001[Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Hey, hey, hey. [Music] Where are you? [Music] Hey, hey, hey. [Music] Happy. X. Hey. Hey. Hey. [Music] in the courier post following written notice with the municipal clerk of East Township. Mr. Yates, can we have a roll call, please? Roll call. Mr. Brown will be remote. He's not with us at the moment, right? Nobody has him on phone. Okay. Miss Bramoitz here. Mr. Dearcy here. Miss Fox here. Mrs. Null is absent. Mr. Thompson here. Mr. Peeleman here. Mr. Bach here and Mr. Compton here. We have a quarum. Thank you. Mr. Yates will now enter an motion to enter executive session. Whereas an NJSA 104-12 will ask for a public body to go into close session during a public meeting. And whereas the board of education of Esham Township deemed it necessary
002to go into close session to discuss certain matters which are exempted from the public. And whereas the regular meeting of the board of education will reconvene following the end of close session at approximately 6:30 p.m. Now, therefore, be it resolved that the board of education will go into close session for the following reasons as outlined in NJSA 104-12, matters involving personnel and attorney client privilege. Do we have a motion to enter executive session? Motion by Miss Bramoit, seconded by Mr. Thompson, Mr. Yates, roll call, please. On executive session, Miss Bucher Mowitz, yes. Mr. Dearcy, yes. Miss Fox, yes. Mr. Thompson, yes. Mr. Peeleman, yes. Mr. Bach, yes. Mr. Conton, yes. That motion carries. Thank you. We'll see you back at approximately 6:30 p.m. EST. [Music] Test test test. [Music] Test [Music] test. One, two, 3.
003[Music] Test test test. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey. [Music] Hey, hey, hey. Hey, hey, [Music] Hey, hey, hey. [Music] Hey, hey, hey. Heat. Hey, Heat. [Music] Hey, hey, hey. [Music] Thank you. Hey, hey, hey. Hey, hey, hey. Hey, hey, hey. [Music] Hallelujah. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Hey, hey, hey. Heat. Heat. [Music] All right. [Music] Hey, hey, hey. Heat. Heat. [Music] down. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] around. Hey [Music] Hey, hey, hey. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Hey, hey, hey. [Music] Hey, hey, hey. [Music] Heat. Heat. [Music] Hey, hey, hey. All right. [Music] Would all those who are able please rise for the pledge? I pledge allegiance to Godice. Thank you. Our mission statement tonight will be read by Mr. Dearcy. The mission of the Esham Township School District is to promote excellence in
004an environment that engages students in meaningful learning experiences in partnership with students, dedicated staff, families, and community. The district provides a strong educational foundation that will empower our students to achieve their unique potential. embrace self-directed lifelong learning, develop the skills necessary for appropriate risk-taking and responsible decision-making, respect them, respect themselves and others, problem solve individually and collaboratively, and become contributing members of a diverse global society. Thank you, Mr. Dearcy. A note about how tonight's agenda is going to run. Dr. Smith is going to give a presentation about the additional tax levy. After that, the board is going to deliberate in public about that presentation. After that, we will open the floor to public comment. you will all have your opportunity to speak and then we will vote after we hear your comments. Please during today's
005meeting, let us deliberate. Please keep us noise to a minimum while we deliberate and we will do the same during your public comments and then we'll vote at the very end. So, we will hear everyone before we vote. Dr. Smith, the floor is yours. Good evening to the board and everyone in attendance either here in person or attending remotely. This is our fourth budget meeting within about the last two months. Uh what makes this one tonight different from the other ones is that tonight is about the chance to build, the chance to add, the chance to improve the ways that we're able to support students and moving our district forward. That is the first time we've been able to talk about that in at least five years. About a week ago, the state provided an
006opportunity for districts who are below adequacy. So unfortunately, we are very firmly in that group of districts. We are 15 million below adequacy. And what the state is saying is that a district that is below adequacy can raise additional local tax levy up to that full amount by which they are below. Eligible districts must have a special board meeting by April 14th. That's our meeting tonight to approve a board resolution to submit an application to the state for that additional amount of tax levy sought along with its intended uses. And granted, this this opportunity brings with it many many factors that require consideration. It is a an opportunity absolutely unique in its magnitude for us. We have the opportunity to raise about $14.2 million to which the state as part of this opportunity says they
007will contribute 5% of that total amount which would be about $710,000 to a total of 14 million 922,643. That's the amount I am recommending that we take as a district. That amount right there just brings us to adequacy. And we have talked many times through our own calculations about a number very close to that which is 16 million which based on the state's data taxpayer guide to education spending. Knowing our per pupil cost compared to the per pupil cost statewide for K8s we calculated we were about 16 short of having a budget that's average for our size. How can I How can anyone stand here in front of this opportunity and say that we are going to take less than adequate less than average for our kids. The state is not going to save our
008district. The state is giving us this chance to save ourselves. We recently testified in Trenton, two days, one in Trenton, one in Newark. ETA board representation, district administration. The day in Newark spawned a productive discussion afterwards with the senators on the budget hearing panel who expressed um dismay and agreement with us that there is this artificial and arbitrary 6% cap on state aid increases and that would need to be solved. Well, what we have instead is this opportunity. the cap is still there, but we have this chance to take additional tax levy. And that's pretty much been the story all along every year, right? The the solution is for communities to save themselves. Our mission is kids. Our mission statement is students. It doesn't say that mission includes keeping taxes at a certain level. It
009doesn't even bench taxes at all. What would we do with that additional local levy? Well, first we would address the steps and reductions from our prior budget presentations. And we started those presentations this year earlier than any other earlier than other districts because of the amount of deficit we were facing. So just going down this list, we would maintain elementary extracurriculars, maintain elementary and middle school late buses, pause the increases to walking, maintain middle school and elementary class sizes. That's a big one. We would maintain benefits for our pair of professionals who had them at the time when our district stopped hiring pair professionals full-time. So that would just leave seven who um were not benefited at that time who would lose benefits and we would maintain the team structure. No class in place of
010team time. We will look to explore ways to increase teacher contact time during that during that time span. But it keeps our team structure which is so um core to our identity of our middle schools intact. Transportation. So transportation was not on that list of things to maintain. Two reasons. One budgetary savings. Second reason, operational challenges. We outsource twothirds of our bus routes already. What else will we do beyond that? So that first slide was maintaining what we've already said would have to be reduced if we don't take this additional levy, any of it. This slide is about trying to help our district move upward and forward towards adequacy. things that districts with adequacy, with an average budget enjoy and benefit from for their students, like reducing our elementary class size back to its max
011sizes from 2122 school year, restoring secretaries in place of Kirk Typus in the in two middle school offices. Many of these positions, by the way, are things that were cut or reduced in prior budget years. restoring full funding of the one tier three position whose cost is currently shared with the Ed Foundation which we greatly appreciate that support from the Ed Foundation and that shared agreement needs a lasting solution. We would restore our fund balance to the 2% maximum which is recommended. Maintain our bus aid positions because it's more costly to outsource them. Add to utilities, add an intervention team for general education, which represents three support positions, social worker, behaviorist, and counselor. These and these go handinand with the next one, which is adding two 10-month assistant principal positions for elementary. And the reason
012for those is our elementary schools are are large. It may not feel like it here because it's what we know, but if you look around and compare to other towns, our elementary schools are very large and they need more support. Case manager, that would address our case management ratios. Add a math interventionist at each elementary school. Again, core right next to reading. We have reading intervention. We don't have a math intervention position. We need it. adequate districts have it. Two related arts positions, for example, in physical education, that would decrease class size again, and we eliminated two of those positions in a previous budget year. Lastly, maintain the building technology position, which we were going to uh phase out through this budget. The last piece, infrastructure improvements. So, we would restore 500,000 of maintenance reserves,
013which we depleted drastically last year as uh again a way to save off cuts as long as possible. And lastly, the capital reserves health, safety, and security. Um these are urgent needs which we have been looking at possibly but it would take years to get there through a bond referendum. The reality is we need this we need this improvement now. The heat pumps for example just to that carries the biggest price tag. One system in every room 700 rooms total 3 to 5,000 per unit. Um, I remember going to Deacy last year in the spring. We had a we had to evacuate because the smoke was coming out of one of them. Um, that's that's that that's what I'm talking about, that heat pump. And um, that money would let us start replacing them right
014away. As it is right now, um, it's it's very challenging. They're so old that um, they they really are are barely available anymore. roof replacements, parking lot replacements, HVAC controls, other capital projects. Our um maintenance department is fantastic at keeping aging components going, but they're beyond their uh recommended age. We need to address those things. And then lastly, technology upgrades. This is a topic that's come up in various ways um as uh you know phone system and the PA system in our building struggle. That's a security issue. We need to address that. That's a subtotal of 8 million together. Those three slides total for the 14.9 million tax impact three scenarios. If we take none of this additional opportunity, taxes go up 5.4%. If we take some, they go up 15.4%. An additional levy. And
015if we um take all, it goes up 25.4%. And those those numbers are are big, right? So is 15 million under adequacy. We've been at this point before as a district um standing at a fork in the road with decision to make about a path forward and um every time we've picked what is best for students during COVID we went with inerson full days tuition free full day kindergarten we were one of the last districts to achieve that. It makes a little more sense now looking at the, you know, for anyone who didn't um see that 16 million number before to see now we're 15 million under adequacy. We did that because it was good for kids. Our community did that because it was good for kids. Tuitionfree preschool. Again, this fall we achieved the
016largest grant awarded statewide. It's good for kids. And now here we are again at a fork, a historic fork in the road for our district. A chance to solve this yearly ongoing budget crisis which creates harm and tra trauma across our community. It's it's within our power tonight to solve that. To help our kids reach their fullest potential, to help our staff help our kids reach their fullest potential. Our students deserve it. Our staff deserve it. The choice is ours. And I open up to questions and discussion from the board. Any questions or comments from the board? Mr. Dearcy, Dr. Smith. Um, do you have any insight as far as how the state of New Jersey deems what is adequate as far as the local fair share or how much property taxes residents should be
017paying in quotation marks. So, I'll if I can address that question in two parts. So, um I would say that in their definition of adequacy, they're not they're leaving it up to local communities to determine how much tax le they want to take, if that makes sense. So, the states the state's not saying I believe they're saying the solution only lies with you at the local level, but I I there's nothing in that information that says they're saying how much we should take. Though I would say um adequacy embedded in that word is an educational recommendation when it comes to say class size. No district no district wants to be in the situation that we're in where we're talking about the class sizes we're talking about. So, and I'll I'll just say that's one of
018the recommendations we got from the county review of the budget. But how do you solve how do you solve class size when you're 15 million under adequacy? Well, tonight tonight is how we solve So, Dr. Smith, I guess my question is what what's the logic behind $15 million? Why did the state say that $15 million should be our figure as opposed to any financial figure? Yeah, I'm gonna let Mr. Yates tackle. Yeah. So, the state has a calculation for determining adequacy for school districts in New Jersey. So, through that calculation and then determine where we're at with our levy, the difference is our what we're short on adequacy. Now, how they their exact calculation on what they determine for us is based on like cost per pupil and student needs and a whole bunch of
019factors that I'm not an expert on. I would say just in correlary to that is uh Like in the worst way it felt confirming to hear that number because we've been saying the number 16 million which is directly off of the DOE website taxpayer guide to education spending. Anyone can go on there and check it out. There's a couple dozen indicators and they break down spending in districts according to these indicators. So the first one is budgetary cost per pupil, which is kind of a macro indicator, and then it gets more micro as you work your way through. And you can see things like for a district that's fourth leanest statewide in the K8s, you can see where we're on the worst end of so many ratios within that those indicators, right? uh students to
020teacher, students to administrator, teachers to administrator, budgetary cost per pupil, classroom spending, dot dot dot, all the way down. To me, however they're calculating the adequacy, it's the fact that it lines up, it dovtales so well with another number that they're providing from other data that is accessible to us tells me that adequate and average are probably in the same ballpark if that makes sense. So basically what you're telling me is the state has a fixed number of how much it costs to educate a kid as far as how much it costs to educate a kid in EUM township. And so they come to us and say based on how much we think it costs to educate a kid, this is the figure that you should be at. Right? Because the only thing that I'm
021kind of struggling with is is previously speaking, right, our boards have managed to live within a certain means. Obviously, the state took away seven plus billion dollars in funding. Uh that severely adjusted the means in which we could live by uh or I guess pass a budget by, I should say. Um and now as a result we are being punished for living within those means as opposed to just taking the easy option of you know raise the taxes every year as much as we possibly can. Yeah. Sorry if I can just add something. Um to think of it may help to think of it another way. um when they're saying adequacy for budget purposes, they're saying the funding level that's necessary to provide a thorough and efficient education. So I know that there are just
022two more words out there, but basically you're saying, okay, we're we're providing a thorough and efficient education for the students in this district. So just another lens to look at that through. Are they basically saying in a perfect world that is the funding we should be getting from the state? They're acknowledging that we're not and basically giving us the opportunity to take it from the taxpayers instead. See, because my understanding to this is that a lot of districts in New Jersey, right, they were falling below that thorough and efficient mark, right? So, what the state then did is they decided we're going to give them 37 $37,000 per pupil, some districts even higher, right? as opposed to us where they're now looking at us and saying, "Oh, well, you know, sucks to be EAM Township.
023Now, you got to go to your taxpayers instead." Right? I mean, I don't know if there's any thought as to where it comes to being on the loser end of this. Um, it's it's just when we present that we might have to raise taxes up to $1,000, right? Or nearly $1,000 on the average assessed household. Um, I I think people want to know the answer to that question. Can I add about the the state updated their ed uh education adequacy report? They do that every three years and they did that recently. So they hadn't been updating the numbers per student over time and now they have adjusted for inflation and other things. So now the actual number that the state says it should cost to, you know, educate one student jumped up and now we're
024below adequacy. That's how that all happened. Where prior they said we were operating above adequacy cuz those numbers were not being updated. Now we're below adequacy, but we're not getting any more money from the state. So due to their own recalculation, we are now below adequacy where we should have been above all along had they updated in kind and now they're leaving it to us. Okay. The numbers are updated every three years and they were just updated. I I I would go back to uh in terms of what we can access and look at. It's all publicly available, but that 15 million number and that 16 million number are almost identical. And if you go into that taxpayer guide, you can see exactly how woefully inadequate our budget is. However it got there, however it
025got to that point, and we can and that is of concern and interest, right? Also though, is what do we do now? Right? because where we are is where we are and tonight is about where we want to go. And that's Dr. Smith, I I I totally understand. You know, you're trying to keep us on the track of the conversation. It's just I'm I'm pushing back on the idea of of what this adequacy is, right? Because to me, they pulled this $15 million number pie in the sky, right? They said, "Okay, well, this is what you could raise your taxes up to in order to make up the difference, right?" Um, which we know our deficit this year was it was $7.1 million by itself, right? And then um you also had the the capital
026projects that we're talking about which are obviously dire needs for the district. Uh that being said though um you know when it comes to taking a look at what we're going to do tonight right I don't think that we should be looking back to the boards of education's decisions 10 15 20 years ago and what they decided to tax residents at based on the information they had at the time and then saying okay well now we have to meet up to that level that they chose not to go up to because again it wasn't our decision decision to decrease our revenue by the $7 million that we lost from S2. So, there has to be some kind of a middle ground in where we're finding uh you know, where we're going to take care of
027what we need to take care of as regards to this budget and plan for future budgets. Also asking the question, do we really need the full $15 million in additional levy to accomplish that? I I have a quick question to to add on to this. Does any of the admin or you know really anybody if they could fill in how much additional tax dollars on the average assessed home were added as a result of S2? So since 2018, how much just for the school board's perspective, right, on how much we tax the average assessed home has that gone up by? If anybody has that number, you know, that'd be that'd be great. We'd have to run an analysis on that. That would be I guess anything in addition to north of uh 2% of our
0282% each year and then the right. So what I'm saying is the 2% each year plus last year we were to take additional money and then you know so but are you applying only the additional authority that was provided to us through S2 not just standard adjustments to 2%. I'm saying I'm saying across the board. across the board including the standard 2% plus the uh additional adjustment. Right. And I know you we might not have that exact figure. You know, even if it's a ballpark of of some sort from we could run a calculation for you. Okay. Thank you. I have a couple of questions, but one probably for Mr. creates only because I think the the public has been asking about this and I was hoping you could maybe shed some light on the
029prek grant, the pea money and the raising taxes for full day kindergarten. What if any impact has that had on our financial situation over the last two years? Has that made us Has that caused a shortfall? Have we taken money out of the general fund? There's a lot of questions about that. Uh so I'll answer in two parts. Full day kindergarten. Uh this district had the special question that was passed in November um 2023, I believe. And um that was to provide $2,90,000 uh of which the majority was for full day kindergarten and a portion was for mental health related services. That number was added to your tax base. Um and that gets compounded with 2% every each year thereafter. So, it increased your tax base, helping support the general fund budget and the associated
030costs or expenditures that were assigned to that for for kindergarten purposes. For your preschool funding, um that's a a grant provided by the state of New Jersey. So, funded separately, no impact on your general fund in terms of uh expenses get assigned to that grant. They're not they're not uh assigned in your general fund. So the general fund budget, the presentations that we presented at February and March when we were discussing revenues, that funding is exclusive of PEA funding because that is accounted for separately and no impact on your general fund. I will say though in the first year in which we had that funding. So this year because at the time we were passing the budget last year, we did weren't aware we were going to be receiving that funding, those salaries of preschool
031teachers were accounted for in the general fund budget. So all of those salaries and the associated uh aids that are in the classroom shifted over our calculation. Uh and that was as of I want to say sometime in January when we ran that for some members of the the board. Um at that time we were looking at over $640,000 in net positive to the general fund as a result of receiving the preschool funding. Okay. And then each year thereafter, those salaries are removed from the general fund. And no, they're permanently reduced from the general fund. And the money that was that is being used to outfit the bathrooms to bring them up to code that was accounted for in the $640,000 surplus. Right. Okay. Thank you. You're welcome. Could I stay with the preschool? So
032the 640,000 approximately, is that something we would expect to see every year? Would it change? Would it decrease increase? Do you have any idea? No, it wouldn't be that'd be a tough question to answer because any given year you could encounter any number of expenditures. I can tell you that the preschool funding, we don't just assign to it dollar for dollar. We assign to it uh estimated expenditures, things for like required maintenance in the facilities in which the preschool program is run. So Rice Elementary School is a good example of that. We do build a budget into the preschool funding for uh Rice Elementary School for required maintenance. Should we encounter uh a certain system that might go down there, maybe a roof replacement or a mold remediation project in one of those classrooms or
033that can be assigned a portion towards the preschool there, which about 50% of the population there is preschool students, then we can use some of that funding towards those projects. So it does it it not only permanently reduces expenditures in the general fund, it also provides us with flexibility towards expenditures in the general fund or towards expenditures that we would otherwise have to pay for out of the general fund. Okay. I know you did that this year with Rice and that the the mold remediation or roof repair came. So we had a mold remediation project at Rice. So unanticipated, right? We would never know that that was going to happen. We encountered that in the summertime prior to receiving our acceptance with the grant or the funding, excuse me. Um, so had we not had
034the funding, that let's say $85,000 expense would have been charged to the general fund exclusively. But because we had the funding this year, we were able to charge it to the funding because it took place in preschool classrooms. Okay. Another question on preschool. for my own knowledge. Are you able to pay for some of the utilities? Because we talk about the utilities and the increase you anticipate. Do we use some of the preschool money for the utilities at Rice? We don't right now charge some of it towards utilities because we are charging uh a significant portion of it towards assigned expenditures like teacher salaries. Um, we're also charging off a portion of many admin salaries. So, a portion of the principal salaries, the custodial salaries that are there, a portion of your executive admin team
035as well. Um, so we are seeing it. If we don't charge off a portion there, we could certainly charge it off the utilities, but it would just be a net zero for us. But in the future, as the grant or as the program expands, there might be more flexibility to start charging more towards some of those other things as well. Okay. Very, very good. Thank you. You're welcome. I have a question as it pertains to the way our budget works and I know we kind of outlined this, but I just want to make it really clear. Um or our agenda, sorry. um tonight, uh item 6.1, the vote on that is pretty much, and I'm going to explain it in layman's terms, voting yes or no on whether or not to explore the option of
036taking the amount of money. We're not voting on any specific dollar amount. We're not voting on any specific percentage. Um, we're voting specifically on getting into the point of of looking into how much we're going to take. Am I correct on that? Yeah. The the So, yeah. So, 6.1 it outlines our opportunity that we are eligible for an additional $15ish million of additional tax levy. It does not specify in 6.1 how much of it we should take. Um it is just an acknowledgement that we are eligible. So our our task here tonight is twofold. From a voting perspective in 6.1, we need to vote whether or not we should acknowledge that we are eligible for that 15 million. If the board is not interested in taking any of that $15 million, we should be voting
037no. If you're interested in any amount between $1 and $15 million, you should be voting yes. Additionally, as a result of these deliberations, we should be providing guidance to Mr. Yates and the business office as to how to build the budget. There are three slides that were presented today. A slide that restores cuts that were previously proposed, a slide that has additional additions to um the general fund, and then a slide for the capital reserves. We should be giving direction to the business office which of those slides we are interested in pursuing if we are voting yes. Okay. And because the budget sorry the the budget has to get built before our final v budget vote that takes weeks that takes months. Um and the business office needs that direction as a result of today's
038meeting and our final budget vote next meeting. Correct. Can we get into the infrastructure capital reserve conversation? Um, I'm not even really sure what my question is other than I know half of the money that we're going after potentially is going to infrastructure capital reserve projects. Um, I know a lot is needed. Um, I guess the big question, the main question is $7 million needed to achieve what it is the district wants to achieve for first and foremost safety for our kids and just, you know, long range planning for what has to get done in the ideal time frame that it has to get done in. So, I'm not I guess I mean I know our experts are here. So I guess the question is you know in your perspective you know is it a
039dire situation like is it is it this is something that we need to do now? Terry can I Yeah. So we're going to just introduce Tom Donahghue our certified educational facilities manager and we have Brian Peterson here as well our maintenance for person. Um and you we asked them to come tonight for the board and for the public to answer some of the questions that the board might have regarding our infrastructure. Yeah, Mr. Yates, before we we hand it over, I know that the question was about the $7 million. Mr. Petot, just from a overall perspective, our current analysis says that from a capital expenditures and a capital projects perspective, we anticipate between 80 and $100 million of of projects that need to be undertaken as a board of education to get our buildings up
040to snuff. Gotcha. Thank you. Yep. Yeah, we are really in need of replacing our equipment. The equipment and everything that's in the buildings is 25 to 35 years old and they're failing at a great rate and it's time that we have to move forward with looking to replace the equipment that we have. It's uh it's a bad situation and you can't get parts anymore. the equipment. You can't go and buy a part for it. You have to go to an aftermarket or something like that. And there there's no guarantee. Uh when the system was installed, I was here and it was brought up that we did all water source heat pumps because it was cutting edge. You know, we we did it. And if you look at our record, there's never been a day that
041I've been here for 30 years that schools been closed because of any malfunction. We take care of the equipment the best we can, but unfortunately the age of the equipment is at a point. It's no different than your home. Uh your air conditioner at home, if it's 30 years old, you could turn it on tomorrow and it's going to quit. You It's, you know, there's nothing guaranteeing that it's going to run. So, our goal is to try and start getting back to where we need to be. And unfortunately, we've never had the funding to to do that. So Tom, could you or Brian talk to the board since you mentioned heat pumps a little bit about what heat pumps are, how many approximately we have, where they're located, uh the age of them, um and
042where you're now sourcing parts. Yeah. Uh the heat pump is the same thing that a lot of people in Marlton have. They have heat pumps. A heat pump is a an air conditioner and a heater all built into one. Uh we have over 700 heat pumps in our district. which means there's a heat pump in every room, hallways, rooms. Uh so, you know, it's a system that works. If you have a big system in a building and it goes bad, everybody's got to go home because you can't stay in the building. It's cold. When a heat pump goes out in this building, we take it out, repair it, put it back in. So, you know, we make sure that every classroom has heat and cooling for the time that they need it and the the
043temperatures that when it's needed. And, you know, I think we do an outstanding job at what we do in our department because we got all this equipment. We got equipment 35 years old that we still have running. And, you know, it's it's a point where you can't get the parts to fix it. You go to aftermarket. The aftermarket is triple the price of what it would have been. But the manufacturers stopped making parts. They don't make parts for these anymore. They moved on to their newer models, their new additions. And unfortunately, it gets more costly to fix the old than it does to replace it, believe it or not. So, it it's it's bad. And it's it's not a good situation. Well, first, thank you. Thank you both because I don't think they make them
044like you guys anymore either if I'm being honest. Um, you know, just we're lucky to have you because you can fix things on site when we need it and we don't have to outsource that at the moment. So, we're very fortunate in that regard. Um, but I guess what I'm having trouble squaring and this might be a question for you is, you know, we have 80 $90,000 worth of project million dollars worth of projects ahead of us. We're voting on potentially socking away $7 million in a potential tax levy tonight. So, what does that look like year-over-year? And is it is it enough? Is it too much? Is it, you know, how does that square with what we're faced with tonight to decide? Well, it's the most you can get. Wow. True. Yeah. Um, so
045is it enough? No, it's not enough. Uh, like our our district probably needs, and our estimates, talking with professionals, this is not my guess, is about 80 to$100 million. And that's just based on what current referendums are going to cost approximately about each building. And when you think about what goes into those things, you're going to restore facade and envelopes. So, roof, um, windows, doors, entryways, uh, covered passageways, all those things. You're probably going to, uh, work on water retention. You'll also work on surface. So, your your per impermeable surfaces like your, uh, sidewalks, your curbing, your uh, parking lots. You'd also be working on all of your HVAC systems, and all of your mechanical systems. So when you go for a referendum, those are typically the things that are going to come back as
046priorities. The biggest issue that our district is facing is over the course of S2, these gentlemen and their department have had to now play catchup every single day. If you could let Brian talk a little bit about his maintenance staff and just how much that they're just chasing their tails on a daily basis. And I want to circle back to the referendum question. Thank you. Good evening everybody. How are you? So yeah, I have a staff um seven maintenance guys. Um you know, I've been uh with the district now 22 years, uh 15 as a supervisor and um our preventative maintenance in in my opinion is is second to none. Try to stay on a preventive maintenance so we can be very proactive. Um but over the past say five years now it's become reactive
047because the equipment fails more times than we can do preventive maintenance on it. And as Tom was talking about um with the units that we have our heat pumps um and the parts not being available anymore. What happens is um they have a replacement part which is great because the manufacturer recommends that replacement part. When that becomes obsolete, we now become a retrofit. So in order to retrofit something, my staff and I, we have to look and say, you know, is it safe? Is it going to be safe to retrofit that? because the manufacturer of the equipment, they're not going to support you doing a a retrofit like that. Now, the the manufacturer of the part, he's going to help you walk through it, but you know, sometimes it's just not feasible. A couple of
048the buildings, um, like Tom said, you know, 1989 equipment was installed. A quarter of the building is 1989. Uh that manufacturer went out probably 15 years ago. Um they were bought by McQuay. McQuay went out of business. They were bought by Dacon. Um now Dacon doesn't want to support McQuay anymore. So it becomes extremely difficult for us to find parts um that we're going to fa feel safe and comfortable um putting in on a daily basis. Um and as Mr. 8 said, you know, the uh seven $7 million is a real good start. We have a lot of equipment. We have a lot of infrastructure that um you know can be replaced right now, but 7 million is is is really just the start. So to uh thank you guys. So to um answer your
049question a little bit, one of the the biggest challenges that this district faces and this is something that uh we've talked with our facilities and finance committee is there's we have depleted our reserves over the course of S S2. Um we've made withdrawals and not been able to make deposits back in. Um and so now we have a million and a half in capital and about $500,000 in maintenance. for a district of our size, that is frighteningly uh a small amount. And if we were to go to referendum on the earliest timeline, um due to like if you think about the planning that goes involved, the strategic planning, the community involvement, and then narrowing down what a project list is, figuring out what question we're going to put on a ballot, when we're going to
050hold that election, are we going to be in a general election? Are we going to have a special election for it? Who's that cost the district bears or does the township bear it? Um, and then what what we specifically developed that question for and the exact amount. We're probably on an 18-month timeline and there's no guarantee that that question passes. We know that we've had to continually increase taxes year after year after year through S2 and take every allowable exception to us. There's no, we don't know what the public appetite would be for a referendum. Um, so even if it were to pass in 18 months, that's my timeline, but based on guidance from our bond council, you'd probably not start your projects for another 6 to 12 months. So, you're probably closer to two
051to two and a half years before we've actually begun construction with a bond referendum proceeds. Um, and again, I will caveat that's if it passes, but we are at a state, gentlemen, would you agree that we're at a state of critical need now? Yeah. And I would add to that point that uh, Mr. Yeets just made. If you put something out the bond referendum and it does not pass, you cannot you cannot pay for that out of your budget. So, that's another restriction. Right. So, so and just to elaborate on your question a little bit, $7 million this year helps gives us breathing room, helps us start to tackle projects. We know that if our tax levy were equal to our expenditures, our operational costs in 12 months would exceed our ability to generate revenues
052and we'd be at this place again year after year making budgetary cuts or budgetary reductions. So this board assigning or putting money into capital reserves almost becomes a necessity because it allows us to each year absorb some of those operational costs. It's no secret and the union would would nod their heads with me. 48% of our certificated staff are on the top of our guide. So this gives us an opportunity to hopefully reach a point where we're going to see some of those we love those staff members. They're excellent teachers. But we also having these proceeds year after year after year. We might get to a point where some of those staff members start to retire and then we're the expectation is we're hiring staff to replace them lower on the guide realizing breakage within
053our budget. That wave of those teachers is going to reach retirement ages soon. This gives us an opportunity to absorb some of those operational costs each year moving forward because it increases our base. It permanently increases our base. Can I ask a question? One second, Mr. Fox. Um, Miss Bram, to your point about the $7 million, the idea here being like we're not deciding on a number today, right? We're just deciding yes or no. Yep. If the board decides to go forward and the stipulation is that that $7 million slide is something we want to pursue. As part of the final budget presentation, we should be outlining some sort of long-range plan. So year over year we can realize that $7 million to become 14 towards projects. Third year it'll be we will put 21
054towards projects so on and so forth because again we have 80 to $100 million of estimated projects we need to to undertake. So the idea would be seven each year to to start chipping away at that. Sorry Miss Fox. No. So I don't know. I mean, Janice might be the only one that can can answer this in terms of timing, but to hear that large a number is needed for repairs. And to hear that there are things that were done in 1989, to me it sounds like they might have should have been addressed long before CO and S2. And I'm curious in in prior boards or has this come up and and why are we where we are in such dire straits? Yeah. So, with the buildings, yeah, we can say that. Um, I'll I'll
055defer to Dr. Smith and Mr. Yates if they have more color to add, but many of the cuts we've seen throughout the S2 um process has has come on the backs of of Mr. Donahghue's team, Mr. Idell's team, and Mr. Peterson's team. Um, in addition to obviously foregoing things that we might we don't see in HVAC, right? We don't see a heat pump. So, those are cuts that we don't see that we're like, all right, we'll just wait till next year and next year has never come. I would also add to that that you know one of the things that Tom and Brian did highlight for us is that their teams really do a great job of keeping our our our equipment keeping it running right. So um why some of this hasn't been tackled
056before is I think a lack of priority maybe but also that they've done such an excellent job so it's kind of a credit to them. Um but maybe they could shed some light on that a little bit. Yeah, moving forward, you know, 89 20 years and then that's 25 years. Now we're 30 years. We have done some upgrades in some of them areas. at Rice. They still have some equipment that's 1989, but they have an inside section that's all been upgraded in 206, but they're now at 25 years. So, you know, it's a situation where uh you look at moving forward replacing what you can. We're replacing heat pumps in this building now. Uh we're doing it inhouse, but we can't do the whole district. Uh we go out for whatever grant we can get.
057We just got a grant for the last three years to do boilers. We replaced inhouse eight boilers inhouse at no cost, very little cost to us. We just did parking lot lights uh through public service with public service as supplying the the the better price. We put 150 parking lot lights in for $150 and we installed them in house. That could have been well over $40 $50,000 if it was outsourced. We're we try to stay ahead as much as we can, but every year, you know, as well as everybody else that the budgeting don't allow you to do major projects. You know, uh the project that we're doing in this building right now would have been a 8 million10 million job. you know, we're doing it for onetenth of that. So, you know, if you
058look at the what the infrastructure is, we've maintained it to a point where we got everything we got out of it. And we are have been moving forward with replacing units as we go, they go bad, you buy a unit and replace it. But it's getting to a point when you buy one, you could be you might have to buy three or four at a time, you know, and there's lead times, you know, you just can't go out and pick it up in the store because most of them don't have it because it's commercial. But, you know, the infrastructure, we maintain it, we stay on top of it, we we do everything inhouse. There's nothing I don't think very little leaves this house except for major roofing jobs or major things like you know doing
059a Demy's in a monstrous building. There's a lot of equipment in there. So, but that's where we're at. And we're always looking to move forward, but at a lot of times over the years, there's never the money, you know, and we haven't had a bond now, I think, in what, 10 years, John. The last bond was paid off in 10 years ago. Last bond was paid off in 2021. Yeah. Yeah. So, our debt service fell off in 2021. I'm unsure of when the last referendum was. Yeah. It was 2005. 2005. Yeah. But that's, you know, it's it you maintain the equipment, we stay on top of it, and we make sure that the children are safe, and we make sure that everybody's safe. So, it's important for the board to know about referendums, too. What
060um a lot of districts do is they if they have a active debt, right? a debt that they're currently paying off before that debt falls off the books and we realize a savings to the taxpayers. They can go out for a referendum ahead of time at a no cost or no tax increase to the taxpayers that the district can then receive new bond proceeds and then uh continue its facilities upgrades. Eve did not do that. Um so they did not they allow debt to expire. So any new debt or any new bond referendum that we go for, we do not have the sales pitch of saying there's a net tax net zero tax impact. It would be a direct tax impact to the residents. And I do also want to also say if a bond
061does pass, we would qualify for roughly 40% for debt service aid. So the state will provide 40% debt service aid. So that that is a big number but again uh that's for qualifying projects and the referendum would still have to pass. So can you and you wouldn't start in 24 to 30 months. Correct. I just want to ask about the 40%. So if we need a 100 million worth of work we could get back 40 million. Yeah. So the district would assume or the taxpayers would assume 60 thou $60 million in your scenario. I see. Okay. And um yeah, because my my fear here is for some reason I sound so loud that we do this and then it's not enough and then in two years, three years, four years, you're going to come and
062say that we need to do not, you know, nothing personal against you, but that's my role. I understand what you're saying that we need now to go for this construction bond. I feel like there's no this is Yeah. And that's also it's a good point, Mrs. know that this is no guarantee that this district won't need a bond referendum, right? We rely on the advice of our professionals. It wouldn't come from me. It'd come maybe through me by way of our professionals, but um we certainly rely on the advice of those professionals. If we're uh even with this unable to really tackle some of these major infrastructure needs that this district has, yeah, there there might be a need for a bond referendum. Um but this is a bird in the hand. So, I had
063a quick question here for uh Mr. Donghue, Mr. Peterson. First of all, thank you for coming tonight answering our questions and also for all your work you do for the schools. I mean, I uh you can't find a matching piece to a furniture set from 1989, let alone find parts for whatever level of complication of equipment that I'm sure you guys are dealing with. So, um, have you guys come up with, um, a set of categories as far as, uh, the biggest need items? So, have you guys set a list of priorities as far as what needs work the most and what needs work the least? I don't know if and you know Yeah, you showed you showed you the you know where it's at and what we really need to start and that's the
064list of priorities is the first is probably roofs and uh uh some heat pumps, roofs, uh just stuff that really affects everybody's life. Uh what else? Parking lots. You know, the parking lots are really getting rough. So, you know, we have a list of priorities that that we're looking to move forward with uh that the $7 million if we did get any part of that, we we look at bringing equipment in, have it in house. Something goes wrong, we replace the unit. Something goes wrong here, we fix that. Something goes wrong, we fix that. We have the stuff on hand. It's not a fix all at, you know, it'll get stuff done, but it's not a fixall. is the capital projects list that you provide. I know it's alphabetized by school. Yes. But is it
065fair to say it's cate it's enlisted in order of priority? Yeah. And and because so so yeah I'm sorry. So you know we put together um the package for you to look at the the report to look at to show each building and pretty much um like when the equipment was installed, how old things are. Um, and then we try to look at each year what's going to be the most important piece of that report to get replaced if we're able to have some funding. Um, and over the past I don't know how many years, it's probably been seven years, there's not been uh the available funding to do these jobs. Now, if the funding was to go through, if we were able to, you know, get some of that money, like Tom said, we'll
066break that down even further to um the Deacy parking lot, the Rice parking lot, um the couple um pieces of roof that Rice needs, uh the Macy roof, and if there's leftover, you know, we can do start a heat pump project. Maybe it's a maybe it's a two-phase project at a building might be say, you know, a rice half the building project and then if funding becomes available next year, we can finish that building and move forward on the next project. Um, we're never going to know exactly how much we're going to need um because the district's ever changing. Things are things are going, you know, wrong more and more each year. So, we can't say is 90 million going to be enough. We don't know if 90 million is going to be enough. We're
067not sure what that's going to be until we get started. And it's been so long since we had major projects happen that it's really we're unsure what the cost is going to be on a on a major heat pump project. So that's why we kind of made that report just to just to let everybody know what needs to be done. Once we decide how much funding we have, then we'll break it down to exactly what we can do with the money we have. Yes, sir. So for most of this work um that's proposed like in in the packet, for example, like the heat pumps, would any of that have to be outsourced or would that still be all um done within your organization? All of that will be outsourced. All the I believe all if
068the money goes into capital reserve I think we have to outsource that if I'm correct John we wouldn't have to uh capital reserve can be used towards equipment of which then your team can install some of that equipment. Um but I just think practically speaking we don't have enough staff. So yeah, we'd probably outsource plenty of and then roof and parking lots would be 100% outsourced. So that's kind of factored into the estimates for the numbers. Yes, of course. And then um and those are rough estimates, right? Like that's the money we're going to put in the capital reserve. And you know that's why that little squiggly there. It's to represent like it's an estimated number. Um and then uh Frederick might even be able to shed some light or maybe possibly uh Miss McGullik
069on like the need. we we do need an overhead and PA system like a uh the speaker system in every building. So those we've factored that cost in and that's also a rough estimate as well. So on the budget presentation it was outlined that uh should we take $7 million this year, right? Um, four items that we would address immediately would be heat pumps uh at $3 to $5,000 a unit and approximately it says here that 700 units need to be replaced. Um, you know, by my math that's somewhere in the range of $3 to $3.5 million right on the high end. Uh, a million dollars for roof replacements at Rice and Deacy. Um, which you know have presented as as critical need items. $500 to $750,000 for parking lot replacements at Deacy and then
070$500,000 for HVAC controls. Um, and I just kind of want to make myself uh better understanding of the state as as you guys see it, right, of of our schools. Is there other items that you would say maybe as it relates to the safety of a student or or faculty in the building or um you know as it relates to uh long-term sustainability for our equipment? Um that maybe you would put before the parking lot replacement. Um because you know I was over at Deacy recently. I've seen the parking lot. you know, yes, it's got lots of lots of repairs that it needs, but um you know, take again, it's all about prioritizing is kind of what I'm getting at here. So, I'm curious, you know, if you have any input on that. Um, no,
071I think uh as far as the safety, um I think we would be okay with the equipment we have right now. Um and I think that the Macy parking lot and the rice parking lot are extremely important to um get done. Now u you know I have a grounds crew we try to take care of the potholes. Um and anybody who knows you know walking across 180,000 square foot of parking lot. If there's a pothole to be found, somebody's going to find it and they're going to get hurt. Um even though we try to maintain them and stay on them. um that number that was there for the heat pumps that you had mentioned, the three to 5,000 I believe it was. So that's just for the district to buy that. That's not to that's
072not to have a company come out and and so it's more expensive than that's just for parts, not actual labor. That's just to buy it. That you know there's there's millions millions more costs that come in in play with that heat pump. Um because when we talk about equipment being replaced um as far as the heat pumps, there's a lot of other equipment that go hand inand with that. And in the report um we talk about the the fresh air makeup units. They're also the same age. all of the fresh air units on the roof. You know, some of them are most of them are from 2000 parts in there uh that have been obsolete retrofit parts, you know, that they cost an astronomical amount of money. Everybody knows how important fresh air is. I
073think we have an extremely great fresh air system, but it is going to all need to be replaced. Cooling towers. Um, without the cooling tower, it's one piece of equipment. Just one piece of equipment that if it goes down, we're not going to have air condition in the building. If it comes to a motor that we can't get today, we're not going to have air conditioning in the building. It's just, you know, even though we say we got a heat pump in each room, which is your air conditioning, it's water cooled from that cooling tower. And if that fails, we're not going to have air conditioning. Just so I have the best understanding possible, right? Obviously, I'm not going to expect to be a HVAC master anytime soon. Maybe maybe I can sit down your
074office and you can teach me some things. But, um, looking at replacing those heat pumps, uh, you know, that is a singular part as part of a a much larger system, right? Um, and as a potential cost to replacing those heat pumps, you might need to replace other aspects of how that system works. Is that what you're getting at here? Absolutely. Gotcha. Understood. It was all installed. Yeah. At the same time. Yeah. Everything was installed at the same time. You know, most most pieces were installed in 2000. Fresh air, cooling towers, heat pumps, all came at at one time. And the $300 to $5,000 per unit, that's just for the heat pump. That's just that would be our cost. Like, so we recently bought them to do this building, which we're doing in house, and
075that was our cost. Anybody who contractor buys buys anything, you know, you you pay list price. So if we pay $3,000, you know, list price is probably 6,500. It's going to be at least 100% markup on it. So that's just for us to buy it. We use that as a as a figure um when when we're trying to figure out what we think a contractor might charge to to do something like that. and just for little things that we have to do uh where we have to get a contractor to come in. I mean, you know, you know what the the rates are. I mean, I don't I don't get get away from $150 an hour for a contractor to come in here and do something and he's a 4-hour minimum. So, it becomes it
076becomes very pricey. Thank you. Seriously, a lot of insight there. So, thank you very much. Can I ask this might be for for Danny? You you guys mentioned getting a grant. What is the likelihood and how many opportunities are out there to apply for grants to cover some of the need for the infrastructure repairs? Yeah, not a Danny question. I'll feel that one. Um Danny would be grants like program grants, right? Yeah. So Ben, I'm sorry. Nope, that's okay. So, uh Tom, would you mind talking about the direct install program that we use? Yeah. We got a direct ESG. They pay 80% of the bill. We pay 20%. We get it put into our electric bill and we get a fiveyear considered a 5-year loan for what the 20% is and we don't pay no
077interest on the money. Okay. Uh this is how we do a lot of things. We in our house, me and Brian's house, we look at every way to save money possible. We are direct install is stalling this equipment and it's costing us 20% of of the total amount. I think it's a lot. We saved a ton of money and we didn't touch it. Uh we're in the process right now of looking at more PSE and G grants for all our heat pumps that we might be able to move forward on at and save tremendous amounts of money and we look at every opportunity that we look at every opportunity we can to save money including energy savings improvement. That's why I was just curious how many opportunities are are out there for things like this.
078We if it's feasible for us it's explored. Yeah, these these guys do a great job of bringing those to the table for us. That's like I said with the parking lot lights, public service had uh they paid all the money from $400 light, right? We got them for a dollar. Public service funded all that. So, we look at every avenue as far and as deep as we can go to get the best price and the cheapest price and the best that we can get for our money. So, that's where we stand. Can I just on the similar topic um that we were talking about the referendums and the availability of funds for the referendum, but also I wanted to go back to what Casey said, which was we cannot pay for failed bond referendums out
079of general budget. So any item that we listed on a bond referendum, if we had roof repairs, if we had whatever we needed to do, new uh parking lots, etc., that we would not be able to pay for that out of the general budget. Can you just explain that or whoever explain that a little bit more specifically? Yeah, I'll start and then if I miss anything from the business office perspective, um Mr. Yates will jump in. Um, so if you put something out to a referendum or a public question and you ask to raise additional funds in through your tax levy, um, through a referendum, when you do that, you list very specifically like we are going to do this construction project for this amount of money or sometimes it'll be we're going to maintain
080this position for this amount of money. Um, I had just had a district that had they went out for um they needed new bleachers and like a new media um I guess like the media stand at the bleachers. Um, if those things fail, then in your next year's budget, and I'm not sure how long it goes on for, but you cannot fund those things from your budget because the public has told you that they do not want to fund them. So, you cannot put them in your normal budget moving forward. So, say it was something like a roof project that maybe you greatly need. If you were to do that through a bond referendum and it failed, then you're stuck not being able to fund that through your budget and you know, you really are
081kind of lost as far as uh I do not off the top of my head. Um I think it's I wouldn't want to guess off the top of my head, but yeah, it's definitely the first one. even if it was a year, right? So, just think about that timeline. So, now you're three and a half to four years out from replacing maybe a roof that's in critical need. So, second questions, we submit them as part of our budget process. So, in May, when we submit our budget, we are saying here's our budget. Here are things that we cannot pay for in our budget that we need to get approval for the taxpayers to get additional tax levy for. We can't then go back and say, "Oh, we asked you for it. You said no, but
082now we have the money. We found it." Right? So, it's part of the budget process. So I have another quick question. Um, Miss GH, you were talking about uh, you know, building money into the capital reserves enables us the opportunity to dip into that uh, not the reserve funding but the source of revenue that we get from the tax dollars, right? Um, when our expenditures as they do every year uh, go past what our revenues do, right? So just for my say there's a scenario we're halfway through replacing our heat pumps because it you know sounds like a very complicated process very expensive process right now we reach a point in our budget where we still got half the school district that doesn't have this problem fixed but we're using all that revenue now to
083cover general budget expenses salaries benefits programs whatever the case may be what what's the answer then right because we've went up to the full amount uh of the this the $7 million that we put into the or $8 million we put into the capital reserves. However, we've also now at that point designed ourselves the 40% that the state covers as a portion of what you would get going out to bond referendum. So my question is maybe there's some consider not really a question but but point I guess is maybe there's some considerations as to the strategy and trying to think about you know what timeline we think we could accomplish based on our annual expenses how much they grow by on top of you know whether you know the special bond would you know take
084care of that in of itself. Aiden, I I'm thinking along the same lines, like maybe take some to get us through, but sounds like we're going to need a lot of money and then we're again, like you said, leaving that 40% match from the state and no guarantee next year and the year after that this 7 and a half million is actually going to be put towards, you know, capital improvements, right? So, I'm worried about that part as well. And um everybody says, "Well, it's not going to pass. It's not going to pass." You don't know that. Look, Cherry Hill got it. Lenipe Regional got it. You know, if you work hard and and get people on board with it, it doesn't necessarily mean that it's going to fail, right? I'm going to third that
085because and I mean we're just going to spitball and and talk about where our heads are, but for me I feel like if we take the full tax levy now, there's no way a bond referendum is going to pass because people can't afford it. And then where are we when what we've taken is not enough to cover what we need. So, do we take some and save what we can now and put that out to bond and take advantage of that extra 40%. Um, so I'm just going to add right on to that. Um, I didn't mean to interrupt you if you had any more thoughts. Um, you know, it it looks like if you're asking me right on this list here, um, you know, again, heat pumps look like a very complicated process that
086would require a years'sl long plant. Uh the the other item that that kind of seems most urgent here is the roof replacements at Rice and Deacy, right? I mean, you know, that you can't have kids in a room that's, you know, leaking 24/7 whenever there's a rainstorm or, you know, I I think um you know, I don't want to put you on the spot, Kevin, but you were telling me the story the other day, you know, the one of the rooms just completely was, you know, unusable at Vanamp because of the situation there, right? And that's not even on the list here. So maybe preliminary thought. Obviously, we have the final budget meeting where we're going to approve the final numbers. Uh, but you know, maybe you look at approving through this L tax levy
087a small portion of what we need to cover our most dire maintenance needs. So that way we could still educate kids, we could still use the facilities. Um, you know, and we're not in the situation, you know, where again rooms and buildings are just not usable. uh as opposed to taking a full $8 million tax levy, which again, as we kind of established here, we don't know if that's going to cover us the full way. And I just want to jump in just to kind of guide the conversation. When you're talking about this, are you talking about it in addition to the other half of the money to restore? And like I'm just to be honest, okay, I'm just trying to guide the convers. I think we haven't even touched part of that conversation yet
088as as to that list of items that was kind of prescribed to us. Um, you want my personal opinion, I'll I'll give it. you know, there's a lot of that seemed, you know, very warranted as far as, you know, um finding a middle ground between, you know, taking what we need to continue to provide the level of service that, you know, parents, uh, expect and that students deserve. Um, and then there was also some aspects of that. For example, I'll just throw it out there, an assistant, two assistant principal positions where I'll be honest, I'm not entirely sold as far as, you know, the educational benefit that that provides to to students at the cost of an additional levy to taxpayers, which let's just assume we took everything that was prescribed on that list totals
089up to almost $1,000 on the average assessed home. So that's where if we're going to get into that conversation as far as what we're looking at on that other side of things, not capital reserve side. I highly would like to hear other board members thoughts as well. Um I I was just briefly going to ask Dr. Smith what the two speaking of the assistant principal positions were to cover. Yeah. So we would establish a rotation. So we there'll be two assistant principles across six elementaryaries. We have other positions that rotate. What I would just in terms of scale and we're thinking about so like that position for example supports all the other positions in a school. So if we're thinking like you know and sometimes people say you know cut from the top and and
090you know administrators what do they do? Our administration is the leanest administration, the least administrative cost per pupil out of all K8s in the state. So in other words, a dollar goes farther spent on administration here than in any other district, any other K8 district in the state. That's on one side of the piece of paper. When you flip that paper over because nothing ultimately is free, there is a cost. The savings monetarily is made up in a cost to the the actual administrators in those roles. So they are pulled in a thousand directions. they're not able to give the support that they would want to to students, to staff, to families who who are looking for that support. So, when we're talking about adding an assistant principal, we're really talking about adding support for
091all of those other really important people in the school community. we want to try to we don't want to look at, you know, compared to specific districts, but I'll just say, um, as a sense of scale, um, there's a district that has over 10 elementary schools and none of them are larger than five of our six. We have very large elementary schools that have huge ratios. And if you look around, you'll find assistant principles in schools that are the same size as ours in other districts. And by having them, you're actually helping kids and you're helping the staff in that. So that's, you know, it would be a rotation, but I I just I wanted to also kind of address I I hear what you're saying, Dr. Smith. Um, you know, my only concern there
092is I think that in EAM Township being the leanest district K through8 in administration is a great thing. That means that we are putting our money in places where it most benefits students. That being said, adding to that, right, between not just that, but also, you know, uh, restoring the secretary positions as opposed to clerk typists. um you know looking at case managers uh interventionists um we're we're talking you know more to making that less and less true um you know where I don't know necessarily the how we'd rank adding these things compared to the other districts still right but to me you know we're we're we're talking about again adding to administration when so many other aspects of our districts over the past seven years have had to you suffer an incredible amount of
093loss. So, so I if I can just comment on that, I think administrative costs are like the easiest whipping boy for anyone to get upset about. They're the thing that is least seen by the public, but is most present in much of the staff's everyday lives. And to say that we can just keep reducing administrative costs and not having anyone in those roles and expect the schools to still run seamlessly and expect the the teachers to still be effective and the students to still maintain the same education. I think it's just a fallacy. I would imagine I've received emails from several people that talked about administrative costs versus the different ways that that trickles down into educational experience and how the decrease in administrative costs and the decrease in people who are in that pool
094of people that get lumped in with administrative costs directly ultimately affects educational experience for kids. Now Kevin, I I I do want to clarify here what I'm saying, right? I never was calling for, you know, necessarily this drastic cut to administration, right? Because we are the leanest. What I'm saying is, are we going to go to the taxpayers to then again add on to that to make the fact that we are the leanest less true? And there's a difference there. Um, and and and what does that difference mean? Right? It's it's, you know, I want to put into perspective I and because I don't think we've fully recognized the weight of what we're talking about. Nearly 1,000 on the average assessed home. It is already the most unaffordable state in the entire country, right? I
095mean, that's it's unacceptable, right? And I I could scream from a mountaintop, as I did last year. I could do it again, right? About how an entire generation of Cherokee graduates is going to be continue to be priced out of this town, right? Because of rising home prices, which is obviously completely out of our control. Part of that is also the fact that we continuously raise property taxes every year. We price out retirees who one in four are not signed up for the property tax freeze. Um you know lowincome households, fixed income households, whatever the situation may be. We have to be extremely detailed about any additional tax levy that we're going to take and we have to have a list of priorities that's going to say this is going to help our staff help
096our help our staff genuinely impact students, right? uh which your point is taken right I'm not saying that those administrators they're you know they don't they don't do anything to benefit students again it's a cost cost-effective ratio right can I jump in with just a quick question and and I'm sorry if you said this already but public comment is that coming before we say yes okay yes I know there's a lot of teachers here the the admin the admin positions were a new addition to what we're looking at. I would very much like to hear from the teachers where your thoughts are and if you think that is something that would be beneficial to you and the and the kids. Yeah, Miss Fox comment before we vote. Yeah. And just to clarify for the board,
097Macy, since there's three administrators there now, so how is that working out? Is that a huge problem? We need to know these things and nobody communicates them to us. Yeah, I mean that might be and that's a problem. So yeah, so we are adding that real quick. um to address the point of oh we can add this so we should right I think that's the complete wrong way to go about looking at this issue right um I'm not here to say that there isn't an issue as far as you know uh you know administrators being overworked being you know having a lot on their plate right you have more experience it sounds like meeting with them seeing what their experience is like than I do so I will fully recognize that um again the point
098that I made earlier though was the the strain has I felt been felt across the district on on all different levels. Right. Um I'm not convinced that adding the two administrator the two assistant principles into this budget is a really necessarily going to fix that problem. For example, you know, revolving door issue, right? What there's I mean one of those assistant principles at another school uh and you know there's you know a whole list of three other principles who need assistance right no I I'm not saying it's not again though the question when we're talking about an additional tax levy we're not talking about extra budget space here we're talking about additional tax levy isn't can we get that money or or you know because we know the answer to that is yes we can
099but should we get that money right and just because we can get that they have the chance to get it doesn't necessarily equate that second part of that to a yes. Um, so, you know, I I I think it's completely fair to to oppose. I don't I mean, I see your point and I respect it, but every single thing on here, including all the infrastructure stuff, is 100% good for kids. Full stop. Here's the deal. I could think of $30 million worth of items that's good for kids, right? But obviously, we don't No, but this is what we have in front of us. This But this is But this is what the we have the opportunity to add, right? And I'm not listen I don't want to pay more taxes just like everybody else does.
100I do not. However, this game of chicken we're playing with the state is not it's never ending and we are going to keep doing it. But the reality is is they have showed us their hand and I'm not willing to play this game of chicken for that much longer when it's our kids the one that are suffering at the result of this game that we're playing. So the only way we're going to get out of this in my opinion is if this community does it ourselves and that's just in my that's my take is like I don't I understand the burden is on people I do and and and I'm a taxpayer too and I get it and but my I want to sell my house when my kids are done in 10 years and
101I want to hope my property value is good enough because the schools are good enough to be able to maintain that. So I you know it there's different ways to look at the financial implication but when it comes to these items here that we're talking about every single thing here is good for kids. every single one. And that's my priority because the kids come first for me. Period. I just want to by by taking less hearkens back to last year where we only took a certain percentage of the tax levy and then it increased the amount that we had to cut this year. It negatively impacted the school district every time we've token less. We need to take the full amount. Okay. So, I'm going to jump in with another perspective. I I spent much
102of last night and much of today reaching out to every homeowner in in this town that I could find, and I asked them, "Do you know what your house is assessed for? What are you currently paying in taxes?" And even the most modest of homes was a an appraised value of almost a h 100,000 more than the average. We're talking about, you know, a three-bedroom attached town home, which when you calculate that with taking the full levy, you are looking at potentially close to $200 a month in additional taxes and with no guarantee that we're not going to no one can no one can sit here and look at this budget and say if we take all of it, we are going to be good. I with everything that is going on in this country
103right now on a federal level economically in good conscience I cannot ask taxpayers to burden what the state should be providing at that much of an increase but the state has constantly failed us with S2 right but what I'm saying is we we've sat here you and I have been here for three years year after year at budget time telling everyone keep the pressure on the state So something else to that add to Miss Fox's point I I want to make clear right taking the additional money she was on a roll she let her fail oh did I interrupt you did I'm so sorry Miss Fox I'm sorry no that's I mean I sort of forgot my train of thought but but basically what I'm saying is we have sat here for three years looking
104out there you know getting yelled at put in an impossible position of making these determinations that affect teachers and kids and taxpayers and We tell them it's we are being screwed by the state and we are continuing for that. We had, you know, Dr. Smith and Tracy and Aiden went and and spoke and I'm not sure any of the community went with them. And I think we really need to work on the community outreach at a state level. We don't know who the next governor is going to be. We don't know what the tax implications are going to be with the new administration. And if if we can sit here and say, well, there's no guarantee that if we take that money, it's going to be used for this and next year we're going to
105be okay. I'm not okay asking people, you know, a single parent to pay another $200 a month. I know for me that that that would be a huge hardship. Can I just ask? Yeah, I'm good. No, I wanted to ask you something. Um, you had said about um appraised values is they're different than assessed values, right? So, I'm talking about the assessment. Oh, I just I just want So there's no confusion by anyone in the future. Yeah. John, can you talk a little bit toward the financial outlook of the district as a whole in either scenario? Like I mean whether I mean I guess we're just kind of against spitballing, but like taking the full amount versus I mean I'm just going to say half. I don't know. But like I guess we should stick
106with what the financial scenario would look like if we took nothing. You know, however you want to break that up. Um I'll do my best. Yeah. Uh it's very complicated. May I suggest maybe the three buckets? That's a good idea going on here. Sure. And again, this is uh purely speculative, right? We we haven't run some in-depth analysis. We don't know what the board's decision is yet. Um we know if we take nothing, all the cuts that were previously on the table, you know, that those are going to be the cuts that the board's going to have to vote on on April 28th. So bud significant budgetary reductions. If you take half, well, my recommendation to the board is you cannot dollar for dollar assign the full amount to current expenses because again, you'll just
107be in a budgetary a structural budgetary deficit next year. So, uh, if you take the full amount, um, it's a similar situation to taking half, you're just you're really setting yourself up for financial soly solvency for many years ahead because the deposit in the capital reserve can each year can absorb the operational uh, increases. So, if you think of it this way, maybe year one it's and I'm this is just a number seven and a half million dollars in the capital reserve. Well, maybe year two that number's seven or 6.8 and the following year it might be 6.3. I don't know. I'm just telling you that each year you could deposit less into capital reserve to account for the operational increases or we could make reductions. We might see breakage. We might see some aging
108staff reach retirement age and uh they they retire. And so now we've seen that wave of staff start to move on and we now have a younger staff and more inexpensive staff. And we also have no idea what state funding is going to be. So it's really difficult to predict the future. But I can tell you that this would set you up for financial solveny for my prediction many years ahead. By increasing to the full amount, this would possibly ending never- ending doom and gloom of budget season. Correct. For the foreseeable future. You you mentioned the word if as assigned right again dollar for dollar to current expenses and we're right back here next year. So you mentioned the word end, right? I mean I think it's incredibly important to to note that that is
109I think virtually uh impossible because right kick the can you know long as set timeline right which our job as a board right is to determine how much of this we're going to take right to to determine when that deadline hits but at some point it will hit right whether you know think of it like a homework assignment we're looking at one week down the line two weeks down the line three weeks down the Um this the I want to be very clear on the fundamental problem that exists within our education system. At some point in the future, whether I'm on this board or I'm on that side of things, I will be looking at all of you again in this room unless the state has a fundamental change to how they fund education in
110New Jersey. And we all know that to be true. I'm not explaining anything new to anybody. Right. I just want to dispel the notion that the problem goes away should we take the full $15 million. Of course, the problem doesn't go away if we take the full $15 million. We can't predict what's going to happen with the next governor that comes into New Jersey that could drastically cut the aid that we get now. We can't predict what things will look like in 10 years. But we can say if we take the full $15 million now that we're not kicking the can down the road further. That we're doing everything in our power. We are taking as much local control of our own destiny as we can so that we can stop having the continual conversation
111year after year after year of trying to find out whose jobs are being saved and who has to go home at the end of the workday every day and worry that they're not going to be employed the next year. It gives us the room. It gives us the room in the budget to do the direly necessary capital improvement projects that have to happen in order for the roofs to stay on top of the buildings and for the kids not to be swimming in puddles as they go through the hallways. It gives us the room to increase the salaries of the teachers to go through all the steps that have to happen year-over-year. It gives us room to grow each year with a 2% cap and not having to come back to the taxpayers and say,
112"Give us more." Because we have the additional money that's in the capital side, the $8 million there that we can draw down from. We're also that $8 million will also still grow by the 2% year-over-year. That whole thing continues to grow as we're not taking all of it directly for line item expenses that we have every year. I just I keep coming back to when we talk about adequacy and what it means to be an adequate school district and the line a thorough and efficient education. We are $15 million short of providing our children a thorough and efficient education. I have no idea how we cannot want to give them that. I have no idea how that is not the bare minimum of what we're going for. Is it a lot of money? Yes, I
113totally agree. And I don't want to pay the taxes. It's a terrible situation. And I would rather ask for that money tonight than do this every year in perpetuity. And for the people who are concerned about, you know, I not concerned about to get back to what Miss Fox was saying about that we need to continue the pressure on the legislature that we've had so many people and we've sat here and talked so often about how we need to continue to fight the state at the state level to get more funding. That goes exactly to what you're saying. We don't know what's going to happen in the future. So, we need to take every step available to us to increase the amount of funds that the school district can get. And if that that should
114absolutely include continuing our advocacy efforts at the state level, increasing our advocacy levels at the state level, getting more of the public to go forward and testify every year, every time that there is an availability to do it, we as a district should be publishing this. We should be publicizing it. We should make it our mission to have every person here get in front of Trenton and speak our case and state our cause. All of those things will go towards making us solvent in the future so we don't have to cut people anymore. Yeah, Mr. Pman, just one thing there about the 8 million growing by 2% every year. We can't speak for future boards. Obviously, the board in the future could choose to take 0% tax, right? That's true. I have to say something.
115Oh, Dave, are you sure? Okay. Um, as an individual, not as a board perspective, right? Um, and I have to speak the truth, right? And I know a lot of people might not like it, but if we find ourselves in the position of every time we are faced with a budget shortfall instead of trying to balance a line, I want to be clear here. I'm not advocating for nothing here because there's a lot of items that we had to cut that I walked out of that room a month ago and I did not feel very happy about. However, if the answer is every time to take the full amount possible, when that deadline eventually does come that we do have to address a budget issue because the full amount that we took runs out, there's
116a strong chance that me, my peers, we won't even be able to be on that other side of the this conversation. Not because we don't want to, because we won't be able to. That's it. Aiden, I'd like to add something. You know, when we first found out about this, the first thing I did was to email the governor and all of our legislators, and I said in so many words, "Thank you, but this is not a solution. We cannot keep going back to the taxpayers." I said how we did the kindergarten and mental health and asked the taxpayers for more money. How we did go above last year, not to the full amount. The board couldn't even stomach raising taxes an additional $120 last year, but we did ask for some. And you know, I
117said this is not a solution. We can't keep going back to the Eve Sham residents, but I haven't heard anything. That's exactly what I'm saying. I don't want to keep going back. I want to do this now and stop going back, right? But I I don't have guarantees that one, it's not going to be 2% again next year. And then also like no plan for that additional capital funding, you know. So I think what I heard tonight was that we will have a plan before April 28th. Okay. Of what that will look like that we need to come in with a plan for any number of years for how we're going to plan that out for what we're going to use that capital for. That's correct, Mr. But we have to approve to go to
118the full tonight without seeing any kind of plan of what is desperately needed right now and the cost. No, the full doesn't have to be decided tonight, Mrs. Null. That the idea here again is that we have three buckets that were presented by Dr. Smith. There is the bucket of restoring the cuts that we previously proposed. There is the bucket of additional monies that are going to add new positions. And then there's the bucket of the capital um expenditures. We as a board need to come to a consensus as to out of those three buckets, which three are we in favor of John Mr. Yates building into the final budget presentation for April 28th. Right. when you you you you missed when John had said he wanted to know what we in executive mean what
119we felt we wanted to take and what was most important to us if we were not taking all what was most important to us to save what where we want that money going I have a nonmoney reason for like what's most important to and that's that this community starts to finally heal from all of like the seven years of just craziness with the budget and the angst of budget season year over year over year and this conversation that totally overshadows everything else we do and you know so my perspective in addition to you know the kids just coming first all the time is to be able to you know it's never going to be over we're always going to have to talk about budget stuff there's always going to a thing. It's always going to
120be something of course, but since I've been on the board, we haven't said a single thing about test scores. We haven't said a single thing about curriculum really, you know, all these other things, all this other business that I would love to get to as a board where we're not overshadowed by like the budget situation. And if this gives us a chance to be able to do that, I think we should strongly consider it. And again, there's no guarantees, right? But it puts us in a really good spot to not be able to to have to fight this fight every year. But I don't understand why just taking half does not put us into a good spot. And and I'd also like to just be a voice for the other side. when you talk about
121healing that additional money that you're costing no to c to certain demographics there there was a time for me that if I suddenly had a $200 increase I wouldn't have been able to buy groceries and there are a lot of people that live that way and we have to take them I mean as a board yes we are here to administer to the students and correct and the teachers but also the taxpayers it's the entire community that elects and we have to think about the impact on all of them. Agreed. I just want to touch base on the plan. Um, as the facilities committee and most board members are aware, we we do have a long range facilities plan that's been in place for many years. Uh, each year our facilities department does a comprehensive
122maintenance plan um that gets approved by the board in November. And uh we we did detail as part of this presentation what the plan is for the capital reserves. Those are kind of the immediate high priority items. Each year would be to tackle immediate high priority items with that. So I'm confused at the idea that there's a lack of a plan or or maybe the board could shed some light on what the expectation is at the April meeting, please. Yeah, Mr. I think the board is looking for a multi-year plan. We have plans for year one. I think the board wants to see year two, three, and the next many years out. I I see what you plan. How many years out are you thinking, Mr. Compton? I mean, I'll leave it up to the
123board. I I think we are approving board goals this year, right? As part of our um it's hard to plan I think uh beyond maybe three to five years. Yeah. So, so at board goals of three years, I think three years is a reasonable ask. Understood. I actually did have a question for you, Mr. Gates. Um what? Oh, hey. Thanks. Um sorry uh the question about um your opinion of we were talking about buckets you know the one page had first you know was like what we really need to restore second being you know what we would like to get you know up to adequacy and then the third being you know capital expenditures. So obviously the first the most important are you know one and three in those buckets. What is your opinion on
124the budget going forward if we just do those two? Can you clarify your question? He's saying, "What do you think about the long-term uh viability of the budget if we only take about 11.8ish?" Right. We leave out slide two. Okay. Slide slide two. Could we go back to that slide so I understand? Yeah, it's it's slide eight, Mr. Case. It's the second money. Next one. Frederick. One more. One more. One more. This one. There it is. Yeah. I mean, it's hard for me to comment on that. You know, I feel like that's I just didn't know if you had an opinion or off top. No, I mean I I can give you an opinion on uh what I think financially, but this is a more educational side of things. M um I could certainly speak
125as a dad and say that um I think these things are needed for the children in school, but uh the one thing that sticks out to me from as a business administrator perspective is restoring fund balance to its uh you know uh 2% maximum strengthening our long-term fiscal health. Yeah. Could you explain that one just a little bit more so everybody because I know that's these are usually like Yeah. So, school districts in New Jersey are allowed to keep 2% of the prior year expenditures as sort of their uh what what's called fund balance. Think of it like a savings account, right? It's our kind of um oh no scenario account um that we can go into if we were to overexpend the budget for let's say uh unforeseen expenses that would happen during the
126course of the year are due to uh expenses being greater than anticipated in the 2324 year which we had audited. Uh we did not return any surplus or money to reserves. As a matter of fact, our fund balance was below 2%, the 2% standard. Um, and that's just kind of the the minimum. It is the maximum amount we're allowed to keep, but is also the minimum standard of the Department of Education as well. So, if you're below 2%, they want to know why. Any other questions or comments from the board? I know the public needs to com or wants to comment. I just have a few more things so I'm completely clear. On slide number one, Dr. Smith, the steps we definitely want to take to restore these most important things. Um can you please
127explain about the last bullet since this was changed at the last minute restoring the team structure no six class in place of team time how does that sorry my question is the the halls does this mean there's going to be halls no halls what about independent study I need to understand this bullet sure so in first I would just say so this opport this is the proverbial moneybag falling out of the sky opportunity that we've used as a hypothetical at different points. Um, and it actually became a reality about a week ago. So, you know, everything this entire process, right, just started a week ago. So, I in that sense you could say it's all last minute, right? Um we have not been walking around with a a list of um what we would add
128if $15 million became available because um frankly just I'm just saying like you know as a window into um the psychology and the emotion of this moment um the the it has been just a daily um struggle to come up with how to balance the budget with being 15 million under adequacy. Um so the uh the team structure so that yes that would this would essentially maintain our team structure maintain our halls. Um the teachers would not be teaching a six class. We would want to look at you know um team time like what happens during the week in all five on all five days during that period. Is there a way to increase teacher contact time with students? Right? And we would do that as conversations with um administration and teachers to to see
129what is there a um are there some you know maybe improvements we can make there for student outcomes. But um independent study currently is is one one day a week from that period. Um and u again we could ask ourselves is that I mean that serves valuable functions. Is it ultimately maybe it is ultimately the the optimal format for that. Is there another way we could look at it to try to uh make it even more effective? But ultimately it would all be happening with that period in the day not as a six class. So our halls stay our halls. Okay. Yeah. Okay. and this board fully supports the team model maintaining this model. I'm asking because my fear is again to increase taxes by this much and then in two years we're told lo
130and behold we're at a big deficit. first to go middle school team model. So I need some kind of guarantee like does the board think that you cannot be ask the board for a guarantee to speak for future boards. Okay. I mean I I can say my opinion. I know from listening at the past few meetings and the emails that I've gotten that seems to be the top of the list for teachers is how important it is for them and for the kids. So if taking some allows it to stay that way even for two years like are we going to find ourselves here again? Maybe. Yeah, I hope not. I mean, obviously we all hope not, but if we can maintain it for now, I'm okay with that. Mr. Null, the one thing I
131can say is the two slides as far as um additional things that we're looking to add the to the budget. Generally speaking, the the last thing to be added is the first thing to be cut. That creates the lowest hanging fruit, right? We have two slides of items here, right? Team time is on the first slide. Right. My assumption would be that the administration should we see some disastrous situation in the future would recommend cuts come from the second slide first. Team time is on the first slide. Something um I want to add to this uh and I shared this with all the board members, the admin um and if any of you would like to see it as well, uh please email me and I'll absolutely send it to you. Uh I did put
132together um a plan uh based on you know thoughts I had uh regarding this budget. Um and it maintained class sizes uh put funding in there to account for team time uh save PAR benefits extra elementary school extracurriculars. Um it put $1.3 million in in reserves, maintenance reserves. uh also accounting for uh increased costs that we're going to have with regards to uh utilities and benefits. Um and then uh also put $3 million in that capital reserve fund. Um the tax levy is about half uh of what the full amount would be calling for. Um, and if you ask me that there's a significant amount of money there that enables us to plan for the future while still not taking every opportunity we can to put an extreme undue burden on a lot of people
133who would be hurt again if we go to the full amount. So again, if you want to see the details of that plan, please email me. Uh, my board email is on the website and I'll absolutely share it with you. Just to be clear about the plan, it's probably closer to twothirds, not half of the funded amount. Um the if we took all of the money, the a the average assessed increase would be 909. If we took your plan, it would be 560. Um and your plan still eliminates 10 middle school teaching positions, which for me is a non-starter that we're going to ask the residents to have that large of a tax increase. And we're still going to eliminate 10 middle school teaching positions. Right. If we're going to talk, John, about what what
134our priorities are if we're not taking all, um, mine would be maintaining or reducing the class sizes, keeping team time, keeping PAR benefits. And the bus aids, I know there was a lot of concern from people with non-verbal kids putting them on the bus, and that's a huge concern. So, I know we talked about keeping bus aids on the bus routes. Those are my priorities. And then I would really like to hear from the public in terms of administration positions, intervention positions. Thank you, Miss Fox. I definitely would need a consensus from the board. Um, board members, I guess giving individual uh priorities is helpful, but give it's we need a consensus from the board. Yeah. Give Go ahead. I was going to say, I don't know. I'll leave it up to you guys how
135you want to do this, but maybe it makes sense when you do the actual vote to have somebody say like yes to submit the application um and I'm in favor of taking it all or I'm in favor of taking x amount of money. I don't know. Yeah, I I think that's probably the cleanest way to Yeah, I think that the easiest way to get us past our two goals, which was one to decide if we should take any money or and and two give Mr. Gates in the business administration office a direction to go is I think we should move into public comment. I think after that we can have a couple questions or comments from the board if need be after the motion. And I think you should either be voting yes or no.
136Yes meaning we'll take x amount of dollars whatever that might be. No meaning we take no additional tax levy. And if you are voting yes I believe that you should identify of those three slides which three of those you would like to see included in your yes vote. And then maybe Dr. Smith could pull the board somehow because we have to build this and submit it to the county by Monday. So, you know, it recording a vote where board members are shouting out individual priorities isn't going to be helpful. No. And I think that if we go line by line, we get disastrous close into talking about personnel items, which is an executive session topic. Um, which is why I think those three buckets should be talked about at at large, right? Like for instance,
137if I vote yes, I'm in favor of bucket one and two, not bucket three, something like that, I think. And then we could follow up with Dr. Smith to give you more granular. What if I like some of bucket two and I don't like the others? It can't be like that because I can say um I can't say yes to all of this. So why does it have to be like that? Why don't we see where we land? Because just from listening to the conversation, I think that maybe this I don't know. I don't I'm not going to speak. But if we end up that the majority is in favor of taking it all, then that conversation is necessary. Yeah. Okay. That that works for me. Just understand Dr. Smith and I have to to
138send and it has to be line item like itemized. So I if we end up with a majority voting for some can this then be in emails with what we would like to keep I think it should the direction should come from administration right okay so then would it be easier if we voted if your vote is yes to some or all and then if it is some we'll clarify after this meeting with Dr. Smith to give the administration its directive yes and you guys can can come up with it after that. You said you have to submit a line item. What do you mean by that? What lines? Yeah. So, the application asks for what your the additional levy amount that we'd be asking for because we need state approval for that, right? So,
139how are we allocating that additional levy and what is the rationale? So, so look kind of like the way this these slides are built mimics that application format if that makes sense. Kind of in a miniature. So, all right. So, is the board okay if we go to public comment and then after that we can articulate how we'll get the granular piece of our vote. I definitely think the board needs to articulate what they support tonight though. Like it it doesn't need to be recorded, but I think that the public should probably hear what the board members are supportive of and aren't supportive of. Are you looking for a line by line reading from from the first two slides? If it's some I would say I would say uh just in order for the efficiency
140of it and I'm going to um borrow from what Miss Gford just said. If it's if if the board is in favor of all then it's simple but we could apply that same logic to each of the three slides and and that way it could be that one or more of the slides have enough support of all for that slide and then we we don't need to go line by line through that slide. We can just if if we need to do that in any case it would just be for a slide that didn't all support. Yeah. And would that happen in public session or do you want that as a followup? I think that should happen publicly. That would defer to legal but yeah. Right. So then we should vote so then we'll have
141to have multiple votes, right? So we should have the the procedural vote for 61 first, right? To get Well, we only need multiple votes votes if the first vote isn't for all. Okay. All right. Let's go to public session. Uh public comment. This meeting will now be open to the public referencing any items of interest. However, if your questions or comments pertain to litigation, student or personnel items, or negotiations, we would 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. I don't want you guys You need to go home and go to bed. I know. I want to go home and go to bed. Give us a minute, guys, just so we can get set up. One
142second. All right. Uh, I need to wait for the president to get back. So, give us a second. Oh, okay. All right. Uh, [Music] sorry guys. Just one second. Okay. So, Mr. Bach has taken over as president for a minute because uh the president had to step out. So, we can get started. Okay, we can wait. That's fine. All right, we're good. Go ahead. You can state your name and either where you go to school or where you live or where you work, whatever. You should definitely state where you go to school. Do not say where you live. Yes, please don't for kid. Um, hello. My name is Max Benjamin and I go to Marlton Elementary School. I think we should not split the halls and e even though it will be a lot if
143we do increase taxes to a,000 per year or 990. Um it's only 75.83 every single month which if you think about it isn't that much. It's like one or two dinners just minus one iPhone. And if we even though making taxes, putting taxes higher will make a lot of people angry, taking away a lot of teachers and taking away the halls will make people more angry. Also, the the um the since we're splitting the halls, more kids will be in each classroom, which will overwhelm the teachers and other students. Students will not be able to point out their points and explain their reasoning for their work. If kids cannot reason with their teachers, it will not help our students. it it it won't be as resourceful to go to school if you can't really point
144out your point and show your work to the teacher. If you got it wrong, you might they might not know that it was was a mistake or you can't tell the teacher you're doing it wrong because you don't know. Also, we're cutting a lot of clubs, which is going to decrease, even though it's taking away a teacher, uh, having not to pay a teacher, it's also taking away money you're getting from the clubs. Um, uh, the Since there's less there will be no halls. Uh there will be overwhelmed class class way uh hallways and it will be complicated to find your way around the school. That is all. [Applause] Good evening, Dr. Smith and board members. I am Pushkar and I'm Sar and we are in seventh grade green hall at the Macy. The cuts
145brought up at the previous meeting will change how students look at our district for generations to come. We have made a survey to show the board how students feel about the changes. We have collected the data and are here to present it. We put the survey out to the Macy Middle today and had 233 responders. The survey was presented to the students as a Google form with seven questions. The first question is, would you be able to learn in a class with 30 35 or more kids in it? 82.2% of students think that they could not learn in a classroom with 35 or more kids in it, while 17.7% think that they can. The second question was, do you think that if you were in elementary school, you could learn in a class with 29
146or more kids in it? 77.2% of students think that in elementary school, you could not learn in a classroom with 29 or more kids in it, while 22.8 and eight think they can. The third question is, do you think you could attend clubs without laced buses? 66.8% of students think that they could not attend late clubs without late buses, while 33.2% think they could. The fourth question is, do you think that you can make friends in elementary school without clubs? 62.4% of students think that they could make friends in elementary school while in clubs, while 37.6 think that they can't. The fifth question is, do you think you can manage homework tests and catch up on work while being absent without independent study? 81.9% of the students think that they would not be able to
147manage homework tests and catch up on work while being absent without independent study. The sixth question from the survey is, "How do you feel about 20 middle school teachers being cut?" Students filled out a short answer response. One said, "I feel that it is not fair for 20 middle school teachers to be cut because they all love their jobs and you shouldn't take them away from them. I feel like I have a lot of favorite teachers and if they get caught, it would be really sad because they taught me a lot and made it easy to learn. Another student said, "This decision would not would do nothing but harm students, teachers, and families. With less teachers, the class sizes would of course be bigger, and it would become extremely difficult for students to receive help
148or one-on-one time with the teacher. The majority consensus was students did not want to see teachers be cut." From the from the survey, students have said that they were most upset about middle school classes sizes increasing to 25 or more with 27.6% of students for saving this. The students really hope you don't take away small middle school class sizes. Even if you have to, please promise to try your hardest to try and get it back. To wrap this speech up, the students have spoken and we hope their opinions have been heard. From classroom sizes increasing to after school clubs and buses being eliminated, students are not for it. So in conclusion, members of the board, please take these students opinions in in in consideration when it comes time to vote on the budget. The the
149students have voiced their concerns and hope for these cuts to be saved. Thank you very much. My name is Tracy Brown. I'm one of the ETA vice presidents. First of all, thank you very much, Dr. Smith for putting together a proposal to address many of the previous cuts, including the loss of teaching jobs, power benefits, middle school model, plus additional items that you've added to lower class sizes at the elementary school, and the much needed support, including administration our kids need more than ever, among many other items. It's disappointing to see that everything was saved except our drivers. As you can see, many of them are here tonight, and I'm sure you will hear some of their specific concerns when they speak. Now, Mr. Dearcy, you were one of my students who had the benefit
150of being in this school district before all of these recent years of S2 cuts. Now, you're a board member, so it seems so noble that you've come back to serve your former school district, but now it feels honestly like you're putting on a show up there with everything you say and everything you ask. You personally spent two days with me and Dr. Smith and Brian and Mr. Yates in Newark in Trenton. We did a shared testimony. I'm going to quote part of the testimony that we shared in front of senators and assemblymen. The most recent New Jersey DOE's taxpayer guide to education spending shows our 2324 budget was 3,566 less per student than the average K to8 district. With our enrollment of 4518, that means our budget is over 16 million less than average. That's
151less than adequacy. But suddenly tonight, because now we didn't get the money. Of course, don't we all agree? We wanted the state to give us this money. We are owed this money. But because the word taxes comes into play, it becomes a big game and a big show. And suddenly you're questioning his numbers and his numbers. Suddenly the average per pupil cost what? Like you didn't know what that was. Suddenly the 15 million under adequacy. What? What does it mean if we're under adequacy? Why did you go testify? We actually got heard. The senators heard us. They had a conversation with us. If anybody did not see that video, we went I I guess we didn't go viral enough because they talked to us and within days the commissioner of education said, "You know what?
152We're going to actually acknowledge EAM has a problem. We all know that. I don't pay taxes in this town. I'm going to be the first to you sure don't because you live home with your parents. I pay a lot of taxes at my own district and I will vote for every referendum and anything that comes up because that is what is important for the children. I know I'm almost out of time and I'm derailing because I'm so angry at everything I heard tonight. So angry. So again, we went up to Trenton and New York together. And for those of you that asked, sorry, I'm going to calm down. For those of you that asked about other people going, it was actually really difficult to get even myself added and stuff at that last minute. Can
153I just have one second? Um, just so you know, so we'd have to plan better because they have very limited attendance. To circle back, and I'm almost done. Thank you, Dr. Smith, for putting together this proposal that helps current budget issues and helps to plan for the future so we are not in this situation every single year. I hope the board of ed members take advantage of this one-time opportunity because we don't know what is coming our way. One-time opportunity to become adequate again. Please, please. Good evening. My name is Brian Whiswitz, one of the vice presidents of ET. Thank you to Dr. Smith for a proposal tonight that restores many of the previous budget cuts. Thank you to the board for holding this discussion and considering an increase to the tax levy. We have
154a chance right now to fix our budget shortfalls. Let's not lose this chance. We are tired and worn down as a staff. Take the full amounts. In regards to the question about administration, it might be best for one of them to speak to this, but we would support the additional positions provided that everything else comes back first. We would love to have more support due to the size of our schools. Student needs now are greater than ever. So, anything we can do to provide that support will be essential. Thank you. My name is Linda Masterman and I'm a teacher at Marlton Middle School. Um, and I'd say about myself, one of the things about myself is I am stubborn and I don't give up, which is why I'm still here speaking, but we are tired.
155The teachers are exhausted. This is year after year after year. It ruins morale. It ruins the whole environment of the school. It impacts everyone. The young teachers who are constantly in fear of losing their jobs. The teachers that are in the middle and don't know what this long future looks like. The 20 more years they have to go till they can retire. And the old teachers like me who want to make it to our retirement in a positive way, making up impact on my students that I care about so much. But we are exhausted because we have been doing this for so many years. And so I'm not going to give up because I'm not a quitter. But it is exhausting. Last time I spoke, I spoke about a grim future. Now we have some
156hope to bring our district back from the brink of disaster. I think the biggest impact on the students is the teachers. And that's my personal opinion. But as a middle school teacher for 30 years, I can speak best about the middle school. Our middle school will be destroyed if we eliminate the teams and we have class sizes of 33 students with teachers six teaching six classes equaling 190 students. Students will be negatively affected without the team time without teams of teachers supporting them in independent study. Large classes will prohibit conferencing, guided reading groups, and detailed feedback on their writing. There will not be time to give students what they need. I know taxpayers do not want to pay more, but I also know no one wants a home in a failing school district where others
157don't want to move. This is an investment to maintain or even increase the property values of the homes in Marlton. In a perfect world, the state would have given us money, but that is not an option. Nor is it an option to decimate our schools by trying to run them on those preliminary budget numbers. There are no guarantees that if we take the full tax levy that it will be perfect. But I know if we don't take the full amount, we will be back here doing this again. And we are tired. We need to fix this now. So, please vote for this additional tax levy to preserve and hopefully enhance our schools. Now is the chance to save our schools. Please act to do just that. We will not get another chance like this. Thank
158you. I'm Kim Henson. I live on Meadow View Circle. I appreciate that we have this opportunity to get our district back on track and I do encourage us to take it. I understand it is an overwhelming amount, but looking at the proposal, this really does give us the ability to be exceptional yet again. No matter what you decide, the main priority needs to be keeping class sizes down and making sure that that is sustainable long term. While I know this is not a popular opinion, I am in favor of the full levy. However, as has been stated, where does it end? We need to have a plan for how we move forward together. As Dr. Smith said, the state isn't going to save us, so we have to save ourselves. But is this going to
159be the case year after year? I am proposing that Dr. Smith and the board agree to meet with a group of parent and community representatives early next year and throughout the year so that we do not find ourselves in this detrimental of a position last minute again. Please let us help you early. Please let us work together to help these kids and to support our teachers and the incredible staff that make their education so exceptional. I am also again begging for transparency. There is already chatter on social media just tonight about whether where is the guarantee that this money will go exactly where it's stated and here and not to a side project. While I want to believe that that wouldn't happen, the point is the trust is not there and I am passionately asking
160you to try and rebuild it and make that rebuilding a top priority. I am also questioning where what the status is of the Yale school. There was a community member on Facebook that had some excellent questions regarding Yale and preschool. I understand we're kind of allin on preschool now, but I do fear that the full ramifications that full day preschool is having on the students we are committed to educating through 8th grade have not been properly discussed and keep getting swept under the rug. I work with the population that graduates from Yale. I love them. I believe in what they do, but housing them partially at Demacy does not make sense. And I also implore you to look at another solution for that. I would like to speak very briefly on busing. What scares me
161with outsourcing is getting drivers who don't care as much about the most important thing in each parent's life. My kids adore their bus driver. But when he's absent, the drivers admit they don't know the route. And my 10-year-old is responsible for telling them where to go. My five-year-old is terrified to go on the bus every day because what if his driver is absent and what if his sister goes home early and can't tell them the way home? Finally, I do thank you all for your service. This is an incredibly large undertaking to have to decide on immediately and I do not envy you. Thank you. [Applause] Uh my name is Teddy Cardy. I'm a seventh grade student at MMS. I think that a lot of things are wrong with the budget that was proposed for
162the next for the upcoming school year. Um, some of the things that concern me most are the class sizes and teachers teaching six periods a day. It will be extremely overwhelming for every one of them. Impossible to learn anything in a class of 35 or close to that number. and it will just have an insane impact on every student in the district. Another one of my concerns was late buses after school. No one will join a club if they don't have a way to get home. So, that will have an insane impact on art and music at the middle schools. It'll be it's even worse at the elementary schools if extracurriculars are gotten rid of entirely. no one will or not as many people will be doing music or art programs and that's a problem
163at that is a problem across the country and it would be a problem in our district. Lastly, I think that if there's any way that we can like get money from the state that we should take that. It's anything that we can get because we really don't have as much money as we did. That's it. Um, [Applause] good evening. My name is Sandy Student and um I want to ask you a few questions if I could. Uh they're strategic. Um so and I don't know if it's the business administrator, it's the president of the board, or it's the superintendent. How many other districts face the same crisis in this state that we are confronted with now? Sir, this is public comment. It's not a question and answer. So the board won't be as answering any
164questions. you're welcome to pose those and maybe they'll be addressed later. Okay, that's a that's a shame that I can't get an answer a simple question. Um, what's the student population perspective for the next three years? Is that the same? You you're not going to answer my question? Yes, that's the same for every member of the public that we won't be answering questions as we go. Like I said, you're welcome to pose them and then Okay. Well, that's a shame. know um that I can't get an answer. Um if the district doesn't adopt the budget because the state of New Jersey, Department of Education has abdicated their responsibility. Is there any penalty to the district? I'm sorry. I I guess that's a question again. So there'll be no answer. Maybe I I should ask the
165last question because it's one that I'm confused about. Are you voting for 3 million, 8 million, 10 million, 13 million? because I'm just standing in line figuring in the back of my mind in my 40 years of work. If it's $10 million to an average person, that would be $250,000 a year in income that they'd have to make before taxes, obviously. But the question is, oh, I'm sorry you're not answering questions. Um, I think that's kind of stupid that you're taking a cheap way out and not answering when I'm trying to say take a strategic view and find out other districts and unify with them and press a legal issue with the state of New Jersey for not doing what they should be doing to fund a thorough and efficient education. I think that's your
166best stance and to do anything else is not right. I'm sorry you won't answer any of my questions. You were on the school board and didn't answer our questions either when you sat right there. Ma'am Ma'am, we did. Okay. This isn't a back and forth between the public. So, let's move on. You and the mayor were like this. Uh Jason Lutz. Um I'm a school bus driver. I have the unique perspective of being both a driver and an aid. I was an aid for whatever it was 10 10 years prior, but I've been in this district for 13 years and now I'm a driver. And I've worked with all these drivers. I've been around all these aids. I'm glad that the aids are in the budget and they're being considered to be kept. But the
167drivers need to be kept too because you can't it's you get what you pay for. It's just it's simple as that. I worked at a private contractor. You get what you pay for. That's it. We're the captain of the ship. I mean, granted, yes, the the aids do help a lot, but ultimately I'm the captain of the ship, and there's no guarantees in life, but I guarantee you that if they're on one of our buses with one of our drivers, they will be as safe as possible. Thank you. Good job, All right. I didn't come prepared with anything, so I just kind of jotted stuff down into my phone. So, please excuse me for that. Can you just tell us your name and Yes, I will. I'm Janita Shedeker. I'm a bus driver here at
168Eve Sham. Have been for 23 years. With that being said, I'm one of the four that they're talking about keeping. So, I'm not standing up here tonight for myself. It's for my co-workers, for the the people of the community that work for you that have put time and effort into it. So, I wanted to say Dr. Smith mentioned privatization is already working. We strongly disagree with all the talk about how much privatizing will save the district. What the what is the contingency and what is the plan once the transportation employees are gone and they hike it up as it's been proven to be done in many other districts. I would like to give each of the board members something to read right here after after obviously um that proves that privatization does not work. I
169would also like to add something since transportation department was told at the end of January that almost all the department would be losing their jobs. It has affected the attendance in our department extremely which affects the entire community or families students being picked up being late to school. So that puts the teachers behind as well. So that's that's a huge thing because a lot of the employees have worked here for years and been so uh dedicated. They have some of them have 160 sick days. They're not going to get paid for all of them, if they get paid for any of them at all. So, they're going to take off as they should because they put a lot of time and effort into being here. So, I just wanted to just say that if you're
170going to look at it like, oh well, our department is costing a lot of money. It sure is. Look at just recently from I'd say 10 11 drivers being out. We have to get Helmans to come in and cover. That is a huge expense. Huge. We as the drivers calculated and I think one week it was almost $38,000 for one week. One week. Imagine what that's going to cost the district once we're not here and Hillman's hikes it up. Just saying. Thank you so much for your time. Hello, my name is Donna. I started working here 10 years ago after my husband passed away. I thought this would be help would help pass the time away. But boy was I wrong. This job became so rewarding seeing how some children grew and progressed. They look
171to see us every day. Many wanting to tell you about their night, weekends, family, questions, etc. If they see us at a local store, which most of us live in the town, they run up and give us a hug. Just last week, Blung gave us a piece of his foria bush and asked us every day how it was going. Friday to take a picture showing how it would be growing. Another left a sticky note saying how much she liked when I came back to the back of the bus and talked with her. Plus asked that I never forget her. All of my children went to this school here. Now my grandchildren go. I have lived in for 47 years. Watch the town grow. Something's good, some things not so good. But I really would like
172to stay and work here everywhere. I have a special rapport with both parents and children. We work as a team, drivers, aids, parents, and kids. We know each We know each other and they trust us with their children. Please don't take this away. Free some money to be found to keep transportation and let us continue to do our job. Thank you. Hi, Wendy Beach. I am a bus driver in Eve Sham. I'm also a resident of Marlton for 23 years. Um, you want to raise these taxes. Um, and and that's I I I don't have kids in the the schools anymore. Um, but I'm all for raising taxes for the kids education, but yet, you know, you want to kick me to the curb with my job in this township. Um there's no rhyme or
173reason as to why you're getting rid of transportation. We really haven't gotten a straight answer on that. You keep saying it's about the money, but yet you're going to save the aids because it's more money to outsource. How is it not more money to outsource the bus drivers as well? It doesn't make any sense to me. Um and and Janine explained it well that you know like these kids um we do this for the kids. We don't we don't do you know it's it's all about them their safety. I I drove 16 years with a private company and I'll tell you you're not going to get the same service. I will tell you that right now. You will not get the same service. Um I love working here and uh you know it was great
174because my kids were in the schools so it worked out great for me. Um but you know it's very heartbreaking that you know in in in an instant you somebody comes in uh gets hired in this township and all of a sudden we're going you know it's just very heartbreaking. Thank you. [Applause] Good afternoon. My name is Michael Thompson and I'm a resident here in town and a business owner here in town. And uh I would first like to thank the board for you guys for everything that you do. I understand that this is a volunteer position and that you guys do not get paid a dime to be here and spend your hard time uh to get beat up by us. I would also like to thank all of the teachers and all of
175the staff for everything that you've done. Uh I moved my daughter here many many years ago uh to go to school because the schools here in Eastam were a 10 out of 10. My daughter is now a freshman at Rowan College. So, I thank you guys for everything that you've poured into her. But as a business owner here in town, I pay taxes twice as a resident and as a business owner, and I wouldn't mind paying taxes or um a bond to help the children and the teachers here in Eveam. However, I would like to do that for something where I see the vision or something where I see a plan. Here, I don't see a plan. I don't know if we're doing three million. I don't know if we're doing seven. I don't know
176if we're doing 10. I don't know if we're doing 15. I don't know what we're doing to be honest with you. And I honestly don't think the border is pretty sure what they're doing. That's why they have so many questions as well. So, if there was a plan or something long-term that we were doing, I have no problems or no qualms paying taxes twice in this town to help support our teachers, our staff, our bus drivers. But what I see is us taking band-aids and spitting a band-aid on a open gash that's need stitches, right? That's hemorrhaging blood that continually hemorrhaging blood every year, year after year after year. So if you raise my taxes $2,000 a year this year, you're going to come back to me again next year and you're going to raise
177me $300 or 400. Then you're going to come back to me the year after that and you're going to raise it another three or 400. I need to see a plan of what you're going to do with those taxes, what they're going to do. I need to see a plan. I need to see action. And this is not unfortunately the board's problem. This is a problem that our governor up in Trenton and Miss Katz who thought that S2 was going to be beneficial to everybody and help and support everybody. It is not, it will not, and it has not. We need to take a stand. And as this young lady here said when they were up in Trenton, actually I think it was Tracy when they were up in Trenton, there was only two or
178three people there. We need everybody up in Trenton letting them know S2 is not working. They need to find a new way to help us. One of the things or one of the principles that we go by in Rotary is is it fair to all concerned? What I would ask Miss Katz and what I would ask Mr. Murphy is is S2 fair to all concerned that we're here struggling in Eve sham because you feel that we make enough that we can afford to pay for everybody else when they're spending $1.2 million in Trenton and we are losing money. We've lost close to $10 million over the course of the last seven eight years. Why is it fair to all concerned? I think not. Thank you. Hi. Um, my name is, uh, Kevin O'Brien, Chateau Circle.
179Um, thank you for your time tonight and, um, the questions that each of you raised. Um, you could tell, you know, you're all invested in this and and it does there have been a lot of good points uh, brought up on both ends. Um, the state, I don't think, is ever going to change how they're funding. That is a problem. it is not your problem. I don't want higher taxes. Um but I don't ever see a governor coming in saying we're going to fix this problem and fix how schools uh are funded. Um so to that regard, the funding formula needs to be uh revised, but I don't see it happening anytime soon. But I can say to some of the um cuts that would happen, large classroom sizes accompanied by what would be reduced
180supports is not going to work. Um I have a perspective because I work um in a in a neighboring district. So I see like you had said the revolving door of kids coming in again and again and again um more kids with higher uh classroom numbers are going to need more help. Then as a result of that um the extra positions such as the assistant principles, the case manager to address um the increasing special ed needs which are required by law. There's no way they can get around timelines and such that they have to do um behaviorists to support uh the teachers um social worker counselor to support the teachers and the students the students that they are trying to uh support. those positions are required in my opinion in order to meet student needs
181adequately. Um without that they cannot do the job that they're trying to do um every day. Um the job of a teacher in the last five years um I've been in my role in the district for 12 and it has changed exponentially in the last five years um becoming more difficult for variety of reasons um mental health and and others. Um so not providing them supports but not allowing them to uh do what the students need. Um you stated about parents of non-verbal students and bus aids which is an absolutely um excellent point. Um it does go for drivers as well. Um drivers who've done the job for multiple years. They learn how to support students with special needs. Um in some instances that will make or break that student's day um more so than
182even a gened student but in both regards. But I can tell you that students day can be ruined before they even step foot on on campus um by how a driver or an aid will be. Um I don't know if there's any consideration for their positions, but I wanted that point to be said. And the last is the tax increase is absolutely large. That's no question. Um it's not my fault or my children, but I'd rather right now try to find a way to make it work and give them a chance than the other options of other cuts because to do them doesn't seem an acceptable option in my uh opinion. Thank you. Hi, my name is Shane Herman. I just want to um point out a few things here. I just want to thank
183the teachers, the bus drivers, the aids. You all do an amazing job as well. And also to the ball. I know you guys um continuously try to reinvent me find the best solution, but unfortunately there isn't a perfect solution. But one question I want to ask, I know you guys are probably not going to give an answer. Do you believe taxing the the tongue or the residents of this tongue is going to be a solution? Um, putting a burden on the tongue again as taxpayers. You know, there are families in this town that has a um on a fixed income. There are people who are struggling just to make ends meet and then ask them to continue to pay uh more taxes. I don't think it's fair again the next thing is that um asking
184for more money to for positions while decrease eliminating other position. How is that even equitable of or as well? The other thing is um the S2 formula doesn't work. Elections have results. If you guys make a wrong decision, people in the town will remember that you guys are all elected. You should consider making the right decision. What's right for the community and for the taxpayers as well. I have lived here not for long time, but I love the town. I came here because of the school system. I want to preserve the school system. I want I want to be to um preserve the property value. What can we do to make that? I think continue to make the right decisions as well. We'll continue to do that. Um again, we can go to Trenton. I
185mean, as as one of my other um person said here is that let's all go to Trenton and advocate say to Trenton that S2 formula doesn't work. We should be able to to advocate for that and have a better solution as well. The next point I want to make is um raising taxes as well as as a taxpayer. You know, I just don't think how could that benefit us as well. I do understand the teachers and the bus aids and the and the bus drivers as well that you know we need to preserve as much as we can. But again, how much how much how much are you asking for? If you get all what you're asking for today, what is to prevent you coming next year and asking for more? The future is not
186certain. Take as much as you need, but don't take everything and say, "Oh, I don't want to come back here next year." I get it. You know, trying to figure out what to do today and not know what's tomorrow is probably seems ideal, but take as much as you need as as well. But understand that tomorrow is not also guaranteed. Thank you. [Applause] [Music] So my name is Magda. I'm a bus driver. So I just wanted to start with thanking all my co-workers, all the teachers because I feel like pretty much it was brushed off like what did you speak about bus drivers for two like a millisecond? Like it doesn't matter like these kids need buses. So, let me start since I got what, two and a half minutes out of the two hours
187that you guys spoke. But I've worked with a lot of private companies and I left those jobs because I was paid to not care for kids. I was paid to rush and to treat kids how you guys treat kids, seeing them as a number, which is pretty much what was done here today. Not by all of you, but but pretty much I know that you guys know that as well because I drive to his two kids and he moved Earth to get those two kids on a Eve Sham bus. So I know that you guys know what the difference is between like the example that they were on a Hillman's bus and a Eve Sham bus. You guys know the difference though. They don't care about the kids and you guys know that. And it's
188a shame that all you care about is numbers. You should feel embarrassed. Hello everyone. My name is Teresa. I'm also a bus driver and I would like to speak because think again I want to thank everybody the bus drivers, the teachers, the teachers. You guys are all great. Thank you for your service. Um, but yeah, when I came here, I'm actually new as a bus driver to this company and you guys sold me the idea that I was coming to this great place, which it is. And I'm thankful. But now, well, in January, I was informed, hey, you don't have a job pretty much. That's where we're heading at, right? And I feel some type of way because I as well worked for those companies that you guys may go to. And I tell you
189right now, there's no respon. I I being honest, the way I care for the kids here because I didn't I I love the kids that I drive on my bus. I love getting to know their names. I love getting to know the parents, caring about no bullying, but working for those companies is not about the kids. I I mean, for me it is because I got to make sure that I mean, everybody's safety is important to me, but end of the day is we're going to more than one one district. You understand that, right? You're not the only district that I have to worry about. I'm going to this district, the other district, and I'm in a time frame. I'm I'm like, okay, I got to get to this school, next school, next school. If
190a kid comes up to me, oh, I'm bullying. I'm like, I'm I'm sorry. Got to keep moving. Oh, you know, there's accidents where these drivers don't care because they might leave your kid at a random bus stop. Hey, I don't I'm sorry. I don't know you by name. I don't know really where you stopped. I was just told that you're near here. Go to the next one. And I feel like that you're going to get a lot of parents in the future upset knowing that their kids, they're not feeling safe on their bus. The driver don't care, you know, um being dropped off maybe two blocks, three blocks away from my house. I'm feeling I feel I came here because I wanted to I wanted my effort to be respected. I felt that that's what
191I was getting here with the rest of my bus um co-workers that me caring so much for these parents kids putting the effort of getting to know each child name making sure they get home safe and not worrying about the business side of it like oh I'm only here to make the company money and then you're talking about oh we're going to save so much money if we cut the bus drivers for what for one year maybe then when then what and then you're thinking about oh you know I'm I'm pretty sure it's because you guys don't want to pay us for health benefits or anything, right? Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's another way of saving money, right? Another thing, oh wait, maintenance on the buses, stuff like that. Where do you think they're going
192to get the money the other company for maintenance? They're just going to upcharge you to for their bus service, for their bus maintenance. It's going to come out somehow. You guys might save money for one year and then what? What's going to happen next year and the year after that? When it comes to this, your budgets are going to have to go up. Where are you going to get the money? You're going to do the same thing you're paying for us now. You're going to pay for another company. So, why not keep us that care about your kids and care about this n everybody's kids here? I'm just saying thank you everyone. Have a great night. Hi, my name is Lorie Stewart. I'm a bus aid. Um, I'm glad to hear that you may be
193keeping us, but I don't know if that's true or false. Um, I'm here to represent my co-workers, the bus aids, and the drivers. Um, I've been a resident of Eve Sham for a little over two years. I also have extended family in Eve Sham Township for over 30 years. I grew up coming to Eve Sham on the weekends as a child. Two cousins of mine graduated from Cherokee High School. My daughter has attended Jagard Elementary, is now attending Marlton Middle School as a sixth grader. I've had the opportunity to work for Eve Sham Township Transportation coming up on a year in this past March. My position is a bus aid. I was skeptical at first when taking the position and came to find out how challenging my job can be. In this short amount of
194time working here, I've learned to love my job due to the fact that I have met so many amazing children. On top of that, I've gotten to understand and learn about children with special needs. I also work as a lunch aid as well for Marlton Elementary School. It's great to see my kids smile when they see me on and off the bus. That definitely makes my days that much brighter and better and does for them, too. So, at this point in my career for Eve Township Transportation, I was originally told that my position was coming to an end. I had a plan to continue working for the township as long as I possibly could and maybe have the opportunity to move up in the department or departments if it were presented to me. Due to
195the fact that the township may outsource a transportation department would be catastrophic for children that ride the bus, especially special needs children in which I work with every day. These children need one-on-one attention for them to feel comfortable during the bus ride to and from school. So by outsource so by outsourcing transportation the downfall would be school bus routes would be combined causing the buses to be overloaded as well. They will most likely not have the opportunity to have a bus aid on the bus every day or even at all. These children and their parents especially special needs are going to suffer in this decision is made. Stop looking at these children as a number percentage or dollar amounts. Emphasize on the matter at hand. This now will fall onto the children that truly need
196us throughout their school days and years. Many senior drivers and aids that have dedicated their livelihood for many years will be losing their jobs, causing them to lose their pensions and health insurance and which they desperately need. I enjoy my job every day. I like seeing the children grow every day. I've had the opportunity to grow a bond with my kids and teach them respectfulness and responsibilities of riding on the bus. I've even had some of the kids call me mom. In this letter, I've expressed my deepest concerns for the decisions that may be made. So, I hope by saying this letter, you guys make a great decision. [Applause] I'm back again. My name is Shalica. Um, bus drivers, teachers, thank you guys for what you guys do. Bus drivers, thank you for what you
197guys do. I'm going to thank them before I thank you guys because again, these kids are not numbers. They're not dollar signs. They are our children. I'm going to have my son stand up. Stand up. That kid right there has phological disorder. You're gonna basically add 35 kids to a class like his that's in a LD program. You think he's going to get the help that he needs having funological disorder? go ahead and Google what phological disorder is and see how much help that he actually needs in his classroom by asking his secondary teacher for the help opposed to her saying, "Hold on, I can't help you. Sit down." Opposed to saying, "Hold on, I can't help you because I have 20 other kids I have to help." Right? There is safety codes. There are
198a lot of other things that go about that. Um, you're probably tired of hearing me talk, but I'm tired of looking at you at this point because it's every single time I have to look over like a broken record. And it's it's sad to me because you guys all have kids. If you guys didn't have the position you guys have now, would you guys be okay with everything going on in this district? Don't answer it. You don't answer questions. Um, when it comes to bus driving, thank you personally for what you do. If he's not here on a day, my son waits at the door. If he doesn't see his bus driver, he doesn't get on that bus. Why? Today I had a bus driver skip his bus stop, but come around and say, "Hey,
199do you need a bus? This is not a taxi. I don't I didn't call for a Uber, right?" So, I said, "Hey, what kid are you looking for?" She looks at her book and says, "Hm, I'm sorry. I don't know the kid's name. this is not my route. Do you think outsourcing is is perfect at this point? If they don't know the routes, they don't know the kids. They don't know who they're picking up. This man goes above and beyond what he does. He waits within the one or two minutes, not open close the door. You said a little while ago that you have um workers that worked about 15 to 22 years. These bus drivers has worked 30 plus years and they deserve to stay. Not only that, but if you are thinking about
200getting rid of them, how about pay them out their their hours that they have that they earned, that they worked for. They didn't work for free. They didn't just come here to sit on their ass and say, "I'm just going to collect a paycheck." They care about our kids the same way these teachers care about our kids when they have to realize that there's more kids in the classroom now that they can't help. But mind you, these are also parents that have to go home and help their own kids with work and they can't get a lot of stuff done in the meantime. So think about it before you make a decision that you're going to regret because in a couple of years, maybe a year or two, you probably like, "Damn, I should have
201never made that [Applause] decision." My name is John Rule. I live at 6 Yorkshire Court. I understand the students and the teachers not wanting any cuts. It makes sense. But we also have to realize from the taxpayers point of view. The only two that have made comments tonight on this entire board that I can see that have common sense in this are Aiden and Tracy. I understand we have to have increases. No one here expects our taxes to drop. We know they're going to go up somewhat. For you as a board to on such short notice vote to increase my taxes by $2,000 a year is unconscionable. There is no way that can be justified, especially on this short notice. At the last board meeting, we talked about all the possible cuts we can make.
202There was nothing talked about about having a sizable tax increase. That wasn't a dis discussion. That was a point of discussion. Now, tonight, it seems to me like from what I can see, you're going to vote to 100% approve a $15 million increase, which is going to cost me dearly and everyone else here. I understand we have to have some increase, but to vote complain. That means all the work you've done in the past to try to see where we could cut, where we could tighten our belt, what we really don't need and still maintain the level of education we should have. To just ignore all that work you've done is wrong. And that just takes you off the hook. That's a a poor phrase, but it does. It takes you off the hook. You
203took a lot of ball last time from the the cuts that were going to be made. There was a lot of pressure on you. They were asking for resignations. They were asking for just resign. That was that that's not good. No one wants that. But now you're going to just say, "Oh, the hell with it." Trenton says we can improve 15 million. Hey, let's do it. We're off the hook and we'll worry about it next time. That's bull. And I think everyone here knows that's bull. Okay, let's stand up and be reasonable about this and agree to some, but don't agree to the whole thing just because it's available. What if they said you could raise it 30 million? Would we say, "Oh, okay. Now we're in great shape. We can add more admins. We
204can add more superintendent. We can add add because we have the money." That's not what this is all about. This is about responsibility. as taxpayers, as board of education members, as citizens, as students, as staff, teachers, everyone. We have to be responsible. We have to use common sense. And I don't see it being done if we vote everything. It was okay just to pass everything because it's there and we can take it. Yeah, we can take it. And we can all pay for it, too. Thank you. [Applause] Hi, Donna Rose Nero. I am in the transportation department. I've been a driver here for close to 19 years. This is the third time I'm going through this as a driver trying to save jobs that nobody really seems to care about. My real question here is,
205has anyone been told on that board how much it's going to cost to privatize us? because we have never gone through this and not had a comparison as to what you're going to save versus what you're going to spend. We were told you were told $800,000 you were going to save. That was before the AIDS. Now it's about $450. Hillman's could cost you a million and a half. You have no idea. And you were asked to vote on this. Okay. Something is wrong. There's a problem with management. starts at the top with our department. We have runs where we have drivers doing one school. They pick up children in one school and it's maybe five or six kids. That's a problem. Runs need to be condensed. Runs need to be combined. That's all money to
206be saved. I've done it before 12 more than 12 years ago. I did it personally by hand. We saved thousands and thousands of dollars. Nobody looks at this. Nobody's looking at it because the easiest way is just get rid of us because nobody knows how to run our department right now. That's what you're paying for. Okay. I have some quotes from a meeting with Mr. Physicaro and Mr. Smith and actually I believe that Mrs. Null was involved in that too back in 2020 when you were going back to school on COVID. Yes, you were. And I was there with you, Mr. Physicero. The transportation contract is appalling. This was with Hillman's is appalling and I am so not happy. This is a time where we should come together, not rip each other off. Speaking of
207Hillman's, for this contractor to be raising costs at a time when no one should be raising cost is ghastly and inhumane. them deciding to jack up their rates is going to cost people here for more than just a few dollars and ultimately affect the kids. The problem I have is once they grip you so tight they just squeeze you to death. So my charge to this district down the road is that we need to end privatization. Dr. Smith, he gave a little spiel and you said, "Bring it all back in house, right? Bring it all back in house." And he said, "Yes, that is what we need to do because they wrap their tentacles around you and squeeze you to death after they get a hold of you." That's my comments. My last one is
208one of our aids rode with a Hillman's driver this week. She was appalled when the driver said, "I hate these effing kids." That's your Hilman's drivers. [Applause] I'm uh Jason Hoy, Cambridge Park. Lived here for 11 years. I have three kids that go to Deacy getting a phenomenal education. uh learned the reading recovery program existed this spring and it's phenomenal that it does. Um I know that a couple months ago that was discussed as a possible efficiency to cut. Um luckily it wasn't. I I just take some issue with some of the language being used like efficiency for getting rid of PAR's health benefits, efficiency for cutting interventionists. Whe whether we have an undue burden, the kids have an undue burden. We have the burden. Like the our the burden is us is the adults.
209The the kids aren't going to fix the heat pumps. The kids aren't going to replace the roof. We have the burden. We can argue the state has the burden. But if we can't get the state to carry the burden, we carry the burden. And and there's a lot of talk about letting people off the hook. We are on the hook. If we don't do this, the kids are on the hook. and we just need to take responsibility for ourselves as adults in this room and realize that if we don't do this, the kids ultimately suffer and we have no one to blame but ourselves. But that's it for me. Thank you. Good evening. Donna Dances. I'm a Marlton resident to Paddock Road, also a teacher here at Marlton Middle School. I spoke last time when
210we had the the budget cuts presented to us and in my speech I remember saying let's instead of making class sizes larger, let's make them smaller. Let's make our school better. Let's let's have a team working together to help our kids. I think I even mentioned like guidance counselors working together, social workers. It's like a dream come true in this new presentation. It's exactly what I had said. It's exactly what we need. What we need. Board members, I sent you an email yesterday. I know you guys didn't all have time to read it. Mr. Pilman, thank you for your response. In my email, I talked about how the middle school child in particular is such a vulnerable and impressional um you know individual and how um our children, their education, their safety, their ever growing
211um social emotional needs in our current society is what needs to help guide your decision. And I feel like this is our moment. this is what's going to be the the the the way out of a terrible situation. As a tax payer, my husband and I were discussing. We already pay a lot, but we want to when we are ready to sell because yes, I'm one of those old teachers that are close to retirement that you want out, but I'm still here. Um, and anyway, I'm sorry. When we do sell our house, we want our property value to be just as good as the house that just sold across the street from me for a phenomenal amount of money. People are still moving to our towns. Why? Because we have great schools because we have
212great bus drivers because we have great administration. And yes, we would definitely benefit from having more administration in the elementary schools. Have you ever been in the halls? Have you ever been in their lunchroom? These um these students are very needy. The more support we can give them in any way in this day of time is definitely needed and appreciated. Thank you for your time. Good evening. My name is David Knot. I'm 64 years old. I've lived in EAM for 64 years. And I think there's uh you might have been misled about our school bus drivers and our aids that they abuse sick time. they ever use sick time. Okay. Recently, I attended an involuntary meeting with the superintendent, Mr. Yates. And it came up, oh, you know, you guys use, you know, so much
213time, it's ridiculous. And um I forget the exact words. I don't know any of you have been school bus drivers or aids, but let me tell you something. The kids come on the bus and we love them and like the other bus drivers and aids have stated, but they're kids. They walk up the steps, they sneeze on us. They cough on us. They sit behind us and cough and sneeze, okay? They leave all kinds of stuff on the buses. Then we have to pick it up. We pick up so many colds and viruses. Yeah, we stay home. We get sick. Do you not think Hillman's or First Student or Hulcom has the same problem? So, if that's one of the thoughts that were put in your head that oh well, Hillman is covering two twothirds
214of the town already. Might as well just sweep the other third out because they abuse sick time. They're always out. Blah blah blah. Well, think again. And one other thing is and I brought this to the attention of Dr. Smith and I brought this to the attention of I think our third transportation coordinator in a matter of what a year. I witnessed a Hillman's driver, the same one, hit an Esham bus in front of Vanzant School. I witnessed that same Hilman's driver hit my bus in front of Vanzant School. Again, that same Hillman's driver drove up onto the sidewalk in front of Vanzan School at dismissal. Fortunately, there was nobody right there, but there was children and adults had to run out of the way. I brought it to the attention of the transportation coordinator.
215And that driver will never drive in EAM again. That driver is still driving in EAM. Okay. That's the kind of service you're going to get. Thank you. [Applause] Hi. Uh my name is Maniski. I am a teacher at Marlton Middle School. um and just had to get up and speak because I couldn't really shake the thought of everyone who I heard in front of me and at the mic tonight who just kept saying like, "But what about in two years? What about in five years? Is this a guarantee?" We all know there's no guarantees. All of you in front of me know there's no guarantees. And maybe this is a band-aid, although I'm really coming to hate that phrase. But in all honesty, if you cut yourself with a knife in the kitchen, do you
216not take the band-aid and apply pressure until you get to the ER to get stitches? Like, we have to do this, right? We have to do this because it's what's best for the students here. I'm one of those middle-of the road teachers, okay? I've been here for 12 years, only 34, 34 years young, hopefully, most of us think. Um, and yeah, right. And I'm tier five. So like I still legitimately have almost 30 years to go. And I want to be teaching in a place where kids want to be. Teachers want to be that has resources that has teachers that want to be here. That has kids who have access to small class sizes, right? Books that they need, supplies that they need. I said at the last meeting that Esham truly was my dream
217job. A student taught in this district 13 years ago right across the street at Marlton Elementary School. I did 10 weeks in a fourth grade classroom and I did my other six weeks in one of our SPS classrooms. And the teachers here were so good. My dream was to come back and work in one of those SPS classrooms. Then Mr. Hoffman saw me and somehow knew that I was destined to be in the eighth grade, a place I never thought I would be. EAM saw my potential. I want to stay here and I want to be able to see the potential in the kids every day. If we don't take this opportunity to the fullest extent possible and Dr. Smith, thank you for presenting that tonight. Thank you. That will not be something we can
218do in the future. Please, please take advantage of the opportunity we have in front of us. We're not going to get it again. Thank you. [Applause] Seeing no other public comments, we will close that portion of the meeting. Moving to item 6.1, we need a motion to approve item 6.1, the additional expenditures and tax levy incentive aid. Do we have a motion? Motion by Mr. Thompson, seconded by Miss Bramitz. Any questions or comments from the board? Seeing Anish, can you clarify again what were exactly because you were talking about bucket one, two, and three. So, what am I voting for? Yeah. So, Mr. Yates and and Miss Gford, tell me if if we should do something different. I believe we should vote either yes or no. If you are voting yes, please indicate all or
219some. If the alls have it, we are done. If they if the sums have it, then we will have a followup line by line. Yeah. So, I think I think the best way to do it is um vote yes or no. Indicate if you're all or some. If the alls have it, we're done. If the alls do not have it, then I think we need an additional motion to direct Mr. creates to um build the budget with the additional money at an amount to be determined and then we can have that discussion. That's probably the best way to do it. Mr. Yates, roll call, please. Roll call. Item six, application submission. Mr. Brown, yes all. Miss Moitz, yes. All Mr. Dearcy. Yes, some. Ms. Fox. Yes, some. Mrs. Null. Yes, some. Mr. Thompson. Yes. All.
220Mr. Peeleman. Yes. All. Mr. Bach. Yes. All, Mr. Conton. Yes. All the motion carries. Thank you, Mr. Yates. Any other questions or comments from the board? I have a comment and I'm going to apologize to everyone here because it doesn't really apply to you guys, but I just wanted to bring something up that happened after the last meeting and this one was a lot less acrimonious. But everyone on this board is on this board because we thought we could make things better and we wanted to make a difference. And I was extremely disheartened after the last meeting to see some of the comments online calling board members trash. um calling them god knows what because we have been here every year that I've been on the board in the same place and the people come
221out and they yell at us and this election we had two people on the ballot, one of them an incumbent. There was only one other person that sat through all of the budget talks last year and said, "You know what? I'm going to get up and make a difference." until we had two other writins. You need a board, whether you want us on it or someone else, someone needs to be up here. And when people are looking at what you're saying for people that are really in an impossible position, who in their right mind would come up and run for this? On a personal note, I cut a birthday trip at my daughter's college short to get back here for that last meeting. I left Syracuse at 2:30, dropped my mom at home, and came
222straight here because I knew what an important meeting it was. I woke up the next day and I get to see Tracy Fox is disgusting. She is appalling for voting yes from some strange man on the internet. I'm not even going to touch the misogyny of the fact that four other male voters did not get those comments, but I have some weird guy talking about my body language while I sat here looking at every one of you that spoke and taking notes and going back to the administration and asking them for further clarification on things so I could vote knowing what was important to everyone. And I think while we're sitting here talking about what's best for children, we need to think about the example we're setting for them with our behavior. Thank you, Miss
223Fox. Any other questions or comments from the board? Mr. Pelman, I just wanted to add one other thing in that this was an unusual board meeting in that we did most of our deliberations in public today, everything that we were allowed to do. And I just really appreciated that we were able to do it this way. Um I think it's helpful for the public to see how the board deliberates that everyone is fully invested in the conversations that we're having and trying to come up with answers and that everyone has questions about the process. So I just wanted to thank everyone for doing it this way. [Applause] Mr. Brock, um I just want to say I'm not one for talking a lot. I know that. Um, but I wanted to make it clear that the
224fight is not over. This is not a band-aid. This is an attempt to fix things. It sucks. It's going to impact me. It's going to impact everybody. Not, you know, the ideal way to do this. But at the same time, we can't have the schools crumbling and expect, you know, things to get better when we know the state is not going to do it. However, it doesn't stop here. I I've asked for years that everybody continue to hound the state. Make it loud. Make it known. This is why we were in this situation. And I want to see, you know, my the one thing I said, you know, cuz I'm not running next year. Don't worry, you guys got me out. The um but I wanted to make, you know, my only legacy is that
225the next board after, you know, I'm gone doesn't have to worry about this. That there there's not a huge upheaval in, you know, the crowd and everything yelling at everybody to, you know, try and get stuff done. We need to start focusing on the other things that matter. We've been so hyperfocused on budget issues and the trauma of that that we're not doing things like really focusing on, you know, test scores and the reading program and things like that and really supporting, you know, the teachers with, you know, what they need to get that stuff done. That is what I want to see happen next year. And you know, while I'm not going to be in this seat because my wife will divorce me if I run again, I will be on the other side
226supporting the board and supporting the teachers for that. Especially learning what I've learned in three years of doing this. There's a lot there's a lot that, you know, um the public isn't privy to. There's a lot that, you know, people don't understand about what we, you know, do up here and what we talk about up here. Um, but please don't think for a second that anybody up here doesn't care about kids or that, you know, doesn't want to be here for, you know, the right reasons. Every one of us, even though we have differing opinions, we're a board of nine. We have different opinions. We have different ways of going about things. We have different ways of, you know, just performing, you know, for people. Please don't think that anybody up here hates your kids
227or anything like that. I have a kid in the district. We love all the kids and that's why we're here and that's why we're making these choices to try and do what's best for everything in town. So, but please do not just be satisfied with, you know, the win of we're restoring a bunch of stuff and ignore advocating for the state. That needs to continue because there's going to be changes. We don't know what's coming down the line. Don't stop it. I will be with you next year with that. Don't worry. Can I can I add something? I want to say that um the board voted to increase to the $18 million the full amount. 18 million is there not enough to keep transportation in house? [Applause] Uh we we we talked about, you know,
228we talked about the increased um absences. Well, when you go to a department in January and you tell them they're going to be outsourced and they're only going to get $15 per day, if that's the right value, um for all the sick days they've acred, what do you think they're going to do? Anyway, um enough that you'll fire them. Okay. So, anyway, I'm just saying that uh I I lost my train of thought, but my my point is for $18 million, you know, you could keep this inhouse. You don't just outsource something, you know, because there are challenges. It's challenging to run a school district. And I'll leave it at that. [Applause] Any other questions or comments from the board? I will leave it with I would like to applaud um the Senate of New
229Jersey for Senate Bill number two. They were clearly right in S2 in the sense that they told us that our taxpayers could afford more. They told us that the state was giving us too much money and today we proved them right by taking an additional $18 million and I did as well by voting for the same. Four years in a row when we were complaining that S2 was decimating our school district. Four years in a row the only two people who showed up in Trenton were myself and Dr. Smith for four years. This year I think how many people do we have this year? Four. Uh combination of five. Five. Almost more than doubled our turnout. Fantastic. I hope for the next crisis that it takes more than four years to get more than two
230people to show up to advocate in Trenton. Motion to adjurnn. Motion by Mr. Dearcy. Seconded by Mr. Thompson. All in favor? [Music]