001We have a we have a warm meeting. Let's let's have a meeting. Steve Curl says, "Let's have a meeting." Oh, hang silent indicator. Phone's away. Good. All right. Good evening. I'd like to call the meeting to order at 502. Can I have a moment of silence, please? Please stand for the flag salute. I aliance 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. All right, roll call. Mr. Kenny here. Miss Miss Eileen Bllestein here. Miss Katherine Bllystein here. Mr. Bramhol. Miss Falconero here. Miss Zia Con here. Mr. Mer here. Mr. Trump here. Miss Fitzwater here. Statement is hereby made that adequate notice of this meeting was given by submission of said notice to the Burlington County
002Times, Courier Times, Cinnamonson Township Clerk, and the District website on the following dates: January 17th of 2024, January 8th of 2025, and April 3rd of 2025. Uh, we're going to move to the budget presentation. Mr. Capello. Yes. Thank you, Mrs. Fitzro. Actually, if you don't mind giving me a moment, we're going to transition this portion of the meeting over to the podium. So, give me just one [Music] moment. That's good. Thank you. Appreciate it. All right. Good evening, members of the board, members of the public. Thank you for being here with us this evening. And to all of our members watching at home or who will be watching this on a recording, we appreciate your engagement in our public hearing on the school budget for the fiscal year 2025 2026. Uh this budget reflects extensive
003planning, much of it done by our district administration, particularly Mrs. Living Good's office, and you will hear from her later. She takes you through some of the numbers of our budget. uh work on this budget began well I'd like to say it began as early as November but when you think about the continuum of budgeting in a school district really the budget process begins in prior budget years prior budget years were setting the stage for investments in things like infrastructure and buildings that ultimately pay dividends in future years and I think this budget is reflective of that as well that we're not only planning for the upcoming school year but for school years to come to a certain degree uh we begin the budget presentation every year by having a look at our alignment to
004our district's mission statement. I will not read that from the screen. You can certainly see it on our district website. But I do want to just reiterate a couple things, right? As a district, as a board, as a leadership team, we are very committed to focusing on the academic success for all of our students. Uh we dedicate resources towards educating we call the whole child, giving students exactly what they need to be successful. And we feel that um our mission is very much rounded on providing experiential education for our students to create a well-rounded student body. So, this includes things outside of just uh the academic classroom, but also in our extracurriculars as well. Uh we're very proud of the fact that we are a school district uh that has big district offerings in a
005small town feel. Uh and you'll notice that going throughout our district. If you are a parent in the district, uh you're well aware of the many programs that we have available to our students and they mirror and reflect uh many of the offerings in some much larger uh group four districts and also many experiences that we have here in Cinnamon that are not available to students in other school districts as well. So moving along just looking at some of the budget objectives for the 2526 budget. Uh so we of course always begin with creating efficiencies looking to seek a quality education and create efficiencies within the budget and we'll go into some of the details about how we feel that this budget reflects uh efficiencies in our academic programs as well as our extracurricular programs.
006Uh the budget supports the New Jersey student learning standards. Uh we fully implement all of the student learning standards as we heard from our CUAC presentation last year. Uh we passed the CUSAC um very well I may add. um had some reiteration from the Department of Education that we are meeting uh all of the requirements of a public school district and doing so uh with many accolades. Uh this budget realistically assesses the financial needs of the district. Uh at the end of the day, the budget doesn't always reflect uh the amount of money that we could spend or could invest into the district, but realistically reflects what this board is prepared to put forth uh to the public. Um and of course, we target certain things in the budget. One of them uh that has
007been of key importance to the board for many number of years is a target class size. And you see some of those class sizes listed up there. Um you know in a perfect world we try to maintain a a great uh studenttoteer ratio with as as few students as possible. Uh these numbers uh have ebbed and flowed over the years but we always try to stay within these parameters realizing the smaller the class size the more individual attention our students can receive from the teachers. Um the words in bold here are also some of the the core objectives of this budget. Uh this budget creates space to provide ongoing training and professional learning uh for members of our teaching staff, our board, our administration and our support staff as well including our custodians, transportation folks.
008Um the budget also maintains uh our investment into district technology. Uh at the core of our tenants is a commitment uh to student safety and security you see there at the bottom. And uh this budget is reflective of that as well. And also something that uh we'll talk about uh a little bit later in more slides, the district has made a commitment to maintaining the upkeep and maintenance of our facilities. And this budget creates a space for us to be able to continue to reinvest uh in our existing buildings. Also, uh there is a note there about our our courtesy busing and our safety busing. Um obviously um I like to think in Cinnamon we go above and beyond what is just required by law in order to bus our students to school. Uh it
009has been a commitment of this board to be able to ensure that our students arrive uh to and from school safely. Uh so this budget also reflects a commitment to transporting students who otherwise may not qualify legally for transportation. And uh we can certainly expand on that if the board has any questions there. Um so with that I'll talk about some of the highlights for the upcoming school year budget. Sorry, put some nice pictures up there. I didn't mean to go over it quite so quickly, but uh there'll be that is a great question. There was a request for so dark. Okay. Um I would welcome if you want to move your chairs a little closer and also do we have any copies? No. Okay. Uh I apologize for that. We'll put in next year's
010budget in separate circuits for the lights so we can kill the front row of lights. So, um, talking about a little bit of the highlights for this upcoming budget and u, Mrs. Living will will more specifically talk about, uh, things like state aid and tax impact. But in years past, uh, this budget highlight slide has included, I will say, a few more bud a few more bullets, uh, than it does this year. Um, every year we put together and do a needs assessment of what the district needs in order to maintain our high quality of education. And then of course our administration and teaching staff members put together uh some things that are more of a on a wish list and a want list uh than a needs uh assessment. So uh this budget definitely
011focuses more uh on some of the critical district needs. Uh but there are also some additional highlights as well. So um if you're following along in the media of kind of the state of public education and school funding in New Jersey, in Burlington County, uh there's lots of stories of doom and gloom out there. Uh but we are happy to report that this budget does maintain all district programs will stay in place. Uh all things like sports and extracurriculars unlike some of our neighbors will also continue to be available to our parents without um additional costs. Again in some of our neighboring districts there are some participation fees that go along with some of these programs. Um we are looking forward to launching a new communications platform across the district. happy to be doing this
012at a netneutral cost. Uh but hoping to include um some updated emergency communications as well as some integrated uh district communications K12 from the classroom level all the way through district board and superintendent communications. So we look forward to launching that platform uh later this summer. Uh as you may have also heard in previous board meetings, we've spent an awful lot of time discussing our expansion in the prek world. Uh, and this budget does include additional classrooms for pre-K so that we have um as many as 180 slots available to our parents for free uh zerocost uh PK3 and PK4 uh preschool programs that include transportation. Uh there is one athletic expansion for the upcoming school year. The NJSIA uh has required that if you have a girls wrestling program, it must operate as a
013separate team. We've been really proud to have um students competing at both the male and female level. And for next year, our girls wrestling program will branch off and and will operate as their own team. And I think it is a a great uh addition to our athletic program and continues to grow very rapidly. Girls wrestling is the second fastest growing sport in the NJSIA. And who knows, maybe one day we'll be having a conversation about the fastest growing sport, which is uh girls flag football. Uh we're not there yet. Uh we're also very proud to be offering an additional AP course to our students at the high school. And again, that is being done at a net neutral cost because it will be taught by an existing staff member uh within their schedule. Uh
014we're also very proud that, you know, unlike in years past where we've added an additional um significant additional amount of staffing uh to meet the needs of our growing population. Um we are happy to be maintaining our full staffing levels um from the 2425 school year. And you know, as I say that to be celebrating maintaining our staff, I say that realizing that a number of our neighboring districts have had some pretty significant cuts and some pretty significant reductions in staff, which means increased class sizes and reductions of programs. Uh I know the board has heard this. I know members of the public, if you've been to previous board me, have heard me talk about it. Uh just one number I wanted to put out there again. In 2014 was the year before I came
015to Cinnamonson uh as director of curriculum our October 15th every year we report to the department of education to the state of New Jersey how many students are enrolled in our schools on October 15th 2014 Cinnamonson schools reported 2414 students to the department of education this past October in 2024 we reported 2938 students right that is an increase in of 21.7% uh I don't know if you've driven around town. I understand, you know, there's some new construction 7, eight years ago at the harbor, but there are not 21.7% more homes in the district. So, uh, the district's student population has expanded at a rate, um, far more so than the general population in town. It is an interesting phenomenon as we are now the only town in all of Burlington County that has seen an
016increase in population every year for the last 10. Some of our neighboring districts have seen a decline in enrollment. I think that also paints a picture as to um some budgetary challenges that that we have uh been immune from for the past few years. Um obviously we received additional money from uh the department of education for prek. So we'll be adding some new staffing, but those that staffing is coming directly from the preschool expansion aid grant money that's been made available to us. And we do have one additional new special education program we'll be offering at the new Albony school for next year, but it is coming again at a netneutral cost as uh our numbers have allowed us to shift some staff members around to meet our needs uh to be able to open
017the emotional support classroom at the new Albany school with existing staff members. I mentioned earlier we make an investment into technology every year uh coming out of the 2020 COVID pandemic uh with semester monies we were able to invest in a onetoone Chromebook infrastructure for our students. uh they are now uh assimilated into the continuity of instruction and every uh year we have to replace some of those machines. Mr. Krill has been very intentional about that process and budgets accordingly um with Mrs. Living good every year. So we'll be looking forward to refreshing our student Chromebooks as a part of our replacement cycle this year. Um, we also uh try to upgrade uh rather than doing one wholesale replacement of things like uh the educational uh interactive whiteboards in every classroom, we've been doing it
018uh in an intentional process uh several every year. So, we're looking forward to updating the interactive whiteboards here at Cinnamonson Middle School, which also have been uh very much integrated into the instructional practices of our teachers. Uh every year we dedicate certain funds to improving our security camera system and this year we're putting some money into our paging system. Right. That is a a key security upgrade. You need to be able to communicate with the classrooms from the main office. And we need to upgrade some of our existing aging paging systems uh from some analog systems from yestery year uh to some more modern systems that have uh the features that one would expect in a modern, safe, and secure uh high school situation or excuse me, middle school situation. I did talk about facilities
019earlier. Uh we are continuing our phase two now classroom renovations at the Rush School. So, if you've been at these meetings in the past, uh there are several ways that school districts can go about improving and maintaining their facilities, uh we can go uh the way the district did in 2014 by bond referendum where the high school was essentially um gutted and replenished, every classroom was replaced, modernized, and upgraded. Uh but realizing that that uh the impact of that bond referendum really took care of modernizing the high school. Uh we took a look at where we were at in some of our buildings, particularly New Alb and Rush School, which uh some of our classrooms there were aging, um had things like asbestous floor tiles, um inefficient lighting, uh some in need for some uh
020academic teaching upgrades, uh static upgrades and infrastructure upgrades. So, we made it this board uh made a commitment in the 201617 school year to begin replacing classrooms and upgrading them using in-house labor. Everything except for the asbestous removal and tackling about five or six classrooms every single budget year. Uh so, we're continuing that process. Every classroom at the new Albany school has now been renovated and last year we tackled our first five classrooms at the Rush School. So, we'll be looking to finish the fifth grade wing. So, what will happen in those classrooms is they will have the asbestous abated. They'll get new floors, fresh paint on the walls, new ceiling tiles, high efficiency LED lighting installed, and uh really creates a much better learning experience for our students, and also um is just a
021commitment to our replenishment uh through our annual budget to improving the uh academic setting for our students. Uh we added a couple learning cottages from last year's budget to the um to the new Albany school and to the Rush School this year. Uh they did come a little bit later than we had ant originally anticipated, but they are here and our students are learning in them today. And one of the things that uh helps to support them is a canopy uh to cover the students as they uh walk in and out of the learning cottages in inclement weather. So uh fortunately uh that is also some work that our in-house maintenance folks will be able to do themselves. If uh the board I know has seen their work, but members of the public may not
022have. Uh behind the Rush School uh you can see an example of what our in-house staff is able to do in terms of constructing some covered canopy spaces for our students to be able to safely walk in and out of the buildings. uh particularly during inclement weather. Uh we are committed to uh doing some upgrades to prek classrooms. As you may have uh heard us say earlier this year, we received a grant from the Department of Education to refurbish three classrooms at the Memorial School. Uh we had not budgeted for three classrooms to open. This year we had budgeted for two. So we did two of them uh during production this year. Uh the vast majority of that work took place between uh New Year's Day and early February when those classrooms open this year.
023So, those two classrooms open February 1st or I think it was a couple days after February 1st and then there's a blank space waiting for the refurbishment of the third pre-K classroom at the Memorial School. Um, as members of the public may or may not be aware, I've said it before, um, pre-K classrooms require a little bit more than the average classroom in a Memorial School built in the 1950s uh does not have adequate space uh for preK. So we that upgrading those classrooms is a little bit more intensive than the work that we're doing at the new Albony and Rush School uh because it does require tearing down walls, building new walls, and creating instructional spaces that are at a minimum 700 square f feet and ideally 950 ft to be prek compliant. Uh
024so fortunately, we were able to receive some grant money from the state of New Jersey to be able to do some of those upgrades, and we would love to receive some more in the future to be able to continue to add prek space until we're able to offer a space for every three-year-old and four-year-old in town. Um, we're also looking to replace some of the windows at Memorial. I mentioned 1950s buildings has 1950s windows. Uh, a lot of those windows are single pane. Uh, the kind of windows that if you've ever had single pane windows in your house, you hold your hand up to, you can feel the cold air rushing in. Highly inefficient. Uh, also some safety concerns with some older single pane windows. Um, so we're looking to replace them again in a
025similar pattern as our very intentional uh, upgrades to new Albany and Rush. doing a little bit at a time uh to do the full project is a is a pretty hefty price tag. So, we're trying to commit uh bits and pieces every year of the budget to ultimately try to replace the windows at the memorial school. And of course, we dedicate certain monies every year to emergent repairs, the kind of things that uh we cannot necessarily predict uh year on end, but things like tree work. Um now, I said this before, we've never really had a a tornado impact our schools until we did uh a couple years ago, and that came with some concrete work and some tree work. And as we've learned uh when we uh improve HVAC and air condition the schools
026uh the HVAC systems require continued maintenance and uh continued investment into replacements. Uh last point here that I'll talk about before I hand it over to Mrs. Living good is transportation. Uh every year we do dedicate funds uh to improving our bus fleet. Uh this is mostly because some of our buses by end of life um are are at their 15-year maximum. Uh used to be a 10-year max for Department of Education. Now, we can extend the life of our buses a little bit longer. Uh, but at a certain point, uh, we are no longer legally allowed to run our buses. So, we do budget for a few replacement buses every year. And as a safety measure, this year, we are experimenting with a new GPS, uh, system to be able to safely monitor and
027track our students while our buses are on the road. So, uh, those are some of the highlights from the 2526 proposed budget. And with that, I'm going to hand it over to Mrs. Living good, who's going to talk a little bit about uh our budget process and really get into the meat of the meeting, which is the numbers. Thank you, Mr. Capello. Good evening, everyone. Some key budget facts to take note of. The total proposed budget for the 2526 school year is 74,643097. This amount is a combination of the general fund, special revenue fund, and debt service. The general fund is the primary operating budget, and it's used for salaries, benefits, supplies, student support services, textbooks, maintenance and operation, transportation, tuition, security. Oh, excuse me. One sec. Can you Sorry, I think I messed her
028up in my locker. Yeah, can't get over to that. There you go. Good. But Jesus. There we go. Okay. Sorry about that. Special revenue is made up of only grant funds. And this budget of 3,943849 is a projection based on a percentage of the current granty year allocations which we know we're eligible for next year. So these numbers are subject to change and they'll most likely increase based on our actual allocation that we received prior to the start of the school year. The other portion of this these funds are the preschool expansion grant which is 2,889480. The debt service fund is the annual payment owed for the financing of the 2014 bond referendum. The debt balance as of June 30th, 2025 is 33,743250 and the debt will be paid off as of a August 1st
0292039. Our state aid is decreasing by 632,907 which is 3%. The proposed tax levy increase for the general fund is 3.7% which is equal to 1,37342. The proposed tax levy will result in an approximate increase of $152 per year for the average assessed home in Cinnamonson. The proposed budget maintains all of the existing personnel and programs that are in this year's budget. This slide illustrates So, I'm I apologize everyone. I'm having a problem with this program here. You got me on this one. Okay, thank you. Okay, this slide illustrates what the district is allowed to use in tax levy versus the proposed increase. New Jersey public school districts are able to increase their tax levy by 2% which is on the first column of 746404. Cinnamonson qualifies for an enrollment adjustment of 202827. This adjustment
030is based off of our current year enrollment as well as next year's projected enrollment. Cinnamonson also qualifies for a healthcare adjustment of 84346. This adjustment is based off of our current health care costs and the projection of medical, prescription, and dental for next year's budget. We anticipate an average of a 14% increase in our premium rates. The final allowable adjustment is banked cap. Banked cap is the difference between what the district raised the tax levy and 2% over the last three years. So, the district generated banked cap when they didn't raise the tax levy to 2%. These funds are able to be used within three years or they will expire. The total allowable banks cap for use is 2,722053. Of that 1,27,786 will expire if not used. The right column shows which adjustments we are
031proposing to use. We are using the 2% increase of the 746404 the enrollment increase of 202827 about half of the healthcare adjustment of 42411 of that 419,295 is not being used of the healthcare adjustment and none of the banked cap is being used. So the little over 1 million will expire. Here we see our current year state aid versus 2526 state aid. The general fund receives equalization aid, categorical special education aid, categorical security aid, and transportation aid. The total 2526 state aid for the general fund is 20,46437. Cinnamonson is losing a total of 632907, which is a 3% decrease. This year, the state of New Jersey put a cap on the maximum allowable decrease and increase that a public school could receive in state aid. The maximum decrease is 3%, which is what we're losing,
032and the maximum increase is 6%. Equalization is the primary aid that a school district receives. The change in equalization aid is determined by the calculation of the district's adequacy budget less the state determined local share value. So the state determines our adequacy budget based on enrollment numbers and per pup people costs. The adequacy budget is essentially what the state says that the district's total state and local aid should be. Then they determine their local share which is tax levy. The difference between the two numbers is the aid that we receive. We are seeing a decrease because while our adequacy budget increased so did the local share. So the difference between the two calculations for 2526 is less than the different in this year's budget. Categorical special education aid is based off of enrollment numbers as
033well. And the reason that we're seeing a decrease in next year's budget is because they've changed the piece of funding formula for this calculation. in years past with special education enrollment was projected by taking our current enrollment numbers and projecting a 15.9% increase. This year the formula changed so they're using our actual current numbers. Our numbers have not changed but since the formula did we're showing a lower enrollment which has decreased our funding. We are receiving an increase of 174060 in security aid. That is based off of enrollment and lowincome enrollment. We are also receiving an increase of 124758 in transportation aid. This calculation is determined from our DRTS report as well as it's based off of our actual number of students that are eligible for transportation. And I wanted to share with you the
034actual the actual equalization aid calculation that the state gives us. This is what the state of New Jersey sends each public school. On the left you can see the adequacy budget calculation. I know it's very hard to see and this will be posted on our website after the presentation. The left is the adequacy budget calculation and this total is based off of enrollment numbers and enrollment projections. and the total adequacy budget that the state has deemed for us as 59,64,103. The right side of the page shows the local share calculation. This calculation is determined by using township factors which include equalized valuation and district income. The local share budget is 43,349695. So the state is saying to us that in order for our district to reach the adequacy budget, this this number should be the
035local tax levy. The proposed budget contains a local tax levy of 38,49694. The difference between the adequacy budget on the left and the local share on the right, so the 59 million and the 43 million is 15,7148. The state then takes that difference and they apply that maximum limit that they can cut us. So our equalization aid is 15,82971. When building a budget, first we have to determine a total revenue that the district will generate. Once the revenue is determined, then we know how much we'll have to spend. Here you can see what makes up the 2526 school year of revenue. Local tax revocable tax levy is the highest revenue at the 38,490 followed by state aid at 20,464. Budgeted fund balance is designated surplus from our audit report which is a number that the
036district must use and apply to next year's budget. Transportation revenue is raised by joint shares and shared services that we provide to other school districts. Extraordinary aid is projected to be $1 million. Schools are able to submit costs associated with students that have significant needs. The aid calculation is done by the state of New Jersey and is generally a percentage of the total submission. Maintenance reserve withdrawals in the amount of $575,000. Essentially, this these funds are taken from our maintenance reserve savings account and they are applied towards required maintenance throughout the district. In the current school year, we've used these funds for the maintenance of classrooms at the new Albany school and the Eleanor Rush School, as well as updates to the middle school foods classroom and all other required maintenance in the district. Funds
037for the 2526 school year are allocated for maintenance reserved for the renovation of classrooms, canopies for the learning cottages, facility upgrades and repairs, and all other required maintenance throughout the district. Miscellaneous revenue is made up of tuition payments that we receive, Medicaid reimbursement, -ate reimbursement, interest earned, and any other miscellaneous payment that we may receive throughout the year. This brings our total general fund revenue to 68,57,748. The next slide shows the appropriation of funds, which is how the money will be spent for the next school year. Salaries and instruction make up the bulk of the budget at 26,400,000. Employee benefits contain the costs for medical, prescription, and dental health benefits, as well as general liability insurance, workman's comp insurance, social security contributions, and PERS employer pension contribution. The overall increase is based off of projections
038that our providers give to us. Support services are made up of social work, attendance, nursing services, related services, child study team, curriculum, and media services for all of the students. Operations and maintenance contain all the maintenance and custodial staff salaries, repairs, and general maintenance costs to the district. And part of this appropriation is that $575,000 withdrawal from our maintenance savings account. The next line contains all of the district administrative and technology costs. And this budget also supports the one-to-one technology initiative. Transportation includes salaries, benefits, transportation supplies and repairs, jointers when they're needed, and aiden loot payments. This budget also includes the purchase of three new school buses. Tuition funds used for students, I'm sorry, tuition funds are used for students that are placed out of district and this allocation is based on the current enrollment
039projections and individual student needs. Co-curricular and athletics include all funds related to student athletics clubs and any additional non-instructional activity and capital outlay funds are allocated for technology equipment to include server replacements, network infrastructure upgrades, and PA upgrades throughout the district. If additional capital projects are approved in the future by the board, reserves will be withdrawn from the capital savings at that time. All of these appropriations bring the total general fund to the 68,57,748. Here's a quick overview of the special revenue funds. The preschool expansion grant program totals 3,157345. Of that number 2,889480 is what the state aid is allotting for us for the 2526 school year and the balance of that is carryover funds as well as a general fund transfer which supports inclusion classrooms. The non-public funds ESA funds and funds are current
040grants that we receive and these projections are based off of our current allocation. We will get the final allocation in June. So then these numbers will change. Here is a breakdown of how one tax dollar is spent. As you can see, more than half is allocated towards student needs, salaries, instruction, co-curricular athletics, and support services. The final slide shows the tax rate analysis. This chart highlights tax impact based on home assessed values. The average assessed value in Cinnamonson is now 236,496. An average assessed home will have an approximate annual tax increase of 15231 a year which is 1269 a month. This slide concludes the budget presentation. At this time, does anyone from the board have any budget questions? Uh I'm sorry I'm whispering up here. I did uh ask Mrs. Living good. Um members of
041the board were privy to an explanation at a budget meeting. Uh there was some information circulating in some of our neighboring towns and in the media about access to some additional funds from the Department of Education. this like nebulous 5% calculation if we were to access what they call the wealth of the community or the local fair share. So I'm going to ask Mrs. Living just to talk about that a little bit because I think it puts into perspective of where we would need to be as a district, as a board of education and what those costs would look like to the taxpayers uh should we look outward to be able to get those 5% matching funds from the state of New Jersey. So if you don't mind the the 30 second explanation, maybe try
042to keep it at 30. So this slide shows what the district is able to raise the tax levy. Um if the district raised the tax levy by the total $4,514 which is in the amount in the middle column that would be a little over 12% which would be about an annual impact of $600 a month for the average assessed value of the household. the state of New Jersey put out um a program called the tax levy incentive aid which means for a public school district you would have to use every adjustment that you have to tax levy. So in order for us to qualify we would have to raise the tax levy by about a little over 12%. then the tax levy incentive aid is essentially applying to raise the taxes even higher and then
043the state of New Jersey would give us 5% of that addition that we raised it. Um the board opted obviously not to do that and at this point we wouldn't even qualify because the district is only opting to raise the tax levy by 3.7% which is not even close to the full amount that we would have to use to get to that. Thank you. much over 30 seconds. So, um my point in saying that the exercise for the board was as some of you may read in in the local media, some of our neighbors who have put forward uh tax levy increases in the uh double digits, sometimes double double digits, um they're able to do so by accessing and maximizing all of these allowable um adjustments. This board has been very purposeful, and I
044mentioned earlier in years past in investing in future budgets of not going out to the 2% when we received additional state aid. this board stopped short of going to the 2% tax levy realizing that sometimes these have compounding effects years down the road. Uh this budget this year we were told we got some guidance from uh from Trenton uh be prepared for flat funding. That's sort of always the marching orders be prepared in case there are no increases in state aid. So the the budget was put together with that in mind. That said, despite an increase in enrollment, uh there was a 3% uh decrease in state aid. And the difference between the 2% and um the tax levy that we are requesting with this budget is reflective of that cut in state aid. Um
045but we are we are um happy to be able to put together a budget that maintains all personnel and programs in place in the same educational experience for our students. And um with that um any other board members questions or any board members questions? All right. [Music] All right. Thank you for that presentation. Uh we're going to move on to section three uh public comments. Uh so members of the public uh are reminded that comments should be limited to items appearing on this meeting's agenda which is about the budget. Um all members of the public wishing to speak on agenda items should raise their hand and indicate their wish to speak. When called upon, participants should state their first and last name and address clearly for the record. In accordance with the sentiments and board
046of education bylaw 0164.6, comments will be limited to a maximum of four minutes per person. The comment period will be limited to 30 minutes in duration. And with that, is there anyone here who would like to comment on the budget? Sir, if you wouldn't mind um up at the podium so we can hear you on the microphone. You should be able to hear. I just sir, if you don't mind, we we have folks potentially watching at home. the microphone will be able to pick up your comments for I apologize but that's I thought that gentleman that was raising his hand in the blue jacket. Yeah, he he will plenty of time for every Thank you, sir. I appreciate your Dan Sylvio 2020 20 Branch Pike. Why is this meeting held at 5:00? Okay. So, so
047there's a lot of people that are working. I had to rush out of work to get here which I have to, you know, flip the bill to pay here for these tax increases. I think that right off the bat is a is a very bad thing to do. Very negative to have it, you know, sneak it in. I think it's kind of sneaky to have it here at 5:00. Normally, there were seven from what I remember being in this township. Secondly, the thing that I've been in I've been in the school district a long long time and I've went to the school district and the first thing to do that I vote with these board members is for use not to spend my money to spend it wisely and time after time I hear superintendents
048and principles and board members saying it's always Trenton it's it's New Jersey and then New Jersey blames the feds. It's the federal government that does it. What about Cinnamonson? What are we doing to this school district? I I just find it hard to believe. $74 million. We have four schools in this township. Four. That's a lot of money. It's almost $19 million a school. And then we're being told that the enrollment is going down. Where is this money being spent? I'm not convinced. to me. If this is a corporation and we are the I call it a credit card and you're saying, "Hey, we need to charge the card. It's declined." Then what do you do? Everybody's raising prices right now with all these excuses. The sewer company just raised the prices. The electric company
049raised the prices. The water company raised prices. Now you want to sit here and and bang us what? $153? Only $153 a year. Just $12 a month. $3 a week. I don't understand it. You're not convincing me with these numbers up here. And of course, anybody can print numbers. I can print the numbers up and make them work, make them not work. But what is the school board doing to say, "Hey, what where could we save out here? Where is this money going?" And for you, Mr. Superintendent, what do we have in reserve? What's the reserve? Because I know we always have a reserve. What is in reserve? Can you answer me that question? All right. Well, so we the school district of course does does have a reserve required to maintain a reserve and
050the last time I remember it was a few million dollars. Correct. Correct. So why can't that money be to offset some of these costs? I I appreciate your thoughts. Thank you. It's not a thought, it's a fact. Mhm. I just don't understand it. I mean, if we have a reserve, you're asking these people in this district, which are mostly seniors and retirees, to come out again and say, "Oh, we got to do another, you know, 3.7% increase." I mean, that that's a lot. I I agree with you, sir, that any any tax increase is is a higher increase than this board would like to put forward. So, what I'd like to do I don't understand. Are you guys voting on this today? Correct. Why? That's another thing I don't understand. Normally the meetings were always
051after, you know, after dinner time when people could come out and vent their frustrations or see where exactly it's being spent. But if this was something that you had a bill or something at home on your mortgage or your house or something, you're going to sit there and say to yourself, "Wait a second, something something's going on here. Stop blaming the state. Stop blaming the the federal government. What are we doing here in Cinnamonson?" If the enrollment's going down, wouldn't that say, just to clarify, the enrollment has gone up and has gone up 21% in the last 10 years? 10 years. But what about the last three years? Our enrollment, we were up almost 70 students over last year. That's nothing. 70 students. How much is it costing per student? How much does it cost
052per student to teach in this township? Per student. Sorry. All the cost per student, Mr. Living. Good. Do you have our tuition? The cost per pupil identified by the state is 15,000 for regular education and 23,000 for a special education student. That's according to the state. What about Cmenson Township? What about our school district? What's it costing for our school district? That's the average. No, no, that's that's the formula that the state uses based on our based on our enrollment and our um budget that we submitted. That is if if someone were to come from another district here, that's that's what it cost Cinnamonson Township to educate a student here in Cinnamonson. Let me ask you if if the voters had their Sorry, I'm sorry to interrupt, but that is your four minutes. Oh, we
053have rules now. Now we we're going to play by the rules. The board president read a statement of our policy, which is each person has four minutes to speak. Okay. So, that said, I'd be happy to meet with you personally at any time in the future to talk about some of your ideas for cost savings in the district. My idea would be to do a private audit. That's what my idea would be. Sir, we are audited every year. No, no, privately. You're audited by people you pay for. It is. Thank you, sir. Sir, Richard Dedrick, 19 Emerson Drive, Senson. Mr. Superintendent, I assume that this budget is prepared in accordance with guidelines established by the New Jersey Department of Education. Is that correct? Yes sir. Okay. In that regard, does the budget identify the cost
054in the total cost for each individual school that we have in our district? Yes or no? The the budget does not necessarily reflect the individual cost of the school. Each school has different costs. The cost of educating a student at different levels can vary. Would the school district would the board of education be able to compute a reasonable amount for the cost per school? Sir, can I ask you how how how that would be helpful? I'm sorry, sir. Sir, can I ask you how I I'm trying to determine what information that we could share with you that would help be helpful for identifying the cost per school. We have an enrollment per school. We could certainly get a percentage, but that is not necessarily reflective of the students in that building or the staff in
055that building or the extracurriculars or the individual needs of of each building. The budget is created holistically. And for the record, too, we are four schools, but we are actually five now as we've opened the prek program back up and have revitalized uh the Memorial School as an additional school. The enrollment of Memorial is going to be significantly less than say the high school. So, um, rather than misspeak publicly, it would be disingenuous for me to be able to say that the cost per school is this. So, it's not as simple as dividing by five since the cost for educating a student at each of the schools would be different. But is there if there's other information there that would help you would you'd like to extrapolate from knowing maybe the cost associated with each
056school? Um, maybe I could try to answer that for you. Thank you. Uh, finally, is it possible to determine what the cost in the high school is for the science department? There there's certainly a science department budget and there's certainly a cost per pupil. Um, that's that's a first request for me. And we can certainly look at, you know, everything that would go into educating a student to taking a science class. But, um, again, if there's a key piece of information you're looking for in that, is it are we spending X in science versus another core discipline, is that information that is that is helpful? I think that type of information to be compared from one district to another assuming there is some similarity between the districts in terms of size that you're comp would
057be comparing but I think that would be a very useful tool and information to put out to the general public. Thank you for your answers sir. Thank you sir. I appreciate your feedback. Ben Young, one 116 Woodview Lane. Um, I see the Are we funding a new prek program now that competes with our daycare centers? When you say we're funding, uh, we're actually recipients of the state's prechool prek expansion aid grant to the tune north of $2 million. Uh, so if you're asking, are we funding it? It is passed through money coming from the state. It was money that was made available from the state of New Jersey. And as a good and diligent board, when money becomes available, we apply for it. So we did. So the uh the addition of the prek classrooms
058um is being funded by the state of New Jersey. That's new money to our budget. So, it's new money to your budget, but it's being it's being sent down here to be used to compete with the private entity. Am I correct? Well, interestingly, sir, um one of the options available to us and one of the things that we've been highlighting at previous board meetings is we're actually taking part in a public private partnership for some of the programs that we're going to be offering. So local taxpaying entities such as Cinnamon Sticks, the new Newman Learning Center, um we're not quite finalized on those deals yet, but we've been in communications to be able to offer public school programs to facilities um in a public private partnership. So it's really I think the ideal model for
059supporting the businesses that then support the town and being able to redirect some of the funds that the governor made available for prek uh to help assist some of uh the private providers should they see an enrollment dip. Um, so we are providing some space in Memorial School that will be a part of Cinnamonson schools, but also we've reached out to every provider uh in the township of Cinnamonson and ask for every classroom that they have available. Our universe for prek is almost 400 students. We're not able to service all of them. So, we are still looking for every classroom that we can. And again, there's a benefit uh to all of those private providers as well. I Yeah, when I first saw the signs and I asked a question of somebody, they said that
060it was going to support some of the daycare centers that were in town and provide for support and not compete with them. But I'm So you're telling me there's enough students to go around for everybody essentially. I think there's probably too many students for everybody, but hopefully we're looking to to cure that. But again, as um if the providers have a classroom or two to make available to us, we're taking advantage of it to be able to send students there will be um supported by, you know, funds from outside of local taxpayer. Um but also to not Nobody's looking to put any local providers out of business. We're looking to support each other. I'm glad it's good to be hear that. I have one other question and I'm kind of curious. I've been reading about
061this whole adequacy situation. Yes, sir. And I was on and we've met many times because I was on couch committee for a number of years when the 2% cap was put in place and and anything over that was supposed to be done by referendum. How did we do this end around that? There's no referendum needed now because the state says it's okay. Some obviously our elected legislators approved this because that's the only way you could do it. But how did how did this happen? Yeah, I I think it's important to understand too when the two when the 4% levy became the 2% levy, uh the exceptions to the levy have always existed. Oh, I understand that. And so and as Mrs. Living Good explained, so the the 2% is is is the is the levy
062and some of our neighbors have nothing available to them because they did not, you know, put out increases to the public below 2% to create that banked cap. Again, we're not touching any of that bank cap that's available. Uh the enrollment adjustments is a small piece that the districts can go up and above of to reflect the fact that there are more students here um than previously. So, that adjustment becomes available. Uh the unforeseen healthcare um unforeseeable healthcare increases which are double digits this year um is another enroll is another adjustment that's available not just to Cinnamonson but throughout the state. So, um again that's those have always been a part of the 2% uh tax levy um maximum. I appreciate I look I've lived here 50 years and I and I know you say
063you've had an enrollment increase but I remember when there were a lot more kids in this school are than there are today. So we've had a decrease over the years yet the increases the budgets have gone up. I mean I think one time we had 4,000 kids in the system. I back in maybe the 60s late 60s and that's how long I've been here. So it troubles me to hear we have an increase in students when I know we're like one half of what we used to be. But thank you. Thanks Mr. Always a pleasure to hear from you. Anyone else? Okay, then we're moving on to section four, the adoption of the 2025 school budget. Thank you, Mrs. Fitzwwater. Whereas the Cinnamonson Township Board of Education adopted a tenative budget on March 18th, 2025
064and submitted it to the Executive County Superintendent of Schools for approval. And whereas the tenative budget was approved by the Executive County Superintendent of Schools on April 2nd, 2025. The tenative budget was then advertised in the legal section of the Burlington County Times and the Courier Post on April 9th, 2025. The final budget was presented to the public during a hearing held at Cinnamonson Middle School on April 29th, 2025. Now therefore, be it resolved that the Cinnamonson Township Board of Education hereby adopts the following final budget for the 2526 school year with a general fund of 68,57,748, a special revenue fund of 3,943849, a debt service fund of 2,641500 for a total base budget of 74,64397 with a local tax levy being 38,49694 and the debt service being 1,98249. Section B, supporting documentation for the
0652526 budget. That the board approves the enrollment adjustment in the amount of 202,827, the healthcare adjustment in the amount of 42411. that the board approves the maintenance reserve withdrawal in the amount of 575,000, the annual maximum travel limit for 2526, travel and related expense reimbursement for 2526, and that is it for the final budget. Thank you, Mrs. Fitzwwater. Thank you, Mr. Wilkkey. U Mr. Kenny, can I have a motion uh for section 4, adoption of the 2025 2026 school budget items A and B? So moved. Second. Second. Thank you, Mr. Trump. Comments or questions from the board? Um, I have a comment. Just read it. Um, I do believe that our schools should be fully funded and that we should keep all the programs and the teaching staff that we currently have. Uh that being
066said, as a representative of our community, I believe the people in our town have the right to have their voice to to the right to voice their opinion regarding the budget. As part of our school mission statement, we are to include our our community. That is why I believe this should go to the uh ballot for a vote. I have full confidence in the sentiments and voters and I believe they would vote to approve this budget. Any other comments or questions? Hearing none, we'll take a vote. Miss Scott. I I I I I No. I motion approved. Uh we're going to go back to Mr. Capello for closing. Thank you, Mrs. Fitzwater. Um, I just want to take one more second to address uh the kind folks who came out this evening to speak with
067the board. Um, this meeting has traditionally um been very poorly attended by the public and obviously you're very passionate uh particularly when we're talking about matters things so personal as our school system and and finances. And so the offer that I made to you to meet with you privately to hear your ideas and thoughts about the budget or potentially uh to take a a closer inward look at uh where some of the money is coming in and going out to um I'm happy to have that follow-up meeting with you. Uh any constituents that you'd like to gather in a more private form, I'm happy to have those follow-up meetings and I just wanted to reiterate that. Um if you'd like to reach out to me at Memorial School, uh Mrs. Weiss is the administrative assistant
068in the office. Uh, I'd be happy to meet with you anytime in the future to continue to talk about uh, school funding and the impact that it has on the local community. So, I just wanted to reiterate that point. Happy to meet I been happy to stick around after the meeting and chat with you a little bit further and hear some more of your ideas, thoughts, and concerns. Again, this this meeting is is is traditionally not very well attended, but um, certainly members, excuse me, of the public and your feedback uh, is very valued by this board. So, thank you again for coming out this evening. I appreciate it. Thank you. And with that, uh, Miss Saikon, can I have a motion to adjurnn? So moved. Second. Second. Thank you, Mr. Mer. All in favor?
069Opposed? Meeting is adjourned. Thank you.