390. Um so if we take a look at the other form I only just handed out tonight to everyone, Um the increase from 22 to 23. I've put a little column just to show you 23 24. Um Monroe 10 cents went up. Um Man 60 cents, Cranberry 25 cents, West. So do other districts, and you can read
012on. Do other districts raise their meal prices annually? The answer is yes. and we have to react, not re I don't want to use that word, but we have to keep up with the rate of inflation. Um, our prices are still the lowest of all the districts in the in our area. And I actually have colleagues in Bergen County um all over uh Morris County, Middle Sex County, um the Southern District down in Salem and um their prices are higher than so to provide the district with that with $100,000 or more at the end of the year, it's essential that if you think about it, I just want to say it because our food cost should be at 40%. That means if I should be able to make that $3 meal when I'm in the
013elementary school for $120, it's not easy when a milk carton alone is 35. Now it went up to 37 this year. 37 cents for just the milk and and students K to 8, they drink a lot of milk, which is good. They like the chocolate milk and skim, but so they drink a lot of milk. The milk alone, just think about that. So then the rest of that plate minus 37 cents we have to come up with a protein a couple grains, fruits and vegetables. So we do take advantage of all the fruits and veggies that we can get and product we can get from the government for participating in the school lunch program. But we also use a higher quality pro product here for our kids. We want to provide all white meat chicken.
014We don't want to provide for and that's what keeps the participation going up. they come back for more, they might if they give us good comments. It's very important and we want to provide them with the quality items, right? We want to keep doing that. That's why I'm hoping the uh local food for school continues too because we could do all these great fruits and veggies for the kids. Um, and I I will share if we were to not raise a 25 cents, if we put in the calculation in the formula in that sheet, a 20 cents increase would get us to 86 guarantee 86,86 860 with a 22 increase to guaranteed 86. The guarantee would go to 8686. So think about every nickel of increase equals 21,972. About $22,000, believe it or not, is
015a nickel in a bill for every Yeah. So if we went even lower to 15 cents, it the guarantee would come down to 641415. Now 20 guarantee for this year was 108. Is that right? the guarantee 108 105 10 it's additional okay this year would be if we add the quarter it would be 108 for this year for for 2526 the upcoming year if we don't add the quarter starting September with the new prices if I'm comparing to and tell me if I'm seeing this wrong last year with the price increase our guarantee was 105 8 why did I see 108 here in both these sheets that's the that's for the upcoming school Oh, so the Okay. So, yeah, that's the plan for 2526. So, this is with the 25 cent increase. Yes, correct. That
016would be one of 180. Yes. If if we don't increase anything, what is it that we're looking at in guarantee is what my Yeah, that's I know you don't want to. No, no, I'm going to think about it, but I'd like to hear that. A negative $1,800 without increase. And we're not factoring in the 40,000 in grants that we were getting for 2 years, which that's factored in with that. Well, no. So, we won't have that. So, does that 1,800 get worse? Negative8. It could. Yes. Um, so I guess obviously having that guarantee of income is is good and I know budget wise we we need every thing we can get. Um well go ahead. It's not part of the general fund. It's not part of the general fund. So it it doesn't offset costs
017from our general fund. Okay. It is a self- sustaining program. These numbers our revenue that's our revenue from this program, right? It's a guarantee from the company that we utilize that. It's the it's the profit profit loss. It's the bottom line. It's a profit loss which is a loss without a guarantee. Right. I guess just like thinking about it, I obviously would never want to be in a position where we're losing money. I would just be knowing that we've raised prices and if we have to raise them in order to provide similar services, yeah, you know, of course we we do what we have to do if but I would just with something like this where it's you know nutrition for for kids to raise it also raising the amount we're getting as a guarantee.
018I I could go both ways on it, you know. Yeah. There's more to it than that. There's more to it as far as the district's cost. Yeah. So, in addition to Mats, we um have, you know, additional cost. Um we charge um custodial staff that is strictly working in the cafeteria, you know, the time they're working there um during the school year. Um as well as um repairs and maintenance on equipment, right? who purchase our own equipment um and small wares and such. Um but those go out of our operating budget. No, they go out of the same fund, enterprise fund because we can use this for others associated with the go within the food service. You have to make the money to offset the cost. If you don't have the money coming in, you
019don't have the money going out. This labor here does not include custodial stuff. It's just the labor in the cafe area. The food staff is it's not the custodial stuff. equipment maintenance is not in in this. So what I'm understanding is the 108 that is guaranteed with the 25 cent increase would help offset for custodial cost custodian staff cost of the actual Right. If we don't increase by 25 cents, if we don't increase at all, we are at a negative $1,800. Yes. So we we would not be able to support the custodial staff and any maintenance that could come up from this enterprise. It would go from operating budget. Now am I saying it right or wrong? No, it wouldn't go from operating budget. Um we there is some amount of surplus but when that's
020gone there is nothing. Um and then we would if we had to transfer money from the general fund budgeted item to transfer. Yes. So that's fine. So that's the point of this conversation is just to understand the data with every absolutely situation. So if we don't increase, that's what we're looking at. And and one more question before I open up for questions for everybody. The comparison sheets that the board members are looking at, I believe that is executive uh attachments. Um can this be made public? Um this data, can this be made? I would say yes cuz I don't I I don't feel it it really is information that the public needs to see to understand where we stand as they can hear me say it but I'm not reading these numbers and looking at
021data is different. So I would I would want this to be done before the board meeting okay because um you know after we discuss here this is going to be up for discussion and vote in the big in the full board meeting. So I would appreciate if people who listen to this commercial meeting can go back into the agenda and look at these price comparison. Actually all of the data that is public any of this data that is public related to this conversation should be uploaded in the administrative content part of our agenda so that not just board members but public that has questions on this because the data speaks for itself. It does. It does. I mean it's right here but we we want everybody to see the data. Absolutely. Um, so the conversation
022here and I'm sorry, did I interrupt you or were you done with what you had to share? Right. So the conversation here tonight is that Monroe is still the lowest price district in terms of our meal prices and we have a recommendation to increase the cost by 25 um in elementary, middle, and high school which would make elementary $3.25, 25, middle school $3.35 and high school $3.35. Correct. Um even when we do that as per the data shared with us, we would um be the lowest price just price um still um and this data will be available to the public. Um if we don't do that, this enterprise will not have any projected u income. If we increase it just by 10 cents, we'll have a projected income of $64,000. That would be 15 cents.
023And that would bring the prices to 315, 325, and 325. But that would be uh 641141. Yes. And if we buy 20 cents, it would be 86 086. Okay. Let's talk about this. I would like love for you all to share your thoughts on what you've been presented. Ginsburg data is here. So I'm sure Dr. Pek is thinking I'm going to go back and ask him to reduce our prices about it. But it's the same thing where you need to still have that backup of money for a broken fridge or that and it was less than minus and so we stayed steady at our 390 for a while but um it's been 390. Mr. Pure, Mrs. Sharma, any thoughts on this? No, I'm okay. Thank you. I I don't think 25 cents is is a
024very big increase when you look at other districts compared to us. And I agree. Um so I I'll share what I told Miss Sher the other day u when she came up with this and that's why I asked for more and more data to help me feel better. Um we increased by 25 cents last year and we are one of the unique districts in that list of districts that is been at the disad disadvantage of lacking equalization aid and and our taxpayers have supported the majority of our school budget. Um we don't give full day kindergarten. There's a lot of things that our taxers don't get and so some areas we compensate and a you know a more reasonably priced lunch could be one of those you know not insignificant but an area that you
025know in in current economic times where everybody is feeling the pinch like we cannot you know talk around it. It's a fact for everybody. We are moving towards really desperate times. 25 cents a meal does mean something to tax. While I as a board member can see the need for it like it's the data speaks for itself. I I honestly feel that we cannot go without an increase because we will be at a loss, right? Do we go to 25 cents or do we find a way to stagger this year-over-year given that this is such a bad year? Maybe we do a little bit less this year or just do it, rip off the band-aid, do it one time and not talk about this for a few years. Um, but we've increased by 25 cents
026and we're back again having this discussion. You know, we did last year, we're back again having this discussion even though at that year it's a discussion we need to have given what we're looking at. So, um, we're not making any decision tonight. I would like for the entire board to deliberate on this before they vote. I'm sure you could put it on the um I'm not sure how we go about this. You if you put it on the agenda with this number, then it's a yes or no. Well, correct. But if we allow for the board to discuss the number and come to a cons consensus as to maybe we go lower, then I believe they can make a resol. Oh, we can make a recommendation as this committ resolution. Come to a consensus and
027make a recommendation as committed. Does everybody feel comfortable? I mean, I'm fine with it. My only concern was I don't want to raise it more than what like I want us to cover our cost. Absolutely. So like including the cost of the additional things aside from that. So you know it's not a a big amount right but you know every little like you sort of said there you know we don't want to increase everything like I know there's other things that like it's just the economy you know it's what's happening. Um, but if we need to increase it in order to cover the expenses, then that's you know what we need to I I think I would explain it this way. If we increase it by 25 cents and our guarantee brings us to 108,
028it's comparable to what our guarantee was last year at 105. I'm just thinking numbers. I'm not thinking about all the different compar. So just as a person, okay, so you say we're running it like a business, right? So what was your guarantee last year? Our guarantee was 10 105. Yes. And what will your guarantee be next year? 108. So it's $3,000 which is negligible. And in order to get that it's 25 cents. So that is why that would be my recommendation. That's a very logical clean way of looking at it. Just to make it easy for everybody understands that's way easier than looking at 340 460. It's you know that kind of data. Although I do think we should give it. I do think we should give it because there's some people that love and
029they want they love to find the data and they want to look at it. all the data. But for people that are right, for people that are like me on the bottom line, what does it mean? It means to keep it status quo within $3,000, which is negligible at over 100,000. We need to the 25 cents is what gets us there. Yes, that's how I would say. Does the committee feel comfortable moving ahead with the 25 cent recommendation or do you want to move ahead with a lower? I think I'm fine. I think we should I'm fine. We should move and make a decision discuss and find out from the board. You know 45 cents is nothing. We are looking for as contractor you yeah you explained it very well because people look at the
030numbers. If we post all the numbers ahead they're going to get more confused more questions asked and again decision will not be made. It's only 25 cents and we're taking care of the kids of the parents will understand. Well I like I like the quality of food. One of the things that was brought up on more than one occasion as you know because the concept of white meat versus let's say we'll utilize rib meat if that's the right term. Not that there's anything wrong with it because some but the difference in quality the students want that white meat. There is a difference when they go to eat it and um I love all lunch. I stay out of the lunchrooms because it's just you could just gain weight because the food is quality. It really
031is. Yes. So I agree with you. To your point we do use we use the it's called the um the the red line. Mhm. for Tyson, which is Tyson's white meat. All white meat chicken. It costs It costs more. Mhm. But um we want to get the better quality product. Well, I can I can tell you that my boys love it. I bet they love the and double lunch it. So, it wouldn't be 25 cents for me. It would be 50 cents a child. But they're well said and that m and that matters. They're going boys. We just recently brought in like a chickenless nugget for the little ones at the meetings they brought up that they wanted. You know, there's a lot of vegetarian students afterwards with morning star and it needs a CN
032child nutrition label. We can finally bring it in and that was why we couldn't bring it in the past didn't meet the guidelines but now they're the guidelines are it now means it. So we listen to the students we give them what has broad appeal. Could I just ask one question? What? Like um high school, middle school, and then all the elementaryaries. What's the most lunches purchased? Would it be high school, the middle school, or all the elementary? Yeah, that's a good question, Pete. I was just curious. Let's see. The elementary, if we combine them all together. Yeah, that's what I mean. They're pretty high. They're higher than the middle. And then the high school is the highest just because of the population, right? Because my other thought process would be when you look at
033a lot of these the elementaryaries is a lot less than the middle and high school. So like if I was thinking 20 cents elementary um 25 middle 30 high school or just something that because if you look at a lot of these a lot of them are you know 20 30 40 cents difference between the elementary and do you get you know what I mean the elementary is a smaller portion probably than Yeah. And I'm wondering if that's why the other districts do it like that is that the elementary is less money than that's a proportion like the high school um the high school portions are larger very larger we've always had we've always had those three tiers last year I believe it was Mrs. um it was um Mrs. Fabiano make a recommendation because
034portions aren't that different from middle and high to keep it consistent. We've made a consistent middle and high school price where a lot of the schools are if people get middle and high are so we would have high I was just wondering if we did like 20 25 and 30 I mean the high school would be five cents more but I feel like what you give a high school student for $345 you're going to spend if you go get the general child you're spending $15 at the Chinese restaurant. You come here, you get a beautiful We give the middle school pretty we give the middle school the same product. So we give them the general s and and the same wondering if that'll help cost if the most bought is the high school and that
035was 5 cents more compared to the elementary that might help you like building a bigger surplus too to you know in case something happened or I just just put thought I guess you'd have to figure the it's an excellent thought you figure the calculation a good idea if you figure the calculation as long as it's not a loss and the 105 becomes 108 and the 108 I'd come one day. What are we willing to go up to for high school so that we could give her some sort of a baseline? I would just say 20 cents middle 25 high school me instead of 25 25 20 25 30 and it's still 25 25. So your calculation wouldn't really change much. It won't change. No, it could. It could based on her meal count. Yeah, cuz
036the meal counts if it's really going Oh, yeah. I guess based on the meal count, right? It is wonder if that I don't think it's going to make it much. I just didn't want to say you did double the elementaryaries and we made it lower then high school's less than this year the middle school and the high school are the same price. Yeah. Yeah. Do you know how which schools like if there's more kids that buy second one because my back do you have that data where they're buying like a second meal out of curiosity? The middle school too is and is pretty. So it's pretty much big on that. Not so much the elementary. Oh, so just my son then my son is like the ring. We we it is due to the state
037by the 30th of May. Okay. That spreadsheet has to be approved with board minutes by the 30th of May. Just an FYI. Yeah, we need board minutes, right? Has to be uploaded. So, I guess my only concern is if we if we not it's a good question or good comment, but if we do that um do we have to come back to this committee again? That's the only thing. No, I would um I I want to also think of it from a parent perspective and um this way you're giving the same impact to all parents no matter what. Oh, so you keep it the same price regardless of whether you have a high school or an elementary school. You're keeping the same difference in your uh on your pocket, right? Because end of the day,
038you know, we're public producers, too. So, we might we don't want to make elementary parents happy, but high school parents unhappy. It no matter what we do, you know, we are going to face criticism on this. It's natural. But that's why I wanted to share these numbers so people can look at other town numbers and see that we're not we're not being we're not running a business profitable business here. We're just trying to balance our books. And you can share it and for someone that wants to if they if this question comes up at the full board, I'll just explain like I explain it and then it just it solves the problem. Anybody who likes numbers and wants to look at it and it is very interesting to see the difference in cost though comparisons
039to our neighboring districts. I mean we love Jamesburg and they're one of us but they are more money than us. But the the thing is that we we all know our grocery prices have gone up. The labor costs have gone up everything. So if if the the lunch prices are going up by 25% it is it would not be if we had if we had surplus in our budget to manage that we you know to to not have to worry about that it would have been another situation but so I'm going to say that this committee is going to push forward the recommendation that Mr. Scholler has brought to us tonight. I also want to give you a shout out for this beautiful presentation. I did ask Dr. Layman that this be available to all
040board members because only the ones in the committee are seeing it. Um, you do great jobs and for those board members that don't have kids in the school system, they don't really hear. I do. She does a fabulous job. There's no question. Yeah. So, thank you for your time tonight. Um, and we will see how the vote goes on on Monday. Okay. Thank you. Thank you. You send that to me. I'll add it. I will. Thanks. Next item on the agenda is the preschool. Oh my god. Can we not talk about one by one, but I'm sorry. The next item on the agenda is the preschool integrated tuition rates increase and I did say increase so I took the call for you but you can do the explanation. Miss currently there is a very um
041nominal hourly fee for this program for the pre-select ready um program of $822 an hour. Um, and the program provides a um a classroom setting where there's a certified um preschool special education teacher along with par professionals. Um they meet 5 days a week for two and a half hours a day for the whole school year. So again, what they're what what we're charging right now is $8.22 an hour. So we would like to um ask the board to increase that amount to $986 an hour. Everybody helps you involve. So, I'm a parent of a 20-year-old son who did this program when he was four years old and I paid the exact same amount of money. So, 16 years ago, I was paying $8 and I parents are still paying $8. So, when I first
042heard that number, I literally did, you know, raise my eyes and roll my eyes like how could we have not changed that price? So, from um I guess Dr. Dr. like can you just explain just what integrated pres uh students with individual needs and they're required to attend public preschool. Uh it's a half day program. It's a two and a half hour program but part of the program that they're required to attend is a uh integrated program. So in order to provide the integrated students, we service approximately 35 to 38 students uh pre-K students each year. Uh parents can register to attend the program. Transportation is on their own. They pick up and drop off. Um it's been a relatively consistent number. Um and it's something that actually the state monitors whether we have the
043right appropriate students with IEP to students ratio uh in the general education program ratios. Um, so it's important that we keep the cost competitive, extremely competitive because we want to make sure we can provide the appropriate environ for our learners. So, do you ever have a weight list for it or you have a weight list? Always. You got to apply early or you don't get it. That and that's why we want to have this conversation because we do want to be always respectful of our fiduciary responsibilities with recommendations what we approve. But we also have to live in the real world. You cannot get a babysitter a teenage babysitter who are well it's a teenage babysitter $9 a it's impossible and it's quality education certificated uh teacher and um we feel it's warranted you know
044we're trying it's unfortunate that we we don't want to do everything at once you know 25 cents here you know 80 whatever it is 80 90 whatever 75 cents there but at the same time it it's something the the reality has taken over that all these costs you We don't want to lose money. Yeah. No, that's what it comes down to. If I if I remember correctly, we do run the F and SNAS program in a high school which is part of the working with children class and that program is free lottery based. So yeah, you know, we're offering two really great programs and the need is theirs. There's a wait list for both of them. Um and of course parents and they get in are trying to get into the fall network. I think
045that does start later in the year. So, they've got to make a choice either the integrated program or that. I've had three children go through the pre uh integrated preschool program. It's a great unified inclusive classroom where um you know, children learn early, you know, how to be with all kinds of uh students. It's a great program, but it it definitely needs a great rate. It does. We we we are we're right now not mandated to provide it. Um it's a great program that we're providing but we can't run anything at loss correct. We just it's not if it's running at loss we can continue to do this. Anybody has any other opinion on this? Everybody supports the rate increase on the so we can get this recommendation over to the board. Appreciate. Um all
046right. Next item in the agenda is the monthly review of the attorney fees. Uh this was um we had $15,700 from the Bush Law Company and we had $116 only from Forzo this month. Um anybody has any concerns that can be publicly discussed on this. All right. I just want to compliment Bush because I really like the detail on the Excellent. Yeah, you're right. Just to be able to see that right in the front front page. So the the bill is really great. Um, moving on to the next item on the agenda, which is the bill list. I do have a few questions that I haven't had the opportunity to ask uh Laura earlier, so I'm going to ask them right now. Um, there is a $333,000 bill. This check number 06762. 06762. EACM court.
047Is this related to apple carting? Yes, that's part of the broad grants. Yes. And DM Empor is our vendor that has worked on it. Yes. Okay. That is correct. Okay. This was the work that was already done. All right. Um there was a bill for Kogat testing for Riverside insight. Riverside insight $16,000700 $16,700633. Is this a software that we pay for every year? So uh that is the Kog testing. Okay. Uh we have in the past couple years transitioned to like an online version of the test. We used to pay for print tests. The online version is actually cheaper than what we pay for the print test. So yeah, that's the testing yearly. It's a yearly cycle. Okay. Yep. And we uh we have our set grade levels we do assessment on and we also
048do uh new students of the district and certain levels as well. Okay. So Yep. Heroes and cool kids. The amount is 5,500. I'm curious by the name. What exactly is this? Chat 06615. You know what that is? You excellent. Go ahead. It's just a program um high school children um work and they go down and they do presentations and they also have an affiliation. What else do they do besides and so it's basically Oh, reading to the elementary student. Oh, they give the book away. Is that different? Okay. Yeah. But but what they do is through their partnerships of working with the other children, they mirror the fact that he the average child is the hero and the cool child and the cool kid. But it's actually a program and it was started my god
049it was a really long time ago. So I remember it was Mr. Been. Am I right? Yeah. Back in the day. Wow. How many years would you say the program has been here? As long as that I mean what's the cost involved? What is the cost for are they using books or using supplies? I think it's through the programs that are provided the criteria. Okay. So, it's a standard program that's standard in house program. Okay. Okay. I can learn more about it later. There's a check for DI uh group architecture the it's for $8,600. I'm curious. Is this part of is 6480? Is this are we are we in the middle of some design studies or is this also part of um Appleguard right the amount is just 8,600 but the eent will she'll look
050it up but it could have it could have been because they were involved as well with program they were yes but she'll know she sees it for Yes. Yes. That that is part of the rise. There you go. All right. And my final question on the bill list is for the last board meeting. I'm not sure if it's the last board meeting or which board meeting, but we're paying the township of Monroe $1,768. Is check 6469. Is this a cost of police service? Could be. She'll let you know. Why do we need it in that B? This is more than what we paid the lawyer for. So the only time I ever have police is when it's requested by the president. So President Fabiana requested um I do provide it. Yeah. So that was for
051the board meeting um that we had in in March. In March, I said March. And I and there has been police presence that has been requested. One officer will be there beginning at 6:00 p.m. because that's when they come. I had originally said um 7:15, but they said 6:00. They did call today to confirm. So, and I did request directly from the Monday, May 5th. This is this is I I will I'm going to bring this up in the board meeting to find out what is the reasoning behind because this cost and I've already been you know bringing this up that our c the money that we paid to the township you know is is we're just changing the pockets of the taxpayer and but there is no way to get it without paying that
052is their requirement. Um and you know I will as you know secondary to the course I have to just give a compliment. You know we work hand inand as you know with my touch police department. They're wonderful. I reach out to the chief. It's immediate. His response is immediate. We're very fortunate that they accommodate us just one two three as far as whether or not the board thinks the the court should be spent. That's a separate conversation. But their their fees are their fees and we've had such a conversation for me to ask. You guys are just doing what I've been asked. Absolutely. Okay. And this is definitely the previous u the March board meeting. That's correct. And anybody else has any questions on the bill list. Oh, go ahead, Mr. Adams. Just um one,
053you guess the other one I had had. Um 06281 Forever LLC. Take it like this. 0681. Uh 06281 or $2,62. um something to do with um maintenance custodial um a service. I think it's fire something um with the fire um alarm system, but I can double check on that. Okay. Cuz it says it was for the high school. Um so it might have been for the system at the high school. It is. Yes, it's for the high school. Okay. Mhm. Yeah. Okay. Thank you. That's it. Did you have any other questions? No. Okay. Anybody else? All right. Um um do you want to speak to the annual contracts that we have? We have three annual contracts. Yes. So we have one from um Bush Law Group. Um so that contract they have no increase same
054rates that we're paying. Now, this contract runs from May 5th, 25 through the 2026 rework meeting, which would be January of 2020. Yeah. Whenever. Yeah, they they dated it. They didn't date it. So, we don't know when rework meeting in case it gets delayed or anything. So, it's through that meeting at that point them or an internal which would be generated. Okay. We don't normally contracts have been like that. But um usually you did it, right? Yeah. Right. You usually do the July year. Yeah. That's how we normally done. Yeah. So why does it have to be chained at the re whose decision was that? That's how they sent their contract. Um can we ask them to do it? We just so you know regarding the reall. So because we didn't do a reall and
055we're not required. And we did confirm with the attorney um to do a reorg in January because of the way it worked because of you were on since April and then we moved into it was moved to November. We had this conversation actually we had a phone conference. We did miss Allen and myself and I Dr. Lman and me have been present and he started having this conversation about how all of these contracts had to be and we we realized that the concern that brings us because as a school district we run on the July 1 start. You know it's banks are different. We know that everything's different. So we said is that legally required because we always follow the law and he said no. So we said if that's not legally required Miss Allen
056was very strong I will say to say that will not work for us because that will cause yeah take everything though beyond. So when he agreed that legally we could do it the way we do it. I guess he made the decision though. However his company he wanted it done the way he suggested. So that would be my explanation which is which is makes sense right based upon the conversation. I guess just and I appreciate them keeping their fees where they are. I guess my concern comes that this is a contract that puts us in the middle of the school year if if there was something where they needed to raise their rates and you know we're in a situation where like we have to either do that or look for a new law firm
057right in the middle of a school year. Well, I guess business is business but we have to also believe we also have to believe that we have a very good professional relationship with them. They do an exceptional job for us and we have to believe that they would be cognizant of the fact that we are an entity in which we do run to July. But I do believe that the reason why it was shared this way is because he was he was explaining well you have a new board and and that's the way contract should be and as long as we said it'll be legal and he said it was legal. So okay because it's legal we left it and I guess he made the decision to say well we have a new board so
058therefore it should be January but there's no change. There's no change right? So, we have to assume we'll be hopeful that that he would remain consistent. Okay. Of course. But I hear exactly what you're saying because we could be in the middle of the school year and all of a sudden you could say, "Well, you know what? I want to go $50 an hour." And we could say, "Well, we don't have that kind of money." And then we have to look for a new I mean, I think it's great. I don't like it's not that and I don't think that you would do that. I just with this economy, especially, you just never know what could happen. So, I'd be concerned and I'm and I'm making assumption. I'm not speaking for him. I want to
059be clear. All I'm doing is sharing a conversation that we had about all contracts ending. He was saying is ending December 31st. She was like, "Oh, no. Oh, no, no, no, no. That can't happen." Would it be all right for um for me to make the act that you can ask them one more time that the board at the finance committee was concerned about the would he be willing to be consistent and go with the 30th deadline as we follow? Very well. He might say absolutely not even thought of it at the time when he Right. Right. But right but the explanation I think he just did it that way because he thinks everything should be done that way. Yeah. And so we make the ask and if it works great in fact we so
060on the agenda you will see the date according to whatever his response is. Yeah. If that's the committee. That makes sense. Okay. And Miss Ratner to answer your question. It was fire panel replacement. Oh god. Thank you. Um okay. So the next contract, Phoenix advisors remains the same. That's the um financial advisor who we just EP. We use them a lot. Yes. And the final one is for Samuel Klein and Company. Um they have an additional fee that's the auditor um for auditing the capital project fund which is is new this year with which includes the EIP um project and the broad grants um as well as two slightly over a 2% increase in basic fee. Okay. Is everybody okay with that 2% increase though with the B? Okay. Okay. Um the next item on
061the agenda is a tax levy incentive. This is um um on my ask, Miss Allen is going to share a conversation that happened between the um the business office and the board leadership and then it was shared with the rest of the board through a confidential because action had to be taken. Um but we do want to share what went you know what went on with with relation to a tax levy incentive that Monroe qualified for. Okay. Go ahead. Yes. So this is a program where certain school districts who met the request authority from the commissioner of education to increase expenditures to satisfy the fairness and efficiency standards. So we did meet those qualifications. However, to receive this aid from the fiscical year 26 appropriations act, we have to increase our tax levy for the
062majority of the increased expenditures. So, in our case, um the maximum expenditures that we could apply for for this um additional um incentive program would have been 1,700,000. Of that 1,696,000 would be an increase in the general fund tax levy and only 84,000 would be supported by the tax levy incentive aid which would be the state aid. So when we you know calculated these uh amounts we uh immediately said no this isn't going to work for us. Um so we did um as Miss Bora said we did speak with with her and Dr. I was there as well. We agreed that that was not a good thing for our district. Um it had been reversed and that we were getting 1.6 million in state. Um would be a different story, but um $84,000 is not.
063Basically, this incentive allowed us to tax our community more more and this board understands that that is not what we've ever wanted to do. We've been fighting hard to get more money from the state, but we do not support increasing the tax levy cap. Uh so it was pretty unanimous among the board members that we do not want to take advantage of this um and um so we did not we did not take any action on it. Correct. All right. The next item on the agenda is the gov deal's um transportation update. Yes. So we have two 2014 25 fast food vans that are ready to be retired. So we are just um keeping the point asking for permission to sell them our deals. By all means, whatever money we can make, but you have
064any objection to this. All right. Thank you for that update. Uh the last item on the agenda, we may be running a few minutes over, Mr. Pur, I hope you don't mind. We did ask for um we asked the administration if they would support this committee bringing to them a few questions from the community members on the budget that is going to um be um you know passing board meeting. Um there was um interest from the community to learn more but at the same time um reluctance to show up at board meetings for the public hearing and so questions were shared. Generally um I had some community members reach out to me. Mrs. Ratner had from community members reach out to her and I asked that this could be brought to the administration and by
065discussing it in this committee meeting we would be able to um in a recorded setting where the community members can go and watch at their own time get answers to some of their questions. So um the first question that I got was about tech um and I'm I'm going to just share that here and Dr. you or Miss Allen, whoever likes could reply to it. The community member wanted to know that why are we not providing Chromebooks to all of our students starting from second grade like a lot of our neighboring districts do. Some even charge like a $35 annual fee. Um they want to know if this is related to budgeting. Yeah, I would say uh there's multiple angles to it. Part of our strategic plan is to look into expanding a onetoone initiative
066the middle school and eventually elementary level. I think what that looks like has to be defined, right? Are they bringing them home or is it just onetoone access whether in the building? Um and that may vary depending on the age level and the grade level and or even the content. Um so there's some things that have to be settled. uh there is a financial piece in there and I think that goes to the responsibility of us um strategically planning out the acquisition andor the maintenance and refreshing of devices that we have in our care. Um right now you know we are on a cycle for our iPads which is a consistent line item budget number for us. We do the big adoption each year, but it's spread out. Payments are spread out over multiple years
067with an offset of the sale of devices on the first year. Doing something similar so we have a consistent number because when we think about budgeting at at at our scale, we're looking for consistent expenditures um year-over-year. we really get ourselves we could put ourselves in a challenging spot when every couple years we have a ridiculous increase and or decrease because you're trying to compensate. So to answer this this question specifically, it's a financial piece that we will we certainly consider. It's in the plan to take a look at what it looks like down the road. Um but the $35 fee that other districts charge, I suspect that's probably an insurance kind of fee yearly. It's not a cost of device acquisition. There's no device that for two or three years could be acquired for
068$30 a year. Um so I think it's a little more complicated. It's yeah, you know, it's not a um a purely financial piece, but finances are 100% a part of the conversation and it's a long-term planet and not a long term, but it's a sequential like we do that curriculum. Content areas are staggered, so there is a consistent turnover and reacquisition of uh textbooks andor supplies. So, we don't get a massive hit every once in a while. It's a consistent. It is partly tied into our budget and we're managing the best we can. Our goal is if if you were to go back and look at our technology plan. Uh our goal is to uh get to one is to one in the middle school but in the school maybe not at the correct home
069and eventually in two elementary schoolers do have one and it's already in there. So you know as part of um also once again we always talk about goals. So the board goals match the superintendent's goals which match the strategic plan because we want everything to be logical and and have a progression and it is also listed there looking at what would be and I think you said it best what are the needs and how would we fill them. So absolutely it's financially related but it's not only financially related. So they've already have the surveys going on in the middle school. There's there's um meetings going on in middle school to look at technology. What does it look like? Should it be two carts for every classroom at the disposal? Would it absolutely be Chromebooks? Would
070it be Apple? We don't we have an Apple environment at high school. Does that mean we want an Apple environment in middle school? Maybe yes, maybe no. So these are conversations and it is part of our strategic plan and our technology plan manages within the strategic plan. So it's all consistent with the board school board goals and the superintendent's goals. So everything's working in alignment. Mr. Rman, do you want to take a question? We could probably do one by one otherwise I don't want to hog the Okay, sure. We can together. Um so the first question um that I had asked was about uh the surplus and how that works with regards to the budget. Um and so I just wanted to know if you could share a little bit more about how that so
071um excess surplus is calculated as certified by the auditor as part of the audit every year. Um it's the portion of surplus that is statutoily required to be included as revenue source in the budget two years after. So the June um 24 surplus would be in this current year budget for that we're doing right now 2526 um it is the amount that exceeds the legally restricted assigned designated or permitted as unassigned fund balance. So for example we have fund balance restricted for unemployment um reserve for encumbrances reserved for excess surplus and capital reserve. The calculation is based on 2% of general fund expenditures as adjusted to determine the allowable unassigned fund balance. So, and so again, two over 2% um anything over 2% would go into excess surplus go into the budget as a revenue
072source to be used against the appropriations. So, it's used for different service. And this is different than the 2% tax. Even though the numbers are the same, this is we're not talking about the tax levy. You're talking about the excess money that stays back when one budget year ends. Up to 2% can be put into our fund balances and everything else has to become statutoily part of our um budget in in the alternate cycle, not the immediate next cycle, but the alternate cycle. Yes, definitely. Yep. And I do want to stay here that at at this point our we if if we look at our our older budget presentation we did have a time when year-over-year our surplus used to be in double digits 11 million 15 million we've seen those numbers we are currently
073looking at numbers that are within two 3 million 3 million I think this year so um we have because our you know the 2% tax levy which allows us to take the money from the taxpayer is only helping us at this point. It's not over what our needs are. It is just about what our needs are. And so we don't have that much surplus. We managed with 2% using our surplus in years when our expenses were more and the tax levy was allowing us to get less from the taxpayers. So it's it it really has we're just about not we don't have the luxury we had of a higher surplus and from what I'm understanding that surplus would have had to be used towards appropriations anyway because you keep always it always was gets appropriated
074somewhere in the budget. Yes question. Sure. So I just have some because there you know there's always misinformation spread around about the budget and uh I just like to know Dr. Chie, the administration creates our budget. Correct. I'm sorry. The budget's created by your admin the administration. They create the budget, correct? Okay. And then could you just explain why the administration believes this budget is fiscally responsible? Like why are we doing what we're doing this year? So the only parameters that were really provided to me by the board of education was if possible not to have to go out for a question. We all a second question, but it's really not a second question. It's really the only question. So, additional spending. Additional spending. So, we I kept on saying it obnoxiously. We put the
075car before the horse intentionally. Started super early, earlier than any other year we have ever even when I was principal. So, started earlier in the last 22 years to make sure that we if we needed to go out for a go out for the question, we would know way in advance. Our goal was not to. Our goal was also to not cut any programs from children, not put any additional expenses on parents like a paytoplay or what have you and make sure that every child was getting I'm not going to say thorough and efficient because we're way above we don't ever want to be thorough and efficient. Way above thorough and efficient without going out. What we were able to do and I feel very proud of this budget. What we were able to do,
076we worked together. Laura is the brains financially. I'm the one that looks to see where we can maybe be a little bit more fiscally responsible in certain areas, right? We work together. Dr. Layman comes in with the curriculum and we make sure the programs I feel very confident that it is an extremely um appropriate um fiscally responsible uh budget. Um we don't have any control over costs when it comes to any type of gradable or anything like that. All I know is that did we did we believe that it was appropriate to go to the maximum 2%. Yes, we did because we were very fortunate. You look to your right, you look to your left, all of our um neighboring districts are cutting 20, 30, 40. Did we look at efficiency? Yes. We said it's
077not about cutting, it's about enrollment. If you no longer have, 1900 children in the middle school, 1800 children, do you still need six teams per grade? No. If you no longer have six sections of third grade and you have three sections, and I'm don't quote me, this is just I'm just throwing this out for um anecdotal reasons. Do you still need those same amount of teachers? No. We also worked as a team. So, not only were we fiduciary responsible, but we were humanly responsible. We worked as a team to look at people's certifications and say, "Okay, we need four less teachers here, but they have an elementary and we have someone retiring, so we're going to move them to the elementary school." So, I'm very confident and I feel very good about the budget that
078we came up with. Um, I don't know how else to say it. Going to piggyback on the question to ask. So, we have not cut programs. Correct. it. So there there was no nothing that will come to us in the next few months saying well this was non budgeted if there was a a pro if there was a program off the top of my head that they had three children in or two children in that's understandable lack of interest but there has no no programs cut would did we add any new programs to this budget to your to your knowledge we do our natural eb so the things that think about clubs. Yeah, we are phasing out three clubs, but we're adding clubs, right? So there's there's an eb and flow, but there was no
079digital cause. No, but there's an eb and flow of say digital tools. Some tools we phase out, some tools we add in. So um so while we cannot you we didn't add an expense to new programs. We continuously develop our programs based on the need of you know evidence we have. Right. Yes. whatever demand and whatever the current industry trend needs you know to keep up with the quality of the program as it exists is there cost yes if you want to say it that way I think that's what you're asking so we didn't have we didn't have to increase any curriculum based budget to add new programs correct within the same budget we're going to be managing our program adding we're spending more on textbooks this year than we did the previous year right
080but the year before that we spent even less right so I mean that that's what I'm saying there We certainly spent money in areas to maintain what we have. There are other areas that we didn't need to spend because we spent it last year, right? Or we'll plan to spend it next year. So, actually, just to sort of add to this topic and I think it was in one of the emails we got um is there going to be any increases of class sizes or is um I guess is there anything that's going to be changing with this budget in terms of of that? Like obviously we know certain classes have to be larger and certain correct smaller but if you look at the same class from this type of class from this year to
081next year is they're going to comp be comparable. Okay. Um I'm going to move on to the next question which is related to the tax um tax levy and and the impact on um the taxes the you know the actual to the so the question was that have we budgeted to our maximum spending authority and I can answer that we've always budgeted to our maximum spending authority which means that we've always gone up to 2% of tax levy for our full budget. the reason that is the right thing and that's how we built that surplus years ago and I understand that it's not always the right thing to do but given in the present e you know economic environment if we didn't do that today we do need that to continue a program that you
082as without any changes we needed to budget to maximum spending authority if we did not do that whatever we did if we went to say 1.5% tax levy we would only had that as a baseline for next year. So we would always if we don't do it this year, we cannot go to 2.5% next year. So what we lose this year is double is lost. It's a so if we've added 2 million to our budget through the tax levy this year, next year that two 2 million becomes part of our base on which we can add 2%. But if we decided to forgo 1 million and then add 2%, we just that base has reduced by 1 million. So, I'm not sure if I explained this right, but the current need of operating budget for
083the school district of 7,000 students mandated that we go up to 2% um tax levy. Um the impact on personal taxes and that's a ratable question. Um do you want to speak to it and maybe we can discuss what what changed between last year and this year the rate of right? Why did the impact of this budget become so significant this year versus last year? So this year um well I say like last year was one of the highest ever um increases in April um I think it was the third highest in in 30 years. So this year was one of the very lowest um increase in rate of and that makes a really big difference. So it was 70% less this year than last year. And since the ratables is a big, you know,
084there's only two numbers in the equation like the tax rate and that's the ratables and the school tax levy um on a different calendar year than we or a different year than we are. But um because that number there was such a big decrease that that's a huge impact um and that is really the reason and completely out of all control. is completely ratables is the total assessed uh value taxable assessed value of the town which is not does not have any we don't have any bearing on the ratables ratables are for the town at a town level and I wouldn't even say the township government has any um you know control on it because you know it depends on the taxable assets in the town so things close did things that's what it is
085when things close within a certain time frame it was the highest it was in Last year there was a big warehouse piece of Amazon maybe a big warehouse that opened up and that that was brought so high. So this year has been a historically low year in ratables and as a result that formula we've gone to 2% that's the only thing we control every year the ratables went high the the two parts of the formula change and sort of impact on community taxes is much higher this year last year despite the fact that we went out to a question which means we went over the 2% levy the impact to taxpayers was one of the lowest in history like had we not gone out of that qu out to that question the impact of taxpayers
086would have been negative. They would have gotten money paid less in school taxes than they did because of the question. So it's beyond our control. And I think I think the point to say let me just say the reason why it also looks so drastic is because this is one of the lowest years of bringing in money. Last year was one of the highest. So it wasn't even an average if it was equal. Like remember we talked about the 105,000 versus 108. It's $3,000. So when you if if we would have had last year let's say it would have been an average year you would have been looking at a difference of 10 and something to 20 something you might have been looking at a difference of 80 something to 120 to 160 and I
087think that did such a drastic difference because it was super high and then not super low and super low $100 at least um impact that that ratable is about $100 impact. So of the 61 and so that's that's oh so 50 to yes so just so I understand so last year the board went for the question for $2 million now we keep that 2 million moving become a base budget and that money but where does that money come from every year now like last year we got a lot of questions oh it becomes part how do we or how do we keep it like so that's part of our tax that we get um that we get from the township now Um, so that may raise it a little because every year that keep the
088two million, right? So instead of last year's budget being, and I might not be right in my numbers, instead of being $147 million, it became $149.7%. So we put the 2% on 149 instead of Yeah. It doesn't go back. It doesn't go back. Yes. So then basically um in order for us not to cut staff, it's the tax rate of the tax levy that determine a final tax increase in the time. It's completely out of our control. It's out of our the impact on the taxpayers. The only thing we control is going to the 2% tax levy. And like we just shared today, we had the opportunity to go up on that tax tax levy because we qualified for that incentive. We rejected that as a board. This would have cost the taxpayers more money.
089We we yeah we just you're staying to the 2% but we've always done the 2%. We've always gone to the maximum spending authority because it was it's to keep but we're being as possible raises we cannot do with less than 2%. Um you want to take your next question? Um sure. We have a lot more because I had two I had one. Yeah. Right. So, um, and one of mine is pretty quick, but, uh, so the Jamesburg tuition, and this is something that had come up, um, I think briefly at the meeting as well, um, I noticed like that the amount that we get over the last several years has been like this. Um, but then when I looked at the enrollment, the enrollment has gone up. Um, so well obviously never wanting to charge,
090you know, more than worth the post. I was curious if there's a reason like I guess how that's been working. Yeah. So we fudge it basically um 275 students um at a rate of 15,500 um and after the year is over after the audit is done we go and we do calculation for the submitted state um based on using audited numbers um to find out the actual cost um per pupil um and we do it by by um the high school, the middle school and elementary school. So we know that the cost at the high school per pup people. So we take that cost and we multiply by we we get the actual number of Jamesburg students that we had that were enrolled um for the school year. So we can get the actual cost
091um of the tuition and compare it to what was budgeted and what was actually paid by Vaner. Um and if there's a difference if if they overpaid us, we would take it off of there's a small tab since um it would take that um and vice versa, you know. So when that's done, um if there's a difference, if we owe them money, we would pay them. If they owe us money, they would pay after the end. We every year we have to calculate this to see what the actual cost is. So whatever you budgeted it will not be the exact same. That's why Okay. So the dean correct that's something are required to do. Right. Well you you brought up a good point earlier uh not in the meeting. We were chatting earlier. We see
092these tuition enrollment corrections this time of year all the time from our bill. You see them all the time. Oh, the prior year um to different schools where we have adjustments um the prior years would we see it on it's no Dr. I'm saying is that's what other schools private schools when we pay tuition to them and they get audited they two years later they're going to send us either a bill or a check for the adjusted amount because they look at their actual what the actual amounts are per the audit right now we don't see that for Jamesburg because they are overpaying their tuition just taking off the balance okay once and I don't want to speak for you necessarily Laura but once everything's even steep We will go through the same process that
093we do with our private school private schools. So where we budget a fixed number if tuition's under then we would balance the books for them on the way back because they've overpaid us. If their tuition's over what we budgeted cut us a check to balance our book. All right. But you're not seeing it now because there's that small tab left. So they're utilizing whatever monies is over to pay down that t. Correct. Okay. Does that make sense? And again, it's standard process we do with all of our private schools, right? You know that district placements. I appreciate that. Um, one of conversations that stemmed out of this Jamesburg tution conversation was related to state aid and um, myself, Miss Ratner and Miss Allen had this preliminary conversation based off of that question was that when
094we get state aid um, it's based on the residents of Monroe. So we have set you know however many students are residents of Monroe that eight is for them. The residents of Jamesburg have eight aid for them. Uh and I might not be able to explain this correctly but our per pupil tution cost for Monroe that we charge Jamesburg is based on the aid that we're getting. We are not factoring in any aid that the Jamesburg students are getting. So um because James paid yeah we can't we can't charge tuition based on fair aid it's based on the actual cost to educate it's right so not how much money they get it's how much money it cost us right how how much money it cost us to educate Monroe students student is the same right
095and the aid that we're getting is just for Monroe so the one that's coming just for the Monroe students is getting split on all of our high school students so And and this is not something that we we know for definitive. This is a conversation that just started today that we need to explore more on. So my suggestion to Miss Allen was that we need to understand how it works. When Jamesburg gets its like when Monro gets his aid, it's split between the students elementary through high school. when James would get to pay, it's split through students elementary through high school, but it's not part of your tuition because our the tuition is the same. So, I I don't know, but comes out of like our it's like our bud our money and we pay
096for their education. So, it's the cost to educate them here. we paid for. Can I take a a quiz just because I when we look at the when we look at the amount maybe this is a discussion for because we don't next year but when we look at that um that we're using to figure out how much we can do here you know it just mean it might be good to see how much we are spending per pupil versus how much being spent per pupil like in um like in James agenda have another conversation about this, but this committee can discuss it and we could probably we could probably get more more information from your VA and our VA and understand what just to clarify how it works like where is it accounted for but
097again no implications on this budget. The last question that I had was that have we um underbudgeted um falcon care and ECE and if yes why? Yeah, we budgeted conservatively for the transfer of surplus from these two programs um for being fiscally responsible. Um we don't want to um overstate the revenues um and then and then not and yeah because that would so it's pretty standard to what we've done in previous years and based on what the audit showed um the combined um profit of the two $250,000 this is very appropriate what we were budgeting Okay. Okay. That was the answer to that question. That was the answer to that question. Uh well, that's all for tonight's committee meeting. We did try to address as many questions as we could get. If you have any
098more, please email it to the administration before the next board meeting or show up for the public hearing in the board meeting. There will be a detailed presentation on the taxable uh readable sorry not taxable that day for further understanding. Uh thank you everybody for your time. This concludes the finance committee meeting. Okay.