001[Music] Period. Try out I'd like to call this meeting to order. The mission of the Freehold 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. You notice listing the time, date, and place of this meeting is posted on the public bulletin board of all three township schools on the entrance door of the administrative offices of the board of education on the district website at the office of the township clerk published in the park press on January 11th, 2025 and sent to the star ledger on January 8th, 2025. Please join me in the pledge of allegiance. Our pledge to the flag of America indivisible with liberty and justice for all the Mrs. Brand Dr. Casey Miss Crosby Mula here
002Miss Lambert here Mrs. Spieler here Mr. Williams Sullivan here Mr. Chair Moroso. We have a quad. Thank you. Can I get a motion for the approval of the April 8th regular meeting minutes? Motion. Have a second. I don't appropriate, but our reporting um for the April 8th meeting did get cut forward that we report supposed to. Yeah, we didn't resume that after public comments. Yeah. If we go into executive session, it's not recorded. There wasn't much. Close the meeting. Yeah. It may have just been the meeting closed. Yeah. probably right now. Thank you. Um, did we get a second on that? All those in favor say I. Any oppose? I have no extension. Motion to approve the April 8th executive session. Second. Second. All those in favor say I extension. Thank you. uh president's remarks.
003Welcome everyone. I hope everyone had a great spring break week. Um and I'd like to start off the meeting by thanking everyone that's come out. Um I can give maybe a very short brief um update on our negotiations. I'm sure many of you are here because you'd like to hear how our contract negotiation is going and it is ongoing. We have been meeting um we have some ongoing dates set up and we do have a mediator that has been assigned to help close the contract. There's some less details um with some of the language of the contract and um some of the financials and we feel like there's just not we're not very far apart. would probably need the assistance of a mediator to get those last few costs and not wants to jump in
004and give another update other than that. I'll update the rest of the board executive session. Yeah, tonight by the way at the end of the meeting when I call the executive session we will not be active on that executive session after which just means that we're just going to get an update from Mrs. Robert who's been um running the negotiations and we will um get that update from her tonight, see where we are and we already have some some meetings set up and hopefully we can make some progress and get this contract signed. With that said, I'm going to move on to the administrative report. Yeah, I can it'll take Yeah, I don't want to make noise. Um, we start NJSLA science testing tomorrow. So hopefully all the kiddos get a good night's sleep but
005eat some breakfast. And then next week we have NJSLA math and language arts. Um, and then um, as of tomorrow we have 35 school days left to get a lot of I know it's not a lot. Um, a lot of field days and concerts and end of year stuff um, in. So, it's super exciting. And we have four more business board meetings and one more meeting in June for retirees and student recognition of sports and activities. And can I just jump to the bullying before Bob takes over? Sure. Um, we have four reports. Two are founded, two unfounded. Hey, Bob. Oh, sure. [Music] I, Robert Dvita, the school business administrator/board secretary, certifies that as of March 31st, 2025, no line item has been overextended in violation of NJAC6A23A-16.10C3 10 C3 and that sufficient funds are
006available to meet the district's financial obligations for the remainder of the fiscal year. This won't take long. Hello. All right. So, this is our final budget presentation. Nothing has changed from the last time we met we approved the tenative budget. Yep. Just want to review. We'll start with the tax impact for 2526. Um, as we discussed last time, the general fund tax levy once we take the waiver for healthare um is going up 4.1%. Um, the debt service tax levy is going up 6.8. And this again has nothing to do with the referendum. It's just the schedule of all of our existing bonds since we refinanced all of them about 9 10 years ago. And then we take away from that our Verizon tax, which is an offset of what the township needs to collect
007from us. down slight 2.5%. So, but overall the net new taxes are at 82 million. It's about a $3.3 million increase or 4.3% increase from the prior year. Um, as we have discussed each year over the last three or four, the assessed value of the township is rising astronomically. Um, it's up 10.7% and that is the estimated value. They won't set the final value until after uh we have our meeting tonight. The average homeless assessment for old township at $677,000. That's up from 611 the prior year. The estimated tax rate is at803 which is a for our portion of the tax levy. We're not speaking for the regional for the county for all the other tax entities. We're down $29 for the average. So for the revenue, as we've discussed multiple times, this is what
008drives our budget. Um we up here for fun and I have lumped the categories together so we don't have to go through every line. Again, the tax levy is our major source of revenue. It is 88% of our 2526 general fund revenue. It is consistently in the 89 88% range. State aid including extraordinary aid is up 551,000 or 8.2%. Um that is roughly 8% of our budget. our revenues and surplus. This includes all of our reserve accounts, capital reserve, maintenance reserve. It's down 1.8 million, but that is because during the current year for 2425, the board has withdrawn funds from our existing capital reserve account for our approved other capital projects which again were not part of the ref. And again, last is other everything else we collect, interest, tuition payments, miscellaneous whatever that comes
009in. It's not a whole lot. It's It's down about $18,000. Part of that is because of the way the tuition rate settled this year um for the out of district placements that we have here. They were slightly down and then also because of our trend for the preschool paid uh students that was down this year. We took that number down as well. So um but again it's a very small portion of what we collect here for revenue to drive our budget. So overall, and this is without last year's incumbences, we are at 89,380,691, and that is up 1.9% or $1.7 million from prior year. For the other two funds that we discussed in the budget, special revenue is $933,000. As we've discussed before, typically we budget 85% of the current year allocation for IDA and
010our ESA grants, which is title one, two, three, and four. Um, this year we were instructed by the Department of Ed to only budget for 75%. And again, the title grants, we knew back in November, those amounts were going to go down. And that's once again because there's other districts in the state of New Jersey that give money back. And so the federal government said, "Hey, if you're not going to use this money in New Jersey, we're not going to give it to you. We will reallocate it to some other state." And then last is our debt service fund. It's at 4.1 million. And again, that is the money that was approved by voters in 2001 and 1999 for those past two. And lastly, how the money is spent. You'll see the two big largest
011pieces of that pie for classroom instruction. almost 38% and benefits at 26%. And then everything else we do is very small pieces of the puzzle. Now the last three years when we made this final presentation, the statement I made was that you know nothing really changed much in the budget. It's just you move a couple dollars here or there and none of these pieces of the pie increased or decreased by more than 1%. Well, that has changed this year. benefits is up as a slice of the pie at 1.3%. And classroom instruction, while the expenditure level is roughly flat, because of the increase in health benefits, it's down about 1.5%. So again, as we've discussed on our numerous budget meetings, it is benefits are the elephant in the room. This is going to be our
012significant cost driver going forward. And again, at a 10% increase this year, we're doing much better than our friends in the state. and some of the smaller districts with smaller private plans. But again, so I just want to share this is the kind of the picture view of how the money is being spent and just are items to note these are some items we talked about additional staffing. We have budgeted one additional special ed teacher uh TBD where that's going to end up. We have another two regular teaching positions that are in the budget right now which will be determined um once we have more data in terms of classroom size and grade levels in each of the buildings. We have four new teacher assistance budgeted for and we have one facilities fulltime discussed 10%
013increase in medical and RX and lastly we discussed this numerous times energy cost the net increase for electric and for natural gas is 20% and again this is because of market conditions it's not anything to do with equipment here it's not to do anything else. It's just that the rates that New Jersey Natural Gas and the rates that PS and G are setting and have been allowed to set especially on the electric side are 15 to 20% increases from the priority and I think that's it. So any questions that is the down and dirty budget presentation if not again I thank everyone for your participation this year. I know it's a long process. I mean, we start this in October. Uh, you know, the administrators start working on their budgets, then they turn them in
014in December, and it seems like it consumes almost the majority of the year. So, but thank you everyone. Yeah, months and months, and then before you know it, I'll be opening the budget portal again in systems, and we'll start the cycle all over again. So, thank you very much. I got Okay. really not. You're not sure if they were correct. Okay. So, the total we had now you're making me stop and recount. Hold [Music] on. Two bound to unbounded. I think I did say that, but I believe there are four unfounded and two founded. A total of six. Four were unfounded. Four. No, there's total of six. How about four unfounded? There are two founded all offenders and then two not founded for all offenders but two but within that there were two that were
015two. So an unfounded is an unfounded and in hipster it allows us to classify. So it is a total of four unfounded. Two were founded. Regardless of how it's unfounded, there's not enough evidence for a variety of reasons that it can be founded. either two or two and one is founded and one is not found that you're saying falls under unfounded. Oh my goodness. I I have it in a different chart than you do. So I'm reading all the results for the first case and I'm not going to go into the number. Not founded for all offenders. Number two, not founded for all offenders. What's it say right? Two accused, one found. Is that Mr. Dr. Casey? Is that from the link on tonight's agenda? Is that what you have in your hand there? Because
016that's for if you look that's from what was what Mr. Dixie read out on the ETH and so I think what Todd is saying that the chart doesn't align. It's not it's not founded because I report them into the state database. So this chart that is created in house should say two accused no founded because the what I entered was not founded for all offenders not founded for all offenders which means any of the offenders that were accused are not founded a lot of times it could be code of conduct and it's not the criteria of hip what hearing is that one if two people are accused of one incident not so this column would say one founded, one unfounded. My state reporting column. So you see it's the 1 2 3 4 5 6
0177 8 9 10th column. Results, hib or not. What? Because the board doesn't have what I'm looking at. No, you're not reporting what's on the agenda. You're reporting what shows up on next. The paper copy that we get and what you are reporting on are always on a a landing lab. What's getting approved tonight is from the April 8th meeting. Understood. I'm Am I looking at the Hold on. The one I'm looking at is the board meeting date today that I have to put in public. Right. Correct. Okay. And the one I'm looking at, but that's my is different than what we received in paper. So there you have both. What we received in paper is what Neil reported on in the last meeting. So that's here. That's in your packet in the yellow packet.
018There are two. One is April 8th. So we'll pass that later. The one that I give verbally meets is the first chart. But I see what you're saying, Todd, about the column that is next to the one that I'm reporting out. I see what you're saying. I hear you. Right. Do you see what Yep. So, I understand what Todd is saying and where the confusion is and I'll make sure it's rectified. Thank you. Perfect. All right. This is going to be the first opportunity for public participation on anything related to our agenda tonight. If anyone wishes to address the board, please approach the podium, write your name, and please print it clearly. They do come up and put your address on the signing sheet and state your name clearly for our records. Statements are limited
019to 3 minutes and should not be abusive, obscene or defamatory in nature. Do we have any takers agenda items? Okay, seeing none, I'm going to go to personnel policy. Okay. ations. I don't know if they can hear me. Can you hear me in the back? If I keep this backeration, I [Music] um we did not meet uh tonight as a committee. Um, but I'd like to move the following items for tonight's agenda. Uh, the second reading of policies and regulations as listed. Second reading to abolish policy MP511 511.01 as listed. Requirement as listed. resignation as listed. Number six, new employment as listed. Number seven, I missed that on the bottom here. Yes, change of assignment as listed. Number eight, temporary change of assignment and salary adjustment as listed. Number nine, leaves of absence as listed.
020Number 10, unpaid days as listed. Number 11, ESY uh 2025 staff as listed. Number 12, summer evaluations as listed. Number 13, summer band program as listed. Number 14, district honorarium as listed. Number 15, certified substitute ratified as listed. 16, certified substitutes as listed. Number 17, non-certified substitutes as listed. Number 18, affirm bullying investigation findings as listed. Do you have a second for the uh second reading that this is approving that we will do the second reading? No vote on the second reading last time. That's it. the second meeting which means then it's like we discussed in personnel prior to the first meeting we changed the process right and we discussed like it was on for a first reading at our last meeting that he weren't here and so now it's second reading so now it
021becomes policy unless it doesn't pass right now I'm not being clear being clear that's why we read twice. So, the theory is you read it the first time, you read it three days ago when this came out, and now you're ready to vote. Well, we did we did a a dig on it then at the meeting prior to the first reading, right? Yeah. Also, um I don't know. Do we have any of our retirees here? Is Lyn or Richard or Angela here? Do we have any retirees here? I guess it's hard to tell. people are kind of staggered, but we wish them um much success. We have some big numbers here, 15 years of service, 21 years of service. So, we wish all our retirees um a happy retirement. Um and I do believe we
022got a second. Second. Thank you. Um do we have any other questions before we vote? Um roll call, please. Mrs. Brand. Yes. Dr. Casey. No on everything. Well, you you choose the P. Okay. So, yes. All the PS on two and three or just two. All right. Miss Crosby, yes. Mr. Garula, yes. Miss Lambert, yes. Mrs. Spieler, yes. M Sullivan. Yes. Mr. Amaros. Yes. Motions carry. Thank you. Forward here. Okay. [Music] There you go. Leave it right there. [Music] Good evening. So, the curriculum meeting committee did not meet this evening. Um, the committee is made up of myself, Emily Crosby, Ellen O. Sullivan, and Miss Rebecca Montgomery. I move the following items. Uh, number two, home instru instruction as listed. Number three, adoption of Wilson Language Foundations for prek as listed. Four, adoption of envision
023math textbook and digital resources as listed. Five, adoption of Hagerty prek curriculum set as listed. Six, 2025 summer band program as [Music] listed with music. Yes. Okay. Do we have a second? Second. Do we have any questions for curriculum? Does the Heggerity prek curriculum set that you bought include the handwriting script section or not? So Heerty is um addresses phenemic awareness. So that doesn't include handwriting, but the um adoption of Wilson language foundations for prek does do that. Welcome. Any other questions for [Music] curriculum? Okay. All those in favor say I. Any opposed? Any abstensions? Okay. Seeing none, on point of facilities and transportation, Mrs. Here we go. Okay, we're in a good spot. The finance facilities and transportation committee meeting met this evening and attendance was myself, Mr. Amarosa, Mr. Bargula, Miss Williams, and
024Mr. Dvidita. We uh discussed the update on DDES. There were some old uh mold stain cleanups uh that were done there over the spring break. Uh insurance will not cover them because it was not an active uh situation nor was there a current leak or anything in the building. So, we kind of discussed what the situation with our insuranceances would be and our insurance company will come out in June or July and do additional sort of um mold prevention HVAC training with our lead custodians. Uh we discussed um the transportation contract sidebar. We've discussed um our health benefits, the fact that they're up 10% and what our stop-loss renewals uh look like for next year. We discussed a referendum scheduling update, uh everything should be hopefully getting bid some point in February, what that's going
025to look like in the buildings, the timing of things, as well as uh what's going to have to happen in the buildings with regard to swing spaces and timing of all that. Um, we will have more information at some point over the summer, right? We will have more information at some point over the summer and we'll give a clearer update. Then, um, we discussed our 403 BTSA fees. Um, some third-party administrative fees are covered by some of the funds, other funds don't. um it'll it will continue to be paid for in the employees account for lack of a better way to put it. Um and then we discussed agenda items. I'd like to move the following items. The secretary and treasurer's report listed in item number three. Bills and claims in the amount of $4,840,96747
026reviewed by Carmela Spieler. Thank you. Uh travel and related expenses listed in item number five. Transfers as listed in item number six. Donations listed in item number seven. Um gift card bank. Acme gift cards from gift card bank to the district and from the Fill Burrow Education Association Amazon gift cards given to the Laura Donin School. Um we are very thankful for those donations. Thank you. Uh school bus emergency evacuation and safety drills are summarized in item number eight. I'd like to move item number nine, the MOSC non-public agreements as listed. Item 10, out of district transportation contracts with Moec as listed. Item 11, renewal of managed backup as a service and disaster recovery as a service competitive contracts proposal for the 2526 school year is listed. Item 12, renewal of garbage collection services bid
027for the 2526 school year as listed. Item 13, renewal of the pass the trash processing RFP for the 2526 school years listed. Item 14, renewal of recyclable collection bid for the 2526 school years listed. Item 15, renewal of the investigated services RFP for the 25 uh26 school year as listed. Item 16, adopt the final budget for the 2526th school year. Do I have to say anything special for that? Okay, just the adoption of our 2526 school year budget. And item number 17, um, approval for the health insurance rates, um, as listed. And item 18, the TWWU sidebar agreement between the Freel Township Board of Education and the Trans Transportation Workers Union as listed. And finally, item number 19, approval of the 2025 summer band program. Mrs. Lber, do we have a second? Second. Do I
028have questions for finance facilities? You don't need a roll or anything. Yeah. Okay. Any questions? Okay, see none. All those in favor say I. I. Any oppose? No extensions. Thank you. Okay. Um, old business. I just have one item on there. Um, we're just waiting for Mr. Dixon to finish his input of the CSA evaluation. Um, he will be done soon. I hope I will ask it. Uh May 27th um we are going to have an executive session to discuss that evaluation. Mr. Dixon will be raced for that meeting. In June 10th or the 24th depending upon how many responses I get back and how timely we are with our input into the system um we will have Neil join us for an executive session and then we will go over his CSA evaluation. So
029keep those dates on your calendars. So May 27th we will meet without Mr. Dixine, June 10th or June 24th we will have an executive session with Mr. Dixine. So just so you mark your calendars for that. Um do we have any other old business? Yes the last meeting and I really um I I wanted to speak on career day Eisenhower. Um for one we didn't have that when I when I so the fact that kids are already thinking about career paths is incredible. I don't think I actually did it in high school either at Burrow. Um it really wasn't until college. So those people were coming in with all I was recounting with some colleagues um how I was speaking to them about how I work with students with IEPs and 504s at high school
030level. And these kids were so excited, enthusiastic to say, "I have an IEP. I have a 504." And so I think it just really speaks to the environment that we're fostering for these kids that there's no stigma. Like we can say we have an IEP. It's okay to have accommodations. and it's just normalized. So, and every single student that I spoke to had that same kind of passion around it. So, I just have to say kudos to our educators buildings for Great. Thank you for sharing. That's excellent. Do we have any other business or any new business? Okay, seeing none, um president's remarks. Um, I really don't have much else to say other than I look forward to um, meeting with our teachers to try to resolve our contract over the next few weeks. Hopefully,
031we'll get that done sooner than later. And I'm going to now move into the second public participation, which will be on any item related to the schools. If anyone wishes to address the board, please approach the podium and write your name clearly. If you could print it so Mr. to read it could actually read it. That would be helpful. on our assignment sheet. State your name for our record and statements are limited to three minutes and again should not be a gift of obscene or defamatory nature. legal exceptions prescribed by NJSA 10 col4-12 for the purpose of discussing the following matters pending or anticipated contract negotiations FTEA negotiations. It is anticipated that the length of time of this exe executive session will be 40 minutes and that action will not be taken in public after
032the executive session. We're merely going to come back in and just adjourn the meeting. Be it further resolved that discussion may be disclosed to the public when reasons for discussing and acting upon it in closed session no longer exist. Do I have a second? Second. All those in favor say I. I. Any opposed? Thank you everyone for coming on. Are we moving or are we staying? We're staying.