001board at the board of education office. Emailing written notice to the Burlington County Times and the Courier [music] Post Office. Filing written notice with the municipal clerk of Eucham Township. Mr. Yates, may I have a roll call, please? Roll call. Mr. Brown. Mr. Brown advised us he'll be joining remotely. >> Mr. Mr. Marcy >> present. >> Mr. Fischer >> present. >> Misselli >> present. >> Mr. Conton is a notified that he will be late. Mr. Masson should be joining us remotely. I don't see him yet. Mr. Masson, are you here? >> Mr. Pelman, >> present. >> Miss Mowitz >> here. >> And Mrs. is null. >> We have a quorum. [music] >> Okay. At this time, I'll ask for a motion to go into executive session and a motion to approve items 2.1 through 2.4.
002Uh whereas an [music] NJSA 10-4-12 allows for a public body to go into close session [music] during a public meeting. And whereas the board of education of Eve Township has seen necessary to go into a closed [music] session to discuss certain matters which are exempt from the public. And whereas the regular meeting of the board will [music] reconvene following the end of the closed session at approximately 7:30. Now therefore be resolved that the board of education will go into session for [music] the following reasons uh as outlined in those statutes. Do I have a motion? Mr. Fischer. Mr. Pelman. Second. All in favor? I see at 7:30. So there we go. So when I call your name up, please come up, get your certificate, and then stay up here with us so we can get
003a photo at the end of everybody. All right. Uh, so Karen Guo could come up please for successfully earning placement in the Olympic Conference Honors Band. [applause] Then we have Teddy Carmod for successfully earning placement in the All Burlington County Honors Band. And then Emily Cummings for placement in the all Burlington County Honors Band. Then Karen again. Where's Karen? You get Come on over. You get second certificate for Karen Guo for successfully earning placement in the all Burlington County Honors Band. [applause] And then Ashvvic Gupta, [applause] All Burlington County Honors Band. Congratulations, Eva Seis. Uh Seesmir for All Burlington County Honors Band. Luke Ver, all Burlington County Honors Band. Congratulations, Adeline Eatman. All Burlington County Honors Band. Terry Carmodi, South Jersey Honors Band. He's already up here. [applause] Triple Threat Karen Guo, South Jersey Honors
004Band. and Abigail Kernney, South Jersey Honors Band. Abigail, come on up. [applause] >> And then behind. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> Yeah. We're behind you. We we practice this a lot. So, uh [applause] >> congratulations again, Mustangs musicians. All right. Next up, if Miss Maddie Goldman is in the house and wants to come up, there she is. [applause] And since you are kind enough to be here and with your wonderful presence, would you mind? Would you want to read the names? Awesome. >> Uh Leah Frangella, Olympic Conference Honors Band. Jacob Pielman, Olympic Conference Honors Band. Pervy Agaral of Burlington County Honors Band. Andrew, Burlington County Honors Band. Matthew Casper, Burlington County Honors Band. Logan Decker, all Burlington County Honors Band. [applause] Aaliyah Franella, all Burlington County Honors Band. Jason Wong, all Burlington County Honors Band. [applause]
005Ethan Hunter, All Burlington County Honors Band. [applause] Jackson Hunter, all Burlington County Honors Band. [applause] Jacob Peeleman, All Burlington County Honors Band. A Rob Sex, all Burlington County Honors Band. [applause] And Pervy Agraal, South Jersey Junior High Band. She's not here. [applause] Luna Cabrera, South Jersey Junior High Band. Not here. Sam Hassan, South Jersey Junior High Band. >> [applause] >> and Jackson Hunter for his second one. South Jersey Junior High Honors Band. [applause] Nora Kerber, South Jersey Junior High Honors Band. and Jacob Hillman for his third South Jersey Junior High Honors Band. A Rob Saxana for a second South Jersey Junior High Honors Band placement. [applause] >> That's everyone. Thank you. [applause] >> That's it. That's it. Awesome. Congratulations again to our Mustangs and dolphins for all those accomplishments. It's incredible. And to Miss Goldman,
006Mr. White for all their support. We are going to transition into next presentation. I think so. Anyone who came for the music part or uh and wants to stay is welcome to if you I mean not just that there's music practicing is a daily thing but if you would need to go someplace else for any other reason no hard feelings. Um we are so glad for the families that came out to see their students recognized. What's up? Here we go. All right. So, um, 2026 27 tenative budget presentation. I'm going to talk a little bit, then Mr. Yates is going to talk a little bit more, and then I'll talk a little bit at the end. There we go. Okay. So, just as our board meetings start with our district mission, likewise our board, our
007budget process starts is always embedded within and ends with our district mission. It was read a lot earlier. I won't read it now. But um this is our true north of decision-m budget goals. These are also continual. A budget process is a 12-month process. Um any district that's especially a district below adequacy. Uh the the work to find the best way to maximize resources is never ending. We aim for these um with regard to the budget for these components, maintaining effectiveness, adjusting for enrollment, continuing focus on student achievement, and trying to preserve as much as possible for as many as possible for as long as possible. Budgetary context. I share this data every year. I update it each year. It's a wonderful resource. If anyone's interested, I you know, we'll share this presentation on our
008website and it'll go out in my ETSS update. The data source link is at the bottom of this slide. You can just go on the D website and find it too. It's called the taxpayer guide education spending and it is data on every district in the state disagregable by district type, K8, K12, whatever. Um, so if we look at the largest 73 K8s in the state, that means student population 751 or greater. We are at 4,700, by the way, just for comparison there. Um, there are uh over 20 indicators you can look at to see where a district ranks with its um similar uh district type peers. And just this is a couple just gleaning out a few of the more macro data points meaning more overarching data points. Um the first bullet is the
009the the most overarching. So that's like the total budgetary cost per pupil. And you can see our budget. This is again based on the most recent data available which was 2425 uh spending over 3,000 less per pupil than the state average. total classroom instruction almost 2,000 less than the state average uh administrative cost per pupil number one leanest out of all 73 K8 districts um and then just because you know like like I said there's over 20 indicators so that there is somewhat of a range but you have to imagine like if we're the seventh leanest in that most encompassing of data points which is budgetary cost per pupil then it stands to reason we're going to be in that seventhish range as an average across all the other indicators. Um but that does wax
010and wayne low or high depending on the indicator and uh for extracurricular cost we're we're actually kind of in the middle of the pack there. Okay, at 35th and I'm going to pass it over to Mr. Yates. All right, good evening everybody. Um, before we get started, I just want to stress to the public, anybody watching from home, those in attendance, for our staff as well, that tonight's presentation is in regards to the tenative budget. It's called tenative for a reason. The board will be submitting it tonight. Uh, that meets our statutory requirement to submit to the county for review, but the board still has the ability to make changes to this budget. I also would like to say that the board is divided on this budget. So, this budget that we're presenting tonight is
011the board that was um compromised on and settled through the finance committee, but the board as a whole would like to spend more time working on certain aspects of this budget. We for adoption excuse me 102,274,1002. So the budget overview just budget as a whole. Some quick points here. Our projected revenue show an increase of 1.35% that also represents about 1.35 million because we have a hund00 million budget. State funding increased for us 6% in yearover-year dollars. That's 429,594. That's an important distinction in year-over-year dollars because we're going to talk about what state aid actually uh how it actually impacts our district in a few slides. And then our local tax levy, as proposed tonight, is increasing uh 2% to maintain essential educational services. And that's $1.78 million for us. So, here's a summary of
012our revenues as presented. You'll see that tax levy makes up the lion share of our budget. We also receive state aid. This is a number that is outside of our control. Tax levy is the only real number up here that we're able to uh control ourselves. We can increase our tax levy in any year up to 2%. That's the maximum that we can increase our tax levy from the prior year. However, there are some exceptions to increasing tax levy above 2%. Those exceptions typically are an enrollment adjustment or health care adjustment or maybe you've generated some banked cap from a prior year. We could use that to go above our 2%. Bank cap represents any amount of money below the 2% in any of the sub the prior three budget years that we did not
013um we did not take. We also have some miscellaneous revenues. For us, miscellaneous revenues would be our interest earned on our bank account, the um rent we receive on some of our leased space. It would also be some of the additional miscellaneous revenues that we can generate like cell tower. Uh we have a couple cell towers that we lease that space for. Um uh I'm trying to think of some of the others right now. They're lost on me. But anything that does not fall under one of the other categories listed here on this screen would be captured under the term miscellaneous revenues in our budget. The most we can generate this year. There is 2,239,126. The district also receives extraordinary aid. That is aid that is received after the budget year is over and we
014apply for it to the state of New Jersey. that is aid for certain uh services for special education that uh go above and beyond our district's requirement to provide. Last year we received over $700,000 in extraordinary aid. The issue with us um being too liberal on a projection on what we might receive next year is the state can change uh their calculation on how much they're paying districts at any moment. A good example of that would be our Medicaid and semi-revenue just below that at $38,000. Two years ago, semi and Medicaid revenue, we received over $250,000. Last year, without notice, the state said, "Hey, we're changing the calculation. We want more. We're going to give you less." And your number was reduced by about onetenth of what we used to receive. This number here, this
015Medicaid semi-revenue number, is a number provided to us by the state. It's not a number that we can control. And then we also are required by law to b uh budget some interest on our capital and our maintenance reserve accounts. So when you subtotal all that revenue that's $11,251,12 that's our current expenses. Additional to that we are going to withdraw over a million towards capital reserve. However, that is not a tax impact and it does not impact our current expenses. A withdrawal of capital reserve is used for capital infrastructure improvements and it is a one for one uh what we withdraw from our uh reserve also goes into our expenditures. So our total anticipated revenue for next year 102,274,12 and here you'll see a summary of appropriations. If you'll just drop to the bottom you'll
016see that it is the same number again because our expenditures have to equal our revenues. Here's our major categories of appropriations. Staffing makes up almost $55 million of our $102 million budget. So, it encompasses over half just in salaries alone. But we also are required to provide our employees benefits. Benefit costs and other district costs are an additional $28 million in our budget. And then you'll see we have transportation we're required to provide. We have a budget for special education. We have to operate, maintain and provide energy for our facilities. We have curriculum and personnel and technology that we have budgets for. We also budget separately for our clubs and activities. That is the amount of money that we pay out to our club advisors and our um coaching stipens. And then and then we
017allocate money towards schools. 416,000. That would be what you could consider our discretionary spend. We are also required to deposit that interest to capital reserve. So again, that's a one for one offset. $1,300 on the revenue side, $1,300 on the expenditure side. And then same thing with our capital reserve. The withdrawal from capital reserve matches the projects that we have budgeted for cap uh capital reserve 1 million23,000. All right. So the reality for us though is the goal is to produce a balanced budget. The reality for us every year and every year for the foreseeable future is that we will start with our expenditures outpacing our revenues. Our expenses increase at a rate greater than our ability to generate revenues every single year. If you'll see this presentation will be on the board agenda that
018January where it says MBR that's our midyear budget report that I presented to the board in January. I go in depth in some of these categories these major categories of expenditures that are drive putting pressure on our budget driving up costs and also decreasing our ability to produce a balanced budget. Please go and uh watch that presentation um for some more details on the pressures on our expenditure side. Here we go. Where does our tax dollar go in efam? So, we took a dollar, we broke it down to dollars and cents just to kind of highlight just how little we have in discretionary spend in our budget. The big thing to take away is that 75% or 75 to 80% or 75 to 80 cents of every dollar goes towards the salaries of our staff
019and their related benefits. That's the medical, prescription, and dental benefits just to get our staff to walk in the door. And that's all of our staff, including your administration, your support staff, and your teachers. So just to get them to walk in the door, we've already accounted for over 80 cents of every dollar. Benefits alone takes up 22% of every dollar or 22 cents of every dollar. Just the health benefit portion alone. We are also required to transport our students to and from school, but not just transporting our students to and from our schools. We are required to transport our students to and from the schools in which they attend. So we have many students who attend out of district placements. We have to budget for that. That is seven cents of every dollar. In
020addition to that, we have a budget for special education. That is not that's 5 cents of every dollar special education. That is not our special education staffing cost. That's in our staffing numbers. That's just the special education department's budget for all of the service providers that we need to uh provide for our students. That's also all of the cost it takes for all of the special education mandates and the IEP requirements. 5 cents of every dollar. That is also our out of district tuition cost included in there as well for students who are placed out of district. We have to maintain our facilities. We have to pay for natural gas and electricity for our facilities. We have to operate our facilities. The operations budget in EVAM is three cents of every dollar. In addition to
021that, we have a curriculum department. We want to provide a robust curriculum for our students. We have a personnel department. The personnel's department here, they're like HR in a private industry. They are HR for us, but the personnel is in charge of onboarding every single staff member, separating from service, any staff member who needs to do it, handling retirements, resignations, sub callouts, and employee observations. They have a budget and technology. We provide for high quality 21st century tech for our students. That is two cents of every dollar. As indicated before, we pay our club advisors, our coaching stipens. That's one cents of every dollar. And then then when you whittle it all down, less than one cent of every dollar is allocated towards our schools. That's our discretionary spend. And as a matter of fact,
022it's 50 basis points. So 50% of 1% is how much money our district has allocated towards discretionary expenses. Every other expense you could consider a required expense. So our expenditure pressures, this is kind of difficult to see on this screen. Uh the background's a little bit dark, but I wanted to highlight some of the areas, not all of the areas, but some of the major areas, our largest and most unpredictable areas that put pressure on our budget. Health benefits being the largest area for us. Health benefits in this budget for the proposed budget accounts for a $4.1 million increase. So in the current budget year, the one we're currently in that will end this June, we experienced a health benefit premium increase of 31%. For our district, that was an unbudgeted cost of $1.6 million.
023That is our starting place for next year. When I'm budgeting and my staff, our team is budgeting for our health benefit premium increases and our projection over the next 12 months. We start by including that $1.6 million because we know right now that is our current expense in health benefits. Then we have to account for an unknown premium increase in January. We're in the state employees health benefit program. The state doesn't release to us or tell us any budget advice whatsoever. And we don't know what that premium increase is going to be. We've been told by people, brokers, and anyone else who has some level of experience and professional um expertise in this area to expect another 30 to 40% increase. Again, go back to my January presentation. I dive deep into health benefits and
024the pressures on our budget. Our salaries again 54 cents of every dollar 5455 million increases contractually at about 3.5 to 4% annually. Transportation. So we outsourced the majority of transportation last year. We were always outsourced the majority of transportation but the remaining we outsourced last year. So we have many thirdparty transportation providers. When we have providers we have contracts with them. Those providers can inc or uh renew their contract with us at the consumer price index of next year's 3.58%. That CPI, the state tells us what CPI is for state school transportation contracts. Last year was 3.57%. If they choose not to renew or the district always has the option not to renew as well, the contractor or we would have to go out the bid by law. But that's a catch 22. going out
025the bid many times results in a higher than CPI renewal. There's too many unknowns with transportation. We have students every week, and I'm not kidding when I say every single week, who require a new transportation service. So that might be a McKini Vinto student or students who are displaced in another town but still attend school in Eshan. We are legally required to provide them transportation. We are legally required to provide transportation for our out of district placements. On the special education side, we receive we see mandates, continued mandates and updated mandates from the state of New Jersey without funding and our out of district tuition rates exceed our 2% ability to raise our tax levy cap. But not only that, we don't know in any given year how many out of district placement students we're
026going to have. We know how many we have today. We know how many of them will be placed out of district September one, but we don't know how many of them we'll be able to bring back. We're always trying to bring students back into district, less restrictive environment, but we don't know how many are going to move in in the beginning of the year between September to June. We have to account for that in our budget as well. All of those things are required costs. They all exceed as a percentage are greater. They're all greater than our ability to increase our tax levy at 2%. We also have challenges on the revenue side. So, not only do we face extraordinary expenditure pressure, but we have challenges just trying to keep pace on the revenues, keep
027pace revenues to revenues, not even revenues to expenditures. Those challenges are our state funding. So, the state aid this year increased 6%. That's year-over-year. However, we were capped at 6%. The state had to reduce us $7 million based on their own calculation just to give us a 6% increase. We were due for $7 million more. Last year, we were due for $1.3 million more than the state provided us. That's $8.3 million that this district is due from the state of New Jersey based on their own calculation for over the last two fiscal years. We absorbed 100% of the S2 reductions. So during S2 in the seven-year long implementation, this state or excuse me, this district accumulated 38 million in losses. We absorbed every dollar of that, 100% on the way down. And now we're being
028capped arbitrarily on the way up when we're due for more. One-time sources of revenue. So those two scenarios, a reduction of state aid and the S2 implementation forced this district to have to walk off a fiscal cliff by balancing their budget with one-time sources of revenue like the shift dividend. We used to be in the school's health insurance fund. It is a private insurance program alternative to the state employees health benefit program. We left it so we no longer collect a shift dividend. That dividend is gone. That was a one-time source of revenue. We used to balance our budget with excess surplus. The difficulty in that is excess surplus can go away. If you're constantly tightening the belt due to S2 reductions and reduced state aid, eventually you're not going to end a year with
029excess surplus. That year for us was the last year. We had $3.5 million the year before. Last year we had none. And last year the state said, "Hey, Eve Sham, if you take all of that tax levy incentive authority we're going to give you and you take every dollar of it, we're going to give you over $700,000 in addition to your tax levy. That's great, but we then had to apply $710,000 towards recurring expenses, and that was a one-time source of revenue. That is gone." And then we we face challenges uh with our miscellaneous revenue category. We have a loss of rental dollars this year. It is uncertain from year to year and we don't know how much we can generate year-to-year in our club and activities revenue. We're down in that category as well.
030So these are revenue constraints. They're structural. They're ongoing and most of them are outside of local control. Just to highlight the state aid predicament for us. Again, I said $ 38 million in cumitive uh total state aid loss. You can see that number on the left. That was throughout the seven-year implementation of S2, which was implemented fiscal year 2019. For us, until the state resets us back to our funding levels pre2, we will absorb $7 million in losses every single year. That be that forced us into a position of increased reliance on local tax to local taxpayers, budget reductions, and one-time revenues. And then here we go. The formula says this year EPHAM should receive 14,621,262. That is the state's own adequ adequacybased budget calculation for EVHAM. What we're actually getting is 7,589,488. We are
031artificially being limited by state policy. That's an over $7 million reduction. So, the school funding reform act, the state's own formula recognizes EPHAM should receive $14.6 million. They said they're they're doing victory laps saying, "Look, you got 6% more. A 6% growth cap overrides their own formula and the result is that nearly half of our calculated aid is being withheld from EUAM." All right. So, what is the preliminary tax that we're proposing tonight? And again, I want to preface that these things can and possibly will change. You'll see the 2526 school year tax at the top, the 2627 school year proposed tax just below that. That is a dollar increase of one point just just under $1.8 million. That represents a 2% increase for the average assessed home in Eve Sham. That's $89.39 a year
032as an increase or $745 a month. And then I just wanted to put some notes about the our preliminary submission tonight. This is a statutory requirement that the board is fulfilling their requirement to submit this to the county for review. This appro this is they are not approving the budget tonight and it does not limit their ability to continue making adjustments prior to the final adoption. >> Thank you, Mr. Yates. And I'd like I'll add to that that um [clears throat] as a board we've identified uh Monday, March 30th from 4:30 to 6:30 back here at the Macy as the time for our um work session as we continue to put the work into um adjust the budget to its optimal um distributions as we try to close what essentially is a budget gap. So,
033we have a budget gap that we'll be working on to come up with the the best method of close closing that gap. The gap I'm going to show you right now, this is provisional, but it will probably change through that work as we as we try to find the best approach. So, the budget gap we have is about $1.3 million, and it is um certainly not where we want to be to be talking about reductions. As Mr. Yates, I think, very well explained, all the contributing factors that are pressing on all districts um to create gaps. The uh the first step, the largest step, eliminating six elementary gened teaching positions. This is due to changes in enrollment in each grade level, trying to find efficiencies, and it would result in a savings of one position
034per elementary school on average. If you look in the far right column, retire vacant. So [clears throat] these are positions, not people. So um these are just positions we won't have to fill due to retirements and vacancies. Next step, eliminate one elementary assistant principal position. We have a clear path in that case uh to enable to eliminate the position and not the person. This is um you know I wouldn't I would I would be very pained in saying this position if there weren't a clear path in part because we are the leanest administration out of all 73 K8s and we just created these two positions this year and uh and they're doing a fantastic job. That's Bill Leonardo and Karen Marusi and um you know so it's it's every step is painful and this one
035also very painful. Lastly, eliminate late busing and that would save about a half a million dollars. No, no reduction to extracurriculars, right? And you if you go back to that original slide in my um first comments, you could see that where we rank in terms of extracurricular spending per pupil, kind of in the middle of those 73 K8s. This is designed to not have to touch extracurricular programs. this year. That step forward years more complex. We had, you know, in um challenges needing to maintain additional staff in holding areas until buses could get there. Um these are operational challenges as well as fiscal challenges. Those steps in total bridge the gap. But like I said as a board this is provisional and we are continuing to discuss in earnest alternatives especially for the late busing.
036I want to make that clear. alternatives, alternative scenarios that might involve a reduction, not an elimination, you know, and those scenarios are not they're not ready to be shared tonight, but we are working on that and um we'll continue to do so on March 30th. other steps taken explored and this is a not not an exhaustive list but um things were all as we you know try to turn over every stone to find savings we are district below adequacy that is part of our daily work. So, reducing spending, finding efficiencies, grants, seizing grant opportunities, school resource officer agreement. Um, thank you again to our township leadership for their help in assuming 100% of the cost of our SRO's who are very valued for us by the year 2027 28 2028. And that's a that's a
037um kind of a tapered taking on with gradual yearly percentage increases until they um are going to be covering 100% of the cost by that year. Advocacy with the state. Um we do that every year. We'll be doing it again this year. We have slots on Tuesday, March 24th and Wednesday, March 25th, testifying before the Assembly Budget Committee and the Senate Budget Committee. Um, and I, you know, look forward to that along with board representation, representation from ETA as we did last year. Last year, we we we what our comments actually sparked a good 10-minute impromptu discussion among the the Senate budget panel. uh they all recognized the inherent arbitrariness of that 6% cap and its woefully unfair application to EVAM, right? Losing as we did over half of our state aid throughout S2 and
038then to be doubly damaged by not being able to get it back when there was no cap on the losses. They all acknowledged that. the senators through our testimony. Something has to be done. We got to make it happen. The result, and I say this with respect for the process, was nothing in the form of direct state aid. We were simply given the lifeline to save ourselves. That was it. That was the additional le local levy opportunity. And after testifying every year and that's the result, we will be there again next week seeking increased revenue from Evans securing property sale and that that step by the way led to um Sequoia will be departing Evans after this year as we seek to um increase our revenue there. We we value our partnership with the lenipy
039district. Um but those are stuff tough steps that we've had to take securing property sale country farms to the township. Thank you again to the township for their work with us on that. And we are awaiting state approval on that contract imminently. And then also working with our county on the purchase of the handover road property which is about a half a mile away from Country Farms down Greenbrook Road. Um and uh so that is taking longer but again whenever that gets finalized we will always be able to use and need that that those funds. Solar panel cell tower health benefits reimbursement I'll be sending out a survey again to staff shortly uh to see if we can generate uh some savings that way. We tried that about three years ago. And then subscription busing.
040Again, we tried that some years ago. Um, but these are just examples of things we've tried. We are always open to ideas and and like I said, our district given our financial situation, the conversations about budget, the work to find efficiencies is 12 months, 7 days a week, 24 hours a day. All suggestions welcome. Um, feel free to email me, Mr. Yates. and uh because anything that we for one reason or another doesn't fit for this year stays on the list for future years because we know we're going to be facing gaps continually in the future as all districts do. The unbridgegable gap between a 2% tax levy and 3 plus% increases for salaries and benefits plus even greater increases yearly for special education, transportation, so on. Even for a former English teacher, the math
041will never add up. Questions uh from the board. Dr. Smith, I'd like to add one quick thing and thank you for that because some of the direct feedback from the board members are on that slide and I want to recognize the collaboration and trying to continue to work to make it better. >> Excellent. Yes. which is a a great reminder of what we'll do more of on on March 30th. So, >> any other questions or comments from >> Dr. Smith? I don't have a Well, I have a couple questions, but this isn't really a question. I just wanted you to kind of repeat the situation with the properties because I think there was just some because I wasn't unaware either. So, those properties, the sale of the handover and country farms is not complete. It's
042in process with the state. We don't have those revenues yet. I don't know. I don't know that that's clear to everybody. So, I just wanted to reiterate. >> Yeah. Yeah. So, uh we don't have those revenues yet. We anticipate having that approved from the state very soon. I want to say Mr. Yates, the deadline is next week. >> Yeah. So, um the township engaged us with an offer for Country Farms of $170,000 as is. Right. That's a win for us. Um we went through they had the resolution. We had a resolution and then it goes it has to go to the state department of education and the uh special division for approval because it was considered a school's property. >> So they have to they take 90 days. The email we got from them was
043um they're backlogged but here's the person you can email to ask for status updates. We emailed over a week ago never heard back. However, that deadline is approaching early next week, after which time we'll work with our architects who are running point on that to further that sale. The township has already asked us, hey, what's the status? We anticipate that revenue in this fiscal year, which is why we're not including it in next fiscal year. The Hanover Road property is uh offered to the county. You'll remember that that road that property is mostly wetlands, so practically useless and invaluable to the district. Um, we are trying to work on a point where we can keep the uplands portion which might have some value to us in the future, but it will not represent any near-term
044revenue source for the district. >> Thank you. One other question for me if that's okay and then I'll stop. Um, late buses and as it pertains to the activities appropriation, is late busing factored into that number or is it factored into the total transportation cost? Could you be repeat that please? >> The cost of a late bus is in the budget. Is it part Do you have it appropriated as part of the club and activities line item or is it part of the overall transportation? >> It's within the transportation department. Yes. >> Okay. Thank you. >> Yep. The clubs and activities um number you see in the expenditure side is for the the salaries the clubs the sports stipens coaching stipens and the club advisor hourly rate that we pay out. Are there any other
045questions from board members on the presentation? No. I have one question and that is under the employee benefits and district costs. Dr. Yates that you had 27 million. What is the other district costs? What falls under that? >> Yeah, good question. So, in the budget sheets I sent everybody, that detail was there. So, if you wanted reference because I won't remember everything off the top of my head, it's all listed there. But the district also has to pay for its contribution to the PERS pension for our PERS employees. That's over a million dollars for us, almost one and a half million. We have to pay for FICA for all of our PERS and non-Taff employees. Um, included in there is the district's uh legal costs, other fees. I would say any uh software services that
046the district has. I could pull it up here, but it would take me just a couple minutes to do. But it would be every other cost that's allocated not within a department budget and not benefits. Benefits is the largest number in that um in that cost there. >> Thank you, Dr. Smith. I think >> Oh, I'm sorry. And our the a large cost there is also we have to ensure our facilities against risk and loss. So our property, our casualty, our workers comp insurance is all included in that district cost number. >> Good question. >> I was going to make sure everybody understood that this uh the testimony is next week and you have to register for that. There's inperson and there's also a virtual opportunity. And I wanted to share that we I don't
047know what day we're we're going. We have a group going. I'm excited. >> Caravan, right? >> Somebody's going to have to drive me because I don't like driving up 295. >> And so we're we have a good group together that are going I know Dr. Smith was going to ask others in the administration or >> staff to join us. We're yeah, we're coordinating with ETA on um it worked really well last year to have that diversity of stakeholder voices, right? Board, teachers, administration. We want the same thing this year. We're going to add students as well this year. So, >> great. Thank you. Y >> happy to hear that. So now we're going to go into public comment. This will be public comment on on agenda items only. Just in case anyone is not aware,
048we have two public comment periods. First comment period is for agenda items only and the second public comment period at the end of the evening is for anything that you wish to discuss. This meeting will now be open to the public referencing agenda items only. However, if your questions pertain to student or personnel items or negotiations, we ask that you see the superintendent after the meeting. Since we do not discuss these matters in public, we ask that you limit your comments to three minutes per person. It's also crucial for you, well, I wouldn't say crucial, but I'm going to say please give your name and address before you speak. And we are also limiting uh one comment per person per comment period. Is there anyone who would like to comment on agenda items only? Don't
049be shy. Come on now. >> Good evening. [clears throat] Good evening. My name is Brian Whiskwitz, president of Esham Township Education Association, and I did have um some members have reached out about an item on the addendum that was recently placed on the agenda. Um was the creation of a cabinet level position, director of early childhood education. Has this uh position been approved by the board? Uh was it if so, when was it discussed? Was it ever on the board minutes? Um, and does this then create an opening for director of curric curriculum instruction? That's all. So, it to work backwards from your questions, it does create an opening for director of curriculum instruction that'll be posted tomorrow. Uh, this position is being created because we've had an expansion of early childhood, right? So we
050go back in the time machine. We uh created we achieved tuition free full day kindergarten which essentially uh doubled kindergarten and we've expanded the two years of uh preschool right three and four year olds increasing our both our enrollment and the operational management needs of our district. Uh, Miss McGullik's been doing that work for since the inception of those changes. Um, it is not a sustainable situation for a district our size. Uh, for example, there's a district smaller than ours locally that added this year. So, this is a desperately needed position and um we'll be able to write off a higher percentage of her salary to the uh preschool expansion funds as a result. We discussed this um in executive session. Is there anyone else who wish to comment on agenda items at this time?
051Seeing none, then we will close that portion of the meeting. Now we will move on to approval of the minutes. Do I have a motion to approve items 6.1 and 6.2? Mr. Massen, do I have a second? Mr. Fiser. Thank you, Mr. Yates. Roll call, please. No. Um, any questions or comments on the minutes? Any questions or comments on the minutes? No. Seeing none, Mr. Yates, may I have a roll call, please? >> Roll call on the approval of minutes. Mr. Dear, we'll come back. Mr. Fischer. >> Yes. >> Noted. Mr. Dearcy also replied yes. Mr. Fischer. >> Yes. >> Thank you. >> Minelli. >> Yes. >> Mr. Compton. >> Yes. >> Mr. Masson. >> Yes. >> Mr. Pelman. >> Yes. >> Much moitz? >> Yes. >> And Mrs. Null? >> Yes. >> Motion carries.
052>> Thank you. At this point, we're going to move to item seven, the superintendence report and administrative items. Do I have a motion to approve items 7.1 through 7.6? Do I have a motion? Miss Ayanelli, second by Mr. Massen. Do before we get into any questions or comments from the board, we'll hand it over to Dr. Smith for his comments. >> Thank you, Mrs. Null. Uh, and I'm really excited to dedicate my comments to three people sitting back there. Miss Green, Mr. Delasy, Miss Fry. Um, the uh tonight's agenda contains recommendations for their reassignments effective July 1st, 2026. Mr. Delasy from Vanzant to Deacy here. Miss Green from here to Rice and Miss Fry from Rice to Vanzant. Um, you know, just to highlight that through these voluntary reassignments, the three of them are embodying
053and modeling the core values, and you can see words around this room as well. The core values that we emphasize for our students, namely teamwork, a growth mindset, and community spirit. These moves are part of our district's efforts continual and this came in through the budget presentation as well to maximize our resources and in this case our greatest resources which are our human resources. Um change brings opportunity for growth and positive. We are excited that that will we will see that unfold through these changes as they bring a new chapter for both our valued school leaders and our schools. For this and more, they are to be commended and celebrated. I commend and celebrate you. Um and we want to join and support you through this transition in that same positive spirit. So, I wish
054you wish the three of you like tremendous joy and success and uh in your work and our work together through this process. Um I don't know if you want to wave that you're not on camera, but [applause] >> thank you. >> You're welcome. Are there any questions or comments from board members? No. Seeing none, then could I have a roll call, please? Mr. Yates. >> Mr. Dear, excuse me. On administrative items, Mr. Dearcy, >> yes. >> Mr. Fischer, >> yes. >> Misselli, >> yes. >> Mr. Conton, >> yes. >> Mr. Masson, >> yes. >> Mr. Peeleman, >> yes. >> Miss Moitz, >> yes. >> And Mrs. Null, >> yes. >> That motion carries. Okay, thank you. We'll move on to item eight, curriculum and instruction. I need a motion to approve items 8.1 through 8.5.
055Do I have a motion? Mr. Fischer, second by Miss Ber Mowitz. Are there any questions or comments from the board on items 8.1 through 8.5? No. >> Okay. Mr. Yates, roll call, please. >> On curriculum and instruction, Mr. Dearcy. >> Yes. >> Mr. Fischer. >> Yes. >> Minelli. >> Yes. >> Mr. Conton. >> Yes. >> Mr. Massen. >> Yes. >> Could you say it again? >> Yes. Extension 8.3. Yes to everything else. >> Your abstension is to 8.3 is notice. >> Mr. Pman, >> yes. >> Miss Moitz, >> yes. >> And Mrs. Null. >> Yes. >> That motion carries. >> Thank you. I know this may be irregular to do, but I see Mr. Brie and Mr. Delasy. I know it's getting late. You have early morning, so it looks like you may want to
056leave. Oh, >> have a seat. >> That would be >> all. >> Now, listen, that would be perfectly acceptable, but I did not want you to leave without everybody standing up. And I have to give sincere thank you to all of you in accepting, you know, different positions. And I believe every school is going to be much stronger for it. And I think you should all be commended. >> [applause] >> I didn't I didn't want you to leave without being able to say that. >> The bones. [clears throat] >> Okay. So, let me get back into it. Now, we are going to move to item nine, finance and operations. I need a motion to approve items 9.1 through 9.12. Do I have a motion to approve finance items? Mr. Conton and second by Mr. Peeleman.
057Are there any questions or comments on finance and operations? >> Oh, I'm so sorry, Mr. Pelman. Yes. Go ahead. the part where we would go to approve the budget. Um I just want to reiterate what uh Dr. Smith and Mr. Yates said earlier. This is a tentative budget. This is not the thing that will be presented at uh for our final budget presentation. In all of the last years that I can think of, there has been changes between the tentative budget and the final budget. Um there has been a ton of conversation in the last you know several weeks amongst the board about what this means and what this budget represents. There is a lot of work that we still have to do. Uh as they said earlier we have a meeting scheduled for us
058all to get together to continue working through these things. So this is still a work in progress. This is a statutory requirement that we you know formally submit a tenative budget. But that does not mean that our work as a board is done with what the budget will be for next year. That work is still ongoing. >> Yeah. In regards to the tenative budget, I want to ensure that no st no stone has been left unturned. So I'm looking forward to continuing the collaborative conversation in our upcoming work session. Thank you, Miss Cyanelli. Mr. >> I just want to reiterate what they said too. I'm actually really looking forward to this work session. If nothing else, it's a like a step in progress of how we operate as a board and how we operate with
059the administration. So, in our time, my time here, I haven't sat through anything like this. So, I'm excited to do it and I hope it's something that can continue year over year, even in worse budget cycles or not so, you know, or easier budget cycles. I think it's just a good practice. So I'm excited to to take part in it in a couple weeks. >> Mr. Matson, >> like we're going right around the dis. Um obviously to echo the same sentiments, I'm a known to be a no stone and turn kind of person as well with Missionelli. So um I come in here very every 10 minutes my vote keeps changing because it's a very difficult decision to have. Um, but 10,00% that the work will continue to happen and I can promise our community
060that. So, >> thank you, Mr. Fiser. >> Yes, I am pretty much going to reiterate what we were just saying that um I also had a very hard time with this decision decision and before we we actually go into the vote, I just want to say that I do expect there to be adjustments before we submit this final budget. >> Thank you, Mr. Fiser. Any other comments? >> I will just add uh I just >> No, I abstain from confidence. I >> I just want to add that it's you know in executive session talking about scheduling the work session. It is apparent that the administration Mr. Yates, Dr. Smith, we will be working collaboratively and um prior to that sending questions and comments and we will be meeting then that night to go over many
061many different scenarios so that this board can be comfortable enough for a final budget in late April. So, and I am thanking the administration for collaborating with us. Okay. And no other comments or questions. Then let me see. Uh roll call please. Mr. Yates >> on finance and operations. Mr. Dearcy. >> Yes. >> Mr. Fiser. >> Yes. >> Misselli. >> No to 9.11. Yes to everything else. No to 9.11. Yes to everything else is no to Mr. Compton. >> Yes, >> Mr. Masson. >> No to 911. Yes to everything else. >> No to 9.11. Yes to everything else is noted. Mr. Peeleman. >> Yes. >> Miss Mutram Mowitz. >> Yes. >> Mrs. Null. >> Yes. >> That motion carries. >> Thank you. Now we're going to move on to personnel. Here we are. Personnel um
062items 10.1 through 1010. Do I have a motion to approve personnel items? Mrs. Ionelli and second, Miss Buchoitz. Are there any questions or comments on personnel items? >> Mr. Pantheon. >> I uh I used to laugh when I started coming to these board meetings and hearing board members talk about staff members and roll my eyes at let's get on with the meeting, but I'm going to do it today. Um this is my eighth year sitting on the board and I've only talked about one employee before. It was Mrs. Buso when she retired. Um there's a couple of soap boxes I'm always willing to get on. Um the finance soap box is one, but we're going to save that for the working session. Um, and then there's three staff soap boxes that I get on quite
063often because those staff members are quite pro. I'm always on the the Mrs. Brown Signs soap box. I'm always on the Mr. Hoffman soap box. Then the other one's the Mr. Delasy soap box. Um, so before Mr. Delazi, I just wanted to to thank Mrs. Green for for all your work at Deacy. Um, Mrs. Fry for for your work at Rice. I went to Rice. Um, and then Mr. Delasy. Uh I I pretty sure the whole board knows the public probably knows too. Um I'm going to age all of us now. He was my eighth grade teacher. Um the only reason I pursued public service is because of Mr. Delasy's class. That was a major inflection point in my life. Um so I I hope that the whole Demacy community, obviously the Vanam parents know,
064but I hope everyone knows how lucky they are to to have you as a principal moving forward. So congrats, man. Any [applause] other comments or questions or comments? Seeing none except for I do want to congratulate once again Miss Danny Mculik on her new role, exciting role of director of early childhood education. I'm sure she will be very missed in the curriculum department, but I'm happy for her and I wish you all the best. >> Mr. Yates, can I have a roll call, please? >> Yes. On personnel items, Mr. Dearcy, >> yes. >> Mr. Fischer, >> yes. >> Missionelli, >> yes. >> Mr. Conton, >> yes. >> Mr. Massen, >> yes. But abstension to 10.9 >> abstain from 10.9. Yes to the rest. Your abstension is noted. Mr. Pee, >> yes. >> Miss Moitz, >>
065yes. >> Mrs. Null, >> yes. >> That motion carries. >> Thank you. Moving on to policy. Do I have a motion to approve items 11.1 through 11.4? Mr. Massen in a second. Mr. Peeleman. Thank you. Are there any questions or comments on the current policies that are listed here on second reading? Seeing none, Mr. Yates. Roll call, please. >> On policy, Mr. Dearcy. >> Yes. >> Mr. Fischer. >> Yes. >> Minelli. >> Yes. >> Mr. Conan. >> Yes. >> Mr. Masson. Yes, >> Mr. Pilman. >> Yes, >> Miss Bucher Mowitz. >> Yes, >> and Mrs. Null. >> Yes. >> The motion carries. >> Thank you. Next, moving on to committee reports. >> Do we have any committee chairs who would like to present any summary of committees that happened this month? Mrs. I just wanted
066to um note we had to reschedu the CPAG meeting because of weather. So there is going to be um a rescheduled general CPAG meeting. Um it will be on April 13th at Jagard School. So just be on the lookout for communication. There will be an updated flyer going out. >> Thank you, Mrs. Ionelli. Is there anyone else who would like to share a committee report? >> I mean, I wasn't really planning on saying anything, but I'm sorry. >> We met on curriculum. >> We did. Yeah. And and you know, just I don't have much to say here other than the audit is going for the uh the ELA side of things. So, that is ongoing. Um the preschool lottery has been out since we met last. So, a bunch of three and four-year-olds were welcomed
067to open spots. So, I don't have the numbers off hands, but I know we've added more and we [snorts] are servicing >> 525 preschoolers now, which is which is pretty cool. Um, so I just wanted to kind of make note of that since that happened since our last meeting. Um, other than that, we are just awaiting the audit report out which will happen in June. >> Thank you. Anyone else? I just wanted to add and Dr. Smith, you may have been have said this in the end, but I just want to remind everybody we were supposed to have the um NJSBA present the strategic planning plan this month, but it's postponed till the April 30th meeting. And I I encourage everybody to come out. We worked hard. We had the planning sessions, Dr. Smith and
068ADM admin worked very hard to put together action plans and as a board we're looking forward to seeing the end product from the representative from New Jersey School Boards Association. He'll be presenting at our April meeting. Okay. So up next we have old business. We don't have any old business. So now we will move into new business. We don't have any new business. Next, we'll move into the open public comment. This is the public comment period for any items of interest. However, if your questions or comments pertain to litigation, student or personnel items, or negotiations, we ask that you see the superintendent after the meeting. Since we do not discuss these matters in public, please limit your comments to three minutes per person. And also, please state your name and address as you comment. >>
069My name is Patty Mer. I live on Blancher Road in Marlton. I've been here for 40 years. I was an employee for 22 years. Um, I just have a question. I remember hearing about reopening Evans school. Is that still on the table? Anybody? >> I >> So typically you would finish all your questions and then if the board desires to comment they would do so at >> Well, that's my question. And if if that is I really need somebody to explain to me. So, we closed Evans School in 2017. Our and according to your last audit um and Dr. Smith said tonight our enrollment is 4,700 now. So, that's we're up 254 students from 2017. So, with all the cuts, all the money we're losing from the state, how can we justify reopening a school?
070So, I'm just asking the board to please look really consider. It makes no sense to me. I >> I'd be glad to answer that. And um and and Patty, it's great to see you. I haven't seen you in so long because I hope retirement's going well and uh grandkids and and everything. So, uh it's it's it's awesome. Um appreciate everything you did for us as a driver and then as assistant coordinator and then as transportation coordinator over the years. So, um >> yeah, it's great to see you. Um and appreciate your questions. So, no. So, short answer, no. Um, we initially were considering, this is some years ago, >> reopening Evans. However, and I think the presentation tonight underlined the many and large variables that are beyond a district's control, Evans is more valuable to
071us for its revenue, right? So, we are continuing to seek additional revenue through Evans and we are opening Evans Preschool Center in a portion the portion that's like pointing towards 73 if you're there where Sequoia is currently some portion of that. We anticipate generating additional revenue through leasing more of it in the coming year and uh so no back to your question no plan to reopen it. That I would also add that that number 4700 reflects the growth of preschool. Our K5 and our K8 enrollment is static. Little ups and downs here but basically like bounces along in the same zone. the growth is through preK and we have numerous private providers that we work with in town. So, so there's a a good number of those kids aren't in our our schools. They're with
072private providers. Okay. So, >> thank you very much. I appreciate. Also, I forgot I wanted to start with thanking you for live streaming your meetings because although I don't come anymore, I do watch all of them. So, thank you. who wishes to comment on any items of interest, please step forward and state your name and address. >> Hi, my name is Rosemary Bernardi, 10 Halifax Court East. Um, I apologize I'm late, so I didn't get to comment on the budget session, but um, I just want to uh, come forward and as a taxpayer say that I'm a little um, that that number that was presented is a little eye openening to me that you actually were thinking about going for a tax increase this year after the taxpayers gave a four 14.2 million tax levy.
073Um, so I hope that the board I don't know how you guys voted um that you uh it's tenative that between now and when you actually adopt the budget that it includes a 0% tax levy increase. Um I wrote to you all ahead of time that we're walking into um you guys have additional re revenue since the budget was last adopted last year. Um also you have additional state aid. Um I do understand you have some you know uh expenses and the health benefits plan and also for out of district tuition. Um however uh 11% increase from expenses from last year this year is actually a lot. So I I encourage you all to really look at the budget. Um the other thing I will say from an advocacy perspective, I was very um disheartened
074to hear that, you know, the state was going to put the 6% cap because technically if you look behind the scenes, the state's holding back $2.2 million for uh special education, transportation, and security aid. So that is something that we echam township, everyone should be advocating for the lift of the 6% state aid cap because that's $2.2 $2 million that we are actually entitled to. So I hope you all will uh continue advocate for it. So again, I really hope that you will present a zero um tax levy increase for next year. Thank you. Seeing no more um people wanting to comment, we will move on to board member announcements. Do I have any board member who would like to make an announcement? >> Mr. Mass. Hi. >> As I do in typically every meeting,
075I like to be transparent and explain. Um so my abstensions were due to family conflict. Um, but I also wanted to echo and congratulate once again and thank Miss Green for her service at the Macy schools. And you were right about Mr. Delasi. He stood up and eventually worked his way out the back. Yeah. Yep. But but Miss Fry, >> they were not stretching legs. That was >> the new era of Vans begins with Miss Fry. So, thank you for staying. Right. No. Um, but obviously we have an amazing administrative staff and we have an amazing staff in general. um top to bottom and it's it's it's hard for some right to have change and and I'm not a good person to change myself. Uh however, these are all the students in EAM township in
076one way or another and affect a lot a lot of families. So, it's great. Um I would also like just really microphone. I just want to really quick out doing that. Um Shar Lal and uh PBS at the Macy. Um they held a uh pep rally a few weeks ago here at the Macy and Miss Green, you were involved and the VPs and all the and the staff and I had the joy to be here for most of the morning. Um and see three grades of smiling faces in two halls. Um just really enjoy the morning and the recognition for a job well done. So, it's great to be here, especially in the positive ways to be able to reinforce and show that uh where we are in the community. So, thanks. >> Thank you,
077Mr. Conton. >> Yes, I would like to commend Mrs. Fry and Mrs. Green for staying till the end of the meeting. [laughter] >> Yes, they have early morning starts, too. We should also shout out district wellness night which is coming up. >> That's coming up. A lot is coming up next week. >> 4th here six o'clock. 6:30 district wellness night. 6:30 here at Demacy. >> Say it again. >> Tuesday the 24th. Um we look forward to it's always a fun time. There's all kinds of fun things for the kids to promote wellness in conjunction with wellness week. So hope everybody can make it out. And also to add the STEM night at I believe it's at Marlton Middle. I know my son is involved at Marlton Middle. STEM night on Wednesday, March 25th approximately 6
078PM. Don't know exactly. We had to get there earlier, but so yeah, STEM night. It's for the also Damascia and Marlton Middle together happening at Marlton Middle. And there will be different stations and you know the the kids will then be doing different experiments and so on. They'll show us what they are actually doing in some of the um ADT and all of that. So it's it's I I recommend coming out for that. And I don't know if there's anything else. >> I just want to add one more thing and I also want to second earlier to congratulate Miss McGolick on her new position. um big shoes to fill obviously but you know as as obviously progressive growth and finding a new director of curriculum will be a great position for the district. So thank
079you again congratulations. [applause] [clears throat] Okay let me just move on here. Okay. So, if we're finished with board announcements for short, then we will uh motion to adjurnn. Do I have a motion to adjurnn? So, move >> Mr. Massen. Second, Miss Ayanelli. All in favor? I I thank you all.