001December. Good. >> Florida. I did tell time to go live. All right, we are live. So, it's 7 o'clock. Um, >> Call the meeting to order. Thank you. We'll do the pledge of >> allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Right. Right. coming in. You're good. Mr. Davis >> here. >> Mrs. Tiloff here. Miss Allen >> here. >> Mr. Phillips >> here. >> Mr. Golden >> here. >> Miss Row here. Miss Oriente >> here. All right. Perfect. All right. So, I'm going to give the presentation on the budget for 2627 and then uh we'll have a public comment section for any of the public that wants to comment on it because we have
002to after the public hearing. and we'll go ahead and approve the budget. Mr. Lee is gonna Are you going to help me click? >> I'm not a clicker. No, I I talk with my hands. >> I'm very animated. >> Yes, I'm clicking. >> You're clicking. >> Just tell me when you can click. Here's our board member. There we go. Keep clicking. >> That's good. >> There we go. I told you. Um, all right. So, all of our revenue sources, our local tax levy, as you can see, is 54% of our budget. Um, tuition and miscellaneous is about 1% of our budget. That includes student activity and interest. That was something we had to do a few years ago. Student activity accounts are not fed through our accounting system, but we still have to report them
003as revenue. That's a wash. It's going in, it's coming out. So, that's not money that we don't make money on that. We don't run it through any budget. That's in and out. Um, state aid is 41% of our budget. That actually includes the preschool expansion aid in there. Um, semi- aid is Medicare. So, we have to do quarterly semi-reports um in which we have to report um not just tuitions for students, but it's really your reporting um if they have onetoone nurses or they have uh related services, things like that. And then we get a percentage of reimbursement. So, the state says this is how much based on your students, this is how much you can make in that. our goal is to make that or exceed it. Um, so that is the base revenue
004amount that we have to put in there. Uh, surplus, that's not correct there. Um, surplus, we don't have any surplus. What we have is that $300,000 that I'm saying at the end of this year, I anticipate having $300,000 or more, hopefully a little more that I'm going to roll over into next year to help fund that budget. Um, so in the past, we've had surplus. We don't have any surplus from prior year because if you remember last year those related services and tuitions ate up pretty much everything. If you remember when the auditor was here I think we ended the year with peanuts percentage wise as far as rolling over. Um I don't even think we hit the 2% to roll over. Um and then our federal grants. So that's our ESA um formally no
005child left behind and our so individual um yeah for the special for special ed tuition. So total revenue our total budget is 22,324,250. All these added up including our debt service of $33,000 and I believe our debt service payments are done in 2030. I think I have it on one of my next slides. Um, expenditures are also going to match that operating budget and the percentages. We're going to get to all those, so I'm not going to go through them. The next slides are going to highlight all of those expenditures. Hit it back. Um, all right. So, total operating budget, as I just said, uh, just over 22 million. Um, as you can see, and we just talked about this before, our tuition is 23% of our budget. So, essentially about a quarter of our
006budget is servicing tuitions outside of our district. Um, so they are our students, they are our resident students, but it's not doing anything within our schools. So that's a big chunk of our budget for as small as we are. Um, employee benefits are 17%. Regular education, so general education is 24%. Special ed is 14%, administrative and central services is three, uh, maintenance and transportation, you're looking at 11%, and then our grants are 7%. So we can switch and I'll get into some detail. So, regular education that includes our SA teacher salaries, our basic skills programs, um instructional supplies, textbooks, co-curricular activities, which is all of our sports and clubs, uh media services, which is library guidance, technology and Chromebook supply, Chromebooks and technology supplies, um health services, so the nurse and supplies, professional development for
007our staff, and instructional improvement. So, that is just over five million. So 24% of our um budget goes to general education um needs in the district. Again um tuition like I said 23% almost a quarter of our budget just over $5 million that pays for our tuition to Pine Hill that pays for our out of district tuitions. Um that pays for our students that attend Camdi County Technical School. Um it's all there um charter school placements and things of that nature. So, um, again, just over $5 million of our budget goes to tuition. Um, special ed, we're looking at 14%. Again, that's teacher salaries, uh, instructional supplies, occupational therapy, and physical therapy, as well as our, um, speech therapists here. Our child study team falls under special education, and our extended school year program, um,
008that runs over the summer for our special ed students. And again, 14%, just over three million in our budget. employee benefits, um, health insurance, pension, social security, workman's comp, um, student accident insurance, tuition reimbursement. Um, all of that falls under employee benefits. Just over three million, close to $4 million. 17% is all of that. And as you remember, our insurance was projected to go up really, really high. Still going up pretty high at 16% or so. Um I think it was 18% is kind of like the overall package around that number. Um but we were looking initially at 30% per prescription alone. So um we were able to finagle and change some plans with the same service. Um but still 17% of our budget administration central services. So this is um administrator and clerical clerical
009salary. So that's going to be your principal and principal secretaries. That's going to be superintendent's office. That's going to be business administrator's office. All of them fall within um administration and central services supplies also communication system. So um telephone bills um all cell phone bills all go through that administrative services. All of our legal services, our solicitor, all of that goes through central and administration, our auditing services, and anything for the board of education if we do the annual workshop, which we haven't done much of that, but things of that nature all fall under um administration and central services, just 3% of the budget, about 740,000. Uh maintenance and transportation. So obviously this is maintenance and custodian um salaries uh custodial supplies our utilities so gas and electric fall under that uh maintenance and then
010supplies and services. All of our transportation falls under here um whether it's in-house and contracted. So obviously we contract for students that are out of district. We contract to take them um to and from their school. And then we do all of our other in-house uh transportation. So that's their salaries and benefits for all of our drivers. All the maintenance on the buses, um fuel, all that stuff falls under maintenance and transportation as well as um our property and liability insurance and um vehicle insurance falls under there. So maintenance and transportation about 11% of our budget and it comes in around 2.5 um million. All right. So, ESA, um, Title 1, 2, three, and four, and then IDA, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Um, we use that to cover a portion of our tuitions.
011Um, but obviously it usually only comes in around $120,000 of you saw how big that tuition number is. Um and then um preschool expansion aid um is in this number here even though under the state aid on the front and when it said revenues the state aid is there but it does fall under technically like a grant. So 1.5 um million there. So what does our 22627 budget include? Um so our district budget was approved by the county superintendent and the um county business administrator on April 20th. Um the district did receive an additional almost $400,000 in state aid, but we did have a reduction of about 82,000 um in preschool expansion aid for 2627 school year. With the addition of the fifth preschool classroom in the 2526 school year, the decision was made to
012move fourth grade back to DTE for next year. Um which everyone is aware of now um because the student population was definitely imbalanced um as a result. So, um, contractual classroom moving siphons have been included for staff in that in the budget. Um, some of the following increases have had the significant impact on our budget. Um, as you can see, most of them are tuition and benefits, which is no surprise. That's kind of been our big um, ticket items for the past few years. Um, other increases that led to the initial $2 million deficit that we were facing were some summer projects, um, salaries of our staff, and then additional teaching staff member and maintenance custodial staff member. Uh, summer projects were immediately cut because they were kind of like we need to do them,
013but we didn't need to do them. And when we didn't have the money, um, they immediately were removed as well as the additional maintenance and custodial staff member that I was hoping to bring on um, for future planning um, in that department. They were also eliminated. Um, nonetheless, that was peanuts compared to looking at a $2 million deficit. So, unfortunately, um, as the board is aware, we had to, um, increase taxes for the residents of Berlin Township. um over our 2% we are using um a healthcare adjustment and an enrollment adjustment. So the state website the state says essentially you can only go 2% unless your numbers for health care and enrollment have come in over what they should have been and you've continued to do well at the 2%. So now they're saying because
014you could have gone above 2% but you didn't you have these funds to use. So, unfortunately, we had to utilize those adjustments. Um, as I told the board, Burlington Township is currently $771 less in the county average for school taxes. Um, and a little over $2,000 less than the state average for school taxes. So, the tax increase on the average assessed home is approximately a dollar per day. So, 350 to 375 per year. It's not pretty. I hate it. You all know how I feel about this place. You all know how this has been a big part of my life. This is my 15th budget, 25th year here. Um, it's not easy for me to get up here and and put this out there. But at the end of the day, we're not the only
015one in this position. Um, and we really had literally no choice um but to try to to figure out how to continue to keep what we have, which is not much as it is, um, to be able to service our kids. and this was pretty much our only option. Um, it's not to say that we won't have to make difficult decisions moving forward. Um, it's a challenge every year, but we'll just keep put one foot in front of the other and hopefully not come down this path again. So, that's our budget details. It's not pretty. I don't love it, but it's the hands out right now. So, you can go ahead. Um, district costs saving measures. So, we're still in the public employer trust for health and prescription. Like I said, those initial rate increases
016were really high. They were coming in over 30% for prescription. Uh we made some changes. Oh, so the overall benefit package actually came in at 14.32. Um still high. In the past, we've been kind of around 9 to 10. Um obviously, these are just going up across the board. Everybody's in the same boat. We also participate in the Burlington County Insurance Fund. Um they usually send a a rebate check every year um that goes back into our um to offset some of our insurance costs. Um electric we do um savings in electric that give us electric savings. E-Rate um which gives us I think close to $10,000 towards our Comcast service bill every year. Um so that's nice. And then our semi programs that I talked about on the first um slide. Shared services with
017Ed Services Commission. Um we try to use them. I know that we use them for I think occupational therapy and physical therapy because they are they do come in um lower than anyone else. Um we did apply for three grants that if awarded they're going to help with new academic instructional initiatives. So Mr. Lee and Miss Fley have been working on those grants and we just haven't heard anything yet. So hopefully that will help >> hopefully soon. Mhm. Um and then the 262 27 budget includes um we're maintaining all of our existing positions as well as all the co-curricular things for our students. Um we do have the one additional certificated staff member that we are going to hire and it also maintains our in-house district transportation for all residents and students grades preschool through
01812. Albert tax, we already kind of talked about it. This is just kind of a breakdown of it. the 2526 tax levy versus the 2627 tax levy. Debt service stays the same. Existing bonds will be paid in pool as of 6:30 2030. As long as we don't have to go out for more bonds for um construction or things of that nature, that will also help um the taxpayers because the township currently pays that amount in our tax levy. So when that is paid up, they're no longer paying that um to us any longer. Um hopefully there's no more bonds before before I retire. I don't want to do that again. Um 2026 the average assessed home was 188,000 just over and just over 189,000 for um the 2627 school year. And then our local tax
019rate obviously you're seeing is obviously higher. That is because we had to raise taxes. So um I think that's it. Anybody have any questions? All right. Thank you. >> All right. Um, we're going to open the meeting to the public, please, for the discussion of agenda items only for on our public hearing. Motion a second. >> Second. >> All those in favor? a post or ab um so motion and a second then to close the public hearing portion of the meeting. >> Motion second. >> All those in favor? >> I >> oppose or abstain. Um so now just approve of the budget. May I have a motion and a second to approve the 2627 um budget based on the resolution uh that is on the agenda? >> Motion. >> And again, any questions before I
020do roll call? >> All right. Uh Mr. Golden, >> yes. >> Mrs. Allen, >> yes. >> Mr. Phillips, >> yes. >> Miss Ruff, >> yes. >> Miss Soma, >> yes. Miss Juliano, >> yes. >> Miss Oriente, >> yes. >> Mr. Davis, >> yes. >> Thank you. Again, it's not pretty, but I do appreciate your support as we navigated this. Um, all right. And then I just have one quick um action. If you remember last meeting, I didn't have my um bank wrecks or bank statements, the board secretary treasury report for March that came in. I just wanted to get it on and get it out of the way. So, we're just going to approve um the financial report for the month of March. Um, no line item has been overextended. The treasurer's report and secretar's
021report are in agreement. Um, and no changes in anticipated revenue amounts or sources. So, can I have a motion to second just for that >> motion? Second. >> Any questions? U Mr. Golden? >> Yes. >> Miss Allen? Yes. >> Mr. Phillips? >> Yes. >> Miss Row? >> Yes. >> Miss Juliano? >> Yes. >> Miss Oriente? Yes. >> Miss Toma? >> Yes. >> Mr. Davis? >> Yes. >> All right. Thank you. Um, we don't have any public here this evening. So, at this point, if there's nothing else, we can go ahead and adjourn. I have a motion to second. >> Motion. >> Second. >> Um, all those in favor? >> Opposed to abstain. All right. Thank you guys for coming out. Thank you. You made it. I made it. I appreciate it.