April 28th, 2025 Pequannock Twp. School District Board of Education Meeting / Public Budget Hearing

001Order. Mr. Gibbs, please read the statement of compliance. In compliance with the Open Public Meeting Act, public law 1975, chapter 231, notice of this meeting has been properly advertised in the daily record and suburban trends. Its agenda has been posted at the appropriate locations. A copy has been filed with Bequanic Township Clerk. Thank you. Please call role. Mr. Bloomer, here. Mr. Mr. Here, Mrs. Espazito here, Mr. Giten here, Zako here, Mr. Melini is absent, Mr. Pompeo here, Mr. Senic here, and Miss Shen here. We have a quorum. Thank you. Everyone, please stand for the flag salute. United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. All right, good evening everyone. Welcome to our April 28th regular business meeting. I hope everyone

002had a great spring break and since we weren't here, I want to wish everyone in our community a happy Easter. Tonight, the board will hold the public hearing for the 2526 school budget. Mr. Gibbs will present the budget to the board and to the public. And after p after board commentary, the meeting will be open to the public for comment on the 2526 budget. The board would like to thank Mr. Gibbs and his staff as well as Dr. Poris and his staff and our administration for their sustained effort to produce the budget. We know the state didn't make it easy this year, but you still got it done and we appreciate it. So, thank you. Additionally, tonight the board will receive a presentation from Miss Bellardino, our K through3 uh ELA or English language arts

003specialist, and we can't wait to hear that. Next, there's a few congratulations I want to give out again tonight. Starting with Shawn Moore again for being selected as one of the top nine seniors out of the group of 2025 Morris County unsung heroes. Sha will be honored at the Nancy Hellborn Memorial Recognition Celebration on May 7th. And also at that celebration, our very own Sam Sesi will be honored as a master board member and for reaching 10 years of board service. So congratulations to Sam. And also Dr. Poris will be recognized for achieving the new board member certification for the Lincoln Park Board of Education. So congratulations to you all. Uh, additionally, congratulations to our student representatives, Emily for reaching 100 career points and Caitlyn for reaching 100 career draws, both for our varsity lacrosse

004team. Congratulations to you both. Uh, next, I want to report that on April 23rd, the board negotiations committee met for the fourth joint session with the Puquanic Township Education Association. The parties reached agreement on some items and answered clarifying questions on others. Our next meeting is scheduled for May 19th. Uh last, the board would like to wish all our students good luck on their tests this week. Be confident, give your best, and we believe in you. And now I'll pass the mic to our NJSBA certified new board member and super, Dr. Bordis. But thank you. Worked very hard for that recognition. We're all very proud. Well, thank you. Um our student representative is unfortunately stuck in traffic. Um and I'm just going to speak really slowly because she's making her way down the aisle. This

005is about as dramatic an entry as we've ever had at a board meeting. Um yes, uh following once Liliana catches her breath, we'll have her report, but um we'll give her an opportunity to make her report. Um I will then share mine and some of some of what I I'm going to bring up is redundant with Mr. Senic said and then we'll have Miss Bellardino present on some K to3 updates and our ELA curriculum as well as our assessment tools and how we're applying that. I'm pretty excited for the board and the public to really get a chance to hear more about that. Um, also I just want to point out that the gentleman to my right, which is Mr. Senic, uh, finished a Spartan race yesterday that had a 10K embedded in it. So,

006I'm pretty impressed with that as well. So, I don't know if it's quite up there with me achieving school board association new board member certification status, but but it's close. All right, Liliana, are you good? All right, the microphone is yours, my friend. Good evening everyone. It is amazing how quickly things have picked up now that spring break is over. The school year is flying by with a lot of things happening at PTHS. Our spring sports have been doing great. Congratulations to Caitlyn Zler on achieving 100 career draw controls in lacrosse. Congratulations to Eddie Salongo for breaking the school record in faceoffs wins in lacrosse with 426 faceoff wins. Congratulations to Savannah Licardo who recorded 100 strikeouts in softball. Emily Zgler who recorded 100 career points in lacrosse and Mason Chef on over 400 career

007saves. Teams are starting to have their senior nights and thank you to our seniors for your hard work and dedication over the last four years. Tonight was softball and boys lacrosse. Congratulations to the girls track team who went undefeated in their conference. Good luck to the sports teams and counties. Right before spring break, student council organized the spring pep rally. There was a great event at the end of school as the whole school wore orange to support Gavin. NHS organized a thrift store thrift store last week on Thursday. Clothes were donated that people could come and buy. All clothes not purchases all all clothes not purchased will be donated. And on Friday, there was a blood drive held at PTHs sponsored by the Allied Health Academy. Thanks to all those who donated. The music department

008has its spring musical this week. The musical is Mean Girls. Tickets are available at the door. The cost is $15 for adults and $10 for seniors and adults. This Friday, the physics class will be going to Six Flags to see how physics works in the real world by examining the roller coasters and the physics behind them. Student members of the district AI committee met with the PT PTHF staff last night at the week's department meetings to discuss how AI should be used in classes and what expectations teachers should have for excitements. It was a great beginning discussions to an important topic in education today. The office of counseling is sponsoring National College Decision Day where students will be taking pictures and celebrating their post-secary plans for college, military, or the workplace. Congratulations to all their

009seniors on their decisions. Grade 9 students are taking the NJSLA and language arts this week. District testing will be kicking off at all levels. AP testing is also beginning next week at the high school and will continue for two weeks. Good luck to all the test takers. Also, good luck to those taking SATs on Saturday. Next week is teacher appreciation week. So we would like to take this opportunity to to thank all those amazing teachers. And that is it for this week. Thank you for your continued support. Try to jot that all down. Excellent. Thank you, Liliana. Much appreciated. And what is the day for the National College Decision Day? May 1st. Oh, it's coming right up. Excellent. All right. Very excited. All right. Thank you very much. As far as my report, um, we

010just to catch us up since when we had our last meeting, we had the trips event at PV on April 9th. It was very well attended by families and community members and really a celebration of the creativity of our students along with support of their families and staff. I think we had to have at least 60 different student entrepreneurs. The gym was packed. Um, and thankfully we moved it there because the parking situation was a lot better. Uh also we are we continued our analysis of the school performance reports. Mrs. Vans and I completed our meetings with the principles to analyze the data that's available in the student performance reports particularly as it applies to specific student groups. We also examined the data behind the numbers to determine where we were seeing adequate growth um

011and where we needed to focus more of our energy. Um it's very strategy oriented and I found it very productive and I'm hoping the principles agree with that as well. In terms of kindergarten enrollment and placement, uh we met as an elementary team again on April 10th to review the kindergarten enrollment data. Currently we stand at 120 students. Last year we had 132 new students enrolled on April 29th. So we're behind that pace. Um but we're moving right along to have students placed most likely in the middle of May. And uh we're looking ahead to the new student orientations that will take place or kindergarten orientations that will take place in June. Uh we also completed staffing meetings. Uh Mrs. Vansol and I also met with the principles on this. We focus primarily on our

012non-tenure staff members, particularly those receiving tenure and for those uh for whom we may have concerns. So I'm going to meet with the board members and ad hoc meetings over the next couple weeks. Um and we will be prepared for the May 12th board meeting. Uh in terms of events coming up, the county friends of education celebration is taking place on April 30th. Uh from my understand Mr. Senic is planning to attend. I will be there as well. Uh it's a really nice night um in which the county education association celebrates people um who've made um important contributions to education throughout Mars County. The county middle school leadership dinner is taking place on May 6th. um that at that event we across the county we recognize students from each school district um who are selected

013by their peers for demonstrating consistent and positive leadership. The next night we have the county school board association meeting and as Mr. Senk pointed out Mr. Shice will be recognized for his 10 years of continuous service to the board of education. Um, I have specifically recognized that he'd not be allowed a speaking part and I just think that's in the best interest of all parties involved. But nevertheless, it's a really impressive accomplishment. I'm very proud of Mr. Shesi for that. Also, this is something that Mr. Senic also brought up. Our unsung hero from PTHs, Shawn Moore, will be recognized for his remarkable achievements. And I'm just going to point out that based on the time of the meeting and the state of potholes on Route 80, I believe I would be taking advantage of the

014virtual option or maybe I'll be going in person. We're going to negotiate that one. And then finally, two other items. Uh the PTHs spring musical opens on May 1st. Me and Girls will be performed on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights. And we look forward to an outstanding production. Um, and as Liliana mentioned, we begin NJSLA testing in this building tomorrow. I believe it's our freshman for ELA. Um, we're excited for them. And then our elementary schools launch on Wednesday. SATs are coming up on Saturday of this week, which we are also hosting here. And I'm looking and I'm seeing that both Miss Bellerino and Mr. Hazler in the back are nodding their heads. So, I'm coming up aces with this, which is great. And then I'm also very excited. Uh AP exams begin on Monday,

015May 5th. I believe our first one is AP physics. Um and then there's a very um programmed series of assessments to follow. And something I'm really excited about for that is our enrollment is up in our AP classes. Um and we saw last year that our enrollment increased and our performance numbers increased. Usually, um you sacrifice one for the other. We were able to attain both. And I'm looking forward to seeing our students being able to keep up that trend. I know they've been working very hard and their teachers worked really hard on preparing them. So looking ahead to great things and um echo what Mr. Senk said and it was in my message from this past week for our students taking the tests. Just do your best, try your hardest, have fun. Anything that's

016a challenge should be made fun. And I'm hoping our students live up to or yeah achieve to their potential on the tests. That completes my report. All right. Miss Belladino, you're up. Thank you. I do think I'm loud enough, but I will uh use the microphone. Yeah. Okay. So, good evening, Board of Education and Puquanic community. Thank you for allowing me to present tonight on some of the ELA updates um specific to grades K to3 for universal screening. Since joining the district in August, um I began to identify some of the strengths and the areas improvement for the district by spending most of my time in the classroom with students working alongside teachers and building principles. Knowing what I know about foundational reading coming in, I quickly was able to identify some areas that I

017wanted to pinpoint um to target both training and instruction moving forward. With that being said, across the board, here's a snapshot of some of the projects that I began working on this year in K to2. As you can see, starting on the left side, Hillview North Boulevard and Steven J. Jerice, I started with identifying training that was needed, whether it be foundational reading, small groupoup instruction, the deconstruction of standards, and more. This PD took place both on our PD days, during grade level meetings, and also data meetings. I develop and train staff on universal screening procedures and the administration of Dibbles 8, which we'll talk more about. data meetings across the district, both with principles, interventionists, and grade level teachers, both general education and special education. I partnered with the Puquanic Public Library for community

018events, resources, and library cards for our youngest learners in kindergarten. And I'm currently revising the writing curriculum, benchmarks, and grade level reporting for the trimesters. At the middle school, we developed two common assessments for writing across 6 through 8. I revised the honors placement criteria alongside Amarie Vancickle um for students entering PV coming from the elementary schools. Again, we're supporting our um data through holding meetings to review this the assessment data across multiple domains. So, not just NJSLA, but also common lit writing benchmarks and ongoing assessments that the teachers are giving. and I facilitated vertical articulation across the humanities department 6 through 12 for the deconstruction of standards and the assessment align alignment alongside Dr. O'Keefe at the high school. We looked at the fall writing benchmark developed those had grade level meetings to identify

019the areas of need to target our instruction. We infuse more choice reading um across the different grade levels by also getting student perspective and suggestions. The grade 12 curriculum is currently being revised to infuse the college essay writing for unit one. And so I spent a lot of time in the classroom with teachers to do conferences and what that looked like for our seniors. I'm part of the AI committee of students and faculty to develop district policy and practices. And lastly, as I mentioned, the data meetings across um 9 through 12 as well with the different data points. So, a lot of things that are currently in the works. Tonight, I'm specifically going to just talk about K through three in terms of universal screening. So, universal screening in K to3. New Jersey enacted a

020new mandate to enhance early literacy instruction in K to3 for the 2526 school year. This initiative was signed into law by Governor Phil Murphy in August of 2024, which aims to address address declining reading proficiency rates, particularly those that have been exacerbated by CO 19. With that being said, one of the things that was apparent was that we needed a universal screening tool um which is a common assessment tool given to all students K to3 both general education and special education. This tool will identify students who may need additional intervention or enrichment. The process occurs three times throughout the school year um for all students. As I mentioned, we'll talk a little bit more about what the subtests include. However, based upon the new mandate, um we are on track to ensure that this is

021up and running for the fall, um starting with first and second grade that was already administered in January and kindergarten that will be assessed at the end of the year along with first and second. The key components to this mandate include, as I mentioned, kindergarten through third grade, a minimum of twice annually, although best practices is that it's three times throughout the year to be able to adjust your instruction and progress monitor students. the screening tool that is reliable and approved in alignment with the guidance from the NJ DOE which Dibbles 8 is. And lastly, parent notification which requires schools to inform parents and guardians of screening results within 30 days following the conclusion of the screening period. in your folder that I had given you, the universal screening guidelines are made um for the

022district already and that is given and was given to teachers along with the PD at the beginning of I believe November um to set the pace and to ensure that there's equity across the building across all three buildings and practices um for both reading specialists, interventionists and classroom teachers. Oh, there we go. Okay. Odd. Going the wrong way. Okay. So, why are we doing this, right? Um, so think about the vision. The vision behind this work is that all students receive a high quality education and those needing intervention and enrichment do receive it in a structured and targeted manner. Um so using MTSS which is that multiple tiered systems of supports a data-driven framework students are provided those needs. This ensures that um we have early identification and prevention right supporting students at all levels.

023We are using data to make decisions on what we are teaching and how we are teaching it. We are differentiating and personalizing instruction for each student. And there is collaboration and conversation amongst educators and building administration. So, we assess students in ELI in a lot of different ways. We're using DRRA, we have I Ready, and each one has a specific component to it, which is why we assess it in terms of the big five of literacy. There we go. Got the hang of it. So, as I mentioned, Dibbles 8 assesses four out of the five big ideas. Phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, reading, and reading comprehension. It also includes a RAM component which is rapid automatize naming. Um so these are time tests and they are for 60 seconds. So it's very very quick. It truly

024identifies if students know it or they don't. Um and sometimes yes they could get stuck on the pace but that's the purpose of practicing practicing it ongoing because then they will slowly speed it up. Um there are four categories. So once we give these universal screeners to students in kindergarten, first, second, and third grade, you could see on the right there are different subtests such as letter naming where they're just identifying a letter. You have your phone names. So that's an auditory drill where words are said aloud and students need to break them apart into individual sounds. You have your nonsense words, which are exactly what they sound like, nonsense, makebelieve words. You have your real words, which are your site words. And then lastly, you have that oral reading fluency. Second and third grade

025is a little bit different because it has a passage where students have to identify a word in context, which is a challenge. With all of these subtests, each one will give you different information, which is valuable to identify a specific goal for a student. In January, we administered the middle of the year benchmark to students in first and second grade. As you can see, I put a chart at the bottom showing students that were at or above benchmark or below or approaching benchmark. 75% of students currently in first grade were at or above benchmark. The second grade data indicated that there was a greater need for tier 1 interventions with 52% of our students at or above benchmark. What I've been able to identify through additional data is that our instruction has been the whole

026language approach and oftentimes our students are memorizing skills rather than using their phonics and decoding abilities. This is one of many reports that we get from our um Dibbles data system. So this is just a snapshot of grade levels or like district data. Now I'll show you grade two sample data. So this is two classes side by side. You can see each subtest at the top. The color coordination is helpful because it identifies we want green and we want blue and yellow is strategic support and red is in need of intensive support. We do have in second grade strong oral fluency and as I mentioned it it shows because they can identify words. They are fluent right now but they struggle with that phonics and decoding and that will then hurt them later on. So

027based upon this data, I met with all of the teachers, the interventionists, the principles, and we looked at this data to identify students in groups. Were there tier one adjustments that need to happen? Absolutely. So the teachers did identify alongside me, here are things that I could do for everyone. Here's how I can add in phmic awareness drills. Here are things that I could do for my small group. So part of this was identifying individual students and what the common need was or what the common strength was. And then we were able to target our instruction. Okay, how do I fit this in in my school day? What does this look like during my reading block? What does this look like during my writing or phonics block? And as we know, one of the hardest

028things when you are a teacher is balancing and fitting it all in. Right? So what I had developed for the teachers is based upon this data your small groupoup instruction which is your tier 2 is where you need to be goal and targeted specific and activities to support such it's very hard to be able to identify okay here's the students here's the need now what do I do right and majority of the teachers know what to do it's how do I get there so to support them on how to get there I provided activities lessons targeted skills that they were able to focus in on. And you'll see that in your folder on the left hand side under choosing a goal for intervention and tier 2 interventions. The presentation linked at the bottom is what

029I've reviewed with the principles over their data for first grade and second grade, both class reports and schoolwide reports. So data informed decisionmaking. We talked about the memorization of relying on site words rather than phonics skills. So we know that students can read words that they've seen before but struggle to decode new or nonsense words. Their foundational phonics awareness is weak and they struggle to hear or break apart individual sounds which is critical for spelling and decoding. This could cause issues later on as they encounter more complex vocabulary in the upper grades and they won't be able to decode unknown or multi-elabic words that they haven't seen before. So right now it's not a huge struggle but it will be and that's why we want to address they might have that strong fluency in that

030green but we do need to go back and retach those skills to fill those gaps. So what's been done? I talked a little bit about the tier 2 strategies and small groupoup instruction. It really was providing a common place where teachers could find resources and be able to say, "Oop, it's already done. Here's what I need to do. I just need to print it out." Um, I've been facilitating ongoing PLC's with the reading specialists and MLSPs. Um, so I try to meet with them monthly at least for an hour. We do it virtual, so it's quick and easy where we review the data. We talk about what they're doing in their tier three setting and how they can best support teachers. We have those clear guidelines and criteria for intervention. Um because we know in

031intervention reading specialists and classroom teachers should not be doing the same thing, right? It should be a triple dip. So it should be the classroom teacher and they're pulling small groups and then they're also if they end up going to reading lab now that's even more targeted and in a small group setting sometimes even one-on-one. Um we're month we're reviewing tier three data monthly developing those goals and progress monitoring students. So once we are doing these activities and that those targeted small groups, how do we know if students are making progress? Every two to three weeks we are progress monitoring students on a specific domain or subtest to then be able to see, ooh, that child's making growth or maybe they need a little bit more um intervention time throughout the classroom. um in kindergarten,

032first and second grade, we've put in those phmic awareness drills and that'll be more coming in the next school year through Hegy. Um as I mentioned that ongoing training is so important so they don't see it as isolated. It is a part of who we are. We always need to use our data to drive our instruction and um the teachers have been on board with those conversations which has been wonderful. they come to the meetings prepared and they're ready to talk about it. And I think providing those tools has made it a lot easier to get this up and running. So what are the next steps? Part of the next steps are having predetermined data meetings at the start of the year so we don't have any environmental factors and things that could go into

033those meetings being canceled or not having the time to do so. So from the start, it's at least three times at a minimum. Every single grade level, we'll have a data meeting with myself and the building principal. It is adjusting our tier one instruction as needed and planning our small groups based upon those goals and information we get from benchmark data. And it is ensuring that those goals are very very specific. So, I provided an if then document that's in your folder that talks a little bit about how do you know how to pick a goal and what is a good goal and then utilizing the smart goal that we would use for IEPs and things like that to identify something very specific that's measurable and as I mentioned the progress monitoring. All right, parent

034communication. So a big piece of universal screening is what does that look like for parents and how are we informing um families about their child's progress. So there are a few different ways. This report is one report that was pulled from um Dibble's data system as an individualized report for parents. It is very informative and so I drafted a parent letter that could go out to families explaining what universal screening is in the process. I also plan on having a parent academy in the fall to invite families in to go through all of this with them um to show them what it looks like during administration to say, you know, here's our here are strategies you could use with your child at home, but also here's what we're doing on the school end. And it

035is a perfect opportunity for teachers to discuss it at parent teacher conferences of here's one additional data point that we use to identify your students reading and writing success through phonics. So, this is a sample report. As you can see, they break it apart in each domain. Um, they'll also give an overall score, but I do think this is a perfect talking point to have with families. Um, one of the concerns I could see is that, you know, if the child is performing below benchmark or well below benchmark, it could be very alarming for this to come home to a parent. And that's why I think it's very important to have ongoing communication and also to let them know that there are three benchmarks to see that progress. and what we do when we see

036those reds or we see those yellows. So, what is being done on the school's end to put parents at ease to say, "Here's what we're doing. Here's what our small groups look like and here's how we're going to address some of those gaps." Coaching plan. So, as we know, there's only one of me, although I wish I could um multiply myself often. How do we screen all of these students and how do we make it work? The reading specialists and interventionists have been wonderful to work alongside at the mi middle of the year benchmark. So, we had administered the middle of the year together and one of the goals was to calibrate with them quite a few times to ensure that we were accurate in our scoring to ensure that they felt comfortable and confident

037and to build their capacity to become coaches within the classroom and also support the classroom teachers. So as I worked with them, it's almost the slow release of responsibility where that they are now going into classrooms and working alongside teachers at the end of the year benchmark to be able to administer um these subtests. We also had a kindergarten pilot class. So um Mrs. Hubner over at SJ volunteered for her class to be part of the kindergarten pilot to administer this to kindergarten students as well. So we have that data coming in and at the end of the year by June before leaving we'll have our end of the year data meetings where all K to2 students will be administered for the first time. So we will have some new data that I'm excited to

038share with you from that middle of the year to the end of the year benchmark going into next year. It's really about scheduling um classes of students so that we have that coaching mentality going in so every staff member feels supported. It doesn't feel like I'm on my own. I was never trained on how to do this. So, they were trained whole group, they were trained individually, they're trained in grade level meetings, and we're having those ongoing conversations with staff members. Um, we're having the data meetings, and we're also beginning to progress monitor for those tier 2 and tier three students using the Dibbles data system, which is amazing. Gives you all of those wonder reports, and it's only $1 per student, which is even better. Um by the end of next year I feel

039very confident that all of this um will be up and running very smoothly in terms of K to3. Of course we're going to continue to calibrate and have those conversations um moving on for years to come because it's important that we do calibrate every year and have those data meetings. So, that was the very shortened version of and it's not really that short of things that I'm doing for the universal screening moving into next year. Um, it's open for any questions that you have in regards to universal screening or anything that I mentioned or any just things lingering in your head about ELA. Um, first of all, that was fantastic. Um, and thank you for all this. Uh so I wanted to ask at least for uh grade three how does the dibbles data compare

040to the students for NJSLA at least in that grade is it comparable or parents getting like you know the dibbles data and it says they're amazing and then NJSLA they're bombing. So with Dibbles data it's more phonics based and you do have a vocabulary component but once you get to third grade it's more fluency and then the maze is where you'll have the words in context. So it helps with your tier 2 vocabulary mostly like your academic language and domain specific words. However, when it comes time for like standards, NJSLite is different in that aspect. Absolutely. More of a foundational reading. So it should correlate in some degree but not necessarily Yes. equal. Okay. And then my other question was um just because I know how interventional referral services can go. I don't know if

041you've been doing this long enough. Are you seeing a reduction in referrals to INRS with all the stibbles data and the MTSS? So, I can't speak to that yet because we've only given the one benchmark and so I think we will have a little bit of a different conversation in about a month or two once we have that new data to see if what we're doing in the classroom is working. I do see that we've been able to exit students from reading lab which I think is really important um to say okay who's coming into reading lab how often what is the frequency of students coming in and when we feel like they are capable of going back into the classroom and it's not to say we just take it away and it's you're getting

042reading lab and then all of a sudden you're not receiving any support it's now going back into the classroom and working alongside the reading specialist and the classroom teacher of hey here's what I did here's where the need was now when you're pulling small groups keep that in the back of your mind and we're still going to be progress monitoring those students to make sure that they are successful. Um, so I would say that is a huge achievement of students that are now exiting reading lab but in terms of exact numbers and data to support INRS referrals at this point we don't have it yet. Um, but I do think going into next year we'll have more data to be able to speak to that. Okay. Thank you so much. Uh, quick question. So first

043of all this was the best ELA update I've ever heard. Thank you very much. This was fantastic. Um, Dibbles, I only know what I've heard obviously at these meetings. Is this something that is newer and we jumped right on it? Has it been around for a while and we're just now kind of Okay. Yes. So, it's been around forever. It's had revision. So, it's actually through um the University of Oregon is Dibble's materials are all free. They're researchbased. It is a great predictor of student success. It doesn't identify dyslexia. It is a it's a screener, right? And so it's able to tell you are students going to struggle in these particular areas. There was dibbles, just original dibbles, and then they have dibbles 8, they have dibbles next, they now have it in Spanish. So

044there are different um components, I guess, or revisions to it. However, this is something that's been around forever. Um more so, it started being used, I think, more in an intervention setting. And then when stu when teachers and administration and you know the state and everyone started to realize well it is researchbased and here's all this information about it a lot of districts started to take it on and say oh this is a a great universal screener. It's not the end all beall. Um so when a student is flagged to be read it just tells us that we need to do more diagnostic testing. Right? So they might show red across the board. It gives us great information. So, as we're assessing students, we're jotting down, oh, they confuse their B's and D's or they

045don't know their vow teams or they need support with their diagraphs. However, when you notice there's a PSF, which is your phmic segmentation. Um, when you notice that there's a struggle there, it's like, oo, okay, now I'm going to give them the past that's going to dig even deeper. So, do they struggle with beginning sounds? Do they struggle with ending sounds? So, there are other research-based tests that go along with it, but this is generally a really awesome tool that I would say when I went on the webinar, it was like 75% of districts in New Jersey are using it. That was my next question actually. Thank you. Yes, it's cheap. It's free for the most part except for the reports that you get that um the systems $1 per student as I mentioned. Great.

046Thank you so much. I have a question as well if I may. Um, thank you for the presentation. It was very good. I saw a comparison of two classes there. Have you been able to do a comparison? And I'm not asking for the results, but a comparison between the elementary schools and just see if there's one school that's trending better as far as getting these habits um that could be emulated. Absolutely. Um so when I went through the data, I also pinpoint specific teachers that I was like, "Ooh, what are they doing different?" And so when I had those conversations with principles, it was here's what the grade's doing. Here's individual teachers. And now it's touching base with those individual teachers and really building them up and using them as teacher leaders to say how

047does your small group instruction look different or what are you doing in your foundations lesson that someone might not be doing that we could have those conversations about or maybe I don't know that I'm doing that I'm not doing something correct right um so visiting other classrooms and providing opportunities for teachers to see other teachers teaching phonics and small group instruction I think is going to be really important but yes we have compared across schools and across US classes. And then just to follow up, I you noted second grade versus first grade, there's a little bit more struggle. Uh how are we using this data in the years to come to track if they're improving or god forbid dipping? Yep. So going into next year at the beginning of the year, we will be administering

048the benchmark to grade three students. So I think that that will be telling to see if we have that summer slide also. So where our numbers are, hopefully we don't regress. Um, but I think part of this is going to be what is being done in the classroom and how are we constantly making sure that we're looking at it and not waiting until 3 months or four months later to look at the data, but what are we doing daytoday that's going to provide that targeted instruction for students. And as I mentioned, part of that is building the capacity and the knowledge of the teachers. As an elementary teacher, not everyone you is a literacy expert. they're expected to be an expert in reading and writing and math and science and social studies and all of

049those things. And so really making sure that everyone understands those common terms what it means to have quality research-based tier one instruction. Um and going into next year, I think it's not the end all beall, right? It's not like we have this data. Great. Now we always have to look at it and adjust our instruction. So it shouldn't be something that we give it, okay, check it off the list, we're done. It's now we have to have conversations about it and we have to pull those small groups and we have to check in on progress and what do we do when progress isn't made now that's going to be a different conversation for those students to go into possibly INRS to have those more specific targeted goals with a wider team of experts. Can I

050add to what you're saying? So, um, Miss Bellerino has been doing amazing work with the interventionists and the teachers. And one thing in terms of, um, what are we doing now to support the second graders, she doesn't speak, she didn't speak to it, but she is doing work right now with the interventionists. They analyze the data. This benchmark was done in the um, early winter, January, I want to say. So since January, the interventionists have been using the data to target particular skills that that data says the students need to work on versus saying like, oh, we're going to do comprehension. No, we're going to work on these particular skills. So the intervention is also our progress monitoring the students and by the time we hit next year, students will be progress monitor probably every

051two weeks that have that type of data. So right now the students are being are given are being given targeted intervention lessons to support which is why I think she's very excited about the June data to see how that has grown and what has worked. The other piece is um not only when we're looking and comparing um the schools in terms of resources we're looking at. So we have foundations um foundations has some gaps. So the data helps us also identify where those gaps are and we're looking at an additional resource to bring in called Heggerty which will help us target some of those lower younger foundations in K1 um more specifically a well to bring up that phmic awareness point. So, it's not just the teachers, but we're looking at full breath like the

052training, the resources we're using, the strategic program and alignment, um what teachers are doing in their ELA block time, in the classroom, in the small groups, and then in that additional tier three support, which is our MLSPs and our reading specialists. So, I also want to commend her for the work, the training, the organization. and she's extremely organized and spends hours and hours and hours making sure everything is completely um professional and um clear. That if then document is tremendous and is extensive. So I just want to commend her and all the teams that she's working with to really pull all this together. That sheet is in the tier 2 teacherled support. So, those hot links that are in this document that are in your folder are available to teachers to be able to do.

053And one of the things that I'm going to work on this summer is um having this like printed so that teachers can make their own tool kits going into next year so they feel confident they can, you know, run in September with everything that they need and they don't have to worry about, oh, I don't have anything or the tools that I need. Yeah. Um, what feedback have you received from the staff? What feedback have you received from your sta from the staff? So I was like with any new change I was expecting that I would get push back because it is something else right it feels like something new to be added and that is actually the way that I I shared it when I when I started the training with them. I said

054I know right now your thought is that it's something new but by the end of this presentation I hope you see the value in it. And I think the interventionists immediately were like, "Yes, let's do it." Right? Because we're we're think we think the same. Um, starting with the classroom teachers, I think one of the big concerns was, I just want to see it. Like, it's it's hard for me if I if you just want me to do it on my own. And so, that's why really setting that coaching plan was going to be the the most successful so that they know that I'm there with them um whether it be in the classroom with them or training the reading specialists to go um on their own. recently. Um, as I mentioned, we did that

055kindergarten pilot and that was the grade level that it was like the aha moment. Um, you know, I just met with the teacher today and she was like, "This is the best assessment that we have." Like, "This is the strongest one that we have." As we know in kindergarten, they're not readers coming in. We don't even teach them their letters until, you know, September, October. Some of those kids have that knowledge coming in. Some students don't go to to preschool, right? So to see where they are, it is the best screening tool to be able to say, "Oh, okay. I got it. Now here's what I need to do." It gives them very clear groups. So the feedback that they've shared is like, "It's so clear. I know exactly who I need to pull. I

056know exactly what I need to do. You gave me everything that I need." And so as of right now, um, everyone has been on board with it. I think it is a learning curve, especially the progress monitoring. So that I see as being more of a challenge because it's how do I have find the time for five students every so often, but it's making it manageable and I'm making it digestible for teachers. And I found that they've been very supportive of this change. Yes. And their one minute assessment. So at the most you would spend five minutes with a student. I know, right? Quick and easy. I just want to echo what everybody else said. Uh I've been noticing a trend with with both of you actually with Miss Beldino, your presentation and Mickle your

057presentations the the granularity of it where it gets down to a single question and the presentation that we looked at tonight if you go through those links you see the evidence of and for instance your 24 25 middle of the year data report results. you see the evidence of you asking the question, what is this teacher doing different than this teacher? And you could see that analysis occurring and it doesn't end there. It then goes to the point of, okay, here's the plan to correct it that I have. And then here's the plan that I'm going to give to the teacher to enact um the actions they need to undertake in order to educate the student. And then this is the the result that we expect. I think it's a great I think it's I

058don't know if it's just started or if it's something that I'm just starting to see because it's being presented but as far as the the detail at which you're digging into even the the meeting note templates and the ifand uh scenarios I mean every base is covered to do the the best you can to ensure success of the students. Yep. So, I think this was phenomenal and I hope you come back and give us a presentation on something else because this was very good. Great job. Thank you so much. Anyone have any other questions? Okay. Well, anytime you guys have questions, feel free to email me. I know there was a lot to look through. Um, a lot of data also, but I am available anytime you want to have further conversations. I appreciate your

059time tonight. Thank you. All right. Next up, we have Mr. Gibbs in the presentation of the 2526 budget. And I guess you're going to join him. Sure am. School board member. Yeah. I'm going to start us off. Uh, welcome to the budget presentation for the 202526 school year budget. uh just to make sure we have our expectations in check. This will be nowhere near as interesting as what Miss Bellardino just presented. So I thank you for setting the bar that high. So obviously the presenters are going to be me and Mr. Gibbs who is our school business administrator um and board secretary. So, what we're going to do is go over the budget basics, balancing a budget, revenues and funds, what are the cost drivers, the general budget overview, tax impact, reserve accounts, and anticipated

060future revenue. Um, we like to start off by sharing some highlights from what we've seen over the past school year as the budget exists to drive student experiences. That's what we're in the business of doing. So, I'm going to read through these. I realize uh everyone can read these. This will be shared on the district website, but it is nice to be able to share these um once again. So, we continue our ongoing investments and resources for school security. We're looking to um further strengthen our existing program, paving the gym and back parking lot at PTHs. We had 41 staff members participate in Conquer Math Professional Development. That is something that will continue into next year. The dedication of the PTHS Veterans Wall was a huge success for our school district as was the dedication

061of the Ruth Kelly Gymnasium. It's worth noting for those two dedications. Those came with incredible community support. Uh we added sound systems for the North Boulevard, SJ, and PTHs all-purpose rooms/ cafeterias. Whereas high schools don't really have all-purpose rooms, but it is a cafeteria. Uh we upgraded 95 classrooms in the preK through eight uh grade levels with new line interactive flat panel displays. This is a huge victory for Mr. Sheay who has moved us away from smartboards which we found to be terminally inefficient and very expensive to uh maintain and these are much more effective. uh also with Michete formed the Quantic AI team to explore best practices, obstacles, planning and policy for um how to best integrate artificial intelligence into our programs. Uh we purchased new independent text selections at the high school to

062enhance choice reading options. It's great to see our older kids reading. Um we expanded the Allied Health Academy course offerings. Uh we also uh put in a new playground at PTHS. also added a new ticket booth over here at PTHS. I think I said playground at PTHS. Uh at North Boulevard High School does not have a playground, nor will it. Um but we did upgrade the the baseball and softball fields of the high school which is kind of like playgrounds. We also implement the new schedule at PV and we're seeing how the panther period is starting to evolve. Uh obviously we did the same at the high school as well. Uh for the profile of graduate surveys were administered and what uh Dr. Keith is doing as he leads this program is trying to follow

063what we do with what's called vertical curriculum articulation where things move up and down in a in a fluid sequence. We also piloted a grade one through five social studies program which is ready for roll out for next year. And then because why limit yourself to one page of bragging when you can do two, uh the preps program, as I mentioned in my report, is still thriving in all three elementary schools. One might argue it's growing. We had our opening faculty pep rally for district staff. We also had our friends from Lincoln Park join us. And our guest speaker is Mr. Jerry Brooks. If you've never um had access to any of his um his I guess material on YouTube, I highly recommend checking it out. He's very funny. He's also very trenchant. Our PTHs

064band is going to be performing the national anthem at Yankee Stadium on June 5th. And it's just kind of nice to say, oh, we're doing that again. Our spring musical here is going to take place starting on Thursday night. That's Me and Girls. We had a girls wrestling state place winner spia kletcha finished in sixth. Also we had the ga game on gavin basketball games and other events to support one of our own. Our PV girls soccer team won the county championship as did the girls and the boys basketball teams at PV. And we also had PV cross country individual champions and Rose McBurnney and Matthew Sherburn. And one of our PV wrestlers Brandon Daniel uh took home an individual county championship. The school district also won the NJSIAA sports state sportsmanship award. That's something

065that we take great pride in. And Henry Strubal took home the Super Football Conference Young Man of the Year. Um that was a recognition that was provided at Metife Stadium by the New York Jets. Um and Henry was able as the winner across the 108 schools in the conference. Uh he was able to go to the Super Bowl which uh he thoroughly enjoyed. Um the musical the music in our schools performances took place here. We had um several student performances as well as a staff band. We're looking to bring the band back together at some point next year. They were very wellreceived. The PV peer leaders and student council provided lunch once again to the Mquanic first responders which is a really wonderful event. They also hosted over 100 guests for the annual senior citizen

066holiday breakfast in December which is really just another wonderful event. Spring musical took place earlier this month. That was the Little Mermaid Jr. and PT PTHS has had two National Merit commended scholars which is a very very high achievement and uh we're very proud of that. Whoops, I got a little little jumpy there. So, I'm going to turn the microphone over to Mr. Gibbs and he's going to talk to you about budget basics and many other very interesting things. Good evening. Budget basics for funds. Sorry. The budget is comprised of two sides, revenues and appropriations. At the end of the day, these sides must equal each other. Current expenses and capital outlay. This is this budget component supports the day-to-day operations of the district. The capital outlay category funds current year purchases of items in

067excess of $2,000. This area is a focal point as to it provides the foundation upon which the budget is built. Federal, state, local grants. These are grants provided to the district for specific purposes. The money in these accounts zero out at the end of the year. What we receive varies annually and is spent according to the grant. Debt service. These are monies pre previously approved by the community. Examples of this category are bonds for prior building construction and renovations. Building the budget 2025 2026. What principles guide us? Well, we have to be considerate of the taxpayers's dollars. We have to maintain acceptable class sizes, maintain classes and programs from the previous year when feasible. Investigate opportunities to enhance educational programs and opportunities. A few points to consider. The board of education's revenue is limited by

068statute. Anticipated annual labor costs increased exceeded exceed, excuse me, anticipated revenue in the foreseeable future. These labor costs increase include salaries, health benefits, and pension costs. What's new in the budget for 2526? Continued investment in special education and intervention services at all levels with a focus on targeted and articulated intervention pro uh protocols. Resurfacing of the Stephen Jerice parking lot community project for the preK and special needs playground at North Boulevard. Upgrade to each school's security system, new playground for a possible new facility, and plan to purchase a new board office. Revenues local tax levy. The proposed 2526 revenue is 40,787,41. The current is $39,780,265 with a change of $1,7,136 or a percentage change of 2.53%. Tuition, the proposed is $879,54. The current is 1.3 million. The change is $427,000 and the change is a

069negative 32.72%. Miscellaneous and rent rental income. Uh the proposed is $227,710, excuse me. The current is 197,710. The change is 30,000. The change of 15.17%. State aid is at 3.7 million. The current is 3.1 million. The change is 607,000 with a percentage change of 19.53%. The fund balance is at $4,68,36 which is proposed. The current is $4,330,476. The change is a reduction of $262,440 with a change of uh 6.06%. Capital reserve, excuse me, is $3,34,399. Current, we spent $1,674,333. The change is $1,360,66 which represents an 81.23% change. Medicaid proposed is $4,385. The current is $28,422 with a change of a reduction of $24,37 with a change of84.57%. Maintenance reserve is anticipated at $954,259. Currently, it's at $949,511. The change is $4,748 with a 0.50% change. There's an adjustment for prior year incumbrances. For the proposed,

070it's at zero because that number actually comes from the June uh ending financial statements. For the current, it's $47,290, which was as of June 30th, 2024, which leaves a change of $47,290 or 100% reduction, excuse me. In totals, we have 53,677,12. The current is 51,428,612. The change is 2,248,490, which represent a 4.37% change. Where new money comes from. There are limited ways the board of education is to obtain new monies for the upcoming budget year. To the right are general pockets available and applicable to Bquantonic. Local tax levy is 2.53%. This includes a student enrollment adjustment by the state in the amount of $211,531. state aid determined by the state exclusive of extraordinary aid and securing our children's future. Our district received an increase of $43,162 for special education. General education was flatfunded, meaning no

071increase. The school districts lost the school district lost $46,379 in equalization aid due to demographics. Tuition. Some outofd district families pay tuition to send their children to our schools. Miscellaneous includes interest income, rental income, refund fees, etc. Contracts were in Bloomingdale, which is expiring, Lincoln Park, Morris County, Votech, Wayne, Tuxedo Park, New York, and Whippony. Revenue increases and decreases for 25 2026. The increase in tax levy of 2.53% that's $1,7,36. Tuition is a reduction of $427,659. Miscellaneous rental 30,000. Uh state aid $67,966. Fund balance a reduction of $262,440. Capital reserve 1,360,066. Medicaid reimbursement reduction of $24,37. Maintenance reserve is $4,748. And the adjustment for prior year incumbrances is a reduction of $47,290 for a total of $2,248,490. Anticipated future tuition revenues. These are combined shared time and full-timemies and preschool for 2023 2024. The actual

072was $1,149,958 for 2024. 20225 was budgeted for $1,37,163. And for 2025 2026, it's anticipate the budget is for $879,54. Anticipated future revenues. Revenue from the shared time academy will not fluctuate much going forward. The tuition rate is set by the Morris County VOTE. For 2023 2024, there were 68 students at $4,60 tuition at $276,80. For 2024 2022, there were 70 students at $4,151 tuition, which rate gives $290,570. For 2025 2026, they're anticipated 45 students to date at 4,276, which res represents 192,420. Enrollment numbers will not go up over 100 because we are capped at 50 per grade for the sharetime program, which consists of juniors and seniors only, and assumes some attrition. There are 36 graduating senior seniors, which has currently reduced the number of participants. This may change when the number of accepted applicants

073is determined in May. I want to speak to that too. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. And I realize it looks contradictory and we're saying the numbers aren't going to fluctuate much and you see 68 and 70 which are pretty similar and then 45 is precipitous drop. So what we're what we're anticipating when we put a budget forward is worst case scenario. Like when you look at grant numbers we always assume that we're going to get about 20% le less in grant money than what we've got in years past. That's with federal funding title one through four. So, with this, we expect the number will go up as we find out about the accepted applicants who are committed to the program, but we're taking a conservative a conservative number here. Um, but I think it's worth noting just

074as the drop is about $100,000 from last year to this year for now. Yes, sir. Just got a quick question before you keep going. the number uh for tuition revenue is substantially less on the slide before dropped off like $400,36. What is the reason for that? So the there there are two things at play there other than the share time. So uh Lincoln Park, we've lost the ability to bring in STEM students um and they're now going to Bin High School or to Mars County OTCH or to private schools if they want to enroll in the STEM program. So, we have students who were grandfathered in, but once Bootin opened up their STEM academy, um students who wanted STEM, no longer had the ability to come here unless they want to be tuition paying students.

075And then, um we're also losing the aviation academy students um beginning well this this year uh because also opened up an aviation academy. So, those two um caused us some loss. And then where we would generally see about five or six students from Bloomingdale, um Bloomingdale has elected to send their students to Butler, which offered them a flat rate regardless of the number of students who attend. Um which for Butler was a high-risisk move, but one that I respect. And for Bloomingdale, it makes no sense to send somebody here if you've got a flat rate going to Butler. So we lost revenue from those two sources. full-time partnerships, STEM, allied health and aviation, Bloomingdale, what's not renewing, Lincoln Park, Allied Health Only, and Whippony students, there's only one student. Yes. 2024 2025, there's 58 students

076at $798,70. 202526 39 students at $662,922. The 202526 budget certified tax levy form. All right, this consists of the general fund for the total for 2526 budget taxes is $40,787,41. For debt service, it's $987,59 for a total of $41,774,910. The balance prior year from January to June raised in 2025, which is the second half of 2425 taxes, is $19,887,437. Uh for general fund, for debt service, it's $481,611 for a total of 20,369048. for July to December raised in two 2025 which is the first half of the 2425 taxes. It's 20,688,433. For debt service it's $456,55 for a total of $21,144,938. The total for 2025 calendar year tax levy, it's $40,575,870. For the debt service, it's $938,16 for a total of $41,513,986 from January to June raised in 2026, which is the second half of the

077202526 taxes. The general fund is 20,98,968. The debt service is $531,4 total of 20,629,972. Let's make one quick one quick point about this too is our fiscal year starts on July 1st. Um almost every other organization including the township that collects taxes starts on January 1st. So you see it broken down as such because their calendar doesn't line up exactly with ours. So what's the estimated impact on homeowners according to um the town um official Mr. Lacader who's the town tax assessor. The total amount of uh real estate property in Pquanic is 2 bill716,276,000. The 2025 tax levy is 41,513,986 creates a rate of 01528 with the average home value of $574,751. The Bquanic school tax on average is $8,782 which is an increase of $278. 2024 versus 2025 tax levy. The calendar year 2024,

078excuse me, 2025 uh tax levy is this is for the second half the 2425 tax levy. It's 20,369,048. For the first half of the 2526 tax levy, it's 21,144,938. And for 225 total tax levy, school tax levy, it's $41,513,986. The town valuation, which we just went over, is 2,716,276,000. Excuse me, 2 billion716,276,000. The rate is 015 is 01528. The average home value at $574,751 gives the average home tax school tax of $8,782 for last year calendar year. The second half the 2023 tax levy was $19,818,985. For the first half of the 2425 tax levy is $20,394,172. for a total tax levy with 40,213,157. Take that time with the town valuation of last year of 2 bill597,311,200 comes to a rate of 01548. The average home value last year or excuse me this year is $549,346

079which gives the school taxes average home um at $8,54 which gives the increase of $1,300,829 or $278. Budgeted tax levy for 2024 2025. The general fund was $39,780,265. Debt service fund was $982,955 for a total of 40 thou 40,763,220. For 202526, it's 40 for the general fund is $4,787,41. Um for the debt service, it's $987,59. with a total of 41,774,910. The increase in general fund is 1,77,136. For debt service, it's $4,554 for a total of 1,11,693, which represents the 2.53% tax levy increase. You have to read all those numbers. the 2024 uh budget. This is looking at just current expenditures. Okay. Uh the special programs, we're looking at 6.6 million for for next year, 6.5 million for current, and which has a change of $69,000, which represents a 1.06% increase. For regular education, it's proposed

08015,201,000. For current, it's 14.7 million and the change is 490 39 thou,000 and the change is 2.98%. Tuition 2, excuse me, the proposed is 2.3 million. The current is 2.1 million. The change is 159,000 and the change is 7.3%. Speech, OTP, and extra services is proposed at 1.4 million. The current is 1.3 million. The change is 20,000. The percentage change is 1.46. Child study teams is 1 million proposed 986,000 current which is change of 28,000 which is percentage change is 2.86. General administration is 88,816 proposed and 860 thou7,543 uh current which leaves a change of a reduction of 58,727 which is a 6.77% decrease. That school administration is 1.9 uh 1.9 million proposed 1.939 current and 30,000 uh reduction which is a 1.59% reduction. And the reason for the deductions on the administrative costs is

081because when you do the midyear budget, you have to increase your general ad you have to increase your general administration, your school administration up at least by nine 10% possibly in order to qualify for the the next year's budget in your uh administrative costs. If you don't do that, you can run short as far as being able to accommodate all of your costs for your school administration. the uh central services the proposed is 585,000 the current is 579,000 which is a $6,500 uh increase of 1.14%. Operation and maintenance is 3.4 million proposed 3.3 million current 22,000 change at 66%. Student transportation is 1.6 6 million proposed, 1.5 million uh current, a $34,500 change at 2.17%. Employee benefits is 8.9 million, 8 proposed, 8.6 million current, 279,000 change, which is a 3.24% increase. Other expenditures is

0825.5 million current or excuse me proposed 5.56 million current and 24,000 increase at 4.43 and facilities is 1.29 million uh 229 million excuse me. The uh current is 1.221 million. The change is 7,972 which is a 65% increase. The total operating budget is 50,637,700 proposed. The current is $49,635,377. The change is 1,2323 and that is a 2.02% increase. Other expenditures that was mentioned on the other the previous screen. This is just a breakdown of those expenditures which you have basic skills of 266,000 guidance at a,75,000 bilingual is 81,000 media library 522,000 co-curricular 295,000 staff training 140,000 athletics 100 excuse me 1,10,770 uh curriculum and improvement instruction improvement excuse me 1,220,000 gifted and talented 26,000 Attendance 38,000, health 569,000, food service 75,000, and technology 264,000. Budget over overview uh appropriates capital reserve monies for projects. Provides

083the budget requests from principles and directors as well as the needs for curriculum, technology, and building and grounds. Maintains current class sizes. Staffing for the 2025-26 is still being evaluated and will be adjusted based on the projected needs and enrollments as mandated by the state of New Jersey. Final staffing determinations are made by May 15, 2025. Reserve accounts capital reserve. The balance as of 712024 is 4.1 million. The interest is $2,210. Anticipated budgeted with withdrawal is 33 million with a balance of 1 million or 1.1 million. Maintenance reserve the balance as of 7124 was 1.3 million. The interest anticipated was $500. The budgeted withdrawal is $954,000 in accordance with the M1 that was board approved back in October leaves a balance of $413,48. Capital reserve accounts. The state provides boards with the ability to set

084aside monies for capital projects. For the 20252026 budget, $3,34,399 has been reserved. That consists of resurfacing of the parking lot or SJ at $31,775. Upgrade to all the school security systems of $69,290. New playground for North Boulevard 31,100 which is a shared cost. Playground for the new facility perhaps $116,234 and purchase of a new facilities for the board office and school offices $2,785,000. I jump in. Yes. Yeah. Just a couple points clarification. One is the playground North Boulevard we're anticipating could run um as high as as a quarter million dollars based on the specific needs for not only the playground equipment but also for the surface. Um we're looking to get most of that paid for through grant money and we have a committee working very hard on that and the township um has also

085um been willing to participate in sharing some of the cost as we really envision this as something that's going to benefit the community and not just one school. So we're very excited about that one. But if the cost seems a little light for a playground, it's because it is. But it's being shared with ideally a grant that should cover about 80% of the costs. Also, um if there is not a playground built for a new facility, that $116,234 would go back to capital reserve. Um and as is the case with any capital reserve allocation, if the money is not spent, it simply goes back to capital reserves. Maintenance reserve accounts. The district will be using $954,2559 in maintenance reserve for the 202526 school year in accordance with the board approved M1 schedule for the following

086Township High School 366,000. Puquanic Valley Middle School 224,000 Hillview School 119,000 North Boulevard 125,000 Steven Jer School 118,000. What does that consist of? Uh each school has to have their boiler inspections, repairs and maintenance. Their electrical also has to have inspe inspections, repairs and maintenance as well as plumbing. Um the roofing HVAC has to have the same. There's general maintenance on windows. The alarm systems have to have inspections, repairs, and maintenance as well as clocks, intercoms, and the fire suppression system. Pupon roll enrollment history for the 2026 projection. It's projected that there will be 2,91 students in 2026, which is 11 students less than what was um actual what is the which was the actual back in 2025 this school year as of October 15th. As you can see, there's been a progression uh of

087it going up and down. Uh hopefully the number will go up come October 15th, but as of right now, that is the projection of 2,91 students. Projected 2026 enrollment categories. Regular education full-time with 1,77 students. Regular education shared time 18 students. Special education full-time 362 students. Special education shared time four students. Total pupils on RO 291 students. There's additional pupil placements. Special education private schools 17 placements. Pupil sent regular five placements. Special education other districts 20 placements. And pupils received frommies 41 placements. Budget building for 2526. Several items help our 2526 budget. Employee health benefit contributions in accordance with chapter 78 have been fully phased in at tier 4 for the past seven years. and chapter 44 has introduced a state educator's health plan as an option. This has been a tremendous help in helping

088to reduce our costs as it's much cheaper than the private uh sector. Tuition for Morris County votech academy programs and special education shared services with Mortex County Education Services, Puquanic Township, Northern Regional Education Services, and Pulled Insurance Fund. 2025 tax impact. This is on a calendar year basis. The average home value was assessed at $574,751. The total for 2526 calendar year general fund school tax levy increase is 2.53% which when coupled with the net valuation taxable and required debt service equates to $23.17 or $278 annually. Debt service series 2013 issued payments which will be up in 2028. is $311,419. 2000 series 2016 issued payments which is up in 2029 is 1,19,000. Total debt for 2026 2526 is 1,330,419. Less debt service aid from the state, excuse me, is $342,910 which gives the total tax levy

089of $987,59. Fund 20. Uh, from state grants, we're anticipating $297,274, which is budgeted at 75% of the prior year. That's a standard um figure as far as budgeting from a prior year, between 75 and 80%. This year, we picked up 75. Title funds, $100,550, budgeted at 75%. IDEIDA 477,496 budgeted at 75% for total grants of 877 excuse me 875,320. Any questions? I'll take questions tables. All right. Anybody have any questions? Yeah, real quick. Um, obviously you don't have a crystal ball and it's impossible to truly forecast this, but is there any sign OB and we're going to have a new governor. Um, is there any sign that state funding is going to we're going to see the same thing next year? Is there like anything written today that would d allow us to kind of

090forecast that there might be an increase, more pullback, anything like that? As of right now, no. But that's one of the reasons why I didn't uh budget 80%. Right. I did 75. Just trying to be a little more conservative just in case. Right. Right. Thank you. Um, real quick, I'm sorry. Can you just confirm or Mike um or Dr. Perez if you guys could? So, special education private schools we have 17. So, I understand that's pupil scent regular. What is that like? What students are those? Um those would be students that are um lived in district that were homeless but they we are required to send them out of district. Oh, are okay. So, that's like McKenna uh McKenna Vinto students. Okay. Okay. And then what about the special education other districts? We do send

091some students to other districts who have a program which is cheaper than sending it to a private school. Okay. And then pupils receive. So that's easy. So So we have that's 37 special ed students that are removed from our district. Correct. Thank you. Um I kind of want to piggyback off of uh Mr. Senic's question earlier. He asked about the tuition. Um, and then you answered it by saying the reason that we're losing money is because Bootin made their own aviation program. Um, but so were these students paying tuition here to begin with? No. Uh, we Lincoln Park was paying for it. Yeah. And since their um sending district, if Bhin has a program that is considered materially similar to what we are offering, um, they have to send them to that district. That makes

092sense. Thanks. As a followup to that, has what is there been any reports on Putin's aviation academy and how it's, no pun intended, taking off? Uh, I have not received any updates, but I can I can research that one. Mr. Gibbs, the uh the fund balance went down from last year into uh the new year. Is that something that you want to see happen or are you trying to have it go that way or what level are what percentage are you comfortable with that fund balance being at? I'm never comfortable when I see the fund balance go down because that's not a good thing. Okay. Usually that means the district is losing money somewhere. Okay. I know we've talked about different things about preschool and things like that. So, you know, when you lose money,

093it's going to affect your fund balance. So, my thing is I like a healthy fund balance. We're still healthy. I mean, it's not like we're desperate, but I like to bring up more revenue if possible to help offset whatever additional expenses may come arise. Yeah. And and and something that loosely gets to that, but also addresses somewhat of what Miss Espazito was asking about too is um I've been working together with with Montville, uh Pmpton Lakes, Boon, and Lincoln Park on trying to find ways to be more efficient in our transportation for out of district placements, whether it's for academy programs that are run through Mars County BOK or for out of district specialed placements. and looking at page 10 of that budget that's in in backup um which is an enormous document. I don't

094recommend trying to slough your way through it, but we spent in over the course of three lines $835,516, which is an enormous expenditure. So, what we're looking to do is see if we can um consolidate runs together so that if we're sending a student um somewhere out west in Mars County and going through Montville and Bootin, um could we pick up their students along the way? If somebody's coming from liquor park, could they pick our kids up? So, it's a it's a project we've been working on for the last few months. But um when we talk about a lot of these different drivers for costs in in our budget, um it's incumbent on us to get creative in finding ways to to limit those costs. And something I I I've said it before and I

095believe it that's an outcome of co getting districts out of their silos is that we're looking outward outward towards some of our partners to try to find ways to um conserve revenue because I I've said it quite a few times our our tax levy is generally um 2% and costs are certainly not limited to that 2% cap. I said one more question related to uh to actually bank cap. So on the the monster document that that Dr. reporters was mentioning the the budget the userfriendly budget which is hilarious um because it's not user friendly at all the uh on page 30 there's an analysis of the bank cap and I know that when we were going through the budget initially in the preliminary stages we had some bank caps we're using this year then the

096bank cap um we weren't able to use it because of the way we projected healthcare costs or something similar to that and then we were able to use a different form of bank cap because of the enrollment of 11 additional students or something like that, which led us to where we are today. Looking at this, it looks like next year we could have potentially $750,000 of bank cap if the situation presented itself that we'd be able to to use that. Um, is there anything that you could see that's in this budget that would not allow us to use that for next year if we needed to? Something similar to that healthcare situation that came up. Well, I mean, anything can drive up a budget. you know, if your health care costs all of a sudden

097escalate, that's going to drive it up. Uh, I try not to use the bank cap if you don't have to because obviously that's increasing your two over and above your 2%. Um, that is a big increase. You know, we're only going up.5% at 200,000 this well for next year 26 27 as I as I mentioned prior. That's the year I'm really concerned about because things are going to change, you know. So, yeah, that is true. That is that is a a viable bank cap which could be used. Yes. Any other questions? Yeah. And and I'm glad that you brought up the monster document too because it does highlight um certain areas that are beyond our control. Um and some of them unfortunately you can't necessarily plan for. So even and I lost track of which

098page it was on but with the health insurance premiums go going up. Yeah. But it's um but going up 14%. You know that that's not something that's within within our control. Um I'm very happy that um the work we did with our staff to get them participating in the NJ well helped us see a reduction of 1% in our in our premiums. Half of that 1% was shared out with the staff members participated and the other half is going back to our budget. And I think that half of a percent comes out to about $65,000 thereabouts. So big help. Yeah, we're we're finding ways, but there there there are times you take hits like even um on page on page five, item 29,100. Um it's our our tuition to private schools for students with disabilities

099in state went up 572,000 and that's something that's it's beyond our control and unfortunately we and to Mr. Bloomer's point, we don't know what the dynamic is going to be in Trenton. Is it going to be a public education friendly administration? Not so much. Some point in between. But what I'm hoping gets back the trend is we we need and this is all districts. We need help with the out of district placements. Um we need to make sure all of our students are being educated. We're providing free and public education, but um the amount of costs that are incurred from these private institutions is is very difficult to manage. And if the state had some solutions they could help us with, we would certainly appreciate it. Last question, promise. So this budget includes the capital

100reserve amount to money associated with purchasing a property. Correct. Not necessarily any one particular property, just a property. A property. Correct. If that property is or if a property is not purchased, could that money be used for rent of a property? No, it cannot. Now, that's a general fund item. This is a capital reserve item for strictly for capital projects. So, you can't use the money. You can't use the interest from the money. It all has to stay in capital reserve unless you use it for a specific project which has to be advertised, noted, board approved, you know. Yeah. Any other questions? Thank you. All right. Thank you, uh, Mr. Gibbs and Dr. Poris. I'm going to open it up to public comment and then immediately close it because there's nobody here. Um, and at

101this point, I'm going to ask Mr. Bloomer to please move the items under FFA. [Music] Yes. I'd like to make a motion to move FFA 145-25 through 152. FFA 152-25. Second. Any questions or discussion? Yes, I have a couple questions. Um, so based on the potential uh new board office, now that we cannot have a prek in that building, would moving the district admins, supervisors, or other staff to that building make sense? Um, this could free up space in the other buildings, maybe move some people to the new board office, uh, and we could possibly gain space for prek. And if it's not a viable option, um, what other plans could you have for that space, the now available space at the building? Yeah. So, um, few layers to that. If we are able to

102move uh supervisor's offices out of buildings and into a new facility, that would definitely open up space. Um what would be ideal is if we were able to consolidate space um at either PV or the high school, more likely PV, and allocate um two two rooms for prek, kind of like what we did many many years ago when there was the pre the kindergarten center in this building. Um that that would be something worth considering. Is it likely? No, but it's something that we would definitely be open to considering um if we were able to bring in sufficient revenue to be able to support renting another facility in town. We've spoken with um other um other building owners in town who have spaces that could be viable as pre preschool spaces. Um we're very limited

103in that the space has to be in a non flood area or something that's already designated as a school. Um which is pretty limited in town um based on what happened in our meeting with the civil engineer and with the uh the NJ D. But um as far as what we could also use if we were to get that uh have that entire third floor for board business about half of it would be for a board office. The other half could be used as as a conference room also professional development center. Um, this is not unlike what my current office used to be. Um, above the post office that used to be a professional development center is also used as a storage facility, which quite frankly seems like a more appropriate use for that floor.

104Uh, thanks. I have one other question. Uh based on the answers that we received from the inspection, it seems to me that the upkeep and potential replacement of things like the roof and the split system units could cost quite a bit down the road. Um while they may not need to be replaced right away, um it was mentioned in report for some reason. Um where will these upgrades, repairs come from the money for that? That just be budgeted as normal? Yeah, it would actually come from the revenues from the the people who are currently renting the building. Okay. Absolutely. Yeah. All right. Thank you. Any other questions? All right. So, there is a few things that I want to discuss with uh the attorney in executive session. I wasn't going to do it at this

105point, but I think that we should at this at this point. So, what I would like to do is make a motion to table these motions, go into exec, come out, and then move them again after we discuss the issues that we need to discuss with Yeah. our esteemed attorney. Yeah. There's no there's nobody here to wait for us. So, that's it doesn't matter. We still got to follow the correct procedure and do things by the letter of the law. So, I want to make a motion to table uh actually I just want to make a motion to table well all of them. I guess you'd have to Yeah, it have to be FFA 145-25 through FFA 152-25. I'll second that. All in favor? I. All right. And then I'd like a motion to go

106into executive session to discuss acquisition of property. Second. and matters of attorney client privilege. All in favor? I. Any opposed? All right. We'll be back. We need an estimated time for purposes of the record. We'll be back in 15 minutes. Likewise. All right, we're back. Could I have a motion to resume the meeting, please? Motion to resume the meeting. Is there a second? Second. All in favor? I. Any opposed? All right. The mo the the motion to resume the meeting is approved. And now I'm going to ask Mr. Bloomer to move the items under FFA. I'd like to make a motion to move FFA 145-25 through FFA 152-25. Second. Let me give that to Gon again because he had it the first time. Any question or discussion? All right. Mr. Gibbs, please call the role.

107Mr. Bloomer, yes. Mr. Sesi, yes. Mr. Gayton, yes. Yes. Mr. Mcween is absent. Mr. Pompeo, yes. Mrs. Mr. Chanton, yes. Mrs. Spazto, yes. And Mr. Senic, yes. Motion carries. Okay, that closes our uh public budget hearing. And now I'm going to open the floor to public comment on any agenda item. And I'm going to immediately close it because there is no public here. And I'm going to ask Mr. Giten to please approve the minutes. Yes. I'd like to make a motion to approve the minutes for the March 13th meeting and the April 7th meeting. Second. Any question or discussion? Mr. Mr. Gibbs, please call the RO. Mr. Bloomer, yes. Mr. Sesi, yes. Mr. Gibon, yes. Mr. Ao, yes. Mr. Sweeney is absent. Mr. Pompeo, yes. Mrs. Shanton, yes. Mrs. Espazito, yes. And Mr. Senic, yes.

108Motion carries. All right. Next up is PMC. Miss Shanton, would you please move the items under PMC? Absolutely. I'd like to move PMC 199-25 through PMC 210-25. Second. Second. Bloomwood. Second. Vinnie, you got hit again. Question, discussion. Mr. Gibbs, please call the RO. Actually, one thing I just want to point out really quickly. I apologize. Um is on item um 202-25. Um generally we list uh the staff members who are being replaced when we appoint new staff members. Um we didn't do so on this. That's an oversight in my end, but Miss Carbone at the high school is replacing uh one of our retiring friends, Miss Krakco, and Mr. Simney, whose last name I'm hope I'm pronouncing correctly, uh, is replacing another one of one of our retiring friends, Mr. Slaf at PB. So, I

109just apologize for the oversight there. Mr. Gibbs, please call the role. Mr. Bloomer, yes. Mr. Sesi, yes. Mr. Gon, yes. Mr. Ao, yes. Mr. McWeen is absent. Mr. Pompeo, yes. Mrs. Shenton, yes. Mrs. Espazito, yes. And Mr. Sen, yes. Motion carries. Okay. CIS. Mrs. Espazito, would you please move the items under CIS? Sure. I'd like to move CIS-79-25 through CIS 83-25. Second. Uh Shon second question or discussion. I do have one question. Uh the Yankee Stadium thing cost a district bus is free or how does that work? No, the bus is certainly not free. So um that is one for which we are splitting the cost of transportation. Um the band parent or the music parent association is providing funding for one bus. We are providing funding for the other. Cool. Thank you. Y Mr.

110Gibbs, please call the role. Mr. Bloomer, yes. Mr. Sesi, yes. Mr. Gon, yes. Miss Ao, yes. Mr. Mcween is absent. Mr. Pompeo, yes. Mrs. Shenton, yes. Mrs. Espazito, yes. And Mr. Senic, yes. Motion carries. All right. Next up is FFA. I'm going to ask Mr. Bloomer to move the items under FFA. I'd like to make a motion move FFA 153-25 through FFA 164-25. Second. Any question or discussion? Mr. Gibbs, please call the RO. Mr. Bloomer, yes. Mr. Sesi, yes. Mr. Gon, yes. Miss Ao, yes. Mr. Mcme is absent. Mr. Pompeo, yes. Mrs. Chenton, yes. Mrs. Estito, yes. And Mr. Senic, yes. Motion carries. Get it out. Get that y out. Oh yeah. No less. There we go. Bicycle. I'd like to take a moment to thank um Mr. David Rafo for his uh generous donation

111of a huffy bicycle to PV school. All right. Next up is policy and I'm going to ask uh Miss Shettton to please move policy. Sure. I'd like to move P-15-25, please. Second. That is a big Pompeo second. Any question or discussion? Mr. Gibbs, please call the RO. Mr. Bloomer, yes. Mr. Sesi, yes. Mr. Gon, yes. Miss AO, yes. Mr. Mcween is absent. Mr. Pompeo, yes. Mrs. Shenton, yes. And Mrs. Espazito, yes. And Mr. Senic. Yes. Motion carries. Okay. Next up is other. And I'm going to ask our very own master board member from here in Bquanic, Mr. Sam Sesi, to please move other. I'd like to move O-11-25. Second. Question or discussion? Mr. Gibbs, please call the role. Mr. Bloomer, yes. Mr. Sesi, yes. Mr. Giten, yes. Miss Ao, yes. Mr. Mcween is absent. Mr.

112Pompeo, yes. Mrs. Shanton, yes. Mrs. Espacito. Yes. And Mr. Senic. Yes. Motion carries. All right. Next up is public comment on any topic. And there's no public. So there's no comment. Next up is unfinished business. Any board member have any unfinished business? Does any board member have any new business? Any board member have any announcements they'd like to make? Thank you. Okay. Uh that brings us to executive session. We do have reason to move into executive session where we will discuss personnel matters. No action will be taken and we will adjourn from there. Our next meeting will be May 12th here at the high school. Is there a motion to go into executive session? Motion to go into executive session. Second aspect. All in favor? Any opposed? Good night everyone.