001scream good evening the me this special meeting of the Monro Township Board of Education will come to order please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance I pledge Al to the flag the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all justice for all may we have a roll call Mr Gorski certainly Mrs colano here Mr Chala miss antelis here Mr Braverman here Mr calman Mr Klein Mr Larry here Mr Masters here Mr tesler here Mrs frony here Madame board president you have the quum thank you in accordance with the provisions of the New Jersey open public meetings law the Monroe town board of education has caused notice of the meeting to be published by having the date time and place thereof
002posted December 7 2012 one at all schools two home News Tribune three cranberry press and four filed with the clerk of the municipality at this time we will go to number five the public forum anyone from the public who wishes to speak to the agenda please come to the microphone and give your name and address for the record [Music] hey seeing no one we will go to our discussion and uh on developing a budget philosophy Dr Hamilton yes good evening everyone um at the last finance committee meeting um we um presented to the finance committee that the administration needed some direction regarding um what the board would like to see us do in terms of the development the philosophy around development of the 2013 2014 budget and a recommendation of the finance committee that we
003open this up to a full board discussion um because the committee felt very strongly that this was an important topic that should involve the voices of all members of the board of education so our intent this evening is to kind of walk you through a few very brief slides I think there are four or five SL five or six slides in total that kind of gives you um some information most of which you're already familiar with but it kind of summarizes for you some of our thoughts regarding the direction and then ultimately at the end find out from you what you believe those priorities ought to be as we plan the 2013 2014 budget we have started our budget um defense rounds with the administration uh principles and supervisors and directors and um before we
004finalize that that part of the process and then go to the finance committee we need to hear from the board so with that in mind Mike and I are going to walk you through a few slides um you have a copy of all the slides in front of you um the first slide obviously in respect to our board members list those members of the board um and then we go on to just some basic information regarding some um enrollment costs exceeding the the budget growth and I'll ask Mike to go into greater detail on this slide thanks doctor this illustration shows the differences um comparing the years of approved budget to the prior year revised budget and the increase that the district has grown the general fund budget for example the 1112 budget that we're
005currently administering was $4,620 higher than the revised 1112 budget the 1112 budget compared to the 1011 revised grew $1.8 million and in 1011 as compared to the 910 revised budget there was actually a general fund budget decrease of about $950,000 coincidentally student enrollment has been increasing on from the Assa data 1213 compared to 1112 we grew 186 students that multiplied by an average cost per student of $15,500 which is a conservative figure not really adjust in for special ed increases the total cost is $2,883 th000 just to educate those additional 186 students 1112 versus 1011 the district enrollment grew 28 students and that multiplied by $15,500 per student comes to a cost to the district of $3.2 million to educate those additional varying students and 1011 compared to 910 an increase of$ 131 or a
006$2 million cost to the district so you could see from 1011 to 910 the cost of enrollment was $2,300 where we sustained a general fund decrease of $950,000 so that's a $3 million absorption of cost that the district sustained in that budget year and the the reason we wanted to make this illustration for you were was to kind of show you the the kinds of increases that are the result of student enrollment and the efforts that we have already taken to make sure that we were budgeting in a way that was not in fact increasing the budget in proportion to the number of new students that were coming in our district on top of the other costs health insurance salary adjustments Etc actually if you take a look at the latest CA even when you're
007taking those rampant uh expenses of particularly Health cost uh we've only been growing 1% precis on a student basis I mean this is we've been doing a fantastic job and I'm perfectly as my last huzzah to go and say that the business administration of this district has done an absolutely superb job thank you for the 1112 year versus the prior cost of enrollment alone was 3.2 million the budget only grew by 1.8 that difference had to be made up with budget adjustments throughout the budget process and in 1213 compared to 1112 we were able to grow the district 4, 62,000 where enrollment ate up 2.8 million and that that allows a little flexibility in the budget which got directed toward uh Capital Improvement projects mainly at appleg Gart school so cumul cumulatively over the three
008years years the total cost of new student enrollment was $8.1 Million alone and the increase in the general fund budget was 4.9 million or a $3.1 million shortfall in revenues compared to just the variable costs of educating new students now before we go on to the next slide are there any questions on what we've we've tried to illustrate here thus far just in terms of background information just on Roman increases I thought it was I thought AR Roma was actually increases were higher than those numbers I took the more conservative figures from the Assa data which is the October 15th count which is very different than what our June numbers would be okay okay but it's a common Peg point right year to year to year it's a conservative Peg point and generally it increases
009beyond that during the year Dr Hamilton's figures from the superintendent um enrollment reports are generally higher okay we're we're what 6,000 students right now roughly 6,100 yes yeah so you know there's been a lot of discussion about cutting costs arbitrarily cutting a fixed amount of dollars or a fixed percentage from the budget but I argue when you have these kind of student enrollment increases and student costs associated with those increases which I don't think anybody can argue um it uh it counters that argument it's almost like if if you were u a generator a portable generator producer and a new outside person said I think you need to just arbitrarily cut cost 10% well with the variable demand that's increasing that they're facing right now which can be compared to our new students it's impossible
010for them to cut costs when they're putting out more output which is what these students are for us we have increasing output we have increasing costs associated with the output and it and it's very difficult if not impossible to materially cut cost during that kind of uh increasing um output environment the next slide looks at some budget consideration some variables that we have to uh look at as we prepare the 1314 budget first item on here is the Surplus shortfall versus the prior year budget revenues the inflows of money that support the budget each year comprise about 85% from the local tax Levy um about 8% from federal and state grants tuition revenues from Jamesburg and a percentage related to Surplus which is unexpended Appropriations from prior years when you don't spend to your full
011budgeted amount from prior years the state mandates that that gets carried over as excess Surplus which is a resource to a future Year's budget our carryover of surplus decreased $1.4 million compared to the prior year so in other words we have $1.4 million of less resources to support the 1314 budget as compared to what we had in 1213 we also entered into a new instructional lease obligation where we have a financial commitment for 1314 of $430,000 that must be budgeted for and we have Vans and buses that according to the state's maturity schedule schedule must be replaced we have three 54 passenger buses and two 26 passenger vans and if we least purchase these vehicles over a 5year lease the the commitment to next year's budget is $100,000 not to mention we're projecting about 200
012additional students in 1314 which is about a $3.1 million charge to the budget now if the district if the board was to recommend that the district uh um budget to cap utiliz the full tax levy cap expansion which is that 2% growth adjustment to the prior year considering um health care costs and also enrollment adjustments the maximum tax levy cap increase if we maxed it out for next year would afford US an additional $1.8 million of budget revenues barely enough to cover the difference between the short full Surplus from Surplus and the new instructional lease obligation it doesn't even consider the bus van replacement of 100,000 or the cost the required cost of educating another 200 students which is teaching staff supplies facility additions that's a very good average at $15,500 and as with any
013budget year there's unknown at at any point in time we could have a a severe facility need whether it be a boiler or roof that's not covered by insurance and have to address that through the budget we don't know what our state aid is going to be next year there's some very negative variables that we're looking at now including tax revenues not measuring up to the state's estimates for this year and most importantly the effect of uh superstorm Sandy which has really uh impacted State revenues to a significant nature we know however by talking to Municipal figures that we can anticipate about another $75 million drop in ratables and what the rable base is is the aggregate property values that share the cost of the tax levy and as that rable base decreases automatically everyone's
014who remaining increase uh rate increase es um for the last budget year our budget went up 8.7 5.27 cents of that increase was the effect of the rateable decrease it's a substantial effect on the tax rate and finally the Jamesburg tuition matter has an interest portion of the bonds that financed this school in accordance with the a41 a42 tuition calculation and legal agreement that we entered into with Jamesburg previously Jamesburg is expected to budget for $630,000 of Interest costs which is their portion of the interest on these bonds for the bond service for one year the cap law and other economic considerations that Jamesburg faces is making that probability of recognizing that money um remote for next year and I would not recommend to the board budgeting for that because it's very hazardous the budget
015for a revenue Source that's not defined and um not predictable and according to our attorneys the the likelihood of recognizing that Revenue in the next year is is not probable so with all those factors um taken into consideration um we need some direction from the board in terms of what those budget priorities ought to be for 1314 um specifically these are some items that um need to be considered specifically instruction um is there a commitment to capital projects do we want to look at bringing all of our busing services to an in-house busing um protocol um because we have been having substantial problems with the buses that are being contracted out and considerable concerns from parents uh whose children are being transported by these contracted buses um and if that is something that this board
016wants to consider that also has an impact on the budget uh Human Resources clearly as we look at class size as we look at uh the number of students that we need to accommodate and provide services for particularly those youngsters who will be coming into our district uh or already in our district who requires special education and administrative support around the new teacher valuation model the new principal evaluation model which becomes effective next year and the new tenure laws we require significant administrative support and lastly um whether or not this board is is going to endorse um going to cap or budgeting below cap and there's a yay and boo to both um and Mike can talk to you more about the implications of going to cap versus not going to cap you know the
017state established cap to try to curtail spending and its um lagging effect on the tax rate and in Monroe's case a 2% tax levy cap being that um were 85% dependent on local tax levy for uh revenues is about $1.8 million in my opinion a $1.8 million increase in the tax levy is has designed by the state by itself to be a very conservative increase to a budget inflation on on prices for a lot of our supplies uh fuel oil and um insurances or so on are far in excess of 2% and as I Illustrated previously the district's variable cost of educating an additional 200 students far exceeds that $1.8 million um uh latitude that the tax levy growth affords so our Quest tonight is to get some direction from the board regarding um what
018you deem to be the most important um Philosophy for us to endorse with preparing for the next budget um will the focus be on instruction should we consider capital projects or not consider capital projects and if we are what are those capital projects do we want to look at in-house busting these are some parameters that we need to get some direction from this is not our budget presentation obviously we're in the very we're in the the very early stages of developing the budget and of course we'll have a budget calendar at the next meeting which will outline our public hearing and and all those other particulars um as it relates to compliance with the budget laws but moving forward in our preparation stages we need to hear from the board because we know there has
019been public outcry about the philosophy around how our budget is developed Mr Larry uh Dr Hamilton you talked about administrative support and the again mandates coming down from Trenton and involving evaluation of teachers evaluation of Staff how much churn is that going to cause and how much uh Auda will it cause within the staff and that probably a minor reduction in morale and efficiency uh could you talk about that please yeah I'll be glad to um with a staff of almost a thousand people and not having a a person who not currently having anyone whose responsibilities are focused on HR there are significant managerial things associated with the new tenure laws and it would behoove us as a district to look at some sort of oversight to make sure that we are in compliance with
020those laws because our failure to do so will absolutely cost more in litigation uh as teachers potentially face uh tenure charges or dismissal as a result of their rating on this new T Tre valuation system and how all that is documented 10 years ago when there were four or 500 people in the district it was very manageable with a thousand employees that becomes a significant issue I've been here nine years and I can tell you when we were having 8 and 10% growth your predecessors uh uh Dr Ferry uh Wayne Hamilton and uh Mrs Brooks they were working evenings Saturdays and Sundays trying to stay up with those mandates at that time because they were bringing in large numbers of young teachers and uh you've got a double siiz problem now it's it's significant it
021is significant and it would be irresponsible for me um for this Administration not to put that out there because these new tenure laws are very very stringent and very specific so it's another case where the state is mandating certain things to the districts and not giving us the funds to handle absolutely question Miss Tellis uh talk about instruction so um you have it listed and I was just wondering are you talking about new instruction U maintaining the instruction that we have there are there are no proposals to add any new instructional programs next year this is just maintaining whether the board wants us to maintain the instructional programs that currently exist now we are in the process of looking at programs ex uh extracurricular and co-curricular programs um this is in EX in beyond that
022we already knew that it would take us some time to effectively assess all the programs that are being offered but in terms of our balanced literacy our math program science program there are no proposals to Pro to put anything new in next year this is just to maintain what we currently have I characterize that as saying you're stabilizing the situation and you're allowing people to catch breath and become masters of what's been almost like a fire hydrant and they've been trying to drink from a fire hydrant exactly exactly question Tesla sorry go go sorry who's going to get the mic we didn't see that okay we did saw sorry we didn't we didn't see that all right just a a couple points um as far as instruction I agree uh this for the coming budget
023we need to just maintain our course uh and not introduce any new programs uh we also need to continue evaluating our existing course offerings extracurricular activities clubs and see what's working what's not and one point which is uh which we need to make sure that people aware whereare at home know is that if we did absolutely nothing it cost us an additional $3 million to educate new children that's $3 million and with the decrease amount of uh tax levies we to get next year if we did nothing just to educate the additional influx of children it's still going to be a tax increase so you know we're going to try and work uh as best we can to reduce those costs and look at programs that are not working but I just don't see how
024we can cut anything to make up for those costs so unfortunately unless we get more state aid our taxes are going to are going to rise unfortunately and it is possible we could get more state aid as you know we have legislation that's pending it will probably not affect the 1314 budget however I even if that gets muster and gets and and gets passed it will probably not happen in a Time enough fashion that it will impact this budget um I am hopeful that we will see an increase in state aid I'm always hopeful that we'll see an increase in state aid I do believe that we are on the state's radar as it relates to this inequity this inequity that we've experienced in the funding formula um but we won't know that we won't
025know that until we'll well down the road right and it's not that we just want to spend money to spend money we we have a responsibility as a public education system in school district to educate the children we can't say no you moved into our Town we're not going to educate you we have the responsibility to do that and it costs money to do that and with our influx and our growth it's an additional $3 million a year Well to add to um Mr tesler uh one of our goals this year is to go into and we um evaluate all of our curriculum and our our school um our our um extracurricular activities and our Sports and our programs to see what we can take out of we're trying to be a little proactive in
026making that we keep what what works and that we eliminate what's not working or what's not being utilized and we do have some clubs just to give you a preliminary report and don't ask me for any specificity because I can't give you that um but we do have some clubs that we see right now that are not consistently well attended by children so we're documenting what the attendance is like in those programs and um whether or not those are programs that we want to continue next year we also have to look at the current protocol that's in place for how clubs get added to our program to begin with um a teacher volunteers for a year group of children come together and they say they want to try this particular program uh the teacher volunteers
027to do it for a year and then the following year it becomes a club well there are some clubs that may have been of great interest last year but may not be of such great interest this year so we will be able to make some recommendations that we eliminate some of those clubs and programs moving forward but that that will not equate to millions of dollars right right that that's what that's my point I was I was trying to trying to make and also things to look at would be again maybe reviewing some buzzing I know there's some bus routes that to me I can't like Devonshire that we have to bust the kids from there right there if there's no I don't remember if there was a walkway or whatever issue that was it
028may be Advantage if we can have the school district build a walk wve it's a two two year return our investment and then we don't have to bus anymore in two years maybe that's something we can think out of the box and do things like that Dr Hamilton I I think we asked this question in Personnel but we've added over 500 students to our district in the past three years probably more than that the administr the administration we've not added to our administrative team to support the extra students have we we've actually reduced administrative support um for a district this size we are significant ly understaff administratively okay Miss analis question about the in-house busing um I understand we about 95% of our busing is done in-house do you know what the cost would be
029to bring us up to that 100% yes Mike has that number I've asked our transportation department to look at that not all of the routes will be able to be brought in house there's a great number of contracted routes that serve um special education students for example or handicapped students that need a lift and uh it would be impractical to buy a van with a lift in order to serve that child so instead we contract that rat out and it's cost- effective to do so um we we are noticing lately that the service of our in-house Fleet is unmatched by that of our contracted routes um we better serve our parents with in-house routes in my opinion and um I I think it's the board's sentiment to look at this and our our transportation director
030is is actually putting a cost on what we can bring back inhouse and we'll present that with uh the budget for a consideration I will I will just tell you based on the um the budget hearings budget defense rounds that we've had so far the kinds of things that we've asked principles to take out of their budgets um we've removed a um new textbooks that weren't absolutely essential um where we've added sections we have allowed those textbooks to be ordered obviously um where the cont may not have changed at fourth grade for example where New Jersey is going to always be New Jersey um we have not approved the acquisition of new books for for that particular area um we've also asked uh principles to look at um the guided reading kits for example that
031are being used in our primary grades and whether or not those kits can be replenished or do we really need to replace them in totality um so those are the kinds of things that we have gone back to the principles with already in our efforts to keep our um supplies and and uh costs down to a minimal um we have not allowed increases in any of the general office supplies for example um we are looking further at technology and what our technology needs are and developing A system that would create a systemic approach over the next several years to update technology because we have some significant technology needs in some of our elementary schools and obviously we can't address them all at one time anyone else Mr Masters back to the in-house busing Mike um
032Mr Gorski do we have that number I didn't hear the number uh CU I guess nobody will be surprised I don't like the out of house busing I had to think of how to say it there but without yes contracted busing and if I had my way I'd move all of it into the district I think some of the issues we're having now far greatly the money is a big thing but these issues far greatly outweigh um what we're saving or spending might be actually spending more um on these contracted rout I mean it's some of it's heinous to be honest with you yes when I started in this District 13 years ago we had about a 550 in-house ouse Fleet ratio um we've migrated that to intentionally to about a 90 to 95% inhouse
033Fleet and um the continu continuity of the drivers um the um language barrier is certainly a problem with with drivers and the maintenance of the contracted busing Fleet from our contractors as well as cameras being on the buses from existing routes are all issues that um lend favor to our in-house Fleet do you know what that cost is per per route we have not calculated that we're working on it now um again because not all the routes can be brought in but we are we are calculating that right now and we'll be presenting it shortly I'd just like to add that that um uh all the bus all our in-house buses are connected by radio to not just the transportation but to the police department as well so should there be an emergency they have
034that you know uh Outlet to call the police department or anybody they need help to miss an tell Us's point if um a bus is late and a parent calls the transportation Depot to find out the status of their child if that child's on a contracted bus it requires further contact with the busing Contracting Company who then reaches out to the driver to find out where they are and location and then report it back up the chain if that was an in-house bus it's a simple you know beep on the radio you know exactly where the bus is and you have that communicated back to the parent in seconds it alleviates a lot of anxiety and worry um on average a contracted bus taken from in-house to ouse saves about $155,000 a year um and
035mainly in driver salary costs to bring it back and make the investment of of providing more of an in-house ratio obviously we'd have to at least purchase new buses hire new staff um and calculate those and we're working on that Mr Tesla okay just to finish that I guess topic up I guess we would like to see once you do those calculations maybe um maybe a multi-year phasing approach of of something like that because obviously you probably can't do it in all one year but it seems like uh for the safety of the children this is more safety issue than even a monetary issue that we can phase this in over a reasonable amount of time and ultimate goal is to bring all the routes that we can except those few that we need the
036special equipment for that's just not cost effective potentially and see you know how much that costs so we like to see those numbers when those when you prepare that um just another thing about capital projects if you um if you had the your number one Capital project your what would it be i i Dr if I may answer that I talked to Jerry T our facility director and I posed that very question to him and uh he said right now it's a man it's a process of managing risk and the morasco Performing Arts Center in the middle school has um a designed sound um prevention system that lies right under the roof in the ceiling and that roof is about 15 years Beyond its expected useful life and warranty period if that roof was to
037leak which it could at any time it would take down that whole acoustic panel causing significant damage that would probably close that facility for a long time so some prevention in replacing that roof now is probably the most emergent need that Mr T has expressed to me that he would try to include in the budget and where would something like the boiler at Applegarth fit in boiler at Applegarth is a multi-million dollar um item because not only is it just the boiler replacement but it's the electrical systems that support the boiler and a lot of other related uh systems a project of that magnitude in my estimate would require a bond referendum to address because it's simply too large okay thank you Mr bra um I think it's interesting that we're sitting here to develop
038a philosophy I have a couple of problems though you're going to come to us eventually with a budget that you're going to tell us you've reviewed and you've gone over every every line item and this is what we need and probably for the most part most of us being good board members will say okay go with it you you've done your homework I think what I need is that you start thinking outside of the box I've mentioned some of these things to you before uh for example there are certain classes that don't have to meet every year if you if they alternate years every student will have an opportunity to take those classes and we've cut some instruction time or at least some of the staff it's significant significantly so I think you have to
039look at those things I think you have to look at class size which you you already said you would do um I think we have to do a realistic study of the transportation system in terms of if we had sidewalks how many fewer millions or hundreds of thousands of dollars would we have to use if we can just do some research come up with an actual plan present it to the Town Council and tell them hey this is your responsibility it's their responsibility to have sidewalks and to to hire school crossing guards it's not our responsibility and and if if parents say they'd rather have the kids busted let them hire a private bus it's it's really pretty much that simple there are times we just have to stand up for what's what's correct I
040think you have to review the staff I think there are people we have employed that we have no need for now I've mentioned one staff member to the administration I I won't mention that here but this individual seems like it's it's it's a kind of a job that we can do without and and that's just the way I feel about it so I know that you're interested in curriculum we're we're all interested in curriculum we're all interested in the kids getting the best education that they can but we've got to start thinking out of the box for example uh Mike just said we have some very big projects what part of those projects may we complete inhouse if we hired some maintenance people rather than custodial people I mean even if we save $50,000 on
041a on a tremendous job it's $50,000 that we saved so I I think there are so many things you have to look at it's a hundred million budget there must be some way of saving some bucks um you know and along with the Apple goth school I think that's something we still have to look at we got it opened on time we saved money we've got kids in there in in a safe environment but that school should be brought up to current specifications I mean we shouldn't have to have the heat controlled by the windows opening and closing the kids ought to be comfortable when they're in the cafeteria I mean we we've got to we've got to look at all of this stuff and I know we've got only a 2% cap I I
042understand that but but we really got to take a hard look at all the things that we're doing there are a lot of small things in the budget that we can do in my opinion we can do away with Dr um I think you raised a very good point but I I think the other thing that we have to acknowledge is that the and this isn't an anomaly to Monroe but facilities are generally the one thing that when budgets are tight when you need to add a teacher or add another section or add another bus that gets pushed to the Wayside you know the the capital projects in years and years of doing that in a district this size it catches up to you so yes Applegarth needs some work Barkley Brook needs some work
043the morasco center needs some work these are significant projects that will take even if we spent nothing if we even if we didn't pay anybody another penny in salary we would not be able to support those kinds of capital projects in the construct of our general operating budget with then without having a multi-year plan for addressing that so I it is not my recommendation at this juncture to say we should not be addressing capital projects but we do need to have a list we need to look at what those things are that are manageable within our general operating budget and then sorting that out from those things that will require a referendum something like a boiler for instance U Mr Gorski um New Jersey Association of school business officials magazine um produces a monthly magazine
044called new keyst and one of the interesting articles that I disseminated to um some people was entitled New Jersey facility cliff and it makes specific reference to the state budget law and the restrictiveness of that budget law and the cap to affording you any latitude for doing any capital projects at all now this District through a lot of intentional maneuvering was able to do a Brookside roof replacement this year roof replacement is generally unheard of to do in an operating budget but we were able to accomplish that and also we directed um Renovations at Applegarth school that went $1.4 million above the approximate $390,000 that we had budgeted for that school's renovations to try to better serve the parents in that uh community and to give the kids the school that as best we can
045provide in the current time and Micah and I think that's an important Point um we need to talk a little bit about where that money came from because in order to do that we had to do some fiscal maneuvering in order to make that happen Mike you can elaborate more on that well the the most notable one was the purchase order freeze that we initiated last January which um eliminated or restricted any purchase orders for non-essential expenditures throughout the rest of the year um if anybody wanted a purchase order to get approved they had a Justified fight to Dr Gorman or Dr Hamilton or myself and um it had to really be something essential otherwise like if it was Prof professional development or something non-c contractually obligated it was refused or deferred and um through
046that maneuvering within our own budget we were able to accomplish two great feats here with the Brookside and the Applegarth roof but again this New Jersey facility Cliff refers to school districts throughout the entire state that are having major INF structure Time Bomb because you can't properly budget for Capital facility needs within the cap environment Mr lry just to build on what uh Mr Gorski said our nextdoor neighbor East Brunswick several years ago had to issue a $100 million referendum in order to rehabilitate their schools because again and again it was a new classroom or a new teacher and then they defered and defered and they had had buildings that were built in 1955 literally falling apart and had to reconstruct them and it is Penny wise and pound foolish we have got to go
047out and if time required to muster up the courage to go and say we need a referendum we may need $20 million if it need be to do the things that need to be done we'll get beat around the head ears and neck and we've had that happen before but it's got to be done or you're going to be facing aund million a couple years later so my question to the board is is there anything any direction um from you um that we need to consider as we proceed with the budget planning process or do you recommend deferring to the finance committee um to spearhead that initiative anyone well I I think most of us would agree that we should be freezing instruction can this another question sure Mr on uh slide uh whatever four
048just explain new instructional lease obligation before I that's the um obligation on the acquisition of the iPads the first payment on the lease purchase for the iPads I didn't plan that we probably need a a um a list of all the Capital Improvements that we have to do in our district and a priority list so that the buildings and grounds committee can look at that and decide what can and cannot be done in um a budget year okay we do we need to update it but we do have we haven't seen it in a while yeah Mr lirry there's the elephant in the middle of the room that no one wants to talk about and that is the question of adequacy that $7 million somehow somewhere we're going to have orless we get the rules
049changed and let's see if we can get 2307 it may not be this year it may be next year or the year after but we've got to change the rules because adequacy is just slaughtering us as as far as state aid and uh you know and it's a big Bill it's not something you can get by going and changing five buses from 95% to to to 100% it it's going to take a lot of heavy lifting and as as Mike was just saying with the constraints we have particularly with regard to our facilities wearing a straight jacket Madam president Gorski um with regard to the adquate issue we this District was $13 million above adequacy according to the state's budget software in the 1112 school year through a more conservative budgeting approach and also absorbing
050more students that adequacy above number dropped to 7.5 million in one year to in the 1213 year and I'm very confident that we'll continue to drop as our budget only increases a very small percentage as the caffer indicated the percentage increase in the cost per pupil was less than 1% in the last 3 years um and our enrollment keeps increasing by 250 students so we're making great the board is making great progress in reducing the over adequacy standard that's it's a slow almost glacial process it's not going to be something that's going to happen next year and there's no guarantee that when we eliminate or lower our adequacy that we're going to get more money from the from the State um so I'm I'm not sure I'm hearing enough information from the board in terms
051of where we should be going with this so maybe I'm not asking the right question is there a desire from the board for us to go to cap I'd say go for cap I mean we we we've gone below cap before and we got our teeth kicked in let's go for the whole line yards I think first we have to look at what we're going to do I'd like to you know know which direction are we going to go with capital projects or um and the busing you know what I mean I'd like more information before I I could really commit to going to cap or staying under um I mean the way it looks at 2% is that we're going to go to cap if we want to do anything to be honest with
052you but I'd like to see some numbers um especially about the busing um and about some Capital Improvement uh I'm also wondering if we couldn't come up with a plan as we did in the past where we put monies aside each year um to do those capital projects say in five years come up with a plan that says okay we're going to put aside this much money and then we're going to do the boiler in Applegarth School in so much time that's fair so Mr Gorski Madam Bo president um Miss anelis is astutely referring to to the capital reserve account previously when the district had uh larger excess Surplus calculations you could um direct money into the capital reserve for future projects that are in your five-year facility plan this year we depleted our capital
053reserve to address needs at appleg guard school and one of the one of the D parts of the double-edged sword with capital reserve is if the district if the board was to appropriate monies of excess Surplus toward capital reserve projects it would reduce that Surplus calculation going to next year's budgets even further so by putting money in that Reserve you're taking it from future Year's budget resources and that's the state's model with that and we have by the way implemented a spending freeze already um so we anticipate that there will be um some money that we will be able to allocate accordingly just as we have in the previous years Mr Tesla okay just just going over this Hit List my general philosophy is for instruction um like we already said maintain the status quo
054no new programs um as Marv said trying to think out of the box and and as we're already doing reviewing our programs and staff and see where we can make Cuts where appropriate um capital projects I would like to see a multi-year hit list or a punch list of capital projects in priority order of what we want to do and we shouldn't ignore it we should include at least maybe one Capital project or depending upon the cost of the this Hit List you know uh for the next budget uh in-house busing again like to see the cost on that maybe we can decide in the finance committee and our future meting to defer that and not bring anything in the next budget depending upon cost to try to keep cost down um Human Resources I
055know we talked about we're only going to be increasing staff to address um the increas in enrollment we're not going to hire any new staff where it's not appropriate and we already talked about administrative support and um and as far as recommended recommendations to go to cap it depends where all the numbers outly it's something I really can't answer right now um can I um on New on Staffing I think it's important to note that we're kind of in a at a in a very difficult position because when we say we won't increase Staffing we won't add programs the fact of the matter is we have to add new staff simply by virtue of the number of students that we new students that will be coming in and our class sizes are already um of
056concern to many of our teachers um but it's also true that we have a large number of students who require special services and that is a very expensive Prospect but students deserve those services so even as we anticipate reducing our our above adequacy spending we have to also understand that um when you get the new budget you're going to see new staff it doesn't mean that we're just adding adding adding it means that there are programs and services that students require that is going to necessitate folks with very specialized education and certifications to address those those needs we have students right now who are in the process of being evaluated and likely to be classified that will required the support of special education exactly just when we're sitting here in our budget hearings next uh
057spring and and people come up to the mic and say why' you increase staff well we're only increasing staff to cover our enrollment and cover the needs of special education programs cuz we need to do that not because we just want to spend money and the special education is State Mand State again another mandate from the state without supporting us with the financial part of it m Masters just two things um so even if we go to cap just clarify this we'll be uh 3.2 mil in the ho is that what you're saying that the right number which is 18us 567 766 it's about right thank you and all right the second I'm sorry Michael that's approximately correct not approximately yeah because because you know with the most important thing there to understand is the
058projected enrollment increase there is a distinctive cost to educating 200 new students every year and that is not less than $3.1 million especially with a large makeup of those 200 20 to 30 of which are going to be classified students and are we going to acquire a average per pupil um amounts that far exceed $20,000 $25,000 not 15,000 we could one 33,000 we could have one placement over $100,000 and that would be not be extraordinary so yes probably shouldn't say that I think your 200's late anyway um students oh yeah that's L uh and what the second thing is what do you need from us then sorry to go back to it I'm getting lost in all the I got a lot of my mind some Direction but I think we I think I got
059the message did you want to add something to that direction not right now not right now Poss um Mr Gorski um it's a it's administration's recommendation based upon all these items that we discussed that we consider another Capital project in the budget um as I mentioned previously to the question the most pressing one right now is the roof at the morasco center because if that leaks and destroys the acoustic panels it's going to come compound Itself by tfold over the damage that's off off the top of my head without a price estimate that's that's about $900,000 I believe we can incorporate that into the budget and also not going to cap is in in my opinion far too conservative of an approach to taking a budget where you're growing 200 students and going even further
060than that very conservative design that the state puts in place which affords a district where $100 million budget a $1.8 million growth adjustment each year um I at a previous board meeting Mrs kapano introduced and um went over some of the cost savings initiatives that the district's gone through to illustrate and and prove that the board is very good stewards of the money especially the tax monies that we receive every year $3.1 million of Appropriations have been cut from previously approved budgets um there's a multitude of different things in that list and over $9.8 million of cost savings initiatives have been uh entered into over the last year and that includes Insurance opt out insurance carrier changes allocation of bond interest Surplus purchasing Consortium Applegarth asbest planning of that remediation over the summer Brookside roof
061replacement um Aces energy Consortium Transportation joint sidebar for two Le less and less expensive health plan options that the union is cooperating in and agreed to banking RFP change we're saving about $6,000 a month now by switching banks um and the autistic room in this school was um a new addition one of the few change orders we had in this project which is already recognizing hundreds of thousands of dollars $300,000 this year alone in keeping autistic students and better serving them in-house than a much more expensive and costly alternative to transport them and educate them in a in a private environment okay anyone else Mr teser I just wanted a thought on capital projects what we should also be trying to explore is any monies we can receive uh from Grants or anything we can
062get from anybody who's willing to to donate or anything uh to any of these capital projects the boiler for Applegarth or any of these things so you know if we can get somebody else to pay for some of it you know that'll that'll help us on the bottom line so if we can go out any place that you know any companies or or anybody who willing to support education and help us with these uh capital projects that should be part of the process as well there are estimates in the 5-year longrange facility plan which do um estimate what Grant monies would be available to from the state to help facilitate those projects and certainly we we would look externally to private sources too damn thing anyone else then I think we've given Mr Gorski I
063have a question I didn't hear you quite right how much did you save this year what was the initiative that you saved this year from the period July 1st 2010 to June 30 2012 9, 850,000 insurance bond refundings we have over $4 million in savings and interest cost alone from Bond refundings purchasing Consortium is in excess of $400,000 we just entered enter that last year Applegarth ASB bestus remediation save 35,7 120 doing that um U over the winter instead of the summer when everybody's in demand that's over two years is that what you're saying yeah I misspoke if I said one it's two and and can you put your hands on that right now some of that I would have to put my hands deeper in your pocket if we didn't save his Mone put
064his hands in your pocket I would have to reach deeper to the taxpayers and the community if we did not initiate in these cost saving savings these are recognized savings that I could document over and above what we had budgeted yes so this is funds that you've saved correct yes and it's it's got to be in some column somewhere well it's recognized in the way adequacy has been reduced and the total operating budget would have been more therefore having a bigger burden or bigger impact on the taxpayer cuz I believe some of this um so the money wasn't in the budget already and you've saved it this was saved when you were putting the budget together no this was money I want to know where that money is this was money this is money that
065was in the budget it was budgeted for and it was saved over this period of time and and we don't spend all of the appropri ations that we have budgeted in each Year's budget there are cost savings initiative throughout the year and the state mandates that those Savings in an annual basis flow to excess Surplus which I discussed before and goes to an additional Revenue Source in future years is there a minimum that you have to that you have to turn over for next year no no some district there maximum some districts and I know one in particular that's our neighbor um does not have any excess Surplus at at all well I guess what I'm trying to say is if you saved all this money is there a million dollars somewhere that we're not
066aware of no because you the state doesn't allow you to put it in reserve for like a rainy day it goes to the excess Surplus calculation go to Future years but it is someplace yes and if we wanted to do a roof with that money you're telling me the state says we can't do it I could reduce the excess Surplus calculation and put that money in capital reserve to to do a roof but then that is going to have a severe constricting effect on a future year budget by millions of dollars and even if you didn't spend any more money that year you would be significantly overcap and having to cut well isn't there some commercial somewhere that says spend it now or spend it later and it's usually better to S spend it now
067FRAM oil filters I'm sorry FRAM oil pay me now or pay me later and usually you pay a lot more later um this is a classic example of cost reduction accounting and Michael is using generally accepted accounting principles I know that I I know that I'm so if you're directed by the board to take X number of dollars that you would normally put aside for tax relief what's the penalty penalty is in a future year you are going to have a significantly reduced budget size because you will not have car over can you turn that up please a little bit let's this year um from exhibit C1 the district had $4 4,122 th000 of excess Surplus the prior year we had 5,560 th000 of excess Surplus the different was the difference was just as you
068said directed by the board to be used at appart school otherwise in 1314 instead of a $4.1 million surplus carryover you would have had 5.5 allowing you to have more budget size so out of that $4.1 million let's say you took $4 million and said fix all the roofs you can do with $4 million in a future Year's budget it's the size of the budget is going to be reduced by $4 million and that's too significant to be operate on I just got said so the cap then would be multiplied by a lower budget because we don't have this forgive the word padding which isn't really padding it's excess Surplus in the budget because that's what got it excess Surplus requires hard hard work it does not come easy it's not low lying fruit anyone
069else it's a difficult concept to understand but it's like if you had a fixed income every year of $20,000 but you fortified that with savings that you didn't spend from previous years you would have more than the 20 to spend in the next year likewise if you spent that Surplus down you would have a reduction in your next year's budget because you no longer have that excess you only have the 20 I understand that I'm just wondering in my mind if it's it's not better to spend it now and take care of the big maintenance jobs that we we have and I think that comes under the the a priority list and a um a price tag it also gets to the fundamental issue Capital versus expense you can only stuff so much into a
070general fund and when we're talking about jobs that involve hundreds of thousand and potentially millions of dollars the generally accepted accounting principle is that's capital money that says you go for a referendum and you got a marshall of courage to do it but the only just mathematically if let's just use $100 million if we take that 4 million out next year not only are we operating at million the 2% is also calculated on the 94 million as opposed to the four so that's why it's not advantageous that's when Mike says it'll significantly reduce the at some future budget year that's where the difference comes in your budget's going down every year instead of up exactly see although capital projects are important if if we do it little at a time cap thing is for a
071community that is static like you see up in northern New Jersey in a dynamic situation that we have here in central New Jersey it it's total Madness right the thing is if we spend all the Surplus on the capital projects what impact would that have on education in in in the coming years because if you start with the budget at a lower amount then we're going to look at potentially increased class sizes and all those and all those other things I'll go with it because we couldn't support the staff exactly of the increase in rolate so to spend all that Surplus and to reduce the budget maybe we can that's why we just have to do a little at time we can't spend the whole amount well that's that's my concern of the educational impact
072it's not just a facili you have to my concern is the quality of quality of Education the students are getting as well well I think no matter what we do we don't want to lower the quality of Education yes right that's anyone else one more second what's the schedule for Budget preparation Mr um we will finish the first round of budget defense rounds before the holidays so between now and next week and then Mike Will compile compile the budget book um then we will go back to Mike will have the budget calendar actually the budget calendar gets approved next month I mean next week um then we will start going through our presentation to the finance committee we'll look at State a which will come out at the is it end of January or February
073this year February end of February and then we will have the but public hearing and then the adoption I think I think I'd like to be involved in the review process um as it goes along in the budget defense rounds and and uh yeah I I would rather than getting the book at the end or near the end of the process and saying look it over and tell us what you think I'd like to go through it in an orderly stepbystep way with you people if possible um I'd like to hear more about how how you envision that do you are you requesting to um sit in on the budget defense rounds with the principles I think we're get getting into the area of what's the role of the board and I understand that and
074I I understand that and you know I understand that uh no but right after that round I wouldn't mind sitting with you and Mike that's fair uh Mr tesler one thing you just mentioned about presenting the the budget to the finance committee maybe that this year since it's a big concern that be presented to the whole board as a whole in in addition to just the finan committee okay you know what I want to Pigg you back on MAR I like to be a part of that too you can going the finance committee well actually tell us in the past what we actually had done and I thought worked actually pretty well was each committee looked at the budget so buildings and grounds looked at the budget for buildings and grounds curriculum looked at theirs
075and then everybody kind of got a chance to um get their hands in it and give some opinions so maybe we could do something like that I think that's what we've been doing all along and I I I think I'd like to fine-tune that okay okay we can do that Dr Hamilton will work on that absolutely okay so I think we've given um some direction to Dr Hamilton and Mr Gorski on how to create a budget this year that will support education I don't think we came to the conclusion of whether we should go to to cap or not personally I think you should oh because Miss Anella said she and I believe Mr teser said the same thing that they would like some more information especially on the in-house busing and um what was
076the other one Capital project capital projects before they could say if they'd like to go to cap or not they just could get to it anyhow remember 200 students come down to Pike 3.1 million that exceeds the unless they need to have an answer today an answer today um yes president um we we've Illustrated some of the demands that are placed upon the 1314 budget um here revenues compared to 1011 are $1.4 million because we used Surplus that would have otherwise carried over as a resource instructional lease obligation an additional 430 mandatory bus requirement replacement 100,000 and projected enrollment increases that's that trickle through the entire budget of about 3.1 million a a going to the tax um cap would afford only 1.8 million to try to offset some of those and not infringe upon
077other areas of the budget that are currently in place where you'd have to have considerable reductions so as I mentioned before Dr Hamilton and I recommend a philosophy that goes to cap where we could include a capital project you know like Mr T designed uh you know the roof and communicate to the board um what it would cost to immediately or on an installment basis bring in in-house busing and we could substitute one of two of those along the way but with these kind of figures to not go to cap is going to require some extraordinary cuts to existing programs in St St that are in the budget and it's really going to come down to staff because all the low-lying fruit in the budget has been cut over the previous years when we've had
078consecutive years of budget defeats and so on Miss Miss Fon I just think it's such an unrealistic low number that the state gives you to 2% so why give them any more ammunition to say why didn't you go to cap when you had the opportunity to do it because I know in Jamesburg our money our budget go over it and over it and over it and we have way less to work with so I I just don't think it makes sense to not go to cap would anybody have a problem with going to cap Mr Tesla yeah just reviewing the numbers again if you just look at those numbers we have a 3.2 million dollar shortfall that's going to cap and that's not including any capital projects or anything like that so I think the
079numbers just say we have no choice Mr Masters so we don't have the state aid numbers right wa this come out yeah February so if that comes back and we get $100 million from the state you on everybody everybody woke up when I said that yeah um we get a significant we get four 14 million let me throw that out we could push that back to the taxt okay absolutely I'm just I I think after listening to the explanation and seeing the numbers I honestly I I don't see where we have any choice but to go to the cap so I would agree to it at this M rman he already said I think he already and M okay and I'll think it's un okay with that y he go okay so does that conclude
080our discussion on the budget philosophy so we will go to public forum and again anyone from the public wishing to speak please come to the microphone and state your name and address for the record hello Doug PO for tamarak Road for tamarak Road uh I have some questions related to this discussion um we have quite a few things in the district I would imagine that are under lease purchase uh other than just the iPads um my question is uh can you terminate a lease purchase without continuing into into another year Mr gski the answer to that is is no once you enter into a lease purchase just like leasing a car you're obligated for it through the duration of the lease and the way our district has entered into lease purchases it's with us owning
081the asset at the end of the three four five year lease period okay for example um some of the lease purchases that we've entered into recently were for the synthetic football field the synthetic practice field copy machines computers iPads buses it's very diff ult to fit a $85,000 54 passenger bus in a budget and buy it outright so we at least purchase it over 5 years especially in this low interest rate environment it makes sense okay uh one thing that I have observed simply because of having four grandchildren in the school system but I've also heard other people speak of this uh is this matter of textbooks um and I know it's only a small facet in the budget but most kids when they sit down at the table they're working with uh copied materials
082they're not working with the textbook they they rarely bring a textbook home and I've seen this all the way from the the elementary level Middle School level and high school level so my my my thought there is that I think we have to look very very carefully at uh how money is being spent on textbooks and whether or not those textbooks are actually being used uh because so many teachers it appears to me are duplicating materials they're duplicating uh worksheets and all kinds of things and filling the blank things and I'm not saying there's anything wrong with those uh those types of learning materials but they seem to be supplanting the textbook uh and so I think that just needs to be looked at uh throughout the district um uh something Mr Braverman mentioned uh
083I know you can't do it at the elementary level or at least I don't think you can but I do know that at the high school level uh you often run classes with very small enrollments that may be a luxury that this District cannot afford uh and one of the options is to not offer every course every year but alternate them or simply decide we are not going to run classes uh if they don't meet a certain minimum enrollment because take into account the fact that you are using up a classroom space you are also us using a teacher a and so I don't know how many teaching assignments a teacher has but that is a significant portion of that teacher salary so I know at the high school level that has to be looked
084at very very carefully and it may mean I don't know what we have in Monro but it may mean that some teachers that are now full-time become part-time uh or they may get shared between high school and some other building uh but there are ways that you can make uh reductions uh if you look at those kinds of things uh the the Thousand employees that we have in the district uh all all 1,000 of those employees do not come under the new tenure law uh because many of those employees are not certificated uh so they they're not going to be involved in this uh new evaluation system that that's going to demand so much extra administrative support in my opinion uh something else and I've done this for three years but I will continue to
085beat this drum as long as as long as I can I I know that there are certain categories where this District spends more than any other District in the county and if they don't then sometimes they spend in the second place or third place and I'm talking about out of all the districts in the county to me that's where you look to make Cuts why is Monroe spending significantly more than any other District in these categories that has to be examined and it has to be examined by comparing what are we doing in Monroe what are they doing in South brunic what are they doing in east brunic or wherever the cost are lower in that particular category to me that's where you find those savings so I I offer these things uh for your
086consideration and uh I hope that uh you will take them seriously I think you usually do uh but it all does pertain to this and one other point uh I guess it's a question uh you're using 200 students projected enrollment for next year uh what percentage of that 200 students would you say is at the high school level a third okay so let's let's say it's a third uh I think that figure of 15,500 is inflated because you can fit those students into High School classes and it doesn't cost an additional $15,500 per student we' got a high number of special education children and that gooses the number up and the 15,500 is probably pretty well I I I realize that and and one other thing I think the district has to very carefully look
087at is because you you the board has bragged about I've heard you brag about it on many occasions and that may be perfectly Justified you've bragged about the fact that people move into this Township because you have such a superlative special ed program and I think that's commendable but you have to look very carefully at every one of those kids to make sure they're a legal resident in this Township because I know in other districts they have often found those very expensive students are living here during the week but not on the weekends because they are not legitimate residents of the township I know that may be costly but if you're talking about spending 20 25,000 40,000 50,000 I think you need to be extra certain that that student and their parents or at least
088their legal guardian resides in the township uh because they they people have ways of hiding those things and uh you you have to find out where that's happening I've seen it in other districts they've rooted them out and they've saved a lot of money thank you thank you Mr Po anyone else from the public okay seeing none our next scheduled public Board of Education meeting will be held Wednesday December 19th 2012 7:00 p.m. at the high school a motion to adjourn motion to adjourn second Mr ly miss anelis all in favor opposed exstension meeting is adjourned it too much