001in order. United States of America to the republic for it stands one nation under God, indivisible with liberty and justice for all. Please quote here, Mr. Mr. Esman here, Mr. Janak here, Mrs. Miller here, Mr. Pender here, Mr. Peny, Mr. Zenberg, Mr. Chapman here, Mr. Dio here. In accordance with the terms of the sunshine law, adequate notice of this meeting was posted in all school building, the administration building, bur service, public library, three newspapers, and tapped into on January 7, 2025. Please be advised there is no smoking on school grounds inside or outside at any time. Please silence all electronic devices and pursuant to district policy number 0167 each statement made by a participant shall be limited to three minutes duration and no participant may speak more than once on the same topic. Thank you
002Mr. Superintendent report please. Thank you Mr. Casio. This evening we have a very packed slate as well as a very packed house of presentations by two of our elementary um schools followed by our winter sports recognition ceremony, a wellness uh presentation and also our student representative uh Linda Thomas is here. So we're going to start it off by asking Miss Kuchi to come up to the podium. Miss Kuchi is the principal of Franklin School and she'll be introducing uh the uh portion of the presentation that she'll be doing this evening as well as I understand two of her students will be with her. All right. Good evening everyone. Good evening Dr. Tany board of education members of our community. Franklin just making sure Franklin school dedicated the month of April to autism acceptance. We hosted
003a special week of awareness filled with spirit days and memory friendly activities designed to help students better understand, appreciate, and celebrate individual differences. Throughout the week, all Franklin students engaged in activities that explored how people with unique abilities prefer to learn, relax, and interact, deepening empathy, and strengthening the bonds within our school community. Inclusion practices benefit every student and are especially meaningful for those in our self-contained staff and project inspire programs. At Franklin, we strive to ensure all students feel seen, valued, and a part of the school family. By embracing differences, our students build strong character and help foster a warm, welcoming learning environment for all. Many individuals with autism experience a range of sensory sensitivities. Sights, sounds, smells, textures, and taste can be either overwhelming or under stimulating. Our sensory friendly activities were thoughtfully
004put together to support those with sensory processing challenges. However, these activities also promote brain development, emotional regulation, and learning for every student. A favorite activity which you will see was making food grade sensory dough. Students enjoyed creating it together, often helping one another along the way. Some preferred their dough scented while others liked it plain, demonstrating a range of personal preferences. Shaving cream finger painting was another hands-on option. While it wasn't for everyone due to the mess, many students found it a fun tactile experience. Others enjoyed spray paint spray painting while offered a paint which offered a cleaner, more digital way to explore creativity. Students were encouraged to participate in ways that felt right for them. Some discovered they didn't enjoy getting messy while others fully embraced it. There was something for everyone, even if
005not everything was for everyone. And that's what true inclusion is all about. Tonight's video highlights our sensory activities meet. However, before we press play, I would like to invite two outstanding fourth grade students up to join me. Justin Scallop and Alex Piano. Justin and Alex are two young men who have emerged as leaders and friends in raising inclusion and playing a key part in helping some of our step students feel welcome. supported and truly part of the Franklin community. They would like to share a little bit about their experiences. Room one is one of my favorite places to visit at Prank School. It's not a regular classroom. It's kids with abilities that we don't have, but they have abilities they need to have. It calms them. It calms down our day because if we are
006having a bad day, they're going to get it off. It's a fun food because they are playing with some someone besides their classmates. One time during tiger tailed, we had to cut something and I was teaching Thomas how to use scissors. I was showing him how to move his hands up and down. He was proud. The teachers couldn't get him to do it and I had to help him because I'm his mom. We have never been made to go and it's always been a choice. It's special. We get stuff to do. We are helping them learn and we are having them. They're comfortable with us. When I see them have these moments, I know I can be a role model and help them calm down. Include inclusion is important because if they don't if they
007are having a step point in the hallway when you don't you don't laugh at them they don't know how to control [Applause] it. [Music] People think it's scary when people are different because they think they will get hurt, but they really are really nice. They get mad at some things that people won't. But you can help them calm down the situation. When I see them have these moments, I know I can be a role model because I help them to get where they need to be. Once I helped Kathleen warm up her hands, I showed her how to rub my hands over hers. I had to help her because she didn't know how. But when I walked into room, the kids get excited. And I like that. And I like going back into conclusion. It
008is important because you never know what's going on in other people's lives. [Applause] Just have to look that way and give away. There you [Applause] go. Do you want me to stand? [Music] My glasses. Where's the slime? [Applause] Thank you so much. You did a great job. Thank you so much. Great job. I'm going to ask after each presentation, whoever uh up at the podium, go on over to where you now see our grant students and uh have your picture taken. Okay? Okay. So after each presentation, we're going to do that one more time for you. Mr. Mandis here this evening, the principal of grant school um along with some of the members of the drama club who are going to um perform a couple of songs from us from Alam. Uh first I want
009to thank uh Dr. Tany, Miss Velisa and the board for having us here. Um our students are excited at Grand School. We have a lot of clubs and activities but definitely one of our most popular is our drama club. Uh we have phenomenal adviserss, Miss Iiker, Miss Maline, and Miss Kouchi. They've done a a fabulous job and you're going to get a little glimpse of Alice in Wonderland. Take it away. [Applause] [Music] Cats and rabbits could reside in fancy little houses and be treas. to try in a world of my own. All the flowers could have very extra special powers. They can sit and talk to me for hours when I'm only in a world of my own. Books are boring. I would rather live my life exploring, solving mysteries on a wish touring through
010a world of my own. No more trouble for the greatest problems. Would you think such could understand? Maybe somehow if the world could run on dreams that make me believe in fun, then I could be most anyone. My world would be a wonder. A wonderland that's all my own. Where anything is possible, where I can be anything, anyone. could be. Life could be a wonder. Life could be a wonder. Life could be a wonder. Past the rainbow. Follow the brightest star. Your heart will lead you straight to who you are. Straight to who you are. Alice in Wonderland. Where is the path to wonder? Over the hill or under just behind the tree. Alice in Wonderland. Where is the path to wonderland? Over there or here or there? I wonder [Music] where tonight [Music] the
011day. In only just a moment, you'll soon be on your way. What life's around the corner? But I can guess more or less hidden dangers great. The moment of glory is close. This is going to be [Music] grand. Adventure is a wonderful thing. Pack only the essentials. I'll tell you what to bring. Your strength, your nerve, your heart, your wits. And if you're under attack or first earth, adventure is a hood and a hat. You'll face unearly dangers and look at them and laugh. The claws of teeth, the chase, the thrill. You'll never want to go home. Baby, you never [Music] will. That's the beauty of adventure. It's always in your flow. You're on your till your right and daddy grabs you by the throne. To survive and all the chances are remote. Woohoo! Lucky
012you. Wish I was coming, too. Adventure is a wonderful thing. Let's break it down. An adventure full of wonder is a wonderful venture. An adventure full of wonder is a wonderful venture. Adventure is a wonder. A tutor or a threeer? No, it's sweeter. It's a wonder. I'm a thunder, but it's fun for journeys and adventures. Will you adventure? Sure. A D V E N T U R. My name W O N D E R. We are We are W N D E R F U L W O N D E R F U L W O N D E R W N D E R W N E R F U L W N E R U L A D V E N T U R E [Music] That's the beauty of adventure than trembling
013in a dread. I can't think of another thing I'd rather do instead. Perhaps you could join me. No, you go ahead. [Music] Lucky you ho and double chin chest out and tummy in. Make a fragile a plane. Drop a bow. Get that little time. [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] Okay. Follow the line. We're going to do one at a time. You're going to go right through and shake hands. Okay. Go right through. Follow me. So, we're going to follow. [Applause] I did it. [Applause] Oh, that was How do you hand Okay. [Music] Great. Good job. I just want to make up one more one more thing that our advisor said. This is only a portion of our drama club because not everyone comes tonight. We just want to there were many more involved. This is only
014a quarter of the students and they did a great job and you know the ones that couldn't change tonight. We just want to thank you. [Applause] While we're having a picture taken over there, I'm going to ask our athletic director to come on up. This evening, we'll also [Music] be this evening. We'll also be recognizing our amazing winter athletes. Good evening. I'd like to congratulate and recognize our winter sport athletes. They had a great season, all of them. Uh the the biggest issue tonight is that most of them are spring athletes also. So, a lot of them are not here because they're at games right now, especially the track team. They're at the GNC's. So, but we will give them their certificates tomorrow. Uh we'll start out. What I would like you to do when
015I call your name by team, Mr. Pascal will lead you up and you're going to greet each one of the board members and then we'll have you meet by the clock for your certificates and picture and picture and picture. So, whoever is here for boys basketball, Andrew Baina, Jordan Jones, Samantha Mench, Stella Sweeney [Applause] Kevin, Ryan Pyro, Anthony [Applause] Toé, Angela Cesco, Rean Farrell, Tina Jer, Juliana Jo, Paige McCauley, Logan Orut. [Music] [Applause] Competition cheerleading, Taylor Evans and Catherine [Applause] Fire. We also have to ask them Emma Afrey Justin Andre Isabella Batshaw Anous Vant Riley Billing Nathaniel Bush Brandon Calderon Corey Calone Juliana Ferrer Blake Greco Cooper Haspel Tony Hoe Jimmy Lynn Isaiah Malafi Zachary Orlandi Victoria Perez A Tyler Fan, Lava Rafi, Brooke Ramirez, Jaden Rivera, Ethan Sharai, Samantha Singh, Noah Sodto, Daniel Schwarz,
016Vincent Tran, Juan Salazar, Joshua Wilson, and Alexander Ward. Congratulations. Okay. Winter track. James Adams, Osprey Afrey, Brian Ayelloo, Evan Brown, Daniel Corales, Tyson Pruda, Brandon Djono, Nicholas Djono, Daniel Fullman. I'm sorry. King Hills, Jaden Jones, James Cats, Carter Legado, Matthew Loul, Jordan Magazine, Aiden N, Kyle Nen, Connor O, Broady Raldi, Jaden Roland, Kyle Rosen, CR, Alexander Rollins, Kayen Sodto, Aiden Sweeney, Nathan Sts, Christo Christopher Watran, Zachary Watran, Christopher Wong, and Cook Chris Fish was the blue division. Coach of the year 2018. Winter girls track will be the same. Ariel Catalani, Madison Catalani, Josephine Sinster, Natalie Travers, Sophia Valley wrestling, Ryan Balon, James Birmingham, Jacob Fillin, Ryan Blackwell, Justin Culver, Nick Aari, Alex Pina, Jose Rodriguez, Joseph Dan, Stanzion, Logan Stockle, and Torres and girls wrestling, Eva Altoano and Ava Fo. [Applause] Congratulations to all of
017our athletes and coaches. I am sorry that most of them couldn't be here due to baseball tonight and the GMC track. Congratulations [Applause] Victoria, do you want to just wait for a moment? Victoria, do you want to wait for a moment? No, I'm good. Okay. I'm going to ask our assistant business administrator, Mr. uh Morat Yatizi, to come on up. We are required by the state of New Jersey to go over our wellness information. And uh uh Mr. Gatsi is our official uh district representative. So, come on up. Talk about what's going on in Columbus in our district. Quick morning. Uh after all these awesome shows and presentations, my report will be very good evening everyone. Uh Dr. Well, actually, you could sing it. next year. Um, good evening everyone. Uh, Dr. Ty and members
018of the board. Uh, the primary goal of the 2425 committee was to establish a committed team with representation from each school building in the district. Together, we focused on implementing the key components of the healthy school programs in alignment with our district's mission to support the well-being of our of every student. Uh over the course of the year, the wellness committee held four meetings during which we reviewed and discussed the district's food service operations, health and physical education programs, and the existing wellness policy. Our work began with a review of the current policy which continues to reflect the core values and practices central to our wellness mission. This year, to promote greater transparency and support uniform food choices, we requested that our food service management company post the ingredients of each food item on the
019school menus. This step reflects our commitment to ensuring that students and families have access to essential nutritional information. To assess our school's compliance with policy requirements, we conducted an annual wellness survey using the statemandated wellness policy assessment tool. Results from the assessment along with supporting documents will be available on the district website under the parent section. Uh as we move forward, the wellness committee is committed to expanding our collaboration with key stakeholders including students, parents, teachers, and community partners. As part of our continued focus on nutrition education, we are planning to host student assemblies for prek through sixth grade in the upcoming school year centered on healthy eating habits and wellness awareness. We advocate for increased physical education requirements, healthier meal options, and mental health resources as part of a holistic approach to wellness. In
020closing, we remain dedicated to fostering a healthy, supportive environment for all students. We continue to broaden our outreach to include parents, families, and staff in our wellness initiatives. If you are interested in joining the wellness committee, uh please contact me. My information is available under the district wellness section of the district website. Thank you. We also have one more uh presentation. Uh that presentation this evening is from London Thomas. London Thomas is the president of the sophomore class and she's involved in several of the clubs that are happening at the high school. Uh the Black Student Union, the drama club, GSA, the chamber orchestra, and the robotics team. Linda, we all want to hear about what's happening in the high school. Good evening everyone. As you know, I'm London Thomas and I'm the president of
021the sophomore class at SBHS High School. I'm an honorable student. I do a wide range of activities like swimming, drama club, track and field, coach, black student union. Some important updates and activities happening in the high school are following. Last week, 9th and 11th grade students participated in the NJSLA testing. Science for 11th grade and math and ELA for 9th graders. The SBHS spring concert was held last Thursday, May 1st. AP testing started Monday, May 5th and ends on Friday, May 16th. Teacher and staff appreciation week uh is this week uh and it's studentled uh and student leader uh club is showing their appreciation for teachers of SBHS. On Tuesday, May 6, snacks were offered to teachers during L1 and L4 in the information center. The leaders will also host an ice cream party on
022Friday, May 9th, which will be set up in the staff cafeteria during L1 and L4. Today was the last day of Tiger Farms, a program run by our trans transition academy. The farm was busy with the last three Wednesdays offering beautiful flowers and young pies. Senior seniors are counting down to graduation of 25 days with with a different uh with different every day. The week of May 5th, seniors have a thank you wall for students to share messages to our staff. It will be located outside the cafe. The week of May 12th, themes theme is theme spirit week. All themes will be shared with students and staff. The week of May 19th, Monday during lunch uh blocks, seniors will be able to leave their handprints on the banner outside of exit tag. Tuesday, May 20th,
023senior scaven will be a senior scavenger hunt. Wednesday, May 21st will be a must day. On May 28th, advice advice hall will be set up where teachers can share life advice with students. May 29th uh will be there will be a advice for where seniors can offer advice to underassmen. Prom will be held on June 5th at the Marold in Somerset, New Jersey, 6:00 to 10:00 p.m. More events are planned for for the remainder of the days in June. Monday, June 9th, seniors will pick up their capes and gowns and other important items for graduation. Final exam is being on Monday, June 9th, and and will continue Wednesday, June 11th through Friday, June 13th. Seniors are planning a picnic on Monday, June 16th, after graduation practice. Yearbooks are still on sale. Parents and students are
024encouraged to check their email for more details. Jun Juniors, class of 2026, received emails to schedule their senior portraits for the week of June 23rd at the high school. Emails are also sent to parents and students. There will be a pep rally May 20th and the school and the high school will be on assembly bell schedule. The high school ha the high school has many events planned for day of service such as breakfast with the senior citizens, musical performances from uh for them as well, charity carnival, charity color run, walkathon, camp uh campus/ cleanups, beautifification project at the recycling center as well as in class inclass service based activities. Thank you. [Applause] Great report. Um, I have a couple more things to uh present to the public here. Uh, as a reminder to the community,
025the district will be closed May 22nd through May 27th. Students are to return back to school on Wednesday, May 28th. We have those extra dates built into our calendar uh in the event that we had some weather um issues over the this winter, but it was very mild. So, we're going to enjoy a longer Memorial Day break. Uh last week the district was informed that we had been awarded a grant from the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs. The grant of $83,000 will be used for playground equipment at Kennedy School and Roosevelt School. The district has committed to match the grant amount for each of the schools, which is $41,500. Um and uh as tradition, the PTSO uh usually fund raise if they wanted to have something different in the uh in their school. So
026over the next few weeks, our principles along with the PT Essos and Mr. Wiggins will be working on what we will be ordering for our preschool. So we're grateful to get that grant. Uh as London mentioned, the day of service is scheduled for May 30th. If you have a moment, please visit the district website to see all the activities that are planned for that day. And if you uh can please consider donating to one of the charities that our students have listed uh for supporting on that particular day. And as London already mentioned, please our junior and high uh senior uh parents and guardians, keep your eyes open for some emails that are coming. You'll have some important information about graduation, prompts, exams, all those things that are coming up. Thank you so much. All
027right. Any board member comments and presentations? Mr. Jeff, I don't really know what to say other than Wow. I mean, just to start with Franklin School, you know, for the inclusion for, you know, autism month of April. I mean, you guys, I think they may have already left, but they should be extremely proud of themselves. I mean, what they've done and then the two young gentlemen to come up and speak here uh and do such a great job. It's just was absolutely fantastic. And then moving on to uh you know to uh grant school doing their presentation over there. I think that we may have a future American Idol uh contestant on our hands there. Um I would never two two things. I would never have the guts to get up there and sing like
028that. Second thing is you wouldn't want to hear me. So um you know great great job with that. All the winter athletes, hold your heads high. You guys did a great job as always. South Planefield is always academically and athletically um superb. and um and also to London, I guess, who who split out. Great job. Thank you very much for your hard work with the uh uh with the student council there and um you know, thank you very much for coming after us. Thank you, Mr. Ch. Anybody else? I'll keep my comments brief. Um Franklin School, Justin and Alex, thank you for your brave leadership in the school. Um Mrs. Miss Kush, Mrs. Kushi, always incredible work to hear what's going on in Franklin. So, thank you for sharing that. Uh, Miss Mr. McCann, amazing
029work over there at Grant. Um, as you can see, the participation in the the drama program is phenomenal and and as as Mr. Chapman said, there's incredible students that we have um across the board. All of our students are incredible. So, it's amazing to just see the work that they do. Um, going into our winter athletes, incredible job. Uh, London, thank you for keeping us super informed. Um, yeah, I just don't want to belver the point, but our students are with us truly, and that's a testament to our our staff and our teachers and all of our administrators. They respect Sharon. I just want to say great job by London. All the students have been giving us such great updates from high school. They're very informative and we really truly appreciate it. To Franklin students,
030they are true heroes to our special needs community. What they do is so important and I can't thank them enough. Great job by the drama club at Grant. We really enjoyed it and maybe one day if not um and then congratulations on all the athletes and coaches for that athletic achievements this past winter season. Special shout out to coach Frankus Ferry for girls bowling coach of the year blue division and coach Chris Fish on GMC blue division coach of the year uh winter boys track and to the team for the GMC all blue division champs. Also special acknowledgement to the boys swimming GMC division champs and to Stella um Sweeney for achieving a thousand points in girls basketball. This is not an easy achievement. there are very if you go to the the um display
031the uh sports awards display and look very few males or females ever achieve that. So this is really a big accomplishment for her. Um and also to Eva uh Elton may know one of our female wrestlers for first place in the GMC and first place in the north to regional role strength and proud of our athletes and our coaches. Thank you. Anybody else? That's it. Say none. We are going to take a quick break. Yeah. Good. How are you? Yes. She really blocking blocking. You're not carrying it. So nice. Need a book. [Laughter] [Music] Hi, Missine. This is a good Mr. Mr. PCO. Can't start without the VA. Are you ready? All right. Can I get a motion to open the 202526 public budget meeting? Second. Any discussion? Roll call, please. I don't need one.
032Go ahead. Uh, tonight I'll be presenting the proposed school uh district budget for the 2526 school year. This year's budget process has been anything but typical. Like many districts across New Jersey, South Planefield is experiencing financial pressures driven by the rising costs that are increasingly difficult to sustain under the state imposed 2% cap on our tax levy. Despite these challenges, our foremost priority throughout this process has been our students. We have worked diligently to preserve core programs and services while maintaining uh minimum maintaining uh our programs. This budget reflects our commitment to maintaining a highquality educational experience and also uh includes investments into enhancing our student learning across the district. I just wanted to take a moment um to acknowledge all that worked on this budget. Um our central office staff uh assistant superintendent mayor
033Meliska, our business administrator, Mr. Benanti, our assistant business administrator Mr. Yatsitzi, and all that were uh involved in this, the directors, Mr. Serulo, uh Dr. Gman, Mike Estrada, uh Mr. Wiggins, uh, Mr. Brandon, we painstakingly went over all of these, uh, items over and over again to make sure that we were, uh, moving our funds into areas that would best serve our students. In addition, I'd really like to thank our board of education members, and although you're seeing them up here, I'm going to read you their names as well. Mr. Casio, our president, Mr. Chapman, our vice president, Mr. Both, Mr. Espen, Mr. Geianakis, Mrs. Miller, Mr. Pender, Mr. Penissi, and Mr. Susleberg. Uh all of the board members were kept in the loop as we were working through this and they were sure to
034let us know what areas they felt were the most important in building this budget. Our mission statement, I'm not going to read it to you, but our mission statement appears on our website and it is the um the motto of our district that we keep our students first and that is what our focus of the budget is. And I asked to put up our um our chart of our student enrollment. Our student enrollment as of this Monday, May 5th, 2025. Our total enrollment of STO students was 3,853. Our students receiving special education services or 703. Our multi multilingual learners, MLS, were 206. And our average daily enrollment is 3,798. The New Jersey Department of Education requires districts to submit enrollment annually by October 15th. These figures fluctuate throughout the school year due to student transfers.
035Importantly, many incoming students who may require additional services such as special education, language supports, or transportation, all of which impact the district's budget. Our next slide is where we talk about our district employees. Currently, the district employs 665 individuals in both certified and non-certified roles throughout the district. For the school year 26 budget, we are reducing staff by 24 positions. These reductions were achieved through attrition, non-renewals, and resignations and were carefully managed through staff reassignments and uh consolidations of underenrolled classes at the middle school and the high school. The board strongly advocated for a budget that minimized impacts on the students. However, it is important to note that future staffing reductions will likely require formal uh reduction in force or a riff as we have exhausted every possibility for less disruptional options moving forward. Again,
036this has to do with the 2% cap. So, I want you to keep that in mind as we move forward. Going to move this over to our operating budget. This chart shows our current year budget that we're working in. So our SY25, this is the year that we're in and what it looks like for SY26. This budget shows that from line to line between salaries and benefits, transportation costs, special services, maintenance and energy, capital security, technology projects, general technology, curriculum, other areas that we we um fund through the district. Uh we have a total this year of running on $75,524,490 and next year it will be 88 80,237,490. That left us in a deficit of almost $5 million. We move forward. It's important that you understand how the budget is developed. As I mentioned, school
037districts in New Jersey are limited to a 2% annual increase on the tax limit with potential waiverss available based on health care cost increases, enrollment growth, or bank cap for school year 26. I want you to take a look at this. School year 25, again, this is the year that we're currently working in. Our tax levy, which means it's paid for by the local taxpayer, is 56,637,929. With the 2% increase that raises the taxes to by an additional $1,132,000. The subtotal there made it just about 58 million. 57770. We were able to take advantage of the waiverss adding additional 2,159,744 making our total tax levy 59,930,432. What does that mean exactly? So, we're going to move this up. Sorry. Give me just a moment here. Apologize. Got to make sure that I'm on the right
038thing with all of you. In school year 2025, the district experienced a $1.96 million reduction in state aid. That was based on the number that we lost in state aid plus the addition of stabilization aid. I know there's going to be a lot of numbers at you, but we'll answer any questions that you have after, which was partially offset by $1.6 billion in stabilization aid. This these funds were allocated to the current school year 25 budget and funded a number of the programs that we currently have running. For school year 26, the coming school year, the state aid was increased in the district by $767,243 uh $293. I want you to understand that actually still left us in a deficit because this year the state did not provide any stabilization aid for the district. actually
039creating a net loss of the district of $838,840 compared to the current school year. The result this results in total aid in a total aid reduction of $1.96 million uh over the last two years. So to keep in mind, we're going to be currently working with less money next year than we are now. Even though you've seen that the state had increased our state aid but did not give us stable uh stabilization aid, we began the process of facing a $4.71 million shortfall after accounting for our 2% tax levy, our approval of waiverss and our state aid. We are we are left with a total budget deficit of two mill 2,259,337. Come here. I have to apologize here because I this No, I numbered them on this one. Okay, here we go. In order to
040uh reach the number that we needed to reach, we looked at a number of ways that we could possibly um balance our budget. We looked at eliminating positions far beyond the 24 that I've already mentioned to you from the 20 uh school year 26 budget. We also instituted a hiring freeze. We were moving forward with implementing a tiered busing system and revisiting the start and release time of students that would allow us to bring back some of our out of district uh out of district routes. We delayed a full imp implementation of an elementary reading program. We reduced the number of mental health uh services that would be provided in the district. We deferred the Chromebook replacements for our students and uh postponed any major facility and infrastructure projects that we had going. These were
041very difficult decisions, but they were made to protect the essential services while still maintaining fiscal responsibility. That's what we had in mind and we had uh set for our budget moving forward. There you go. Um, as you can see on this slide, this uh form and application information came from the state of New Jersey. In March of 2025, after our uh board had set forth their preliminary budget and moved it to the uh county office, we were notified by the New Jersey Department of Education that the South Planefield School District and approximately 200 and other 299 other districts in the state were classified as being under adequacy, meaning the district's local contribution is significantly below what the state determines is adequately uh funding for the district. South Planefield is currently, and this is not a
042number created by the district, it's a number created by the Department of Education, is currently over $16 million in under adequacy. This figure was determined by the state based on factors such as enrollment, demographics, uh, municip uh, property values. And to address this, the uh New Jersey Department of Education offered the opportunity for districts to raise their tax levy up to that that amount, $16.6 million, in addition to what you were already uh raising for the year. So, they're allow they're allowing districts to do this. The board submitted an application that was offered by the state to raise those additional funds. Again, the number identified by our state was $16,661,56 is where they say we are under advocacy. What that means, so you have a better understanding, is um for this each school district, the
043state of New Jersey determines the level of funding required to provide a thorough and efficient education for every student. This is known as the adequacy budget. The state then calculates the local cost share which represents the amount it believes the local community can contribute through taxation. If the local cost share fails falls short of the adequacy budget, the state provides the difference in equalization aid unless they believe that you are not paying your fair share. So that's where we are now. That is what they're saying we are not doing here in Southville. our tax levy application after discussing with the board and going through all of the items that we are putting through in the budget is not on based on wants. It's based on needs. the uh board members and the finance committee had
044very long discussions about what would be appropriate and what they believe that our uh taxpayers could afford based on what's needed in our district. The board determined that after going through the items that we thought were necessary in order to keep our district uh moving and providing the quality education that we do is that we would have our tax levy um increased based on the application by $3 million and the state would contribute to us another $150,000. They would match that 150 for us. So, we would be receiving $3,150,000. In full transparency, we're going to move this forward. This is very, don't worry about this because this it's on the website, so you don't have to take pictures. It'll be up there by tomorrow if you want to. You can listen to it. Um, it's
045important that you understand what this means for us moving forward and how important uh addressing the 2% cap is at the state level. We believe in full transparency and we want our uh public to understand what this is going to do to the district moving forward based on current trends and assuming that we are going to continue with a 2% cap from the state. We are heading what is being referred to as a fiscal cliff. It's used to describe where the school districts in New Jersey are heading. Some of us have already reached it. Some of us are approaching and some of us can see it in the not too far off distance. The first side slide comparison uh is showing you that for the school year SY27. So again, we're currently in SY25. This
046budget is being presented for SY26, but we project forward. So, in SY27 this school year, assuming that all of the um ex uh costs for the district only uh increase by 2% and that we are only allowed to increase 2% moving forward in the school year 27, we project we'll already be $350,000 short. Moving to school year 28 based on our projection again if the increase in all of our cost is 2% in uh school year 28 will be $700,000 short. Combating this might be possible for a short time with waiverss and delays to projects and reductions in force. However, we all know this will eventually come to an end. I think the next slide is much more realistic. Over the past number of years, our costs have increased between four and six%. This is
047based on a number of different um items. It's based on everything uh that you would just think happens in your own home, the cost of energy, the cost of just running your house. It doesn't increase by 2%. We also have to address that in our salaries, our health benefits uh that are raised, uh anything that has to do with special education, out of district cost, and um transportation. So we raise usually between four and 6% on an average year for us. If you take a look at that, the shortfall based on a number of between four and 6% with a 2% cap in the school year 27 will be over $2.5 million short. And in the school year 28, we'll be over $4 million short. I I say this to you because I want you
048to understand there's very little left in our lines to take. The next step will have to come from this year positions. Next year will be actually um raising our class sizes. We wouldn't be able to condense anymore. So, I just want you to make sure that that we're all understanding what that means. We're going to move forward one more time. If the district raised your taxes, the entire amount that was available to us on the application of $16.6 $.6 million in the in addition to the amount that we were able to raise based on our 2% cap and the uh waiver. The district um the district would have increased would have put through an increase that would have cost the average uh assessed home at $125,000 $131 a month. That would have been the raise
049there. The board members were adamant that they would not put that burden on the taxpayer, that they directed the administration to keep the programs where they needed to be kept and still keep the taxpayer in mind. What we actually ended up doing was going through all of our lines and putting putting our funds exactly where we thought they would be best for our students. What we're proposing in this year's school budget is to raise your the taxes to 6,461,184. What that means to you the taxpayer is on the average assessed home of 125 a little bit over that 125 that number 1251 139 um the average homeowner would be paying $44 a month for 12 months and then after receiving information from the bureau we were told that you would be receiving a tax credit
050on your bill somewhere between uh5 and $6 that could bring your taxes down to $38 a month on the average assessed home. So that is what we're proposing moving forward. So you uh have a better understanding of your town. About 60% of the homes in South Planefield are assessed at or below the average assessed value of 125 uh 139. in order for us to um move forward with our budget, the board then asked us to go through all of the um all of the things that we were able to keep in our budget and put through. So, I'm going to read through these. If you see what's up here now, anything that is in black was on our original budget. Anything that's in green is due to the uh tax levy incentive application that we
051applied for. We were able to based on this uh application increase uh in program offerings for for special education at the high school, our staff program at grand school. We increase the faculty with an additional special education hires which would be two an additional guidance counselor maintain one of our level two techs and we would be able to maintain two of our districtwide mental health providers. In addition, our instructional programs, and I'm not going to read through all of these, but you can just see the impact that additional $3 million has for us. Everything in black already existed in our budget. Everything in green are programs we were able to uh fully implement or add based on that um on that grant. in turn our instructional programs, professional development, which is so important for our
052our uh developing our teachers again for our special education. We were able to provide additional supports for professional uh licensed mental health programs, additional funding allocated to our out of district and tuition and transportation, the expansion of the STEP program. we were able to maintain all of our uh sports and extracurriculars throughout the district. In technology, uh we were able to put back some of the items that we had removed, but in addition, we are replacing uh the existing Chromebooks from our leases of uh grades K through four. We're adding some additional access controls, which is all for security. We are adding three additional SLEOs. One that will be placed at Grant, one in the middle school and one in the high school. So that we will have a fully staffed SEO as well as
053we are still maintaining our SRO's which is very important part of our district. Um security. Another thing that we are um we are uh focusing on and making sure uh that this is something that happens this year. We are going to be putting in an advanced security protection system at South Planefield High School. It'll be a system that is able to identify concealed weapons, a detective system, and a bag screening system for a safer experience for our students. We'll also upgrade our current cameras to include AI. And we are going to have uh automated security signage in the hallways. So that means while the kids are changing class, if there was something that happened, we had an emergency, there was a lockdown, something like that, they wouldn't just have to hear it over the loudspeakers,
054we'll have signage in the hallways so they're able to see what's going on. we were able to um uh do what we need to do in our facilities. However, we are postponing any of the major projects that we had. We'll have to put those on a different uh track so that we do a 5-year plan and figure out how we can get those things that must be done taken care of. And for those of you that have asked, we will be adjusting our transportation to offer subscription busing because we are bringing back a number of outofd routes. We're going to be returning them um at least two of our routes. It will be offered to elementary students who live a mile or over our secondary students who live 1.25 miles or over. It's going to
055be offered in September. There'll be limited seating on each bus. So, it'll be a lottery like our preschool. Um payment will be due in full in August and it'll be $625 per student annually. Going to turn the next thing over to Mr. Benanti as he talks a little bit more about our funding. Thank you, Dr. T. Those weren't the highlights. There's more to come. The nuts and bolts highlights. Um, so our total budget uh for school year 26 will be $88,429,821. Included in that is the tenative budget of $85,527,94. The tax levy incentive aid application requested of 3,150,000. and we are reducing two of our reserve accounts, our district maintenance reserve and unemployment reserve totaling 247,273. As Dr. Tanzy uh already highlighted um in our budget next year, one of the biggest pieces is staff
056and we will have 641 employees next year. The second biggest piece is our healthcare and projected by our insurance broker, we will have a 16% increase in next year's budget and special services costs continue to rise at uh 5% for next year. I would like to highlight our student enrollment numbers. Again, total student of enrollment includes general education, special education, and multilingual learners. Uh we have 3,853 students, 703 special education students, 206 multilingual learners. Our average daily enrollment is 3,798. The estimated per pupil cost for next year is 18,731. This information is provided to us by the NJ DOE and includes students educated via the preschool expansion aid. I would just like to highlight um our revenue makeup for next year. Of the total revenues, the tax levy makes up 73%. State aid is 18%,
057grants are 6%, miscellaneous revenue is 1% and fund balance is 2%. For our appropriations, uh we just like to highlight um salaries make up 48% of the total uh expenditures. uh fringe benefits which include health benefits make up 18% of our budget. In total they are 66% of the budget, maintenance is 6%, special sources 5%, curriculum 3% to highlight a few. And to reiterate what Dr. said earlier, the average South Paintfield home increase home assessed at 125,139 would see an approximate increase of $528 over the next 12 months or $44 per month. As per the South Planefield borrow, an additional credit will be applied to the resident's tax bills, reducing the monthly impact of to uh approximately $38 for the average assessed home. And approximately 60% of homes in South Planefield are assessed at or
058below the assessed value of 125,139. Uh and at that point, I will turn it back over to you, Dr. Fancy. Thank you so much. Um, I just wanted to say and I know we have some of the the public out here and this presentation will be posted on our website tomorrow morning if you wanted to go back and take a look at it again as are a couple of our other presentations um in the last uh in the last year. Uh, I just really wanted to um again have the public um fully understand the um importance of having Trenton and the lawmakers in Trenton really take a look at that funding formula and the uh and the 2% uh tax increase um cap that we have for our budget. Uh the costs continue to rise.
059Obviously, you know, in your own home they're rising over 2%. So, um it really is something that we're asking the uh public to become involved in. I am in Trenton having conversations. because I know that we have our board members here that are actively involved working with our lawmakers to see if there's something that we can do in order to uh you know alleviate the pressures that we have on the school district and in turn uh on our taxpayers. So again, we're we're uh dedicated and committed to making sure that our public is fully informed on what's going on with our school budget. And we're going to ask you um in the future, and the future is now, to please make sure that you have conversations and you reach out to your local politicians, your
060state politicians, for those of you who uh are on social media or just, you know, watch News 12, watch the regular news. It's one district after another after another in New Jersey. um you know what is happening with their with their uh with their budget. So uh we're doing what we need to do here and we're going to ask that the public please um support us and uh do what we need to do in order to get that changed in Trenton. Thank you Mr. C. Thank you doctor. Thank you Alex. At this time do we have any public comments on the budget? Seeing none any board member comments. Mr. Chairman, I think it's really important that the public understands how difficult of a decision this is. Um I see that 60% of the houses in
061the uh in the community in the burough and the township are assessed at or below the average value. The homes in this town have not been valued since 1986. That also means that the commercial properties have not been valued again since 1986. So the average home in town is trading, when I say trading, selling for about four times its assessed value. The average commercial property is selling for anywhere between seven and 10 times commercial value. What that means to you is that the homeowners are bearing a larger burden of the tax liability than the commercial properties are. We have to and I know that the burough council has scheduled uh in their calendar to have a valuation done coming up. Very appreciative that that's going to be done. Um, but it's my belief that when
062that is done, I think that the all the individual homeowners are going to have a reduction and property taxes because you have an example. One example is a property that I looked up 800 Montro and it's on the corner of Montrose in South Clinton. They just built this big I believe it's going to be a warehouse there. That property sold for 14.6 million. Assess that 1.4. Okay. So, that's a problem. So, what we need to do is hopefully, you know, when they do the revaluation, which I know they've committed to do, I'm very, very happy to do that. I think that you're going to see a turn a little bit. So, why it's currently a little bit painful for the for the taxpayers, especially those of us who, you know, our tax liabilities are higher
063than the uh higher than the average assessed amount. You know, it's it's we're going to feel it. There's no doubt about it. But I think that, you know, as we go on and as Dr. Hansy showed and Mr. Vanti showed in the budget is the tax levy increase this year is a temporary fix, folks. Okay? Don't fool yourself to believe that two years from now we're not going to be in a jam because we are because even the projections out there um that they ran at 4 to 6%. I appreciate that. I don't find them to be realistic. Nobody's budgets at home have gone up only four or 6% in the last several years. And with the cost of health care going up at the rate that's going up, the salaries going up, you know,
064people have to get paid and they have to get paid at a wage that keeps them up with the the uh the cost of living increase, right? Your purchasing power has to be the same. So, we have to treat our employees with the respect and compensate them at a level in which they're entitled to be compensated at. And that's a very, you know, it's it's a difficult thing. And you see on social media and it amazes me the amount of comments that I try not to pay attention to on social media. You'd think this room would be filled with all the critics that were out there on social media. You know what goes into building this budget is no easy task and making sure you have to understand something. People you see comments people are
065like oh you have too many people working there. Sure. Okay. You want to lose your job? You know that's this is unrealistic. We're very concerned. We don't want to have reduction in force. There's people whose households and families are dependent upon the salary and the income that comes from their employment in this school district. It has to continue on going forward. You know they say unemployment rate is what unemployment rate in your household is either 100% 50% or zero. Right? Either both people are working and it's zero one working one not it's 50% both not working it's 100% unemployment. So, you know, I just want you to know that the board and myself as the chair of the finance and the finance committee, we take this stuff really, really seriously and we work really hard.
066And I want to remind everybody out there because I think sometimes things get lost and they get forgotten. A bunch of years ago, we asked you guys to trust us to do a $28 million referendum, right? 28 million $28 million referendum where we we improved the facilities, we upgraded things that needed to be done, windows and a lot of stuff that was neglected for years and years and years and years. What this board did so diligently was we watched every single dollar that we did something that was completely unheard of. People were amazed. We returned money to the taxpayers when we were done because we didn't need to spend all $28 million. We had excess. We returned it to the taxpayers. So, if you don't think that this board is really conscious and paying attention
067to your dollars, your hard-earned dollars, and by the way, everybody up here lives in town except for the attorney lives in town and we all pay taxes, too. So, we're all seeing an increase as well. So, I just wanted to, you know, to say that, bring it to everybody's attention and to for everybody to truly understand. Nobody up here takes this lightly. We're very, very serious about this. We want our job is to make sure that we highly educate our children because they are the future of everything that's going to go on around here as well as take care of our taxpayer dollars. Thank you, Mr. Cassio. Thank you, Mr. I just have a question. Um, does anybody know if we have pilot programs at that point? We do not. We do not. Okay. And
068has anybody considered, I know we can't make them do it, but has anyone considered approaching some of the developers who are really doing massive buildings in the town about contributing to the school district since we will be um could potentially have a lot more kids entering our school district because of all these, you know, properties that are being built. There's some questions we're going to get. Okay. There's some questions. There's legal implications in that. We can certainly talk about it in close session. Okay. Yeah. Anybody else? I'm kind of confused. Can I just one second Mr. Pagonia and we can ask a question. Amazing presentation, Dr. Tanzy and Mr. Berni. Um, can Dr. Can you just walk us through the extent of stakeholder taxpayer input and involvement when deciding this specific increase? So um first
069we have to take a look at what is the absolute need in the district. So in order to provide our students I'm sorry in order to provide our students with uh all the services that we believe they need in order to be successful. that ranges from anything from um the reading program that we need uh to be implemented at the elementary um to programs that we might need to support our special education students. So once we take a look at that, they're not wants, they're needs. So in order to make that happen, then we take a look at what what is left in our budget. Where is our money? We go back to we have conversations with with US board members um and go through exactly what that number looks like based on the the
070uh assessment of the homes and what um realistically uh the board feels that the taxpayers could actually absorb. know we're going through some really rough times right now in South Planefield in you know in general we're going through some really really rough times and the board and and we were too cognizant of the money that we would be asking for because to some people $20 isn't a lot of money but to some people $20 is a lot of money. So, it was really based on what is it that we can put into our budget that would still allow us to provide our students with that um thorough and efficient education. But there were also very um deep conversations about um not really touching the uh the extracurriculars, the sports, the clubs because there are students
071who absolutely come to school and thrive and can't get enough academically. That's what they want. But there is somebody else who comes and just gets through their day. They do what they have to do because they just can't wait to get to football practice. So that's really what goes into it. And I will tell you that we start talking about we will start talking about next year's budget after we finish our our um preparing usually by the 1 of July and what needs to be ordered. We'll start looking at what has to happen for next year. we already know based on let's say students that are coming in we see them in July or then we see students that are moving in in September or October or November and there might be a special education
072student who needs a program that we don't have. What can we do to support them here and what does that mean for us? And I know some people um will ask this question. We have more uh special education programs in the district now than we've ever had. And somebody might look at that and say, "Well, you're taking up space in the in the class in the schools. You know, when I was in school, we had x amount of students in a class." Well, programs weren't as um specific as they are now. Maybe uh you know, every year things improve and they have a better way of identifying the needs of a student. So, we have programs and some of our programs are designed that you can't have more than maybe six or eight students in
073a class. Then, you might have some that be able to have 12 in them. And somebody might say, well, you have a class with only 12 in them, but those 12 students are getting the instruction that they need in order to help them succeed. And the thought is, well, if you took those 12 students and you move them out to a a special school, um, then you'd have more room for another student. Well, there's two things that happen there. First of all, when you move the student to another school. When you're moving a student to another school, you're trying to move a student in order to provide them a a program that maybe we don't have. it's the program that would be the best for them. But ideally, you're supposed to have a student in
074the least restrictive environment and that's here with their peers. So, even if you have a student in a self-contained class, that student still has the opportunity to uh be with their their peers and maybe it's not in an English class, but maybe it's in an art class or maybe it's in a physical education class. They still get to to be, you know, to do that. The same with when we have a self-contained class. Somebody looks and says, "Well, you know, I know I know there's a class and they have two teachers in there and they have five paras." Okay, well, maybe that's maybe that's true. And that's exactly what that student needs and we're still providing that student with what is the best for them in order to succeed. So, it's it's a it's a
075very long process and every single student who comes in has an impact on and what happens in the school regardless if it's preschool all the way up through our transition. It could somebody could be here until they're 21 years old. Thank you. Yes, sir. Um, look, I'm not thrilled about this tax peg either and is yet to be determined what my tax increase will be, which I believe will be substantial from what I understand. Um, but the bottom line is the school funding formula is flawed. Our legislators know it as well and Senator Kapal especially has been attempting to address this and get it changed. The state has held as Dr. Tami said four public hearings so far on the subject. Hopefully going forward the uh formula will be adjusted and there will be a
076lot more transparency and how they come up with our figures which right now it really isn't. So um I have been actively advocating to have this formula changed and for work to be done on it and I'm urging my fellow board members to do the same because there's strength in numbers. You know really contact our legislators. I can give you Senator Kapal's uh information if you want, but really we all need to do something about this. We can't just sit back and say, "Oh, well, every year, you know, we're going to have increases and that's the way it is." We have to fight for this. We really do. All the board members have to get together in their county and and really do something about this. That's the way something's going to get done. Um,
077you know, I've also been assured by our administration that this money is not going to be used for, you know, massive construction projects and whatnot. That everything in this budget will be going towards the needs of the kids, which I'm very happy about. Thank you, Mayor. The public portion is closed, but I'm going to let you speak because it's too important not to let anybody ask questions. I I I appreciate that. Can I go up there? Sure. Okay. Um, just your name and your address, please. Yeah. Um, hi, I'm Christine Lee down here. Okay, thanks. I'm Christine Lee and I live over at Atlanta Street. First of all, I'd like to thank everybody for their volunteer on being in the school board. My question is, and I'm sorry about before, but I'm getting confused. Is
078it $44 per 127,000? because many homes now in South Planefield, which is amazing, are going for over a half a million dollars. Doesn't go by. It doesn't go by sale value. It goes by assessed value on your tax statement. Okay. So, it's $44 per assessed value. Yes. 100 or per 125139. Okay. So, 139. So, and that's 125139. What? So, if if you go on and you look at your tax bill, you can actually go online, it'll tell you what your house is assessed for. Okay? It'll say, even though I don't know where you live, what your house looks like, you might sell your house tomorrow for $950,000. Your tax assessment, as Mr. um Mr. Chapman had said, town hasn't been assessed since 1986. So, your house may be assessed at 110,000 or 1241 139. If
079your house was assessed at 1241 139, your tax bill would be going up approximately $44 a month. Okay. And you can see that right on your tax bill. Yeah, there's they usually do land and property. So, combined or separate? Combined. It's combined. It's going to combine. So, all right. So, that's the combined. All right. Okay. Thank you. Anybody else? Seeing none, let's see. We have a motion to close this. Second budget hearing. Second. All right. All in favor? I I Very good. At this time, resolve pursuant to the open public meetings act that this board meets in close session. This time to discuss confidential matters pertaining to anticipated litigation or contract negotiation and matters of attorney client privilege. also specific perspective or current employees and student related matters. Be the further resolve that the matters
080discussed in close session shall be made public as soon as the need for confident confidentiality no longer exists. So move second. All in favor meeting will be in executive session about an hour little longer. Hour and 15 will be action will be taken. Roll call, please. Mr. B here. Mr. Espman here. Mr. Gak here. Mrs. Miller here. Mr. Pender here. Mr. Pi here. Mr. Chapman here. Mr. Casio here. Uh we have agenda additions. We have two additions to the agenda. Resolution number one reads, "Resolved upon the recommendation of the superintendent that student ID number 20241884 is suspended through the balance of the school year on home instruction. We have further resolved that the student is not permitted on school property or to attend any school sponsored events or activities during the suspension. and be finally
081resolved that that if the student satisfactorily completes her academic requirements and con and complies with the student code of conduct, she shall be permitted to return to South Plain Field High School for the 2526 school year. Second resolution is resolved that the board firm with the finding of hit in case number 288994GS030 62025 be further resolved that the family shall be provided with a written decision along with information on their right of appeal to the commissioner of education. Thank you. Any public comments on it? Oh, we have to we have to Yes. Yeah. Motion. Second. Any discussion? Roll call. Mr. Both. Yes. Mr. Esper. Yes. Yes. Mrs. Miller. Yes. Mr. Pender. Yes. Mr. Peny. Yes. Mr. Chapman. Yes. Mr. Casio. Yes. Any public comments on agenda items only? Seeing none, let's see. Resolution to approve
082prior board minutes. Move. Second. Any discussion? Roll call, please. Mr. B. Yes. Mr. Esper. Yes. Mr. Gianak. Yes. Mrs. Miller. Ain Mr. Pender abstain also Mr. Peni yes Mr. Chapman yes Mr. Casio. Yes. Uh, curriculum, student activities. Second. Any discussion? Roll, please. Yes. Just just just to be Hang on one second, please. Just to be I just want to make sure we're adding the two that I just read in the right section. So, the hands we put under the curriculum. All right. Yeah. Trying to figure out the right category. Is there another one? And yeah, so we'll put Yeah. Okay. What page? So the it's under So the two I just read will go under curriculum student matters which is Roman numeral 13. It'll be uh they will be C and D under Roman numeral
08313. Got it. All right. We do that again. Yes sir. Curriculum of student activities. So move. Second. Any discussion? Roll call, please. Mr. Both. Yes. Mr. Espen? Yes. Mr. Giannakis? Yes. Mr. Miller? Yes. Mr. Pender? Yes. Mr. Custleberg? Oh, he's not here. Mr. Pender? Yes. Mr. Peny? Yes. Mr. Chapman? Yes. Mr. Cassia? Yes. 14. Policy. So move. Second. Any discussion? Roll call, please. Mr. Vote. Yes. Mr. Espen, yes. Mr. Giannakis, yes. Mr. Miller, yes. Mr. Pender, yes. Mr. Mr. Peni, yes. Mr. Chapman, yes. Mr. Cassia, yes. Personnel. So move. Second. Any discussion? Roll call, please. Mr. B. Yes. 15 C number 440. Abstaining my spouse. Mr. Aspen. Yes. Mr. Gino. Yes. My Mrs. Miller, yes. Mr. Pender, yes. Mr. Peny, yes. Mr. Chapman, yes. Mr. Castio, yes. I'm stayain on 15 C35 and 15 C-53
084to finance. So move. Second. Any discussion? Roll call, please. Mr. Bow. Yes. abstain on double F number three. If I choose to go to the conference, I will pay for it myself no matter what the amended charge is. Mr. Aspen, yes. Mr. Gianis, yes, Mr. Miller. Uh, yes. I'm standing on FF on myself. Mr. Pender? Yes. I'm standing on myself. Mr. Peny? Yes. Mr. Chapman? Yes. Abstain of myself, Mr. Cass. Yes, abstain on myself. And let's see any public comments. Seeing none. You got anything to tell us? Not seeing any board member comments. Seeing none. Go ahead, Mr. Brener. Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers out there. Anybody else? Happy to all. Seeing none, I got a motion. All in favor? Those opposed? Meeting a journal. Wow. is busing.