001Good evening everyone. The executive session of the Wayne Board of Education public work session meeting of March 5th, 2026 was convened in the conference room of the administrative offices of the Wayne Board of Education, 50 Nellis Drive, Wayne, New Jersey. Statement of compliance setting forth date, time, and location was read in record in accordance with the requirements of the Open Public Meeting Act. Roll call was taken, the meeting was recessed, and is now being reconvened. Please stand for the flag salute followed by a moment of silence. I pledge allegiance 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 you, everyone. Please be seated. Mr. Sedita, no. Thank you, Mr. President. Um This has been a
002a great kickoff to the month as most families in the community know, and all educators know, this is Read Across America Week. Uh I've had the pleasure uh you know, Daisy with me in most cases be a Lafayette school, Randall Carter, uh John F. Kennedy, uh Preakness Early Childhood Center, and Randall Carter school also had Honorable Superior Court Judge uh Daniel Brown come read to them. That was a great uh Passaic County uh get-together in which we were able to bring someone from the community and uh have a meaningful opportunity with your our young learners uh at Randall Carter. Um The uh I I actually think that the judge actually went to Ryerson. Just my notes are wrong, but I my memory is not failing me. Um I had the excellent opportunity last night to
003attend the uh Wayne Hills Senior Fashion Show. Very impressive. Um this these families uh do not go short on anything to celebrate the the young uh seniors as they're getting ready to to go out into uh new challenges in the world. It was a great event at The Grove in Cedar Grove. And I know you're going to put out some information uh to our citizens uh budget advisory committee. I think that's March 11th. So, you'll probably speak to that. But most importantly, one of the things we have to do in the month of March is to adopt a budget. Um this this month of March is different than the previous uh 13 plus budgets that I've overseen uh as a superintendent because this the first one in we're in March, and we still don't have
004state aid numbers yet. Uh for the public, so you know, uh usually state aid numbers are reflective right after the governor's address at the end of February. So, you're usually looking around uh the the 25th for the governor's address, and then you get state aid numbers by 20 27th, 28th. Um With the new governor, they're looking to scrutinize the budget, I guess, a little longer, and we're not getting those state aid number uh the governor's governor's address, I believe, is on the 10th March 10th, and we're hoping to have state aid numbers by the 12th, um which really is interesting because they haven't extended the amount of time in which we have to put a budget together. Um so, some people can be late, but not us. Um so, I know that our business administrator
005uh Ms. Jenny DeMarco is going to speak to a little bit about that as the budget uh is being formulated, and we're looking to have that that final building block of our budget, um the state aid numbers. Uh Jenny? Yep. Good evening. This March is the first input session for the 2026-2027 budget. During the public comment portion of the meeting, members of the community are invited to share their input as we begin the budget process. This year's budget, as Mr. Sedita, no, um mentioned, is developed under a tight fiscal year. Delayed state aid information, higher level of uncertainty than we typically experience at this stage. Our goal this year is to avoid staff reduction wherever possible. However, that does not reflect an influx of new funding, and financial flexibility is more limited than in previous
006years. Retirements and resignations will be carefully evaluated, and positions will only be filled when operationally essential and fiscally responsible. Automatic replace replacement of vacancies is no longer feasible. In short, we are entering the new budget year in a tight fiscal position. Look uh making some assumptions because as um it was mentioned, we don't have our state aid numbers yet. Local revenues is limited by our 2% tax cap, which equates to approximately 3.5 million in additional revenue. There is no bank cap available this year, so there's no additional funding beyond the statutory limit. Due to significant health increase um in health insurance increase over 30% this calendar year, and projected 30% for the next year, the district will be eligible to apply a health care cost adjustment. The amount of this adjustment is still being finalized,
007and will be used to offset mandated health care cost growth. It is important to note that this adjustment is intended to offset mandated health care costs, and not to provide additional discre discretionary funding. Some appropriation assumptions, which is our expenses, the majority of our budget is driven by fixed cost, including salaries, health benefits, special education, transportation, and utilities. Before considering discretionary spending, these obligation must be fully funded. Salaries, we're budgeting over 3%. We have four bargaining units this year that are up for negotiation. Health benefits, as mentioned, projected over 30% for both calendar years. Special education costs are projected to increase by approximately 11%, and PCTI tuition, we are projecting 18 additional regular education students from 272 to 290, and three special education placement for total of 293 students for the next school year, increase
008of about 50,000. Given our fiscal constraints, reliance on lease purchase agreement has consistently increased to fund essential operating needs, such as Chromebooks, staff laptops, buses, and maintenance vehicles. This fiscal year, the district entered into a borrowing through the Passaic County Improvement Authority to fund our board share, which is 60% of our preschool expansion grant. Although the Department of Education grants cover 40% of the project, there were no alternative funding available for the district for the remaining 60% board share, making the financing necessary to move the project forward. Therefore, the annual debt payment in our operating budget increased $800,000 from the previous year. On a positive note, some new initiatives that we're doing, K through 8 science new curriculum resource, AP statistics textbook renewal for Wayne Valley and Wayne Hills, K through math textbook and resources,
009which we purchased last year, we're budgeting the second uh year payment for that this year. And I-Ready, a K through 8 student assessment tool. Capital projects, um currently, our capital reserve balance is 3.8% for 2026-2027, we plan to withdraw $480,000 to do a district-wide Wi-Fi upgrade for two high schools and seven elementary schools. This existing infrastructure has exceeded its life cycle and requires replacement to maintain reliable connectivity for instruction. Maintenance reserve, current reserve balance is 4.2 million. Plan withdrawal is 850,000. One project one would be 700,000 for rooftop HVAC unit at Randall Carter gym. We are currently operating with temporary heat, and there's no air conditioning. And the 150,000 is for paging system replacement at Lafayette and Hills. Although we have remaining balances in both capital and maintenance reserves, we're holding these funds carefully in
010reserve due to the failed referendum. Many maintenance needs could become emergencies at any moment, requiring us to be reactive rather than proactive. As these situation arise, we will have funds available to address them. There are several boilers in our district over 50 years old and not operating at full capacity. And our solar agreement sunsets this June, which could create roof concerns if panels are removed. In addition, multiple roofs in our district are currently in critical system across district requiring attention. Next steps, one state aid figures are received next week, we will finalize the tentative budget at our next board meeting on my March 19th. We will provide a more formal presentation and hold a second input session for the public. The tentative budget will be submitted to the county for review on March 27th. Following
011county approval, a public hearing will be held at our May 7th board meeting with the public given the opportunity to comment prior to the final adoption. This concludes my first input budget report. Thank you. Any revisions to the agenda? Under T emergent human resources, we're going to add item number 13, approval of additional compensation. Resolved that the Board of Education, upon the recommendation of the superintendent, approves the following additional compensation for staff member for the 25-26 school year. Staff member Patricia Babbage, assignment additional human resources assignment, effective date March 1st, 2026, amount $1,500 per month not to exceed 6,000. Thank you. At this time, I open the meeting to the public for agenda items only. This portion of the meeting is open to citizens for comment on agenda items only. Residents are asked to state
012their name, address, and subject matter. Comments may be limited to 3 minutes per person. Members of the public are discouraged from speaking negatively about an employee or a student. Board bears no responsibility for comments made by the public. Comments regarding employees or students cannot be legally responded to by the board. Other comments may be responded to tonight or at a subsequent meeting under old business. Do I have a mover? Mr. Prasakos, Mrs. Lamondri. Anyone from the public wishing to speak on an agenda item? Seeing no one, move to close. Mr. Paul, Mr. Hayman. Committee reports, we had a couple of committees that met tonight. I have one from the 19th, the Facilities and Transportation Committee. I was joined on February 19th at 5:00 p.m. by Mr. Pavlak, Mr. Agnes, uh Mrs. DeMarco, Mrs. Tibbetts, and
013Mr. Skibitsky. Uh we went over the Board Committee Standard Operating Procedures Handbook. Um we went through the February 19th agenda items that were um approved at that meeting, so I'm not going to go over those. Uh but we have a a number of projects um as uh Mrs. DeMarco had explained, um you know, there's many, many projects that could be um you know, emergencies uh also. Uh we talked about the Preakness interior alterations and elevator lobby addition, the domestic hot water replacement at Wayne Hills High School. Uh the contract was awarded uh to Magic Touch. Um the partial roof replacement at Tuna Sai. Um they're still working on it. And there's, you know, the potential projects that that I just mentioned, you know, that were just mentioned um boiler projects, Randall Carter gym floors, loss
014of heat. Um there were leaks um so we received uh updates on the district for the leaks at Fallon, Pines Lake, and Packanack due to the the deep freeze and the ice damming. Mold tests were done. They're all okay. Um there was a water main break uh at JFK uh and repairs were done rapidly. Um you know, solar is um our solar contract is expiring soon, so uh we'd be looking to possibly modernize from what we have. Um we looked at the district-wide food service kitchens about new kitchen equipment and the focus on um um hydration stations. They are also um we talked about a few grants, the SVPP COPS grant. Uh we're applying again. Um you know, we're resubmitting to to see, you know, and structuring it better to see if we can obtain
015that grant. Also the DCA local recreation improvement grant. Um and uh we also discussed the facilities position, how we were interviewing for for that position. Then with transportation, again, we went through the standard operating procedures handbook, spoke about the agenda items for the 19th, and discussed parental request for transportation route review, a new vendor for DOT mandated drug testing, um and the substantial increase for new buses and vehicles and vehicle retirement. Um We were talking about how much you know, it would cost and you know, looks like we would probably need to replace about seven buses a year. Um but we can't, you know, we don't have the money in the budget based on our fleet, which our our fleet is um I believe over over 98 buses right now, so um we talked about
016defensive driving course and that we're hosting the School Transportation Association driver seminar on Saturday, March 14th, which is no cost to the district. Um and it's being hosted by we're hosting for the northern region. So, that's my report. Thank you. Anybody else? Uh the Budget Committee the Budget Committee the Finance Committee met tonight and I'm not going to rehash what Mrs. DeMarco said, but it was basically discussion about the budget and everything she has told the public tonight. Uh we looked at the major increases, health care especially, is a big hitter right now. All right. This time I ask somebody to move the agenda. Mr. Agnes, Mrs. Rigoloso. Any discussion on the agenda? Seeing none, roll call, please. Mr. Prasakos. Yes. Mr. Agnes. Yes. Mr. Eloquin. Yes. Mr. Faber. Absent. Mr. Hayman. Yes. Mrs. Lamondri.
017Yes. Mr. Paul. Yes. Mrs. Rigoloso. Yes. And Mr. Pavlak. >> Yes. Motion carries. This portion of the meeting is open to citizens for comment on any topic. Residents are asked to state their name, address, and subject matter. Comments may be limited to 5 minutes per person. Members of the public are discouraged from speaking negatively about an employee or a student. The board bears no responsibility for comments made by the public. Comments regarding employees or students cannot be legally responded to by the board. Other comments may be responded to by the tonight or at a subsequent meeting under old business. Do I have a mover? Mrs. Rigoloso, Mr. Paul. Anyone from the public wishing to speak? Seeing no one, move to close. >> Mr. Paul, Mr. Hayman. Any old business? New business? Any board member comments?
018Mr. Prasakos. I just wanted to also wish everyone a happy Read Across America week. I was very happy to be invited by Mrs. Vander Pile and uh Dr. Cooper and um uh the whole Pines Lake Elementary School community for having me on Monday. Uh I was able to read to Mrs. Waldron's fourth grade class. I read uh a whole bunch of Aesop's Fables and the students were very happy. The the staff was very happy to hear and uh um it was it's a it's a great opportunity for, you know, um children to have the mystery reader come in and um you know, read something that maybe they've been exposed to, maybe they haven't. And uh I think uh I got a lot of students that were interested in Aesop's Fables now. Okay. Anyone else? Um
019just the Budget Committee the Citizen Budget Committee uh has been put together and finalized as of today. Um we will be meeting next uh week on the 11th. And this is our first opportunity in the district where we've had a citizen budget committee. For it's more of a um you know, brain tank for us to put it out and talk to the people in the public. We have people with diverse backgrounds in finance. We have parents, we have special ed parents. We have just members of the community, people who've been long-time members of the community. So, it's good to run things past other people and you know, next week the business administrator superintendent will be there and we have an agenda that we will be going through. And we're looking to really for a positive
020um response from this. We got a number of people who replied and applied for it. Um and unfortunately, we couldn't take everybody to keep it small. We are going to be at the next meeting going to ask the board to approve another citizens committee um for facility use and facility um long-range planning. It's more of a long-range planning committee. Um but the details will be coming out on that shortly. Come Winnie. I um I too would like to echo the idea of the citizens committee. I think it's a fantastic idea and I agree so much that it's you know more heads are better than one head right? So so so um being creative and getting some ideas. I also was able to go to Read Across America at Pines Lake School um and it was
021just great. I was invited again this year. It's just a fun time and the the kids really enjoy it. Great. Thank you. >> Take a motion to adjourn. Sir Alcon, Mrs. Landry. Goodnight everyone. Thank you. >> Goodnight. Thank you.