001good evening welcome to the mono Town Board of Education please stand and salute the flag uned [Music] States Mr gski Mr Braverman Mr Chella here Mr Klein here Mrs kapano here Mr ly here Mrs Leonard here Mr Masters here Mr tesler here Mrs Fon Mr Calin Mr board president you have the FL thank you m in accordance with the provisions of the New Jersey open public meetings all the mon board of education has caused notice of this meeting to be posted by having the date time in place thereof March 18th 2011 one at all schools two home News Tribune three primberry Pest and four filed with the clerk of the municipality student board member reports this Friday March 25th the PTO will be holding a Candy Land dance at mil Lake Elementary School uh there
002will be a PTA sponsored book fair March 24th and the 25th at Oak Tree and on on next Tuesday March 29th there is a field trip to Central State Medical Center for the fourth grade wooden is holding a diabetes walk on Friday April 1st Tuesday April 5th is Woodland's family science night from 6:45 to 8 p.m. tomorrow there will be a middle school orientation for fifth and sixth grade Brookside students Brookside will show its cap program student presentations this Friday and lastly the music department at M PHS is holding its Coffee House performances tomorrow at 6:30 p.m. here in the cafeteria thanks item number six 20112 final budget presentation public questions and adoption Dr Hamilton yes good evening um the administration is pleased to present the Monroe Township budget for the 2011 2012 school year
003um presented by myself Mr Gorski our business administrator and Mr Jeff Gorman uh the assistant superintendent um I like like to of course acknowledge our board members who are present this evening and share with you the members of the finance committee who have been an integral part of this presentation this evening um Mr John liry who serves as a chair Mr Kaufman of course our board president Mr Marvin Braverman in his absence Kathy Leonard and Mr Lou Masters who served as an alter alternate on this committee I'd like to begin by uh sharing the district vision statement as I think it is important for all of our presentations to remind our community about the work that is underway relative to uh our focus on reaching high standards and providing our students with a pre-eminent education
004on the vision statement is as follows the Monroe Township Board of Education commits itself to all children by preparing them to reach their full potential and to function in a global Society through a preeminent education and that is of course accomplished through the implementation of our district mission statement the Monroe Public Schools in collaboration with the members of the community shall ensure that all children receive an exemplary education by well-trained committed staff in a safe and orderly environment this budget has been prepared with the six board goals uh as the Forefront raising student achievement everybody's computer just went black Michael uh raising student achievement for all students paying particular attention to disparity between subgroups providing uh support programs for students across the Continuum particularly those youngsters who are represented as those middle level students improving
005business efficiencies wherever possible to reduce our overall operating costs and you will find that this budget is developed with this this is a Forefront uh mission in mind providing early interventions for all of our students who are at risk of not reaching their full potential systematically collecting analyzing and evaluating all D data that we have at our disposal to inform our decisions and most recently added the goal to support the smooth transition of the district through the reorganization plan to accommodate our move into the new high school and this last goal was added uh in the summer of 2010 in August of 2010 so during our budget overview this evening we're going to focus on our district priorities paying particular attention to providing a quality educational program then we'll take a moment moment to review
006our and establish our long range vision for our district keeping in mind that part of our purpose this evening as we plan for our 11 12 fiscal year is to also keep in mind the future of our district which far exceeds the upcoming school year and part of what the finance committee and consultation with the board wanted to do in this budget preparation is to honor its commitments to the Applegarth Community the opening of the Monroe Township middle school and the transition into the Monroe Township High School and doing so in such a way where we are both fiscally responsible and and providing sound educational programs for our students students this budget also includes a increased emphasis on in-house professional development as an effort to to reduce some of our costs associated with outof District
007professional development just to go over briefly what some of the protocols are relative to developing the budget and what those timelines are like so these following items are listed in chronological order um first there is a conversation at the board level with through the finance committee that looks specifically at what the ultimate goals are from the finance committee then we take the opportunity in consultation with our finance committee and with the members of our Administration to review our programs and initiatives that are underway and to assess whether or not those initiatives are in fact yielding the results that we want them to yield and we'll talk a little bit more about that when we get to the Oe process orchestrating effective effort then of course as we anticipate our current enroll look at our current
008enrollment we have to also anticipate what our historical enrollment patterns are like so that we can appropriately plan for the future and that has a direct impact on how we review our staffing needs um we look at class size we look at ways that we could perhaps consolidate some classes where appropriate and what our needs are relative to the special Leed population in our district as we look at the transition this reviewing staff needs is particularly challenging because we are in the process of planning a new Middle School schedule and also of course making sure that we are prepared for the transition into the new high school the oee process was is a process we started about two years ago now and that process looks very specifically at aligning District initiatives with school goals and
009how this process works is when our principles are are engaged and supervisors are engaged in the budget defense rounds we make a correlation between those items that are presented in the preliminary budget and their the adopted board goals and in some instances when there are recommended expenditures that are not consistent with board goals and the mission and vision statement of the district then that item is then removed from the budget so once we go through those first few steps we of course anticipate the governor's budget address with where state aid follows the is is released the following day um then we move forward to developing our preliminary or tenative budget and then that brings us to today which is the adoption or the public hearing of the final budget which will be presented this evening
010and then ultimately we'll be a part of the um April 27th school election this year after much debate and consultation with the public and with the board there is a second question that has been added to the um budget a separate proposal previously call second questions and this will um make Provisions for the implementation of full day kindergarten this full day kindergarten program for the instructional teachers the instructional AIDS related uh costs associated with programs and initiatives to initiate full day kindergarten will be about 77 ,000 this will be in addition to the local Levy and these funds if approved will be used exclusively for this purpose um approval of these taxes will result in a permanent increase in the district tax levy and this proposed additional expenditure is in addition to those necessary to
011achieve the core content curriculum standards adopted by the New Jersey Department of Education at this time I'm going to ask Jeff our assistant superintendent to take a few minutes to look at some of our relative data good evening so are we on the right track according to the federal government with our a YP targets according to No Child Left Behind we are clearly on the right track um while we know that revisions are coming as we transition to race to the top and the Common Core assessments um as of this year we are proud to say that as in regard to making ayp annually yearly progress we are doing very well all the the way through and we also realized that we do have other work um and and we've identified our work in the
012area of special needs education and improving those sares um and we continue to um work as a school system to try to meet those needs okay so as as we as we developed this budget um we had to we had the balance the fiscal with the concessions and moving forward in in an aggressive way to you know meet the needs of all children so these are some of the concessions that we have that we have foregone in this budget cycle um as a result of bringing in a responsible budget um for the second year we will not be able to implement our Science Program um and this is tied directly into the revision cycle of falling behind in a five-year cycle where we revise textbooks and resources um that will meet the new common core
013standards which were adopted by New Jersey this past uh summer um we were fortunate enough to have provided extensive High scope preschool curriculum training uh to our staff members this year due to a federal ARA Grant um however as we transition to kindergarten um those additional funds for that high level type of professional development uh will not be able to take place so we're going to do our best to turn key as Dr Hamilton mentioned before and use our in-house um resources to make that transition smooth for our for our youngsters uh we we are limited on our implementation on moving towards a reading recovery program in regard to a response to intervention and um identifying kids at a low level that are struggling with reading uh we had we had wanted to put in
014Specialists uh specifically geared towards getting children to read through the reading recovery program our balanced literacy program is just going to slow down a bit as we are we will not be able to move forward with new programs in the area of readers workshop for next year and um while we've been successful with our envisions and connected math programs um a lot of current research shows the effective use of of teacher coaches or experts um that are connected to the program as a way to help teachers make sense of what they're teaching to construct new information and to put out the best type of learning experience for our kids uh as you um last year we tried to implement a Strings program for third and fourth grade as we had the foursite to look at
015our new high school facility and um and be competitive with neighboring districts in this area of Music um unfortunately that's going to be put on hold uh as we've talked extensively in the last couple years about um assessment for learning so how do we monitor everything that our kids are learning and then respond to those Assessments in an appropriate manner U La last year the learn year program was 3 through eight we had plans on expanding it to the k11 program um and we're going to be limited in that expansion um curriculum revisions to meet the New Jersey Core Curriculum content standards and the Common Core uh the common Corp as I mentioned before was released in and adopted by New Jersey in August and subsequently there'll be extensive curriculum rewrites we wanted to stay
016ahead of the curve um but now we're going to just move at a pace where we'll try to keep Pace with what's going on with the implementation process which will eventually lead to a brand new testing and assessment system in the year 2014 2015 um there there's a lot of uh current research being done by Boards of educations throughout the nation unifying towards two different Consortium and um and we have to be our curriculum has to reflect that in order for our kids to be successful on these new um national standards and assessments uh as we talk about a school system it is important that we are vertically aligned up and that there aren't gaps in the curriculum um we will do everything we can to maintain those gaps and find those gaps but we
017had we had looked at technology as a way to help us throughout that process um a limit on increased High School course selections so we're basically keeping what we have in place for next year and our limit on expansion of Middle School elective and athletic program prrams again with the addition of a sixth grade into the middle school program it would have been nice to responsively um expose those kids to competitive Sports which then becomes a nice feeder program for the high school that's my other piece that you don't have to go back I got it and then of course our limited expansion on growing the AVID program at the pace that we anticipated which has started to yield some very high returns um in addition uh with the onset of technology and it has
018exploded um in the media with with the with with tablet technology and um and new technologies such as the iPad and and all the different uh mobile devices uh education has to change it will not look like it did when we went to school and respectfully it shouldn't because it's a new age coming up it's not it's no longer about acquiring the content it's more about creating new content and sharing content and um and working collab ly uh in and out of the school day and that is what the future of technology looks like uh as technology dramatically changes our society and Educators need to demonstrate those same skills um to te to bring our kids along uh we need to transform the learning environments with technology and um and that of course is directly
019linked to professional development and um and funding for those new technologies that are com coming out that's a duplicate slide and you're back on okay as we anticipate our enrollment for next year we are looking at um the following scenario um our reorganization will include of course moving our sixth graders out of our elementary schools um we currently have a student enrollment uh this is our October 15th count of 5700 children we are anticipating based on historical enrollment patterns that we will have about 5,900 students next year and they will be housed in in the areas that are listed on the overhead Applegarth will be closed next year as we discussed earlier and those students will be a part of the uh mtms and that will also include our sixth grade population so the difference
020between the 862 children and the 1361 students that will be at the middle school represents those sixth graders that will be joining the middle school program so something that I I want to kind of put out as we go through this this presentation is um I'm going to share some data with you about our what I call a funding in equity and specifically the disparity between the amount of Aid that we receive in our district and the amount of Aid that we receive in other districts and there may be some who will say stop whining about it already and move on but the fact of the matter is that this kind of inequity cannot be ignored any longer um I'll share that data with you and encourage you to join us with our efforts to
021uh secure and recoup the amount of Aid that I believe is an equable amount of Aid um so I I I want to be clear that the fact of the matter is based on the kind of District that we operate the kind of programs and services that we offer our students and the kinds of services and results that our community has come to expect we are not overspending we are simply underfunded we have made considerable effort to reduce some of our administrative costs this front bar shows you what our spending was in the 2010 2011 school year the middle bar represents what the regional limit and average spending is in our area which is $1,768 per student and this proposed budget represents further decreases on our administrative costs at $1,418 per student so here's some
022data I'd like to share with you that kind of summarizes some funding facts and the disparity in state aid between similar districts orbridge for example with 9600 students received $41 million in state aid if you were to take their amount of state aid and divide it by the number of students in their District they're receiving roughly $4,200 per student North Brunswick Sim again a similar district with 5700 students received 9,000 9,473 th000 or $1600 per student South planfield with 3600 students receive $7.7 million or $2,100 per student and Monroe with 5,500 students received $1,100,000 or $24 per student so while it may seem seem that that districts like Monroe to the extent that they exist um may be pontificating quite a bit about this disparity in state aid as you can see this inequity is
023pretty telling if we were to expand um this analysis and look at other districts similar demographics in terms of State funding um and District Factor groupings you will see that Edison with 1400 students received 14,000 students thank you received $9 million in state8 or $667 per student middle sex burrow with 2,000 students received $7.9 million with $3,700 per student miltown received approximately $850 per student and PCAT away with 7,000 students received $12 million almost $13 million in state aid and we received and and their aid per student is about $1,700 so if we were to take the average state aid allocations for district Factor groups FG which is where Monroe is that would equate to about 1,869 per student if that rate was then extrapolated based on these October 15th de dates which is the
024count that the state uses when all students all districts have to enter their student enrollment figures we would have easily resulted in a $10 million amount of state8 or an additional $9.3 million if this funding formula was applied our state Aid distribution would reduce our current tax levy by 12 .27 so the reason I wanted to share these facts with you is to encourage you to find a way to help us and I'll share some opportunities with you but to find a way to help us challenge the current state funding of public education because as we prepare our budget and we think about the liability that we have as as it relates to a tax burden to our local residents part of our challenge is of course this inequity in state aid so you may
025ask well then what are you doing about it why are you are we just sitting back and complaining and not taking action well we have been having several conversations with the uh interim executive County Superintendent we have also engaged through a letter writing and meetings with the commissioner or representatives of the commissioner of Education um we've been in contact with the governor's office we've had conversations and meetings with senators and local assembly people and we've also had conversations with our mayor and members of the Town Council and we've shared this data with them and they are equally appalled at the inequity in our state aid numbers and have committed to join us in our quest to to reverse that Trend um and we are committed to advocating for our students and that's what this is
026really about this isn't about challenging our governor or the the leaders in our state it's about in my mind fighting for our students and getting the aid that they are entitled to they deserve in my mind as much opportunity as other students and the districts that I listed so what can you do you can assist us by contacting these folks either by letter or phone call or email they have been responsive I have to say um Mr Chris surf who was the acting Commissioner of educ the governor's office of course the office of the Governor Chris Christie contact information is there in this live presentation will be posted on our website tomorrow as well Senator Linda Greenstein who has been a very good advocate for our district and has been very receptive to my calls
027and letters and emails assemblymen Wayne D'Angelo and Dan Benson have also been made aware of our plight and are also joining us in our quest to try to reverse this current funding formula there are some key budgetary considerations that go into the development of this 2011 2012 budget and that includes working with our teachers our administrators and of course our board to create programs that are good for children that provide opportunities for our teachers so that we are not just attracting and providing professional development for our teachers but that we are also committed to retaining the teachers that we bring into our district and that we are also responsible to our community by developing the kinds of standards that our community members have grown to expect and to require over public schools and that we
028are providing an educational program that is a quality program one that raises academic standards for our students increases their opportunities for college acceptance and college scholarships we are seeing an increase in the number of students in our district who are applying to the more competitive colleges we have an increase in the number of students who are eligible for scholarships that historically they have been excluded from we recognize that it is difficult to maintain this level of quality in a time when economics are very challenging and we are also very cognizant of our district history as it relates to the fact that the community has grown rapidly and we anticipate as we look at some of our enrollment project ctions that these numbers will continue to to spike particularly in the Apple GTH oak tree School
029community so our school budget is comprised of several programs and services that are not required by the state and when we talk about what our community expects we have to also consider that these are some of the things that when we are above adequacy these things cause us to be above adequacy these are programs and services that are outside the state's definition of adequacy we have a popery of course offerings that are available to our high school students that we believe are essential to prepare them for the colleges that they are applying to we have moderate class sizes and you know you're you're never a profit in your own land but when you are accustomed to having class sizes that allow teachers to successfully Implement some of our district initiatives like a readers Workshop writer
030Workshop where you are expected to conference with students and provide one-on-one instruction for students and close achievement gaps class size becomes important um we do provide a lot of special education services and many of these services are above and beyond what is required by the federal government but we believe that this investment in our special ed population is a wise and worthy investment our gifted and talented programs are not required nor are our advanced placement programs professional development to the extent that we provide for our teachers most of our teachers earn their required hours halfway through the year if not sooner because of the large number of courses that we we offer our adult education program is subsidized to some extent by a on a tuition basis but it is not completely self- sustaining we
031have sports clubs and co-curricular programs that are offered at our elementary and I'm I'm sorry our middle and high school levels of cost their their costs associated with Fields the maintenance of our SPI fields and lightings and we have a an interesting um busing situation in our district where the state requires that communities bus students that live at the elementary level within two miles of their school district and in high school at the high school level within 2.5 miles we bus about 1, 1600 students that are within the parameters established by the state where they could walk now when this was when the district started busing students of course Monroe did not have some of the sidewalks that it has now and in some of these areas their sidewalks still are not appropriate or some
032of the roadways are not safe for students to cross but nonetheless there are 1,600 students that we currently bust who live within this 2 or 2 and a half mile radius we bust our students for zero period and late runs um we make sure at this point that we have in-house Transportation um and there are some conveniences to in-house transportation and in-house custodial Staffing um these these support people have relationships with our children many of them live in our town um we're the highest Employment Agency so to speak uh in the community in terms of employing residents and there is a benefit to that of course and of course there is the use of building availability to our community and we do not charge the the kinds of fees that other districts charge to make
033our buildings available to our community I'm going to ask Mike to take a few minutes to talk about some of the state aid and the various categories and then he'll explain which Aid we receive and which Aid which types of Aid we are not eligible for good evening um the presentation current slide shows the V various categories of state aid that are allowed by the 201122 budget law which came out in June uh the first aid category is special ed categorical Aid and as you can see it's a form of Aid designed for specific purpose um special education being the first one and that's the the most significant Aid that the district receives uh currently our award is $1,125,000 which was designed as an incentive to make districts more efficient um and the reason we
034don't receive that is because of our wealth of property values and income levels in this Township and that goes by the state's criteria uh Equalization Aid is an aid for at risk and Le LEP students driven by a formula determined by District's income and again property Valu so we're not eligible for that one security Aid is mainly uh an aid designed for urban areas uh to provide for at risk students and provide Safety and Security uh for students to learn in a healthy environment preschool Aid um certain uh districts at risk have um State mandated preschool programs um we do receive Debt Service Aid which generates aid for payments of principal and interest on facility projects uh that current award is $688,000 so you could see uh the hardship that we Face there again school
035choice Aid is new uh certain districts could elect to receive students um from other surrounding areas uh that would be attractive for a district with declining enrollment certainly that's not the case in Monroe extraordinary Aid uh extraordinary Aid the district is for the first time budgeting for Extraordinary Aid pursuant to a recommendation from the county office because um it's subject to State appropriation every year and it's not a given but um we are going we have a history of receiving it it's for special ed costs uh about $40,000 for students outside the district here's a history of state aid and it shows starting with 2009 2010 where our state aid award was a little healthier as you can see we've received categorical special ed Aid Deb service Aid security Aid and transportation Aid that year
036however after setting the budget for that year and matching Appropriations to revenues which have to uh be set in order to have an approved budget the state U informed us mid year that we were not going to receive the rest of the year's payments and pulled $1,580 th000 out from under us in the middle of the year uh it took a purchase order freeze and some very extreme efforts to uh to get through 2010 2011 um under Governor Christie's um Administration the district suffered a horrific 4.4 million loss of state aid uh in addition to that the the district was assessed a soft cost of 66,9 36 for uh financing costs associated with the section 15 Grant with the new high school nowhere in our grant agreement was that defined and that's that was a
037new charge that was just deducted what's no worthy about that is out of that $4.4 million of Aid you could say well you know you didn't get the aid you're not spending as much as you could have but in order that that Aid is essential to run programs and services here in the district and as such that was of Aid was absorbed into the local tax levy so what the governor doesn't give us to support a thorough and efficient education uh we have to raise to the community 201122 we received uh a slight increase but again as Dr Hamilton alluded to before if you take the average state aid for a district Factor group uh of FG which is Monro in the county and extrapolate that on the number of students that we have enrolled
038we would be eligible for an additional $9 million of state aid so instead of a 20 cent tax increase you'd be looking at uh somewhere in the vicinity of eight that's that's significant what's new in this budget as you could see there's nothing new in this budget there are seriously there are no new programs or services in this budget as compared to last year we prepared this on a very conservative basis as the new budget law does not allow a um an adjustment to cap for opening a new school which had always previously been in the law the district has $3.3 million of costs associated with opening the new school renovating the middle school and uh renovating appleg Guard School that had to fit into cap and we had to make some extreme sacrifices in
039order to accommodate that and that's why there's nothing new above last year uh and as I mentioned the only exception to nothing new is the Staffing cost to open the new high school safely and securely Staffing costs for the new Middle School to uh conform with the new schedule and the renovations that the board has directed uh with Asus re remediation tile uh replacement and lighting at Apple guard last year we heard from the community that um they appreciate some of the programs that we offer that are above adequacy however perhaps we should ask the parents to contribute and participate in uh the financing of such so in response to that this year we are initiating a pay to participate program whereas based upon the activity numbers provided by our athletic department um we determined
040that if we charge $100 per student per Sport and $25 per student participating in the club we could raise in anticipated $181,800 this slide shows uh cuts that had to be made in order to both get to the cap absorbing $3.3 million of cost uh as previously mentioned and um this year in the budget cycle Dr Hamilton uh set the tone from the onset and told the schools that everything had to be flat to last year um they they certainly cooperated but in addition to that we had to ask them to go back and change their budgets removing 10% % out of supplies we we studied the best rubrics on opening a new school and how much staff is needed there's some State guidelines for example with custodians based upon square footage and um unfortunately
041we had to reduce what would have been the optimal Staffing levels um by eliminating from our proposed budget these aren't current positions but they were newly in uh somewhat needed anticipated an additional vice principal secretary in benefits security guard in benefits um we we've made some reconfigurations with current Staffing guidance counselor athletic trainer six custodians at the high school health fed teacher artistic director workation workstation specialist culinary arts teacher Saturday Academy program which a lot of residents enjoyed unfortunately cannot be accommodated in the budget artist and residency program at Woodland U staff development again suffered Cuts we Consolidated some equipment needs into a lease purchase um causing less strain on the budget supplies material textbooks and unfortunately again a new science program that would help the district go from good to Great uh is going
042to have to be deferred possibly another year and uh I've very aggressively negotiated health benefits with our carrier and recognize cost savings there from the estimate initially of 27477 so $2.7 million has been removed from this budget already approximately 80 to 85% of our budget is fixed and by that I mean it's it's related to a contract in place um benefits that are defined by the contract insurances on the property and Automobiles and persons Transportation needs Professional Services Fuel and energy that gives us about 15% flexibility within the budget um as I mentioned the district has suffered defeats as of recent um 2008 2009 we had a municipal cut of 515,000 61,000 and 1011 a of 1, 510,000 the problem with that is it just doesn't confine that one year's Appropriations but the state budget
043formula allows for Budget growth based on the preceding Year's budget and as that budget is uh reduced and and shortened your future budgets also are constricted this chart uh it's a bit of an eye burner but it compares ly shows the sources of revenue for the district from last year to this year um most noteworthy on the top for fund balance last year and in previous years I I managed a uh an Investment Portfolio of $100 million related to the new high school project and we were earning 5% interest as that buildings constructed and the contractors are paid and interest rates now are below 1% we lost uh $1.5 million of Interest which flows over as fund balance to the next year causing um a stress on the tax levy um also last year we
044enjoyed $56,000 of monies transferred from Oak Tree school which is nearing completion under budget um and the other categories are shown there state aid other Revenue you can see the new part pay to participate program and um state aid this pie charts a little easier to digest it shows our budget Appropriations which have to match revenues again over 51% of the budget is directly related to instruction an additional 19% is the benefits related to salaries for those who provide the instruction co-curricular Athletics Debt Service is 10% of the budget and Debt Service contributes quite a bit to our per pupil costs unfortunately um you know we're it's a young district with a lot of young amortization schedules it's it's a there's a lot of heavy interest in the beginning of any amortization schedule and such
045our debt Services rather large uh Administration is very low as Dr Hamilton pointed out previously uh We've made efforts to reduce that even from last year there are no capital projects budgeted with the exception of the mandated State money for the soft cost for the grant and the Applegarth um Renovations and some special ed equipment um we are aggressively seeking all the grant opportunities we can and the other category pertains to uh facility maintenance and custodial Services Transportation 5% so that's where the money goes this chart shows our debt service um we have very intelligently scheduled our amortization schedules within this District to be linear so not to cause any spike in taxes any one year um the only uh difference that we are suffering from last year again as I mentioned is the interest
046that we're not enjoying from the bond referendum any longer what fact fa influence the tax rate it's not solely Appropriations and in fact this budget year uh it's more factors other than Appropriations and it is base Appropriations the district is disproportionately funded for state aid it's the state's obligation to fund and make sure U of A thorough educ thorough and efficient education in the state um unfortunately Monroe we are not enjoying Financial participation in that regard fund balance um less was applied to last the to 1112 from 1011 and therefore inherently even if you keep Appropriations the same there's going to be a swelling of the tax levy um we haven't enjoyed the ratable growth that we have in the past and we've been very lean on Appropriations this year so what does it all
047mean in dollars and cents for school year 111 12 you will pay an increase if the budget's approved um um and if you support these programs of $30.75 per month and that's using the Township's assessed home value of 169,900 uh Jeff showed some slides earlier that showed our progress in our district and some of the academic gains that our students have enjoyed and what this slide illustrates is just some data relative to uh the there's some information missing here too um this shows the the percentage of votes from the various areas of our community the various polling places um that either either supported or did not support our budget um the first bar the first bar chart represents bar graph represents the Applegarth then Rossmore Clearbrook Woodland Brookside your hands out handouts may show a
048have have a better illustration of of the yes no vote comparison this next chart shows the percentage of registered voters who voted in the last school election again from those same communities and as you can see our highest turnout was in Regency for example um the lowest turnout looking at this this chart was uh Rossmore um if you look at our school communities where most of our parents vote um the first being the Applegarth Firehouse area uh Woodland School area Brookside Community Center first aid library and Oak Tree represents areas in our community where most of our parents reside the other bars represent our adult communities and you can see that of those folks that are registered to vote uh with the exception of Regency less about an average of 40% of our registered voters
049are are voting and if we could increase those numbers uh we would be able to maintain some of the programs and initiatives that are underway so our budget calendar are is as follows our public hearing is this evening but we will entertain any questions that you may have on this budget the School elections will be April 27th this year very late in comparison to previous years and following a school recess um we will have a budget presentation so that folks will have as much opportunity as possible to ask questions I will repeat this team will repeat this presentation on Monday March 28th from 7 to 9:00 p.m. and that will be held at the high school lecture hall we will also have a an opportunity for those folks who are not able to attend a
050Monday evening presentation or a Saturday morning presentation on April the 2nd here at 8:30 and we will have another presentation on Monday April 11th at the Monroe rec center and at this to time we will entertain any questions from the board and or the public uh before we do that I just want to make one final statement about the budget process to put a wrapper on it uh the board was very deliberate this year to make sure that we set very specific goals in mind to make sure that we would have the money that we need to put forward our our our largest uh effort that we have in the district and that certainly is to open a new high school I've gotten a lot of questions over the last few weeks about well when
051you budget for this stuff and the uh money was funded through the bonds back uh several years ago why do you why do you still need money to have in the budget to accommodate this why wasn't it all encapsulated um in the bond uh back back then uh and in in part that's true everything for the structure and everything inside was part of the bond but it's not part of the bond are things like at energy cost to keep the uh the facility heated and cooled uh to be able to open it and have people in there those things are not included in the budget and we have to make an estimate on how much that's going to cost and we have to have the money in our accounts to be able to pay for
052it not work the other way around wait for the bills to come and then have to pay for it so we have to approach apprpriate these things in advance so that's why these things are are budgeted for in advance of the structure actually opening uh a couple of other questions were uh why has the board taken the full day kindergarten program and made it a second question well we have had a lot of interesting feedback from the community regarding full dayk uh a lot of it was centered around can we afford to have full dayk with all the limitations of the state funding uh that we have before us um and it was the board's decision uh to say it this is a true Community initiative uh if the community of Monro Township wishes to
053have uh full day kindergarten I don't think anybody would debate the educational advances of having full day K but it is a stretch it it does cost money like everything does uh so it was the board's decision to say if the community wants it and the show of hands that this Ste back to school was very much in favor of full day kindergarten from parents but this is a community decision it's not just a parents decision uh so if the community does want to support full day kindergarten uh then this second question uh has all the necessary funding uh to um provide that service for Monroe Township uh so I don't want to take a lot of time out we're going to take questions from the community board members first if you have any comments
054you'd like to make uh before we open it up to the public Mr Klein I want to preface what I say well let me say one thing first um you'll notice that we had to uh cancel ordering new textbooks we had to back out of a science program that is really needed for these students and a friend of mine who is a retired teacher from nework New Jersey he retired roughly two years ago told me that they have in the Newark schools stock rooms full of unused new textbooks stock rooms of computers unused and we have to go Bare Bones and cut things that our students should have now I'm going to preface what I say now is I want you all to understand that Mr Gorski Mr Gorman Dr Hamilton and our financial committee
055has done everything in their power to come up with a lean budget you have to also understand that the budget must be approved by the district superintendent so by mandate from the state and I hate that there are certain things that we have to meet and that's why there's a [Music] budget now for my statement I cannot vote to approve this budget and knowing that Mr Gorski Mr Gorman Dr Hamilton and our financial committee have not or they have done their best under the circumstances to develop a lean budget while while trying to open up a new high school and convert a new middle school with absolutely no help from the state we we can no longer keep going to our residents with large increases in property taxes each year because of the lack of
056state aid in fact the state aid we receive is almost non-existent we receive just $24 per student for roughly 55 to 5700 students while four other schools similar to ours in Middle sex County which you saw Illustrated received from $1,800 per student to Oldbridge who receives 4,300 per student in state aid with 9,200 students then take New Brunswick an Abbot District who receives $26,000 a year per student that's an example of the money that's going into your title one districts does that seem fair and Equitable stated by the state supreme court in their Abid decision I think not today I see other districts whose employ employees have been paying $1,500 to over $3,000 per employee for their medical insurance which at that point cost districts upwards of $20,000 a year per employee per family last
057year and again this year when districts are forced to lay off employees their Union leadership accepted freezes and salary reductions because of budget constraints and lack of state aid in order to save jobs as was done last year in Edison some districts now offer two medical plans first is a plain Jane plan at a cost of 1 and a half% of the employee salary which probably averages out to about $500 to $600 then the present plan at a cost of $150 to $200 a paycheck that equates to anywhere from $3 to $4,000 a year and that policy today is worth over $23,000 after the 177% increase that we had in premiums this year and I do see that uh uh Mr gski was able to get some sort of reduction for us about a month
058ago the governor stated that he wants all state employees to pay 30% of their salaries towards their medical insurance we have been sending oh wait let well I'm going to leave this we have been sending a message to the governor that we can be a highly successful District while only receiving less than 1% of our total budget in state aid by relying on our residents by forcing large property tax increases to balance our budgets each year our residents both young and old can no longer afford to pay ultra high property prop taxes to support our district because of the lack of support from the state they use the excuse that we're a wealthy community we have 50% or 55% of retired people here many have money a lot of them are on fixed incomes take
059our neighboring Town East Brunswick where I lived before they are wealthier than we are they have less retired people there and I believe last year they received between 12 and $14 million are our children any different than they are are our children any different than the inner city kids aren't our children or shouldn't our children have all that's needed to make them better students and better citizens every child is worth the same no matter where they live and that's my stance any other board members uh Mr C sure miss [Music] Leonard while I agree with most of what Mark said the bottom line is not supporting this budget is going to hurt our children and I agree that we're not getting what we deserve but I have to support the budget because to not do
060so would hurt the children any other board members Mr L uh par pardon me uh I was elected in 2003 and at that time the uh limits were 6% versus 2% today at that time if you had commissioning expenses like the 3.3 million we're talking now that was outside the limit today the $3.3 million commissionary is within the limit and that has caused the devastation that Mike Gorski has laid out on the screen I mean we are getting hit in every damn Direction you can conceive of and uh I think that following superintendent Hamilton's suggestion we need to go out and start political action thank you Mr Larry Mr Chella uh just one moment um Mr Chella yes thank you I uh I I do I think what Mr Klein is saying is has is
061valid and I think that the fight H has to happen and I think it is happening but I also think that um in even in recognizing that we have funding inequities that we still have to operate and and to uh to not support our budget at this time when we don't control how we're funded from the state or from the federal government we won't do anything but uh jeopardize our you know our our quality of education and and uh the education that we're providing to the to the kids and I just think that uh we do have to fight and I think we do have to contact our uh our elected officials and and but we also have to support what we what we currently have so that we could we we remain uh strong
062and viable and so that our uh our children keep getting the exemplary education that we've been providing up to now Mr tesler thank you again I'll reiterate a little what was said um our primary responsibility here in Monroe is to educate the children of Monroe and I know we've been to many board meetings and discussed and compared ourselves to other districts um and should fight the fight but at the end of the day we have to work with what we have and I do support the budget because I would like to see some of the programs that cut actually brought back in but we have to live with what we have and I think what's presented to the board and the public is the best that we can do um keeping our programs opening the
063new high school moving the middle school here and doing the work we need to do at Applegarth and we probably even need to do more Apple guard in the coming years but I think it's an amazing feat that we fit all we did uh with the money we're given thank you Mr Tes Miss Calo thank you Mr Kaufman I also agree with Mr Klein that we need to all be doing whatever we need to do to make sure that we're getting our fair share and obviously if you as you've seen tonight we're certainly not getting our fair share of um money from the state and I know that many of the board members have had conversations and have written letters to the elected officials we still need to do that both as individual board members
064and as a board of education we also need help with the community to continue that fight it can't be just the 10 of us here it needs to be the whole Community saying that this is not fair what's happening in Monroe unfortunately our kids are not the ones that are fighting that fight they're the ones that are being educated and we as a board have the obligation to educate 6,000 children and I will support the budget because that's what we need to do we have to educate our children they're our future hopefully someday they'll be fighting the fight and helping children down the road too Mr CL just one other statement it's not that I want to hurt the kids trust me when I tell you a message has to be sent now those of
065you that have attended other meetings of the board have heard me say that for the last two years I have sent letters to Governor Christie chief justice rabner to get him to to rethink the so-called formula the New Jersey Department of Education I've written to newspapers I've had some articles printed in letters to the editor I even contacted Arnold Diaz on WABC he's got that shame on you I wanted him to attack the New Jersey state Supreme Court in the Abbott decision I can tell you out of all the letters that I've sent I got a reply from Chris Christie he turned me over to Department of Education I did get a call back from a low-level uh person that I guess goes through the mail and distributes it surf never called me back never
066contacted me um I was at the governor's town hall meeting last week in Woodbridge and I was thank God he picked me to speak and of course I couldn't go as long as I do here it had to be short and sweet and when I brought up about what we receive in state aid I get the same play well that was the Supreme Court and that's why I'm changing the Supreme Court and it's the formula and we have nothing to do with the formula well let me tell you something I don't care what the formula is it's not going to give us $24 a student so something is wrong somewhere I don't want to hurt the the students I want what's best for them but I also want what's best for our residents and that
067what's best for everybody is for the state to pay their fair share like it says in the State Constitution and we don't get anywhere near what we should get thank you thank you Mr clown anyone else from the board did did Arnold Diaz respond no absolutely I don't watch it anymore I watch wnbc does he know Mr Klein that you have a sad card any other board members uh one other comment and I promise we'll open it up to the public is I know uh you've heard a lot about the cap and the amount of money that were allocated or eligible to go up and increase our school uh spending uh this year we are coming in underap by about $600,000 so in everything that we're trying to put forward here this evening we are
068also coming in under cap which is again a directive to be make sure that the things that we're putting on this budget are truly lights on so with that I'd like to open it up to the public anyone wishing to speak before the board please take your name and address for the record and you will have a uh thre minute uh time limit good evening Kathy slow in 71 Mayberry Avenue M Township I was one wondering um yesterday I understand there was a decision um in the Supreme Court whereby it was ruled that Governor Christie's modification of the funding formula is unconstitutional in that it is uh preventing people from providing a thorough and efficient education um could you correct me if I'm wrong first of all second of all um does will that decision
069um increase funding at all from the state or will there be appe and various things like that Mr is be glad to judge D of beran County was appointed special master and he was to gather facts this is not a Supreme Court decision he has to it has to be floated up to the Supreme Court and we are ready for a constitutional Donnie Brook and it and it's really going to revolve around the question does dollars equal educational superiority and uh the chrisy position is it does not there are other factors and uh he worked on the assumption that you go and you look at the Mark's favorite Title One districts and you look at the lowest performing students and see if they make an improvement or or not and he came up with the
070decision that though an efficient was not being uh carried through there are a lot of other factors besides dollars and so judge chief justice rabner is going to have an interesting time and watch the television l oh Mr Klein just to add on what Mr Larry said I read the same article tonight and if you read the whole article the judge is more interested in the low performing students basically the inner city kids that are low performing that are getting billions of dollars during the past 15 years nothing in there is said about helping the Suburban communities Mark minor correction 40 years 40 years so my point is that everything any funds that come in from the federal government you had last year um there was money I forgot what the the bill was called
071but it was to to rehire teachers you know where that money went if we got anything we got what we get $100,000 the these Aid districts the the title one districts getting millions of dollars when you had the education stimulus fund that Obama released to New Jersey I think the figure was um oh I think it was upwards of over $300 million of which $250 million went to the Abbot districts and the other whatever it was 10 and some odd million went to special education now which schools have the largest population of special ed the title one schools so we got very little from that all your federal all the federal money goes to low performing districts all of you most of your state money 55% goes to these 31 or 32 school districts They
072Don't Care About Us they don't care about the suburbs they don't care about our kids and I've been complaining about this I'm on the board now 2 years I've been complaining about it publicly on the board for 2 years and for years before that and I don't know what it takes for our residents to get angry enough to start to raise held why do we wait year after year and that's the reason why I'm voting the way I am is hoping that there's somebody here from the news media that will do an article on what we're up against thank you Mr cherell yeah I think the answer is that we don't know um quick question um is it possible for anybody on the board to prepare sample letters um something you know perhaps address to
073the various members that you gave us uh address names and addresses for for the language um to assist us something we can pull down off the website attach assign our name to it and send it off in the mail that's a great idea I will I will draft that and put something up on the website if the board supports that yes thank you I'd appreciate because I'm not really sure to put in a letter to address the matter keep in mind it'll be pretty much bullet point oriented we can't put in too much language it really has to come you know from community members and thank you it shouldn't be a stock letter they should be different thank you anyone else it is cats and dogs that's like yeah oh yeah hi my name is
074Jerry Paskowski I'm at three Glen Eagle West I got to tell you this this is termed the budget presentation and after an hour and 15 minutes I still don't know what this budget is in dollars and cents where the increases are and why that's a bit unusual I hope this is not the Pelosi read approach where you got to pass it to understand what it is and what's in it it would really be helpful for some of us who come to these presentations to have a hand out that deals with the budget it's not in M it's on the table well it was not in the presentation there wasn't 10 minutes devoted to what this budget is where the cost increases are and why and I look at this pie chart and if I'm interpreting
075it properly it looks like the benefit ratio in this district is about somewhere in the area of 40% I don't have the calculator but you can correct me if I'm wrong now that seems excessively High that's the industry standard we have been fighting that and well you're negotiating a contract I believe there's the time to change it but let me go on I'm trying to make my point in the presentation we we talked about custodial services and maintenance services and kind of passed it off as it's a convenience well when we're paying 40% on top of a w or or or a salary it becomes more than a convenience and I would hope that we go out and look to subcontracting in some of these areas where there may be an opportunity to save some
076money because these benefit rates are not are way in excessive anything you find in Private Industry today and there may be opportunities if it's not on the table to start putting some of these things like subcontract subcontracting on the table get the costs out of these benefits and start giving it to the children where it belongs now nobody's denying that we we should provide benefits to our employees that's not that's not the the issue the issue is that how how far can we go on providing this Cadillac level of benefits I think we've reached the breaking point and it if it's penalizing anybody it's not only the taxpayer it's the children so these these issues about subcontracting and having services supplied inous believe me are more than a convenience we need to get real need
077to get involved with how we go about cutting the course curve in the education system and it's not about only funding which is what the bulk of this presentation about it's also about spending now whether we want to admit that to ourselves or not it's a different issue but I think it's about time we need to start thinking about that thank you thank you Jared l not right now Mar anyone else okay there good evening um Paul jel L Hedrick Street Jamesburg New Jersey um perhaps one of the largest casualties of what's going on with all the funding mechanisms is the fact that Jamesburg Board of vet has asked to to stop at send reive relationship with Monroe first question I really had about that actually before my question I've said it before and I
078got to say it again we're two towns but we're one community and Mr Klein you said you know every student deserves a chance and that's why our residents in Jamesburg love that we come to this high school we do believe this board and the education that they receive our children receive is the top in the state and we thank you for that my question is how does ending that send receive relationship impact your budget and the planning I'm not sure if we reflected particularly I'm going to let Mr Gorski field that one um it's it's certainly negatively affects the budget U Monroe has enjoyed a relationship with Jamesburg for the last 30 years um Jamesburg has always lived up to their obligations um for tuition there have been some aages due to estimated tuition to
079actual um and there are some outstanding now but that's never been a problem uh this the the real reason that we're at this right now is because Jamesburg um had agreed previously to pay their proportionate share of interest on the new high school um included in their tuition costs and we believe that was in good faith but the new budget Law Without A tuition cap waiver which was available last year and is now no longer Pro was prohibitive in in order for them to do so so they act mechanically could not fit an ample amount of tuition in their budget we appealed to the county we appealed to the state we appealed to the governor um for months and um it was Jamesburg board that recommended seeking Alternatives in other districts that may be older
080more established with the less of an a debt amortization schedule that Monroe has where they could recognize a cheaper per pupil rate um we already had to revise our budget by approximately $585,000 to remove Mo the interest component that would have been due in the 112 school year and defer it till the actual costs are calculated we had to make some Cuts in accordance with that um and long term we we don't want to lose uh the revenue source of $3 to4 million a year but ultimately it it wasn't our um move to sever the relationship and actually I had a follow question so it was not this board that asked right because that was a negative impact essentially to your taxpayers to your taxpayers since you're funding what efforts everyone here has said there's
081been efforts and I know and I in Earnest I know there has I know in our board part there has been efforts what joint efforts have there been what's been the response to say you know what James James very truthfully 40% of our students are minority students 32% of them are free and reduced in fact in the conversations I've had their challenge is one of how will they get a fair education because if they are busted they can't attend Schoolboard meetings they won't be able to attend their children's so there's there is a Family Impact to people who live in Jamesburg um what has been the joint efforts between the Jamesburg Board of Ed and Monroe Board of Ed to address that to address the fact that we couldn't get the aid to keep us
082essentially Dr H we have had several conversations with um superintendent ba kinds of conversations we have not initiated uh board-to-board conversations although that representation Again by the ba and superintendent is is reflective of a collaborative effort and while the conversations are always collaborative and and respectful I think that Jamesburg at least the representatives that we have had the opportunity to speak with really are between a rock and a hard place um I don't think anybody wants really to sever this relationship um certainly from our perspective and addition to the fiscal part of it the diversity is important to our community um it's important to our students and even as we plan our budget and our programs it's cognizant of the fact that we have a Jamesburg population and those needs have to be addressed in
083our educational program so that's a priority for us um but the conversation board to board has not been very extensive but we have had meetings where Representatives have been present at the state level as well so I think those concerns have been well articulated thank you and just just the client agreed with you what you said and just last statement just to say I'm not an advocate for taxes none of us are we're all homeowners in our communities any dollar we take out of our pocket we know ends up going somewhere um and there's so much dollars going to other districts we'd love to you know whatever we can do in fact um there is a group coming together with Jamesburg mono citizens united to help how do we get out there how do we
084get in the community how do we get in the state how do we get our representatives to pay attention because I think a lot of them truthly are dodging this issue because they don't want their hands on it so thank you having spoken to some of your Jamesburg parents and they were in attendance at our last meeting I'll say the same thing now that I said then and the point is is that this board this superintendent assistant superintendent everybody you see here cared more about the well-being of the Jamesburg students than their own board did we were willing to in fact I think we we worked it out with them we were willing to keep the students I guess it was from 10th grade up or 11th grade up so they can graduate with the
085same students they went through high school with yes we've done our leadership has done everything in their power to bend for Jamesburg and I think if you speak to the people that are involved in this you're going to find out that a lot of the problem is not with this it's not with this board it's not with this district and I'm there to support you and I know all of us feel the same way but just you know keep up the fight that's all I can say thank you appreciate your candid I I just want to add one comment I mean it this is not a fun job no you know we're not clearly in it for the money cuz you all know get nothing right you can tell me that I'm putting us all
086in for a raise double of nothing is still nothing um the Jamesburg board of education is truly um in in a difficult situation and I don't for one minute I'd have to disagree with Mr Klein I don't believe that they we are doing a better job at articulating the issues uh relative to Jamesburg than the Jamesburg board um I think that it's a difficult situation to be in in e case and I just want to make sure that everybody understands that you know our doors are going to be open to Jamesburg students uh we have put a mechanism in place to allow James Burke to seek and move forward to see if they can find um alternate schooling for their high school but there is a safety valve there to come back to Monroe and
087and you know we're here literally you have to go through Monroe to leave Jamesburg uh so we're clearly not going anywhere um and and that that door will always be open we just want to make sure that everything that we do everything that the Jamesburg board does really should be for the for the ultimate goal for the best situation for the students at the end of the day it it it I know it's an issue about money and we don't want to spend more money but you know our our Monroe families are spending the same amount of money for their education for Monroe students so um it it it is a tough situation for everybody concerned but at the end of the day we just want to make sure that's that that everybody understands the
088Jamesburg board and this board will do whatever is necessary to you know to move forward in whatever fashion uh is deemed appropriate thank you m j yeah I just wanted to make a I appreciate the cander so thank you yeah just a comment on uh you know that the our relationship with with Jamesburg that goes back a long time U my family came from Italy at the turn of the century and came to Monroe Farm long time I I'm I I'm a lot older than I look um and and uh they farmed they farmed in Monroe but my grandmother and my father everybody went to school in Jamesburg at the time we didn't have schools in Monro and my father graduated from from Jamesburg High School so you know the uh everything has changed over
089time and and that was the center of our community at the time was Jamesburg and up until I was a kid and you know now things have changed so you know I think we're all members of the same family we just we're just trying to work out you know who's you know how everything is is going to settle out because right now the way it stands is that the you know our taxpayers would have to absorb that cost and uh and that's and that's difficult to to do but I just like you didn't you know to know and just to reiterate what everybody else said is that we're with you you know we're uh we're with the people of Jamesburg you're part our family thank you I I don't know if I have any time
090left but I just want to Paul if we get this sorry but I got it no that's fine I'm done you can come back yeah thanks hi Sandy susman 124 Buckaloo in Jamesburg uh first in front of your fellow Town Monroe Township people I want to thank you for working with us to allow our eighth graders to attend next year that really means a lot to us uh unfortunately for us it that's short term right now uh so we want to work forward I guess my first question is what was accomplished in the superintendent meeting superintendent uh to work on this um well we agreed that if the relationship needed to be severed we wouldn't fight that um so that was because it's a Court decision in order for that relationship or that decision to
091be reversed all parties have to agree so if in fact Jamesburg was able to find another district and they could provide that education at a cheaper rate and that was in Jamesburg best interest then my recommendation to this board was of course not to fight that um so that that that could proceed and and James Cur could could find an alternative that was one if you did not agree what would be the alternative then then well it would be up to the courts at that point there would be a battle in the courts um the second part that I think was was accomplished is bringing our concerns to the level the state level because initially we were thinking that perhaps if they were able to provide a waiver to Jamesburg where they could raise the
092cost of the tuition then we wanted to certainly support that that effort at the state level and it was determined that that although that may have been something that may have been supported it would have resulted in an extraordinary increase for Jamesburg taxpayers um and I certainly don't want to take the Liberty to try to speak for the Jamesburg board or the superintendent there but um after that meeting it was determined that severing the relationship was the most viable option thank you uh I understand was that my three minutes no I understand in the seven years that we were not attending the new high school we were not paying a Debt Service is there a retroactive Debt Service inclusive in the 19,000 number uh Mike uh the answer to that is no um according to
093the formula Monroe could have charged Jamesburg interest costs pertaining to the bonds that were issued since 2002 during the construction phase um Monroe's board and Jamesburg board agreed that Monroe would um not charge and wave completely that fee during the construction phase and that Jamesburg would begin their responsible uh part based on ad enrollment um September 2011 when School opens last question based on the facts that we know now and that we have 15 months to make a change an effective change in Jamesburg uh I'm curious Dr Hamilton from a personal standpoint from the facts you're seeing do you think it's AC it can be accomplished yes that's important thank you Bob Ro J te Newfield Boulevard Monroe U I just want to say that U the U this budget requires the taxpayers which support
094about 90% of this budget to the tax rate will go up 99.4% 0 4% so and last year it was 7 point something I don't remember exactly so you have two years with many many people not receiving any salary increases Social Security increases getting substantial uh taxes more the taxes that they have to pay um now I know there's been some talk about the thorough and efficient education because we don't get the state aid but you know everybody knows that that's that's way out of our hands with the Supreme Court I think the only thing that's going to resolve that is a constitutional amendment if anybody wants to try it uh the one question I have and I don't know whether Mike has the answer but uh I would be interested in knowing how much
095uh we spend on special education versus how much the state reimburses us for special education I don't know whether that's a a figure you would have Mike I I know it's probably got to be 7 or8 million at least but just in looking at some of these items well I could tell you exactly what the state reimburses us it's the categor special Aid right 1,1 12581878 [Music] the taxpayers basically have to supply the funds to do that and I know that based on what Mr liry has said recently and I hope I'm correcting uh U commenting on your uh your statement correctly is that Monroe because we have such a great special education program uh attracts many many students and that we have on average 1.6 special ed child child for 16% six one out
096of six is what you said and one out of nine is the is the average and which means that we are paying and which is well above as I think Dr Hamil has indicated what is required I think they're all to be a rethinking of that process as to should we be the one the district that is trying to get people to move in to Monroe that people move into Monroe be because we have such a fine special education program we certainly have to uh educate our children that live here that are special education children but to be a magnet I don't know that that's the right thing to do I think that's special education in my mind is more of a state issue quite frankly and I think they should be funding for that
097but that's not the way it is we're required to do it and I I I don't know how much we could save in taxpayer dollars by being just more like other districts that just provide a thorough and efficient special ed education program um I just want to respond Bob if I can one of the things that uh this board of education has done over many many years uh is yes you're right we do have a u a very attractive special education program and there are many people uh throughout the region that come to Monroe because of this we still have to educate children with special needs regardless uh what this board has done over many years has brought back inhouse a lot of the special education programs that many districts pay out of District to
098perform now when you pay anything out of District you spend a lot more money on those resources and those programs so we have been working over many years to make sure that we are providing we are successful in our special education program but by no means what I consider it a magnet uh we meet the needs that our children have we do it in house which saves this District millions of dollars well the magnet has been mentioned at Board of Education meetings by Mr lry actually L May I make a comment Mr Mr ly we have a very very good special education director here and one of the things that they have been doing is bringing really good quality education if you look at page four of the handout for today it shows that we
099have 54 students who are outside the district and the biggest number is 13 in the academy Learning Center which is for autistic CH and it's right here in Monroe and you can go to comparable school districts same FG group and we use North Brunswick as an example and the last reading I had they had 110 kids out of district and in some of those cases I mean they the you know the parents are absolutely insistent and because of the judicial environment the state of New Jersey and the judicial environment of the third circuit District parents always win and so it's not unusual parents are insistent that they send them up to Jan handlan in New Brunswick with the New Brunswick Developmental Center 100,000 bucks tuition $10,000 of Transportation charges we this district has done a
100remarkable job working with child study teams to show parents that we have the capabilities to do a good good job and that when we go out of District we try to make the maximum usage of the middle sex Regional Educational Service Commission which provides high quality special education at very reasonable prices but if we have one child for every six that's special education and only average is 1 nine 1 to n I assume that we're spending more money than than than the other FG districts now I have no idea I I don't but I would agree with your assumption sorry I got to cut you off Mr Larry thank you Mr caufman thank you Bob you can come back if you want your 3 minutes is up all pretty quick there uh I I just
101want to comment to what was just said I'm a parent of a special needs child that went through this District I'm also a special education teacher in other District um I see what is spent I I we have a good system here I don't see waste I don't see excessive programs what I see is my autistic daughter who is an independent young adult out in the workforce paying taxes instead of being a burden on the tax system in a sheltered environment that's what a good special education system is designed to do get our children out into the workfare force make them productive citizens not a further burden on a different tax pocket and that's what we've doing here in Monroe anyone else wishing to speak state your name and address for record Karen R 44
102elderado um it's with the sixth graders leaving Oak tray it's estimated that we're only going to go down 26 students I assume we're going to get a large influx the four empty classrooms what are the plans for those classrooms um they're preliminary plans but part of that would depend on whether or not the second proposal passes um the other part of that would be looking at some of the class siiz issues that are currently there and perhaps restructuring or reconfiguring some of those those class siiz issues and then another possibility is restoring the use of the art and music rooms as they were designed to be but those plans are tenative so is restoring the art of music kind of the last in line behind classroom size okay and if full day K does get
103voted in is Barkley um Brook at full capacity now how would they accommodate more students Barkley Brook is not at full capacity right now um but there's a recomposition going on over there as well because as we move those trailers out we have to then find locations for offices that are located there for example and some of the other programs and services that are housed at at the Barkley Brooks in okay thank you you're welcome anyone else Mr gungan you still have to state your name and address George cutting State aids to schools and municipalities puts more pressure on property tax the Merit of Homestead rebates for households with less than 75,000 of of income seems only to pit one group against another the very idea of rebates is in contradiction to the stated claims
104of government inefficiency what is the cost of a $500 rebate to taxpayers 600 700 at least some figures say that it's 2 to one so the state is going to collect $1,000 from us to give us back $500 we have already filled out rebate forms for nothing more than once is there a department that processes these forms even when there are no rebates paid the proper treasury I do not want a rebate I want a more fair tax system for funding schools the constant claim of being an office to make hard choices beggar the need to shift tax burdens away from ones not geared to Citizens ability to pay to taxes that are tied to income in recent New Jersey T history we are going in the direction of more regressive taxing when the State
105caps local property tax increases or any of its other caps it's like telling someone else how much they can eat our school board members council members and mayor stand for election and then must defend their position on local taxes regardless of any tax cap set by outside sources the myth that our problems in America are caused by teachers and public sector employers because of the power they have over elected official belies the much bigger power of big business lobbies as well as the military industrial complex that President Eisenhower tried to warn us about 50 years ago if the states are afraid of collective bargaining they should hire better negotiators no tax is fair to everyone no funding plan is fair to everyone I think the idea that taking funding away from poor districts will solve
106the problems of the rest is like making the starving compete for food sorry current state funding and equities are a symptom of an obsolete tax structure what to do we need to demand a more fair tax Source George a progressive income tax I know you're great I'll give you 30 seconds you got a pres a progressive income tax is much fairer than property tax the reason we do not have this is because politicians know from past experience that if they increase state income tax they will not be reelected we need to make them know that they will not be reelected if they do not restructure our tax burden in New Jersey so that we can fund our needs and Community priorities other states have moved away from property tax as a base for school funding
107New Jersey should look at these other models and try and pick out some of the better models and move on I think the debate that we're focusing on on here tonight of of looking at the the fairness of this system is misplaced we have to go beyond that and restructure because it's never going to be fair the way they're doing it now thank Mr C Mr Larry let's look at the history book former Governor Richard ues Chief Justice of the Supreme Court in 1976 shut schools down and forced the issue of income tax for the state income tax is the reg the progressive thing that you ask for it was supposed to be dedicated to the schools and what has happened we've wound up with the administrative monstrosities known as the Abbott school district and
108the Mount Laurel decision and with regard to politicians remember Governor Brendan ues when he put that income tax in place the only way he could get reelected was to put the rebate in place and he squeaked in rest my case George Mr Klein you mentioned one thing that is is accurate not that all of what you said was not accurate is um the proper thing to do and if you speak to our local elected officials they'll tell you that the proper way of funding schools is other than using property taxes whether it be a higher sales tax or an income tax as far as the money that's going into the title one schools where you say it's wrong to take money away they're getting too much now Newark gets between federal and state $800 million
109and we're not talking about Zuckerberg from Facebook giving them another $100 million and they're still failing they got as I said before the money is wasted and school districts like us are starving you're paying for it it's a red hering okay it's not a red hering and actually a lot of what you said no I'm not going to get a lot of what you're saying is true but don't voice it here with Washington DC Mark yes I'm not a thank you thank you my pleasure always a pleasure hey D boy for tamarak Road uh just a couple of points uh one uh I really appreciated the fact that the board decided to send out postcards advising all of the community about the various hearings you're going to have on the budget uh I think I
110think that's a terrific idea to try to make yourselves available as much as possible to the public so they can come and hear your presentation as well as raise their questions uh Mr Gorski you mentioned and I saw it in the Cranberry press and I would appreciate a little bit more uh elaboration on it uh the Jamesburg Board of Ed uh owes the Monroe Township Board of Ed uh approximately $550,000 and my understanding is that goes back as far as 2007 if I understood that correctly I I have difficulty understanding uh exactly how that came about I would think you have to pay the bills each year so I'd appreciate a comment on that and uh Mr uh Gorman I noticed under your slide on program curriculum development uh the very bottom of that slide
111which was number 11 uh and these were things that were being either eliminated or reduced there was mention made of a mathematics content supervisor now I was I was under the impression that we did not have a mathematics supervisor in the district and essentially I would just like the board and I realize this has budgetary implications but I have great difficulty understanding why we would have a supervisor a district supervisor in something like uh social studies physical education uh possibly art and music you have various supervisors but none of those content areas are tested by the state of New Jersey nor are those content areas incl ined on the SAT I really think we need to rethink why we don't have a mathematics supervisor for the district that coordinates what's supposed to be happening k
112through 12 keeping an eye on things as well as they're the resident expert in terms of observing classes in addition to the building principle so those are my my three points or comments uh and I got those in before my time is up thank you good man I take number one Mr Po thank you uh for the comment we've worked hard this year to try to uh make our budget as open and apparent as possible at every finance committee meeting at least being the last three at the tenet of budget adoption at the revised tenet of budget adoption we've handed out revenue and appropriation schedules and earlier than the law requires we've posted to our website a userfriendly budget which is the basic requirements from the state delineating uh in laid person's terms the financial
113uh aspects of the budget and anything else we're always available for anybody's inquiry um with with regard to Jamesburg the the um the law allows sending receiving districts to um budget for their tuition figures um up front you don't know what the exact costs are going to be you don't know what the enrollment is going to be so it's an estimate at the end of the year you prepare a report called a41 a42 where you um put in your actual cost from your audit and you calculate an actual ad and and you settle up with the district uh based upon the estimated to the actual cost and the estimated to the actual enrollment the law then requires uh it used to be 3 years now it's two years that the district has to settle up
114with the other party for the 78 school year it is true that Jamesburg goes Monroe $220,000 and for the uh 89 school year they owe approximately $350,000 the this 78 money is appropriated in their budget to be paid to Monroe and consequently it is in Monroe's revenues to be received by Jamesburg and approved by the county office um those monies are not delinquent and they are strongly anticipated to be paid um just to dub tail onto that you have to remember that Boards of Education have to do things in advance of when they happen and if you can't pay a bill until the actual certification of tuition has been done that's you and it's a cyclical process so you have to give the sending District enough time now that we know what the bill is
115we have to give them enough time to now plan for it in the budget that may be because of timing have already been approved for that year so it's a year skip so it's a timing thing and and that's typically why a 2-year offset is is in place um I who has next question Jeff uh regarding the math supervision um we have not abandoned math Supervision in any way shape or form we actually put together a hybrid model this year which encompasses uh three Administrative Assistant principles and four math lead teachers at various levels at the high school at the middle level and two at the elementary level in addition to a department coordinator at the high school who are under my guidance and supervision we meet regularly um once a month and we are
116actually doing some pretty Progressive um actions and meetings that that look a little bit different than pure administrative supervision of the program um and just a point of information Mr Po I'm a math minor not a major but I do have an a pretty extensive math background in that area um I'd be happy to share with you all the details and and the um the steps that we've put in place that are comparable um the model does not necessarily um work in every content area uh but I'd like to give it a shot because of you know the harshness of administrative costs in the district balancing that and moving forward with an appropriate supervision model um but we're not neglecting that area in any way shape or form that's actually a very important um content
117area Mr CH yeah I just want to address what Mr gunman said because I think he is correct um and I and I just want to I just want to explain that I think that the way we fund our education is is backwards it's regressive and I think that uh We're a nation founded on private property rights and by and and by asking uh citizens to pay an exorbitant amount in property taxes to fund things like education what we're really asking is for property owners to pay rent on land that they supposedly already own and uh I and I think that's a I think that's a major issue and it's an erosion of freedoms and I think there's there are a lot of things that go into that which are just wrong and backward um
118I I would like to you know I I just think that uh if you really want to see equality and education and and proper funding then we have to fund it through Progressive means and then distribute that money properly and I think you're right and I hope I did you justice any they were good points um hold on uh John just one second anyone else wishing to speak about the budget Tom vand to Fernwood Lane Jamesburg in viewing the slide on voter turnout uh where in those areas shown are the loow income or age restricted low income housing uh housing developments located Ross Rossmore is yeah I live in Rossmore okay so that's third four that's lowincome age restricted it's you can buy a house in Rossmore for $35,000 we got people who are getting
119aid from the county for meals and other things like that there are we got 3,000 citizens some of them are wealthy but we got a handful of people I'm a member of Kanas one of our big things is the pantry try borrowing money from this guy it's impossible okay so Ross MO is it no probably other places but I I can talk for personal experience okay that's the point thanks very much than anyone else willing to Paul Paul Gentile Cedric Street Jamesburg New Jersey just to follow up on the pantry imagine your numbers have increased just as in jamesg we got over 135 families in the area who are supported by our food pantry just in Jamesburg so I don't know the Monroe numbers I'm sure it's gone up absolutely we've got all types of
120people my question is to special needs um in the send receive relationship obviously Jamesburg in our school district we do not we are not able to accommodate special needs within our K through 8 so they go out of district for that in our send receive is there is the send receive cover special needs as well do weend send you know send our special needs to Monroe High School yes and the there is no differential in the tuition rate um for special Aid and general Aid students okay is there any Aid that comes back to assist with that just that yeah total a that's it full k Sorry Jamesburg um special ed students that are um taught inhouse in our um inclass supporter Resource Centers um are more costly but there is no additional cge charge
121that has been assessed to Jamesburg that was waved several years ago uh when Jamesburg has a student that has needs to go out of District into a private setting it's the responsibility of Jamesburg School Monroe doesn't get any aid from that Jamesburg would be eligible for Extraordinary ID and I am certain that they do receive yeah I just wanted to clarify which just trying to understand the process um the other thing I was trying to um with through the State numbers identify cost per pupil but the cost per pupil for your well not k through eight because K is coming but up to 8th grade you have that number what would be the cost per pupil average uh I brought a great deal of worksheets I don't know if I have that one administrative cost
122per pupil um I could provide that to you okay thank you that's it uh Mr Larry talked about the 16% name address for the record um Allan con uh cruncho Court Monroe uh Mr lirry talked about the 16% uh special education or classified student rate versus a 9% Statewide 11 11% okay um it's you within the district your special ed Department your child study team that classify students classification provides a lot of services to students the good percentage who really need it but there are children who are classified that are hurt by the system over classification and it seems to me that that may be something that you should be looking at is your special ed Department doing what they should be for the students of Monroe please look into that let me address that
123issue Mr I represent Monroe Township on the middle sex Regional Educational Service Commission and our directorate is one of the Superior directorates in the entire County in fact well beyond the County because in the M middle sex Educational Service Commission we s serve 75 School District the 25 of middle sex plus we go all the way up into Essex County and all the way down to ocean county and the team that's been put together by Dr Hamilton and others is got a high high reputation in the educational establishment of this state Miss Leonard uh I'd like to address that issue um over classification is a problem and the state has instituted a system called response to intervention that every District follows uh I know Monroe had similar plans well before the state implemented this um
124but children are not sent directly to the child study team who are having difficulties they are screened by RTI which is consists of parents teachers a child study team member a nurse psychologist if if they're needed and interventions are put into place in the regular classroom by the regular ed teacher they are monitored these interventions are looked at after a period of a month or two months um there are three three tiers to this intervention so there are three levels of intervention all before a child is recommended for a um testing to see if classification is necessary so it's not an automatic okay this child's having difficulty reading send him to the child study team let's classify him that's not happening this system is put into place uh it can remain in place forever the
125child could respond to the interventions and be pulled out of it or the child can go for the a testing process to see if there is an underlying cognitive problem due to the learning difficulty so there are steps in place and Monroe has been doing this for 10 12 years and the state has just mandated it in the past two or three um another break okay anyone else wishing to speak please come up state your name and address of the record good evening Tom notein 15 nathani Street I think it's a little disingenuous when we talk about complaining about the lack of state aid um the high school would never have been built if it weren't for the $26 million that our tax dollars from income tax funneled back to us for that um last
126year at this time same thing all I heard was oh we cut our state aid um it it's it's the end of the world yet what did this board do you went and in your negotiations you negotiated a 4% raise for the teachers hardly the right thing to do because I don't think that there was anybody on this board that could not have foreen the lack of state aid this year but yet we went ahead and did that anyway um I saw a slide mentioning that we're uh we're not overspending we're underfunded well that's like saying I have a lot of credit card debt I need a raise well that's not how it works that's not your job your job is to work within the constraints excuse me work with the constraints that you have
127as far as your your income just like we do now a 9.04 I think I heard that number bandied about I didn't do the math uh that's what the tax increase is is that an accurate uh number Mr the uh tax increase which there was another slide pertaining to the composition of uh what's in the tax increase is uh %. okay and uh you know there's a lot of components that go into it um lack of state aid is the largest of them all because obviously if the state funded their responsible part of Education it wouldn't have to be on the burden of the local tax levy okay now I I I get that but my contention is obviously if state aid was ever going to be distributed equally equally there would be no such
128thing as a district factor that is what the state aid is based on so as long as you have dfg's you're never going to have uh Equitable tax as as far as some members of this board have have mentioned um thirdly with regards to the uh the Jamesburg situation I know the past we've given them um a substantial break more out of fairness I believe than a requirement based on the The Debt Service because the high school wasn't even opened um does this board feel that that might have exacerbated the current situation by by having such a big bump now um Mr Gorski um the answer to that is is no um at of fairness yes we we did try to be fair because the district was earning interest on the bonds um Jamesburg was
129paying on the school that they were currently in so there's a rationale that's you know understandable for why the district absorbed the construction debt during that period um James BG's board met in our conference room in the administrative building about four or five years ago we uh furnished them with our amortization schedules for the debt we broke down anticipated ad we we forecasted what those amounts would be it was clear to everyone it was even agreed to early on in this budget cycle cycle we we reconciled to an amount of tuition including the interest cost but when the cap waiver for tuition uh was terminated and the 2% tax levy cap was initiated Jamesburg mechanically could not pay it so basically though if they were paying it all along then it wouldn't have mattered as
130much because it wouldn't have been that if they were paying it all along they still wouldn't be able to pay it okay okay I got you okay thank you very much oh one other thing uh I applaud the board I was really very to see the pay to play um these are the kind of thinking outside the box that I I love to see because there are ways that we can save money uh a couple years ago we talked about advertising uh in this in this cafeteria I believe there was a uh an outside consultant came in where does that stand um I'll take that one we did work with an outside consultant at the time um he was pretty much the only game in town uh when it came down to sitting down and
131talking about the contracts and the numbers and how the mechanics were were going to work uh it never got past the negotiations uh they from what I recall uh our requirements and uh their ability to perform certain Services just didn't come it it it there was no meeting of the mind so uh we never pursued it again only on the sense that uh they were at the time and I don't know if this has been looked at again uh really the only game in town that provided that service to other districts that we had taken a look at at the time I believe uh Tom River was one uh so uh it's one of the things that we could take a look at again to see if there are other uh vendors out there that
132do the same type of service yeah obviously I mean those kind of Revenue uh generators is is a great thing for for a district to come up with um I mean I hate to see uh Mr Klein mentioned that we cut textbooks um and and we we start Pro we sto new programs well that's the kind of stuff I hate to see but those Revenue generators like to pay to play in the the uh advertising I think is great so you're doing a good job with that thank you than anyone else willing to speak to about Mr G uh in the handout page five up in the upper right hand corner is the first of the charts talking about funding facts these uh four school districts were carefully selected there are about 120,000 students in
133Middle sex County and these four middle middle class school districts FG represent 24,000 students it's a fairly homogeneous group of students socioeconomically and why do you have disparities on the order of 20 20 to one it just blows my mind and a lot of other people rest my case thank you Mr M anyone else willing to speak to the budget Jerry Paskowski again I'm trying to understand this this funding thing and and I'm not getting a good handle on it is this a quantitative formula this is there are factors in this formula that I replied that you crank and and and there's a number comes out at the end that says here's what it's supposed to be I mean I can't believe that somebody sat down and purposely designed something to discriminate against Monroe so
134what is it in this formula that is that is discriminatory to Monroe help me understand that because I can't get my arms around it um I'm going to make a comment and then I'm going to let John L take this one uh Jerry you're absolutely right this formula um is unbelievable if you go out to the New Jersey Department of Education website you can download a document I believe it's 40 pages long on how to calculate this magic number um I've read it I've taken a look at it um it's I would I would say if you had a doctorate in economics you would find it to be a very good case study that's my own personal opinion uh Mr ly that may be but again what I mean if we're sitting here and and
135continually be crying the fact that we're being penalized Iz it would help all of us to understand why what is it in this formula what are the factors that are there that are specific to Monroe Township that is putting us at such a disadvantage I mean you've got a lot of phds around here mathematics teachers and a whole bunch of people with degrees help us understand what it is that that we you know that we're being penalized for amplifying on what L said we are trying desperately to find what the hell it is it's a bunch of mumbo jumbo as far as we're concerned right now and we're getting stiffed well we got legislators let's get the legislators involved I've personally had lots of conversations with Linda Greenstein uh they're here when they want our
136vot Hamilton has talked we've gone to the governor's office I mean this is not been a sleeping dog Jerry when I asked Chris Christie Allan was there Chris Christie didn't devise this formula we get the same runaround and what I'm not putting the blame on the governor but what it comes down to is the legislature I thought it was the Supreme Court after the Abit decision the legislature developed the formula you heard me earlier how can East Bruns get so much and we get $24 a student there's no formula shows that there is no answer and something that George said and I I wasn't trying to get into an argument with you but in your presentation I wish you would do that letter form to the legislature and to the federal government right now the
137legislature because they're the only ones that can change the way we Finance our schools and and what you say as far as the formula you got very educated people here that's my point there's no answer well there's got to be an answer I it's when you find out first Jerry please let us know one of Mr Cher yeah just one of the things that that uh penalizes us for lack of a better term is that we're above adequacy and and there are many different factors that cause us to be above adequacy but one of those are what does that mean well it means that and and I'm sure Dr Hamilton or or Mike could explain it better than I can but for instance um one of the things that put us above adequacy is the
138fact that we're a 43 square mile town and we have to bus our children to the into schools so because of because of the cost to bus and and all the infrastructure and all the things that we need to do that to uh to make it happen logistically puts us in a different bracket because they say you you know you you guys have more you guys are are wealthy you have you have uh you have more so you need less and but really there's a need there's a reason why we bus you you're not going to send kids to walk down 5:22 at 8:00 in the morning they you know that would be very in a 3T of snow I would dangerous situation I mean it's got to be more involved than just busting kids
139well that's part of it that's part of what puts us above adequacy but I'll turn it over I would turn it over to you had it in the presentation explain that there are several programs and services that the district provides that is above adequacy and but about adequacy means is the that the old term was thorough and efficient and what that did was the state established minimal levels of educational services and programs that all students should have the number of minutes necessary for for reading and for language arts and for mathematics things of that sort um things that are above that thorough and efficient or adequacy level helps helps get calculated in this formula that's used to determine where you fit on that Continuum so when you look at some of the things that we
140do like our AP level courses for example that those courses are not required in order for children to have a thorough and efficient education uh can Garten is not mandated by law um there are lots of things that we do in the general course of business that are above what the state requires so when they look at these minimal levels anything that's above that gets calculated outside of the adequacy level so are you in fact telling me that if we approve a full day kindergarten we're going to get penalized further is that what you're saying does that make sense I mean why would we do yeah cuz I I I well it certainly sounds that way well I would uh not presume to be able to predict the governor or whoever establishes that well let's
141go back to being thorough and in less thorough and inefficient for a couple years and get a you know and and then we can solve this problem what happen crazy as that sounds but thank you thanks sir anyone else you're killing me me too so PA Jamesburg again absolutely the state it's not just about the taxes they're rewarding the wrong Behavior if our kids fail if we provide them with the least that they need to get by they give us more money it's ludicrous um at the Jamesburg board event I read there's a study uh UCLA did a study La was faced with the same thing about budgets and busing kids and stuff and they try to any of us who's bought a home knows when you pick a house you say I want to
142live near a good school it's common sense in fact we need more common sense in this process at the state and the federal level to support what we're doing here and and they did all you know economics professors all these people and boiled down and said look for every Point lost in test scores that equated directly to a 10% loss in the value of a home so even though I'm not an advocate for taxes if we were to raise our taxes this your taxes is Monroe so I'm speaking freely with your money here but $300 right that's a lot of money it's a lot a lot of money really is not something to you know to to just think of lightly but to go down to that thorough and efficient basic level and bring our
143test scores down so we get more money means we could if we lose all these test our homeowners could lose 20 30 $40,000 in value for having and exactly and all this doesn't even account the fact that these are kids these will be our future we are rewarding bad behavior in this State you know absolutely right so we all have to stand up and change this tomin 15 atel Street I'll be brief um just a quick question my concern getting back to this Jamesburg situation uh is if uh if we were to lose this we're talking over 4% uh drop in our budget um how are we going to make that up I mean that's worse than any state aid cut and I've not heard anything about this um Jamesburg first departure from our district
144is anticipated to be their current seventh grade class all those after that would be allowed to graduate through the system so it would be a phased out or an installment uh way of exiting um and there's a there's a variable cost relationship with educating Jamesburg students as you have 220 less students you have 220 less supplies 220 less desks and the appropriate number of teachers less to educate 220 kids so we would have to cut costs accordingly but we wouldn't um be suffering because you know we would have the even though a large percentage it's going to be F okay thank you [Music] y to say anyone else seeing no one um Mike you wouldn't mind reading the resolution it is recommended that the members of the Board of Education approve the following amounts and
145resolution for the 201122 budget be it resolved by the Monro Township Board of Education that the 201122 general fund budget be adopted in the amount of 91,5 76,1 147 and a general fund local tax levy in the amount of 81,1 2,65 and a special Revenue Fund in the amount of $878,000 in the amount of 10,471 757 and a Debt Service local tax levy any the amount of 9,643 475 whereby the 201122 budget totals $2,926 th20 and whereas the Monroe Township Board of Education has not has been notified of state aid amounts and whereas such state aid amounts are for 2011 11 2012 categorical special education Aid 1,1 125,1 and for the 201122 categorical security Aid zero for the 201122 the categor categorical Transportation Aid zero for 201122 Debt Service Aid $688,000 and whereas the Mona
146Township Board of Education has estimated a state aid amount pursuant to application and for the 201122 the estimated extraordinary Aid amount is $214,400 and whereas School District bylaw 0147 policy 3440 policy 4440 and njac 6A colon 23b hyphen 1.2b provides that the Board of Education shall establish in the annual school budget a maximum expenditure amount that may be allotted for such travel and expense reimbursement for the 20 12 2 201122 school year now therefore be it resolved that the Monroe Township Board of Education hereby establishes the school district travel maximum for the 201122 school year at the sum of $158,400 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 whereas the Monro Township Board of Education is proposing
147a separate spending proposal public public question number two and said proposal reads as follows in addition to the regular advertised budget pursuant to njsa 18a col 7f hyen 5 D9 the Mona Township Board of Education will seek approval from The District's legal voters to raise an additional $777,000 to implement a full day kindergarten program at Barkley Brook Elementary School mil Lake Elementary School and Oak Tree Elementary School the additional Levy will provide funds for nine instructional teachers and benefits 11 instructional AIDS and related instructional supplies the additional Levy will be used only for these purposes approval of these taxes will result in a permanent increase in the district tax levy these proposed and additional expenditures are in addition to those necessary to achieve the Core Curriculum content standards adopted by the state of New Jersey
148Department of Education for your information below is a breakdown of expenses not stated in the language delineating the salary benefits AIDS and supplies total 77723 7 now therefore be it resolved that the superintendent of schools and the business administrator board secretary file the required documents with the executive county superintendent so second that was Mr cherella and Mr tesler discussion I think we've pretty much discuss this right roll call U Mr Board of Education and members of the Board of Education it is recommended that the board approve the 201122 budget resolution which includes a separate question related to full day kindergarten Mr Larry yes Mr tesler yes Mrs Ferron Mrs Leonard yes Mr Braverman Mr Chella yes Mrs kapano yes Mr Klein no Mr Masters yes Mr calman yes Mr board president motion passes thank Mike
149moving on with the agenda uh second reading of public hearing and Adoption of the refunding bond ordinance M yes the the district pursuing to um efficiency initiatives reviewed the amortization schedules outstanding and with the assistance of bond Council who's present tonight and our financial advisers we recognized an opportunity to re refund the 2002 series which I was part of uh refinancing and back in 2002 um interest rates have turned favorable they are uh in excess of the 3% Net Present savings um that the state mandates in order for refunding to occur and it will save the district approximately $100,000 a year off its debt service budget or a million dollars over the duration of the bonds so moving second um Mr tesler first we have to have a public we have to have a public
150hearing on specifically the question to refinance the bonds it's required so you want to schedule that you want to no right now Public public hearing if anybody from the public has any questions um would like to speak about the refunding really okay okay seeing that one all right seeing that the public hearing is closed it is now recommended that the Monroe Township Board of Education adopt the resolution entitled refunding Bond ordinance of the Board of Education of the township of Monroe in the county of middlex New Jersey providing for the refunding of all or a portion of the board's outstanding School District refunding bond series 2002 dated September 1st 2002 appropriating not to exceed $2,500,000 therefore in authorizing the issuance of not to exceed $2,500,000 School District refunding bonds of the board of education for
151the financing the cost there of it's Mr cherella and Miss Le any discussion roll call Mr Larry yes Mr tesler yes Mrs Ferron Mrs Leonard yes Mr Chella yes Mrs kapano yes Mr Klein yes Mr Masters yes Mr cman yes Mr board president motion passes item number eight on the agenda public forum anyone wishing to speak before the board on any topic please come up to the mic state your name and address for the record going once seeing no one superintendent's report um later on this evening um Mike uh the ba will be at reading a resolution uh asking the board to approve an agreement um just to refresh your memory the board directed um Mike and I to pursue parents who had illegally um enroll their students in our district and we were to
152pursue vigorously um compensation or reimbursement for those funds through uh civil court um and we have one matter that has reached resolution and that agreement is being presented this this evening for you as well and that'll be presented in the business administrator's report and also on last week's confidential um the district is planning a strategic planning day for the district relative to technology needs to implement 21st century and the international Society for technology and education standard as it applies to the new high school particularly in the areas of the STEM academy uh media literacy fine graphics and Performing Arts and challenge based learning in the community and in our schools we have planned the day at the Monroe Township Library on April 4th and that will be from 8: to 3: and we're requesting your
153participation if possible um and any key stakeholders in our district so for planning purposes if you can please let me know if you're available we' really appreciate your input particularly those of you who have a particular interest in technology we would appreciate your expertise um and if you can you can let me or Jeff know today if possible we would appreciate that um moving on to the superintendent report our enrollment data is in your agenda this evening um representing the different between our last month enrollment report and the January 31st report there was a correction that was noted on the February 16th agenda a miscalculation or a typographical area regarding the high school numbers that correction is noted on this agenda for you as well um included in the superintendent report is the outof placement
154District uh out of District placement um we have 54 students currently out of district and our home instruction report is also and close for your review with the fire drills and emergency evacuations as required by law U moving on to Personnel items Mr board president members of the Board of Education it is recommended by the superintendent that Personnel items a through U be approved by roll call vote I'm going to give that M and M Leonard discussion roll call Mr Larry yes Mr tesler yes Mrs yes Mr Chella yes Mrs kapano yes Mr Klein Mr Masters yes Mr calman yes Mr board president motion passes and board action items Mr board president members of the Board of Education it is recommended by the superintendent that board action items a through J be approved by roll
155call vote so move second Miss C Mr tesler Tes discussion roll call Mr lirry yes Mr tesler yes Mrs Leonard yes Mr Chella yes Mrs colap Pano Mr Klein yes Mr Masters yes Mr cman yes Mr board president motion passes and that concludes the superintendent's report for this evening thank you Dr hon business admin report Mr board president and members of the Board of Education it is recommended that board action items a through S be approved by consent roll call Item T will be a separate resolution and that's the matter that Dr Hamilton referred to previously so move second uh discussion that's M discussion local MR lirry yes Mr tesler yes Mrs Leonard yes Mr Chella yes Mrs K Pano Mr Klein yes Mr Masters Mr calman yes to board president motion passes item 11
156uh board president report oh you have the other sorry next as related to item t under the business administrators report it is recommended that the Board of Education approve the previously submitted settlement agreement and general release in the matter entitled Monro Township Board of Education middle sex County versus poine loan New Jersey Supreme Court law division special civil Park docket number M dcy 029 44-10 the board president president the business administrator board secretary and the board attorney are hereby authorized and directed to take the ne all necessary steps to implement the affers said settlement agreement so move Leonard second discussion roll call Mr lirry yes Mr tesler yes Mrs Leonard yes Mr Chella yes Mrs kapano yes Mr Klein yes Mr Masters yes Mr calman yes Mr board president motion passes than much good item
15711 board president's report I'll spare you you don't need to hear from um committee reports Mr Cher uh we had a buildings grounds and transportation meeting um last week but it was an emergency meeting based on some the uh the events that we had concerning Jamesburg and and a couple of other things um but we looked at some bids for spe remediation at Applegarth we uh we lted three bids um C envir uh environmental was the lowest and and also had the best complied with all of the things that we asked for as part of our respects um we should have the certification of O the certificate of OCC occupancy for the mon TA in April am I right with that Mike yes Mr gki yes we've reviewed the uh a draft plan for the
158monor township Middle School uh and also uh we we had a report on some of the outdated uh items that we had computer items and uh various things that were out were just old and outmoded that uh that the uh District put up for auction and we were able to get $54,000 for for those items which is a good thing um and we also talked about the visitor management system that we're installing in the the new high school which is really cool um basically any visitors to the to the high school will have to swipe their license or their ID through the through the system and it'll it'll give us information about who they are background check so that if there's anything that uh we need to know about those people before they enter uh
159Jo Mr Cher I just wanted to note also with those security systems they were paid for with an external grant that the district sought it that was that was my next Point uh and that and with that Grant we're hoping to get three systems to outfit the other schools so um thanks for jumping the gun on that that's it thanks anyone else any other committee reports any other board of education business wow hands are flying um Mr tesler thanks um over the weekend uh the Monroe Education Foundation which at a full disclosure I'm also president of we had a basketball game it was the teachers versus the Loc local police department just want to let the board know and the public it was very well attended it was a lot of fun and the teachers
160won yay so big c for that uh it was tickets and yes I guess all the teachers now going to get speeding tickets in Monroe just kidding just kidding guys I know you're watching this on TV so it it's very well attended everybody a good time those parents and staff and and the children and hopefully we we can do uh more things like that to raise money in the future thank you Mr Klein just an update on that conversion law that I spoke about two meetings ago those of you that don't know um about a year ago well maybe towards the end of 2009 um the legislature wrote a law that will allow a developer that had gotten plans or had planned to build an age restricted community to convert it over to a family
161community as long as they they did not advertise it or take a deposit basically the law is written to protect the developers having uh not taken into account what it does to a community and what it does to the school district the first one that is in front of the planning board now is haran harban still wrong okay anyway their original plan I always Mis pronounce it well you say it here anyway their original plan was 328 age restricted homes they now want to convert it to 328 family homes of which you're going to have 10 and some OD are going to be age directed homes now AG directed means that they want to direct those homes to be sold to over 55 but they're allowed to sell it to any family at any age
162then they're going to have about 70 some homes are going to be affordable and the remainder are going to be regular homes I believe it's three-bedroom homes that can equate to anywhere from 400 to 600 more students as the time goes on in some cases even higher than that and where this is going to be is on cranberry Halfacre Road actually it's between it's off Apple goth between Cranberry haaker Road and Prospect Plains Road which right which schools will they go to we're probably talking Apple goth and oak tree so they there is going to be another hearing uh it should be this the last Thursday of the month but I believe that uh two of the board members won't be there so it may be the following month get out and talk they are
163covered the developer only has to do the bare necessities that the law states and I don't want to go any further than that that's going to create a problem that's it that's the update build a new school that's what it's anyone else seeing no one Board of Education uh item number 14 is going to go into close session be it resolved at the board of education at attwn of Monroe hereby moves to go into close session in accordance with Sunshine Law chapter 231 of the public laws of 1975 Anda 10 colum 4-6 through 10 colum 4 21 to discuss the following subjects Personnel negotiations Monro Township School ad administrators Association the discussion conducted in closed session can be disclosed to the public at such time as the matters have been resolved with motion some move
164Miss Leonard second all those in favor opposed motion passes motion passes than the hall the hall uh we'll be [Music] back good evening uh thank you for staying I'd like to uh reconvene the meeting um Mr ly I'm going to turn the uh chair over to you thank you [Music] um we'll be discussing the collective bargaining agreement between the princip supervisor and the Board of Education just State last year the principal supervisors voluntarily Joan get the mic you need the mic again okay I'm sorry uh can the people in the far reaches hear me okay good I'll I'll I'll restate it just so that uh it'll be duly recorded we will be discussing the collective bargaining agreement between the principles and supervisors with the Monroe Township Board of Education last year the principal and supervisors
165voluntarily had a wage freeze for assistance in passing the 2010 2011 budget this freeze was in the amount of $55,200 it should be noted that the principal and supervisors were the only collective bargaining unit that implemented a wage freeze in 2010 this year the principls and supervisors came to the bargaining table with significant concession and they were balanced some for in favor of them others in favor of the Board of Education and the net result of that is that there is a nit Savings of $ 64,9 68 over the three-year period of the proposed contract and I would like to have a the following it is recommended that the board approve the contract between the Monroe Township Board of Education and the Monroe Township School administrators Association beginning July 1st 2011 to June 30th 2014
166motion so moved second M Leonard discussion just one point Mr CL I just want you to one understand that that savings is basically 24 employees thank you anyone else roll call Mr Gorski Mr Larry yes Mr Tesla yes Mrs lonard yes Mr Chella yes Mrs kapano yes Mr Klein yes Mr Masters yes M Mr cman your vote is excluded abstained Mr board president motion passes thank you Mike all right continuing with our agenda public forum item number 15 anyone wishing to speak before the board please come up and state your name for the [Music] record really seeing no one the next scheduled public Board of Education meeting will be on Wednesday April 15th at 7:00 p.m. at the high school motion to adjourn I make it Mr Klein Mr cherella all those in favor yes
167opposed exensions you oppos motion good night everybody [Music]