001e e good evening ladies and gentlemen and welcome to the March 11th 2025 meeting of the Clifton Board of Education our committee of the whole budget presentation meeting please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance and a moment of silence I pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God ivisible for libery and justice for all thank you roll call Mr shahada miss bassford here Mr brunak here Mr kova here Dr Danny here Mr Mahia Mr siano here M Suarez here vice president Santiago here president Paris here we have a quorum thank you uh commissioner siano could you please read our mission statement absolutely Mr President the mission of the Clifton School District in an open and reciprocal Community Partnership is to
002provide all students with a quality education to develop the skills necessary to become literate lifelong Learners who are responsible and productive citizens contributing to a Democratic Society in an everchanging world thank you the New Jersey open public meetings law was enacted to ensure the right to the public to have advanced notice of and to attend the meetings of public bodies at which any business affecting their interest is discussed or acted upon in accordance with the provisions of this act the Clifton Board of Education has caused notice of this meeting to be publicized by having the date time and place thereof posted at the city clerk's office Clifton Public Library administration building senior citizen Nutrition Center on cable TV in the local press on the district's website a mail the presidents of parent teacher organizations this
003meeting will be tape recorded in accordance with policies 0168 the Clifton Board of Education is holding its special meeting today uh Committee of the whole preliminary budget hearing uh action may be taken okay next I turn it over to Mr shahada the floor is yours uh Mr Paris and Commissioners if I May uh before Med begins uh in the past we've done a presentation where I spoke Mark spoke Janina spoke um I completely trust and rely on Mr shahada to run all of the financial aspects of this district and I trust him completely so he will be giving the presentation tonight uh he can certainly answer any questions you have uh and so can I there's not a lot to really discuss I think you'll see when the presentation is done that um we're hoping
004that we increase by 2% which is what we're legally allowed to do uh without any further vote and that will just maintain operation so Mr Shada thank you very much I get that give you a second there all right good evening Commissioners budgets are more than just numbers on a page they are a reflection of our values our priorities and our commitment to the future of our students tonight I present to you not just a financial plan but a blueprint for sustaining excellence in Clifton Public Schools before I begin the formal part of my presentation I would like to thank our team for all of their help and cultivating this budget for you all with all of the funding uncertainties coming from the federal government and every indication from the state that this year's Aid
005would not be as generous I am very proud to put forth this budget for you all over the past few days we have provided you all with a lot of information some was simple some was complex I will say this now and I will say it again on May 1st this budget is what is best for the students this budget is what is best for the staff and this budget builds a stronger more sustainable future for our entire School Community it reflects our commitment to Excellence equity and fiscal responsibility ensuring that every dollar spent supports the success and well-being of our students and staff remember this number this number is what is needed to maintain the daily operations of the 2526 school year this year we were awarded 5.9 million in state aid and here
006is how the state is telling us to allocate that money roughly $4 million for special education a little over 50,000 for security and just about 2.5 million for Equalization Aid which covers the cost of the growing enrollment and here is how that $5 million is being spent salary increases for $5 million health benefits increased astronomically by $7.4 million Charter Schools increased $3 million pcti decreased $1.3 million added District private schools decreased $440,000 contracted trans report ation decreased $385,000 and County Special Services increased $180,000 now the negatives you see are due to a one-time credit this will not be the case next year year-over-year we continue to spend less per pule than the Pate County and state averages despite the glaring disparity we maintain programming extracurricular activities ensure all of our students and staff have what
007they need in the classroom or on the field now here is that same chart in number format if you guys notice Clifton for the past decade or so hovers around 47% while pay County and the state of New Jersey are over 50% now just to further illustrate this large discrepancy between Clifton and neighboring districts here are a few districts that far surpass Us in spending per pupil as you will see these six districts chosen by proximity to all of us are nearly 60% of their respective tax pie Wayne 54.8% West Milford 59.2% Bloomingdale 55.9% Hawthorne 55.6% Pompton Lakes 56.4% and Ringwood a hair under 60% now I found an interesting article online that showed how much the top 30 schools spend per pupil based on their tax intake now I'm not going to bore you
008and sit here and read each one but I do believe it is extremely important to highlight the these 30 schools on average are pulling in just over 72% of their municipality's tax intake please take a moment and just review this list now a little under 48 cents of every tax dollar goes to the schools as I mentioned before despite these glaring disparities which were outlined in the previous slides we have consistently maintained and increased programming extracurricular activities and ensure all of our students and staff have what they need in the classroom or on the field today we are proposing a 2% tax increase to ensure all programs initi Ives and supports are maintained for the 2526 school year it allows us to meet all of our contractual obligations in addition the funds for Pope Paul
009have been strategically placed into the last budget and allows us to fund it for the next seven years with just that amount it shows on this graph that our portion will increase but please keep in mind this does not reflect what the city or county will do I can almost guarantee you we will continue to hover around that 47% mark and it is extremely important to mention that every school district in this State regardless of size is the largest p p uh portion of their tax pie now I've taken the liberty of creating a list of what the tax impact would be from a 1 to 6% increase based on our presentation this evening I highlighted the 2% now based on the average assessed home in the city of Clifton according to the doe State
010a notice the proposed 2% increase would it create to roughly $8 per month or just over $100 per year now respectfully the district has seen many years of a 0% tax increase listed here and well before that other boards made the best decision with the information they had on hand at that time it's also important to mention those are the co years and during the co years districts were flooded with grant money that expired unfortunately two years ago so at that time it was the fiscally responsible thing to do to not raise taxes now when the state is calculating how much Aid to give a district it's comprised of of a multitude of factors one of the main components is whether or not the Local District asked the taxpayers for an increase the state's rationale
011is very simple if they don't need money from their locality they don't need money from us this year and every third year of the formula the state uses real numbers than rather than a factor and as such our difference in the local fair share has grown exponentially this is why the state encourages and expects each district to go up to that 2% cap now if you guys recall last year this time last year when I was given this presentation our local fair share difference was 15 million because that was based on just factors that the state was using socioeconomic all that good stuff now it's at 44 million so we're short changing our children over the years $44 million and in closing I want the board and the public to understand the large amount of
012time and effort we put into creating this budget as stewards of public monies we do not take this job lightly and remain steadfast in our pursuit of transparency and fiscal responsibility for those commenting on Facebook and other social media platforms from the recesses of their homes spreading mistruths and pointing the finger at the big bad school district I have one thing to say our jobs are simple but not easy do the best we can with what we have to ensure our children have the best educational experience possible giving them the best opportunity to succeed again thank thank you for your time this evening I'm looking forward to presenting the final Budget on May 1st and I happy to answer any questions you guys may have thank you Mr shahad i' like to open the floor
013uh commissioner brunak thank you Mr President thank you Mr President Mr shahada please I'd like you to please explain to to our colleagues and to the public at large what the increase was for the benefits it's around 20% of the increase and explain what happened in the prior year of the policy that it increased that significant amount thank you yeah last year I believe the benefits increased $3.4 million this year or about 7.4 um basically it's payto playay its usage so we switched over two years ago to a a self-insured policy which means that there is the possibility and we have been doing much better with usage so if we pay every claim that comes in up to a certain amount I believe that amount is 250 with the stop loss coverage um unfortunately and
014as the community knows we have had many illnesses within the District of of Staff members their their spouses their children um and unfortunately insurance is a huge gamble so you know this year it did increase 177% the medical was relatively decent it was about like four and a half 5% but the prescription was north of uh 40 and that was on a two-year plan that we had from two years ago and now it's time to renew um we do hope and are praying for Everybody's Health first and foremost um it's more important than any dollar amount that you can put on that but we do feel that this year will be uh a much better year for our health insurance we have already seen uh the trends going down so we hope that continues starting
015July 1 when the New Year policy when the new policy starts over thank you Mr President uh Dr Danny uh thank you Mr President um Mr shahada I just would like um for you to maybe explain to the public or or so that if um if there's not a 2% um increase would there be staff Cuts if you did not go to the 2% would there be staff cuts that would affect students um I I can't say for certainty uh the last thing that and I'm speaking for Dr Robert toy uh Miss go L and Mr Jan G here we we have no intention on cutting staff uh we would uh do our best to collapse programs but ensuring that everybody still has a job at the end of the day I don't like to
016this hypothetical I I don't want to cause outrage but if this 2% is not passed tonight or rather on Thursday and on May 1st uh we are in a significant hole of roughly $3 million so I I hope it doesn't get to that I I feel this board is um supportive of the 2% that we're we're putting forth and you know that's you guys are the ultimate deciders and Dr Robi if you would like to add anything to that uh absolutely Mr Shad I concur with everything you said staff cuts are absolutely the last thing we would do absolutely the last thing um I could tell you that if if we didn't go to 2% that we would have a financial deficit I don't believe it would Impact Staff but it would impact kids it
017would impact programs that impact kids um I'd also like to point out U Back to what Mr brunak talked about with the health benefits um what we saw happen not just in Clifton but Statewide and nationally is during the pandemic for a couple years there people didn't people let things go people didn't go to the doctors get checkup and what happens the last couple years people are catching up and there have been a lot more uh significant medical issues speaking from my own personal uh experience that have um that have come come about and that people are are discovering so that's why our claims have gone up we do think it's a blip on the radar um so we do anticipate that it will go down next year but it's just very unpredictable uh so
018that that those Health costs those health benefit costs is a is something that's really beyond our control um but causes significant um hardship on the district and also just to piggyback off of that um at our County meetings when we get the notes and all that stuff uh they said budget for north of like 25 % increase you know we were very fortunate that our prescription went through the roof and not our medical because if our medical went up 17% we'd be having a completely different conversation right now because that's about 35 million in itself the prescription is a fraction of that so I'm very grateful that it panned out that way anyone else I have a comment Mr Paris May uh Dr Robert to has oh thank you very much for very comprehensive ensive
019um presentation and thank you for answering my questions today and sharing them with the board today um I asked you several questions about sustainability and can you tell the everybody in the in the audience what you told me about our stability we are on very solid site Financial footing if you guys notice every year in June um primarily last year and the year before when I when I came on um myself Mr USI Mr Sanel Mr burn we have uh we make a conscious decision to stop purchasing for non-essential things around the new year um it is not a hard stop but it allows us to retain a lot of money that would be spent on things that are not totally necessary um as such in June you guys will see every year a resolution
020of us putting a lot of money into the reserves uh we had the foresight many years years ago after meeting with the assistant superintendent and Dr Robert toy that we don't know what the formula would look like after a new governor takes office this one has been very gracious to us so we have been putting a lot of money into the reserves and you may have seen that in this past audit I think there was like1 19 million in capital reserve nine in uh maintenance reserve and like seven in fund balance um obviously that money we do not want to use because that means you have to make it up next year in your budget so if you're having a shortfall this year a high probability you'll have a shortfall next year so we don't
021like to use that that is a last resort that's a crutch and it would not be well if we have to make that up for multiple years in a row because eventually that money will run out but I do anticipate uh a rather large um withdrawal into our Reserve accounts this year just I I just like to keep the bank healthy just in the event something goes terribly wrong out of our control of course okay um my other question um I asked I asked a bunch of questions sa the whole board got it so I'm I'm glad that you answered you sent it to everyone um the budget for this year with the 2% does that include any new any hires for the new building for the the proposed building on Valley Road it does
022not uh so this year we are not asking for any staff any new staff rather there are Replacements uh those who retired those who resigned those who unfortunately you know that just aren't with us anymore for whatever reason um but we do have staff that was last year's budget that with the intention of putting it into the new building after it is fully fully secured and operational God willing September so so we have the money for to staff yes right and then we have the money to do any kind of Renovations that we need to do to improve the the quality of the building the building is actually in great shape but we do have money allocated to improve on whatever we need for the building so we're set with that building somebody had asked
023me that and I do want to to say one other thing that building will not whatever it pans out to be will not be any lesser than a current Clifton building now the same security same technology everything it's going to be even across the board but we have money set aside for that okay and the other question I did ask you about the grant yes and and I'd like to really see if we if the grant writer we are using it's we're say we're we're making it's in a positive for us than a negative because we we spend so much money a month and uh I'd like to see that we're actually doing a lot better than what we're spending to pay this this gent but uh thank you very much for your and I
024do just want to say uh Miss bass for that as I told you these grants 99% of them are competitive grants so uh we do uh missus Lage works on it more than anybody uh works with whomever that Grant is whatever Department it's touching and sometimes we get them sometimes we don't but it it's no fault of the grant WR or any of our staff it's the the crer I'm not just saying that I just want to make sure that it's cost Ive to keep the person employed and if we're not if it's we're not you know in the positive I'd rather see us do something else of course Mr Paris I just want to go back to the idea of local fair share I think it's a critical point U Mr shat spoke about
025it but the calculation that the state uses for this I I don't know the exact formula but it is a Formula that is used uh Statewide where the state basically tells you based on your community's demographics tax rate and all the other factors here's how much you should be raising in taxes and the fact of the matter is that according to their calculation we're $44 million below where the state believes we should be now let's say the state is wrong their formula is wrong let's just say if it was half that do you know what we could do with an additional $20 million my point in even bringing this up is that we're doing pretty good with what we have right um and to keep the momentum going it's only reasonable to increase by 2%
026inflation this past year was about 3 and a 12% right so just to just to maintain what we have we really need more than 2% but based on the on our planning and the budget that we've created we'll be in really good shape with 2% so please just keep those things in mind we can't change the past right we can't change what happened in the past and and again those boards and those superintendents during those years made those decisions and they were good decisions at the time based on all the factors that they knew um but that doesn't change the fact that we're 44 million less than where we where we should be so please keep that in mind thank you commissioner siano I'll jump in on this thank you so much all right the
027same problem I had last year which is you know I do my research is this tax assessment $1 178,916 funny you mentioned that uh the last time a tax assessment was done in Clifton was in 1998 oh I actually looked it up and that is the average assessed Home in Clifton and I cross reference it with the doe state aid notice that said 1078 223 whatever that number is um so my numbers are factual based on the Ci's assessment I so I can't rejigger that number even if I wanted to because I don't know what the housing increase would be right but what I can say confidently is that $8 or so on that cheat is what the people will be paying based on that 1998 number so regardless of what you may believe some
028your house is assessed that if that's not what's at City Hall if that's not what is being reported to you on your you know tax bill every year it's irrelevant you're going off of that number I have on that sheet so the tax assessments are are you're saying the average tax assessment is 178 this is average everybody's different right correct so everybody's going to be paying different from $834 right of course so just me running quick numbers most assessments are 238,000 246,000 279,000 yes you have a handful of houses that are assessed at 168,000 and when you take the average I don't think this is the same average which is why we're in the middle of a reassessment right now which still hasn't been done which we're still reassessing oh yeah they are they're still
029reassessing since our last budget meeting uh because nobody's letting people into the houses which I understand um so they go off the land they go off the approvable assessment for the total taxable and just roughly it's 238 246 279 and part of that problem is you're seeing record high numbers in housing right now and that increases the land assessment um looking over this so the numbers you gave me and I was a board member last year with the tax increase of 3.89% so before that was 4% before that was 2% right correct so over the past since 22 23 we're looking at about 10% over the past three sure okay yeah and I'm just you know and my whole thing is I just have trouble putting this onto the taxpayer over and over and over
030again where right now you're seeing record high numbers you talk about inflation inflation is horrible right now but who's hitting it more than anybody you know the homeowners are hitting it the homeowners are spending $10 a carton on eggs um so that's just where my head is out but that's that always just bothered me the assessment thing and it's not your fault that's you're doing this was an amazing presentation which you gave it to us you gave me everything in advance I appreciate it looked over everything that assessment though is going to drastically change soon we don't know when it could be another year we could be having the same conversation of 178 next year right because that's how many houses aren't letting people Mr siano and Commissioners if I may and I'm not an
031expert on this topic on house assessment so somebody who's smarter than me on this please can explain this better than me got you if today all of Clifton was reassessed it doesn't mean that if your house is assessed for double that that your taxes will double because they change it change the formula changes so Mark could you explain that better you know in a way like but the point is even if it was reassessed today it doesn't mean that your taxes double or triple because your assessed value dou the assess rates uh as the assessed value goes up the rate taxed is modified to some bring has somehow bring it to equilibrium so property value is going up you do a reassessment everyone's PR goes from 167 to 270 the rate that the town or
032the County charges for the taxes is then adjusted normally downward to not for the entire burden onto the taxpayers to pay for that rate so it's a forgive me it's a game it is it's a it's a it's a weighing and balancing it depends on how aggressive the assessments are versus how much pain the taxpayer can ultimately absorb um it causes all kinds of tax appeals it causes all kinds of Mischief but they will assess at a higher level but tax it at a lower percentage there's some correlation commissioner it's not a direct correlation Mr I also want to say now so when I run these numbers the total taxable value of Clifton is a little North of5 billion the city is only collecting taxes at $311 million our tax factor is about 16.65% if
033I just remember that correctly so when that goes up to 20 billion next year you know after the reassessment whatever that number may be the other number will catch up to it you divide one into the other and you'll still get that same tax rate which will still hover around that 16 17% so just because as Dr Robert told you mentioned your house value doubles does not mean that you will be paying double in taxes it's still Apples to Apples and to make things more complicated S2 which is the funding formula that we're dealing with which was deemed constitutional in its application um which I disagree with personally but that's neither here nor there um that does factor into property wealth and the socioeconomic wealth the economic wealth of of the residents and the property
034values not including Pilots so if the if the town has lots of Pilots they don't get it doesn't get added into the S2 formula which is why a city like Jersey City all those years got a ton of state aid then all of a sudden they did a reassessment with all the beautiful buildings down town that were built and they started taxing them what they were supposed to be taxed all of a sudden Jersey City um lost millions they got with Millions doll they got hit with fair share they they got hit hard that's what that is right um yet we Clifton was one of the districts that was underfunded for many many years and we finally have been brought back to where we should have been the whole time but that doesn't account for
035all the years where we didn't get what we were supposed to get just to bring you up the current I have I got the data from the state of New Jersey Department of Community Affairs it's a uh Municipal tax summary Clifton average taxes 2024 that's the most recent data they have $1,684 per home is the average and if you backtrack into what Mr shahada said as far as percentage of taxes going to schools his estimate of the impact on the average home is pretty much dead on that's the actual numbers for the district and that doesn't include any credits or adjustments that people receive and that's according to State Department of Community Affairs 2024 data it's hard to project what's going to happen in the future but that is a a valid average tax number
036for for our town today yes commission what happens if we don't and we leave it the same we leave it at zero what happens what happens next year that's what I need to know our administrative team will have to get together and make some very hard decisions that will impact students can you give can you please give us like such as like I need to know what you think it's G where it's start it would be the you know in a hypothetical way I I hate to throw something out there that you know because people are watching and they like oh well they're going to cut this program if we don't go to 2% I don't like to do that but we I'll tell you we'd have to find $3 million that the number IID
037we we' have to cut programs equivalent to the amount of $3 million without trying to touch staff that could be uh extracurricular that could be Sports probably would be but like not academic stuff maybe not by computer cor correct you'd probably start at extracurricular first that's where you'd start thank you yeah anyone else any other comments questions um I just want wanted to ask a little bit about Federal funding um given the current situation what is your confidence level going forward on federal funding because Clifton does receive a lot of title money from Department of Education which is little questionable at this point I think our federal funding is about $23 million more or less um this proposed or anticipated to be 23 it's about a million short of last year um I I feel
038confident that the money will still be there next year I I believe what's taking place in Washington uh will be stuck in the court system for a very very very long time and eventually it will be um dismissed or they'll withdraw um I'm not an attorney by any threats of the imagination but I do believe we will be fine okay Mr Paris I also believe that if what we hear about the Department of Education the Federal Department of Education going away or um some of the things that are funded through uh Federal money like special ed and Title One programs for our most atrisk students I I cannot see the federal government cutting those programs but what could happen is they get funded by a different department right if the Department of Education no longer
039exists that money just goes somewhere else right Mark is that what you're saying would be the Department of Treasury is most likely where that would come from whether it's a funding difference or not um I I am not as optimistic as you frankly um I think that there is pain coming and it's going to be real but I don't have my crystal ball is broken I can't say that with Assurance but um I I turning over the funding source to the Department of Treasury is one thing the amount of support and all the rest of it that comes through the federal department of education is another matter entirely and Title One and whatever other you know grants and and programs that there are um I'm just not that optimistic but you need to say something
040Mr sh we miss we have been told to plan but this is a typical thing we have been told to plan for 80% of what we received in the previous year however they say that most years to plan for 80% of what we received the year before [Music] just piggybacking off that that's the state's rule of thumb they even for state aid or any money that we get 80% is the number they say to budget with just in the event something goes terribly wrong so that isn't concerning or alarming for my office commiss brunak yeah thank you so this this number that you're describing you get 80% does that have to do with Federal funding or this has to do with State funding both uh so I I think specifically what uh was asked was
041uh from Mr Paris president Paris rather was Federal funding so if we're anticipating 23 million they would say take 80% of that which probably leaves around like 18 million or so to budget for but you know we we I think we find out those numbers in July is augusti is of what we get from the federal funding so we'd have a you know I really hate to just guess and give you fake numbers you know we can have this conversation in July when the numbers come out and we can have a real conversation about that but until then we are budgeting you know the 23 million that we are anticipating and if it's more or less you know we just have to just roll roll with the punches at that point Mr President Mr president
042vice president Santiago thank you president Paris so just piggybacking or adding to what you're saying um what Miss kusich said was um that's what we have been told to budget past years and this is very very different time right going forward if we've been told that last year and the year before it's a time when there's an Administration saying that they want to eliminate the entire Department of Education right so it's very different in the past and um I think what you've mentioned in terms of reserves you know has left us in a good position for the unexpected right and you know you've done a great job Administration has done a great job with that compared to other jurs compared to other municipalities or other depart areas where um we've been prudent um in our
043spending and smart to save for those rainy days and for the unexpected and I think that that's going to potentially be needed in the future and um so just my thought on on that and Mr Santiago I I believe I did share with the board I know I shared it with the administration of our um our stress test I think I don't know if you guys got a chance to see that it's pretty long and boring but as you can see there was multiple scenarios if we lose 10% 15% uh 5% whatever it was of things that we would have to do and you know God forbid that I'm not here next year you know I just want to hand that off to you guys so you guys know what to do if you know
044worst case scenario something happened so if you guys want to com to that have any questions I do believe we are in in in a very good place um but you know things change administration's change hand formula will change but I think we would be able to navigate and weather any storm that comes anyone else any other questions yes yes Dr Danny uh thank you Mr Paris um I actually um I I would just like to know um you know so tax verion know I would like to know what exactly maybe not necessarily I would like to know what would be C what would be cut if um like in the past we have gotten you know like all right so you want a 1% you want um you know 2% 3% 4% um like
045for me to do my due diligence like I I would like to know at a 1% what would be C what would be cut and I don't need to know that right now because I don't want you taking guesses but I would like to know um you know because there are people that are struggling um I would like to know I'd like to do my due diligence I'd like to know at 1% with my conscience what am I cutting so you know it's it's enough to say well yeah maybe it isn't you know Athletics but I but I want to know because you know I am in education and I do see a lot of wasteful spending on my not saying that Clifton is wasteful spending but I see it you know and um you
046know just hearing a lot of things with like even the federal Cuts with the jobs and things and there are people who I know who work in the federal government and they're like wow you know like I'm doing a lot of work now um things are getting done I mean so I I don't know I mean you make you start thinking about you know people and struggling and and the amount they have to pay and the taxpayers have been very you know um generous to us with the referendum and then we pass the 4% and I I really you know in good faith would want to know for that 1% what are we cutting so I I can answer that um so let me just start from the beginning so typically on a normal year
047I think for the past two years because we did have the option of going up to 4% because of that bank cap yeah um I gave you guys a 0% at at the the instruction of the finance committee a 0% a 2% and a 4% this year I can say unequivocally 0% we're cutting $3 million worth of stuff we don't know what it is because it would have to be scattered throughout but I can say with 100% certainty it will impact children negatively regardless of if it's an extra curricul icular whether it's a math club a math class it will hurt children so regardless of what it is you know 1% 1.5 million it's still going to hurt children and I'm pretty confident that we don't want to have these tough conversations with them and
048I'm pretty sure the board doesn't want us to have those tough conversations with students parents staff members um so there is no real answer even you know it would be a game time decision at the time of you know getting ready to open the buildings of what we would have to shave but I can't say it will hurt children negatively thank you Mr shahada it still doesn't answer my question maybe this will answer your question Dr Danny just just to maintain what we have to do what we did this year we need 13 million additional dollars just to keep what we have so maybe that's another way to look at as opposed to what are we going to cut I just wanted to the price of everything went up right benefits all that salaries goes
049up right your salary went up yeah Zer zero I mean your board salary I'm not talking about your teach salary Dr Danny I'm not saying we would cut this but just something popped into my mind right that our extra money ran out last year and uh Miss Kus levich could correct me if I'm wrong but there was tutoring money in there for learning loss catchup and we as a board decided we wanted to maintain that program and if my memory serves me right that was about a million and a half dollars in our budget so I mean I didn't look at every align item in the budget but I'm just pop there's a million and a half dollars what does that do that that impacts the students that need the most help to get caught
050up but something we don't have to do that we as a board decided we would fund that continue that um but there's a big hunk of money it it wouldn't Impact Staffing in a sense that mean you wouldn't be losing any staff by doing that but you would be losing a a resource that um our students are getting that help them catch up just like I said no I understand all that I do um we can get you an answer yeah I just but here's what I would ask yeah for us to do our due diligence to really give you that answer remember what Thursday night's vote is Thursday night's vote is to allow us to submit this budget to the county superintendent so they can do their approval you're not actually voting on this
051budget till May so what I would ask was that we don't need to have this to you by Thursday night no that we could have this to you in time so we could do do Jill do diligence and give you an appropriate answer she gave me on Friday Friday Friday okay and remember remember guys whatever Thursday night you vote Yes to submit this to the county we can change whatever we want between Thursday night and when we vote to officially approve the budget in May so voting yes Thursday night just means yes you can send this to the county for approval okay anyone else any other comments oh yes commission I just want to apologize I was stuck in traffic for over two hours um J St traffic is not it um but when I
052was sitting in the car just listening to the Board of Education meeting all I heard was you know obviously you guys all know where I stand and supporting the students as much as we can having been to you know at College where kids were bragging about having you know horses in their you know their gym class from California you know so all you hear is that so we raised our taxes the last two years now you want to raise it again but we got more money I think the point is to tell them all the things that cost more money now all the things were being charged more money now I think that's the thing people don't understand sometimes they may say well hey we got an extra you know a little bit a little
053bit more basically um but now you want to raise our taxes again I think we need to go on kind to like what Dr Danny was saying what would happen if we lost you know that 2% what would we lose I think that's what the community needs a better understanding of they need to see what what they would lose cuz if they don't see what they're losing they don't see the benefit of raising that extra 2% and that's all I thought on the call right here I'm like man if I was a homeowner I would also be here at the Board of Education saying you know what it is a lot because as we said before we raised it you know twice in the last two years um so to Dr Danny's point is it
054possible to maybe have another presentation of some of the things that could go wrong not saying that those would be the ones to go but what would have happened I would whatever the board wants I will do it it's not a problem and whatever Dr Rober toi asked to me um I can get you guys that information just need some time because we these are conversations that we need to have because um I can get it you guys I would not want to present this I don't want to cause public outcry um we can discuss it in very general terms after you guys have the information in hand um but I don't want to say like we're going to cut room 103 at school 77 you know like I want to we could also bring
055bring it to the final committee and let the finance committee decide you know how we want to proceed um in the future I mean that's fine I would just ask as I said that just this is not something we want to just you know pick out of a hat and say oh you know we're going to get rid of this um we just want to make sure that if if I may we give you something appropriate to the public when the last time the board voted 0% when I was in I think 10th or 11th grade half my teachers lost their job that's just a quick example of what happened 2016 2016 more than half my teachers lost their job and I remember as I'm crying in the bathroom um I came late home room
056so I say go down to my locker put my stuff in next thing you know boom I see a teacher run out of the classroom and that was one of my favorite teachers um starts crying in you know basically in front of me and I see that I'm like wow what happened and then you hear what happened at the Board of Education meeting the night before and and I do want to say that there was uh according to our historian Miss cusa levage there were massive Cuts in 2011 uh and 2016 that we have not yet caught up from so we're still short staff from what we had in 2011 and 2016 you know this new formula that came in with uh Governor Murphy in 2018 very generous to us because it was what was
057it was done right for the children and the districts it wasn't a political move it was districts needed the money got the money that has allowed us to relatively catch up to where we need to be but as you could see by the state's metrics we're still 44 million short of what we have and you know just going back a few years uh I think in 2016 when I was looking at the historical data because I know I thought Mr C bass was going to talk about the home assessment number that I gave um Clifton in 2016 the increase that they got from state aid 685,000 in 2015 like 300,000 year before that was zero so there was years and years and years of neglect from the state and unfortunately um you know people had
058to be laid off the taxpayers had to pick up some of the burden and you know we apologize for that however at the end of the day we're just trying to do right by children nobody in education is getting rich at least here in Clifton uh we just want to ensure our children have a better opportunity to succeed than we did when we were students and I think all of us can sign on to that so I think the 2% is more than fair I think it's it'll help us just keep what we got going here as Dr up said we have good momentum let's keep it going well we we will get some scenarios out to the Commissioners and also there's still time plenty of time to uh submit some more questions to Mr
059shahada we have I mean just th is just our preliminary vote right so we still have April meetings I think there's two more meetings before our final May budget I think there's two more regular meetings somewhere there so we have a month month and a half that we can still gather more information so president Paris if I may yes I may I'm sorry sorry so as they gather that analysis for us I think it's a good idea obviously right it's hard we don't want to scare anybody by just saying things um it's good idea to understand what we're really talking about but when you provide that if you don't mind um what does even that mean right because it's easy from arms length to look and say well if we cut this and we cut
060this but what is that impact when you provide that that data to us what does that mean to our kids right how does it impact what are they going to lack so if we say it could be this it could be that I mean we mentioned a Athletics earlier right who which one do you want it to be the cheer team that three repated just now do you want it to be the girls basketball team that ended the season on a run that turned it around by hard work which one I think for all my colleagues just something to throw out there to think about what are you comfortable with cutting right what are you going to be comfortable with we do need data from you guys and ask that but what are we going
061to be comfortable with eliminating and I think we need to know how that's going to impact our students before we just say well you know if it's if it's maintenance so you might say well it's just maintenance well how's that what does that mean in terms to our kids and to our schools and to our staff um just something rhetorical to just think about can I um I know Mr Shad in the on our first year our first term you gave us like a a bullet point list like 1% 2% 3% would you be able to send that out again something very similar to that so that was quote unquote the wish list of you know when we were looking to increase staff because we did have the ability to go from zero to 4%
062because of that bank cap uh that wasn't a possibility this year so basically what I'm hearing is do in Reverse it's to reverse correct so the the scenarios that I'm going to be giving you guys you know it's a $3 million scenario and I can break it down to 1.5 and I can break it down to zero and we you know just basic math each teacher costs us roughly $130,000 with salary and benefits on average so take 3 million divided by that you probably got about 24 25 teachers you know so that's not what we're going to do but you know that's just one of the scenarios that I will show you guys I think it's important to point out too that this Thursday night I'll be doing a presentation on the opening of our
063new school of our plans for opening a new school now's not the time to to to we're opening a new school now's not the time to be going 0% or reducing you know um so maybe after Thursday night's presentation too when you hear the plan for that um you might have a different perspective too but we'll absolutely put something together for you guys so that you can make an informed decision okay um it's no problem no problem at all yes commissioner so the way I look at it is really just based on trends when you talk about financial budgeting you're looking at what you've spent before assessing programs if you want to continue them and just looking at Trends so if the trends are that you know we want to keep keep these programs and
064we see the the costs are moving are moving up for them obviously we need to the money needs to come come from somewhere to fund it so either we approve the programs or we don't approve the programs it's basically what it comes down to now we're looking at um negotiations that have already been done on salary increases and those are averaged around what this year three and a half 4% we still have three bargaining units left by the way we got like 40 in this place so right off the bat you're already looking at something over 2% so that has to take from somewhere um so knowing yes we did get additional funding some of that is going to go into into the salaries for for individuals um and then we saw that large health
065benefit jump of7 A5 million now you're talking about a $3 million downfall on a 2% right so that's really like two and a half no almost 5% right we're talking about so our increase for health benefits is 5% I mean it is what it is right so and then and then that's aside from just maintaining buildings yes we have a referendum and that's been paying for some of these things so hopefully we won't have to maintain those things as much in the future like bathrooms and things like that that things would have gone they generally won't go now because they're new newer hopefully um but the way I see it is that's the only way to maintain right now is to fund something that you believe in and move it forward and since everything else
066is going up more than 2% I can't see us doing anything less than a 2% so I understand the hypotheticals of 0 1% but for me to put something out there like that and then have on someone think in the back of my mind that I'm the low man on the poll because I know that my job might be cut next or something I mean if I'm if I'm somebody in that profession I may be looking somewhere else to go so I'm like you know what next year the Year and after I don't know if that's something that's going to pan out here depending on who's in the board and what the situation is so while while I totally understand what you mean and and you should get whatever it is you're you're asking for
067I'm not saying that um I just don't necessarily like that idea and I think if we just look at it holistically we know that like I said 5% increase in in health benefits that has to come from somewhere yes we had additional aid but you see all the other numbers that increased as well so I think it's a sound budget if the vote for was for today I'd obviously be voting for a 2% and can I just miss Danny Danny before this year was an anomaly look at the decreases that we got from pcti I don't think Judy miss bassford you have been there for 15 years there's never been a decrease in bcti never don't hold your breath that's going to happen next year the contracted Transportation if you guys remember last year it
068was up Millions because we couldn't find they couldn't find drivers the added District placements you guys see our special ed numbers that are are booming through the roof so we were very fortunate this year that these were negatives next year it's a completely different ball game so this 2% is going to help us this year and hopefully next year as well Dr Danny so I just like I said I think think it's important that I have this information again um for me to do due diligence when we were provided you had a wish list that you wanted and you had the 1% 2% and I understand that that was the wish list but when you spoke to the taxpayers and they came up to you they came up to me and they said to me
069you know wow you know you did why did you do this what you know why because this is what I believed in and this is what I believed as an educator was necessary and I want to do that same due diligence whatever it is right now it's to say willy-nilly because you decided yes you put this out but you know what that means nothing because it's not attached to the student you don't see when they ask why did you well because Mr shahada and his team are great and they said a 2% is what they need you know I get it but that's not how people are people want like yeah because you know what this might be cut that might be cut you want would you want to make that cut do you want
070to tell me where you want me to make that cut and that is why like I said I think for me to feel that I'm on here and I'm doing the best that I can I want to see that it's like a reverse thing like you said but that's what I want to see because you know people out there you know they're expecting us to do the right thing and then you can say yeah I did the right thing because this is what would be and like you said um Mr Mahia and Mr Santiago it's like yeah where where do you cut where what so yeah I I just I want to see that that's what I want to see and I don't mean to make work for you because I get it like you
071have better things to do then provide me with things like you know but but what I'm saying is no seriously that's my job you know but I'm saying that it's it's just it's it's what I need to to have that clear conscious problem Dr D yeah I serve at the pleasure of the board I was I agreed early on when you first asked I'll get you the list everybody else started talking uh I am in no place toow everybody not to talk I told you I'll get to the list we we had already established we had already established that Mr shahada was going to get that information to the entire board so you will you will get your fired up there you'll get your information yeah Mr kova got you fired up and Y Mr
072Paris yes I just want to reiterate Lucy's point we I'm a visual learner I want to see it in writing I want to see what people are going to come up see what you don't experience and Danny doesn't experience and the lawyer and the people behind you got at Shop Right at stoping shop we get questions we're at a game we're at an event people come up to us and asks us they ask us why did you do this last year I had took a like a visual picture of your presentation in my brain I was able to Rattle stuff off you you tell me that we need 2% to sustain this district for next year that's why I asked the question about Paul six on Valley Road because I want to make sure that
073we're we're fluid that we can open that building and relieve some of the burden of the um the buildings that are experiencing High rates of student enrollment I was in a first grade kindergarten a first grade class reading on on Monday and there was 24 children in a first grade class no that to me I have to tell you I was I walked in and the first thing I was said to myself w i Ste back was there's a lot of children in this classroom and I was upset and the teacher did a fabulous job and she handled everything brilliantly and she's a she's a veteran teacher and she knows who I'm talking about so I'm sorry that I'm bringing you up but I didn't mention you by name but to me that was upsetting
074to me to see that and to walk into some of the other schools that were impacted by the rain the other day that Heavy Rain that we had and then they have issues now that we have to to fix the roofs again that's I would like to see this is what we need and this is what we we need to stay this way like Lucy said I want a list of what we would have to cut God forbid we didn't get the vote I've never not given you guys the information you requested in a timely manner I will I will 100% I'll start working on it tomorrow I'll meet with no I appreciate it but I need to I need to know that so when people come up to me and question me and I'm
075at the dino trying to enjoy dinner with with a group of people and they ask me out loud I don't look at them and go you can let them know if they ask I want be a to first person we're letting go was chewy thank no chewy does a very good job okay is there is there any any other yes commissioner s you were very quiet tonight thank you president Paris um and just so the community knows where I stand I really appreciate um my colleagues comments um and commissioner kova I I appreciate what you shared and and I agree um and just speaking for myself as a homeowner has a parent of a child here in District um I I absolutely agree with maintaining as is I know there's much room for improvement such
076as class sizes teacher shortages substitute shortages and many other things that we need more money for so 2% is the least we can do especially if it's the expectation from the state so I just wanted to share with the community where I stand that if it was a vote today it would be a yes thank you commission I promise the last com president I promise this is my last comment but since we continue come on get it um so we we we all get we get those same questions about I'm a I'm a I've been living here 30 years I've been my my taxes have gone up they probably almost double right um we get those questions uh what was great about the Strategic plan is that we had people all stakeholders who don't have
077children in the district don't have children at all um parents we had a variety staff and including you know in those sessions and before that some of the themes have always been overcrowding as commissioner bassford was getting to um to Transportation before and after care the shortage of teachers has been an issue Nationwide before covid before covid we were already short teachers right so all that has just compounded and continues um so you know these are the issues in terms of overcrowding and we've got PA Paul that we're working on which is great um these have been the issues that parents and everybody um as well as um not just the property uh the taxpayers but also parents who meet you in the schools or in the street bring these same issues up over and
078over for years and so um just something I think we need to keep in mind echoing the sentiments that we've been talking about today thank you commissioner Santiago commissioner Seattle why not one more time right so if it were a vote today I would vote no I'm going to be the odd man out okay I would vote no because of my own personal reasons because of the what I see going on all the time we're raising taxes everybody's raising taxes the congestion tax the city tax the County taxes sewer tax tolls are going up I work with the power one I see how much this is hurting people I see people selling their houses because they can't afford the taxes and I go fill up the little pantry and guess what the next day it's
079gone people are hurting now more than ever convince me to go up 2% I'm not going to say I won't but I'm going to say right now because of these factors I can't do it I I I see how it's hurting people send me that information say Joe we're going to cut the music program I'm be like oh no obviously I'm not going to let you cut the music program you know what I mean like put this stuff in front of me cuz right now this is what I'm having trouble wrapping my mind around I as mentioned a handful of times I'll get you guys the information but please just allow me to send budget to the county on Thursday because they're on my back so I just want to get that off to them
080I have a question if we vote to send the what actual budget are we voting uh to send to them with the 2% with the 2% and then as a board how do we Rectify that say we want to not go 2% what is the mechanism tell me and then we change it May 1st for the final so we vote Yes we vote Yes for the budget on Thursday I want to be very clear so people know what we're doing and we all know what we're doing that goes with a 2% increase to the county budget for approval for compliance purposes only right then from there we can go back and forth with go one two 1 2 0 one two so when do you think that you would have that information to us that
081we all requested I can let's come let's come to an agreement of a decent a date I think we'd like to have it for the next finance committee meeting which is April today actually is the this is the finance committee meeting so um second Tuesday second Wednesday in a April so fourth like the 9th April April 9th okay if I had a guess that's fine because this way we can all have time to read it and digest it and then if we have to make any kind of adjustments we can meet as a board and do it over making deals all right okay move moving on safe to move on at this point uh I want to move to public rec recognition because it's already 8:00 and I'd like to kind of try to keep
082that always uh on on board before 800m so uh this portion of the meeting is open to the citizens of Clifton for the purpose of addressing any subject matter pertinent to and are directly related to the operation of the Clifton Public School District residents are requested to sign the register provided for this purpose and to State their names addresses and subject matter comments are limited to five minutes per person issues raised by members of the public may or may not be responded to by the board all comments will be considered and a response will be forthcoming if and when appro apprpriate the board asked that members of the public be courteous and mindful the rights of other individuals when speaking specifically comments regarding students and employees of the board are discouraged and will not be
083responded to by the board students and employees have specific legal rights supported by the laws of New Jersey the board Bears no responsibility nor will it be liable for any comments made by members of the public members of the public should consider their comments in light of the legal rights of those affected are identified in their comments and be aware that they are legally responsible and liable for their comments we shall start with virtual Mr Rose no one on Virtual okay motion to close virtu motion motion by commissioner Mahia second and by commissioner Suarez um anyone like to approach the table it is now not a Podium any longer moving on up that got at the table look at that I pay for that table I'm banking on that too personally I'd rather be a
084me thank you good evening uh Elias Ragsdale first of all I want to say that I appreciate wholeheartedly and I think residents in Clifton do too the questions of the administration and the pushing back against what was presented anyone uh when making a big purchase or a financial decision would look at the price tag for one item and say okay well what's cheaper and what would I be losing if I go with this cheaper option and seeing what the differences are at least seeing them um and like one of you said you know it's about doing your due diligence as a commissioner of the Board of Education representing taxpayers here in Clifton um and also you know I understand a 2% tax increase maintains our current operations and covers our current expenses um but has
085Administration taking a look at our current expenses themselves identifying areas where we can cut costs and eliminate inefficiencies because um what I think at least is you know Cuts aren't always bad if you're cutting something that's inefficient something that doesn't work properly doesn't work well something that teachers um aren't particularly liking and think is effective or what students don't believe themselves are effective for their own learning um and before asking taxpayers to contribute more shouldn't we make sure that we're operating as efficiently as possible um as I said finding and addressing wasteful spending ineffective programs or areas where resources are being used poorly are there Vehicles we don't need um positions that we don't need things like that have we made an effort and assess this before even coming to the conclusion that 2% is
086how much uh we need to continue operating it's important that you show um everything that you can do to save money before turning to taxpayers for more thank you thank you El anyone else motion to close motion to close commissioner brunak seconded by commissioner Mahia um the only thing left on our agenda is just a review of the two resolutions that last time we spoke to you about that we were putting together for New Jersey school boards um we did submit them um we had some I would say technical mistakes in the the formatting um which makes us now postpone those uh entries to njsba till their next delegates meeting which we will do um so these will go back to the legislative committee we we will also solicit additional resolution requests from you and
087we have plenty of time this time and uh we'll make sure we put them in the proper formatting so that we can get them considered um but I just I'm not going to read these to you now I think you can you can read them they're in the uh on the agenda uh and lastly is board member comments so we're going to do board member com comments this evening ladies and gentlemen yes you have nothing or you have something yes I just want to well let's let's start then with commissioner Kenova he's be first up uh based on our rotation thank you commissioner Pastor no comments tonight thank you none for no comments tonight okay thank you Dr Danny uh commission Mia um um really quickly um big shout out to all the the student
088athletes who did a tremendous season I know we have another meeting on Thursday just want to give them a big shout out because I know many of them say they can't wait until you know June or July to get recognized so big shout out to them um for everyone at home listening to the presentations what I recommend is doing a little bit more research sometimes people just hear one thing and they make up their mind just on their own um I know I told Mr shahada this before I'm working like on a 10year plan down line down line to see how much you can actually raise the taxes going 10 years in advance and it sucks you know it sucks to say that like if we do a 0% within the next 5 years one
089in seven people are going to get fired you know after doing the math and all that I think people really need to take the time to sit in do the math do the Excel spreadsheets I feel sometimes I know not all of us are great at it but you have to do it and if you do it you'll see how much we're going to be losing I hated being the student at my school who didn't have the best opportunities I'm thinking to myself wow you guys had all this cool stuff a genium that big wow you know and then us you know not to say you know anything bad about Clifton but at the time it was just you know Clifton you know oh you want to clion it's all right and then I know
090a lot of us are thinking well there are some schools here who do 0% for like the last 10 years look at look at their schools look how not to you know discriminate against them look how awful they are I have some of those students in my very own classes and I think you know a kid from Clifton would outpace them any day of the week um thank you very much thank you commission here commissioner siano uh just commissioner Canova very sorry for you and your family's loss commissioner bassford I'm very sorry for you and your family's loss it's been a r rough week for you guys and you have my condolences that's all I have commission thank you commissioner Seattle commissioner Suarez now just thank you for the thorough present otherwise I save my
091comments for Thursday thank you commissioner B yes well I was going to wish the Kenova family for the passing of your father-in-law uh Rose and the girls and your entire family find the strength and the love and the support and surrounding you during this difficult time please know that we are all here to support you Joe in any way I know it's difficult he was a good man he was a good man um additionally our hearts go out to the Colangelo family of Woodland Park um on a tragic L of nicolea yesterday uh to Lauren my dear Lauren uh alesandro and the children we extend the deepest condolences and sympathies in the time of Sorrow We Stand Together as family offering our love and support and strength keeping you all in our thoughts and prayers
092we'll get through this I promise I I promised your mother and father we take care of you take care of you thank you commissioner Bas commissioner brunjak deepest condolences to the Kenova and castaldi family and and I will reserve the rest of my comments for Thursday thank you for your time and God bless America have a good night everybody thank you commissioner Brak vice president Santiago thank you president Paris my condolences again um I just want to commend our board I hope the public is watching it's just the beginning but we we weigh we don't we don't take this lightly we weigh the issues we have questions we have healthy debate and we disagree agreeably if we do disagree um it's just great to see and I just want to commend everybody for you know
093our dedication that we take so seriously and just um Happy Irish American Heritage mud to everybody thanks thank you commissioner Santiago um condolences to the Kenova family on their loss um I'll reserve my additional comments till Thursday so I'm looking for a motion to adjourn mot I think is there anything else on my agenda no so motion to adjourn motion by commissioner SW commissioner somebody commissioner Brak motion to adjourn seconded by commissioner Suarez thank you sorry I didn't see who did have a great evening e e