001I'd like to call this meeting to order. The mission of the Freel Township School District is to honor and support every learner every day on the journey to become curious and engaged members of a diverse global community. A notice listing the time, date, and place of this meeting was posted on the public bulletin board of all Freel township schools on the entrance door to the administrative offices of the board of education on the district website and at the office of the free old township clerk and published in the Asbury Park Press on January 11th, 2026. Please join me for the pledge of allegiance. I aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands. One nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. >> Thank
002you. Can I get a roll call, Mr. Dvita? >> Mrs. Brand, >> Mr. M. Crosby, >> here. >> Mulo here. >> Mrs. Lambert. >> Mrs. Spieler >> here. >> Mrs. O Sullivan >> present. >> Mr. Jamarosa >> here. >> Thank you. Could I get a motion for the approval of a March 3rd, 2026 regular meeting? >> Do I have a second? >> All those in favor say I. >> I. >> Uh, was anybody out? >> You or by? >> You can vote yes and then just abstain from the executive window. >> All right. >> Thank you. And can I get a motion for the approval of the March 3rd, 2026 executive session minutes? >> Motion. >> Second. >> All those in favor say I. >> Any opposed? >> Okay. Thank you. >> Uh, communications, >>
003only communication we have this evening is enrollment. And January of 26, we had 3,345 students. In February of 26, we had 3360. And if we compare that to February of 25, we had 3,422. And that is all. >> Thank you. Uh, president's remarks. I'll be brief. We have a lot going on tonight. Lots of different things. We have the Barcelo and the Eisenhower wrestling team. And um in a minute, we'll be moving over to the other gym because of the number of people. Uh they just don't fit in this room. So, we will be doing that. And um today was a wonderful welcome of warm weather. Really loved it. I hope it sticks around. We can't take another snow day, right, Mr. Dixon? >> No more snow days. All right. With that, we're going to
004move into the uh administrative report. I'm going to do get the bullying out of the way so I don't forget. Since the last meeting, we had four reports of harassment, intimidation, and bullying. Two were founded and two were unfounded. Um there the month of March, as I stated at the last meeting is very busy in the schools. There are several events. I was able to attend the uh Eisenhower musical, which was amazing. Barlo is this Friday. Uh cupcake wars at Donovan. 21 cupcakes, even if you're only eating a quarter of them, is a lot um to eat. So, uh, but they it was amazing the talent and the the effort of the kids and how proud they were of what they had made. Uh, reading night at Ericson. Um, we have to do a lot
005of dividing and conquering because it's the same night. So, a lot on the same night. So, we uh reading night at Ericson, which was very well attended. And then a reminder, we still take walk-in registrations. Tomorrow at 5:30 at Brookdale, is the Mammoth County Schools Partnership for Wellness. the target audience while anybody can attend the target audience this year is uh upper elementary um and really um neat this year is we always do a student panel and the student panel this year while I didn't volunteer any of our students it is fifth graders um who will be on the panel sitting with somebody of support whether it's a p a family member or somebody from the school um and it's it's uh there's great breakout sessions and we do take walk-ins it's 5:30 at Brookdale
006tomorrow in the student center Um, I think that's all you attended other things this week and there's a lot more coming up. Again, keep the when you open those school newsletters, everybody confirmed they're getting them. Uh, the beginning is always a series of dates to remember. So, just take a look and if you can attend, it would be great to see you. Okay, we're going to move into the other room for sooner recognition. Oh, this is off. We're now going to uh do our budget presentation. So, some of the board members are going to move to the back. I'm going to go uh quickly because since it's the the slides that I present have not changed, you really want to hear what Bob has to say um when it comes to the budget. So, um
007I went through the process last time. We start this process early on in the winter of well actually late fall this year um to start to prepare our budgets. Again, the goal is to balance fiscal responsibility to taxpayers while maintaining our programs and the vision and mission of the school district. Since our last meeting, we did um when Bob went back and made some changes, we did have to increase um on this slide an one additional teacher. I just want to make clear um when we talk about the the seven teachers while we are adjusting class size um just by one in each grade level band K2 and 35 even if we didn't do that we would be seeing a reduction of teachers based upon enrollment. Last time I talked about Did I miss something?
008Oh yes. And since the last time we also did add the custodial supervisor, you'll recall that last year um you had approved a new position in the property services department, something we had years ago. Uh somebody who can work varied shifts in order to supervise. We have uh staff here, custodial staff here up until 11:00 at night. Um somebody who can work tiered shifts to be able to check in on and provide feedback. Um we can't maintain that position any longer with this budget. I went through the curriculum revisions. I just want to highlight them again because I think they're really a um shining point of our budget. Implementing foundations for grade three next year. We implemented uh kindergarten and first grade two years ago, second grade this year. We'll be in um rolling up
009foundations to grade three next year. And all of these also come with PD. Uh that foundation's P PD will be provided by the publisher. Implementation of Envisions. We implemented Envision math program over the course of several years in grades three, four, and five. Next year, we're implementing in grades one and two and grade level math in grade 8. One important distinction is the professional development. One of the cuts that came out of the budget that we discussed last time was the uh consultant from the publisher providing that professional development. We cut that out of the budget. It'll be the responsibility of the curriculum department, administrative staff and instructional coordinators to present that professional development to teachers implementing that program for the first time in grades 1, 2, and 8. Uh reading pilot program for gates
010grades K to two next year, including the professional development. And then um as we move through our AI journey, well, it's a slow journey. um will be looking for tools and also continue implementation of I Ready and Lincoln. >> Thank you. So um since we met last week, I've spent the I guess probably 20 hours diving back through probably like 2500 lines of data that uh either I've entered or other people that are into the budget and going back through spreadsheets. So um I have tweaked a few things. Um as we talked last time, you know, we are a revenue driven budget. It's been that way now since 2007208. Um, so we're going on 20 years with that. And we kind of redefined last time that because of what's happening with healthcare, you know, we
011are now a 2% plus any adjustments we qualify. And the only uh adjustment we qualify for is for health care. I modified it slightly. It's up about $50,000 since the last meeting at $3.4 million. There was a few people who um were on our PCR, our position control roster, but had not selected their benefit plan when I last updated it early in February. So, I went back and I tweaked that. Um, as we discussed, you know, healthc care is a huge increase for just about everyone right now. Nationally, the average is at 27%. The state just had a 30 plus percent for the state plan. um we're at 20 and you know so we're beyond where everyone below where everyone else is but it still has a giant impact on our budget because as we
012discussed last time you know we are a labor intensive industry you know 80 to 85% of of what we do and what our expenditures are is our labor our staff um as we discussed last time to get to a balanced budget we cut approximately $ 1.5 million um from the budget and by taking the waiver we are in balance Um we went through the slide last time what the cuts were. Um you saw the updated staffing um from the last meeting. There's two more positions. Part of that was to help us manage our surplus. Um I'll talk a little bit more about that when we get into the revenue. U but as we did discuss we cut about $450,000 of non-mandated items. Uh Chromebooks for the fourth grade. There was as discussed some curriculum writing
013PD materials. Um the one district one book initiative. There was some trainings other PD miscellaneous from another A2. So you'll see about $450,000 there. Um and when you add in the um the staffing, it comes to about a little bit more than 1.5. Now, um as we discussed last time, we've been cutting the last two years about $1.5 million. It has a lot to do with the fact that coming out of COVID, we let $1.25 million in bank tax levy cap expire. So, you know, that was I had said to some of the older board members, the one-time money that we had is kind of gone. So, this is part of the reason, you know, it's not the whole thing, but, you know, we still would have had to make some cuts, but the 1.25
014would have helped out the last couple of years. So, um, that's where we're at. Budget basics, you know, is is our revenue plus our fund balance is our appropriations. The state says other than the rules that are governing um the tax levy, whatever other revenues you have, you could spend as you as the board sees fit. Um so, and again, as we talk about the current year budget, it's as of February 1st of 26. Um so any transfers that were made during the year, any carryover purchase orders that started in the year from July 1st, it's all part of the 2126 budget. Um and we'll talk about three funds. is we're going to spend 95% of our time on the general fund, which is our operating fund. Um, fund 20, which is our special revenue
015fund. It's our idea and our title grants, title one, two, three, and four. Um, in the past, up until last year, we always budgeted 85% of the current year grant. It always worked out. Um, for the current year that we're in, there were for some of the grants, there was some uh federal cuts and so we were told to do 75%. We're being told to do 75% again. Although word on the street is it's not necessary, but this is what the DWA wants us to do. So, it does have an implication on the general fund budget. I had to take two salaries for two full-time TAs, which is about $70,000, and bring that up into the general fund. Now, we hope and we should get all of our IDA money at least equal to what
016we had this year, but I'm not allowed to budget that extra 10%. So, it does have an impact. um it's just it's the rules that were given from the Department of Ed. And then the last fund is the debt service fund and that represents um our new referendum plus the remaining debt service that's left over from the 2001 referendum. So we went through the budget uh revenue projections last time. I'll go through quickly. Slightly higher increase here on the tax levy was at 6.3 at the last meeting at 6.4 for because I found some adjustments I had to make or additional adjustment for the health um care waiver fund balance. I took this down a little bit more. Part of the the balancing act that we have here is that I have to show to
017the state that come June 30th this year, I have enough money to lapse on top of our 2% required minimum to meet that number. So, that's where some of that staffing went to make it a little bit easier and we will hit that number. Um, but it's g that number will continue to come down. So I've said to Neil the last couple years there's less money at the end of the year, less money at the end of the year. And it's so we're doing that to make sure we're not I don't know if everyone's heard what's going on like a Monontlair. I think they're in have a major issue right now. Um so the state through the county BAS is making a big push to make sure that um we don't have any more districts
018like that. So um I modify that slightly and that's where those headcount cuts came from. State aid is flat. Oh, it is. I made a mistake last time. I forgot. We received a one-time additional uh sum of $100,000 this year that went for There you go. And I think they have more high impact tutoring money out there. I saw in the notes, >> right? Right. Yeah. But I think in the new budget there's some more money I saw for it. Whether I don't know. >> Yeah. Yep. So that was onetime money. So those appropriations are gone, revenue gone. So, it looks like, you know, we're I'm sorry and I paused. I didn't change the percentage change. We're, you know, we're down slightly. Should be a negative in front of there. But, um, I'm very hopeful
019based upon the governor's address today that education funding is going to be held intact and they're putting more money in there. Now, what that means, I don't know. What most people don't know is part of the state budget for uh, education is that we get reimbursed for all of our certificate of staff's employee or I'm sorry, employer contribution for FICA. So every single one of our teachers and administrators that 7.65% that a tip private employer would pay, we get reimbursed. So that's part of their budget, too. So I'm hoping, you know, if they run the numbers last year, we were entitled to some additional state aid. I'm hopeful that, uh, we'll be at least held flat. If not, get a few extra dollars. So, um, you know, there were some people that were worried because
020the governor had said, I guess they were short about three three and a half billion. And I guess they found some other projects that they're no longer going to continue. So, we'll find out on Thursday. And then once we find out what happens, we'll email the board and let you know where we stand with the state aid. Extraordinary aid we spoke about, that is the money we receive for our most needy special needs kids. Um, we are pushing this number out as far as we can. Um, I made a comment last time and it appears one of the slides in the back end that the state is not funding their obligation here. We qualified for well over $2 million the last few years, but they are cutting the percentage every year to keep us about
021flat. So, we actually earn a little bit more than this, about 1.2, but it impacts our surplus calculation on the back end. So, we're going to keep that flat for the year. Tuition fees, this comes from our typical preschool students that pay to come to the ECLC or to the classrooms at West Freehold. Um, we also earn some tuition fees from a few um other districts for special needs students. And we have one or two employees, I think we're down to one that sends their student here um to school. Transportation fees. It's for the regular ed preschool students. Some of our parents pay for um us to transport them. We have some run on our van. So, we pick those students up and we do that for a fee. STEMI is a it's a federal
022funded program. It is for special needs that also qualify for Medicaid. Um Mrs. Williams and some members of the child study team and Mrs. Klepy's office u manage this. It's a bureaucratic nightmare. Um we get 30% of the revenue. State gets 70 and we do all the work. So um the number is up. They give us this number. Uh last year they made some adjustments. So we're glad to take the additional revenue. Um but this is again it is a state uh number that's given to us and we have to hit that number. Miscellaneous revenue. This is a combination of everything from uh interest that we earn from uh facility rentals. Um we every year we have extra equipment that we sell buses and other vehicles. Um, so because interest rates are still higher, we're
023um, you know, adding an additional $55,000 or 12%. Maintenance reserve. I pushed this number up. I think it was at $800,000 the last time. The slide I pushed up a little bit. It matches the um the dollar amount and our 110261 number. That is our maintenance service line. Um, we have a lot of things to even with the referendum. the uh the last agenda we approved some roofing as well as some ephus repairs at the a number of the schools west freehole the entire building is ephus we're going to start to gradually do that work to um have some of the areas fixed that aren't um it's the exterior part of the building have that fixed but it's going to take us a number of years so I'm just supporting our maintenance budget with that
024if I didn't do this we'd have to make additional cuts in other places so this is to keep our maintenance department up and running and not to have to make cuts in other parts of the budget emergency reserve. Um, this is going for some security supplies. Um, the next go around if we, you know, if we buy uh other security equipment, cameras, and things like that, we could use that money as well, but right now we have a small amount to implement into the budget. And then this is I always say every year, I hate this, but they make us do this. any purchase order that was open as of June 30th of 2025, that carries over into the new year, um they force us to show in both our revenue and our appropriations figures.
025So, it's there, it skews the number, you know, if you took it shows we're up 2.2%. You take that 3 million up, it's closer to five or six%. So, um but I do have to show that every year and so it's in the uh in our presentation tonight. Most of that 3.1 came from healthcare and some construction projects that uh we were still um paying off cost drivers for 2627. We talked about the 20% increase for healthcare already. Um we also spoke about last time increasing cost for special education uh students and it's it's causing our headcount especially for our TAs um due to the severity of the needs of our students. So the numbers up $500,000 in the line. It's 11 triple0 217100. Um some we talked we have nine new part-time TAs. We've
026added some new TAs this year since like December and January. They're part of the budget now as well, you know, and then we also had uh the two TAs that I spoke about that used to be in the grant and they'll hopefully go back to the grant, but right now I had to put that money up there. So, it's a big number. Um, and it's also we're up about a few hundred thousand dollars in our out of district cost and it's because we have um higher not many two or three more additional students than what we normally do. Um, but that is what's adding to that from the special ed standpoint. Um, we have an estimated increase of 20% for our property casually liability and workers comp. We are in the process um I completed
027all the paperwork with our broker a few weeks ago. every three years we go back out and we shop uh to all different carriers. So, I'm hoping that number comes down, but right now it's a 20% increase. Overall, it's about $200,000 as an increase. And the foot note there is that it's not in one line. It's spread out between the admin costs for our liability insurance, the custodial area for property uh insurance, transportation for auto, and it also workers comp is in the benefits lines. And then lastly, uh we're still seeing increases in energy of about 6%. Which is our third or fourth largest number in the budget, new equipment and lease purchases for the year. Um we have in the budget in the equipment lines $120,000 to replace uh se I forget the number.
028Do you remember the number, Andrew? Like I think it's 12 core switches. It's that needed to be replaced. They're at the end of their useful life at the end of the year. So that's part of the replacement cost. Um, we're replacing a number of custodial and grounds pieces of equipment. We have some uh scrubbers for the buildings. Our lawn tractor is no longer operating and we need a new paint sprayer and pressure washer. And then every year we have a lease purchase. Um, our front end loader, which we use during snowstorms and to load salt into the trucks and then to help pick up some big piles of snow. It's also at the end of its useful life, so we're going to at least purchase a new front end loader. Um, our school generators have
029not been replaced in a while. Um, we are replacing two this year out of the uh, the maintenance budget. We're going to lease purchase four more. They're about $80,000 a piece. And then, um, some of them our team will install and some of them will have an outside contractor. Depends upon the location of the generator. Um, and then we had a presentation a few meetings ago where we're moving from the overhead projectors to these new active boards. So, we are budgeting the first of a two or threeyear cycle to make those purchases. Um, in the long run, it is less expensive to buy those boards than it is to continue to replace these. I think the light bulbs at one point in time were gone for what, $300? >> Yep. So, um, we're starting to
030make that new move. So, remember when the pods come, the new pods get uh come online at Ericson and Applegate, they will not have, uh, the projectors wired and ceiling. So they will be part of the first roll out at the elementary level. Um Dr. Breth is not here. She could talk to you a little bit more about the roll out. But this is our first year of implementing new technology. But so what we want to do by at least purchasing it, we spread that cost over a 5year period of time and then we gradually start to buy enough boards to get through the whole district and then when the original ones that were donated to us come online, we start to replace those. So it's we do this cycle that of continuous replacement um
031for these boards. So we'll talk appropriations. We didn't speak much about it last time. Uh we didn't show it at all. So regular instruction is up 1.6% for $33,000. This includes the salary for our regular education teachers. For the preschool regular ed teachers, for um all the supplies, all the materials, that's for regular ed special ed. It shows that it's down $142,000. That's because recall we cut one section of preschool. So that's one teacher and a TA and a half. Those TAs got repurposed to the support line. Um it's confusing. You say, "Oh, these TAs are supporting special ed because they're onetoone TAs." The state throws them into our support category. So that's down. The other line is up. Um ESL and basic skills. uh that is up flat up 8 uh347 or 46. Co-curriculars
032is roughly flat almost down 1%. Average tuition we spoke about this before it's up $283,000 or 21%. Um we have two contingencies uh planned right now for additional students that may go out of district or for moveins. If we do get some additional state aid, this is one of the areas I think we should pad the budget a little bit more because it seems like every day we're talking about a student possibly going out or somebody moves in and we become responsible for tuition for that student support. This is everything from your guidance counselors, your child study team, your onetoone aids, um your curriculum office, uh our OTP speeches in there, our small little pot of money for attendance services, um health services, that is our support staff. And so that number is up $631,000
033for 48 4.82%. Majority of that's coming in that TA line. And we discussed before, we've had, if you go back to the last couple agendas, we've added TA since I kind of settled the budget this year. And then we know we need nine and a half new ones. And then the the grant uh is forcing us to put two more bodies back in there, which we hope to take out once we get our allocation in July or August. Administration's down about 4%. Um it's down $277,000. That is for central office. It includes our auditors, our attorneys, um some of our engineering fees. Most of our engineering fees are in the referendum at this point in time. It's everything in Neil's office and Diane's office, my office, the technology office. It's in the front offices of
034all of our schools. It's the principal. It is the VPs in the middle schools. It's the office secretaries. That is all our administration lines. Um so that's down slightly. Facilities ground security is up about $55,000. I am supporting all that most of that increase through the increase in maintenance reserve. Um there's also and in the facilities line is also your energy uh allocation that's up 6%. Um but the majority of this is coming from uh one line in particular in which we have to continue to maintain our our buildings and again it's being supported with other revenue. Transportation is up 3.21%. Um we budgeted some extra um money into the outofd district runs. Remember we only transport all of our in district kids whether there's special ed or regular ed we're able to do that.
035Anyone who goes out of district so we need to have some contingency money built in there. Um oh and also um the lease purchase cost from uh the current year is coming into this as well. So that's where that increase is coming at. Benefits as we talk this is the big number. It's not just health benefits. It's our FICA. It is our uh PERS pension payment. It is um what we have we contractually budget for tuition reimbursement. It is also for workers compensation. That's up 7.9% overall. Remember I budget the net number for health benefits. So I take what the cost is less the anticipated employee contribution. So over the year um that number that $26.9 million number will actually get bigger as every payroll happens and we bring in the employee contribution and that
036number gets larger. So um overall it looks like the 7.9 almost 8% um but that is the reason why capital A equipment it's down uh $1.3 million. We have an ongoing uh HVAC project and I'm trying to think and there's an electrical project that are in the from the 2526 project that is that were um again we're not repeating this year we only have equipment and the there's a $111,000 bill that we've been paying the state back for our referendum from 2001 since Christy was governor. So um it looks like a big decrease but it's all because we don't have any new construction in the 2627 budget. All that's being funded by the referendum now. And charter school tuition. We have two students um waiting for the state when we get our state aid on
037Thursday to tell us how many charter school students we're going to have. Um they give us that number to budget. So overall, you'll see um the budget's up about $2 million or 2.23%. So our appropriations match our revenues. Anybody have any questions on the appropriation side? I know I I talked through it fast. I'm getting very high level detail. Which one? >> Right. So what happens is so let's say our overall benefit cost for next year was $10 million and I anticipate through the formulas that we use um either the contractual or through the state uh formulas that $2 million is going to come out of employees paychecks to go to health benefits. I budget the net number of 80 and every payroll as we take those deductions it comes in as a refund on
038the account and the count gets larger. So yeah, we have to we have to budget the net number. >> It's not as bad as it looks. >> It's still bad. I think if it wasn't 20% that number would be smaller. Um it's still bad. >> Year to year working for Brown security. Is there an average number that uh districts generally try to keep it at? Like we try to keep it at this in past years or is this something? We've been we've been budgeting about $1.3 million annually. So I'm just supporting more this year because of what's going on budgetarily. All right. So um I mean we use a lot of money. knock. We've had some issues the last couple, not this year, thank God, but in other years, whether it was the um the
039heat exchangers going over at Ericson and we were, you know, uh running portable units on the roof for a year or the issue at Donovan where we used our money. So, >> yes. >> Yep. Yeah. It's listen there's a lot there's even until these UVs get replaced around the district we still have another half a year to a year of rep of oil you know belt changes filter changes things like that so do you have any idea what be in the next five years by switching I I have the sheet on my desk. I'm sorry. I Yeah, Dr. Beth gave it to me. >> Not necessarily. It's not It's hard to quantify because those need to be fully replaced and wiring has to happen in order to bring it up to I think she actually
040did. No, she did. Yeah, the labor was not just replacing the LEDs themselves, the LCD projectors. It's also rewiring so that they work properly. So, it's a cost of >> wiring and new projectors. >> Yeah, it gets expensive. They pay prevailing wage to hang them, to wire them. >> Yeah. Yeah. I I I the sheets buried in my pile on my desk, so I know it's there. I just don't remember the number. She gave it to me like five or six months ago when we started this uh activity. All right. So, fund 20. Um we're going to spend 30 seconds on this. So, as you can see, our current federal grants for the year um is $1.1 million. And because we're being told the budget, you know, 75% it's at 844. That extra 10% buys
041me two or three more TAS. So that's and again, we believe according to again, who knows what's going to happen in Washington, but it doesn't seem to be as dire that they're going to make more additional cuts. So flat is good, but the state is forcing us for whatever reason to um to budget a lower amount. And then fund 40, we looked at this last time. Um the tax levy is up because of the referendum. Um 9.3 million versus 4.09. We're estimating based upon the numbers that the and they're very conservative numbers that the uh Phoenix advisors, our financial advisor gave us at $2.7 million versus you can see we didn't get much uh aid prior 43,000. That's because the last referendum we took what was called a section 15 grant. And so we actually
042got money upfront versus to pay for like it worked out to be like 22 23% of the referendum versus actually bonding for it. And we bonded less for it then. Um and right now because of the refinancing that we did the bond refunding there's $72,000 that will last as a surplus. So rather than waiting for the auditor to tell me to do it the following year I'm going to bring it in this year. So it it helps out a little bit. Um but it's it's up a lot. But as we looked at the tax impact, um your top line is at 83 million, up 6.4, the debt service of up 129. The Verizon tax, this is the business personal property tax that Freehold Township collects on our behalf. So that number um is deducted from
043the amount that we actually have to um take from the taxpayer. That number is also a state aid figure. And so when the municipality gets their aid, which is usually a few days after we get it, um, I call the township, they give me the number, and then I'll plug that in. Um, so overall, you'll see the net new taxes. Now, as we discussed before, when we met with our financial advisor, uh, late last spring, early last summer, the conversation was that, I'm sorry. Um, so we're looking at a 7.9% increase or 8.67 cents. And so for the average homeowner, it's $272 for the year. And that's because our assessed value went up again 4.3%. It's the lowest increase we've had over the last three or four. Um, but again, it it's part of the
044calculation. So, um, and right now a penny for us is a million dollar. When I started here, a penny was about $600,000. So, the assessed value has dramatically increased over the last decade here in Freel Township, and that's statewide. But this is what I'm sorry, I got ahead of myself. Um, when we had the conversation with our financial advisor, they said that the debt service alone would increase six uh six cents. But remember, we discussed last time, they um they take a very conservative approach. They don't assume any increases or decreases in the assessed value and they also budget a slightly higher interest rate than what we actually earn. So the actual debt surface increase is 4.8. Um the total in tax impact is 6.4. So we're coming in, this is how I'm spinning with
045the story. We're coming in slightly higher than just what we had projected the debt service to be with taking the additional um $3 million and change for the healthcare waiver. And again, so when I looked at her assessed value, um, Miss Aapor's that she gave me, the assessed value of the township is 15% less than what it currently is or what's anticipated to be for the following year. So that's how the math all works out. Challenges going forward, healthc care will be a challenge for us. Um, hopefully this will, you know, things will start to come backwards. As you know, this is my advertisement every time. Chapter 44 is costing us 30% more than what our negotiated agreements do. So hopefully this will expire in at the end of u beginning of 28 and then
046we could start to renegotiate um the plans because this is it's crazy how much extra it's costing us. Um we talked about the X a you know hope it'd be great if in the final budget that they start to fund X a closer to what it should be. Um but we won't find that out until the end of June, beginning of July. Um we talked about the severity of the needs of our special needs students is a challenge. it's it's adding staffing or we're sending kids out of the district. And then the surplus, as I mentioned before, we're lapsing uh less and less above our 2% mandate every year. So, our next steps, state aid figures come out late in the day on Thursday. Um this will include our debt service aid as well as
047the Verizon tax number and our charter school uh number of students and uh what we have to budget for that. I I right now I think we're still at the same two we started with. We'll then make any necessary adjustments and then we meet again on the the 24th and I have to turn that budget in. So we'll have our our tenative budget presentation on the 24th. I have to turn the budget in to the county office no later than the 27th. So questions I guess from me. Um let's assume the numbers are the same on Thursday blah blah like does the administration as of today feel fairly comfortable that what's that you know because as you said it's a revenue driven budget that what we're funding is the most important needs for the students
048and staff today >> just want to kind of >> Yes. >> Okay. >> Absolutely. >> Yeah. There's very very I mean staffing is the biggest cost. So after that it's like 15% of the budget and some of that is you know it's still mandated. You have to maintain your buildings you know we have to provide uh you know services to students. Um you know it's it's just the cost for operation you and we did look and you know it was hard there made some hard discussions of the staffing that's being reduced here. So, we would have loved especially during the referendum to keep that custodial supervisor. Um, it just, you know, it didn't make any sense. You know, if we're struggling, it helps the surplus situation and it helps the overall budget here. So, we'll
049figure another way to do it. Any other questions? That's the way it is. >> Well, chapter 44 is the law of the land. So people could choose either the old plan unless you're a new employee for I think for it's a seven-year law and every new employee of that seven-year period of time has to go into one of the statemandated plans and they pay a percentage of their salary versus a percentage of the premium which is in all of our negotiated agreements. So people are getting the same level or better of benefits as our high-end direct 15 plan but they're paying a significantly less cost for it. And it equates to a >> Yep. So like in your district where you work, every new teacher staff member that comes on board if they're qualified for
050health benefits has to go into one of the one of the two state plans. >> In our case, it hurts us because >> the chapter 44 mandated plan hurts us. So, we're not in the state plan, but we have to mimic the state plan and we have to mimic and we have to follow adhere to the chap chapter 44 law. So, yeah, there's nothing we can do about it. It's Governor Murphy signed the bill. The Senate, you know, the legislature passed it. He signed it. Um, and when Christy was governor and they implemented some changes, if you were in a contract, they said, "All right, we're going to honor your contract and we'll wait until your contract expires." And then the law was chapter 78. Chapter 78 will start >> here. They said, "Nah, that
051contract, rip it up. Let's do this now." So, there's some districts that might be saving money, not us. you know, this board was very proactive um back in 2016 and they worked real close with the union and you know, they had this plan in place and it was the goal was to save money and we were doing that. Um you know, it's just we still would have gone up 20% regardless, but our overall bill would be 30% less. Anything else? If you think of anything else, email me, let me know. Um, again, we'll let you know what the numbers are when they come out on Thursday. Think good thoughts and uh, yeah, like I said, we were entitled to more money last year, so I'm hopeful that we'll get a few more dollars here that'll
052help us for some unanticipated needs. Lots of >> Thank you, Um, >> at this time um, this will be our first opportunity for public participation. If anyone wishes to address the board, please write your name and address on the sign-in sheet and state your name for our records. Statements are limited to three minutes and should not be abusive, obscene, or defamatory in nature. Okay, seeing none, then we're going to go uh do personnel policy and communications. Miss Crosby, >> Mike, do you want us to uh do the update on board goals? >> Do that under new business. >> Perfect. Um good evening everybody. The personnel policy and communications committee did not meet this evening. So I'd like to move the following items. Um, two, first reading of regulation as listed. Three, first reading to abolish
053policies and regulations as listed. Four, retirement as listed. Um, and just a thank you to Tina Belulka and Amy Mer here. Uh, five, change of assignment, salary adjustment. Uh, we'd like to pre- congratulate Stephen Kski um as the new supervisor of the Ericson School. Six, leaves of absence as listed. Seven, adjusted leaves of absence as listed. Eight, extend long-term assignment as listed. Nine, unpaid days as listed. 10, affirm bullying investigation findings as listed. 11, certified substitutes substitutes as listed. 12 non-certified substitutes as listed. And 13, termination of a substitute employment as listed. Short one tonight. >> Thank you. Okay. Do we have a second? >> Second. >> Do we have any questions? Um our policy committee. Okay. Seeing none, can I get a roll call? >> Mr. Brennan? >> Yes. >> Dr. Casey? >> Yes.
054>> Mr. Conford? >> Yes. >> Miss Crosby? >> Yes. >> Mr. Gulo? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Lambert? >> Yes. >> Mrs. Spieler? >> Yes. >> Mr. Sullivan? >> Yes. >> Mr. Amaroso? >> Yes. >> Now it's congratulations, Stephen. All right. Um, with that we are going to move on to curriculum. Um, Dr. Casey. Uh, the curriculum committee did meet today. In attendance were myself, Mr. Conford, Mrs. Spieler, and Mrs. Montgomery. Um we discussed uh a review of the gifted and talented data and the early literacy reporting and I would like to move the following the long list course reimbursement as listed. >> Okay. Do we have a second on that? >> Second. Do you have any questions for our curriculum team? >> All right. Um, all those in favor say I. >> Any opposed? >>
055Okay. Finance, facilities, and transportation. Mr. Garulo. >> The finance committee did not meet today. All members include myself. Um, I'd like to move the following motions, bills, and claims as listers. Travel and related expenses as listed. Transfers as listed. Sexualized evaluation services update listed. Adjust tuition contract for out of district student as listed. Seven. Renewal of the ESA agreement with Cathedral of St. Robert. as >> okay. >> How many of you read the specialized evaluation section? Be honest. >> Many changes to it. >> I got through half of it and then I was like, "Oh, brother. I don't know if I can read this anymore." >> Should we make it bigger? >> No, it's fine. All right. Um Okay. Do we have a second on that motion? Any uh questions for the finance facilities team?
056>> You were the first. >> Oh, >> I'm sorry. Yeah, you can't second your own motion. >> Thank you, Todd. >> All right. All those in favor say I. Any opposed? Okay. Um old business. Um I guess our board goals are old business. We could do it now. I just wanted to get a little update on where we were as a board. um each of the team leaders if they could maybe just give us a a little very brief summary of where we are. If you want to start um Emily. >> Um so I recognize that I was coming from the curriculum committee which was very familiar with those goals. So definitely a switch up to move into personnel policy and communications but um we are going to be including this as discussion on um
057our April committee meeting. Um so we are going to dive back into um what I will thank the previous committee for coming up with which was around incorporating more uh PD for board members. So um having um some staff even maybe help us out with uh some some of the major topics that we should be aware of and things like that. um board member elects to be contacted by the president and central office um as a meet and greet or offer a meet and greet rather and then um as well as assign mentors. So get a gist of the role and just some background info and um a little bit of 101. So we will be discussing that April and hopefully a better update come spring summer. >> Okay. We have so little time. Our
058retreat is usually in the summer. >> Yeah. Yeah. >> So, if we can get some of these accomplished, we should be fine. >> Absolutely. >> But thank you, Todd. >> Uh, actually, we um we had a meeting a little late, so we did not get to it, but we do have it on our agenda for next meeting. >> Okay, Neil. >> Following is an update on the finance committee goals. Goal number one is to ensure that all referendum items are on target. At our last board meeting, we saw uh that the various school projects are being budgeted since we asked for board approval on key roof replacements. We are looking at construction schedules to match what items are uh we are approving. Um it is critical not to disrupt classes. Goal number two is better
059community engagement uh strategies. It is especially important to keep all stakeholders, parents, teachers, administrators well informed and up to date. We are developing a communication vehicle to address this critical issue. We ruled out outside vendors to do it as a cost-saving measure. As the time is fast approaching, we will have a mechanism in place to inform all systematically. Goal number three is to manage the budget effectively and efficiently. We are doing all we can not to riff staff. This is made uh increasingly hard since medical benefits will rise by 20% this year. We strive to ensure spending on salaries is under control with an eye for the future yet remain competitive. Uh this is hard but we are all working towards responsible budgeting. Our final goal is to have quarterly uh updates on our goals
060to stay on course with measurable timetables. Our next update will be roughly June 10th. >> Okay. Thank you guys. Um, we're trying to do it a little different this year and just keep updates going and make sure that by the time we have our next retreat, we can talk about our goals and how we worked on them throughout the year. So, that's great. Do we have any other uh old business? No. Any new business? Um, I will just mention that we have two um, induction ceremonies for our junior honor society. I'll be away on the 16th, but if any board members can attend, that would be wonderful. Um, this is for um, Eisenhower on March 16th at 7 p.m. Um, and then the Barcelo induction ceremony is on the 25th. I'll actually be back for
061that. So, I'll attend the Wednesday, March 25th for sure. You can do Eisenhower. Thank you, Michelle. And if anybody else is interested, I have the flyers here. And you probably got an email. Did everyone get an email? Oh, you have the flyers. Okay, great. So, you already know about it. So, if we can try to make a presence there, that would be wonderful. Uh, if there's no other new business, um, I really don't have any other remarks, um, other than to congratulate Stephen who came tonight, toughed out our meeting. Thank you. And hi to Kathy. The welcomes face back in the front row. She just couldn't resist. >> She had to come back for more of this. All right. Well, welcome. Um but at this time, um I will open up to public participation if
062any is anyone going to want to approach? Okay. So, I just have to read our statement. Um just write your name and Do we have any other participants? Okay, seeing none, um I will just skip right over to our executive session. Um so, uh this board is going to have to go into an executive session now. So whereas pursuant to NJSA 104-12B, the board of education may exclude the public from that portion of a meeting at which the board discusses any of the following matters described at NJSA 104-12B1-9. Now therefore, be it resolved that in accordance with the provisions of the open public meeting act, the board of education shall conduct a closed session pursuant to the personnel and legal exceptions prescribed by NJSA 104-12 for the purpose of discussing the following matters. Pending or
063anticipated contract negotiations, FTA contract, TWWU contract. It is anticipated that the length of time of this executive session will be 45 minutes and that action will not be taken in public after the executive session. Be it further resolved that said discussion may be disclosed to the public when reasons for discussing and acting upon it in close session no longer exist. Do I have a second? Second. >> All those in favor say I. I. >> Okay. Thanks folks for coming out tonight.